Julie Felix

Julie Felix

Julie Felix is an American-born, British-based folk recording artist from Santa Barbara, California, who is active in rock and folk-related music. Born Julie Ann Felix in 1938 and died in 2020, she builds a career in the United Kingdom after arriving there in 1964.

Career

Felix signs to Decca Records in 1964, becoming the first solo folk performer to secure a contract with a major British label. By 1965 she is reported as the first folk singer to fill the Royal Albert Hall, and The Times describes her as Britain’s First Lady of Folk. In 1966 she becomes the resident singer on the BBC television programme The Frost Report, presented by David Frost.

She then hosts her own BBC television series from 1967 to 1970, including Once More With Felix. Guests on the programme include The Kinks, Fleetwood Mac, Leonard Cohen and Jimmy Page, who performs the guitar pieces “White Summer” and “Black Mountain Side”.

Felix appears on German television’s Beat-Club on 1 May 1967 and performs at the International Essen Song Days in September 1968. She also appears at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969.

Recordings

She achieves her biggest hit in 1970 with “If I Could (El Cóndor Pasa)”. That year she also has another UK Singles Chart hit with “Heaven is Here”, written by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson of Hot Chocolate. These releases are among her first on the RAK label and are produced by Mickie Most. The song “The World Will Go On” is identified as especially representative of her work.

Her 1990 album Bright Shadows adds to a recording career that continues while she lives in England, where she remains active as a performer and recording artist.