The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (395 page)

A star of the Grand Ole Opry when he was just a boy of twelve, Robert Von Hebb found himself playing spoons behind Roy Acuff’s Smokey Mountain Boys, before switching genres to become a teenage backing singer to Bo Diddley. Despite such an unusual and prestigious start in the industry, it was as a songwriter that Hebb was to create his legacy.

Hebb’s life was changed by the murder of his brother Hal–a former musical partner, and lead singer of The Marigolds–during a barroom brawl in December 1963. Hebb had looked up to Hal as a performer and musician as well, and he thus immersed himself in songwriting as a method of dealing with the loss; he was also grieving with a nation for the loss of JFK. These experiences prompted Hebb to write and record ‘Sunny’ (1966, US number two; UK Top Twenty)–a million-selling standard since covered by numerous artists including Boney M, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, James Brown and Frankie Valli. Hebb only made the transatlantic Top Forties on two further occasions–’A Satisfied Mind’ (US, 1966) and ‘Love Love Love’ (UK, 1972)–but he saw his songs become hits for others, a fine example being Lou Rawls’s ‘A Natural Man’ (1971, US Top Twenty).

Bobby Hebb–who’d returned after thirty years with a 2005 album–died from lung cancer at the Centennial Medical Center in Nashville on 3 August 2010.

Golden 0ldies#120

Ted Kowalski

(Toronto, 16 May 1931)

The Diamonds

(The Generations)

Tenor Ted Kowalski was one of the original members of white Canadian doo-wop quartet The Diamonds, a group discovered by former sound engineer Dave Somerville, who became their lead vocalist. It wasn’t long before this fledgling group–completed by Phil Levitt (baritone) and Bill Reed (bass)–had made their television debut via the influential
Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.
Within two years The Diamonds had bagged their first major hit, a rather rapid cover of The Teenagers’ ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love?’ (1956, US Top Twenty). The four-piece ran off another thirteen Top Forty hits over the course of the next few years, the biggest being ‘Silhouettes’ (1957, US Top Ten), ‘The Stroll’ (1957, US Top Five) and the huge, million-selling ‘Little Darlin’’ (1957, US number two; UK number three)–which kept a hold of Billboard’s runner-up slot for two months.

All of the original members had moved on by 1961 though, and the complete change in personnel was detrimental to The Diamonds’ chart performance. In spite of the pull of the live audience, Kowalski had decided there was little future for him in music, and he returned to his studies– although he was to make a striking comeback with The Generations just a few years later. The singer passed away on 8 August 2010 following a protracted battle with heart disease, his death having followed that of Reed (2004) and later Diamonds lead, Glenn Stetson (2003).

Tuesday 10

Dana Dawson

(Jamaica Queens, New York, 7 August 1974)

Dana Dawson was tipped to become a big star in her homeland, but the American singer and actress surprised her backers by instead earning a devoted following in France, where she became a major pop star. Dawson was off to a good start when she secured a Top Twenty hit in France entitled ‘Ready to Follow You’ (1988) at just fourteen years old.

Although the svelte singer managed further big French hits with R & B bubblegum such as ‘Romantic World’ (1990), ‘Tell Me Bonita’ (1991–both France Top Five) and the lesser ‘Open Hearts’ (1991), Dawson struggled to make the headway that had been assumed for her in America. It didn’t seem to matter, especially: all three latter hits appeared on her gold-selling
Paris, New York and Me
debut collection (1991). Then, a British Top Ten breakthrough finally emerged with the catchy if rather generic ‘3 is Family’ (1995) from a decent-selling follow-up collection,
Black Butterfly
(EMI, 1996)–which then spawned two further UK Top Forty singles.

Despite a sizeable corporate push, Dawson’s style did not stand out enough for her to crack her own country’s record industry, but, as an actress, she consolidated childhood success with the touring cast of
Annie
by making several Broadway appearances in the early millennium.

Dana Dawson passed away from colon cancer just days after her thirty-sixth birthday. She had married New York jazz musician Jason Curry three years beforehand.

Thursday 12

Richie Hayward

(Clear Lake, Iowa, 6 February 1946)

Little Feat

(The Fraternity of Man)

(The Factory)

A founder of the eclectic and much-praised Little Feat, Richie Hayward was the percussionist behind a band whose sound encompassed the best of rock ‘n’ roll, blues, R & B and jazz fusion. Hayward had previously played drums behind the bands The Fraternity of Man and The Factory– the latter in which he met maverick frontman Lowell George. (A little-known fact about this band is that they once appeared as fictional group ‘The Bedbugs’ in a 1967 episode of ABC sitcom
F-Troop
–although quite how this worked in post-Civil War Kansas is anyone’s guess … )

Little Feat were formed in 1969– the spelling apparently in deference to The Beatles–when the duo hooked up with noted pianist Bill Payne and bassist Roy Estrada (ex-Mothers of Invention) to record the band’s well-received, eponymous debut album (1971). Feat issued a series of excellent, acclaimed records, including the very popular
Dixie Chicken
(1973) and
Feats Don’t FailMe Now
(1974). However, around the time of Little Feat’s fifth recording,
The Last Record Album
(1975), Hayward experienced a brush with death after coming off his motorcycle: showing the sense of humour for which Little Feat have often been noted, the record sleeve then heavily featured his hospital bills in its design.

Worse was to come for the Little Feat community though, with George’s sudden death during the recording of
Down On the Farm
four years later
(
June 1979).
Despite this tragedy, Little Feat survived a necessary hiatus to continue pumping out several good studio albums into the millennium (with, of course, further line-up alterations). And Richie Hayward was seldom idle, playing as he did with some of the epoch’s top blues and rock glitterati, of whom the names Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, The Doobie Brothers and Bob Dylan barely scratch the surface.

Diagnosed with liver cancer, the percussionist–who lived outside of the USA and struggled to cover treatment expenses–passed away from complications of the disease at his home in British Columbia.

Sunday 15

Robert Wilson

(Tulsa, Oklahoma, 21 December 1956)

The Gap Band

The group’s swathe of eighties floor-fillers tend to obscure the fact that The Gap Band had actually been around for well over a decade before they made it big. Brought up in Oklahoma, Robert Wilson–R & B’s ‘Godfather of the bass guitar’–and his brothers Charlie (vocals) and Ronnie (guitar) formed the Greenwood Archer & Pine Street Band back in 1967. By their debut recording, the name had been trimmed to the tighter and more recognisable Gap Band. Various other members came and went, and drummer Ronnie Smith proved to be the most enduring sideman.

Taking a few pointers from P-Funk, the group set out on a particular route via the first pair of albums
Magician’s Holiday
(1974) and
The Gap Band
(1977), but only made a lasting impact with the third record, confusingly also called
The Gap Band
(1979). Thanks to an embracing of disco, this record earned the Wilsons platinum sales in the US, while doing very good business in Britain, where the band were to become most successful. This record eventually spawned the Gap Band’s best-known hit, the international dance floor favourite ‘Oops Upside Your Head’ (1980, UK Top Ten)–which birthed an enduring dance craze of its own and charted on at least three separate occasions. (It was followed by a further corker called ‘Burn Rubber On Me’ (1981, UK Top Forty).) The following albums
Gap IV
(1982) and
Gap Band V: Jammm’
(1983) fared less-impressively in America, but the UK hits kept arriving in the shape of ‘Someday’ (1984, UK Top Twenty) and ‘Big Fun’ (1987, UK Top Five). The biggest Billboard single for The Gap Band was ‘Early in the Morning’ (1982, US number twenty-four), however four of their hits topped the R & B listings. The brothers also at this time became firm friends with Stevie Wonder, backing his 1981 hit ‘Ain’t Gonna Stand For It’, while the Motown legend in turn offered vocals to The Gap Band’s ‘Someday’ (1983).