Joan Regan

Joan Regan (born Joan Eileen Bethell; 19 January 1928 – 12 September 2013) was an English traditional pop singer, popular during the 1950s and early 1960s.

Biography Joan Eileen Bethell was born in West Ham, Essex, on 19 January 1928, the youngest of six children born to Joseph Bethell and Katherine E. Hartnett, whose marriage was registered in March 1916. The family was of at least partial Irish Catholic descent. Joan suffered from rheumatic fever as a child, which left her with a damaged mitral valve, although this did not cause problems until she was in her seventies.

Regan married an American serviceman, Dick Howell, a friend of her brothers who met in the Navy. She and Howell married on her birthday in January 1946. For a time they lived in Burbank, California. They had three children, one of whom died at an early age. The marriage eventually broke down. Regan, a Catholic, was able to obtain a legal dissolution, rather than a divorce.

Beginning on 18 November 1953, she became the resident singer on BBC producer Richard Afton's television series Quite Contrary. She appeared on the Six-Five Special, and was given her own BBC television series, Be My Guest, which ran for four series starting in 1959. In 1958, she appeared as herself in the film Hello London.

On leaving Decca in 1958, she signed with EMI's His Master's Voice label, where she had a Top 10 hit with a cover version of the McGuire Sisters' "May You Always".

In the United States, Regan recorded two singles for Columbia (one of which, "Don't Talk To Me About Love", went on to become a Northern soul favourite). In 1984, she slipped in the shower, hit her head on the tiles and suffered a brain haemorrhage.

Discography Albums The Girl Next Door (Decca, 1954) Just Joan (Decca, 1956) Joan and Ted (with Edmund Hockridge) (Pye-Nixa, 1961) The World of Joan Regan (Decca, 1976) Remember I Love You (Nectar Music, 1996) US

b/w "I'll Always Be Thinking of You" — — 23

b/w "Rag-a-Bone Man" — — —

b/w "Merry-Go-Rounds and Swings" — 8 —

b/w "Tani" — — —

b/w "The Love I Have for You" — 5 —

b/w "Pine Tree, Pine Over Me" — — —

b/w "Jil Ted" — — —

b/w "Faded Flowers" — 3 —

b/w "Two Kinds of Tears" — 18 —

b/w "Can This Be Love?" — — —

b/w "When You're in Love" 21 6 —

b/w "If You Learn to Love Each Other" — 19 —

b/w "Danger! Heartbreak Ahead" — — —

b/w "Nobody Danced with Me" — — —

b/w "The Rose and the Flame" — — —

b/w "Evermore" (US); "Love and Marriage" (UK) — — 55

b/w "The Boy with the Magic Guitar" — — —

b/w "I'd Never Leave You Baby" (with the Johnston Brothers) — — —

b/w "Second Fiddle" — — —

b/w "Make Me a Child Again" — — —

b/w "Cross My Ever-Loving Heart" — — —

b/w "Speak for Yourself John" — — —

b/w "7½ Cents" — — —

b/w "Soft Sands" — — —

b/w "Breezin' Along with the Breeze" — — —

b/w "Take Me in Your Arms" — — —

b/w "Have You Ever Been Lonely?" — — —

b/w "Who's Afraid (Not I, Not I, Not I)" — 9 —

b/w "So Close to My Heart" — 29 —

b/w "O Dio Mio" — — —

b/w "When You Know Someone Loves You" — 29 —

b/w "My Thanks to You" — 47 —

b/w "Will Santa Come to Shanty Town" — 42 —

b/w "(Ting-a-Ling) It Must Be Spring" — — —

b/w "My Foolish Heart" — — —

b/w "In the Arms of My Love" — — — 1962

b/w "Don't Let Me Stand in Your Way" — — — 1963

b/w "Golden Dreams'" — — — 1966

b/w "I'm No Toy" — — — 1967

b/w "A Love So Fine" — — — 1989

b/w "Together Again" — — — "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released.

Songs Regan recorded a number of other songs, including "It's a Big, Wide, Wonderful World" and "That Old Feeling".