He was one of the most distinctive pop acts of the late 1950s and early 1960s before the advent of The Beatles overturned everything.
His many songwriting credits include Stupid Cupid, a 1958 hit for Connie Francis, and Love Will Keep Us Together (Captain and Tenille, 1975.) (Is This the Way to) Amarillo (1971) eventually became a big hit for Tony Christie – aided by Peter Kay’s video – in 2005.
Sedaka’s own hits include Calendar Girl, Little Devil, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.
He kind of reinvented himself as a singer-songwriter in the 1970s with a more adult-oriented approach.
Here’s a live performance from 1975.
Neil Sedaka: Laughter in the Rain
This one was a hit for The Carpenters but this is a Sedaka performance-
Neil Sedaka: Solitaire
Though he had an earlier hit with I Go Ape this was the song which really announced him in the UK in 1959.
Not quite Dunfermline’s finest but the band launched the career of guitarist Stuart Adamson, later of Big Country fame. Lead singer Richard Jobson became a TV presenter.
One more week, another obituary. This time of the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir.
The band was primarily known for its live performances and not for its singles. They had a few top 100 hits in the US, though, but never troubled the UK charts.
This was written by Weir.
The Grateful Dead: One More Saturday Night.
Robert Hall Parber (Bob Weir) 16/10/1947 – January 10/1/2026. So it goes.
From my familiarity with it on radio play I would have thought that this had been a hit in the UK but it seems it wasn’t. In fact only one of Seger’s songs ever made the UK top 30 and that We’ve Got Tonight was as a reissue – in 1994.
Anyway this is a superbly accomplished piece of popular song writing and performance.
Squeeze’s drummer from their early years of hits, Gilson Lavis, has died. He was a member of the band from 1976–1982 and again from 1985–1992 and played on all their tracks recorded during those times. He also later played for Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.
This is Take Me I’m Yours, Squeeze’s first hit, from 1978.
Squeeze: Take Me I’m Yours
David Leslie Gilson Lavis: 27/6/1951 – 5/11/202. So it goes.
I can’t say that Kiss were ever really my thing (that goes for heavy metal in general) but they were significant and had an unmistakably distinctive look.
It’s nevertheless sad that their classic lead guitarist Ace Frehley died last week.
This is one of his compositions (from 1978.)
Kiss: Cold Gin
Paul Daniel (Ace) Frehley: 27/4/1951 – October 16/10/2025. So it goes.
I discovered on Saturday that John Lodge, bassist, vocalist and songwriter of The Moody Blues has died.
Long-standing readers of the blog will know the Moodies were my favourite 1960s band.
This was the band’s second incarnation though, after Denny Laine and Clint Warwick had left and Lodge and Justin Hayward become members. This presaged a switch from playing blues and R&B to the more prog rock sound with which the band is now principally associated. Indeed the Days of Future Passed LP could be claimed to have started off the prog boom.
Lodge was a major contributor in a song-writing sense, penning at least two songs on each of the band’s LPs and of course even more to Blue Jays, his collaboration with Hayward at the beginning of the brief hiatus when the Moodies took a collective break in the mid 1970s. I actually saw the pair play in Glasgow on the Blue Jays tour which promoted the album and the subsequent Hayward written single Blue Guitar.
Given the prog emphasis above it might seem perverse that I’ve chosen this song, but it shows that the Moodies could rock with the best of them and it features Lodge’s bass heavily.
The Moody Blues: I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)
John Charles Lodge: 20/7/1943 – 10/10/2025. So it goes.
Supertramp’s singer, keyboardist and co-composer Rick Davies died last week.
Supertramp were not quite prog rockers and eventually drifted into a more ‘pop’py sound.
This song was the B-side of the band’s first UK hit single, Dreamer, but became the hit in the US. Unlike most of Supertramp’s songs (mostly written by singer and guitarist Roger Hodgson with contributions by Davies) this was fully composed by Davies.
Supertramp: Bloody Well Right
Richard (Rick) Davies: 22/7/1944 – 6/9/2025. So it goes.
Singer/songwriter Bobby Whitlock, who worked with many rock music luminaries over the years, has died.
He came to Eric Clapton’s attention when he was with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends was a founder member of Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton and others. He was of the opinion that that band was the best on the planet, “better than anybody.”
He was a major contributor to their LP Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the only one the band managed to complete, co-writing six songs with Clapton and was the sole writer of Thorn Tree in the Garden.
Derek and the Dominos: Thorn Tree in the Garden
The band’s first single was Tell the Truth.
Derek and the Dominos: Tell the Truth (Single Version)
Clapton thought it was too fast (it does undeniably have energy) and it was re-recorded for the album.
This is a reworking of the song Whitlock made for his second solo album.
Bobby Whitlock: Tell the Truth
Robert Stanley Whitlock: 18/3/1948 – 10/8/2025. So it goes.
