From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Dec 16, 2002  6:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Karl Denver
 
KARL DENVER

Born Angus Murdo McKenzie, 16 December 1934, Glasgow, Scotland
Died 21 December 1998, Manchester, England

Karl Denver's western yodelling style caught the imagination of British
record buyers during the early 1960s. He had eleven chart entries, all
on UK Decca, between 1961 and 1964, four of them going Top 10.
Karl was well travelled by the time he took up singing, having had a
previous career in the merchant navy. He wasn't totally without real
country music credentials either because he had actually lived in
Nashville for a short time before being deported from there as an illegal
immigrant during 1959. It was in the USA that he'd adopted the new
name that he retained for the remainder of his singing career. His
amazing voice allowed him to bring great originality and power to the
songs he knew and to provide them with a whole new character. This
was especially true of his interpretation of his biggest hit, "Wimoweh"
(# 4 in early 1962). This song, produced by Jack Good, had previously
charted in the USA for the Weavers (1952) and the Tokens (as "The Lion
Sleeps Tonight", 1961). Both the Tokens and Denver versions credit Paul
Campbell with authorship, but it is now generally believed that the song
was originally written by a Zulu tribesman called Solomon Linda. There
is a 45 rpm version of this song that is close to the African original : it
is 'Mbube' by Miriam Makeba - the only one that credits Linda.
Karl's chart career lasted well into the era of the 'beat boom' but interest
in his material was insufficient to keep him in hits beyond 1964. However,
by then his following had grown sufficient for a lengthy career on the
cabaret round. He became a familiar and popular act, particularly in
Scotland and the North of England and things would seem to have settled
at that. However he re-emerged to broaden his audience again when he
began a perhaps unexpected association with Manchester based cult
band The Happy Mondays during 1989.
Karl Denver died of a brain tumour a few days after his 64th birthday.

CD: The Best of Karl Denver (Spectrum, 1999). 18 tracks.