Memories of Alma Cogan

When I was a kid, I distinctly remember listening to some old 78 rpm records on our record player. Even thinking about this makes me feel old. But, this was in the early seventies and not as far back as some of you may think. This was in India and we had a collection of 78 rpm records that I used to love to hear whenever my parents would pull out the turntable.

One of these songs was called Sugartime by a British artist called Alma Cogan. There were a few other Alma Cogan songs that we had. If I remember right, Sugartime was backed with Mambo Italiano, but I can't be completely sure. But, I do remember listening to these songs many times. It is amazing how limited our media options were back then.

I found that Alma Cogan was a socialite in 1950s London and apparently carried on an affair with John Lennon. She was known to be close to the Beatles and even recorded an entire album of Beatles covers. She died at the young age of 34 of cancer. More on Wikipedia here. There's a very preliminary web site for her fan club here.

Some years ago, I found an Alma Cogan CD Box Set on Amazon.co.uk and I couldn't resist buying it. Of course that box set is now available on Amazon in the US cheaper here. Look for the Alma Cogan discography on Amazon here.

Here are those two songs from my childhood.

1. Alma Cogan - Sugartime (1.67 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Alma Cogan - Mambo Italiano (2.2 MB; 128kbps MP3)