Dan Ellery

Born in Gent Belgium in 1943 (May, 11). Lived in Chicago From 1949 till 1953. Started to play the guitar in 1959 aged 15-16. Entered a variety show with two of his friends, Jef Visscher, Jozef Flement, Organized by Volkswagen and radio Luxemburg. They offered them "The Rocking Boys" a record contract with Philips in 1960. There first single was, The Girl I Met / I Want An Island - Philips 319.579 PF (1960). After a Tv performance in 1960 they changed there name in "The Tigers" Which became "Dan Ellery & The Tigers". Organist "Rudy Blondeel" and a saxophonist joined the band. They made several records, All in the style of "Duane Eddy", "The Champs" etc. Recorded on Philips label, Polydor, RCA Victor, Decca, HMV 777, Cardinal, and maybe more. In 1962-63 Dan Ellery got drafted and had to go in the Belgian army for a year and his music career came to an abrupt end. The Tigers went on by them self's for awhile but didn't last long. When Dan came out of the army he started back from nothing, Made a demo tape which Philips refused but in 1965 Dan signed a contract with RCA and from this came his biggest hit "Bop-A-Lena" with more than 10.000 copy's sold. He made a couple more records with RCA with in 1966 The Flemish song, (his native language) "Zeewind" (Sea Breeze) / Lang Voorbij (Long Long Ago)- RCA 47.9756 . The very talented guitarist became a studio artist and played for most of Belgians best artist. In 1973 he made a come back and recorded the album, "The Best Of Dan Ellery" 12 mostly older rock songs on the Cardinal Label C-61026 "Burt Blanca" was one of the studio musicians on this album. Later, Dan played awhile for "Rocco Granata" and after that became arranger/Guitarist with the famous Dutch big band conducted by the late "Henk Van Montfoort". Today, 2015, Dan Ellery is still making music playing his guitar and keyboard with his artists friends, Freddy Birset, Eddy Maes, Freddy Sunder etc and also has a duo band "Elekzier D'Anvers" with his friend Eddy Maes, playing and singing there own Flemish compositions in Antwerp dialect.