#1295: I Will by Billy Fury

Peak Month: July 1964
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “I Will”
“I Will” lyrics

Billy Fury was born Ronald Wycherley on April 17, 1940, in Dingle, England. An impromptu audition in a Birkenhead dressing room of the Essoldo Theatre in 1958 resulted in Wycherley joining Larry Parnes’ management stable. The entrepreneur provided the suitably enigmatic stage name, and added Billy Fury to the bill of a current package tour. Fury enjoyed a UK Top 20 hit with his debut single, “Maybe Tomorrow”, in 1959. His first Top Ten hit was an Everly Brothers sound-alike tune, “Colette”, that peaked at #9 in 1959. The following year he completed The Sound Of Fury, which consisted entirely of the artist’s own songs. Some of these were credited to Billy Fury and others to Fury’s pseudonym, Wilbur Wilberforce. Arguably Britain’s finest example of the rockabilly genre, it owed much of its authenticity to the support from guitarist Joe Brown, while the Four Jays provided backing vocals.
Continue reading →