Priscilla Wright (born August 14, 1940) is a Canadian singer most famous for the song "The Man in the Raincoat", which she first released in 1955, and re-recorded in 1988.
Don Wright
Priscilla Wright was born in London, Ontario. Her father was choir conductor and composer Don Wright, and her maternal grandfather was Canadian Prime Minister Arthur Meighen. When little Priscilla Wright was in school, a teacher instructed her to sing soprano in the school choir. At home, her father, a choral leader, thought her voice sounded strained. He had a suggestion. "I put it down a half-octave," she said, "and this other voice came out." In the 1950s, her father began writing the catchy, irresistible and, it must be said, sometimes annoying (but always unforgettable) tunes that would earn him the nickname Canada's Jingle King. He immortalized the attributes of soap, gas stations, chocolate bars and Carling's Red Cap ale.
One of his earliest efforts was a ditty for Bromo-Seltzer for which he pressed his daughter into service. "Lum-dum-da-dum da-dum da-dum," she sang, "I'll take Bromo for fast relief." The jingle was a huge success, the singer sounding carefree and sophisticated. Record companies and talent agencies came looking for the unknown vocalist, only to discover she was a schoolgirl with braces on her teeth. Mr. Wright signed an agreement with Sparton, a local label, which in 1955 released a platter recorded at radio station CFPL, where Mr. Wright was manager.
Please Have Mercy was the song designed to launch the girl's career. Instead, it was the record's flip side that took off. "My little soul just went into it," she said. Her lovely contralto became a celebrated voice. At the age of 14 years old, her rendition of Man in a Raincoat made her a cross-border sensation. The sheet music, which included a photograph of her cuddling a kitten, sold in the hundreds of thousands. The 78-rpm record climbed to the top of the hit parade in Canada and It sold over half a million copies in the U.S. and hit No. 16 on Billboard's chart of "Most Played by Jockeys". No less a vocalist than Ella Fitzgerald encouraged her to "keep singing, honey."
Her maternal grandfather, Arthur Meighen, the former Conservative prime minister, told Maclean's magazine he was proud of his only granddaughter. "I don't know the first thing about music," he said, "but I know Priscilla is a success, so she must have worked hard and have talent." In the fall, Miss Wright was invited to join a road show emceed by disc jockey Bill Randle. On Oct. 20, the line-up for a daytime concert at Brooklyn High School in a Cleveland suburb included Pat Boone, the Four Lads, Bill Haley and His Comets, and a young man making his first performance north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Miss Wright took the stage just before Mr. Presley. "He was kind of shy. Quiet. Polite. He was different backstage than he was on stage. As soon as his name was called, his lip would droop. The public Elvis was different than the real one." She played several shows with Mr. Presley, who would not make his debut on Mr. Sullivan's television program until the following year.
Her label sought to cash in on her unexpected success, although other releases failed to capture the public's imagination. (Among them was I Wanna Dance to a Mambo Combo, a novelty song written by comedian Johnny Wayne and Bobby Gimby) A second hit proved elusive. Still, a long and spectacular career seemed possible for the little lady from a small farm outside London, Ontario. Instead, on the cusp of stardom, she watched her parents reject contract offers from Hollywood and record companies, insisting she complete her education. She would graduate from the University of Toronto and continue to sing, although the momentum of her career had been lost.
She later married the broadcast journalist Geoff Scott, whom she helped win five consecutive elections as a Progressive Conservative member of Parliament. (They have since divorced.) In Ottawa, she revived her career as a pop and jazz vocalist, enjoying a long tenure at the Chateau Laurier Hotel with band leader Moxie Whitney. She returned to the Canadian charts in 1985 with a Michael Bolton song. Three years later, she issued a re-recording of the song that made her famous, which again placed high on the Canadian charts. She also enjoyed sold-out symphony performances in Toronto and Hamilton. In 1992, she released her first album. When You Love Somebody earned her a Juno nomination the following year as most promising female vocalist. The honour came 38 years after she had her first hit. She performed at theatres, conventions and jazz festivals, including the main stage of the Montreal Jazz Festival and with top bands such as Peter Appleyard and his Swing Fever Band.
She released her album "The Singer and the Song" in 2002, which gained coast to coast U.S. airplay and rave reviews. In 2000, Priscilla was chosen as vocalist for a new Mart Kenney Big Band CD, recorded in Vancouver with the finest musicians. Rave reviews included such comments as: "The sultry, yet coy vocals of Priscilla Wright add a complex elegance making this a magical event for player and listener alike." In 2005, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland invited her to perform to mark the 50th anniversary of the Brooklyn High show she did with Elvis Presley. In 2012, Priscilla was invited back to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a book launch. In 2016, in her hometown, Priscilla was inducted into the London Music Hall of Fame. While she no longer tours extensively, her official website highlights her recent band projects and ongoing musical legacy.
Solomon King (August 13, 1930 – January 20, 2005) was an American 1960s and 1970s popular music singer. He is best remembered for his 1968 British hit single, "She Wears My Ring", which charted in 40 countries.
Born Allen Verner Levy in Lexington, Kentucky and was raised with a love of popular standards and country music. He grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where he became a local choir soloist. As a teenager he attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and was offered a scholarship to study Cantatorial Music by Jan Peerce. He first started singing professionally in 1952. Under his first pseudonym, Randy Leeds, his records such as "I'm Gonna Live Til I Die" did not sell. King was the first white singer taken on tour by Billie Holiday, as well as working with Elvis Presley's backing group the Jordanaires, whom he used as his own backing group when recording his first version of "She Wears My Ring" in Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1960 Levy married a Canadian journalist, Henny Lowy, after she had interviewed him, and they had four children. In 1965, he decided that the best place to make his mark would be in England and he spent his time in London around Denmark Street, hoping for a record deal. He assumed one of the best of all stage names, Solomon King, although he was reluctant to admit it was a stage name and it suited his ego. The rock manager Gordon Mills had created a market for macho, big-voiced singers with Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, and he thought King, who was six foot eight with a 50-inch chest, was another possibility.
"She Wears My Ring", based on La Golondrina ("The Swallow)" by the Mexican composer Narciso Serradel Sevilla, was written by the Nashville husband-and-wife team Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. Although it was recorded by Roy Orbison for his 1962 LP Crying, its potential had not been spotted and it had not been released as a single. Solomon King's 1968 recording, which was produced by Peter Sullivan, went to No 3 and was on the UK charts for five months. The record could only manage No 117 in the US, where it was eclipsed by a country-music version by Ray Price. Also in 1968, "When We Were Young", written by songwriting duo Les Reed and Barry Mason was a number 21 hit in the UK Singles Chart, but King's other singles were not as successful.
He performed in Blackpool for a summer season in 1968 and was subject to jokes about his size, his shape and how out of touch he was. He was furious when his co-star, the one-man band Don Partridge, introduced him as "the Alabama Elephant". He responded to the criticism in Disc magazine, People say I should stop singing ballads and do rock'n'roll but I am not a teenybopper. I am the father of four kids and in my time I have sung rock, blues, jazz and bop and how many hippies can say that? King was best suited to cabaret and summer seasons, where he could converse with his audiences. He was a meticulous performer, always wanting to know the age, clothes and sex of his audience so that he could plan his programme. For example, he would not sing about drinking during a matinée as there would be children listening.
The compere at the She club in Liverpool, the radio DJ Billy Butler recalls, I'd heard about Solomon King appearing in other clubs and closing his act with "God Save the Queen" and I couldn't believe that he would go down well at the She, which was a rough, tough club. When he came to the end of his act, he went into the national anthem and he paused before he hit that final note, which he then belted out. The audience loved him. He was so grateful to the British audiences for accepting him and this was his way of saying thank you.
King claimed to be born in 1940 but his choice of songs belied that. His albums She Wears My Ring (1968), King of Song (1969) and You'll Never Walk Alone (1971) were unlikely affairs, making little effort to be contemporary in their choice of material. King would sing Jewish favourites ("My Yiddishe Momma"), wartime morale-boosters ("The White Cliffs of Dover") and hits of the early Fifties ("Stranger in Paradise", "Be My Love"). In 1970, he released "This Wonderful Day" (under the name "Levi Jackson") on the Columbia record label which is still popular on the Northern soul scene.
He had recorded a gospel song, "This Beautiful Day", under a different pseudonym, Levi Jackson, and, although the single sank without trace in 1971, it was reactivated in 1978 and became popular on the Northern Soul circuit. In 1972, he released the single "When You've Gotta Go", written by Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker on the Polydor label and it made the Australian chart, as well as the Dutch "Tipparade", where it peaked at number 17. In 1974 King recorded the title song for the feeble film The Doll Squad, starring Francine York, which is now seen as a prototype for Charlie's Angels.
King and his wife Henny Lowy spent 20 years living in Higher Crumpsall, Manchester, England. But in 1980 they divorced he moved back to the United States, where he wed a further two times. He continued singing in clubs in the United States. At 6 feet 8 inches (2.0 m) tall, some television interviewers refused to have him on their shows unless he sat down.
King died in Norman, Oklahoma, of cancer, on January 20, 2005, at the age of 74. A war veteran, he served in the United States Air Force. On his passing, he was buried with full military honours in Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, under his birthname of Allen Verner Levy.
(Edited from The Independent, AllMusic & Wikipedia)
Lesley Duncan (12 August 1943 – 12 March 2010) was one of Britain's first female singer-songwriters. Her songs had an astonishing emotional depth and her voice a rare combination of warmth and clarity, bringing an intimacy to the experience of listening to her records. For those who discovered her music in the early 1970s, she stood out from all the other pop and rock of the era.
She received much airplay on British radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, but never achieved greater commercial success, in part because of her unwillingness to chase stardom as well as crippling stage fright. Her big break came when Elton John recorded her Love Song as a duet with her for his album Tumbleweed Connection (1970). Love Song – "a little song I'd knocked up as a suitable B-side," said Lesley – went on to be covered by more than 150 artists, including Olivia Newton-John, David Bowie and Barry White.
Born in Stockton-on-Tees into a musical family, with her mother playing piano in clubs while her grandfather sang in the chapel choir. Lesley quit school just before her fifteenth birthday and soon after left home, traveling around the country and working various jobs, including waitressing in Scarborough and mother's helper in Wimbledon, and while waitressing in London. In 1962, while she was working in a London coffee bar, she and her brother Jimmy (soon to become manager of the Pretty Things) took some songs to a leading Tin Pan Alley music publisher. Jimmy was signed with a weekly retainer of £10, and Lesley with £7, on the grounds that she had fewer songs, no guitar and was a girl.
She had never sung publicly anywhere but made demo recordings of her songs and her manager took one of them to Parlophone, who signed her to a recording contract on the strength of her demo, and with no audition. The demo was 'I Want A Steady Guy', which became her first single, while the second Parlophone release, 'Tell Him'/'You Kissed Me Boy', was credited to Lesley and Jimmy, even though Jimmy had nothing to do with the writing of them. During this period, she also appeared in the 1963 film 'What A Crazy World' with Joe Brown, Marty Wilde, Alan Klein and Susan Maughan.
After leaving Parlophone she joined Mercury records who released three singles, with the final 'Hey Boy' including Dusty Springfield and Madeline Bell on backing vocals, and with the addition of Kiki Dee, all four of them would eventually feature as backing vocalists on an endless number of recordings. Following her time with Mercury, she had a brief period with RCA, releasing two singles, 'Lullaby'/'I Love You, I Love You' and the Goffin/King standard 'A Road To Nowhere', backed with her own 'Love Song', which became one of her most famous songs, with over 160 recorded versions of it.
She continued to write songs for other performers, including the Walker Brothers. She was also in great demand as a session singer, contributing backing vocals to Dusty Springfield's singles from 1964 up to her See All Her Faces album in 1972; Springfield returned the favour, doing backing vocals on Lesley's singles. By the early 70's, Lesley's song writing was changing in style from girl-pop to something more reflective. Her first album, Sing Children Sing (1971), was produced by Jimmy Horowitz, whom Lesley married in 1970 (they later divorced). It was followed by Earth Mother (1972); the title track, dedicated to Friends of the Earth, is one of the first, and finest, eco-songs.
While working on sessions with Elton John for his 'Tumbleweed Connection' album, he asked to do one of her songs, and she suggested 'Love Song', which he recorded with Duncan playing acoustic guitar and singing backing vocals. Throughout the 70s, Lesley also sang backing vocals for Donovan, Long John Baldry, Kiki Dee, Ringo Starr and many others, and also sang on the Jesus Christ, Superstar album, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973).
Her first two solo albums were critically acclaimed but, despite a lot of radio play, neither sold well. Her next two, Everything Changes (1974) and Moon Bathing (1975), again failed to break through. Her last album, Maybe It's Lost (1977), was a conscious attempt to hit the popular market, after singing on the Alan Parsons Project's Eve, she decided to call it a day. She moved to Cornwall and, in 1978, married her second husband, the record producer Tony Cox, Lesley later moved to Oxfordshire and, in 1996, to Mull, in the Inner Hebrides. She contributed both her time and her music to causes she believed in. In 1979 she agreed to re-record "Sing Children Sing" with Kate Bush, Phil Lynott and Pete Townsend for the International Year of the Child. It generated considerable airplay and made it to the fringes of the charts.
Duncan's heart, however, was firmly rooted in her new life in the countryside, including her voluntary work for Oxfam, photography and dedicated walking of the entourage of dogs she and her husband accumulated. Life in her final home at Tobermory on the Isle of Mull generated a whole new network of friends largely unaware of her past existence in the pop world – or her still considerable worldwide following on numerous websites dedicated to her music. She was aware and appreciative of this constant and continued interest in her work but was never tempted to capitalise on it.
Duncan, who latterly suffered from cerebrovascular disease, died on 12 March 2010 in Mull's hospital with her husband at her side, just as Love Song, playing in the background, came to a close.
(Edited from obits by David Barrett & Independent, Wikipedia, also from Albums I Wish Had Existed blog)
Eric Carmen (August 11, 1949 – March 10, 2024) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Born Eric Howard Carmen, in Cleveland, Ohio, he began his musical training at an early age. By the age of six, he was taking violin lessons, and by 11, he was playing piano and penning his own original compositions. With his discovery of the Beatles in the early '60s, Carmen's attention shifted toward rock & roll and he began playing piano and singing with high school bands. It was while he was a student at John Carroll University that he joined a local group called Cyrus Erie, who, apart from issuing several obscure singles on Epic Records, failed to leave much of an impact outside of the local region.
But when another popular local rock outfit, the Choir, split up, Carmen and another Cyrus Erie member, guitarist Wally Bryson, joined forces with former Choir members Dave Smalley (bass) and Jim Bonfanti (drums), which led to the formation of the Raspberries. Mixing rockers that combined the melody of the Beatles and the guitar riffs of the Who with lush ballads, the quartet quickly created a buzz, which resulted in a recording contract with Capitol. Right off the bat, the quartet scored a massive hit single with the infectious "Go All the Way", which peaked at number five on the singles charts. Despite issuing further solid albums, the group became known first and foremost as a "singles" act, as their albums failed to match the chart success of their hit singles. Carmen's increasing frustration with the group led the Raspberries to split in 1975. It wasn't long, however, before other groups began translating the Raspberries' sound and approach into their own hits, especially Cheap Trick and the Knack, among countless others.
Immediately thereafter, Carmen inked a solo deal with Arista where he opted for a more mature, singer/songwriter/ballad style, as evidenced by his self-titled 1975 debut. The shift in musical styles soon reaped rewards for Carmen, as it spawned two big hits, "All by Myself" and "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again," while the album almost cracked the Top 20. Despite a strong start to his solo career, the hits soon dried up, as his subsequent albums sold less than their predecessors. Carmen sank from sight for several years, but penned the Top Ten hit power ballad "Almost Paradise" (from the incredibly popular 1984 film Footloose), sung by Heart's Ann Wilson and Loverboy's Mike Reno.
With the single proving that a large audience still existed for Carmen-penned ballads, the singer resurfaced a year later with his first solo album in five years, the second self-titled release of his career. While it did spawn a moderate hit with the single "I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips," the album failed to move up the charts. It was another movie soundtrack, 1987's Dirty Dancing, that would land Carmen his next big hit, the Top Ten "Hungry Eyes." Carmen scored another hit a year later, "Make Me Lose Control," and also toured as part of the Dirty Dancing concert tour.
Eric with Ringo Starr
When the tour wound up, Carmen pulled a disappearing act once more, yet throughout the '90s, a wide variety of renowned artists covered songs of his, including Babes in Toyland, Peter Cetera, Sheryl Crow, Celine Dion, and Diana Ross, among others. 1998 saw Carmen issue his first solo full-length in 13 years, the Japanese release Winter Dreams (released in the U.S. as I Was Born to Love You a year later), then in 2000 he joined Ringo Starr's All-Star band for a spell of touring. Meanwhile, rumours had begun to swirl regarding an impending Raspberries reunion tour.
While it was true that all four original Raspberries members met up in early 1999, and three of them performed a few months later in Cleveland at a party, a reunion ultimately failed to materialize until 2005, when the original quartet reunited for a show at L.A.'s House of Blues. The show was released in 2007 as Live on Sunset Strip. Carmen himself released a newly recorded song, "Brand New Year," in 2013, just as a career retrospective set titled The Essential Eric Carmen was being assembled. It hit shelves in 2014 and proved to be the last record issued during his lifetime. According to his wife, the singer/songwriter died in his sleep in Paradise Valley, Arizona on March 10, 2024, at the age of 74.
Floyd Eugene Robinson (August 10, 1932 – May 28, 2016) was an American singer, born in Nashville, Tennessee, who was briefly successful in the late 1950s.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Floyd Robinson decided that a career in music would be his life. He was barely in his teens when he formed his first band, called the Eagle Rangers. They performed at pre-teen hops, school functions, parties and local radio programs. While he was in high school, Robinson had a regular radio show on Nashville's WLAC and WSM radio. And in between shows, Floyd and his Rangers served as the back-up band for country music singers on tour, among them George Jones, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold and Little Jimmy Dickens. The band also appeared on the Grand Ole Opry.
According to some sources, Floyd was one half of the bluegrass duo Jack and Daniel (Autry Inman and Floyd Robinson), who recorded for Decca in the early fifties. In 1958, Robinson wrote a novelty song called "The Little Space Girl" for his cousin Jesse Lee Turner, who scored his only hit (# 20 in early 1959) with this extra-terrestrial tune. Smash hits like David Seville's "Witch Doctor" and Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater" had created a huge demand for sped-up novelties, so RCA Victor approached Robinson and asked if he had more funny songs. Floyd came up with "My Girl" , a story about a strange dude with an emotionally damaged girlfriend.
He was signed by RCA and rushed into their Nashville studio to record the song, under the supervision of Chet Atkins. However, disc jockeys soon discovered that the other side, "Makin' Love" was a much better song and Floyd made the charts for the first and only time. "Makin' Love" peaked at # 20 in September 1959 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track reached No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart the same year. It also did well in several European countries, spawning local cover versions in French ("T' Aimer Follement"), Spanish ("Locamente Te Amare"), Italian, German and Dutch.
RCA released eight singles and one LP (simply titled "Floyd Robinson", RCA LPM 2162) by Floyd, but there were no further hits. He continued throughout the 1960s in the same teen-oriented vein for such labels as Jamie, Dot, Groove and United Artists, but all to no avail. Floyd worked as an engineer on Duane Eddy sessions in the mid-1960s. In 1971 and 1975 he recorded two duet singles with his cousin Jesse Lee Turner (who recorded at least seven of Floyd's compositions).
In 1973, Floyd became the inventor of "Christian animal music". Directed by the Holy Spirit and inspired by David Seville's Chipmunks, he recorded and released at least fourteen LP's of children's evangelical music, with such titles as "Charlie the Hamster Teaches Bible Stories With Floyd Robinson" and "Charlie the Hamster Sings the Ten Commandments With Floyd Robinson". In 1977, Robinson was sued by the lawyer son of the late David Seville, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., for plagiarism and copyright infringement. The matter was settled out of court, but meant the end of Robinson's animal records.
In the 1990's Robinson self-published two books, the instruction manual "Guitar Playing Made Easy" (1992) and the novel "The Guitar" (1994). He owned a used car dealership, but remained active in the music industry. Robinson died on May 28, 2016, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, after a long illness, at age 83.
Peter Paul Posa MNZM (8 August 1941 – 3 February 2019) was a New Zealand rock and pop guitarist most famous for his instrumental "The White Rabbit", which was released in 1963. The song is a guitar instrumental that sold 100,000 copies.
Posa was born in Henderson, West Auckland, New Zealand, to Paul and Millie Posa, who had migrated from Croatia. He was the youngest of three sons born into the industrious Yugoslav family. The family business was an orchard growing apples, peaches and plums, but eventually Mr Paul Posa could see that Henderson was proving to be an ideal place for making wine. So out went the fruit trees and in came the vineyard. Peter wasn't greatly interested in all that because from a very early age he had his mind set on music and specifically playing the guitar. He started on ukulele when he was seven. After that he used to spend all his spare time making his own toy guitars.
Pere & His Combo
Finally for his ninth birthday, Peter was given his first real guitar. It was a South African Galatone which his father bought for £5 from a second-hand shop. He used to listen to his family's old 78 rpm records, country artists like Tex Morton and Col Wilson and try to copy the guitar licks. He had a few lessons to learn the chords, but worked out all the rest for himself. The family couldn't get the guitar off him. He got a better instrument when he was eleven and his older brothers used to take him around to talent quests. At age twelve Peter at last got his first amplifier and began taking a deep interest in the multi-guitar sounds which Les Paul was turning out in the States, this was a major influence on his early career. As he developed in his teenage years he led the Peter Posa Combo which used to play for all types of dances and functions in West Auckland. After leaving Henderson High School, Peter thought it was time to make his first record, so he approached Eldred Stebbing of the Zodiac label. Eldred wasn't interested in recording the Posa Combo, but could see a real technical challenge in the multiple guitar style in which Peter overdubbed all the tracks himself.
So the first record was put together in late 1959. It was "Sweet Georgia Brown"/"Some Of These Days" and was the start of his solo career, with nightclub engagements and several more singles to follow. In 1961 the first real breakthrough came when Peter did his own version of the Stringalongs hit "Wheels". It was played on the Lever Hit Parade and suddenly he had a nationwide tour as support act for the English singing sensation Helen Shapiro.
By 1963 Peter was feeling the need to branch out and develop his own guitar style in different directions. So he signed a deal with Viking Records, the "hot" label at the time, which also had the advantage of overseas outlets. His first record there was "Galloping Guitars"/"Jessie", but out of the blue two Auckland musicians, Bill Ivory and Graham Rosling arrived with a tune that they thought had potential. Peter loved it at first hearing and it was about to change his life. "The White Rabbit" was the name, and even in that wonderful year of 1963, when the Beatles had just arrived and the charts were overflowing with million sellers, it received enormous airplay.
Peter was now headlining his own national tour with co-artists Bill & Boyd, and Max Merritt and the Meteors. A string of hit records followed including "Thee Mad Hatter", "Grasshopper" and "Hitch Hiker". Peter himself wrote "Gonk", named after the fluffy toy of the moment, and then the track mysteriously called "?", and the radio contest to find it's name, which was eventually "Flapjack".
1963 and 1964 were one long whirl, Peter says he worked 363 out of 365 days in one of those years. On top of his New Zealand shows, he toured Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tahiti and Vanuatu. To cap it all off, Viking's Ron Dalton arranged for "White Rabbit" to be released in the USA and for Peter to do six months work there. Before he left, his farewell tour, the "Peter Posa Spectacular" swept through the country, which took about eight weeks so huge was the public interest.
Peter right of Frank Sinatra
In Nashville, Peter spent time at all the major recording studios and met his hero Chet Atkins. He played on the TV show Hollywood Palace where he was accompanied by the legendary jazz guitarist Herb Ellis. He met Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in Las Vegas, and worked his gigs mainly in LA. Peter was on his own in the States and very homesick. So he made the decision to come home for Christmas 1964 and to confine his future touring to the South Pacific. Back in New Zealand Peter became a prolific recording artist making more albums than any other New Zealander. He toured the country many times, often as part of the Miss NZ Shows, which now included the likes of Eddie Lowe, Howard Morrison, John Hore and Paul Walden, and also on tours by Marty Robbins, Roger Whittaker, Hank Snow, Slim Whitman and Demis Roussos. In Fiji he was made an honourary chief, in Noumea he was known as "King Peter", and he dedicated one of his compositions "French Caledonian Blue" to that market. He had residencies at some of Auckland's top venues, including the Troika.
In 1965, Peter released one single with the Chicks called "Do You Wanna Dance"/"Terry".There were a few more singles during 1967 and 1967. They were two on Zodiac and one on Joe Brown, and this bought his total singles to 27. During the vinyl years, Peter released 20 albums, (2 on Zodiac, 16 on Viking, 1 on Salem and 1 on Axis).There were also 16 EP's from 1961 to 1967.Then at the height of his fame, he collapsed, suffering from nervous exhaustion, and checked himself into a private hospital where he was given electric shock treatment. "My health improved. I think the ECT helped a lot." He kept it a secret; if the public knew he was suffering from depression, his career would have collapsed. Over the years Peter began drinking to help with his anxiety issues, eventually the drinking got worse. He crashed his car driving home drunk one night in 1970. The car crash was the beginning of the end of his career. He never made another LP. Peter went on the sickness benefit, suffering from agonising whiplash, and drank even more to try to dull the pain.
There are two people in this story who have been pivotal in the resurrection of Peter Posa. Most importantly his wife Margaret who he met at a church healing meeting and married in 1991. By 1992 he was off the bottle and starting to pick up the guitar again. The other is Jim Wallace, whose sons Alex, Robert and Jimmy accompany Posa on the two-CD, half country/half gospel album ‘My Pick’ recorded in 2003. That fact is the more remarkable considering that Posa was not as match-fit as he would like to be and was still suffering on-going health problems. Guitar overdubbing would seem to be the obvious option, but he wanted to capture the spirit of a live group playing together in real time. It’s for reasons of the same search for immediacy and expressiveness that he switched to acoustic. By December 1992 he and Margaret moved to Margaret’s family property in Te Awamutu. It wasn't until 2007 that Peter's album My Pick was named International Instrumentalist CD of the Year by the United States’ National Traditional Country Music Association.
He had three attempts at taking his life. After the third he was rushed to Waikato Hospital, and transferred to the psych ward. It was during these dark days that Posa was listed in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours and was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to entertainment. In 2012, White Rabbit The Very Best of Peter Posa went to the top of the New Zealand album charts, spending six weeks at the number-one spot making it the year’s biggest selling release. But nothing ever really changed with Posa's depression, until he suffered a massive stroke in 2016. The left side of his body was paralysed. Much later he recovered movement in his shoulder and arm, but the hand remained inert. It was like the ultimate shock treatment that helped him turn to religion. Posa said: "The best thing that ever happened to me. It made me see the light. I'm a born-again Christian. I love my life now." Peter continued to live happily in Auckland with his wife Margaret, until he passed away at Waikato Hospital on 3 February 2019.
(Edited from a bio by Bruce Sergent & Peter Posa's website)
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