Billy Fury was born Ronald Wycherley in Liverpool, England. He was a sickly child who experienced his first bout of rheumatic fever at age six. That began chronic health problems which eventually took his life before age 45. Fury began music lessons, on the piano, at age 11. He got his first guitar at age 14. By 1955, the skiffle music boom had begun in England and Fury was leading his own local group, while still working on a tugboat and/or as a stevedore. By 1958, he had won a talent competition and had begun to write his own songs.

Read more about Billy Fury on Last.fm.