More lives to remember

It's time to catch up on the latest batch of deaths - and as ever there have been quite a few.
Reather Dixon of the Bobbettes, died of a heart attack last week aged 68. Reather was only 12 when
she and four other girls from Harlem recorded Mr Lee, a huge R and B hit on Atlantic in 1957 about their school teacher. Other hits followed but Atlantic disapproved of the follow up I Shot Mr Lee, which was re-recorded for the small Triple X label and issued in the UK on Pye International. Other singles included Have Mercy Baby, Dance With Me Georgie and I Don't Like It Like That. The Bobbettes toured the oldies circuit in later years and I was bowled
over by their professionalism and vocals when I saw them at Rhythm Riot in 2011. My photo shows Reather at Rhythm Riot.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cFIxUl7NBM
One of the cult TV shows that I listed on the blog a few years ago was The Champions, about three people with extraordinary powers. One of them was one of the great British sex symbols of the sixties Alexandra Bastedo, who has died of cancer aged 67. She co-
presented Miss World during the 1980s and appeared in an episode of Ab Fab in the 1990s as a former sixties model. As my mate John S commented: 'top totty'!
I haven't seen it confirmed as yet, but I hear that British rocker Freddie 'Fingers' Lee has passed away. A wildman who wore an eyepatch and played with Screaming Lord Sutch in the early sixties, Freddie made his name in Hamburg, like so many British artists of the time, playing with the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Little
Richard. He recorded some singles for Fontana and Columbia in the mid sixties, but became best known when he appeared in the revival of the Oh Boy! TV show in 1979.
One death that won't be lamented by some in the music business is that of Saul Zaentz, former owner of Fantasy Records, who had a long running battle with John Fogerty, whose band Creedence Clearwater Revival, were signed by Fantasy but who were then cheated over copyright of songs, it was said. Fogerty fought him in court and won, but referred to him as Mr Greed in thinly veiled terms on his Centerfield album. Zaentz went into the movie business and won the Oscar for Best Picture for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient.