November 24, 2013 – Bob Allison was born Bernard Colin Day on February 2nd 1941 in the UK. He became a pop singer and one half of the duo The Allisons, who were marketed as being brothers, using the surname of Allison. Both Bob and John were born in Wiltshire and started harmonizing very early on in life.
The Allisons represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Festival in 1961 with the song “Are You Sure?”. They came second with 24 points and the song spent 16 weeks in the top 40 (six weeks at No. 2 and a further three weeks in the top 4), and became a solid million copy seller.
What was even more remarkable was that this British duo were so close in sound with the Everly Brothers, that many people after the Eurovision Song Festival were convinced that the Allison Brothers were actually the Everly Brothers. It was the first UK Eurovision entrant to become a Top Ten hit and was the best chart showing for a UK entrant until Eurovision entry Puppet on a String by Sandie Shaw reached number one in 1967.
In a poll of Radio 2 listeners in 2013, it was voted 13th best UK Eurovision song of all time. Speaking to the BBC in 2009, Andrew Lloyd Webber listed it as his favorite ever. “I was a kid in school at the time, and I remember thinking what a shame it was that Britain didn’t win it that year,” he said. “It is a very, very good song.”
Despite a couple of minor follow-up hits, the duo disbanded in 1963.
Through the 70s & 80s Bob and John teamed up for short tours to keep ‘The Allisons’ name alive. But by the 1990s, they regularly reunited to perform on the oldies circuit.
Bob Allison died after a long illness on November 24, 2013 at age 72.
