It was the day a world-famous singer kept her promise to her Dundee fans and drew frenzied scenes on the city’s streets.
Dame Shirley Bassey first performed in Dundee on May 19 1972 and told the Caird Hall audience: “I’ll be back – in my 18 years in showbusiness I’ve rarely had an audience as fantastic as this”.
She also wrote in the Caird Hall visitors book after the show: “A magnificent audience. A magnificent hall and magnificent acoustics. My first time here. I hope it will not be the last”.
Dame Shirley kept her promise and returned 45 years ago on November 20 1973 to perform hits such as Goldfinger, Big Spender and Diamonds are Forever.
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There was a ticket frenzy with manic scenes as 10,000 people queued in the street for seats from 5am for the Caird Hall show, despite briefs priced at “a record £3”.
The People’s Journal said Reform Street “looked as it hadn’t done since the early 60s when Dundee FC were in their heydey and fans queued to book at Meldrum’s”.
Before the 1973 performance Dame Shirley arrived at the Caird Hall and wrote in the visitors book: “Here I am again as promised”.
Andrew Murray Scott, author of Modern Dundee: Life in the City Since World War Two, said: “Shirley Bassey was a favourite in Dundee from the early 60s partly due to her epic, emotional delivery.
“She was dynamic, spellbinding in her heyday and also possibly because of her back story, a troubled childhood and teenage pregnancy – all too familiar in Dundee.
“Possibly the first hits to really strike the sensibilities of my parent’s generation in Dundee, were ‘Kiss Me, Honey, Honey Kiss Me’, ‘I Who Have Nothing’ – which became a Dundee “clubbie” karaoke favourites and of course later, in 1965, her startling rendition of the Bond theme song, ‘Goldfinger’.
“Singing a Bond theme is of course a quick way to gain millions of additional fans.”
The 1970s were a hugely successful time for Dame Shirley with sell-out shows and between 1970 and 1979, she had 18 hit albums in the UK albums chart.
She performed at the Caird Hall in the same year as Led Zeppelin, Tony Bennett, David Bowie and Sir Cliff Richard.
Dame Shirley also has a creative connection with Dundee. In in the 1980s, Associates singer, Billy MacKenzie composed a song for her which was called “The Rhythm Divine”.
First released in 1987, Dame Shirley sings the vocals to this track in a collaboration with Swiss band Yello with backing vocals recorded by co-writer MacKenzie who worked with Yello on several occasions.
Dame Shirley flew over to Yello’s Zurich studio and recorded her vocals in under 40 minutes, arriving an hour late for the session.
“Working with her made everything valid with my mum and aunties,” said Mackenzie at the time, whose backing vocals were overdubbed 90 times.
Born in 1937 in Cardiff, Wales, Dame Shirley’s bold voice, along with her perseverance, helped her move beyond her impoverished upbringing.
She reached a level of international acclaim that few other black British performers had seen before her and recorded numerous hits throughout her career, including the theme songs for three James Bond films.
