At the request of a friend of this blog, I have re-upped all In Memoriams going back to January 2017. The reader said that many In Memoriam collections include songs that he cannot find anywhere else. I think that the music in the monthly series has the potential to introduce (or maybe re-introduce) us to acts that had evaded our radar, and as such can be quite enlightening. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I find it so difficult to give up this laborious, time-thieving series…
You can find all previous In Memoriams HERE!
While I was at it, I’ve also re-upped, by popular request, the entire History of Country series, as well as the three-part Should Have Been A UK Top 10 Hit series, the Coffee mixes (and do feel free to Buy Me A Coffee), Any Major Paris and Any Major Paris in Black & White, fittingly for most readers Any Major Winter, both And Major Radio Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and Any Major Nights Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. I think almost every mix I have posted in the past 15 years is back up. If you find one that isn’t, and you want it, let me know.
What a bad month December was for musicians with Tex-Mex connections. The deaths of Raul Malo and Joe Ely hit hard, even if they marked releases from terrible illnesses. Also leaving us was Abraham Quintanilla, a musician in his own right but better known as the father and career manager of Selena, the singer who was murdered in 1995. The day before him, Manny Guerra, who produced Selena’s early records at Quintanilla’s request, died at 85. Both man had had minor hits with their vocal groups in the early 1960s.
In other news, the Puerto Rican salsa band El Gran Combo lost two long-serving members in the space of six days. And the Brazilian singer Lindomar Cabral, who in 1981 murdered his wife while she was singing on stage, has died at the age of 85. Meanwhile, the magnificently named classical and spirituals singer Jubilant Sykes was stabbed to death in his home by his son, six days before the great Rob Reiner and his wife Michele suffered a similar fate, prompting the president to issue a heartfelt message of gloatolences.
And with that, to our final line-up of the Reaper’s victims in this generally absolutely dreadful year 2025 (though privately, mine was quite okay). Here is hoping for a brighter 2026.
The Soul Man
The sound of Stax Records and thus 1960s Southern soul was in great part created by a young Southern white cat and his guitar. Steve Cropper was born in Missouri in 1941 and raised in Memphis. He was a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Stax’s house band, whose tight instrumentals backed an extraordinary roster of artists, and scored hits in their own right. On Sam & Dave’s Soul Man Cropper even gets a name-check.
Beyond his playing, Cropper was a gifted songwriter and producer, co-writing many of the era’s defining records, including Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa, Can’t Turn You Loose, and Mr Pitiful; Wilson Pickett’s In The Midnight Hour and 634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.), Don Covay’s See-Saw; Eddie Floyd’s Knock On Wood and Raise Your Hand; Booker T & the MG’s Green Onions and Soul Limbo, among many others. Of course, he also played on all of them.
Cropper also produced Redding, Pickett, Floyd, Covay, Sam & Dave, Mable John, Carla Thomas, The Bar-Kays, Rufus Thomas, Johnny Taylor, The Staple Singers, Mavis Staples, Poco, Roy Head, Buddy Miles, Al Kooper, Eric Mercury, José Feliciano, Al Wilson, Ramsey Lewis, Yvonne Elliman, The Temptations, John Prine, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Harry Nilsson, Robben Ford and many more.
In 1969, Cropper teamed up with fellow guitar masters Albert King and Pop Staples for a mostly instrumental album titled Jammed Together. The three playing styles — King’s blues fuzz, Pops’ tremolo and Croppers’ smooth Telecaster — combined to great effect.
After Stax’s decline in the 1970s, Cropper became a sought-after collaborator, working with artists such as John Lennon, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Richie Havens, Big Star, B.B. King, Dolly Parton, Percy Sledge, Delaney & Bonnie, Art Garfunkel, Peter Frampton, Roy Orbison, and many others.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he had renewed mainstream success as a member of The Blues Brothers Band, also appearing in the film, alongside fellow M.G.’s alumnus Donald “Duck” Dunn (whom we lost in May 2012) as Elroy and Jake are putting the band back together on their “mission from God”. They find him as a guitar salesman at Ray’s Music Exchange. In the film Cropper calmly keeps playing his guitar while everything else around him collapses. This deadpan cool was a running visual joke and also a tribute to session musicians: they show up, do the job, and don’t complain.
The Gruff Troubadour
There’s something poignant about the artist of a beloved Christmas song dying around Christmas, a time when his work is widely played. So it was with Chris Rea, who died at 74 on December 22, just as his Driving Home For Christmas was getting its annual exposure.
A gravel-voiced singer, self-assured guitarist and prolific songwriter, Rea came to music relatively late, teaching himself the guitar in his twenties while working in his family’s ice-cream business. After an early breakthrough with the 1978 album Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? (1978) and the hit single Fool (If You Think It’s Over), which later was covered to good effect by Elkie Brooks.
Fool was a hit first in the US, but it remained Rea’s only one there. He later regretted not pursuing further success in the US, and he might well have been huge there.
In the UK he went on to have six Top 40 hits, but only one Top 10 entry, 1989’s The Road To Hell. He was also successful in Europe with albums such as Shamrock Diaries (1985), The Road To Hell (1989) and Auberge (1991).
Rea never really a stardom-chasing celebrity — he explicitly rejected the label “rock star” — nor a critic’s favourite, he refused to tour extensively, and his adult, blues-based sound coincided with the domination of youth-driven genres. Chronic health problems and long periods away from the spotlight further reduced his public visibility. Yet his catalogue has aged well, and his voice will continue to be heard every year around Christmas.
The Sound-fuser
A singer, songwriter and producer who defied genre boundaries, Raul Malo had a unique musical identity. Born in Miami in 1965 to Cuban parents, he grew up surrounded by Latin music, early rock & roll and classic country.
Malo is best known as the frontman of The Mavericks, a band he co-founded in Florida in the late 1980s. While often grouped with the country revivalists of the 1990s, The Mavericks never fitted into Nashville categories. Their sound blended honky-tonk, rockabilly, Tex-Mex, soul and pop. Malo’s warm baritone recalled Roy Orbison more than traditional country singers.
The Mavericks had major success with albums such as What A Crying Shame and Music For All Occasions, scoring hits like All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down and Dance the Night Away. When the band went on hiatus in the early 2000s, Malo embarked on a solo career with material that drew from country balladry, orchestral pop, Cuban boleros and American standards. Malo also wrote songs for film and television soundtracks.
He died at the young age of 60 of cancer, only a couple of days after tribute shows for him were held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Alas, his final hospitalisation prevented his participation.
The ‘Sex Kitten’
By the time actress Brigitte Bardot began her music career in the early 1960s, she was already a cultural icon and universally lusted-after “sex kitten”, with feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in 1959 declaring her the most liberated woman in France (though coming from a future sexual abuser and defender of paedophiles, that label might not be such a great badge of honour today).
Bardot’s sideline in music coincided with the emergence of French pop in the early 1960s, especially what would become known as yé-yé. Songs like Harley Davidson, Bubble Gum, and Contact captured the sound of modern, liberated French youth.
BB was not a great singer, but her breathy and conversational delivery suited the material she recorded. Her most consequential musical collaboration was with Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she had a brief romance.
Together they recorded the sex-noise anthem Je t’aime… moi non plus in 1967. Bardot, then still married to German-Swiss industrial heir and socialite Gunter Sachs, panicked at the private and public scandal the recording might cause and asked Gainsbourg not to release the track. He honoured her request, and later re-recorded it with Jane Birkin, whose version became an international sensation in 1969. The Bardot version was eventually released in 1986. In 1968, Gainsbourg released his classic Initials B.B. album; no prizes for guessing to whom these initials refer (Bardot sang on only one track, a cover of Bonnie And Clyde).
By the early 1970s, Bardot largely withdrew from music, as she did from cinema, to concentrate on her animal welfare activism, supporting ultra right-wing politics, defending sexual abusers, and committing repeated public outbursts of racism.
The Independent Spirit
With the band The Flatlanders in 1973, Joe Ely helped inaugurate the Americana movement. As one of the great independent spirits of American roots music, Ely blurred the lines between country, rock, folk, Tex-Mex and even punk. Born in 1947 and raised in Lubbock, Ely emerged from the same West Texas musical ecosystem that produced Buddy Holly, but he was shaped just as much by the border sounds of Mexico.
The Flatlanders split after just one album, and Ely launched an acclaimed solo career with a reputation as a ferocious live performer. In the late 1970s he toured extensively with The Clash, introducing rock audiences to a modern type of country music. Ely sang backing vocals on the Clash classic Should I Stay Or Should I Go. He also got name-checked in their 1980 song If Music Could Talk.
When Ely was asked to write songs for the soundtrack of the 1998 Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer, The Flatlanders reformed, and went on to release several albums, while Ely still issued solo material. On two of these solo albums, Bruce Springsteen contributed vocals, most recently last year.
The King of Bubblegum
The record producer who became a “King of Bubblegum” by flooding the late 1960s charts with infectious pop confections like Yummy Yummy Yummy and Simon Says, had died aged 82.
Partnering with Jeffry Katz as Super K Productions, Jerry Kasenetz helped counter rock’s increasing drift towards self-seriousness in the 1960s with fun, disposable pop. They got their start in 1967 when their production of The Music Explosion’s Little Bit O’ Soul reached #2 on the Billboard charts.
Their stable of groups, often little more than studio creations, delivered a string of hits, such as the 1910 Fruitgum Company’s Simon Says, 123, Red Light, and Indian Giver; the Ohio Express’ deliciously silly Yummy Yummy Yummy; and Crazy Elephant’s psych-rock flavoured Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’.
As the 1970s dawned, bubblegum’s appeal faded. The duo briefly found renewed success producing Ram Jam’s 1977 hit Black Betty before Kasenetz retired to Tampa.
Bubblegum was easy to deride, yet Pete Townshend called Yummy Yummy Yummy a favourite; Joey Ramone cited bubblegum as an inspiration; and both the Ramones and Talking Heads covered bubblegum tracks.
The Free Face
He spoke very little English, but for a brief period, Japanese rock bassist Tetsu Yamauchi was in the midst of 1970s British rock. Born in Fukuoka in 1946, he began his career in Japan, playing mostly jazz-rock, before relocating to London, where his muscular but fluid bass-playing quickly attracted attention. His big break came in 1972 when he joined Free during the band’s final phase to replace Andy Fraser.
Yamauchi brought a more aggressive, groove-driven style that gave the band a funk-tinged sound. Free soon disbanded, but Yamauchi had made an impression. He next joined the Faces, replacing Ronnie Lane. He remained with the band for its final two years, touring with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood until the split in 1975. Yamauchi played on the extravagantly titled You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (Even Take The Dog For A Walk, Mend A Fuse, Fold Away The Ironing Board, Or Any Other Domestic Short Comings), a UK #12 hit.
Yamauchi was never comfortable with rock celebrity, and returned to Japan in the mid-1970s. There he worked as a session musician and recorded with his own bands. He retired in the late 1990s but made an unexpected comeback in 2023, in collaboration with Japanese drummer Yoshitaka Shimada.
He refused all offers to be part of a Faces reunion, thinking it “juvenile and vain” for people of advanced age to still be performing rock & roll.
The One Lad
With the death at 94 of Bernard “Bernie” Toorish, all members of the classic line-up of the 1950s Canadian vocal quartet The Four Lads are now gone. Formed in Toronto by alumni of St Michael’s Choir School, the group enjoyed a string of international hits including Istanbul (Not Constantinople), Moments To Remember, Standing On The Corner, Put A Light In The Window, and Skokiaan. They scored 21 US Top 30 hits, eight of them Top 10, between 1952 and 1958.
Toorish was not only the group’s tenor but also its principal arranger, shaping those close-knit harmonies rooted in classical choral training. He remained with the group until the early 1970s, when he felt burn-out and joined the insurance industry instead.
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.
Billy Nichols, 85, soul musician and songwriter, on Nov. 30
B.T. Express – Do It (‘Til You’re Satisfied) (1974, as writer)
Poorstacy, 26, rock musician, suicide on Dec. 1
Steve Cropper, 84, legendary soul guitarist, songwriter, producer, on Dec. 3
Otis Redding – Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song) (1966, as co-writer and on guitar)
Booker T. & The MGs – Soul Limbo (1968, as member and co-writer)
Albert King, Steve Cropper & Pop Staples – Don’t Turn Your Heater Down (1969, also as co-writer)
The Blues Brothers – Everybody Needs Somebody (1980)
Steve Cropper & Felix Cavaliere – Without You (2008, also as co-writer and co-producer)
Ted Egan, 93, Australian folk singer and civil servant, on Dec. 4
Pops Mohamed, 75, South African jazz musician, composer, producer, on Dec. 4
Pops Mohamed – Kalamazoo (1990, also as writer and producer)
Tetsu Yamauchi, 79, Japanese bassist with Free, The Faces, on Dec. 4
Free – Wishing Well (1973, as member)
Faces – You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (1974, as member)
Budoy Marabiles, 54, Filipino reggae singer, on Dec. 4
Herman Deinum, 79, bassist of Dutch rock band Cuby + Blizzards, on Dec. 5
Cuby + Blizzards – Appleknockers Flophouse (1969)
Sandro Giacobbe, 75, Italian singer-songwriter, on Dec. 5
Sandro Giacobbe – Signora mia (1973)
Camryn (Magness), 26, pop singer, following traffic accident on Dec. 5
Jerry Kasenetz, 82, bubblegum pop producer, on Dec. 6
The Music Explosion – Little Bit O’ Soul (1967, as co-producer)
Crazy Elephant – Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’ (1969, as co-producer)
Ram Jam – Black Betty (1977, as co-producer)
Bryan Keeling, 59 country and rock drummer, on Dec. 6
Shooter Jennings – 4th Of July (2005, on drums)
Rafael Ithier, 99, Puerto Rican founder of salsa band El Gran Combo, on Dec. 6
El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico – Carbonerito (1984, see also entry for Papo Rosario)
Rory MacLeod, 70, ex-bassist with blues band Roomful of Blues, traffic accident on Dec. 6
Bernie Toorish, 94, singer with Canadian vocal group The Four Lads, on Dec. 7
The Four Lads – Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (1953)
The Four Lads – Moments To Remember (1955)
Peter McFarlane, 73, drummer of Australian rock band Finch, on Dec. 7
Anita Guerreiro, 89, Portuguese actress and fado singer, on Dec. 7
Raul Malo, 60, country and Tex-Mex musician, songwriter, producer, on Dec. 8
The Mavericks – All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down (1995, as member, co-writer, co-producer)
Raul Malo – Saint Behind The Glass (2010, also as producer)
The Mavericks – Born To Be Blue (2013, as member, co-writer, co-producer)
Gordon Goodwin, 70, jazz musician (Big Phat Band), composer and conductor, on Dec. 8
Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band – Hit The Ground Running (2008, also as composer)
Jorge Ilegal, 70, Spanish punk and rock musician on Dec. 9
Roberto Iniesta, 63, singer, guitarist, songwriter of Spanish rock group Extremoduro, on Dec. 10
Eddie ‘Tantan’ Thornton, 94, Jamaican-born UK trumpeter, on Dec. 10
The Beatles – Got To Get You Into My Life (1966, on trumpet)
Jubilant Sykes, 71, classical and gospel singer, murdered on Dec. 10
Jubilant Sykes- God Only Knows (2001)
Brent McLachlan, drummer of New Zealand shoegaze group Bailter Space, announced Dec. 11
Manny Guerra, 85, tejano and pop musician, engineer and producer, on Dec. 12
Sunny & The Sunglows – Talk To Me (1963, as member)
Selena y Los Dinos – Qué (1988) (1988, as producer)
Marilyn Mazur, 70, US-born Danish jazz percussionist, on Dec. 12
Papo Rosario, 78, Puerto Rican salsa singer, on Dec. 12
See entry for Rafael Ithier on December 6
Abraham Quintanilla, 86, musician, producer, manager, father of Selena, on Dec. 13
The Dinos – Won’t You Give Me A Chance (1960)
Carl Carlton, 72, soul singer and songwriter, on Dec. 14
Carl Carlton – You Can’t Stop A Man In Love (1973)
Carl Carlton – She’s A Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked) (1981)
Joe Ely, 78, alt.country singer and songwriter (The Flatlanders), on Dec. 15
Jimmie Dale & The Flatlanders – She Had Everything (1972)
Joe Ely – All Just To Get To You (1995, featuring Bruce Springsteen)
The Flatlanders – Wishing For A Rainbow (2009)
Jim Stringer, 77, country guitarist, announced Dec. 16
Goldwire McLendon, 95, gospel singer, on Dec. 17
Max Eider, guitarist of UK indie band The Jazz Butcher, songwriter, on Dec. 17
The Jazz Butcher – The Human Jungle (1985)
Cosimo Filane, 86, Canadian pop singer, on Dec. 19
Mick Abrahams, 82, original guitarist of Jethro Tull, singer of Blodwyn Pig, on Dec. 19
Blodwyn Pig – Walk On The Water (1969, on lead vocals and as writer)
Lindomar Castilho (aka Cabral), 85, Brazilian singer, songwriter, murderer, on Dec. 20
Ken Downie, co-founder of UK electronic group The Black Dog, on Dec. 20
Jontho, 48, drummer of Norwegian black metal band Ragnarok, on Dec. 21
Chris Rea, 74, English singer-songwriter, on Dec. 22
Chris Rea – Fool (If You Think It’s Over) (1978, also as writer)
Chris Rea – On The Beach (1986, also as writer)
Chris Rea – Looking For The Summer (1991, also as writer)
Tony Ocasio, 58, singer with Puerto Rican boy band Los Chicos, on Dec. 23
Paa Kow, Ghanaian highlife drummer and composer, on Dec. 23
Perry Bamonte, 65, guitarist, keyboardist of The Cure (1990-2005, 2022-25), on Dec. 24
The Cure – Friday I’m In Love (1992, as member on guitar)
Stu Phillips, 92, Canadian-born country singer, oldest living Opry member, on Dec. 25
Stu Phillips – Kathy Keep Playing (1965)
Pate Mustajärvi, 69, singer of Finnish rock band Popeda, on Dec. 26
Don Bryant, 83, soul songwriter and singer, on Dec. 26
Donald Bryant – I’ll Do The Rest (1966, also as writer)
Ann Peebles – I Can’t Stand The Rain (1974, as writer)
Brigitte Bardot, 91, French actress, model, singer, on Dec. 28
Brigitte Bardot – Harley Davidson (1967)
Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot – Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus (rec. 1968)
Andy Billups, 72, bassist of UK rock band The Hamsters, on Dec. 28
Dooz Kawa, 40, French rapper, on Dec. 29
Richard Smallwood, 77, gospel singer, on Dec. 30
Richard Smallwood – Total Praise (1996)
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