Sandie Shaw

Sandie Shaw is an English pop singer from Dagenham, United Kingdom. Born Sandra Ann Goodrich in 1947, she emerges from the 1960s as one of the most successful British girl singers of the decade. Raised in Dagenham, she begins working at the Ford plant as an IBM operator before moving into singing.

Early career and first hits

Shaw starts recording in 1964 after being discovered by Adam Faith. Following a talent contest appearance and an impromptu performance of “Everybody Loves A Lover,” Faith introduces her to his manager Eve Taylor. Within a short time she signs to Pye Records and adopts the stage name Sandie Shaw. Songwriter Chris Andrews writes her first single, “As Long As You’re Happy Baby.”

Her breakthrough comes with “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me,” a song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David that becomes a major UK hit and spends three weeks at number one in 1964. This begins a run of successful pop singles written largely by Chris Andrews, including “Girl Don’t Come,” “I’ll Stop At Nothing,” “Long Live Love,” “Message Understood,” “Tomorrow” and “Nothing Comes Easy.” “Long Live Love” becomes her second UK number one, and the songs all reach the Top 20.

1960s profile and recordings

Shaw appears regularly on television programmes such as Top Of The Pops, Ready Steady Go and Thank Your Lucky Stars. She also records many of her hits in Italian, French, German and Spanish, which extends her popularity across the continent. She performs in South America, behind the Iron Curtain and at concerts in pre-revolutionary Iran. Her trademark is singing barefoot. Her singles are produced by Eve Taylor, Chris Andrews and Shaw herself, with help from Pye arranger Ken Woodman.

Alongside her singles, Shaw releases several albums in the 1960s: Sandie, Me, Love Me, Please Love Me, The Sandie Shaw Supplement and Reviewing The Situation. These albums mostly combine Chris Andrews songs with cover versions.

Eurovision, fashion and later 1960s work

In 1967 Shaw represents the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest with “Puppet On A String,” a Bill Martin and Phil Coulter song selected from five performances on The Rolf Harris Show. The song wins the contest, making her the first person to win Eurovision for the UK, and becomes her third UK number one single. It is also the biggest-selling single of that year in Germany.

That same year she marries fashion designer Jeff Banks, and in 1971 they have a daughter, Gracie. In 1968 she starts the Sandie Shaw fashion label, selling clothes and shoes. Later in the decade she continues with pop singles such as “You’ve Not Changed,” “Together,” “Those Were The Days” and “Monsieur Dupont,” her last UK Top 10 hit. “Heaven Knows I’m Missing Him Now,” released at the end of 1969, later inspires a song by The Smiths.

Reviewing The Situation marks a shift in approach, with Shaw taking her first role as producer. The album includes covers of songs associated with Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and she becomes the first known artist to record a Led Zeppelin song. She also hosts The Sandie Shaw Supplement on television.

1970s and early 1980s

In the early 1970s Shaw begins writing songs herself and records further singles, including covers of Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden” and Cat Stevens’ “Father And Son,” the latter being her final Pye single in 1972. After her recording career slows, she semi-retires from public life and turns to other work, including co-writing a full-length rock musical, acting on stage, and writing and painting children’s books. Her stage roles include Ophelia in Hamlet and Joan of Arc in Saint Joan.

She releases two singles on CBS in 1977 and begins a lifelong commitment to Buddhism in 1978, later teaching the faith to many people. After divorcing Jeff Banks, she marries Nik Powell in 1982. Powell co-founds the Virgin Group and chairs the European Film Academy. He introduces her to the British Electric Foundation, for whom she records “Anyone Who Had A Heart” for Music of Quality And Distinction on Virgin. The song is later issued as a single.

Shaw’s album Choose Life is written and recorded in 1983 and first circulated in a limited run before appearing on the Palace label. The single “Wish I Was” is also released. Around this period she finds a new audience after Morrissey and Johnny Marr of The Smiths write to her. She records “Hand In Glove,” which is released on Rough Trade in 1984 and reaches the UK Top 30. A later televised performance with The Smiths becomes closely associated with this phase of her career.

Later recordings, university tours and collaborations

In the second half of the 1980s Shaw records a new version of “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me” for Letter To Brezhnev, then issues two Polydor singles: “Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken” by Lloyd Cole and “Frederick” by Patti Smith. Their B-sides are songs she writes about Morrissey and Johnny Marr.

In 1988 she releases Hello Angel on Rough Trade. The album is strongly associated with her work with friends and supporters, and includes contributions from Stephen Street, Kevin Armstrong, Jim Reid and William Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain, along with Chris Andrews. It also contains a cover of “A Girl Called Johnny” by The Waterboys and Shaw’s own “Comrade In Arms,” written about a friend who dies of AIDS. The album includes the singles “Please Help The Cause Against Loneliness” and “Nothing Less Than Brilliant,” the latter her last original single to date, as well as a new mix of “Hand In Glove.” During this period she also undertakes university tours and appears at Gay Pride and Peace festivals.

Writing, psychotherapy and later work

Shaw’s autobiography, The World At My Feet, appears in 1991. She studies at Oxford and London University from the following year and qualifies as a psychotherapist in 1994. That year she releases Nothing Less Than Brilliant, which combines new versions of her 1960s songs with original recordings from that decade and material from the 1980s. In 1997 she opens an arts clinic to provide psychological healthcare and creative development for people working in the entertainment and media industries. In 1998 she is invited to join the Royal Society of Musicians as an honorary professor of music.

Catalogue, reissues and compilation work

In the 2000s Shaw secures ownership of her recording catalogue after a legal battle and later licences it worldwide to EMI. She works with contemporary acts and producers on new versions of material from the 1960s and 1980s. EMI issues compilations of her French, Spanish and German recordings, remastered versions of Reviewing The Situation and Hello Angel, and the four-disc set Nothing Comes Easy, which collects the A- and B-sides of her UK singles and rare or unreleased tracks. A later compilation, The Very Best Of Sandie Shaw, brings together digitally remastered versions of her best-known hits on one disc.