their ever-optimistic song-pluggers. Eventually, he became a bus driver for London Transport, driving Route 27 from Holloway (Garage code J) Bus Garage (now demolished: the present Holloway Garage (HT) is the former Holloway Trolleybus Depot). In 1956, he made a demo record, "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" which was heard by pianist Winifred Atwell, who was an important influence on his early career. She recommended him to her own recording company, Decca Records, who signed him. She became his mentor, providing him with his stage name, Matt Monro. Matt came from Matt White, a journalist friend, and Monro was Atwell's father's Christian name. His first record which was released in November 1956, was "Ev'rybody Falls in Love with Someone", a song which had just won the BBC Festival of Popular Songs. Monro gained some radio exposure on Radio Luxembourg and, starting on January 2, 1957, became a featured vocalist with the BBC-TV Show Band Parade show presented by Cyril Stapleton which ran until June 28, 1957. He also got a television spot on The Winifred Atwell Show in 1956. In 1957, Monro released Blue and Sentimental, an album of standards. Despite the album's favourable reception, Monro languished among the young male singers trying to break through at the end of the 1950s, many of them emulating Frankie Vaughan by recording cover versions of American hits. Monro even recorded a version of Vaughan's "Garden of Eden" during this period. A short recording contract with Fontana Records followed. By the end of the 1950s, Monro's mid-decade profile had declined, and he returned to relative obscurity. He and his wife Mickie lived from her wages as a song plugger and his royalties from a TV advertising jingle for Camay soap. In 1959, he recorded a country pastiche song, "Bound for Texas", for The Chaplin Revue, a feature-length compilation of Charlie Chaplin shorts. It would be the first of many Monro soundtrack themes. International career Prior to producing the Peter Sellers album Songs for Swingin' Sellers in 1959, EMI producer George Martin asked Monro to record "You Keep Me Swingin'", a satirical song to help the comedian imitate the song with a Frank Sinatra-type styling. When Sellers heard the recording he decided to use it to be the opening track on the record, rather than record his own version, which he realised he couldn't improve on himself. However, Sellers billed Monro as "Fred Flange", and