The Breakaways were an English female vocal
trio, formed in 1962. Britain's premier
session vocalists throughout the 1960s, The Breakaways also recorded a handful of little-known
girl group
A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
.
Career
The original members were Vicki Haseman (
Vicki Brown
Vicki Brown (23 August 1940 – 16 June 1991) was an English pop, rock and contemporary classical singer. She was a member of both The Vernons Girls and The Breakaways and was the first wife of fellow singer and musician Joe Brown and mother o ...
after marriage to
Joe Brown), Margot Quantrell, Barbara Moore (who was also a member of another vocal trio,
The Ladybirds
The Ladybirds were a British female vocal harmony trio, most famous for their appearances on '' The Benny Hill Show''. They participated in over 60 episodes between 1968 and 1991. In addition, they were long-standing backing singers to many e ...
), and Betty Prescott. The girls were originally members of the
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
vocal group
The Vernons Girls
The Vernons Girls were an English musical ensemble of female vocalists. They were formed at the Vernons football pools companyLarkin C., ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'' (Muze UK Ltd, 1997), , p. 461 in the 1950s in Liverpool, settling ...
. Prescott was replaced by Jean Ryder in 1963.
They started out as the Fordettes, backing
Emile Ford
Michael Emile Telford Miller (16 October 1937 – 11 April 2016), known professionally as Emile Ford, was a musician and singer born in Saint Lucia, British Windward Islands. He was popular in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s and early ...
. The line-up consisted of Margot Quantrell, Eleanor Russell, Vicki Haseman and Betty Prescott. They spent a year on tour with Ford in 1960, playing one-nighters. Back in London they left Ford to sing backup for
Joe Brown who Vicki Haseman had been engaged to for a year. Having broken away from Ford, they were then known as The Breakaways.
Haseman was later replaced by the original member Betty Prescott. In addition to
recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, ...
their own songs, they did
session work with many artists, including the
background vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...
on
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
's
version
Version may refer to:
Computing
* Software version, a set of numbers that identify a unique evolution of a computer program
* VERSION (CONFIG.SYS directive), a configuration directive in FreeDOS
Music
* Cover version
* Dub version
* Remix
* ''Ve ...
of "
Hey Joe
"Hey Joe" is an American song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and has been performed in many musical styles by hundreds of different artists. The lyrics tell of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico after shooting ...
", and work on the 1968 album ''
The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp
''The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp'' is a 1968 album from the English group Giles, Giles and Fripp. The music shows a varied mix of pop, psychedelic rock, folk, jazz and classical influences. The songs on each LP side are conn ...
''.
Having signed with the
Pye label, their background vocal activities included collaborations with
Petula Clark
Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades.
Clark's professional career began during the ...
. Most notably this was on Clark's international
hit
Hit means to strike someone or something.
Hit or HIT may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities
* Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super''
* Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...
, "
Downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
" (not only the original English version, but also in French, Italian and German). There followed "
I Know a Place
"I Know a Place" is a song with music and lyrics by Tony Hatch. It was recorded in 1965 by Petula Clark at the Pye Studios in Marble Arch in a session which featured drummer Bobby Graham and the Breakaways vocal group.
Released as the follow- ...
", "
Round Every Corner", and "
A Sign of the Times", and on several of Clark's most successful French recordings, among them "Je me sens bien auprès de toi", "Mon bonheur danse" (a vocal version of
The Shadows
The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...
' "
Foot Tapper
"Foot Tapper" is an instrumental by British guitar group the Shadows, released as a single in February 1963. It went to number one in the UK Singles Chart, and was the Shadows' last UK number-one hit (not including those where they performed as ...
") and "Tu perds ton temps".
They worked with
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop music, p ...
on her first solo recordings for
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
,
and went on to sing on hundreds of sessions supporting Springfield, Cilla Black,
Normie Rowe
Norman John Rowe (born 1 February 1947) is an Australian singer and songwriter of pop music and an actor of theatre and soap opera for which he remains best known as Douglas Fletcher in 1980s serial '' Sons and Daughters''. As a singer he was ...
and
Lulu
Lulu may refer to:
Companies
* LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer
* Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer
* Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia
* Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...
. Their work with
Cilla Black
Priscilla Maria Veronica White (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer, actress and television presenter.
Championed by her friends the Beatles, Black began her career as a singer in 1963. Her ...
included being credited as backing vocalists on Black's 1964 single, "
You're My World
"You're My World" is a ballad originally recorded in 1963 as "Il mio mondo" ("My World") by Umberto Bindi, who co-wrote the Italian version with Gino Paoli. Subsequently, an English version was commissioned, and the lyrics were written by Carl S ...
", and were backing singers on her BBC television series ''
Cilla''. They backed
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
's performance of ''
Congratulations
Congratulations may refer to:
Film and television
*'' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'', 2005 television programme to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary
Music Albums
* ''Congratulations'' (album), an album by ...
'' in the 1968
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
in London, which placed second in the competition. In 1971, they returned to Eurovision, backing
Clodagh Rodgers
Clodagh Rodgers (born 5 March 1947) is a retired singer and actress from Northern Ireland, best known for her hit singles including " Come Back and Shake Me", "Goodnight Midnight", and "Jack in the Box".
Career
Rodgers was born in Warrenpoin ...
in her performance of ''Jack in the Box'', joined by Clodagh's sister Lavinia. That time the song placed fourth. In 1977, at the
Eurovision contest staged at the
Wembley Conference Centre
Wembley Conference Centre was a conference centre in Wembley Park, London, England, that existed from 1977 to 2006, located next to Wembley Arena.
History
In the later 1970s, modern multi-purpose halls began opening in British towns and cities. ...
, the trio sang backing vocals for the Israeli entry ''
Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim
Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, Limited ( he, אהבה, ''Love'') is an Israeli cosmetics company with headquarters in Lod that manufactures skin care products made of mud and mineral-based compounds from the Dead Sea. The company has flagship ...
'' performed by
Ilanit
Hanna Dresner-Tzakh ( he, חנה דרזנר; born 17 September 1947), better known by her stage name Ilanit (, ), is an Israeli singer. She was one of Israel's most popular singers from the late 1960s to the 1980s, both as a soloist and in the duo ...
. The song was performed in Hebrew and The Breakaways learnt their lyrics phonetically as none of them spoke the language. The song placed 11th of the 18 entries. They
toured behind American
stars
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...
such as
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the " ...
and
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer and songwriter. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred ...
, and regularly appeared on ''
Ready Steady Go!
''Ready Steady Go!'' (or ''RSG!'') was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light enter ...
''.
The Breakaways first single for Pye Records was "That Boy of Mine" (1964), written by
Tony Hatch
Anthony Peter Hatch (born 30 June 1939) is an English composer for musical theatre and television. He is also a songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer.
Early life and early career
Hatch was born in Pinner, Middlesex. Encouraged by his mus ...
. Although the single was a minor hit, the follow-ups, including "He Doesn't Love Me" and "That's How It Goes", flopped. Their 1965 work on the
Burt Bacharach
Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...
song "
Trains and Boats and Planes" and his 1965 album ''
Hit Maker!'' was uncredited.
They sang the uncredited vocals on "Someone to Talk To" from the 1965 movie,
''Darling''. They continued to do session work. Their last single was the
Mike Leander
Michael George Farr (30 June 1941 – 18 April 1996), known professionally as Mike Leander, was a British arranger, songwriter and record producer.
He worked variously with The Beatles, David McWilliams ("Days of Pearly Spencer"), Gary Gli ...
song "Sacred Love" (1968).
Vicki Brown died of breast cancer on 16 June 1991, in Henley-on-Thames at the age of 50.
Margot Quantrell died on 24 June 2016 at the age of 74.
References
External links
The Breakaways
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breakaways, The
English girl groups
British musical trios
English session musicians
Musical groups established in 1962
Pye Records artists
1962 establishments in England