Introduction
Keith Hampshire (born 23 November 1945 in Dulwich, London) is an English-born popular singer of the 1970s, famous in Canada for three top ten hits (including his #1 version of "The First Cut Is The Deepest", which topped the RPM 100 national singles chart on 12 May 1973), and the successful CBC Television show Keith Hampshire's Music Machine. Though his voice resembles David Clayton-Thomas', especially on "Daytime Night-time", Hampshire was not as successful in the United States, where that highest charting single only reached number 51.
Between July 1966 and mid-August 1967, he was a DJ for the offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline South. His show was called "Keefer's Commotions", and later "Keefer's Uprising".
In 1983, Hampshire released a song (as 'Bat Boys') entitled "OK Blue Jays", which became an anthem for the Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball team. Blue Jays fans sing it during the seventh-inning stretch of home games. The song was written by Alan Smith, Pat Arbour, Jack Lenz and Tony Kosinec. The song was remixed by Rob Wells and Chris Anderson of Big Honkin' Spaceship Inc. in 2003, and still plays during the seventh-inning stretch.
On 18 June 2005 Hampshire was hired by Darren Stevens to host a 1960s-1970s based oldies radio show on CHAY-FM in Barrie, Ontario.
Discography
Singles
- 1967 - "Millions of Hearts" (b/w Lonely Boy)
- 1971 - "Ebenezer" (b/w Sing Angel Sing) (#81 Canada)
- 1972 - "Daytime Night-time" (b/w Turned the Other Way) (#5 Canada)
- 1973 - "The First Cut is the Deepest" (b/w You Can't Hear the Song I Sing) (#1 Canada)
- 1973 - "Big Time Operator" (b/w You Can't Hear the Song I Sing) (#5 Canada)
- 1974 - "For Ever and Ever" (b/w Jeraboah) (#47 Canada)
- 1974 - "Hallelujah Freedom" (b/w Waking Up Alone) (#59 Canada)
- 1976 - "I'm Into Something Good" (b/w Just Another Fool)
- 1981 - "I Can't Wait Too Long" (b/w Nobody's Child)
- 1983 - "OK Blue Jays" (b/w same) (#47 Canada)
Albums
- 1972 - Oops! (original cast recording)
- 1973 - The First Cut
- 1981 - Variations
- 2005 - The Best of Keith Hampshire: The Millennium Collection