Emile Ford, who has died aged 78, was the first black pop star to sell a million copies of a single in Britain alone when at the end of 1959 What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For? spent six weeks at No 1.
The follow-up, On A Slow Boat To China, almost did the same (reaching No 3), and Counting Teardrops climbed to No 4 during the rainy autumn of 1960. But, with well-paid bookings stretching years into the future, Ford was able to invest in a lucrative recording complex in Barbados, where he could indulge a serious interest in electronics.
Born Michael Emile Telford Miller on the neighbouring island of St Lucia on October 16 1937, he was the eldest child of the eminent West Indian parliamentarian Frederick Edward Miller and Madge Murray, a soprano. He attended St Mary’s College.
Although some of his siblings entered politics – notably his sister Billie, later deputy prime minister of Barbados – Miller was to embark on a career in show business after uprooting to London in 1954. Initially, he was a recording engineer, while teaching himself to play a multitude of instruments, ranging from drums to violin.
By the age of 20, however, he was singing with a north London ballroom combo, and had adopted his stage alias of “Emile Ford”. Although he admired Mario Lanza, it made sense to pay heed to prevailing trends, no matter how abhorrent they might have seemed to many adult dancers. “I like music with a beat,” he commented at the time, “and if it happens to be called rock 'n’ roll – which I know is regarded as a dirty word in some quarters – then it’s too bad.”
Nevertheless, he amassed television appearances on variety programmes such as The Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson Show, Sunday Serenade (in a group with his half-brother George) and, crucially, Oh, Boy!, an ITV series aimed directly at teenagers.
In 1959, Ford gained a contract with Pye Records, who allowed him more studio freedom than most other pop artists in Britain at that time. The company’s faith was rewarded with the commercial triumph of What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?, a revival of a song originally recorded during the Great War.
Taped in 30 minutes at the end of a session, this singalong, doo-wop arrangement was released as the B-side to Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles, a cover version of an American country hit by Don Gibson, until it picked up sufficient air play in its own right. Promoted to the A-side, its impact – and that of On A Slow Boat To China and three further Top 20 entries – was such that Ford was voted “Best New Act” of 1960 in the annual poll of New Musical Express readers.
The accolade also belonged to Ford’s backing group the Checkmates, an ensemble augmented eventually by a female chorale duo, the Fordettes. Among those passing through the ranks were the drummer John Cuffley – later of The Climax Chicago Blues Band – and the keyboard-player Alan Hawkshaw, remembered chiefly as a composer of film and television theme music.
Ford’s chart farewell was I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now – from the 1909 musical The Prince of Tonight – and after that earnings on the road came to take priority over making new records. An ebullient live performer, Ford remained a dependable draw both at home and abroad, partly because he relied on a self-devised PA system rather than trusting in-house equipment, thus ensuring that he and the Checkmates sounded clearer and punchier than other performers on a given bill. Support acts during Ford’s heyday included the Beatles (at New Brighton in 1962), and it was their rise and the beat group boom that precipitated the sundering of Emile Ford and the Checkmates in 1963.
Ford was not to forsake the limelight completely, however, and continued with considerable success as a studio boffin, having pioneered the use of his own pre-recorded backing tracks when necessary for stage shows, thereby pre-empting (after a fashion) what was to be known as karaoke.
This and further electronic innovations – such as the Liveoteque Sound Frequency Feedback Injection System, an open-air playback structure – were developed in his Barbados premises and in Sweden after he moved there in the mid-1970s and then in California where, in 1988, he founded his own electronics concern.
He is survived by four daughters and three sons.
Emile Ford, born October 16 1937, died April 11 2016
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