Willie Dunn born August 14, 1941

Willie Dunn (August 14, 1941 – August 5, 2013) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, film director and politician. Born in Montreal, he was of mixed Mi'kmaq and Scottish/Irish background. Dunn often highlighted indigenous issues in his work.

Born to a Mi’gmaq mother and father of Scottish / Irish descent, William Lawrence “Willie” Dunn was raised in Montreal with six sisters and a brother. He was also known as Roha’tiio, meaning “his voice is beautiful”. At eleven, Dunn discovered the music of Hank Williams and started playing the country’s greatest songs with a guitar given to him by his brother-in-law and sister at Christmas. As a teenager, Dunn spent hours listening to his musical hero and tried his best to pick apart Williams’ compositions. Dunn was a natural and started writing his own tunes within no time. He attended Montreal’s Rosemount High School in the 1950s, but dropped out after Grade 10 and enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces (1960 - 1963)and received the UN Congo medal.

After basic training at CFB Borden in the province of Ontario, Dunn was sent to Africa in support of the United Nations peacekeeping initiative in the Congo region. Upon his return, Dunn left the army and picked up his dusty guitar. He also started writing poetry (as did Dunn’s father, a one time hobo, and poet in his own right, as well as a friend of notable writer and humourist Stephen Leacock).

Another spark for Dunn was a reverberating question from a Congolese teacher that Willie had met in Africa. The teacher expressed curiosity about the current status of Canada’s Indigenous peoples, eventually inspiring the burgeoning songwriter to learn more about his Native heritage. Dunn returned to Restigouche to visit his extended family and establish a stronger connection with his Mi’gmaq roots. Though a city boy at heart, Dunn felt loved and welcome in the community and visited whenever possible.

At the dawn of the 1960s, Dunn became active in the North American folk music scene, which provided him with an opportunity to further practice his craft and network with peers at hot spots like Montreal’s Fifth Dimension coffeehouse and later, the seminal Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York, whose stage was graced by the likes of Pete Seeger and a young Bob Dylan.In the mid-1960s, Dunn helped to open a coffeehouse of his own in Montreal called The Totem Pole on Rue Stanley. Still, the beckoning road, travel, and a desire for new experiences meant that Dunn didn’t stay settled in any one place for too long. Trekking across Turtle Island with an open mind and talent to burn, the roaming singer-songwriter lived the life of an old-time troubadour and grassroots radical. 

He relocated to New York City for a short spell, performing in Greenwich Village. Dunn then headed west, spending time on the Canadian Prairies as well as enjoying a yearlong stay in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he helped to form the Native Alliance for Red Power. He also contributed a selection of original music to George Ryga’s acclaimed 1967 play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. Throughout his journey, Dunn connected with a diverse selection of Indigenous people from all walks of life, observing, learning, and interacting with their traditions, vibrancy, rights, and struggles. In addition to his being, such gleanings would become a central focus of his creative output.

                                    

In the late 1960s, it appeared that Willie Dunn was everywhere. Back home in Montreal, he performed at Expo 67 where he met Samson Cree First Nation hoop dancer and musician Jerry Saddleback. Dunn also joined forces with Ojibway dancer, actor, media personality, and prominent Native advocate Johnny Yesno, who helped him achieve an extensive song writing commission from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Indian Magazine, later known as Our Native Land, a national half-hour news and cultural events radio program centred on Indigenous life in Canada.Dunn was already a CBC veteran at this point, having sung two songs on the national broadcaster’s Songs of Man television show in 1965. It was during this busy period that Dunn penned the bulk of his most well-known honouring songs: “The Ballad of Crowfoot,” “Crazy Horse,” “Louis Riel,” and “Charlie.”

Willie also became involved with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) through their Challenge For Change program, an initiative that used film production to spotlight pertinent social issues among various communities across the country. The NFB’s “Indian Film Crew” was spawned from this project and taught Dunn the basics needed to shoot and edit his own celluloid visions. At the NFB, Dunn wrote a song entitled "The Ballad of Crowfoot" and directed a ten-minute National Film Board of Canada film of the same name in 1968. It was the first NFB film directed by an Indigenous person, about Siksika chief Isapo-muxika (Crowfoot); These Are My People (1969), the first NFB film made by an all-Indigenous crew. Both the song and video are about inhumane and unjust colonial treatment of indigenous Canadians, as well as their taking charge of their destiny and becoming politically active. The film received several awards including a Gold Hugo for best short film at the 1969 Chicago International Film Festival. The Ballad of Crowfoot has sometimes been credited as the first known Canadian music video. His other films include The Eagle Project, The Voice of the Land and Self-Government, and The Other Side of the Ledger: An Indian View of the Hudson's Bay Company. His music was also used for the films Incident at Restigouche (1984), about a 1981 police raid on the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation, and Okanada, about the 1990 standoff in Oka, Quebec between police and native protesters.

He released several full-length albums of recorded music including Willie Dunn (1971), The Pacific (1980) and Metallic (1999). Metallic reprises material from both earlier releases. Dunn's most famous song, "I Pity the Country", was a critique of colonialism and anti-indigenous racism. In 2004 Dunn released the album Son of the Sun with sixteen songs (including three live recordings). Not willing to simply be labelled a protest singer, however, the actively touring performer and recording artist released music in different genres (including country and traditional aboriginal) and even set the words of William Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot to native drumming and chants. Dunn also wrote and performed music for theatre and radio and published several poems and song texts.

A long-time member of the New Democratic Party, Dunn defeated Mohamed Bassuny to win the party's federal nomination for Ottawa—Vanier in the 1993 federal election. He received 3,155 votes (6.50%), finishing fourth against Liberal incumbent Jean-Robert Gauthier. He participated in the Culturally Diverse First Peoples Arts Showcase tour in 1998, and the Nations in a Circle spotlight of 2002. He was inducted into the Aboriginal Walk of Honour in 2005 in Edmonton and received a lifetime achievement award at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards (now the Indigenous Music Awards).

While his once-constant touring schedule had somewhat slowed down by the 2000s, he continued to perform until his passing at his home in Ottawa on August 5, 2013. He had been suffering from a variety of health complications for some time, according to his son, Lawrence Dunn. In 2020 the Prism Prize, Canada's annual award for innovations in music video, introduced a lifetime achievement award named in Dunn's memory, with choreographer and video director Laurieann Gibson named as the first winner of the award.

(Edited from Light In The Attic bio, The Canadian Encyclopedia, CBC News & Pitchfork) 

Priscilla Wright born August 14, 1940

Priscilla Wright (born August 14, 1940) is a Canadian singer most famous for the song "The Man in the Raincoat", which she first released in 1955, and re-recorded in 1988.

Don Wright

Priscilla Wright was born in London, Ontario. Her father was choir conductor and composer Don Wright, and her maternal grandfather was Canadian Prime Minister Arthur Meighen. When little Priscilla Wright was in school, a teacher instructed her to sing soprano in the school choir. At home, her father, a choral leader, thought her voice sounded strained. He had a suggestion. "I put it down a half-octave," she said, "and this other voice came out." In the 1950s, her father began writing the catchy, irresistible and, it must be said, sometimes annoying (but always unforgettable) tunes that would earn him the nickname Canada's Jingle King. He immortalized the attributes of soap, gas stations, chocolate bars and Carling's Red Cap ale. 

One of his earliest efforts was a ditty for Bromo-Seltzer for which he pressed his daughter into service. "Lum-dum-da-dum da-dum da-dum," she sang, "I'll take Bromo for fast relief." The jingle was a huge success, the singer sounding carefree and sophisticated. Record companies and talent agencies came looking for the unknown vocalist, only to discover she was a schoolgirl with braces on her teeth. Mr. Wright signed an agreement with Sparton, a local label, which in 1955 released a platter recorded at radio station CFPL, where Mr. Wright was manager.

                                      

Please Have Mercy was the song designed to launch the girl's career. Instead, it was the record's flip side that took off. "My little soul just went into it," she said. Her lovely contralto became a celebrated voice. At the age of 14 years old, her rendition of Man in a Raincoat made her a cross-border sensation. The sheet music, which included a photograph of her cuddling a kitten, sold in the hundreds of thousands. The 78-rpm record climbed to the top of the hit parade in Canada and It sold over half a million copies in the U.S. and hit No. 16 on Billboard's chart of "Most Played by Jockeys". No less a vocalist than Ella Fitzgerald encouraged her to "keep singing, honey." 

Her maternal grandfather, Arthur Meighen, the former Conservative prime minister, told Maclean's magazine he was proud of his only granddaughter. "I don't know the first thing about music," he said, "but I know Priscilla is a success, so she must have worked hard and have talent." In the fall, Miss Wright was invited to join a road show emceed by disc jockey Bill Randle. On Oct. 20, the line-up for a daytime concert at Brooklyn High School in a Cleveland suburb included Pat Boone, the Four Lads, Bill Haley and His Comets, and a young man making his first performance north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Miss Wright took the stage just before Mr. Presley. "He was kind of shy. Quiet. Polite. He was different backstage than he was on stage. As soon as his name was called, his lip would droop. The public Elvis was different than the real one." She played several shows with Mr. Presley, who would not make his debut on Mr. Sullivan's television program until the following year.

Her label sought to cash in on her unexpected success, although other releases failed to capture the public's imagination. (Among them was I Wanna Dance to a Mambo Combo, a novelty song written by comedian Johnny Wayne and Bobby Gimby) A second hit proved elusive. Still, a long and spectacular career seemed possible for the little lady from a small farm outside London, Ontario. Instead, on the cusp of stardom, she watched her parents reject contract offers from Hollywood and record companies, insisting she complete her education. She would graduate from the University of Toronto and continue to sing, although the momentum of her career had been lost.

She later married the broadcast journalist Geoff Scott, whom she helped win five consecutive elections as a Progressive Conservative member of Parliament. (They have since divorced.) In Ottawa, she revived her career as a pop and jazz vocalist, enjoying a long tenure at the Chateau Laurier Hotel with band leader Moxie Whitney. She returned to the Canadian charts in 1985 with a Michael Bolton song. Three years later, she issued a re-recording of the song that made her famous, which again placed high on the Canadian charts. She also enjoyed sold-out symphony performances in Toronto and Hamilton. In 1992, she released her first album. When You Love Somebody earned her a Juno nomination the following year as most promising female vocalist. The honour came 38 years after she had her first hit. She performed at theatres, conventions and jazz festivals, including the main stage of the Montreal Jazz Festival and with top bands such as Peter Appleyard and his Swing Fever Band.

She released her album "The Singer and the Song" in 2002, which gained coast to coast U.S. airplay and rave reviews. In 2000, Priscilla was chosen as vocalist for a new Mart Kenney Big Band CD, recorded in Vancouver with the finest musicians. Rave reviews included such comments as: "The sultry, yet coy vocals of Priscilla Wright add a complex elegance making this a magical event for player and listener alike." In 2005, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland invited her to perform to mark the 50th anniversary of the Brooklyn High show she did with Elvis Presley. In 2012, Priscilla was invited back to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a book launch. In 2016, in her hometown, Priscilla was inducted into the London Music Hall of Fame. While she no longer tours extensively, her official website highlights her recent band projects and ongoing musical legacy.

(Edited from "The Globe & Mail" & Wikipedia)

Solomon King born August 13, 1930

Solomon King (August 13, 1930 – January 20, 2005) was an American 1960s and 1970s popular music singer. He is best remembered for his 1968 British hit single, "She Wears My Ring", which charted in 40 countries.

Born Allen Verner Levy in Lexington, Kentucky and was raised with a love of popular standards and country music. He grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where he became a local choir soloist. As a teenager he attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and was offered a scholarship to study Cantatorial Music by Jan Peerce. He first started singing professionally in 1952. Under his first pseudonym, Randy Leeds, his records such as "I'm Gonna Live Til I Die" did not sell. King was the first white singer taken on tour by Billie Holiday, as well as working with Elvis Presley's backing group the Jordanaires, whom he used as his own backing group when recording his first version of "She Wears My Ring" in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1960 Levy married a Canadian journalist, Henny Lowy, after she had interviewed him, and they had four children. In 1965, he decided that the best place to make his mark would be in England and he spent his time in London around Denmark Street, hoping for a record deal. He assumed one of the best of all stage names, Solomon King, although he was reluctant to admit it was a stage name and it suited his ego. The rock manager Gordon Mills had created a market for macho, big-voiced singers with Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, and he thought King, who was six foot eight with a 50-inch chest, was another possibility.

                                     

"She Wears My Ring", based on La Golondrina ("The Swallow)" by the Mexican composer Narciso Serradel Sevilla, was written by the Nashville husband-and-wife team Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. Although it was recorded by Roy Orbison for his 1962 LP Crying, its potential had not been spotted and it had not been released as a single. Solomon King's 1968 recording, which was produced by Peter Sullivan, went to No 3 and was on the UK charts for five months. The record could only manage No 117 in the US, where it was eclipsed by a country-music version by Ray Price. Also in 1968, "When We Were Young", written by songwriting duo Les Reed and Barry Mason was a number 21 hit in the UK Singles Chart, but King's other singles were not as successful.

He performed in Blackpool for a summer season in 1968 and was subject to jokes about his size, his shape and how out of touch he was. He was furious when his co-star, the one-man band Don Partridge, introduced him as "the Alabama Elephant". He responded to the criticism in Disc magazine, People say I should stop singing ballads and do rock'n'roll but I am not a teenybopper. I am the father of four kids and in my time I have sung rock, blues, jazz and bop and how many hippies can say that? King was best suited to cabaret and summer seasons, where he could converse with his audiences. He was a meticulous performer, always wanting to know the age, clothes and sex of his audience so that he could plan his programme. For example, he would not sing about drinking during a matinée as there would be children listening.

The compere at the She club in Liverpool, the radio DJ Billy Butler recalls, I'd heard about Solomon King appearing in other clubs and closing his act with "God Save the Queen" and I couldn't believe that he would go down well at the She, which was a rough, tough club. When he came to the end of his act, he went into the national anthem and he paused before he hit that final note, which he then belted out. The audience loved him. He was so grateful to the British audiences for accepting him and this was his way of saying thank you.

King claimed to be born in 1940 but his choice of songs belied that. His albums She Wears My Ring (1968), King of Song (1969) and You'll Never Walk Alone (1971) were unlikely affairs, making little effort to be contemporary in their choice of material. King would sing Jewish favourites ("My Yiddishe Momma"), wartime morale-boosters ("The White Cliffs of Dover") and hits of the early Fifties ("Stranger in Paradise", "Be My Love"). In 1970, he released "This Wonderful Day" (under the name "Levi Jackson") on the Columbia record label which is still popular on the Northern soul scene.

He had recorded a gospel song, "This Beautiful Day", under a different pseudonym, Levi Jackson, and, although the single sank without trace in 1971, it was reactivated in 1978 and became popular on the Northern Soul circuit. In 1972, he released the single "When You've Gotta Go", written by Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker on the Polydor label and it made the Australian chart, as well as the Dutch "Tipparade", where it peaked at number 17. In 1974 King recorded the title song for the feeble film The Doll Squad, starring Francine York, which is now seen as a prototype for Charlie's Angels.

King and his wife Henny Lowy spent 20 years living in Higher Crumpsall, Manchester, England. But in 1980 they divorced he moved back to the United States, where he wed a further two times. He  continued singing in clubs in the United States. At 6 feet 8 inches (2.0 m) tall, some television interviewers refused to have him on their shows unless he sat down.

King died in Norman, Oklahoma, of cancer, on January 20, 2005, at the age of 74. A war veteran, he served in the United States Air Force. On his passing, he was buried with full military honours in Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, under his birthname of Allen Verner Levy.

(Edited from The Independent, AllMusic & Wikipedia)

Lesley Duncan born 12 August 1943

Lesley Duncan (12 August 1943 – 12 March 2010) was one of Britain's first female singer-songwriters. Her songs had an astonishing emotional depth and her voice a rare combination of warmth and clarity, bringing an intimacy to the experience of listening to her records. For those who discovered her music in the early 1970s, she stood out from all the other pop and rock of the era.

She received much airplay on British radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, but never achieved greater commercial success, in part because of her unwillingness to chase stardom as well as crippling stage fright. Her big break came when Elton John recorded her Love Song as a duet with her for his album Tumbleweed Connection (1970). Love Song – "a little song I'd knocked up as a suitable B-side," said Lesley – went on to be covered by more than 150 artists, including Olivia Newton-John, David Bowie and Barry White. 

Born in Stockton-on-Tees into a musical family, with her mother playing piano in clubs while her grandfather sang in the chapel choir. Lesley quit school just before her fifteenth birthday and soon after left home, traveling around the country and working various jobs, including waitressing in Scarborough and mother's helper in Wimbledon, and while waitressing in London. In 1962, while she was working in a London coffee bar, she and her brother Jimmy (soon to become manager of the Pretty Things) took some songs to a leading Tin Pan Alley music publisher. Jimmy was signed with a weekly retainer of £10, and Lesley with £7, on the grounds that she had fewer songs, no guitar and was a girl.

She had never sung publicly anywhere but made demo recordings of her songs and her manager took one of them to Parlophone, who signed her to a recording contract on the strength of her demo, and with no audition. The demo was 'I Want A Steady Guy', which became her first single, while the second Parlophone release, 'Tell Him'/'You Kissed Me Boy', was credited to Lesley and Jimmy, even though Jimmy had nothing to do with the writing of them. During this period, she also appeared in the 1963 film 'What A Crazy World' with Joe Brown, Marty Wilde, Alan Klein and Susan Maughan.

                                   

After leaving Parlophone she joined Mercury records who released three singles, with the final 'Hey Boy' including Dusty Springfield and Madeline Bell on backing vocals, and with the addition of Kiki Dee, all four of them would eventually feature as backing vocalists on an endless number of recordings. Following her time with Mercury, she had a brief period with RCA, releasing two singles, 'Lullaby'/'I Love You, I Love You' and the Goffin/King standard 'A Road To Nowhere', backed with her own 'Love Song', which became one of her most famous songs, with over 160 recorded versions of it.

She continued to write songs for other performers, including the Walker Brothers. She was also in great demand as a session singer, contributing backing vocals to Dusty Springfield's singles from 1964 up to her See All Her Faces album in 1972; Springfield returned the favour, doing backing vocals on Lesley's singles. By the early 70's, Lesley's song writing was changing in style from girl-pop to something more reflective. Her first album, Sing Children Sing (1971), was produced by Jimmy Horowitz, whom Lesley married in 1970 (they later divorced). It was followed by Earth Mother (1972); the title track, dedicated to Friends of the Earth, is one of the first, and finest, eco-songs. 

While working on sessions with Elton John for his 'Tumbleweed Connection' album, he asked to do one of her songs, and she suggested 'Love Song', which he recorded with Duncan playing acoustic guitar and singing backing vocals. Throughout the 70s, Lesley also sang backing vocals for Donovan, Long John Baldry, Kiki Dee, Ringo Starr and many others, and also sang on the Jesus Christ, Superstar album, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973).

Her first two solo albums were critically acclaimed but, despite a lot of radio play, neither sold well. Her next two, Everything Changes (1974) and Moon Bathing (1975), again failed to break through. Her last album, Maybe It's Lost (1977), was a conscious attempt to hit the popular market, after singing on the Alan Parsons Project's Eve, she decided to call it a day. She moved to Cornwall and, in 1978, married her second husband, the record producer Tony Cox, Lesley later moved to Oxfordshire and, in 1996, to Mull, in the Inner Hebrides. She contributed both her time and her music to causes she believed in. In 1979 she agreed to re-record "Sing Children Sing" with Kate Bush, Phil Lynott and Pete Townsend for the International Year of the Child. It generated considerable airplay and made it to the fringes of the charts.

Duncan's heart, however, was firmly rooted in her new life in the countryside, including her voluntary work for Oxfam, photography and dedicated walking of the entourage of dogs she and her husband accumulated. Life in her final home at Tobermory on the Isle of Mull generated a whole new network of friends largely unaware of her past existence in the pop world – or her still considerable worldwide following on numerous websites dedicated to her music. She was aware and appreciative of this constant and continued interest in her work but was never tempted to capitalise on it.

Duncan, who latterly suffered from cerebrovascular disease, died on 12 March 2010 in Mull's hospital with her husband at her side, just as Love Song, playing in the background, came to a close.

(Edited from obits by David Barrett & Independent, Wikipedia, also from Albums I Wish Had Existed blog) 

Eric Carmen born August 11, 1949

 Eric Carmen (August 11, 1949 – March 10, 2024) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. 

Born Eric Howard Carmen, in Cleveland, Ohio, he began his musical training at an early age. By the age of six, he was taking violin lessons, and by 11, he was playing piano and penning his own original compositions. With his discovery of the Beatles in the early '60s, Carmen's attention shifted toward rock & roll and he began playing piano and singing with high school bands. It was while he was a student at John Carroll University that he joined a local group called Cyrus Erie, who, apart from issuing several obscure singles on Epic Records, failed to leave much of an impact outside of the local region.

But when another popular local rock outfit, the Choir, split up, Carmen and another Cyrus Erie member, guitarist Wally Bryson, joined forces with former Choir members Dave Smalley (bass) and Jim Bonfanti (drums), which led to the formation of the Raspberries. Mixing rockers that combined the melody of the Beatles and the guitar riffs of the Who with lush ballads, the quartet quickly created a buzz, which resulted in a recording contract with Capitol. Right off the bat, the quartet scored a massive hit single with the infectious "Go All the Way", which peaked at number five on the singles charts. Despite issuing further solid albums, the group became known first and foremost as a "singles" act, as their albums failed to match the chart success of their hit singles. Carmen's increasing frustration with the group led the Raspberries to split in 1975. It wasn't long, however, before other groups began translating the Raspberries' sound and approach into their own hits, especially Cheap Trick and the Knack, among countless others.

                                       

Immediately thereafter, Carmen inked a solo deal with Arista where he opted for a more mature, singer/songwriter/ballad style, as evidenced by his self-titled 1975 debut. The shift in musical styles soon reaped rewards for Carmen, as it spawned two big hits, "All by Myself" and "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again," while the album almost cracked the Top 20. Despite a strong start to his solo career, the hits soon dried up, as his subsequent albums sold less than their predecessors. Carmen sank from sight for several years, but penned the Top Ten hit power ballad "Almost Paradise" (from the incredibly popular 1984 film Footloose), sung by Heart's Ann Wilson and Loverboy's Mike Reno.

With the single proving that a large audience still existed for Carmen-penned ballads, the singer resurfaced a year later with his first solo album in five years, the second self-titled release of his career. While it did spawn a moderate hit with the single "I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips," the album failed to move up the charts. It was another movie soundtrack, 1987's Dirty Dancing, that would land Carmen his next big hit, the Top Ten "Hungry Eyes." Carmen scored another hit a year later, "Make Me Lose Control," and also toured as part of the Dirty Dancing concert tour. 

Eric with Ringo Starr

When the tour wound up, Carmen pulled a disappearing act once more, yet throughout the '90s, a wide variety of renowned artists covered songs of his, including Babes in Toyland, Peter Cetera, Sheryl Crow, Celine Dion, and Diana Ross, among others. 1998 saw Carmen issue his first solo full-length in 13 years, the Japanese release Winter Dreams (released in the U.S. as I Was Born to Love You a year later), then in 2000 he joined Ringo Starr's All-Star band for a spell of touring. Meanwhile, rumours had begun to swirl regarding an impending Raspberries reunion tour.

While it was true that all four original Raspberries members met up in early 1999, and three of them performed a few months later in Cleveland at a party, a reunion ultimately failed to materialize until 2005, when the original quartet reunited for a show at L.A.'s House of Blues. The show was released in 2007 as Live on Sunset Strip. Carmen himself released a newly recorded song, "Brand New Year," in 2013, just as a career retrospective set titled The Essential Eric Carmen was being assembled. It hit shelves in 2014 and proved to be the last record issued during his lifetime. According to his wife, the singer/songwriter died in his sleep in Paradise Valley, Arizona on March 10, 2024, at the age of 74.

(Edited from AllMusic)

Floyd Robinson born August 10, 1932

Floyd Eugene Robinson (August 10, 1932 – May 28, 2016) was an American singer, born in Nashville, Tennessee, who was briefly successful in the late 1950s.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Floyd Robinson decided that a career in music would be his life. He was barely in his teens when he formed his first band, called the Eagle Rangers. They performed at pre-teen hops, school functions, parties and local radio programs. While he was in high school, Robinson had a regular radio show on Nashville's WLAC and WSM radio. And in between shows, Floyd and his Rangers served as the back-up band for country music singers on tour, among them George Jones, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold and Little Jimmy Dickens. The band also appeared on the Grand Ole Opry.

According to some sources, Floyd was one half of the bluegrass duo Jack and Daniel (Autry Inman and Floyd Robinson), who recorded for Decca in the early fifties. In 1958, Robinson wrote a novelty song called "The Little Space Girl" for his cousin Jesse Lee Turner, who scored his only hit (# 20 in early 1959) with this extra-terrestrial tune. Smash hits like David Seville's "Witch Doctor" and Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater" had created a huge demand for sped-up novelties, so RCA Victor approached Robinson and asked if he had more funny songs. Floyd came up with "My Girl" , a story about a strange dude with an emotionally damaged girlfriend. 

                                       

He was signed by RCA and rushed into their Nashville studio to record the song, under the supervision of Chet Atkins. However, disc jockeys soon discovered that the other side, "Makin' Love" was a much better song and Floyd made the charts for the first and only time. "Makin' Love" peaked at # 20 in September 1959 on the Billboard Hot 100.  The track reached No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart the same year. It also did well in several European countries, spawning local cover versions in French ("T' Aimer Follement"), Spanish ("Locamente Te Amare"), Italian, German and Dutch.

RCA released eight singles and one LP (simply titled "Floyd Robinson", RCA LPM 2162) by Floyd, but there were no further hits. He continued throughout the 1960s in the same teen-oriented vein for such labels as Jamie, Dot, Groove and United Artists, but all to no avail. Floyd worked as an engineer on Duane Eddy sessions in the mid-1960s. In 1971 and 1975 he recorded two duet singles with his cousin Jesse Lee Turner (who recorded at least seven of Floyd's compositions).

In 1973, Floyd became the inventor of "Christian animal music". Directed by the Holy Spirit and inspired by David Seville's Chipmunks, he recorded and released at least fourteen LP's of children's evangelical music, with such titles as "Charlie the Hamster Teaches Bible Stories With Floyd Robinson" and "Charlie the Hamster Sings the Ten Commandments With Floyd Robinson". In 1977, Robinson was sued by the lawyer son of the late David Seville, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., for plagiarism and copyright infringement. The matter was settled out of court, but meant the end of Robinson's animal records.

In the 1990's Robinson self-published two books, the instruction manual "Guitar Playing Made Easy" (1992) and the novel "The Guitar" (1994). He owned a used car dealership, but remained active in the music industry. Robinson died on May 28, 2016, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, after a long illness, at age 83.

(Edited from This Is My Story)