Bassey! - Episode 2

The second part of Radio 2's story of the "Tigress of Tiger Bay" follows Shirley Bassey through the 1960s, as she takes her chart-topping British success onto the world stage. Dame Shirley speaks to Paul Sexton about becoming a worldwide star - with a little help from James Bond - and about incredible adventures in America, singing for President John F. Kennedy and hanging backstage with King Elvis. Last week's instalment ended in 1959 with Shirley Bassey at No.1 in the UK singles chart for the first time with As I Love You. Tonight we hear her second chart-topping 45, the double-sided Reach For The Stars and Climb Ev'ry Mountain, and many more of her best-known 60s recordings, such as What Now My Love, I (Who Have Nothing) and This Is My Life. With such stirring performances, Bassey would secure her reputation as an artist who really lived her songs. The triumphs and tragedies of her private life gave her the rare ability to make the lyrics she was singing entirely believable: "There's something about my life in every one of my songs," she says in tonight's programme. "Pain and suffering, love won and lost, and all that. Been there. So I can sing about it." Dame Shirley also reveals why, when she performed at JFK's inauguration, the audience laughed at her opening song. She also memorably describes meeting Kennedy as "shaking hands with lightning." Later, as a regular performer in Las Vegas, she would meet Elvis (with whom she shares a birthday) and she reveals what they got up to when she went to visit him backstage. We'll also hear the signature Bassey songs Big Spender, Something and, of course, Goldfinger, with memories of that timeless 007 theme from its co-writer, John Barry, and the film's "Golden Girl" Shirley Eaton. Also contributing is her longtime friend Jimmy Tarbuck, who recalls playing "over the road" from La Bassey in Las Vegas.