Peters & Lee

The first act to place both a single and an album at the top of the English charts simultaneously after the Beatles was Peters & Lee. In 1973 their debut single “Welcome Home” and the accompanying LP We Can Make It accomplished the feat, bypassing such major 1970s figures as the Rolling Stones, the Who, David Bowie, and Queen. The vocal duo, sometimes imagined as Britain’s counterpart to Captain & Tennille, consisted of Lennie Peters (1939-1992) and Dianne Lee (b. 1950). They joined forces in 1970 after Peters, a former prize-fighter blinded in an accident at sixteen, had spent the 1960s playing piano and singing in London pubs, while Lee had performed as a dancer with her cousin in the Hailey Twins. The pair first shared a bill, began collaborating, and quickly built a following through club dates and holiday-camp shows. A string of victories on the television series Opportunity Knocks, a forerunner of Star Search, lifted them above every rival.

Their style remained straightforward pop, blending cabaret standards with classic R&B. Television exposure secured a 1973 contract with Philips Records. “Welcome Home,” colored by country-pop accents, reached number one in July 1973, sandwiched between chart-toppers from Slade and Gary Glitter; the matching album duplicated the feat. Peters & Lee became ubiquitous entertainers and near-permanent presences on British screens for several seasons. Three additional hits followed, among them the 1974 number-three single “Don’t Stay Away Too Long.”

For their second album, By Your Side, they received an optimistic title song from John Franz, one-time Dusty Springfield associate. The track list mixed contemporary folk and pop numbers—David Gates’s “If,” Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Until It’s Time for You to Go,” and Al Kasha’s “The Old Fashioned Way”—with older standards such as Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby’s “Nevertheless.” The partnership ended in 1980 yet resumed six years later, with most engagements booked at holiday camps. In 1992 Peters disclosed his cancer diagnosis and died later that year; Dianne Lee then returned to acting. “Welcome Home” resurfaced in 1999 when it accompanied British television commercials for Walkers Crisps.