In 1961 Powers changed his name to P.J. Proby - the name belonged to a friend of songwriter Sharon Sheeley - and recorded his first singles for Liberty. After several flops he wrote "Wicked Woman" and recorded it under the name Orville Woods.

The watershed in Proby's career came when Jackie DeShannon introduced him to Jack Good, creator of British television shows "6.5 Special" and "Oh Boy!". Good had been commissioned by Brian Epstein to make a TV special starring The Beatles. He brought Proby to the UK in 1964 to take part in it. Good, who had earlier been inspired by Shakespeare's "Hamlet" to dress Gene Vincent in black leather, put Proby in velvet knee breeches, burlap smock and buckled shoes, with a pony tail to complete the image of an eighteenth century dandy.

His performance in "Around The Beatles" and Good's backing helped secure a recording deal with Decca. In 1964, the British charts were dominated by home-grown beat groups and Proby's first two singles were frenetic, raucous revivals of old love songs. "Hold Me" and "Together" both made the Top 10. As he was still contracted to Liberty, the label took out a court action to secure his services and his subsequent releases appeared on Liberty.

His first record for them turned out to be the song he is best remembered for, "Somewhere" was an outrageous over-the-top rendition of Leonard Bernstein's song from "West Side Story". The song peaked at No. 6 in December of 1964. At this point it seemed that Proby had well and truly got it made. Flavour of the month with three Top 10 hits behind him, it seemed the sky was the limit...but then it all went wrong.

In January '65, P.J. headlined a package tour over Cilla Black and Tommy Rou which opened at Croydon's ABC Theatre. During the first night Proby's trousers infamously split from knee to crotch. When the same thing happened the following night, the guardians of public decency deemed it an act of rampant exhibitionism rather than faulty tailoring and he was replaced on the bill by Tom Jones.

Barred from the ABC circuit and from television, his next single was the appropriately titled "I Apologise", despite the furore over the trouser-splitting incidents (or maybe because of them) the song climbed to No. 11. Over the next eighteen months he released another half a dozen singles which, despite having the press on his back, all made the British charts, although only "Maria" - another song from "West Side Story" - reached the Top 10.