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Founding Blondie drummer Clem Burke died on Sunday (April 6) at age 70. The group announced the passing of their longtime bandmate on Monday morning (April 7), writing, “it is with profound sadness that we relay the news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer.”
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The statement continued: “Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music was unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable. Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage. His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock solid work ethic touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”
Burke (born Clement Anthony Bozewski in Bayonne, N.J. on Nov. 24, 1954) joined punk/new wave pioneers Blondie in 1975, not long after the group was formed by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein.
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Burke performed on all of Blondie’s albums, from their 1976 self-titled debut, to their breakthrough 1978 LP Parallel Lines (which featured their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Heart of Glass”), 1979’s Eat to the Beat and 1980’s Autoamerican. He was behind the kit during a pivotal, world-changing time in mid-1970s New York when Blondie, along with The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads and Television, were regularly playing in such legendary bars as CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, setting the stage for the punk revolution in America, and across the world.
Following their string of hit albums, the band announced their split in late 1982 before getting the original members back together for a brief 1997 tour and then a world jaunt the next year and a new album, No Exit, in 1999. The group’s eighth studio album, The Curse of Blondie, dropped in 2003, followed by more touring and 2014’s Ghosts of Download album and their final known recorded set with Burke, 2017’s Pollinator LP.
With an exuberant, high-energy style influenced by the Who’s Keith Moon and Beatles’ Ringo Starr — he played left-handed on a right-handed kit just like Ringo — Burke told Tidal in 2022 that he never thought of his day job as work. “Especially when I do things with my friends and my little side projects that I have with various bands,” he said. “With drumming, you kind of have to keep doing it. You don’t really wanna lose your chops. You wanna be prepared to play when you have to play. So it works both ways. I help people out by playing with them, and they help me to keep my abilities together.”
He also noted in that interview that the thing that initially attracted him to Stein and Harry was that he was on a quest to find his David Bowie, Jim Morrison or Mick Jagger. “I was emphatic about that. I needed to work with people that I felt had that sort of charisma and creativity,” he said. “Debbie was amazing. You could sense that immediately. And I’m not talking about just her beauty. I’m just talking about her whole essence as a human being, as a person. I would put her on the same level as Bowie, as far as the things that she comes up with creatively.”
After Blondie’s split in 1982, Burke stayed very busy performing and recording with a wide variety of bands, including the Romantics, Pete Townshend, Iggy Pop, Plimsouls, Bob Dylan, the Eurythmics, Joan Jett, Wanda Jackson, Dramarama, Nancy Sinatra and Johnny Thunders. He even briefly filled in for a couple of gigs in 1987 for his pals in the Ramones under the stage name Elvis Ramone. During his eight-year (1980-1988) run with the Eurythmics, Burke performed on three albums with the group, including on their 1986 Grammy winning single “Missionary Man.”
He also teamed up in 1983 with another ’80s punk icon, former (and again) Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, to form the group Chequered Past with vocalist Michael Des Barres and bassist Tony Sales and former Blondie bassist Nigel Harrison. In keeping with his indefatigable work ethic and affection for fellow punk-era players, Burke formed another all-star group in 2011, the International Swingers, which featured another Sex Pistols refugee, bassist Glen Matlock, as well as Generation X guitarist James Stevenson and Supernaut singer Gary Twinn.
Burke is featured on all of the Blondie’s No. 1 hits, which also included “Call Me,” “The Tide Is High” and “Rapture,” providing whatever the songs needed, from funky disco-leaning rhythms to reggae, funk and pop beats. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 alongside bandmates Harry, Stein, founding keyboardist Jimmy Destri and bassist Gary Valentine and guitarist Frank Infante.
In their tribute to their lost friend, Blondie honored Burke’s many side gigs, writing, “Clem’s influence extended far beyond Blondie. A self proclaimed ‘Rock & Roll survivalist,’ he played and collaborated with numerous iconic artists, including Eurythmics, Ramones, Bob Dylan, Bob Geldof, Iggy Pop, Joan Jett, Chequered Past, The Fleshtones, The Romantics, Dramarama, The Adult Net, The Split Squad, The International Swingers, L.A.M.F., Empty Hearts, Slinky Vagabond, and even the Go-Go’s. His influence and contributions have spanned decades and genres, leaving an indelible mark on every project he was a part of.”
The message ended with condolences for Burke’s family, friends and fans across the world. “His legacy will live on through the tremendous amount of music he created and the countless lives he touched,” Blondie said.
See Blondie’s post here and check out some of the classic tunes Burke played on below.
https://bsky.app/profile/blondieband.bsky.social/post/3lm7zdctjts2x
Dave Allen, who played bass guitar during influential British post-punk band Gang of Four’s early years — and who went on to found the group Shriekback — has died. He was 69.
Allen’s former Gang of Four bandmate Hugo Burnham shared the news of his passing on Sunday (April 6).
“It is with broken yet full hearts that we share the news that Dave Allen, our old music partner, friend, and brilliant musician, died on Saturday morning,” Burnham wrote on Gang of Four’s Instagram, where the band featured several photos in a tribute to Allen. “He was at home with his family.”
“Dave had endured the early-onset of mixed dementia for some years which has been a heartbreaking time for his wife Paddy, his children, and close friends. Our love and thoughts are with them,” he stated.The note continued: “Jon and I [Hugo] went to see him and spent a lovely afternoon with him and the family. We talked and laughed for hours, sharing rich and vivid memories of good times together. Adventures, careers in music, raising families, our interwoven lives spanning half a century. We’ve been so very lucky to have had the Ace of Bass in our lives. We know that Dave would have wanted nothing more than to step onstage with us again in Portland on our farewell US tour. But it’s now a bridge too far. Goodbye, Old Friend.”
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After joining Gang of Four with Burnham, Jon King and Andy Gill in Leeds in 1976, Allen made his mark as bassist on the band’s debut album, 1979’s Entertainment!, and their follow-up set, 1981’s Solid Gold. While neither were chart successes in the U.S., Gang of Four’s early work influenced the likes of Michael Stipe, Flea and Kurt Cobain, who included Entertainment! on his top 50 albums list (as published in the posthumous Journals).
In 1981, Allen formed Shriekback with Barry Andrews (XTC, The League of Gentlemen), and went on to record a number of albums with the group.
Allen rejoined Gang of Four for a reunion with the core lineup in the mid-’00s. He also performed with bands including The Elastic Purejoy and Low Pop Suicide.
Gang of Four bandmate Gill, the group’s founding guitarist, died in 2020.
Allen’s experience in the music industry went beyond the recording studio and stage. Most recently he co-founded and served as director of music relations at DinWorkshop, a consultancy, design studio and lab built to create alongside musicians.
Previously he held positions in artist relations and artist advocacy at Apple Music and Beats Music, was business development director in consumer digital audio services at Intel, and in the late ’90s was general manager at eMusic. Allen was a speaker and panelist on digital strategy, music and technology at SXSW, CMJ, SF Music Tech and more throughout his career.
Renowned guitarist and singer Amadou Bagayoko of Mali’s music duo Amadou & Mariam has died. He was 70. Mali’s Minister of Culture Mamou Daffé paid tribute to the blind musician in a televised broadcast on state TV. He said that Bagayoko died Friday (March 4) in the city of Bamako, his birthplace, but didn’t give […]
Johnny Tillotson, the Grammy-nominated country and pop singer behind the iconic hit, “Poetry In Motion,” died on Tuesday (April 1). He was 86 years old.
The star’s wife, Nancy, announced the news of his passing via post on Facebook. “It is with a broken heart that I write to let you know that the sweetest, kindest man I ever met Johnny Tillotson, left earth for Heaven yesterday,” she wrote alongside a sweet photo of the duo laughing together. “He was my best beloved, Champion of my realm, Knight of my heart. Someone said that sometimes right in the middle of an ordinary life you get a fairy tale. The day I met him I got mine. He was funny, generous and kind. A gentleman through and through. He loved and was grateful to his fans, as he once said, they made every dream I ever had come true. Once again on his behalf I say thank you for that.”
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She added, “Johnny will be missed every single day for the rest of my life. He was simply the best. With all the love I have in my heart for a wonderful man gone too soon from this world.”
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Tillotson was born in 1939 in Jacksonville, Florida, and was a talented singer since his childhood. He signed to Cadence Records, and issued his first single, “Dreamy Eyes” / “Well I’m Your Man” in September 1958 at just 19 years old.
After releasing a string of singles, Tillotson quickly became a teen idol. His biggest hit came just two years later in the form of 1960’s “Poetry in Motion,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
Tillotson’s first Grammy nomination was for his 1962 track, “It Keeps Right on A-Hurtin’,” which was inspired by the terminal illness of his father. The song was nominated for best country and Western recording, and has since been covered by several other artists including Elvis Presley, Margaret Whiting, Slim Whitman and Wanda Jackson. The track peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and No. 4 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
His second Grammy nomination was for his 1965 track, “Heartaches by the Number,” which received a nod for best vocal performance. The song peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and No. 35 on the Hot 100.
Overall, Tillotson was a mainstay on the Billboard charts. He achieved 25 entries and four top 10s on the Hot 100; five hits on Hot Country Songs; two hits on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and nine entries on Adult Contemporary.
Per Nancy’s Facebook post, Tillotson is survived by his wife, his brother Dan, his son John and stepdaughter Genevieve as well as his grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
Following a fierce battle against throat cancer in 2014 that required two tracheotomies that robbed him of his signature honeyed voice, actor Val Kilmer died on Tuesday (April 1) at age 65. The Julliard School-trained star who got his start on the big screen in the comedies Top Secret! and Real Genius in the mid-1980s and went on to stardom after his biting turn as Iceman in 1986’s Top Gun passed away in Los Angeles from pneumonia surrounded by his family and friends, according to the Associated Press.
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The intense actor who also played Batman in 1995’s loopy Batman Forever and faced off with Al Pacino’s cop in the heist flick Heat that same year also lit up the screen in his mesmerizing, wraith-like portrayal of a tuberculosis-stricken Doc Holliday in 1993’s Tombstone. In a nearly four-decade career that spanned comedy, drama and historical epics, it was Kilmer’s eerily method portrayal of Doors singer Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 1991 The Doors biopic that became one of his signature roles.
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Actress Jennifer Tilly — who auditioned for the movie for the role that Meg Ryan landed as Morrison’s girlfriend, Pamela Courson — posted a loving tribute to Kilmer on X following the announcement of his death.
“A long time ago, I was auditioning for the movie The Doors. It was kind of a cattle call. They paired together potential Jims with potential Pamela‘s. And they were running behind so we were spilling out of the casting office, sitting on the porch, the lawn, and the driveway,” she wrote.
“All of a sudden, a sixties convertible came screeching up, blaring Doors Music at top volume. And a guy jumped out and strode inside: He had wild hair and he was barefoot, shirtless, and wearing nothing but a pair of tight leather pants,” she added. “We all looked at each other like… Who is this guy? We were more than a little shook by the sheer audacity of his entrance. Well of course it was Val Kilmer and from that minute on, nobody else stood a chance. Rip King.”
Kilmer’s final movie appearance was a sentimental return for the 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick, in which he appeared after losing his voice to cancer, with his lines digitally enhanced due to the damage to his vocal cords following radiation treatment.
In a statement, Heat director Michael Mann paid tribute to the famously Method actor who threw himself full-bore into his roles, saying, “While working with Val on Heat I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.” On Instagram, friend and fellow actor Josh Brolin wrote, “See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those. I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts.”
Cher, who dated Kilmer in the early 1980s, also honored the actor in her signature pithy way, posting on X, “VALUS Will miss u,U Were Funny,crazy,pain in the ass,GREAT FRIEND,kids U, BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness.”
Josh Gad also honored the “icon” who had a huge impact on him, posting a pic of Kilmer in his Top Gun uniform, writing, “RIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon.” Director Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with Kilmer on the little-seen 2001 horror movie Twixt, said on Instagram, “Val Kilmer was the most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life. He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know — I will always remember him.”
In addition to the lightweight Batman Forever, Kilmer also appeared alongside Marlon Brando in the bizarre, famously troubled 1996 science fiction movie The Island of Dr. Moreau, played painter Willem de Kooning in the 2000 biopic Pollock, as well as 1970s porn star John Holmes in Wonderland and Phillip II of Macedon in Stone’s 2004 sword-and-sandals historical drama Alexander.
Kilmer continued to star in films throughout the early and mid-2000s, often in direct-to-video projects or in cameos in small films. His 2021 documentary, Val, featured footage Kilmer filmed from throughout his career, including during his throat cancer treatment, with his son, Jack Kilmer, narrating the project.
Richard Chamberlain, who died on Saturday (March 29) night at age 90, will be remembered as a TV icon, but he was a hot recording artist for a time. His debut album, Richard Chamberlain Sings, released on MGM Records, made the top five on the Billboard 200 in 1963.
In addition, he had three top 30 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “Theme From Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight” (No. 10 in 1962), a cover version of the Elvis Presley smash “Love Me Tender” (No. 21 in 1962) and a cover version of the Everly Brothers smash “All I Have to Do Is Dream” (No. 14 in 1963).
He was also the first artist to record “They Long to Be Close to You,” a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that went on to become a pop standard when it was recorded by the Carpenters. The duo’s version was Billboard’s Song of the Summer for 1970 and received a Grammy nod for record of the year. Chamberlain’s version, conducted by Bacharach, went relatively unnoticed. It was featured on the B side of his Hot 100 single “Blue Guitar” (No. 42 in 1963).
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Chamberlain died in Waimanalo, Hawaii, of complications from a stroke, according to his publicist, Harlan Boll.
Chamberlain received a Grammy nomination in 1972, but not for his music. He was nominated for best spoken word album for an RCA Recordings recording of a production in which he played Hamlet.
While Chamberlain’s recording career was short-lived, his status as a TV star spanned decades. He starred in Dr. Kildare from 1961-66. The medical drama ranked in the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings in its first season and remained in the top 20 for its second and third seasons.
In 1975, he received his first Primetime Emmy nomination for starring in The Count of Monte Cristo. He was nominated for outstanding lead actor in a special program (drama or comedy).
In the early 1980s, Chamberlain gained a reputation as the king of the miniseries for his starring roles in Shogun, The Thorn Birds and Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story. He received Primetime Emmy nods for outstanding lead actor in a limited series or a special for all three productions.
Chamberlain also acted in film and on Broadway. His first attempt at Broadway — in a legendarily troubled 1966 production of a musical adaptation of the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Mary Tyler Moore — ended when producer David Merrick pulled the plug on the musical after only four preview performances in New York. (Happily, both stars survived the high-profile flop.)
Chamberlain went on to star on Broadway in revivals of The Night of the Iguana (1976-77), Blithe Spirit (1987), My Fair Lady (1993-94) and The Sound of Music (1999).
Born George Richard Chamberlain in Los Angeles on March 31, 1934, Chamberlain was named after his grandfather but was always called Dick or Richard. Chamberlain was gay, which was known in the industry but kept from the public in the years he was a romantic leading man. He came out in 2003, at age 68, in his memoir Shattered Love: A Memoir.
Chamberlain’s fears of rejection by his fans proved unfounded. “Everyone has been so supportive, so positive,” he told The Los Angeles Times in an interview to promote the book. “In New York, people walked up to me in the street, and in theaters. Strangers gave me the thumbs up, wished me well, said, ‘Good for you.’ I’m just awestruck by the change in the way I feel about life now.”
Young Scooter died Friday night (March 28) on the rapper’s 39th birthday, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and details from Atlanta Police.
Atlanta Police Lt. Andrew Smith led a news conference late Friday night to share details about what reportedly led to the death of Young Scooter (real name: Kenneth Edward Bailey). According to Smith, police responded to a call about a dispute with a weapon at a home and then set up a perimeter outside the house after a man shut the door on officers. Two men fled from the rear of the house, Smith said, with one returning to the home and the other jumping two fences as he was fleeing.
According to the AJC story, Young Scooter was the man who jumped the fences, and Smith said, “When officers located him on the other side of the fence, he appeared to have suffered an injury to his leg.”
Atlanta Police say the man was taken to Grady Marcus Trauma Center and died there.
During the news conference, Smith denied widespread reports spreading on social media that Scooter had been fatally shot by Atlanta PD officers. “Just to be very clear, the injury that was sustained was not via the officers on scene. It was when the male was fleeing.”
Young Scooter’s peers mourned the late rapper on social media, with Playboi Carti sharing the news on Instagram Stories with the caption “SMFH.” Quavo took to X with broken-heart and prayer-hands emojis, writing, “ion understand,” alongside a video of Scooter performing. The late rapper’s Instagram Stories shared dozens of posts wishing him a happy birthday throughout Friday.
While Scooter was born in South Carolina, his family moved to Atlanta when he was just 9 years old, and his music career has been based in the rap mecca ever since. He broke out locally with the song “Colombia” in 2012 before joining forces with hip-hop heavyweights Future, Juicy J and Young Thug for “DI$Function” in 2014. He hit the Billboard charts as a featured artist on Young Thug’s “Guwop,” also featuring Quavo & Offset of Migos, in 2016 (peaking at No. 45 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart) and on Future & Juice WRLD’s “Jet Lag” in 2018 (his only Billboard Hot 100 appearance, peaking at No. 72).
Billboard has reached out to the Atlanta Police and a rep for Young Scooter for further information.
Find Quavo’s X post about Scooter below:
Wolfgang Spahr, whose tenure as a Billboard correspondent covering the German music business lasted from 1973 to 2020, died Friday (March 21). He was in his mid-80s.
Spahr was well known in the German music industry for running a newsletter, in addition to writing for Billboard, and perhaps even better known for being a true character, a gregarious figure who seemed to know, and joke around with, most of the people he covered. Besides his work as an industry journalist and communications consultant, he oversaw public relations for a theater festival dedicated to the works of the German author Karl May, who wrote Westerns without ever visiting the U.S., and wrote the lyrics for the Udo Jürgens schlager song “Aber bitte mit Sahne” (Translation: “But please with cream),” a No. 5 hit in 1976 that is regarded as a classic of the genre.
“Wolfgang was a very keen and passionate observer of our industry,” said Frank Briegmann, chairman/CEO of Universal Music Group Central Europe, in a statement. “I was always happy to welcome him to our events and I enjoyed his often-humorous comments on our business. He leaves a gap in the music business, and he will be missed deeply.”
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Spahr “was full of energy and he was very friendly to everyone,” remembers Hille Hillekamp, a music publisher and close friend of Spahr’s for decades. Many of his professional relationships were measured in decades, and he became a trusted advisor for many industry executives, both formally and informally.
“He was a great character and knew absolutely everyone in the German music business,” says Adam White, a former Billboard international editor and then the magazine’s top editor. “Yet he was a modest man with considerable charm and a warm sense of humor.”
Spahr may have been the longest-serving writer at Billboard. Although it is hard to determine exactly when he started, he is listed on the masthead as early as 1973 — as the correspondent for West Germany — and he kept contributing until 2020. During that time, he covered the rise of the country as one of the top global recorded music markets, the entry of Bertelsmann into the U.S. recording business and the industry’s digital transition. His access to sources was unparalleled. “You could call him and ask him about anything regarding the German industry and he would know it, and when he did not, he would always quickly get back to you,” remembers former Billboard international editor Emmanuel Legrand.
Legrand remembers seeing Spahr twice a year. “First at MIDEM, where we would share a few drinks, most of the time with his lovely wife Gabriele [Schulze-Spahr, a longtime lawyer at Warner Chappell], and then at the German Echo awards. At the afterparty, he would navigate between the various labels, and it was like seeing royalty. Everybody knew Wolfgang and he knew everybody.”
Over the years, whenever I met Spahr at a restaurant, he always seemed to know one of the owners, one of the chefs and at least a couple of other people — whether they had anything to do with the music business or not. More than a decade ago, at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, I spent about 20 minutes with him walking the length of a city block, because he knew so many people and stopped to greet all of them.
His success as a songwriter, which he never mentioned, was no small thing. “Aber Bitte mit Sahne” was a defining hit for Jürgens, a German superstar from the 1960s to the end of the 1990s and beyond. Spahr is said to have written the words with the lyricist Eckart Hachfeld, but it is not entirely clear what exactly his role was. The song was an instant hit, and it aged into a classic — covered by numerous artists, used in a commercial with the name of the cream substitute Rama and remembered by millions of German music fans.
Spahr’s role in the annual Karl May theater festival in Bad Segeberg was substantial, too. May’s stories about a cowboy and an Apache chief became part of German pop culture, made into movies and TV shows – think Little House on the Prairie with the popularity of the X-Men comics – and the festival attracts hundreds of thousands of fans a year. Every year, it produces a new play, based on one of May’s stories, and Spahr would help recruit talent, plus work on marketing and communications.
Over the course of the last decade, especially as he reached his 80s, Spahr contributed fewer articles. (He died at 84 or 85, but even his close friends aren’t sure what year he was born.) As his health worsened, he withdrew from the industry. He died at home, in his sleep, of a lung infection. He is survived by his wife, Schulze-Spahr.
Larry Tamblyn, the keyboardist/singer and co-founder of L.A. garage rock band The Standells has died at 82. The news was first announced on Friday by Tamblyn’s nephew Dennis and confirmed by the group’s Facebook page. “Sad news to announce tonight,” the group wrote on Saturday in a message that did not provide any additional information on the cause of death.
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“My uncle Larry Tamblyn passed away today. I have very fond memories of him and his family over the years,” Dennis wrote in the post that appears to have since been deleted. “He lived an incredible life. He was in a band called The Standells, whose hit song ‘Dirty Water’ is still played to this day whenever the Red Sox or the Bruins win a home game. They also played on an episode of The Munsters.”
According to People, the post continued, “A few years ago, The Standells played at Hotel Congress here in Tucson, Ariz., and Larry stayed with me. It was so great to hang out with him and catch up. He was still making music well into his later years. You will be missed, Uncle Larry.”
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The Standells were formed in Los Angeles by Tamblyn — who had a brief solo career in the early 1960s — along with guitarist Tony Valentino, bassist Jody Rich and drummer Benny King. Their debut single, “You’ll Be Mine Someday Gir/ Girl in My Heart” was released in 1963 under the name Larry Tamblyn and the Standels before they signed to the Liberty label and adopting their foreshortened name, with Gary Lane taking Rich’s place and Gary Leeds replacing King; Leeds left a short time later and was replaced by former Mouseketeer Dick Dodd, who also took over as lead vocalist.
The band’s first album, the mostly covers collection In Person at P.J.s, came out in 1964 and the group famously made a cameo on The Munsters sitcom in 1965, where they played the original “Come On and Ringo” and a cover of the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Though the group was originally formed by Tamblyn, he did not sing the lead vocals on what is the band’s most enduring hit, 1966’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 11 garage rock classic “Dirty Water.”
“Dirty Water” became the band’s calling card, acting as one of the anchors of both the 1972 Nuggets garage rock compilation as well as a sports anthem for a number of Boston-area professional teams, serving as the victory song at Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics games. The track, anchored by Dodd’s snarly vocals and a metronomic beat, became associated with Boston thanks to lyrics referencing the polluted Charles River, the Boston Strangler and shout outs to the city and its “lovers, muggers and thieves.” The Standells performed the song at Fenway Park during one of the Red Sox’s 2004 World Series games.
The song appeared on the band’s 1966 debut album, Dirty Water, which also featured covers of the Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown” and other originals written by “Dirty Water” producer/songwriter Ed Cobb (The Four Preps).
Though the group never again scored a hit on the level with the lascivious, grungy “Dirty Water” they did land at No. 43 with their follow-up single, “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White.” A second album, Why Pick on Me – Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White, was released in 1966 while the group’s roster underwent another series of personnel changes before 1967’s The Hot Ones! cover songs album. Dodd — who died in 2013 — left in 1968 to go solo.
The Standells released two more albums, 1967’s Try It and 2013’s Bump, and continued on performing sporadically in the 1980s and 90s with a line-up featuring Tamblyn and a variety of former and new band members.
Tamblyn was not the only A-lister in his family. He was the brother of actor Russ Tamblyn (West Side Story) and uncle of actress Amber Tamblyn (Paint It Black). In addition to his work with the group, Tamblyn released an autobiography, From Squeaky Clean to Dirty Water: My Life with Sixties Garage Rock Trailblazers the Standells, in 2022. Tamblyn was inducted into the California Music Hall of Fame in 2013 by brother Russ.
Listen to “Dirty Water” below.
J.B. Moore, a key contributor to some of hip-hop’s earliest hits, died in Manhattan on March 13 of pancreatic cancer. He was 81.
Though not well-known today, Moore was instrumental in hip-hop’s early mainstream success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he helped produce and write records for Kurtis Blow with Robert “Rocky” Ford Jr., his friend and colleague at Billboard, where Moore worked in ad sales and Ford was a reporter. (Ford died in 2020.)
Moore, who also sometimes wrote jazz reviews for Billboard, is credited as a producer and writer on classic early hip-hop tracks like “The Breaks,” “Christmas Rappin’” and “Basketball.”
“One of the interesting things about our partnership,” Moore said of Ford in a 2001 oral history for the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, “is that, as Robert and I got to know each other at Billboard, we realized that he was a black guy from the middle of Hollis, Queens and I was a white guy from the North Shore of Long Island, and our record collections were virtually identical. I think we had 800 records a piece and 200 of them were different.”
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Released during the 1979 holiday season, “Christmas Rappin’” was the brainchild of Ford, who came up with the idea of writing a Christmas song because he had a kid on the way — telling Moore that “Christmas records are perennials, and therefore you get royalties ad infinitum on them,” according to Moore’s recollection for the oral history.
Moore, already familiar with the guitar, bass, and songwriting, didn’t set out to write and produce rap records. Having served in the Vietnam War, he was originally saving up money to write a novel about the conflict. “I had been saving money to leave Billboard to write a book for five years,” said Moore for the oral history. “I had about $10,000 and that got invested in making ‘Christmas Rappin.’”
Through Ford’s relationship with a then up-and-coming Russell Simmons, who was then promoting Blow, he and Moore got the young rapper to lay down the “Christman Rappin’” lyrics, which were inspired by the Clement Clarke Moore poem “The Night Before Christmas” — and the rest was history.
Ford and Moore shopped the song around to about 20 labels and were rejected until Mercury Records gave them a shot with a two-single deal that would turn into an album deal if the singles were a success, according to a 2018 blog post written by Simmons.
“We didn’t think a major label would understand a rap record,” Moore recalled in the oral history. “But they would understand a parody.” He was right.
According to Simmons’ blog post, “Christmas Rappin’” sold close to 400,000 copies while their next single, Blow’s “The Breaks,” was the first rap song to be certified gold, selling 500,000 copies. “The Breaks” also peaked at No. 87 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Basketball,” released in 1985, peaked at No. 71 on the chart. And just like that, Moore, Ford and Blow had carved out careers in the burgeoning new genre known as rap music.
Blow paid tribute to Moore on Instagram with a lengthy caption, writing in part, “Moore was a key figure in the early commercialization of Hip Hop. His productions helped bridge the gap between Hip Hop and mainstream audiences in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.” He concluded by writing, “Rest in power to a friend, teacher, pioneer who helped lay the foundation for what Hip Hop became. Thank you, JB, I learned so much.”
As a songwriting and production duo, Moore and Ford worked on Blow’s first four albums, helped produced three albums for Full Force, and even had a hand in Rodney Dangerfield’s classic parody rap song “Rappin Rodney,” which hit No. 83 on the Hot 100 in 1984.
Moore does not have any known immediate survivors.