Back in the 1950s, It was a ‘given’ that British artists would cover the latest Stateside hits, often resulting in the original American version being ignored in terms of chart success in this country. Unusually, Don Cherry was not a victim of this syndrome in 1956, when he had his only British Top Ten hit with his major success BAND OF GOLD. Despite covers by Petula Clark, Rosemary Squires and others, Don saw off all-comers with his original version, backed by Ray Conniff, the latter then at the very start of his long and successful association with Columbia Records. It was by no means Don’s first success in Britain, although his previous triumph had been in a vastly different sphere of activity, as I discovered during the course of a recent conversation with the now 80 year old star.

Although you’ve never sang in public over here, you have been to this county?
I played the Walker Cup in 1955 in Scotland, at St Andrew’s. (for the uninitiated, THE WALKER CUP is a biennial match played alternatively in the British Isles and America between male amateur golfers of Great Britain Ireland and the United States of America. The match was first played in 1922 at the National Golf Links of America, New York and is named after George Herbert Walker, the president of the United States Golf Association in 1920).

You were on the winning side by a big margin.
Yes, after the match Lord Brabazon who was the Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf announced that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope tried to make it to the Walker Cup but never did and we finally found a golfer who can also sing. He than asked me to sing I BELIEVE which I did in front of a crowd of about ten thousand Scotsmen.

Let’s go back to your early childhood, born 1924 in Texas. I was intrigued to read somewhere about you coming out of a cinema having seen a Maurice Chevalier musical and singing the songs! What was it that appealed to you?
I don’t know. My mother took me to church all the time and I just loved to sing. I used to ask her why people were looking at me and she said it’s because you sing much better than they do. I didn’t realize then that singing is the greatest way to express yourself, with those lyrics that someone has written. It took me a long time to realize that those words can mean a lot more than you first thought.

How did you take up golf?
My brother was a caddy at the country club and I used to go over and help him. I was always intrigued by the difference between team sports like baseball and football, with golf you’re on you’re own.

You obviously had a natural aptitude for it.
I was always very athletic and coordinated so I found sports easy but golf was more of a challenge and more interesting because of that.

In this country, in those days, golf was a game for the rich, not for working class kids. Was it the same in America?
Yes, just the same. Being a caddy at the country club we had a couple of holes in the dirt where I could practice with one club!

Did you think of taking it up as career in those days?
I just took it day by day. Back in those days if you won a golf tournament you won $500. Today if you win you win $5 million. We’re talking about a long time ago, late thirties.

Then I guess the war came along and put ever/thing on hold.
I was very lucky. There was an air force base in my home town, Wichita Falls, and I spent 4 years and three months there in special services and all I did really was learn to play golf. I was very lucky. I lived at home, my mother was the greatest seamstress in Texas, she made all my uniforms and I looked better than the officers did!

And the singing?
I used to sing a little bit with the band and listen to the radio a lot. People like Buddy Clark, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, all those people.

You make it sound as though it wasn’t any effort, you just open your mouth and the songs come out. There must be more to it than that.
I don’t think so. I never took a lesson. It’s like playing golf. Never took a lesson there either. I have a little different swing from most people, kind of like Doug Sanders, who lost the British Open on a missed putt on the last hole, but who had a very successful career over all. My attitude was a little different, I was a hot head for a long time.

You don’t sound a hot head now!
Not any more!

You had a brief spell with the Jan Garber band in the late ‘40s.
Seventeen days. He heard me sing a couple of songs at a Golf dinner after I’d won a tournament on a Saturday and promptly sacked his existing singer and hired me from Monday! Every place we stopped at he challenged someone to play golf and I always won. After I finally lost a golf match he sent me back home! I did a few transcription discs, things like YOU DO. That was in 1947.

You recorded a cover version of MONA LISA where you weren’t even credited on the disc.
Yes, the record came out under Victor Young’s name with my vocal, but they didn’t put my name on it. It was some months after Nat King Cole had the big hit record, but it still sold about 100,000 copies and made the charts. I then got a six record contract with Decca on the strength of this for $35 a side and I did a song called THINKING OF YOU which became a large hit and I think I even outsold Eddie Fisher on that one.

You recorded with Artie Shaw as well. How did you get on with him?
I don’t think there was anything he didn’t know something about. He was such an intelligent human being with strong views but he was very nice to me and it was a great thrill just to be around him.

You recorded some things in Nashville too?
Yes, after I had another hit with VANITY they thought it would be an idea to take me down to Nashville, realizing I was from Texas and could sing country music. I recorded about 12/15 songs but in the meantime I did a song called MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE with Tutti Camarata which was written by Irving Berlin. He heard I was in Nashville and when I came back asked me to come to see him. I was intimidated just being with him, a little guy but with such great talent. He told me he liked the way I’d done his song and he’d written a country song that he’d like me to hear. I think it was the only country song he ever wrote but I didn’t record it and don’t know what happened to the music.

In the meantime the golf was continuing in parallel I can’t think of anyone else in the history of either music or golf who’s done this. How did you manage it?
It was easy because I never drank or smoked and I used to keep fit running and took care of myself. Golf during the day, singing at night. Just now and again, working till the early hours then teeing off at 7.30.

You didn’t have to go round the golf course with headphones on, learning songs then?
No, that was never necessary (laughs)

You switched to Columbia and Mitch Miller became your producer.
I hadn’t had a hit for a while so Decca let me go but my manager was a friend of Mitch and so we went to Columbia. They had a song BAND OF GOLD that a lady had done, real slow, a pretty song. Mitch had just signed Ray Conniff from the Dorsey band and was keen for him to do the arrangement. This was about the time rock ‘n’ roll was coming in with those triplets and that’s the way Ray arranged it, which played a large part in it becoming a hit. That and the backing voices, an idea that no one had ever come up with. Ray recorded with just about everybody at Columbia, even down in Nashville with Marty Robbins.

This was a very prolific time for you in both fields and of course you did that long running commercial for Mr Clean’
Yes, it lasted for about nine years.

It must have made you one of the most recognized voices in the country.
Well, when I go on stage I still do that thing. It’s my biggest hit, forget BAND OF GOLD! (laughs).

When you switched to the Monument label in the ‘60s, there was a change in emphasis to songs with a country feel. I guess that this was a natural progression for you, because you would have grown up hearing a lot of country music.
Oh yes, people like Marty Robbins, they were good singers. While I think of it, your guy, Matt Monro, he was one of my favourite singers of all time.

You’re still recording prolifically now. Some of your recent albums such as the Perry Como tribute show that your voice is in pretty good shape. When I heard it, I couldn’t believe it was only recorded in the last few years.
The Como album, I did it with a fellow called Jerry Burgess. I think I sing better now than I ever did.

You seem to have a particular affinity for those songs. Did you know Perry Como well?
Oh, very well. Played a lot of golf with him. I played a lot of golf with movie stars like James Mason, who became a very dear friend.

Tell me about your friendship with Dean Martin, which strikes me as unlikely, given you keep fit, don’t smoke or drink and the Rat Pack’s leanings were, shall we say, more inclined to nocturnal pursuits?
Well, he loved golf and he thought I could sing. Any particular stories about Dean?
Yes, he didn’t like the hairpiece I was wearing and sent me to Max Factor to get a new one. I picked one out that I liked but they told me it was one they were making for somebody else. Dean asked me to come over to the studio to show him and they let me take it. Well Dean liked it too and so he phoned Max Factor to say we were going to keep it. They said ‘you can’t, it’s John Wayne’s. Dean replied ‘it used to be’ and I kept it!

You’re writing your autobiography at the moment, when is that scheduled to be published?
We’re gonna try to get it out at least by next September.
It promises to be quite a story. You’re still working hard, still recording, performing.
Yes, I still want to sing, I still enjoy it and as I said, I think my voice is in good shape.

I think I read somewhere you might be doing some work on cruise liners?
Yes, I did a PBS show in April and I met a guy the other night from a cruise ship line, we might be doing that. I just want to sing, I don’t care where it is. I’ll sing out on the eighth green if you want to hear it.

Any special recording projects coming up?
I was thinking about doing a collection of GIen Campbell songs, but I’m not sure. I’ll tell you a story about Glen. I did the song at the end of the Charlton Heston movie, WILL PENNY and I went to LA to do it. There was a guitar player there I didn’t know who came over to me and said 'I'd like to play golf with you some time'. Anyway, I brushed him off, and then two months later GENTLE ON MY MIND came out and he came to Las Vegas to work and I said 'Hi Glen, how are you?' And he said 'get out of here'! (laughs). So we got even.

Don, it’s been great talking to you and I thank you for your time and also far all the pleasure your singing has given to us over the years. By the Sound of it, we can look forward to much more from you in the future.
Thank you. Before I go one more story which shows what a great sense of humour you have over there. When we played the Walker Cup in 1955 at St Andrew's it was the first time it had been televised. They had one camera on the 18th fairway. They had to run a line along the fence and back to the green and they had to draw a white line to indicate it was ground under repair. About a foot from the steps of the clubhouse, about sixty feet from the back of the green there was a little spot that didn’t have a white line. I said to Lord Brabazon, ‘what if someone hits the ball up here, where there isn’t a white line?’ He said ‘I daresay we would raise his handicap’.

-Gerry Stonestreet