Billy Reid (British songwriter)

William Gordon Reid (19 September 1902 – 12 December 1974) was an English songwriter, bandleader, pianist and accordionist. He was the first British songwriter to reach the top of the US music chart, with The Ink Spots' 1946 recording of "The Gypsy", and was known for his close association with the singer Dorothy Squires, for whom he wrote that and many other songs.

Biography

Born in Coronation Terrace, Southampton, England, Reid worked as a riveter in the docks in the city. He taught himself the piano and piano accordion, and played in local clubs before becoming a professional musician and forming the Ariste Dance Orchestra. He played accordion in the Noël Coward show Bitter Sweet, and his band played each week on a Radio Luxembourg programme, Stars of Luxembourg. In the early 1930s, he formed a tango band with violinist Eugene Pini, and led the London Piano-Accordeon Band, which became popular and recorded extensively through the 1930s for the Regal Zonophone and Decca labels, sometimes billed simply as Billy Reid and His Accordion Band.

In 1938, he successfully auditioned a young Welsh singer, Dorothy Squires. He also started to have some success with his own songwriting, and his tune "Out of the Blue" became popular with RAF bands during the Second World War. Though Reid was married, he and Squires established a close personal as well as professional relationship, and Reid took the opportunity to write songs especially for her. His first big hit was "The Gypsy", first recorded by Squires in 1945, though its greatest success came in the version by The Ink Spots which topped the US music chart – the first time this had been achieved by a British songwriter.