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Singer Steve Lawrence dead at 88

CTListener said:
End? Not as long as Johnny Mathis is still around. Any more old MOR types still breathing?
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Both Michael Bublé and Josh Groban fix that category musically, but they're too young to have had recordings in that era. Similarly, some of Rod Stewart's and Lady Gaga's music (the stuff she recorded with Tony Bennett) fit the category but not the era. Diana Kroll, in a more-jazzy vein, but again she's too young. Damn, I don't know if there's anyone (besides Mathis) still ticking, much less performing.
 
Weiserguy said:
Both Michael Bublé and Josh Groban fix that category musically, but they're too young to have had recordings in that era. Similarly, some of Rod Stewart's and Lady Gaga's music (the stuff she recorded with Tony Bennett) fit the category but not the era. Diana Kroll, in a more-jazzy vein, but again she's too young. Damn, I don't know if there's anyone (besides Mathis) still ticking, much less performing.
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I'm going with "Pat Boone".

If this thread came up five days ago, we could have included Joan Leslie's sister, who just died at 104!

Here's another one: Wayne Newton
 
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OK, so I stand corrected on my "end of an era" quote. :oops:

We could add Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck to the list.
 
Another one from that era who's still around -- at 92, which may make her the senior survivor -- is Jaye P. Morgan, an old-style pop singer of note well before her "Gong Show" fame. In fact, I had no idea who she was when her outrageous appearances on that show began, as I was just 20 or so and her successes as a performer had come two decades earlier.
 
radiofan2023 said:
What about Mamie Van Doren?
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I always thought Mamie Van Doren was an actress.

You could also put Willie Nelson in this category too. (Although Country by nature, countless MOR singers of that era have covered his songs.) His songs are still played back to back with Sinatra and Nat King Cole on Nostalgia stations. So Willie is definitely among the legends.
 
Ed Nielson said:
OK, so I stand corrected on my "end of an era" quote. :oops:

We could add Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck to the list.
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radiofan2023 said:
What about Mamie Van Doren?
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Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck don't count on this list. This refers to people who were popular singers either before the rock era or at its beginnings. They come closer to soft rock, particularly Tom Jones. Both came on the scene too late to qualify anyway.

Mamie Van Doren doesn't qualify because she's a movie "star?" who also sang, something I didn't even know she did until today! She also personified the "beat generation". A movie star who also sings occasionally because she's a movie star is different from a singer who becomes a movie star, like Doris Day or Frank Sinatra! If Bobby Darin were still alive, I don't think he would qualify either because his early success was in rock n roll.
 
Bongwater said:
I always thought Mamie Van Doren was an actress.

You could also put Willie Nelson in this category too. (Although Country by nature, countless MOR singers of that era have covered his songs.) His songs are still played back to back with Sinatra and Nat King Cole on Nostalgia stations. So Willie is definitely among the legends.
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Willie has also covered MOR songs.
 
semoochie said:
Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck don't count on this list. This refers to people who were popular singers either before the rock era or at its beginnings. They come closer to soft rock, particularly Tom Jones. Both came on the scene too late to qualify anyway.
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They sound like MOR to me.
semoochie said:
Mamie Van Doren doesn't qualify because she's a movie "star?" who also sang, something I didn't even know she did until today! She also personified the "beat generation". A movie star who also sings occasionally because she's a movie star is different from a singer who becomes a movie star, like Doris Day or Frank Sinatra! If Bobby Darin were still alive, I don't think he would qualify either because his early success was in rock n roll.
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Most of the songs by Bobby Darin on the stations I listen to are big band.
 
vchimpanzee said:
They sound like MOR to me.
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Semoochie's main point is that both had their hits well after rock and rock-influenced music had become the prevalent styles on Top 40 radio. "Release Me" and "Green Grass of Home" got airplay on Top 40 stations, but mainly in what was called "housewife time," the midday hours when all the kids were at school. MOR stations played some Jones and Humperdinck songs, but not all. Their focus was still on Sinatra, Como, Mathis and other holdovers from the pre-rock years. Jones and Humperdinck were no more pre-rock artists than Roger Whittaker was.
 
Would Bobby Vinton be on the list?
 
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