Frank Ifield was a household name with multiple hits in the UK when he was asked by manager Brian Epstein about finding a spot on his tour for a band from Liverpool.
“He said, ‘And I would very much like if my group could go on your tour with you. Because they’ve had no experience outside of Liverpool and would you put them on the tour?’,” Ifield recalled in a 2005 interview.
“And I said, ‘Well, who are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Well it’s a new group, called The Beatles’.”
The Beatles were booked as his support act in 1962, which helped launch the band into super stardom.
Ifield died at his home in Dural, in Sydney’s north-west, on Saturday. He was 86.
The British-born Australian singing icon, who was known to incorporate yodelling into his music, had a career spanning decades with 25 recorded albums.
He had four number one hits on the UK Singles Chart including classics such as I Remember You, Lovesick Blues, and The Wayward Wind.
His version of I Remember You topped the UK charts for seven weeks, was the second highest-selling single in the country in 1962 and climbed to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
Ifield’s popularity led him to starring in the 1965 feature film Up Jumped a Swagman, where he played an aspiring singer trying to find success in London.
Ifield was inducted into ARIA Hall of Fame and the Aria Music Awards of 2007 and the Australian Roll of Renown in 2003.
He received a Medal of the Order of Australia for “services to the arts” in 2009.
Ifield’s death was confirmed by music journalist Glenn A Baker, who was told by Ifield’s brother in a phone call.
“I just took a call from David Ifield, telling me that his brother Frank Ifield peacefully passed on this Saturday night,” Baker said in a post on Facebook on Monday.
He described the legendary singer as a “remarkable man” and said I Remember You is a “indelible hit all around the world and a perfect signature song”.
“This is not the time to say any more than my thoughts are with Frank’s brothers and his wife Carole and to say how fortunate I was to see him earlier this year,” he said.
Ifield is survived by his wife and two children.
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