After a series of odd jobs in
Colesberg, South Africa, including barber and jockey, he sang in a dance band led by Edgar Adeler on a tour of South Africa,
Rhodesia,
India and the
Dutch East Indies during the early to mid-1920s. His main role was as guitarist. He was fired from the band in
Soerabaja,
Dutch East Indies. Jimmy Lequime hired Bowlly to sing with his band in India and
Singapore at
Raffles Hotel. When he left Lequime, it was with the pianist Monia Liter, the two of them travelling to Germany, where they played with Arthur Briggs and his Savoy Syncopators, Fred Bird's Salon Symphonic Jazz Band, and George Carhart's New Yorkers Jazz Orchestra. In 1927 Bowlly made his first record, a cover version of "
Blue Skies" by
Irving Berlin that was recorded with Adeler in
Berlin, Germany. During the next year, Bowlly worked in London, with the orchestra of
Fred Elizalde. Bowlly moved to Britain, where in July 1928 he joined Fred Elizalde's band at the
Savoy Hotel, London until 1929. He went on to play with various bands on a temporary basis, before gaining more regular employment in May 1931 with
Roy Fox, singing in his live band for the Monseigneur Restaurant, a stylish restaurant on
Piccadilly in
London, and with bandleader
Ray Noble in November 1930. During the next four years, he recorded over 500 songs. By 1933,
Lew Stone had ousted Fox as the Monseigneur's bandleader and Bowlly was singing Stone's arrangements with Stone's band. After much radio exposure and a successful British tour with Stone, Bowlly was now Britain's top singer, and was inundated with demands for appearances and gigs – including undertaking a solo British tour – but continued to make most of his recordings with Noble. There was considerable competition between Noble and Stone for Bowlly's time. For much of the year, Bowlly spent the day in the recording studio with Noble's band, rehearsing and recording, then the evening with Stone's band at the Monseigneur. Many of these recordings with Noble were issued in the United States by
Victor, which meant that by the time Noble and Bowlly came to America, their reputation had preceded them. Once Bowlly and Noble arrived in the States in Autumn of 1934, Noble assembled a new orchestra, which included notable artists such as
Charlie Spivak,
Glenn Miller,
Bud Freeman, and
Pee Wee Erwin. Noble's Orchestra was resident in the
Rainbow Room atop the
Rockefeller Center in
New York. Noble and Bowlly would broadcast over
NBC and
CBS, causing Ray Noble's Orchestra to be one of the most popular Dance Orchestras in the United States. Bowlly was also riding high in the States; he had his own
NBC radio series, a magazine that featured the latest news and press interviews about Bowlly, his picture was on sheet music, and he even beat
Bing Crosby in a nationwide popularity poll in 1936. Bowlly's absence from the UK in the mid-1930s damaged his popularity with British audiences, and his career began to suffer as a result of problems with his voice, which affected the frequency of his recordings. He played a few small parts in films, but the parts were often cut and scenes that were shown were brief. Noble was offered a role in Hollywood, although the offer excluded Bowlly because a singer had already been hired. Bowlly moved back to London with his wife Marjie in January 1937. He performed in England with his band, the Radio City Rhythm Makers. However, by early 1937, the band had broken up when vocal problems were traced to a wart in his throat, briefly causing him to lose his voice. Separated from his wife and with his band dissolved, he traveled to New York City for corrective surgery. With diminished success in Britain, he toured regional theatres and recorded as often as possible to make a living, moving from orchestra to orchestra, working with people like
Sydney Lipton,
Geraldo, and
Ken "Snakehips" Johnson. Al Bowlly also started to make his own solo records and would broadcast over several popular radio stations such as
Radio Luxembourg and the
BBC, which helped him regain a large amount of popularity, although many claim he did not enjoy as much success as he did in his earlier days before he moved to the United States. One of his songs, "It's Time to Say Goodnight", was used as Radio Luxembourg's closing song until it temporarily shut down during World War II (a cover by
Connie Francis would be used as the station's ending song during the early 1960s). In 1940, there was a revival of interest in his career when he worked in a duo with Jimmy Mesene in
Radio Stars with Two Guitars on the London stage. It was his last venture before his death in April 1941. The partnership was uneasy; Mesene was an alcoholic and he was occasionally unable to perform. Bowlly recorded his last song two weeks before his death. It was a duet with Mesene of Irving Berlin's satirical song about
Hitler, "When That Man is Dead and Gone". plaque stating "Al Bowlly lived here", located at 26 Charing Cross Road in
London, England ==Personal life and death==