Lita Roza

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Lita Roza (Lilian Patricia Lita Roza) (March 14th 1926, Liverpool) is a British singer.

[edit] Biography

She was the eldest of seven children and began work at an early age to support the family. She owed her sultry looks to her Spanish father, an amateur accordionist who also played piano in Liverpool clubs.

At 12 she saw an ad in the papers for juvenile dancers and passed the audition.

At 16 she answered another ad, when she managed to secure a job as a singer in the "New Yorker" - Southport club. She got the job at £5 a week, then signed up with the Harry Roy Orchestra in London. She moved on from this to work with other bands of the era including that of Edmundo Ros.

By the time she was eighteen she had decided to retire from show business- choosing marriage to an American and a life in Miami in exchange. London was full of American servicemen, one of whom Roza married and they went to America.

However, this did not last and she returned to the UK, ans she started as a singer with the Ted Heath Band. She joined Ted's band in 1950 and remained until 1954, when she starts her solo work.

1956 she married the trumpet player Ronnie Harris.

She remained a top UK recording artist during the remainder of the 1950s, but her subsequent recordings never recaptured the magic she had shown while with Ted Heath.

She was voted the Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express' pool winners charts consecutively 1951 to 1955.

Melody Maker readers also voted her their Top Girl Singer in the Dance Band section of their pools from 1951 to 1952.

Her 1953 number one hit record How much is that doggie in the window? afforded Lita the privilege of being the first British female singer to top the charts in the UK.

On Wednesday March 14, 2001 a Wall of Fame was inaugurated opposite the famous Cavern Club on Mathew Street, with Roza presiding at the ceremony.

At November 28, 2002 she gave her last public performance at Radio Merseyside.