RIP: Sir Jimmy Young dies at 95

Obituary: Jimmy Young

For more than six decades, Jimmy Young was a key figure in British broadcasting.

The one-time crooner, who had a string of hit singles in the 1950s, went on to become one of radio's best loved presenters.During his career, a veritable who's who of royalty, politicians and celebrities subjected themselves to his gentle yet probing style of interview.

His acrimonious departure from the BBC in 2002 led to a storm of protest, including questions in parliament.

He was born Leslie Ronald Young in Cinderford, Gloucestershire on 21 September 1921.
He was keen on music from an early age and learned to play the piano as well as having professional voice training.

His parents divorced in 1939 and Young moved to South Wales. He signed up with the RAF on the outbreak of war after falsely giving his age as 18. He was, in fact, three weeks short of his 18th birthday.

Shortly after he was demobbed in 1949, he was spotted singing in a club by a BBC producer and went on to make a number of broadcast appearances as well as touring across the UK. His first release, a cover of the Nat King Cole song, Too Young, was a huge hit just a year before the UK Singles Chart was born.

He signed to Decca in 1952 and enjoyed a number of Top 10 hits. He was also asked to perform some of the songs in Gene Kelly's film, Invitation to the Dance.

But, by the end of the 1950s rock and roll was the new craze and crooners like Young suddenly found themselves out of fashion.

His income plummeted, he sank into depression and turned to drink to ease the pain. He later confessed that he had contemplated suicide.

In desperation he visited a fortune teller who informed him he was going to be a great success. He picked himself up and went back into radio. After hosting a show called A Young Man's Fancy on Radio Luxembourg he moved to the BBC Light Programme.

He became one of the hosts of Housewives' Choice, playing easy listening music while outside in the real world the Beatles and Rolling Stones fought for chart supremacy. Five years after the Beatles' first hit single the BBC finally launched Radio 1, a station devoted to pop music, to fill the gap left by the closure of the pirate radio stations.

While many of the new station's young DJs were ex-pirate presenters, Young, by then 46, became part of the line-up. A lack of money meant some of the new station's output was broadcast across both Radio 1 and Radio 2, as the old Light Programme was now called, and Young presented the mid-morning show.

Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-20582848