Ronnie McDowell
b. Fountain Head, Tennessee, USA. McDowell initially built his career on his ability to imitate the voice of Elvis Presley, a talent he was called upon often to utilize in films and television programmes. He also recorded his own music, however, and, by the '80s, was a major star in his own right in the country field. McDowell began trying out his Presley imitation while in the US Navy in 1968. Upon his discharge, he worked as a sign painter in Nashville while trying to sell his songs. Among the country artists who recorded his compositions were Roy Drusky and Billy Walker. He recorded for minor record labels such as Chart and Scorpion during the mid-70s, with no success, and released a cover version of Roy Orbison's Only The Lonely in 1976, which also did not chart. McDowell's first single to chart was The King Is Gone, his tribute to his departed hero, which he wrote (with Lee Morgan) and recorded on Scorpion two months after Presley's death. It reached number 13 on both the country and pop charts. His real breakthrough came later that year, with I Love You, I Love You, I Love You, which reached number 5 on the country chart (it was also his last single to cross over to pop, although it placed near the bottom of that chart). McDowell continued to place singles on the country charts through 1980, having switched to Epic Records in 1979. That same year he supplied the voice of Presley for the soundtrack of the film ELVIS. 
At the start of 1981, he began a long string of country Top 10 singles with Wandering Eyes, which was followed by the number 1 Older Women and 10 other Top 10 country hits. By the middle of the '80s, he was able to release music with little remaining of the Elvis sound, and could finally claim to have succeeded on the merits of his own voice. Later, he returned to his early vocation as the voice of Elvis in the short-lived 1989 television series titled ELVIS. McDowell switched labels to MCA Records' Curb division in 1986. One of his biggest hits of the late '80s was a remake of the old Conway Twitty hit It's Only Make Believe, with the originator supplying a guest vocal.