She was just a teenager when the world first met her, and she has stayed a part of our lives for more than six decades. Few singers have had careers as long — or as stylistically varied — as Lulu. Born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie in Scotland, she was still a teenager when her powerful, soul-inflected voice caught the public’s attention with a raucous 1964 version of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout.” It began a career that would ultimately encompass pop, rock, soul, television, movies and the stage.
But for American audiences, Lulu will forever be associated with “To Sir with Love,” the title song from the 1967 Sidney Poitier film in which she also appeared. Though originally planned to be the B-side of a Neil Diamond cover song, “To Sir With Love” was a phenomenon in the United States, spending five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and finishing as Billboard’s #1 single of 1967, and even gathered some steam on soul radio.
Back home, Lulu was anything but a one-hit wonder. “Shout” reached the UK Top 10 in 1964, and she followed it with another Top 10 hit, “Leave a Little Love.” After moving to Columbia Records and working with producer Mickie Most, she enjoyed a particularly strong run on the British charts, including “The Boat That I Row,” “Love Loves to Love Love,” “I’m a Tiger” and “Boom Bang-a-Bang.” The latter reached #2 in the UK and gave Lulu a share of the victory at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. Her chart success, combined with her natural television presence, made her one of Britain’s most recognizable young entertainers, and she hosted several BBC television series during the late 1960s and early ’70s.
Lulu’s British career would repeatedly reinvent itself. In 1974 she worked with David Bowie, who produced her dramatic version of “The Man Who Sold the World,” a UK Top 5 hit, and that same year she sang the title theme to the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. Nearly two decades later she mounted another significant comeback with the 1993 album Independence and joined Take That on “Relight My Fire,” which spent two weeks at #1 in the UK. Her 2002 duets album Together reached #4 on the UK album chart, while later albums including A Little Soul in Your Heart and Making Life Rhyme also returned her to the British charts.
She also proved herself behind the scenes, co-writing “I Don’t Wanna Fight,” which became a major international hit for Tina Turner.
Her success in the U.S. was spottier after the enormous impact of “To Sir with Love,” but Lulu continued to make notable recordings aimed squarely at American soul audiences. She traveled to Alabama to record the 1970 album New Routes at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, working within the Southern soul sound that was then reshaping popular music. The album produced “Oh Me Oh My (I’m a Fool for You Baby),” which reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It would be another decade before Lulu enjoyed a substantial American comeback. In 1981 the polished soft-rock midtempo “I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)” climbed to #18 on the Hot 100, and her sweet album ballad “If You’re Right” found favor on “quiet storm” radio.
More than six decades after her precocious debut, Lulu stands as one of Britain’s most durable entertainers. And while her career has crossed many musical boundaries, her soul music influences and success shouldn’t be ignored. From the Isley Brothers-inspired “Shout” to the R&B crossover of “To Sir with Love,” to the Muscle Shoals sessions, soul music has been a recurring thread through one of pop music’s most unusually enduring careers.
