Ray Peterson

Ray T. Peterson, born on 23 April 1935 in Denton, Texas, was an American singer who performed as Ray Peterson and who was known for his four-octave vocal range and contributions to rock'n'roll music. After moving to Los Angeles, California, he signed with RCA Victor in 1958, and his breakthrough came with "The Wonder of You", which reached the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1959 and also performed well in Australia. His career included notable hits such as 1960 tragi-pop song "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Corrine, Corrina". That same year, he founded Dunes Records with his manager Stan Shulman and collaborated with producer Phil Spector on several tracks. Despite the success of "The Wonder of You", he faced challenges with additional releases like "I Could Have Loved You So Well" (1961) and "Give Us Your Blessing" (1963). By the mid-1960s, he became a phenomenon on the West Coast, performing live in numerous concerts. In 1981, he released a Christian folk-rock album titled Highest Flight. He later moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and became a Baptist Church minister, also subsequently getting inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Ray Peterson passed away from colon cancer on 25 January 2005, in Smyrna, Tennessee, at the age of 69.