LONDON (AP) – Big-voiced British singer Cilla Black, a product of Beatles-era Liverpool who became a national treasure over a 50-year music and television career, has died. She was 72.
Spanish police said Sunday that the singer, who had a home in Estepona, southern Spain, died Saturday. The cause was not immediately disclosed.
Black was born Priscilla White in Liverpool, northwest England, in 1943, and worked as a teenager in the cloakroom of the city’s Cavern Club, where her musical talent was spotted by The Beatles.
Signed by the Fab Four’s manager, Brian Epstein, she had a string of hits starting in 1964 with “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and “You’re My World.” Both went to No. 1 in Britain, and the latter also charted in the U.S.
She also had success with the Bacharach-David theme tune for the 1966 film “Alfie,” and recorded several Beatles songs, including “The Long and Winding Road.”