Jerry Keller

Born on 20 June 1938 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA, Keller relocated to Tulsa in 1944. There he assembled the Lads Of Note Quartet during the 1950s and later became a member of the Tulsa Boy Singers. A talent contest staged by bandleader Horace Heidt led to his appointment as vocalist with Jack Dalton’s Orchestra. After nine months working as a disc jockey in Tulsa, he moved to New York in 1956. While cutting demos for various labels, he was introduced by fellow performer Pat Boone to manager Marty Mills. For the Kapp label Keller cut his own composition ‘Here Comes Summer,’ which emerged as a summer hit across the United States in 1959. The single reached the UK charts only in late August, just as summer gave way to autumn, yet it still climbed to number 1. Subsequent releases including ‘If I Had A Girl’ and ‘Now Now Now’ did not match that achievement. In 1960 he joined a UK package tour in place of Eddie Cochran, who had been killed earlier that year in a car crash. Although further solo successes proved elusive, his compositions enjoyed strong chart runs for artists such as Andy Williams and the Cyrkle. He appeared in the 1977 film You Light Up My Life and the following year in If I Ever See You Again.