Blakeley was a lead singer for The Rockmelons in the mid-1980s. He launched a solo career in 1987 and had a massive hit single in Australia in 1990 with "Crying in the Chapel", which was not a remake of the 1950s song "Crying in the Chapel". In 1990, he won an ARIA award for Single of the year with "Crying in the Chapel", the first single taken from his album 《Harry's Cafe De Wheels》.Ian McFarlane, rock music journalist and author of Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (1999) wrote: "Peter Blakeley has been described by the founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun, as 'The finest White Soul singer I have ever heard.'"