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2013 Entertainment Industry Obituaries

T

Thomps2525

Guest
Well, boys and girls, when I named all the 1950s-60s singers who died in 2012 and suggested we have a single thread for deaths in 2013 so a new thread isn't started for each major singer who dies, I could not have foreseen that one of those major singers would die on the first day of the year. Today when I heard the beginning of The Doggie In The Window during a KFI newscast, I knew the story that was coming. (By the way, remember the Homer & Jethro parody, That Hound Dog In The Window?)

Patti Page had 52 top-40 hits (one more than the Beatles), including 23 top tens and four number ones. One of her hits, Now That I'm In Love (1953), used the melody of the William Tell Overture, which most us of culturally illiterate people know as the Lone Ranger theme.

Page, the biggest-selling female artist of the 1950s, died January 1 at age 85 in Encinitas, California. She was going to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at this year's Grammy Awards ceremony. Here is the story from FOX News: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/01/02/tennessee-waltz-singer-patti-page-dies-at-age-85/
 
Well, absent from oldies radio today, her music is special. Liked that "Doggie in the Window" hit with the actual dog barking every so often. Very Unique!

She will be missed in the music world.
 
On another thread, some of us were discussing 1960s-70s remakes of songs from the '30s and '40s. I was surprised to see that The Doggie In The Window, a number-one hit from March-April 1953, was remade in the '60s: Baby Jane & the Rockaways, a female quartet from the Bronx, took the song to #69 in 1963.
 
Singer, successful TV Show, starred in several movies (including "Elmer Gantry") by past scoring methods maybe the biggest female recording artist of all time. Huge, huge star, but alway remained sweet and humble, still remained little Clara Fowler from Oklahoma, a country girl at heart. Around 2006 our station sponsored her show at a local casino, I had the pleasure of interviewng her on the air, wonderful lady, I was very saddened to read of her passing on New Years day. Some of my personal favorites were:

Evertrue, Evermore
Old Cape Cod
Hush,Hush Sweet Charlotte
I'll Remember Today
Would I Love
 
LARadioRewind said:
Sammy Johns, who had the 1975 hit Chevy Van died on January 4 at age 66. He had either suffered a stroke or gotten electrocuted while trying to repair a lamp. Eek! Johns, who also had a minor pop and country hit with Early Morning Love, wrote Waylon Jennings' America and Conway Twitty's Desperado Love. Here is the obituary from the Charlotte Observer:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/01/09/3773186/sammy-johns-remembered-as-composer.html
Click to expand...

I did not know this until I read it here. He was a singer/songwriter in the same style as Joe South and Scott McKenzie, who both died just a few months ago. Weird.
 
Ohio Players lead singer/guitaris Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner dead at 69

When people name the worst songs of the 1970s, they usually cite (among others) You Light Up My Life, Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, The Night Chicago Died and Billy Don't Be A Hero. For me, the worst song of the '70s was the Ohio Players' Funky Worm. The song was awful and even the title was awful. Somehow it managed to reach number one on the r&b chart and #15 on the Hot 100---Go figure! The group's lead singer and guitarist, Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner died of cancer January 26. The Ohio Players' hits included Fire, Fopp, Skin Tight, O-H-I-O, Who'd She Coo, Sweet Sticky Thing and Love Rollercoaster. For the past few years, Bonner toured with a new group known as Sugarfoot's Ohio Players.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-me-passings-20130129,0,62214.story
 
The Los Angeles Times article didn't mention it but the Ohio Untouchables, predecessors of the Ohio Players, were the backup band for the Falcons, whose late-1950s/early '60s hits included You're So Fine, Just For Your Love, The Teacher and I Found A Love.
 
Patty Andrews dead at 94

One of my favorite movies is Private Buckaroo (1942), which starred Dick Foran, Joe E. Lewis, Donald O'Connor, Jennifer Holt, Peggy Moran, the Harry James Orchestra...and the Andrews Sisters, who performed a fun song called Six Jerks In A Jeep.

The Andrews Sisters had 113 top-30 hits, beginning with Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, a 1937 English-language version of a Yiddish song. It would be the first of their eight number-one hits (including two with Bing Crosby). Among their most well-known songs are Hold Tight, Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Shoo Shoo Baby and Rum & Coca-Cola.

Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the trio, died January 30 at age 94.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-patty-andrews-20130131,0,4952137.story
 
Paul Tanner dead at 95; played with Glenn Miller and on Good Vibrations

Has anyone here ever heard a Beach Boys song called Good Vibrations? I think it's played on FM oldies stations occasionally. Ten times a day, maybe. Anyway, Paul Tanner died at age 95 on February 5. In the 1930s and early '40s he played trombone with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. In the 1950s he discovered the theremin, an electronic instrument invented by Russian scientist Lev Sergeevich Termen (whose name was Anglicized to Léon Theremin). When you hear the theremin in Good Vibrations and in the My Favorite Martian theme song, you're hearing Paul Tanner.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-paul-tanner-20130207,0,3512583.story
 
Jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd dead at 80

The family of jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd apparently didn't want the news of his death made public. Ummm...isn't it kinda hard to keep such a story out of the news? It's now confirmed that Byrd died on February 4 at age 80. He played in the US Air Force Band and in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, then formed an r&b band, Blackbyrds. Their biggest hit was Walking In Rhythm in 1975.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/donald-byrd-dead_n_2639910.html
 
Rick Huxley was born in 1942 in Dartford, Kent, England. A year later little Michael Jagger and little Keith Richards were born in the same town. Perhaps you've heard of them.

The Dave Clark Five's lead singer was Mike Smith; Clark was the drummer. The Elvin Bishop Group featured Starship's Mickey Thomas as lead singer. Are there other groups who were named for someone other than the lead singer? I can think of only those two.
 
LARadioRewind said:
The Dave Clark Five's lead singer was Mike Smith; Clark was the drummer. The Elvin Bishop Group featured Starship's Mickey Thomas as lead singer. Are there other groups who were named for someone other than the lead singer? I can think of only those two.
Click to expand...
Marshall Tucker Band
 
Two more: Van Halen and the Alan Parsons Project. I suppose we could also add Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 because Mendes didn't sing. And what about Mitch Miller? Was he part of the Mitch Miller Chorus or was he just the conductor? I was too busy "following the bouncing ball" to notice whether he was actually singing. :D
 
Allan Sherman's 1963 novelty hit Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh, which detailed all the bad occurrences at a summer camp, included this line:

"You remember Leonard Skinner;
He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner."

Was that the P.E. teacher or a different Leonard Skinner? Either way, it's creepy, Poor Leonard. :(
 
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