In 1946, he suffered his first bout of rheumatic fever. This weakened his heart valves, and led to recurrent poor health, and eventually, his death. His first stay in Alder Hey Hospital lasted for two months, during which time he had to lie flat. He was back in hospital a year later.

Aged 12, he suffered a relapse, and he was confined to hospital in Wales. After two weeks, he could stand it no longer, and he climbed down a drainpipe from his second floor room. He was caught in nearby fields.

During one stay, he overheard a doctor tell his mother he might not live to be 30. In later years, he told many of his friends that he expected to die young.

Ron's younger brother Albert (b 26 June 1943) suffered a milder form of the same heart condition and was also admitted to Alder Hey. This left Albert with a murmur which has not caused serious problems.

Aged 11, Ron started piano lessons, but three years later, a more significant event occurred, when his parents bought him his first guitar from Frank Hennessy's shop as a 14th birthday present. Ron became an enthusiastic strummer, but he was never a great talent on the guitar, and on the rare occasions that he appeared with one, it was little more than a prop. In a later interview, he said he was only ever proficient in three chords.

(Many years after his death, the original guitar was discovered, broken, in the attic of Jean's home.It has been repaired, but it has never been retuned, to prevent it being stressed.)

In 1955, aged 15, Ron left Wellington Road Secondary Modern School . He said that his days there were the unhappiest of his young life.

His father found him a job at Ellison's Engineering. Initially, he was a tea boy, but he was eventually allowed to heat rivets for the welders. This job lasted for about a year, until Ron and a friend welded together some metal as a joke. The foreman started shouting at Billy in front of his workmates. Billy swung at the foreman with a welding gun...and that was the end of his job.

His father found him a job as a deckhand on the tugboat Formby. He was inspired by country and western records brought by sailors from New York and formed the Formby Sniffle Group, which performed in local cafés.

He recalled later: "I started listening to Hank Williams first, because pop songs then, the lyrics weren't very deep; they weren't the broken-hearted type of lyrics I enjoyed.

"Hank Williams and some of the country and western singers were singing about real life and how it feels when you get let down, so I kind of tagged on to their stuff."

Ron changed boats, but quickly fell out with the skipper, and this job is said to have ended when 5ft 10½ inch Ron ended an argument by throwing a punch.

In 1957, he moved to Joshua Reynolds' department store, and was inspired by fellow-employee Margo King to write Margo (Don't Go). He played several gigs and both his singing and song-writing abilities begain to impress his limited audience.

In May, 1958, he cut six tracks on a 78rpm acetate at Percy F. Phillips' recording studio in Liverpool. He also sent a tape of songs to impresario Larry Parnes, together with a photograph of him at the Star Studio, Bold Street.

He received no reply, but in the meantime, Ron entered a local talent contest, Caroll Levis Discoveries, at the Liverpool Empire, but he failed to make a big impression.

His mother wrote again to Larry Parnes, who this time invited him to see him at the Birkenhead Essoldo on 1st October, when one of his package tours, The Larry Parnes Extravaganza, was being staged.

One member of the tour company who spotted Billy at the Essoldo was Brian Bennett, the backing drummer in Marty Wilde's band. He said later: "Billy had a guitar in a plastic bag, and he had a pair of brothel creepers: they were sort of big suede shoes. He had this wonderful, swept-back blond hair."

The debut

The Weekly News reported: Two thousand screaming teenagers held up the programme at Larry Parnes' "Extravaganza".. when 18-years-old Ronnie Wycherley..completed a spot.
Read more...

Billy said: "I don't think my mother and father really believed what had happened when I told them, until I was actually packing my suitcase the next morning. Then my mum got a bit worried about me going off all on my own, but I convinced her it was the biggest chance I'd ever have."

Parnes reasoned that no one called Ronald Wycherley would become a rock star, so he renamed him Billy - after band leader Billy Cotton - and Fury, to compensate for the singer's shyness.

Ron argued, but as was to prove the case so often, Parnes had his way. Had Ron held sway, the world would have heard the music of "Stean Wade".

He reached number 2 with Jealousy, and while When Will You Say I Love You was at number 3, the top spot was held by From Me To You, by the band that once failed an audition for the job of Billy's backing group.

In fact, in the 1960s, Billy had more top 20 hits in the UK than anyone except The Beatles, Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley.

Frequent illnesses had begun to depress him, but he struggled through variety shows and pantomimes, which he disliked intensely.

The new sound created by the other Liverpool lads, led by The Beatles, began to sideline established artists. Although Cliff Richard and Adam Faith retained their following, Marty Wilde, Craig Douglas, Joe Brown, Eden Kane, John Leyton, Mark Wynter and others were struggling to record hit material.

After his last top 10 hit, In Thoughts Of You, in 1965, Billy began to take the time to indulge his love of wild life.

He became unable to undertake much promotional work after signing with EMI's Parlophone label in 1967, playing cabaret when his health allowed.

Billy found peace whenever possible at his home in Ockley, Surrey, to which he moved after fans plagued him at his homes in London. At Ockley, he had a a mock-Tudor mansion with ten acres, where he could assemble a considerable menagerie and play host to the greats of the show business world.

Billy eventually needed open heart surgery in 1971. He could not afford private treatment, and was admitted to a National Health Service ward. He then took six months' total rest and enjoyed renewed health for a while, on the 100-acre farm he bought near Llandovery, Wales.

His 11 Parlophone releases covered a bewildering variety of styles. There seemed to be no consistent musical direction and a procession of producers.

Audrey ("Lee") Middleton (b 14.2.37), who had been his live-in girlfriend for eight years, left him and married Kenny Everett. Billy married Lee's one-time best friend, Judith Hall, on 31st May 1969, but the marriage was short-lived. The last 12 years of Billy's life were shared with Lisa Rosen. None of his relationships produced children, although Lee had two miscarriages.

Lisa provided much-needed financial support, as well as helping Billy to deal with an increasing dependence on alcohol, brought on by bouts of depression.

In 1973, Billy resurfaced briefly in the film That'll Be The Day, then in 1976, he needed a second heart operation, and he went into retirement for the rest of the Seventies.

He re-recorded his old hits for K-Tel in 1978 as part of an arrangement with his creditors, after being declared bankrupt, owing the Inland Revenue £16,780. Billy always blamed Larry Parnes for the problem, as in the early days, Parnes paid Billy a wage but did not take care of the tax. He was discharged from bankruptcy a year later.

A real comeback seemed on the cards in the early 1980s, when he was tempted into the studio again, to record the tracks for an exceptional album, The One And Only Billy Fury, which was issued after his death.

On 7th March, 1982, he collapsed at his farm, suffering partial paralysis and temporary blindness. Lisa drove him to hospital in London, and he made a good recovery.

A live TV show and a national promotional tour followed, but at 2.10pm on 28th January, 1983, he was pronounced dead on arrival at St Mary's Hospital, London, after being found unconscious in his flat in Cavendish Avenue, St John's Wood. He apparently died in the ambulance. The heart weakness that had dogged him throughout his life finally claimed him.