Johnny Darrell born 23 July 1940

Johnny Darrell (July 23, 1940 – October 7, 1997) was an American country music artist. 

Darrell was born Eddie Ray White in Hopewell, Alabama but grew up in Marietta, Georgia. Hel had taught himself to play guitar whilst still in his early teens and on joining the army performed at base dances. By 1964, having left the military, he was managing a Holiday Inn motel in the Nashville area and found himself regularly dealing with people in the music business. 

He soon came to the attention of United Artists music producer Kelso Hairston through his friend Bobby Bare. Hairston, who liked Darrell's brand of songwriting quickly signed the musician to a contract with United Artists in 1964. Keen to pursue his own interest in that field, it wasn't until the country star Bobby Bare arranged a meeting with United Artists that he got the chance to cut a record. His debut disc for the label in 1965, the first recording of Curly Putman's now classic "Green, Green Grass of Home", fared poorly, becoming a country hit only when covered the same year by Porter Wagoner and an international smash when tackled by Tom Jones in 1966. 

                                   

His next single, "As Long as the Wind Blows" (1966), again penned by Putman, found its way into the country Top 30 and saw Darrell being named "Most Promising Male Artist" by Cash Box magazine. His chart run continued and in 1967, by now produced by the label head and former Buddy Holly associate Bob Montgomery, his version of Mel Tillis's "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" went to the Top 10. Inspired by an incident during the Second World War, the song's reference to "this crazy Asian war" was widely believed to refer to Vietnam and, trading on that presumed association, became a huge pop hit two years later for Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. 

Darrell's next single, the original version of another future pop smash, Dallas Frazier's "Son of Hickory Hollow's Tramp" (1968), made it only into the Top 25. It was followed by "With Pen In Hand", the closest Darrell came to a chart-topper and his only single to edge its way into the US pop chart. After "I Ain't Buying" (1968) and "Woman Without Love" (1969) came a duet, "The Coming of the Roads", with the underrated Anita Carter of the famous Carter Family; its lowly chart placing failing to reflect its obvious quality. 

Having garnered the respect of the cream of Nashville's songwriting community, Darrell next turned to two of its heaviest hitters, gaining Top 25 successes with first, Mickey Newbury's "Why Have You Been Gone So Long" and second, Billy Ed Wheeler's "River Bottom" (both 1969). 

In the 1970s, Darrell continued his association with friend Bobby Bare, and also became part of the outlaw country movement by joining the Grand Ole Opry's Party Night. The event was an English concert that celebrated the birthday of a now defunct Opry magazine. The lineup of performers included Nat Stuckey, Hank Snow, Wes Buchanan, and Willie Nelson, among others. The hits however, begin to dry up, a label switch to Monument producing the uncharacteristic "Dakota the Dancing Bear" (1973), and a further move to Capricorn resulting in one album and a final hit, an unsuccessful reworking of the bluegrass standard "Orange Blossom Special" (1975). 

Diagnosed in the mid-Seventies with the diabetes which eventually would kill him, Johnny Darrell cut just one further album, in 1979 re-recording of his hits for Gusto before fading into an undeserved obscurity. Darrell succumbed to the disease at age 57 in Kennesaw, Georgia, 7 October 1997and was survived by his wife Jody. He was buried in the Winkenhofer-Pine Ridge Memorial Park, Kennesaw, Cobb County, Georgia. 

In 2000, three years after his death the album, "Singin' It Lonesome: The Very Best...1965-1970", was released in his memory. The album included all of Darrell's chart topping successes. 

(Edited from  Paul Wadley obit @ The Independent,, Wikipedia & Find a grave)

Billy Brown born 22 July 1929

Billy Brown (22 July 1929 – 10 January 2009) was an American Rockabilly and Country singer. 

There are several reasons why Billy Brown should go down in Southern music history, but you’d have to search long and hard to find him in any of the books. You could look for him under any of these guises- as a one time rockabilly singer; as a major label singer in the formative years of post-war country; as the first man to record one of the foremost ballads of country music; as a country gospel evangelist; as a brilliant comedian and vocal mimic; or as a mainstay of the local music scene in central Florida.

William George Brown was born in Princeton, West Virginia, near the Virginia line, the son of George and Sadie Brown. When he was 8 years the family relocated to New Smyrna Beach towards the southern end of the Florida East Coast Railway. One of the things people knew the Browns for was music. Billy was quite young when he realised he had a talent for it. He later told Jim Jones of the Smyrna Observer that he sold twelve boxes of Cloverine lip salve on the streets in order to make enough money to buy his first guitar, choosing that product because he saw it advertised on the back of a comic book as 'good for anything and everything'. 

His favourite singers in those days were Gene Autry, Eddy Arnold and Elton Britt and that he started performing as a teenager. He started to sing at local events and functions and even combined this with another of his interests, the rodeo, where he became proficient in the cowboy arts of gun-twirling and singing like Gene Autry. By the age of sixteen he was singing in touring shows and also at rodeos with a group known as the Indian River Boys. As a singer, he gradually worked his way up until he was invited to play in some of the nightclubs in central Florida. Then a big break came his way. But within a few months of signing up for the 'Grand Ole Opry', Billy Brown was drafted into the Army. 

He served in the infantry during the Korean War. Brown was discharged from the Army in 1953 and not long afterward he headed out West, winding up recording a single for Decca --"High Heels But No Soul"/"Drunk, Drunk Again" -- in 1955. He kept working out in the West for a while then drifted back east, recording a single for Stars Inc in 1957, the rollicking "Did We Have a Party" where he eagerly jumped on the rock & roll bandwagon with the assistance of guitarist Jerry Reed and pianist Ray Stevens. Brown took the single to Troy Martin who once again finagled a contract with Columbia for the single.  

                                  

The label reissued "Did We Have a Party" in the fall of 1957 and pushed it fairly hard, getting him an appearance on American Bandstand and into the studio to cut some more rock & roll, including the single "Meet Me in the Alley Sally," and putting him on a package tour that also featured Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, and the Everly Brothers. More singles followed in 1958, including "Once in a Lifetime," but hits weren't forthcoming. Nevertheless, Columbia continued to see promise in the vocally versatile Brown, and in 1959 they released the gorgeous ballad "He'll Have to Go." 

This had the potential to be Brown's big breakthrough but Jim Reeves wound up recording the song six months after Brown's version was released and it soon eclipsed the original on its way to becoming a country standard. Livid at this change in fortune, the singer demanded to be released from his Columbia contract, a request that was granted. In 1960, he recorded a pair of singles for Republic -- the smooth "Be Honest with Me" and the swinging "Lost Weekend" -- neither of which made much impact; neither did 1961's Look Out Heart." 

Bitter at his lack of success, Billy Brown started drinking heavily, eventually turning to religion by 1963. Over the next several years, he was part of evangelistic revues and recorded some occasional gospel sides along the way. He returned to secular music for financial reasons, playing shows and once again taking another stab at recording success when he signed with Challenge Records in 1969. Like his previous singles, "Open Arms"/"One of the Ten Most Wanted Women" didn't go anywhere, but Brown eked out a living playing Holiday Inns and other chain hotels. 

During the '70s, he returned to the studio quite regularly, recording singles for nine different labels, all to little success with the exception of "Thank You Darlin'," which performed strongly in several regional country markets in 1976. He cut his last sides for a label called Citadel in 1979 and then in 1983 he suffered a stroke that left him unable to perform. After the stroke, he once again found religion and took up residence at his home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida until his death on January 10, 2009 from emphysema. 

(Edited from Bear Family notes and AllMusic)

Kim Fowley born 21 July 1939

Kim Vincent Fowley (July 21, 1939 – January 15, 2015) was an American record producer, songwriter and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and managed the Runaways in the 1970s. He has been described as "one of the most colorful characters in the annals of rock & roll", as well as "a shadowy cult figure well outside the margins of the mainstream". 

Born in Los Angeles, he was the son of the actor Douglas Fowley. After his mother left them, at the age of two Fowley was dispatched to a foster home, where he would spend the next five years “with 27 children in a large room fighting for the cinnamon toast”. Having survived a bout of polio, he went to University High School in Los Angeles, where he developed an interest in music, singing with a group called the Sleepwalkers that included his classmates Bruce Johnston (later of the Beach Boys) and the drummer Sandy Nelson, along with a young Phil Spector. 

After a short spell in the US military, Fowley floated on to the Hollywood music scene, working as a promotions man and record producer. In 1960 he co-produced and sang on the single Alley Oop, a pastiche of the doo-wop style . It went to No 1 in the American charts, selling one million copies. The following year he conceived Nutrocker, a frenetic pastiche of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite performed by a group of session musicians under the name B Bumble and the Stingers which reached No 1 in Britain. 

He enjoyed a second American success in 1964, with a gloopy girl-group confection, Popsicles and Icicles, by the Murmaids, which was knocked off the top of the American charts by the Beatles’ first US No 1, I Want To Hold Your Hand.  Fowley came to London, where he worked as a publicity man for his friend PJ Proby, wrote songs for Cat Stevens and the Seekers, and produced early incarnations of Traffic and Slade. 

                                      

Noddy Holder, Slade’s lead singer, would later remember how Fowley had “discovered” them at a London club in 1966: “There was this strange character in the audience, about 7ft tall, a beanpole, wearing a cowboy hat and doing all this hippie dancing with his arms flailing about. And after the show he came up and told us we could be as big as the Beatles. ” Fowley produced one single with the group, which sank without trace, then returned to America. “Van Morrison and Them had had a big hit with Gloria in the States but then split up,” Holder remembered. “Kim wanted us to go back with him and go on tour pretending to be Them. He was a rogue, but a very lovable rogue.”

Hardly a bandwagon passed by without Fowley jumping on it. In the late 1960s it was psychedelia; in the 1970s he moved to Finland, where he produced a group called Wigwam (“the Finnish Beatles”, according to Fowley); and then to Sweden, where he produced Scorpion (“the Swedish Beatles”). He went on to produce Helen Reddy and Vicky Leandros, and – “just for the sheer joy of it” – Christian family music in Detroit. A friend once visited Fowley at his home in Hollywood at a time when environmentalism was coming to the fore, and found him writing songs for a putative band he planned to call Ecology. 

Kim with The Runnaways

In 2009 an assortment of offcuts and oddities which Fowley had recorded and produced under a variety of pseudonyms were gathered together on two albums, One Man’s Garbage and Another Man’s Gold . Fowley had enjoyed great success as the composer and publisher of songs for such bestselling heavy metal groups as Poison, Guns N’ Roses and Kiss, which he claimed had funded profitable investments in a range of businesses from minerals in Australia to hotels in Spain. In 2012, Fowley won the Special Jury Prize at the 13th Melbourne Underground Film Festival for his two feature projects – Golden Road to Nowhere and Black Room Doom. 

Tall, cadaverous and poker-faced, Fowley cut an unsettling figure on the Los Angeles music scene. In his later years he retreated to the unlovely desert town of Redlands, better known for its drive-by shootings than for its music scene. There he lived in a small woodframe house fronted by an almost sinisterly manicured lawn and surrounded by an industrial chain-link fence posted with “Keep Out” signs. Gold and platinum records were propped against the sitting-room wall, “to remind media people and investors who I am”. 

In his last years, Fowley worked on writing and publishing his autobiography, which he divided between three distinct books. The last volume was intended to be finished on his deathbed and to be released posthumously because, as the 2010s began, Fowley was terminally ill. On September 24, 2014, Fowley married longtime girlfriend and music executive Kara Wright-Fowley, in a private ceremony in Los Angeles. He died of bladder cancer in Hollywood, California on January 15, 2015, at the age of 75. He is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

(Edited from The Telegraph & Wikipedia)

Brenda Reid born 20 July 1945

Brenda Reid (born July 20, 1945) is an American singer, who was lead singer of the group The Exciters best known for (U.S. #4) single "Tell Him". Brenda was married to fellow band member Herb Rooney.

The Masterettes

 Brenda Reid, Carolyn (Carol) Johnson, Lillian Walker, and Sylvia Wilbur formed a group while at high school together in Queens, New York City, in 1961. They were originally called the Masterettes, as a sister group to another group called the Masters, and released their first recording, "Follow the Leader", in early 1962. Wilbur then left the group to be replaced by Penny Carter, and they auditioned for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, winning a recording contract. Penny Carter then left, and was replaced by Herb Rooney, a member of the Masters; Reid and Rooney later married. 

The group's name was changed to the Exciters, and their first hit record, arranged by Teacho Wiltshire and produced by Leiber and Stoller for United Artists Records, was "Tell Him", which reached no. 4 on the U.S. pop chart in early 1963, and no. 12 in Canada. The song had previously been released unsuccessfully, as "Tell Her", by Gil Hamilton later known as Johnny Thunder. According to Jason Ankeny at AllMusic, the Exciters' version of "Tell Him" "...boasted an intensity that signified a sea change in the presentation and perception of femininity in popular music, paving the way for such tough, sexy acts as the Shangri-Las and the Ronettes." 

                                    

Dusty Springfield was on a stop-over in New York City en route to Nashville to make a country music album with the Springfields in 1962, when she heard the Exciters' "Tell Him" playing while taking a late-night walk by the Colony Record Store on Broadway. The song helped Springfield decide to embark on a solo career with a pop/soul direction. She'd recall: "The Exciters sort of got you by the throat...out of the blue comes blasting at you “I know something about love”, and that’s it. That’s what I wanna do. 

Other songs by the group with Reids lead vocals included "He's Got the Power" (written by Ellie Greenwich and Tony Powers), "Get Him", and Northern Soul classic "Blowing Up My Mind". The Exciters also recorded "Do-Wah-Diddy", written by Greenwich and Jeff Barry, in 1963; with a revised title of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" it was covered shortly after by Manfred Mann, for whom it was an international hit. They were one of the opening acts for the Beatles during their first North American tour in August–September 1964. During this tour, they became the first black musicians to perform at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida; the stadium's management had initially refused to allow the Exciters to perform because of their race, but when the Beatles said they would refuse to perform too, the group was allowed to go on. 

In 1965, the Exciters left the Leiber-Stoller management team, and the United Artists label, for Roulette Records. There they issued a remake (with revised lyrics) of the Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' song "I Want You to Be My Boy". They continued to record through the 1960s for Bert Berns' labels Bang and Shout, and later for RCA, but with little success. Ronnie Pace and Skip McPhee replaced Johnson and Walker. The group broke up in 1974. By the early seventies Walker and Johnson had left and were replaced by Skip McPhee and Ronnie Pace. The group continued to tour the US and abroad, eventually breaking up in 1974. Carole Johnson worked as an account clerk for G&G Retail in New York. Lillian Walker established a career as a Guidance Counselor in the New York City school system. 

In 1975, Brenda and Herb Rooney, credited as the Exciters, enjoyed a hit single in the UK with "Reaching for the Best", produced by Rooney and young newcomer producer Ian Levine. The song was aimed at the British Northern soul scene but crossed over to the UK Singles Chart where it peaked at No. 31. In 1978, Reid formed a group with her husband Herb Rooney called Brenda And Herb, had a final R&B chart hit in 1978 with "Tonight I'm Gonna Make You A Star" and released one album in 1979, "In Heat Again". 

The pair later separated with Herb owning a cosmetics company on Long Island, but Reid kept the New Exciters going with her children Mark, Tracy & Jeff on backup vocals and instruments. One son, Mark, became a famous songwriter and producer for acts like Lisa Lisa, Eric B, and Rakim, under the name L.A. Reid. By the mid-eighties the Rooneys had separated. In the early 90s Brenda retired to devote her life to her church although Reid and Lillian Walker still occasionally performed together as The Exciters. Carole Johnson died on May 7, 2007, aged 62. Lillian Walker-Moss died on February 5, 2023, at the age of 78. She had been battling angiosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. 

(Edited from Wikipedia,History of Rock & Soul Tracks)

 

Gerry Lockran born 19 July 1942

Gerry Lockran (19 July 1942 – 17 November 1987) was a British blues singer, songwriter, poet and guitarist. 

Gerald Cranston Frederick Loughran was born in the Yeotmal province of the central plains of India. He was the youngest of eight children, having three brothers and four sisters. His forefathers emigrated from Ireland to India around 1800, while his paternal grandmother was of Russian descent. His father Albert Loughran (known as Locky) was a Chief Inspector of Police in the Central Province of India. His mother, Lizzie Cranston, was born of a British father and an Indian mother. He spent the earliest years of his life growing up on the family farm just outside the town of Damoh, and attended Wynberg Allen Memorial School in Mussoorie, a small village in the Himalayas. 

After the death of Gerry's father in 1949, the Loughran family emigrated to south London, England in 1953, following the sale of the family farm. He took up an apprenticeship at Kingston power station, qualifying after five years as an instrument engineer. Lockran discovered skiffle music and for three years played in skiffle group 'The Hornets', at well known venues such as the Skiffle Cellar. Lockran also appeared at the Finsbury Park Empire, London with Wally Whyton and The Vipers. 

Towards the end of the 1950s, Lockran met and become lifelong friends with two other young blues musicians: Cliff Aungier, another singer/guitarist and Royd Rivers, who played blues harmonica and 12-string guitar. Lockran and Rivers worked as a duo until 1963, playing live in pubs and clubs throughout Southern England, including the Red Lion in Sutton, Surrey which was one of England's first folk clubs. 

                                    

In 1961, Lockran acquired the guitar he was most associated with: a Martin D-28 as played by his biggest influence, Big Bill Broonzy. Lockran continued to perform solo throughout the early 1960s, and his live work included tours of France, Germany, Italy and Sicily. In 1964, he also began an association with Jersey in the Channel Islands, performing extensively on television and radio there. Around April 1965, he changed the spelling of his surname from Loughran to Lockran for stage purposes. His British live schedule at this time included a package tour called 'Kings of the Blues' with Long John Baldry, Alexis Korner and Duffy Power. 

On 6 August 1965, Lockran, together with Aungier and Rivers, founded 'Folksville', a folk and blues club at the Half Moon, Putney in west London which remains a thriving music venue. In 1966, Lockran secured a recording contract which resulted in the release of his first album Hold On - I'm Coming!, featuring Danny Thompson, Terry Cox and Ray Warleigh. He followed this release with Blues Vendetta in 1967, featuring "Jason's Blues", written for his three-year-old son. In 1969, The Essential Gerry Lockran was released, and he also featured on the Blues at Sunrise compilation album with Redd Sullivan, and Dave Travis. 

In the early 1970s, his career was managed by Nigel Thomas, who also represented Joe Cocker, The Grease Band, Faces, Chris Stainton and Juicy Lucy. During 1972 and 1973, Lockran toured the U.S., Canada and Europe as part of package of tours featuring these artists. The U.S. and Canadian tour headlined by Joe Cocker lasted three months, and involved 40 concerts at venues including Madison Square Garden in New York and The Forum in Los Angeles. This was followed by a two-month European tour through France, Holland, Italy, Germany and England. 

Lockran recorded further albums during this period, Wun (released in 1972),Pinup (released 1973) with Henry McCulloch, Neil Hubbard and others, then Rags to Gladrags (released in 1976) with musicians including Ronnie Wood, Mick Ralphs, Henry McCulloch, Neil Hubbard, Alan Spenner, Philip Chen, Pete Wingfield, Mel Collins, Bruce Rowland and Cliff Aungier. 

He then concentrated on touring in Europe, performing in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, France and Italy, working with blues harmonica players Matt Walsh and Walter Liniger, Hans Theessink and Ian Hunt, with whom he recorded The Shattered Eye (1979) and Total (1980). Around this time he also started to use the relatively new Ovation Legend guitar. During a tour of Belgium and Holland in 1981, he started suffering heart problems, which culminated in a heart attack and stroke, depriving him of the use of his left hand and effectively ending his career as a professional musician. 

Lockran never played guitar again, but turned to photography and poetry. In 1983, a private collection of his poems, Smiles and Tears was privately published by Waddling Duck Press. He died on 17 November 1987, after another heart attack. He was survived by his wife, Bobbi, and two sons, Jason and Jethro. 

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Deek Watson born 18 July 1909

Deek Watson (July 18, 1909 - November 4, 1969) was a tenor, baritone, and sometimes "talking bass" singer, guitar and tipple player, composer, and actor. He was an original member of The Ink Spots. He was their designated lead singer for uptempo, jive songs. He left The Ink Spots in late 1944 and formed his new vocal group, The Brown Dots.

Ivory “Deek” Watson was born in Mounds, Illinois. In his late teens he started out as a member of a coffee pot band called the "Percolating Puppies" that played on the street corners of Indianapolis about 1928. After some time on his own he became a member of the "Four Riff Brothers" about late 1932. This group performed around Indianapolis and later did more than 60 radio shows over WLW in Cincinnati. In Cleveland, he met Jerry and Charlie and they formed a trio in the fall of 1933 which became better known as the "King, Jack and Jester." This group moved to Cincinnati about the end of 1933 and began regular broadcasts over WLW and WSAI during which they performed in about 200 fifteen minute shows. 

Four Ink Spots

In July 1934, they accepted a booking at the Apollo Theater, New York, supporting jazz bandleader Tiny Bradshaw. At this point they had changed their name to "The 4 Ink Spots". Later that year, the Ink Spots achieved international success touring the UK with Jack Hylton's Orchestra. The group became the Ink Spots when they relocated to New York City. After Herb Kenny replaced original member Daniels, the group began a slow evolution toward its distinctive sound. The Ink Spots laid the groundwork for countless doo-wop and rhythm-and-blues vocal groups. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. 

The Ink Spots

After many fall outs with tenor Bill Kenny over the leadership of the group, Deek Watson left to form The Brown Dots in 1944. He immediately put together a competing Ink Spots group consisting of lead tenor Joe King, bass Jimmy Gordon, and an unknown baritone. By late January 1945, a lawsuit brought by the Ink Spots caused Deek Watson to claim that he would form a new group based on a "completely new idea". This new idea was simply to change their name to the Brown Dots and to sound as much like the Ink Spots as possible (although the Brown Dots employed more extensive harmonies). 

                                    

By March 1945, they were recording for Newark (New Jersey)-based Manor records. At their first session, they recorded four songs, including "Sentimental Reasons" (written by Pat Best and led by Joe King). This song would become more popular through the years as "For Sentimental Reasons" or "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons".  In October 1946, they starred in the movie Boy! What A Girl! (in which they sang “Satchelmouth Baby” and “Just In Case You Change Your Mind”; the movie also featured the Slam Stewart Trio, Al Jackson, Warren Patterson, and Tim Moore [as the “girl” of the title]). They also appeared in Sepia Cinderella that same year (doing “Long Legged Lizzie” and “Is It Right?”). Deek mugged his way through both movies, and even had a speaking part in Sepia Cinderella. 

The Brown Dots

By late 1946, Watson and the rest of the Brown Dots weren't getting along. Rather than break up the group, Nabbie, Best, and Gordon recruited tenor Danny Owens. Originally calling themselves the Sentimentalists, they began recording for Manor behind Deek's back (just to see if they could make it on their own). When Deek finally found out, he left them and formed another Brown Dots group. They recorded for Castle as “Deek Watson and the 4 Dots” in 1948 . They then became the “Brown Dots” and cut sides for Majestic (1948), Manor (1949), and Varsity (1949). 

After Charlie Fuqua left Bill Kenny’s Ink Spots in August of 1952, he formed his own Ink Spots group and recruited Deek Watson, Jimmy Holmes and Harold Jackson. Deek only lasted as a member of this group until early 1953. he organized a new Ink Spots group that recorded for the Grand Award label in 1955. For the 3rd and last Grand Award album, Deek had an entirely different group with Ollie Crawford, Gene Miller and Henry Baxter. Many of the songs on the Grand Award records have been reissued on Colortone, Waldorf, Audition labels and possibly other labels although new songs by the same groups appear on some of these other labels. 

Once again, Deek was dropped by this group. As happened when he was a member of the original Ink Spots, Deek got in trouble rolling his eyes and acting in what many thought was a demeaning manner. He went on to form other groups, one of which recorded for the Coronet label and other poor quality, budget label records were made.

Later (about the mid-1960s), Deek had another group that saw the return of original Ink Spot Charlie Fuqua along with Lloyd Washington and George Holmes that did go on tour - including appearances in Australia. Deek's last known Ink Spots group included Lloyd Washington, Dodge Bolt and Gene Mumford about 1967. Deek’s died from complications of a stroke on November 4, 1969 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

(Edited from Wikipedia, Unca Marvy’s R&B Pages & Britanica)

Gale Garnett born 17 July 1942

Gale Zoë Garnett (born 17 July 1942) is a New Zealand-born Canadian singer best known in the United States for her self-penned, Grammy-winning folk hit "We'll Sing in the Sunshine". Garnett has since carved out a career as an author and actress. 

Garnett was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and moved to Canada with her family when she was 11. She made her public singing debut in 1960, while at the same time pursuing an acting career, making guest appearances on television shows such as 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, and Bonanza. 

She wrote songs as a hobby and made her New York nightclub debut in 1963 at The Blue Angel Supper Club and was signed by RCA Victor Records that same year. In 1964, her debut album, "My Kind Of Folk Songs" spawned the single "We'll Sing In The Sunshine". The song went to Billboard's #5 position and later earned a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording.

 It sold over one million copies thus gaining gold disc status. Garnett continued to record through the rest of the 1960s with her backing band the Gentle Reign. Her follow-up to "We'll Sing in the Sunshine", "Lovin' Place", which peaked at #54, was her only other single to chart in America. She appeared twice on ABC's Shindig! and The Lloyd Thaxton Show at the height of her singing fame in the mid-1960s. 

                                    

Garnett delivered a notable performance in the Rankin-Bass feature Mad Monster Party in the late 1960s, with the memorable tunes "Our Time to Shine" and "Never Was a Love Like Mine." At this period she had begun to be more influenced by the counterculture, and had embraced psychedelic themes to some extent. By the late '60s, Garnett and her backing band, Gentle Reign, had become influenced by the hippie counter-cultural movement, embracing psychedelia, singing about rainbows, magic wands, and other enchantments.

 Garnett also delivered a notable performance in the 1967 Rankin-Bass film Mad Monster Party that featured the memorable tunes "Our Time To Shine" and "Never Was a Love Like Mine". Finding that she could no longer sell records, she retired from the music business in the early '70s. 

On stage she starred in a Canadian production of Hair and in 1975, co-wrote with Tom O’Horgan the music for Starfollowers in an Ancient Land, an Off-Off Broadway production at the La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York City’s East Village in addition to appearing in the play. She also wrote and performed two one-person theater pieces, Gale Garnett & Company and Life After Latex. Garnett also did the voice of the "Mother KOIT" liners for KOIT-FM (93.3 FM) in San Francisco in the mid to late 1960s during its progressive rock formatted era (1968–1970). 

Garnett went on to appear in feature films such as Mad Monster Party (1967) and on television shows, usually in supporting roles.In subsequent years, she branched out into journalism, writing essays, columns and book reviews for newspapers including Toronto's Globe And Mail, Village Voice and Toronto Life magazine. Her first novel was titled Visible Amazement and she also wrote and performed two, one-person theater pieces, Gale Garnett & Company and Life After Latex. 

Garnett also did the voice of the "Mother KOIT" liners for KOIT-FM (93.3 FM) in San Francisco in the mid to late 1960s during its progressive rock formatted era (1968–1970). Gale also appeared in the 2002 film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) as well as on several television shows, usually in supporting roles. 

Garnett published her first novel, a romance titled Visible Amazement, in 1999. She followed with Transient Dancing (2003), the novella Room Tone (2007), and Savage Adoration, her latest release (2009). Last heard she was still alive, well, and active at age of 82 during 2024. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Classic Bands & IMDb)