Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

I posted Any Major Southern Rock Vol. 1 in November 2020, and have played that collection often since. Every time I’ve been reminding myself to do the follow-up which the first mix’s designation as “Volume 1” promised. Finally, I got around to doing it.

As promised in the linernotes to Volume 1, this mix includes some latter Southern Rock tracks (but still no Kid Rock). They kick off the mix, with the Drive-By Truckers setting their Southern Rock-citing song in Alabama. It is from their 2001 concept album Southern Rock Opera, which used the story of Lynryrd Skynyrd as a plot device and was recorded in Birmingham, Alabama.  It is on that basis that they qualify for this mix, apart from founders Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley being from The Shoals region of Alabama, and the band having been founded in Athens, Georgia.

Another act that one would not expect to find in a Southern Rock mix is the Bellamy Brothers. They were country singers with a mojo for good pick-up lines. But their 1980 track Spiders And Snakes totally is Southern Rock. Which raises the question whether you need a membership card to create Southern Rock.

Of course, the bulk here are bona fide Southern Rock merchants, even if some of them left that camp to dabble in other sub-genres.

As noted in the In Memoriam – March 2023, with the death of Gary Rossington, there are no more members of the classic Freebird-era Lynyrd Skynyrd line-up alive. However, the track on this mix, One More Time, is from 1977’s Streets Survivors album, from which drummer Artemus Pyle still whiles with us. He survived the plane crash shortly after the album’s release that killed frontman Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backing singer Cassie Gaines.

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a CD-R (excluding the bonus tracks, of course), and includes home-guitarsoloed covers. PW in comments.

1. Drive-By Truckers – Let There Be Rock (2001)
2. Doc Holliday – Fire On The Mountain (2005)
3. The Steel Woods – Better In The Fall (2017)
4. The Black Crowes – Wiser Time (1994)
5. Blackfoot – Summer Days (1984)
6. Bellamy Brothers – Spiders And Snakes (1980)
7. Atlanta Rhythm Section – Back Up Against The Wall (1977)
8. Molly Hatchet – Fall Of The Peacemakers (1983)
9. Lynyrd Skynyrd – One More Time (1977)
10. Marshall Tucker Band – Take The Highway (1973)
11. Little Feat – Two Trains (1973)
12. Allman Brothers Band – Midnight Rider (1970)
13. Elvin Bishop – Sure Feels Good (1975)
14. The Outlaws – There Goes Another Love Song (1975)
15. Wet Willie – The Hard Way (1979)
16. Henry Paul Band – Grey Ghost (1978)
17. ZZ Top – It’s Only Love (1976)
18. Black Oak Arkansas – Hey Y’all (1974)
Bonus Tracks:
19. . 38 Special – Hold On Loosely (1980)
20. Georgia Satellites – Battleship Chains (1986)
21. Bishop Black – Southern Hospitality (2009)

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More Mix CD-Rs

Much of the music in these 14 volumes may be classified by some people as “Yacht Rock”, a term I deeply dislike. But in that, I am probably fighting a losing battle; the recent entertaining HBO documentary on the genre once known as soft rock, AOR or West Coast rock actually celebrated the term “Yacht Rock”, even incorporating it in its title.

The documentary makers seemed to acknowledge that not everybody likes the term “Yacht Rock” when they replayed their phone conversation with Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen. Upon hearing that term, he tells them to get fucked and hangs up on them. It is a stupid term which turns highly-accomplished musicianship into something of a joke. It may be affectionate, but it lacks respect. We might as well call Mozart, Handel and Vivaldi “Wig Concerto” music.

And the sight of crowds wearing skipper caps at “Yacht Rock” revival shows… ugh! You are not Tenille’s husband; take off those damn caps. You don’t see patrons at performances of “The Messiah” turning up wearing powdered wigs, do you?

It seems the makers of the pre-YouTube video series that gave the genre its ridiculous name were inspired more by a Loggins & Messina album cover than by the more obvious suspect, Christopher Cross’ hit Sailing. Both Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina would occasionally venture into the domain of “Yacht Rock”, but as a duo, they were firmly a folk-pop enterprise.

The offending album cover that gave a ridiculous name to a great sub-genre. Not a captain’s cap in sight.

It seems, though, that Christopher Cross has bought into the term. I stand with Fagen. Cross features on this mix, with Michael McDonald on backing vocals — and McDonald comes across really well in the docu. Also appearing in the film was Kenny Loggins. Here we have Loggins with the Bob James-produced original of What A Fool Believes, which he co-wrote with McDonald. The Doobie Brothers’ version, which came out a few months after Loggins’, is superior and rightly regarded as a gamechanger in Not Feeling Guilty music.

This so quintessentially American genre wasn’t confined to only the USA. A number of acts on this mix were not from the USA, though some recorded there.

Dusty Springfield makes another appearance here, after debut in this series on Volume 13.

Morocko hailed from South Africa, comprising musicians who had made their bones before forming their jazz-funk-rock band, most notably South African music legend Cedric Samson, drummer and lead singer of the band. They didn’t last long. Founded in 1980, they released one album in 1981 and then split.

From Australia we have Birtles & Goble, who as Beeb Birtles and Graeham Goble were members of the Little River Band. Goble wrote their finest song, Reminiscing (featured on Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 4), as well as hits like Lady, The Night Owl (on Vol. 2), Take It Easy On Me, The Other Guy, and It’s A Long Way There (on Vol. 6).

Funk-rock duo Denne & Gold, known to their moms as Michael and Ken, were British songwriters for several soul acts, including Aretha Franklin, The Pointer Sisters and Jackie Moore. Their best-known compositions are The Real Thing’s hits You To Me Are Everything and Can’t Get By Without You, and The Delegation’s mighty Where Is The Love (We Used To Know). Denne and Gold wrote many songs together, but recorded only one album as a duo.

Also British is Nigel Olsson, a drummer in the 1970s for Elton John and, briefly, Uriah Heep who decided that, as the title of one of his two albums has it, drummers in fact can sing.

Olsson drummed on Elton John classics like Rocket Man, Honky Cat, Daniel, Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting, Crocodile Rock, The Bitch Is Back, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Candle In The Wind, and Love Lies Bleeding, singing backing vocals on most of them, and played on all of John’s tours in the early- to mid-1970s. Then Elton fired Olsson, who went on to release a few records under his own name, scoring a US Top 20 with the featured Dancin’ Shoes in 1979. Olsson and Elton made up a while ago, and Nigel backed the Elton when he headlined Glastonbury in 2023.

Another non-US act here is Dutch jazz-rock guitar hero and alumnus of prog-rock band Focus Jan Akkerman, whose admirers include Queen’s Brian May. The vocalist on the featured song is a US singer and drummer named Willy Dee (singing drummers is a bit of a sub-theme here, it seems).

Handel and Mozart on a yacht. (Actual photo)

Toby Beau certainly is an American act. The name might suggest a lamé-jacketed country-pop singer. They were not that, but a country-rock act from Texas. Their name was taken from a shrimp boat, which may be a unique source of a band name. They toured with acts like the Doobie Brothers, Bob Seger, and the Steve Miller Band. Between 1978 and 1980 they released three albums, and had one big hit, the featured My Angel Baby. Their recording career might have stalled 44 years ago, but the band is still a going concern.

Also sporting a maritime name are Sea Level, but that moniker is a pun on the name of frontman C(huck) Leavell. The band was formed when members of the Allmann Brothers Band — keyboardist Leavell, drummer Jaimoe, and bassist Lamar Williams — set up their own band, complemented by additional members.  They lasted for five albums, from 1977-80.

Today, Chris Mancini is known as a writer, director, comedian, podcaster and son of legendary film composer Henry Mancini. As a young man, Chris played in his dad’s orchestra; and in 1983 he released a solitary AOR album. Its title, No Strings, might well have been a very clever artistically distancing allusion to his father.

A stalwart of AOR is guitarist Larry Carlton, who was worthy of a Collection of songs he played on. His wife was Christian rock singer Michele Pillar, whom he married in 1988. Her featured song precedes that, but the sound is AOR. Pillar’s voice has featured several times on The Simpsons, including doing the voice of Karen Carpenter.

All previous NFG mixes are live again. As always, this mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes home-skippered covers (and, yes, the image on the cover is a bit of a gag) and the above text in a PDF. PW in comments.

1. Jackson Browne – Running On Empty (1977)
2. Kenny Loggins – What A Fool Believes (1978)
3. Christopher Cross – I Really Don’t Know Anymore (1979)
4. Michael Johnson – Right Through The Heart (1980)
5. Bill LaBounty – Nobody’s Fool (1982)
6. Photoglo – Steal Away (1980)
7. Frankie Bleu – Take Your Time (Vanessa’s Song) (1981)
8. Greg Guidry – Show Me Your Love (1982)
9. Michele Pillar – Walk Across Heaven (1982)
10. Denne & Gold – Let’s Put Our Love Back Together (1977)
11. Morocko – Giving It Up (1981)
12. Jan Akkerman – She’s So Divine (1979)
13. Sea Level – Living In A Dream (1978)
14. Jolis & Simone – Roundabout Midnight (1979)
15. Dusty Springfield – Living Without Your Love (1978)
16. Toby Beau – My Angel Baby (1978)
17. Carole King – Dancin’ With Tears In My Eyes (1980)
18. Chris Mancini – Where’s That Feelin’ (1983)
19. Nigel Olsson – Dancin’ Shoes (1979)
20. England Dan & John Ford Coley – It’s Sad To Belong (1977)
21. Birtles & Goble – I Didn’t Stand A Chance (1980)

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Not Feeling Guilty Mix 1
Not Feeling Guilty Mix 2
Not Feeling Guilty Mix 3
Not Feeling Guilty Mix 4
Not Feeling Guilty Mix 5
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 6
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 7
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 8
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 9
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 10
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 11
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 12
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 13

Tomorrow, on January 8, Elvis Presley would have turned 90 years old, which is an absurd thought. Perhaps it is because we never saw Elvis grow old, he will be forever young — like James Dean or Marilyn Monroe, or later Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain. Even if Elvis looked not much like Elvis by the time he departed in 1977 at the age of 42. Like Michael Jackson, he neglected the latter component of the live-fast-and-die-young adage.

To mark the beginning of the last ten years before the King’s centenary, here’s a collection of good songs about Elvis. Some are directly about him, and others more by implication or tangential reference. So a song like Black Velvet might not seem to be about Elvis, but it was inspired by the writer’s visit to Graceland, and is about Presley.

I have stayed away from novelty numbers — there was an industry of those in the 1950s and early ‘60s, including the inevitable musical call for Elvis to be president — and also from mawkish tributes issued in 1977. Both of these types may find inclusion in a possible Volume 2, to accompany the various tracks by the likes of U2, Frank Zappa, Queen, Billy Joel and others which found no inclusion on this mix.

At least one person appears here twice: Mark Knopfler in his 2004 song, and almost a quarter of a century earlier on Phil Lynott’s tribute to Presley, to which he contributed the guitar, including a quite lovely solo. Lynott wrote and co-produced the song, but it sounds a bit like a Dire Straits track.

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and inludes home-gracelanded covers and the present text as an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.

1. Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper – Elvis Is Everywhere (1987)
   What the Presley: Look, Elvis isn’t dead.
2. Alannah Myles – Black Velvet (1990)
   What the Presley: The titular fabric is a metaphor for Elvis’ voice.
3. Bruce Springsteen – Johnny Bye-Bye (1985)
   What the Presley: “The man on the radio says Elvis Presley’s died.”
4. Cowboy Junkies – Blue Moon Revisited (A Song For Elvis) (1989)
   What the Presley: Dedicated to Elvis; not much else.
5. Gillian Welch – Elvis Presley Blues (2001)
   What the Presley: He shook it like a chorus girl, a Harlem queen and a midnight rambler.
6. Kate Bush – King Of The Mountain (2005)
   What the Presley: “Elvis, are you out there somewhere, looking like a happy man?”
7. Prefab Sprout – Moon Dog (1990)
   What the Presley: “Beyond the Colonel’s arms, handsome doggone rake the truly weightless…”
8. Marc Cohn – Walking In Memphis (1991)
   What the Presley: “Saw the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue, followed him up to the gates of Graceland…”
9. Steve Forbert – House Of Cards (1978)
   What the Presley: The sorry tale of the “hillbilly singer who conquered the world.”
10. Mark Knopfler – Back To Tupelo (2004)
    What the Presley: He could’ve been Marlon Brando and the King of Rock & Roll.
11. Jimmy Webb – Elvis And Me (1993)
    What the Presley: The story of Jimmy and Elvis in Las Vegas.
12. Rickie Lee Jones – Elvis Cadillac (2007)
    What the Presley: Riding around heaven in Elvis’ upscale automobile.
13. Emmylou Harris – Boy From Tupelo (2000)
    What the Presley: “Just ask the boy from Tupelo. He’s the king and he ought to know.”
14. Warren Zevon – Jesus Mentioned (1982)
    What the Presley: Going down to Graceland to think about the King.
15. Phil Lynott – King’s Call (1980)
    What the Presley: What Phil did the night Elvis died.
16. Gruppo Sportivo – I Said No (1978)
    What the Presley: “I told her all about Elvis. She begged me to go on.”
17. The Screaming Jets – Elvis (I Remember) (1997)
    What the Presley: “It’s not enough to be like Elvis, the subjects only have one king.”
18. Wall of Voodoo – Elvis Bought Dora A Cadillac (1987)
    What the Presley: Elvis tips a waitress, and a story begins.
19. Belle And Sebastian – A Century Of Elvis (2005)
    What the Presley: Elvis is still alive, standing next to the postman’s van.

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More Elvis-related stuff:
The Originals: Elvis Presley Vol. 1
The Originals: Elvis Presley Vol. 2
Any Major Elvis Covers
Any Major Movie Elvis (and a quiz)

This month’s In Memoriam will be the last in the present format, though on the surface little will change. As I mentioned in October, I need to scale things back a bit. I’ll still list the new members of heaven’s and hell’s orchestras, but with less music. Only acts that were important or interesting enough — or important or interesting enough to me — or feature in a write-up will get a song. Though that’s a bit of a pity, because there are always great gems to discover. I plan to reduce the number of write-ups too, though I can’t see that intention taking great bloom.

This month, the news of the death on new Year’s Eve of Don Nix, a Stax session musician and blues-rock producer and musician, came just as I was about to post this In Memoriam. Usually I might have dropped everything to add a write-up with a picture and so on. But it is 2025, and I added songs and refer you to this obituary.

This month the Reaper was fairly easy-going, so I was able to exercise my new regimen already a little. Thank you for all the comments and suggestions and encouragement. And a special thank you to the three kind people who responded by buying me coffees. Obviously, none of it actually finances my visits to independent cafés (I boycott the Starbucks of this world), but it helps towards the costs of running this site. See the link further down…

The Chic Singer
Brought to the Chic Organization as a backing singer by her friend Luther Vandross after having performed with acts like Cannonball Adderley and sung on The Wiz soundtrack, Alfa Anderson went on to become the seminal disco band’s co-lead singer, most notably on I Want Your Love and Le Freak (she did the “Le freak, C’est chic” refrain). Before that, she was a backing vocalist (with Luther) on hits such as Good Times and Dance Dance Dance.

Anderson also did backing vocals on Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards productions such as Sister Sledge’s We Are Family, He’s The Greatest Dancer, Lost In Music, and Thinking Of You, and Diana Ross’ Upside Down, I’m Coming Out and My Old Piano.

After Chic broke up, Anderson became one of Luther Vandross’ regular backing singers, who especially in live shows often shared the limelight with the legendary singer. Among her fellow backing singers on Luther’s run of 1980s albums was the recently late Cissy Houston.

Anderson also backed acts like Bryan Adams, Dionne Warwick, Teddy Pendergrass, Gang Of Four, Mick Jagger, BB King, Bryan Ferry, Jody Watley, Billy Squier, Jonathan Butler, and others.

The Dr Hook Founder
In the 1960s, George Cummings’ band Chocolate Papers was the house band of the Gus Stevens Restaurant supper club in Biloxi, the last place where Jayne Mansfield performed before she died next morning in a car crash. When that stint ended, Cummings moved to New York and founded a new band which included fellow alumni from the Chocolate Papers, including the eye-patched Ray Sawyer. Cummings spontaneously named the band Dr Hook & The Medicine Show, a moniker that was inspired by Sawyer’s eyepatch.

Cummings was the band’s lead guitarist and occasional singer, doing vocals on tracks like Makin’ It Natural, Penicillin Penny, I Got Stoned And I Missed It (which he co-wrote with Shel Silverstein) as well as the second verse of The Cover Of The Rolling Stone. Dr Hook’s hook was to dabble in irony and humour, often in collaboration with Silverstein. Their breakthrough hit, the weepy Sylvia’s Mother, was intended to be humorous, though most people took the song at face value.

Cummings left the band in 1975, when Dr Hook dropped the Medicine Show moniker and became more of a soft rock enterprise.

The Soul Pioneer
As R&B and doo wop developed to become what we now call soul music, Sugar Pie DeSanto was at the forefront of the new genre in the early 1960s.

The daughter of an African-American mother and a Filipino father, the tiny singer toured with the Johnny Otis Revue — Otis gave her the stage name Sugar Pie — and the James Brown Revue in the 1950s, before recording her own records as the 1960s dawned.

She had hits with tracks like Want To Know in 1960 and Sugar Pie in 1963, and by addressing controversial themes, including women’s sexuality, she pushed boundaries.

DeSanto co-wrote her 1965 duet with her childhood friend Etta James, Do I Make Myself Clear, which became a hit and soul classic. Two years later, Chess dropped her after the failure of the excellent Go Go Power. She never had commercial success after that.

The Hit Producer
On Christmas Eve we lost Richard Perry, 82, who produced an impressive number of big hits. These include Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain and Nobody Does It Better, Nilsson’s Without You, Ringo Starr’s Photograph and Snookeroo, Leo Sayer’s When I Need You and You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Manhattan Transfer’s Chanson D’Amour, Willie Nelson & Julio Iglesias’ To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before, DeBarge’s Rhythm Of The Night, and The Pointer Sisters’ Slow Hand, Fire, Jump (For My Love), I’m So Excited, and Neutron Dance.

His first hit production was 1968’s Tiptoe Through The Tulips by Tiny Tim. Things would improve soon, with Perry producing Fats Domino, including his cover of Lady Madonna, Ella Fitzgerald, and Captain Beefheart.

In the 1970s, Perry produced hit albums by Harry Nilsson (Nilsson Schmilsson, Son of Schmilsson), Barbra Streisand (Stoney End, Barbra Joan Streisand), Carly Simon (No Secrets, Hotcakes, Playing Possum), Art Garfunkel (Breakaway), Diana Ross (Baby It’s Me), Martha Reeves (Martha Reeves), Ringo Starr (Ringo, Goodnight Vienna), Fanny (Fanny, Charity Ball, Fanny Hill), Manhattan Transfer (Coming Out), Leo Sayer (Leo Sayer), and Andy Williams (Solitaire), among many others.

From 1978-83, Perry had his own record label, Planet Records, with The Pointer Sisters as its headliner act. After selling the label, Rogers produced acts like Donna Summer, Julio Iglesias, Neil Diamond, Randy Travis, Willie Nelson, DeBarge, Ray Charles, Patti LaBelle, Jeffrey Osborne, Jamiroquai, and he also helped produce Rod Stewart’s “Great American Songbook” series.

The Gospel Veteran
With the death of Rodessa Barrett Porter at 94, the last of the legendary gospel trio The Barrett Sisters is gone. Growing up on the 1930s, Rodessa and her sisters Delois and Billie would listen to the godfather of gospel music, Thomas A. Dorsey, at Chicago’s Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, and they knew Dorsey’s most famous protégé, Mahalia Jackson, who lived in the neighbourhood..

The story of the Barrett Sisters goes back to 1936, but Rodessa, a soprano, joined only in 1950. After a decade of touring, they began releasing records in 1964, to great acclaim. They became fixtures on TV shows and continued touring. Rodessa also served as a choir director in Gary, Indiana, and raised a family.

She died of a massive stroke the day after her 94^th birthday. Delois died in 2011 at 85; Billie at 91 in 2020.

The Irish Superstar
When members of the British-backed Ulster Volunteer Force stopped a van carrying members of the popular Irish group The Miami Showband in Northern Ireland in July 31, 1975, one asked, “Which one of you is Dickie Rock” — before killing three and injuring two of the six members.

Having left the band three years earlier, Dickie Rock was not on the van that day, but the terrorist’s question testifies to just how much of a household name he was.

Dickie scored 13 top-ten hits with the Miami Showband, including seven #1s, starting in 1963 with There’s Always Me. One of them, 1965’s Every Step Of The Way, was the first Irish single to debut at #1. During his time with the group, Dickie generated Beatlemania levels of mass hysteria, despite lacking conventional gorgeousness.

Rock presented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1966, placing fourth with Come Back To Stay. After he left the band in 1972, Rock had a solid solo career with his country & schlager type music, topping the Irish charts once more in 1977 with Back Home Again. He toured until 2019.

The Moral Threat
The September In Memoriam featured Brewer & Shipley’s droll 1971 hit One Toke Over The Line, to mark the passing of its producer, Nick Gravenites. Three months later, we’ve lost half of the folk-rock duo with the passing of Mike Brewer at the age of 80.

The duo got more publicity than they might have hoped for when that beacon of uncompromising morality Spiro Agnew, the Vice-President of Tricky Dick, singled Brewer & Shipley out as subversive to American youth. However, as far as I know, Spiro did not declare “I hate Brewer & Shipley”, neither on his pencil case nor on his social media platform.As always, this post is reproduced in illustrated PDF format in the package, which also includes my personal playlist of the featured tracks. PW in comments.

Samantha ‘TY Tim’ Lawrence, 55, half of UK rap duo Wee Papa Girl Rappers, on Dec. 1
Wee Papa Girl Rappers – Wee Rule (1988)

Jacques Barsamian, 81, French rock singer and writer, on Dec. 1

Mario Tessuto, 81, Italian singer, on Dec. 5
Mario Tessuto – Lisa dagli occhi blu (1969)

Christel Bodenstein, 86, German actress and chanson singer, on Dec. 5

Julie Stevens, 87, English actress, singer and kids’ TV presenter, on Dec. 5
Julie Stevens – Tally Man (1971)

Dickie Rock, 88, Irish singer (The Miami Showband), on Dec. 6
Dickie Rock – Come Back To Stay (1966)
Dickie Rock & The Miami Showband – To Whom It Concerns (1967)

Angela Alvarez, 97, Cuban-born singer, on Dec. 6

Miho Nakayama, 54, Japanese singer and actress, found dead on Dec. 6
Miho Nakayama – You’re My Only Shinin’ Star (1986)

Herb Robertson, 73, jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist, Dec. 10

Lennie De Ice, 54, British jungle music musician, announced Dec. 10
Lennie De Ice – We Are I.E. (1991)

Corinne Allal, 69, Tunisian-born Israeli rock musician and producer, on Dec. 11

Martial Solal, 97, French jazz pianist and composer, on Dec. 12

Koko Ateba, Cameroonian singer and guitarist, on Dec. 13
Koko Ateba – Yemeyel’ Ayop (1986)

Jon Camp, 75, bassist, songwriter and singer with UK prog band Renaissance, on Dec. 13
Renaissance – Northern Lights (1978)

Bill Kelly, 74, singer and guitarist of pop band The Buoys, on Dec. 13
The Buoys – Timothy (1971)

George Cummings, 86, guitarist, singer, songwriter, founder of Dr. Hook, on Dec. 14
Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show – Cover Of The Rolling Stone (1972, lead on 2nd verse, co-writer)
Dr. Hook – I Got Stoned And I Missed It (1975, on lead vocals)

Zakir Hussain, 73, Indian tabla player (George Harrison, Van Morrison), composer, producer, on Dec. 15

Rodessa Barrett Porter, 94, singer with gospel band The Barrett Sisters, on Dec. 15
Dolores Barrett & The Barrett Sisters – I’ll Fly Away (1965)
The Barrett Sisters – (I Ain’t) No Ways Tired (1982)

John ‘Prince’ Gilbert, 59, treme jazz musician, on Dec. 15

Danny Bacher, 48, jazz singer and saxophonist, and comedian, on Dec. 16
Danny Bacher – Early In The Mornin’ (2016)

Naa Amanua, 76, Ghanaian singer, on Dec. 16

Steve Lewinson, 58, bass guitarist of Simply Red, on Dec. 16
Simply Red – Fake (2003)

Ruth McArdle, singer with Belgian electronic band Lords of Acid, announced Dec. 16

Alfa Anderson, 78, singer with Chic, on Dec. 17
Chic – I Want Your Love (1978, on lead vocals)
Diana Ross – My Old Piano (1980, on backing vocals)
Luther Vandross – Give Me The Reason (live, 1987, on backing vocals)

Mike Brewer, 80, half of folk-rock duo Brewer & Shipley, on Dec. 17
Brewer & Shipley – People Love Each Other (1969)
Brewer & Shipley – Shake Off The Demon (1971)

David Mallett, 73, folk singer and songwriter, on Dec. 17
Dave Mallett – Garden Song (1978, also as writer)

Heikki Silvennoinen, 70, member of Finnish prog-rock band Tabula Rasa, on Dec. 18

Slim Dunlap, 73, guitarist of rock band The Replacements, on Dec. 18
The Replacements – I’ll Be You (1989)

Gaboro, 23, Swedish rapper, shot dead on Dec. 19

Marcello Rosa, 89, Italian jazz trombonist and composer, on Dec. 19

Sugar Pie DeSanto, 89, soul singer and songwriter, on Dec. 20
Sugar Pie DeSanto – A Little Taste Of Soul (1962, also as writer)
Etta James & Sugar Pie DeSanto – Do I Make Myself Clear (1965, also as co-writer)
Sugar Pie DeSanto – Go Go Power (1967, also as co-writer)

Mestre Laurentino, 98, Brazilian musician, on Dec. 21

Casey Chaos, 59, punk and metal singer, on Dec. 21

Richard Perry, 82, record producer, on Dec. 24
Ella Fitzgerald – Get Ready (1969, as producer)
Ringo Starr – I’m The Greatest (1973, as producer)
The Pointer Sisters – Slow Hand (1981, as producer)

DJ Alfredo Fiorito, 71, influential Argentine Ibiza disc jockey, announced Dec. 24

Bob Grover, 68, singer and guitarist of UK band The Piranhas, on Dec. 24
The Piranhas – Tom Hark (1980)

Dulce, 69, Mexican singer and actress, on Dec. 25

OG Maco, 32, American rapper, on Dec. 27

Henk ‘Hank the Knife’ Bruysten, 78, Dutch rock & roll guitarist, on Dec. 28
Hank the Knife & The Jets  – Guitar King (1975)

Lars Martin Myhre, 68, Norwegian jazz, classical composer & musician, on Dec. 28

Barre Phillips, 90, jazz bassist, on Dec. 28
David Holland & Barre Phillips – May Be I Can Sing It For You (1971)

Eric Carlson, 66, lead guitarist of heavy metal band Mentors on De. 29

Warcloud, 53, rapper with hip hop group Black Knights, on Dec. 30

Joe Grech, 90, Maltese singer, on Dec. 30

Bob Bertles, 85, Australian jazz and pop musician, on Dec. 30

Paolo Benvegnù, 59, Italian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, on Dec. 31
Paolo Benvegnù – Goodbye Planet Earth (2017)

Don Nix, 83, saxophonist with The Mar-Keys, singer, songwriter and producer, on Dec. 31
The Mar-Keys – Last Night (1961, as member)
Moloch – Going Down (1969, as writer, producer, arranger, engineer)
Don Nix – Sweet Sweet Surrender (1973, also as writer, producer, arranger, engineer)

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