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RAY
PETERSON (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)
Ray T. Peterson (April 23, 1935 – January 25, 2005)
was an American pop music singer.
Ray Peterson was born
in Denton, Texas on April 23, 1935. As a boy he had to overcome
polio. H was told he would never walk again, but miraculously that
was not the case, and he was left with only a slight limp. In later
life, he even became an accomplished golfer. It was while he was
being treated for polio at Warm Springs Foundation Hospital in Texas,
that Ray began to sing to amuse himself and the other patients. When
he was finally released, he began to work in local clubs before
moving to Los Angeles, where he met longtime manager Stan Shulman.
Ray Peterson's
remarkable 4-1/2-octave voice intrigued executives at RCA Records
and they signed the singer in 1957. His first single was an unusual,
almost gospel version of the Little Willie John 1956 hit, "Fever"
that fell somewhere between the bluesy John arrangement and the
later, sexier take by Peggy Lee.
"Fever" cooled in the
marketplace and a new single "Let's Try Romance"/"Shirley Purly" was
issued, but also found little response. Despite the lack of interest
in Ray's early records, he remained with RCA and finally scored his
first hit with his seventh single "The Wonder Of You". It was a
gentle ballad written by veteran Baker Knight, and became a Top 30
success in the summer of 1959. Elvis Presley was so taken with Ray's
heartwarming rendition that he called Ray and asked if he too could
record it. A very flattered Ray Peterson told Elvis that he didn't
have to ask - he was Elvis Presley. Elvis replied, "Yes I do - you
are Ray Peterson". "The Wonder of You" became a Top 10 hit for Elvis
in 1970.
Another minor hit, "Answer
Me," followed before Peterson scored his greatest success with the
1960 epic "Tell Laura I Love Her." The record's popularity allowed
the singer to fund his own label, Dunes, and he soon recruited
producer Phil Spector to helm a smash rendition of the traditional
"Corrina Corrina." The Dunes roster also included singer Curtis Lee,
for whom Spector produced the 1961 hits "Pretty Little Angel Eyes"
and "Under the Moon of Love." Peterson himself went on to cut the
Goffin/King-authored "Missing You" and "I Could Have Loved You So
Well," but his stardom quickly faded, and after scoring a last minor
chart entry with 1963's "Give Us Your Blessing" he signed to MGM in
an attempt to cross over to country audiences..
His performances at the
Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, produced by Fred Vail, beginning in
1963 helped fuel a revival of "The Wonder of You" as well as launch
his new relationship with MGM Records, an alliance that produced two
albums, "The Very Best of Ray Peterson" featuring most of the Dunes
singles, and "The Other Side of Ray Peterson", which included many
of his nightclub songs. He later moved to Nashville, Tennessee and
by the 1970s when the hit records stopped coming, Peterson became a
Baptist Church minister and occasionally played the oldies music
circuit.
Ray Peterson died of
cancer in 2005 in Smyrna, Tennessee and was interred in the Roselawn
Memorial Gardens cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
(info edited from
Wikipedia & rockabillyhall.com) |
