Obit: Freddy Fender

[lash]

Freddy Fender, the "Bebop Kid" of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," died today. He was 69.

Fender, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2006, died at noon at his Corpus Christi home with his family at his bedside, said Ron Rogers, a family spokesman.

[EDIT]


[EDIT-truncated for unauthorized use of copyrighted content. In the future, paraphrase the story and enclose a URL as is done below.]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2006-10-15-freddy-fender-obit_x.htm?csp=34

 

[FrankF]

Very sad news indeed. I remembder hearing Before the next teardrop falls many a time on the old WABC in New York. What's even sadder is how many country, or even oldies stations are even mentioning it? I checked out websites for two popular country stations here in central Florida WWKA & WPCV, and there's no mention of his passing at the time of this posting at all. However, WPCV may do some sort of tribute to him this evening on their classic country show. And I heard Cousin Brucie talk about him on last night in Sirius.

 

[smashedcd]

sorry to hear that. wasnt his last hit 31 years ago? waysted days and wasted nights?

 

[CrankyYankee]

Use this link to view photos and a story about Freddy from 1982.

http://www.stripes.com/photoday/101606photoday.html

Freddy hit #1 on the Billboard Top 40 chart in 1975 with "Before The Next Teardrop Falls", and #8 with "Wasted Days And Wasted Nights". He also had a very moving version of "Secret Love" that peaked at #20.

I sense these songs are largely played only on "classic country" stations nowadays unless there is some "Top Ten Then" feature being done for some occasion.
If these songs came out today, they(IMHO) would get played only on country stations and might not receive the wide exposure of true top 40 stations of days past.