45’s – Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day – Gilbert O’Sullivan

Gilbert O’Sullivan (born Raymond Edward O’Sullivan, 1 December 1946, Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland) is an Irish singer-songwriter, best known for his early 1970s hits “Alone Again (Naturally)”, “Clair” and “Get Down”. The music magazine, Record Mirror, voted him the No. 1 UK male singer of 1972. Early in his life, in 1960, O’Sullivan’s family moved to Swindon, Wiltshire, England. He attended St Joseph’s and the Swindon College of Art, where he played drums in a band founded by Rick Davies (Supertramp) and where he developed his lifelong interests in music and art. O’Sullivan first played with such semi-professional bands as The Doodles and The Prefects, and, later, Rick’s Blues, while at college. In 1967, O’Sullivan was signed to a five-year contract with CBS Records by Stephen Shane, then Professional Manager at CBS’s April/Blackwood publishing division. Shane renamed him ‘Gilbert O’Sullivan’, a play of words on Gilbert and Sullivan. After two unsuccessful singles with CBS, “What Can I Do?” and “Mr. Moody’s Garden”, and one with the Irish record label, Major Minor, O’Sullivan sent some demo tapes to Gordon Mills, the manager of Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, where upon O’Sullivan was signed to Mills’ label, MAM Records. O’Sullivan’s self-created eye-catching visual image comprised a pudding basin haircut, cloth cap and short trousers. Mills reportedly hated the image, but O’Sullivan insisted on using it initially, until he assumed a more modern ‘college-like …
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