Colleen Hewett

About

Born 16 April 1950 (age 71) Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. Started her solo music career in 1970, appearing regularly on TV pop music series, Bandstand. Her popularity with viewers resulted in her winning Best Newcomer Female Singer at the Bandstand Awards in December. Signed with Festival Records and her debut single, which was a cover version of Delaney and Bonnie's track, "Super Star" was released in June 1971. It reached No. 30 on the Go-Set National Top 40 Singles chart. From 15 November 1971 to 22 July 1972 Hewett acted in the Australian musical theatre version of Godspell, at the Playbox Theatre, Melbourne. She recorded two versions of the show's tune, "Day by Day". The first on Godspell – Original Australian Cast had Johnny Young producing the cast album, which appeared in March 1972. The second version was produced by Ian "Molly" Meldrum and was issued as her second single, in November 1971. It peaked at No. 1 on the Go-Set charts and was certified as a gold record with shipment of over 50,000 copies. In April 1972 Hewett was the featured artist on a half-hour TV special performing "Day by Day", "By My Side", "Hey Jude" and "Jesus Christ Superstar". The debut self-titled album appeared in October 1972 and provided her next single, "Carry That Weight" – a cover of The Beatles track – which reached No. 29 . At the TV Week King of Pop Awards she was voted Queen of Pop in both 1972 and 1973. In January 1974, it was announced that Hewett had been signed to Atlantic Records. She released her second studio album M'Lady in June 1974. In late 1979 she issued "Dreaming My Dreams with You" – originally by Waylon Jennings – which reached No. 2 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart It was produced by Roger Savage and Robie G. Porter for Wizard Records. In November that year she performed "Day by Day" at the Mushroom Records-sponsored, The Concert of the Decade, which appeared on the Various Artists' album of the same name in January the following year. Her version of "Wind Beneath My Wings" was released in February 1983.