Lee Denson born 25 August 1932

Jesse Lee Denson (August 25, 1932 – November 6, 2007) was an American rockabilly singer and songwriter. His songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Billy Williams, and the Kuf-Linx.

Lee Denson was born in Rienzi, Mississippi, but grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where his family relocated when he was a baby. He was the eighth out of a total of ten children. His father, Jesse James Denson, later ran a Pentecostal mission church in Memphis. As a child, Denson became friends with Johnny and Dorsey Burnette. After the Presley family moved to Memphis in 1948 and started attending the Pentecostal church on Poplar Street run by his father, he also became friendly with Elvis Presley, two years his junior, and reputedly taught him to play guitar.

In 1953 Denson moved to Key West, Florida, where he worked as a bellboy, Denson began singing in clubs in the style of Eddy Arnold. As the Florida islands only had limited openings for a young eager musician, he often went out on tours all over the USA. In mid 1956 he saw his old school buddies Johnny and Dorsey Burnette on the television show The Ted Mack Amateur Hour, which they won three times, plus securing a national tour with the programme as well as a recording contract with Coral Records.

Lee thought that he could easily replicate this and called the brothers for advice with the end result that he moved to New York where he stayed for eight months. He also gained an appearance on The Ted Mack Amateur Hour where he came out the clear winner. Brother Jimmy was with him by now and it was he who took over promotion. Jimmy contacted people at RCA and got them to watch Lee on the show. Eventually Lee gained a recording contract with the Vik label, which was an RCA subsidiary company, and so he started searching for new material to record.

                             

On December 12th 1956 Lee went into the RCA's New York studio to cut his first four songs. He was accompanied by in the studio by top session men such as Panama Francis and Sam "The Man" Taylor. The output was "Heart Of A Fool" coupled 
with Lee's own composition "The Pied Piper" which was the plug side. This became a No. 50 US hit for Billy Williams in 1957.

Denison’s other recordings included "Climb Love Mountain" (1957, Vik). The b-side of the single was "New Shoes", which featured guitar work by Eddie Cochran, who Denson had met while on tour in California. The Kuf-Linx recorded a version of "Climb Love Mountain", re-titled as "Climb Love's Mountain".

Denson made several appearances on Dick Clark's Bandstand, before moving to California with his brother Jimmy where he made recordings for Kent Records in 1958, credited as Jesse James. The first session for his new label was on March 3rd 1958 and produced the two self composed numbers "High School Hop" and "Devil 
Doll". With Jimmy handling the promotion, Lee obtained plenty of local bookings and magazine write-ups. Whilst Jimmy was not a musician, he was a capable composer with the result that he and Lee started to write songs together.

These included "The South's Gonna Rise Again", recorded with top musicians including Earl Palmer at Gold Star Studios. Denson also recorded for the Merri label in 1960. Although most of his recordings were rock and roll, he retained an interest in gospel music, and wrote "Miracle of the Rosary", based on the hymn "Ave Maria", offering the song to Presley when the two met.

While his buddies embraced stardom, Denson’s salad days were over. Apart from 1964 when Denson recorded for the Magic Lamp label set up by Dorsey Burnette and Joe Osborn; the Carpenters made their first recordings as backing singers on the records. Lee wasn’t heard from again until Presley picked up his The Miracle Of The Rosary in 1971 for his ‘Elvis Now’ album

The Elvis recording stirred up new regarding Lee so he returned to Memphis in 1972, and signed a contract with Stax Records where in recorded his own version of the song in 1973. He later wrote and recorded several albums of Christian music for his own Eternal Rainbow label, as well as recording children's songs.

A compilation album of Denson's work was released in April 2002 on Hydra Records. The South's Gonna Rise Again contained 23 tracks, the majority written by Denson.

Denson died in the Methodist University Hospital, Tennessee, on 6th November 2007 at the age of 75.

(Edited from Wikipedia & rockabilly.nl)