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If you have any memories of Denny, or comments on his music, or this site, that you would like to share, please contact me on: tributetodennydennis@fsmail.net

Hello Tony. I often recall those days in 1950/51 when I was in the pit orchestra at the Palace Theatre, Mansfield, and Denny was top of the bill one week. He was such a nice guy, and told us he enjoyed a good band to play his "dots". We also had Steve Conway and many many other artists, making shows well worth seeing. Sad, that it has all gone, but memories remain. Best wishes,

Cy Kitching

What better way to pay tribute to a special singer, in danger perhaps of being overlooked by generations to come unless introduced in this comprehensive way on the web. The web page and all it contains has certainly given me a fresh opportunity to enjoy once again a fine balladeer who was also very capable of meeting the challenge of new styles in music without loosing the importance of putting 'it over' with clarity of word and tune. I'm sure songwriters must have seen in Denny someone who they could trust with their composition and surely there is no higher compliment than that for a singer.

I hope this web site gets many visitors who stay awhile and enjoy the man who may have been one of many but managed to carve out a niche all of his own in the history of the dance band days. As a presenter myself of nostalgic talks and entertainment I'll keep Denny 'in' as a wonderful example of the perfect blend between band, singer and tune .

I knew Denny when he lived in Selby in North Yorkshire. He worked in a paper mill in Denison road and lived in a flat above Windsor’s betting office. My girlfriend and I would visit him and we would have a drink. I do remember that Denny was a very good cook and he would cook all kinds of things in his flat. Denny would sometimes visit a friend of his in York, and I think for a while he sang at the Owl Country Club in Hambleton. The last I heard of Denny was that he had married a former beauty Queen (Miss Great Britain 1938) and was running a pub in Howden (The Station Hotel) and we lost contact. I was not aware that he had passed away and I was very sorry to hear that.

Denny would often talk of his singing days and the people he had met and knew. He told me that he had made hundreds of records. What I remember most about Denny is that he was a very nice man and I am glad that I got to know him and spend some time with him.

Thanks for your excellent tribute to Denny Dennis, who was a very fine singer with a spectacular vocal range. I used to listen to his recordings with my Dad when I was young though, as a family, I must confess we were ardent Bing enthusiasts. What a shame Denny didn't continue singing for longer!

It would be marvellous if someone could digitally remaster all of his existing tracks for reissue on CD, the way Ken Crossland has done for the other 'English Bing', Michael Holliday, also in danger of being forgotten. As you point out in your commentary, although Denny started out in the Crosby school he didn't, as he developed, try to copy Bing's mannerisms and stylish tricks. When he joined Tommy Dorsey, he was very much a singer in his own right. Michael Holliday, also a fine singer, was in my view at his best when he too allowed Bing to drop into his subconscious.

Thanks again for your efforts to keep alive Denny's memory and the substantial contribution he made to the popular music of his day. I was beginning to think he'd disappeared forever.

(John also performs music of the period, and you can hear him via his website: www.tantamusic.co.uk)

When I was a lot younger, that was back in the early 1950's, I remember seeing Denny Dennis singing, I think with Sid Phillips at the Cheltenham Town Hall. He was sitting on the bandstand as the vocalists of the day then had to, awaiting his call to the microphone. I had heard a lot about this fella from an older friend who was a great fan of his, well being very young then I was obviously not too much into nostalgia. When he sang it was spot on and I could see him standing in front of the Tommy Dorsey band where my idol Sinatra had stood. He was of course wearing the obligatory Dress suit but I remember being so surprised that his shoes were dirty, so much for the callousness of youth eh? I do also recall that the place wasn't exactly crowded and young as I was, I felt the what I know now to be sadness of someone who had known so much better times.

I heard nothing much of him after that, but I knew of him and his past glories, and I often wondered what became of him. Well reading your biography of him today was just great and I am now much older and wiser so I was happy and sad at the same time to read of his ups and downs in life, happy to know that he did live to a good age, sad to learn that he didn't quite get out of the business as much as he put into it. Thanks to your site I have now heard some of his legacy of fine recordings. I would though have liked to have read more of his life outside of the music business.

Thanks a lot for giving us all the chance to hear Denny Dennis in a fine tribute to his career, all in all I would have to say now that he was up there with the best of em.

I first came across the music of the dance bands through the plays of Dennis Potter in the 1970's. Despite the fact that there were many fine vocalists in the period, for me, Denny Dennis stood out. I liked the quality of his voice and phrasing. I started to collect the music of the period, and I found that anything that featured Denny usually meant quality. This is especially so where his 1940's solo career is concerned, an area that features a huge and neglected treasure trove of the most wonderful recordings. Denny was more than a fine singer, he was one of the greats. He deserves to be remembered for being a great talent.