Dec. 10: Chad Stuart of Chad & Jeremy "Yesterday's Gone," "A Summer Song," is 69 today.

Born David Stuart Chadwick in Windermere, Cumbria, the English singer was half of Chad & Jeremy, an English singing folk rock duo originating in the 1960s along with Jeremy Clyde. They were part of the British Invasion, the monumental influx of British rock and pop musicians to the American music scene in the 1960s.

Chad & Jeremy first single, "Yesterday's Gone," was their only hit in the UK. However, Chad & Jeremy's strings-backed sound held a greater appeal in the USA, where World Artists Records released their early 1960s strain of commercial folk music.

Their second single, "A Summer Song," hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964. Follow-ups included "Willow Weep for Me" - a 1930s song recorded previously  by Paul Whiteman and Billie Holiday. Chad & Jeremy's cover version climbed to #1 on the Easy Listening chart. In total Chad & Jeremy had seven US Top 40 hits between 1964 and 1966.

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In 2003, PBS reunited Chad & Jeremy in the 60's Pop-Rock Reunion special, which also prompted a tour the next year. They have been touring ever since.

In 2008, the group released Ark-eology, an album featuring re-recordings of their 1960s hits and selected cuts from their original albums. In September 2010, Chad & Jeremy marked 50 years of performing together with a limited-edition CD entitled Fifty Years On.

In the fall of 1967, they released the album, Of Cabbages and Kings. This psychedelic album sold poorly, as did the 1968 follow-up, The Ark.

The duo also made several television guest appearances. In back-to-back sitcom appearances, they first played fictional singing duo 'The Redcoats' (Fred and Ernie) on the February 10, 1965 episode of the TV sitcom Dick Van Dyke Show that satirized Beatlemania. The following week they appeared on the Patty Duke Show as unknown British singing duo 'Nigel & Patrick', performing "A Summer Song," "The Truth Often Hurts the Heart" and "Yesterday's Gone."

The duo appeared as themselves in the December 1966 episodes "The Cat's Meow" and "The Bat's Kow Tow" of the television series Batman, in which the guest villain was Julie Newmar as Catwoman.

In 1983, Chad & Jeremy reunited to record the album Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde for the MCA-distributed Rocshire Records label. The duo starred in the West End production of Pump Boys And Dinettes from 1984-85, before returning to the US in 1986 for a nostalgia tour with other British Invasion artists. In 1987 they performed in short residencies at both Harrah's Casino in Lake Tahoe and the Reno Hilton before again breaking up.

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