Vincent Brian Hill, known professionally as Vince Hill, was an English traditional pop singer born on 16 April 1934 in Holbrooks, Coventry. He began his professional singing career at age 17 in The Prospect pub in Margate, Kent, and after working various jobs, including baker, truck driver, and coal miner, joined the Band of the Royal Corps of Signals as a vocalist during his National Service. Following his military service, he toured with the musical comedy Florodora and later became a singer with Teddy Foster's Band. In 1962, he released his debut single "The River's Run Dry"-written by Les Vandyke-which reached number 41 on the UK Singles Chart. He took part in A Song for Europe in 1963 with "A Day at the Seaside". His breakthrough came in 1965 when he signed with EMI’s Columbia label, achieving his first Top 20 hit with a cover of Édith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose" titled "Take Me to Your Heart Again". However, his most successful single was "Edelweiss", a cover of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune from The Sound of Music, which reached number two on the UK Singles Chart in March 1967. Throughout his career, he released 25 studio albums, including Edelweiss (1967), The Singer and the Songs (1971), and Real Songs (Vince Hill Sings Diane Warren) (2003), hosted several TV shows during the 1970s and 1980s, such as They Sold a Million, Musical Time Machine, and Gas Street. He continued performing live until his death on 22 July 2023.
