RAY BROWN & THE WHISPERS
Devoted To You
(The Dennisons)
Australia 1965
#1 Sydney #1 Perth

Double-sided hit in Perth with Twenty Miles.

Chart-topping Sydney band that originated in the surf music scene as The Nocturnes. After acquiring Ray Brown as their lead singer, they went on to become one of the most popular Australian bands of the British Invasion era.

Although the record apparently showed the songwriting credit of Bryant, this is a different song from the Boudleaux Bryant composition recorded by the Everly Brothers.

APRA lists both songs and shows Ray Brown as an artist under both, but he seems to have recorded only the Dennisons song.

Reference: Full history at Milesago. Thanks to John Gambrill for the red herring alert.

Disambiguation: 1. This is not Ray Brown, the American jazz bassist (1926-2002). 2. These Whispers are not the American R&B vocal group formed in 1964.

 
BILLY THORPE & THE AZTECS
Devoted To You
(The Dennisons)
Australia 1965

On the album Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. The album also included Pride, originally by Brent Edwards but recorded famously in Australia by Ray Brown & The Whispers.

Version alert from Terry Stacey.

Ray Brown and Billy Thorpe shared a manager, John Harrigan, at this time, and both launched their careers from Sydney's Surf City where Brown followed Thorpe into residency. (TS)

Further reading: 1. For more on Billy Thorpe at this site see, for example, his major Australian hit Poison Ivy. 2. Milesago's Billy Thorpe history.

 

THE DENNISONS
Devoted To You
(The Dennisons)
UK 1964
Original version

On Decca compilation album Live At The Cavern, Liverpool (1964).

The Dennisons were a Liverpool band who had two charting singles in the UK: their own composition Be My Girl (1963, #46) and Rufus Thomas's Walkin' The Dog (1964, #36).

Drummer Clive Hornby plays the part of Jack Sugden in the long-running BBC serial Emmerdale Farm (aka Emmerdale). He also pops up in an early Minder episode, The Bengal Tiger.

Further reading: The Dennisons history and discography at British Beat Boom.
THE EVERLY BROTHERS
Devoted To You
(Boudleaux Bryant)
USA 1958
Red herring
#19 Sydney #25 Brisbane #7 Perth

Same title but not the same song as "Devoted To You" by Ray Brown and the Whispers.

Also recorded by Helen Merrill, The Beach Boys, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, The Seekers.

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