MCRFB Current News – Motor City Radio Flashbacks

NATALIE COLE, POP/R&B SONGSTRESS, HAS DIED AT 65

OBITUARIES

Natalie Cole has died at 65; ‘Unforgettable’ singer was daughter of legendary Nat King Cole

By Randy Lewis and Frank Shyong | LA TIMES Staff Writers | January 01, 2016; 9:38 am

Singer Natalie Cole, the daughter of music great Nat King Cole who became a recording star in her own right with hits that spanned three decades, has died, her publicist, Maureen O’Connor, said.

She was 65 years old.

Cole is perhaps best known for her 1991 multiple Grammy-winning album “Unforgettable: With Love,” which became the biggest hit of her career — selling more than 6 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Cole wowed audiences with a seamless duet with her late father’s voice on the title tune, one of the elder Cole’s signature numbers.

Other hits included “This Will Be,” “Our Love” and a cover of “Pink Cadillac.”

But for all of Cole’s successes, her life was also marked by years of serious health problems.

Cole’s move to singing was accidental. She was a pre-med student at the University of Massachusetts when a friend — who was singing with a local group — fell ill the night of a show and asked whether Cole would stand in for him. He had heard her sing informally at parties. She ended up taking his place in the group and setting aside a medical career.

Cole’s name helped and hurt. It resulted in a lot of club bookings, but also led to embarrassing moments like the night one club marquee read, “Appearing tonight: The daughter of Nat King Cole.”

Cole’s ace in the hole was the fact she really could sing. CONTINUE

MCRFB note: For the rest of this Los Angeles Times Natalie Cole Obituary article (January 01, 2016), please GO HERE.

For more on Natalie Cole’s death please GO HERE.

**NATALIE COLE 1950-2015** *(click on image 2x for largest view)*

BILLY JOE ROYAL, POP/COUNTRY SINGER, DEAD AT 73

OBITUARIES

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’60s POP / COUNTRY SINGER BILLY JOE ROYAL DIES AT 73

By William Grimes | NY TIMES Staff Writer | October 07, 2015

Billy Joe Royal, Singer, Dies at 73; His ‘Down in the Boondocks’ Was a Hit – NYTimes.com

Billy Joe Royal, a pop and country singer best known for his 1965 hit, “Down In The Boondocks,” died Tuesday at his home in Morehead City, N.C., He was 73.

The cause has not been determined, his publicist, Brent Taylor, said, adding that Mr. Royal had performed at a concert as recently as Sept. 24 and had a full touring schedule lined up for the fall.

Mr. Royal, who sang with a tremulous tenor and an intense delivery, had his biggest hits with several songs written and produced by Joe South. The top seller was “Down in the Boondocks,” the bitter lament of a boy from the wrong side of the tracks in love with a rich girl, which reached No. 9 on the pop charts.

“I guess people related to poor people,” Mr. Royal told The Chicago Tribune in 1990. “Once in a while I hear it on the radio, and it still stands up. The song meant everything to my career. I was making about $125 a week before that.”

He hit the charts with two other songs by Mr. South, “Hush” and “I Knew You When,” and ended the decade in the Top 20 with “Cherry Hill Park” (1969). CONT.

MCRFB note: For the rest of this New York Times Billy Joe Royal Obituary article (October 07, 2015), please GO HERE.

‘PILLOW TALK’ 100.3 WNIC HOST, ALAN ALMOND, DIES

DETROIT RADIO MOURNS PASSING OF NIGHT-TIME RADIO LEGEND ALAN ALMOND

(Click the name ALAN ALMOND for the Detroit Free Press 10/10/1993 article)

‘HOW DETROIT SWOONED FOR ALAN ALMOND’S “PILLOW TALK” ‘

FOR THE ABOVE STORY PLEASE VISIT FREEP.COM. FOR MORE ON ALAN ALMOND, ARCHIVED HERE ON MOTOR CITY RADIO FLASHBACKS, PLEASE GO HERE.

B. B. KING, WHO INSPIRED A GENERATION, DIES AT 89

OBITUARIES

BLUES LEGEND B. B. KING, INSPIRATION TO GENERATIONS OF MUSICIANS, DIES AT 89

By Randy Lewis | LA TIMES Staff Writer | May 15, 2015, 12:04 AM

B.B. King, the singer and guitarist who put the blues in a three-piece suit and took the musical genre from the barrooms and back porches of the Mississippi Delta to Carnegie Hall and the world’s toniest concert stages with a signature style emulated by generations of blues and rock musicians, has died. He was 89..

The 15-time Grammy Award winner died Thursday night in his Las Vegas home, said Angela Moore, representative for his youngest daughter, Claudette. He had struggled in recent years with diabetes.

King died peacefully in his sleep, Claudette King told The Times.

Early on, King transcended his musical shortcomings — an inability to play guitar leads while he sang and a failure to master the use of a bottleneck or slide favored by many of his guitar-playing peers — and created a unique style that made him one of the most respected and influential blues musicians ever.

“B.B. King taps into something universal,” Eric Clapton told The Times in 2005. “He can’t be confined to any one genre. That’s why I’ve called him a ‘global musician.'”

Because King couldn’t figure out how to play and sing simultaneously, he separated the two functions, laying the blueprint for the sung verse followed by the extended solo passage that would become a crucial element in blues as well as in rock music rooted in the blues. That template was exploited by subsequent generations of players, from Clapton and Jimi Hendrix on through to John Mayer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Finding that he couldn’t make his elegantly long but thick fingers work the beer bottlenecks and metal slides used by so many other blues guitarists, he discovered that he could emulate that effect by rocking the fingers of his left hand rapidly on the guitar’s frets similar to the way a classical violinist creates vibrato, establishing a ringing tremolo that became his hallmark.

MCRFB Note: For the rest of this Los Angeles Times B. B. King Obituary article (May 15, 2015) please GO HERE.

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**Legendary bluesman B. B. King** *circa* **1971**

ROLLING STONES WILL ZIP MOTOR CITY: SUMMER! 2015

Lesley Gore, Teen Heartbreak Hits Icon, Dies at 68

OBITUARIES

’60s TEEN FAVE LESLEY GORE DIES OF LUNG CANCER AT 68

By John Pareles | NY TIMES Staff Writer | February 16, 2015, 4:30 PM

Lesley Gore, Teenage Voice of Heartbreak, Dies at 68 – NYTimes.com .

Lesley Gore circa 1963 (click on image for largest view). — **Lesley Gore** circa 1963 *(click on image for largest view).*

LESLEY GORE, who was a teenager in the 1960s when she recorded hit songs about heartbreak and resilience that went on to become feminist touchstones, died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 68.

Lois Sasson, her partner of 33 years, said Ms. Gore, a nonsmoker, died of lung cancer at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital.

With songs like “It’s My Party,” “Judy’s Turn to Cry” and the indelibly defiant 1964 single “You Don’t Own Me” — all recorded before she was 18 — Ms. Gore made herself the voice of teenage girls aggrieved by fickle boyfriends, moving quickly from tearful self-pity to fierce self-assertion.

“You Don’t Own Me,” written by John Madara and David White, originally reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It has been repeatedly rerecorded and revived by performers including Dusty Springfield, Joan Jett and the cast of the 1996 movie “The First Wives Club.”

“When I heard it for the first time, I thought it had an important humanist quality,” Ms. Gore told The Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2010. “As I got older, feminism became more a part of my life and more a part of our whole awareness, and I could see why people would use it as a feminist anthem. I don’t care what age you are — whether you’re 16 or 116 — there’s nothing more wonderful than standing on the stage and shaking your finger and singing, ‘Don’t tell me what to do.’ ”

MCRFB note: For the rest of this New York Times Lesley Gore Obituary article (February 16, 2015), please GO HERE.

Lesley Gore, celebrating on her 18th birthday, photograped at New York's Delmonico Hotel, May 5, 1964. (Click on image 2x for largest view). — **Lesley Gore, celebrating on her 18th birthday, photograped at New York’s Delmonico Hotel, May 5, 1964.** *(Click on image 2x for largest view).*

DETROIT MOTOWN SINGER JIMMY RUFFIN DEAD AT 78

OBITUARIES

MOTOWN SINGER JIMMY RUFFIN DIES AT 78

By Randy Lewis | LA TIMES Staff Writer | November 19, 2014, 3:55 PM

Any suspicions that soul singer Jimmy Ruffin might have harbored hard feelings after his younger brother, David, snatched one of the great gigs in 1960s pop music out of his hands would have been dispelled when the siblings came together in 1970 to collaborate on a harmonious update of Ben E. King’s signature ode to solidarity, “Stand By Me.”

“Jimmy Ruffin was a phenomenal singer. He was truly underrated.”
– Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records

Motown's Jimmy Ruffin circa 1966 — *Motown’s Jimmy Ruffin circa 1966*

Jimmy Ruffin, who died Monday in a Las Vegas hospital at age 78, had been in the running to join the lineup of Motown Records’ great male vocal group the Temptations in 1964. But when the other members of the group heard David sing, they gave him the job for his slightly grittier sound.

That didn’t sideline Jimmy for long: He heard a song that Motown writers William Weatherspoon, Paul Riser and James Dean had crafted with the Spinners in mind, and persuaded them to let him record it.

“What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” a lament for the anguish a man feels in the face of love that has departed, gave Ruffin his first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It ignited a solo career that comprised 10 other charted singles, the last of which, “Hold On To My Love,” brought him back to the Top 10 in 1980 during a new round of popularity, the result of his move to England to further his career overseas.

“Jimmy Ruffin was a phenomenal singer,” Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement Wednesday. “He was truly underrated because we were also fortunate to have his brother, David, as the lead singer of the Temptations, who got so much acclaim. Jimmy, as a solo artist, had ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,’ one of the greatest songs put out by Motown and also one of my personal favorites.”

MCRFB note: For the rest of this Los Angeles Times Jimmy Ruffin Obituary article (November 19, 2014), please GO HERE.

Randy Lewis | Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

PAUL REVERE, FOUNDER OF RAIDERS FAME, DIES AT 76

OBITUARIES

Paul Revere dies at 76, founded Paul Revere and the Raiders

By Claire Noland | LA TIMES Staff Writer | October 5, 2014, 3:14 PM

Paul Revere and The Raiders on the Smothers Brothers Show, 1967 (click on image for larger view). — Paul Revere and The Raiders on the Smothers Brothers Show, 1967 *(click on image for larger view).*

Paul Revere, a teenage businessman who found an outlet for his entrepreneurial spirit in the form of a campy rock ‘n’ roll band that capitalized on his name, wore Revolutionary War-era costumes and cranked out a string of grungy hits in the mid-1960s, has died. The founder of Paul Revere and the Raiders was 76..

Revere died Saturday of cancer at his home in Garden Valley, Idaho, his longtime manager Roger Hart told the Associated Press. After a near-constant touring schedule in recent years, Revere retreated six months ago to his adopted home state because of health issues, said his tour manager, Ron Lemen.

Along with singer and saxophonist Mark Lindsay, Revere, a keyboard player, formed a band called the Downbeats in Boise in 1959. Within a few years they would become Paul Revere and the Raiders, string together top-10 pop hits including “Kicks,” “Hungry” and “Good Thing” and become fixtures of Dick Clark’s weekday afternoon TV show “Where the Action Is.”

MCRFB note: For the rest of this Los Angeles Times Paul Revere Obituary article (October 5, 2014), please GO HERE.

Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1966. — Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1966 *(click on image for detailed view)*.

FOUR SEASONS PRODUCER, BOB CREWE, DIES AT 82

The influential record producer and co-writer of ‘Rag Doll’ and ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ lived in Scarborough.

News | Posted Yesterday at 11:36 PM | Updated at 6:29 AM

By Dennis Hoey PPH Staff Writer
Songwriter and record producer Bob Crewe, who discovered and co-wrote songs for The Four Seasons in the 1960s, including numerous hits that led to his inclusion in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, died at his Scarborough home Thursday morning. He was 83.

Dan Crewe of Cumberland said his brother had been living at the Piper Shores nursing care facility in Scarborough since he fell and injured his brain three years ago.

“He created The Four Seasons,” Dan Crewe said by telephone Thursday night. “But he will be remembered for the actual songs he wrote, the quality of those songs, which are now considered the standards of the rock ‘n’ roll era.”

The long-running Broadway show “Jersey Boys” and a 2014 movie by the same name directed by Clint Eastwood were based on the lives and careers of bandmates in The Four Seasons. Actor Mike Doyle portrays Crewe in the film.

After deciding that he didn’t want to become an architect, he started recording demo records and writing songs. Crewe and Frank C. Slay went on to co-write hits such as “Silhouettes” for The Rays and “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” for Freddie Cannon, according to his brother.

Dan Crewe said his brother’s character and “striking good looks” elevated him to teen idol status, landing him on the cover of 16 Magazine and appearances on early 1960 talent shows like those hosted by Dick Clark.

MCRFB note: For the rest of this Portland Press Herald Bob Crewe article (September 11, 2014) please go here.

Independent music producer Bob Crewe circa 1965. — **BOB CREWE November 12, 1931 — September 11, 2014**

FORMER ’70S CKLW ALUMNI LEE MARSHALL DIES AT 64

OBITUARIES

Lee Marshall dies at 64; voice of Tony the Tiger

By Steve Chawkins

May 6, 2014, 4:13 PM

Former CKLW jock/newsman Lee Marshall — Former 1970s CKLW newsman/jock *Lee Marshall*

L E E M A R S H A L L wasn’t born Tony The Tiger.

With his magnificent basso profundo reverberating in wrestling arenas and radio newsrooms for decades, he had to earn his stripes.

Marshall, who first voiced the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes icon in 1999, died April 26 at a Santa Monica hospital. He was 64 and had esophageal cancer, his son Jason Marshall VanBorssum said.

A sports broadcaster and a rock ‘n’ roll deejay as well as a ring announcer and voiceover artist, Marshall spoke in deep, rich, practically evangelical tones that turned out to be ideal for selling cereal and a whole lot more.

“If God ever wanted to make a speech,” former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda once quipped, “Lee Marshall would get the call.”

The original Tony the Tiger was an actor named Thurl Ravenscroft, whose line “They’re g-r-r-r-e-a-t” resonated across the airwaves from 1952 until months before his 2005 death at age 91. In interviews, Marshall said he started helping out as Tony when Ravenscroft was in his 80s and had an increasingly difficult time with dialogue.

MCRFB note: For the rest of this LA Times Lee Marshall obituary (May 06, 2014) please go here.

Category: MCRFB Current News

NATALIE COLE, POP/R&B SONGSTRESS, HAS DIED AT 65

OBITUARIES

Natalie Cole has died at 65; ‘Unforgettable’ singer was daughter of legendary Nat King Cole

BILLY JOE ROYAL, POP/COUNTRY SINGER, DEAD AT 73

OBITUARIES

’60s POP / COUNTRY SINGER BILLY JOE ROYAL DIES AT 73

‘PILLOW TALK’ 100.3 WNIC HOST, ALAN ALMOND, DIES

DETROIT RADIO MOURNS PASSING OF NIGHT-TIME RADIO LEGEND ALAN ALMOND

‘HOW DETROIT SWOONED FOR ALAN ALMOND’S “PILLOW TALK” ‘

B. B. KING, WHO INSPIRED A GENERATION, DIES AT 89

OBITUARIES

BLUES LEGEND B. B. KING, INSPIRATION TO GENERATIONS OF MUSICIANS, DIES AT 89

ROLLING STONES WILL ZIP MOTOR CITY: SUMMER! 2015

Lesley Gore, Teen Heartbreak Hits Icon, Dies at 68

OBITUARIES

’60s TEEN FAVE LESLEY GORE DIES OF LUNG CANCER AT 68

DETROIT MOTOWN SINGER JIMMY RUFFIN DEAD AT 78

OBITUARIES

MOTOWN SINGER JIMMY RUFFIN DIES AT 78

Randy Lewis | Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

PAUL REVERE, FOUNDER OF RAIDERS FAME, DIES AT 76

OBITUARIES

Paul Revere dies at 76, founded Paul Revere and the Raiders

Claire Noland | Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

FOUR SEASONS PRODUCER, BOB CREWE, DIES AT 82

The influential record producer and co-writer of ‘Rag Doll’ and ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ lived in Scarborough.

News | Posted Yesterday at 11:36 PM | Updated at 6:29 AM

Dennis Hoey | Copyright © 2014, Portland Press Herald

FORMER ’70S CKLW ALUMNI LEE MARSHALL DIES AT 64

OBITUARIES

Lee Marshall dies at 64; voice of Tony the Tiger

By Steve Chawkins

May 6, 2014, 4:13 PM

Steve Chawkins | Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times