Lou Dinning born 29 September 1922

Lou Dinning (September 29, 1920 – April 28, 2000) was a member of the Dinning Sisters who were an American singing group, active from 1941 to 1955.

The trio consisted of Ella Lucille "Lou" Dinning, Jean Dinning (March 29, 1924 – February 22, 2011) and Virginia "Ginger" Dinning (March 29, 1924 – October 14, 2013). Jean and Ginger were twins.

Ginger, Jean and Lou Dinning

The sisters were born in Caldwell, Kansas, United States, and raised in Oklahoma From a family of nine children, all of whom sang harmony in church, and then spent their Sunday afternoons singing for fun. Three of the sisters, twins Jean and Ginger and sister Lou, started to win amateur singing contests before the age of ten, and later began to perform with older brother Ace's orchestra. In their teens, the girls had their own 15-minute local radio show, and later toured clubs and theatres in the Midwest with Herbie Holmes’ orchestra.

After moving to Chicago in 1939, they won a five-year contract with NBC, and during the early 40s were regulars on programmes such as the Bowman Musical Milkwagon, Gary Moore’s Club Matinee and the National Barn Dance, and headlined at venues such as the Chez Paree, the Chicago Theatre and the Latin Quarter and ultimately became the highest paid radio act in the Windy City.

A trip to Hollywood led to an appearance with Ozzie Nelson’s band in the movie Strictly In The Groove. They also provided vocals for two Walt Disney films, Fun And Fancy Free and Melody Time, in the latter of which they sang ‘Blame It On The Samba’, accompanied by organist Ethel Smith. 

                             

While on the west coast they signed for Capitol Records, and had several hits in the late 40s, including ‘My Adobe Haçienda’, ‘I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now’, ‘Beg Your Pardon’ and the million-seller ‘Buttons And Bows’ (1948), accompanied by accordionist Art Van Damme’s Quintet.They were to be Capitol's  answer to The Andrews Sisters, who recorded exclusively for 
Decca Records. Lucille (Lou) Dinning once said, "Let's face it, the Andrews Sisters were way ahead of us. We tried our darndest to be as commercial as they were, but weren't flashy enough. We were all kind of shy. We came from a farm in Oklahoma. We never took dancing lessons or anything."

The Dinnings, like The Andrews Sisters sang in fast-paced recordings such as the boogie-woogie influenced "Pig Foot Pete," as well as "Down in the Diving Bell," "The Hawaiian War Chant," and "They Just Chopped Down the Old Apple Tree," an "answer" song to "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)". The Dinning sound could also be compared, especially in slower ballads, to the soft blend of The Lennon Sisters, who appeared in the 1950s on The Lawrence Welk Show.

The Dinning Sisters charted four hits during the 1940s, including two top 10 successes. The group received further exposure from their appearances in the films, That Texas Jamboree (1946) and Throw a Saddle on a Star (1946)

The group underwent a few line-up changes over the years (Lou was replaced in 1946 by Jayne Bundesen, who was in turn replaced by Tootsie Dinning in 1952), but their albums for Capitol sold consistently well, including their debut release Songs by the Dinning Sisters which held the top spot on the charts for 18 weeks. Marriages and children eventually demanded the act's attentions and they disbanded in 1954 but the family remained involved in music.

Lucille was married to composer and pop artist Don Robertson. She made several recordings for Capitol Records as Lou Dinning including duets with her husband Don including "The Happy Whistler" and "You're Free To Go" but divorced before her passing. Lou Dinning also made some solo records, including ‘The Little White Cloud That Cried’, ‘Trust In Me’, ‘Just Friends’ and ‘Nobody Else But Me’, with Paul Weston’s Orchestra. Jean Dinning co-composed the song, "Teen Angel", which became a No. 1 hit for her brother, Mark Dinning.

The Dinning Sisters briefly reunited in 1993 and recorded the spiritual album "Rhinestone Christian" with the Jordanaires.

Lou Dinning 1987

Ella Lucille Dinning Robertson died 28 April, 2000 (aged 79). She was buried in Orlinda Cemetery, Robertson County, Tennessee. 

 (Info compiled from various sources mainly Wikipedia & Oldies.com)

Jim Boyd born 28 September 1914

James Alexander “Jim” Boyd  (28 Sep 1914 - 11 Mar 1993) was a singer and multi-instrumentalist who contributed to the creation of the genre of western swing music.

The son of Lemuel and Molly (Jared) Boyd, Jim was born in Fannin County, Texas, four years after his brother Bill Boyd, the noted bandleader. They grew up on a cotton farm. 

Both brothers found their interest in music encouraged by their mother, who helped Jim Boyd find work on an early morning local radio show while still in his teens. Boyd recalled walking four miles to the station in the pre-dawn hours to earn $2.75 per week. Jim and Bill Boyd performed on KFPM radio in Greenville as early as 1926.

Jim Boyd, still a teenager, formed a band with three other musicians and began playing informal dances. Called the Rhythm Aces, the band would seek engagements near Cedar Hill and other small towns around Dallas. The Boyd brothers had moved to Dallas in 1929. One weekly Saturday night gig was an open-air dance, probably on a dance platform, where they brought a camping lantern to warm their hands during chilly winter performances.

In addition to the Rhythm Aces, Boyd was hired by a local bandleader who had an eight-piece outfit that performed on Dallas radio station WRR. He continued to play guitar and sing with that group until 1932 when his brother Bill landed his own show and formed the first incarnation of his seminal group, the Cowboy Ramblers. Jim Boyd was a charter member of the group, who went on to record for RCA Victor in San Antonio in 1934. The younger Boyd claimed to have been involved in every recording made by the Cowboy Ramblers and to have played bass on 90 percent of the recordings.

His success and skills prompted WRR to hire him as a staff musician, where he was called upon to play guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, or whatever instrument might be needed. It was in this capacity that Boyd accompanied a young female singer who, although billed as Kathryn Starling at the time, would go on to national stardom as pop and jazz vocalist Kay Starr. In demand as a sideman, he also began playing with Roy Newman’s band on WRR and at live engagements.

In 1938 Boyd was approached by Parker Willson with the Light Crust Doughboys, who at the time were enjoying enormous popularity on the western swing band circuit and had appeared in two Hollywood films. In need of a bass player who could solo and sing tenor, Willson invited Boyd to audition, probably at the urging of Smokey Montgomery with whom Boyd was acquainted. Boyd auditioned and was immediately hired. Boyd was able to propose to his sweetheart, and they married shortly after he joined the band.

After two years with the Doughboys, Boyd joined the Hillbilly Boys, but moved back to Dallas in 1942. He again found work performing, broadcasting, and recording with his brother’s Cowboy Ramblers for RCA Victor and with side projects, including the Crazy Water Gang. Beginning in 1942, Boyd stepped into the role of bandleader, fronting a group he first called the Texas Mockingbirds before eventually settling on the name Jim Boyd and His Men of the West.

                              

With this group, Boyd secured a recording contract with RCA. He recorded numerous sides for RCA from 1949 to 1951, and by 1952 they had their own regular Saturday night radio program, broadcasting over WFAA. They also were featured on the program Saturday Night Shindig on WFAA’s television affiliate, where they played music and performed comedic skits. Boyd also worked as a disc jockey and advertising sales representative.

Boyd and WFAA entered into a bitter dispute over Boyd’s refusal to move WFAA’s Saturday-night program to Fair Park Music Hall. After being fired by WFAA, Boyd rejoined the Light Crust Doughboys in 1953, reuniting with Marvin Smokey Montgomery with whom he had been band-mates years earlier. Boyd and Montgomery worked together in the Light Crust Doughboys and sometimes as the Wagon Masters. Boyd also frequently played on Big D Jamboree. In the late 1960s through the 1980s, he worked in the house construction business but continued to perform music. He was inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1990. Boyd, featured on guitar, vocals, and bass, remained with the Doughboys until his death.

He was inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame on April 21, 1990.  He died of lung cancer at the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas 11 March 1993, age 73.

(Edited mainly from an article by Deirdre Lannon @ The Texas State Historical Association)

Ray Kinney born 26 September 1900

Ray Kinney (September 26, 1900 – February 1, 1972) was a singer, musician, composer, orchestra leader, and performer on radio, stage and screen.

Kinney was born in Hilo, Hawaii to Irish-Hawaiian parents William & Pilialoha Kinney. At age 15 he and his six brothers were sent to school in Salt Lake City, Utah. Already skilled on the ukulele and with a fine tenor voice, Ray and his brothers formed their own band and began touring the western US. He returned to Hawaii in 1920 upon the death of his mother.

Ray was cast in 1925 as the lead in the opera "Prince of Hawaii" by noted Hawaiian composer Charles E. King. The opera began touring in California in 1926. In 1928 bandleader Johnny Noble chose Kinney among others to appear on his radio show. The show originated from station KPO in San Francisco and was basically an hour long promotion for Hawaiian 

tourism.Later that year Brunswick Records signed Noble, with Kinney as one of the singers, to a contract that resulted in 110 singles being issued. Those 78s and the show helped introduce and popularize Hawaiian music in the US mainland and lead to a national tour and then an 11-month engagement at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

While working in a Taro factory in 1934, Kinney was approached by bandleader Harry Owens to join his orchestra for their opening at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Ray appeared on the premiere broadcast of Webley Edwards' "Hawaii Calls" radio show from the Moana Hotel in July 1935. He regularly appeared on the show for a number of years. Decca Records signed Johnny Noble and His Orchestra, with Kinney as vocalist, to a contract in 1936. The "phenomenal" sales results kept them under contract for four years.

                              

Kinney became the first Hawaiian entertainer to be in a major Broadway production when he and the "Aloha Maids" were cast in the Olsen and Johnson Broadway revue "Hellzapoppin'" in September 1938. The show lasted 1,404 performances and ran until December 1941. 1938 also saw Kinney beat out the likes of Rudy Vallée and Guy Lombardo in a New York popularity poll of American singers as well as begin a four-year stint in the "Hawaiian Room" of New York's Hotel Lexington leading his own orchestra.

Alfred Apaka was hired by Kinney in 1940 as his vocalist at the 
"Hawaiian Room" and was featured on several Kinney 
recordings.Kinney's 1941 musical short "Ana Lani" is frequently mixed up with the 1947 "Hawaiian Hula Song". During the war years, Kinney toured 157 military bases and clubs becoming a favourite of Hawaii's 442nd Regiment. The end of the war saw

Kinney return to Hawaii and join Don McDiarmid's Orchestra performing at the Kewalo Inn as vocalist and bass fiddle player.

In 1949, Kinney discovered Eddie Kamae and took him on tour and finally, in 1959, adding Kamae to the "Royal Hawaiian Hotel Orchestra".Kinney also composed many songs during his career including "Across the Sea", "Not Pau", "Hawaiian Hospitality", "Maile Lau Li'ili'i", "Island Serenade", "Kalapaki Bay", "Ululani", and "Leimana."

Ray signed his last recording contract at age 65 with RCA. Kinney noted it was "somewhat of a miracle" that his recording career had lasted nearly forty years and almost 600 songs.

Ray Kinney was charismatic, and a born musician, dedicated to presenting the music of his Hawai`i. He sang in Hawai`i's best hotels until he died early in 1972, still in possession of the beautiful tenor voice and unique falsetto styling that imprinted Hawaiian music in the United States for all time.  (Edited mainly from Wikipedia)

Lew Davies born 25 September 1911

Lew Davies  (25 September 1911 - 11 December 1968) was an American bandleader, composer and arranger, long associated with Enoch Light's Command Records.

Davies was born Lewis A. Davies in 1911 at Ashland, Kentucky. He attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and later studied composition with the noted teacher, Tibor Serly. He began arranging for dance bands in 1928 including the Tommy Tucker band and also  worked in radio as well.

A half-hour musical variety radio program, It’s Wheeling Steel debuted over WWVA in Wheeling on November 8, 1936. Conceived and produced by the Wheeling Steel Corporation’s advertising director, John L. Grimes, the program’s purpose was to promote public relations and serve as a vehicle for advertising the corporation’s products. The program’s content consisted of light classics, popular songs, and show tunes, performed by The Steelmakers Orchestra, which consisted of local musicians, as well as an assortment of amateur ‘‘headliner’’ performers, all of whom were drawn from the corporation’s extended family of employees.

John L, Grimes with Lew Davies

During the 1938/39 season Davies joined the show as its new arranger. The program was an instant success with local audiences. Davies’ arrangements brought the Steelmakers Orchestra to the cutting edge of the big band sound. When it was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System in January 1939, its appeal proved to be nationwide. On June 25, 1939, Wheeling Steel musicians performed at the World’s Fair in New York, and more than 26,000 people attended the outdoor performance. In 1941, It’s Wheeling Steel jumped to the NBC Blue Network, where it rose to fifth place in listener ratings. During 
World War II, the show supported the war effort by encouraging listeners to buy bonds. One program, broadcast from West Virginia University’s field house, generated $663,000 for the “Buy a Bomber”
campaign.

The program was at the height of its popularity when it was discontinued in 1944, primarily due to Grimes’s declining health. Davies found employment wrighting arrangements for Perry Como’s “Chesterfield Hour” which was broadcast live from the New Yorks fancy Chesterfield Club.

When the club closed Davies was hired by bandleader and recording industry mogul, Enoch Light in the late 1950s and soon became Light's primary arranger he arranged for Command stars Tony Mattola, Dr. Severinson and others.  Many of the early Command releases include one or two original compositions by Davies, and the label released five albums under his own name. He also snuck in one album for Columbia, but is only credited in passing in the liner notes.

        
        Here’s “Riders In The Sky” from above 1961 album.

                               

Davies also assisted Lawrence Welk in developing a musical variety show for television that was a reflection of Its Wheeling Steel’s format and character. Although he primarily collaborated with Light, Davies did occasional arrangements for Lawrence Welk, Perry Como, and Lena Horne. Davies' arrangements hit a nice balance between showing off stereo effects and creating a genuine musical mood, and are among the more listenable

recordings from the stereo showcase period.

There's almost no trace left of Lew Davies except for his arrangements on the "Persuasive Percussion" series and most of the rest of Command's records. Enoch Light certainly contributed the inspiration and technical genius behind the Command style, but Davies, not Light, receives the arranger credit on the majority of Command's releases.

Lew Davies died in New York City, New York 11 December 1968

(Edited from Spaceagepop and Wheeling Heritage.org)

Sheila MacRae born 24 September 1921

Sheila Margaret MacRae (née Stevens; 24 September 1921 – 6 March 2014) was an English-born American actress, singer, and dancer.

She was born in London on 24 September 1921. In 1939 her family left England for New York. They eventually settled in Long Island. Sheila finished high school when she was 15 and she began acting at a local playhouse.

It was in 1941 that she married actor and singer Gordon MacRae. The two of them would become a team, performing on stage and on television in the Fifties and Sixties. Mrs McRae made her film debut in the film Backfire in 1950 under her maiden name Sheila Stephens. The same year she appeared in Caged (1950) and Pretty Baby (1950).She went onto appear in the film Katie Did It (1951). She made her television debut in an episode of 

Hollywood Opening Night in 1953. In the Fifties she appeared on such shows as The Jackie Gleason Show, I Love Lucy (in the famous episode "Fashion Show"), Lux Video Theatre, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Garry Moore Show, and Here's Hollywood. She became a naturalized United States citizen on 20 March 1959, in California.

In the Sixties she assumed the role of Alice Kramden in the "Honeymooners" sketches on The Jackie Gleason Show. She also appeared on such shows as The Red Skelton Show, The Bell Telephone Hour, Tonight Starring Jack Paar, To Tell The Truth, The Jack Paar Programme, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Ed Sullivan Show, The Sammy Davis Jr. Show, The Dean Martin Comedy Hour, The Trials of O'Brien, and What's My Line. She appeared in the films Bikini Beach (1964) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965).  She appeared on Broadway in a revival of Guys and Dolls.

                              

The MacRaes performed as a duo for nearly a decade in nightclubs, on television and in concerts across the country, and appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 23, 1964, the same night the Beatles made their third appearance on the show. The couple 

eventually separated in 1965 and divorced in 1967. During her husband’s troubles, Ms. MacRae wrote in her memoir, she rebuffed overtures from suitors including Henry Fonda, Peter Sellers and Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Ms. McCrae turned down a marriage proposal from Frank Sinatra, she said.  She married Ronald Wayne in 1967 but they divorced in 1970.

In the Seventies Sheila MacRae had her own short lived show, The Sheila MacRae Show, alongside her daughters Heather and Meredith. She also appeared on such shows as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, and The Love Boat. She appeared on Broadway in Absurd Person Singular.

From the Eighties to the Nineties she appeared in the films as The Naked Cage (1986) and The Perils of P.K. (1986). She was a regular on the short-lived 1990-1991 show Parenthood. She also appeared on such shows as Search for Tomorrow, General Hospital, Vicki, and Murder, She Wrote. She toured with her own show, An Evening with Sheila MacRae.

MacRae, a devout Christian Scientist, died suddenly on 6 March 2014, in Englewood, New Jersey, aged 92, at the Lillian Booth Actor's Home. She had suffered from dementia, but was otherwise in good health and had been hospitalized for a minor surgical procedure, when her death came suddenly from natural causes, said her daughter, Heather.

Sheila MacRae was an extremely talented woman. She was a gifted singer and skilled in dancing as well. She was also a very good actress when it came to comedy. Her timing was perfect and she could deliver a line as well as any stand up comedian. Indeed, among her many skills was that of celebrity impressions. Sheila MacRae was one of those rare people with multiple talents. What is more, she was extraordinarily gifted in all of them. There should be little wonder, then,  that she appeared in so many media (stage, film, television).

(Edited from Wikipedia and A Shroud of Thoughts Blog)

This clip of“Vicki” from November 1992  includes a nice story from Sheila MacRae regarding the very first talk show on television way back when, in which both she and Zsa Zsa Gabor were guests.  Zsa Zsa gives some motherly advice to women regarding engagement settlements!   And Sheila's imitation of Zsa Zsa! 

Tiny Bradshaw born 23 September 1907

Myron Carlton "Tiny" Bradshaw (September 23, 1907 – November 26, 1958) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer. His biggest hit was "Well Oh Well" in 1950, and the following year he recorded "The Train Kept A-Rollin'", important to the later development of rock and roll; he co-wrote and sang on both records.

Myron Carlton Bradshaw was born in Youngstown, Ohio, the son of Cicero P. Bradshaw and his wife Lillian Boggess. Bradshaw graduated from high school in Youngstown. After graduating from Wilberforce University with a degree in psychology, Bradshaw turned to music for a living. In Ohio, he sang and played drums with Horace Henderson's campus oriented Collegians until the end of the 1928, Bradshaw went to New York and performed with Duncan Myer’s Savoy Bearcats, the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and Luis Russell’s Orchestra. Marion Hardy's Alabamians had given its young front man, Cab Calloway a springboard to his fame and Bradshaw took on the legend with them as “Super Cab Calloway.”

In 1933, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Bradshaw formed his own band and they headlined the Harlem Opera House. In January, 1935 Ella Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Bradshaw band at the Opera House. Bradshaw recorded eight sides in two separate sessions for Decca Records in New York City. He had some success on record notably with ‘Shout, Sister, Shout’ and ‘The Darktown Strutters’ Ball’.

During World War II Bradshaw was commissioned a major in the U.S. Army and led a twenty-five piece USO orchestra.  After the war he kept a band together by adapting to the popularity of R&B. The band's next recording date was in 1944 for Manor Records. He recorded in 1947 for Savoy Records. The band recorded extensively for the rhythm and blues market with King Records between late 1949 and early 1955, and had five hits on the Billboard R&B chart. His most successful record at the time was "Well Oh Well", which reached no.2 on the R&B chart in 1950 and stayed on the chart for 21 weeks. Two follow-ups, "I'm Going To Have Myself A Ball" (no.5, 1950) and "Walkin' The Chalk Line" (no.10, 1951) also made the chart before a break of almost two years.

                              

What is now Bradshaw's best known recording was "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (1951) — not a chart hit at the time — which passed from rhythm and blues history into rock's legacy. The song was recorded by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'N' Roll Trio in 1956 and by The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck in 1965. 

It was covered again by Aerosmith in 1974 and by Motörhead in 1978. Furthermore, Jimmy Page reported in an interview that the first song played, at the very first rehearsal of what would become the English rock band Led Zeppelin was "The Train Kept A-Rollin'".

Bradshaw returned to the R&B chart in 1953 with "Soft" (no.3), an instrumental later recorded by Bill Doggett, and "Heavy Juice" (no.9). Both of these 1953 hits featured Red Prysock on tenor saxophone.

Bradshaw's later career was hampered by severe health problems, including two strokes, the first in 1954, that left him partially paralyzed. He spent the next few years recovering in a Florida hospital. In the meantime, King tried to keep his name from disapearring altogether by releasing a single made up of previous sessions. By early 1958, Bradshaw slowly returned to touring and leading his band. His last session that year resulted in two recordings, "Short Shorts" and "Bushes" (King 5114), which proved an unsuccessful attempt to reach out to the emerging teenage record market.

Weakened by the successive strokes as well as the rigors of his profession, Bradshaw died in his adopted hometown of Cincinnati from another stroke in 1958. He was 51 years old.

Bradshaw is remembered for a string of rhythm and blues hits. As a bandleader, he was an invaluable mentor to important musicians and arrangers including Sil Austin, Happy Caldwell, Shad Collins, Wild Bill Davis, Talib Dawud, Gil Fuller, Gigi Gryce, George "Big Nick" Nicholas, Russell Procope, Red Prysock, Curly Russell, Calvin "Eagle Eye" Shields, Sonny Stitt, Noble "Thin Man" Watts, and Shadow Wilson.

 (Info edited mainly from Wikipedia & Encyclopedia of Popular music)

LeRoy Holmes born 22 September 1913

Alvin LeRoy Holmes (September 22, 1913 – July 27, 1986) was an American songwriter, composer, arranger, orchestra conductor and record producer.

Holmes graduated from Hollywood High School, studied music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and the Juilliard School in New York, before working with a number of bandleaders during the 1930s and early 1940s. These included Ernst Toch, Vincent Lopez, and Harry James, for whose band, he wrote "The Mole" and arranged  “I Cried for You” and “Crazy Rhythm.”

After serving as a pilot and flying instructor, a lieutenant in the US Navy during the Second World War, he moved to Hollywood, 

where he was hired by MGM Music Studios as a house arranger and conductor.

In 1950, he relocated to New York and continued as a record producer for MGM, and later moved to United Artists. During his time with MGM he formed a recording orchestra that produced a series of albums that sold well. Holmes also backed numerous vocalists, including Judy Garland, Art Lund, Helen Forrest, Dinah Shore and Nelson Eddy.

                              

In 1954 made what is possibly his best known recording, a version of the theme to the film The High and the Mighty. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The song is known for its distinctive accompanying whistling, which was provided by Fred Lowery. His other popular-song and instrumental compositions include "Prince Charming", "Sahara", "One Stop Boogie", "Pennsylvania Turnpike", "B-19", and "The New Dixieland Parade".

Holmes provided the orchestration for Tommy Edwards epic 1958 hit "It's All In The Game", and tried rock and R&B with his backing to the Impalas "Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home)". Holmes also wrote the theme song to the television series International Detective.

He moved to United Artists Records in the early 1960s, where he contributed to many compilations of movie themes, released albums under his own name, Most notable of these were a solid collection of Morricone tunes from spaghetti Westerns, For a Few Dollars More, and several LPs featuring some wonderful soft pop 

Holes with Connie Francis

arrangements of movie themes, including the space age pop favorite, "Mah-nah Mah-nah."

Whilst at UA he backed a succession of singers, notably Connie Francis, Gloria Lynne, Shirley Bassey and Puerto Rican singers like Tito Rodríguez and Chucho Avellanet. In addition, he produced albums for a number of United Artists acts, including the Briarwood Singers. He also worked on the music for the 1977 film The Chicken Chronicles.

Holmes died from heart problems at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California at the age of 72.

(Mainly edited from Wikipedia)