Ricky Valance |
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An artist whose name is often mis-spelled as 'Valence' or even confused with the late Mexican-American Ritchie Valens. "Tell Laura I Love Her" was a direct cover of Ray Peterson's American hit. It became a classic, if controversial, 'one-hit-wonder' for Welshman Ricky Valance. The record was a classic of the 'death' genre which even gave rise to an answer record "Tell Tommy I Miss Him". Tommy, of course, was the character who dies in a stock car race in the first song. The original version of this second song was by Skeeter Davis, but that too was covered by a British artist- Laura Lee. Neither version of the 'answer' succeeded in the UK. Laura Lee's version had been produced by Joe Meek who had also made a cover version of 'Tell Laura I Love Her' with John Leyton. This was John's first recording which did nothing but, unlike Ricky Valance, John Leyton was destined to have a string of hits. Nothing else that Ricky Valance ever did even reached the chart let alone came near the #1 spot achieved by his first release. He even tried covering songs by other other American artists; for example "Jimmy's Girl" from Johnny Tillotson, but without success. Nevertheless, his solitary number one was so memorable that it would sustain Ricky's singing career on the club and nostalgia circuit for very many years. |
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| Columbia DB4493 | 1960 | Tell Laura I Love Her/ Once Upon A Time | #1 |
| Columbia DB4543 | 1960 | Movin' Away/ Lipstick On Your Lips | |
| Columbia DB4586 | 1961 | Jimmy's Girl/ Only The Young | |
| Columbia DB4592 | 1961 | Why Can't We/ Fisherboy | |
| Columbia DB4680 | 1961 | Bobby/ I Want To Fall In Love | |
| Columbia DB4725 | 1961 | I Never Had A Chance/ It's Not True | |
| Columbia DB4787 | 1962 | Try To Forget Her/ At Times Like These | |
| Columbia DB4864 | 1962 | Don't Play No. 9/ Till The Final Curtain Falls | |
| Decca F12129 | 1965 | Six Boys/ Face The Crowd |
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