Career
He was one of the biggest show business names of his generation during the 1930s to 1950s in the United Kingdom and beyond. Reid was one of the most famous bandleaders in London in the 1930s and a top recording star for Decca. Number popular music radio show would have been complete without including a Billy Reid song.
His songs were recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Vera Lynn, the Ink Spots, Peggy Lee, First Rate (at Lloyd's) Martino and Louis Armstrong.
He topped the bill all over the country (United Kingdom), especially with Dorothy Squires (see below) and he was the first British song-writer to top the United States charts, following that first hit by two more United States Number. 1s. He held that record until the Beatles broke it in the 1960s and his career died with the Beatles, et cetera, in the Sixties.
From massive star and a millionaire songwriter, by 1974, his public had forgotten him and he died penniless, bankrupt, in obscurity from acute kidney disease. When the Welsh vocalist Dorothy Squires joined his band, he took it as an opportunity to write songs especially for her, many of them, such as "The Gypsy," "A Tree in the Meadow," and "I"m Walking Behind You," became hits in the United States for other vocalists (see above).
This duo had their first hit, "Coming Home", at the end of the Second World War, a song also recorded by Vera Lynn.
He formed a number of accordion bands, primarily The London Piano-Accordion Band. Billy Reid born 1957 was also a singer.