| Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens (born Michael Barratt, March 4, 1948) is a Welsh rock and roll singer born in Cardiff, who has the distinction of being the best-performing UK singles artist of the 1980s.
During the 1970s he recorded and toured over Europe and scored hit records in several places, although he did not score his first hit single in his native land, the United Kingdom, until 1980. In 1981 he had his first UK number 1 with "This Ole House" and as the decade went on he returned to the top 5 ten more times, scoring 3 more number 1 hits with "Green Door", "Oh Julie" and "Merry Christmas Everyone". Throughout the 1980s and into the first half of the 1990s he had regular chart success, which also saw his album Shaky reach Number 1.
His 1984 hit "Teardrops" featured Hank B.Marvin on guitar and Shaky has often featured well-known musicians such as Albert Lee and Roger Taylor on his recordings.
In 1994 he quit recording, but continued tour playing to audiences of up to 200,000. In 1998 he topped the charts in Denmark with a compilation of his singles.
In 2005, he returned once again to the charts at home with the 25 track greatest hits album The Collection, which reached the UK top 5. That year, he also appeared in the video to Tony Christie's and Peter Kay's #1 hit single "Is This The Way To Amarillo", alongside many other UK stars. He also became the winner that year on the reality television show, Hit Me Baby One More Time. This was quickly followed by a re-release of his cover and his own biggest hit sung in the show, "Trouble" (covering Pink's version)/"This Ole House", which reached #20 on the UK Singles Chart in June 2005, his 33rd top 40 hit.
|
