Puppet On A String - Sandie Shaw

Time for some Sandie Shaw

Sandie Shaw (born Sandra Ann Goodrich, 26 February 1947, Dagenham, Essex, England) is a British singer. She was, as described in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, “the barefoot pop princess of the 1960s”, owing to her distinctive penchant of performing on stage without shoes. This distinctive vocalist, who has a 41 year UK chart span, was the first UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest.

“Puppet on a String” is the name of the Eurovision Song Contest-winning song in 1967.

It was her thirteenth UK single release. The song was a UK Singles Chart number one hit on 27 April 1967, staying at the top for a total of three weeks. The song is not to be confused with the Bennett-Tepper song of the same name that was performed by Elvis Presley.

Shaw had originally performed the song as one of five prospective numbers to represent the United Kingdom in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest on The Rolf Harris Show. She had never been taken with the idea of taking part in the contest but her discoverer, Adam Faith, had talked her into it, saying it would keep her manager Eve Taylor happy. Taylor wanted to give Shaw a more cabaret appeal and felt that this was the right move – and also felt that it would get Shaw back in the public’s good books as she had recently been involved in a divorce scandal.

Of the five songs performed, “Puppet on a String” was Shaw’s least favourite. In her own words “I hated it from the very first oompah to the final bang on the big bass drum. I was instinctively repelled by its sexist drivel and cuckoo-clock tune.” She was disappointed when it was selected as the song she would use to represent the country, but it won the contest hands down, though it has always been felt that this was partly due to her existing popularity on the continent (she had recorded most of her hit singles in French, Italian, German and Spanish). As a result “Puppet on a String” became her third Number One hit in the UK (a record for a female at the time) and was a big worldwide smash (the biggest selling single of the year in Germany).

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