Peter Blakeley - Commercial Success

Commercial Success

Peter Blakeley moved to Los Angeles in 1988 to sign with Capitol Records in the US. The first US release was 'The Truetone Sessions' in 1988 on Capitol Records. In 1989, he released the album 'Harry's Cafe De Wheel's, which was executive produced by Peter Asher.

Artists involved with the album included Linda Ronstadt, Siedah Garrett, Wendy Matthews and Andrew Gold, in addition to legendary session musicians such as Jeff Porcaro, Jim Keltner and Larry Klein. The lead single "Crying in the Chapel" was produced by Stewart Levine who worked extensively with Simply Red. Harry's Cafe De Wheels spawned a total of four singles including, "Crying in the Chapel", "Quicksand", "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and "You Never Heard It From Me". The album was well received and highly successful, especially in Australia and Europe.

Towards the end of 1989, Blakeley contributed vocals to some of the tracks on Cher's Heart of Stone album, this release was also produced by Peter Asher and featured musical contributions from a number of people involved in the recording of the Harry's Cafe De Wheels album including, Andrew Gold, Frank Wolf, and Waddy Wachtel.

In 1990, he worked briefly with the Australian group Absent Friends which featured Wendy Matthews as lead vocalist, Blakeley provided the backing vocal and harmony on the song "I Don't Want to Be With Nobody But You" which peaked at number 4 in the Australian charts in May of that year, he was also instrumental in the bands arrangement and selection of the song. The single was the most successful song released by the Absent Friends and was lifted from the album Here's Looking Up Your Address.

Between 1990 and 1991, Blakeley embarked on two world tours which took in the US, UK, Australia and Western Europe to promote the release of the Harry's Cafe De Wheels record, members of Blakeley's touring band during this time included Teenie Hodges, Hopeton Hibbert, Junior Baillie, Roger Mason, Ron Francois and Deni Hines. By this stage, the single "Crying in the Chapel" had charted on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts in the US and received significant radio support across Europe.

Subsequent singles released from the album also charted in Australia.

Blakeley's follow up record The Pale Horse was released in 1993 by Giant/Warner in America. The album represented a different musical direction for Blakeley and incorporated stronger elements of Funk and Blues than Harry's Cafe De Wheels whilst still retaining a distinctive Soul sound. The album was recorded at the Paisley Park Studios in the US is owned by Prince and included members of the New Power Generation on some of the tracks. The record was produced by Jeff Aldrich, David Z and Andrew Gold, David Z. at that time had recently had major chart success with his production of The Fine Young Cannibals song "She Drives Me Crazy".

One of the songs from the album Be Thankful for What You've Got was used in the opening sequence of the film The Taking of Beverly Hills, the two singles released from the album were "I've Been Lonely" and "Gods Little Elvis".