It's the last Sunday Comments Page of the year.
Tomorrow we'll be counting down The Top 65 of 1965 based on this past year's Super Charts (along with the year end charts of the publications that inspired them ... as well as Joel Whitburn's tabulations and Dann Isbell's original "Ranking The '60's" book.)
Hopefully you're all enjoying my Favorite Radio Week of the Year ...
The week between Christmas and New Year's is when Rewound Radio plays back all of the songs (over 3400 of 'em this year!) that people voted as their all-time favorites ...
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!
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When our Grandson Luke saw this picture of me with Santa Claus, taken back in the mid-1900's, he asked if that was the REAL Santa since the photo looked so old. (lol) kk
The Grammys will honor Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Fela Kuti, Carlos Santana, Cher, and Paul Simon with Lifetime Achievement Awards next month. Awards will be presented on Saturday, January 31st, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, the day before the main ceremony at the arena. (kk)
Barry Manilow has had to reschedule his farewell tour after a cancerous spot was found on his lung, requiring immediate surgery.
His rescheduled dates now include:
February 27th – Tampa - Benchmark International Arena
March 6th - Columbus - Nationwide Arena
March 11th - Charleston - North Charleston Coliseum
March 13th - Orlando - Kia Center
March 14th - Sunrise - Amerant Bank Arena
April 24th - Greensboro - First Horizon Coliseum
April 27th - Jacksonville - VyStar Veterans Memorial
Speaking of tour dates, the first 2026 Happy Together Tour Dates have been announced …
There will be MANY more to come.
As a reminder, this year’s line up will include The Association, The Vogues, Gary Puckett, The Troggs, The Fortunes, Jason Scheff (formerly of Chicago), Ron Dante and The Cowsills.
May 26th – Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theatre
May 29th – Clearwater, FL – Ruth Eckerd Hall
May 31st – Myrtle Beach, SC – The Carolina Opry Theater
June 2nd – Alexandria, VA – Birchmere
June 3rd – Alexandria, VA – Birchmere
June 4th – Jim Thorpe, PA – Penn’s Peak
June 5th – Morristown, NJ – Mayo Center of the Perf. Arts
June 12th – Atlantic City, NJ – Ocean Casino Resort
August 29th – Wisconsin Dells, WI – Crystal Grand Music Theatre
Chris Rea passed away on December 22nd. Best know for his 1978 Top Ten Forgotten Hit “Fool (If You Think It’s Over),” Rea became part of the annual Christmas playlist with his song “Driving Home For Christmas.” News reports say he died a peaceful death after a short illness. He was 74. (kk)
There’s a Beatles Yuletide Log that plays an hour and a half of Beatles music up on YouTube to enjoy thru the rest of the holiday season …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZZYykoGL3E
More great press for Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon’s new Christmas song …
https://t2conline.com/how-did-freddy-cannons-red-coat-santa-happen/
Monday, December 22nd, would have been Maurice and Robin Gibb’s 76th birthdays. (Maurice died in 2003, Robin in 2020.)
Harvey Kubernik had the opportunity to interview The Bee Gees at the height of their career in 1978 for Melody Maker. You can read the bulk of that interview here:
https://bestclassicbands.com/bee-gees-interview-1978-12-22-25/
From Tom Cuddy …
The Night The Everly Brothers Broke Up - Ron Coleman Interview
https://youtu.be/SkpTSv-x7-E?si=rDxHcLksB4OLBbhk
Paul McCartney posted the highest touring receipts for the month of November, 2025, taking in just over $51.7 million spread over 11 shows seen by 150,000 people. Incredible. (kk)
Tom also sent us this review of Susanna Hoffs’ recent show in Connecticut …
Susanna Hoffs' Eternal
Brightness Shines at Intimate Connecticut Show
Source: Consequence
https://share.google/DsMXi7Of2EQR76rYB
Ironically … or maybe not, Best Classic Bands reran their review of the new Bangles box set last week, too. (kk)
https://bestclassicbands.com/bangles-watching-the-sky-box-set-review-12-23-25/
Got this news from a few readers last week …
I was the perfect age for the bubblegum movement … especially as music moved into a much heavier tone … even The Beatles had changed … so I had a LOT of Buddah Records in my collection when I was 15. So it was sad to hear that Jerry Kasenetz, one half of the Kasenetz-Katz team that drove the label, had passed away. (kk)
One of the men behind the bubblegum success of Buddah Records and dealings associated with both Nebraska bands, Professor Morrison's Lollipop and the Smoke Ring, has passed away. The below somewhat stuffy article is from The New York Times. I, for one, loved many Kasenetz-Katz projects.
Clark Besch
Jerry Kasenetz, a King of Bubblegum Pop Music, Dies at 82
With his producing partner, Jeffry Katz, he made lightweight ditties like “Yummy Yummy Yummy” that soared up the charts in the late 1960s.
Three young men stand together, smiling. To one side is recording equipment.
Jerry Kasenetz, center, in 1968 with his producing partner, Jeffry Katz, right, and Neil Bogart, an executive at Buddah Records. As the founders of Super K Productions, Mr. Kasenetz and Mr. Katz turned out a slew of hit records.
Credit ... Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
December 22, 2025:
Jerry Kasenetz, a hit-making record producer who, with his business partner, Jeffry Katz, gained a reputation as a “king of bubblegum” by defying rock’s drift toward self-seriousness in the late 1960s, peppering the charts with sugary concoctions like “Yummy Yummy Yummy” and “Little Bit O’ Soul,” died on Dec. 6 in a hospital in Tampa, Fla. He was 82. The cause was complications from a fall at his home, his son Darren said.
Mr. Kasenetz and Mr. Katz scored their first big hit in 1967 with “Little Bit O’ Soul,” by the Music Explosion, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That was a pivotal year for rock ’n’ roll: The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and the Velvet Underground put out debut albums that seemed to capture the human id on wax, while the Beatles, with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” made the most conspicuous statement yet that rock, long derided as kid stuff, had evolved into an art form.
Kid stuff, however, was A-OK with the partners known as Super K Productions. Given free rein under Neil Bogart at the New York label Buddah Records, also bubblegum royalty, the duo was known within the industry as a “human jukebox” and ran the equivalent of a pop music factory, overseeing a conveyor belt of dessert pastries disguised as 7-inch singles.
Protest anthems? Thinly veiled odes to LSD? They wanted none of it. “The kids who are digging pop music aren’t involved with the problems in the world that preoccupy older people,” Mr. Katz said in a 1968 interview with the influential British music newspaper Melody Maker. “They want happy music they can dance to.” Some of Mr. Katz and Mr. Kasenetz’s groups were little more than cover identities for a stable of songwriters and session musicians. Others were small-time bands they reinvented as instant, if disposable, pop stars.
The Super Ks, who virtually defined the form in their heyday, flummoxed critics and rock snobs. They produced records that had all the nutrition, musically speaking, of Twinkies, yet their songs proved addictive to significant swaths of the record-buying public. During a two-year reign, the 1910 Fruitgum Company — another thoroughbred in the Super K stable — crowded the Hot 100 chart with feel-good tunes like “Simon Says” (No. 4); “1, 2, 3, Red Light” and “Indian Giver” (both No. 5); and “Goody Goody Gumdrops” (No. 37).
Other signature bands included the Ohio Express, who soared to No. 4 with “Yummy Yummy Yummy,” to No. 15 with the cavity-inducing “Chewy Chewy” and to No. 33 with “Down at Lulu’s.” Crazy Elephant got to No. 12 with “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’,” which called to mind Wilson Pickett channeling the Cowsills. The producing pair’s zenith arguably was a 1968 concert at Carnegie Hall by the 50-member-strong Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, which was composed of members of several Super K bands and billed as the first symphony-sized rock group. “It was sort of a world’s fair of rock,” the critic Robert Shelton wrote in a review in The New York Times, adding that the spectacle included psychedelic lights, smoke pellets and “freaky films” that “gave the stage an aura of interplanetary chaos.”
Seemingly overnight, Mr. Kasenetz and Mr. Katz were millionaires in their mid-20s, and lived accordingly. “We were more than crazy,” Mr. Kasenetz, known for his high-wattage personality, told Newsday in 1977. “We were off the wall. We were untouchable. Limousines, racehorses, bodyguards. We were zany and we still are.”
Jerrold H. Kasenetz was born on May 5, 1943, in Brooklyn, the eldest of five children of William Kasenetz and Rose (Cohen) Kasenetz, who both worked in real estate development and management. He grew up in Great Neck, N.Y., on Long Island. After graduating from the Henley School, a private preparatory institution in Queens, in 1960, he enrolled at the University of Arizona, where he met Mr. Katz. “Jeff was from a poor family in Brooklyn,” Mr. Kasenetz said in a 1977 interview with the rock magazine Circus, “and I was from a wealthy home. I’m the crazy one.”
The duo got its first taste of the music business arranging a campus concert by the Dave Clark Five, and left college before senior year to take a shot at industry success in New York. They certainly found it, but while they in large part defined the bubblegum sound, Mr. Kasenetz and Mr. Katz were not the only ones to strike gold with less-than-authentic bands. Starting in 1966, the Monkees, the made-for-TV band guided by the music producer Don Kirshner, became a chart sensation. Also under Mr. Kirshner, the Archies, a made-for-TV-cartoon group, scored the No. 1 song of 1969 — the year of Woodstock, no less — with “Sugar, Sugar.”
With the approach of the 1970s, the bubblegum craze began to die down as record buyers sought fresher sounds, a point that was obvious to the Super Ks. “We made it through an unusual amount of enthusiasm and desire,” Mr. Kasenetz told Circus. “Near the end we began to lose that. It was no longer fun.” An attempt to spin off their own label brought little success, but they briefly found a second act, signing a production deal with Epic Records and another Top 20 hit in 1977 with “Black Betty,” a scalding rock reinvention of an old song associated with Lead Belly, by a group called Ram Jam.
The duo opened a recording studio in Great Neck in the mid-1970s, and continued to search for new stars into the late 1980s, before Mr. Kasenetz moved to Tampa and retired. In addition to his son Darren, Mr. Kasenetz is survived by another son, Brett; his brothers, Iver and Bruce; and two grandchildren. His marriage to Jacqueline Schapiro ended in divorce in 1981.
While the Super K team is largely remembered for its helium-light output — the British rock journalist Pete Silverton once deemed the genre “Kleenex music” — no shortage of rock cognoscenti paid tribute over the years. Pete Townshend of the Who called “Yummy Yummy Yummy” — which fundamentally was straightforward power pop with slyly suggestive lyrics — one of his favorite songs when it was released, according to the liner notes of the 1983 album “The Best of the Ohio Express and Other Bubblegum Smashes” on Rhino Records.
Joey Ramone once said that the Ramones “started off just wanting to be a bubblegum group.” The band covered “Little Bit O’ Soul” on its 1983 album “Subterranean Jungle.” The ever-arty Talking Heads gave their own disjointed spin to “1,2,3, Red Light” while performing in their early years at CBGB, the Bowery club that was a cradle of punk rock. No less a rock purist than Lester Bangs, the storied gonzo critic, eventually gave bubblegum its due in the 1992 book “The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll.” “The basic bubblegum sound could be described as the basic sound of rock ’n’ roll,” he wrote, “minus the rage, fear, violence and anomie that runs from Johnny Burnette to Sid Vicious.”
Ken Voss sent in this article by Chris Mautner from the Penn Live Patriot News …
Record producer Jerry Kasenetz, who, along with his partner Jeff Katz, produced some of the most popular pop songs of the 1960s, has died. He was 82.
Kasenetz died on December 6th in a Florida hospital. The cause of death was complications from a fall at his home, his son told the New York Times.
Kasenetz and Katz, whose company was called Super K Productions, had their first major hit in 1967 with “Little Bit O’ Soul,” performed by the Music Explosion. It reached no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Other hit songs produced by the duo between 1967-68 include “Simon Says,” “Indian Giver,” and “1,2,3, Red Light” and “Goody Goody Gumdrops” — all performed by 1910 Fruitgum Company — and Ohio Express’ “Yummy Yummy Yummy.”
The pair also had their own hit in December 1968 as the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestra Circus with “Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run).”
The catchy, sweet singles became known as “bubblegum pop” in an age when more serious acts like The Doors and and Jimi Hendrix were starting to take hold.
In 1977 Kaenetz-Katz had one of their last big hits, producing Ram Jam’s cover of the Leadbelly song “Black Betty.”
While their music was largely dismissed at the time, performers such as Pete Townshend of The Who and Joey Ramone of The Ramones praised some of the songs and cited them as influences.
Kasenetz is survived by his brothers Iver and Bruce, sons Darren and Brett and two grandchildren, Billboard reported.
And from Tom Cuddy:
Buddah Records outgrew their bubblegum phase after a couple of years … the novelty had come and gone … but the label continued to produce big hit records. Gladys Knight and the Pips were even signed to the label for a while, and had their #1 Hit “Midnight Train To Georgia” there. Brooklyn Bridge (“Worst That Could Happen”), Lou Christie (“I’m Gonna Make You Mine”) and The Five Stairsteps (“O-oh Child”) also recorded there.
According to Fred Bronson’s book “Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits,” these are the 20 biggest hits that fell under the Buddah banner:
1 – MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1973)
2 – GREEN TAMBOURINE – The Lemon Pipers (1968)
3 – BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1974)
4 – SIMON SAYS – The 1910 Fruitgum Company (1968)
5 - MORE, MORE, MORE – The Andrea True Connection (1976)
6 – WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN – Brooklyn Bridge (1969)
7 – YUMMY, YUMMY, YUMMY – The Ohio Express (1968)
8 – I’VE GOT TO USE MY IMAGINATION – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1974)
9 – LAY DOWN (CANDLES IN THE RAIN) – Melanie (1970)
10 – INDIAN GIVER – The 1910 Fruitgum Company (1969)
11 – ON AND ON – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1974)
12 – THE WAY WE WERE TRY TO REMEMBER – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1975)
13 – 1, 2, 3 RED LIGHT – The 1910 Fruitgum Company (1968)
14 – O-OH CHILD – The Five Stairsteps (1970)
15 – I’M GONNA MAKE YOU MINE – Lou Christie (1969)
16 – CHEWY, CHEWY – The Ohio Express (1968)
17 – THE NEED TO BE – Jim Weatherly (1974)
18 – I FEEL A SONG (IN MY HEART) – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1974)
19 – WHEN I DIE – Motherlode (1969)
20 – SLOW DANCIN’ DON’T TURN ME ON – The Addrisi Brothers (1977)
Just missing this list were QUICK JOEY SMALL (RUN JOEY RUN) by The Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral circus (1968), DOWN AT LULU’s by The Ohio Express (1968) and THE SOUTH’S GONNA DO IT AGAIN by The Charlie Daniels Band (1975) kk
I hate to do these lists because invariably no matter how long you wait to run it, you just know that there will still be three or four more names that will need to be added to this list before 2025 draws to a close … (proof of this can be found with a listing added this morning ... I woke up early to the news of the passing of Brigette Bardot!)
But here is a list of show-biz artists that we lost during this past year. It is by NO means all-inclusive (so please don’t write in listing all of the omissions!) … but rather more of an overview of names that would be most likely familiar to our readers. (kk)
Wayne Osmond - founding member of the Osmonds singing group (1/1 – the first sad death we had to report this year)
Brenton Wood - soul singer who scored two pop hits in 1967, “The Oogum Boogum Song” and “Gimme Little Sign” (1/3)
Peter Yarrow – one third of the popular folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary (“Puff The Magic Dragon,” “Leaving On A Jet Plane,” “I Dig Rock And Roll Music”) 1/7
Sam Moore – One half of the Stax Records soul duo Sam and Dave (“Soul Man,” “I Thank You”) 1/10
Melba Montgomery - Country singer (1/15)
Bob Uecker – former MLB catcher who became a beloved baseball broadcaster and comedic actor, always with the best seat in the bleachers (1/16)
David Lynch – Renown filmmaker (“Twin Peaks,” “Blue Velvet”) 1/16
Dave Bargeron - Trombonist and tuba player with Blood, Sweat and Tears (1/18)
Bob Kuban – Lead singer of Bob Kuban and the In-Men “The Cheater”) 1/20
John Sykes - Guitarist for Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake (1/20)
Garth Hudson – founding member of The Band, probably best known for his organ work (1/21)
Marianne Faithfull - Singer-songwriter, actress and long-time Mick Jagger girlfriend - best known for her 1964 cover of the Jagger-Richards tune “As Tears Go By,” released before The Stones cut it for themselves (1/30)
Colin Earl – Pianist and founding member of Mungo Jerry (“In The Summertime”) 2/1
Gene “Daddy G” Barge - Saxophonist best known for his work with Gary U.S. Bonds – inspiration behind “A Night With Daddy G,” which later became Bonds’ hit “Quarter To Three” (2/2)
Tommy Hunt - R&B singer and founding member of the rock era pioneers (and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers) the Flamingos (2/12)
Gene Hackman – Actor (“The French Connection,” “Superman,” “Bonnie And Clyde” and many more) 2/18
Gordon “Snowy” Fleet - Drummer with the Australian band the Easybeats (“Friday on My Mind”) 2/18
Jerry Butler – A Chicago singing and political legend who had a great solo career after forming and then leaving The Impressions (2/20)
Gwen McCrae – Pop / R&B singer best known for her 1975 hit “Rockin’ Chair” – was married to George McCrae from 1963 - 1977 (2/21)
Chris Jasper - Member of The Isley Brothers (2/23)
Roberta Flack - R&B, pop and jazz singer/pianist, whose #1 hits included “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love” (2/24)
Robert John - Composer and singer of the 1979 hit “Sad Eyes;” also scored a #2 pop hit with his remake of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in 1972 (2/24)
David Johansen - Lead singer and last surviving member of the New York Dolls; also performed as a solo artist working under the name as Buster Poindexter (2/28)
Joey Molland - Guitarist, singer and songwriter with Badfinger; while not an original member, Joey was the last surviving member of the band’s classic lineup (3/1)
Harry Elston - Co-founder of the Friends of Distinction; lead vocalist on their hit “Grazing in the Grass” (3/4)
Jesse Colin Young - lead singer and bassist for the Youngbloods (“Get Together”) 3/16
Richard Chamberlain – Actor (“Dr. Kildare,” “Shōgun,” “The Thorn Birds” and more) 3/21
George Foreman - Heavyweight boxing champion and grilling entrepreneur (3/21)
Larry Tamblyn - co-founder and keyboardist of the Standells (“Dirty Water”) 3/21
Val Kilmer - Actor who portrayed both Jim Morrison and Batman (4/1)
Johnny Tillotson - singer of early ’60s hits such as “Poetry in Motion” and “Talk Back Trembling Lips,” who once famously told me “Take me off this God-forsaken list” when I first approached him about participating with Forgotten Hits (4/1)
Jay North - actor who starred as TV’s “Dennis The Menace” (4/6)
Clem Burke - Drummer for Blondie (4/7)
Lenny Welch - soul and pop singer whose version of “Since I Fell for You” became a Top Five Hit in 1964 (4/8)
Nino Tempo - session musician with the Wrecking Crew and one half of a duo with his sister April Stevens (1963 #1 hit “Deep Purple”) 4/10
Roy Thomas Baker – well-known producer of Queen, The Cars, Journey and many others (4/12)
Wink Martindale - rock ‘n’ roll disc jockey, recording artist and game show host (4/15)
Lulu Roman - regular on “Hee Haw” (4/23)
Ruth Buzzi – Best known for her contributions to “Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In” (5/1)
Johnny Rodriguez - Country singer (“That’s the Way Love Goes”) 5/9
John Edwards - Lead singer of the Spinners from 1977-2000 (5/11)
Larry Lee – Drummer and founding member of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils; co-wrote their 1975 hit “Jackie Blue” (5/11)
Terry Draper - Drummer and songwriter for Canadian band Klaatu (no, they weren’t really The Beatles) 5/15
Roger Nichols - Composer who often collaborated with Paul Williams. His songs were recorded by The Carpenters, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Petula Clark, Jackie DeShannon, Bobby Darin, Paul Anka, the Monkees and more (5/17)
George Wendt - actor best known for playing Norm on the TV series “Cheers” (as well as cheering on Da Bears on “Saturday Night Live”) 5/20
James Lowe – lead singer of The Electric Prunes (“I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night”) – went on to work with Todd Rundgren and Sparks (5/22)
Rick Derringer - Guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer – original member of The McCoys (“Hang on Sloopy”), then worked with both Johnny and Edgar Winter as a vocalist and guitarist, then had a big solo hit with “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” and then played guitar on Weird Al Yankovic’s Michael Jackson parody hit “Eat It” (5/26)
Loretta Swit - actress ("Hot Lips" on TV's "M*A*S*H") 5/30
Wayne Lewis - Lead vocalist and keyboardist of R&B group Atlantic Starr (“Secret Lovers,” “Always” – Wayne cowrote both chart-topping hits) 6/5
Sly Stone - Leader of Sly and the Family Stone (“Dance To The Music,” “Everyday People,” “Hot Fun In The Summertime”) who inspired countless R&B / Funk bands over the decades (but became the equivalent of “No Show Jones” when it came to making concert appearances) 6/9
Brian Wilson - Beach Boys co-founder and genius behind their success – his contribution of the musical landscape of the ‘60s cannot be overestimated (6/11)
Patti Drew – pop/soul singer who scored solo hits and as the lead singer of The Drew-Vels (6/16)
Lou Christie – A personal friend … and the singer behind the hits as “Lightnin’ Strikes,” “Rhapsody In The Rain,” “Two Faces Have I” and “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” (also shown above on our Buddah List) 6/18
Cavin Yarbrough – one half of the R&B duo Yarbrough and Peoples (6/19)
Mick Ralphs - Guitarist and founding member of both Mott the Hoople and Bad Company (6/23)
Bobby Sherman – Actor (“Here Come The Brides”) and singer (“Little Woman,” “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “Julia, Do Ya Love Me”), who became a major teen idol in the late ’60s / early ’70s (and was a genuinely sweet, nice guy) 6/24
Walter Scott - Founding member of R&B group the Whispers (6/25)
Lalo Schifrin – scored dozens of major films and television series (including “Mission: Impossible,” “Dirty Harry,” “Cool Hand Luke” and many others. (6/26)
Jimmy Swaggart - TV evangelist and gospel artist (7/1)
Connie Francis – top-selling female singer who scored 44 National Top 40 Hits in the ’50s and ’60s, including “Who’s Sorry Now,” “Lipstick on My Collar,” “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” “My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own,”“Where the Boys Are,” and many, many more (7/16)
Alan Bergman – Lyricist on the hit songs “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “The Way We Were,” “You Don’t Bring me Flowers” and several others (7/17)
Frank Maffei - Founding (and last surviving member) of Danny and the Juniors (“At the Hop,” “Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay”) 7/20
Ozzy Osbourne - The “Prince of Darkness,” who was one of heavy metal’s biggest stars, first with Black Sabbath and then as a solo act … and then as a TV star (7/22)
Chuck Mangione – Jazz great trumpeter who had a Top 5 pop hit “Feels So Good” in 1978 (7/22)
Tommy McLain - scored a #15 pop hit with “Sweet Dreams” in 1966. One of the very first interviews I ever did for Forgotten Hits was with Tommy McLain, now lost to the ages unfortunately (7/24)
Cleo Laine – well-known British jazz singer (7/24)
Tom Lehrer – popular ‘60s singer, songwriter and satirist (and Dr. Demento staple) - “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” (7/26)
Jeannie Seely - Country singer who made more appearances on the Grand Ole Opry than any other performer (5,397 appearances in all, dating back to May 1966) 8/1
Loni Anderson - actress (receptionist Jennifer on "WKRP In Cincinnati") and married for years to Burt Reynolds (8/3)
Terry Reid - British singer/songwriter/guitarist who was famously asked by Jimmy Page to join Led Zeppelin and said “no thanks” in order to pursue a solo career. Known in the industry as “Superlungs,” he is most famous for what he DIDN’T do! (8/4)
Robert “Rabbit” Jaramillo - Founding member of the pioneering Chicano rock group Cannibal and the Headhunters (“Land of 1,000 Dances”) 8/8
Bobby Whitlock - keyboardist with Derek & the Dominos; also played with George Harrison and Delaney & Bonnie (8/10)
Danielle Spencer - actress (Dee on ''What's Happening'') 8/11
Robert Blake – Actor (“Baretta,” “The Little Rascals”) and accused murderer (8/14)
Roy Estrada - Original bassist for the Mothers of Invention and Little Feat (8/14)
Michael “Tunes” Antunes - Saxophonist for John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band – also starred in the movie “Eddie And The Cruisers” (8/19)
Tom Shipley – One half of the folk-rock duo Brewer and Shipley (“One Toke Over the Line”) 8/24
Mark Volman - co-founder and singer with the Turtles; also performed with Frank Zappa’s Mothers on Invention as half of the duo Flo & Eddie – and long-time friend and supporter of Forgotten Hits (9/5)
Rick Davies – founding member of Supertramp as well as their keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter (9/6)
Robert Redford - Actor (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Way We Were,” All the President’s Men), director, activist and founder of the Sundance Film Festival (9/16)
Sonny Curtis - Member of Buddy Holly’s Crickets and writer of “I Fought the Law” (Bobby Fuller Four) and “Love Is All Around” (theme song from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”) 9/19
Chris Dreja - Founding member, guitarist and bassist of the Yardbirds (9/25)
Jane Morgan - Pop singer, best known for her 1957 Top 10 Hit “Fascination” (10/4) – she was 101!
John Lodge - Bassist, singer and songwriter with the Moody Blues (10/10)
Diane Keaton – Actress (“Annie Hall,” “The Godfather,” many more) 10/11
Donnie Weaver - lead singer of the O’Kaysions (“Girl Watcher”) 10/13
Dick Addrisi – one half of the Addrisi Brothers (shown above on our Buddah List) Probably best remembered for writing the #1 Hit “Never My Love” for the Association (10/14)
D’Angelo - Grammy-winning R&B singer (10/14)
Ace Frehley - Founding guitarist of Kiss; scored the solo hit “New York Groove” (10/16)
Dave Burgess - Leader of the Champs, whose mostly instrumental “Tequila” went to #1 in 1958 (10/19)
Dave Ball – one half of the British synth-pop duo Soft Cell (“Tainted Love”) 10/22
June Lockhart – Actress (“Lassie,” “Lost In Space”) 10/23 – she was 100
Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay - Grateful Dead singer from 1972-79 (11/2)
Gilson Lavis - Drummer for Squeeze in the ’70s and ’80s (11/5)
Jellybean Johnson - Drummer with Minneapolis group the Time (“Jungle Love,” “The Bird,” both featured in the Prince motion picture “Purple Rain) 11/21
Phil Upchurch - Guitarist who scored a Top 40 Hit with his instrumental cover of the Dovells’ “You Can’t Sit Down” in 1961 (11/23)
Jimmy Cliff - Jamaican reggae great who rose to fame via his starring role in the 1972 film The Harder They Come (He also had the hit song “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” in 1969) 11/24
Antone “Chubby” Tavares - Lead singer of the R&B vocal group Tavares (11/30)
Steve Cropper – Guitarist legend, songwriter and producer for Stax Records’ house band, Booker T & the M.G.’s as well as many other soul artists in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s and The Blues Brothers in the ‘80’s (12/3)
Jerry Kasenetz – see article above - along with partner Jeff Katz, they produced hit bubblegum recordings by the 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express, Lemon Pipers and others (12/6)
Rob Reiner – award-winning director (“A Few Good Men,” “Stand By Me,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Misery,” “The Princess Bride,” the two Spinal Tap movies and more) and award-winning actor (“All In The Family) in the most tragic and brutal death (12/14)
Anthony Geary – actor (best known for playing Luke on “General Hospital) 12/14
Carl Carlton – Pop and Soul singer (“Everlasting Love,” “She’s a Bad Mama Jama [She’s Built, She’s Stacked]”) 12/14
Gil Gerard - actor (Buck Rogers) 12/16
Chris Rea - English singer-songwriter best known in the U.S. for his hit single “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)” and also “Driving Home For Christmas” which has now become a holiday standard (12/22)
Brigette Bardot - actress and sex symbol of the '50s and '60s (12/28)*
*announcement date - actually date of death to be confirmed
AND FINALLY, A VERY QUICK YEAR-END THANK YOU …
Last week we received a notice from Blogger that we had over 940,000 visitors last year. This set a brand new record that exceeds any expectations I ever may have had. It seems that even though we've been doing less and less to promote the site in the way of emails and radio show appearances, more and more people continue to discover our efforts and come back for more. It blows my mind and humbles me in ways I can't even begin to explain.
Proportionally speaking, we hear from very few of these readers ... so it’s great to know that folks are just coming here on their own to check out the latest oldies news … and still find us somewhat relevant and entertaining after all these years (27 and counting!) Thank You all for your continued support and patronage. (kk)
