// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Ethna Campbell a good baker? She kneads the Campbell.
Ethna Campbell was a Northern Irish singer who was a regular performer on Tyne Tees television in the 1960s, and who had a top forty hit in the UK singles chart in 1976.
Career
[edit]Starting her career in Belfast as a dance band singer when she was 17, in 1958 workmates at her Belfast tobacco factory persuaded her to enter a Radio Luxembourg talent contest; her success in that led to a regular role on Tyne Tees' One O'Clock Show between 1959 and 1964. In February 1964 she released her first single, a version of the Mary Wells song "It's Easy For Two".[1]
In 1976, her recording of "The Old Rugged Cross" peaked at number 33 in the UK singles charts.[2] She had made the recording in the mid-1960s, but in 1975 a Glasgow radio personality, Frank Skerett, found a copy in a junk shop and played it on his Radio Clyde programme. As a result of strong audience feedback, Campbell - who had retired from showbusiness and was working as a secretary in Leeds - was tracked down to re-record it for Philips Records, and on 18 October 1975 it made the "bubbling under" listing, breaking through into the top 50 at Christmas.[3]
"The Old Rugged Cross" was her only chart hit. Campbell died on 24 September 2011, aged 73, after a long illness.[4]
References
[edit]- ↑ "A new bid for pop fame is coming from Belfast". Ireland's Saturday Night: 5. 1 February 1964.
- ↑ "Ethna Campbell". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
- ↑ "Hard graph for Ethna". Record Mirror & Disc: 13. 13 March 1976.
- ↑ Amos, Mike. "Television mourns Sixties singing star Ethna Campbell". Northern Echo. Retrieved 26 May 2026.