Ray Peterson

Genres:	Pop / Rock
Descriptive "tags":	oldies • rock and roll • pop • rock n roll • usa • phil spector • male vocalists
Decades Active:	1960s • 1970s • 1990s • 2000s

Biography

23 April 1939, Denton, Texas, USA, d. 25 January 2005, Smyrna, Tennessee, USA. Peterson entertained other patients with his singing during lengthy treatment for polio in the Texas Warm Springs Foundation Hospital. On discharge, he performed in local clubs before moving to Los Angeles where he was spotted by manager Stan Shulman who procured an RCA - Victor Records recording contract. ‘Let’s Try Romance’ (1958) paved the way for further failures in ‘Tail Light’, a cover of the Little Willie John hit ‘Fever’ and the up-tempo ‘Shirley Purley’. However, Peterson came up trumps with ‘The Wonder Of You’ (later a million-seller for Elvis Presley) in the US and UK Top 30 charts in 1959 and had a minor UK hit a year later with ‘Answer Me’. In 1960, he swept into the US Top 10 with the original version of Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh’s car crash epic ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ - which financed the...

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