Eve Graham (born Evelyn May Beatson; 19 April 1943) is a retired Scottish singer who found fame in the early 1970s with the pop group

The New Seekers The New Seekers were a British pop group, formed in London, in 1969, by Keith Potger, after the break-up of his group, the Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music wou ...

Biography

Music career

Graham began her career during the 1960s as a band singer with the Cyclones in Scotland and later with the Cyril Stapleton Band, based in London, England. She joined The Track in the mid-sixties and was a founding member of The Nocturnes, originally alongside

Sandra Stevens Sandra Stevens (born 23 November 1944) is an English singer and a member of the pop group Brotherhood of Man. Early career Sandra Stevens first entered into a singing career in the 1960s when she joined the club band, The Track (who then change ...

(later of Brotherhood of Man) and then Lyn Paul (her future colleague in The New Seekers), recording for UK

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

between 1967 and 1969. In 1969, she joined songwriter Roger Cooke for a single release, again on Columbia, called "Smiling Through My Tears" shortly before becoming a founder member of The New Seekers in 1969 and was lead singer on the majority of their early hits, including the world wide Number One hit – " I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing". Other songs that featured Graham as lead vocalist included the US and Canadian smash " Look What They've Done to My Song Ma", the British Top 5 hit " Circles", the Japanese No.1 "The Greatest Song I've Ever Heard" and the Roger Cook- Roger Greenaway composition "We've Got To Do It Now". Graham's three-octave range was showcased on several songs, most notably the British and European hit "Never Ending Song of Love", in which she reached No. 6. Though mainly a vocalist, she played acoustic guitar on stage in the

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and de ...

-influenced

Skiffle Skiffle is a music genre, genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, Country music, country, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. ...

-number "Good Old-Fashioned Music" and

kazoo The kazoo is a musical instrument that adds a ''buzzing'' timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (itself a membranophone), one of a class of instruments that modify the player's v ...

in the comic song "(Ever Since You Told Me That You Loved Me) I'm A Nut".

Cabaret career

In 1974, the group disbanded and Graham moved onto solo

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

work, but rejoined a reconstituted New Seekers in 1976, and sang lead on their hits "It's So Nice To Have You Home" and "I Wanna Go Back". In 1978 she left once more, and again performed as a solo singer, as well as marrying another ex-New Seeker Kevin Finn (known professionally as Danny Finn) on 1 June 1979. They toured as a duo for many years and released one single "Ocean and Blue Sky".

Retirement

Graham retired in 2000 after a last charity performance, and originally said that she could not envisage being tempted out of retirement. However, in 2005, former New Seekers record producer David Mackay produced a new album with her ''The Mountains Welcome Me Home''. It was released as a CD and DVD, and contained Scottish traditional songs and new recordings of New Seekers songs. A Christmas themed album, ''Til The Season Comes Round Again'', followed in 2006. In 2008, she told ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper that, after the band broke up, she found work fitting bras in a branch of

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain that operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, as well as franchised locations across Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and gr ...

department store in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. She lived in Abernethy, Perthshire with her husband, who worked for a kitchen and bathroom design company. He died on 22 February 2016 after a short illness. Graham told ''The Independent'' that owing to contractual problems she has not received any

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

since 1973.

Discography (excluding The New Seekers)

*The Track : **" Why Do Fools Fall in Love" b/w "Cry to Me" (single) – Columbia DB 7987 (UK) August 1966 *Nocturnes : **"I Do, I Do" b/w "Wish You Would Show Me Your Mind" (single) – Columbia DB 8158 (UK) February 1967 **"Why? (Am I Treated So Bad)" b/w "Save the Last Dance for Me" (single) – Columbia DB 8219 (UK) June 1967 / Columbia C23 594 (Germany) September 1967 **"A New Man" b/w "Suddenly Free" (single) – Columbia DB 8332 (UK) January 1968 **"Carpet Man" b/w "Look at Me" (single) – Columbia DB 8453 (UK) July 1968 / Columbia C23 863 (Germany) August 1968 **"Montage" b/w "Fairground Man" (single) – Columbia DB 8493 (UK) November 1968 **"

Da Doo Ron Ron "Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)" is a song written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. It first became a popular top five hit single for the American girl group the Crystals in 1963. American teen idol Shaun Cassidy r ...

" b/w "Carpet Man" (single) – Columbia 1C006-04 976 (Germany) October 1971 (recorded in 1968) ** ''Nocturnes'' (album) – Columbia SCX 6223 (UK) – 1968 *Roger James Cooke : **"Smiling Through My Tears" (with Eve Graham) b/w "Ain't That a Wonderful Thing" (single) – Columbia DB 8596 (UK) June 1969 ** ''Study'' (album) – Columbia SCX 6388 (UK) – 1970 – includes "Is it You That Has the Power?" *Eve Graham and Danny Finn : **"Ocean and Blue Sky" b/w "I Couldn't Love You More" (single) – Chrysalis CHS 2269 (UK) April 1979 **"Your Love" b/w "Falling in Love Again" (single) – Celebrity Records ACS 3 (UK) February 1981 *Viva : ** "Chris Must Stay" b/w "Light of the World" (single) – Cambra CMB 01 (UK) November 1981 *Eve Graham (solo) : ** ''Thanks for the Memories'' (album) – 1973 – unreleased until 2012 on iTunes ** ''Woman of the World'' (album) – Celebrity Records ACLP 007 (UK) – 1980, re-released as ''Evergreen'' – 2012 on iTunes ** ''On the Road'' (''Woman of the World'' album, repackaged – cassette only) – Celebrity Records (UK) 1981 ** "Highland Cathedral" b/w "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" / "The Mountains" (cd single) – Scotdisc CDITV4S 722 (UK) – September 2005 ** ''The Mountains Welcome Me Home'' (DVD) – Scotdisc DVITV 721 (UK) – October 2005 ** ''Til the Season Comes 'Round Again'' (album) – Scotdisc CDITV 742 (UK) – 2006 ** "Love Won the Fight" (digital download) – Scotdisc – 2014 on iTunes & Amazon MP3

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Eve 1943 births Living people People from Perth and Kinross Cabaret 20th-century Scottish women singers The New Seekers