1954 - December 23, 2013
Ricky Lawson, a world-class session drummer who worked with Michael Jackson, died at a California hospital after being on life support for several days.
During his 1980's heyday, Lawson worked with artists such as Whitney Houston, Phil Collins and Steely Dan.
He co-founded the jazz-fusion band the Yellowjackets and won the 1987 Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance for "And You Know That" from their album
Shades.
Lawson appeared on Steely Dan's Two Against Nature tour DVD, Two Against Nature: Steely Dan's Plush TV Jazz-Rock Party.
David Richards
1956 - December 20, 2013
David Richards was an English record producer who lived and worked in Switzerland. He was chief engineer at
Mountain Studios, and later bought the studio. He was the engineer on many noteworthy "Live at Montreux" recordings.
Richards produced Queen's final four albums with Freddie Mercury, as well as Iggy Pop's 1986 album 'Blah Blah Blah' and David Bowie's 'Never Let Me Down' and 'Outside' albums.
He also played keyboards on a number of recordings.
| 12/16/2013 | 87 | Ray Price | country singer | Cancer | Mount Pleasant, Texas |
Ray Price
"The Cherokee Cowboy"
January 12, 1926 - December 16, 2013
Ray Price was best known for his 1970 hit "For the Good Times," a song written by Kris Kristofferson. Other
well-known recordings include "Release Me", "Crazy Arms", "Heartaches by the Number", "Night Life", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me".
He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996.
In 2007, he joined buddies Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson on a double-CD set,
Last of the Breed. The trio performed on tour with the Texas swing band Asleep at the Wheel.
| 11/29/2013 | 68 | Dick Dodd | Standells | Cancer | Fountain Valley, California |
Dick Dodd
October 27, 1945 - November 29, 2013
Dick Dodd (born Joseph Richard Dodd in Hermosa Beach, California) was the singer and drummer for the Los Angeles rock group The Standells. He was with the Standells when they recorded their best known hit song "Dirty Water."
The song became an anthem for sports fans in Boston with its refrain of "Boston, you're my home."
In 1955, Dick Dodd was "Dickie", a Mouseketeer on Disney's original "Mickey Mouse Club." During that time, he paid Annette Funicello $20 for a snare drum and learned to play it.
Dodd joined two early and influential surf rock bands of the early 1960's - the Bel-Airs, which nabbed a hit with the 1961 instrumental "Mr. Moto," and Eddie and the Showmen, who performed on the same bill with acts including the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher and the Righteous Brothers.
In movies, he appeared in Get Yourself a College Girl and as a dancer in the 1963 film musical Bye Bye Birdie. With the Standells, he was in the 1967 film Riot on Sunset Strip, singing the title song during the opening credits. He also had television guest roles in the 1960s.
He was also an early member of the noted San Diego band The Blitz Brothers. Dodd continued performing occasionally in his later years, sometimes with his oldies outfit the Dodd Squad.
Chico Hamilton
September 20, 1921 - November 25, 2013
Chico Hamilton was an American jazz drummer and bandleader who rose to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne.
Hamilton became a bandleader, first with a quintet featuring Fred Katz on cello as a lead instrument, an unusual choice for a jazz band in the 1950s.
| 10/27/2013 | 71 | Lou Reed | American singer/songwriter | Liver disease | Southampton, New York |
Lou Reed
March 2, 1942 - October 27, 2013
Lou Reed, guitarist for the Velvet Underground who later had a highly successful solo career, has died of liver failure at the age of 71.
Reed began a solo career in 1972, but didn't hit commercial success until the release of his second album
Transformer, produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson and featuring the hit song "Walk on the Wild Side."
Each verse of "Walk on the Wild Side" describes a person in the Andy Warhol Factory scene of the mid-to-late 1960s:
(1) Holly Woodlawn,
(2) Candy Darling,
(3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro,
(4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and
(5) Jackie Curtis.
In 1998, Reed was the subject of an installment of the PBS American Masters series that chronicled his career. The program was released on DVD as
Rock and Roll Heart. The film received a Grammy Award for best long-form music video.
After a liver transplant in May, 2013, Lou Reed died of liver disease at his home on Long Island, New York.
Roger Pope
Roger Pope played drums on Elton John's early recordings and later toured and recorded six albums with him.
Pope toured with Elton John, performing in more than 80 shows. He played on six of Elton John's albums (including 1969's debut, 'Empty Sky,' and 'Blue Moves' from 1976).
He also worked with Daryl Hall and John Oates and made his own music with a band called Hookfoot.
In 1974, Pope played with Kiki Dee on her big solo hit 'I've Got the Music in Me'.
Pope also sat in with Buddy Guy, Al Stewart and Cliff Richard over the years and drummed on several of Harry Nilsson's great albums from the '70s.
Pope died Sept. 17, 2013 at the age of 66.
Jackie Lomax
May 10, 1944 - September 15, 2013
Jackie Lomax was a British guitarist and singer-songwriter best known for his association with George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
Lomax was signed on the Beatles' Apple record label. His debut Apple single, "Sour Milk Sea" was penned by George Harrison and featured
members of the Beatles with Eric Clapton and Nicky Hopkins. Despite the all-star lineup, the record was a commercial flop. "Sour Milk Sea"
appears on the album
Is This What You Want?
Much of the album was recorded in Los Angeles with Hal Blaine and other members of the famous Wrecking Crew.
At the time of his death, Lomax had recently finished a new album titled "Against All Odds."
| 9/12/2013 | 80 | Ray Dolby | sound pioneer | Leukemia | San Francisco |
Ray Dolby
January 18, 1933 - September 12, 2013
Ray Dolby, an American inventor, audio pioneer and founder of Dolby Laboratories, has died at his home in San Francisco. He was 80 and had been living with Alzheimer's disease, compounded by a recent diagnosis of leukemia.
Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon. As a child, he became fascinated with sound when studying the vibrations of his clarinet reeds. At 16 he started work at Ampex, a videotape recording company. After studying electrical engineering at Stanford he earned a PhD in physics from Cambridge in 1961 and then consulted to the U.K.'s Atomic Energy Authority. After two years as a United Nations advisor in India he founded Dolby Laboratories in London, later moving to San Francisco.
Dolby's pioneering work in noise reduction and later in surround sound led to great advancements in audio recording technologies. His Dolby system
reduced audible tape hiss of analog magnetic tape by compressing the dynamic range of the sound when recording and expanding it during playback.
He was awarded an Oscar for his contributions to cinema. He also received a Grammy award in 1995 and Emmy awards in 1989 and 2005. The Dolby Theatre, the Hollywood home of the Academy Awards, is named for his company.
With an estimated fortune of $2.4 billion, Dolby donated generously to philanthropic causes, including stem cell research at the University of California.
Other recent deaths of sound engineers include loudspeaker innovator Amar Bose who died in July 2013 and Fritz Sennheiser who passed in 2010.
| 9/7/2013 | 94 | Fred Katz | jazz cellist | | Santa Monica, California |
Fred Katz
February 25, 1919 - September 7, 2013
Fred Katz was a jazz cellist who helped establish the cello as a viable solo instrument.
Katz is best known as a member of drummer Chico Hamilton's quintet, one of the most important West Coast jazz groups of the 1950s. The Chico Hamilton Quintet, including Katz, appears in the 1957 film The Sweet Smell of Success, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.
He also scored films for horror director Roger Corman, most notably A Bucket of Blood (1959). The same music also appears in several other Corman films, including The Wasp Woman (1959) and Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961).
Later in his career, Katz became a professor of ethnic music in the Anthropology Department at California State University, Fullerton and California State University, Northridge, where he taught world music, anthropology and religion for over 30 years.
One of his students was John Densmore, drummer of The Doors.
| 8/21/2013 | 95 | Sid Bernstein | music producer and promoter | | New York, New York |
Sid Bernstein
August 12, 1918 - August 21, 2013
Sid Bernstein brought the Beatles to America, booking them to play a show at Carnegie Hall. The show occurred just three days after the Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.
He booked the Beatles for their 1965 show at Shea Stadium - Rock's first major stadium show. He also help bring The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Moody Blues, and The Kinks to America.
He booked such top acts as Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland, The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Moody Blues, and The Kinks. He brought the Swedish group ABBA to America for their first tour. He was the first promoter to stage a rock show at Madison Square Garden.
Bernstein died on August 21, 2013 in Manhattan, nine days after his 95th birthday.
Cedar Walton
January 17, 1934 - August 19, 2013
Cedar Anthony Walton, Jr. was an American hard bop jazz pianist. He came to prominence as a member of drummer Art Blakey's band and later established a long career as a bandleader and composer.
Several of his compositions have become jazz standards, including "Mosaic", "Bolivia", "Holy Land," "Mode for Joe" and "Ugetsu", also known as "Fantasy in D"
Eydie Gormé
August 16, 1928 - August 10, 2013
Eydie Gormé was a popular singer of swing music and ballads. She often sang with her husband, Steve Lawrence.
She earned numerous awards, including a Grammy and an Emmy. Gormé was a cousin of singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka.
| 8/10/2013 | 77 | Jody Payne | Willie Nelson, guitarist | Heart Failure | Stapleton, Alabama |
Jody Payne
January 11, 1936 - August 10, 2013
Jody Payne, tour guitarist with Willie Nelson from 1973 to 2008, has died. He was 77.
Payne also toured with Merle Haggard and performed on recordings with Hank Snow, Tanya Tucker and Leon Russell.
Cowboy Jack Clement
April 5, 1931 - August 8, 2013
Cowboy Jack Clement was a Nashville songwriter, recording artist, studio engineer, movie and music producer and general raconteur.
He produced recordings for an amazing array of top-notch artists, including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Eddy Arnold, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, Charley Pride, Louis Armstrong, U2, John Hartford, Doc Watson, Frank Yankovic, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Townes Van Zandt, Dickey Lee and Bobby Bare.
In 1963, Clement produced Johnny Cash's classic hit, "Ring of Fire."
Clement is also credited discovering and recording Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Studios while Sam Phillips was away on a trip.
After a long illness, Cowboy Jack Clement passed away at his home in Nashville, Tennessee.
| 8/5/2013 | 67 | George Duke | jazz keyboardist | Leukemia | Los Angeles, California |
George Duke
January 12, 1946 - August 5, 2013
George Duke, a Grammy Award-winning jazz keyboardist and composer, has died after suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
He began playing with Jean-Luc Ponty in 1969.
He produced and collaborated with artists such as Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, Jill Scott and Michael Jackson during his career of more than four decades. His music was also sampled by Kanye West, Daft Punk and others.
Duke appeared on a number of Frank Zappa's albums in the early and mid-1970s, including Chunga's Revenge, 200 Motels, Waka/Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe,
Over-Nite Sensation,
One Size Fits All, Bongo Fury and Roxy & Elsewhere.
| 7/25/2013 | 74 | JJ Cale | songwriter | Heart Failure | La Jolla, California |
JJ Cale
December 5, 1938 - July 26, 2013
Musician and songwriter JJ Cale, writer of such classic rock songs as "They Call Me the Breeze" (Lynyrd Skynyrd), and "Cocaine" and "After Midnight" (both hits for Eric Clapton), has
died at age 74 after suffering a sudden heart attack.
He won a Grammy for the 2006 album
The Road to Escondido, a collaboration with Eric Clapton.
He passed away at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California.
| 7/16/2013 | 74 | T Model Ford | blues guitarist | Respiratory Failure | Greenville, Mississippi |
| 7/11/2013 | 76 | Charles Pope | The Tams | Alzheimer's Disease | Atlanta, Georgia |
Charles Walter "Speedy" Pope
August 7, 1936 - July 11, 2013
Charles Walter Pope, founding member of the Atlanta-based R&B group the Tams, has died at age 76 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Charles Pope started The Tams with his brother Joe in 1959. When Joe Pope died in 1996, Charles took over the role as lead singer.
The Tams had their greatest commercial success in the mid-1960s, with their biggest national hits being "What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)" and "Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy."
The Tams were featured performers with Jimmy Buffett on his CD, Beach House on the Moon, and also toured with him around the country in 1999.
| 6/24/2013 | 58 | Alan Myers | Devo, drummer | Cancer | Los Angeles, California |
Alan Myers
1955 - June 24, 2013
Alan Myers, longtime drummer for the punk rock band Devo, has died after a long battle with stomach cancer.
Myers was Devo's third drummer, joining in 1976 before the band released its groundbreaking debut, "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!"
He remained with the band until 1985.
| 6/23/2013 | 61 | Darryl Read | | Motorcycle Accident | Pattaya, Thailand |
Darryl Read
September 19, 1951 - June 23, 2013
Darryl Michael Roy Read, a pioneer in the British punk rock movement, has died after a motorcycle accident in Thailand.
Darryl Read was a British poet, singer, guitarist, drummer and writer. He was also an accomplished actor starring in a 1964 film "Daylight Robbery."
Mr. Read published a book of poems called "Set" in 1999, and in 2004 authored a novel entitled "Stardom Road."
Also in 1999, Read and Ray Manzarek released a poetry album with music titled
Freshly Dug. Another collaboration with Manzarek,
Bleeding Paradise, followed in 2007.
| 6/23/2013 | 83 | Bobby Bland | R & B vocalist | | Germantown, Tennessee |
Bobby Bland
January 27, 1930 - June 23, 2013
Bobby "Blue" Bland, a legendary R&B singer and 1992 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has died at age 83.
He is best known for hits like "Turn on Your Love Light", "That's the Way Love Is" and "I Pity the Fool". His crowning achievement might be 1961's
Two Steps From the Blues.
He was granted the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
| 6/12/2013 | 90 | Slim Whitman | country singer | Heart Failure | Orange Park, Florida |
Slim Whitman
January 20, 1923 - June 12, 2013
| 6/4/2013 | 67 | Joey Covington | Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna, drummer | Car Crash | Palm Springs, California |
Joey Covington
June 27, 1945 - June 4, 2013
Joey Covington, who was the drummer for the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane and their spinoff Hot Tuna, has died at age 67 after crashing his car into a retaining wall in Palm Springs.
Joey played Congas on 1969's
Volunteers album, and officially joined Jefferson Airplane in 1970 when Spencer Dryden quit the group. With them, he co-wrote "Pretty as You Feel" which appears on the
Bark album.
In 1976, he co-wrote Jefferson Starship's "With Your Love."
| 5/25/2013 | 62 | Marshall Lytle | Bill Haley and the Comets, bassist | Lung Cancer | New Port Richey, Florida |
Marshall Lytle
September 1, 1933 - May 25, 2013
Marshall Lytle was a rock 'n' Roll bassist, best known for his work with the groups Bill Haley & His Comets and The Jodimars in the 1950s. He played on the original 1954 recording of
Rock Around the Clock.
| 5/21/2013 | 62 | Trevor Bolder | Uriah Heep, bassist | Pancreatic Cancer | Yorkshire, England |
Trevor Bolder
June 9, 1950 - May 21, 2013
Trevor Bolder, longtime bassist for Uriah Heep and former member of David Bowie's Spiders from Mars band, has died in England at age 62.
| 5/20/2013 | 74 | Ray Manzarek | The Doors, keyboardist | Cancer | Rosenheim, Germany |
Ray Manzarek
February 12, 1939 - May 20, 2013
Raymond Daniel Manczarek Jr., keyboardist with The Doors, died in Germany at age 74.
| 5/17/2013 | 72 | Alan O'Day | singer/songwriter | | Los Angeles, California |
Alan O'Day
October 3, 1940 - May 17, 2013
Alan O'Day was a singer/songwriter best remembered for his song "Undercover Angel" which hit #1 in 1977.
Other notable compositions include "Angel Baby" (a #1 hit for Helen Reddy in 1974) and "Rock and Roll Heaven" (a #3 hit for the Righteous Brothers).
Jeff Hanneman
January 31, 1964 - May 2, 2013
Jeff Hanneman was a heavy metal guitarist and founding member of Slayer.
| 5/1/2013 | 34 | Chris Kelly | Kris Kross | Drug Overdose | Atlanta, Georgia |
| 4/30/2013 | 50 | Tim Hensley | Country session musician | Liver Failure | Nashville, Tennessee |
| 4/28/2013 | 75 | Barry Fey | Colorado rock music concert promoter | Suicide | Colorado |
| 4/26/2013 | 81 | George Jones | Country superstar | | Nashville, Tennessee |
| 4/22/2013 | 72 | Ritchie Havens | folksinger | Heart Failure | Jersey City, New Jersey |
| 4/21/2013 | | Dani Crivelli | Krokus, drummer | Fell from bridge | Solothurn, Switzerland |
| 4/21/2013 | 53 | Chrissy Amphlett | Divinyls, singer | Breast Cancer | New York, New York |
| 4/14/2013 | 68 | George Jackson | singer/songwriter | Cancer | Ridgeland, Mississippi |
| 4/11/2013 | 87 | Jonathan Winters | comedian | | Montecito, California |
| 4/11/2013 | 59 | Don Blackman | jazz-funk pianist | Cancer | New York, New York |
| 4/10/2013 | 76 | Jimmy Dawkins | blues musician | | Chicago, Illinois |
| 4/8/2013 | 70 | Annette Funicello | actress/singer | Multiple sclerosis | Bakersfield, California |
| 4/7/2013 | | Neil Smith | AC/DC, bassist | Cancer | Australia |
| 4/7/2013 | 62 | Andy Johns | sound engineer and record producer | | Los Angeles, California |
| 3/30/2013 | 72 | Phil Ramone | Music Producer | | New York, New York |
| 3/28/2013 | 70 | Hugh C. McCracken | session musician | Leukemia | New York, New York |
| 3/27/2013 | 88 | Gordon Stoker | Jordanaires, singer | | |
| 3/27/2013 | 64 | Paul Williams | Crawdaddy!, writer | | San Diego, California |
| 3/24/2013 | 68 | Deke Richards | Motown songwriter | Esophageal Cancer | Bellingham, Washington |
| 3/20/2013 | 92 | Jack Stokes | director | | England |
Jack Stokes
April 2, 1920 - March 20, 2013
Jack Stokes was an animation director best known for his work on the 1968 Beatles film
Yellow Submarine.
| 3/12/2013 | 56 | Clive Burr | Iron Maiden, drummer | | London, England |
Clive Burr
March 8, 1957 - March 12, 2013
Clive Burr was the drummer for Iron Maiden from 1979 until 1982.
Peter Banks
July 15, 1947 - March 7, 2013
Peter Banks was the original guitarist of the progressive rock band Yes.
| 3/6/2013 | 68 | Alvin Lee | Ten Years After, guitarist | | Spain |
Alvin Lee
December 19, 1944 - March 6, 2013
Alvin Lee (born Graham Alvin Barnes) was an English rock guitarist and singer, best known as the lead guitarist and singer with the band Ten Years After.
| 3/3/2013 | 73 | Bobby Rogers | Miracles, vocalist | | Southfield, Michigan |
Bobby Rogers
February 19, 1940 - March 3, 2013
Bobby Rogers & Smokey Robinson co-founded the Motown vocal group The Miracles in 1955.
Van Cliburn
July 12, 1934 - February 27, 2013
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn, Jr. was a famous American classical pianist.
He played for royalty, world heads of state, and every U.S. president from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama.
| 2/15/2013 | 64 | Dan Toler | Dickey Betts / Allman Brothers, guitarist | Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) | Sarasota, Florida |
Dan Toler
September 23, 1948 - February 25, 2013
"Dangerous Dan Toler" was a guitarist for Dickey Betts & Great Southern. He later became a member of the Allman Brothers Band from 1979 until 1982.
With his brother David, Toler was also a member of the Gregg Allman Band in the 1980s.
His work can be heard on the Allman Brothers albums
Enlightened Rogues (1979),
Reach for the Sky (1980) and
Brothers of the Road (1981).
| 2/21/2013 | 75 | Magic Slim | blues guitarist | | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Magic Slim
August 7, 1937 - February 21, 2013
Morris Holt, better known as "Magic Slim", was a Mississippi-born delta blues guitarist.
| 2/18/2013 | 68 | Kevin Ayers | Soft Machine, vocalist | | Montolieu, France |
Kevin Ayers
August 16, 1944 - February 18, 2013
Kevin Ayers was an English singer-songwriter and a founding member of the pioneering psychedelic band Soft Machine.
| 2/18/2013 | 62 | Damon Harris | The Temptations, vocalist | Prostate Cancer | Baltimore, Maryland |
Damon Harris
July 17, 1950 - February 18, 2013
Damon Harris, a former member of the Motown group The Temptations, has died at age 62.
Harris joined the Temptations at age 20 in 1971 to replace Eddie Kendricks, one of the group's original lead singers. He was best known for singing tenor on the band's hit, "Papa was a Rolling Stone."
Harris left The Temptations in 1975. In 1978, as a solo artist, he released an album,
Damon Harris: Silk.
| 2/17/2013 | 37 | Mindy McCready | country music singer | suicide | Heber Springs, Arkansas |
Mindy McCready
November 30, 1975 - February 17, 2013
Malinda Gayle "Mindy" McCready was an American country music singer. Active from 1995 until her death in 2013, she recorded a total of five studio albums.
| 2/16/2013 | 72 | Tony Sheridan | Beatles, associate | Heart Failure | Hamburg, Germany |
Tony Sheridan
1940 - February 16, 2013
Singer-songwriter Tony Sheridan, who collaborated with the Beatles during their early days, has died in Hamburg following a long illness.
Sheridan hired the Beatles, then known as the Silver Beatles, as his back-up band when they played in Hamburg nightclubs in the early 1960s. With the
Beatles, he recorded standards including 'My Bonnie', 'Ain't She Sweet' and 'When The Saints Go Marching In' under the name Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers.
Sheridan is also credited as being the first British musician to play the electric guitar on television. He went on to tour with Chubby Checker, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry.
In 2002, he released his final solo album,
Vagabond.
| 2/11/2013 | 72 | Rick Huxley | Dave Clark Five, bassist | Emphysema | Old Harlow, Essex, England |
Rick Huxley
August 5, 1940 - February 11, 2013
Rick Huxley, bassist for the British Invasion group The Dave Clark Five, has died at age 72.
The Dave Clark Five hits included "Glad All Over," "Bits and Pieces" and "Everybody Knows." They enjoyed a large following in the United States
after appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show just two weeks after the Beatles in Feb., 1964.
Denis Payton, who played saxophone, harmonica and guitar, died in 2006. Mike Smith, the lead singer and keyboardist, died in 2008.
The Dave Clark Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
Reg Presley
June 12, 1941 - February 4, 2013
Reg Presley was the lead singer of the 1960s rock and roll band The Troggs. Their hit song "Wild Thing" was a US #1 hit, selling over 5 million copies.
Reg was born Reginald Maurice Ball, but was given the stage name Reg Presley by the New Musical Express journalist and publicist Keith Altham.
Presley used his songwriting royalties to fund his interest in subjects such as alien spacecraft, lost civilizations, alchemy, and crop circles. He outlined his findings in a 2002
book, Wild Things They Don't Tell Us.
| 2/1/2013 | 65 | Cecil Womack | Womack and Womack | | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| 1/30/2013 | 67 | Ann Rabson | Safire / Uppity Blues Women | Cancer | Fredericksburg, Virginia |
| 1/30/2013 | 94 | Patty Andrews | Andrews Sisters, vocalist | | Los Angeles, California |
Patty Andrews
Feb. 16, 1918 - January 30, 2013
Patty Andrews, the youngest and last surviving member of the Andrews Sisters vocal trio, has died at age 94 at her home in Los Angeles.
Sisters Patty, Maxene and LaVerne Andrews recorded songs like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B)," "Rum and Coca-Cola" and "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me).
The sisters performed with Bing Crosby and the Glenn Miller orchestra, made movies, sold war bonds, and entertained American troops.
Eldest sister LaVerne died of cancer in 1967, and Maxene died on October 21, 1995.
Patty and Maxene's careers experienced a resurgence in 1973 when Bette Midler recorded her own version of their song "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."
| 1/26/2013 | 69 | Leroy Bonner | Ohio Players, vocalist | Cancer | Trotwood, Ohio |
Leroy Bonner
March 14, 1943 - January 26, 2013
Leroy Bonner, better known as Sugarfoot, the frontman of the funk band the Ohio Players, has died in Trotwood, Ohio (near Dayton). He was 69.
The Ohio Players had a string of hits in the mid-1970s, including the classic funk songs "Love Rollercoaster," "Fire," "Skin Tight" and "Funky Worm."
"Love Rollercoaster" appears on the 1975 album
Honey. The album is noted for its racy cover depicting a nude Playboy Playmate dripping honey on herself.
An urban legend surrounds the song "Love Rollercoaster", claiming that the girl on the album cover was stabbed in the studio when she threatened to sue in connection with supposed skin damages caused by the fake honey used - and that her screams are heard on the song. However, the scream is actually that of keyboardist Billy Beck.
"Love Rollercoaster" was covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1996.
| 1/19/2013 | 77 | Steve Knight | Mountain, keyboardist | Parkinson's disease | Riverdale, New York |
Steve Knight
May 12, 1935 - January 19, 2013
Steve Knight was best known for being the keyboard player in the rock band Mountain. He played on their albums "Climbing!", "Nantucket Sleighride", "Flowers Of Evil", and "The Road Goes Ever On".
Mountain also included members Felix Pappalardi (bass), Leslie West (guitar/vocals) and Corky Laing (drums).
After Mountain disbanded in 1972, Steve played in jazz bands and worked in the construction industry. He also was a councilman in Woodstock, New York for several years.
John Wilkinson
July 3, 1945 - January 11, 2013
John Wilkinson, longtime rhythm guitarist for Elvis Presley, has died at his home in southwest Missouri. He was 67. Wilkinson also played with the Kingston Trio and the New Christy Minstrels.
Wilkinson liked to tell the story of meeting Elvis in 1955. At age 10, he snuck into Presley's dressing room before a concert and told him "You can't play guitar worth a damn."
Wilkinson joined Elvis Presley's backup group, the TCB band, in 1968 and continued to play with Elvis until the singer's death in 1977.
In 2006, he authored a book
My Life Before, During and After Elvis Presley documenting his experiences working with Elvis.
| 01/11/2013 | 73 | Jimmy O'Neill | DJ, host of Shindig! | | West Hollywood, California |
Jimmy O'Neill
January 8, 1940 - January 11, 2013
Jimmy O'Neill was a Los Angeles disc jockey who, with his wife, Sharon K. "Shari" Sheeley, created the ABC-TV musical variety series Shindig! which aired from 1964 - 1966.
O'Neill was owner of Pandora's Box, an influential Sunset Strip music venue in West Hollywood, California that was the center of the 1966 Sunset Strip curfew riots.
| 1/10/2013 | 76 | Claude Nobs | founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival | skiing accident | Lausanne, Switzerland |
Claude Nobs
February 4, 1936 - January 10, 2013
Claude Nobs was the founder and general manager of the Montreux Jazz Festival. He is the "Funky Claude" mentioned in the Deep Purple Song "Smoke on the Water."
The first Montreux Jazz Festival was held in 1967. The annual event when on to attract the greatest names in jazz and later diversified to include other forms of music. During the 1990s, Nobs shared the directorship of the festival with Quincy Jones, and made Miles Davis an honorary host.
In 1973, Nobs became the director of the Swiss branch of Warner, Elektra and Atlantic. On the live Jethro Tull album Bursting Out (recorded on 28 May 1978 in Bern), Nobs can be heard announcing "Gueten Abig mitenand, und herzlich willkommen in der Festhalle Bern!" (Good evening everybody and welcome to the Festhall of Bern).
Nobs played harmonica on the opening track of the 1983 Chris Rea album Water Sign.
Claude was involved in a skiing accident on Christmas Eve, 2012. He fell into a coma and died January 20, 2013. Other notable personalities who died while skiing include musician/congressman Sonny Bono, Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy and Michel Trudeau, son of the Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
Tandyn Almer
July 30, 1942 - January 8, 2013
Tandyn Almer was a songwriter, musician and record producer. His most notable composition, "Along Comes Mary," was a 1966 hit for The Association.
After the success of "Along Comes Mary" Almer was featured alongside Frank Zappa, Graham Nash, Roger McGuinn, and Brian Wilson on Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution,
a 1967 CBS TV News feature presented by Leonard Bernstein.
He became good friends with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. The two collaborated in the early 1970s on several projects. He co-wrote the Beach Boys singles "Marcella" and "Sail On, Sailor".
Almer is also credited with inventing a waterpipe called the Slave-Master. A member of Mensa International, he moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1977, and lived there for the remainder of his life.
After his death, a collection of vintage recordings of his songs,
Along Comes Tandyn, was released on Sundazed Records.
| 1/4/2013 | 66 | Sammy Johns | singer/songwriter | | Gastonia, North Carolina |
Sammy Johns
February 7, 1946 - January 4, 2013
Sammy Johns was an American country singer-songwriter, best known for his million-selling 1975 hit single, "Chevy Van".
"Chevy Van" (1975) reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remained in the chart for 17 weeks.
The song had been recorded in 1973, but was initially shelved and only released after 18 months with the album. The song sold about three million copies, and is credited for an increase in van sales the following year.
The song and an album (also titled "Chevy Van") led to a contract with Warner Curb Records to produce a soundtrack for the 1977 film The Van.
Johns died on January 4, 2013, at Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia, North Carolina, at the age of 66.
| 1/1/2013 | 85 | Patti Page | pop singer | | Encinitas, California |
Patti Page
November 8, 1927 - January 1, 2013
Patti Page, a popular singer whose 1950 recording of "Tennessee Waltz" is one of the best-selling recordings ever, has died. She was 85.
Page, born Clara Ann Fowler, is remembered for singing "How Much is That Doggie in the Window", "Old Cape Cod" and other hits. In all, she had 24 records in the top 10.
On television, she was the first singer to have shows on all three major networks, including "The Patti Page Show" on ABC TV.
Patti was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 Grammys. She has stars on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Country Music Walk of Fame.
Patti Page died on January 1, 2013 at the Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas, California. Page had been suffering from heart and lung disease. She is buried at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego.
2012