“Aren’t we lucky?” was a rhetorical question often posed by my father, Kenny Clayton, who has died aged 86. It became the title of one of his many songs, composed in 1977. Kenny was a pianist, composer, arranger and musical director to stars such as Petula Clark, Matt Monro, Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black, and Phil Everly. He was always keen to recognise his good fortune.
Kenny would recount being rescued twice in his early years. First, after being born “out of wedlock” in Clapton Pond Mothers’ hospital in east London and destined for a children’s home, he was adopted by his biological mother’s brother, Kenneth Wilkinson, and his wife, Maud – whose maiden name, Clayton, he later assumed. Secondly, during the second world war, Kenny was saved by his brother, Eric, who hastened him under the bedclothes to avoid the doodlebug debris when the family home in Edmonton was bombed.
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