He looked like Elvis, he sounded like Elvis, and that was Ral Donner’s golden ticket to pop stardom – for a brief period in 1961.

Still in his teens, he made his breakthrough that year with a cover of Presley’s song The Girl Of My Best Friend, backed by a group called The Starfires.

He sang so uncannily like Elvis that many listeners were convinced it was the King himself.

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got (Until You Lose It) was his biggest hit, peaking at No.4 in the summer of ’62, though its writers, Paul Hampton and George Burton, had intended it for a girl group until Donner heard the demo and decided to record it himself.

Born in Chicago in 1943, like seemingly everyone else in that era Donner started singing in church choirs as a boy, moving on to talent contests in his early teens.

He appeared on TV while still at school with his band The Rockin’ Five, and at 16 he performed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem with his next group The Gents, going on to tour with The Sparkletones, a legendary rockabilly band from South Carolina.

After this one, Donner enjoyed a couple more hits, Please Don’t Go and She’s Everything, and recorded an album named after Presley’s band – “Takin’ Care Of Business” – but by the spring of 1962 his hit days in the Top 40 were behind him.

It took Presley’s death in 1977 to revive a modicum of interest in Donner, bringing him new attention and more work than he had seen in 15 years.

In a final boost to his moribund career, he was chosen to do the vocal impersonation of Elvis for the narration in the 1981 documentary This Is Elvis.

Donner died of cancer in 1984, leaving a modest legacy as a curious anomaly in music history and a footnote in popular culture.