Return To 60’s Main Menu Recording Artists Of The 60s
JULIE ROGERS
“THE WEDDING”
(Joaquin Prieto, Fred Jay)
Mercury 72332
No. 10 January 2, 1965
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Ms. Rogers was born Julie Rolls on April 6, 1943, in London. She took piano lessons as a child and began
her professional career as a cabaret singer in the early ’60s. After completing school, she became a
secretary; she also worked as a dancer in Spain and as a stewardess on a slow ship to Africa.
Still a teen and still wanting to sing easy-listening material, Julie auditioned for bandleader Teddy Foster.
With the band, Julie made her radio debut in 1962 on the BBC Light Program’s “Music With A Beat.”
During one of her engagements with Foster, Mercury A & R man Johnny Franz heard her belt a few. Franz
told the boys at Mercury about the girl; contracts and songs were quickly arranged.
After unsuccessfully covering the Platters’ “It’s Magic,” Rogers waxed “The Wedding,” an Argentine tune
that had made two earlier chart appearances–for the Chordettes (#91, 1956) and for June Valli (#43, 1959).
June’s rendition, however, became a perennial. For years thereafter, whenever discriminating young
lovers tied the knot, some wedding guest would inevitably beseech the reception band to play the sugary
strains of this song. By the time the recording had aged but 10 years, sales had totaled–reportedly–7, 000,
000 copies worldwide.