Laurie London (born 19 January 1944) is an English singer, who achieved fame as a boy singer of the 1950s, for both his gospel and novelty songs recording in both English and German. He is best known for his hit single of the spiritual song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".
London was born in Bethnal Green, East London. At the age of thirteen, whilst a pupil at The Davenant Foundation Grammar School in Whitechapel Road, he made an up-tempo version of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" with the Geoff Love Orchestra for Parlophone Records (45-R4359) which was picked up by its co-owned American sister label Capitol Records (F3891). In April 1958, it reached number 1 on Billboard's "Most Played by Jockeys" chart and remained there for four weeks, but it was to be his only hit record. It was the most successful record by a British male in the 1950s in the United States, topping the charts.[1] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in 1958.[2]
According to one online source,[3] "he worked at the Abbey Road Studios, London with such renowned record producersasNorman Newell and George Martin" and "special songs were written for him, tailored to the German taste in popular music, and he recorded them in Cologne and Munich with producer, Nils Nobach." He performed at the 1959 Deutsches Schlager-Festival (German Hit-Festival) singing "Bum Ladda Bum Bum".
London is mentioned along with his hit song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" in the Colin MacInnes novel Absolute Beginners.
London has a credit[4] as "singer" in the 1961 German movie … und du mein Schatz bleibst hier [de] and he also appeared in the 1958 Danish film Soldaterkammerater, where he performed "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".
He originally retired from singing at the age of nineteen. Later cover versions of the Cliff Richard hit "Lucky Lips" (1963) and "The Bells of St. Mary" (CBS, 1966) went unnoticed.[1][2]
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