A MAN from St Helens has released an album containing songs he had written for the late Cilla Black to record.

Brian Shea, a member of the St Helens band Bordellos, has always enjoyed the music of 60s icons, with Cilla Black among his favourite singers of the era.

His mission to write songs for the late singer to record was unsuccessful, as Cilla had retired from singing and later passed away.

Fortunately, prior to her death, 56-year-old Brian had managed to give the songs to Cilla due to a relative of hers being in Brian’s son’s band, which Brian described as “fate.”

Years later, Brian found his tracks for Cilla and decided to record them for an album, called Songs for Cilla to Sing.

He said: “It wasn’t even meant to be an album.

“The album is made up of songs I recorded years ago on my old four-track tape recorder for songs I wanted Cilla Black to record and bring her music to a younger audience.

St Helens Star: Brian decided to release an album containing the songs he had written for the late singerBrian decided to release an album containing the songs he had written for the late singer (Image: Brian Shea)

“I made three copies of the tape, one for me, one for Cilla, and one for spare, and I managed to get a copy of the tape to Cilla Black, who loved the songs but had all but retired from singing, and not long later sadly passed away.

“I then lost my copy of the tape and forgot all about it but stumbled across it years later in the back of a drawer.”

Following its release, the album was sold out on its first day of sale on Amazon.

The dad-of-two added: “I was a bit surprised; things I’ve put out in the past have sold out eventually or sold well, but never to that extent, so I was really surprised and made up to sell that much overnight.

“It’s brilliant, I just wished she had been able to record them.”

Songs for Cilla to Sing is available to download here. 

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