Ray Pilgrim
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Ray Pilgrim (born London, 1936) was one of the most prolific big band singers, radio broadcasters, recording and session singers in Britain in the late 1950's/early 1960's.
He did not regard singing as a long term career and only became a professional singer to enable him to give up his job in a bank to go to University and get a degree at the London School of Economics, after which he made a successful career in the fledging world of IT.
He sang with the Oscar Rabin Orchestra and was featured for over 190 consecutive weeks singing live on the very popular BBC radio programme, "Go Man Go". He was also guest on other shows such as the BBC's "Saturday Club" and ITV's "Cool For Cats".
He recorded for Oriole Records (UK) under the Ray Pilgrim name and also made nearly 150 cover records for the Embassy Records label using the names Bobby Stevens, Typhoons, Jaybirds, Starlings, and Beatmen as well as the Ray Pilgrim name.
His recordings were released on over 30 different labels in over 20 different countries with aggregate sales estimated at around five million.
He also recorded TV jingles, demos, and film soundtracks.
He did not really consider himself a songwriter and wrote only a few songs including "Baby Doll", "Little Miss Make Believe" and "Love Is Blind" which he recorded himself for Oriole. Plus "Little Christine" which was successful for Dick Jordan, Burt Blanca, and Danny Fisher, "Just Once More Dance" recorded by Lee Curtis, and "Big Boy" which was the English version of the Norwegian Eurovision song "Voi Voi" performed and recorded by Nora Brockstedt.
He gave up singing after he gained his degree but came out of "retirement" at literally a day's notice to record his very last session in April 1966 which was the theme song for the movie Carry On Screaming!.
