If you think the music industry is cynical now…..

…….it was ever thus. In 1960, an American singer called Ray Peterson had a big US hit with Tell Laura I Love Her. Decca Records thought its tragic tale was in very poor taste, so they declined to release it in the UK. EMI had no such scruples. They found an unknown Welsh singer called David Spencer and hurried him into a studio to record a near-identical cover. For good measure, they changed his name to “Ricky Valance” to sound like Ritchie Valens, who’d been killed the previous year in the same plane as Buddy Holly. Nice. But the song went straight to No.1, EMI made a ton of money and Ricky Valance was never heard of again. Many years later, guess who began his lucrative career at EMI? Simon Cowell. Funny that.