Tiny Tim (Born Herbert Khaury)
April 12, 1932 – November 30, 1996
Tiny Tim was a folk singer and musician who found fame during the ’60s with the release of his signature song, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” sung in his distinctive falsetto voice and backed only by his ukulele. Tiny Tim started his career as a street performer in and around Harvard during the early ’60s. There he built a cult following which lead to an appearance on Laugh-In which lead to a record deal with Reprise Records. He recorded three albums for Reprise and became an iconic figure thanks to numerous television appearances, like the time he married “Miss Vickie” live on the December 17, 1969 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The stunt drew an estimated audience of over 40 million. Even though he continued to release such novelties as a cover of Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” and “Earth Angel,” Tiny Tim all but vanished during the ’70s and ’80s as his popularity faded. His profile increased occasionally during the ’90s thanks to occasional appearances on the Howard Stern Show. In September of 1996, Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack while performing at a ukelele festival. And despite advice from his doctors, he peformed at a benefit just two months later. Tiny Tim was 64 when he sufffered a fatal heart attack while singing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” at that event.
Scott Smith is best remembered as the original bassist for the Canadian rock band, Loverboy who had a string of hits during the ’80s. Learning to play the guitar as a child, Smith switched over to bass just as he was hitting his teen years. While in college in 1980, he was asked to join Loverboy. The band’s debut self titled album was a hit, selling over 2 million copies in the U.S. alone and helping the band land tours with such superstar acts as Journey, ZZ Top, and Cheap Trick. The band released a series of hit singles that included “Working For The Weekend,” “Turn Me Loose,” and “The Kid Is Hot Tonight.” The band would become synonomous with ’80s arena rock. The band broke up in the late ’80s, but reunited in 1991. On November 30, 2000, Scott Smith lost his life at sea after being swept overboard by an unexpected wave while sailing with friends off the coast of San Francisco. He was 45 years old.
Munetaka Higuchi
December 24, 1958 – November 30, 2008
Munetaka Higuchi was he founding drummer for Japanese metal band, Loudness. A talented musician from an early age, Higuchi played in several bands while still in high school. In 1981, he and friend, Akira Takasaki, formed Loudness who became the first Japanese heavy metal band to land a recording contract in the United States. Higuchi released a solo album, Destruction, while still in the band, and then left in 1992 to launch a solo career. In 1997, he released Free World, and album that included such guests as Terry Bozzio, Steve Vai, Stanley Clarke, Billy Sheehan and Ronnie James Dio. Higuchi reunited with Loudness in 2001. On November 30, 2008, Munetaka Higuchi died of liver cancer at the age of 49.
George Harrison
February 24*, 1943 – November 29, 2001
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George Harrison achieved massive fame and success as the lead guitarist for the Beatles. His post-Beatles career, whether as a solo artist or member of the Traveling Wilburys was just as critically acclaimed. Born in Liverpool, London, Harrison was still in grade school when he got his first guitar. Before long, he formed his own skiffle band, the Rebels. Another of his schoolmates, Paul McCartney had a band as well, the Quarrymen, along with John Lennon. Harrison was just 16 when McCartney heard his guitar playing and asked him to join the band. The group would soon morph into the Beatles, made up of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best, who was later replaced by Ringo Starr. Following the unexpected 1962 death of Sutcliffe, it would be Harrison along with Lennon, McCartney and Starr, who would forever change the landscape of popular music. Although Lennon and McCartney were the primary songwriters of the group, Harrison contributed such later hits as “Taxman,” “Within You Without You,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Following the Beatles’ break-up in 1970, Harrison immediately launched a successful solo career with the release of All Things Must Pass which included his first hit, “My Sweet Lord.” Over the better part of the next two decades, Harrison released a series of critical and commercial successes which included The Concert For Bangladesh, Living In The Material World, Dark Horse, and Cloud Nine. In 1988, Harrison formed the popular “supergroup,” the Traveling Wilburys which included Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty. Harrison also found success in the film industry. In 1978, he started his own production company, HandMade Films. Over the next 15 years, his company released such hits as Life of Brian, Shanghai Surprise and Time Bandits. On December 30, 1999, Harrison was the victim of an attack that was frightening similar to the one that killed John Lennon. In the early morning hours, Harrison and his wife, Olivia Harrison, were startled to hear an intruder loudly calling out George’s name from another room in their house. When he confronted the crazed man, he was stabbed seven times in a struggle that reportedly lasted 15 minutes. The assailant was subdued with the help of Olivia who hit him numerous times with a fireplace poker. George suffered a punctured lung and head injuries. The incident caused him to all but eliminate public appearances from that day forward. In 1997, Harrison discovered he was suffering from lung cancer. He was 58 when he died of the cancer on November 29, 2001.
*Despite what is reported elsewhere, George Harrison was actually born just before midnight on February 24, 1943. The wrong date was mistakenly written on his birth certificate. It was brought to his attention later in life.
Bill Drake (Born Philip Yarbrough)
January 14, 1937 – November 29, 2008
Bill Drake was a pioneering radio programmer and disc jockey who, along with his partner Gene Chenault, developed the popular ’60s format of Boss Radio. Beginning his career during the ’50s, Drake joined up with Chenualt by the early ’60s and created a format that was more focused on the immediate hits and the hip personalities of such DJs as the Real Don Steele and Robert W. Morgan. They helped bring fun and excitement to radio with the help of boss radio jingles, less commercials, shorter DJ segments between songs, and of course, more music. Drake also introduced market research into the radio business to make sure his stations were playing what the kids wanted to hear. It was still Top 40 radio, only better for its era. The excitement of the British Invasion in 1964 only helped solidify the format and turn dying radio stations into local powerhouses. One of those stations was Los Angeles based 93 KHJ, where Drake worked until 1973. Bill Drake was 71 when he died of lung cancer on November 29, 2008.
David “Butch” McDade
February 24, 1946 – November 29, 1998
Butch McDade is best remembered as the founding drummer and sometime vocalist for country-rock band, the Amazing Rhythm Aces. With a sound that has been compared to the Eagles, the Amazing Rhythm Aces found moderate popularity during the late ’70s after forming out of the ashes of a band lead by Jesse Winchester who moved to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft. The band released several albums during the ’70s and ‘8os and won a Grammy for the song, “The End Is Not In Site.” Outside of the Amazing Rhythm Aces, McDade played in the touring bands of, among others, Roy Clark, Leon Russell, and Lonnie Mack. Butch McDade was 52 when he died of cancer on November 29, 1998.
Paul Ryan was a British singer-songwriter and producer who, along with his twin brother, Barry, performed as Paul & Barry Ryan during the ’60s. Paul eventually left the limelight to concentrate on his songwriting. His “Eloise” became a hit for the then-solo, Barry in 1968. The song found a new life when the Damned’s cover of it landed at #3 on the UK singles chart in 1986. Frank Sinatra and Dana Scallon also made hits out of Paul Ryan’s songs. He was 44 when he died of cancer on November 29, 2009.
Bob Keane (Born Robert Kuhn)
January 5, 1922 – November 28, 2009
Bob Keane was the founder of Del-Fi Records, the first label to give a young Ritchie Valens a recording contract. Keane began his music career as a clarinetist who, after a 1938 concert by his jazz band was broadcast on Los Angeles radio station, KFWB, was offered a record deal by MCA Records. A couple of years later, he was dropped by the label so he enlisted in the army. Upon his return home from duty, Keane picked up where he left off, playing in local clubs around Los Angeles. In 1955, Keane and a partner formed the label, Keen Records, and released a single by then unknown soul singer, Sam Cooke. The song was “Summertime,” but it was the b-side “You Send Me” that started to get attention at radio, quickly sending it to #1 on the Billboard pop chart. Unfortunately for Keane, he made an oral agreement with his partner, and before he could collect any of the “You Send Me” earnings, he was out the door. He soon formed his own label, Del-Fi Records and discovered Valens, a young Latino rock ‘n roller from Pacoima, CA. Over the next several months, Keane released hit after hit records by Valens but sadly, the musician was killed the following year in the plane crash that also took the lives of Buddy Holly and JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson. The label continued on, eventually signing a stable of artists that were just as important to the legacy of popular music as Valens had been. That list included the Surfaris, Frank Zappa, Brenda Holloway, and the Bobby Fuller Four. In 1967, Keane shuttered the label and went on to manage his sons’ band. He sold the Del-Fi catalog to the Warner Music Group in 2003. On November 28, 2009, Bob Keane, 87, died of renal failure.
Al Alberts was a popular singer who came to fame as a founding member and lead singer of the 1950s pop vocal group, the Four Aces. Formed with friend Dave Mahoney in 1950 after the two got out of the navy, the Four Aces released a series of million selling singles, including “Three Coins in the Fountain,” and their signature song, “Love is a Many Splendored Thing,” which won an Academy Award for best song in 1955. Alberts was also a television star of the day, hosting his own talent show, Al Alberts Showcase. Andrea McArdle of Annie fame, Teddy Pendergrass and Sister Sledge all performed on the program to help launch their careers. The show ran from 1962 until Alberts’ retirement in 1994. Al Alberts, 87, died of apparent kidney failure on November 27, 2009.
Barbara Acklin
February 28, 1944 – November 27, 1998
Barbara Acklin was a popular soul singer and successful songwriter during the ’60s and ’70s. After singing in church and then Chicago area nightclubs while still a teenager, Acklin was hired by Chess Records to sing backup for the likes of Etta James and Fontella Bass. In 1966, Acklin was hired as a receptionist for Brunswick Records where she had to chance to hand a song she had co-written to Jackie Wilson. That song was “Whispers (Gettin’ Louder)” which Wilson made into a top 5 R&B and #11 pop hit. That was enough to land Acklin a recording contract with Brunswick. Acklin released several charting singles over the next decade, including “Show Me the Way” (a duet with Gene Chandler), “Love Makes a Woman,” and “Am I the Same Girl,” which was later covered by Dusty Springfield, the Manhattan Transfer, and Swing Out Sister. Acklin’s biggest hit as a songwriter came with the release of “Have You Seen Her,” a song she co-wrote with Eugene Record and turned into a chart topping hit by his group, the Chi-Lites. Barbara Acklin was 54 when she died of pneumonia.
Butch McDade is best remembered as the founding drummer and sometime vocalist for country-rock band, the Amazing Rhythm Aces. With a sound that has been compared to the Eagles, the Amazing Rhythm Aces found moderate popularity during the late ’70s after forming out of the ashes of a band lead by Jesse Winchester who moved to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft. The band released several albums during the ’70s and ‘8os and won a Grammy for the song, “The End Is Not In Site.” Outside of the Amazing Rhythm Aces, McDade played in the touring bands of, among others, Roy Clark, Leon Russell, and Lonnie Mack. Butch McDade was 52 when he died of cancer on November 29, 1998.
Bob Keane was the founder of Del-Fi Records, the first label to give a young 
Barbara Acklin was a popular soul singer and successful songwriter during the ’60s and ’70s. After singing in church and then Chicago area nightclubs while still a teenager, Acklin was hired by Chess Records to sing backup for the likes of Etta James and Fontella Bass. In 1966, Acklin was hired as a receptionist for Brunswick Records where she had to chance to hand a song she had co-written to 
The Music's Over 