[I Honestly Love You] she sang it, he wrote it

thanks to Kay

[I Honestly Love You] she sang it, he wrote it

Man on the Move

Until recently he was just “Liza Minnelli’s ex-husband.” But now with a popular album, a string of standing-room-only club dates and a hit song under his belt - Peter Allen is finally coming into his own.

“I started playing pubs at the age of 11,” says the slim, 30-year-old, Australian-born songwriter-singer-pianist, “then moved on to the hotel circuit, three years on Australian TV, a tour of the Orient and about 20 appearances on the Tonight Show. From that I plummeted to obscurity.”

Judy Garland heard him in Australia when she was out there on tour and subsequently introduced him to her daughter, Liza Minnelli, in London. “We were young. We were foolish. We were in love,” he says with a broad smile. But the marriage, virtually arranged by Judy, petered out and for a while, at least, it seemed as if Allen’s career had also come to an end.

But then he discovered the new youth-oriented cabaret scene-small clubs like New York’s Reno Sweeney’s, for instance and suddenly, Peter Allen was “back in business.”

One result: “Continental American,” a sophisticated, somewhat unusual album that has met with much success. One song, “I Honestly Love You,” has been recorded and turned into a chart-topping hit-and Grammy award winner-by country-pop star Olivia Newton-John.

“Just ask me, I been there,” Peter sings on “Continental America,” “I’ve been through it all.”

And yet, it’s just beginning to happen.