John Lennon never seemed like the type of person to ask for anyone’s autograph. However he did make an exception back in 1960 at the Larry Parnes audition. There is photographic evidence of John asking singer Billy Fury for his autograph. The first time I ever saw the photograph of John asking Fury for his signature was in a book of superb early photographs of the Beatles written by the late Gareth Pawlowski and here is a picture of the book that the photograph appeared in. I can remember when I bought this book how amazed I was of all the fabulous rare photos of the early Beatles that Gareth Pawloski had acquired over the years:
A Billy Fury autograph which I just obtained on Ebay:
The DM’s Beatle site had posted the photo from the Gareth Pawlowski book of John asking Bill Fury for his autograph:
Ronald Wycherley was Fury’s real name but impresario Larry Parnes changed it to the stage name of Billy Fury.
Billy had many hits in the UK and many young UK musicians aspired to attain the great success that he had (witness John Lennon asking him for his autograph) but unfortunately he had a very weak heart due to having rheumatic fever as a child and he passed away at the young age of 42 in 1983.
BILLY FURY DIES – NEWS REPORTS – JANUARY 1983 – YouTube
Billy Fury performs in a short YouTube excerpt of Ringo and David Essex in the film “That’ll be the Day.”
That’ll Be The Day 1973 Ringo Starr, David Essex, Billy Fury – YouTube
Have you seen the film? What did you think of That’ll Be The Day as a movie?
Have you got the Pawlowski book? Did you know about Billy Fury?
Buzz
The Beatles
Books about The Beatles as a group
I loved That’ll Be The Day. Ringo was superb as the arrogant teddy boy who gets a good hiding for his deeds.
Billy’s classic Sound of Fury featured George’s close friend, Joe Brown, on guitar. Before Joe had to stop touring for health reasons he still played onstage with a guitar given to him by George.
John Lennon knew, as did lots of Billy Fury’s fans, that he wrote his own songs, especially on ‘The Sound of Fury’ LP including some under made up names. John probably admired this as he was at that time was beginning to work with Paul McCartney on their own early songs.