Daniel Boon

Over Daniel Boon

A British singer and songwriter who scored an international hit with the upbeat pop single "Beautiful Sunday," Daniel Boone was born Peter Charles Green on July 31, 1942. Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Green began his musical career in 1958, when he joined a local band called the Beachcombers. In 1960, the Beachcombers met vocalist Tommy Bruce, who had just scored a hit single with his interpretation of "Ain't Misbehavin'." The record was credited to Tommy Bruce & the Bruisers, but a group of session musicians backed Bruce for the recording, and the Beachcombers were recruited by Bruce to be "the Bruisers" for live dates. The group went on using the name the Bruisers when they signed a record deal with EMI; Green took the stage name Lee Stirling, and cut a solo single, "My Heart Commands Me" b/w "Welcome Stranger," in 1963. Between 1963 and 1964, he appeared on six Parlophone singles credited either to the Bruisers or Lee Stirling & the Bruisers, then he struck out on his own, and between 1966 and 1970, he issued six singles as Peter Lee Stirling through Decca and MCA. In 1971, he struck a deal with Penny Farthing Records, a label founded by producer Larry Page, and adopted yet another stage name, Daniel Boone, in tribute to the American outdoorsman and folk hero. His first release for Penny Farthing, "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast," was a cover of a tune that was a hit for Wayne Newton in the United States, and it rose to number 17 on the U.K. singles chart. The follow-up, "Mamma," fell on deaf ears, but in March 1972, Penny Farthing released "Beautiful Sunday," which Boone wrote in tandem with Rod McQueen. The song peaked at number 21 in the U.K., and at number 15 in the United States, while the single was a chart hit in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, and Scandinavia. The song also became an unofficial anthem of the Scottish football club Dundee United. An album, Beautiful Sunday, followed in September 1972, and Mercury Records (which issued "Beautiful Day" and the Daniel Boone album in the United States) issued two follow-up singles, neither of which made the Top 40. Arriving in 1975, "Run Tell the People" b/w "Rock and Roll Bum" was Boone's last single release in the United States, though he remained active in the U.K. through the '70s and into the early '80s. While Boone's recording career faded out, he continued to work as a songwriter, and contributed two tunes to the Troggs' 1992 comeback album, Athens Andover.