Vera Lynn

While 2016 may have seen the loss of a number of musical legends, there is one musical legend who is still with us at nearly 100-years-old and with another album on the way. Dame Vera Lynn will mark (very probably) the first artist to release an album as a centenarian.

Vera Lynn is about to unveil an album at almost 100 years old

The 'We'll Meet Again' singer and World War II legend is preparing to celebrate her special 100th birthday on March 20th 2017 with the release of a new album of re-orchestrated and re-vocalised renditions of her 40s classics including 'Sailing', 'White Cliffs of Dover' and 'As Time Goes By'. The album will also feature such musicians as Alfie Boe, Alexander Armstrong and Aled Jones.

Continue reading: Vera Lynn Welcomes Her 100th Birthday With A New Album Of Classics

At 97, Vera Lynn is set to become the oldest artist to release an album, when her new work ‘Vera Lynn: National Treasure - the Ultimate Collection’, is released. While Vera might be the oldest artist still making albums she’s not the only one to prove that advancing years is no reason to stop making music. Take these five for example.

Dame Vera Lynn

Doris Day

Continue reading: Vera Lynn And More Of The Oldest Music Makers

Dame Vera Lynn has one of the most long-lasting music careers of all-time.

The 97 year-old singer started performing onstage when George V was still on the thrown, at aged 7.

But even though Lynn is only three years away from reaching the century mark, she doesn't want to call it quits just yet.

Continue reading: Dame Vera Lynn Will Release New Album To Celebrate 90 Years In The Music Business

Happy 60^th birthday, the UK Singles Chart! Yes, today (November 14, 2012) marks six decades since music publication the NME published the first ever chart of the biggest selling tracks in the country. In 2012 the relevancy of such a chart is becoming increasingly moot, with the advent of iTunes and subsequent integration of digital track sales with physical meaning that any track off an album can feasibly rise to the top of the pile, whilst music piracy and streaming has severely impacted the standalone commercial quality of just one single. Many singles are now used mere promotional tools for the subsequent album, or given a video to boost an act’s profile. Yet with Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’ currently the biggest selling single in the UK this year, with over 1.14 million downloads alone, it’s clear that the chart isn’t done as a force just yet.

As the Official Charts site itself writes, one of the founders of the New Musical Express, Percy Dickins, constructed the first chart by phoning 20 record shops up and down the country and tallying up their best-selling singles, the first ever chart seeing American crooner Al Martino going to the head of the pile with his hit ‘Here In My Heart’. The debut single for Martino, it was also to prove as good as it got for him on UK shores, and after 1955’s ‘The Man From Laramie’ he had to wait another five years for another top 50 hit there.

The Official UK Single Chart, Noveber 14, 1952

Continue reading: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years: Who Was No.1 In 1952?