Dead Celebrity Alert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Jim Hager, one of the Hager Twins who satirized country life with cornball one-liners on TV’s “Hee Haw,” died in Nashville, the show’s producer said Friday. He was 66.

Hager was at a coffee shop when he collapsed Thursday, Sam Lovullo said. He said he had been told that by Jon Hager, the surviving twin. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he had been taken, gave no details on the cause of death.

The twins, who were also guitarists and drummers, rose to national fame as original cast members of the TV show in 1969. With its mixture of music and country-flavored humor, the show was a huge hit. … Read full obituary

JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Paul Davis, a singer and songwriter whose soft rock hit “I Go Crazy” stayed on the charts for months after its release in 1977, died Tuesday. He was 60.

Davis died of a heart attack at Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, the city where he grew up, cousin James Edwards said.

Davis’ other popular hits included “65 Love Affair;” “You’re Still New To Me,” a country duet with Marie Osmond; and “Ride ‘Em Cowboy.” … Read full obituary

Al Wilson, the soul singer and songwriter who had a number of 1970s hits including “Show and Tell,” has died. He was 68.

Wilson died Monday of kidney failure at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana [California], according to his son, Tony Wilson of Yucaipa. …

In 1966, he was spotted by manager Marc Gordon, who introduced him to singer Johnny Rivers, who signed him to his Soul City label. Wilson’s first single, “The Snake” in 1968, was a hit and was followed by “Do What You Gotta Do.” … Read full obituary

Actor, writer and musician Gordon Clyde was known to radio listeners for his satircal and topical piano and song spots on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week and Woman’s Hour. He also had his own weekly show on the BBC World Service.

Television viewers knew him best as the interviewer on the long running Dick Emery Show and throughout the 1960s he was one of Play School’s most popular childrens presenters. …

He later became involved with corporate presentations and his other television appearances included The Morecambe and Wise Show, No Hiding Place, and Are You Being Served?

During his career he wrote for many comedians such as Ronnie Corbett, Phil Silvers, Harry Secombe and Joan Turner. …

Gordon Clyde, actor, writer and musician, was born on May 22, 1933. He died on January 26, 2008, aged 75 … Read full obituary

Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band’s sound on hits from “Hungry Heart” through “The Rising,” died Thursday. He was 58.

Federici, who battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen’s official Web site.

According to published reports, Federici last performed with Springsteen and the band March 20, appearing during portions of a show in Indianapolis, Indiana. …

It was Federici, along with original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez, who first invited Springsteen to join their band. … Read full obituary

[Bob Kames was] … the man credited with the modern-day version of “Dance Little Bird,” better known as “The Chicken Dance.” He operated his Bob Kames Wonderful World of Music stores here for 42 years. He performed professionally, including a stint with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra. He produced his own television specials and recorded more than 70 albums.

Kames, who had struggled with Alzheimer’s disease in recent years, died Wednesday [April 9, 2008] of prostate cancer. He was 82. …

In 1949, he composed a pop tune, calling it, “You Are My One True Love,” based on a Polish folk song. … It was picked up by London Records in England, becoming a huge hit. …

Kames went on to make his “Happy Organ” and other albums. In 1966, he produced his first television show, “The Bob Kames Family Room,” and other specials followed over the next 17 years. …

As for that “Chicken Dance,” even a self-promoter like Kames couldn’t quite believe how it caught on. … Read full obituary

DALLAS, Ga. — Police are investigating the apparent suicide of a former drummer for Michigan rocker Ted Nugent.

Corporal Brandon Gurley with the Paulding County Sheriff’s department says 59-year-old Clifford Davies was found dead from a gunshot wound in his suburban Atlanta home Sunday. …

Reed Beaver, who owns Equametric Studio in Marietta where Davies was a chief engineer, confirmed Davies was a drummer for Nugent and played on his trademark recording “Cat Scratch Fever.”

Beaver says Davies called him Saturday “extremely distraught” over medical bills. … Read full story

Found dead in an Atlanta hotel room today, April 15, 2008. No obituary links so far but you can read his bio here:

“I love playing the guitar,” Sean Costello is prone to say. “As a kid I was definitely obsessive over the instrument,” the twenty-five year-old explains, “and for years I felt I could express myself better through the guitar with my own voice. But right now I’m equally driven towards writing songs and expanding my vocal direction,” he adds.

Costello was born in Philadelphia in 1979 and moved with his family to Atlanta at the age of 9. Soon after, he picked up the guitar. By 14 he had won the Memphis Blues Society’s talent award and was already on the road with his own band. In 1996, the 17 year-old released his first album, Call The Cops. Real Blues Magazine called it “an explosive debut.” Around this time Costello joined up with fellow blues guitarist Susan Tedeschi, touring with her and laying down some exuberant lead guitar work on her Gold-certified Tone-Cool debut Just Won’t Burn. … Read full bio

Lawrence Lloyd Brown Sr., an original member of the legendary Blue Notes, the Philly-based R&B group orignally known as Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, died Sunday of a respiratory condition. He was 63 and lived in North Philadelphia.

Lawrence was still performing with the group until January, when he became ill while singing at the Harrah’s casino, in Chester. …

Probably its most famous member was Teddy Pendergrass, who was brought on in 1970 as a drummer in the group’s backup band. He soon graduated to lead singer and performed through most of the ’70s on some of the Blue Notes’ most popular hits.

Some of their songs were “I Miss You,” “If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” “The Love I Lost,” “Bad Luck” and “Wake up Eveybody.” … Read full obituary

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Cedella Booker, the mother of Jamaican music legend Bob Marley, has died… She was 81. Booker died in her sleep Tuesday night at her home in Miami, apparently from natural causes…

Booker, a Jamaica native, was 18 when she married Norval Marley, a British man 32 years her senior. Their son brought Jamaican reggae music to international prominence, becoming its international image. Bob Marley died in Miami of a brain tumor in 1981 at age 36. …

After Norval Marley died in 1955, Booker married an American man and settled in Delaware. She wrote two biographies of her famous son and recorded two albums, “Awake Zion!” and “Smilin’ Island of Song.”

“She was a star in her own right,” Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding said in a statement. …

Everyone in St. Ann’s parish knew Booker as “Mama B”…Booker is survived by two children and several grandchildren, including Ziggy Marley, who won four Grammys with the Melody Makers… Read full obituary

British jazz drummer, composer and band leader who was always in demand to accompany the great musicians of Britain and the US

With his easy grin, outgoing personality and generous encouragement of his fellow musicians, Allan Ganley was one of the most likeable and admired musicians in British jazz, as well as being one of its most distinguished drummers, composers and bandleaders.

The list of stellar musicians for whom he had played is long, and when such luminaries as Blossom Dearie, Dizzy Gillespie, Peggy Lee or Stephane Grappelli came to these shores, more often than not it was Ganley who accompanied them. …

Allan Ganley, jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, was born on March 11, 1931. He died of complications after heart surgery on March 29, 2008, aged 77 … Read full obituary

Sean Levert, son of O’Jays lead singer Eddie Levert, was found dead in a Cleveland, Ohio, jail over the weekend, sources said.

Sean Levert, 39, was being held for allegedly failing to pay about $80,000 in child support. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Sean Levert was a member of the R&B group LeVert with his late brother Gerald Levert and Marc Gordon. Gerald Levert died Nov. 10, 2006 at the age of 40. … Read full obituary

Related:
Singer Gerald Levert, 40

LONDON, England (AP) — Neil Aspinall, a longtime friend and business associate of The Beatles, has died in New York City at age 66.

Aspinall’s death was announced in a statement from surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, and the band’s Apple Corps Ltd. company.

Aspinall died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he had been receiving treatment. A British newspaper reported Sunday that McCartney had flown out to see him just before his death. …

Aspinall stepped down last year as chief executive of Apple Corps, the guardian of the Beatles’ commercial interests. …

As head of Apple Corps, Aspinall was executive producer of the hugely successful “Beatles Anthology” album and was behind other successes, including the “Beatles One” album. … Read full obituary

Also:

Surviving members and Yoko Ono pay tribute …

Aspinall was a childhood friend of Beatles’ Paul McCartney and John Lennon starting his career as the band’s road manager and personal assistant. …

Aspinall sang on the chorus of the band’s classic “Yellow Submarine” as well as playing various instruments on ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ and ‘Within You Without You’. … Read full story

The husband of British singer Corinne Bailey Rae has been found dead of a suspected drug overdose, sources said today.

Jason Rae, 31, was discovered dead in an apartment in the Hyde Park area of Leeds in northern England. Bailey Rae, 29, is said to have not been at the property at the time. …

Jason Rae was a saxophonist with the Haggis Horns, who have performed with Bailey Rae as well as Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson and the band Nightmares on Wax. … Read full obituary

MIAMI (AP) — Cuban bassist and composer Israel “Cachao” Lopez, who is credited with pioneering the mambo style of music, died Saturday. He was 89.

Known simply as Cachao, the Grammy-winning musician had fallen ill in the past week and died surrounded by family members at Coral Gables Hospital, spokesman Nelson Albareda said.

Cachao left communist Cuba and came to the United States in the early 1960s. He continued to perform into his late 80s, including a performance after the death of trombonist Generoso Jimenez in September 2007.

Cuban-American actor Andy Garcia, who made a 1993 documentary about the bassist’s career, credited Cachao with being a major influence in Cuban musical history and said his passing marked the end of an era. … Read full obituary