Memoirs of Brian Lee who was born and brought up in and around Adderley village.
When Brian shared this story with the Heritage Project in 2024 he was 85 years old and we have also been given a number of poems he wrote over the years which would suggest a talent for song writing. No-one can absolutely verify the story below, as told by Brian, and the rights to the music sit elsewhere anyway, but its certainly lovely to believe the origins of this well known hit may have been sown by an Adderley lad!
Brian’s Story
I accept that I have been known to tell ‘slightly’ tall stories and on ‘rare’ occasions to exaggerate but everything depends on ‘provenance’ so, relying on my memory and research on the Internet I think I can prove pretty conclusively a strong case for what you all might consider to be my tallest tale.
In 1956 I went to work in Shrewsbury for an Insurance Company. In those days there were very strict rules about status and behaviour and there was an absolute ban on other activities or employment not commensurate with one’s professional status and standing.
My ambition, along with many of my friends, was to become famous in the Entertainment Industry and the way to achieve this was by starting out in local pubs and clubs. Using the stage name of Bob Lewis, so my employers would not know, I tried performing at these venues- Comedian, Singer, Magician and Mind Reading etc.
I watched others, mainly comedians – Ken Dodd, Bob Monkhouse, Bernard Manning etc. primarily so I could steal their jokes but quickly realised the difference between genius and ambition. Instead, I decided to become an agent and this worked out quite well until my performers started to deal directly with the venues and cut me out.
One of the Acts was a jazz group who I got to know very well and I tried to perform on their musical instruments but I had no talent in this area at all except I could play the drums quite well and stood in sometimes for the normal drummer who had an alcohol problem.
My next brilliant idea was to write songs and I wrote several and the pianist, Geoff, from the jazz group worked with me to write the music on the agreement we would share the money if any sold. Based upon my performance on the drums and the ‘throbbing’ rhythm and the prevailing innocent/naïve boy/girl relationships popular at the time I composed a song I called ‘Running Deer’.
Some of us on the verge of the entertainment industry used a Pub in Shrewsbury called the ‘The Three Fishes’ and sometime the Pianist – Geoff played and sang my songs and we got some free drinks. One night a guy who said he was an agent heard this song and my others and made enquiries and came to me and said he would like to buy ‘Running Deer’ and all the others and all the rights. Geoff and I discussed with him and signed papers selling them it to him for, I think £40, which was a lot of money in those days!
Moving on – about 25 -30 years ago I was talking to my son Robert and mentioned my ‘songs’ and he said I could possibly trace them from the Internet. He said all I had to do was to put in all the words I could remember and see what happened- I found my song! It was altered slightly and was entitled ‘Running Bear’ so I researched it.
It seemed it had made its way across the Atlantic and ended up with a guy called J P Stephenson /Richardson who was a DJ operating out of Nashville and his professional name was the Big Bopper. I understand he died in a light plane crash with Buddy Holly and Richey Vallens.
I researched him and, in his writings, he said he ‘came across’ a song called Running Bear which, except for the title, was almost exactly the same as my song. It seemed that he felt this was not his type of music and he had a ‘protégé’ called Johnny Preston to whom he gave the song and heavily promoted it from his Radio Station. Click to hear the song on You Tube
The rest is history! I understand Johnny Preston bought a huge ranch in California on the basis of this ‘one hit wonder’ and the ranch is now worth millions! Ah Well.
