Lynn Annette Ripley

Career

Twinkle owed her rapid entry into the recording studio at the age of 16 to her then-boyfriend Dec Cluskey, of the popular vocal group The Bachelors, who was introduced to her by her sister, music journalist Dawn James, and who passed on to his manager a demo that Twinkle's father played to him. which conjured up a dark mood with its doleful backing vocals, spooky organ, 12-string guitar and slow, emphatic rhythm arranged by Phil Coulter. The theme was of a common type for the era: it bore some similarities to the Shangri-Las' slightly earlier "Leader of the Pack" (1964), but the record caused a furore, accusations of bad taste leading to a ban from the BBC. By then Cluskey was her ex-boyfriend: Twinkle dated Peter Noone in 1965. The lyric expresses disillusionment with the pop business: her EP track "A Lonely Singing Doll", the English-language version of France Gall's 1965 winning Eurovision Song Contest song for Luxembourg, "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", originally written by Serge Gainsbourg, returned to a theme similar to "Golden Lights". "Johnny" continued to explore dangerous territory, this time that of a childhood friend who becomes a criminal, but it seems the pressure to produce "another Terry" led her producers to pass over her own material, for "Tommy", a song written for Reparata and the Delrons and "The End of the World" a tune composed for Skeeter Davis. Twinkle made few live appearances but performed Terry at the annual New Musical Express hit concerts. After recording six singles for Decca Records she "retired" at the age of eighteen in 1966.

In the 1980s "Golden Lights" was covered by The Smiths and appeared on their compilation albums The World Won't Listen and Louder Than Bombs while in 1983 Cindy & The Saffrons covered "Terry". "Terry" was also covered by Mandy Smith in 1987, but her highly publicised version was pulled from release after negative feedback. It was later issued on a special edition of her album, Mandy.

Photographic publicity portraits of Twinkle taken in the mid-1960s are exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery.

Personal life

In 1972, she married actor-model Graham Rogers, who starred in Milk Tray chocolate adverts. They had two children, Michael and Amber.

Death

On 21 May 2015, Twinkle died at 66 on the Isle of Wight, after a five-year battle with cancer.

Discography

Singles

;for Decca Records

  • "Terry" (Twinkle) b/w "The Boy of My Dreams" (Tommy Scott) (1964) UK No. 4
  • "Golden Lights" (Twinkle) b/w "Ain't Nobody Home but Me" (Tommy Scott) (1965) UK No. 21
  • "Poor Old Johnny" (Twinkle) b/w "I Need Your Hand in Mine" (Tommy Scott) (1965)
  • "The End of the World" (Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee) b/w "Take Me to the Dance" (Tommy Scott) (1965)
  • "What Am I Doing Here with You?" (P. F. Sloan, Steve Barri) b/w "Now I Have You" (Tommy Scott) (1966)

;for Instant Records

  • "Micky" (Twinkle) b/w "Darby and Joan" (Twinkle) (1969)

;for Bradleys Records, as Twinkle Ripley

  • "Days" (Twinkle Ripley) b/w "Caroline" (Twinkle Ripley) (1974)

;for Bradleys Records, as duo Bill & Coo

  • "Smoochie" (Jim Jim) b/w "I Always Love You" (Jim Jim) (1975)

;for EMI Records, as Twinkle

  • "I'm a Believer" (Neil Diamond) b/w "For Sale" (Twinkle Ripley and Simon Darlow) (1982)

EP

  • Lonely Singing Doll (Decca, DFE 8621, May 1965) "A Lonely Singing Doll" (Serge Gainsbourg, Tommy Scott, Bill Martin), "Unhappy Boy" (Twinkle), "Ain't Nobody Home But Me" (Tommy Scott) and "Golden Lights" (Twinkle)

Compilations

  • Golden Lights (1993)
  • Golden Lights: Special Edition (2001)
  • Michael Hannah, The Lost Years (2003)
  • Girl in a Million: The Complete Recordings (2019)

See also

  • List of performers on Top of the Pops
  • Beat-Club

References

  • Biography and discography at 45-rpm website