Compiled by Katie Beurskens
Billboard remembers some of the notable artists who passed in 2005 and whose presence will be sorely missed.
Swing-era clarinetist/bandleader,
Artie Shaw, 94, died Dec. 30, 2004, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. By some accounts, Shaw sold more than 100 million records during his career as performer, composer and arranger. Shaw began performing professionally at 15. His first 1 million seller came in 1938 at the age of 28 with a bouncy, swing makeover of Cole Porter's usually languid "Begin the Beguine." Shaw's theme song, the minor-mode, noir wail "Nightmare," also sold 1 million copies. His cool, breezy arrangement of "Moonglow" helped make that tune a standard. Later, he incorporated modernist classical and Latin influences into his work.
Shaw fought against racial discrimination and was the first white bandleader to feature a black vocalist, the young Billie Holiday. His lifelong conviction that art should trump commercial popularity led him to walk away from his career several times. In 1954, he put down the clarinet for good, although he later returned to the music scene as a bandleader. In the early 1950s, Shaw re-formed his popular small group, the Gramercy Five. In the early '80s, he occasionally conducted a reconstituted band, but true to his word, Shaw never played his clarinet onstage again.
Singer/songwriter
Jimmy Griffin, 61, Jan. 11 in Nashville. Best-known for his work with 1970s soft rock act Bread, Griffin gained acclaim as a songwriter with cuts recorded by Rudy Vallee, Ed Ames, Lesley Gore, Bobby Vee and others. Following the breakup of Bread in 1977, Griffin formed many other groups, the most successful of which was the Remingtons, who scored a Top 10 country hit. Griffin reunited with Bread in 1997 for a successful world tour.
Solo artist, songwriter and drummer
Jim Capaldi, 60, Jan. 28 in London. Capaldi was a member of British rock act Traffic from its formation in 1967 until it disbanded in 1974. Traffic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Capaldi released his first solo album in 1972. He remained in demand as a musician and writer, working with such artists as Bob Marley, Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton. Traffic leader Steve Winwood and Capaldi maintained a working relationship, reuniting in 1994 for the album "Far From Home" and a worldwide tour. Capaldi's final solo album, "Poor Boy Blue," released in November in the United States by Steamhammer/SPV, included appearances by Winwood and guitarist Gary Moore.
Legendary Music Row singer/songwriter and artist manager
Merle Kilgore, 70, Feb. 6. A prolific songwriter, Kilgore is best-known for co-writing Johnny Cash's 1963 No. 1 hit "Ring of Fire" with June Carter Cash and for penning Claude King's 1962 No. 1 hit "Wolverton Mountain." At 18, Kilgore wrote Webb Pierce's hit "More and More." As a performer, Kilgore landed eight cuts on the country chart between 1960 and 1985. His last release, "Singer-Songwriter," was a reworked career compilation on Nashville-based independent Legend Records in 2001. Kilgore toured extensively with such artists as Cash, Elvis Presley, Johnny Horton and, Hank Williams Jr. His role as Williams' manager, earned him the Country Music Assn.'s manager of the year accolade.
R&B singer
Tyrone Davis, 66, Feb. 9 in Chicago. A major figure in Chicago R&B history, Davis had three No. 1s on the Billboard R&B chart between 1968 and 1975: "Turn Back the Hands of Time," "Can I Change My Mind" and "Turning Point."
Award-winning country singer/songwriter
Sammi Smith, 61, Feb. 12 in Oklahoma City. Smith took the Kris Kristofferson-penned "Help Me Make It Through the Night" to No. 1 on the Billboard country chart. It earned Smith a Grammy for best country vocal performance, female, and was named the Country Music Assn.'s single of the year in 1971. The Kristofferson classic was one of 37 singles Smith landed on the country chart between 1968 and 1986.
Broadway baritone
John Raitt, 88, Feb. 20 in Los Angeles. Raitt appeared as Billy Bigelow in the original 1945 production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Carousel." As Sid Sorokin in "The Pajama Game," Raitt starred in the 1954 Broadway production and the 1957 film version opposite Doris Day. Following his Broadway and film successes, Raitt appeared in summer stock from 1959-1984. In 1995, Angel released "John Raitt: The Broadway Legend," which included three duets with his daughter, Bonnie Raitt.
Singer/songwriter
Chris LeDoux, 56, March 9 in a Casper, Wyo. LeDoux became country music's standard-bearer for songs of the American West. He formed Lucky Man Records and American Cowboy Songs and later signed with Capitol Records. By some estimates, he has sold 14 million albums, many of which were bought at rodeos and by mail order. He recorded and released 22 albums on Lucky Man. His influence on a generation of young country singers became evident in 1989 when Garth Brooks name-checked LeDoux in his debut single, "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)."
Crowded House drummer
Paul Hester, 46, March 28 near Melbourne, Australia. Hester played in several small bands before joining the New Zealand group Split Enz in 1983. He and Split Enz singer Neil Finn formed Crowded House in 1985 with bassist Nick Seymour. The group went on to become one of Australia's most successful bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Pianist/composer
Johnnie Johnson, 80, April 13 in St. Louis. Johnson wrote several hits with longtime collaborator Chuck Berry, including "Roll Over Beethoven" and "No Particular Place to Go," both of which reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B singles chart. Berry's hit "Johnny B. Goode" was a tribute to Johnson. Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Popular Tejano singer
Laura Canales, 50, April 16 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Canales made her recording debut in 1973 with Los Unicos, and then joined the seminal group El Conjunto Bernal for a short stint. In 1981, she formed Laura Canales & Encanto. The title track from their debut CD, "Si Vivi Contigo," was her first major hit. From 1983-1987, Canales won the female entertainer and female vocalist honors at the Tejano Music Awards.
Film, pop and jazz composer/arranger
Robert Farnon, 87, April 23 in Britain's Channel Islands. Farnon scored more than 40 movies and worked with such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. In addition to several Ivor Novello Awards from the British music industry, Farnon won a Grammy in 1995 for best instrumental arrangement for the song "Lament" on jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson's album "Tangence."
Jazz musician
Percy Heath, 81, April 28, Southampton, N.Y. His gentle, swinging bass underpinned the Modern Jazz Quartet for more than 40 years. MJQ's sound fit the times, and during the late '50s and early '60s, its recordings on Prestige and Atlantic were commercially successful. When the MJQ went on the first of several breaks in the 1970s, Percy and his brothers Albert, a drummer, and Jimmy, a tenor saxophonist, formed the Heath Brothers. Heath returned to the MJQ when it regrouped in 1980 and stayed in the bass chair until 1994.
Grammy Award-winning songwriter
Ben Peters, 71, May 25 in Nashville. Peters got his start on the New Orleans club circuit as a saxophonist before moving to Nashville in 1966 to concentrate on writing. Soon after, he penned "Kiss an Angel Good Morning," which Charley Pride took to No. 1 and won Peters a Grammy. A member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Peters' country No. 1s also include Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," co-written with Vivian Keith, and Kenny Rogers' "Daytime Friends."
Canadian guitarist
Domenic "Donnie" Troiano, 59, May 25 at his home in Toronto. Troiano was a force in Canadian music for 40 years. He came to prominence with Toronto-based Robbie Lane & the Disciples. In demand for session work in the 1980s, Troiano appeared on recordings by Steely Dan, Diana Ross, Joe Cocker and David Clayton-Thomas. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996.
Singer, composer, lyricist, and black culture activist
Oscar Brown Jr., 78, May 29 in Chicago. To younger music fans, he is best remembered as the hip, urbane narrator of the well-received PBS program "From Jump Street: The Story of Black Music" in the early '80s. Twenty years before, he also hosted Steve Allen's short-lived TV series, "Jazz Scene U.S.A." Brown made a series of well-received albums for Columbia Records in the early '60s. In 1968, he hosted a Gary, Ind., talent show that led to his discovery of the Jackson 5. In the '70s, Brown starred in a Chicago-market production for CBS-affiliated WBBM-TV, "Oscar Brown Is Back in Town," which gained him two local Emmy Awards.
R&B icon
Luther Vandross, 54, July 1 in Edison, N.J. During a career stretching into four decades, New York-born and -raised artist's soulful, supple tenor became the yardstick by which many contemporary balladeers were measured.
Inspired early on by the female singers he emulated and later worked with, Vandross first earned kudos in the early '70s as a top-notch backup vocalist for David Bowie, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand and Chaka Khan, among others. As a popular jingle singer, he did spots for Kentucky Fried Chicken and the U.S. Army. Recording two albums under the name Luther for Cotillion, Vandross also recorded with session groups Roundtree and Change and sang on hits by Chic before landing a solo deal with Epic.
Breaking through with his 1981 No. 1 R&B album debut "Never Too Much," Vandross proceeded to record a string of R&B chart-topping albums in the '80s including "Forever, for Always, for Love," "The Night I Fell in Love" and "Any Love." Following a brief stint with Virgin Records, Vandross signed with J Records, releasing a self-titled CD for the label in 2001. But it was his second J album, "Dance With My Father," that gave Vandross the mainstream pop success he had long coveted. Released after his stroke in April 2003, the album debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and last year earned four of his eight career Grammy Awards (including song of the year for the bittersweet title track).
Singer/songwriter/guitarist
John Herald, 65, July 19 in West Hurley, N.Y. In 1958, Herald co-founded the Greenbriar Boys, the New York-based bluegrass band that became mainstays of the Greenwich Village folk scene. Herald's tunes were recorded by Linda Ronstadt and Maria Muldaur. He also co-wrote "Stewball," which Peter, Paul & Mary took to No. 35 on the Billboard pop chart in 1963.
British R&B singer
Long John Baldry, 64, July 21 in Vancouver. Baldry was one of the founding fathers of British rock'n'roll in the early 1960s. Baldry, whose nickname was attributed to his 6-foot-7-inch height, played with influential British bands Blues Incorporated and Cyril Davies' R&B All Stars. He later fronted the Hoochie Coochie Men, which included Rod Stewart. Baldry scored a No. 1 U.K. hit with the ballad "Let the Heartaches Begin" in 1967. He also provided the voice of Robotnik in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" computer game and narrated "Winnie the Pooh" recordings for Walt Disney Records.
Booking agent Sol Saffian, 68, July 21 in Nashville. In a career that spanned almost 50 years, he represented such musical luminaries as Louis Armstrong; Chubby Checker; Sam Cooke; the Four Tops; Neil Diamond; Kool & the Gang; Earth, Wind & Fire; and Reba McEntire. Credited as one of the first high-profile agents to demand equal pay for black artists, Saffian took on several Motown performers and within weeks brought their performance pay to the level of other artists. In 1970, he started American Talent International, whose clients included Rod Stewart, ZZ Top and Kiss. Saffian went on to head what later became the urban music department at the William Morris Agency. He also worked for Buddy Lee Attractions.
R&B singer/songwriter/Chi-Lites member
Eugene Record, 64, July 22. He was best-known for writing the smooth soul group's biggest R&B/pop crossover hits in the early 1970s, "Have You Seen Her" and "Oh Girl." Record's warm tenor/sweet falsetto and penchant for breaking mid-song into spoken verse became hallmarks of the Chi-Lites' romantic sound. Record embarked on a solo career in 1976, releasing three albums on Warner Bros. before reuniting with the original Chi-Lites lineup in 1980. In 2000, the Chi-Lites were inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. They also appeared in the 2002 soul music documentary "Only the Strong Survive."
Jazz musician
Eli "Lucky" Thompson, 81, July 30 in Seattle. Thompson played with the greats of the bop era, including Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. His composition "Blue 'n' Boogie," featured on Miles Davis' 1954 hard-bop album "Walkin'," became a jazz standard.
Musician
Ibrahim Ferrer, 78, Aug. 6 in Havana, Cuba. Ferrer, a little-known singer who had already retired, catapulted to fame with "Buena Vista Social Club," which has sold more than 6 million units worldwide since its 1997 release. Ferrer rose to international fame with the success of the "Buena Vista" album and a surprise hit documentary. A Ferrer solo album, "Buena Vista Social Club presents... Ibrahim Ferrer," sold 1.5 million copies worldwide. In 2004, Ferrer won a Grammy for "Buenos Hermanos," but the U.S. government would not grant him a visa to receive the award.
Grammy Award-nominated Mississippi bluesman,
"Little" Milton Campbell, 70, Aug. 4 in Memphis. Little Milton wrote and recorded the widely covered blues anthem "The Blues Is Alright." He was 18 when he began recording with Ike Turner for Sam Phillips' legendary Sun Records. In 1961, after an A&R stint with Bobbin Records, Little Milton moved to Chicago-based Chess Records, where he scored the No. 1 R&B hit "We're Gonna Make It" on Chess subsidiary Checker in 1965. He cut four additional top 10 hits at Chess before heading to Memphis-based Stax Records in the 1970s. In 1984, he joined Jackson, Miss.-based Malaco Records, where he created "The Blues Is Alright." In 1988, Little Milton was awarded the Blues Foundation's W.C. Handy Blues Award as entertainer of the year.
Jazz bassist
Al McKibbon, 86, Aug. 5 in Los Angeles. One of the last great string bass players from the bop era, McKibbon performed with such jazz giants as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. In 1943, he was hired by bandleader Lucky Millinder and moved to New York. There, he played with such leading jazz figures as saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. McKibbon moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and played in the staff orchestras of CBS and NBC and on albums by Frank Sinatra, Randy Newman and Sammy Davis Jr. He is also featured on Davis' "The Complete Birth of the Cool" recordings.
Acclaimed fiddle virtuoso
Vassar Clements, 77, Aug. 16 outside of Nashville. Known to some as the "Miles Davis of bluegrass," Clements began performing with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys when he was just 14, becoming a regular member of the legendary group in 1949. Clements' work on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's groundbreaking 1972 multi-artist album, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," was a milestone in a career that spanned more than five decades. He signed his first major-label record deal in 1973 with Mercury/PolyGram and went on to record 27 albums that explored country and swing, earning him a second nickname, "the king of hillbilly jazz."
Blues artist
R.L. Burnside, 78, Sept. 1 in Memphis. Burnside first recorded with Arhoolie Records in 1968. His appearance in Robert Mugge's 1991documentary, "Deep Blues," and on the 1992 Atlantic soundtrack album earned him wider attention in the United States. He became a cult hero with the crossover collaboration for Matador, "Ass Pocket O' Whisky," with underground rock act Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in 1996. His most recent release was last year's "A Bothered Mind," which debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart.
Grammy Award-winning singer/guitarist
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 81, Sept. 10 in Orange, Texas. Brown's best commercial success came in the United States after he signed with Rounder Records in the 1980s. His "Alright Again!" for the label earned him a best traditional blues recording Grammy Award in 1982. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1999 and won the organization's W.C. Handy Award eight times. He also received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award in 1997 and, in 2004, became the first Heroes Award honoree at the Memphis chapter of the Recording Academy.
Singer/songwriter/producer
Willie Hutch, 59, Sept. 19 in Dallas. In 1970, producer Hal Davis asked Hutch to help complete the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There." It became a multiformat No.1 hit, as did a subsequent collaboration with the quintet, "Never Can Say Goodbye." Hutch also logged production credits on Motown albums by the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, among others. His highest-charting single as an artist was 1975's "Love Power," which peaked at No. 8 on the R&B chart.
Grammy Award-winning jazz singer/pianist
Shirley Horn, 71, Oct. 20 in Cheverly, Md. Long critically respected, Horn became an unlikely star in her 60s with a series of albums for Verve Records in the 1990s. Accompanying herself at the piano, Horn and her trademark vocal style became a major influence on such younger jazz singer/pianists as Diana Krall and Norah Jones. Horn was nominated for nine Grammys in the last decade. She won the best jazz vocal performance award in 1998 for her album "I Remember Miles," dedicated to Miles Davis. In 1960, Davis coaxed Horn to open for him at New York's Village Vanguard after being captivated by her debut recording, "Embers and Ashes." That engagement led to a contract with Mercury Records through then-A&R man Quincy Jones.
Grammy Award-winning conductor
Skitch Henderson, 87, Oct. 31 in New Milford, Conn. Henderson worked with such luminaries as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby before founding the New York Pops and becoming the first bandleader for "The Tonight Show." After moving to Hollywood, he joined the music department at MGM and played piano for Bob Hope's "The Pepsodent Show."
Musician
Link Wray, 76, Nov. 5 in Copenhagen. In a career that spanned six decades, Wray made his mark with a piercing guitar sound that paved the way for punk and heavy metal. He is credited with inventing the power chord and pioneering distortion by deliberately punching holes in his amplifier. Wray is best-known for his 1958 instrumental single "Rumble" and for "Raw-Hide," which he performed with his band, the Wraymen. In 2002, Wray was named one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time by Guitar World magazine.
Singer/songwriter
Chris Whitley, 45, Nov. 20. The Texas-reared artist recorded for Columbia, ATO and Messenger Records, which in July released his 11th album, "Soft Dangerous Shores." A new release, "Reiter In," will appear on CD next year.
