Jerry Stevens (5)

Jerry Stevens was a show-business entertainer popular during the 1960s to 1980s specialising in comedy impersonations, singing, acting and compere work. He was born Gerard Pinder in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK. Forsaking the Working Men's clubs of northern England he moved to London in the early 1960s where his career took off, appearing on numerous TV Entertainment Shows (such as, 'Blackpool Night Out' & 'The Ken Dodd TV Show' 1967). Compere work on the concert stage included a tour with The Beatles, The Moody Blues and The Paramounts (later Procol Harum) in late 1965. Jerry can be briefly seen entering the fab foursome's dressing room in Ron Howard's bio-movie, "The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years" (2016). Tours with other big-name stars of the day such as Johnny Mathis duly followed but his main work at this period concentrated on the burgeoning sixties cabaret circuit (for example with popular Canadian baritone Edmund Hockridge at the Cavendish Nightclub in Sheffield 1967). By the following decade Jerry was to have compared Hollywood star Telly Savalas' UK Tour to promote the actor's hit UK record single, "If", but unfortunately the tour was never finalised. In 1965 he signed with CBS/Columbia Records. His first Columbia Records release in the UK (Catalogue No: DB7618) had "She" as an A-side and "You" as a B. He recorded the Ron Moody penned, "The Life That I Lead" f/s "Love Is The Beacon" (CBS catalogue number 202484). This was followed in 1967 with Andre Manoukian and Pierre Cour's popular Eurovision hit, "Love Is Blue" and later by the Roger Cook & Roger Greenaway, "How Long". A vinyl LP, "So This Is Love" (CBS Catalogue 62954) was also released in '67 which was endorsed by Dusty Springfield who wrote the sleeve notes. A promotional single, "You Make My Life Worthwhile" f/s "So This Is Love" (CBS Catalogue 2831) failed to make a dint in the UK record charts but BBC Radio did give some of the album tracks useful air play. By the 1980s BBC Television teamed Jerry with fellow comedian Lennie Bennett in an effort to replace comedy duo Morecambe & Wise who had left the Corporation to work for Independent Television. This partnership was fruitful but ultimately short-lived. As well as having their own Saturday night prime-time TV Show (with guests ranging from Joan Collins to actor Doug McClure) they also made guest appearances on well-established fayre such as, "The Good Old Days" Variety Show and "The Shirley Bassey Show" (both 1979). By 1978 Jerry attempted to restart his recording career and released his last 45rpm single on the Ember label, "What's Yesterday" f/s "Getting' Over You" (Catalogue Number EMBS 362). It was announced that this 45rpm was taken from an upcoming album but no subsequent LP release followed. An accomplished amateur golfer Jerry won the Bob Hope UK Pro-Celebrity golf tournament in 1981 and later organised various showbiz golf games in the UK and abroad. He lived in the Wembley area of southern England and passed away in November 2022 due to heart failure. To date I have only been able to find one of Jerry's recordings in digital format, "Janie" via iTunes downloads.