Clodagh Rodgers

Irish pop diva Clodagh Rodgers was born March 5, 1947, in Ballymena, Ulster, and made her professional debut at age 13 opening for British singing star Michael Holliday. Championed by her father, a dancehall tour promoter, she signed to Decca in 1962 and scored a minor U.K. hit with her debut single, "Believe Me, I'm No Fool," credited to the more phonetic "Cloda Rogers." The record earned Rodgers an appearance in the 1963 film Just for Fun, and that same year she entered the European Song Cup with her second single, "Powder Your Face With Sunshine." Another movie, 1964's It's All Over Town, preceded a move to the Columbia label to issue "Wanting You" the following year; it was Rodgers' last recording for four years, but when she resurfaced in 1969 on RCA, she immediately landed in the British Top Five with her comeback single "Come Back and Shake Me." A self-titled LP soon followed, and with the subsequent Midnight Clodagh, Rodgers scored two more hits, "Goodnight Midnight" and "Biljo." 1971's Rodgers and Heart yielded another pair of well-received singles, "Wolf" and "Everybody Go Home." Her most memorable recording, "Jack in the Box," was entered that year in the Eurovision Song Contest — it failed to win, but was a major hit nevertheless. But after the lightweight "Lady Love Bug" failed to earn much commercial interest, Rodgers adopted a more mature, sophisticated pop sound with 1972's aptly-titled It's Different Now. The follow-up, 1973's You Are My Music, revealed a pronounced country influence, but failed to garner an audience, so she left RCA and spent the next several years touring the cabaret circuit, taking time out for a six-month run at the London Palladium in a production of Cinderella. Rodgers signed to Polydor to issue 1977's Save Me, returning to radio courtesy of the title cut; the single "Love Is Deep Inside of Me" was released the next year, but apart from a pair of 1980 singles for Precision — "I Can't Afford That Feeling Anymore" and "Person to Person" — her recording career then ground to a halt. Rodgers primarily pursued stage work in the years to come, starring in West End productions of Pump Boys and Dinettes and Blood Brothers.