Free Dame Shirley Bassey greatest hits CD with Mail On Sunday

Dame Shirley Bassey's greatest hits CD is free in this weekend's The Mail On Sunday in the UK (Sunday 29th November 2009).

Even in her first job – packing pots in an enamelware factory – Dame Shirley Bassey was always singing.

‘I’d just sing and people would stop working,’ she has said. ‘The supervisor would say, “Bassey, what do you think you’re doing? All of you get back to work.” The whole factory would stop. I didn’t realise what I was doing.’

Fortunately, Dame Shirley decided to keep on singing – and in the 58 years since those days on the production line she has become one of Britain’s most successful artists, selling 135million records.

She is the only singer to record three James Bond theme tunes – and there are rumours that she may be asked to sing the next one. She also holds the record for the longest span of Top 40 hits by a woman – an incredible 52 years.

Yet even she admits to being surprised at the recent resurgence in her career.

Last week, Dame Shirley, now 72, was back in the charts with The Performance, her first album of original material in more than 20 years. Produced by David Arnold – who has written the music for five Bond films – the album’s songwriters read like a Who’s Who of the music industry.

Rufus Wainwright, Gary Barlow, John Barry, Don Black and The Pet Shop Boys have all penned numbers for the critically acclaimed album which has not only thrilled legions of loyal fans but also introduced Dame Shirley to a new generation.

She said The Performance will serve as ‘her autobiography’ and added: ‘I’m ecstatic. I never thought it would turn out this way. Well, not only that. I’d really retired, to tell you the truth, and I was just coming out for special occasions. These writers have brought me back.’

But if the material is new, it also serves as a reminder of the singer’s remarkable talent. David Arnold said: ‘I tried to make a record that made the most of that voice and one that could sit alongside her other classic recordings.

‘There isn’t a “next Shirley Bassey”, there never really was and I doubt if there ever will be.

‘She’s as wonderful today as she has ever been and I hope this record will reach an audience who may never have heard her before, so they can say, “She’s got it,” and her fans from the past who can say, “She’s still got it.”’

And this weekend, readers of The Mail on Sunday get a unique opportunity to listen to Shirley Bassey’s greatest hits – old and new – with an exclusive FREE CD entitled Forever.

For this brilliant album, Dame Shirley has put together a collection of her favourite recordings and introduces two new tracks from her latest album. You’ll find your free CD inside the paper.

Choices from her back catalogue include two of her three Bond themes – Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever.

There is also her legendary number Big Spender and the ballads Don’t Cry For Me Argentina and What Kind Of Fool Am I?

From the new album she has chosen Rufus Wainwright’s Apartment – her new single – and Our Time Is Now, her first collaboration with John Barry since the 1971 release of Diamonds Are Forever.

But just how has she achieved such astonishing longevity? Shirley Veronica Bassey was born in Tiger Bay, a rundown area of Cardiff which has since been redeveloped, to Eliza, a Yorkshirewoman, and Henry, a Nigerian seaman. The youngest of seven, tragedy stalked her from a young age. Her father left when she was two, never to be seen again, after which the family moved to Splott, a working-class white area of the city. Hers was a future seemingly without promise.

Shirley left school at 14, got her job in the factory and then gave birth to a daughter, Sharon, whose father she has never named, when she was 16.

But then she was spotted by Michael Sullivan, a struggling London agent who had seen her perform in local pubs and clubs. Recognising her potential, he made her train her voice, dressed her in lavish gowns and, more importantly, secured engagements in the West End and Las Vegas. That was 1955.

Three years later, and with a performing style that mixed teen innocence and earthy sexuality, she had her first No1 single, As I Love You.

By the early Sixties she was an international star, and she has maintained that status for more than five decades.

In that time she divorced two husbands – the film director Kenneth Hume and hotel manager Sergio Novak – and suffered the loss of her second daughter, Samantha, who drowned in 1985.

It was her career that sustained her throughout and she has dedicated her life to it.

Dame Shirley continues to have voice training and, incredibly, despite the years, has lost none of her power as a result. She remains toned and trim, still able to wear the show-stopping gowns of her youth thanks to a lifetime of weight-training and yoga.

It is this combination of determination and energy that has allowed her to bridge the gap between the generations. She even performed at Glastonbury two years ago – in a shocking-pink Julien Macdonald dress split to the thigh and diamante wellies, she was the surprise hit of the festival.

‘When they first invited me to do Glastonbury, I said no way!’ she admitted.

‘I didn’t think I’d like it – mud and all that. It’s not me. I’m glamour. I don’t do mud. But I had a record out and the girls behind it were very keen, and eventually I agreed.

‘I was extremely nervous. It certainly wasn’t my normal crowd. But I ended up really enjoying it. I found it exhilarating getting the chance to do that. I love doing different things.’

One thing she has never done, however, is feel the need to reinvent herself. She is, she says, a ballad singer, and she’s not about to change.

As Forever and The Performance show, Dame Shirley Bassey simply wants to carry on entertaining us as only she can.

* Goldfinger
* Diamonds Are Forever
* I (Who Have Nothing)
* Big Spender
* Something
* Climb Every Mountain
* What Now My Love
* Tonight
* Reach For The Stars
* What Kind Of Fool Am I?
* For All We Know
* Don’t Cry For Me Argentina

AND FROM HER NEW ALBUM

* Our Time Is Now
* Apartment

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