Peter Allen (musician)

Career

Allen began releasing solo recordings in 1971, but his greatest success came from songs he wrote for others. He co-wrote "I Honestly Love You" with Jeff Barry, which became a number-one hit in the United States and Canada for Olivia Newton-John in 1974 and won two Grammy Awards. He also co-wrote "Don't Cry Out Loud" with Carole Bayer Sager, popularized by Melissa Manchester in 1978, and "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love", also with Bayer Sager, recorded by Rita Coolidge in 1979.

His signature song "I Go to Rio", co-written with Adrienne Anderson, was popularized in America by Pablo Cruise. In 1976, Allen released the album Taught by Experts, which reached number one in Australia and included the number-one single "I Go to Rio" and the Top 10 hit "The More I See You". The album also featured "Quiet Please, There's A Lady On Stage", later recorded by Jack Jones and Dusty Springfield. Although his US recording career did not progress, he performed in Atlantic City and at Carnegie Hall, and had three sold-out engagements at Radio City Music Hall, where he danced with The Rockettes and rode a camel during "I Go to Rio".

His most successful album was Bi-Coastal (1980), produced by David Foster, which included the single "Fly Away", his only US chart single, reaching number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981. He also co-wrote the Patti LaBelle hit "I Don't Go Shopping", which reached the top 30 on the R&B chart in 1980.

Personal life

Despite his flamboyant stage persona, Allen was quiet offstage, once remarking that he had to be a different person offstage to avoid a nervous breakdown. He described his stage persona as someone much taller, handsomer, and with a better hairline. When not performing, he enjoyed swimming, wind surfing, skiing, water skiing, sailing, collecting Hawaiian shirts, reading, cooking, and gardening. He owned a beach house in Leucadia, California, a property he called a 'shack' in Oak Beach, Queensland, and a penthouse in Manhattan.

He purchased the Leucadia house with earnings from "I Honestly Love You" after visiting Gregory Connell's parents there in 1975. The living room of that house appears on the cover of his 1979 album I Could Have Been a Sailor. Allen met Liza Minnelli at Heathrow Airport on 28 October 1964, where she and her mother Judy Garland were rehearsing for a performance at the London Palladium. They became engaged a month later at Trader Vic's in the London Hilton, married on 3 March 1967 in New York City, formally separated on 8 April 1970, and divorced on 24 July 1974.

Death and legacy

Allen gave his last performance on 26 January 1992 in Sydney and was diagnosed with AIDS-related throat cancer shortly afterward. He spent his final days at his Leucadia beach house and died at Mercy Hospital in San Diego on 18 June 1992. A private memorial service was held at his home on 21 June 1992, and his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean within sight of the house. A documentary titled The Boy from Oz was produced after his death, featuring performance clips and interviews.

A stage musical of the same name opened in Australia in 1998, starring Todd McKenney as Allen and Christina Amphlett as Judy Garland. In 2003, the musical opened on Broadway, becoming the first Australian musical to be performed there, with Hugh Jackman playing Allen and winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2004. Jackman later performed the role in an arena tour titled The Boy from Oz: Arena Spectacular. A TV mini-series, Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door, aired in Australia in 2015, with Joel Jackson playing the adult Allen.

Allen was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2005, an extension of the Tenterfield Library was named the "George Woolnough Wing" after his grandfather. On 29 June 2026, a Blue Plaque sponsored by the Government of New South Wales was placed at the Armidale Folk Museum, where Allen took dance classes as a child.

Awards and honors

Allen won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" at the 54th Academy Awards, sharing the award with Burt Bacharach, Christopher Cross, and Carole Bayer Sager. On 29 September 1981, he was commissioned as Canberra's first ambassador-at-large by the Minister of State for the Capital Territory, Michael Hodgman, receiving the Keys of Canberra and a scroll. At the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards in 1991, the same song won Most Performed Feature Film Standards.

Allen won two Australian Entertainment Mo Awards for International Act of the Year, in 1983 and 1984; the Mo Awards later named the "Peter Allen Performer of the Year" Award after him. At the APRA Music Awards of 1982, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" won Most Performed Foreign Work. He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame at the ARIA Music Awards of 1993. Allen also won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song for "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" at the 39th Golden Globe Awards.

Did You Know?

• Allen began his performing career at age 11, playing piano in the ladies' lounge of the New England Hotel in Armidale.
• His father, Richard Woolnough, died by suicide in November 1958 when Allen was 14.
• In the 1979 film All That Jazz, Allen's live rendition of "Everything Old Is New Again" is danced to by Ann Reinking and Erzebet Foldi.