Mary Hopkin was born in Pontardawe, Glamorgan, on 3rd May 1950. She first appeared on Hughie Green's now defunct talent show Oportunity knocks in 1968, at the tender age of 18. The first appearance so impressed the British supermodel Twiggy that she told Beatle Paul McCartney about the Welsh singer Mary Hopkin when Apple Records was looking for talent in 1968. Twiggy told about this "pretty fair-haired girl with the lovely voice". The next weel McCartney saw the show and he, too, was impressed with Mary's singing qualities. A couple of meetings later and the contract was signed for Mary to record for the Beatles' home-grown Apple label.
The waifish soprano scored a huge, worldwide smash with her first Apple single, the melancholy but rabble-rousing ballad "Those Were the Days," in late 1968; it actually knocked the Beatles' own "Hey Jude" out of the number one position in the U.K.
Paul McCartney lent Hopkin a further hand by producing her first album and writing her second single, "Goodbye," which was also a hit.
More comfortable with refined, precious ballads and folky pop than rock, Hopkin scored several more hit singles in the U.K., although she never entered the American Top 40 again. Her commercial success diminished as Apple's fortunes dwindled in the early '70s.

1. POSTCARD (1991)
2. EARTH SONG / OCEAN SONG (1992)
3. THOSE WERE THE DAYS (1995)
4. KIDNAPPED (1999 - COURTESY OF APPLE)
5. THE WELSH WORLD OF MARY HOPKIN (NOT APPLE )

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