Ronnie Carroll: Eurovision Song Contest singer who later stood for Parliament as a candidate for the Rainbow Alliance

Carroll hoped to make the Guinness Book Of Records by being the first candidate to get no votes

Carroll in 1963: his Eurovision song ‘Ring A Ding Girl’ is every bit as trite as its title (PA)

Ronnie Carroll is known for singing two bland songs in the Eurovision Song Contest – but his reckless, feckless life reads like a film script.

He was born Ronald Cleghorn, the son of a plumber, in Belfast in 1934. Even as a young child he was fascinated by gambling, and when he left school he had a variety of jobs which came to naught. As a plumber's mate he once disconnected a sink but forgot to turn off the water supply, flooding the kitchen. In his spare time, he was part of a miming act, the Recordites, with his friend, George Carroll. Appreciating that Ronnie Cleghorn would not look right on a marquee, he became Ronnie Carroll.

He had been in a church choir when he was 10 but he hated the discipline of being told exactly what to sing. He knew he could sing, though, and when he was 18 he entered a talent contest at the Opera House in Belfast as Frank Sinatra. However, a bout of laryngitis caused him to change his plan and he appeared instead as Nat "King" Cole.

He won and had to decide whether to take a contract for a touring show or join Portadown FC, both offering £8 a week. His father advised that a singing career could last for life, so he appeared throughout the UK in "Hollywood Doubles", in which he would black up every night as both Cole and Billy Eckstine.

The BBC producer Albert Stevenson asked him to appear as himself on Camera One, hosted by Kenneth Horne, in January 1956. The corporation was inundated with calls after he sang "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" and he started recording with the producer Johnny Franz at Philips.

He made the Top 20 with "Walk Hand In Hand", although the original by the American singer, Tony Martin, was more successful, and he then did well with "The Wisdom Of A Fool", also a hit for Norman Wisdom. He shared a flat with fellow entertainer Glen Mason, and they pretended they had a long-running feud. He often partied with the hell-raisers Sean Connery and Stanley Baker.

In 1958 Carroll seemed out of place alongside Marty Wilde and Cliff Richard on early editions of Jack Good's rock and roll show, Oh Boy!, for ATV. Franz often gave him unsuitable material and his treatment of Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" (1960) is among the worst records ever made. Carroll didn't care: singles meant little to him and his interest was in recording standards for albums, his best work being on Carroll Calling (1964).

He thought of marrying the revue actress Millicent Martin, and when he was dealt three queens in a hand of poker he regarded this as a good omen and proposed. They were married in Barbados, then Martin found national fame singing satirical songs in That Was The Week That Was. They made an album together, Mr And Mrs Is The Name, but Carroll told me to "listen to the songs and not the dialogue, as that is so banal."

In 1962 Carroll represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest with "Ring A Ding Girl", a song every bit as trite as its title. He came fourth but the single only scraped into the Top 50. He followed it with "Roses Are Red", which made the Top 3 and far outsold Bobby Vinton's original.

The following year Carroll was back in Eurovision but with a better song, Norman Newell's singalong ballad, "Say Wonderful Things". Again he was fourth, but the single made the Top 10. He might have made the US charts but Patti Page took the honours, recasting the song as a country ballad.

Carroll was an unpredictable husband. One day he decided to go to Las Vegas. "I was a gambler and I had £2,000 in my top pocket," he told me, "I had no reason to go really and there was thick fog. The pilot said, 'We've only got enough food for the women and children, the men will have to drink.' I remember thinking, 'What am I doing here?' I arrived in Las Vegas and went to the Sahara Hotel, where Louis Prima was swinging away like mad. I put down my bags, went to the dice table and lost £2,000 in 20 minutes. Luckily I had a return ticket. I got the 'plane back, arrived home and told Millie I'd had a great time."

Carroll and Martin divorced in 1965; his second marriage was to the athlete June Paul, who had won medals in the 100 metres in the 1952 and 1956 Olympics. Carroll's star was fading, and he was reduced to recording for budget labels, including an album of Burt Bacharach's score for Promises, Promises with Aimi McDonald in 1970.

Carroll decided on a new start. He wanted to open a night club in Barbados but couldn't find suitable premises. "We ended up in Grenada and we opened Carroll's Tropical Inn, which was a tremendous success," he recalled. "We had five cottages, a night club and beautiful grounds. Every penny we earned we poured back in – but then there was a revolution in Grenada. They dug up the runway and the tourist trade stopped completely. I came back home with no money at all."

Carroll was declared bankrupt in 1974. His marriage ended and he married a South African club owner, Glenda Kentridge, although that, too, ended in divorce.

Carroll worked the northern clubs and holiday camps and then found success with residences in Singapore and on cruise ships. In 1989 he was again declared bankrupt. He ran a hot dog stall in Camden Market and took singing work if he could get it, making an album, Back On Song, in 2005. He kept a jaundiced eye on Eurovision: "I sang trite songs, and they're still trite, aren't they? If someone came on in the middle of all this tripe and sang a new song of the quality of 'When I Fall In Love', they'd romp home."

In 1997, encouraged by the comedian Peter Cook, Carroll stood at the General Election for the Rainbow Alliance. He hoped to make the Guinness Book Of Records by being the first candidate to get no votes – his campaign song was "Don't Vote For Me, Reg And Tina", but he forgot about the few old faithfuls who would vote for him no matter what. He was due to stand as an independent in the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency in May. In a quirk of electoral law, his name remains on the ballot paper – so he might yet achieve his ambition and receive no votes.

SPENCER LEIGH

Ronald Cleghorn (Ronnie Carroll), singer: born Belfast 18 August 1934; married three times (one daughter, three sons); died London 13 April 2015.