The Beverley Sisters
Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox musical artist
The Beverley Sisters were an English female close harmony traditional pop vocal and light entertainment trio, consisting of three sisters from London. They were eldest sister Joy (born Joycelyn Victoria Chinery, 5 May 1924Template:Refn<ref>England & Wales, Birth Index, 1916–2005, Joycelyn V. Chinery, Ancestry.com; retrieved 24 April 2014</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> – 31 August 2015), and twins Teddie (born Hazel P. Chinery, 5 May 1927) and Babs (born Babette Patricia Chinery,<ref name=theguardian>Template:Cite news</ref> 5 May 1927<ref>England & Wales, Birth Index, 1916–2005, Hazel P. Chinery, Ancestry.com; retrieved 24 April 2014.</ref> – 28 October 2018). The sisters were each appointed MBE in 2006.
The Beverley Sisters were most popular during the 1950s and 1960s, and became well-known through their radio and television appearances. Their style was loosely modelled on that of their American counterparts, The Andrews Sisters. Their notable successes included the Irving Berlin-penned "Sisters" and the Christmas songs "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Little Donkey", and "Little Drummer Boy", while in the United States they charted with a version of Greensleeves.<ref name="AMG"/> They also toured the cabaret circuit, and were known for their matching outfits, which they wore both on- and off-stage.
Early lives
The sisters were born in Bethnal Green, London to Victoria Alice (née Miles) (married 1916) and George Arthur Chinery (1894–1962), who were known as the music hall act Coram and Mills,<ref name="archives.shef.ac.uk/29">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="larkin" /> and are related to the Lupino acting and performing family.<ref name="andrews" /> The eldest, Joy, was born on 5 May 1924; the twins, Babs and Teddie, were born on Joy's third birthday, 5 May 1927. They were evacuated to Northamptonshire during the Second World War and received secretarial training.<ref name="leigh"/>
Career
During the Second War, the sisters auditioned successfully to take part in an advertising campaign for the malt drink Ovaltine.<ref name="limelight" /> Jock Ware, photographer for the Ovaltine poster campaign encouraged them to audition for BBC Radio. They did so in November 1944, changing their name to the Beverley Sisters on the advice of BBC producer Cecil Madden, who became their manager.<ref name="leigh">Template:Cite web</ref> They met Glenn Miller who, shortly before his disappearance, offered them the opportunity to record with members of his orchestra.<ref name="barnet" />
They first appeared in radio programmes for the Allied Expeditionary Forces, recorded in Bedford,<ref>David Fowler, "The BBC in Bedford during World War II", bedford.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2014.</ref><ref>Roland Taylor,"Miller's mighty Service Band: the ensemble in focus", BigBandLibrary.com; retrieved 25 April 2014.</ref> then followed up on BBC Radio's Variety Bandbox.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Immediately after the war they toured with Eric Winstone and his Orchestra,<ref name="andrews">Template:Cite web</ref> and began making regular appearances on the BBC's early television programmes. They also performed for NBC in the US with surviving members of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. After their return to Britain, promoter Val Parnell booked them to appear at the London Palladium with Gracie Fields; although Fields refused, without explanation, to appear with them.Template:Citation needed
The following year they performed with Danny Kaye. The BBC gave them their own television series, initially called Three Little Girls on View but later renamed as Those Beverley Sisters, which ran for seven years and on which they gave live performances of popular songs of the day.<ref name="AMG">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1951, they signed a recording deal with the UK Columbia record label, later moving to the Philips and Decca labels before returning to Columbia in 1960. Their biggest hits on the UK singles chart were versions of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" (no.6, 1953) and "Little Drummer Boy" (no.6, 1959),<ref name="betts">Template:Cite book</ref> which were both Christmas hits.<ref name="AMG" /> The Beverley Sisters appeared as themselves in the 1954 British film musical Harmony Lane directed by Lewis Gilbert and were Record Mirror "cover stars" for the 12 February 1955 issue.
In 1956, their version of the traditional song "Greensleeves", orchestrated by Roland Shaw, became their only US chart hit, reaching no.41 on the Billboard pop chart.<ref name="larkin">Colin Larkin, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Omnibus Press, 2011.</ref><ref name="whitburn">Template:Cite book</ref> Generally preferring live cabaret and television appearances over recording work,<ref name="larkin" /> the song "Sisters", written by Irving Berlin and originally recorded in 1954 by Rosemary Clooney and her sister Betty, became their theme song;<ref name="AMG" /> it has been claimed that Berlin wrote the song for the Beverley Sisters.<ref name="barnet" />
The sisters are widely credited as having been the highest paid female entertainers in the UK for more than 20 years.<ref name=limelight/><ref name=barnet/> In 1952, 1958 and 1978, they appeared at the Royal Variety Performance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In January 1961, they appeared on the radio show, Desert Island Discs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They appeared on the television show Stars on Sunday.<ref name="database">Template:Cite web</ref> They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1969 when they were surprised by Eamonn Andrews. They also appeared in 1977 on the BBC TV's long running variety show The Good Old Days.Template:Cn
Their career was revitalised in the 1980s, after their children – who had begun performing together as the Foxes – invited them onstage at the London Hippodrome, encouraged by club owner Peter Stringfellow. A review in The Stage in March 1985 described the Sisters when appearing in Stringfellow's Hippodrome cabaret as "clad in shimmering pink" and said they had "acquired a glamour and universality that only time and experience can produce".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The sisters began performing again for British troops, as well as in gay clubs in Britain, and they produced a new album, Sparkle.<ref name="AMG"/><ref name=larkin/><ref name=limelight/> The Beverley Sisters drew comparison with the Spice Girls in the late 1990s, especially with regard to the marriages of Joy to England footballer Billy Wright and Posh Spice, Victoria to David Beckham.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
They performed as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002, and toured with Max Bygraves that year, the 50th anniversary of their appearance at the Royal Variety Performance. They also took part in the D-Day 60th anniversary memorial concerts in 2004.<ref name="AMG"/><ref name=larkin/><ref name=limelight/>
They entered the Guinness World Records in 2002, as the world's longest surviving vocal group without a change in the original line up.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As late as 2009, the sisters appeared in concerts and matinee shows in the United Kingdom. They forged links with the Burma Star Association, as well as McCarthy & Stone, where the sisters were invited to open each new housing development designed specifically for retired people. They later fully retired and lived near each other in Barnet.<ref name=barnet>Sophie Kummer, "Showbiz sisters are still high-kicking", times-series.co.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2014.</ref>
Personal lives and honours
After a brief early marriage to American musician Roger Carocari (who adopted the surname Carey), later dissolved,<ref name=leigh/> Joy married the Wolverhampton Wanderers and England football captain Billy Wright on 28 July 1958 at Poole Register Office, a year before he retired as a player. They were married for 36 years until Wright died of cancer in September 1994. Joy died on 31 August 2015 at the age of 91.<ref>"Matches of the Day: How footballing marriages of yesterday compare to Coleen and Wayne's lavish nuptials", Thisislondon.co.uk, 11 June 2008; retrieved 3 May 2012.</ref>
Babs married Scottish dentist James Mitchell in 1963 but the marriage did not last. She suffered a cut forehead and shock when a passenger in a car accident in North Harrow on Boxing Day 1967 and was confined to a Harley Street Nursing Home for at least three weeks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Babs died on 28 October 2018, also at the age of 91, leaving no children.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Teddie was engaged to Alyn Ainsworth,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but married the British waterskiing champion Peter Felix. She is the last surviving sister.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the 2006 New Year Honours list the sisters were each appointed an MBE.<ref name="limelight">Template:Cite news</ref>
Discography
Robert Tredinnick, in the Gramophone Notes column of The Tatler in January 1952, opined the Beverleys were the best sister act on gramophone since the Boswell Sisters in the early 1930s and "have the gift of making their personalities apparent to an unseeing audience".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Chart singles
| Year | Title | UK Singles Chart<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">Template:Cite book</ref> | US Pop<ref name=whitburn/> | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" | 6 | - | Philips |
| 1956 | "Willie Can" | 23 | - | Decca |
| 1956 | "Greensleeves" | - | 41 | London |
| 1957 | "I Dreamed" | 24 | - | Decca |
| 1959 | "Little Drummer Boy" | 6 | - | Decca |
| 1959 | "Little Donkey" | 14 | - | Decca |
| 1960 | "Green Fields" | 29 | - | Columbia |
Albums
- A Date with the Bevs (Philips, 1955)
- The Enchanting Beverley Sisters (Columbia, 1960)
- Those Beverley Sisters (Decca, 1960)
- The World of the Beverley Sisters (Decca, 1961)
- Together (EMI, 1985)
- Sparkle (K-Tel, 1985)
- Sisters, Sisters: An Evening with the Beverley Sisters (Pickwick, 1993)
- Bless 'Em All (Pickwick, 1995)
<ref name=larkin/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>