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  The closest that the Poppees ever came to covering a Beatles song is when they recorded "Love of the Loved", an obscure Lennon/McCartney song that the Beatles never recorded.  Instead, they passed it along to Cilla Black, a protegé of their manager Brian Epstein who had been a coat-check girl at the legendary Cavern Club, where the Beatles were honing their skills in 1961.  Though virtually unknown on these shores, Cilla Black was the only important female artist to emerge from the British Invasion – and the second-biggest-selling recording artist out of Liverpool (after you know who) – and has been a beloved entertainer in England for decades. While "Love of the Loved" wasn't a big hit, her version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart", which came out in January 1964, eclipsed the original by Dionne Warwick and became the biggest selling record in Britain by any female artist in history:  Cilla Black sold 800,000 copies of the single in England and another 1,000,000 worldwide.  (Decenber 2010)  *    *    *  Burt Bacharach wrote the music, and Hal David wrote the lyrics in their collaborations; they are best known for the numerous songs that were recorded by Dionne Warwick, though their first hit was "The Story of My Life", a 1957 song by country and western musician Marty Robbins.  (April 2015/1)  |