Promises (group)

Promises was a Canadian based pop group which was founded 1978 in Thousand Oaks, California. The members were the siblings Leslie Maria Knauer (born August 20, 1957 in Vancouver, vocals), Jed Knauer (born July 17, 1955 in Toronto, guitar, piano) and Benny Knauer (born October 21, 1958 in Vancouver, keyboards). Their father Peter Knauer is a German from Hamburg who moved with his children from Canada to California in the late 1960s. He was also the manager of the band and has played keyboards.

Their album "Promises" which was recorded by EMI Electrola record producer Steve Verroca became a flop in the USA and in the UK but their single "Baby it's you" became a smash hit in Europe (especially in Germany where it reached number 4 in the charts) in February 1979 and Promises received a Gold album for more than 250,000 selling units. The song was also hugely popular in Australia, largely due to weekly programming of the original film clip on Saturday morning television variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday. The song was subsequently released on a highly popular compilation album in that market.

After the second single "Lets get back together" became much less successful (only number 18 in Germany), the group split.

Leslie Knauer (later Knauer-Wasser) later became a member with the groups Precious Metal (1983-1992) and Kanary (2004) and sang two songs for the Dennis Hopper movie "Choke" (2001)

Discography

*1978: LP Promises - EMI Electrola
*1980/81 : LP Reel to Reel - EMI Australia
*1979: 7" Let's Get Back Together / Coffee Shop - EMI Electrola

External links

* [http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic/2112OdSsq/194715.jpgautographed "Baby it's you" single cover]
* [http://www.rocketcityrecords.com/leslieknauer/ Leslie Knauer tribute page, courtesy Rocketcity Records]
* [http://www.kanary.com/ Kanary website]
* [http://www.leslieknauer.com/ leslieknauer.com website]