Danny Wilson (band)
| Danny Wilson | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Dundee, Scotland |
| Genres | Pop rock,sophisti-pop |
| Years active | 1984–1991, 1993, 2014 |
| Labels | Virgin Records |
| Associated acts | King L, Transister, Swiss Family Orbison, Pony, Simple Minds, Deacon Blue, The Bible, Boo Hewerdine |
| Past members |
Gary Clark Kit Clark Ged Grimes |
Danny Wilson were a Scottish pop group formed in Dundee, Scotland. The band are best known for their 1988 UK number 3 hit single Mary's Prayer.
The band served as a launchpad for the career of Gary Clark, who also played in the 1990s bands King L and Transister before becoming a successful songwriter for other artists including Natalie Imbruglia, Liz Phair, Nick Carter, k.d. lang and former Spice Girls Melanie C and Emma Bunton. Other former members of the band have played in Simple Minds, Deacon Blue and Swiss Family Orbison.
Gary Clark and Ged Grimes grew up together in Dundee, Scotland and played together in school bands. Influenced by sophisticated soul and pop artists such as Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and Bacharach and David, they eventually moved to London, where they played in the bands Perfect Strangers and Dream Kitchen during the early 1980s. Neither band met with success: circa 1984, while still in London, Clark and Grimes noticed that talent scouts and journalists were beginning to follow the soul and pop scenes in Scottish cities. Returning to Dundee, they teamed up with Gary Clark's younger brother Kit Clark to form a new band called Spencer Tracy (after the film star of the same name).
Initially spotted busking around Dundee, Spencer Tracy signed to Virgin Records in 1986. After objections from the estate of the actor Spencer Tracy, the band was obliged to change its name. Gary Clark recalls this as "a real last-minute crazy, fearful moment... The album was done, the artwork was done... We were just told, 'If you try and use this, you will be sued.' And so the label just went 'Nope. Change it. Now.'" For their new name, the band chose Danny Wilson, taken from a 1952 Frank Sinatra film called Meet Danny Wilson (itself a favourite film of the Clark brothers' father).
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