We note with sadness the following contributors to rock and pop music of the 50s through the 80s – the BEST music ever made! – who passed on last month:
July 01
● Joe Melson / (Claudie Joe Melson) → Teen lead vocalist and co-founder of 50s Texas rockabilly group The Cavaliers, which led to collaborations with Roy Orbison and co-writing of the operatic rock ballads “Only the Lonely” (#2, UK #1, 1960), “Crying” (#2, UK #25, 1961) and “Running Scared” (#1, UK #9, 1961); the pair also co-wrote “Blue Bayou” which was covered by Linda Ronstadt in 1977 (#3, AC #3); launched an unremarkable solo recording career in the 60s before branching out to pen Top 40 hits for other artists, among them The Newbeats’ “Run, Baby Run (Back Into My Arms)” (#12, CAN #4, 1965) and others such as Don Gibson and Glenn Barber; continued to showcase Orbison’s legacy over the decades at various rockabilly and nostalgia festivals; inducted into the International Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame in 2002 and elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018; died at home in Nashville from natural causes on 7/1/2026, age 91.
● Dave Stimson → Michigan elementary school teacher and co-founder, in 1979 with Tesco Vee, of punk underground fanzine Touch and Go, the irreverent, crude, and sharp-witted chronicle of acts like Black Flag, The Misfits, and Minor Threat; expanded the operation in the early 80s with Touch And Go Records to issue early hardcore releases by regional bands The Fix, Necros, Negative Approach and others; largely dropped from sight in the late 80s but re-appeared to co-author the 576-page anthology Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79–’83 in 2010; died from unspecified causes on 7/1/2026, age 69 or 70.
July 02
● Tommy Hunter / (Thomas James Hunter) → Canadian country music singer and songwriter with a career start as a teenage prodigy in the mid-50s on CBC’s music program Country Hoedown; launched The Tommy Hunter Show in 1965 and hosted the program over 27 years; the program blended traditional country and pop-crossover music, broadcasting to millions of weekly viewers and earning him the moniker “Canada’s Country Gentleman,” along the way scoring fifteen Canada Country Top 20 hits including “Mary In The Morning” (Country #66, CAN Country #1, 1967); inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984 and received the Order of Canada in 1986 for his contribution to the national cultural identity; continued to appear at charitable events and festivals until a final performance on his 75th birthday in 2012; died in a retirement home in London, Ontario, on 7/2/2026, age 89.
July 05
● Beaky / (John Dymond) → Co-founding rhythm guitarist, singer, and prominent-nosed “Beaky” in 60s British high-energy “freakbeat” band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich; the group had ten consecutive UK Top 20 singles from 1965 to 1968 and was on the UK charts for more total weeks than The Beatles, but with little attention in the US despite the British Invasion of the day; the quintet’s brand was based on zany outfits and catchy pop songs like “Bend It!” (#110, UK #2, 1966) and “The Legend Of Xanadu” (#125, UK #1, 1968); took over drumming duties in the late 70s before leaving in 1989 to run a 60s-themed lounge in Spain, eventually reforming the band in 2013 to tour on the UK oldies circuit for the next thirteen years as the last original DDDBMT member; died from undisclosed causes a few days after a performance on 7/5/2026, age 81.
July 06
● Paul Wheatbread → Drummer with Gary Puckett in early 60s San Diego garage band The Ravens, which became pop rock Gary Puckett & The Union Gap by 1965; left briefly in 1966 to play drums in the house band for Dick Clark’s short-lived TV music show Where The Action Is, but returned in 1967 in time to don the band’s trademark Civil War costumes and drum on the string of hit ballads “Woman, Woman” (#4, 1967), “Young Girl” (#2, UK #1, 1968), and “Lady Willpower” (#2, UK #5, 1968), plus four other charting hits by 1970; was dismissed along with his bandmates by group frontman Puckett (who went solo) following a 1971 concert and played in local San Diego pop-rock outfits for the next two decades, including a stint with rock ‘n’ roll revival group Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids; eventually formed a music promotion business and a hospitality management company with his wife; died from complications of kidney failure and Alzheimer’s disease on 7/6/ 2026, age 80.
July 08
● Rodney Franklin / (Rodney Thomas Franklin) → Fourteen-year-old founder and leader of a Berkeley, California, funk-jazz band in the early 70s, which led to gigs with jazz greats Freddie Hubbard, Marlena Shaw and others while still in his teens; signed with Columbia Records and released the non-charting debut LP In The Center (1978) and followed with You’ll Never Know (#104, Jazz #10,R&B #25, 1980) and the single “The Groove” (Dance #27, R&B #41, UK #7, 1980), an early hit in the “Quiet Storm” genre blending contemporary jazz and urban R&B; issued eleven other contemporary jazz albums, including the Stanley Clarke-produced Marathon (#187, Jazz #15, R&B #54, 1984) before ceasing recording in 1998; continued to perform in the Bay Area jazz community for decades; died from an extended, unspecified illness on 7/8/2026, age 67.
● Bonnie Tyler / (Gaynor Hopkins Sullivan) → Welsh coal miner’s daughter with a career start singing country-pop in local Welsh pubs under the moniker “Sherene Davis;” moved to London in 1975, signed a contract with RCA, assumed the stage name “Bonnie Tyler” and released sunshine-pop “Lost In France” (UK #9) and two other minor UK hits in 1977; developed a husky, weathered voice following vocal chord surgery in 1977 but transitioned to a harder rock-oriented sound resulting in two global hits, “It’s a Heartache” (#4, UK #3, 1978) and the multi-platinum, operatic power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (#1, UK #1, 1983), the latter, written by celebrated producer Jim Steinman, received a Grammy nomination and landed at #56 on Rolling Stone’s 200 best songs of the 80s; continued to tour and release music into the 20s but never returned to the career pinnacle of the mid-80s, represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 and released an autobiography, Straight from the Heart, in 2023; required emergency surgery for a perforated intestine in May 2026 and died from continuing complications on 7/8/2026, age 75.
July 09
● Calvin Hayes / (Calvin G. Hayes) → Son of Brit record producer Mickie Most, early 80s touring member of then-girlfriend Kim Wilde’s band, session musician and music talent promoter before co-founding underappreciated, one hit wonder (in the US) sophisti-pop trio Johnny Hates Jazz in 1986; played keyboards and drums on the debut single “Shattered Dreams” (#2, UK #5, 1988) and three other UK Top 20 hits over the next eleven months, and three more lesser charting UK singles through 1989; badly injured in a 1991 car accident and spent two years in recovery, then largely dropped from sight until a JHJ reunion tour in 2009; left for good in 2010; relocated to Washington state in the US and taught music for many years; collapsed at home and died suddenly from unspecified causes on 7/9/2026, age 63.
July 14
● Dave Kendall / (David Kendall) → British music journalist, video jockey, and pioneer on late-80s music television as the creator and original host of MTV‘s program 120 Minutes, which introduced non-mainstream alternative rock to mainstream audiences worldwide from 1988 to 2003 and propelled R.E.M., Nirvana, Sonic Youth and other acts to superstardom; began his career as a freelance music writer in London for publications like Melody Maker and Spin before relocating to New York City and landing a writing job for MTV in 1986; developed and launched the groundbreaking, late night rotation of punk, goth, synth-pop, and early grunge music and became the show’s second full-time host in 1989; left in 1992 for Los Angeles and writing for traditional media, later moving to Thailand to produce a TV travel program and work as an editor of the Bangkok Post from 2017 to 2025; returned to school and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international journalism in later years; died in Bali from undisclosed causes on 7/14/2026, age 63.
● Lee Underwood / (Edward Lee Underwood) → Guitarist, pianist and journalist best known for playing lead guitar for Tim Buckley from 1965 to 1975 and on seven of Buckley’s nine studio albums; following Buckley’s death in June 1975 became a staff writer and then West Coast editor for DownBeat through 1981; published in Rolling Stone, Billboard, the Los Angeles Times and other print media through the 80s; embarked on a solo recording career with a debut album, California Sigh (1988) of acoustic new age music and co-wrote flutist Paul Horn’s autobiography The Spiritual Odyssey of a Universal Traveler (1990); wrote the liner notes to two mid-90s posthumous albums of Buckley concerts from the late 60s and published the biography Blue Monday: Tim Buckley Remembered in 2002; released two additional albums of solo piano compositions, as well as three books of poetry before dying in New Mexico from undisclosed causes on 7/14/2026, age 87.
July 15
● Plas Johnson / (Plas John Johnson Jr.) → Soul-jazz and hard bop multi-instrumental reed player best known for performing the iconic tenor saxophone solo on Henry Mancini’s 1963 “The Pink Panther” theme song, arguably the most famous saxophone solo in music history; started with brother Ray in a New Orleans band in the late 40s and toured with Charles Brown until serving in the Army during the Korean War; moved to Los Angeles in 1954 and began a long career as a sought-after session musician, eventually joining Capitol Records’s in-house band and playing on albums by such diverse acts as the Beach Boys, Nat King Cole, Joni Mitchell, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Otis, and Frank Sinatra, among many others; issued 14 albums as a solo artist or bandleader and two under the pseudonym Johnny Beecher; retired from recording after 2004 and lived out of the limelight except for appearing in the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew about top-tier Los Angeles session musicians; died from undisclosed causes six days prior to his 95th birthday on 7/15/2026, age 94.
July 16
● Alan Walden / (Roger Alan Walden) → Music impresario and key player in launching friend and fellow Macon, Georgia, native Otis Redding to superstardom, signing a fledgling Lynyrd Skynyrd and helping older brother Phil start Capricorn Records, the iconic label of the Southern rock era; began his career managing Phil Walden Artists & Promotions while Phil was stationed overseas with the Army; broke down racial and cultural barriers in the mid-60s by representing Redding and dozens of prominent Black R&B performers; formed Redwal Music in 1965 with Redding and Phil to publish Redding’s music; started Capricorn with Phil and a third partner in 1969 but left to establish his own artists management firm, Hustlers Inc., in 1970; famously auditioned 187 musical acts before selecting and recording Lynyrd Skynyrd, subsequently publishing their multi-platinum anthems “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”; secured recording contracts for Southern rockers The Outlaws, September Hase and other rock acts over the next three decades before retiring by 2010; inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2003 and died in Macon following a long battle with cancer on 7/26/2026, age 83.
July 17
● Freddy “Boom-Boom” Cannon / (Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr.) → Early and persistent pre-Beatles rock ‘n roll teen idol singer and guitarist with “Palisades Park” (#3, 1962) and seven other Top 40 hits between 1959 and 1965, becoming “The Boom Boom Man” along the way; began in Boston-area rock ‘n’ roll group Freddy Karmon & The Hurricanes, catching the ear of noted producer Bob Crewe and leading to the breakthrough Top 10 debut single “Tallahassee Lassie” (#6, 1959), co-written with his mother; eventually appeared on Dick Clark‘s American Bandstand for 110 performances, the most of any performer in the show’s 37-year run; continued to perform in oldies revival tours for over six decades before dying in hospice care from a recently diagnosed form of cancer on 7/17/2026, age 89.
July 18
● Jennifer Finch / (Erin Michelle Fredin) → Teenage photographer of the early 80s Los Angeles punk-rock scene whose work was displayed more than two decades later at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007; played bass alongside future Hole frontwoman Courtney Love and future Babes in Toyland founder Kat Bjelland before joining grunge/alt-punk band L7 (“Pretend We’re Dead,” Alt Rock #8, 1992) as bassist, vocalist and occasional songwriter for a ten-year run with four albums; left in 1996 and spent the ensuing 18 years fronting her own punk bands and pursuing a side career as a media arts professional before returning to a reformed L7 in 2014; completed an autobiography, Shooting Up and Making Out: A Memoir of My Life in L.A. and L7 in early 2026; diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer in mid-July and died from the disease five days later on 7/18/2026, age 59.
● Jim Gilstrap / (James Gilstrap) → Vietnam War veteran and smooth tenor R&B studio session vocalist in the early 70s before joining Stevie Wonder’s backing group, Wonderlove and appearing on the landmark albums Talking Book (1972) and Innervisions (1973) and singing the opening lines of the classic “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (#1, AC #1, R&B #3, 1973); launched a solo career in 1975 with Roxbury Records, scoring a disco-soul hit with “Swing Your Daddy” (#55, R&B #10, UK #4, 1975) and releasing four solo albums; continued singing in a session backing role for the next forty years on scores of albums by several dozens top acts, including George Benson, Boz Scaggs, and Luther Vandross, as well as TV theme songs, Disney Movie soundtracks and a Japanese film; died from natural causes on 7/18/2026, age 79.
● Tony Thorpe / (Anthony John Thorpe) → Lead guitarist and singer in glam-pop-rock The Rubettes, the group hastily assembled by songwriter Wayne Bickerton to support the surprise hit single “Sugar Baby Love” (#47, UK #1, 1974) which had been recorded by session musicians; the debut was the group’s only US charting single but the first of nine UK Top 40 hits in the mid-70s; including “Juke Box Jive” (UK #3, 1974) and “I Can Do It” (UK #7, 1975); had enough of touring and quit in 1979 to return to session work for Cilla Black, Tommy Steele and others, and then teach college-level music courses in Blackburn, England; published a memoir, A Bride’s Nightie, in 2014; suffered from declining health in later years and died from unspecified causes on 7/18/2026, age 80.
July 29
● Arlene Smith → Juilliard School-trained lead singer in choir-sounding R&B/pop vocal quintet The Chantels, the third African-American girl group to enjoy nationwide success; co-founded the group while a young teen and wrote and sang the breakout hit “Maybe” (#15, R&B #2, CAN #1, 1957); left in 1959 for a mildly successful solo career, reformed The Chantels in 1973 and performed from time to time on the oldies circuit while teaching elementary school in The Bronx for several decades; was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002 alongside the other original Chantels and died in a New York City hospital from natural causes on 7/29/2026, age 84.
