When Alma Cogan Met…Lennon

Alma Cogan had a nickname that must’ve made her wonder, “Is it a term of affection or derision?”  Because she chuckled as she sang the maudlin “If I Had a Golden Umbrella” in 1953, the 21-year-old was donned, “The Girl With the Giggle in Her Voice.”  Alma’s moniker certainly didn’t hurt her career; British music lovers laughed along  as she belted out such knee slappers like “Never Tango with an Eskimo” (#1 in Iceland!) and “Just Couldn’t Resist Her And Her Pocket Transistor.”

Her home country couldn’t get enough of her frothy pop stylings and Alma logged 20 chart hits, a record for a female British singer.  Between 1956-1960, she was voted “Outstanding British Female Singer” four times by New Musical Express readers

Alma stayed on the charts and in the public eye by crafting an identifiable “look” which consisted of flamboyant outfits. Alma designed her clothes and was responsible for making one dress out of 250 yards of material stuffed inside a petticoat and a bodice featuring 12,785 hand-sewn diamante beads and rhinestones. Alma believed a great visual accompaniment to “Twenty Tiny Fingers,” a tune about the birth of twins, was to have twin dolls protruding from her skirt’s pockets.

But in the 1960s, her takes on show tunes and standards like “Fly Me to the Moon” became passé. By 1964, her music wasn’t breaking any new ground, but Alma’s parties helped break the ice between the stars of yesteryear and four up-and-coming stars about to outshine them all (The Beatles).

Like Mama Cass’ Laurel Canyon pad in the ‘60s, Alma’s London flat, which she shared with her mother and sister, became the party place for happening musicians and movie stars.  Alma and her family would welcome guests like Michael Caine, Roger More, Noel Coward, Danny Kaye, Ethel Merman, Sammy Davis Jr., and Cary Grant, who supposedly (and unsuccessfully) asked Alma to marry him.

Alma first met the Beatles during rehearsals for the TV show Sunday Night at the London Palladium on January 12^th, 1964.  Paul McCartney remembered, “We’d sometimes get booked on variety bills. We were still in showbiz. It wasn’t rock – as it’s now offensively named. It was very small time and we were playing cabarets. It was crossover with the old-time showbiz and one of the people who we’d met doing it was Alma Cogan.”  Alma and the lads became close friends, with John becoming closer than his bandmates. Proof of his affection for the sassy Alma, who he called “Sara Sequin,” can be seen when she appeared with the group on the British music show Ready Steady Go! on March 20, 1964.  John draped an arm around her shoulders and announced, “Let’s hear ‘T-T-T-T-T-Tennessee Waltz’ by Alma Warren!”

In her book, John, Cynthia Lennon wrote, “Alma Cogan was one of the women I suspected he was having an affair with. When John and I were at Liverpool College of Art, John couldn’t stand her. He used to take the mickey out of her. I would never in a million years have thought that he could have fallen for a woman so much older than him, whose music he couldn’t bear and who he ridiculed mercilessly. But he couldn’t help himself. I could see the sexual tension between them and how outrageously she flirted with him, but I had no real grounds for suspicion—just a strong gut feeling.”

Sandra Cohen, Alma’s sister, never confirmed to Cynthia that her feeling was spot on.  Sandra stated that her older sister and John would disguise themselves and then register in hotels under “Mr. and Mrs. Winston” (Lennon’s middle name).

Cynthia couldn’t fully trust John but Paul trusted Alma’s judgment on a song he was working on.  Paul recalled, “I took it round to her flat and asked, ‘What’s this song?’ because Alma was a bit of a song buff. Alma was very ‘songy,’ knew a lot of Jerome Kern and Cole Porter and she said, ‘I don’t know what it is, but it’s beautiful.’”

The next year, the world would know the beautiful melody of “Yesterday.”

While the hits kept on coming for the Beatles, worldwide fame remained elusive for Alma.  In an attempt to emulate the Beatles’ success, she used their producer for two songs.  Unfortunately, George Martin couldn’t make “It’s You” a hit.

Alma then turned to Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ producer, for another stab at super-stardom.  Alas, their 1965 efforts, “Now That I Found You” and “Love Is a Word” were rejected by her record company, because they feared that Alma’s fans would desert the new, “hip” version of the singer.

Alma kept working even when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer which ended her life at the age of 34.  George Harrison revealed how John reacted: “He thought her really sexy and was gutted when she died. John was potty about her.”  Cynthia Lennon believed that her death contributed to the end of their marriage and the start of Lennon’s love story co-starring Yoko Ono.  Cynthia stated, “Alma was about eight years older than John and very much the Auntie figure. Don’t forget that Yoko was also older than John by about seven years.”

But while John wed Yoko, Alma, who was engaged to nightclub owner Brian Morris at the time of her death, never took a wedding vow.  Her friend, Carry On actor, Jack Douglas said: “I think that somehow she knew she was never going to see old age.”  Alma cracked, “Some people go to a psychiatrist and others get married. In my business, marriage is difficult. Waiting in the rain while I sign autographs, waiting for hours for me to turn up from shows and rehearsals…Who wants a man who would do that anyway? In any case, I buy my own minks!”

-Mark Daponte

Photo: Alma Cogan, 1963 (public domain)