Promises was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-based pop group which was founded 1978 in

Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown. It is named after the many oak tree ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The members were siblings Leslie Maria Knauer (born August 20, 1957, Vancouver, vocals, bongos), Jed Knauer (born July 17, 1955, Toronto, guitar, piano) and Benny Knauer (born October 21, 1958, Vancouver, keyboards and vocals). Their father Peter Knauer was a German from

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who moved with his children from Canada to California in the late 1960s. Promises was formed, recorded and produced by Steve Verroca, who leased the group's album to EMI EAR Holland. In February 1979, the

soft rock Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

single "Baby It's You" became a smash hit around the world, especially in Europe, where it reached number 4 in the German charts, and Promises received a

Gold album Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

there for selling more than 260,000 units. The song was also hugely popular in

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, largely due to programming of its promotional video on Sunday evening television music show

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. The song was subsequently released on a highly popular compilation album in that market. It also reached number one on the

New Zealand Singles Chart The Official New Zealand Music Chart ( mi, Te Papa Tātai Waiata Matua o Aotearoa) is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The Music ...

for five weeks. "Baby It's You" was a success in

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as well, also appearing on Volume 7 of that country's long-running compilation album series "Pop Shop". The video also received a lot of airplay on South African television. With their second single "Lets Get Back Together" being much less successful (only reaching number 18 in Germany), and Leslie wanting the group to become more of a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

band, they broke up. It is often said that Promises was a flop in the United States, but due to disagreements between EMI-EAR and

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

in Los Angeles, Capitol refused to sign the group and Promises was never released in the U.S. Once the group was no longer signed to EMI-EAR, and under new manager Toby Mamis, they entered the studio to record a U.S. album for Capitol, produced by

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. Producer Verroca had used many recording tricks for Leslie's voice that Nitzsche was unaware of, leading to friction with the new producer. Leslie insisted on recording full takes without overdubs. The album's recording sessions were subsequently halted, and the group broke up. Leslie Knauer (Knauer-Wasser during a relationship with photographer Julian Wasser) went on to join and release a single with the group Roxy Roller with former

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guitarist

Lizzie Grey Stephen M. Perry (August 13, 1958 – August 5, 2019), who used the stage name Lizzie Grey, was an American musician. He is perhaps best known for his membership as a guitarist in the heavy metal band London and for co-writing the Mötley Crü ...

, and later became a member of the group

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(1983-1992), represented by music attorney Stann Findelle, who made their first recording deal with

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and went on to record on

Chameleon Records Chameleon was a record label formed by producer, music entrepreneur and former Capitol Records A&R executive Stephen Powers, in association with Bob Marin, Managing Director of alternative rock importer Sounds Good, and Richard Foos, co-founder of ...

. Leslie was later a member of Kanary (2004), and sang two songs for the

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...

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, ''Choke'' (2001). Leslie's daughter Alexi Wasser is an actress.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

"Baby It's You" single ("First Published ... in Holland") autographed "Baby It's You" single coverLeslie Knauer tribute page, courtesy Rocketcity RecordsKanary website
{{Authority control Canadian pop music groups American pop music groups People from Thousand Oaks, California Musical groups from Ventura County, California