Part Two of my trawl through the wonderful wacky world of Eurovision.

After the Allisons relative success the UK carried on with upbeat songs and for the following two years was represented by Ronnie Carroll, in 1962 with "Ring a ding girl" and 1963 with "Say wonderful things". Both songs finishing in fourth place.

Ronnie Carroll Ring a ding girl

        

Ronnie Carroll Say wonderful things to me

 Ronnie had huge chart success with both songs here in the UK and is also remembered for his version of "Roses are red"

1964 saw us move from wonderful things to little things when Matt Monro was chosen to sing the song "I love the little things" Matt was an ever present performer on British TV and a popular choice with the UK public with his gentle but powerful singing style. Could this be the time for our first UK winner of the contest, sadly not, once again we only achieved second spot behind Italy.

Matt Monro I love the little things

The UK finished in second place yet again the following year in Naples when Kathy Kirby finished behind France Gall singing a Serge Gainsbourg song "Poup de cire, poupée de son".

Kathy had a massive UK hit with the song "I belong" 

The following year in retrospect was a disaster for the UK when Kenneth McKellar finished ninth with "A man without love" This prompted the UK committee to rethink and the following year 1967 saw our first winner.

By choosing one of the UK's most popular singers of the time who had a solid run of chart hits behind her, the choice of Sandie Shaw was genius. The song though not Sandie's own favourite was of course "Puppet on a string" The song was such a popular winner that Sandie was asked in 1970 to perform it once again at the finals in Spain, singing partly in Spanish much to the enjoyment of the audience.

Sandie Shaw Puppet on a string

The following year London hosted the contest as previous years winners and looked certain to win again with the Peter Pan of pop Cliff Richard singing the number one hit "Congratulations" Cliff however only managed second place behind Spain's "La la la". So onto Madrid in 1969 and a real close contest with four songs eventually finishing in joint first place including the Uk's Lulu with "Boom bang a bang" another instant Eurovision favourite. Once again it was an inspired choice with Lulu already an international singing star.

Lulu Boom bang a bang

So by the end of the sixties the UK had now won twice. What would the seventies do? Could we carry on the success? More to follow in the next blog.