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 02
● Tom Fowler / (Thomas William Fowler) → Bass guitarist with multiple top-tier rock and fusion artists, including long stints with Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention in the 70s and Ray Charles’s backing band from 1993 to Charles‘s death in 2004, plus jazz-fusion Jean-Luc Ponty, psych/art rock It’s A Beautiful Day, and prog rocker Steve Hackett, among others, joined his three musician brothers in jazz fusion Air Pocket and The Fowler Brothers in the 80s and 90s, died from an aneurysm on 7/2/2024, age 73.
July 04
● Mary Martin → Grammy-winning talent scout, manager and record label executive in a male-dominated industry, helped launch the careers of Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt and Vince Gill, among many others, introduced Bob Dylan to The Band in 1965, joined Warner Bros. Records in L.A. in 1972 and signed or managed multiple artists, moved to Nashville as VP at RCA Records in 1985 and to Mercury Records in 1999, won a Grammy in 2002 for her work on the Hank Williams tribute album Timeless, which featured Dylan, Johnny Cash, Keith Richards, Tom Petty and others, died from complications of cancer on 7/4/24, age 85.
July 06
● Joe Egan / (Joseph Egan) → Scottish singer, songwriter and, with Gerry Rafferty, co-frontman in folk-pop-rock Stealers Wheel, co-wrote “Stuck In The Middle With You” (#6, UK #8, 1973), started an unsuccessful solo career in 1975 after the band dissolved, left the music industry altogether in the early 80s for a career in book publishing, died from unspecified causes on 7/6/2024, age 77.
July 09
● Carol Bongiovi / (Carol Sharkey Bongiovi) → Former U.S. Marine and Playboy Bunny, mother of rock star Jon Bon Jovi, founder and chief promoter of her son’s fan club, which is based in her suburban New Jersey flower shop, died in a hospital from undisclosed causes on 7/9/2024, age 83.
● Joe Bonsall / (Joseph Sloan Bonsall Jr.) → Tenor vocals for over 50 years with hugely popular country vocal group the Oak Ridge Boys, which morphed from a gospel outfit to a country hitmaking machine in the mid-70s, scoring seventeen Country #1 singles and placing seventeen others in the Country Top 10 through 1990, sang lead on “Elvira” (#5, Country #1, 1981) and “Bobbie Sue” (#12, Country #1, 1982), also sang on Sawyer Brown’s single “Out Goin’ Cattin’” (Country #11, 1986) and was credited as “Cat Joe Bonsall”, retired from touring in early 2024 due to worsening ALS (“Lou Gehrig’s disease,” amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and died from the disease on 7/9/2024, age 76.
July 10
● Dave Loggins / (David Allen Loggins) → Pop-rock one hit wonder singer and songwriter with the wistful “Please Come To Boston” (#5, 1974) and a vocal duet with Anne Murray, “Nobody Loves You Like I Do” (#103, Country #31, 1984), discontinued his solo career and became a top Nashville songwriter by the early 80s, wrote “You Make me Want To Make You Mine” (Country #1, 1985) for Juice Newton and “Morning Desire” (#72, Country #1, 1985) for Kenny Rogers, plus songs recorded by Three Dog Night, Tanya Tucker, Toby Keith and the Oak Ridge Boys, among several others, his languid “Augusta” (1981) became the theme song for the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, died in a Nashville hospital from unspecified causes on 7/10/2024, age 76.
July 17
● Happy Traum / (Harry Peter Traum) → Singer, guitarist, and banjo player on the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 60s and in Woodstock in the 70s and 80s, friend of and collaborator with Bob Dylan, key member of folk The New World Singers in the 60s, the group cut the first recordings of Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind” and “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” in 1963, solo artist with five albums from 1980 through 2005, performed with his brother, Artie, and issued three albums together in the 70s, plus one each in 1994 and 2006, later produced instructional books for wannabe traditional roots music artists, died from pancreatic cancer on 7/17/2024, age 86.
July 18
● Jerry Fuller / (Jerrell Lee Fuller) → Songwriter, singer and record producer with seven minor charting singles as a solo artist but dozens of hits written for others, including chart-toppers by Ricky Nelson (“Travelin’ Man,” #1, UK #2, 1961) and Gary Puckett & The Union Gap’s “Young Girl” (#1, UK #1, 1968), also produced multiple hit recordings, among them the Knickerbockers’ “Lies” (#20, UK #1, 1966) and Al Wilson’s “Show and Tell” (#1, R&B #10, 1973), worked with country music artists such as Reba McEntire and Ray Price in he 70s and 80s, issued a three-volume set of his renditions of his own oeuvre in 2016-2018, died at home from lung cancer on 7/18/2024, age 85.
July 20
● Jerry Miller / (Jerry Adolph Miller Jr.) → Teenaged Seattle-area rocker, friend of Jimi Hendrix and early member of The Bobby Fuller Four (“I Fought The Law,” #9, 1966), then co-founder and lead guitarist in the three guitar attack of 60s San Francisco folk-roots-psych rock , the quintet enjoyed a brief period of notoriety and two charting singles, “Omaha” (#88, 1967) and his composition “Hey Grandma” (#127, 1967), before disbanding in 1972, started and fronted The Jerry Miller Band after returning to his hometown of Tacoma, Washington, in 1995, participated in various Moby Grape reunions over the years and was named Rolling Stone’s #68 top guitarist of all-time in 2003, died in his sleep on 7/20/2024, age 81.
2024 ● Sandy Posey / (Sandra Lou Posey) → Session vocalist for Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge (backing vocals on “When A Man Loves A Woman,” #1, 1966) and others, then pop singer with “Single Girl” (#12, UK #15, 1966) and three more Top 40 hits in the 60s, turned to countrypolitan pop in the 70s and scored six Country Top 40 hits, continued with session work and to record and perform into the 00s, often with Christian-themed songs, battled dementia in her later years and succumbed to the disease on 7/20/2024, age 80.
July 21
● Evelyn Thomas / (Ellen Lucille Thomas) → Dance-pop and hi-NRG singer with a pre-disco dance hit in the UK, “Weak Spot” (#26, 19765) and seven UK and US charting hits in the late-disco, hi-NRG 80s club scene, including “High Energy” (#85, Dance #1, UK #5, 1984), released non-charting singles into the 10s and produced music for others through a partnership, died from undisclosed causes on 7/21/2024, age 70.
July 22
● Duke Fakir / (Abdul Kareem Fakir) → Ethiopian-American tenor vocalist in six-decade Motown R&B/soul vocal quartet The Four Tops and twelve Top 20 hits, including “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” (#1, 1966), the original members of the group performed together for over 40 years from 1953 without a change in lineup, assumed control of the group’s intellectual property in 2008 following the death of the last of the three other originals, toured with various other singers as The Four Tops until a month before his death from heart failure on 7/22/2024, age 88.
● John Mayall / (John Brumwell Mayall, OBE) → The “Godfather of British Blues”, bandleader for influential blues-rock The Bluesbreakers and mentor to Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Peter Green and dozens of other rock artists, over a six-decade career issued nearly 44 singles and over 90 albums of studio and live recordings, both as a solo artist and with various lineups of The Bluesbreakers, the last, The Sun Is Shining Down, in 2022, died at home in California from undisclosed causes on 7/22/2024, age 90.
July 28
● Martin Phillipps / (Martin John James Phillipps) → New Zealand singer, guitarist, chief songwriter and frontman for alt rock/lo-fi The Chills (“Heavenly Pop Hit,” Alt #17, NZ #2, 1990), the group led the way for indie rockers and influenced R.E.M., Pavement and other U.S. bands in the 90s with jangle guitars and harmonies over punk and psychedelic influences, his autocratic leadership of The Chills led to high turnover among his bandmates and loss of a recording contract with Slash Records in 1992 led to despondency, drug abuse hepatitis, recovered and continued to release new music through the 10s and a final album, Scatterbrain, in 2021, died from hepatitis-caused liver failure on 7/28/2024, age 61.
● Mick Underwood / (Michael John Underwood) → English journeyman drummer with a long list of gigs over 50 years, among them The Outlaws (1963-1965, with Ritchie Blackmore), The Herd (1965-1968, with Peter Frampton), Deep Purple predecessor Episode Six (1968-1970, alongside Roger Glover), Quartermass (1970-1979, with John Gustafson) and the Ian Gillan Band, co-founded hard rock Raw Glory in 2006 and Glory Road in 2012, died from complications of dementia on 7/22/2024, age 78.
