Danny Street (born Joseph Wilson Drysdale; 22 April 1941 – 21 April 2010) was a Scottish

session singer Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a t ...

and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

singer.

Life

He was born in

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

, Scotland in 1941, son of a butcher, and educated at

Stirling High School Stirling High School is a state high school for 11- to 18-year-olds run by Stirling Council in Stirling, Scotland. It is one of seven high schools in the Stirling district, and has approximately 972 pupils. It is located on Torbrex Farm Road, ...

. While an apprentice electrician he studied singing. From November 1962, as Danny Street, he was the vocalist with the Johnny Howard Band, which was heard regularly on '' Easy Beat'' on BBC radio. He left the band in 1969, and as a solo artist he often sang with the

BBC Radio Orchestra The BBC Radio Orchestra was a broadcasting orchestra based in London, maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1964 until 1991. The BBC Radio Orchestra was formed in 1964 as a large, flexible studio orchestra on the Nelson Riddle/H ...

conducted by

Malcolm Lockyer Malcolm Neville Lockyer (5 October 1923 – 28 June 1976) was a British film composer and conductor. Biography Lockyer was born in Greenwich, London, England. In his early years he developed an interest in dance and from here gathered an interest ...

.Danny Street
''The Daily Telegraph'', 27 April 2010, accessed 19 August 2017.Danny Street
''The Stage'', 10 May 2010, accessed 19 August 2017. He also recorded songs for film soundtracks, including the title themes for '' Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River'' (1968) and '' Bedtime with Rosie'' (1974). Danny Street was described as the British Jack Jones. He was heard many times on the BBC radio programme ''

Big Band Special ''Big Band Special'' was a BBC Radio 2 series which launched in September 1979, as a showcase for the BBC Big Band in session and in concert. Big Band Special was a 30-minute programme broadcast on Monday nights at 9.30pm and presented by Clare ...

'', which began in 1979. His music was often arranged by Steve Gray, whom he had met in the Johnny Howard Band. As a member of the

Cliff Adams Singers The Cliff Adams Singers were a British male/female List of vocal groups, vocal group, known for ballads and novelty songs, and especially their regular performances on BBC Radio from the 1950s onwards. The ensemble was established in 1954 by Cl ...

he was heard in ''

Sing Something Simple ''Sing Something Simple'' was a half-hour radio programme, which featured Cliff Adams and The Cliff Adams Singers, with Jack Emblow on accordion. The programme ran for 42 years from 1959 until 2001, initially on the BBC Light Programme and later ...

'' on BBC Radio 2 for 14 years. He was in backing groups on TV programmes including ''

The Two Ronnies ''The Two Ronnies'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from April 1971 to December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, seria ...

'', '' The Val Doonican Show'' and ''

The Des O'Connor Show ''The Des O'Connor Show'' is a British variety and chat show hosted by Des O'Connor which was broadcast on ITV from 1963 until 1973. History Associated Television produced the programme, which was recorded in black-and-white for the first six ...

''. He was married to Helenor; they had two daughters and a son. It is thought that by 1985 Danny Street had made about 1,500 broadcasts. In that year he suffered a serious heart attack; after a year recovering, he returned to singing. In August 1992, after a broadcast concert of ''Big Band Special'' at the

Theatre Royal, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Plymouth, is a theatre venue in Plymouth, Devon. It consists of a 1,300-seat main auditorium, The Lyric, which regularly hosts large-scale musicals, opera and ballet; a 200-seat studio, The Drum; and a 50-seat studio, The Lab. ...

, he suffered a second heart attack; three years later he retired to

Clackmannanshire Clackmannanshire (; sco, Clackmannanshire; gd, Siorrachd Chlach Mhannainn) is a historic county, council area, registration county and Lieutenancy area in Scotland, bordering the council areas of Stirling, Fife, and Perth & Kinross and the hi ...

. He died of a heart attack on 21 April 2010.

References

External links

*
Danny Street discography
at 45cat {{DEFAULTSORT:Street, Danny 1941 births 2010 deaths People educated at Stirling High School Big band singers Scottish session musicians