A Short Biography
A singer once said his pitch was right on the nose: his word enunciations letter perfect: his understanding of a song thorough. He will be missed very much not only by myself, but by his fans all over the world. The singer was the legendary Frank Sinatra. The man he spoke about: the irreplaceable Matt Monro
High praise indeed then for a boy whose early years knew him under such auspicious names as Terry Fitzgerald, Al Jordan, Fred Flange and his true birth name Terence Edward Parsons.
Born on 1st December in Shoreditch, London, he was the youngest in a family of five. He left school at the age of fourteen and landed his first job as offal boy with the Imperial Tobacco Company. Thus followed a string of such jobs. At the tender age of seventeen and a half, he volunteered for the army for twelve years. After two years he volunteered for overseas duty and was posted to Hong Kong.
He entered a series of popular talent shows and won seven times. The winner got a half-hour programme on Redifusion, which was Hong Kongs local commercial radio station. He was considered good enough to be booked as a resident guest on the radio station and eventually
Matt Monro: Tragedy of the singing bus driver
After driving a London bus Monro found fame and love
The singer was only 54 but cancer had so ravaged his body he was barely recognisable. Unable to eat or drink, he had become dangerously thin and frail.
“That moment defined everything for Mickie,” says Matt Monro’s daughter Michele. “She knew she was going to lose him.”
It was a heartbreaking and premature demise for a man whose warm and beautiful voice had brought enormous pleasure to so many. Now, 25 years after his death, Michele has written a biography of her father, a man she says was not just adored by his millions of fans but also massively respected by his peers.
“He loved the business and saw only the good side of everything and everyone. But it was the accolades from his contemporaries that gave him the biggest thrill of all.”
‘He saw only the good side of everyone’‘The problem was that he simply enjoyed drinking’
Frank Sinatra, the man with whom he was so often compared, said of Monro after his death: “If I had to choose three of the finest male vocalists in the singing business, Matt would be one of them. His pitch was right on the nose; his word enunc
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Matt Monro (born Terence Edward Parsons; 1 December –7 February ) was an English singer. Known as The Man with the Golden Voice, he performed internationally during his year career and sold a reported 23 million records. AllMusic has described Monro as one of the most underrated pop vocalists of the 60s, who possessed the easiest, most perfect baritone in the business..
Did Matt Monro live in Ealing?
Matt Monro (–), a ballad singer, lived at 1 Dallas Road, Ealing, from until his death.
Was Matt Monro ever a bus driver?
Monro was born Terry Parsons in working-class east London and got his first real job as a bus driver. The fact that he had a good voice soon spread—especially since he occasionally sang while driving—and he made his professional debut in small clubs.
Why did Matt Monro change his name?
A demo record he had made reached the ears of popular pianist Winifred Atwell, who persuaded her record label, Decca, to give him an audition. They all fell for the magic voice at Decca and took him on, bestowing on him a new name—Matt Monro, which he was later given partly for Monros father, whom Atwell never forgets.
Childhood
Terence Edw
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