 She listened to a wide range of music, including George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller.A fan of American jazz and the vocalists Peggy Lee and Jo Stafford, she wished to sound like them.At the age of twelve, she made a recording of herself performing the Irving Berlin song "When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabama" at a local record shop in Ealing.