Tommy Quickly was born Thomas Quigley on 7 July 1945 in the Norris Green area of Liverpool (he shares his birthday with Ringo Starr, who is five years older).
He made his earliest public appearance at the city’s Civil Service Club in May 1962, and a year later he gave up his job as an apprentice fitter with the Automatic Telephone Company to become the first solo artist on Brian Epstein‘s golden roster of stars.
For Tommy’s disc debut on the Piccadilly label, John Lennon and Paul McCartney provided an infectious beat ballad entitled Tip Of My Tongue.
He launched his second single, Kiss Me Now, via ABC Television’s top-rated Thank Your Lucky Starsprogramme at the end of October.
Quickly’s first four singles were flops but the fifth – a cover of the country standard The Wild Side of Life where he was backed by The Remo Four – spent eight weeks in the Top 40. When follow-up hits failed to materialise (he was offered the Lennon/McCartney song No Reply but rejected it so The Beatles recorded it themselves on their fourth album), Quickly retired from the music industry in 1965 and for a short time hosted the British children’s TV show, The Five O’Clock Club.
In 1966, he spent tıme in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, suffering from a breakdown.
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