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Ian Tyson
(89), singer-songwriter whose compositions include the folk-country classics 'Four Strong Winds' (regarded as the greatest Canadian song of all time and recorded by such stars as Hank Snow, Neil Young, The Seekers, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithfull, The Searchers, John Denver, The Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare, Chad and Jeremy, Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte and Johnny Cash), and 'Someday Soon' (recorded by Judy Collins, Skeeter Davis, Suzy Bogsuss, Julie Felix, Tanya Tucker, Lynn Anderson, the Kingston Trio and Crystal Gayle).
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
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Jo Mersa Marley
(31), singer-songwriter, recording engineer, and son of Grammy Award winner Stephen Marley and grandson of the legendary Bob Marley.
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Maxi Jazz
(65), singer, songwriter, musician, DJ, and influential lead singer with the British electronic band Faithless.
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Thom Bell
(79), songwriter, producer and co-creator (along with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff) of 'The Sound Of Philadelphia', who worked with such acts as The Stylistics, The Delfonics, Elton John, The Spinners and Dionne Warwick, producing such hits as 'La-La (Means I Love You)' – The Delfonics, 'Brand New Me' - Dusty Springfield, 'Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)' – The Delfonics, 'Betcha By Golly, Wow' – The Stylistics, 'I'm Stone In Love with You' – The Stylistics, 'I'll Be Around' – The Spinners, 'Could It Be I'm Falling In Love' – The Spinners, 'One Of A Kind (Love Affair)' – The Spinners, 'Ghetto Child' – The Spinners, 'You Make Me Feel Brand New' – The Stylistics, 'Mighty Love (Part I)' – The Spinners, 'Then Came You' – The Spinners (with Dionne Warwick), 'They Just Can't Stop It (The Games People Play)' – The Spinners, 'The Rubberband Man' – The Spinners, 'Are You Ready For Love' – Elton John (with the Spinners), 'Mama Can't Buy You Love' – Elton John, 'Silly' – Deniece Williams and 'It's Gonna Take A Miracle' – Deniece Williams.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Grammy Award Winner.
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Stuart Margolin
(82), actor, movie director and songwriter, best known for his roles in 'The Rockford Files' and 'Kelly’s Heroes'.
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Charlie Monk
(84), legendary country music radio personality, known as 'The Mayor Of Music Row', songwriter, music publisher, and former head of CBS Songs Nashville.
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Dino Danelli
(78), drummer with the American band The Young Rascals, who reached #1 on the US charts in 1966 with 'Good Lovin'.
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Bertha Barbee McNeal
(82), co-founder of Motown group The Velvelettes, whose hits include 'Needle In A Haystack' and 'He Was Really Saying Something', and who was much admired by Amy Winehouse.
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Terry Hall
(63), songwriter and lead singer with the Specials, and formerly of Fun Boy Three, the Colourfield, Terry, Blair & Anouchka and Vegas.
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Martin Duffy
(55), keyboardist with Primal Scream and Felt, who collaborated with such notables as Beth Orton, Steve Mason, Mark Stewart, The Chemical Brothers, Paul Weller, and Jessie Buckley.
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Charlie Gracie
(86), million-selling singer and guitarist.
Born in South Philadelphia, Charlie Gracie attended school alongside future pop stars James Darren and Bobby Rydell although as a youngster, he was mainly influenced by such country acts as Bill Haley & The Saddlemen and Hank Snow. He cut his first record for a small local label at the age of 15 but a chance meeting with pianist and band leader Bernie Lowe, who had penned 'Teddy Bear' for Elvis Presley and was about to set up Cameo Parkway Records, led to a recording contract with that label. Gracie went on to score four international hits during 1957 - 'Butterfly' (penned by Lowe, which reached #1 in the USA), 'Fabulous', 'I Love You So Much It Hurts' and 'Wanderin' Eyes'.
In spite of appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand, he failed to score any further chart singles after 1957, and departed Cameo Parkway having sued them for unpaid royalties. Although labels were slow to sign him after his legal action, Gracie remained a popular stage performer in the USA where he frequently toured with such acts as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Avalon, The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and Eddie Cochran, but he was even more popular in the UK, where he had been the first rock and roll act to perform in that country subsequent to Bill Haley's triumphant 1957 visit.
In all, Gracie toured Britain on more than 40 occasions, where he was widely admired not just by oldies fans, but also by musicians such as Van Morrison (for whom he opened on a number of occasions), Joe Cocker, Graham Nash, George Harrison and Stephen Stills. At the age of 83, he returned to headline a sell-out UK tour featuring Marty Wilde, Eden Kane and Mike Berry & The Outlaws.
Throughout his life, he continued to release records, a total of 16 albums and more than more than thirty singles, and although all were solid sellers and are mostly still in print, chart success continued to elude him.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Kim Simmonds
(75), songwriter, guitarist and vocalist with Savoy Brown.
Born in Newvridge, Caerphilly, Wales, Kim Simmonds founded the Savoy Brown Blues Band in London in 1965 with vocalist Brice Portius, pianist Trevor Jeavons, bassist Ray Chappell, drummer Leo Manning and harmonicist John O'Leary. The name Savoy Brown was chosen to signify a combination of the exotic and the mundane, and one of their first gigs was to open for and accompany John Lee Hooker on his 1967 UK trip. They also frequently appeared with Cream at the Nag's Head on London Road, High Wycombe, a venue which would in later years go on to host such acts as Jethro Tull, Thin Lizzy, Sex Pistols, Status Quo, Police and U2.
A signing to Decca Records followed, and in 1967, the band's first of almost fifty albums 'Shake Down', was released. A minor hit in the UK, Savoy Brown found itself in much greater demand in the USA, with acts like Rod Stewart and The Faces frequently opening for them.
Although they charted a majority of their albums on Billboard, the band never made the Top 30, due probably to the phenomenal turnover of members (sixty alone between 1965 and 2009), Simmonds himself being the lone survivor. Never viewed as a 'singles' band, they did however manage to chart three singles on Billboard, 'I'm Tired' (1969), 'Tell Mama' (1971) and 'Run To Me' (1981).
In 1997, Simmonds released 'Solitaire', the first of five solo albums, and in 2015, Savoy Brown's 'The Devil To Pay' became their biggest selling recording, reaching number four on the US Billboard Top Blues Albums chart.
In London, UK, of signet-cell colon cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Angelo Badalamenti
(85), Grammy Award winning composer of popular movie and television themes.
Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Angelo Badalamenti started learning piano at the age of eight, and by the time he was 14, was accompanying top acts at a number of the Catskill Mountains summer resorts.
Having graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 1959, he taught for several years at Dyker Heights Junior High in Brooklyn, where in 1964, he wrote a Christmas musical for his students which ended up being shown on public service TV. This led to a music publishing contract and a number of single and album cuts by Nina Simone, Nancy Williams and Shirley Bassey.
In 1973, he was asked to write music for a movie to be set in New York called 'Gordon's War', and following that success, went on to score the film 'Law and Disorder', while also penning Ronnie Dove's US hit single 'I Want To Love You For What You Are'.
In 1986. he started working with David Lynch, initially not as a writer but as a vocal coach for Isabella Rossellini on Lynch's hit movie 'Blue Velvet'. Lynch was so impressed with his talent that he asked him to score the entire film, even giving him a cameo role (as a pianist) in the movie itself. Scores for such films as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3', 'Dream Warriors' and 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation' followed before he teamed up again with David Lynch on the 'Twin Peaks' series, winning both a Gold Disc and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his 'Twin Peaks Theme'.
A long-time collaboration with Lynch now followed, on such projects as 'Wild at Heart', 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me', 'Lost Highway', 'The Straight Story', 'Mulholland Drive' (in which Badalamenti also played gangster Luigi Castigliane) and 'Rabbits'.
Apart from his movie-scoring career, he also worked with such acts as Patti Austin, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Marianne Faithfull, Liza Minnelli, Mel Tillis (the song 'You’ll Come Back' co-written with Norman Mailer), Roberta Flack. The Pet Shop Boys, Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries, Tim Booth, LL Cool J, and Marianne Faithfull.
Grammy Award Winner.
In Lincoln Park, New Jersey, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Ronnie Turner
(62), bass guitarist, songwriter and actor.
Born in 1960 in Los Angeles, California, Ronnie Turner was the only biological son of Ike and Tine Turner.
He started studying bass guitar at the age of ten, and in 1975, joined with songwriter and producer Patrick Moten to found Manufactured Punk which released several singles, frequently opening for such acts as B. B. King. Undisputed Truth, Natalie Cole and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes.
Following Ike and Tina’s divorce in 1978, Ronnie joined his father's band The Kings of Rhythm, and later went on to perform with his mother's band when she emerged as a solo singer in the 1980's.
He played himself in the 1993 Tina Turner biopic 'What’s Love Got To Do With It' and in 2007, married French-born singer and TV personality Afida Messaï who in addition to releasing two albums on Sony as Afida Turner, would later announce her candidacy for President of France in the 2022 election.
In Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA, of complications relayed to colon cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Jim Stewart
(92), record producer and co-founder of the Stax Records label.
Born in Middleton, Tennessee, into a music-loving rural family, Jim Stewart moved to Memphis in 1948 where after doing military service, he joined the staff at the Union Planters Bank working in their bond department. An enthusiastic country music fiddler, he set up Satellite Records with aspiring producer Chips Moman, to release local pop, country and rockabilly musicians, taking on his sister Estelle Axton as partner when she offered to mortgage her home to found Stax Records (named after the two surnames Stewart and Axton).
A move to the empty Capitol Theatre building at McLemore and College in South Memphis, introduced Stewart to black music in a city which was strictly segregated. Although he had the appearance and manner of a white southern banker, Stewart insisted on creating a racially mixed record company in the heart of segregated Memphis, and staff of both races were encouraged to work and mix socially together, even if this was possible while only inside the building, leading Al Bell to describe the office as "an oasis for all of us".
One day, a visit from local soul DJ Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla, led to the recording of the duet ‘Cause I Love You’, which aroused interest of Atlantic Records' Jerry Wexler who offered a distribution deal.
Carla's solo recording of 'Gee Whiz' and her dad's follow-up 'Walkin’ The Dog' both earned Gold Discs for Stax which was soon scouting for more black talent in South Memphis, and the subsequent signing of Booker T. Jones, William Bell, David Porter and Isaac Hayes, coupled with the success of such acts as Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the MG’s, The Staples Singers, Eddie Floyd, the Mar-Keys and Otis Redding, cemented the label's reputation as America's top soul outlet. In all, Stax got more than 167 songs onto the Billboard Hot 100 and scored 243 hits on the R&B charts.
However, disaster struck with the death of Otis Redding in a 1967 air-crash, followed by an acrimonious break with Atlantic the following year, and the departure of his sister Estelle from the label. Due to a contractual flaw, Stax also lost all of its back-catalogue to Atlantic Records, but Stewart rebounded with a new partner, former DJ Al Bell, and financial backing from Gulf & Western, to re-launch the label, and soon the business was thriving again.
By now, Stax was more than just a record label, due to its involvement in many social projects, its hosting of the giant WattStax concert, and its breakthrough into the white-dominated world of Hollywood with the Isaac Hayes classic 'Shaft'.
However, historic debts came back to haunt the company, and eventually, Stewart (who kept putting his own money back into the firm in an effort to save it) was declared personally bankrupt.
In spite of the ignominy of being evicted from his own home, he fought back and in 1982, started to again produce new recordings of veteran Memphis acts. Although he retired from producing in 1988, he continued to interest himself in the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, built on the site of the original studio. and the Stax Music Academy, which trained new musicians and vocalists in Memphis.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In Memphis, Tennessee, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Jimmy Justice
(82). singer who scored three UK Top 30 hits in 1962.
Born James Little in Bermondsey, London, Jimmy Justice became friendly with Emile Ford, who heard him sing, and impressed by the Ben E King quality to his voice, arranged for him to audition for Pye, who promptly offered him a three-year contract. After two failed releases. he hit with three chart entries in the space of six months, all produced by Tony Hatch.
"When My Little Girl Is Smiling" (a Drifters cover written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller), "Ain't That Funny" (penned by Adam Faith's writer Johnny Worth under the name Les Vandyke), and "Spanish Harlem" (a Ben E King cover penned by Jerry Leiber & Phil Spector) were to be his only chart successes in the UK however, although he continued to tour Europe where he remained popular, eventually basing himself in Sweden. He released seven more singles and two albums for Pye, before signing with RCA in 1967 and Decca in 1969. He retired from music in 1972, later taking up a post in the computer industry.
In Purley, London, UK, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Galit Borg
(54), vocalist who was one half (with 12-year-old Gili Nathaniel) of the Gili & Galit act which performed Israel's 1989 Eurovision entry 'The King's Road'. The duo came 12th at that year's festival, held in Lausanne. Switzerland.
Near the village of Kfar Daniel, Israel, following a car crash.
© Bill Miller
Christine McVie
(79), Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and member of Fleetwood Mac.
Christine McVie was born Christine Perfect into a musical family in Bouth, Cumbria. Although she started out as a classical pianist, her interest in Fats Domino led her to explore the burgeoning rock and roll genre in the 1950's. While studying Art in Birmingham, she occasionally performed with Spencer Davis before moving to London where she joined the newly-formed Chicken Shack as keyboardist and vocalist. She sang lead on their cover version of the Etta James hit 'I'd Rather Go Blind' and also featured on both the band's Top 10 albums, but left after she met and married John McVie, a member of Fleetwood Mac. Although she released a solo album titled 'Christine Perfect' in 1970, she also accepted an invitation to join the band itself that same year.
In 1974, Fleetwood Mac moved to the USA, and achieved major Anerican success with two hits written by Christine - 'Over My Head' and 'Say You Love Me'. These were followed by another of her compositions 'Don't Stop' from their forty million selling album 'Rumnours' although by now, the McVies had divorced. In 1982 the band hit the top of the charts again with her composition 'Hold Me', a song inspired by her new relationship with Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys
In 1984, she recorded a solo album titled simply 'Christine McVie' which spawned the Top 10 hit 'Got A Hold On Me', although she continued to record and tour with Fleetwood Mac.
However, in 1998, she left the band and returned to England, later citing a fear of flying as the reason for her departure. Over the next decade, she developed agoraphobia and remained more or less out of the public eye, apart from a 2004 solo album 'In The Meantime', which failed to chart.
In 2014, she rejoined Fleetwood Mac, and later released an album with co-member Lyndsey Buckingham which reached the Top 20 in both the USA and the UK. In 2021, she sold the rights to her 115-song catalogue. At that time, her five biggest revenue-generating songs were 'Don’t Stop', 'Everywhere', 'You Make Loving Fun', 'Songbird' and 'Little Lies'.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Grammy Award Nominee.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In London, England, following an ischemic stroke.
© Jim Liddane
Tommy Facenda
(83), singer-songwriter and former member of Gene Vincent's backing band.
Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Tommy Facenda graduated from St. Paul's High School in 1957, and immediately joined Gene Vincent's Bluecaps as a backing vocalist. One year later, he left to pursue a solo career, going on to release a novelty song titled ‘High School USA’ which had been penned by a Norfolk, Virginia record store owner Frank Guida (later to found Legrand Records and produce million-sellers by Gary US Bonds and Jimmy Soul).
In what was described as "one of the most audacious marketing gimmicks of the vinyl era", the song was recorded in 28 different versions, each one targeting a large city or urban area, and listing the important High Schools in that particular area. Atlantic took over the complex distribution process, and the song eventually reached the US Top 30.
Subsequent releases by Tommy Facenda failed to chart and he briefly re-joined the Blue Caps in 1962 following a period of military service. Returning to his home town in 1964, he worked for the Portsmouth Fire Department until his retirement. A street ('Tommy Facenda Street') is named after him in Portsmouth.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In Portsmouth, Virginia, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Shel Macrae
(77), lead singer and guitarist with The Fortunes, whose hits include 'Caroline', 'You've Got Your Troubles', 'Storm In A Teacup', 'Here It Comes Again', 'That Same Old Feeling', 'Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again' and 'Freedom Come, Freedom Go'.
In Halesowen, Dudley, UK, from undisclosed causes.
© Ray Coleman
Irene Cara
(63), Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and actor.
Born in New York to a Puerto Rican father and a Cuban mother, Irene Cara began singing and dancing on New York's Spanish television outlets with her fathers' mambo band, later appearing on such shows as ‘The Original Amateur Hour’, ‘The Electric Company’ and Johnny Carson's ‘The Tonight Show’.
During the 1970s, she appeared in a number of Broadway oroductions including ‘Ain't Misbehavin'’, ‘The Me Nobody Knows’, ‘Maggie Flynn’ and ‘Via Galactica’. She also had serious roles in such TV productions as 'Kojak', ‘Roots: The Next Generations’ and ‘Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones’.
In 1979, Alan Parker picked her out of the auditioning dancers, to star in the movie 'Fame', during which she sang both the title song and 'Out Here On My Own'. Subsequently, the two songs were uniquely chosen to be performed by Cara at that year's Academy Awards, with 'Fame' winning the Oscar. Cara herself won two Grammy Awards for her vocalising, while the movie's soundtrack went multi-platinum.
However, she returned to her acting career both on the stage and in television drama, declining to appear in the spin-off TV version of the movie.
In 1983, she co-composed the song 'Flashdance' for the film of the same name, winning the 1983 Academy Award for Best Song, the 1984 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal and the 1984 American Music Awards for both Best R&B Female Artist and Best Pop Single of the Year.
The single itself, spent six weeks at Number 1 in the USA. Subsequently, Cara sued claiming that she had failed to receive anything like the correct royalty payments for the records. It took several years for the case to be settled, during which time, she could not sign with another label, and so her pop career stalled. However she did star in the movie 'City Heat' with Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood, penning the theme song for the film, before going on to star in 'Certain Fury' with Tatum O'Neill and 'Busted Up' with Tony Rosato.
Although she continued to release albums, and also formed the all-female band Hot Caramel, she went into semi-retirement in 2005, splitting her time between her homes in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she had a long-time club residency, New York City, and Largo, Florida.
Two-time Grammy Award Winner.
Oscar Award winner.
In Largo, Florida, USA, suddenly of arteriosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
© Jim Liddane
Pablo Milanés
(79), Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and one of the originators of the Cuban 'nueva trova' music genre.
Born in Byano, his family moved to Havana when he was just seven years old, so that Pablo could study music at the prestigious Conservatorio Municipal de La Habana. While there, he became involved in the Cuban Revolution, and in 1969, along with Silvio Rodriguez and Noel Nicola, helped found the 'nueva trova', which was seen as many as being the 'authentic music of revolutionary Cuba'.
His best-known songs include 'Versos Sencillos De José Martí', 'El Guerrero', 'Yolanda', 'Yo Me Quedo', 'Amo Esta Isla' and 'Comienzo y Final De Una Verde Mañana', while his adaptations of the works of such Cuban poets as José Martí and Nicolás Guillén proved very popular.
In a career lasting 50 years, he recorded more than 60 albums, and toured almost every country in Latin America, his final appearance being at a sold-out concert in Havana just a few months before his death.
He was honoured on several occasions by the Cuban government (Fidel Castro once describing the songwriter's fame as "the success of the revolution"), and he continued to support its original aims. However, he was also capable of being publicly critical of what he felt were its failures.
In 2017, suffering from cancer of the blood, he left Cuba with his Spanish-born wife to seek treatment in Spain, returning only occasionally to Havana.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Two-time Grammy Award Winner.
In Madrid, Spain, of cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Wilko Johnson
(75), guitarist, songwriter and actor, who came to fame as a member of Dr Feelgood.
Born in Canvey Island, Essex, Johnson attended the University of Newcastle with the intention of becoming a teacher. Having left college, he went to India for a period, and on returning, took up a teaching post, while playing at night with Canvey Island pub band, Pigboy Charlie. This outfit, fronted by vocalist Lee Brilleaux, would later evolve into Dr Feelgood.
Inspired by the guitar playing of Bo Diddley, Mick Green and Buddy Holly all of whom played a simultaneous mix of lead and rhythm guitar, he adopted a menacing stage persona, frequently dressing in black and fascinating audiences with his novel interpretation of Chuck Berry's 'duck walk'.
At the height of Dr Feelgood's success however. and having penned many of the songs on the band’s first five albums on United Artists, Johnson departed following an argument with Brilleaux to form Solid Senders, signing with Virgin Records and releasing one album. In 1980, he joined Ian Dury & The Blockheads, playing on their final album before the break-up of that unit.
Soon after, he was back on tour with his own Wilko Johnson Band, which over the next twenty years, would cut ten albums, several of which found success in Japan and Germany. He also cut an album with Roger Daltrey which reached #3 in the UK, making it the highest chart placing of his career. A diagnosis of terminal cancer (for which he refused chemtherapy treatment), had led him to quit performing on stage in 2013, but when the diagnosis turned out to be premature, he quickly returned to music, touring up until his death nine years later.
In the meantime, his sinister stage persona had led to him being cast as the mute executioner Ser Ilyn Payne in the HBO series 'Game Of Thrones', and he also appeared in several episodes of 'Oil City Confidential'.
At his home in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, UK, of cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Gene Cipriano
(94), saxophonist, clarinettist, oboist and flautist, generally regarded as the most-recorded woodwind player of all time.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Gene Cipriano took up clarinet at the age of eight, taught by his father who played with Broadway theatre pit bands. He joined the Tommy Dorsey Band in 1951 at the age of 23, before moving to the re-organised Glenn Miller Band where he met band member and aspiring composer Henry Mancini. It was Mancini who gave him his first television gig - playing flute on the theme for the Peter Gunn series, and from then on, he worked with almost every major movie or TV composer, including Adnre Previn, Johnny Mandel, Micjhael Legrand, Marvin Hamlisch, and Neal Hefti, performing the themes of such shows as 'Batman', 'The Flintstones', 'Dallas', 'MASH', 'Star Trek', 'The Simpsons' and 'Mission Impossible'. One of his early sessions involved playing the saxophone for Tony Curtis in the movie 'Some Like It Hot'.
This led to session work on many pop recordings, including those of Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Pat Boone, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, John Denver, Neil Diamond, Gloria Estefan, Ella Fitzgerald, Lesley Gore, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Barry Manilow, Dean Martin, Bette Midler, Rick Nelson, Michael Nesmith, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Prince, Lionel Richie, David Soul, Barbra Streisand, Mel Torme, Billy Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Barry White, Frank Zappa and The Monkees.
In Studio City, California, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Rab Noakes
(75), singer-songwriter and co-founder of Stealers Wheel.
Born in St Andrews, Scotland, Rab Noakes started his career performing with Lindisfarne, with one of his early songs "Turn A Deaf Ear" appearing on their first album 'Nicely Out Of Tune', The song was subsequently covered by Barbara Dickson. Following this, he performed on Gerry Rafferty's debut album 'Can I Have My Money Back' before co-founding Stealers Wheel. In 1970, Noakes released a solo album on Decca titled 'Do You See The Lights', the first of twenty albums he would produce over the next fifty years.
In 1991, he joined BBC Radio Scotland as head of music, but left after eight years to form Neon Records, which released several of his own albums. He was also elected to the Executive Committee of the Musicians’ Union.
In Glasgow, Scotland, of cancer.
© Ray Coleman
Pierre Kartner
(87), singer-songwriter and record producer who rose to international fame with 'The Smurf Song'.
Born in Elst, Netherlands, Pierre Kartner won his first singing competition at the age of eight, before joining Dureco Records as a producer soon after the company opened. He also formed a vocal partnership with Annie de Reuver under the name Duo X, and performed with the hit Dutch band Corry & de Rekels. During the 1960's, he started producing and recording under a variety of names, including Pierre, Lord Wanhoop, The Headlines, The Letterets, Het Rood-Wit-Blauw Trio, De Aardmannetjes, Los Vastos, Pierre & The Pietjes, Nol end Marie and De Uilen scored numerous hit and also reached #1 in Holland with "Zou Het Erg Zijn, Lieve Opa", a duet with Wilma Landkroon.
in 1975, he again hit #1 with 'Het Kleine Café Aan De Haven', which under a variety of titles was covered by more than 200 performers, including Engelbert Humperdinck, Audrey Landers and Demis Roussos and (as 'The Red Rose Cafe') by The Fureys. The song was also a hit for Mireille Mathieu, Joe Dassin, Peter Alexander and André Rieu.
The success of the long-established Belgian-produced Smurfs animated cartoon series led Kartner (under the name Father Abraham), to write and record 'The Smurf Song' which became a massive hit across Europe, reaching the #1 position in 16 countries, and going on to sell more than five million copies worldwide. He followed this up with several more Smurf-themed songs which were hits in Europe and which achieved even wider recognition when Hanna-Barbera introduced the cartoon characters to American audiences in 1981 via a series which ran for nine years.
In all, he is believed to have penned more than 1600 songs, earning him 27 Gold Discs. He also wrote the 2010 Dutch Eurovision entry 'Shalalie'.
In Breda, Netherlands, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Dan McCafferty
(76), singer-songwriter and founder of Nazareth.
Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, McCafferty formed Nazareth in 1968, writing their first two hits, 'Broken Down Angel' and 'Big Bad Boy', both of which reached the UK Top 10 in 1973. Other hits followed, including 'This Flight Tonight', 'Shanghai'd In Shanghai', (penned by McCafferty), 'Love Hurts' (an Everly Brothers original which became the band's biggest US hit), 'Hair Of The Dog', 'My White Bicycle', 'May The Sunshine' and 'Star'.
Although the band's popularity in the UK and USA declined during the 1990's, they remained popular in Europe, particularly in Germany where they were still charting albums in 2022. McCafferty himself retired from the band in 2014, due to the onset of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but released a solo album titled 'The Last Testament' in 2019.
In Dunfermline, Scotland, of COPD.
© Ray Coleman
Jeff Cook
(73), singer-songwriter, musician, and co-founder of the country band Alabama.
Born of American-Indian heritage in Fort Payne, Alabama, Jeff Cook grew up fascinated by music, electronics and radio. At the age of 14, he became the youngest person ever to achieve a broadcast engineering licence, and soon after was hosting his own show on WZOB in Fort Payne. After graduating from college with a degree in Electronic Technology, he co-founded Wildcountry (later to become Alabama) with his cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry, with Cook playing guitar, fiddle, mandolin, keyboards, and banjo, while handling much of the vocals, as well as penning several songs for the band (including the much-covered 'Christmas In Dixie').
After a slow start, Alabama went on to become the most successful country band of all time, achieving no fewer than 41 #1 records, including such country classics as 'Love In The First Degree', 'Mountain Music', 'Dixieland Delight', 'If You're Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band)' and 'Song Of The South'. In all, Alabama sold more than 85 million disks, including a trio of albums which achieved sales of more than five million copies each. In addition, the band earned two Grammy Awards, and a further eleven Grammy nominations.
In later years, following Alabama's retirement from touring in 2004, Jeff Cook founded two other bands, Cook & Glenn and the Allstar Goodtime Band. He also opened Cook Sound Studios in his home town of Fort Payne, as well as buying WQRX-AM in nearby Valley Head. When Alabama reunited for a 50th Anniversary Tour, Cook returned to the band but left again the following year when illness struck.
In Destin, Miramar Beach, Florida, USA, from complications linked to Parkinson's Disease.
© Jim Liddane
Carmelo La Bionda
(73), singer-songwriter, producer and performer under the names of both D D Sound, and La Bionda.
Born in Ramacca, Sicily, his family moved to Milan in 1954, where he attended school. Along with his brother Michelangelo, Carmelo started penning songs while still a student, going on to write the #1 hits 'Primo Sole, Primo Fiore' for Ricchi e Poveri, as well as 'Neve Bianca, Amica, Gentile Se Vuoi' and 'Piccolo Uomo' for Mia Martini. La Bionda also recorded two solo albums, one of which was produced at Apple Studios in London.
Soon after the release of the second album 'Tutto La Bene', the brothers moved to Munich, Germany, where they became involved in the burgeoning disco genre, recording a quick succession of international hits, including 'Disco Bass', 'Burning Love', 'Cafè', '1, 2, 3, 4, Gimme Some More', 'There For Me', and 'One For You, One For Me'. 'There For Me' was also covered by a number of international acts including Sarah Brightman & Josh Groban, Dalida, Patty Pravo, Paul Potts and Jonathan King who had the UK hit version.
In the 1980's, La Bionda began to concentrate more on movie work, penning soundtracks for such films as 'Super Fuzz', 'Who Finds A Friend Finds A Treasure', 'My Darling, My Dearest', 'Cat And Dog', 'A Tu Per Tu', 'Miami Supercops', 'Roba Da Ricchi', and 'Virtual Weapon'. During this period, the brothers also opened Logic Studios in Milan, which during the next forty years, would record a large number of Italian acts, as well as such international stars as Ray Charles, Robert Palmer, Paul Young and Depeche Mode.
In Milan, Italy, of cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Takeoff
(28), Grammy nominated rapper-songwriter and a member of Migos.
Kirshnik Khari Ball (Takeoff) was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and in 2011, formed Polo, along with his uncle Quavios (Quavo), and a cousin, Kiari (Offset). In 2013, under the name Migos, they released their debut album, and scored a hit single two years later with 'Versace'. The following year, they hit #1 on Billboard with 'Bad And Boujee' which went on to be four-times platinum certified.
In 2018, Takeoff released his own solo studio album 'The Last Rocket' although he continued to record and tour with Migos, with their third album 'Culture 111' debuting at #1 on Billboard that same year.
In Houston, Texas, USA, during a shooting incident at a local bowling alley.
© Bill Miller
Jerry Lee Lewis
(87), singer-songwriter, multiple Grammy Award winner, and one of the founding fathers of rock and roll.
Born in Ferriday, Louisiana, Jerry Lee started learning piano at the homes of two of his cousins, Mickey Gilley (a future country music star) and Jimmy Swaggart (later a TV minister of religion). Having been expelled from the Southwest Bible Institute for playing secular music, Lewis performed in clubs across Louisiana and Mississippi, eventually gaining a slot on the Louisiana Hayride.
Having been turned down by the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, he moved to Memphis where he started working as a session pianist with Sun Records. Here, he met Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Billy Lee Riley and many more, and also recorded a cover version of Ray Price's 'Crazy Arms' which sold heavily but failed to chart. However, his follow-up, a cover of Big Maybelle's 'Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On', reached #1 on the country charts and #9 on the US Hot 100.
His next record 'Great Balls Of Fire', which had been written by Otis Blackwell, was even bigger and that too topped the charts worldwide. Two more hits followed - 'Breathless' (also penned by Blackwell), and 'High School Confidential' (the only one of his hits which Lewis had written), and the initially shy - but by now flamboyant performer with the nickname of 'The Killer' - was being spoken of with the same reverence normally only afforded to rock and roll's founding fathers (generally regarded as being Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard). However, it was at this high point in his career that he embarked on a UK tour which would lead to his fall from grace, and almost bring about the end of his career in music.
Generally, fans were unaware that Lewis, who was only 22, was already on his third marriage (he married seven times in all). This time however, he had not only married his first cousin, but a girl who was only 13 years of age. To add to the controversy, he had not legally divorced his second wife. The British newspapers got hold of the story, the tour was cancelled, and Lewis returned to the USA in disgrace. He was blocked from television by all the major networks, and many radio stations refused to play his records.
For the next two years, his releases failed to make the Top 50, until 1961, when his superb version of the Ray Charles classic 'What'd I Say' made the US and UK charts. The following year, his contract with Sun expired, and he moved to Smash Records - a division of Mercury, but a series of releases on his new label failed to chart and he was thinking of changing labels when Eddie Kilroy, a Smash sales executive, suggested that he make a country record in Nashville, of a Jerry Chestnut song 'Another Time Another Place'.
The recording - with a bare minimum of instruments and lacking strings - was totally different from 90% of what was charting in Nashville, and at a time when country fans were bneginning to tire of the smooth 'Nashville Sound', seemed to strike a chord with the record buyers. Although he was still a pariah in most of the USA, an under-age marriage to a cousin was regarded more tolerantly in the Deep South, and country music radio stations, who might not normally play his rock material, were happy to give his new record a spin.
To everybody's surprise (not least of all Jerry Lee's who failed to hang around in Nashville long enough to promote the single), the record proved a country smash, leading to a succession of classic country hits, including 'What Made Milwaukee Famous', 'One Minute Past Eternity', 'She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye', 'To Make Love Sweeter For You', 'One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)', 'Invitation To Your Party', 'There Must Be More To Love Than This', 'Once More With Feeling', 'I Can't Seem To Say Goodbye', 'Touching Home', 'He Can't Fill My Shoes', 'Middle Age Crazy', 'I'll Find It Where I Can', 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' and 'When Two Worlds Collide'.
Even though he was now one of the Top 5 country attractions, he continued to tour on the rock and roll circuit also, occasionally appearing with such survivors as Fats Domino, Little Richard and Bo Diddley. His concerts in all genres sold out, his piano-laying - although still as powerful as ever - was better controlled, and audiences were if anything, more enthusiastic even if his dual stardom status sometimes meant that concert-goers could not always be certain in advance as to which repertoire he might decide to perform.
His notoriety also took new paths, with several escapades involving drugs, drink, weapons possession (he once was arrested for carrying a gun while trying to gain entry to Elvis Presley's mansion), tax problems (he moved to Ireland for four years to avoid the IRS back home), and spousal abuse (leading to him being investigated in relation to the death of one of his wives just ten weeks after marrying her). Despite his many excesses, he remained comparatively healthy, unril 2019 when he suffered a stroke. Even then, he was able to return to the stage some months later and continued to perform occasionally up until his death.
Four-time Grammy Award Winner.
Country Music Hall Of Fame Inductee.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In Nesbit, Mississippi, USA, of pneumonia.
© Jim Liddane
Franco Gatti
(80), singer-songwriter with Ricchi e Poveri.
Born in Genoa, Italy, Franco Gatti formed Richi e Poveri in 1967, and over the next fifty years, the group in various formations but always with Gatti as leader, sold more than 25 million albums becoming the second-biggest Italian group of all time in terms of sales.
Ricchi e Poveri ('The Rich & The Poor') represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978 with 'Questo Amore' and participated in twelve Sanremo Festivals, winning in 1985 with the song 'Se m'Innamoro'. Other hits include 'Primo Sole, Primo Fiore' and 'Sarà Perché Ti Amo' which sold over a million copies both in Italy and South America. The song has been covered by a number of acts in a variety of languages, and has been used in the sound tracks of several movies, including 'Spike Of Bensonhurst', 'High Tension' and 'Unmade Beds'.
In Genoa, Italy, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Robert Gordy
(91), singer-songwriter and Motown publishing executive, who helped his brother Berry to run Jobete Music between 1965 and 1985, turning it into one of the most successful music publishing firms in the world.
In Marina del Rey, California, USA, of heart failure.
© Bill Miller
Lucy Simon
(82), two-time Grammy Award winning composer, singer-songwriter, and sister of both singer-songwriter Carly Simon and opera singer Joanna Simon.
Born in New York City, the daughter of Richard L Simon, founder of the publishing house Simon & Shuster, Lucy Simon started her career alongside Carly as one-half of the Simon Sisters, scoring a 1964 Hot 100 hit with the single 'Winkin' Blinkin' & Nod', a song which she had penned aged 14 and which was later covered by The Doobie Brothers, Cass Elliot and Donovan.
Having taken a break from the music business during which she married,psychoanalyst David Levine, a friend from childhood, she returned in 1973 with a number of solo albums on RCA, on the second of which ('Stolen Time'), she was backed by Carly Simon and James Taylor.
In 1981, she won a Grammy Award alongside her husband David, for producing the album 'In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record', and two years later, won her second Grammy for the follow-up 'In Harmony 2'.
Turning to musical theatre, she was nominated for both a Grammy and a Tony Award for composing the 1991 Broadway smash 'The Secret Garden' which ran for two years, while she also penned the music for such shows as 'A - My Name Is Alice', 'Doctor Zhivago' and Mama & Her Boys'.
Over the years, all three sisters had been treated for cancer with Joanna Simon dying the day before Lucy.
Two-time Grammy Award Winner.
Grammy Award Nominee.
In Piermomt, New York, USA, from metastatic breast cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Mary McCaslin
(75), country-folk singer-songwriter whose songs and albums lauded the life of the cowboy and lamented the disappearance of the Old West.
Influenced as a teenager by the music of Marty Robbins, she also specialised in re-interpreting rock songs such as 'Pinball Wizard' and 'My World Is Empty Without You' in Appalachian ballad style, even as her own songs were being covered by acts like Tom Russell and Kate Wolf.
In Hemet, California, USA, of progressive supranuclear palsy.
© Bill Miller
Betty Crutcher
(83), songwriter who penned such classics as Johnnie Taylor's million-seller 'Who’s Making Love', while becoming the sole female songwriter to work for Stax Records.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Betty Crutcher - a single mother of three children - worked as a nurse while trying to break into the music business as a songwriter. In 1966, after several rejections, she came across Stax Records who were just opening a music publishing company. Dave Porter signed her as a songwriter and she quickly teamed up with two staff writers Homer Banks and Raymond Jackson, to form what became known as the We Three team.
Their first success came a year later with Johnnie Taylor's 'Somebody’s Sleeping In My Bed', a song inspired by the Three Bears story she was reading each night to her children. However it was the follow-up ('Who's Making Love'), which went on to sell a million copies in four weeks, leading to a meeting between her and John Lennon at a BMI awards ceremony in New York the following year where he was accepting an award for 'Hey Jude', during which Lennon told her that 'Who's Making Love' was one of his favourite songs of all time.
Other hits followed, including three for The Staple Singers - 'The Ghetto', 'We’ll Get Over', and 'The Challenge', and her output was soon being recorded by acts as diverse as Ann Peebles, Otis Clay, Joe Cocker, Freddie King, B.B. King, Bobby 'Blue' Bland, Joan Baez, Buddy Guy, Sam & Dave, Paul Weller, Sammy Davis Jr., Wu-Tang Clan, Mary J. Blige and Diddy.
After Stax closed in Memphis, Betty moved to Nashville, continuing to write songs, but also opening up an antiques business which sold some of her own handmade jewellery items. However, she often returned to Memphis to meet old friends, and celebrated her 80th birthday there at a special event hosted by the Stax Museum Of American Soul Music.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
In Nashville, Tennessee, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Robert Gordon
(75), singer and actor.
Robert Gordon was born in Bethesda, Maryland, but unlike others of his generation, found little to admire in contemporary rock music, preferring singers from the fifties such as Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Jack Scott and Gene Vincent, becoming one of a small coterie of performers who aspired to the burgeoning neo-rockabilly scene.
Much admired by older veterans of the rock and roll genre, he performed or recorded with such acts as Link Wray, Deborah Harry, Crhis Spedding, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springfield and the Jordanaires.
Although he only reached the US Hot 100 on two occasions, he released more than twenty studio albums mainly for RCA, along with several live albums. He toured constantly, not only in the USA and Canada, but in Australia and Europe where he had a large following, as well as appearing in several movies.
In New York City, USA, of acute myeloid leukaemia.
© Jim Liddane
Joyce Sims
(63), singer-songwriter who scored an international hit with 'Come Into My Life'.
Born in Rochester, New York, Joyce Sims studied classical music before moving into R&B scoring a hit with her first release 'You Are My All And All'. Several hit singles and a well-received album on which she had written all the tracks bar one followed, but her career went into decline for a period during the 1990's before she produced 'What The World Needs Now Is Love' in 2006 which made the US Dance Top 20, followed in 2014 by the album 'Love Song'.
Her material has been covered or sampled by a wide variety of singers, including Snoop Dogg and Randy Crawford, and she toured frequently up to her death.
In Newark, New Jersey, USA, of undisclosed causes.
© Ray Coleman
Ivy Joe Hunter
(82), Motown Records songwriter and producer.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Ivy trained as a classical musician, and even performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra before entering the US Army in 1959.
On discharge, he worked as a singer in various clubs around Michigan, coming to the attention of songwriter Hank Cosby, who introduced him to Motown producer William 'Mickey' Stevenson. Although Hunter was hoping for a recording contract, he found himself playing instead with the Motown studio band, as well as doing songwriting and production for the label.
He turned out to be a natural songwriter, penning such hits as The Spinners' 'Truly Yours' and 'Sweet Thing'; The Temptations' 'Sorry Is A Sorry Word'; The Isley Brothers' 'Behind A Painted Smile' and 'My Love Is Your Love Forever'; the Four Tops' 'Ask The Lonely' and 'Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever', Martha & The Vandellas' 'Dancing In the Street', the Contours' 'Can You Jerk Like Me', The Marvelettes' 'Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead' and 'I'll Keep Holding On', Gladys Knight & the Pips' 'The Stranger' and Marvin Gaye's 'You'.
In all, he wrote more than 100 published songs, including material recorded by such acts as Diana Ross, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, The Dells, The Temptations, The Miracles, David Ruffin, Brenda Holloway, Chuck Jackson, Jimmy Ruffin, The Spinners, Aretha Franklin, Nick Kamen, Barry Manilow, The Staple Singers, David Bowie and Mick Jagger.
In 1970, Motown finally agreed to release two solo singles by Ivy Joe himself, 'I Remember When' and 'I'd Still Love You', but the following year, failed to release the album from which these tracks had been taken. Soon after, with Motown leaving Detroit for Los Angeles, Ivy Joe quit the label, but remained involved with music, contributing Funkadelic's 'Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?' while also producing an album for Wee Gee, the former lead singer with The Dramatics, which included penning the classic 'Hold On To Your Dreams', which became a staple of many college graduation ceremonies, and was later covered by such acts as The Chi-Lites and Living Proof. In later years, he composed for such movies as 'Crimson Tide' (1995), 'Glory Road' (2006) and 'Meet Dave' (2008).
In Detroit, Michigan, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Noel Duggan
(73), Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and founding member of Clannad, whose hits include 'The Theme From Harry's Game'.
The family group, one of whose members was the internationally-aclaimed Enya, has released twenty albums to date, selling more than 100 million copies. Of these, eight were UK Top 10 albums, winning one Grammy AWard, a BAFTA Award, an Ivor Novello Award, a BBC Folk Music Award and a Billboard Music Award.
In Donegal, Ireland, following a collapse while out walking.
© Jim Liddane
Anita Kerr
(94), Grammy Award singer, songwriter, arranger, composer, and leader of the Anita Kerr Singers, which performed on hundreds of hit records including such classics as Roy Orbison’s 'Only The Lonely' and 'Running Scared'. Bobby Helms’ 'Jingle Bell Rock', Brenda Lee’s 'Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree' and 'I’m Sorry', Eddy Arnold’s 'Make The World Go Away', and Jim Reeves’ 'He’ll Have To Go'.
Born in Memphis, Anita moved to Nashville at the age of 21 where she formed a vocal ensemble which in 1950, was asked to back Red Foley on his hit recording 'Our Lady Of Fatima'. This success led to a contract with Decca, where the group - now called the Anita Kerr Singers - backed Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Burl Ives, Eddy Arnold and Ernest Tubb, quickly becoming - along with the Jordanaires - one of the two most utilised session vocal groups in Music City.
In 1960 Kerr had her own top 10 pop hit as a member of the short-lived Little Dippers with 'Forever' but returned to Nashville, (and later Los Angeles), to feature on countless hits by Hank Snow, Willie Nelson, Faron Young, Chet Atkins, Perry Como, Carla Thomas, Floyd Cramer, Al Hirt, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Burt Bacharach, Pat Boone, Bobby Bland and Esther Phillips.
In addition to their session work, various lineups of the Anita Kerr Singers recorded more than 80 albums under their own name (including nine with Rod McKuen) for Decca, RCA, Dot Records Warner Brothers and Phillips, winning Grammys for the album 'We Dig Mancini' and the single 'A Man And A Woman', as well as Grammy nominations for four other albums, including 'Gentle As Morning' and 'Precious Memories'.
In 1970, Anita moved with her Swiss-born husband to Europe, where they built the Mountain Recording Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, which attracted such clients as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, Rick Wakeman and Queen. In 1979, the couple agreed to sell the studios to Queen.
Subsequently, Anita conducted the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra for 'A Christnas Story', an album of her own compositions, and in 1985, won the Swiss heat of the Eurovision with her song 'Piano, Piano', going on to become only the third female to conduct the orchestra at a Eurovision Song Contest final.
In Geneva, Switzerland, of heart failure, ten days after the death of her husband Alex Grob.
© Jim Liddane
Art Laboe
(97), DJ, songwriter and record producer who coined the term 'Oldies But Goodies'.
Born outside Salt Lake City, Utah, Art made his first broadcast on KSAN, San Francisco in 1943, with his final (by now nationally syndicated) show being aired the evening before he died in October 2022 giving him a broadcasting career which lasted 79 years, believed to be the longest in radio history.
In 1959, he also formed Original Sound Records which scored hits with his productions of Sandy Nelson's 'Teenbeat' and 'Bongo Rock' by Preston Epps, both of which he co-wrote, along with chart entries for such acts as Dyke & The Blazers and The Music Machine. The label went on to release dozens of compilation albums, including a hit 15-part series titled 'Those Oldies But Goodies', plus more than 100 singles, predominantly r&b and soul.
In Palm Springs, California, USA, of pneumonia.
© Jim Liddane
Jody Miller
(80), Grammy Award winning country singer whose 27 hits include 'Queen Of The House' (an answer-song to Roger Miller's 'King Of The Road') for which she won a Grammy, 'Home Of The Brave', 'He Walks Like A Man', 'Baby I'm Yours', 'Be My Baby', 'To Know Him Is To Love Him', 'There's A Party Goin' On', 'Good News,' and 'Darling, You Can Always Come Back Home'.
Jody retired in the 1980's to operate a ranch she had bought with her husband Monty, but re-emerged in the 1990's as a gospel singer. In 1999, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell and herself were inducted into the Country Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame.
In Blanchard, Oklahoma, USA, from complications linked to Parkinson's Disease.
© Jim Liddane
Loretta Lynn
(90), singer-songwriter and multiple Grammy Award winner.
Loretta Lynn was born Loretta Webb in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, to a coal-mining father and a part-Cherokee mother who taught her native songs and story-telling techniques. At the age of fifteen, she married Oliver Lynn, six years her senior, a notorious womaniser and heavy-drinker, giving birth to their first child a year later. Oliver, also known as Mooney due to his involvement in the distributon of illegal 'moonshine whiskey', moved the family north to Custer, Washington just before the child was born. Impressed by his wife's voice, he bought her a guitar which she quickly mastered.
Some years later, spurred on by her husband although she was not convinced of her own vocal ability, Loretta entered a a local TV talent show, as a result of which, Zero Records, a small Canadian label, signed her to record four tracks for them in Los Angeles. The success of one of these - 'I'm A Honky Tonk Girl' which reached 14 on the country charts in 1960, encouraged the family to move to Nashville, where - having recorded demos for the Wilburn Brothers (who became her music publishers) - Decca Records signed her, with Owen Bradley as her producer.
Her first hit 'Success' came in 1962, followed by a string of chart singles many of which (even those not actually penned by her) seemed autobiographical. Titles like 'Wine Women And Song', 'The Home You're Tearing Down', 'You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man' and 'Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' With Loving On Your Mind' hinted at her own marital difficulties, particularly Mooney's unfaithfulness, drink problems and occasional violence, but although he managed her blossoming career with great expertise, the balance had changed. After arriving in Nashville, she had become friendly with singer Patsy Cline who had taught her to stand up for herself, and in spite of the well-publicised tempestuous relationship, the Lynn marriage survived intact until Mooney's death in 1996.
By now, Loretta had been joined in Nashville by three of her siblings, sisters Brenda Gail Webb (who would go on to become a major star under the name Crystal Gayle) and Peggy Sue Webb, (who had several hits under the name Peggy Sue), along with brother Jay Lee Webb who had been a member of Loretta's first band in Tacoma. In the years to come, all three would also contribute or help to write songs which Loretta subsequently recorded.
'Fist City' became Lynn's second Number 1 hit, and it was followed by a succession of chart-toppers including 'What Kind Of A Girl (Do You Think I Am)', 'Your Squaw Is On The Warpath', 'You've Just Stepped In (From Stepping Out On Me)', 'Woman Of The World (Leave My World Alone)' and 'To Make A Man (Feel Like A Man)'. In 1970, she penned 'Coal Miner's Daughter', which became the title of her autobiography and although it was not her biggest-selling song, it did become her first crossover hit onto the Billboard Hot 100, and spawned a movie of the same name.
Around then, she also embarked on a professional partnership with country superstar Conway Twitty which resulted in fourteen consecutive duet hits, including such classics as 'After the Fire Is Gone', which won a Grammy award, 'Lead Me On', 'Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man', 'As Soon As I Hang Up The Phone', and 'Feelins'.
Loretta also continued to score solo hits including 'The Pill', 'One's On The Way' (written Shel Silverstein), 'I Wanna Be Free', 'You're Lookin' At Country', and 'Here I Am Again'.
In 1977, Lynn recorded the album 'I Remember Patsy' which was dedicated to her old friend Patsy Cline, who had died in a plane crash in 1963. This produced two hits, 'She's Got You' and 'Why Can't He Be You', and these were followed by 'Out Of My Head And Back In My Bed', 'I Can't Feel You Anymore' and 'I've Got A Picture Of Us On My Mind'.
In 1980, the film 'Coal Miner's Daughter' became the Number 1 box office hit in the United States. The movie, which starred Sissy Spacek as Loretta and Tommy Lee Jones as Mooney, won seven Academy Award nominations.
Loretta herself continued to score further hits during the 1980s, songs like'Pregnant Again', 'Naked In The Rain', 'Somebody Led Me Away' and 'I Lie' and in 1993, she she topped the charts again with the album 'Honky Tonk Angels', recorded with fellow stars Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette.
At the start of her career, the Lynns purchased a 6,000 acre property in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, which they then developed into a successful tourist attraction known as The Loretta Lynn Ranch, but in spite of her burgeoning business enterprises, Loretta herself continued to record and to tour regularly.
At the age of 85 however, she suffered a stroke which curtailed her public appearances somewhat, but she came back soon after to launch her album 'Wouldn't It Be Great' which was followed three years later by her final release titled 'Still Woman Enough', which came out just before she died.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Eighteen-time Grammy Award Nominee.
Three-time Grammy Award Winner.
Grand Ole Opry Member.
Country Music Hall Of Fame Inductee.
Presidential Medal Of Freedom Recipient
In Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, USA, from heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Lenny Lipton
(83), author, lyricist and film-maker, whose poem 'Puff The Magic Dragon' was the basis for Peter Paul & Mary's 1963 million-seller of the same name.
Lipton's poem, inspired by Ogden Nash's 'The Tale Of Custard The Dragon', was penned by him when he was a 19 year-old student at Cornell University, and deals with the loneliness of growing up. It tells the story of Puff, an ageless dragon who has never experienced any human contact, only to become obsessed by his first friendship with a human - a local boy named Jackie Paper. The song ends by recounting the dragon's total desolation when Jackie grows up and moves on to real-life adventures without him.
However, in the poem as penned by Lipton, there was actually a happy ending as Puff soon finds another friend, but Paul Yarrow, who wrote the melody upon coming across the poem which had been typed on his college typewriter, omitted this ending from the song itself.
In 1964, 'Puff The Magic Dragon' achieved a degree of notoriety when the columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, alleged that the song had nothing to do with childhood friendships, but actually referenced drug-taking. She cited words and phrases taken at random from the original poem, claiming wrongly that the opening line 'Puff The Magic Dragon lived by the sea' had been originally penned as 'lived by The C' (the C standing for cannabis), while 'puff', 'honahlee', 'paper' and 'mist' were all words associated with drugs. Both Yarrow and Lipton vehemently denied the story, with Lipton describing the article as 'sloppy research', and Yarrow pointing out that if one were to dissect the lyrics of 'The Star Spangled Banner' for example, you could invent far more surreal drug-taking 'references'.
In Los Angeles, California, USA, of brain cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Coolio
(59), songwriter-rapper, actor and Grammy Award winner.
Born in Monessen, Pennsylvania, he moved to Compton, California as a teenager, embarking on several careers outside of the music industry before emerging as a rapper on the local scene, initially as a member of Nu-Skool and later WC & The Maad Circle. In 1994, he signed to Tommy Boy Records as a solo act, producing the album 'It Takes A Thief' from which his first Top 10 single 'Fantastic Voyage' emerged, closely followed by 'County Line' and 'I Remember'.
'Gangsta's Paradise' which had been penned for the movie 'Dangerous Minds' followed and this hit #1 on Billboard, becoming the biggest-selling single of 1995, winning him a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Further hits, such as '1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)' and 'Too Hot' made him one of the most influential rappers of the 1990's, but when his third album failed to achieve the success of his first two although it went platinum, he was controversially dropped by Tommy Boy, and despite going on to release numerous singles and albums on various labels including Warner Bros Records and Allied Artists Music Group, he failed to chart again.
In 2004, Coolio turned his attention to television, appearing on numerous shows including 'Comeback: The Big Chance', 'Celebrity Big Brother', 'Ultimate Big Brother', 'Rachael vs Guy - Celebrity Cook-Off', 'Sabrina The Teenage Witch', 'Tipping Point: Lucky Stars', 'Gravity Falls', 'The Nanny', 'ABC's Greatest Hits', 'Black Jesus', 'Teachers' and 'Let's Be Real'.
In 2020, Coolio was briefly involved in politics, becoming for a while, the running mate for actress Cherie DeVille in her campaign to win the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Six-time Grammy Award Nominee.
Grammy Award Winner.
Three-time MTV Video Music Award Winner.
American Music Award Winner.
In Los Angeles, California, USA, from a fentanyl overdose.
© Jim Liddane
John Hartman
(71), drummer and songwriter with The Doobie Brothers.
Born in Falls Church, Virginia, John Hartman formed the band in San Jose, California in 1970 along with Tom Johnston and later Patrick Simmons. The unit quickly found international success with such songs as 'Listen To The Music', 'China Grove', 'Long Train Runnin', 'Black Water', 'What A Fool Believes' and 'Jesus Is Just Alright', selling more than 40 million albums, and scoring several Billboard Number Ones.
Although not the band's main songwriter, Hartman penned several of their most memorable songs including 'Road Angel' (from the 1974 'What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits' album) and 1976’s 'Wheel Of Fortune' (from 'Takin’ It To The Streets', the first album to feature Michael McDonald).
Hartman officially retired in 1992 at the height of the band's fame following a friction-filled overseas tour, and decided to become a police officer. However, although he did serve for a number of years after graduating from Police Academy, he later said that his drug-filled past had made police forces in Califnrnia unwilling to employ him. He finally gave up on the career change when a discrimination lawsuit taken by him against the Petaluma Police Department, was dismissed.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
Grammy Award Winner.
Place and cause of death unknown - his passing was not announced until September 2022, although he had apparently died in December 2021.
© Bill Miller
Jesse Powell
(51), singer-songwriter, and Grammy nominee
Born in Gary, Indiana, Jesse Powell performed locally with his siblings Jacob, Tamara and Trina, before he signed with Silas Records in 1993. His first self-penned release, 'All I Need' entered the US R&B charts, and was followed by several other hits in that genre. In 1999, his biggest hit 'You' crossed over and reached the Billboard Top 10.
Grammy Award Nominee.
In Los Angeles, California, USA, of cardiac arrest.
© Bill Miller
Jim Post
(82), singer-songwriter, composer, playwright and actor.
Born in Houston, Jim Post teamed up with his wife Cathy Conn Post to form the duo Friends And Lovers, whose biggest hit came in 1968 when Jim's composition 'Reach Out Of The Darkness' hit the Billboard Top 10. After the duo split, Jim performed mainly in the Chicago area, collaborating with people like Steve Goodman and John Prine, and in a career which spanned almost 60 years, released more than 20 albums.
In addition to his music, he wrote and starred in a one-man show 'Mark Twain And The Laughing River', performing the character of Mark Twain, a role which he was still playing just weeks before his death, while he also recorded a CD of children's music.
In Galena, Illinois, USA, of cancer.
© Bill Miller
Ramsey Lewis
(87), three-time Grammy Award winning jazz composer, and pianist.
Born in Chicago, he formed the Ramsey Lewis Trio in the early 1950's and soon after, was signed to Chess Records. In 1965, he scored a crossover pop hit with an instrumental cover of Dobie Gray's 'The In Crowd', followed by such hits as 'Hang On Sloopy' and 'Wade In The Water', all of which sold over a million copies each.
Over the next forty years, the trio whose members included Maurice White (later Earth, Wind & Fire), and Eldee Young and Ross Holt (later Young-Holt Unlimited), criss-crossed the USA and Canada, working with acts ranging from Aretha Franklin and Al Jarreau to Tony Bennett, while recording more than 80 albums - seven of which went gold, with the last being released just months before he died.
Between 1990 and 2009, Lewis also had a major career as a broadcaster, with his 'Legends Of Jazz' and the 'Ramsey Lewis Morning Show' being simulcasted across the United States, while his television series, also called 'Legends oF Jazz', won several major broadcasting awards.
Four-time Grammy Award Nominee.
Three-time Grammy Award Winner.
In Chicago, Illinois, in his sleep.
© Jim Liddane
Sonny West
(85), singer-songwriter who penned two of the early rock and roll classics.
Born on the outskirts of Lubbock, Texas, Sonny recorded 'All My Love', a rockabilly song he had co-written with Bill Tilghman, at Norman Petty's studios in Clovis New Mexico. This 1956 release failed to sell, but having been re-written by Petty, who was Buddy Holly's manager, the song re-emerged as 'Oh Boy', topping the US Charts in 1958 when released by The Crickets.
West meanwhile - now managed by Norman Petty - had signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records, and in 1957, released another of his compositions titled 'Rave On'. Again his recording failed to make the charts, but in January 1958, Buddy Holly recorded it for a solo release, and although it only reached #37 in the US, it was a massive hit in Europe and Australia, and is nowadays regarded as a Holly classic.
Soon after that, West split from Petty, and over the next twenty years, continued to perform regularly, while recording occasionally for a number of minor labels. A talented silversmith, he finally decided to come off the road to found his own jukebox company in New Mexico, manufacturing needles for jukeboxes worldwide.
In the decades that followed, he also released several albums, his final one being 'Sweet Perfume' in 2011, which contained two tunes which he had been writing for Buddy Holly just before that singer's death in a 1959 air crash.
West’s songs were constantly revived by artists ranging from Rick Nelson and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to Waylon Jennings and Cliff Richard, and he continued to perform regularly at oldies festivals in both Europe and in the USA, but died before he could return to London for a 2022 UK tour which had been cancelled due to Covid.
In Grove, Oklahoma, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Inez Foxx
(85), singer-songwriter and one half of the double act Inez & Charlie Foxx
Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Inez Foxx emerged in 1963 alongside her brother Charlie, via their self-composed song 'Mockingbird', loosely based on the traditional lullaby 'Hush Little Baby'. Their recording on Symbol Records hit the US Top 10 and sold over a million copies earning them a Gold Disc. Subsequently, the song went on to become a R&B standard, being covered by such acts as Aretha Franklin, James Taylor & Carly Simon, Dusty Springfield, Etta James & Taj Mahal, and Toby Keith.
Although several follow-ups charted in the lower regions of Billboard, the duo moved to Musicor Records, where in 1967 they scored with '(1-2-3-4-5-6-7) Count the Days', which was also covered by Gene Pitney. Meanwhile, Inez had married songwriter Luther Dixon who had helped create the sound of The Shirelles as well as penning songs recorded by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Jackson 5, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Jimmy Reed. Together they wrote the Platters' 1968 return to the Billboard charts with the single 'I Love You 1000 Times'. Soon after, Inez & Charlie Foxx split as a duo and although Inez, following her divorce from Luther Dixon continued to both record and perform, she failed to score any further chart entries.
In West Compton, California, USA, of heart failure
© Bill Miller
Jerry Allison
(82), drummer and songwriter with Buddy Holly & The Crickets.
Born in Hillsboro, Texas, Jerry Allison moved to Lubbock where he got to know and play music with Buddy Holly in High School. In 1956, having watched the John Wayne movie 'The Searchers' in which Wayne kept repeating the phrase 'that'll be the day', the two friends decided to pen a tune based around those words. When Buddy Holly subsequently got an offer of a recording contract with Decca Records in Nashville, Allison and local guitarist Sonny Curtis went with him but these sessions failed to produce the hoped-for hit record.
Upon returning to Lubbock, the duo (Curtis having left for what seemed like more promising pastures), teamed up with two other local musicians. Joe B Mauldin and Niki Sullivan, to travel to the Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico, where they recorded a new version of 'That'll Be The Day'. This recording, released under the name 'The Crickets', reached Number 1 on the US charts in late 1957, eventually selling more than three million copies, and turning the band into one of the hottest acts of the rock & roll era.
Around the same time, they also recorded a song originally written by Buddy, Norman and Jerry as 'Linda Lu', but subsequently re-titled 'Peggy Sue' in recognition of both Jerry Allison's girl friend Peggy Sue Garron, and his inspired drumming on the session.
This track, released under Buddy Holly's name only was also an instant success, and consequently, throughout 1958, both Buddy Holly and The Crickets performed on-stage as one unit, while releasing records as two separate acts, scoring such hits as 'Oh Boy', 'Maybe Baby', 'Think It Over' and 'It's So Easy' as The Crickets, and 'Listen To Me', 'Words Of Love', 'Rave On', 'Early In The Morning' and 'Heartbeat' as Buddy Holly. Their appeal was such that even Jerry Allison himself (although rarely a vocalist), managed to have his own hit record ('Real Wild Child') under the nom-de-plume of Ivan.
In the summer of 1958, Buddy and Jerry both married and indeed honeymooned together, but soon after this, a split occurred when Buddy and his wife (who was from New York), decided to live there and break with producer Norman Petty, while Jerry Allison and Joe B Mauldin opted to remain in Texas, continuing to work and record as The Crickets under Norman Petty's supervision, but with a new lead singer, Earl Sink and a new guitarist, Sonny Curtis.
In February 1959, Buddy Holly was killed in an air crash in Iowa, and soon after, the Crickets, now down to a trio with guitarist Sonny Curtis, moved to New York and later to Los Angeles, where they signed to Liberty Records. During this period, Allison and Curtis started writing songs together, producing 'More Than I Can Say', a million-seller for both Bobby Vee and many years later, Leo Sayer, and 'When You Ask About Love' (a hit for Matchbox).
Jerry Allison now became the leader of The Crickets, and in 1962, the group, although now largely forgotten in the USA and reduced to occasionally acting as backing band for The Everly Brothers, scored a number of hits in the UK with songs such as 'Don't Ever Change', 'My Little Girl' and 'Don't Try To Change Me' and even achieved a best-selling album when they teamed up with Bobby Vee to record 'Bobby Vee Meets The Crickets'. By now Jerry Allison had become an in-demand session drummer in Los Angeles working with Johnny Rivers and J J Cale, and although The Crickets, with several various line-ups, continued to tour and record spasmodically throughout the 60s and 70s, the hit records dried up.
However in 1981, Waylon Jennings, who in the absence of The Crickets had backed Buddy Holly on his final fatal tour, approached the band to open for him on his American dates, which they did, working with him for the next five years. Afterwards, they also toured and recorded with another country superstar Nancy Griffith. Jerry Allison, Joe B Mauldin, and Sonny Curtis, the nucleus of The Crickets, subsequently moved to live near Nashville, each purchasing farms outside the city. In 2012. they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, while continuing to tour occasionally on the oldies and country circuits.
Although never a prolific songwriter, Jerry Allison's songs, written with either Buddy Holly, Norman Petty or Sonny Curtis, have been recorded by such stars as John Lennon, Ringo Starr, The Everly Brothers, Walter Brennan, Tommy Roe, Jimmy Gilmer, Denny Laine, Billy Swan, Mike Berry, The Shadows, The Tremeloes, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, The Hollies, Shakin' Stevens, Chas & Dave, Connie Francis, P J Proby, Lou Reed, Albert Lee, Peter & Gordon, Nanci Griffith, Cliff Richard, Pat Boone, The Statler Brothers, Francoise Hardy, Joe Brown, Lynn Anderson, Billy Fury, Rodney Crowell, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In Lyles, Tennessee, USA, of cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Margaret Ulrich
(55), New Zealand born singer-songwriter who worked mainly in Australia, scoring 16 single and five album hits. becoming an ARIA Award winner.
In New South Wales, Australia, of cancer
© Ray Coleman
Tom Springfield
(88), who founded The Springfields, and later wrote hits for The Seekers.
Born Dion O'Brien in London of Irish parents, he started performing while at school in High Wycombe, before doing his national service at the Joint Services School for Linguists in Coulsdon, Surrey, where he studied and later taught Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. While in Coulsdon, he sang and played guitar with The Pedini Brithers, who specialised in singing Latin American and Russian folk songs. One of these songs was 'Stenka Razin', a folk tune which O'Brien had learned while studying Russian, and the melody of which he later adapted to pen 'The Carnival Is Over'.
In 1959, he teamed up with guitarist Tim Feild, to form The Kensington Squares and the following year, the duo became a trio with the addition of Dion's sister, Mary who had been a member of The Lana Sisters (later The Chantelles) who had released seven singles on Fontana Records, and toured with Adam Faith and Cliff Richard.
The new group was christened The Springfields, with Mary adopting the name Dusty Springfield and Dion taking the name Tom Springfield, although he did not change his name legally from O'Brien to Springfield until 1977.
In 1961, the trio travelled to Phillips Records in London to audition for Johnny Franz, a noted A&R man who had already produced Shirley Bassey, The Beverley Sisters, Harry Secombe, Winifred Atwell, Frankie Vaughan and Marty Wilde. The first single 'Dear John' failed to chart, but the follow-up 'Breakaway' (written by Tom Springfield) made the UK Top 30. It was followed by several more hits, mostly penned by Tom, including 'Bambino', 'Island Of Dreams', 'Say I Won't Be There' and 'Come On Home', all of which charted in the UK, along with 'Silver Threads And Golden Needles' which in 1962, became the first recording by a British group to reach the US Too 20, although it failed to chart upon release in the UK.
In October 1963, at the height of their success, unhappy with the group's folk output, Dusty left the group to pursue a solo career, and The Springfields disbanded. Tom joined EMI Records as a producer, and in 1964, was introduced by his sister to an Australian folk group, The Seekers. The band, fronted by Judith Durham, had worked their passage to London by performing on a cruise liner and on arrival, had signed with The Grade Organisation, who promptly got them a booking on a tour headlined by Dusty Springfield.
Tom became their producer, and in November 1964, recorded their first hit 'I'll Never Find Another You', which he had just written. Although the group had not actually signed with EMI, the label released the recording, which went to Number 1 in the UK in February 1065, and to Number 4 in the USA, becoming one of the Top 10 best-selling British singles for that year and earning them their first Gold Disc. Later that year, they reached Number 1 in the UK with 'The Carnival Is Over' which Tom Springfield had penned some ten years earlier. The following year, they recorded 'Georgy Girl', a song written by Tom and actor-songwriter Jim Dale and used in the hit movie of the same name starring James Mason and Lynn Redgrave. It topped the charts worldwide, earning a nomination for an Academy Award For Best Original Song, although the award itself went to 'Born Free'.
Although Springfield was increasingly involved in the career of The Seekers, he continued to pen songs for other acts including 'Summer Is Over' (Frank Ifield), 'Losing You' (Dusty Springfield), 'Goodbye My Love' (The Casuals), 'Promises' (Ken Dodd), and 'Just Loving You' (Anita Harris), all of which were hits in the UK and/or the US.
Over the years, his songs were also recorded by such stars as Jose Feliciano, Ed Ames, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Sonny James, Jerry Wallace, Waylon Jennings, Jane Morgan, James Darren, Matt Monro, Bobby Vinton, The Lettermen, Ray Coniff, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Charlie Byrd, Olivia Newton John, Percy Faith, The Ventures, Liberace, Chet Atkins, Lawrence Welk, Al Martino, Slim Whitman, Kitty Wells, Mike Leander, Johnny Tillotson, Foster & Allen, Roger Whittaker, Jim Ed Brown, The Walker Brothers, Bobby Bare, Jerry Vale and Ian Whitcomb.
In 1970, following the failure of 'Morning Please Don't Come', a much-hyped duet release featuring Dusty and Tom which failed to chart in any territory, Tom retired from the music industry, going on to live for a period in the USA before returning to London in the 1980's.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Academy Award Nominee For Best Original Song.
In London, England, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Darius
(41), singer-songwriter, actor, movie producer and author, also known as Darius Campbell Danesh.
Born in Glasgow, Darius appeared in the TV show 'Popstars' at the age of 20, before going on to star in Pop Idols, following which he signed a recording deal with producer Pete Lillywhite. His first single, 'Colourblind', co-written with Pete Glenister, reached #1 on the UK charts, and was followed by five further Top 10 hits, including 'Better Than That' and 'Live Twice'.
In 2006, he turned his attention to the West End, where he starred as Billy Flynn in 'Chicago', followed in 2007 by an appearance as Sky Masterson in ‘Guys And Dolls’, and in 2008, as Rhett Butler in 'Gone With The Wind - The Musical'. Subsequent roles included Warden, in the musical 'From Here To Eternity', and Nick Amstein in 'Funny Girl'.
In later years, he moved to the USA where he become involved in film production, while he also penned 'Sink Or Swim', a UK Sunday Times bestseller detailing the travails of the pop music industry.
In Rochester, Minnesota, USA, following an accidental inhalation of chloroethan.
© Ray Coleman
Svika Pick
(72), whose song ‘Diva’ won the 1998 Eurovision for Israel's Dana International.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, Svika Pick's family emigrated to Israel when he was 16, and having studied music at the Conservatory of Ramat Gan, he emerged during the 1970's to become a leading Israeli pop singer.
In 1998, he penned 'Diva' which became Israel's Eurovision entry that year, performed by Dana International. It went on to win the final in Birmingham, beating the UK entry by six points.
Subsequently, Svika Pick went on to pen two more Eurovision finalists - 'Light a Candle' by Sarit Hadad (for Israel in 2002) and "Hasta la Vista" by Oleksandr Ponomaryov, (for Ukraine in 2003), while he also featured in several national finals with such songs as 'Artik Kartiv' by Zvika Pick (for Israel in 1993), 'Moonlight' by Zvika Pick (for Israel in 2005), 'Lifney SheNifradim' by Zvika Pick (for Israel in 2006), and 'Sing My Song' by Sopho Nizharadze (for Georgia in 2010). His daughter Daniella, also emerged as a major pop star, going on to marry US movie director Quentin Tarantino.
In Ramat Hasharon, Israel, of complications following a stroke.
© Ray Coleman
Lamont Dozier
(81), songwriter, record producer and vocalist, who penned and produced 14 US Number 1 hits, including 'Baby Love' for the Supremes.
Born In Detroit, Lamont Dozier cut his first record as a member of The Romeos when he was just 16 years old. Other releases followed as a member of The Voice Masters, before he teamed up in 1962 with fellow singer-songwriter Brian Holland as Holland-Dozier. Although the duo were not successful as performers, they added Brian's brother Eddie to the line-up and joined Motown Records in 1963 as the production and writing team, Holland-Dozier-Holland
Assigned by Berry Gordy to the emerging Martha & The Vandellas, they scored almost immediately with hits like 'Come And Get These Memories', 'Heatwave', 'Quicksand' and 'Jimmy Mack', before moving on to work with The Supremes, for whom they wrote and produced such classics as 'When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes', 'Where Did Our Love Go', 'Baby Love', 'Stop! In The Name Of Love', Back In My Arms Again', ‘I Hear A Symphony', 'You Can't Hurry Love', 'You Keep Me Hangin' On', 'The Happening' and 'In And Out Of Love'.
The trio quickly became the most successful writing and production team in the music industry, contributing hits for The Miracles ('Mickey's Monkey'), Marvin Gaye ('Can I Get a Witness', 'You're A Wonderful One', 'How Sweet It Is' ), The Four Tops ('Baby I Need Your Loving', 'I Can't Help Myself', 'It's The Same Old Song', 'Standing In The Shadows Of Love', '7 Rooms Of Gloom' and 'Reach Out I'll Be There'), The Isley Brothers, ('This Old Heart Of Mine'), and Jr. Walker & the All-Stars ('I'm a Road Runner' and 'Come See About Me').
In 1968, Lamont and the team left Motown to set up their own Invictus and Hot Wax labels, whose hits included 'Give Me Just A Little More Time' and 'You've Got Me Dangling On A String' (Chairmen Of The Board), and 'Band Of Gold' (Freda Payne) but in 1973, Lamont Dozier quit, and signed as a solo vocalist with ABC Records, where he scored a Top 20 hit with 'Trying To Hold on To My Woman'. In 1980, he was approached to co-write material with Phil Collins for the movie 'Buster', producing two notable hits ''Two Hearts' (recorded by Collins), and 'Loco In Acapulco', a hit for The Four Tops, while Alison Moyet scored a Top 40 hit in 1984 with his song 'invisible'. That same year, he teamed up with Simply Red frontman Mick Hucknall, penning material for their first two charted albums, while in 1987, he has another hit with 'Without You' which became the theme for the film 'Leonard Part 6' starring Bill Cosby as well as a US hit for Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle.
In 1990, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and in 2008 joined the University of Southern California as an Artist-in-Residence Professor. That same year, he worked on the music for the musical stage version of the movie 'First Wives Club' while continuing to release albums as a solo singer, his last being 'Reimagination' in 2018.
In addition to his production successes, his songs were also charted singles by such stars as James Taylor, Ike & Tina Turner, Dusty Springfield, Linda Ronstadt, The J Geils Band, Johnny Rivers, O C Smith, The Fourmost, Eric Carmen, Manhattan Transfer, Carl Carlton, The Band, The Hollies, Donnie Elbert, The Weathermen, K C & The Sunshine Band, The Dobbie Brothers, Jose Feliciano, The Elgins, LeBlanc & Carr, Third World, Bonnie Pointer, Tammi Terrell, Tracey Ullman, Rod Stewart, Gloria Gaynor, Vanilla Fudge, Wilson Pickett, Jackie DeShannon, Kim Wilde, Herb Alpert, Shakin' Stevens, The Flaming Ember, Honey Cone, 100 Proof (Aged In Soul), Sylvester, Bonnie Tyler, and Dionne Warwick.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Grammy Award Winner.
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In Los Angeles, California, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Olivia Newton-John
(73), four-time Grammy Award winning singer and actress who scored hits with 'If Not for You', 'Banks Of The Ohio', 'Let Me Be There', 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)', 'Have You Never Been Mellow', 'Sam', 'Hopelessly Devoted To You', 'A Little More Love', 'Magic', and 'Xanadu' (with the Electric Light Orchestra).
She is best known however for her part as Sandy in the movie 'Grease', whic resulted in two duets with co-star John Travolta 'You're The One That I Want' and 'Summer Nights'.
In Santa Ynez Valley, California, USA, of cancer.
© Ray Coleman
Torgny Söderberg
(77), songwriter who penned the winner of the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest.
Born in Varberg, Sweden, Torgny Söderberg moved to Stockholm where he worked with Lena Philipsson, producing such hits as '100%' and 'Kärleken Ar Evig', before collaborating with lyricist Britt Lindeborg on '‘Diggy-Loo Diggy-Ley’.
This song, performed by The teenage pop group The Herreys. won the Swedish heats of Melodifestivalen in 1984, before going on to win the Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg that same year. The Swedish entry scored 145 points, beating Ireland's entry 'Terminal 3' (performed by Linda Martin) which had been favourite to win, by eight points.
The subsequent record release went on to chart across Europe, reaching Number 2 in Sweden and Number 4 in the Netherlands, while an English language version, titled 'Dancing Shoes' reached the UK Top 50.
In Stockholm, Sweden, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Judith Durham
(79), singer, songwriter, actor and musician, and lead singer with the Australian group The Seekers, whose hits inlude 'I'll Never Find Another You', 'A World Of Our Own', 'The Carnival Is Over', and 'Georgy Girl'.
In Melbourne, Australia, of lung failure.
© Ray Coleman
Mo Ostin
(95), who in a career which spanned sixty years, managed such US labels as Verve, Reprise Records, Warner Brothers Records, and DreamWorks, and was responsible for signing The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, R.E.M. Green Day, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Nirvana, Madonna, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Prince, and Guns N’ Roses.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
At his home in Los Angeles California, USA, from heart failure.
© Bill Miller
John Grenell
(78), New Zealand country music singer-songwriter, whose Gold Disc hits include 'Welcome To Our World' and 'I've Been Everywhere'.
At his home in Canterbury, New Zealand, following a heart attack
© Ray Coleman
Charles Ward
(72), co-founder with his brother Kingsley of the famous Rockfield Residential Recording Studios in Wales. Acts which recorded there include Hawkwind, Black Sabbath, Dave Edmunds, Manic Street Preachers, Coldplay and Love Sculpture.
In Monmouth, Wales, of undisclosed causes.
© Ray Coleman
Frankie Davidson
(88), Australian singer and TV performer, whose hits include 'Have You Ever Been To See King's Cross', 'Gimme Dat Ding', 'The Ball-Bearing Bird', 'The Aussie Barbecue Song' and 'I Love A Sunburnt Football'.
In Brisbane, Australia, of heart failure.
© Ray Coleman
Sidney Kirk
(78), jazz pianist and songwriter who was an essential part of the Isaac Hayes Movement, and later played with such stars as Dionne Warwick, Albert King, Denis LaSalle, The Platters and Rufus Thomas. In addition to his instrumental talents, he also penned songs for Carla Thomas and Sam & Dave.
In Memphis, Tennessee, USA, following a heart attack.
© Bill Miller
Jim Sohns
(77), founder and lead singer with Chicago band Shadows Of The Knight, who scored four mid-sixties US hits with 'Gloria', 'Oh Yeah' 'Bad Little Woman' and 'Shake'.
In Chicago, Illinois, USA, following a stroke.
© Bill Miller
Mick Moloney
(77), musician and folk historian, who produced and/or performed on more than 80 albums and was widely recognised as one of the foremost experts on Irish music and folklore.
Born in Limerick, Ireland, Mick Moloney's interest in Irish music led to him joining the successful Irish folk act The Johnstons, who had just signed with London-based Transatlantic Records. The group went on to release several albums, frequently touring the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. In 1971, they had a minor hit in the USA with a version of Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now', and appeared later that same year at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
Mick Moloney left the Johnstons in 1971, moving to Pennsylvania and later New York, where over the next fifty years, he built a massive reputation, acting as advisor for more than one hundred festivals of Irish music while hosting several TV shows which helped publicise the genre in America. At the same time, he lent his own outstanding musical talents to scores of albums, mostly marketed in the USA, and in 1992, received a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania.
In subsequent years, he was awarded the US National Heritage Award, in a ceremony hosted by American First Lady Hilary Clinton, while he also received the Itish Presidential Distinguished Services Award from President Higgins in Dublin for his services to Irish music and heritage.
In New York City, USA, of natural causes.
© Jim Liddane
Bernard Cribbins
(93), singer and actor, whose pop hits in the 1960s included 'Right Said Fred', 'Hole In The Ground' and 'Gossip Calypso', and who went on to appear in such movies as Alfred Hitchcock's 'Frenzy' and the Lionel Jeffries' classic 'The Railway Children'.
He also had major roles in the TV hits 'Fawlty Towers', 'Dr Who', 'The Wombles', 'Old Jack's Boat' and 'Jackanory'.
In London, UK, from natural causes.
© Ray Coleman
Bob Rafelson
(89), writer, director and producer who with Bert Schneider created and cast The Monkees TV series, which launched the manufactured group to worldwide pop fame.
Rafelson also directed and/or produced such classics as 'Five Easy Pieces', 'The King Of Marvin Gardens', 'The Postman Always Rings Twice, 'Mountains Of The Moon', 'Easy Rider', and 'The Last Picture Show'.
In Aspen, Colorado, USA, of lung cancer.
© Bill Miller
Jim Seals
(80), singer-songwriter and a member of the duo Seals & Croft with fellow-Texas Dash Crofts. Their hits (all during the 1970s) include 'Summer Breeze', 'Hummingbird', 'Diamond Girl', 'We May Never Pass This Way Again', 'I'll PLay For You', 'Get Closer' and 'You're In Love' while Seals also scored with 'It's Never Too Late' for Brenda Lee.
In Nashville, Tennessee, USA, following a stroke.
© Bill Miller
Vincent DeRosa
(102), the session musician who played horn on literally thousands of recordings , backing such acts as Frank Sinatra, Harry Nilsson, the Monkees, Frank Zappa, Harpers Bizarre, Henry Mancini, Debbie Harry, Jean-Luc Ponty, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, Boz Scaggs, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Kenton, Sammy Davis Jr., and Mel Tormé.
In Los Angeles, Calfornia, USA, of heart failure.
© Bill Miller
Norman Henderson
(71), bass guitarist and vocalist who worked with Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder.
In Atlanta, Georgia, USA, of heart failure.
© Bill Miller
William Hart
(77), Grammy Award-winning lead singer and songwriter for The Delfonics, whose hits include the much-covered classics 'La-La Means I Love You', 'Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time' and 'Ready Or Not Here I Come'.
Born in Philadelphia, William Hart sang lead with a number of local groups, Four Gents, the Four Guys, the Veltones, the Everglows and Little Hart & The Evergreens before founding the Orphonics in 1964, named after the tape recorder on which Hart had started writing songs. A barber by day, he was heard singing while he cut hair by Tommy Watson, a local music executive, who introduced him to Thom Bell, Chubby Checker's producer at Cameo Parkway. Bell worked with him on a song titled 'He Don’t Really Love You' and two years later, the Orphonics - now renamed The Delfonics - cut the song as their first single for Cameo Parkway Records, but it failed to chart.
Switching to Philly Grove Records in 1968 following the closure of Cameo Parkway, the group scored their first hit 'La-La (Means I Love You)', a song which went on to be covered by Booker T and the MG’s, the Jackson 5, Todd Rundgren, Swing Out Sister and Prince. The song's inspiration was the phrase 'la la' which his baby son kept chanting all day long. Asked what the phrase meant, Hart's wife said that 'la la' was the baby's way of saying 'I love you'!
More hits followed including 'Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)', (covered by Aretha Franklin and New Kids On The Block), which won him a Grammy award, '(For The Love) I Gave To You', and 'Ready Or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide from Love)', sampled by the Fugees on their 1996 hit 'Ready Or Not'.
In the early seventies, Thom Bell started to work with two up-and-coming acts, the Stylistics and The Spinners (known in the UK as The Detroit Spinners), and The Delfonics stopped scoring major hits, although they continued to record and tour. At one stage, there were two line-ups of The Delfonics, both featuring current and former members, and indeed, frequently and amicably swapping members! In 2020, William Hart and his brother Wilbert Hart (an original Delfonic) celebrated the 55th anniversary of their entry into the music industry.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Grammy Award Winner.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, of cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Don Graham
(87). music promoter whose roster included Edd "Kookie" Burns, Connie Stevens, Tab Hunter, The Everly Brothers, Peter, Paul & Mary, Ike & Tina Turner, Dave Mason, Sergio Mendes, Bobby Goldsboro, Jay & the Americans, War, Johnny Rivers, and Don McLean.
In Woodland Hills, California, USA, of heart failure.
© Bill Miller
Adam Wade
(87), singer, actor and TV host, whose hits 'Take Good Care of Her', 'As If I Didn't Know' and 'The Writing On The Wall' went gold during the 1960s.
In Montclair, New Jersey, USA, from Parkinson’s disease.
© Bill Miller
Tommy Morgan
(89), composer and musician who played harmonica in over 500 movies and TV shows from 1954 to 2020 including 'The Rockford Files' and 'Magnum PI', and featured on such classic singles as 'Good Vibrations' by the Beach Boys, 'Rainy Days And Mondays' by The Carpenters, and 'Beautiful Noise' by Neil Diamond.
in Los Angeles, California, USA, following a stroke.
© Bill Miller
Michael James Jackson
(71), producer and songwriter who worked on several KISS albums, including 'Creatures Of The Night', 'Lick it Up' and 'Animalize', as well as albums by Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, Mimi Farina, Pablo Cruise and Steve Harley.
In Los Angeles, Calfornia, USA, from an illness linked to Covid-19.
© Bill Miller
Monty Norman
(94), who composed the theme for 'Dr. No', popularly known as the James Bond theme, as well as the West End musicals 'Expresso Bongo' and 'Irma La Douce'.
In London, UK, from heart failure.
© Ray Coleman
Ken Williams
(83), songwrter who wrote or co-wrote hundred of charted songs including The Main Ingredient's hit 'Everybody Plays The Fool'.
In, New York City, USA, of hear failure.
© Bill Miller
Bernard Belle
(57), Grammy winning multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer, and former member of The Manhattans, whose songs include the Michael Jackson hits 'Remember The Time', 'Why You Wanna Trip On Me' and 'Privacy'.
In Atlanta. Georgia, USA, of congestive heart failure.
© Bill Miller
Artie Kane
(93), Grammy-nominated pianist and composer who worked with such stars as Frank Sinatra and Henry Mancini, penning scores for hundreds of movies and television series including 'Looking For Mr Godbar', 'The Eyes Of Laura Mars', 'Matlock', 'Wonder Woman' and 'Dynasty'.
In Whidbey Island, Washington, USA, of heart failure.
© Bill Miller
Gian Pietro Felisatti
(72), the songwriter and record producer known simply as 'Felisatti', who produced hits for dozens of Italian singers, including Manuel Mijares, Rocío Banquells and Paloma San Basilio
In Rome, Italy, following a heart attack.
© Ray Coleman
Alan Blaikley
(82), songwriter who scored hits for The Honeycombs and Elvis Presley.
Born in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, where he continued to live throughout his career, Alan Blaikley came down from Oxford University with a degree in classics to join with a school friend Ken Howard in setting up Axle Quarterly, a magazine which published early works by Melvyn Bragg, Ray Gosling, Gillian Freeman and Simon Raven. During this period, the pair also worked at the BBC, where Alan interviewed, amongst others, C. S. Lewis, Enid Blyton and J. R. R. Tolkien.
Blaikley however had a fascination with popular music, and in 1963. along with Ken Howard, started looking for a new band to manage and write songs for. That band turned out to be The Honeycombs, whose first record 'Have I The Right', produced by Joe Meek and written by Blaikley and Howard, topped the charts worldwide in 1964. With Alan and Ken as managers, the band went on to release several more records but broke up after Joe Meek's suicide in 1967.
Meanwhile the pair had turned their attention to another band whom they had met on tour with The Honeycombs - the curiously-named Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, and became that unit's management in 1966. There followed a remarkable succession of thirteen consecutive hits, all penned by rhe pair, including 'You Make It Move', 'Bend It', 'Hold Me Tight', 'Hideaway', 'Save Me', 'Touch Me Touch Me', 'Okay', 'Zabadak', 'The Legend Of Xanadu', 'Last Night In Soho', 'The Wreck Of The Antoinette', 'Don Juan' and 'Snake In The Grass'.
In 1970, Dave Dee quit the band to pursue a solo career. and the group split up soon after. That same year however, Blaikley and Howard had two songs ('I've Lost You' and 'Heart Of Rome') recorded by Elvis Presley, before going on to score also with tunes for Peter Frampton & The Herd, Petula Clark, Phil Collins, Sacha Distel, Rolf Harris, Frankie Howerd, Engelbert Humperdinck, Horst Jankowski, Eartha Kitt, Little Eva, Marmalade, Lulu, Matthews Southern Comfort, The Dead Kennedys and the Bay City Rollers.
In the 1980s, Blaikley turned his attention to the theatre, penning two West End musicals, 'Mardi Gras' and 'The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole', two BBC musicals 'Orion' and 'Ain't Many Angels', and Roald Dahl's 1990 musical 'Matilda'. He also penned a number of themes for movies and television, including 'Miss Marple', 'The Flame Trees Of Thika' and 'By The Sword Divided'.
However, Alan had always been interested in analytical psychology, and during this period, on the advice of his own analyst, Dr William Kraemer, decided to return to college to study the subject, graduating in 1981 as a psychotherapist. Although he continued to run Axle Publishing along with Ken Howard, while publishing his memoirs 'Have I The Right? - Memories, Reflections, Notes', he also ran a successful private psychotherapy practice from his home in London over the next twenty years.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
In Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, from cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Paul Vance
(92), songwriter and record producer, whose compositions include such million-sellers as 'Catch A Falling Star', 'Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini', and 'Tracy'.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Paul Vance started writing songs while still at school but it was only after a chance meeting with composer Lee Pockriss that he had his first hit, with the Pery Como classic 'Catch A Falling Star', the first ever Gold Disc to be awarded in the USA, and a song which earned more than fifty cover versions.
A few years later, having heard his daughter say that she would be too embarrassed to wear a two-piece swimsuit at the beach, he wrote 'Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini' which became an international hit for Brian Hyland, and achieved more than one hundred cover versions by acts as diverse as Kermit & Miss Piggy, to Devo. The team then went on to pen lyrics for the instrumental hit 'Calcutta' which was a hit for The Four Preps, while scoring further major chart successes with 'What Will My Mary Say', and 'Gina', both hits for Johnny Mathis.
Ib 1964, he and Pockriss put together a group called The Detergents featuring session singer Ron Dante, to record a song they had written titled 'Leader Of The Laundromat', a parody of 'Leader Of The Pack' which had been a worldwide Number 1 for the Shangri-Las. 'Leader Of The Laundromat' also charted, leading to a lawsuit being taken against Vance by the Shangri-Las' producers Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and George "Shadow" Morton.
Throughout their career, Vance and Pockriss made it a point of always performing on their songwriter demonstration discs, and several of these recordings were so good that the demos were themselves released commercially. 'The Chick' for example, which came out under the group name Lee & Paul, and 'Dommage, Dommage (Too Bad, Too Bad)', which was released under Vance's own name, were both hits in the USA.
By 1969, the writers had teamed up again with Ron Dante, going on to write and produce 'Tracy', another US Number 1. This recording featured Dante providing all the voices, but was released under the group name The Cuff Links. Later that year, Vance wrote 'She Lets Her Hair Down' as a jingle for Breck Shampoo, only to have the song chart as a single for both The Tokens and Gene Pitney.
In 1973, Vance wrote and produced 'Playground In My Mind' a Gold Disc for Clint Holmes, and this was followed by another US Number 1 'Run Joey Run" for David Geddes.
Although he continued to write and produce for artists like Al Martino, Astrud Gilberto, Natalie Cole, Esther Phillips, Paul Anka, Tommy James & The Shondells and Dee Dee Warwick, Vance became increasingly involved in breeding harness-racing horses (including the legendary winner Secret Service), and retired to Florida to pursue his hobby, becoming one of the most successful breeders in the United States. 'It's a funny thing', he once told The New York Times, 'but without bragging, I've sold $60 million dollars’ worth of records and written 1,000 songs and would you believe it, not one of them mentions a horse'.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Songwriters Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Hal Bynum
(87), songwriter and recording artist who penned hits for several top American country acts, ranging from Jim Reeves to Kenny Rogers.
Born in Ralls, Texas, Hal Bynum started writing while in the navy. His first recorded song came in 1953 with 'I’m Hot To Trot' by Terry Fell. and several more of his compositions were cut during the 1950's, but without major chart success. However, in 1964, Jim Reeves recorded 'Nobody’s Fool' just a short time before his own death in a plane crash that same year. Although the song was not released at that time, Hal decided to move to Nashville anyway, and soon after arriving, Reeves had a posthumous No.10 country hit with the song.
A string of successes now followed including Johnny Cash’s 'Papa Was A Good Man', along with Cash’s collaboration with Waylon Jennings on 'There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang' and the Patty Loveless Number 1 hit 'Chains'.
However his biggest hit turned out to be 'Lucille' (penned with Roger Bowling), which became a multi-million selling record for Kenny Rogers, winning the pair a CMA Award for Single Of The Year and an American Music Award for Favourite Country Song. By 2021, the song had been covered by more than 100 recording artists.
In a career which spanned sixty years, his songs were recorded by such stars as Merle Haggard, Tom Jones, Diahann Carroll, George Jones, Ray Price, George Hamilton 1V, Terry Wogan, Foster & Allen, Daniel O'Donnell, Bruce Channel, Ray Stevens, Ernest Tubb, Jimmy Dickens, Curtis Potter, T.G. Sheppard, Dave & Sugar, Charlie Rich, Diana Trask, Cal Smith, John Anderson and Roy Clark.
In addition, Bynum himself recorded a number of singles and albums for United Artists mainly in the spoken word genre, including his 1976 hit 'The Old Pro', and the albums 'It’s My Time', 'If I Could Do Anything', and 'The Promise'.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Grammy Award Winner.
In Nashville, Tennessee, USA, following a stroke.
© Jim Liddane
Ronnie Hawkins
(87), singer, songwriter and actor, whose backing musicians went on to form Bob Dylan's group The Band.
Born in Huntsville, Arkansas in 1935, while still at school, and unknownst to his school-teacher mother, Hawkins (or 'The Hawk' as be became known), ran an illegal bootleg-liquor distribution operation, later boasting that he used to make $300 a day from this activity. A cousin of rockabilly singer Dale Hawkins who had scored a Top 10 hit in the USA with 'Susie Q', Hawkins formed his first band while studying at the University Of Arkansas, even opening his own night-club in Fayetteville which boasted early appearances by such luminaries as Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Conway Twitty.
In 1959, Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks, which by now included drummer Levon Helm, signed a contract with Roulette Records in New York, producing several US hits, amongst which were 'Forty Days' and 'Mary Lou' and garnering him an appearance on American Bandstand.
Learning from Conway Twitty about the burgeoning bar-band scene in Canada, Hawkins went to Toronto where he teamed up with Robbie Robertson, later adding Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and the classically trained Garth Hudson to the line-up. This version of The Hawks toured constantly, mainly in Canada, the band members hopeful that Hawkins would eventually return to the USA. taking them with him. He however, had meanwhile married and put down roots in Canada, so in thev end, the band split from him, moving down south and finding immortality in later years backing Bob Dylan.
Hawkins continued to record and tour however, frequently working with people like Duane Allman and Pat Travers, while also turning to acting, portraying Bob Dylan in the movie 'Ronaldo And Clara', as well as appearing in such films as 'Heaven's Gate', 'Hello Mary Lou', 'Snake Eater' and Prom Night 2'.
Meanwhile, he had built a sprawling multimillion-dollar property in Stoney Lake, Ontario, where he opened a home recording studio which boasted such visitors as Gordon Lightfoot, Kris Kristofferson, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, while he and his wife frequently hosted parties for luminaries like Bill Clinton and Pierre Trudeau.
His few appearances in the USA, did however include a slot in Martin Scorsese's rock documentary 'The Last Waltz' where he performed his own hit 'Who Do You Love?' on a bill which included Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.
During a career which spanned more than sixty years, he released more than 25 albums, including a final one which came out just a few months before his death titled 'Live At Fayetteville High School 1962'.
Order Of Canada Award.
SOCAN Lifetime Achievement Award.
In Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, of cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Cathal Coughlan
(61), singer-songwriter and front man for Irish bands Microdisney and Fatima Mansions.
Born in Cork, Ireland, Cathal Coughlan formed Microdisney with Sean O'Hagan in 1980, before moving to London where they signed with Rough Trade Records. Their second album hit #1 on the UK Indie Charts, while a single 'Town To Town' reached the UK Top 50. Microdisney split in 1988, with Coughlan going on to form Fatima Mansions, and O'Hagan setting up the High Llamas.
Fatima Mansions produced four albums which achieved indie chart success while a 1992 charity single - a remake of the Bryan Adams hit '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' made the UK Top 10 pop charts, aided by the inclusion on the flip side of the Manic Street Preachers' version of 'Suicide Is Painless'.
In the years following the breakup of Fatima Mansions in 1995, Coughlan released an amount of well-received solo material, prompting DJ John Peel to say 'I could listen to Cathal Coughlan sing the phone book'. In 2018, he re-united with Sean O'Hagan for a Microdisney tour.
In London, UK, from undisclosed causes, but following a long illness.
© Jim Liddane
Bob Neuwirth
(82), singer-songwriter, artist, road manager (for Bob Dylan), and the co-writer of Janis Joplin's 'Mercedes Benz'.
Born in Akron, Ohio, Bob Neuwirth moved to Paris after a stint at art college. There, he took up guitar, frequently busking on the streets with Rambling Jack Elliott, before moving back to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1960 to becme part of the burgeoning folk music scene. At a festival the following year, he met Bob Dylan, going on to become both a close friend and his road manager, frequently appearing onstage with the rising star. However, following Dylan's motorbike accident, Neuwirth withdrew from Dylan's circle, only to return ten years later as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue, appearing also in the movie 'Renaldo And Clara'. In 1970, during a drink-fueled afternoon in th company of poet Michael McClure and singer Janis Joplin whom he had earlier persuaded to record Kris Kristofferson's 'Me And Bobby McGee', Neuwirth co-wrote the song 'Mercedes Benz' which Joplin recorded acapella-style just a few days before her death.
In 1974, he produced his first solo album 'Bob Neuwirth' for Asylum Records, featuring such musicians as Kris Kristofferson, Booker T. Jones, Rita Coolidge, Chris Hillman, Cass Elliot, Dusty Springfield, Don Everly, Richie Furay, and Iain Matthews. Although well-reviewed, Neuwirth declined to tour in support of the release, and it was fourteen years before he produced his second album 'Back To The Front'. During this period, he also became involved in documentary movie-making with D A Pennebaker, and was interviewed by Martin Scorcese for his documentary 'No Direction Home'. Throughout his music career, he continued to paint in what was once described as a "Jackson Pollock abstract style", and headlined several major exhibitions in both New York and Los Angeles.
In Santa Monica, California, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Vangelis
(79), Greek composer and musician, whose career in music spanning over 50 years included the soundtracks for films such as 'Chariots Of Fire', 'Blade Runner', 'Missing', 'Antarctica', 'The Bounty', '1492: Conquest of Paradise' and 'Alexander'.
Born in Athens but denied entry to the UK following the Greek military coup of 1967. he settled in Paris, forming the band Aphrodite's Child alongside other Greek exiles Demis Roussos, Loukas Sideras, and Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris, which scored a number of hit albums and singles over the next six years, In August 1975, after Vangelis had gained entry to London, he set up Nemo Studios, a 16-track operation in his flat at Marble Arch and secured a recording deal with RCA Records. Teaming up with Yes singer Jon Anderson, the pair, under the Jon and Vangelis name, scored further successes, before Vangelis went on to work on the movie 'Chariots Of Fire', which produced a single and album, both of which topped the US Billboard charts, winning him an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score, although he declined to attend the awards ceremony.
In later years, he release more than fifty albums, and scored more than forty movies, also becoming involved in penning music for NASA's Mars Odyssey mission as well as the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission.
Grammy Award Winner.
Grammy Award Winner.
French Knight Of The Order Of The Arts And Letters.
Knight Of The French National Order Of The Legion of Honour.
NASA'S Public Service Medal.
In Paris, France, following a heart attack.
© Jim Liddane
Mickey Gilley
(86), singer-songwriter whose hits include 'Stand By Me', 'Room Full Of Roses' and 'Lonely Nights', and first cousin to both Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart.
Born in Natchez, Mississippi, Mickey Gilley was taught piano by Jerry Lee Lewis. Initially, he veered towards rockabilly and honky-tonk music, but after signing with Playboy Records, he hit the charts with the old George Morgan classic 'Room Full Of Roses', before going on to score such hits as 'Chains Of Love', 'Honky Tonk Memories', 'She's Pulling Me Back Again' and 'Here Comes The Hurt Again'.
He used the early royalties to open a nightclub in Pasadena, Texas called Gilleys, which became the back-drop for the movie 'Urban Cowboy' in which he appeared alongside John Travolta, Debra Winger and Johnny Lee. This led to roles in several popular television series including 'Murder She Wrote', 'The Fall Guy', 'Fantasy Island' and 'Dukes of Hazzard'.
He continued to record and tour, scoring 39 Top 10 hits and 17 No 1 songs, earning six Academy Of Country Music Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and an induction into the Texas Country Music Hall Of Fame.
In Branson, Missouri, USA, after suffering a heart attack, having just finished a fifteen-night tour.
© Bill Miller
Warner Mack
(86), singer-songwriter whose first hit 'Is It Wrong (For Loving You)' was penned at the age of twelve.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Warner Mack's family moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi when he was just nine. Returning to Nashville some ten years later, he signed with Decca Records, scoring 23 hits between 1957 and 1977, including his #1 classic 'The Bridge Washed Out'. Other top ten hits included 'Surely', 'I'll Be Alright In The Morning','Sittin' In An All Nite Cafe', 'Talkin' To The Wall', 'It Takes A Lot Of Money', 'Drifting Apart', 'How Long Will It Take', 'I'm Gonna Move On' and 'Draggin' The River'.
Then, at the height of his fame, he was critically injured in an auto accident, forcing him to undergo 14 operations, and effectively ending his recording and touring career, although he eventually made a partial comeback fifteen years later.
By that time, he had performed more radio shows for the US Air Force than any country artist and had also become the first country singer to record Coca Cola commercials for worldwide distribution. Along with his sister, Willa Dean, he also recorded the album 'Songs We Sang In Church At Home' which was Grammy Nominated.
His songs continued to be covered by dozens of pop and country acts including Bill Anderson, Brenda Lee, Connie Smith, Del Reeves, Don Gibson, Eddy Arnold, Ferlin Husky, Gene Watson, George Jones, Jack Greene, Jean Shepherd, Kitty Wells, Little Texas, Loretta Lynn, Lynn Anderson, Marty Stuart, Mickey Gilley, Pat Boone, Ray Peterson, Ricky Van Shelton, Sonny James, Tom Jones, Bobby Bare, Wanda Jackson, Webb Pierce and The Wilburn Brothers.
A shrewd businessman, he also started his own record label (Pageboy Records), along with a publishing company (Bridgewood Music), plus a storefront in Nashville called Warner Mack’s Country Store.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Country Music Hall Of Fame Inductee.
Grammy Award Nominee.
In Nashville, Tennessee, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Judy Kenske
(85), folk singer-songwriter whose songs include 'High Flying Bird' (covered by Jefferson Airplane), 'Yellow Beach Umbrella' (covered by Bette Midler and also Three Dog Night), 'Might As Well Have A Good Time' (Crosby, Stills & Nash), 'Sauvez-Moi' (a #1 hit in France for Johnny Hallyday), and who worked live with such stars as Judy Garland, Phil Ochs, James Taylor, Jackson Brown, Shel Silverstein, Johnny Cash, Frank Zappa and Lenny Bruce. Married to the Association's (and later The Lovin Spoonful's) Jerry Yester, her personality and lifestyle inspired the lead character in Woody Allen's 'Annie Hall'.
In Los Angeles, California, USA, of cancer.
© Bill Miller
Naomi Judd
(76), Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and co-founder of the Judds.
Naomi Judd was born in Ashland, Kentucky, but moved to California with her two daughters Wynonna and Ashley when her marriage to Michael Ciminella failed. With Wynonna, she formed The Judds, a mother-daughter country music duo, which went on to score twenty hits - fifteen of which reached #1 - including such classics as 'Mama He's Crazy', 'Why Not Me', 'Girls' Night Out', 'Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout The Good Old Days)', 'Rockin' With The Rhythm Of The Rain', 'Cry Myself To Sleep', 'Young Love (Strong Love)' and 'Let Me Tell You About Love'. In all, the duo won five Grammy Awards, while Naomi won a sixth for her composition 'Love Can Build A Bridge'.
In 1991, their stellar career came to an abrupt end when Naomi was diagnosed with hepatitis C. That same year, she founded the Naomi Judd Education & Research Fund, and although she no longer toured, she continued to advise Wynonna on a new solo career, while appearing herself in a number of movies, including 'More American Graffiti' and 'A Holiday Romance'. Meanwhile, her daughter Ashley Judd was emerging as a successful movie actress with such films as 'Heat' and 'Norma Jean & Marilyn' just as Wynonna was starting a run of country hits which would make her one of country music's most enduring stars.
Naomi herself embarked on a career in television, appearing in such shows as ‘Star Search' hosted by Arsenio Hall, ‘Naomi's New Morning’, a talk show on the Hallmark Channel, ‘Can You Duet?’, 'The Killing Game' (opposite Laura Prepon), and 'An Evergreen Christmas' (alongside Andy Griffith), while penning a number of books, including the best-seller 'Naomi's Guide To Aging Gratefully'.
Mother and daughter also re-united on several occasions for sold-out tours , but following one of these appearances, Naomi announced that she was developing depression, panic attacks, and suicidal thoughts. Her death occurred the day before she was due to be inducted (alongside Ray Charles) into the Country Music Hall Of Fame.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Six-time Grammy Award Winner.
Country Music Hall Of Fame Member.
In Nashville, Tennessee, USA, by suicide.
© Jim Liddane
Bobby Weinstein
(82), songwriter, singer and BMI executive, whose career spanned sixty years.
Born into a musical family in Manhattan, New York, Bobby Weinstein formed The Legends while at the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan. Although they made several records, many of which became collector's items, the act failed to break through, but via the group, Bobby met singer-songwriter and record producer Teddy Randazzo, with whom he collaborated for many years.
Their first hit, 'Pretty Blue Eyes', was recorded by Steve Lawrence in the USA, and charted also in the UK for Craig Douglas. A tie-up with songwriter Bobby Hart led to a series of hits recorded by Little Anthony & The Imperials, including 'I'm On The Outside (Looking In)', 'Goin' Out Of My Head' and 'Hurt So Bad'. 'Goin' Out Of My Head' was recorded by more than four hundred recording acts, becoming one of the of the Top 50 Most Recorded Songs Of All Time, selling in all, a reputed one hundred million copies.
He went on to pen songs for The Box Tops, Dionne Warwick, Duke Ellington, The Lettermen, Jerry Vale, Deniece Williams, The Temptations, Luther Vandross, The Royalettes, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Ella Fitzgerald, Linda Ronstadt and Frank Sinatra. During this period, he also sang with Teddy Randazzo's band in Las Vegas alonside Tommy Boyce and Bpbby Hart.
In 1970, Weinstein became an executive with Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), serving as as liaison for the songwriter affiliates. He was a Songwriters Hall of Fame board member for 24 years, and acted as President of the organisation from 1993 to 1999. He also served on the board of the National Academy Of Popular Music for more than two decades.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Songwriters Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In New York City, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Art Rupe
(104), record producer, label owner and music publisher, who discovered Little Richard, Sam Cooke and Lloyd Price.
Born in Pennsylvania, Art Rupe became interested in what was then termed 'race music' and while working in Los Angeles for a firm building ships for the war effort, he decided to set up a record label specialising in black acts. The label, Specialty Records, soon attracted such musicians as Percy Mayfield and Roy Milton, with Rupe both handling production himself while also utilising the services of other producers like Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell and J W Alexander.
Rupe's affection for gospel music brought the Soul Stirrers (featuring a teenage Sam Cooke), The Silvertones, Alexa Bradford and Sister Wynona Carr to the label, but its initial success between 1946 and 1950 soon attracted secular acts such as Little Richard, Larry Williams, Lloyd Price and Don & Dewey.
After Lloyd Price struck gold with the 1952 recording of 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy', a string of classic hits followed, including 'Tutti Frutti', 'Long Tall Sally', 'Good Golly Miss Molly', 'The Girl Can't Help It', 'Lucille', 'Rip It Up', 'Ready Teddy', 'Slippin And Slidin' (all by Little Richard), 'Bony Moronie' (Larry Williams), and 'The Things I Used To Do' (Guitar Slim), and by 1959, the label was regarded as one of the most influential in the American music industry even though it had earlier lost Sam Cooke and producer 'Bumps' Blackwell, due to Rupe's unwillingness to let Cooke perform secular music.
Two years later, the label also lost Little Richard, who at the peak of his success, decided to give up recording and study for the ministry. That same year, Little Richard sued Rupe for unpaid royalties (like most record labels of rhe rock & roll era, Specialty was notorious for paying as little as half-a-cent a disc), and that court action, coupled with Rupe's unwillingness to continue to pay DJs for radio play (a practice known as payola which was later declared illegal), led him to diversify his business interests, moving into oil and gas investing, and setting up the philanthropic organisation The Art N Rupe Foundation. He stopped working as a producer in 1965, eventually selling Specialty to Fantasy Records in 1992.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In Santa Barbara, California, USA, of heart failure.
© Jim Liddane
Chris Bailey
(65), singer-songwriter, record producer and co-founder of The Saints.
Born In Kenya, his family moved to Belfast, Ireland for several years before emigrating to Brisbane, Australia when Chris was seven. At the age of 16, he and two school friends formed Kid Galahad & The Eternals, which later became The Saints, scoring such hits as 'I’m Stranded' (listed as one of the top 30 Australian songs of all time by APRA), 'Prodigal Son', 'Eternally Yours', 'Prehistoric Sounds', 'All Fools Day', and 'Just Like Fire Would', (later covered by Bruce Springsteen).
Between 1991 and 1996, Chris recorded several solo LPs, but reunited with the Saints in 1996, going on to release a further five well-received albums, including 'Imperious Delirium' in 2006 and 'King Of The Sun' in 2012, while continuing to tour in Australia, the USA and Europe throughout that decade.
In Brisbane, Australia, of undisclosed causes.
© Ray Coleman
Con Cluskey
(86), founder (along with John Stokes and Declan Cluskey), of the Irish vocal group The Bachelors.
In 1955, the trio started out in Dublin as The Harmonichords, later appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and Opportunity Knocks, before changing their name in 1960 to The Bachelors, on the advice of UK Decca A&R manager Dick Rowe.
Between 1963 and 1966, they scored a number of hits for Decca including 'Charmaine', 'Diane', 'I Believe', 'Ramona', 'I Wouldn't Trade You For The World', 'Marie', 'In The Chapel In The Moonlight' and 'The Sound Of Silence'.
In Elland, West Yorkshite, UK, of natural causes.
© Jim Liddane
C W McCall
(93), singer-songwriter who wrote and recorded the 1975 million-selling song 'Convoy'.
Born Billie Dale Fries in Audobon, Iowa, his parents were both part-time musicians but Billie's first interest was cartooning, eventually becoming art director at the advertising agency Bozell & Jacobs.
One of its clients was Old Home Bread, whose distinctive trucks were a feature on local highways, and for them, he created a series of ads based on a trucking theme, featuring the fictional truck-driver 'C. W. McCall' (the C W came from the term 'country & western' while the McCall was borrowed from the James Garner movie 'Cash McCall').
Billie along with another staff writer Chip Taylor (a classically-trained musician who would later head Mannheim Steamroller and actually disliked country music), produced a number of songs for the campaign, with Billy (under the adopted name of C W McCall) handling the vocals. The campaign won a Clio Award, while the songs, created solely for the TV advertising campaign, proved so popular that MGM Records signed McCall to a recording contract, releasing a series of singles which charted on both the country and pop charts, most notably 'Old Home Filler-Up An' Keep On A-Truckin' Cafe', 'Classified', 'Wolf Creek Pass', and 'Black Bear Road'.
However, it was the fifth single, 'Convoy', based on the idea of using CB radios to protest the new federal speed limit of 55 mph, that proved most popular, reaching Number 1 on all American charts, as well as being a huge hit internationally.
A movie also titled 'Convoy' followed, starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Burt Young, and Ernest Borgnine, but an ill-considered label switch to Polydor produced only a few country hits which lacked crossover appeal, including 'There Won't Be No Country Music (There Won't Be No Rock 'n' Roll)', and ''Round The World With The Rubber Duck', although he again topped the country charts in 1977 with 'Roses for Mama'.
McCall used his royalties to retire to Quray, Colorado, where we was elected Mayor on a number of occasions, and although he rarely toured, in 2007, his song was voted into Rolling Stone's '100 Greatest Country Songs Of All Time', and became a radio hit again in Canada in 2022 when it was adopted by the Freedom Convoy protests.
In Quray, Colorado, USA, of cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Bobby Rydell
(78), singer who scored more than thirty hit records, including such million-sellers as 'Volare' and 'Wild One'.
Born in Philadelphia, Bobby Rydell emerged onto the local TV scene in 1951 as an accomplished jazz drummer appearing frequently on the Paul Whiteman Show from the age of nine onwards. Signing to a local label, Cameo Parkway Records, his third record 'Kissing Time made the US Top 10. This was followed by a series of million-selling releases including 'Wild One', 'Little Bitty Girl' and 'Swinging School', leading to his first engagement at New York's Copacabana, making him at 19, the youngest singer ever to top the bill at the prestigious club.
Over rhe next five years, he scored two dozen hits including 'Volare', 'Sway', 'I Got Bonnie', 'Wildwood Days', 'Doing The Cha-Cha-Cha' and 'Forget Him'.
At the peak of his recording career, Rydell turned to movies, playing the part of Hugo in 'Bye Bye Birdie', alongside Dick VanDyke and Ann-Margaret, and his success in this film led to roles in other major Hollywood productions including 'Combat', 'The Lady From Peking' and in 1999, 'The Alan Freed Story'. However, although his acting was widely praised on his debut, Rydell disliked California, declining to buy a home there, preferring to continue living in Pennsylvania in the same mansion he had built in 1962 to accommodate his parents and grandparents - and in later years, his own family as well.
He did however become a regular guest on such TV productions as The Red Skelton Show, The Danny Thomas Show, as well as shows fronted by Jack Benny, Joey Bishop, George Burns and Milton Berle, but his recording career was badly damaged by Cameo Parkway's inability (due to ongoing financial and litigation problems) to re-issue any of his recordings between 1970 and 2005. Rydell did however produce for K-Tel some credible re-makes of his biggest sellers during this period, and in total, recorded more than forty albums.
In spite of his absence from the charts, his influence on the next generation of pop stars could be seen in the Beatles’ song ‘She Loves You’ (inspired by Rydell’s hit ‘Swinging School’), and “Rydell High” - the name given to the school in the ‘Grease’ series of movies. Philadelphia even re-named one of its main thoroughfares ‘Bobby Rydell Boulevard’ while Wildwood, New Jersey paid similar homage to the singer who had spent his summer vacations there as a kid.
Up to his death, he continued to tour in the USA, Canada and Australia (a country which he visited no fewer than twenty times), frequently appearing as part of the Golden Boys revue, featuring himself, Frankie Avalon and Fabian, and still headlined regularly in Las Vegas.
In 2016, he published a best-selling autobiography ‘Teen Idol On The Rocks: A Tale Of Second Chances’.
In Abington, Pennsylvania, USA, from complications of pneumonia.
© Jim Liddane
Timmy Thomas
(79), singer-songwriter, session musician and record producer, whose biggest hit was the R&B classic anti-Vietnam War song ‘Why Can't We Live Together’.
Born in Evansville, Indiana, he started out as a session musician in Memphis, working with Cannonball Adderley and Donald Byrd, while releasing a number of unsuccessful singles on Goldwax. Then in 1972, he moved to Florida where he produced 'Why Can't We Live Together' which went on to sell more than two million copies worldwide.
Follow-up hits included ‘People Are Changing’, ‘Let Me Be Your Eyes’, ‘What Can I Tell Her’, ‘One Brief Moment’, ‘I've Got To See You Tonight’, ‘You're the Song (I've Always Wanted To Sing)’, ‘Gotta Give A Little Love (Ten Years After)’ and ‘What Do You Say To A Lady’ (with Jackie Moore).
In 2015, Drake sampled ‘Why Can't We Live Together’ on his own single ‘Hotline Bling’.
In Miami, Florida, USA, of cancer.
© Bill Miller
Brad Martin
(48), singer-songwriter who moved from Greenfield, Ohio to Nashville, signing with Sony Records in 2002. His first single 'Before I Knew Better' hit the Top 20 and his two subsequent records "Rub Me The Right Way" and "Just Like Love" also charted, but after Epic failed to renew his contract, he joined John Ramey to found the duo Martin Ramey. This disbanded in 2018.
In Nashville, Tennessee, USA, of undisclosed causes.
© Bill Miller
Bruce Burch
(59), songwriter who penned Reba McEntire’s 'Rumor Has It' and 'It’s Your Call' as well as a number of songs recorded by T. Graham Brown, Faith Hill, Aaron Tippin, The Oak Ridge Boys, George Jones, Barbara Mandrell, John Anderson and Wayne Newton.
In Gainesville, Georgia, USA of leukaemia.
© Bill Miller
Jimbeau Hinson
(70), singer-songwriter who was discovered at the age of 14 by Loretta Lynn when she invited him onstage to sing a duet with her. She introduced him to her mentors, the Wilburn Brothers who signed him, and he went on to win his first ASCAP Award at 17 with the song 'Sugar In The Flowers', recorded by Anthony Armstrong Jones.
Born in Newton, Mississippi, Hinson signed with Chart Records in Nashville, changing his name to Jimbeau to avoid being confused with the Muppets creator Jim Henson. He also penned a series of hits for the Oak Ridge Boys ('Fancy Free', 'Let Me Be The One', 'When You Give It Away'and 'Colors'), Kathy Mattea ('Train Of Memories'), David Lee Murphy ('Party Crowd'), Patty Loveless ('I'm On Your Side' and 'After All'), John Conlee ('Harmony'), Steve Earle ('Hillbilly Highway,' and 'Down The Road'), but always said that his greatest thrill was when his childhood idol, Brenda Lee, recorded 'Find Yourself Another Puppet', the song which earned him his second ASCAP Award.
Other acts to have hits with his songs included Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, Tracy Lawrence, Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith, Rodney Crowell, Lee Greenwood and Rhonda Vincent, and in addition to writing a number of songs for the Oak Ridge Boys, he also managed their music publishing company.
In his autobiography 'The All Of Everything In The Life And Times Of Jimbeau Hinson', he frankly discussed his open bi-sexuality which blocked him from becoming a country music recording star in the 1970's, while his later HIV diagnosis led to a ten-year debilitating illness, which he was lucky to survive. Much of his struggle was also recounted in his solo album 'Strong Medicine' and in the movie 'Beautiful Jim'.
In Nashville, Tennnessee, USA, folowing a series of strokes
© Bill Miller
Hargus 'Pig' Robbins
(84), Grammy-award winning pianist and songwriter whose piano work is to be heard on hundreds of classic country hits, but who also penned spngs for Roy Drusky, Mel Robbins, Porter Wagoner, Skeeter Davis and Red Sovine.
Born in Spring City. Tennessee, Hargus Robbins was blinded in an accident at the age of three, and never recovered his sight. He picked up the nickname 'Pig' while attending the Tennessee School For The Blind, because he was continually getting his clothes dirty while sneaking back into the building through a fire escape chute in order to practise on the school's grand piano.
At school. he developed a style influenced greatly by Floyd Cramer and Ray Charles, and in 1959, while playing in a club in Nashville, was recruited for the George Jones session that produced the singer's first hit 'White Lightning'. Within a few years, he had replaced Cramer (who had gone on to a solo career) on Nashville’s A Team of session musicians, and his skill at composing memorable riffs was such that outstanding piano players such as Leon Russell, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Rich pften asked Robbins to provide piano on their own sessions.
The success of 'White Lightning' was the start of a long career which saw him play on hit records by Patsy Cline, Duane Eddy, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Cowboy Copas, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Del Shannon, Chet Atkins, Jim Reeves, Burl Ives, Dottie West, Connie Smith, Dave Dudley, Norma Jean, Don Gibson, Bob Wills, Waylon Jennings, Charlie Pride, Bob Luman, Slim Whitman, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tammy Wynette, Jerry Reed, Bobby Bare, Bill Haley & The Comets. Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, The Everly Brothers, Donna Fargo, Carl Perkins, Roy Acuff, Ronnie Milsap, Johnny Rodriguez, Johnny Cash, Freddy Fender, Eddie Rabbitt, Billie Jo Spears, Don McLean, Sonny Curtis, B J Thomas, Hank Williams Jr., John Anderson, Bobby Goldsboro, Ray Charles, George Harrison, Shania Twain, Chet Atkins, Sturgill Simpson, Neil Young, J.J. Cale, John Hartford, Mark Knopfler, Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard, Roger Miller, David Allan Coe, Jan Baez, Gordon Lightfoot, Moe Bandy, George Hamilton IV, Conway Twitty, Tom T. Hall, Faron Young, Marty Robbins. Leon Russell, the Statler Brothers, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt, Mark Chesnutt, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire and dozens of other country stars.
It was he for example who provided the outstanding piano licks on Charlie Rich’s 'Behind Closed Doors', Patsy Cline's 'Crazy', Roger Miller's 'King Of The Road', Leroy Van Dyke’s 'Walk On By', Alan Jackson’s 'Don’t Rock The Jukebox' and 'Here In The Real World' and Crystal Gayle’s 'Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue' as well as 'The Gambler' by Kenny Rogers, Loretta Lynn’s 'Coal Miner’s Daughter', and 'She Thinks I Still Care' by George Jones.
Hargus Robbins could adapt to any style, as shown in his work on Bob Dylan's album 'Blonde On Blonde', but his first love remained country music, and in later years, he appeared on most of Dolly Parton's hit albums including 'Just Because I’m A Woman', 'Coat 0f Many Colors', 'My Tennessee Mountain Home' and 'Jolene'.
Although happy to remain in the background, he recorded a number of solo albums, including the Grammy winning 'Country Instrumentalist Of The Year', along with 'Pig In A Poke', and 'Unbreakable Hearts' and found himself immortalised in Robert Altman's movie 'Nashville' via the lines uttered by actor Henry Gibson who - upset at the playing of a hippie pianist booked for his recording session - screams at the engineer 'When I ask for Pig, I want Pig'.
In 2012. he was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame alongside Garth Brooks, but he remained working as a session musician, appearing on Connie Smith’s album 'The Cry Of The Heart', released only a few weeks before his death.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Grammy Award Winner.
Country Music Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In Nashville, Tennessee, USA, in his sleep, from suspected heart failure
© Jim Liddane
LaShun Pace
(60), singer-songwriter whose songs include 'Act Like You Know' and 'I Know I've Been Changed', both taken from albums which topped the American gospel charts.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, she and her eight sisters formed The Anointed Pace Sisters, and in 1989, she signed a solo contract with Savoy Records, releasing twelve albums over the next thirty years as well as penning a well-received autobiography 'For My Good But For His Glory'. In 2021, 'Act Like You Know' becase nationally known when the song accompanied a TikTok challenge, in which users acted out real-life situations.
Christian Hall Of Fame Inductee.
In Atlanta, Georgia, USA of organ failure.
© Bill Miller
Pete St. John
(90), singer-songwriter best known for his songs 'Fields Of Athenry', 'The Ferryman', 'Danny Farrell', 'Waltzing On Borrowed Time, 'Rise Up And Follow Charlie', and 'Dublin In The Rare Ould Times', and whose work has been recorded by the Dubliners, Paddy Reilly, Johnny Logan, Johnny McEvoy, Mary Black, James Last, Danny Doyle, James Galway, the Dublin City Ramblers, Brendan Shine and Daniel O'Donnell.
Born Peter Mooney in Parkgate Street, Dublin, (his professional name was obtained for a combination of his Christian names Peter and John), he trained as an electrician in Limerick before moving to Canada and from there (via Alaska and the West Indies) to the USA , where he once worked renovating the White House in Washington. Returning to Ireland in 1972. he set up an electrical business, but following a fall, he whiled away a six-month recuperation period by writing songs. He had become aware of the huge economic and social changes which had taken place in Dublin during his time abroad, and this led to his penning 'Dublin In The Rare Auld Times', a hit initially for the Dublin City Ramblers. One year later, the song reached #1 on the Irish charts when re-recorded by Danny Doyle.
His next hit 'The Fields Of Athenry' also charted for Danny Doyle, but the biggest hit version was by Paddy Reilly. His recording - although it failed to reach #1 - spent more than 70 weeks on the Irish charts while the song went on to become a sporting anthem, originally for the Galway hurling team, before being adopted by Irish football supporters during the 1990 World Cup, and later by fans of Glasgow Celtic FC and Liverpool. In more recent years, it was taken up by a number of rugby union teams, including Munster, Connacht and London Irish. The song also featured in several movies including 'The Dead Poets Society', 'Veronica Guerin', '16 Years Of Alcohol' and 'The Matchmaker'.
Although possessed of a fine voice, he expressed little interest in a recording career, producing only a few singles in the 1980's, but he toured widely, in Europe, the UK and the USA. A lifelong activist, he was heavily involved in the international peace movement and civil rights struggles, but always descrbed himself politically as "a nationalist".
In Dublin, Ireland, of natural causes.
© Jim Liddane
Jody Wayne
(77), singer and record producer who scored 50 Gold and Platinum Discs in South Africa, and whose hits include 'Are You Sure', "Patches,", '16 Candles', "The Wedding," and "Tell Laura I Love Her".
Born in Bangalore, India to Canadian parents, Jody Wayne moved to England as a child, then to Rhodesia, and finally to Durban, South Africa, where he first fronted the band The Jody Wayne Scene, later to become Guys And Dolls. In 1970, after more than two dozen hits, he moved into production, discovering snd recording such acts as Ashley Roberts and Neil Herbert and also appeared in a number of stage productions, notably 'Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'. In recent years, he had continued to perform in South Afrixa, mainly in the country music genre.
In Johannesburg, South Africa, of heart failure.
© Ray Coleman
Barbara Morrison
(72), singer and songwriter who also acted as an associate professor of jazz studies at UCLA.
Born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Barbara Morrison moved to Los Angeles having left college, and worked with such acts as Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson's and Johnny Otis. She later toured with Ray Charles and Etta James, and worked with Mel Tormé, Diane Reeves, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Lou Rawls, Dizzy Gillespie, Esther Phillips, Dr. John, Kenny Burrell, Joe Sample, Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, the Count Basie Orchestra and Doc Severinsen.
Three-time Grammy Award Nominee.
In Los Angeles, California, USA, from complications linked to cardiovascular disease.
© Bill Miller
Mike Dekle
(77), singer-songwriter whose songs were recorded by George Jones, Keith Whitley, Kenny Rogers and many more, but who first arrived in Nashville from Athens, Georgia, with the intention of becoming a recording artiste. However when his first solo release 'Scarlet Fever' was covered by Kenny Rogers, he decided to concentrate instead on penning songs for the legendary star, presenting him with such hits as Two Hearts, One Love,' 'People In Love,' 'Some Prisons Don't Have Walls' and 'Someone Must Feel Like A Fool Tonight'.
Other hits included songs for Tracy Byrd ('Don't Love Make A Diamond Shine'), Joe Nichols' ('Size Matters (Someday)', and George Jones ('A Day in The Life Of A Fool') but in more recent years, he worked mainly with Brantley Gilbert, penning his #1 hits 'Country Must Be Country Wide' and 'One Hell Of An Amen' as well as multiple songs on the singer's first three albums.
Although a successful songwriter (other songs were recorded by Ricky Skaggs, Hank Thompson, Moe Bandy, The Whites. T.G. Sheppard, Scooter Lee, Colt Ford and Rhonda Vincent), Mike Dekle never lived in Nashville, nor did he ever give up the day job, working for State Farm Insurance Company in Athens, Georgia, until he retired. Yet he also found time to release six solo albums as a singer, scoring two chart entries 'Hanky-Panky' and 'The Minstrel' while also founding a music publishing firm - Square D Music.
In Athens, Georgia, USA, from complications linked to Pulmonary Fibrosis
© Bill Miller
Kenny Chater
(76), singer-songwriter and novelist, whose songs include such country classics as 'You Look So Good In Love' (George Strait), 'I Know A Heartache When I See One' (Jennifer Warnes), 'You’re The First Time I’ve Thought About Leaving' (Reba McEntire) and the Grammy-nominated 'I.O.U.' (Lee Greenwood).
Born in Vancouver, Canada, (his mother was the novelist and poet Elizabeth Chater), Kenny moved to San Diego in 1965 where (as a bass guitarist), he co-founded with Gary Puckett the pop band Union Gap, which went on to score such hits as 'Young Girl' and 'Woman, Woman'. Quitting the band after four years, he studied musical theatre in Los Angeles, writing and producing several shows. He also continued performing in the soft rock genre, signing with Warners as a solo act and scoring a Hot 100 hit with 'Part Time Love'.
However, one of his songs 'I Know A Heartache When I See One' was not only a hit for Jennifer Warnes, but achieved a number of country covers from such acts as Dee Messina, Lisa Brokop, Donna Fargo and Sandy Posey, pushing Chater more into the country genre, and from then on, hit followed hit.
'You Look So Good In Love' was recorded not only by Strait but also by Blake Shelton, while Kenny Rogers, Joe Cocker, Restless Heart, Highway 101, Loretta Lynn, Shenandoah, Conway Twitty, Anne Murray, Eddy Raven, The Osmonds, The Carpenters, Dolly Parton, Juice Newton, Tanya Tucker and Lorrie Morgan all recorded his tunes. His string of hits included Alabama’s 'If I Had You', Michael Martin Murphey’s 'What She Wants', Charlie Rich’s 'Even A Fool Would Let Go' and Jessica Andrews’ 'You Go First'.
Soon after moving to Nashville, Kenny Chater married songwriter Lynn Gillespie, and in addition to penning songs together, they also wrote such thrillers as 'Kill Point', 'Blood Debt' and 'Fortune’s Web', composed several musicals, and produced a number of solo albums by Chater.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Grammy Award Nominee.
In Nashville, Tennessee, USA, of lung cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Gary Brooker
(76), singer-songwriter and co-founder with Keith Reid of Procul Harum, whose first major hit 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' remains one of the few singles to have sold more than 10 million physical copies.
Born in London, his father was a professional musician who moved the family to Southend-On-Sea when Gary was nine. In 1962 Brooker and his friend Robin Trower formed The Paramounts, which became a cult R&B band during the early sixties, frequently appearing with the Rolling Stones. The band signed with Parlophone Records, scoring one minor hit - a cover of The Coaster hit 'Poison Ivy' before disbanding.
In 1966, he co-founded Procul Harum, signing with Deram Records, and the following year, scored a massive international hit with the Denny Cordell-produced 'Whiter Shade Of Pale'. Although Brooker claimed authorship of the song with band-member Keith Reid, the band's organist Matthew Fisher later filed suit in London's High Court, claiming that he had actually written most of the music for the song, finally winning his case to be recognised as co-writer of the classic.
In 1977, Procul Harum broke up, and in 1979, Brooker released the first of three solo albums, going on to collaborate with Paul McCartney and George Harrison, while playing, writing and singing for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings as well as Eric Clapton's band and touring with Ringo Starr's All-Stars. He also appeared as Juan Attilia Bramilia in the movie 'Evita' performing alongside Antonio Banderas and Peter Polycarp.
Re-forming Procul Harum in 1991, he remained a member of the band until his death.
In Guildford, Surrey, UK, of cancer.
© Jim Liddane
Dallas Frazier
(82), singer-songwriter whose hits as a performer included 'Elvira', 'Just A Little Bit Of You', 'Everybody Oughta Sing A Song', 'The Sunshine Of My World', 'I Hope I Like Mexico Blues', 'The Conspiracy Of Homer Jones', 'California Cotton Fields', 'The Birthmark Henry Thompson Talks About', 'Big Mable Murphy' and 'North Carolina'.
Born in Spiro, Oklahoma in 1939, his family moved to Bakersfield, California where Dallas started playing guitar at the age of 12 with up-and-coming country star Ferlin Husky. Aged 14, he released his first single 'Space Command' on Capitol Records, but his first success as a songwriter was to become one of rock & roll's most classic songs, 'Alley Oop', penned when he was 16, and which went to Number 1 in the USA by the Hollywood Argyles (a session-group of which he was a member). A number of cover versions also charted, including one by Dante & The Evergreens which reached #15 in the USA, and another by the Dyna-Sores which reached #59. The tune was later recorded by The Beach Boys, Gary Paxton, The Kingsmen, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Tremeloes, and Darlene Love.
Using the substantial royalties from this song, Frazier moved to Nashville, where he signed again to Capitol Records as a performer, while pursuing a separate career as a songwriter, scoring several major successes including 'Timber I'm Falling', a #1 for Ferlin Husky, and 'There Goes My Everything', a #1 for Jack Greene which was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.
At the peak of his career, a number of couuntry stars recorded entire albums comprising only songs written by Frazier, including O C Smith, George Jones and Connie Smith, while 'All I Have To Offer You Is Me' (recorded by Charlie Pride), and a re-make of his own hit 'Elvira' by the Oak Ridge Boys which reached #5 on the Billboard Hit 100, earned him his second and third Grammy nominations.
Amongst those who had hits with songs penned by Dallas Frazier were Diana Ross, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jack Greene, Connie Smith Willie Nelson, Brenda Lee, Charley Pride, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Gene Watson, Elvis Presley, Moe Bandy, Roy Head, Charlie Louvin, Rodney Crowell, Dan McCafferty, Poco, Ronnie Hawkins. Anne Murray. Glen Campbell, George Strait, Randy Travis, and Patty Loveless.
In 1988, at the height of his success, Dallas Frazier quit music to study for the ministry, becoming the pastor at Grace Community Fellowship in White House, Tennessee. When he retired from that post in 2006 at the age of 67, he returned to country music, releasing a new album titled 'Writing Songs Again', which resulted in several covers.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Country Music Hall Of Fame Inductee.
Three-time Grammy Award Nominee.
In Gallatin, Tennessee, USA, following a series of strokes.
© Jim Liddane
Marilyn Bergman
(93), Academy & Grammy Awards-winning songwriter, whose work, predominantly with her husband Alan, includes such classics as 'Nice & Easy' (Frank Sinatra), 'Someone In The Dark' (Michael Jackson), 'The Windmills Of Your Mind' (Noel Harrison), 'Sweet Gingerbread Man' (Sammy Davis), 'I Knew I Loved You' (Celine Dion), 'The Way We Were' (Barbra Streisand), 'The Playground' (Tony Bennett), 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' (Neil Diamond) along with songs recorded by Johnny Mathis, Sergio Mendes, Bing Crosby, Taylor Dayne, Stephen Bishop, Paul Anka, Bill Medley, Sarah Vaughan, Patti Austin, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Dusty Springfield, Sting, Gladys Knight and James Ingram.
Born Marilyn Katz in New York, she studied piano from an early age and while still at school, was introduced by a friend to her uncle, Bob Russell, the songwriter of such classics as 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' and 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'. Russell, also a prolific writer of movie scores, was looking for a pianist to accompany him while he composed, and for several years, Marilyn worked with him most days after school.
However, her own ambition always had been to qualify as a psychologist, but she had no sooner achieved this goal than she suffered two badly-fractured shoulders in a debilitating accident. Seeking advanced treatment in California, she joined her parents who had retired to Los Angeles where she again met up with Bob Russell who had moved there some years earlier. He suggested that while recuperating, she might try writing songs herself. Unable to play piano due to her accident, she turned to penning lyrics, scoring a publishing contract and a modest advance with her very first song. In Los Angeles, she also met her future husband, the lyricist Alan Bergman, who had been invited to Hollywood by songwriter Johnny Mercer. In an odd coincidence, Alan had himself been born only a few blocks away from Marilyn's home in Brooklyn, although they had never met in New York.
Two years later, the couple married, and following early successes with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, went on to pen the lyrics for the theme of the hit movie 'In The Heat Of The Night' (recorded by Ray Charles), along with themes for a large number of television shows such as 'Good Times', 'Alice' and 'Maude' and the long-running series based on the 'Heat Of The Night' movie. Over the next fifteen years, their string of successes continued, culminating in their domination of the 1983 Oscar Awards, where three of the five songs nominated, had been penned by the couple.
In all, over a sixty-year career, the couple were awarded four Emmys, three Oscars, two Grammys and countless other accolades. Asked once, in view of the number of famous songwriting marriages which had failed, how the couple were able to collaborate while still remaining married, she famously replied "Like porcupines making love - very carefully'.
A political activist alongside Jane Fonda and Barbra Streisand, Marilyn helped raise money for the Democratic Party as well as penning material for Bill Clinton's first presidential inauguration. In 1985, she was elected to the board of ASCAP, the first woman ever to serve in that capacity, and also acted as ASCAP president between 1994 and 2009, before returning to serve a second term on the board. She also served as president of CISAC, while holding positions on both the National Recording Preservation Board, and the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
ISA • International Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Member.
Songwriters Hall Of Fame Inductee.
Eleven-time Grammy Award Nominee.
Two-time Grammy Award Winner.
Sixteen-time Oscar Award Nominee.
Three-time Oscar Award Winner.
In Los Angeles, California, USA, of respiratory failure
© Jim Liddane
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