[joeysteele]

I would personally of the Female singers who appeared in the 60s, place Cilla quite low,she was for me, fortunate to get so many good and big songs early on in her career.
Sadly her success in the UK anyway came surprisingly after beating far superior versions of the songs by Dionne Warwick,namely 'Anyone who had a Heart' and 'Alfie'.

The Beatles connection certainly I think helped Cilla Black,without that I think she would have been eclipsed by those 60s female singers such as Sandie Shaw, Lulu,Marianne Faithfull (whose voice I really like myself), Jackie Trent and of course the best Female singer to arrive in the 1960s Dusty Springfield.

However there were the singers too who crossed over to the 60s from the 1940s and 1950s too, namely Shirley Bassey and the brilliant Petula Clark,(Petula still recording, performing and gaining UK and International Chart success now), both of whom would have and I believe did also eclipse Cilla.

She has an interesting story,no doubt.
Last nights episode showed how selfish she was even early on but also s determination to succeed anyway she could,it will be more interesting to see how the story develops and if they really show her more unpleasant side as much.

To be fair to her too, she did a rather good version of the Righteous Brothers,'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' which she managed to take to number 2 in the charts behind their number one version.