Frank Ifield obituary

Frank started off with a tour of New Zealand where Guardian Angel had reached number one, then arrived in England in 1959 where he began recording for EMI. He got off to a moderate start, with the single Lucky Devil just stopping outside the top 20. A list of flop singles followed, and the company made it known that his contract wouldn’t be renewed unless his final session, with Norrie Paramor, yielded a hit.

As it happened it gave forth a truly massive smash, the first of four consecutive number ones, staying atop the UK charts for seven weeks. It made #1 in Australia and #5 in America and was a million-seller at a time when that rarely occurred for British recordings. In one day in 1962, I Remember You sold over 100,000 copies.

It was actually a remake, best remembered for the performance by Dorothy Lamour in the film The Fleet’s In and said to be about writer Johnny Mercer’s affair with a young Judy Garland.

Hot on its heels were Lovesick Blues, She Taught Me How To Yodel and The Wayward Wind (which kept the Beatles’ Please Please Me out of number one). As well he had four British top 10 albums: I Remember You, Born Free, Blue Skies and Greatest Hits.

Ifield had supposedly been told by his management not to yodel because it would brand him, however when he finally did make it to the London Palladium it was to headline a royal Command Performance concert before the Queen and her mother. The Queen Mother had let it be known that she rather wanted to hear “that yodelling song”.

n 1991 a dance remix version of She Taught Me To Yodel, retitled as The Yodelling Song, was back of the British charts, his 16th appearance on that listing.

I have a clear recollection around that time of chatting to Animals leader Eric Burdon after a set with one of his many “new” Animals at The Basement. I introduced Frank to him as “my neighbour”. For the first 30 seconds it didn’t sink in, then he almost turned to water as he turned back and shrieked “Fraaaankie Ifield!” This from a man who was immersed totally in raw blues and soul. In fact, in 1962-63, like every young man in Britain, he was sending the boy from Dural to number one. Among his biggest fans were most of the members of Status Quo.

Once firmly under Gormley’s wing, Frank Ifield was taking on the great British tradition of pantomimes, as well as supper clubs, tours with Duane Eddy and the Everly Brothers, twice trying out for Britain’s entry into Eurovision (coming in second in a 1962 heat) and posing before cameras for the 1965 musical drama film Up Jumped a Swagman. Despite being Coventry-born Ifield presented himself as an Australian artist, as would later ’60s arrivals from Down Under the Bee Gees and the Easybeats.

When performing at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre received a message that a stranger at stage door wanted to speak with him. He heard it as Mr Einstein, but it was actually Brian Epstein, who told him: “I know you’re about to embark on a huge tour. I would very much like if my group could go on your tour with you … they’ve had no experience outside of Liverpool. It’s a new group, called the Beatles.” Frank tried them out with two shows at Peterborough but felt he had to part ways as his audience just didn’t appreciate them, thinking them too loud.

Notwithstanding this, the Beatles were unashamed in their affection for Frank Ifield. Their version of I Remember You was captured on a live Hamburg album and John Lennon has claimed that it inspired his harmonica break on the first Beatles’ hit Love Me Do. They both ended up on Vee Jay Records in the US with the now famous and very valuable LP, Jolly What, offering a side of each.

On a visit to Nashville to arrange his signing to Hickory Records he said how much he wanted to sing at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. It was duly arranged with him being introduced by his hero Hank Snow. He would go on to perform across North America and undertake a season at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. In what he would call a career highlight, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong invited Frank back to his place in New York, declaring him to be “one of us”.

In 1968/69 he was put on tour in Japan, where audiences were quite smitten by his charms. The whirl continued, as did the pressure. He began to have trouble with his breathing. In 1988 he eventually decided to return home to recuperate with his family in Sydney. After the long flight his lungs collapsed. The operation to repair it, whilst successful, removed part of a lung and left him unable to use his singing voice.

Still able to utilise his speaking voice he became a talent spotter for television show Midday, then began a career as a TV/radio host with It’s Country Today on the Nine Network.

He remained active in the music industry and set out to shape and guide the careers of promising young country music performers. He recorded a duet version of I Remember You with Nicki Gillis, which became a hit in Britain, enabling her to mount a series of tours there.

Ifield instituted the Frank Ifield Award/International Spur Award from 1998, its recipients including Melinda Schneider, Wayne Horsburgh, Wayne Law, Donna Boyd, Travis Collins, Nicki Gillis, Kirsty Lee Akers, Johanna Hemara, John Stephan and Donna Fisk.

Gillis and Horsburgh took the greatest advantage of the Ifield imprimatur, both appearing on stage with him and the Seeker’s Keith Potger in When Aussies Ruled Britannia, a mixture of songs and tales about their British landmark hits, which toured Australia and England. In 2007 Frank was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

Ifield wed Gillian Bowden, a dancer at the London Palladium, in July 1965 with whom he had a son, Mark Phillip, and a daughter, Sarah.

In 1992, he married his second wife, Carole Wood, a flight attendant. They lived together quietly in Dural, with most of his appearance being to walk his dog.

One of his brothers, David, recently mounted a retrospective show for him on the Central Coast.

Frank Ifield died in Hornsby Hospital of pneumonia. Every person who came upon him, in any circumstance, was overwhelmed by his kindness and courtesy. It is a hackneyed phrase, but it can be said that nobody had a bad word about him.

Glenn A. Baker

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