Terry Dene - Mystery Train

Dene was born in Elephant & Castle, London, and was discovered by Paul Lincoln at the 2i's Coffee Bar (the London club that helped launch Tommy Steele, Adam Faith and Cliff Richard) in Soho in the late 1950s.[2] Jack Good, producer of Six-Five Special, and Dick Rowe helped him obtain a recording contract with Decca.[2] At the time he was regarded as the British Elvis and recognised as one of the best voices of the rock and roll era of pre-Beatles Britain.[2] His first single "A White Sport Coat" in the first 7 weeks sold in excess of 300,000 copies, together with Stairway Of Love, which remained in the charts for 8 weeks running and his own version of Start Movin' at number 14, put his records in the top 20 twice in the same year UK Singles Chart and secured his name in the Guinness Book of Records.[3] He toured Britain, was one of the first to appear in the BBC Television's first pop show, Six-Five Special, and appeared in a film, The Golden Disc.
Dene was branded as a 'bad apple' and the exemplifier of the 'evil of rock and roll' by the press after being arrested for public drunkenness and breaking a shop window in 1958, and ripping out a telephone box from the wall whilst claiming his passionate love to Edna Savage.[2] After Dene was conscripted in 1958 into the Army for National service.[2] where he was originally expected to report to Winchester Barracks, and was due to join the King's Royal Rifle Corps on 7 July 1958, his call-up was initially deferred until contractual commitments had been completed[4] and when he finally did go in, it was so badly handled by the press (who filmed and publicised his arrival at the barracks) that after two months Dene had to be discharged on medical grounds as he received threats from his fellow inmates. By that time the press had almost ruined his career.[2] and the Army offered him a pension as a form of conpensation which Dene refused. He later joined the Larry Parnes' stable of stars and toured with them around Britain.
Disheartened by the bad publicity in 1964 Dene turned his back on the British pop scene and became an Evangelist crossing over to singing and writing spiritual and gospel music, recording three gospel albums. gospel music.[2] He travelled abroad as an itinerant preacher playing in churches, prisons and other venues and preached in the Scandinavian Lutheran Church for 5 year in Sweden [2] where he married for the second time.
In 1973, Dene released a book, I Thought Terry Dene Was Dead, and around 1984 reformed his group, the Dene Aces, with Brian Gregg. He released an album, The Real Terry Dene, in 1997 which was voted as one of the top 40 best listening CDs, and has continued to appear in rock'n'roll shows.[2] His Decca compilation was released in December 2004 by Vocalion Records. In October 2007, Dene created his own label, LLTD.COM, and in July 2010 will be releasing and launching in the UK his new CD, which has also been signed with Audioglobe, the major distributor in Italy, The Best Of Terry Dene, featuring his own version of Mystery Train, a remix of Com'in And Be Loved, So Long, which was written by Dene, and a selection of his own choice. Dene is currently exploring the various avenues of progressive rock and blues and working with a new band of Italian origin, the Mhmm, with whom he is writing 12 new tracks to be released both in the UK and Italy.
He was married in 1958 to, and subsequently divorced from, fellow pop singer, Edna Savage, who died in 2000 at the age of 64, married and divorced another 3 times after that and he is now settled with an Italian Countess, Lucia Liberati, 21 years his junior, who he met in London in 2000.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Terry
• Dene
• Mystery
• Train

[TheRockabillycowboy]

Hey this is brilliant.Never heard this version before. Great echo sound. He has a good early Rockabilly sound which is rare when compared to early Cliff and Tommy Steele. Is there any cds of Terry Dene.

[Driveandlife]

"Good rocking tonight" - Terry Dene sings Elvis Presley

[spaceball34]

Met the man back in the 80's at a rock 'n' roll gig , got a lift in his car and he spent a couple of hours at my house with a group of us listening to music...what a lovely guy he was

[copewood1939]

Good, simple back-beat rock. Just as it should be.

[Spitalhatch]

It's amazing what can be achieved with a good backing group and a bit of echo chamber, is't it?

Sounds great!

[vieurocker]

Le Rock Anglais ! Ttes les reprises des classiques américaines du genre 

[whispperson]

I Like this Version

[colindaleradiosutch]

TERRY DENE AS GOOD AS ANY ONE FROM THE USA. DOES A BRILLIANT JOB ON THIS MYSTERY TRAIN. GREAT SINGER FROM THE 2 I s DAYS IN SOHO.