Daniel Sexton
BBC News, South East
Dame Vera made her name during the Second World War, earning the nickname the Forces’ Sweetheart
Dame Vera Lynn’s audition records are to be released for the first time, 90 years after they were first recorded.
The late singer’s first records were discovered when her daughter, Virginia Lewis-Jones, donated her mother’s record collection to the British Library’s Sound Archive.
The donations were made when she moved out of her home in East Sussex, where Dame Vera had lived with her husband Harry Lewis for 40 years.
Along with the three silver aluminium audition records, which are labelled by hand, a copy of Dame Vera’s first record, It’s Home, recorded in 1935 with bandleader Howard Baker, was also found.
Recorded after trumpeter Baker invited Dame Vera to join his band in 1933, the first record is one of just 100 copies pressed.
Virginia said: “It’s so wonderful to hear Ma’s voice from those early days, right at the start of her career.
“I always had the feeling these would be worth exploring so I am absolutely thrilled that the audition tapes we’ve never heard can now be brought to life, and add significantly to what we already know about Ma.”
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The donations were made when she moved out of her East Sussex home, after living there for 40 years
The audition discs will be released by Decca, with What A Difference A Day Makes released as a single on Friday to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.
Further previously unheard and rare tracks from them will feature on a new album called Hidden Treasures, which will be released on 7 November.
Dame Vera made her name during the Second World War, when her rousing songs such as We’ll Meet Again, (There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover and There’ll Always Be An England, earned her the affectionate name Forces’ Sweetheart.
Her final studio album, Unforgettable, was released in 2010.
She died in June 2020, aged 103, after she became the oldest artist to have a top 40 album in the UK, in May that year, with her greatest hits album 100.
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