The Songs of Matt Monro.
Out of all the crooners from the old days, Matt Monro has always stood out for me. His songs seemed to have more about them than people like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.
Matt was born in December 1930 and he was twenty-six when he finally got his big break as a singer. Before this time he had many different jobs including one as a bus driver in London. He experienced only a minor amount of success and by the end of the fifties he had resorted to recording music for television commercials. Things had taken a rather grim turn and times were hard.
However, by the start of the 60’s, Matt had a few lucky twists of fate. Having done a song for Peter Sellers he was fortunate enough to come into contact with a certain George Martin… Over the next few years things would dramatically change for the better.
The first big hit for Matt Monro was, ‘Portrait of my Love’. It reached number three in the singles chart and there were more great songs to follow. ‘My Kind of Girl‘and ‘Softly as I Leave You’ continued Matt’s rise to fame and in 1963 he recorded the title track for the Bond film, ‘From Russia with Love’.
By now ‘The Swinging Bus Driver’ was becoming extremely popular. He continued to record many other great tracks such as; ‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Born Free’ (another soundtrack), ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Walk Away’.
In 1977, Matt recorded the melancholy, ‘If I Never Sing another Song’. This had a real sadness about it as he is singing about the success he had known in his younger days.
Matt Monro died from liver cancer in 1985. He had continued to tour right up to his death.
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I have exciting news, the Fashion PR firm called back. Interview tomorrow, everyone wish me luck. I am thinking that I am going to wear my 1960s dress to it as inspired by Mr. Monro… Good Call?