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"In the noise and heat of a tailor's shop," cooed Everybody's Weekly, now-defunct 1950's journal, "... a nineteen-year-old lass from Liverpool thinks of crooning in a West End night club." Cardiff was also a city far beyond the geographical limit from which the entertainment industry, centred in London, was usually prepared to fish for its talent - but it was in the tough Tiger Bay district that Shirley Veronica Bassey, arguably the most successful female performer in British pop history, was born on 8 January 1937, the second daughter and youngest child of Nigerian merchant seamen and his Yorkshire-born wife. Like her imaginary Scouse counterpart, an unglamorous beginning to her working life was mitigated by dreams of fame.

She was ribbed for getting ideas above her station as she sang whilst packing chamber pots in a local enamel factory, but earnings from spots in working men's clubs at night soon became sufficient for her to go professional. On one such occasion in 1955, Shirley was valiantly overrunning for someone who was ill when she was "discovered" by a London producer. "It was like the film," she gasped, He said, 'I want that girl in my show!"

The show in question was Memories of Al Jolson, a touring revue headlined by comedian Al Read. It saw the birth of a new star, and that summer, Shirley Bassey opened her own season at London's prestigious Cafe de Paris. During this period, her stage act found the direction that it would maintain for the rest of her career. Visually, it embraced costumes and a general presentation that many would regard as dissolving outlines between quality and kitsch. Nevertheless, beyond the stage trappings, Shirley's voice had become awesome. Whether "My Funny Valentine", the low-down "Blues In The Night" or the jaunty "Crazy Rhythm", she was able to emote intense anguish, sly innuendo and brazen lust - from forlorn whisper to triumphant yell - in the course of a single verse.

The strategies were evident during a 1956 residency in Las Vegas, the cornerstone of her breakthrough in the States. Nevertheless, though she surfaced as an "overnight sensation" on the boards there as in Britain, hit records for Ms Bassey were not as immediate. Yet after a diverting arrangement of the traditional West Indian ditty, "Banana Boat Song", made the UK Top Ten in early 1957 - in the teeth of a rival version by Harry Belafonte - she was to remain a regular chart contender for the next decade. After a holding operation with "Fire Down Below" the versatile Shirley came within an ace of Number One with sing-along "Kiss Me Honey Honey Kiss Me" before actually reaching the top with the contrasting "As I Love You, both produced by Johnny Prinz, destined to guide The Four Pennies, Dusty Springfield and The Walker Brothers to comparable success.

By the time she consolidated her US reputation with an acclaimed appearance at New York's Persian Rooms in 1961, she was an International show business evergreen whose albums - many of them in-concert offerings - were now finding as much market interest as her 45's. Many highlights from these collections are featured here, ranging from the torchy "Crying In My Soul" to "The Wayward Wind", previously a hit for several artists including Tex Ritter and Jimmy Young. Even "Night And Day", "If You Love Me" (from The Chocolate Soldier), "Love For Sale" and similar often recorded standards are revitalized by the Bassey treatment.

A run of hits - broken only by undeserved flops like "Hands Across The Sea" - finished, as far as automatic singles chart entries were concerned, in 1965 but it wasn't until 1973's "Never, Never, Never" that that particularly well ran completely dry - though albums continue to sell by the ton.

However as shown by a minor hit with 1987's "The Rhythm Divine" (with Yello) and 1996's "'Disco' La Passione" (with Chris Rea), Shirley Bassey's return to the upper reaches of the chart has never been out of the question.