Eve Graham

Eve Graham (born Evelyn May Beatson; 19 April 1943) is a Scottish singer who found fame in the early 1970s with the pop group The New Seekers.

Graham began her career during the 1960s as a band singer with the Cyclones in Scotland and later with the Cyril Stapleton Band, based in London, England. She joined The Track in the mid-sixties and was a founding member of The Nocturnes, originally alongside Sandra Stevens (later of Brotherhood of Man) and then Lyn Paul (her future colleague in The New Seekers), recording for UK Columbia Records between 1967 and 1969.

In 1969, she joined songwriter Roger Cooke for a single release, again on Columbia, called "Smiling Through My Tears" shortly before becoming a founder member of The New Seekers in 1969 and was lead singer on the majority of their early hits, including the world wide Number One hit – "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)". Other songs that featured Graham as lead vocalist included the US and Canadian smash "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma", the British Top 5 hit "Circles", the Japanese No.1 "The Greatest Song I've Ever Heard" and the Roger Cook-Roger Greenaway composition "We've Got To Do It Now".

Graham's three-octave range was showcased on several songs, most notably the British and European hit "Never Ending Song of Love", in which she reached No. 6. Though mainly a vocalist, she played acoustic guitar on stage in the Chuck Berry-influenced Skiffle-number "Good Old-Fashioned Music" and kazoo in the comic song "(Ever Since You Told Me That You Loved Me) I'm A Nut".

In 1974, the group disbanded and Graham moved onto solo cabaret work, but rejoined a reconstituted New Seekers in 1976, and sang lead on their hits "It's So Nice To Have You Home" and "I Wanna Go Back". In 1978 she left once more, and again performed as a solo singer, as well as marrying another ex-New Seeker Kevin Finn (known professionally as Danny Finn) on 1 June 1979. They toured as a duo for many years and released one single "Ocean and Blue Sky".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.