Ricky Shayne

Ricky Shayne (born 1944) is an actor and a pop singer of French and Lebanese descent who was popular in Europe in the 1960s, especially in Germanophone countries.

Shayne was born George Albert Tabett on 4 June 1944 in Cairo, Egypt, to a Lebanese father and a French mother. Young Tabett moved to Italy when he was 15 years old, with his mother, and took music lessons for two years.

He then moved to Italy where, in 1965, under the stage name "Ricky Shayne," he had his first hit with the single "Uno dei Mods" ("One of the Mods"), written by Gianni Meccia and Franco Migliacci. It was featured in the Italian-German 1966 musical film La battaglia dei Mods (The battle of the Mods) in which Shayne played the role of a "disaffected young man" and sang. In 1966, Shayne was cast to star in the German film Siebzehn Jahr, blondes Haar (Seventeen Years, Blond Hair), that also featured Udo Jurgens, Joachim Fuchsberger, Elga Andersen, and others, and moved to Germany for the duration of the production.

While in Germany, Shayne recorded the single "Ich sprenge alle Ketten" ("I bust all the chains"), composed by then-unknowns Giorgio Moroder and Michael Holm, which became a national hit and made Shayne an idol among young German fans of pop music. Shayne followed this success with the 1967 singles "Das hat die Welt noch nicht gesehn" ("The world has not yet seen that"), "Es wird ein Bettler zum König" ("Beggar becomes king"), and "Ich mache keine Komplimente" ("I make no compliments").

In 1971, Shayne released his German version of the international hit song "Mamy Blue" that was originally composed in French by Hubert Giraud, which became his greatest success, peaking at #7 in the country's national chart. The same year, he starred in the German comedy Hurra, wir sind mal wieder Junggesellen! (Hurray, I'm a bachelor again!).

He moved to the United States in 1975, occasionally returning to Germany for business ventures and nostalgia concerts.

• "Ricky Shayne" by Roberto Ruggeri, in G. Castaldo (editor) Dizionario della canzone italiana, Curcio, 1990 (in Italian)