Denny Dennis (1 November 1913 in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

– 2 November 1993 in

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

) was a

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, ...

romantic vocalist during the 1930s to the 1950s, when

British dance band British dance band is a genre of popular jazz and dance music that developed in British dance halls and hotel ballrooms during the 1920s and 1930s, often called a Golden Age of British music, prior to the Second World War. Thousands of miles aw ...

s were at the peak of their popularity. He was a band singer, a solo recording star and a broadcaster.

Career

Born Ronald Dennis Pountain, he had a job on the railways as a teenager. He was spotted by Percy Mathison Brooks, the editor of the ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'', at a regional dance band contest in 1932. In time, this led to Dennis working with the Freddy Bretherton Band at the ‘Spider's Web’ Roadhouse Club on the Watford Bypass. In 1933, he became a featured singer in the Roy Fox band, for five years until the Fox band disbanded. He worked with Ambrose's orchestra for six months until June 1939 when he decided to go solo, recording for Decca's Rex label. This soon clashed with the outbreak of the second World War and Dennis enlisted in the RAF in June 1940 and remained in uniform until 1945. After the war, he made a number of recordings with

Stanley Black Stanley Black OBE (14 June 1913 – 27 November 2002) was an English bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores, recording prolifically for the Decca label (including their subsidiaries ''Lond ...

and his orchestra and these drew him to the attention of

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...

. In March 1948 Dennis left the UK to become the featured vocalist with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He had a successful time with Dorsey with their recording of "Down by the Station" reaching the Billboard charts in 1949 and peaking in the #11 position. In April 1949 he decided to return to England for personal reasons. In 1950, he sponsored a close harmony singing group, the

Fraser Hayes Four The Fraser Hayes Four, originally called The Fraser Hayes Quartette, was a British close harmony vocal group, formed by the musicians Jimmy Fraser (real name Frazer Potts) and Tony Hayes in the late 1940s, disbanded in 1953, and re-formed in 1956. ...

, who had success on radio in the 1960s. As the dance band scene declined, he found work making covers of popular songs for the budget Embassy label.

Personal life

He married Betty Faye in 1938. They had one son but the marriage later dissolved. He married again to Joan Armitage in 1969 and this marriage was dissolved in 1981. Denny Dennis died in November 1993, one day after his 80th birthday.

References

1913 births 1993 deaths Musicians from Derby 20th-century British male singers {{UK-singer-stub