In Memoriam – September 2014
The round-up of September”s dead and their music comes prematurely this month because owing to travel commitments I shall be unable to complete the post in time for first Thursday of the next month. Of course next month”s In Memoriam will include the remainder of September”s musical deaths.
Just as there is an increased interest again in the Four Seasons, due to the release of the The Jersey Boys film, their long-time songwriter and producer Bob Crewe has died. Crew co-wrote classics, as lyricist, such as Big Girls Don”t Cry, Walk Like A Man, Sherry, Rag Doll, Can”t Take My Eyes Off You, Let”s Hang On, My Eyes Adored You and Bye, Bye, Baby for the Four Seasons/Frankie Valli, for whom he also wrote songs that became big hits for others, Silence Is Golden (for The Tremeloes) and The Sun Ain”t Gonna Shine Anymore (Walker Brothers).
Crewe”s first hit record was Silhouettes, recorded in 1957 by both The Rays and then The Diamonds, but a bigger hit later for Herman”s Hermits. The Rays” b-side was Daddy Cool, a 1977 hit for Darts, also co-written by Crewe. Later he wrote the lyrics to such hits as Music to Watch Girls By (which he originally recorded as The Bob Crewe Generation) and Lady Marmalade.
On the same day as Crewe died, we lost another musician featured (briefly) in The Jersey Boys was composer, arranger and musician Johnny Rotella. Like the next artist, he did session work for Steely Dan (on My Old School). Better yet, the multi-talented musician “” he played the saxophone, flute, piccolo “” played for Frank Zappa and wrote for Frank Sinatra. Early in his career he played with the big bands led by Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Billy Vaughn. He played on the scores for both Godfather films in the 1970s as well as The Wiz. He was a band regular on the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and played on many other television shows, including those hosted by Andy Williams and Sinatra.
In April we lost original Jazz Crusaders trombonist Wayne Henderson; in September the band”s great keyboardist Joe Sample left us. He stayed with The Crusaders until their end, in 1987. He wrote or co-wrote many of their great songs, including the two classics featuring Randy Crawford, Streetlife and One Day I”ll Fly Away. In between he released a few acclaimed solo albums. He also did a lot of session work, much of it on songs heard in the Covered With Soul and Any Major Soul series (Merry Clayton, Maxine Weldon, Marvin Gaye, Minnie Riperton),for jazz giants (Gene Ammon, Quincy Jones) and legends of rock and folk (Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Steely Dan, Tina Turner, for whom he produced her slowed-down version of The Beatles” Help). Conscious of his mortality, in 2011 Sample put the band together again, with Henderson, saxophonist Wilton Felder and flautist Hubert Laws, but without drummer Stix Hooper, who declined taking part.
Depending on your age, Polly Bergen may not be remembered so much as a singer — despite releasing 11 albums, singing on her 1960s TV show and appearing in Broadway musicals “” but as an actress. As a fan of the TV series The Sopranos I feel duty-bound, however, to give her a special mention: in the show she played the former mistress of Tony”s father Read more…
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