Kris Jensen (born April 4, 1942) is an American singer, bassist, and guitarist whose sole chart entry was the 1962 US Top 20 success, ‘Torture’.
Peter Kristian Jensen was born of Danish-Finnish descent in New Haven, Connecticut, United States.He has two younger brothers and a sister.His musical influence was acquired by listening to his father's extensive collection of Burl Ives, Chet Atkins and other folk and country records.He started playing guitar when he was fifteen and studied chords for a short time before developing a love for pop-country music through the influence of Elvis Presley.
He played at school dances etc. until 1957 when his father took him to Dennise Norwood (the composer of "Garden Of Eden" etc.) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to study and develop his own style of pop-country singing. For three years, they worked together, with Jensen recording Norwood’s compositions in her home studio. Jensen began his career in music cutting records for Colpix, for whom he recorded his first single “Bonnie Baby” in 1959.
He graduated from Fort Lauderdale High School in June 1960. Two weeks later, whilst on vacation with his family in Tennessee, Dennise Norwood made an appointment for him with Wesley Rose (President of Hickory Records Inc. and the Acuff-Rose Publishing complex in Nashville). Wesley Rose got him a contract with Leader records in New York and Kris' first session was cut on August 3rd. 1960, School Bus c/w Perfect Lover. One more disc was released on Leader and he then moved to Kapp for three single issues.
When Nashville music publisher Wesley Rose heard a demo album that Norwood was shopping around to various labels, he hooked Kris up with Hickory Records in 1962 where he began recording many numbers by Nashville staff songwriters such as Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, Roy Orbison, Joe Melson, and John D. Loudermilk. In 1962 he recorded "Torture", which Loudermilk had originally written for The Everly Brothers. The hypnotic tune had a slow, humping rhythm and a pleading Presleyesque vocal.
The song became a hit, reaching No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and after its success the Everly Brothers decided to record it as well. The song proved to be Jensen's only hit, though he recorded at least 30 songs over the course of his career. It was during his time with Hickory that Kris' made his first visits overseas and this included an appearance in London on the "Thank Your Lucky Stars" TV programme singing "Donna, Donna" in 1963.
After leaving "Hickory" he moved to the West Coast area of the U.S.A. and in 1966 recorded four tracks for "White Whale". After a four year absence from recording Jensen would take one more shot with a remake of “Me and Bobby McGee in the summer of 1970 on the A&M record label working with producer George Tobin. In 1973 he was working as West Coast promotions manager for Snuff Garrett Enterprisesafter which his internet trail goes cold.
A & M "Torture" was featured in the soundtrack of the avant-garde film, Scorpio Rising, directed by Kenneth Anger.
(Edited from Wikipedia, This Is My Story, One Hit Wonders & Bear Family notes)