Lesley Duncan
| Lesley Duncan | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Lesley Cox |
| Born |
12 August 1943 , England |
| Died | 12 March 2010 (aged 66) Isle of Mull, Scotland |
| Labels | EMI, Columbia |
| Associated acts | Dusty Springfield, Alan Parsons |
This article refers to the English singer-songwriter. For the Australian newspaper editor, see Leslie Duncan.
Lesley Duncan (married name Lesley Cox; 12 August 1943 – 12 March 2010) was an English singer-songwriter, best known for her work during the 1970s. She received a lot of airplay on British radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, but never achieved great commercial success due in part to her unwillingness to chase stardom, and crippling stage fright.
Duncan was born in on 12 August 1943, and left school while only 14 years old. At 19, while working in a London coffee bar, she and her brother were placed on weekly retainers by a music publisher. Within a year Duncan had signed her first recording contract, with EMI, and appeared in the film What a Crazy World.
Considered one of Britain's first female singer-songwriters, her songs included "Everything Changes" and "Sing Children Sing", and the song for which she is best known, "Love Song". Elton John recorded a duet with Duncan of the song, similar to her solo version, for his album Tumbleweed Connection. She appeared onstage with John in a 1974 concert at the Royal Festival Hall to perform the duet once again, and the live recording of "Love Song" was included on John's Here and There album. John described "Love Song" as "one of the very few" songs he did not co-author but included on an album earlier in his career. Duncan's "Love Song" went on to be covered by more than 150 other artists, including David Bowie and Olivia Newton-John. This success notwithstanding, and despite their receiving critical acclaim, Duncan's multiple solo albums failed to achieve commercial success.
In addition to writing and singing her own material, Duncan was in wide demand as a session singer in the mid to late 1960s, most notably working with Dusty Springfield from 1964 to 1972, a favour Springfield returned by performing backing vocals for several Duncan recordings. Duncan can in fact be seen on many of the performances featured in the BBC DVD "Dusty at the BBC".
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