Wally Rowles may have looked like his brother John, but he wanted to make it under his own name – so he started his music career under the name Frankie Price.
No one was fooled, especially as his break came in 1968 when he accepted an Entertainer of the Year award on behalf of John, and as an afterthought sang his brother’s hit ‘Hush Not a Word to Mary’.
Philips offered a record contract with its Polydor label, Tom McDonald of Universal Booking Agency (UBA) came on as manager, and there followed several years of hotel and nightclub work, not just in New Zealand but in Tahiti, Australia and Hawaii.
Brother John penned the A-side of his first single, ‘Another Tear Drop Falls’, which was coupled on the Australian release (as Frankie Rowles) with another John Rowles tune from the second single ‘Sweet Mary’.
After one more Polydor single ‘Pedro Lopez’, Rowles dropped the Price surname for a 1972 swansong ‘Ma Vie C'est Toi’ on the small Gemini label, known mainly as an outlet for Larry Morris.