Soul singer Shirley Bassey returns to studio

LONDON (Billboard) - Two London-based writer/performers have sparked the recording return of

Shirley Bassey, the70-year-old Welsh vocal powerhouse famed for singing the theme song to the James Bond movie "Goldfinger."

The singer, who had her first UK hit in 1957, last released new studio recordings on the 2003 compilation "Thank You for the Years."

Catherine Feeney and Nikki Lamborn, who are the core duo in rock act Never the Bride (briefly signed to Atlantic in the mid-'90s), chanced upon Bassey in a Monte Carlo hotel's gym two years ago and left her a CD of their fourth album "Surprise," offering one track, "The Living Tree," for her consideration.

"It was in her gym bag quite a while," Lamborn says with a laugh, "until her assistant said, 'Are you going to listen to this or shall I throw it away?' Apparently she said, 'Let's put it on now."'

Bassey immediately liked the song -- so much so that she performed it on UK national TV and has now recorded it for the duo's own Lock Stock & Barrel label. An April 16 U.K. single release will be followed two weeks later by an identically titled album, featuring remixes of Bassey's self-owned catalog, as well as new recordings including "Slave to the Rhythm" and "I Will Survive."

Bassey appears June 24 at the Glastonbury Festival in southwest England.

Reuters/Billboard