Tommy Keene born 30 June 1958

Tommy Keene (born Thomas Clay Keene; June 30, 1958 – November 22, 2017) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for releasing critically acclaimed rock & roll/power pop songs in the 1980s. Not a household name by any means, Keene was a star in the world of indie rock. In a world populated by literally thousands of guitar players, Keene's sharp, extra crunchy guitar tone was distinct and unmistakable. His songwriting was melodic in the extreme and always in search of the kind of irresistible hook that could anchor a blockbuster single.

Evanston, Illinois-born Keene was raised in Bethesda, Maryland. As a child, Keene played classical piano before picking up guitar and drums. He graduated in 1976 from Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, which was also the alma mater of fellow musician Nils Lofgren, who went on to play and record with Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Keene played drums in one version of Lofgren's early bands, Blue Steel. 

In 1977, while attending the University of Maryland, Keene switched to guitar and formed the short-lived band the Rage with songwriter Richard X. Heyman. During this period, Keene left the Rage to join popular Washington, D.C. rock band the Razz, who opened for such notable acts as the Ramones, Devo, and Patti Smith. It was in the Razz that Keene met bass player Ted Nicely, who would work with him throughout the '80s. The Razz released several local independent singles. Keene’s 1984 EP Places That Are Gone became one of the year's top selling independent releases. That same year, Washington City Paper dubbed Keene "one of the best pop songwriters anywhere." Places That Are Gone garnered a four-star review in Rolling Stone, and was voted the No. 1 EP in the following year's Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll. 

                                    

After the Razz, Keene embarked on a European tour as a sideman for new wave singer Suzanne Fellini before co-founding the band Pieces in New York. Unhappy with the music, Keene decided to form his own group with Nicely and drummer Doug Tull (also from the Razz), plus guitarist Michael Colburn, who was soon replaced by Billy Connelly. Using Keene's name, they released Strange Alliance on their own Avenue label in 1982, before being picked up by North Carolina label Dolphin. Keene recorded two EPs there before signing to Geffen, which released two albums, Songs from the Film and Based on Happy Times, as well as Run Now, a six-song EP of previously recorded material, before dropping Keene from its roster. 

With a new backup band that included bassist/vocalist Brad Quinn and drummer John Richardson, Keene inked a deal with Matador in the early '90s, recording the EP Sleeping on a Roller Coaster and a full-length album entitled Ten Years After in 1996.. In addition to recording and touring behind his records, Keene spent some of the '90s as a guitarist for hire, on the road with both Velvet Crush and Paul Westerberg. Keene worked with producers T-Bone Burnett, Don Dixon, and R. Walt Vincent. He continued to record and tour and released an album with Robert Pollard, of Guided by Voices, as 'The Keene Brothers.' He was also a member of Pollard's live backing band "The Ascended Masters" also featuring Jon Wurster, Jason Narducy, and Dave Phillips. 

As well, he toured as an additional guitar player in Pollard's Boston Spaceships. Keene also played guitar on the Goo Goo Dolls' hit song, "Broadway", on their 1998 album, Dizzy Up The Girl. Also during that year, he released a new studio album, Isolation Party. Four years later, he hooked up with his longtime rhythm section of John Richardson and Brad Quinn, Wilco's Jay Bennett, singer/songwriter Adam Schmitt, and ex-Gin Blossoms frontman Robin Wilson to issue The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down. 

In 2004, he switched lineups and released Drowning, and two years later, his tenth solo record, Crashing the Ether, came out on Eleven Thirty Records. In the Late Bright followed in 2009 on Second Motion. The following year saw the release of the double-disc career-spanning compilation Tommy Keene You Hear Me: A Retrospective 1983-2009. In 2011, Keene returned with the studio album Behind the Parade. Two years later, he released a collection of covers called Excitement at Your Feet, which he then followed in 2015 with the all-original Laugh in the Dark. 

Sadly, Tommy Keene died unexpectedly fron cardiac arrest in his sleep on November 22, 2017 at the age of 59. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Stereophile)

Tommy Keene was a brilliant musician who never got the full appreciation he deserved. Here’s a video of “Places That Are Gone” from a great single from 1984  which is a perfect example of what made Tommy a Power Pop legend.

Ralph Burns born 29 June 1922

Ralph Joseph P. Burns (June 29, 1922 – November 21, 2001) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. 

Burns was born in Newton, Massachusetts, United States, where he began playing the piano as a child. In 1938, he attended the New England Conservatory of Music. He admitted that he learned the most about jazz by transcribing the works of Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. While a student, Burns lived in the home of Frances Wayne. Wayne was an established big band singer and her brother Nick Jerret was a bandleader who began working with Burns. He found himself in the company of such performers as Nat King Cole and Art Tatum. 

After Burns moved to New York in the early 1940s, he met Charlie Barnet and the two men began working together. In 1944, he joined the Woody Herman band with members Neal Hefti, Bill Harris, Flip Phillips, Chubby Jackson and Dave Tough. Together, the group developed Herman's sound. For 15 years, Burns wrote or arranged many of the band's major hits including "Bijou", "Northwest Passage" and "Apple Honey", and on the longer work "Lady McGowan's Dream" and the three-part Summer Sequence. 

Here's "Bijou" from aboe LP

                        

As Herman's Thundering Herd grew in popularity it landed a regular radio broadcast, and Burns found himself busy writing arrangements. Contemporary classical composer Igor Stravinsky was so impressed with the arrangements Burns was writing for Herman's band that he composed his Ebony Concerto exclusively for Herman, who later recorded it. 

Burns worked with many other musicians. Herman band member Stan Getz was featured as a tenor saxophone soloist on "Early Autumn", a hit for the band and the launching platform for Getz's solo career. Burns also worked in a small band with soloists including Bill Harris and Charlie Ventura. The success of the Herman band provided Burns the ability to record under his own name. In the 1950s, Burns played nightly from 5pm -9pm in The Baroque Room at Oscar's Delmonico restaurant in Downtown Manhattan. He collaborated with Billy Strayhorn, Lee Konitz and Ben Webster to create both jazz and classical recordings. He wrote compositions for Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and Johnny Mathis and later Aretha Franklin and Natalie Cole. Burns was responsible for the arrangement and introduction of a string orchestra on two of Ray Charles's biggest hits, "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Georgia on My Mind". In the 1990s, Burns arranged music for Mel Tormé, John Pizzarelli, Michael Feinstein and Tony Bennett. 

In the 1960s, Burns was no longer touring as a band pianist, and began arranging/orchestrating for Broadway shows including Chicago, Funny Girl, No, No, Nanette, and Sweet Charity. In 1971, Burns first film score assignment was for Woody Allen's Bananas. Burns worked with film-director Bob Fosse and won the Academy Award as music supervisor for Cabaret (1972). He composed the film scores for Lenny (1974) and Martin Scorsese's jazz-themed New York, New York (1977). Fosse again employed Burns to create the soundtrack for All That Jazz (1979) for which he also won an Academy Award. He then worked on Urban Cowboy (1980). Burns received another Academy Award nomination for his work in Annie (1982). 

Baryshnikov on Broadway in 1980 earned Burns an Emmy for his work. Burns won the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations in 1999 for Fosse and posthumously in 2002 for Thoroughly Modern Millie, which also garnered him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations. The latter were won with Doug Besterman. From 1996 until his death, Burns restored many orchestrations for New York City Center's Encores, which were series revivals of both his own shows and shows originally orchestrated by others. 

Ralph lived his last years with his two dogs in a house in the hills above Los Angeles, on Woodrow Wilson Drive. On November 21, 2001, Burns died from complications of a recent stroke and pneumonia in a Los Angeles hospital. He was buried in Newton. Burns was inducted into the New England Jazz Hall of Fame in 2004. Although he will be long remembered for his contributions to the music of both Broadway and Hollywood, there is little doubt that his years with the Herman Herds--and the tremendous influence he had on the big band sound of that era and jazz in general--will be his greatest legacy. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & browsebiography)

Bobby Harden born 27 June 1935

Bobby Harden (27 Jun 1935 - 30 May 2006) was an American country singer and songwriter. 

Bobby Lamoyne Harden was born in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee and gained national success as part of the Harden trio, with sisters Arlene (Born Arleen) and Robbie (Born Fern) formed in England, Arkansas. They began performing as teenagers on the Ozark Jubilee and the Louisiana Hayride. 

Robbie moved to Nashville first as part of The Browns filling in for Bonnie Brown on the Grand Ole Opry and most road dates. The two families had grown up in the same area and worked together on the Ozark Jubilee. Bobby and Arleen soon followed and the trio was re-formed. In 1964, the trio signed with Columbia Records and released their debut single "Poor Boy", followed by their break-through crossover single "Tippy Toeing", both penned by Bobby Harden. "Tippy Toeing" spent 21 weeks on the Hot Country Songs charts and peaked at number 2, in addition to peaking at number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Harden Trio charted four more singles and released 3 albums before they disbanded in mid 1968. 

                                    

Arlene and Bobby going into studio work while briefly pursuing solo careers while Robbie Harden joined the Johnny Cash Show as a singer in the revamped Carter Family lineup. After his sisters left The Harden Trio, Bobby briefly formed a new trio with Karen Wheeler and Shirley Michaels before going solo and recording his solo album Nashville Sensation” for Starday Records in 1969. 

He also recorded for Mega Records and United Artists Records through the mid-1970s with several chart singles. Bobby last charted the number 48 country music single "One Step" on United Artists Records in 1975. A third act in the family's history was the slightly bizarre sideline that Bobby Harden cooked up performing on souvenir albums for various college football teams, a surprisingly large number of LPs cut for the All-Pro label in 1981. 

Harden's main success came as a songwriter. In addition to his early crossover hit, "Tippy Toeing," he placed songs with stars such as Conway Twitty, Gene Watson, Mark Chesnutt, George Jones, Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire and others.His Top 10 hits include Reba McEntire's "Today All Over Again," Loretta Lynn's "Home" and Mark Chesnutt's "Too Cold at Home" and "Old Country." 

He died aged 70 on 30 May 2006 in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee and was buried in Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum, Nashville. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Slipcue) 

Roger Voisin born 26 June 1918

Roger Louis Voisin (June 26, 1918 – February 13, 2008) was an American classical trumpeter. In 1959, The New York Times called him "one of the best-known trumpeters in this country." 

Among the most influential trumpet performers and teachers of the twentieth century, Voisin joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal trumpet in 1935 at age seventeen, and became principal trumpet in 1950. He performed in the Boston Symphony for 38 years, until 1973. During this period, he was also principal trumpet with the Boston Pops Orchestra. 

Voisin moved to the United States as a child when his father, René Voisin (1893–1952), was brought to the Boston Symphony as fourth trumpet by Sergei Koussevitzky in 1928. He was initially a student of his father, but he later studied with the Boston Symphony's second trumpet Marcel LaFosse (1894–1969) and principal trumpet Georges Mager (1885–1950). He also studied solfege with Boston Symphony contrabassist Gaston Dufresne. 

                  Here's "Trumpeters Lullaby" from above album.

                                   

He is credited with premiere performances of many major works for trumpet including Paul Hindemith's Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (with Hindemith at the piano), and Alan Hovhaness' Prayer of St. Gregory. He is also credited with the US premiere of Alexander Arutiunian's Trumpet Concerto, performing with the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1966. Leroy Anderson's A Trumpeter's Lullaby was written for Roger Voisin in 1949, and first recorded with Arthur Fiedler conducting Voisin and the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1950. 

 Leroy Anderson states that "(A Trumpeter's Lullaby) had its beginning backstage at Symphony Hall in Boston. In addition to composing and conducting, I was arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra for a number of years --- and after one of the concerts I was sitting talking with the conductor Arthur Fiedler and the first trumpet of the Boston Pops, Roger Voisin. Suddenly Roger Voisin asked me why I didn't write a trumpet solo for him to play with the orchestra that would be different from traditional trumpet solos which are all loud, martial or triumphant. After thinking it over, it occurred to me that I had never heard a lullaby for trumpet so I set out to write one --- with a quiet melody based on bugle notes played by the trumpet and with the rest of the orchestra playing a lullaby background." 

He has also been involved with many early recordings and performances of both solo and orchestral works including J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #2, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, Aaron Copland's Quiet City, Joseph Haydn's Concerto for Trumpet in Eb, Alexander Scriabin's The Poem of Ecstasy, Georg Philipp Telemann's Concerto for Trumpet in D, and Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Trumpets in C. 

Roger Voisin was with the Boston Symphony at the inception of the Tanglewood Music Center in 1940, and continued to serve on the faculty there, coaching the orchestral winds and teaching solfège to the conducting class, until his death in 2008. He became chair of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) brass and percussion department in 1950 and was the primary trumpet teacher at NEC for nearly 30 years. In 1975 he became a full professor at Boston University, teaching trumpet and chairing the wind, percussion and harp department until his retirement in 1999. 

In 1989 Voisin donated much of his personal music library to Boston University, where it is housed in the Mugar Library's "Special Music Collections". He was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the New England Conservatory in 1991, along with legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. He has served on the jury of the Maurice André trumpet competition since 1988.His students are found performing in orchestras and teaching at conservatories and universities throughout the world. 

Roger Voisin was also very active as an editor for International Music Company, providing over 45 editions for the company. He died in Newton, Massachusetts, on the  13th February 2008 (aged 89) (Edited from Wikipedia)

Bonnie Lou Williams born 25 June 1927

Bonnie Lou Williams (June 25, 1925 - March 4, 1986) was an American singer and actress who worked with various orchestras up through the middle of the decade before embarking on a mildly successful solo career that saw her on radio and recordings. She is best remembered for her portrayal of the lively Nellie Forbush in the original Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production of the acclaimed Rogers & Hammerstein musical "South Pacific." Williams continued singing into at least the late 1950s. 

Born in Seattle, Williams initially grew up in Bellingham, Washington. The family had moved to Everett by 1935 and then to Los Angeles by 1940. Often described as “tall” or “leggy,” 16-year-old Williams was discovered by Johnny Mercer in mid-1942. Mercer took Williams under his wing and sent her, at his own expense, to a “Hollywood conservatory of music” for vocal studies, with the goal of grooming her for Bobby Sherwood’s orchestra, which Mercer had backed. Under the name “Bonnie Lou,” she sang with Sherwood’s band while it remained on the West Coast, leaving when it headed east. 

Williams (left of Dorsey) with the Clark Sisters

Williams next joined Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra in April 1944, where she began to be billed by her full name. While with the Dorsey, she fell in love with the band’s trombonist, Walter “Benny” Benson, and the two were married on January 20, 1945, before he left for the army. Williams remained with the orchestra until mid-1945. After leaving Dorsey, Williams joined Bob Crosby’s new post-war band in late 1945, staying until early 1946 when she signed a solo recording contract with Black and White Records. She released two sides on the indie label that year, “You Haven’t Changed At All” and “Love on a Greyhound Bus,” before joining the financially disastrous tour of Jerry Colonna’s entertainment unit in June 1946. The tour drew such a small crowd at each performance that its promoters quit the business after only two shows to avoid further losses. 

                                    

Williams gave birth to a son (musician Terry Williams) in June 1947 and took time off from singing. She had returned to activity by mid-1948 when she subbed for Patti Clayton on Your Hit Parade in August 1948. That same month, she joined Charlie Barnet’s orchestra only to see him quit right after her arrival, handing over leadership to Bob Dawes. She remained with Dawes through at least the end of the year. 

In 1949, Williams recorded a duet with Brad Gordon on the new indie Kem label and also recorded for Axel Stordahl’s orchestra on Columbia. She and also divorced Benny Benson.. In 1950, she provided vocals for Gordon Jenkins’ orchestra on Decca and went on to sing for Jenkins on several more recordings through 1955. She was an actress with Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, where she appeared in over 80 stage plays. From 1949 to 1957 she was also a 'ghost singer' for a dozen Warner Bros films, dubbing vocals for several notable screen actresses, including Virginia Mayo, June Haver, and Lana Turner. 

During her career, she was an honorary member of Actors Equity, had been a vocal instructor for the Pasadena Playhouse, was a member of the Hollywood Republican Committee, was a regular parishioner of the Methodist church, presided as a chairwoman for her local charters of the American Red Cross and the Boys & Girls Clubs, had been the celebrity spokeswoman for Emerson Radio, had been a commercial model for the Forbes Agency. 

In her later years, Williams worked as an administrative assistant at airline music programming service Music in the Air until her death in Tarzana, California, on March 4, 1986, age 60, from cancer. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles County, California. 

(Edited from Bandchirps & Lowell Thurgood @ Findagrave) 

Taswell "Little Joe" Baird born 24 June

Taswell Joseph Baird Jr. (June 24, 1922 - November 22, 2002) was an American jazz trombonist who towered among the pre-eminent trombonists of bebop's heyday, collaborating with giants including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. 

Born in St. Louis, Baird -- often called "Little Joe" per his middle name -- acquired his first trombone at age 12 and by his mid-teens was regularly touring throughout the Midwest, making his recorded debut on an April 30, 1941, Dallas-based session headlined by Jay McShann and featuring Parker on alto saxophone. Baird remained with McShann through a July 1942 session in New York City. In 1943 he joined Andy Kirk and His Clouds Of Joy. 

                             

The trombonist made the Big Apple his permanent home and in early 1944 joined Louis Armstrong's orchestra, later that same year backing singer Billy Eckstine for a session that also featured such emerging greats as trumpeter Gillespie, tenorists Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons, and drummer Art Blakey. 

Baird later rejoined Gillespie for a November 12, 1946, session for Musicraft as well as the trumpeter's now-legendary September 29, 1947, big-band performance at Carnegie Hall. He also toured with Lena Horne. In the field of jazz, he was involved in 33 recording sessions between 1941 and 1947. But a long battle with drugs undermined Baird's ascent, and while he continued to find work as a touring musician, his run as a session player was largely over by the late '40s. 

Little is known of his life until the late '70s, when he settled in Oakland, CA. In the autumn of his years Baird moved into a retirement home and took up piano when his lips could no longer finesse his trombone. During an interview with his daughter, she said “that he still loved to listen to Jazz and meeting with musician friends at clubs. He used a motorized scooter to get around because of arthritis in his legs. He was still active and often ran errands for other senior citizens. He loved to tell stories about his 50 years on the road or teach other residents about musical instruments. He was well known for his collection of Jazz records.” 

He was vaulted back into the headlines under tragic circumstances in 2002, when three attackers threw him from his wheelchair, beat him, and robbed him of 80 dollars. After three weeks in the Oakland hospital, California, Baird died November 22, 2002, at the age of 80. His grim demise was the subject of headlines and outrage throughout the Bay Area and across the jazz world. 

(Scant information edited from All Music, Trombone USA & Wikipedia)

P.S. It seems that here is only one photograph of Little Joe on the internet. 

Paul Peek born 23 June 1937

Paul Edward Peek Jr. (June 23, 1937 – April 3, 2001) was an early rockabilly pioneer who is primarily remembered as a member of Gene Vincent's Blue Caps. Though Peek was a competent vocalist, he never made the big time on his own, partly due to an alcohol problem that grew worse as he grew older. 

Peek was born in High Point, North Carolina, and was raised in Greenville, South Carolina. Hel learned to play the guitar, steel guitar, and bass while he was 12 years old. When he was 14 he played in several local country bands. He graduated from Greenville Senior High School in 1955 and performed on steel guitar with Claude Casey and the Sagedusters on WFBC-TV in 1955 on a weekly TV show. 

In September 1956 Peek was playing steel guitar in a Washington, D.C. club, when he had a chance meeting with Gene Vincent’s manager, Sheriff Tex Davis, who was looking for a new rhythm guitarist for the Blue Caps to replace Willie Williams. Paul passed the audition and only two days after his recruitment he was on a plane to Hollywood with Gene and the other Blue Caps for a cameo appearance in the now classic rock n roll movie "The Girl Can’t Help It". Peek is the gum-chewing hoodlum on the right, strumming a red Gretsch like a man possessed (see YouTube video below) during a lip-sync performance of "Be Bop A Lula". 

The Blue Caps had a relentless touring schedule during the 15 months that Paul stayed with the group, including a tour of Australia. With fellow member Tommy Facenda he developed the famous "Clapper boys" routine on stage. Paul also co-wrote three songs recorded by Gene Vincent, "Pink Thunderbird", "Time Will Bring You Everything" and "Yes I Love You Baby". In December 1957 Paul left the Blue Caps to pursue a solo career, but he (and Tommy Facenda, who had quit at the same time) would return temporarily to play with Gene in the film "Hot Rod Gang", as the clapper boy routine was such an important ingredient of the Blue Caps’ stage act. 

Peek had the distinction of being the first artist to record for National Recording Corporation out of Atlanta. In 1958, NRC 001 ("Sweet Skinny Jenny"/"The Rock-A-Round") was recorded at WGST Radio Station. In 1958 Paul recorded a novelty song, "Olds-Mo-William", and performed the song on Dick Clark's Saturday Night "Beech Nut" National TV Show. Because of distribution problems with NRC Records, the recording died before it could become a national hit. 

                                    

He also appeared on New York City's "The Big Beat" with host Alan Freed. Musicians who appeared on Peek's NRC singles included Joe South, Jerry Reed, Ray Stevens, and Sonny James. Eskew Reeder, Jr, also known as Esquerita, was a co-writer and piano player on this first single. Reeder, a fellow Carolinian, was instrumental in developing the style popularized by Little Richard. Esquerita's wild recordings for Capitol Records are collector's items. The flip side of "Olds-Mo-William", "I'm Not Your Fool Anymore," has a fine vocal group backing up Paul, the members of which are unknown. 

Peek's NRC recordings were bootlegged in Europe for years, and have now been re-released on CD by NRC. Although Peek recorded for several major labels, some of his most memorable recordings are the NRC singles, "Olds-Mo-William" and "The Rock-A-Round". Peek's biggest sellers were "Brother-In-Law (He's A Moocher)", (1961) produced by Joe South on Fairlane Records (distributed by King), reaching No. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Pin The Tail On The Donkey" (1966), another Joe South Production on CBS Records reaching No. 91 on the chart. The second 45 for that label, "I’m Movin' Uptown", showed Paul in a completely new style, which would later be called Northern Soul. 

Paul with Link Wray 1998

Peek made no new recordings after an isolated single for the 123 label in 1969, but he never left the music business and remained a central figure on the Atlanta music scene. He continued to play music professionally, establishing a stage persona that made him a wildly popular nightclub performer in Atlanta, GA for decades. His Atlanta bands included some of the city's finest sidemen, including local guitar virtuoso Kenneth Watkins. In 1982 Peek and some former members of the Blue Caps made the first of several trips to rockabilly festivals in Europe, where the Blue Caps have always been very popular. 

Paul became really ill in 1999 with cirrhosis of the liver. With no insurance to cover medical bills an Internet appeal was launched where fans and rockabilly enthusiasts contributed to a medical fund. Paul continued performing when he could until he succumbed to the disease in Lithonia, Georgia, on April 3, 2001, at the age of 63. In 2012, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Peek as a member of the Blue Caps by a special committee, aimed at correcting the previous mistake of not including the Blue Caps with Gene Vincent. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, This Is My Story & Salon newsletter)

 

Bernadette Carroll born 21 June 1945

Bernadette Carroll (21 June 1945 - 5 October 2018) was an American pop singer. 

She was born Bernadette Dalia in Elizabeth, New Jersey and her first performance was when she was only seven, acting in a school play. Soon after her family moved to Linden, New Jersey, she became somewhat of a reckless teenager, sneaking out late at night to go to local recording studios with her friends, which is how the Starlets formed. Members Barbara and Jiggs Allbut met Tom DeCillis, who had branched out into songwriting after moving to NJ. He then found two more members, Bernadette Carroll and Lynda Malzone to form the Starlets. 

It was soon after that they recorded "P.S. I Love You" in 1961 on the Astro label. DeCillis signed Carroll as a solo artist under the Cleopatra and Julia labels after he saw her potential. 

After The Starlets disbanded, Carroll made her first solo recording for the Julia label, My Heart Stood Still. She then joined with Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi of The Four Seasons to record the song "Nicky", written by Massi and Bob Gaudio, which was Carroll's first single for the Laurie label. 

                                  

Carroll's second single under the label was "Party Girl," produced and co-written by Ernie Maresca, which became a national hit. Carroll followed that landmark release in rapid succession throughout 1964 and 1965 with such Laurie label gems as Homecoming Party, The Hero, Nicky, Try Your Luck and Don't Hurt Me. 

Carroll later was an integral part of the supergroup Jessica James And The Outlaws (with the Angels' Peggy Santiglia and the Delicates' Denise Ferri, whom Carroll met in 1959). Jessica James And The Outlaws provided backing vocals on Patty Duke's 1965 Don't Just Stand There album for United Artists, and also put their distinctive touch on many of the classic Lou Christie sides during his tenure with MGM; most notably on his acclaimed Lightning Strikes and the follow-up Rhapsody in the Rain, also on his Painter Of Hits album. Jessica James And The Outlaws in turn made their mark on their own in 1966 with the enduring double entendre classic, We'll Be Makin' Out. They were also backup singers for Connie Francis, Bobby Hebb and Frankie Valli. 

In 1968 Carroll eventually spent a season as the Angels' lead vocalist and recorded four songs for RCA Records, including "The Boy With The Green Eyes", written by Neil Diamond. She toured with them for one year. In her later years, Carroll relocated to West Palm Beach, Florida, where she devoted much of her attention to her family. 

However, she and Ferri remained in touch, and in the current decade brainstormed a number of potential musical collaborations. A regular presence on social media throughout much of her later years, Carroll was plagued by health problems finally losing her valiant battle against cancer on 5 October, 2018. She was 74. 

(Edited from The Malt Shop Jukebox & Michael McDowell @ Facebook)