Denis Andrew King (born 25 July 1939) is an English composer and singer. He is best remembered as a member of a family ensemble, The King Brothers.

Early career: the King Brothers

King was born in

Hornchurch Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London in the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed a large ancient par ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. He began his musical career at the age of six as a

banjolele The banjo ukulele, also known as the banjolele or banjo uke, is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. The earliest known banjoleles were built by John A. Bolander and by Alvin D. Keech, both ...

-playing singer at children's matinees and, by the age of thirteen, with his two older brothers, Mike and Tony, was a member of one of the most successful pop groups of the 1950s and 1960s, The King Brothers — considered to be Britain’s first

boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands ...

. Denis played the piano, Mike the guitar, and Tony the double bass. By the time King was thirteen, The King Brothers were touring around the U.K. in what was known as twice-nightly variety (the equivalent of America's

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

), performing two shows a night in one town before moving on to the next the following week. For two years King attended a different school in a different town almost every week. Along with concerts and tours around Europe, The King Brothers did summer shows, and television appearances, played the Windmill Theatre and, in 1956, became the youngest variety act to play the

London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in Soho. The theatre was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1910. The auditorium holds 2,286 people. Hundreds of stars have played there, many wit ...

. Within a year they were in the UK Singles Chart. " A White Sport Coat" and "Standing On The Corner" were their biggest successes. They appeared with

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...

, Harry Secombe,

Frankie Vaughan Frankie Vaughan (born Frank Fruim Abelson; 3 February 1928 – 17 September 1999) was an English singer and actor who recorded more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after his ...

, Roy Castle,

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, as well as American stars

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, Sophie Tucker and

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

Later career

With the disbanding of the group in 1970, Denis studied orchestration at the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with dram ...

in London and got his first break in television writing the music for '' The Adventures of Black Beauty'' ("Galloping Home"), which won an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

. To date, he has created themes and incidental music for over two hundred television series including ''

Within These Walls ''Within These Walls'' is a British television drama programme made by London Weekend Television for ITV and shown between 1974 and 1978. It portrayed life in HMP Stone Park, a fictional women's prison. Unlike later women-in-prison TV series ...

'', ''If It Moves File It'', ''

Dick Turpin Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher ear ...

'', '' Two's Company'', ''

Lovejoy ''Lovejoy'' is a British television comedy-drama mystery fiction, mystery series, based on the Lovejoy (novel series), novels by John Grant (Lovejoy), John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six ser ...

'', ''

We'll Meet Again "We'll Meet Again" is a 1939 song by English singer Vera Lynn with music and lyrics composed and written by English songwriters Ross Parker and Hughie Charles. The song is one of the most famous of the Second World War era, resonating with ...

'' and '' Hannay'', in addition to one hundred jingles for radio and television advertising. He has also worked on films, writing the scores to '' Simon, Simon'' (1970), '' Not Tonight, Darling'' (1971), '' Holiday on the Buses'' (1973), '' Ghost in the Noonday Sun'' (1973), '' Sweeney!'' (1977), '' If You Go Down in the Woods Today'' (1981) and '' Privates on Parade'' (1982). As a musician he has performed with

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, Benny Green, with Maureen Lipman (in her successful stage show ''Re: Joyce''), and with Dick Vosburgh in the comic revues ''Beauty and the Beards'' and ''Sing Something Silly'', as well as on the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

radio comedy Radio comedy, or comedy, comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve variety show, sitcom elements, sketch comedy, sketches, and various types of comedy found in other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elemen ...

series ''

Hello, Cheeky! ''Hello Cheeky'' is a comedy series starring Barry Cryer, John Junkin and Tim Brooke-Taylor, broadcast on BBC Radio 2 between 1973 and 1979, and also broadcast on television - on the ITV network - in 1976. The format was short comedy sketches, ...

'' from 1973 to 1979; he appeared in the TV version of the latter, produced by

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

in 1976. His debut as a theatrical composer was with the original 1977

Royal Shakespeare Theatre The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a Grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakespea ...

's production of '' Privates On Parade'' (book and lyrics by Peter Nichols) which won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Musical. Other theatre productions include '' A Saint She Ain't'' and ''The Un-American Songbook ''(with Dick Vosburgh); '' Stepping Out - The Musical'' (with

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and Mary Stewart-David); '' Bashville'' and ''Valentine's Day'' (with Benny Green); ''Worzel Gummidge'' starring

Jon Pertwee John Devon Roland Pertwee (; 7 July 1919 – 20 May 1996), known professionally as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Born into a theatrical family, he became known as a comedy actor, playing Chief Petty Officer Pertwee (and three other roles) in ...

and ''Lost Empires'' (with

Keith Waterhouse Keith Spencer Waterhouse Order of British Empire, CBE (6 February 1929 – 4 September 2009) was a British novelist and newspaper columnist and the writer of many television series. He was also a noted arbiter of newspaper style and journalisti ...

& Willis Hall); ''Wind In The Willows'' and ''Treasure Island (''with Willis Hall); ''West Five Story'' (with Richard Harris); ''Baby On Board'' (with Mary Stewart-David) for the Stephen Joseph Theatre,

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the No ...

, where it was directed by Alan Ayckbourn. King has written extensively with Ayckbourn and together they have created the musicals '' Whenever'', '' Orvin - Champion Of Champions'', and '' Awaking Beauty'', which premiered in December 2008 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. King later moved to the "celebrity hotspot" of Walberswick, Suffolk, where in 2012 he staged an amateur version of his own musical, ''Wind in the Willows''. In 2025, Denis King released a thirteen-part podcast of his memoirs – Key Changes – from child star in the King Brothers to composer for stage and screen, featuring his own music (often with King on the piano), old recordings and archive material.https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/denis-kings-key-changes-a-glorious-musical-memoir-podcast/id1817513528

References

External links

*
Denis King
at the Internet Off Broadway Database {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Denis 1939 births Living people English male singers English composers Ivor Novello Award winners Jingle composers