re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

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Masaki Rush, wife of Otis Rush announced that on September 29, 2018 Mr. Rush, one of the most influential Chicago blues artists of all time passed away due to complications from a stroke which he initially suffered in 2003.

Known as a key architect of the Chicago "West Side Sound' Rush exemplified the modernized minor key urban blues style with his slashing, amplified jazz-influenced guitar playing, high-strained passionate vocals and backing by a full horn section. Rush's first recording in 1956 on Cobra Records 'I Can't Quit You Baby' reached #6 on the Billboard R&B Charts and catapulted him to international acclaim. He went on to record a catalog of music that contains many songs that are now considered blues classics.

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LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - Peggy Sue Gerron was born on June 15, 1940, in Olton, Texas, and grew up in Lubbock, Texas. Sources say she passed away in a Lubbock hospital this morning at the age of 78.

Peggy Sue was a high school senior when she was cast into the international spotlight by Buddy Holly’s release of the namesake song that climbed to the top of 1957 Billboard Charts. Buddy Holly tagged her in the love ballad “Peggy Sue,” but she wasn’t Buddy’s love. She was in a relationship with Jerry Allison, the drummer of the Crickets. Peggy Sue went to Lubbock High School with Buddy Holly and married Allison after graduation.

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Freddie Hart, known to millions of Country Music fans the world over as “Mr. Easy Lovin’” passed away Saturday October 27th in Burbank Ca.

Freddie served in the Marines during World War 2 and then began his professional career in music when Lefty Frizzell hired him to go on the road with him. Lefty got Freddie a recording contract with Capitol Records and in 1953 he released his first song “Butterfly Love” with Hank Thompson’s band The Brazos Valley Boys backing him on the session. It was also during this time that Freddie had already made a huge impact as a songwriter penning hit songs such as “Loose Talk” for Carl Smith, “Lovin’ In Vain” for Patsy Cline and “My Tears Are Overdue” for George Jones among many others. Freddie was also the first person to record Harlan Howard’s country standard “The Key’s In The Mailbox”.

Freddie performed regularly on the television show “Town Hall Party” during the 1950’s. He recorded for Capitol, Columbia, Monument and Kapp records during the ‘50’s and ‘60’s building up an impressive catalog of songs, largely self penned.

But it was not until 1970, when he re-signed with Capitol Records that a song on one of his albums caught the attention of a disc jockey who began playing the song on the air and it became an overnight sensation. Of course that song was “Easy Loving” which became Freddie’s signature song. The record sold millions of copies all over the world and earned Freddie virtually every award in the Country Music industry including “Entertainer Of The Year”, “Male Vocalist Of The Year”, “Album Of The Year”, and “Single Of The Year”. “Easy Loving” had the distinction of becoming the first to be voted song of the year in two consecutive years, 1971 and 1972. The only other time this has happened was with George Jones for “He Stopped Loving Her Today” in 1980 and 1981. “Easy Loving” also won Freddie a Grammy award.

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Buzzcocks singer Pete Shelley dies at 63

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Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook has died, Page Six is told. Sawyer, perhaps best known for singing lead vocal on “Cover of Rolling Stone,” passed away in Daytona Beach, Fla., according to his publicist.

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Sawyer appeared on a string of hits in the ’70s and ’80s, including “Sylvia’s Mother,” “A Little Bit More,” “Only Sixteen,” “Walk Right In,””Sharing the Night Together,” “When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman,” “Better Love Next Time” and “Sexy Eyes.”

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“Hey this is DJ GK coming your crazy way on a Monday with records to play, on the scene with my rock 'n’ roll record machine. Baby, don’t mean maybe, hang with me, cuz it’s just you and me and Memphis, Tennessee."

That, as quoted by George Klein himself, in his 2010 autobiography, “Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock ’n’ Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley,” is an example of the “bop talk” that Klein employed to make himself a “hot jock” on the Memphis airwaves in the 1950s.

That was when the city on the bluff staked its claim as the Alamogordo of postwar popular music: Ground zero for the Atom Age implosion of country, pop and rhythm-and-blues that became known as rock 'n' roll.

For the next 60-plus years, Klein — who died Tuesday night at 83 at the Memphis Jewish Home, after a long struggle with dementia and such illnesses as pneumonia — continued to walk the walk and talk the bop, so to speak.

Yes, Klein was an internationally celebrated confidante of Elvis. But in Memphis, the longtime radio disc jockey and television host had an additional significance. He was the kind of influential and beloved hometown media celebrity that may no longer have a place — outside the realm of sports, at least — in the fractured world of cable television, satellite radio and social media.

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