Colin Grainger

Wrexham

Grainger spent his youth with South Elmsall Boys before being invited for a trial at Wrexham in July 1949. He impressed Wrexham manager Les McDowall enough to earn a professional footballing apprenticeship on wages of £5-a-week. He spent the 1949–50 season playing for the reserve team in the Cheshire County League. McDowall moved on to manage Manchester City in June 1950 and invited Grainger to take a tour of Maine Road in an attempt to poach him away from Wrexham, an attempt that was thwarted when the Wrexham board heard of the news and reassured Grainger that he would be sold to a bigger club if he first proved himself at Wrexham. However, he was called up for National Service in 1951 and spent the next two years serving in the Royal Air Force. He turned professional with Wrexham on his 17th birthday, seeing an increase in wages to £8-a-week, in addition to a £10 signing-on fee. He made his first-team debut on 24 February 1951, taking Billy Tunnicliffe's spot at outside-left in a Third Division North match against Hartlepools United at the Racecourse Ground, which ended in a 1–0 home victory. His National Service limited his first-team chances under manager Peter Jackson. He failed to make an appearance in the 1951–52 season, before playing just four games of the 1952–53 campaign.

Sheffield United

On 27 June 1953, Grainger was signed by Second Division champions Sheffield United for a fee of £2,500. United manager Reg Freeman had signed his…

On 25 April 1956, Grainger was selected for a Football League representative match against the Irish League in Belfast, which ended in a 5–2 defeat. He earned his first England cap on 9 May 1956 in a friendly with Brazil at Wembley Stadium. He scored within the opening minutes with his first touch of the ball and in the 83rd-minute headed in England's fourth. Of his debut against Brazil, Grainger said: "When you think of the talent in that England team, with Duncan Edwards, Billy Wright and Stanley Matthews, you delight in what might have been. We will never know how good the team could have been because Munich cheated us. But in 1956, we scored four against Brazil at Wembley, and we even missed two penalties. That was how superior we were that day. Two years later, Brazil won the World Cup." He picked up two further caps in a tour of Scandinavia, in a 0–0 draw with Sweden and 5–2 victory in Finland. It was during this tour that his reputation as a singer became established after Nat Lofthouse asked him to sing at a bar attended by football journalists. The tour ended in a trip to Berlin to face West Germany on 26 May, the World Cup champions of 1954, a game England won 3–1 and that won Grainger praise from the British and German press, with England manager Walter Winterbottom effusing that "I was extremely pleased with Colin Grainger". Grainger was selected for the British Home Championship match in Belfast against Northern Ireland on 6 October 1956 and forced goalkeeper…

Grainger signed a contract with talent agent Len Young in 1956. His first gig was as a support act to American group the Hilltoppers in Sheffield, for which he was paid £50, singing three songs from the back catalogues of Al Jolson, Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine. Due to his footballing career he was forced to turn down the offer to join the Hilltoppers on a financially lucrative tour of the US. His performance earned him a television appearance on ITV and a regular column in the Sport Express that was written by Brian Glanville. In summer 1957 he toured England and received vocal training from talent agent Joe Collins, father of actress Joan Collins. He then performed with Jack Hylton and his orchestra on ITV's After Hours show, presented by Hughie Green, and also did a television show for the BBC with Winifred Atwell, Eric Robinson and Matt Monro. He went on to be signed to the His Master's Voice label, releasing "This I Know"/"Are You" as a single in 1958. In February 1958, he signed a contract with MCA, which was £250 a week for the summer. He was offered the opportunity of touring Australia with comedian Nat Jackley in the summer of 1960 but turned it down as it would interfere with his pre-season football training. On 13 June 1963, he shared a bill with the Beatles in Stockport, who received the same £50 fee as Grainger after having agreed to the gig some months earlier before their recent chart success with "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You". He gave his final…

Born in the mining village of Havercroft on 10 June 1933, his father – Daniel Grainger (1894–1967) – was a coal miner at Monckton Colliery. He had five older brothers: Leslie (born 1920), George (born 1922), Jack (born 1924), Eric (born 1926) and Horace (born 1929), though Leslie and George both died before he was born from diphtheria. His mother, Lily Grainger (née Holliday; 1900–79), gave birth to a total of seven children, with the one daughter also named Lily (born 1935). He represented Barnsley boys' team during the 1946–47 season, alongside future Munich air disaster victim Tommy Taylor and cricket umpire Dickie Bird. He attended Ryhill Junior, Ryhill Middle School, and then Felkirk Secondary School. After leaving school at the age of 15, he was employed as a car mechanic on wages that initially started on £1-a-week. Grainger came from a footballing family, and his younger brother, Jack, spent ten years at Rotherham United just after World War II. His younger sister, Lily, went on to marry Jim Iley, who played as a wing-half for Sheffield United, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest. His cousin, also named Jack Grainger, played in the Football League for Barnsley and Southport in the 1930s. Jack's younger brother, Dennis, played for Leeds United and Wrexham in the late 1940s. Another cousin, Edwin Holliday, went on to represent England whilst playing for Middlesbrough in 1959. Grainger married Doreen Rowe on 3 January 1956. They had a son, Colin Junior, born on 3…