At the age of 14 he won a scholarship to Lancaster College of Art and began singing with a dance band, although he originally thought of becoming a boxer, in fact much of his life in the military during World War II was spent boxing in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
After the war, he returned to the Leeds School of Art, where he won an award for designing a furniture display stand. Traveling to London, he entered a radio talent show that was the beginning of his long career in entertainment. Starting in theaters with a variety of songs and dance acts, always impeccably dressed in a top hat, tail jacket and a cane, the ultimate image of a gentleman, he sang for a time with the Nat Temple Band before signing a solo contract. with Philips Records.
His first hits were covers of American hits, “Istanbul“,”Happy Days and Lonely Nights“,”Tweedledee” Y “Seventeen“, all of which made the top 20, and the song that became their trademark,”Give me the moonlightThat, however, was not a bestseller. Vaughan would have to wait until the end of 1956 for his first really big hits when his version of “Green door“reached No. 2 and”The Garden of EdenJanuary 1957 became his first No. 1. That was a good year for Vaughan with several more hits, “Man on fire“,”Wanderin eyes“,”Kisses Sweeter Than Wine“and a collaboration with The Kaye Sisters,”Gotta Have Something in the Bank Frank“.
Vaughan He was one of the traditional singers unaffected by the advent of Rock n Roll and continued to enjoy success through the remainder of the 1950s, culminating in a second No. 1 on the charts. Tower Of Strength, in 1961. His first album was the live recording of Frankie Vaughan at The London Palladium in 1959 and although during the 1960s he concentrated on projects other than showmanship, he continued to enjoy hit records, including There Must Be A Way, one of the top 10 hits of 1967.
Those other projects included getting involved with young offenders in Easterhouse, a housing estate on the outskirts of Glasgow. He was awarded the OBE in 1965 and continued to perform, primarily on stage until 1985, when he appeared in a production of Drury Lane on 42nd Street, before suffering a near-fatal episode of peritonitis. He never fully retired, was awarded a CBE in 1996, but three years later, he underwent major heart surgery and died several months later, on September 17, 1999.