May 27: English singer Cilla Black - "Anyone Who Had a Heart" - is 70-years-old today.

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Born Priscilla Maria Veronica White, on May 27, 1943 in Liverpool, Cilla Black OBE is an English singer most famous in the UK for her singles "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "You're My World." Both songs released in 1964, reached number 1.

As a child she was encouraged to sing by her family. In the early 1960s, determined to break into show business, she got a part-time job as a cloakroom attendant at the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool, where The Beatles regularly played.

Celia with Frankie Howard

After placing herself prominently to promote herself to local musicians, she impressed the Beatles and others with her talent and began her stage career with impromptu performances at the Cavern. She became a guest singer with Merseybeat bands Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, and later The Big Three. During this period she also worked as a waitress at the Zodiac coffee lounge, where she met her future husband Bobby Willis.

Black went on to score eleven Top Ten hits on the British charts between 1964 and 1971. In May 2010, new research published by BBC Radio 2 claimed that her version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was the UK's biggest selling single by a female artist in the 1960s. "You're My World" was also a modest hit in the United States, peaking at No.26 on the Billboard Hot 100, and both songs were among the chart-toppers in Australia.

After a successful recording career in the 1960s and early 1970s, and a brief time as a comedy actress in the 1970s, Black became a prominent television presenter in the 1980s and 1990s.

In September 2013, Black will celebrate 50 years in show business. British television network ITV will honour this unique milestone with a one off Entertainment special to air autumn 2013. The show called The One & Only Cilla Black stars Cilla herself and is hosted by Paul O’ Grady.

Parlophone Records (the record label which launched her career in 1963) will also release the career-spanning CD The 50th Anniversary Collection - containing Black's most successful international hits, her complete Lennon/McCartney songbook, club remixes plus a bonus DVD of the 1966 TV music special 'Cilla at the Savoy'.

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For more about Cilla, visit her Website at –

http://www.cillablack.com/

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