Danny Williams (7 January 1942 – 6 December 2005)
was a
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n-born
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
pop singer
who earned the nickname "Britain's
Johnny Mathis
John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...
", for his smooth and stylish way with a
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
.
He is best known for his 1961 UK number one version of "
Moon River
"Moon River" is a song composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (film), Breakfast at Tiffany's'', winning an Academy Award for Best Original ...
" and his 1964 U.S. top ten hit, "
White on White
''Suprematist Composition: White on White'' (1918) is an abstract oil-on-canvas painting by Kazimir Malevich. It is one of the more well-known examples of the Russian Suprematism movement, painted the year after the October Revolution.
Part ...
".
Career
Born in
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
,
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
, South Africa,
Williams won a
talent contest
A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather th ...
at the age of 14 and joined a touring show called Golden City Dixies that played throughout South Africa.
In 1959, the show came to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
where Williams impressed
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
's
Norman Newell
Norman Newell (25 January 1919 – 1 December 2004) was an English record producer, who was mainly active in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the songwriter, co-writer of many notable songs. As an A&R manager for EMI, he worked with musicians su ...
, who signed the young singer to a recording contract.
He was to spend most of his life in the United Kingdom, where at first he made a few moderately successful singles, mainly popular ballads, before scoring a number-one hit with his cover version of "
Moon River
"Moon River" is a song composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (film), Breakfast at Tiffany's'', winning an Academy Award for Best Original ...
" in 1961.
To this day, it remains his most famous record; he also scored a No. 8 chart hit with "
The Wonderful World of the Young" in April 1962. It led to his appearance in the film ''
Play It Cool'' (1962), directed by
Michael Winner
Robert Michael Winner (30 October 1935 – 21 January 2013) was a British filmmaker, writer, and media personality. He is known for directing numerous Action film, action, Thriller films, thriller, and black comedy films in the 1960s, 1970s and ...
and starring
Billy Fury
Ronald Wycherley (17 April 1940 – 28 January 1983), better known as Billy Fury, was an English singer, musician, songwriter, and actor. An early star of rock and roll, he equalled the Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s and spent 332 week ...
as pop singer Billy Universe, and he also appeared in the
Tommy Steele
Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.
After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele reco ...
film ''
It's All Happening'' (1963). In 1963, Williams joined a 20-city tour which starred
Helen Shapiro
Helen Kate Shapiro (born 28 September 1946) is a British pop and jazz singer and actress. While still a teenager in the early 1960s, she was one of Britain's most successful female singers. With a voice described by AllMusic as possessing "th ...
and featured
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
as a support act on the bill; like many other ballad singers of the day, he was swept away by the new
beat group
Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffle ...
era.
Williams had no more major British hits, even though "
White on White
''Suprematist Composition: White on White'' (1918) is an abstract oil-on-canvas painting by Kazimir Malevich. It is one of the more well-known examples of the Russian Suprematism movement, painted the year after the October Revolution.
Part ...
" became popular abroad and was his only US
top ten hit, charting in 1964 (No. 9
Pop, No. 3
MOR
Mor or MOR may refer to:
Names and titles
* Mór (given name), a list of people named Mór or Mor
* Mor (surname), a list of people named Mor or Mór
* Mor (honorific), or Mar, in Syriac
Radio and television
* Middle of the road (music) genre
* ...
). He continued to record for
HMV
Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom.
The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...
until 1967 while working the
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
circuit.
In 1968, he had a
nervous breakdown
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
and was declared
bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debt ...
two years later. However, he resumed his singing career in the early 1970s, achieving a top 30 success with "Dancin' Easy" in 1977.
In the early 1990s, he recorded for
Prestige Records
Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz music ...
and subsequently starred in a
Nat "King" Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...
tribute show which made several British tours.
Compilations of his early recordings, including "Moon River", have been issued on CD.
He died in December 2005 of
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
, at the age of 63.
Williams was married three times, and is survived by his two daughters (Natali and Melody Williams) and two sons, the actor
Anthony Barclay
Anthony Barclay is an English actor who has appeared in productions including '' Domina'' for ''Sky Atlantic'', ''The Irregulars'' for ''Netflix'', ''Britannia'' for ''Sky Atlantic'' and '' Common as Muck'' for the ''BBC''. He played Anthony Be ...
and Michael Stewart.
Discography
Albums
(Record label in parenthesis)
*1961: ''Danny Williams''
(HMV)
*1962: ''The Exciting Danny Williams''
(United Artists)
*1962: ''Swinging for You'' (with
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many world-famous vocalists at Capitol Records ...
)
(HMV)
*1964: ''With You in Mind''
(United Artists)
*1964: ''White on White''
(United Artists)
*1966: ''Romance with Danny Williams''
(Music for Pleasure)
*1966: ''Only Love''
(HMV)
*1968: ''Danny Williams''
(Deram)
*1972: ''Danny Williams''
(Contour)
*1973: ''I'm a Song – Sing Me''
(Philips)
*1975: ''To Know You Is to Love You''
(Philips)
*1977: ''Anytime Anyplace Anywhere''
(Philips)
Singles
Catalogue
(Record label in bold)
;His Master's Voice
*1959: "Tall a Tree" / "I Look at You"
*1959: "So High, So Low" / "My Own True Love"
*1960: "Youthful Years" / "It Doesn't Matter"
*1960: "A Million to One" / "Call Me a Dreamer"
*1961: "We Will Never Be as Young as This Again" / "Passing Breeze"
*1961: "The Miracle of You" / "Lonely"
*1961: "Moon River" / "A Weaver of Dreams"
*1962: "Jeannie" / "It Might as Well Be Spring"
*1962: "The Wonderful World of the Young" / "A Kind of Loving"
*1962: "Tears" / "Tiara Tahiti"
*1963: "My Own True Love" / "Who Can Say?"
*1963: "More" / "Rhapsody"
*1963: "The Wild Wind" / "Once Upon a Time"
*1963: "A Day Without You" / "Secret Love"
*1963: "How Do You Keep from Crying?" / "Now the Day Is Over"
*1964: "
White on White
''Suprematist Composition: White on White'' (1918) is an abstract oil-on-canvas painting by Kazimir Malevich. It is one of the more well-known examples of the Russian Suprematism movement, painted the year after the October Revolution.
Part ...
" / "After You"
*1964: "
Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...
" / "Lonely in a Crowd"
*1964: "The Seventh Dawn" / "The World Around Me"
*1964: "Forget Her, Forget Her" / "Lollipops and Roses"
*1965: "The Roundabout of Love" / "I Wanna Be Around"
*1965: "Go Away" / "Masquerade"
*1965: "Lovely Is She" / "Gone and Forgotten"
*1965: "And So We Meet Again" / "Violets for Your Furs"
*1966: "I've Got to Find That Girl Again" / "Throw a Little Lovin' My Way"
*1966: "Don't Just Stand There" / "Now and Then"
*1966: "Since You Set Me Free, Baby" / "I Really Don't Know What Hit Me"
*1966: "Rain (Falling from the Skies)" / "I'm So Lost"
;Deram
*1967: "Never My Love" / "Whose Little Girl Are You"
*1967: "Love Me" / "When You Were Mine"
*1968: "Everybody Needs Somebody" / "They Will Never Understand"
;Ocean
*1970: "Fare Ye Well - Separate Ways" / "A Girl Like You"
;Philips
*1973: "I Will Touch You" / "Words of Romance"
*1973: "So Begins My Life" / "Where Is the Love"
*1974: "Hey Love" / "Life's a Roundabout"
*1974: "Every Night I Cry Myself to Sleep" / "Natali"
*1975: "Ebony Eyes" / "Believe in the Rain"
;Ensign
*1977: "Dancin' Easy" / "No More Cane"
*1977: "I Hate Hate" / "I Hate Hate (Disco Version)"
;Piccadilly
*1980: "Daddy Write a Letter Soon" / "Give a Little Bit"
References
External links
Dead Rock Stars website entry*
Danny Williams biographyat
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Danny
1942 births
2005 deaths
British pop singers
British crooners
South African emigrants to the United Kingdom
20th-century Black British male singers
People from Port Elizabeth
Place of death missing
Deaths from cancer in the United Kingdom
Deaths from lung cancer
Traditional pop music singers
Deram Records artists
Philips Records artists
Prestige Records artists
United Artists Records artists