Ray Peterson

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Ray A. Peterson (April 23, 1939 - January 25, 2005) was an American pop music singer.

Born in Denton, Texas, as a boy he had to overcome polio. Blessed with a 4 octave singing voice, he idolized the vocal sounds of fellow Texan, Roy Orbison. Peterson moved to Los Angeles, California where he was signed by RCA Victor Records in 1957. He recorded several songs that were minor hits until "The Wonder of You" made it into the Billboard Top Thirty list. The song would later be recorded by Elvis Presley with whom he became close friends.

In 1960 Ray Peterson scored a Top 10 hit with "Tell Laura I Love Her," and followed that success with "Corina, Corina." He later moved to Nashville, Tennessee and by the 1970s when the hit records stopped coming, Peterson became a Baptist Church minister and occasionally played the oldies music circuit.

Ray Peterson died of cancer in 2005 in Smyrna, Tennessee and was interred in the Roselawn Memorial Gardens cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

External links:

• http://www.rockabillyhall.com/RayPeterson1.html

• http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/raypeterson.txt