Denis Gibbons was born in 1932, his father, Alfred Charles Gibbons, was a hotelier. Gibbons grew up in Port Elliot, South Australia, he attended the Sisters of Mercy in Victor Harbour and then Rostrevor College in Adelaide.[1] His early jobs included labouring in Adelaide, selling hardware, managing a bicycle shop, truck driving, working for the PMG and in factories.[2] He started in radio in 1951.[1] While working at 3SR, he was described in August 1953 in Melbourne's The Argus as a, "cheery breakfast and lunch-time announcer, is starting his own programme soon singing folk songs Burl Ives fashion with guitar."[3] By May 1954 he was compère of Time for a Song at 3AW.[4] In November 1955 he married Joan Carey in Shepparton.[5]
Gibbons debut album, Trads and Anons, was issued in September 1960, which was reviewed by The Australian Women's Weekly's correspondent, "the disc is a cosmopolitan collection of folk songs including the Dutch 'Jan Himmerk', the Irish 'Spinning Wheel', the Australian 'Bold Tommy Payne', 'Dying Stockman', and 'Wild Colonial Boy', the English 'Early One Morning', and the Scottish 'Skye Boat Song'."[2]