User:Picknick99/Barbara Ruskin

Barbara Ruskin is a British folk singer, probably best known for her 1970 chart hit Euston Station.

Born in East Ham in 1948, Ruskin moved to Stoke Newington. Her mother worked for a music publisher in London's Tin Pan Alley a.k.a Denmark Street and encouraged her daughter's love of music by buying her a guitar.

Ruskin taught herself to play and began composing her own songs. After a brief spell in the group The Demensions she went on to perform solo at weddings and youth clubs. She began sending off demo tapes to music publishers – but after numerous rejection she went to Denmark Street with her guitar and knocked on some doors. In 1964 her persistence paid off when Piccadilly Records offered her a contract as a singer. Piccadilly Records was a subsidiary of Pye Records and specifically geared for new acts.

Career
Ruskin's first single, released in 1965, was a cover of a Billy Fury song Keen to use her own material, her second single was You Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying, written with Sandie Shaw in mind. A third single, Well, How Does It Feel? became its follow up. In early 1966, she released the Motown-style Song without end. While chart success eluded her, Ruskin was establishing herself as a songwriter, and such as Marilyn Powell and Judy Cannon recorded her songs.

Light of love was her final single for Piccadilly, before she moved to the Parlophone label.

In 1967 she released Sun Showers, her first single for the new label. Two months later, Euston Station was released as its follow up. It was voted a hit on TV's Juke Box Jury and received wide airplay on radio – but the critical success was not backed by significant sales. Her songs, however, were recorded by artistes such as Pat Boone, Tony Christie and The Foundations.

Ruskin composed Gentleman, please in the hopes of getting it accepted as Britain's entry for the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, to be performed by Lulu. When the song failed to make the shortlist, she released it herself. Her final single, Beautiful Friendship, was released in 1972.