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)

Paul Brett born 20 July 1947

Paul Brett (20 June 1947 – 31 January 2024) was an English classic rock guitarist. He played lead guitar with Strawbs (although he was never actually a member), The Overlanders, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, The Velvet Opera, Tintern Abbey, Fire, Roy Harper, Al Stewart, Lonnie Donegan. He switched to twelve-string guitar in the 1970s. 

Brett was born in Fulham, London and became interested in playing guitar at 14. His Metalwork teacher, Ron Carter, was a semi pro guitarist in a local dance band and taught him a few basis chords. From there, it was the old way of learning. Bert Weedon’s great book ‘Play in a Day’ and slowing down 45rpm singles to 33rpm and painstakingly learning note for note, popular instrumentals like ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’ and ‘Apache’. 

Warren Davis Monday Band. Paul center.

He began playing with an amateur outfit before joining a semi pro band called SW4 in 1964. The lead singer was Ralph Denyer, later of Blonde on Blonde. They played mainly R’n’B at the time, as did many other groups during that era. Bo Diddly, Chuck Berry and many other blues greats whose songs they covered. He then formed The Swinging Machine and auditioned Arthur Brown as they needed a singer. After a while Brett changed the band’s name to The Arthur Brown Union. Brett also played with a range of groups in the mid-sixties including The Overlanders and The Soul Mates. In 1967, Brett was a member of The Warren Davis Monday Band. He played on their single, "Wait for Me" bw "I Don't Wanna Hurt You". In 1973/74 he also released a solo album, Clocks.

Tintern Abbey

He joined the group Tintern Abbey who were based in a small terraced house in Chelsea that was owned by publisher and group manager Nigel Samuels who owned International Times. They did some demos and finally got Spencer Davis Agency to take them on. They managed a few gigs which went down well, but Brett was offered a gig with Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera, who had lots of live gigs and a hit record, so he opted to join them recording an album and a couple of singles. 

                           

Brett played sessions on many other artistes and bands records over the years including The Strawbs, Roy Harper, Al Stewart and also on many songwriters demos. He also did MOR sessions with  TV Star Max Bygraves and Tony Blackburn, the Radio 1 DJ. The Strawbs ran a great club in The White Bear in Hounslow which everyone, including David Bowie would attend. Brett played regularly there with the Velvet Opera and as an acoustic duo with Johnny Joyce. That is where he met Dave Lambert, who with Bob Voice and Dick Duffall made up the group Fire in 1970. 

He then formed the band Paul Bretts Sage and recorded the album which included 3 D Mona Lisa, their first single for Pye records. When PBS split, he went on a National tour with Status Quo. He was then signed to Bradley’s Records for a two album deal with the band Earth Bird and did lots of gigs and a National Bradley’s Tour which ended with a live album being recorded in London’s legendary Marquee Club in London, produced by the Yardbirds singer Keith Relf. 

He started his own independent label Pheonix Future and rleased his his first twelve-string guitar suite, Earth Birth. It was produced by artist Ralph Steadman of Fear and Loathing fame. Critical acclaim led to Brett being signed on a four-album deal with RCA Records. His K-tel Romantic Guitar album went gold in the United Kingdom, but Brett stopped recording soon afterwards. He started recording again in 2000, with long-time friend and fellow twelve-string guitarist, John Joyce. 

Brett wrote for music magazines Melody Maker, Sound International and International Musician and continued working in the music industry in the later part of his career. He wrote a regular column for Acoustic, a magazine specializing in acoustic guitars. He was also the Associate Editor and Features Writer for Music Maker and Live in London magazines. He appeared on BBC Television's Antiques Road Show and Flog It in the mid-2000s. 

Brett worked as a guitar designer for Vintage Guitars in the UK, including The Viator 6 and 12 string travel guitars, The Gemini, The Viaten tenor guitar, and the Paul Brett signature 6 and 12 string guitars. Released in 2017 was the Statesboro' 12 string which is a tribute to the blues musician, Blind Willie McTell. 

Paul Brett died on 31 January 2024 after a short illness. 

(Edited from Strange Brew & Wikipedia)

June Dyer born 19 June 1942

June Dyer (19 June 1942 to 14 January 2011) was  best known as South Africa's 1st female rock vocalist. 

She was born in Durban on 19 June 1942. Her parents were divorced when she was very young, and she grew up in several orphanages. She also had hearing problems from birth and at the age of 10 only had about 20% hearing. This did not, however, deter her from pursuing a career in music. She learned to lip-read and kept the beat of the music (while singing) by placing her hand on the piano or bass. 

In an interview with the Sunday Times, she said she had been singing and playing the piano to herself for years.  "I could feel vibrations but I had no idea of the tone or sound of my voice". By the time she was 18 she was working in a Johannesburg bank and between August and September in 1960 she regained her hearing after three operations. 

"While I was recovering I sat and played the piano and sang to myself. All of a sudden I could hear". For the next six months, overcome by the novelty of hearing her own voice - June practiced daily. She entered several talent competitions, winning a number of them, including one at the Colosseum Theatre in Johannesburg. June sang at the Club Pepsi in Rissik Street with bands such as the Vikings. Then she sang with a young rock-'n-roll group called the Silhouettes at a house party. "They liked my voice so much that they invited me to sing at 'gigs' with them" and toured the Republic. 

                                    

An executive offered her a contract and within a week she had cut her first disc - "Whirlpool of Love". June's record reached #1 on the top twenty hit parade in March 1961. Rebel also peaked at #3 on the same charts. Alan Marshall publicity manager at Trutone Records, says June has that "vitality that which somehow only teenagers manage to put into their singing. She enjoys her singing so much that she radiates an enthusiam which is passed on to her audience". He predicted a great future for her. 

 She  recorded two commercial albums, “June Dyer” in 1961 and “Tell It To The Birds” in 1962, as well as a SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) transcription album with the Eldon Hawkes Trio (no date). She also released several 7” singles.  June and ex-Silhouettes member, Leon Booysen, formed the Rousers and undertook a tour to Rhodesia. After returning to South Africa, she joined the band of Harold Roy and subsequently performed regular gigs at the Claridges Hotel in Durban. 

At the height of her career June married and decided to leave the entertainment business completely. 

June Dyer passed away on January 14th, 2011 

(Scant information edited from rock.co.za & keurspel @ YouTube)

Celly Campello born 18 June 1942

Célia Campello Gomes Chacon, known by her stage name Celly Campello (18 June 1942 – 4 March 2003), was a Brazilian singer and performer who was given the title “the Queen of Brazilian Rock.” She also acted in the telenovela Estúpido Cupido. 

She was born Célia Benelli Campello in São Paulo and when she was five days old, she went with her family to Taubaté, where she was raised. She started her career in an early age, performing at local radio shows when she was six years old. She studied piano, classical guitar and ballet during her childhood. Campello presented her own radio show when she was 12, at Rádio Cacique. In 1958 she recorded her first vinyl in São Paulo together with her brother Tony Campello who accompanied her in most of her career. 

Her debut in television was at TV Tupi's Campeões do Disco, in 1958. Her career exploded in 1959 with the Brazilian version of Stupid Cupid. The song was released on Chacrinha's program and became a hit. That same year, she participated in Mazzaropi's feature film, Jeca Tatu.  Even though Celly Campello sang rock'n'roll her kind of rock was not rebelious at all. It was actually as 'square' as it could be. One can check it out just by having a look at the titles of her albums: 'Broto certinho' (Goody-two-shoes chick), 'Brotinho encantador' (Charming youngster), 'Bonequinha que canta' (The Little Doll who sings) and 'A graça de Celly Campello...' (The loveliness of Celly Campello). 

                                   

But what really mattered was Celly's voice which was heavenly. She had a perfect-pitched voice, clear as crystal. Even Antonio Carlos Jobim who was artistic director at EMI's Odeon in 1958, said Celly had an amazingly melodic voice. Celly had rhythm too! She was the best selling artist at Odeon in 1959 and 1960. All Celly touched turned gold instantly. 

Celly & Neil Sedaka

It was common for Celly to stop traffic in the cities she toured. She was a phenomenon. She was so hot TV Record offered her a weekly TV show of her own before 1959 was over. 'Programa da Juventude' was the hottest thing on TV for teens. In 1960, she made it to the top again with Italian rock 'Banho de lua' (Tintarella di luna).

Celly Campello was a shining star that brightened Brazilian skies from March 1959 to April 1962 and almost like a younger Garbo retired at the ripe age of 20.  She got married and lived in Campinas with José Eduardo Gomes Chacon, her boyfriend since adolescence, with whom she remained with until her death. They had two children, Cristiane and Eduardo, and two grandchildren. 

It wasn’t until 1968, that Celly released an LP in honor of her 10th birthday on the Odeon label. Then she had another respite until 1975 when she had a brief comeback, presenting at the Hollywood Rock festival in Rio de Janeiro with her brother Tony. The following year she had a cameo appearance at TV Globo telenovela Estúpido Cupido, featuring her music in the soundtrack. 

Encouraged by the success of the soap opera, she would try to resume her career, even recording an album and doing some shows. After the end of the soap opera, she recorded for RCA, in the following three years with versions of international hits from the late 70s, such as Saudade (It's a Heartache) and Só entre Dois Amores (Torn Between Two Lovers). 

A victim of breast cancer, Celly died on March 4, 2003, at the Samaritano Hospital, and was buried the next day at the Flamboyant Park Cemetery, both located in Campinas. She had been battling against the disease since 1996. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Carlos Maximus @ Brazilian Rock blog) 

 

Paul Young born 17 June 1947

Paul Young (17 June 1947 – 15 July 2000) was a British percussionist, singer and songwriter. He achieved success in the bands Sad Café and Mike and the Mechanics. 

Young was born in the Wythenshawe district of Manchester, England. He loved music from a young age and sang in the local church choir. Whilst still at school at the age of 14 he formed a skiffle group, Johnny Dark and the Midnights. He started in the music business by playing German clubs in the '60s. with the Manchester based band The Toggery Five The group secured a recording contract with EMI's Parlophone label, but their few singles such as the doom-laden I'm Gonna Jump made little impact. 

After The Toggery Five disbanded, Young drummed for Wayne Fontana & The Opposition in the late 60’s and early 70’s and then was a founding member of Music Force and Gyro. Young and Gyro bandmate Ian Wilson, together with guitarists Ian Wilson and Mike Hehir, saxophonist Lenni, keyboardist Vic Emerson, bassist John Stimpson and drummer David Irving, who were members of Mandalaband, formed the band Sad Café in 1976. The new group caught the eye of Manchester music business entrepreneur Harvey Lisberg, who got them a recording contract with the RCA label. In 1977 their first album, Fanx Ta Ra, was a showcase for Young's dynamic singing and craftsmanlike songwriting. 

They achieved success with the follow-up, Misplaced Ideals, and its Young co-written hit "Run Home Girl." Their next album, Facades, featured the UK "Every Day Hurts," which was a no. 3 hit on the British charts. The band also hit the UK Top 40 with "Strange Little Girl", "My Oh My" and "I'm in Love Again", and had two US Billboard Hot 100 hits with "Run Home Girl" and "La-Di-Da". Following some chart success in America, the group made a 54-concert US tour. This was the group's peak year, as Every Little Hurts, featuring Young's impassioned singing and the group's complex harmonies, became a massive hit in Britain.

                                    

Sad Café toured extensively and played three nights at Manchester's Apollo Theatre to capacity audiences, proof that classic rock music retained its appeal even in the heyday of punk, when Manchester was creating the Buzzcocks and the Factory record label. Thir album, La Di Da, was also a commercial success, but in the early 80s the group suffered from changing personnel and a split with their record company. By 1985, Young was almost penniless. 

At this low point in his career he was asked to audition for a group being organised by the bass player of Genesis, Mike Rutherford. Mike and the Mechanics was to be a vehicle for Rutherford's songwriting, and Young was one of five singers hired to perform on the group's first album. Young enjoyed further chart success sharing lead vocal duties with Paul Carrack and scored three Top 40 hits, including two US Top 10s, "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)" and "All I Need Is a Miracle". The single "The Living Years" (US#1, UK#2) became the band's biggest hit, and featured on the band's second album Living Years. 

By 1988, the year of the multi-million selling The Living Years, only Young and Paul Carrack (formerly of Ace and Squeeze) remained as vocalists. Throughout the next decade, Rutherford, Young and Carrack were the nucleus of Mike and the Mechanics. According to Rutherford's songwriting partner, Chris Neil, the two Pauls were perfect foils for each other. "It's like beauty and the beast: we've got the rocker [Young] and the guy with the lovely R'n'B voice [Carrack]." 

During Young's career, he provided lead vocals on several chart hits, including Sad Café's "Every Day Hurts" and "My Oh My", and Mike and the Mechanics' "All I Need Is a Miracle", "Word of Mouth", "Taken In" and "Nobody's Perfect". Young possessed a wide vocal range, often utilising fifth octave head voice notes, and a voice characterised as "rich". His early style has been likened to that of Mick Jagger; in the early 1980s, he began to explore a more "emotive" style. 

Although Young enjoyed fifteen years of chart hits and live success with Mike and the Mechanics, he also worked on many different session projects and played on other artists’ and bands’ records. He had also been working on a solo album of his own probably as long as he had been making music. Unfortunately fate did not give him the opportunity to complete and release it in his lifetime. 

Young had recently returned from gigging in Switzerland with fellow rock stars Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd and his namesake, 80s singer Paul Young. On 15 July 2000, having no symptoms, Young had a sudden heart attack at around 6:30pm at his home in Hale, Altrincham, and died shortly afterwards at 53 years old. Young was planning to tour Europe with Mike and the Mechanics later that month. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a heart attack and that "it was not the first". 

(Edited from Wikipedia, FrankTortorici @ MTV & Dave Laing @ The Guardian)  

Lucky Thompson born 16 June 1924

Eli "Lucky" Thompson (June 16, 1924 – July 30, 2005) was an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist whose playing combined elements of swing and bebop. Although John Coltrane usually receives the most credit for bringing the soprano saxophone out of obsolescence in the early 1960s, Thompson (along with Steve Lacy) embraced the instrument earlier than Coltrane. 

Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and moved to Detroit, Michigan, during his childhood. Thompson had to raise his siblings after his mother died. He loved music, but without hope of acquiring an instrument of his own, he ran errands to earn enough money to purchase an instructional book on the saxophone, complete with a fingering chart. He then carved imitation lines and keys into a broom handle, teaching himself to read music years before he ever played an actual sax. 

 According to legend, Thompson finally received his own saxophone by accident -- a delivery company mistakenly dropped one off at his home along with some furniture, and after graduating high school and working briefly as a barber, he signed on with Erskine Hawkins' 'Bama State Collegians, touring with the group until 1943, when he joined Lionel Hampton and settled in New York City. 

Soon after his arrival in the Big Apple, Thompson was tapped to replace Ben Webster during his regular gig at the 52nd Street club the Three Deuces -- Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Art Tatum were all in attendance at Thompson's debut gig, and while he deemed the performance a disaster, he nevertheless quickly earned the respect of his peers and became a club fixture. After a stint with bassist Slam Stewart, Thompson again toured with Hampton before joining singer Billy Eckstine's short-lived big band that included Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey -- in other words, the crucible of bebop. 

                                   

Although he played on some of the earliest and most influential bop dates, Thompson never fit squarely within the movement's paradigm -- his playing boasted an elegance and formal power all his own, with an emotional depth rare among the tenor greats of his generation. He joined the Count Basie Orchestra in late 1944, exiting the following year while in Los Angeles and remaining there until 1946, in the interim playing on and arranging a series of dates for the Exclusive label. Thompson returned to the road when Gillespie hired him to replace Parker in their epochal combo -- he also played on Parker's landmark March 28, 1946 session for Dial, and that same year was a member of the Charles Mingus and Buddy Collette-led Stars of Swing who, sadly, never recorded.

Ben Ratliff observed that Thompson "connected the swing era to the more cerebral and complex bebop style. His sophisticated, harmonically abstract approach to the tenor saxophone built off that of Don Byas and Coleman Hawkins; he played with beboppers, but resisted Charlie Parker's pervasive influence." He showed these capabilities as sideman on many albums recorded during the mid-1950s, such as Stan Kenton's Cuban Fire!, and those under his own name. He recorded with Parker (on two Los Angeles Dial Records sessions) and on Miles Davis's hard bop Walkin' session. Thompson recorded albums as leader for Disques Vogue (in Paris), ABC Paramount and Prestige and as a sideman on records for Savoy Records with Jackson as leader. 

Thompson was strongly critical of the music business, later describing promoters, music producers and record companies as "parasites" or "vultures". This, in part, led him to move to Paris, where he lived and made several recordings between 1957 and 1962. During this time, he began playing soprano saxophone. 

Thompson returned to New York, then lived in Lausanne, Switzerland, from 1968 until 1970, and recorded several albums there including A Lucky Songbook in Europe. He taught at Dartmouth College in 1973 and 1974, then completely left the music business.Thompson's whereabouts after the mid-1970s are unclear; he is believed to have lived briefly on Manitoulin Island in Canada and in Savannah, Georgia. 

In his last years, he lived in Seattle, Washington. Acquaintances reported that Thompson was homeless by the early 1990s, and lived as a hermit. He died from Alzheimer's disease in an assisted living facility on July 30, 2005. 

Thompson was married to Thelma Thompson, who died in 1963. Thompson's son, guitarist Daryl Thompson, played with Peter Tosh and Black Uhuru before embarking on a jazz career in the late 1980s. Thompson also had a daughter, Jade Thompson-Fredericks, and two grandchildren. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic) 

Demis Roussos born 15 June 1946

Artemios "Demis" Ventouris-Roussos (15 June 1946 – 25 January 2015) was a Greek singer, songwriter and musician. As a band member, he is best remembered for his work in the progressive rock music act Aphrodite's Child, but as a vocal soloist, his repertoire included hit songs like "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye", "From Souvenirs to Souvenirs" and "Forever and Ever". He sold over 60 million albums worldwide. 

He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to George Roussos and Nelly Mazloum. His father, a civil engineer with a construction company, was of Greek extraction and his mother was of Egyptian and Italian origin. Demis’s vocal abilities were recognised at an early age and he became a soloist with the choir of the Greek Orthodox church in Alexandria. He also took up the guitar and trumpet. 

Increasing xenophobia in Egypt led his family to emigrate to Athens in 1961. There Demis took up the bass guitar and as a teenager sang and played in a series of pop groups including the Idols and We Five. Among his fellow performers were the keyboards player Evangelos Papathanassiou (aka Vangelis) and the drummer Loukas Sideras, with whom he formed Aphrodite’s Child in 1967. 

The trio decided that they needed to get closer to the centre of the international music industry and set off for London. Unfortunately, they were turned back at Dover due to visa problems. Retreating to Paris, they were able to audition successfully for executives at the Philips record company. Their first recording sessions were delayed by the general strike of May 1968 but later that year, Rain and Tears by Aphrodite’s Child was issued across Europe. Composed by Vangelis and the French lyricist Boris Bergman, and featuring Roussos’s unusual high tenor, the song was only a minor hit in Britain but created a sensation in many other countries. 

Aphrodite’s Child had more hit singles in continental Europe and went on to record the album 666 (made in 1970 but released in 1972), based on religious texts from the apocalypse of St John, but soon afterwards Vangelis’s ambition to create film music caused the group to split up. He and Roussos would occasionally collaborate in later years, notably in 1981 when Roussos sang Race to the End, a vocal version of Vangelis’s theme from Chariots of Fire, with lyrics by Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes. 

                                                                       

Roussos embarked on a solo career with the album Fire and Ice (1971), whose first single We Shall Dance was a summer hit across Europe, though not in Britain. In 1972 he toured Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Greece. The following year he went to South America. Although Roussos songs were generally written in English, usually by the Athens-born Lakis Vlavianos, he often rerecorded them in French, German and Spanish, and even, on one occasion, in Japanese. Roussos’ love for kaftans saw him named “the Kaftan King” and he often wore them for his performances. 

In 1973, Roussos released Forever and Ever, which became his first British hit record after widespread television appearances, including on the Nana Mouskouri Show and the children’s show the Basil Brush Show. In 1976 a BBC TV documentary, The Roussos Phenomenon, produced by John King, kindled further interest in the singer. Philips issued a four-song record of the same name (including a version of Forever and Ever), which became the first EP to top the British singles chart. A few months later, the single When Forever Has Gone was only kept from achieving the same position by Abba’s Dancing Queen. 

Critics had often remarked on Roussos’s weight and by the end of the 1970s, when he weighed nearly 150kg (about 23st 9lb), Roussos had become concerned. After trying several diets, he found one that helped him lose 50kg in 10 months. In 1982, he described this process in the book A Question of Weight. 

In 1985, Roussos was travelling on TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome, when it was hijacked by Hezbollah terrorists and flown to Beirut. Most of the passengers were held hostage for 17 days but Roussos and other Greek citizens on board were released after five. Although his popularity in Britain declined from its 70s peak, Roussos continued to record and perform round the world until shortly before his death. 

Roussos died in the morning of 25 January 2015, from stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, and liver cancer while hospitalised at Ygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece. He had been in the private hospital for some time, and died surrounded by his family at the age of  68. His funeral was held at the First Cemetery of Athens, the burial place of many Greek politicians and cultural figures.

(Edited from obit by Dave Laing @ The Guardian & Wikipedia)