Leon Haywood (February 11, 1942 – April 5, 2016) was an American funk and soul singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his 1975 hit single “I Want’a Do Something Freaky to You”, which has been much sampled by Dr. Dre and others. Pete Zorn (29 May 1950 – 19 April 2016) was an American multi-instrumentalist who was a longstanding member of Richard Thompson’s backing band. He was also a member of Steeleye Span, The Albion Band, and Driver 67. Toshio Mashima (21 February 1949 – 21 April 2016) was a Japanese composer born in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. His own works, especially for bands, are published in Europe and sold in America. Lately, he has also composed for TV series and movies. Zena Latto (October 25, 1925 – April 5, 2016) was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist. During the 1940s and 1950s, she played with the big band the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She continued to perform with the Sweethearts until 1955. Zena Latto appeared on stage as a tenor saxophonist for an all-women line-up in the Carnegie Hall concert on November 29, 1957 called “Jazz Female”. Elliot Wolff was an American musician, songwriter, and music producer. He toured with Chaka Khan as a keyboard player. After hearing a demo for Wolff’s “Straight Up”, Paula Abdul recorded it and also Wolff’s “Cold Hearted” for her album Forever Your Girl. Both songs charted at number one on Billboard. Sverre Kjelsberg (18 October 1946 – 18 June 2016) was a Norwegian singer, guitarist, bassist, composer, and lyricist. He was a member of the band The Pussycats from 1964. He and Mattis Hætta represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980. Marion Studholme (27 June 1927 – 6 January 2016) was an English soprano, best known for her performances with Sadler’s Wells Opera Company, and as a regular performer on the popular BBC radio programme Friday Night is Music Night. Joe Dowell (January 23, 1940 – February 4, 2016) was an American pop singer. He sang the tune “Wooden Heart”, which had been a hit for Elvis Presley in Europe. It became the first single released on Smash Records to shoot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. In the wake of his success, Dowell wanted to become a songwriter in his own right, but due to contractual obligations, he was required to sing music owned by Smash’s parent company, Mercury Records. Troy Shondell (May 14, 1939 – January 7, 2016), was an American vocalist, who achieved a modicum of fame and recognition in the early 1960s. He became a transatlantic one-hit wonder, by releasing a single that made the record charts in both the US and the UK. “This Time” sold for over 3 million copies. Josefin Nilsson (22 March 1969 – 29 February 2016) was a Swedish singer and actress. Her debut album titled Shapes was released on 23 March 1993. The music and lyrics were written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (of ABBA fame). She also performed with Gotlandic pop/folk group Ainbusk. Nicholas Caldwell (April 5, 1944 – January 5, 2016) was an American singer and musician, and original member of R&B vocal group The Whispers. “Lasse” Mårtenson (24 September 1934 – 14 May 2016) was a Finnish singer, composer, actor, and theater conductor. He performed at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964 with the song “Laiskotellen” (“Idling”). Raj Brar (3 January 1972 – 31 December 2016) was a Punjabi singer, actor, lyricist and music director. He was best known for his 2008 hit album Rebirth. Tomohiko Kira (December 6, 1959 – July 3, 2016) was a Japanese guitarist who lead the band ZABADAK. He also composed the original music for the 1988 cult horror film Evil Dead Trap, and performed guitar on soundtracks of the role-playing video games Xenogears (1998) and Chrono Cross (1999), playing the opening and ending themes on the latter. Richard Lyons (April 19, 1959 – April 19, 2016) was an American musician, best known for being one of the founding members of the experimental music band Negativland. Chris Warren (May 27, 1967 – June 12, 2016) was an American musician who performed in numerous bands, the last being New York band Bro-Kin. He is best known for being the lead singer in The DX Band (sometimes referred to as The Chris Warren Band), a group who performed the entrance theme of professional wrestling stable D-Generation X called “Break It Down”. William Hawkins (May 20, 1940 – July 4, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, poet, musician and journalist, most notable for his contributions in the 1960s to Canadian folk rock music and to Canadian poetry. His best known song is “Gnostic Serenade”, originally recorded by 3’s a Crowd. “Bobby” Curtola, CM (April 17, 1943 – June 4, 2016) was a Canadian rock and roll singer and teen idol. Curtola went on to record hits such as “Indian Giver”, “Aladdin” and his biggest chart topper, “Fortune Teller” in 1962, which was also successful internationally, selling 2.5 million copies. Réagissez à cet article / Comment this article commentaires / comments
