King Brothers

The King brothers—Michael, born on 25 April 1935 in Barking, Essex, England, and responsible for guitar duties; Tony, born 31 January 1937 in the same town and handling bass and bass guitar; and Denis, born 25 July 1939 in Hornchurch, Essex, England, on piano and guitar—ranked among Britain’s leading acts throughout the 1950s. Fronted by Denis, the trio made its first television appearance in 1953 on Shop Window and became regulars on children’s programming in the middle of the decade. Club dates at London’s Astor and Embassy followed in 1954, along with a residency at the Windmill Theatre and a Palladium engagement the next year. Early, unsuccessful sessions for World Record Club and Conquest preceded their signing to Parlophone, where the retro-styled young act was erroneously marketed as “Britain’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids.” Their 1957 Parlophone releases yielded chart entries with covers of “A White Sports Coat (And A Pink Carnation),” “In The Middle Of An Island,” and the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie,” earning them the New Musical Express readers’ poll as Britain’s Top Vocal Group. Four additional Top 40 singles arrived in 1960–61, again produced by Norman Newell and drawn from American successes; the highest-placed was “Standing On The Corner” from the musical The Most Happy Fella, which peaked at number 4 in 1960. Their last chart entry, “Seventy-Six Trombones,” appeared the following year. These achievements secured a second NME Vocal Group award in 1960 and Melody Maker’s equivalent honor in 1961 at a time when domestic vocal groups remained scarce. Original material ended their hit run, an outcome consistent with their aversion to any rock ’n’ roll association. As the final old-school vocal trio to achieve commercial success in Britain, they benefited from arriving when the country sought a homegrown act to champion. Later label affiliations included Pye in 1963, Oriole in 1964, and both CBS Records and Page One in 1966. Denis subsequently emerged as one of the UK’s most prominent television composers, creating themes for Bouquet Of Barbed Wire, The Fenn St. Gang, Within These Walls, Black Beauty, and numerous other series.