Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk, MBE (28 January 1929 – 2 November 2014) was an English clarinetist and vocalist known for his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register style, and distinctive appearance – of goatee, bowler hat and striped waistcoat.

Bilk's 1961 instrumental tune "Stranger on the Shore" became the UK's biggest selling single of 1962, spending 55 weeks on the charts and reaching Number 1.

[citation needed] His parents tried to teach him the piano but, as a boy, Bilk found it restricted his love of outdoor activities, including football.

He lost two front teeth in a school fight and half a finger in a sledging accident, both of which he said affected his eventual clarinet style.

("Summer Set" was also used prominently in Daniel Farson's controversial 1960 television documentary Living for Kicks, a portrait of British teenage life at the time).

[9] Bilk was not an internationally known musician until 1962, when the experimental use of a string ensemble on one of his albums and the inclusion of a composition of his own as its keynote piece won him an audience outside the UK.

He had composed a melody, entitled "Jenny" after his daughter, but was asked to change the title to "Stranger on the Shore" for use in a British television series of the same name.

Bilk's success tapered off when British rock and roll made its big international impact beginning in 1964 and he shifted direction to the cabaret circuit.

Three of them, including the 1965 collaboration Together, with the Danish jazz pianist and composer Bent Fabric ("Alley Cat"), were also released successfully in the United States on the Atlantic Records subsidiary Atco.

In the early 1980s, Bilk and his signature hit were newly familiar, due to "Stranger on the Shore" being used in the soundtrack to Sweet Dreams, the film biography of country music singer Patsy Cline.

Bilk continued to tour with his Paramount Jazz Band, as well as performing concerts with his two contemporaries, Chris Barber and Kenny Ball, both of whom were born in 1930, as "The 3Bs".

Bilk also provided vocals on many of his tracks, including on "I'm an Old Cowhand", "The Folks Who Live on the Hill", "White Cliffs of Dover", "Travellin On" and "That's My Home".

[16] Bilk's last recorded interview was for Cornish community station Penwith Radio (now Coast FM) and was broadcast posthumously on Sunday 16 November 2014 at 9:00 pm.

[5] In 1997, Bilk was diagnosed with throat cancer, which was treated through surgery and then followed by daily radiation therapy at Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre.