Rick Nelson was one of the very biggest of the ’50s teen idols, so it took awhile for him to attain the same level of critical respectability as other early rock greats. Yet now the consensus is that he made some of the finest pop/rock recordings of his era. Sure, he had more promotional push than any other rock musician of the ’50s; no, he wasn’t the greatest singer; and yes, Elvis, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins, and others rocked harder. But Nelson was extraordinarily consistent during the first five years of his recording career, crafting pleasant pop-rockabilly hybrids with ace session players and projecting an archetype of the sensitive, reticent young adult with his accomplished vocals. He also played a somewhat underestimated role in rock & roll’s absorption into mainstream America — how bad could rock be if it was featured on one of America’s favorite family situation comedies on a weekly basis? Nelson entered professional entertainment before his tenth birthday, when he appeared with father Ozzie (once a jazz musician), mother Harriet, and brother David on a radio comedy series based around the family. By the early ’50s, the series was on television, and Ricky grew into a teenager in public. He was just the right age to have his life turned around by rock & roll in 1956 and started his recording career almost accidentally the following year. The story’s sometimes been told that he had no professional singing ambitions until he recorded his debut single to impress a girlfriend. The single, a cover of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’” that went to number four, was helped immensely (as all of his early singles would be) by plugs on the Ozzie & Harriet TV show. So far the script was adhering to the Pat Boone teen idol prototype — a whitewash of an R&B hit stealing the thunder from the pop audience, sung by a young, good-looking fella with barely any musical experience to speak of. What happened next was easy to predict commercially but surprisingly satisfying musically as well. Nelson was a fairly hip kid who preferred the rockabilly of Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley to the fodder dished out for teen idols, and over the next five years he would offer his own brand of rockabilly music, albeit one with some smooth Hollywood production touches and occasional pure pop ballads. Nelson recruited one of the greatest early rock guitarists, James Burton, to supply authentic licks (another great guitarist, Joe Maphis, played on some early sides). Some of his best and toughest songs (“Believe What You Say,” “It’s Late”) were written by Johnny and/or Dorsey Burnette, who had previously been in one of the best rockabilly combos, the Johnny Burnette Rock ‘n Roll Trio. Ricky could rock pretty hard when he wanted to, as on “Be-Bop Baby” and “Stood Up,” though in a polished fashion that wasn’t quite as wild and threatening as rockabilly’s Southern originators. Nelson really hit his stride, though, with mid-tempo numbers and ballads that provided a more secure niche for his calm vocals and narrow range. From 1957 to 1962, he was about the highest-selling singer in the U.S. except for Elvis, making the Top 40 about 30 times. “Poor Little Fool” and “Lonesome Town” (1958) were early indications of his ballad style; in the early ’60s, “Travelin’ Man,” “Young World,” “Teen Age Idol,” and other hits pointed to a more countrified, mature style as he honed in on his 21st birthday (by which time he would shorten his billing from “Ricky” to “Rick”). He could still play rockabilly from time to time, the most memorable example being “Hello, Mary Lou” (co-written by Gene Pitney), with its electrifying James Burton solos. Nelson was lured away from the Imperial label by a mammoth 20-year contract with Decca in 1963 (which would be terminated prematurely in the mid-’70s), and for a year or so the hits continued, at a less frenetic pace. Early-1964’s “For You,” however, would be his last big smash of the ’60s. The fault wasn’t all the Beatles and changing music trends — on both singles and albums, much of the material was either substandard pop or dusty Tin Pan Alley standards, although isolated tracks still generated some sparks. He wasn’t exactly starving, as he continued to appear on Ozzie and Harriet. But by the mid-’60s even that institution was declining in popularity, leading to its cancellation in 1966. Nelson had a strong country feel to much of his material from the beginning, and by the late ’60s it was becoming dominant. He covered straight country material by the likes of Willie Nelson and Doug Kershaw and formed one of the earliest country-rock groups, the Stone Canyon Band, with musicians who had played (or would play) with Poco, Buck Owens, Little Feat, and Roger McGuinn. A cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me” made the Top 40 in 1970, but his country-rock outings attracted more critical acclaim than commercial success, until 1972’s “Garden Party.” A rare self-composed number, based around the frosty reception granted his contemporary material at a rock & roll oldies show, it became his last Top Ten hit. Nelson would continue to record off and on for the next dozen years and toured constantly, yet he was unable to capitalize on his assets. A big part of the problem was that although Nelson wanted to play contemporary music, he didn’t write much of his own material, which was a basic precept of self-respecting rock acts after the advent of the Beatles. Nor did he tap into good outside compositions, and there’s little of interest on the albums he recorded over the last decade or so of his life. He died (along with his fiancée) in a private plane crash on December 31, 1985, on his way to a New Year’s Eve gig in Dallas, at the age of 45. – Richie Unterberger (allmusic)
Floyd Cramer was born October 27, 1933 near Shreveport, La., and grew up in the small sawmill town of Huttig, Ark. He balked at piano lessons but learned to play piano by ear at age 5. After graduating from high school, he joined the cast of the Louisiana Hayride country show in Shreveport. He began playing in Webb Pierce’s country band and doing session work with artists such as Jim Reeves and Hank Williams, Sr. In 1955, he moved to Nashville and became one of the most sought-after session musicians in town. He played on sessions by Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers, Patsy Cline and Perry Como, as well as the historic 1955 recordings Elvis Presley made in his debut at RCA. He recalled that Presley “was always nice to us. He enjoyed the musicians and felt very comfortable.” Along with Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph and Owen Bradley, Cramer is credited with helping create “The Nashville Sound” in the 1950s and 1960s. He played a “bent note” or “slip note” style – hitting a note and almost instantly sliding into the next – that influenced a generation of pianists. His 1960 hit, “Last Date,” became an instrumental classic that has been learned down through the years by thousands of young piano students. “It’s a simple melody,” Cramer told The Associated Press in 1989. “It’s good exercise for both hands. You are playing solid left hand patterns and a dominant melody with the right hand. It’s different and fresh to most piano students.” He also recorded more than 50 solo albums. Other Cramer hits included “San Antonio Rose,” “Fancy Pants” and “On the Rebound.” He won a Grammy Award in 1979 for best country instrumental for the song, “My Blue Eyes.” Besides country and rock, Cramer played jazz, blues, gospel and light classical. “Music is emotion, mood, regardless of what you name it,” he once said. “I wouldn’t want to be pigeonholed as playing only country or pop.” Cramer died on December 31, 1997, six months after being diagnosed with cancer. – Sherry Anderson (countrypolitan.com)
Johnny Moore
December 14, 1934 – December 30, 1998
Johnny Moore was born in Selma, AL, in 1934, and was raised in Chicago, where his early singing was steeped in gospel music. He joined a group called the Hornets in 1953, who recorded one single, “Lonesome Baby” b/w “I Can’t Believe You’re in Love With Me,” for the States label (which is reportedly one of the rarest R&B singles in creation, commanding five-figures from collectors). In 1955, the Drifters were playing a show in Cleveland, OH, when they were approached by Moore, who asked for an audition. Unbeknownst to him, the group was looking for a successor to their interim lead vocalist, David Baughn, whose unstable behavior rendered him unreliable. Moore was astonished when the group took him backstage and, cold, told him to sing, which he did, and even more so the next day when, with the approval of manager George Treadwell, he received a telephone call telling him that he was a member. His first stint with the group was moderately successful, yielding the R&B hits “Adorable,” “I Gotta Get Myself a Woman,” and “Ruby Baby,” but before Moore had been there for a year, and before the group could build up any momentum, he was drafted. Moore spent the next two years serving in uniform in Germany. Moore was next heard from in 1959 under the name Johnny Darrow for the Melic Records and Sue Records labels without chalking up a chart hit. Ironically, he became a member with original Drifters guitarist Jimmy Oliver of the Clyde McPhatter Revue, alongside the Bobbettes and the Drifters. He wasn’t far from the group’s orbit over the next year, joining the Drapers and singing on the Gee Records single “(I Know) Your Love Has Gone Away,” which had been written by Ben E. King, Doc Green, and Lover Patterson, all of whom were associated with the post-1958 Drifters and their predecessors the Crowns. For a time, the Drapers tried without success to piggyback on their genealogical association with the Drifters by identifying themselves as successors to the 1950s version of the group. It’s a tribute to Johnny Moore’s vocal prowess that, despite his efforts to cut in on the Drifters’ action, he was invited back into the Drifters in March of 1963. At the time, lead singer Rudy Lewis had announced his intention to leave the group for a potentially much more lucrative solo career, but hadn’t found an opportune professional moment in which to do so. This five-man (six counting guitarist Billy Davis) lineup became the group’s peak incarnation, Moore sharing lead vocal responsibilities with Lewis and duetting together on record as well. The songs that the group recorded during this period were as good as anything in their history, including “I’ll Take You Home,” “One Way Love,” “If You Don’t Come Back,” and “Didn’t It,” all featuring Moore on lead vocals. The sudden death of Rudy Lewis on May 20, 1964, left Johnny Moore as the group’s lead singer. “Under the Boardwalk” was the single cut the following day and the group’s last big hit. Moore was the lead singer represented on the only official live sides cut by the group, and he was later given the opportunity to do an unofficial solo album (credited to the Drifters), The Good Life. The group continued performing for the remainder of the 1960s and stayed with Atlantic until 1972. Moore continued on with a version of the Drifters into the 1970s, but by the middle of that decade, there were several groups using that name under various trademark and licensing claims: Doc Green led one, original 1950s member Bill Pinkney led another, and Moore, leading the group authorized by the widow of manager George Treadwell, led another. Eventually, that version of the Drifters moved their base of operations to England, where the reissue of two old singles, “At the Club” and “Come on Over to My Place” had both charted extremely well in 1972. They took on a more pop-oriented sound, even as they freely traded in the remembered legacy of the group’s late-’50s/early-’60s classic sides. During the early ’70s, after leaving Atlantic, they were signed by Bell Records’ U.K. arm and, under the guidance of producer Tony Macaulay and songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, they enjoyed a string of six Top Ten British hits with Moore as lead singer, including “Kissing in the Back Row,” “There Goes My First Love,” and “You’re More Than a Number in My Little Red Book.” By the 1980s, Moore had left the lineup, although he periodically resurfaced, primarily in England, fronting various groups doing Drifters repertory and was seen on British television well into the late ’90s, despite respiratory problems that left him sidelined from full-time performing in his mid-’60s. – Bruce Eder (allmusic)
Bert Berns was one of the great American songwriters and record producers of the 1960s. A pioneer of sixties rock and soul, Berns’ contributions to popular music are among the most significant of his generation. His untimely death from heart failure at age 38 put a stop to a remarkable run of success as songwriter, producer and record label chief. Born in the Bronx, New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants, Berns contracted rheumatic fever as a child, an illness that would mark the rest of his life. Turning to music, he found consonance in the sounds of his African American and Latino neighbors. As a young man, Berns danced in mambo nightclubs, and made his way to Havana before the Cuban Revolution. Shortly after his return from Cuba, Berns began a seven-year run from an obscure Brill Building songwriter to the chief of his own record labels. His first hit record was “A Little Bit of Soap” performed by The Jarmels in 1961. One year later, the Isley Brothers recorded “Twist and Shout”, written by Berns and Phil Medley. During these years, Berns wrote and produced records for a wide range of labels, including Wand, United Artists, Capitol, Laurie, MGM, Big Top, Old Town, Roulette, and Atlantic Records. In 1963, Berns would replace Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as the staff producer at Atlantic, where he produced such acts as Solomon Burke (“Cry to Me” and “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”), The Drifters (“Under the Boardwalk” and “Saturday Night at the Movies”), Barbara Lewis (“Baby I’m Yours” and “Make Me Your Baby”),Little Esther Phillips (“Hello Walls”), Wilson Pickett and LaVern Baker. Berns was also one of the few American record producers to travel across the Atlantic to London, where he produced a number of British Decca artists such as Them (“Here Comes the Night,” “Baby Please Don’t Go” and “Gloria”), and Lulu. In 1965, Bert Berns formed his own record labels, Bang Records and Shout Records. It was founded with the Atlantic Records partners with the Bang name derived from their first names–Bert Berns, Ahmet Ertegün, Nesuhi Ertegün andGerald Wexler. Bang was home to such artists as The McCoys (“Hang on Sloopy”), The Strangeloves (“I Want Candy”), Van Morrison (“Brown Eyed Girl”) and Neil Diamond (“Solitary Man” and “Cherry Cherry“). Berns formed Shout as an outlet for his R&B passions, recording Freddie Scott (“Are You Lonely for Me Baby”) and Erma Franklin (“Piece of My Heart”). Bert Berns’ death in the last days of 1967 marked an end to the golden era of rock and soul music. One of his last songs, “Piece of My Heart”, was originally recorded that year by Erma Franklin, covered shortly later by Big Brother and the Holding Company (fronted by then-unknown Janis Joplin). The Led Zeppelin outtake “Baby Come on Home” (originally titled “A Tribute To Bert Berns”) was loosely based on a song Berns wrote for Hoagy Lands, and was recorded in Berns’ honour. While the Bang/Shout Records catalogue is today owned by Sony BMG, the Berns family still owns the music publishing operations originally called WEB IV Music. The WEB IV name was also derived from the founders with WEB as an acronym for Wexler-Ertegun-Berns and the Roman numeral IV for the four original partners. – From wikipedia
Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who played with legends such as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, McCoy Tyner, Art Blakey and Herbie Hancock, died today (Dec. 29) in Sherman Oaks, Calif. Hubbard, who had suffered a heart attack on Nov. 26, was 70. Born in Indianapolis, the artist moved to New York in 1958 and quickly began playing and recording with Coleman, Coltrane and Eric Dolphy. In 1961, he released “Ready for Freddie,” the first of many collaborations with saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Hubbard’s “hard bop” stylings can be heard on some of the landmark free jazz albums of the 1960s, including Coleman’s “Free Jazz” and Coltrane’s “Ascension.” In the 1970s, he recorded more commercial-leaning albums for CTI Records, and maintained an active presence in the studio and onstage throughout the 1980s. Hubbard was bestowed with the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Award in 2006. – Jonathan Cohen (Billboard)
A gentle, soulful singer who owed as much to blues and jazz as folk, Tim Hardin produced an impressive body of work in the late ’60s without ever approaching either mass success or the artistic heights of the best singer/songwriters. When future Lovin’ Spoonful producer Erik Jacobsen arranged for Hardin’s first recordings in the mid-’60s, Hardin was no more than an above-average white blues singer, in the mold of many fellow folkys working the East Coast circuit. By the time of his 1966 debut, however, he was writing confessional folk-rock songs of considerable grace and emotion. The first album’s impact was slightly diluted by incompatible string overdubs (against Hardin’s wishes), but by the time of his second and best LP, he’d achieved a satisfactory balance between acoustic guitar-based arrangements and subtle string accompaniment. It was the lot of Hardin’s work to achieve greater recognition through covers from other singers, such as Rod Stewart (who did “Reason to Believe”), Nico (who covered “Eulogy to Lenny Bruce” on her first album), Scott Walker (who sang “Lady Came From Baltimore”), Fred Neil (“Green Rocky Road” has been credited to both him and Hardin), and especially Bobby Darin, who took “If I Were a Carpenter” into the Top Ten in 1966. Beleaguered by a heroin habit since early in his career, Hardin’s drug problems became grave in the late ’60s; his commercial prospects grew dimmer, and his albums more erratic, although he did manage to appear at Woodstock. His end was not a pretty one: due to accumulated drug and health problems, as well as a scarcity of new material, he didn’t complete any albums after 1973, dying of a drug overdose in 1980. – Richie Unterberger (allmusic)
Clint Ballard Jr.
May 24, 1931 – December 23, 2008
Clint Ballard Jr., a pop songwriter who crafted the No. 1 hits “You’re No Good” for Linda Ronstadt in 1975 and “Game of Love” a decade earlier, has died. He was 77. Ballard, whose health deteriorated after he had a stroke in 2006, died Dec. 23 at his home in Denton, Texas, said Jacqueline Martinez, a friend. Although he often worked with a partner, the Texas native wrote “You’re No Good” alone. The song had already been recorded by R&B singers Dee Dee Warwick and Betty Everett when Ronstadt included it on the “Heart Like a Wheel” album that marked her emergence as a bona fide star. For the British group Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Ballard wrote “Game of Love” and their version was featured in the 1987 Robin Williams film “Good Morning, Vietnam.” Born May 24, 1931, in El Paso, Ballard graduated from what is now the University of Texas at El Paso with a bachelor’s degree in radio studies. He served in the Army in Japan as a radio operator, then moved to New York and played piano in nightclubs. After discovering the harmony duo the Kalin Twins in Washington, D.C., in 1957, Ballard became the brothers’ manager and wrote their first single, the cheerful “Jumpin’ Jack.” Three months later, they recorded their one hit, “When,” written by Ballard’s friend Paul Evans and Jack Reardon. Mitch Miller and his orchestra recorded Ballard’s “Hey Little Baby” on the B side of “March From the River Kwai.” The Ballard tune was used as the theme for the 1958 World’s Fair in Belgium. In 1960, Jimmy Jones reached No. 3 on the Billboard charts with a playful song that Ballard co-wrote called “Good Timin’ ” that included the lyrics: “Who in the world would’ve ever known what Columbus could do if Queen Isabella hadn’t hocked her jewels in 1492. But she had timin.’” Writing for the close harmonies of the Hollies, Ballard came up with “I’m Alive” for the British pop group and it became a No. 1 single overseas. He also wrote the nonsensical “Gingerbread” for Frankie Avalon. With others, Ballard wrote Rick Nelson’s “There’s Not a Minute” and the Zombies‘ “Gotta Get a Hold of Myself.” In the late 1970s, Ballard moved to Dallas and later settled in Denton, where he became a real estate investor. – Valerie Nelson (Los Angeles Times)
Vincent Ford, a songwriter credited with composing the Bob Marley reggae classic “No Woman, No Cry,” has died in Jamaica. He was 68. Ford died Sunday at a hospital of complications from diabetes, said Paul Kelly, a spokesman for the Kingston-based Bob Marley Foundation. The song, which appeared on Marley’s 1974 “Natty Dread” album, was inspired by the Kingston ghetto of Trench Town where Marley and Ford lived in the 1960s. Ford is credited with the tune. However, some critics contend that Marley wrote it himself but gave Ford the credit to help his friend support himself with the royalties. Ford, who ran a soup kitchen and lost both his legs to diabetes, is also credited with three songs on Marley’s 1976 album “Rastaman Vibration.” – Associated Press
Dennis Wilson
December 4, 1944 – December 28, 1983
The most obviously untalented Wilson brother at the beginning of the Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson later matured into an excellent songwriter, producer, and vocalist. Though he only released one LP before drowning at the age of 39, his assortment of heart-rending ballads and pop curios were major assets to the Beach Boys’ late-’60s and early-’70s output. Born in Inglewood, CA, in 1944, Dennis was the middle of the three Wilson brothers, also including Brian (b. 1942) and Carl (b. 1946). While growing up, Dennis was the rebel of the family, constantly in trouble with the notoriously harsh Wilson father Murry. Dennis was also the closest person to a true surfer who Brian knew, though his lack of musical talent made him a liability when the band was formed. Stuck on drums since Brian played bass and Carl had taken guitar, he played a rudimentary rhythm on their first session, 1961’s “Surfin’.” An obvious target of female enthusiasm, Dennis was assigned lead vocals for a few early novelty songs: “Little Girl (You’re My Miss America),” “Surfers Rule,” and “This Car of Mine.” His first hit came in 1965 when “Do You Wanna Dance” opened the The Beach Boys Today! LP and cracked the Top 20. After the high peaks and deep valleys of the Beach Boys career during the late ’60s, Dennis began writing songs, and finally rated serious compositions (“Little Bird,” “Be Still”) for 1968’s Friends. Throughout the early ’70s, Beach Boys fans counted on at least two Dennis songs on each LP, often tender ballads flaunting his gruff voice and naked persona. He made his first attempt at a solo album as early as 1970, but quietly released only a single (“Dragon”) credited to Dennis Wilson and Rumbo. He again started work in 1975, recording with friend and producer Gregg Jakobsen during 1976 to complete Pacific Ocean Blue. The middle Wilson had completed his solo debut before either of his brothers, and it charted inside the Top 100 — higher than either of the Beach Boys’ next two LPs, M.I.U. and L.A. (Light Album). Though Dennis had started work on his second (provisionally titled Bamboo) even before the release of Pacific Ocean Blue, increasing problems — centered on his personal life and substance abuse — caused several holdups. While two songs ended up on L.A. (Light Album) (“Baby Blue” and “Love Surrounds Me”), the sale of the Beach Boys’ Brother Studios prevented him from having a ready haven for experimenting. Though he and Carl Wilson temporarily left the band during 1980, he eased back into the regular touring rotation during the early ’80s. In late 1983, however, Wilson drowned while diving around his boat in Marina del Ray, CA. – John Bush (allmusic)
Freddie King
September 3, 1934 – December 28, 1976
Guitarist Freddie King rode to fame in the early ’60s with a spate of catchy instrumentals which became instant bandstand fodder for fellow bluesmen and white rock bands alike. Employing a more down-home (thumb and finger picks) approach to the B.B. King single-string style of playing, King enjoyed success on a variety of different record labels. Furthermore, he was one of the first bluesmen to employ a racially integrated group on-stage behind him. Influenced by Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Rogers, and Robert Jr. Lockwood, King went on to influence the likes of Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Lonnie Mack, among many others. Freddie King (who was originally billed as “Freddy” early in his career) was born and raised in Gilmer, TX, where he learned how to play guitar as a child; his mother and uncle taught him the instrument. Initially, King played rural acoustic blues, in the vein of Lightin’ Hopkins. By the time he was a teenager, he had grown to love the rough, electrified sounds of Chicago blues. In 1950, when he was 16 years old, his family moved to Chicago, where he began frequenting local blues clubs, listening to musicians like Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Little Walter, and Eddie Taylor. Soon, the young guitarist formed his own band, the Every Hour Blues Boys, and was performing himself. In the mid-’50s, King began playing on sessions for Parrott and Chess Records, as well as playing with Earlee Payton’s Blues Cats and the Little Sonny Cooper Band. Freddie King didn’t cut his own record until 1957, when he recorded “Country Boy” for the small independent label El-Bee. The single failed to gain much attention. Three years later, King signed with Federal Records, a subsidiary of King Records, and recorded his first single for the label, “You’ve Got to Love Her With a Feeling,” in August of 1960. The single appeared the following month and became a minor hit, scraping the bottom of the pop charts in early 1961. “You’ve Got to Love Her With Feeling” was followed by “Hide Away,” the song that would become Freddie King’s signature tune and most influential recording. “Hide Away” was adapted by King and Magic Sam from a Hound Dog Taylor instrumental and named after one of the most popular bars in Chicago. The single was released as the B-side of “I Love the Woman” (his singles featured a vocal A-side and an instrumental B-side) in the fall of 1961 and it became a major hit, reaching number five on the R&B charts and number 29 on the pop charts. Throughout the ’60s, “Hide Away” was one of the necessary songs blues and rock & roll bar bands across America and England had to play during their gigs. King’s first album, Freddy King Sings, appeared in 1961, and it was followed later that year by Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away With Freddy King: Strictly Instrumental. Throughout 1961, he turned out a series of instrumentals — including “San-Ho-Zay,” “The Stumble,” and “I’m Tore Down” — which became blues classics; everyone from Magic Sam and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Dave Edmunds and Peter Green covered King’s material. “Lonesome Whistle Blues,” “San-Ho-Zay,” and “I’m Tore Down” all became Top Ten R&B hits that year. Freddie King continued to record for King Records until 1968, with a second instrumental album (Freddy King Gives You a Bonanza of Instrumentals) appearing in 1965, although none of his singles became hits. Nevertheless, his influence was heard throughout blues and rock guitarists throughout the ’60s — Eric Clapton made “Hide Away” his showcase number in 1965. King signed with Atlantic/Cotillion in late 1968, releasing Freddie King Is a Blues Masters the following year and My Feeling for the Blues in 1970; both collections were produced by King Curtis. After their release, Freddie King and Atlantic/Cotillion parted ways. King landed a new record contract with Leon Russell’s Shelter Records early in 1970. King recorded three albums for Shelter in the early ’70s, all of which sold well. In addition to respectable sales, his concerts were also quite popular with both blues and rock audiences. In 1974, he signed a contract with RSO Records — which was also Eric Clapton’s record label — and he released Burglar, which was produced and recorded with Clapton. Following the release of Burglar, King toured America, Europe, and Australia. In 1975, he released his second RSO album, Larger Than Life. Throughout 1976, Freddie King toured America, even though his health was beginning to decline. On December 29, 1976, King died of heart failure. Although his passing was premature — he was only 42 years old — Freddie King’s influence could still be heard in blues and rock guitarists decades after his death. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Cub Koda (allmusic)
Singer-songwriter-producer Delaney Bramlett, who penned classic rock songs such as “Let it Rain” and worked with musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton, has died. He was 69. Bramlett died Saturday shortly before 5 a.m. at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles as a result of complications from gall-bladder surgery, his wife Susan Lanier-Bramlett said. Born in Mississippi, Bramlett enjoyed a career in the music business that spanned 50 years. He is perhaps best known for standards such as “Superstar,” co-written with Leon Russell, which was recorded by Usher, Luther Vandross, Bette Midler, The Carpenters and most recently, Sonic Youth, in a version featured on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack of the movie “Juno.” He also co-wrote “Let it Rain” with British guitarist Clapton, who also recorded it, and “Never Ending Song of Love,” which was recorded by more than 100 artists including Ray Charles, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Patty Loveless and Dwight Yoakam. During his career, he performed, co-wrote or recorded with stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Dave Mason, Billy Preston, the Everly Brothers and Mac Davis. He also produced artists including Etta James and Elvin Bishop. He recently released an album “A New Kind of Blues,” on independent label Magnolia Gold Records. He is survived by his wife, three daughters: Michele Bramlett, Suzanne Bramlett and Bekka Bramlett-Britt, a son Dylan Thomas, and a brother John Bramlett. Services are pending. – San Francisco Chronicle/AP
Chris Bell was one of the unsung heroes of American pop music; despite a life marked by tragedy and a career crippled by commercial indifference, the singer/songwriter’s slim body of recorded work proved massively influential on the generations of indie rockers who emerged in his wake. Born January 12, 1951 in Memphis, Tennessee, Bell grew up enveloped by the city’s indigenous soul sounds — typified by the prodigious output of the Stax label — but his first love was the music of the British Invasion; inspired by the Beatles, he took up the guitar in his early teens. Within a few years, Bell was writing and performing his own songs with friends Richard Rosebrough and Terry Manning, but his Anglo-pop leanings set him squarely outside of the Memphis musical community. In high school, Bell struck up a friendship with another young performer named Alex Chilton, who occasionally jammed with Bell’s band but turned down an invitation to join on a full-time basis. While Chilton soon rose to fame as the frontman of the Box Tops, Bell became a fixture at Memphis’ famed Ardent Studios, where he worked as a part-time recording engineer and also cut his earliest songs. While attending college, he roomed with former high school friend Andy Hummel, with whom Bell eventually returned to Memphis to form a new band with drummer Jody Stephens and, later, Chilton, who had grown frustrated with his role in the Box Tops and quit. Together, the four musicians comprised the power-pop band Big Star. Their debut album, 1972’s #1 Record, eventually earned mythic status as an underground classic, but, sabotaged by poor distribution, was deemed a commercial failure at the time of release. Crushed, Bell became suicidal and left the band, although he did contribute his skills to a handful of tracks on the follow-up, Radio City. While Bell continued working on music, his depression worsened; to help revitalize his career, his brother David led him to France’s Chateau D’Herouville studios, where a batch of demos were cut for a planned album. After skipping over to London, the Bell brothers mixed the songs with Geoff Emerick, the engineer on the Beatles’ final albums, at producer George Martin’s Air Studios. The completed tracks were roundly rejected, however, and Bell returned to Memphis, where he cut a few more songs with Big Star’s Stephens and local musician Ken Woodley in 1974. He ultimately returned to Europe and played solo shows in folk clubs; after plans for a Big Star reunion tour fell through, Bell returned to the U.S. and dropped out of music, taking a management position in his family’s fast food chain. In 1977, however, the tiny New York label Car issued a remarkable single, “I Am the Cosmos,” backed with “You and Your Sister,” on which Bell was supported by Chilton; the record was well-received, and spurred him to form a new band. But on the morning of December 27, 1978, his speeding car hit a tree, and he was killed instantly. – Jason Ankeny (allmusic)
Wilbert “Junkyard Dog” Arnold
1955 – December 26, 2008
Wilbert “Junkyard Dog” Arnold, who spent more than two decades as the drummer in Walter “Wolfman” Washington’s Roadmasters, died Dec. 26 after a long illness. He was 53. Arnold laid down the mix of funk, blues and soul grooves on most of the Roadmasters’ recordings. In 1997, he was felled by a bout of colitis while on tour and was forced to fly home from Istanbul, Turkey. However, he continued to perform with the Roadmasters until 2006. “The Dog was a tough son of a gun and a very lovable guy,” Roadmasters bassist Jack Cruz said. “His sense of polyrhythm and syncopation was right on. He was totally dedicated to the drums and music, and full of life. He could keep a monologue going for 12 hours straight. You know how if a shark stops swimming, it dies? If Wilbert stopped talking, he would fall asleep.” – Keith Spera (Times-Picayune)
Perhaps because he didn’t cross over to the pop audience as heavily as Motown’s stars, it may be that the scope of Curtis Mayfield’s talents and contributions have yet to be fully recognized. Judged merely by his records alone, the man’s legacy is enormous. As the leader of the Impressions, he recorded some of the finest soul vocal group music of the 1960s. As a solo artist in the 1970s, he helped pioneer funk and helped introduce hard-hitting urban commentary into soul music. “Gypsy Woman,” “It’s All Right,” “People Get Ready,” “Freddie’s Dead,” and “Superfly” are merely the most famous of his many hit records. But Curtis Mayfield wasn’t just a singer. He wrote most of his material at a time when that was not the norm for soul performers. He was among the first — if not the very first — to speak openly about African-American pride and community struggle in his compositions. As a songwriter and a producer, he was a key architect of Chicago soul, penning material and working on sessions by notable Windy City soulsters like Gene Chandler, Jerry Butler, Major Lance, and Billy Butler. In this sense, he can be compared to Smokey Robinson, who also managed to find time to write and produce many classics for other soul stars. Mayfield was also an excellent guitarist, and his rolling, Latin-influenced lines were highlights of the Impressions’ recordings in the ’60s. During the next decade, he would toughen up his guitar work and production, incorporating some of the best features of psychedelic rock and funk. Mayfield began his career as an associate of Jerry Butler, with whom he formed the Impressions in the late ’50s. After the Impressions had a big hit in 1958 with “For Your Precious Love,” Butler, who had sung lead on the record, split to start a solo career. Mayfield, while keeping the Impressions together, continued to write for and tour with Butler before the Impressions got their first Top 20 hit in 1961, “Gypsy Woman.” Mayfield was heavily steeped in gospel music before he entered the pop arena, and gospel, as well as doo wop, influences would figure prominently in most of his ’60s work. Mayfield wasn’t a staunch traditionalist, however. He and the Impressions may have often worked the call-and-response gospel style, but his songs (romantic and otherwise) were often veiled or unveiled messages of black pride, reflecting the increased confidence and self-determination of the African-American community. Musically he was an innovator as well, using arrangements that employed the punchy, blaring horns and Latin-influenced rhythms that came to be trademark flourishes of Chicago soul. As the staff producer for the OKeh label, Mayfield was also instrumental in lending his talents to the work of other Chi-town soul singers who went on to national success. With Mayfield singing lead and playing guitar, the Impressions had 14 Top 40 hits in the 1960s (five made the Top 20 in 1964 alone), and released some above-average albums during that period as well.
Given Mayfield’s prodigious talents, it was perhaps inevitable that he would eventually leave the Impressions to begin a solo career, as he did in 1970. His first few singles boasted a harder, more funk-driven sound; singles like “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Gonna Go” found him confronting ghetto life with a realism that had rarely been heard on record. He really didn’t hit his artistic or commercial stride as a solo artist, though, until Superfly, his soundtrack to a 1972 blaxploitation film. Drug deals, ghetto shootings, the death of young black men before their time: all were described in penetrating detail. Yet Mayfield’s irrepressible falsetto vocals, uplifting melodies, and fabulous funk pop arrangements gave the oft-moralizing material a graceful strength that few others could have achieved. For all the glory of his past work, Superfly stands as his crowning achievement, not to mention a much-needed counterpoint to the sensationalistic portrayals of the film itself. At this point Mayfield, along with Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, was the foremost exponent of a new level of compelling auteurism in soul. His failure to maintain the standards of Superfly qualifies as one of the great disappointments in the history of black popular music. Perhaps he’d simply reached his peak after a long climb, but the rest of his ’70s work didn’t match the musical brilliance and lyrical subtleties of Superfly, although he had a few large R&B hits in a much more conventional vein, such as “Kung Fu,” “So in Love,” and “Only You Babe.” Mayfield had a couple of hits in the early ’80s, but the decade generally found his commercial fortunes in a steady downward spiral, despite some intermittent albums. On August 14, 1990, he became paralyzed from the neck down when a lighting rig fell on top of him at a concert in Brooklyn, NY. In the mid-’90s, a couple of tribute albums consisting of Mayfield covers appeared, with contributions by such superstars as Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, and Gladys Knight. Though no substitute for the man himself, these tributes served as an indication of the enormous regard in which Mayfield was still held by his peers. He died December 26, 1999 at the age of 57. – Richie Unterberger (allmusic)
Former blues musician Robert Ward Sr. died Thursday afternoon at his home in Dry Branch from health complications, his widow said. Roberta Ward said her husband, a well-known blues guitarist/vocalist who performed with the likes of Wilson Pickett and The Temptations, had been suffering from a variety of ailments, including cancer and diabetes. Robert Ward, 70, had suffered a stroke in 2001 and never fully recovered from it, she said. After growing up in Georgia, Ward moved to Dayton, Ohio, where he founded The Ohio Untouchables blues band, which later became The Ohio Players. One of the group’s signature songs was “Your Love Is Amazing.” Ward then moved to Detroit during the 1970s, where he played with some of Motown’s biggest artists. His guitar playing became well-known with a unique tone soaked in vibrato coming from the Magnatone amplifier. In 1991, Ward released his first full-length album, “Fear No Evil.” He later followed that up with other albums, including “Rhythm of the People,” “Hot Stuff,” and “Black Bottom.” His last album was “New Role Soul,” released in 2000. Ward was one of several Georgia-based artists to perform during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He often performed in Macon and surrounding areas, including during the Cherry Blossom Festival. Often, he played with his son, well-known drummer Robert Ward Jr. Roberta Ward said her husband is survived by seven children, eight stepchildren, 87 grandchildren and 46 great-grandchildren. – Phillip Ramati (Macon Telegraph)
A family friend says Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died. She was 81. Andrew Freedman says Kitt died Thursday of colon cancer and was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Kitt, a self-proclaimed “sex kitten” famous for her catlike purr, was one of America’s most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and getting a third nomination. She also was nominated for two Tony Awards and a Grammy. – Associated Press
James Brown has had more honorifics attached to his name than any other performer in music history. He has variously been tagged “Soul Brother Number One,” “the Godfather of Soul,” “the Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” “Mr. Dynamite” and even “the Original Disco Man.” This much is certain: what became known as soul music in the Sixties, funk music in the Seventies and rap music in the Eighties is directly attributable to James Brown. His transformation of gospel fervor into the taut, explosive intensity of rhythm & blues, combined with precision choreography and dynamic showmanship, served to define the directions black music would take from the release of his first R&B hit (“Please Please Please”) in 1956 to the present day. Brown’s life history documents one triumph over adversity after another. He was born into poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina, during the Great Depression. As a child, he picked cotton, danced for spare change and shined shoes. At 16, he was caught and convicted of stealing, and he landed in reform school for three years. While incarcerated, he met Bobby Byrd, leader of a gospel group that performed at the prison. After his release, Brown tried his hand at semipro boxing and baseball. A career-ending leg injury inspired him to pursue music fulltime. He joined Byrd in a group that sang gospel in and around Toccoa, Georgia. But then Byrd and Brown attended a rhythm & blues revue that included Hank Ballard and Fats Domino, whose performances lured them into the realm of secular music. Renaming themselves the Flames (later, the Famous Flames), they became a tightly knit ensemble that showcased their abundant talents as singers, dancers and multi-instrumentalists. Brown rose to the fore as leader of the James Brown Revue – an entourage complete with emcee, dancers and an untouchable stage band (the J.B.’s). Reportedly sweating off up to seven pounds a night, Brown was a captivating performer who’d incorporate a furious regimen of spins, drops and shtick (such as feigning a heart attack, complete with the ritual donning and doffing of capes and a fevered return to the stage) into his skintight rhythm & blues. What Elvis Presley was to rock and roll, James Brown became to R&B: a prolific and dominant phenom. Like Presley, he is a three-figure hitmaker, with 114 total entries on Billboard’s R&B singles charts and 94 that made the Hot 100 singles chart. Over the years, he amassed 800 songs in his repertoire while maintaining a grueling touring schedule. Recording for the King and Federal labels throughout the Fifties and Sixties, Brown distilled R&B to its essence on such classic albums as Live at the Apollo (patterned after Ray Charles’In Person) and singles like “Cold Sweat,” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and “I Got You (I Feel Good).” His group, the J.B.’s, was anchored by horn players and musical mainstays Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker. Brown also recorded a series of instrumental albums, taking a break from soul shouting to pursue his prowess as an organist. By the late Sixties, Brown had attained the status of a musical and cultural revolutionary, owing to his message of black pride and self-sufficiency. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, such message songs as “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” reverberated throughout the black community, within which he was regarded as a leader and role model. During this time, he began developing a hot funk sound with young musicians, such as bassist William “Bootsy” Collins, who passed through his ever-evolving band. Though his influence waned in the latter half of the Seventies, a cameo role in The Blues Brothers film in 1980 and his recognition as a forefather of rap helped trigger a resurgence. His records were more heavily sampled by rap and hip-hop acts than those of any other artist, and he achieved renewed street credibility by recording a single (“Unity”) with rapper Afrika Bambaataa in 1984. Brown was among the first group of performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Unfortunately, his personal life took a nose-dive in 1988, as he was investigated on a series of charges that ranged from spousal abuse and drug possession to problems with the IRS. Paroled after serving two years in prison, a chastened but resolute Brown picked up the pieces in the Nineties and carried on. If nothing else, his status as the Godfather of Soul has remained unassailable. In December 2003, only months after his 70th birthday, James Brown was the recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. December 25, 2006: James Brown, The Godfather Of Soul dies. – From The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame
Bryan MacLean
September 25, 1946 – December 25, 1998
Bryan MacLean guitarist, singer and songwriter of the cult 60’s Californian band Love, died of a heart attack on Christmas day 1998 in the city of Los Angeles where he was born. Love were responsible for producing the album ‘Forever Changes’ in 1967 which has long held the reputation with music critics for being one of the finest albums ever made and although Arthur Lee did most of the song writing for the band, it is Bryan’s song ‘Alone Again Or’ from that classic album that Love are generally remembered for. Born in Beverley Hills, California in 1946, Bryan’s father was an architect to the Hollywood stars and his mother an artist and a dancer. Neighbour Fritz Loew of the composers Lener & Loew recognised him as a melodic genius at the age of three as he doodled on the piano. Bryan’s gift for music was duly noted and he was given piano lessons and taught classical arrangement theory. Bryan’s early influences were more Billie Holiday and George Gershwin rather than Robert Johnson, although he confessed a strong obsession for Elvis Presley. During his childhood he wore out show music records from ‘Guys & Dolls’, ‘Oklahoma’, ‘South Pacific’ and ‘West Side Story’. His first girlfriend was Liza Minelli and they would sit at the piano together and sing songs like ‘The Wizard of Oz’. He learned to swim in Elizabeth Taylor’s pool and his father’s best friend was Robert Stack from T.V’s ‘Untouchables’. At 17 Bryan encountered the Beatles, “Before the Beatles I had been into folk music. I had been showing my art work at a panel shop (I wanted to be an artist in the bohemian tradition) – where we would sit around with banjos and do folk music, but when I saw ‘A Hard Days Night’ everything changed. I let my hair grow out and I got kicked out of three high schools.” Bryan started playing guitar in 1963/64. He got a job at the Balladeer before it changed its name to the Troubadour Club, playing back-up blues guitar. It was here he met the pre ByrdsJet Set while dating Jackie De Shannon and he became ‘fast friends’ with David Crosby. He moved away from home and by early 1965 he became road manager for the Byrds on their first Californian tour with the Rolling Stones. He managed one more cross-country tour with the group after they hit big with ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ but the exhausting 30 one nighters broke him physically and when the Byrds left for their first U.K. tour in the summer of 1965 they left Bryan behind. After an unsuccessful audition for a part in the Monkees Bryan got into a car on Sunset Strip which Arthur Lee was driving. Arthur had a band called the Grass Roots doing a residency at the Brave New World Club and being street wise knew Bryan’s ‘connections’ with the Byrds. He knew all of the scene that followed the Byrds would follow Bryan if he invited him to see the band play at the club as the Byrds were out of town and sure enough after a couple of weeks the crowds were lined up and down the street for blocks. Bryan desperately wanted to join the band and he said, “I’d give my right arm to be in your group.” To which Arthur responded “No – you’re going to need it!” The Grass Roots became Love when another group registered a hit with the name. Love were rapidly gaining a reputation as the ’street band’ and Jac Holzman’s Elektra Records snapped them up and they hit big with their version of the Bacharach/David song ‘Little Red Book’ and a very successful first album to which Bryan contributed the beautiful ‘Softly To Me’ as well as co-writing two others and the Byrds arrangement of ‘Hey Joe’ which he sang. In a staggering progression in just nine months Love put out their second album “Da Capo” and the storming hit single – a pre punk blast of a song ‘7 & 7 is’. Bryan’s beautiful ‘Orange Skies’ was just one of the “6 sides of an uncut diamond” that formed side one of this classic “flower power” album. As the band threatened to implode with addiction to hard drugs taking hold; sessions for what would turn out to be one of the classic albums of the “summer of love” began. Bryan’s ‘Alone Again Or’ was the opening cut on ‘Forever Changes’ and although Arthur mixed Bryan’s lead vocal under his own harmony vocal it is still Bryan’s song that Love are remembered for as it has gone on to become a radio classic and Bryan lived most of his life on its royalties as it was covered by the Damned and UFO amongst others. Although Arthur’s songs crowded out Bryan’s, it is Bryan who believed he influenced Arthur more than the other way around. “What you have on the second and third Love albums is a black guy from L.A. writing show tunes.” Bryan admits to an addiction to heroin at this point in his life and had a near death experience where he overdosed after leaving Love. Meanwhile band members Ken Forssi (bass) and Johnny Echols (lead guitar) were busted for heroin and armed robbery – they were known as the ‘Doughnut Stand Robbers!’ – and served time in San Quentin and the original Love fell apart. After an aborted attempt at a solo career – his demos were rejected by Elektra – Bryan wrote film music that wasn’t used and tried without success to record an album for Capitol records in New York. He hit a real low point and shortly afterwards became a Christian, “I was alone in a hotel room in New York and I had lost practically everything. It occurred to me that I was in a tail-spin so I thought ‘well, why don’t I pray?’ So I did and nothing happened for about two or three weeks. At the end of that time, I was sitting in a drug store on 3rd Avenue having a drink and suddenly the drink turned to sand in my mouth and I left the bar and when I reached the pavement and daylight I knew something had changed and from that point on my life has been totally different. Bryan joined a Christian Fellowship Church called the Vineyard, “The guy that led the church was the guy that converted Bob Dylan.” During Friday night Bible stints Bryan took the concert part of the session and was so amazed at the reaction he gradually assembled a catalogue of his Christian songs. His next move was to open a Christian night club in Beverley Hills called ‘The Daisy’ and when it closed in 1976 Bryan considered going full-time into the ministry but decided once again to devote himself to music. He played an unsuccessful reunion with Arthur in 1978 on two dates but wasn’t paid so he turned down the offer to join Arthur in a U.K. tour as the ‘original’ Love. Ironically the Bryan MacLean band got a gig supporting Arthur Lee’s Love at the Whisky in 1982 which resulted in a stoned Arthur constantly interrupting Bryan’s show and when physically rejected from the stage he threw a cup of hot coffee over Bryan, leaving him with, “a great sense of loss, over someone who’d once been a close friend. There were several attempts in the early 80’s to make a solo album for Rhino, which never came out due to Bryan’s continued problems with alcohol. In 1986 Bryan agreed to take Arthur’s place at a gig, as Arthur was too unwell to play the date. Debbie Boone had a hit with Bryan’s song ‘You Light Up My Life’ which was on her album for which she won a Grammy in 1990 and he worked for a period with his half sister, Maria McKee writing one song for the debut album by Lone Justice ‘Don’t Toss Us Away’ while she went on to success Bryan sank into obscurity. Then along with Arthur in the early 90’s he started to make a comeback. Bryan freely admitted that the small amount of success he had with Love nearly killed him and indeed it was some thirty years on from his late 60’s hey day with Love that his Love demos were discovered by his mother Elizabeth in their garage and after 2 years of persistent and patient shopping around record companies a deal was struck with Sundazed and the CD ‘ifyoubelievein’ was released in 1997 and was critically well received. He had completed a spiritual album of “spooky Christian music” and was about to record a brand new studio album. His famous song ‘Alone Again Or’ had been used on a Miller Draft advert in the U.S. and he’d just recorded a Spanish language version of the same song for the large Hispanic audience. It is a cruel irony that fate should deal him such a blow just as he was finally beginning to resurrect his career. The mantle of Love had fallen on Bryan as his Love partner Arthur Lee is two years into a twelve-year jail sentence for firearm offenses. It is hoped that as a fitting tribute to Bryan all those songs of the four decades since and including his time with Love will finally see the light of day* and then his true legacy will be seen for what it is after being shrouded in mystery for such a long time. He is a sad loss to the world of music and he leaves behind his mother Elizabeth and half sister Maria McKee. – David Housden (bryanmaclean.com)
Johnny Ace (Born John Alexander)
June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954
Johnny Ace, born John Marshall Alexander, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, was one of the stars of U.S. rhythm and blues singing. Alexander’s father was a preacher in Tennessee. After serving in the navy during the Korean War, Alexander joined Adolph Duncan’s Band as a pianist. He then joined the B. B. King band. Soon King departed for Los Angeles and Bobby Bland joined the army. Alexander took over vocal duties and renamed the band The Beale Streeters, also taking over King’s WDIA radio show. Becoming “Johnny Ace”, he signed to Duke Records (originally a Memphis label associated with WDIA) in 1952. My Song, his first recording, topped the R&B charts for nine weeks in September. (My Song was covered in 1968 by Aretha Franklin.) Ace began heavy touring, often with Willa Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. In the next two years, he had eight hits in a row, including “Cross My Heart,” “Please Forgive Me,” “The Clock,” “Yes, Baby.” and “Never Let Me Go.” In December, 1954 he was named the Most Programmed Artist Of 1954 after a national DJ poll organized by U.S. trade weekly Cash Box. Ace’s recordings sold very well for those times. Early in 1955, Duke Records announced that the three 1954 Johnny Ace recordings, along with Thornton’s “Hound Dog”, had sold more than 1,750,000 records. After touring for a year, Ace had been performing at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas on Christmas 1954. During a break between sets, Ace allegedly decided to play a game of Russian Roulette. He aimed a .45 caliber revolver at his girlfriend, Olivia Gibbs, and pulled the trigger. He then attempted to shoot her friend, Mary Carter. Both times, the hammer fell on an empty chamber. He then swiftly turned the gun on himself and ended his life. Big Mama Thornton, a witness to the shooting, said in a written statement (included in the book The Late Great Johnny Ace) that Ace had been playing with the gun, but not playing Russian Roulette. According to Thornton, Ace pointed the gun at his girlfriend and another woman who were sitting nearby, but did not fire. He then pointed the gun toward himself. The gun went off, shooting him in the side of the head. – From wikipedia
Nick Massi (Born Nicholas Macioci)
September 19, 1926 (or 1935) – December 24, 2000
Nick Massi, Third From Left
Nick Massi was an original member of the Four Seasons (performing on some of the band’s biggest hits, such as “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” and “Rag Doll”), supplying the bass vocal parts and helping arrange the band’s trademark vocal arrangements. Born Nicholas Macioci in Newark, NJ, on September 19, 1935, Massi honed his singing skills with several bands during his teenage years, before hooking up with the great Frankie Valli in a local band called the Four Lovers. By the early ’60s, the band had changed their name to the Four Seasons and by merging doo wop vocals with memorable love songs, the band enjoyed a staggering 17 hits on the Billboard Top 40, touring the world in the process. Fed up with the hectic lifestyle by 1965, Massi left the band. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and 11 years later on Christmas Eve, Massi succumbed to cancer in his hometown of Newark. – Greg Prato (allmusic)
Rick Nelson was one of the very biggest of the ’50s teen idols, so it took awhile for him to attain the same level of critical respectability as other early rock greats. Yet now the consensus is that he made some of the finest pop/rock recordings of his era. Sure, he had more promotional push than any other rock musician of the ’50s; no, he wasn’t the greatest singer; and yes, Elvis, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins, and others rocked harder. But Nelson was extraordinarily consistent during the first five years of his recording career, crafting pleasant pop-rockabilly hybrids with ace session players and projecting an archetype of the sensitive, reticent young adult with his accomplished vocals. He also played a somewhat underestimated role in rock & roll’s absorption into mainstream America — how bad could rock be if it was featured on one of America’s favorite family situation comedies on a weekly basis? Nelson entered professional entertainment before his tenth birthday, when he appeared with father Ozzie (once a jazz musician), mother Harriet, and brother David on a radio comedy series based around the family. By the early ’50s, the series was on television, and Ricky grew into a teenager in public. He was just the right age to have his life turned around by rock & roll in 1956 and started his recording career almost accidentally the following year. The story’s sometimes been told that he had no professional singing ambitions until he recorded his debut single to impress a girlfriend. The single, a cover of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’” that went to number four, was helped immensely (as all of his early singles would be) by plugs on the Ozzie & Harriet TV show. So far the script was adhering to the Pat Boone teen idol prototype — a whitewash of an R&B hit stealing the thunder from the pop audience, sung by a young, good-looking fella with barely any musical experience to speak of. What happened next was easy to predict commercially but surprisingly satisfying musically as well. Nelson was a fairly hip kid who preferred the rockabilly of Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley to the fodder dished out for teen idols, and over the next five years he would offer his own brand of rockabilly music, albeit one with some smooth Hollywood production touches and occasional pure pop ballads. Nelson recruited one of the greatest early rock guitarists, James Burton, to supply authentic licks (another great guitarist, Joe Maphis, played on some early sides). Some of his best and toughest songs (“Believe What You Say,” “It’s Late”) were written by Johnny and/or Dorsey Burnette, who had previously been in one of the best rockabilly combos, the Johnny Burnette Rock ‘n Roll Trio. Ricky could rock pretty hard when he wanted to, as on “Be-Bop Baby” and “Stood Up,” though in a polished fashion that wasn’t quite as wild and threatening as rockabilly’s Southern originators. Nelson really hit his stride, though, with mid-tempo numbers and ballads that provided a more secure niche for his calm vocals and narrow range. From 1957 to 1962, he was about the highest-selling singer in the U.S. except for Elvis, making the Top 40 about 30 times. “Poor Little Fool” and “Lonesome Town” (1958) were early indications of his ballad style; in the early ’60s, “Travelin’ Man,” “Young World,” “Teen Age Idol,” and other hits pointed to a more countrified, mature style as he honed in on his 21st birthday (by which time he would shorten his billing from “Ricky” to “Rick”). He could still play rockabilly from time to time, the most memorable example being “Hello, Mary Lou” (co-written by Gene Pitney), with its electrifying James Burton solos. Nelson was lured away from the Imperial label by a mammoth 20-year contract with Decca in 1963 (which would be terminated prematurely in the mid-’70s), and for a year or so the hits continued, at a less frenetic pace. Early-1964’s “For You,” however, would be his last big smash of the ’60s. The fault wasn’t all the Beatles and changing music trends — on both singles and albums, much of the material was either substandard pop or dusty Tin Pan Alley standards, although isolated tracks still generated some sparks. He wasn’t exactly starving, as he continued to appear on Ozzie and Harriet. But by the mid-’60s even that institution was declining in popularity, leading to its cancellation in 1966. Nelson had a strong country feel to much of his material from the beginning, and by the late ’60s it was becoming dominant. He covered straight country material by the likes of Willie Nelson and Doug Kershaw and formed one of the earliest country-rock groups, the Stone Canyon Band, with musicians who had played (or would play) with Poco, Buck Owens, Little Feat, and Roger McGuinn. A cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me” made the Top 40 in 1970, but his country-rock outings attracted more critical acclaim than commercial success, until 1972’s “Garden Party.” A rare self-composed number, based around the frosty reception granted his contemporary material at a rock & roll oldies show, it became his last Top Ten hit. Nelson would continue to record off and on for the next dozen years and toured constantly, yet he was unable to capitalize on his assets. A big part of the problem was that although Nelson wanted to play contemporary music, he didn’t write much of his own material, which was a basic precept of self-respecting rock acts after the advent of the Beatles. Nor did he tap into good outside compositions, and there’s little of interest on the albums he recorded over the last decade or so of his life. He died (along with his fiancée) in a private plane crash on December 31, 1985, on his way to a New Year’s Eve gig in Dallas, at the age of 45. – Richie Unterberger (allmusic)
Johnny Ace, born John Marshall Alexander, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, was one of the stars of 
