James Celerità

Craig Douglas

The original poster for It's Trad, Dad! (1962), the comedy film in which Craig Douglas co-starred alongside Helen Shapiro.

Craig Douglas in his later years — still warm, still sharp, still the Singing Milkman.

Craig Douglas performing on television during the height of his pop career in the early 1960s.

Craig Douglas performing on stage alongside Eddie Cochran in 1960.

Craig Douglas — born Terence Perkins on 13 August 1941 in Newport, Isle of Wight — was one of the most beloved British pop singers of the late 1950s and early 1960s. One of nine children in a family that included three sets of twins, he grew up on the island he would always call home, delivering milk on its quiet streets before the world came calling.

His discovery was the stuff of pop legend. Spotted at a local talent competition at the Medina Cinema, he caught the eye of agent and songwriter Bunny Lewis, who christened him Craig Douglas after seeing the name on a house in Scotland and arranged singing lessons with the celebrated teacher Georges Cunelli. The clean-cut, cardigan-wearing boy from the Isle of Wight — fresh-faced and warm-voiced — was soon being spoken of as Britain's answer to America's teen idols.

In 1959, Douglas released his cover of Sam Cooke's "Only Sixteen" on Top Rank Records, recorded at Abbey Road Studios with distinctive whistling by Mike Sammes. The single shot to number one and spent four weeks at the top of the UK charts, outselling Cooke's own version in Britain. That same year, NME readers voted him Best New Singer. He followed his breakthrough with nine Top 40 UK singles, including "Pretty Blue Eyes" (No. 4, 1960), "A Teenager in Love" (No. 13, 1959), and "When My Little Girl Is Smiling" (No. 9, 1962). He also appeared on the silver screen, starring alongside Helen Shapiro in the 1962 film It's Trad, Dad!

The arrival of The Beatles and guitar-driven rock changed the pop landscape, and Douglas's chart run came to an end in 1962. But he never stopped performing. For more than five decades he sang in theatres, pantomimes, nightclubs, and aboard cruise ships around the world, including a beloved annual month-long residency in Hong Kong that lasted until the close of the twentieth century. When osteoporosis confined him to a wheelchair from 2009, he simply kept singing from it — performing three songs at a benefit concert for the Amersham Rock 'n' Roll Club in 2010. His final studio album, The Craig Douglas Project (2011), showed an artist unafraid of reinvention, featuring covers of Radiohead's "Creep" and Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon."

Craig Douglas died peacefully at his home on the Isle of Wight on 4 October 2026, after a short illness, surrounded by his family. He never married, something he spoke of openly as one of his deepest regrets. He is remembered as the Singing Milkman — the boy-next-door who became a star, and who never forgot where he came from.

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Craig Douglas

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