Sharon Sheeley was Don Everly's girlfriend, Eddie Cochrane's fiancé and the composer of Rick Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" and co-composer of the Brenda Lee hit "Dum, Dum". Sharon suggested James Marcus Smith change his stage name to P.J. Proby. In the mid sixties he had a number of U.K. hits, one of which, "Niki Hoeky" made in onto the Billboard chart in the U.S. in 1967. hitting number 23. The next year he recorded the album "Believe it or Not" containing "Delilah". The producer was Les Reed who also wrote most the songs on the album. Les tried to convince P.J. of the hit potential of "Delilah" but P.J. didn't like the song and refused to have it released on the album.

It was then offered to Tom Jones who took it to the top ten in most countries and to the Billboard top twenty in the U.S.