Australian country singer Frank Ifield has died at the age of 86.
Frank was born in England in 1937. His parents, Richard and Hannah had moved to the UK he 1936 for his fathers work. Frank’s father Richard was the inventor of the Ifield fuel pump still used in aircrafts today.
The family returned to Australia in 1948 when Frank was 10. A few years later when Frank was 13, the family moved from Dural, 60 kilometers outside Sydney, to the Sydney suburb of Beecroft. Around that time Frank appears on radio station 2GB’s Amateur Hour and released his first single in 1953.
Frank’s 1957 song ‘Whiplash’ was the theme song to a British/Australian TV series in the early 60s. Frank had his first UK hit with ‘Lucky Devil’ in 1960 but it was his version of Johnny Mercer’s ‘I Remember You’ that took him to the top of the UK and Australian charts and sold 1.1 million copies in England. The song also reached no 5 in the USA.
Frank was so big in 1962 that The Beatles even covered ‘I Remember You’ at the Star Club in Hamburg.
Later, the song was also covered by Glen Campbell, Bjork and George Michael.
Frank released his last album ‘I Remember These’ in 1985. In 1986 he contracted pneumonia had had part of his lung removed which affected his vocal cords.
Frank had a final hit in the UK in 1991 with a dance remix of ‘She Taught Me How To Yodel’.
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