Last updated: 07 February 2011
According to Sir Geraint Evans, Harry Secombe could have been a fine comic operatic baritone, and he once offered him the part of Bardolph in Verdi's Falstaff. Had things been different, maybe we wouldn't just remember Harry Secombe's singing with If I Ruled The World.
Fellow Goon Spike Milligan, however, didn't agree. "I spent many years laughing at Harry Secombe's singing until somebody told me that it wasn't a joke," he once said. On another occasion, he sent Secombe a message: "I hope you go before me because I don't want you singing at my funeral".
Music played a big part in Harry Secombe's life, from his childhood in Swansea when he was a choirboy at St Stephen's, Danygraig, although he never had a singing lesson until 1952.
Read our full Harry Secombe profile.
Key works
The Highway of Life
A selection of religious songs, including Ave Maria, Abide With Me and How Great Thou Art.
The Gold Collection
Two-CD collection of some of Sir Harry's best works.
You'll Never Walk Alone
2001 collection of English songs plus two operatic pieces: O Sole Mio and Nessun Dorma.
