Chart entered : 5 January 1961
Chart peak : 42
Joan chalked up a single week with this late-charting Christmas single before bidding adieu to the hit parade. Incidentally quite a few of the artists we've covered so far will bow out with a Christmas song.
She had already proven herself something of a survivor as her run of hits had appeared to cease after number six, her duet with five year old son Rusty "Open Up Your Heart" in May 1955. It's strictly for those who found Little Jimmy Osmond too raunchy but made Rusty ( who actually has the lion's share of the song ) the decade's youngest hitmaker and, if the normal run of things applies, will be its last survivor.
After that she had a long string of flops ( some would say deservedly so ) and Decca ended their association in 1958. However Joan was still on the TV regularly and appearing in Royal Command Performances and so HMV picked her up and were rewarded with a top ten hit "May You Always" in 1959. Joan had switched to Pye by the end of the year and all but one of her singles with them up to this one had charted although none got higher than 29.
"Must Be Santa" is strictly for the grannies and pre-teens, Joan doing call and response with a group of Barnardo's children on a nursery rhyme about Santa and his menagerie. Like Dickie Valentine's efforts it's long since been consigned to The Void.
Her next single was "How Wonderful To Know" in February 1961 which lost out to a rival version by Teddy Johnson and Pearl Carr. Joan's version seems a bit over-orchestrated ( by Wally Stott ). "We Who Are In Love" was a quickfire English language cover of the Eurovision winner by Jean-Claude Pascal given a suitably dramatic arrangement by the Tony Hatch Orchestra. Neither version charted. "Surprisin" is a pleasantly old-fashioned pop ballad with Joan looking middle-aged on the sleeve.
Moving into 1962 Joan's next single was a cover of Patti Page's US hit "Most People Get Married". Ironically Joan's own marriage hit the rocks the following year when her husband Harry Claff , manager of the London Palladium was sent down for embezzlement. Joan accepted his excuse that he was only "borrowing" the money ( shades of Father Ted ) but nonetheless divorced him. Before that she released her last record for Pye "Wandring Boy"
Joan suffered a nervous breakdown after the scandal and moved to America for a while resurfacing on Columbia in 1966 with "Don't Talk To Me About Love" an uptempo number which became an incongruous Northern Soul favourite. You wonder if any of the lads from Wigan went exploring her back catalogue as a result !
Joan must have returned to Britain at some point to record a single for CBS, "No One Beside Me" in 1967 but the following year she got married for the third time to a doctor and went off the radar for the whole of the seventies. In 1984 she suffered a stroke after falling in the shower and had a long rehabilitation before she could talk and sing again, helped along by her former pianist and lifelong friend Russ Conway.
She returned to Britain in the eighties and with Conway's encouragement joined the oldies circuit. found a home . She also recorded again for the small Nectar Music label producing a last single, a cover of "You Needed Me" in 1989 and a couple of LPs, none of which were ever going to trouble the charts. In later years she was increasingly in demand as a stand-in for Vera Lynn at commemorative events and she continued doing charity concerts into her eighties.
She died just six months ago aged 85.
On the subject of weird Northern Soul classics, previous entry Paul Anka managed one with "I Can't Help Loving You". I'm not a fan of his work in general, but I admit that's a bit of a stomper. Not too sure I would cut a rug to Joan's effort in that vein, though...
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