Sandra Ann Goodrich was discovered by late fifties and early sixties Pop Star and actor Adam Faith. Her trademark barefoot performance, hairstyle and seductive vibrato wrote her into legend. She was the first female artist to have three No.1 singles in the UK.

One of the great sixties voices, here she is on Ready Steady Go in 1965 singing my favourite of all her recordings, Girl Don’t Come. The song reached No.3 in the UK charts when the A and B-sides were switched. I’d Be Far Better Off Without You was flipped as DJ’s liked Girl Don’t Come better. This song was written by singer, producer, songwriter Chris Andrews and was the follow up to her second single and first UK No.1 Bacharach and David’s, Always Something There To Remind Me. Other hits followed (many written by Andrews) Message Understood, Long Live Love (her second No.1 ) and the first ever UK Eurovision winner Puppet On A String (her third No.1).

After the release of her 1969 covers album Reviewing The Situation she remained mostly silent and in semi-retirement for all of the seventies. Two singles on CBS, stage acting and writing children’s books, she became a Buddhist in 1978. She reappeared in 1983 with Choose Life produced by ex Van Morrison and Camel keyboardist Peter Bardens but it was in 1984 after some serious nagging by Morrissey and Johnny Marr that she sprung into life with The Smiths. She recorded Hand In Glove, I Don’t Owe You Anything and the B-side of the Smith’s second single (This Charming Man) Jeane. Originally intending to make I Don’t Owe You Anything the A-side of three Smiths’ songs recorded by Shaw, Hand in Glove became the A-side and the other two became the B-sides of the 12 inch version of the single. Hand In Glove reached No.27 in the Uk charts.

In 1986 she recorded Lloyd Cole’s Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken and Patti Smith’s Frederick.

She released her comeback album Hello Angel in 1988 but this was to be her last hurrah. She released the Morrissey penned Please Help The Cause Against Loneliness as the first single but it failed to chart. The album also included, Mike Scott’s, A Girl Called Johnny and Jim and William Reid’s Cool About You. The second single Nothing Less Than Brilliant a co-write with her sixties creative partner Chris Andrews also failed to chart.

In 2014 Sandie Shaw announced her retirement from the music industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandie_Shaw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Don%27t_Come

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Andrews_(singer)