Lita Roza

Biography

Lita Roza was born Lilian Patricia Lita Roza on the 14th March 1926 in Liverpool to Elizabeth Anne and Francis Vincent Roza, a Spanish marine engineer and part time pianist at a local nightclub. The eldest of seven children, she auditioned as a dancer at the age of 12 in a pantomime to help support the family. Eventually working up to performing with the comedian Ted Ray and actress Noel Gordon in the show Black Velvet. Because life was becoming too dangerous during the blitz of 1940 in London, her family wanted her back in Liverpool. She turned to singing on her return and managed to get a job as a resident singer in a Merseyside club called The New Yorker. Shortly afterwards, she signed to become a singer with The Harry Roy Orchestra, one of Britain's leading wartime big bands, however when Roy was booked to tour the Middle East, the young Lita Roza was not allowed to join them, being only 17 years old . At just 18 years, she retired from show business, marrying James Shepherd Holland, one of the Canadian servicemen who were stationed in the UK and they moved to Miami. The marriage did not last however, and after the war, she returned to Britain, finding work with another top bandleader of the time, The Ted Heath Band alongside Dickie Valentine and Denis Lotis. As many of her contemporaries, she combined working with a big band with a career as a solo singer and in 1953 she recorded a version of Patti Page's How Much Is That Doggie In The Window which topped the charts in April for one week, easily beating off the challenge of the Page version only the eighth number one sing in the recently introduced British charts. Despite its success, Lita Roza hated the song and would never perform it in public She left the Ted Heath Band and re-married Ronnie Hughes, a trumpet player. She was voted Top Girl Singer of 1951-2 in the Melody Maker dance band polls and won the Top Female Singer category in the New Musical Express from 1951-1955 consecutively. Another couple of minor solo hits followed, Hey There and Jimmy Unknown but despite releasing a total of 55 singles and four albums on Decca, Presenting Lita Roza, Listening In The After Hours, Love Is The Answer For Lonely Hearts and Between The Devil And the Deep Blue Sea, the record sales were halted by the arrival of Rock n Roll and she concentrated on television work in the mid 1950s including her own show, Lita Roza Sings and several appearances with Ted Heath and on the new TV pop show Six Five Special (the only pop show on TV in the mid 1950s) and working in cabaret around the world including Australia, New Zealand and The Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. She was asked to join a series of Ted Heath reunion concerts in 1982 along with Denis Lotis and Don Lusher and most of the original musicians from the band. In 2001, Lita Roza was honoured as the first artist with a bronze disc placed on the Wall Of Fame in Matthew Street, opposite The Cavern Club, featuring all the acts from Liverpool who had achieved a number one to date including Frankie Vaughan, Michael Holiday, The Beatles, through to Sonia, Mel C and Atomic Kitten. Throughout the late 1990s and into to the 21st century, Universal Music which owns the rights to the Decca recordings has released several compilations of Lita Roza's songs as well as her final album, Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea & Ted Heath singles 1951-1953 and she gave her final performance on Radio Merseyside in November 2002. ~ Sharon Mawer, All Music Guide