Lee Vanderbilt

Who is Lee Vanderbilt?

Lee Vanderbilt was born in the mid-1930s in San Fernando, Trinidad, moving to the United Kingdom in the late 1950s. In 1964 he signed his first record deal using the stage name, "Ebony Keyes", with Parlophone Records, releasing two songs, "Brother Joe" and "Under the Apple Tree". In 1967, after an introduction from his friend Peter Gage, he signed to Pye Records where he released a number of singles on the Pye Label; on their subsidiary record label Piccadilly Records and on the label of their primary Australian distributor, Astor Records. The records included: "If Our Love Should End"; "Sitting in a Ring"; "Country Girl"; "Cupid's House"; "How Many Times"; "Don't"; "Sweet Mary Anne"; and the hit “If You Knew”. In 1968, he signed to the United Artists Record Label when, at the suggestion of an A&R executive, he changed his stage name from Ebony Keyes to "Lee Vanderbilt". While with United Artists he released a number of singles and sang on a number of film sound tracks including the theme song, “Some Girls Do”, for the British spy-spoof of the same name, directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Richard Johnson. "Some Girls Do" was released by United Artists as a single in 1969. In the same year Vanderbilt was asked to represent the United Kingdom at the Gibraltar Song Festival, where he won gold and bronze medals with two songs of his own composition, "How shall I Know" and "A Woman's Way".