Leon Welch was born in New York City and raised in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He started singing as a youngster, assembling groups and participating in talent shows. In his late teens, Welch and his group auditioned for Decca Records in New York. The executives loved "Lenny," which they called Leon, because they thought it sounded better.
Decca cut a couple of records with Welch but they sold poorly. Two years later, boxer Coley Wallace, introduced Welch to Archie Bleyer, the owner of Cadence Records. The association clicked and "You Don't Know Me" was his first release, it did well, but his second Cadence single, "Since I Fell for You," hit number five on the pop charts.
He also scored with "Ebb Tide," and was on his way to becoming a major recording star. But then, Archie Bleyer folded Cadence in September of 1964.
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Cadence had built the careers of many artists including Andy Williams, the Everly Brothers, and Johnny Tillotson; Andy Williams purchased the companies' masters from Bleyer and reissued them on his Barnaby label, but signed with Columbia Records to release his new recordings. 
Then Lenny joined the military. He stayed involved in music as best he could. He performed sporadically at “record hops” and other weekend dates to promote his new releases on Kapp Records, but nothing significant happened until his duty ended.
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| Lenny and Mel Carter |
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There are collections of his recordings including Anthology (1958-1966), on Taragon Records, and the Collectibles reissue of Since I Fell for You. He recorded three albums on Kapp: Two Different Worlds, Rags to Riches, and Lenny, in 1967.
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