Recent music deaths

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've been away in Jamaica for the last couple of weeks. This was my first overseas trip in two years and it was great to escape from the cold winter in England to some Caribbean subshine. But from a music point of view it was something of a let down as there is a curfew in place and no live music in the evenings. I got to visit Bob Marley's birthplace and mausoleum at Nine Mile which was interesting and I did some record digging in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, without much success it has to be said. But we found a locals bar in Runaway Bay where the music was good and the company friendly, and, with a the help of a rented car, saw a good bit of the what is a beautiful island. Meanwhile there was the inevitable spate of music deaths, underlining yet again the alarming decline in numbers of original artists still around.

One of those was Freddie Hughes, one of the Bay Area's foremost soul singers, who died aged 79. Based in Oakland, Freddie enjoyed success in 1968 with 'Send My Baby Back'. He first recorded in tha late fifties with a group called the Markeets and then joined the Four Rivers, who sang back up for James Brown, Richard Berry and Big Mama Thornton. Later he suffered from confusion with the similarly named West Coast soul artist Fred Hughes who had a hit with 'Ooh Wee Baby' on Brunswick. When I visited San Francisco in 2014 Freddie had a regular gig with Chris Burns at the Royal Cuckoo bar where I saw him and was impressed by his smooth soulful voice. He toured the UK some years ago and had a compilation album released by Ace which he claimed he did not receive any royalties for. The photo above shows Freddie with me, while the one below shows Freddie at the Royal Cuckoo.

Another recent death. at the age of 85. is that of Fred Parris, who was lead singer of the Five Satins and who wrote their classic doowop song 'In The Still Of The Night'. The song was later covered by many artists, including the Beach Boys, and was used in 'Dirty Dancing'. I saw Fred Parris and a later version of the Five Satins at the Long Island Doowop weekend in 2014 and he is pictured below.

We also say farewell to Dallas Frazier, a singer/songwriter, who wrote 'Alley Oop', a big hit in 1960 for the Hollywood Argylls, and had a hit himself with 'Elvira' in 1966. He was best known as a songwriter with credits including 'There Goes My Everything' (Jack Greene but a big hit in the UK for Engelbert Humperdinck), and 'Beneath Still Waters' (Emmylou Harris).

Other artists to have passed on recently include Don Wilson, who was a founding member and rhythm guitar player with the Ventures, who had so many great instrumental hits in the sixties.

Also Sonny Turner, who replaced Tony Williams as lead singer of the Platters in 1959 and who moved them into soul with hits such as 'I Love You 1000 Times'. 'Washed Ashore' and 'With This Ring' between 1966 and 1968.

Also, of course, to Meat Loaf at the age of 74, whose death has been widely reported. I can't say that I followed his career closely, but I do recall his excellent videos promoting 'Bat Out Of Hell' and 'Dead Ringer For Love' which were both rock super hits. I forgot in my original post to include Rosa Lee Hawkins, a member of New Orleans' top female group the Dixie Cups. who were regulars at Jazzfest and whose hits included 'Chapel of Love', 'People Say', 'You Should Have Seen The Way He Looked at Me' and 'Iko Iko'. I was always a big fan of the group and my photo shows them performing at Jazzfest in 1993.