The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (23 page)

Wednesday 28

Baby Huey

(James Ramey - Richmond, Indiana, 17 August 1944)

Baby Huey & The Babysitters

Never likely to see his old age, James Ramey was a huge presence in every sense: a glandular problem he suffered since childhood meant his weight was seldom below 350 lbs once he reached adulthood. Despite this, he was a tremendous soul performer in the Otis Redding tradition, loved locally in his adopted Chicago and nicknamed ‘Baby Huey’, after the giant cartoon duck popular in the fifties. Ramey was certainly a one-off, dressing as a schoolboy for some early Babysitters performances, while the Afro-sporting 6’1” giant was so incendiary on stage that a 1966 concert in Notre Dame had to be broken up by riot police. Ramey’s career saw him shift from hardline R & B into acid-laced soul as the sixties progressed, and The Babysitters’ debut album for Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom record label was finally recorded early in 1970. Ramey’s heroin-related heart attack in Chicago’s Roberts Motel meant that the singer never saw his first record issued, however: his body just wasn’t able to stand the combination of his size and his appetite for illegal substances. Nevertheless, The Babysitters released
The Baby Huey Story – The Living Legend
and continued briefly with none other than a teenage Chaka Khan (whose husband was the group’s bassist) as Ramey’s replacement on vocals.

The Baby Huey rendition of Mayfield’s ‘Hard Times’ has been sampled widely in recent years by, among others, A Tribe Called Quest on their 1991 hit ‘Can I Kick It?’

Baby Huey drummer Johnny Ross passed away in February 2006.

DECEMBER

Wednesday 16

George ‘Smitty’ Smith

(Florida, 18 December 1939)

The Manhattans

Success didn’t arrive for second-wave doo-wop/soul outfit The Manhattans until some years after the death of original lead vocalist, George ‘Smitty’ Smith. The group had evolved in 1960 from another Newark vocal unit called The Statesmen, developing a strong visual image that incorporated matching suits and white gloves accompanied by simple, synchronized dance movements. In New York, they were considered every bit as good as the more nationally revered Temptations and Spinners – and they boasted two great frontmen in Smith and Winfred ‘Blue’ Lovett. While Lovett co-wrote many of the group’s hits, it was more often than not Smith’s vocal that lifted the work a level above that of the era’s scores of other vocal acts.

Perhaps pre-empting (or documenting) his own crippling illness, Smith utilized his extraordinary voice, awash with rich emotion and despair, on such early Manhattans sides as ‘I’m the One That Love Forgot’ and ‘Follow Your Heart’ (both 1965). His condition an open secret for some time, Smith died of spinal meningitis two days before his thirty-first birthday as The Manhattans began to fade from the spotlight. They returned with Gerald Alston assuming lead vocals, presaging a number of mid-seventies pop hits, including the US number one ‘Kiss and Say Goodbye’ (1976).

See also
Richard Taylor (
December 1987)

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 1970:

Little David Baughan
(US tenor vocalist who deputized for the drafted Clyde McPhatter in the original line-up of The Drifters; born in 1938; unknown)

George Bean
(UK folk/rock singer with Trifle and the shamefully named George Bean & The Runners, who covered both Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones, backing Lulu and Cat Stevens; unknown)

Neil Boland
(UK chauffeur to The Who’s Keith Moon; run over by his own car when non-driver Moon attempted to use it to escape angry skinheads, 4/1)

Tony Clarke
(US soul singer signed to Chess Records; born New York,
c
1944; believed murdered)

Ruth ‘Baby Sis’ Davis
(US lead with gospel act The Davis Sisters; born 1927; despite a lifetime’s devotion to their faith, four of the sisters died tragically, Ruth falling victim to diabetes/liver disease, 2/1)

George Goldner
(US record boss who formed the labels Red Bird, End, Gee and Gone and worked with Little Richard and The Shangri-Las, among others; born New York, 1918; heart attack, 15/5)

Earl Hooker
(US R & B/rock ‘n’ roll guitarist, second cousin to John Lee Hooker; born Mississippi, 15/1/1930; tuberculosis, 21/4)

Lonnie Johnson
(US blues/jazz musician; born Louisiana, 8/2/1889; stroke, 16/6)

Nick Pantas
(US rockabilly/rock guitarist with several of Ronnie James Dio’s early bands, including Elf; born c 1940; auto accident, 12/2)

Alexander Sharp
(US first tenor with pioneering vocal groups The Orioles and The Ink Spots; born 1919; surviving two Orioles car-crash incidents, he eventually succumbed to a heart attack, 1/1970)

Otis Spann
(US blues pianist, Muddy Waters collaborator and house musician at Chess Records; born Mississippi, 21/3/1930; cancer 24/4)

The Death Toll #1

TUNING TO THE OTHER SIDE

‘Mawk pop’, ‘death ditties’, ‘tearjerkers’ -during the sixties, you simply had to have a cool young thing pop his or her clogs within your lyric. Better than any mentholated candy, these tunes
really
cleared the sinuses all those years ago:

1 ‘Leader of the Pack’

The Shangri-Las (1965)

Finishing top of the pile can only be ‘Betty’s Jimmy’ - though the leather-clad bad lad sounded more like he finished bottom of the pile, thanks to some highly melodramatic production from the legendary George ‘Shadow’ Morton. The four-way nasal whine of the fabby Shangri-Las - who became the genre’s gurus - only added to the song’s overall heart-wrenchingness, many listeners probably having experienced genuine motorbike crashes that were less traumatic. A bona fide classic - but you knew that.

2 ‘Johnny, Remember Me’

John Leyton (1961)

Many might remember Johnny’s lover, but fewer recall
Harpers West One,
the ITV soap opera that launched actor/singer John Leyton on an unsuspecting public with this tie-in hit. Another belter, this record showcased the considerable talents of Joe Meek - very much the UK’s own ‘Shadow’ Morton. Meek and composer Geoff Goddard claimed to have spoken to the late Buddy Holly in a séance - their bespectacled hero told them the song would go to number one. Which it did.

3 ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’

Ricky Valance/Ray Peterson (1960)

Despite US Top Ten status, Ray Peterson’s version of Jeff Barry’s seminal pile-up sob-inducer drew the ire of Christian groups, who thought it ‘ungodly’. For young Welsh crooner David Spencer (recently renamed in deference to late singer Ritchie Valens), the stuff started to hit the fan when the BBC placed a ban on it after several motorsport deaths that year - but it still lapped all opposition, ending the year in pole position. The song also spawned the first ‘answer’ record in the shape of Laura Lee’s ‘Tell Tommy I Miss Him’ (1961) – another Meek production.

4 ‘Running Bear’

Johnny Preston (1960)

This transatlantic chart-topper - complete with ersatz whoops - recounted the melodramatic tale of the young brave and the target of his affections (a rival tribe’s Little White Dove) who were pulled underwater as they attempted to consummate their love. Another story of Native American love came in the shape of Roy Orbison’s ‘Indian Wedding’, whose tragic couple disappeared in the snow (yes, really) in lyrics too trite to bear repetition here.

5 ‘Teen Angel’

Mark Dinning (1960)

Shock, horror - Dinning’s deceased driver was a
lady-
bringing another BBC ban for a record that had shifted over a million copies in the States. Boasting (if that’s the correct verb) yet more of the crassest verses seen in pop music, ‘Teen Angel’ was co-written by Dinning’s sister Jean – formerly of forties vocal sensations the imaginatively named Dinning Sisters. To those who know their work, this will make complete sense.

6 ‘Honey’

Bobby Goldsboro (1968)

Replete with heavenly choirs of angels, Goldsboro’s US chart-topper (and twice UK runner-up) shifted mawk on some way technologically but never quite got around to telling us how Honey snuffed it. She’d already wrecked Bobby’s car - so it couldn’t have been that. I mean,
twice
would have been plain stupid.

7 ‘Ebony Eyes’

The Everly Brothers (1961)

The spin here was that ‘Ebony Eyes’ was a young bride-to-be killed in an air crash as she flew to marry her GI groom unable to secure leave for a ceremony at home. This overly emotional sentimental fantasy was originally the B-side to the Brothers’ ‘Walk Right Back’.

8 ‘Terry’

Twinkle (1964)

Before The Shangri-Las, there was cute little Lynne Ripley - aka British vocalist Twinkle. Just ahead of the ‘Leader of the Pack’, a grease-stained, DA-sporting British biker arrived in the shape of ‘Terry’. Like ‘The Leader’, Twinkle’s fella rode his bike into oblivion - and he too left a less-than-adept chanteuse to cry at his graveside.

9 ‘The Water Was Red’

Johnny Cymbal (1963)

So to the murky depths of the chart. Popular crooner Johnny Cymbal (possibly not his real name) surfaced in 1963 with one of the most bizarre tearjerkers, the utterly over-the-top ‘The Water Was Red’. A dozen years before
Jaws,
this song dared to describe the bloodied waves following a girl’s death at the hands (teeth?) of a shark - and even had its bereft hero return to his dead girl’s graveside with the creature’s severed fin! It distinguished itself by reaching US #108 in 1963.