Mary Hopkin appears on “Opportunity Knocks” TV show

On this day, a young Welsh girl, Mary Hopkin, appeared on “Opportunity Knocks,” a talent show broadcast on UK television. After her performance, fashion model Twiggy, who had seen the show, mentioned Mary Hopkin to Paul McCartney during a visit to Paul’s father’s home near Liverpool. Paul then reached out to Mary Hopkin via Peter Brown for an audition. This event eventually led to the release of her first single, “Those Were The Days,” under the newly formed Apple Records label.

From Wikipedia:

Opportunity Knocks is a British television and radio talent show originally hosted by Hughie Green, with a late-1980s revival hosted by Bob Monkhouse, and later by previous winner Les Dawson.

The original radio version started on the BBC Light Programme, where it ran from 18 February to 29 September 1949, but moved to Radio Luxembourg in the 1950s. It was shown on ITV from 20 June 1956 to 29 August 1956, produced by Associated Rediffusion. A second run commenced on 11 July 1964 and lasted until 20 March 1978, produced first by ABC and then by Thames. […]

A reference to the show can be heard on the Beatles’ first live performance of “Yesterday” at Blackpool Night Out. George Harrison introduces the song, saying “For Paul McCartney of Liverpool, opportunity knocks!”. This version appears on Anthology 2.

In 1988, Mary Hopkin recalled that her performance on “Opportunity Knocks” was the catalyst for her introduction to Paul McCartney, which subsequently resulted in the recording of her debut single.

I was a 17-year-old schoolgirl working at weekends with a group of local boys in a folk/rock band, and after about six months the group split up, so I carried on solo. Then my agent, to my absolute horror, put my name down for an audition for Opportunity Knocks, a good show for hopefuls in the music business but not really the sort of thing I wanted to do. But he persuaded me to go along for experience, so I went and sang a couple of songs; and the next thing I heard was that I’d been chosen for one of the programmes.

Rather reluctantly I made my appearance which, amazingly enough, Twiggy watched. She met with Paul McCartney that following weekend and when Paul was chatting to her about the new record label they were forming, Twiggy mentioned me. About two days later I got a telegram saying, ‘Ring Peter Brown at Apple Records’. It sat on the shelf for three days until my mother insisted I ring him.

I was a great Beatles fan so I’d heard all about the Apple boutique, but I didn’t make any connection between the Beatles and this Peter Brown telegram. So I rang up and was put through to this guy with a Liverpool accent, who invited me to come up to London and sign a contract. Being a cautious young Welsh girl, I thought, “That’s a bit sudden!”, and became a bit evasive, so this guy said, ‘Well, go and ask your mum then!’ I dragged my mother to the telephone and she proceeded to practically drop the thing because he said, ‘Oh, this is Paul McCartney, by the way’! I remember racing down the road to tell all my friends who I’d been talking to. The next day they sent a car for us and off I went with my mum to the big city.

We went to the Dick James Music studio. Paul was in the control room and I did a couple of demos for him – Joan Baez and Donovan songs – broke a guitar string and muttered some swear words into the mike. We had lunch – he took us to the Angus Steak House which we were really impressed by – and I sailed through the day in a haze, painfully shy and totally in awe of Paul. I went back home and about two days later somebody rang and said, ‘Yes, we’d like to sign you’. So I made another trip to London and Paul said, ‘I’ve got a song that might suit you. I found it years ago and gave it to Donovan and it didn’t work out, I gave it to the Moody Blues, they loved it but it didn’t happen, and I’ve been looking for the right sound for it.’ Then he strummed this song called Those Were The Days. I loved it immediately, but I must say that I’d probably have liked anything he would have played me at the time! A lot of people think Paul wrote the song, but he didn’t. Anyway, we recorded it a couple of weeks later, and five weeks after the release, in September 1968, I was number one.

Mary Hopkin – from Record Collector, 1988

In her interview for Goldmine Magazine in 1992, Mary Hopkin told a similar story.

Your “big break” came on the ITV talent program Opportunity Knocks. What was that like?

Mary Hopkin: It was all terribly, terribly embarrassing at the time. It wasn’t something I wanted to be a party to. But I was sort of (talked) into doing it by the agent who was finding us work while I was still at school. Without my knowledge, he put my name down for this show. I was mortified when I heard he had done it. You can’t condemn that kind of show, because they can do a lot for people, and certainly, it would’ve taken me a lot longer, if at all, to get into the music business, but the whole thing is terribly embarrassing. I did the audition because my agent said it would be a good experience to attend an audition.

Do you remember what you sang on the show?

Mary Hopkin: The first thing I did was “Turn Turn Turn,” the Pete Seeger song. I just went on and did the Joan Baez songs I had learned up to that point. They’re a bit show business for my liking, those light entertainment shows. It smacks of cabaret and summer seasons.

I presume this is where Twiggy comes into the picture.

Mary Hopkin: Hmm, yes. She was watching it, one of the many who do watch that sort of program. I’m not one of them. But I am grateful to Twiggy; she’s lovely and she certainly gave me a momentous start in the music business. I did the show on the day after my 18th birthday; I was still supposed to be studying for my final exams at school, my university entrance exams. Twiggy saw the show, and I think the next day saw Paul McCartney. He was telling her all about the new Apple label. And she said she’d seen this girl on Opportunity Knocks, and he should check me out.

So I received a telegram, two days after the show, which I ignored for a few days. It said, “Ring Peter Brown at Apple Records” and I had never heard of either of them. I was a great Beatles fan, and I’d heard of the Apple Boutique, but nothing else. We didn’t know Apple Records was on the way.

I left it on the shelf for three days, and then my mother said it would be polite to ring back. So I did, and I was put on to whom I thought was Peter Brown. And this chap had a distinct Liverpool accent.

I started wondering at that point, making the connection with Apple but he asked me if I’d come to London and sing for him. I said, well, that depends and he realized I was being very cautious, so he asked my mother to come to the phone. So my mother came to the phone, and he said, “Oh, this is Paul McCartney. Would you like to bring your daughter to London to sing for me?”

That was it really. I was whisked off there the next day and sang for him; we demoed at the little Dick James Demo Studios. I sang a few songs for him; then I was called back about two or three weeks later, and he sang a little song for me, sort of hummed it, and said, “I’ve had this song lying around for years. It’s called “Those Were The Days.'” And he said, “Let’s go in and do it.”

Mary Hopkin – Interview with Goldmine Magazine, 1992

Paul had always written songs for people other than the Beatles. […] Soon after I met him, when he was still with Jane Asher, we had gone up to Liverpool to stay with Paul’s father and stepmother in the house Paul had bought for them in Heswall, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey. Over supper he told us he was on the look out for new singers. ‘Did you see last week’s Opportunity Knocks?’ I asked. Opportunity Knocks was the talent show hosted by the late Hughie Green. I’d been watching a few days before and had seen this young girl who sang like an angel, called Mary Hopkins. Paul hadn’t seen her. And if she didn’t win the viewers’ vote, he wouldn’t. So we all sat round the dinner table that night and wrote postcards voting for Mary Hopkins. In the end we must have done over a hundred. Very naughty. Then we had a week to wait. It was all so exciting. She won, of course — not that it had anything to do with our cards. It was a landslide. Immediately after the show Paul called and said he thought she was brilliant. The next day he sent a car down to Wales to fetch her. He found her a song called ‘Those Were the Days’ which he produced. And it went straight to Number One.

Twiggy – From “Twiggy in black and white: an autobiography“, 1998

Mary Hopkin was the main artist whom I produced at Apple, although I didn’t really bring her in. She was on a big British television talent show, Opportunity Knocks. Twiggy, the model, was a friend of ours and she rang me up and said: ‘There’s a great girl who’s just won Opportunity Knocks – you’ve got to watch her next week. She’s fabulous, with a beautiful voice.’ So I watched her, and I thought she really had got a lovely Welsh voice – it was very well pitched. And she looked nice with a folky guitar.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

“I heard of Mary first in Liverpool. Justin and Twiggy had come up in their new car… showing off again… you know how it is. Well, we were eating our pudding later that evening and we talked about Opportunity Knows and discovery shows generally and I wondered whether anyone ever got discovered, I mean really discovered, on discovery shows.

Then Twiggy said she had seen a great girl singer on Opportunity Knocks and (luckily as it turned out) this was the time we were looking around for singers for Apple Records.

When I got back to London next day, several other people mentioned her, so it began le look as if Mary really was something. Twiggy’s not soft.

So I got her phone number from the television company and rang her at her home in Pontardawe somewhere in Wales, and this beautiful little Welsh voice came on the phone and I said, “This is Apple Records here; would you be interested in coming down here to record for us?

She said, “Well. ‘er, would you like to speak to my mother?” And then her mother came on the line and we had a chat and two further telephone conversations, and later that week Mary and her mum came to London.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Melody Maker, September 14, 1968

I got a phone call from Paul in Liverpool, asking me if I had just seen this great singer on Opportunity Knocks called Mary Hopkin, which I confess I hadn’t. Anyway, I was given the job of tracking her down to where she was, and getting in touch with her, which we did.

Alistair Taylor – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

We knew already that she was going to be a winner. Paul, by then, had immediately remembered something that I’d even forgot about. About three years earlier, he had found a song called ‘Those Were The Days’, which he thought would be good for The Moody Blues. Paul, there and then, said, ‘I know exactly the song for this girl, ‘Those Were The Days.’

Alistair Taylor – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

Twiggy called her friend Paul and said, “You have to turn on your television. This girl is amazing. Listen to her.” Paul thought she was amazing, too, and he called me, told me to watch, and then we all decided that Apple should try to sign her. So I drove up to Wales with Derek Taylor, who was one of the key people at Apple, to meet Mary Hopkin. Her father was understandably suspicious of these rock and roll types arriving from London trying to sign his daughter away.

Peter Asher – From “The Beatles from A to Zed: An Alphabetical Mystery Tour“, 2019

I had heard the song ‘Those Were The Days’ at a nightclub once, sung by an American couple who had a kind of Nina and Frederick act. The song had really stuck in my mind, and I’d always thought it could be a hit. It was a Russian folk tune that they’d done up, and they’d just played it as their finale and gone home. I said to someone in the office, ‘Get hold of that song if you can.’ They found the people and found the song. We recorded it with Mary and it was a very big hit.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

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