“Anyone Who Had a Heart” Single by Cilla Black
B-side “Just for You”
Released January 31, 1964
Label Parlophone
Songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David
Producer George Martin
Charted No.1 un UK, No.8 in US, No. in Ireland, No.1 in New Zeeland, No.6 in Netherlands.
No.1 in UK singles chart on February 29, 1964.
Originally released in US by Dionne Warwick in 1963. In the UK, Dionne Warwick’s original battled Cilla Black’s cover on the chart, and Black’s won decisively, going to #1 while Warwick’s only went to #42.
A scout for English record producer George Martin discovered “Anyone Who Had a Heart” when Warwick’s version took off in the United States, suggesting to Martin that the song would be a strong UK single for Shirley Bassey. However, Martin saw the song as a vehicle for Cilla Black, the Liverpool vocalist whose star potential had yet to be realized despite her association with The Beatles, her recording of the Lennon-McCartney original “Love of the Loved” having been only a modest hit (No. 35). Martin produced the session for Black’s recording of “Anyone Who Had a Heart” at Abbey Road Studios; the arrangement was by Johnny Pearson and the session personnel included guitarists Vic Flick and Big Jim Sullivan and backing vocalists The Breakaways.
In the UK Cilla Black’s cover, which sold over 900,000 copies, became the first UK #1 by a solo female artist since Helen Shapiro’s “Walking Back To Happiness” in 1961. A former hatcheck girl at the Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles used to play in the early ’60s, Cilla Black went on to become the most successful female singer of the Mersey boom, with 11 UK Top 10 hits in total. Later she became a leading TV presenter, hosting shows such as Blind Date and Surprise Surprise.
