Obit of the Day
Looking at the famous, infamous, not-so-famous, and unique lives that have shuffled off this mortal coil.
Featured on Tumblr's History Spotlight
An editor of the Tumblr #History tag
Re-blogging for the link to the NY Times obituary as well as the photo. I just love the photo.
Obit of the Day (Breaking): Bee Gee Robin Gibb
Robin Gibb, one of three brothers who created the popular rock group The Bee Gees, has died at the age of 62. Gibb fell into a coma on April 14 and although he recovered his health remained weak.
Although British-born, Robin, his twin brother Maurice, and their older brother Barry, moved to Australia as children and began performing not long after their arrival. (The younger brother Andy was an infant when they moved.) The Bee Gees released their first album in 1965, and actually became international stars for the first time in 1967 with the release of Bee Gees 1st.
Of course the Bee Gees hit the height of their fame with the release of the Saturday Night Fever film soundtrack in 1977. The Gibb brothers performed six songs on the two-album set, four of which became number 1 hits: “Stayin’ Alive,” “More Than a Woman,” (actually the version sung by Tavares, but written by the Gibbs, was the hit), “How Deep Is Your Love,” and “Night Fever.” They also wrote Yvonne Elliman’s number hit from the soundtrack, “If I Can’t Have You.”(The album went 15x platinum and earned five Grammy Awards in 1978 and 1979 and was the best-selling of all time until the release of Thriller in 1984.)
The Bee Gees were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. They are the sixth best-selling music act in rock and roll history after Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks, and Paul McCartney. (Well as of their induction they were.)
Robin, who actually had a successful solo career, during the 1960s - his hit “Saved by the Bell” would reach #2 on the UK charts in 1967 - would share lead vocal duties with his brother, Barry. (It’s Barry’s falsetto that is most recognizable in their disco-era hits, though.)
Robin Gibb was suffering from several recent health problems including cancer and intestinal surgery. Of the four Gibbs brothers, only Barry is still alive - ironically he is the oldest. Maurice died suddenly in 2003 at 53, while Andy died at 30 in 1983 from myocarditis.
Additional source: Wikipedia.org
(Image of Barry, left, Robin, center, and Maurice circa 1959 after they had moved to Australia from England is courtesy of the Daily Mirror.)
h/t to Josh Sternberg - a fellow Jersey boy you should follow.
Obit of the Day (Breaking): Bee Gee Robin Gibb
Robin Gibb, one of three brothers who created the popular rock group The Bee Gees, has died at the age of 62. Gibb fell into a coma on April 14 and although he recovered his health remained weak.
Although British-born, Robin, his twin brother Maurice, and their older brother Barry, moved to Australia as children and began performing not long after their arrival. (The younger brother Andy was an infant when they moved.) The Bee Gees released their first album in 1965, and actually became international stars for the first time in 1967 with the release of Bee Gees 1st.
Of course the Bee Gees hit the height of their fame with the release of the Saturday Night Fever film soundtrack in 1977. The Gibb brothers performed six songs on the two-album set, four of which became number 1 hits: “Stayin’ Alive,” “More Than a Woman,” (actually the version sung by Tavares, but written by the Gibbs, was the hit), “How Deep Is Your Love,” and “Night Fever.” They also wrote Yvonne Elliman’s number hit from the soundtrack, “If I Can’t Have You.”(The album went 15x platinum and earned five Grammy Awards in 1978 and 1979 and was the best-selling of all time until the release of Thriller in 1984.)
The Bee Gees were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. They are the sixth best-selling music act in rock and roll history after Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks, and Paul McCartney. (Well as of their induction they were.)
Robin, who actually had a successful solo career, during the 1960s - his hit “Saved by the Bell” would reach #2 on the UK charts in 1967 - would share lead vocal duties with his brother, Barry. (It’s Barry’s falsetto that is most recognizable in their disco-era hits, though.)
Robin Gibb was suffering from several recent health problems including cancer and intestinal surgery. Of the four Gibbs brothers, only Barry is still alive - ironically he is the oldest. Maurice died suddenly in 2003 at 53, while Andy died at 30 in 1983 from myocarditis.
Additional source: Wikipedia.org
(Image of Barry, left, Robin, center, and Maurice circa 1959 after they had moved to Australia from England is courtesy of the Daily Mirror.)
h/t to Josh Sternberg - a fellow Jersey boy you should follow.
Obit of the Day (Breaking): Disco Queen Donna Summer
Five-time Grammy Award winner Donna Summer has died at the age of 63. Summer who was born Donna Gaines, began as a session singer including singing backup for Three Dog Night. In 1971 she recorded her first single, “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses,” as Donna Gaines and it was released in Europe where she toured in Broadway shows before becoming a recording star. After her marriage in 1974 she became known as Donna Summer. (It was actually spelled “Sommer,” which was her then-husband’s last name . But after her 1973 divorce she kept it and Americanized it.)
In 1976 she had her first solo hit, “Love to Love You Baby,” which peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboardcharts. This began an eight-year string of top 40 hits including “MacArthur Park” (her first #1 hit), “Last Dance” (performed in the film Thank God, It’s Friday and for which she received a Golden Globe nomination), “Hot Stuff” (for which she won a Grammy), “Bad Girls” (which earned her two Grammy nods…including against herself for “Hot Stuff”), “On the Radio” (a personal favorite of OOTD), and “She Works Hard for the Money” (which earned her the first ever MTV Video Music Award for an African American woman).
Over her career Summer would earn a total of 17 Grammy nominations, including the five wins, two Golden Globe nods (the second was for “The Deep”), and she was honored eight gold and three platinum records. The platinum albums occurred consecutively in 1978 and 1979 with Bad Girls (double platinum), Live and More (a live recording) and On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volume I and II, making her the first artist to have three consecutive double albums (two LPs) hit number in the U.S.
Summer had been fighting breast cancer for several years but as recently as 2010 she had performed at the Nobel Prize ceremony in honor of President Barack Obama. She also recorded her last number one hit that year “To Paris With Love” which reached #1 on the Billboard dance chart.
Additional source: Wikipedia.org
(Donna Summer: The Greatest Hits is copyright 1998, Island Def Jam Record Group)
Obit of the Day: The Quiet Knight
Richard Harding’s club, The Quiet Knight, was only open from 1969 to 1979. But during that decade the 400-seat concert venue saw of the biggest names in music whether it was rock, jazz, or reggae. Located at 953 West Belmont in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, The Quiet Knight occupied the second floor of an otherwise non-descript brick building.
But what went on inside was music history. Herbie Hancock, John Denver, Linda Ronstadt (backed by Don Henley and Glenn Frey), Bob Marley, Arlo Guthrie, Muddy Waters and Loudon Wainwright all made appearances at the Knight. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band first performed in Chicago in Harding’s club. Jimmy Buffett performed outside of the South for the first time at the Knight.
Random note: Buffett also wrote the song “He Went to Paris” about the Quiet Knight’s one-armed classical pianist, painter and veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Eddie Balchowsky, who also cleaned the club and practiced Shambhala.
When Harding closed the club in 1979 he moved around the U.S. At one point he worked in water quality control in San Francisco and then moved back to Chicago where he drove a cab. He opened his last club Da Vinci’s Music Gallery in 1985 and Tom Waits and Studs Terkel were in the audience on opening night.
Richard Harding died at the age of 82.
(Image of the June 1975 schedule from the Quiet Knight is courtesy of midnightraverblog.com.
- Chuck Mangione was best known for his flugelhorn instrumental hit, “Feels So Good.”
- Martin Mull is the well-known comedian and actor, known to many fans as Gene Parmesan in Arrested Development.
- Ricky Jay is a magician who also appeared in Boogie Nights.
- John Stewart wrote the Monkees’ #1 hit “Daydream Believer.”
- The Deadly Nightshade was one of the music industry’s first all-female bands.)
