Amazing Gracie

BY THE TIME I got into rock'n'roll, Charlie Gracie was already a folk memory dimly recalled from a performance on Stars From Blackpool and a 78 of ‘Wanderin' Eyes’. I'd bought the record in 1957 but it failed to spark any life-long enthusiasm and lay in a cupboard alongside The Five Smith Brothers (‘Frosty The Snowman’) and Lonnie Donegan ('Cumberland Gap’) – virtually forgotten until I really saw the light.