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:
August 05
● Maurice Williams → With teenage classmates in several gospel-oriented singing groups in the 50s, wrote the early doo wop hit “Little Darlin’” (#41, R&B #11, 1957) for his group the Gladiolas, after graduating from high school, formed, fronted and sang lead vocals for R&B/doo wop The Zodiacs, and wrote the enduring hit “Stay” (#1, R&B #3, 1960), continued to write, record and perform on the oldies circuit as Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs until just before his death from undisclosed causes on 8/5/2024, age 86.
August 07
● Jack Russell → Lead vocals for hard rock/metal Great White and two Top 20 albums and seventeen charting singles from 1984 to 1999, including “One Bitten, Twice Shy” (#5, 1989), as Jack Russell’s Great White found a place in rock history following an infamous fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island in 2003 in which nearly 100 fans lost their lives, the fire resulting from a pyrotechnic display as part of the band’s show, reformed the original Great White in 2006, toured and recorded until announcing his retirement from performing in July 2024, died from Lewy body dementia and muscular atrophy on 8/7/2024, age 63.
August 08
● Mitzi McCall / (Mitzi Joan Steiner) → Film and TV actress in the 50s, then middle-of-the-road comedy duo in the 60s with husband Charlie Brill, the couple blew a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for stardom by flopping their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show on 2/9/1964 – the same episode as the TV debut of The Beatles in North America – 73 million TV viewers witnessed the disastrous act, following six months in hiding, recovered and returned to nightclubs and TV, including Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In in the 70s and Seinfeld in the 90s, plus voice-overs for children’s TV cartoons, died in a hospital from undisclosed causes on 8/8/2024, age 93.
August 09
● Charley Cross / (Charles Richard Cross) → Seattle-based music journalist and publisher of grunge-era local bi-weekly music magazine The Rocket (1998-2000), chronicled and promoted the development of the Pacific Northwest grunge music scene, later published nine acclaimed biographies of rock luminaries, among them books on local Seattle heroes Jimi Hendrix, Heart and Curt Cobain, plus Bruce Springsteen and Led Zeppelin, three of them becoming New York Times bestsellers, edited Seattle-based Grunge magazine and managed Springsteen-focused fanzine Backstreets, died from undisclosed causes on 8/9/2024, age 67.
August 13
● Greg Kihn / (Gregory Stanley Kihn) → Power pop singer, songwriter and frontman for the Greg Kihn Band, co-wrote (with Steve Wright) the band’s big hits, “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)” (#15, 1981) and “Jeopardy” (#2, 1983), opened arena concerts for top-tier acts in the 80s, hosted a morning show on a San Francisco classic rock radio station from 1996 to 2012, authored five murder-mystery novels and a compilations of musician short-stories through 2015, died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease on 8/13/2024, age 75.
August 15
● Joe Chambers / (Joseph Chambers) → Guitarist in psychedelic soul-rock sibling group The Chambers Brothers, co-wrote with brother Wille the classic “Time Has Come Today” (#11, 1968), toured and recorded with his brothers intermittently for decades and fronted The Joe Chambers Experience in the 10s, died from unspecified causes on 8/15/2024, age 81.
August 21
● Russell Stone / (Russell Oliver Stone) → English pop vocalist with a short stint (1971-1972) in sunshine pop Brotherhood of Man for one charting single, “Reach Out You Hand” (#77, 1971) but left before BOM scored a series of UK Top 40 hits in the late 70s, joined multinational big band The James Last Orchestra as a backing vocalist off-and-on for twenty years, formed the pop vocal duo R&J Stone with his wife, American singer Joanne Stone and co-wrote with her the love anthem ”We Do It” (UK #5, 1976), released two albums with Joanne before she died in 1979, left the music industry in the mid-90s but returned in the 10s with three solo albums, died from undisclosed causes on 8/21/2024, age 77.
August 27
● Richard Macphail / (Richard Paul Macphail) → English musician and vocalist for 60s pop-rock Anon, which merged with another teenaged prep school band in 1967 to form prog-rock Genesis, took over as tour manager for the group in their early years, received credit on the Genesis album Foxtrot (1972) and a dedication on Genesis Live (1973), left and managed Genesis bandmember Peter Gabriel’s touring in 1977 and 1978, dropped out of the music industry in the early 80s but returned to the radio airways in the 10s and co-authored My Book of Genesis in 2017, died unexpectedly from undisclosed causes on 8/27/2024, age 73.
