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World Service,21 Jul 2023,9 mins

The US singer who became the Soviet Union’s Red Elvis

Witness History

Available for over a year

In 1966, at the height of the Cold War, American singer Dean Reed became the first western rock and roll star to tour the Soviet Union. His visit was such a success that over the next two decades Dean became known as ‘Red Elvis’. His concerts behind the Iron Curtain were sell-outs and he was mobbed by fans. But when he wanted to return home to the United States, the reaction he faced was very different, as Dean’s daughter Ramona told Jane Wilkinson. (Photo: Dean Reed in East Berlin, 1976. Credit: Getty Images)

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