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contributed comedy songs to the show. It regularly opened with the band's signature tune and Cotton's call of "Wakey Wakey". From 1956, it was also broadcast on BBC television. Cotton often also provided vocals on many of his band's recordings, in addition to work as a vocalist on recordings that did
392:, who later became the BBC's managing director of television; despite this, he had an affair with one of his band's singers (Doreen Stephans) and moved into a flat with her in the early 1950s. In 1962, Billy Cotton suffered a stroke. He died in 1969 while watching a boxing match at
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entertainment, introducing visual and verbal humour in between songs. Famous musicians who played in Billy Cotton's band during the 1920s and 1930s included
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272:, London, England, to Joseph and Susan Cotton, Cotton was a choirboy and started his musical career as a drummer. He enlisted in the
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personality, but his musical career had begun in the 1920s. In his younger years, Billy Cotton was also an amateur footballer for
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in the middle of an artillery barrage. He was recommended for a commission and learned to fly
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aircraft. Not yet 19 years old, he flew solo for the first time in 1918, on the day the
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At first a conventional dance band, the London
Savannah Band gradually tended towards
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Cotton married Mabel E. Gregory in 1921. They had two sons, Ted and
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Billy Cotton was the great-great-uncle of TV and radio presenter
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era. Cotton is now mainly remembered as a 1950s and 1960s
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Ades, David; Bickerdyke, Percy; Holmes, Eric (1999).
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327:", and they made numerous commercial recordings for
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19:For the English football player of the 1920s, see
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252:, which he piloted himself. His autobiography,
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368:between the wars. He finished fourth in the
220:(6 May 1899 ā 25 March 1969) was an English
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595:. BBC. 14 August 2016
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