King Brothers - Golden Selection (Remastered) (2020)

Brothers Michael (b. 25 April 1935, Barking, Essex, England; guitar), Tony (b. 31 January 1937, Barking, Essex, England; bass and bass guitar) and Denis King (b. 25 July 1939, Hornchurch, Essex, England; piano, guitar) were one of Britain’s top groups in the 50s. The trio, fronted by Denis, made their television debut in 1953 on Shop Window and were often seen on mid-50s children’s programmes. In 1954, they appeared at London’s famous Astor and Embassy clubs, played a season at the Windmill Theatre and performed at the Palladium in 1955. After recording unsuccessfully for World Record Club and Conquest, the old-styled young trio, who were mistakenly tagged ‘Britain’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids’, joined Parlophone Records. In 1957, they charted with cover versions of ‘A White Sports Coat (And A Pink Carnation)’, ‘In The Middle Of An Island’ and even the Everly Brothers’ ‘Wake Up Little Susie’ and were voted Britain’s Top Vocal Group by New Musical Express readers. They had four more Top 40 hits in 1960-61, again with Norman Newell -produced cover versions of songs popular in the USA. The biggest of these was ‘Standing On The Corner’, from the musical The Most Happy Fella, which reached number 4 in 1960. Their final chart hit came a year later with ‘Seventy-Six Trombones’. In those days, when UK vocal groups were rare, these successes helped them to regain the NME Vocal Group award in 1960 and collect Melody Maker’s similar award a year later. When they decided to record their own compositions, the hits stopped for the trio, who disliked being associated with rock ‘n’ roll. They were the last of the old-school vocal groups to be successful in the UK, and were perhaps fortunate to be on the scene when Britain badly needed a vocal group to call its own. They recorded for Pye Records in 1963, Oriole in 1964 and CBS Records and Page One in 1966. Denis King has since become one of the best-known television music writers in the UK, composing the themes for such successful television series as Bouquet Of Barbed Wire, The Fenn St. Gang, Within These Walls and Black Beauty, among many others.