Kenny Lynch

Born on 18 March 1939 and bred in Stepney, East London, Kenny was one of thirteen children. He began singing with his sister, Gladys, who was a jazz singer working under the name of Maxine Daniels.

After leaving school at 15 and working in various jobs, he did national service in the Royal Army Service Corps and was the regimental featherweight boxing champion.

In 1960, he was signed to EMI’s HMV label where his first single, a cover of Harold Dorman’s American top thirty hit, Mountain Of Love made the UK Top 40.

Five further singles failed to make an impact before he made the charts again in 1962 with Puff (Up In Smoke).

Lynch was a successful songwriter and producer – his song Don’t Bother To Knock, written for the group Midnight, placed second in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978. The same year he wrote Love Crazy, the theme used for the film Carry On Emmannuelle, and You Can’t Fight It, the vocal version of the theme to the John Carpenter film Assault on Precinct 13.

He starred on television programmes including Celebrity Squares, Mooncat & Co, Room at the Bottom, Bullseye and Curry and Chips. He also appeared on Z Cars, The Sweeney and Till Death Us Do Part.

Lynch passed away on 18 December 2019 after a fight with cancer.

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