I was even bigger than Elvis in the charts..for a week!

It is a memory which still brings a broad smile to the face of the 66-year-old, who now works as a carer in a city nursing home.

Just 15 when he was catapulted to showbiz fame almost overnight, he went on to enjoy worldwide success and a seven-year career as Edinburgh's kilted teenage pop star.

Within a short few months, the former Leith Academy pupil went from a 5-a-week apprentice to a 1,000-a-week pop star, swapping local charity shows for chart success and later international tours.

It may be more than 50 years ago – and Jackie may enjoy a quieter life these days as a great-grandfather and avid Coronation Street fan – but watching youngsters like ten-year-old Hollie Steel buckle under the TV spotlight on Britain's Got Talent brings it all back to him.

Not that his memories of showbiz life are tarnished, but he does empathise with the young performers.

"There was a lot of pressure put on me," Jackie recalls. "Things like if I wasn't feeling well, the show had to go on anyway, and that was hard. People in showbusiness don't care about your health, as long as they're getting the bucks.

"Another thing was I couldn't really go anywhere without bodyguards – even when I went for a tinkle my bodyguards had to stay outside! I never really had any privacy, but that's what happens when you have success."

Jackie was – like Hollie Steel – just ten when he started performing at charity shows and concerts across Edinburgh. He performed hits from stars including Al Jolson, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

At the age of 15, his performance at a show at Prestwick Airport's American air base impressed comedy duo Mike and Bernie Winters, who were in the audience.

The brothers contacted their agent, Evie Taylor, to let her know about the new-found talent, and she soon became Jackie's manager, with the teenager signing to record company Decca. Just a month after his performance at Prestwick Airport, he released his debut single, a cover of the Billy and Lillie hit La Dee Dah.

The great-grandfather laughs: "I thought 'oh my goodness'. One minute I was this wee laddie from Edinburgh who was an apprentice plumber and the next minute I was in the same charts as Elvis Presley! I was actually above You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog for one week before it went to number one – it was unbelievable.

"It was just like a big dream. I always had ambitions to go into showbusiness."

La Dee Dah reached number three in the charts and Leith-born Jackie was on his way.

He left his family home on Broughton Road for the bright lights of London, where he lived until retiring from the world of showbusiness and returning to Edinburgh at the age of 23.

"It was very hard for me as a 15-year-old boy living in a massive city," he admits. "For the first year I think I phoned home every night!"

Jackie released a further two records in 1958, My Dream, which reached number 15 in the UK charts, and Purple People Eater, which although not popular in Britain, sold 1.3 million copies worldwide.

"That was the big one," he explains. "It was massive over in Australia and South Africa, where it was number one for ten weeks. It got into the hit parades – the charts – in European countries and I started performing all over the world including Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Las Vegas and all over Europe, for five years up to the age of 20."

That same year – 1958 – Jackie performed with American singer-songwriter Buddy Holly on British TV show Oh Boy! and stormed into the top teen telly show of the day, 6.5 Special, with the likes of Dickie Valentine, Nancy Whiskey and Chas McDevitt.

He topped the bill four times at the Edinburgh Empire (today's Festival Theatre) and also starred in the panto Babes In the Wood with Scots comedian Jack Radcliffe.

Jackie comments: "I was appearing in panto at the Glasgow Empire in 1959 when Buddy died in a plane crash. It was sad, he was a very nice Texan lad."

Soon Jackie was earning 1,000 per week, but most of it went to a range of other people, including his manager and agent, with only around 100 reaching his pocket.

He smiles: "When you're an apprentice plumber and you are earning about four pounds, seven and sixpence a week, and then somebody dangles a contract in front of you which is guaranteed every week, it makes a big difference."

Jackie almost always wore a kilt on stage, which became his trademark outfit when performing.

"A lot of people thought the kilt was a gimmick but I was just proud to be Scottish," he says.

And the man in the kilt – or occasionally tartan trousers – became the first British artist to appear on US television when he performed on The Perry Como Show – which he describes as the "highest point" of his career – at Ziegfeld Theatre in New York.

"Perry was a massive star. The man was a genius and a gentleman, and one of the nicest people I've ever met," Jackie adds.

After nine worldwide hits and over two million record sales worldwide, Jackie decided it was time to leave showbiz behind in the mid-60s, returning home to Edinburgh to work as a postman.

"I didn't want to live out of a suitcase any more and I gave it all up," he explains. "I couldn't compete with The Beatles and the Bay City Rollers.

"Probably my lowest point was when I decided to give up showbusiness, and coming back and going into a normal job. You need family and friends when you come out of showbusiness.

"I got a lot of stick when I gave it up with people saying, 'what are you doing in a job like this, you must have made millions'. But I got through it all – you have to."

After a ten-year stint as a home help, Jackie has for the last six years worked as a nursing home carer – a job he clearly loves.

"When I was a home help the elderly would recognise me and they used to ask me for a song," he laughs. "I like my job as a carer so much too, it's just like one big happy family – and I get up and sing for them!"

Although he hasn't performed professionally since the 1960s, Jackie has sung at charity events around the Capital and once regularly performed at the former Wardie Hotel in Granton.

He lives in Pilton Park, Pilton, with wife Irene, who he has been married to for 25 years, and has a stepson Steven, 45, stepdaughter Susan, 47, and adopted son Andrew, 32, as well as seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

"I think you have to look towards the future and never go back in the past, but it is nice to reminisce," he says, with his trademark broad smile.

"Without a doubt I made the right decision. I enjoyed every minute of my success and I have no regrets. You can't take it away from me because I have done it. Showbusiness is always there in your blood."

HOW COMIC BROTHERS GAVE JACKIE HIS LUCKY BREAK

LEITH-BORN Jackie Dennis was discovered by comedians Mike and Bernie Winters in 1958. The brothers brought him to the attention of top agent Evie Taylor and he appeared on the hit TV show 6.5 Special at the age of 15, and a subsequent film spin-off.

The kilt-wearing, spiky-haired pop singer enjoyed seven successful years in the world of showbiz and toured the world with his versions of hits including La Dee Dah, My Dream and Purple People Eater.

Jackie was even invited to appear a on Perry Como's US TV show, where he was introduced as "Britain's Ricky Nelson".