Donald Peers

Peers was born in the Welsh mining town of Ammanford, Carmarthenshire on 10 July 1908.[2] His father was a colliery worker and a prominent member of the Plymouth Brethren who disapproved of the variety theatre, and never heard or saw his son work. Peers' family were hoping he would become a schoolteacher, but he had other ambitions and left home at the age of sixteen.

Peers travelled around the country working as a house painter and, for a time, went to sea as a mess steward on ships. He met Gertrude Thomson who he married in June 1930 [3] in Richmond, North Riding of Yorkshire[4] and they had a daughter, Sheila, in 1931. He joined a dance band as a singer and continued his day job as a painter. His first BBC Radio broadcast on 2LO took place on 17 December 1927, with the London Radio Dance Band.[5] One of the songs he sang was, "In a Shady Nook by a Babbling Brook", which became his most requested song and, later, his signature tune. His London debut took place in a revue at the Bedford Theatre in 1929. He struggled on until 1933 when, after an appearance on the BBC Music Hall programme booked as The Laughing Cavalier of Song,[5] he got a recording contract with HMV Records. During that year he made two television broadcasts.

In 1940 Peers enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps[6] as a clerk, where he served until D-Day in 1944, when he was invalided out. When in service, he entertained his fellow troops in shows. In 1944 he recorded "In a Shady Nook by a Babbling Brook", written by E.G. Nelson and Harry Pease in 1927. Other 1940s recordings included "I Can't Begin To Tell You", "Bow Bells", "Far Away Places", "On The 5.45" (a vocal version of "Twelfth Street Rag", with lyrics by Andy Razaf), "Powder Your Face With Sunshine" (one of his biggest successes), "Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)", "A Strawberry Moon (In A Blueberry Sky)", "Everywhere You Go", "Clancy Lowered the Boom", "It Happened in Adano", "A Rose in a Garden of Weeds", "I'll String Along with You" and "Down in the Glen".

Peers found a favourable audience in Australia. In 1950 alone he placed the following 12 songs into Australia's Top 20: "Music! Music! Music! (Put Another Nickel In)", "I Told Them All About You", "(If I Knew You Were Comin') I'd've Baked a Cake", "Harry Lime Theme", "Twenty Four Hours of Sunshine", "Dearie", "Tennessee Waltz", "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)", "Oh, You Sweet One", "Rolling 'Round the World", "My Golden Baby", and "Daddy's Little Girl".[7]

He toured in variety, building up quite a following in the provinces, and, in 1948, after a big break on BBC Radio, became a West End star. Henry Hall booked him with Billy Russell and Norman Wisdom for a new show called Buttons & Bows in 1949 and, in the same year, he performed his one-man show at the Royal Albert Hall and the London Palladium[8] Peers appeared in the 1950 Royal Variety Performance.[9] He was given his own radio show, Cavalier of Song, and had hits with, "On a Slow Boat to China". In the early 1960s Peers was given his own television programme, Donald Peers Presents, and, in that programme, he introduced Tom Jones and also scientist and writer Brian J. Ford, this time playing boogie piano.

He appeared in several films[10] including, The Balloon Goes Up (1942) and Sing Along with Me (1952), and continued recording with songs such as, "The Last Mile Home", "Dear Hearts and Gentle People", "Out of a Clear Blue Sky", "Music! Music! Music!", "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake", "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)", "Dearie", "I Remember the Cornfields", "Beloved, Be Faithful", "Me and My Imagination", "Mistakes", "In a Golden Coach" (a celebratory number for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II), "Is It Any Wonder" and "Changing Partners".