obituary
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Astrud Gilberto, “The Girl From Ipanema” singer who would make bossa nova a sensation in the 1960s, died at 83 on Monday (June 5). Paul Ricci, a friend and former collaborator of Gilberto’s, confirm the news of the Brazilian singer’s death on social media at the request of her son Marcelo. “She was an important […]
Cynthia Weil, the prolific lyricist who wrote dozens of indelible pop hits with husband Barry Mann over a six-decade career has died at 82. According to the Associated Press, Weil’s death of undisclosed causes was confirmed on Friday (June 2) by Interdependence Public Relations, which represents Mann’s daughter, Dr. Jenn Mann.
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Weil and Mann were one of the most formidable songwriting teams to set up residence in Manhattan’s famed Brill Building in the 1960s, which was also home to fellow pop songwriting powerhouses including Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Weil’s tear-stained ballads about young love, undying devotion and social struggles include such classics as the Crystals’ “Uptown,” the Drifters’ “On Broadway,” The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” and the Animals’ anti-war anthem “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.”
Longtime friend King paid homage to Weil in a statement that featured an image of her with Mann, Weil and her then-husband Goffin at a BMI dinner in 1962, writing, “We lost the beautiful, brilliant lyricist Cynthia Weil Mann… The four of us were close, caring friends despite our fierce competition to write the next hit for an artist with a #1 song. Sometimes we wrote in different combinations, e.g., Mann and Goffin ‘Who Put The Bomp?’ and King and Weil ‘One To One.’ Cynthia’s high professional standard made us all better songwriters. My favorite Cynthia lyric is, “Just a little lovin’ early in the mornin’ beats a cup of coffee for startin’ out the day.” If we’re lucky, we know this is true, but she wrote it — and then she rhymed “mornin’” with “yawnin’” in the next verse. May the legacy of lyrics by Cynthia Weil continue to speak to and for generations to come. Rest in peace with love and gratitude.”
Weil was born on Oct. 18, 1940 in New York City and studied ballet and piano as a child, but after graduating from Sarah Lawrence University with a theater major she scored a job working for composer Frank Loesser at 20 and soon met Mann, whom she married in 1961. After scoring their first hit that year with Tony Orlando’s “Bless You,” the pair became regular collaborators with “Wall of Sound” producer Phil Spector, with whom they worked on the Ronettes’ “Walking in the Rain” and the Crystals’ “He’s Sure the Boy I Love.”
They landed their most enduring chart-topper in 1965 with the blue-eyed soul smash “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” a No. 1 hit produced by Spector that has been covered dozens of times and became the most-played song on radio and TV in the 20th century according to BMI.
The width and breadth of their songwriting ranged from lounge singers Eydie Gorme (“Blame it on the Bossa Nova”) and her duet partner Steve Lawrence (“Don’t Be Afraid, Little Darlin’”), to pop group Jay and the Americans (“Only in America,” a collaboration with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller), rock band Paul Revere & the Raiders (the anti-drug tune “Kicks”), singing TV group The Partridge Family (“I Really Want to Know You” and “I’m on the Road”) and British siren Dusty Springfield (“Just a Little Lovin’” from her iconic 1969 Dusty in Memphis album).
The 1970s brought collabs with rockers Blood Sweat & Tears (“So Long Dixie”), country singer B.J. Thomas (“Here You Come Again”) and the Grass Roots (“Mamacita”), as their hot streak continued into the 1980s with Bill Medley’s “Don’t Know Much,” which was a No. 2 hit for Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville in 1989, winning a Grammy in 1990 for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal. They did it again in 1981 with the Quincy Jones/James Ingram ballad “Just Once,” which hit No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for a best male pop vocal performance Grammy in 1982.
Weil and Mann also wrote hits for Dionne Warwick (“Never Gonna Let You Go”), Bette Midler (“All I Need to Know”), Jeffrey Osborne (“We’re Going All the Way”), the Pointer Sisters (“Baby Come and Get It”) and Ronstadt and James Ingram (“Somewhere Out There”), a No. 2 hit they collaborated on with James Horner for the animated movie An American Tail that won Grammys in 1988 for song of the year and best song written specifically for a motion picture or television.
She also scored hits on her own or with other writers for the Pointers (“He’s So Shy”), Barry Manilow (“Somewhere Down the Road”), Lionel Richie (“Running with the Night,” “Love Will Conquer All”), Peabo Bryson (“If Ever You’re in My Arms Again”), Chaka Khan (“Through the Fire”), Sheena Easton (“So Far So Good”) and Martina McBride (“Wrong Again”).
Weil was the first woman recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award at the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction (which she shared with Mann), and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and landed the first-ever National Academy of Songwriters Life Achievement Award (both with Mann), as well as the Songwriting Hall of Fame’s highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award in 2011. She is survived by Mann, 84, and their daughter, Jenn.
Jacky Oh, a former castmember of Nick Cannon’s Wild ‘N Out, has died at 32. At press time a cause of death had not been announced. BET confirmed the news in an Instagram post, which read, “We, the BET family, extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Jacky Oh and DC Young […]
Puerto Rican rapper Pacho El Antifeka died on Thursday (June 1) after being fatally shot in Puerto Rico. He was 42 years old.
The artist born Neftalí Álvarez Núñez was found dead inside a black 2008 Infinity car near the Plaza Tropical shopping center in Bayamón, according to Telemundo Puerto Rico. Law enforcement responded to the location after receiving calls of shots being fired.
The rapper’s death was later confirmed on his official Instagram account with a post featuring a powerful drawing created by “Arte Cardé.” It shows the musician in the passenger seat of a car and God taking the wheel.
“A great one has left us, but the most important thing is that he will be eternal in our memories and hearts because of those huge marks that he left, nobody will erase them. Impossible to forget someone so special and someone as friendly as Pacho was. Your legacy is still here, and your family and work team will not let your music die because we all know that you made music from the heart for your fans…because that was what you loved to do music,” read part of the caption.
With a career that spanned nearly 20 years, Pacho El Antifeka was known for hits such as “Como Soy” with Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny; “Pa Morir Se Nace” with Farruko; “Tu No Eras Asi” with Rauw Alejandro; “Triste” with Nicky Jam; and “No Te Veo” with Jay Wheeler and Wisin y Yandel, to name a few. Last year, Pacho went viral on social media for replying to Residente’s “Bzrp Music Session” aimed at J Balvin. Pacho was signed to the indie urban label Duars Entertainment.
Many of his reggaeton colleagues including — Daddy Yankee and Hector El Father — reacted to the news of his death on social media.
“I am not the one to judge anyone’s personal life but I can judge the way people treat me; based on that judgment, I can choose my friends. I am aware that you have always treated me with respect, appreciation, honesty, sincerity, and loyalty,” Daddy Yankee wrote in an Instagram post. “For me those qualities are worth a lot because they are not easily found in these times […] And I assure you brother that you were a real person with me from our beginnings at an early age, dreaming of this career. I am glad to know that I was able to contribute to you in life.”
“Only God knows how much your departure hurts me,” Hector El Father shared, also on Instagram. “You always called me to ask for prayer and to take my services to the caserios (barrios). You always let me know the desire you had to get closer to God and all your struggles. I only ask God that in that last second of life, you have remembered what I always told you: ‘Cry out to God and ask him for forgiveness.’”
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Ex-Earth, Wind & Fire and the Commodores band member Sheldon Reynolds is being remembered by former collaborators as a fine guitarist, singer and songwriter, and an even better person.Reynolds died Tuesday (March 23) at the age of 63. “This news of Sheldon Reynolds transition is very sad for all of us who knew and worked with him. Sheldon vocally had Reese down,” writes Bailey in a social post, republished by the official EWF accounts.
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“That’s what Maurice said when he hired Sheldon to share vocals and play guitar. Sheldon was an excellent addition to the band, a great writer and producer, and a genuinely kind and loving person. He will be missed. Our condolences to his family.”
Details surrounding his death have not been formally announced.
Born Sept. 13, 1959 in Cincinnati, OH, Reynolds displayed a gift for the guitar at an early age. He went on to tour with singer Millie Jackson, and later joined Sun, recording three albums with the R&B act.
In 1983, he joined the Commodores. During a four-year spell with the band, he performed on the 1985 LP Nightshift and the following year’s album release United. The good times kept coming when Reynolds joined EWF as lead guitarist and co-vocalist. He went on to play on the soul band’s LPs Touch The World (1987), Heritage (1990), Millennium (1993) and In The Name of Love (1997). The midtempo Millennium hit “Sunday Morning” earned a Grammy Award nomination in the category of best R&B vocal performance by a duo or group.
Thanks in part to Reynolds’ contributions, the band was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2000, and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, awarded in 1995.Reynolds went on to work across solo projects with Bailey and EWF’s late band leader Maurice White, who died in 2016. His passing closely follows the death of former EWF drummer Fred White in January, at the age of 67.EWF and Lionel Richie, who fronted the Commodores until 1983, before embarking on a successful solo career, will set out on a joint tour from this August, dubbed Sing A Song, All Night Long.
Joy McKean, the Australian singer, songwriter and country music scene builder who, along with her husband, the late Slim Dusty, formed one of this nation’s great creative partnerships, died Thursday (May 25) following a battle with cancer. She was 93.
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“Joy passed away peacefully last night with family by her side,” reads a message from her family, issued Friday (May 26).
A trailblazer in the country scene, McKean enjoyed a career spanning more than 70 years, and composed some of the genre’s most celebrated songs, from “The Biggest Disappointment” to “Ringer from the Top End,” “Walk a Country Mile,” “Indian Pacific” and “Lights on the Hill,” an award-winning hit for her husband Slim Dusty, whom she married in 1951. Many others have covered the song, including Keith Urban.
Lauded as the “grand lady” of Australian country, McKean made cut her teeth in the 1940s and ‘50s, working alongside her sister Heather — as the McKean Sisters.
Joy McKean in the 1950s. Courtesy Kirkpatrick Family
Courtesy Kirkpatrick Family
After teaming up with Dusty, Australian country music had its golden couple. McKean wrote many of Dusty’s iconic songs, managed him for half a century, and the pair toured relentlessly in regional and remote Australia, at a time when the perceived role of women was that of home-maker.
With McKean as his support, muse and collaborator, Dusty released more than 100 albums and sold over eight million copies. Dusty died in 2003, aged 76.
McKean’s trophy collection is almost as impressive as her songbook. She’s a two-time inductee into the Australasian Country Music Roll of Renown and winner of the Industry Achiever Award, bestowed on her by the Country Music Association of Australia, which she co-founded back in 1992. She’s a winner of seven Golden Guitar awards, including the very first statue, won at the inaugural Tamworth Country Music Awards back in 1973.
In 1991, McKean was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for “service to the entertainment industry,” and, 30 years later, in 2021, was the recipient of the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music, one of the music industry’s highest honors. She said of the salute, “after what has been a lifetime of working in the music industry, and loving just about every minute of it, I find it fascinating to reflect on the changes that have taken place.” On the night, the award was presented by her children Anne and David Kirkpatrick.
Joy is survived by her two children, four grandchildren, and six great grandchilden. “She will be remembered as a pioneer in Australian music,” reads the statement from her family.
Australia’s music community is paying tribute to the country music legend.
“Where do I start about this beautiful woman, your songs will always be the melodies that makes my heart sing,” writes homegrown country star Troy Cassar-Daley. “Your emails always like a hand written note of encouragement and love.” He adds, “thank you for being the best yard stick a man can ask for.”
Joy McKean,Where do I start about this beautiful woman, your songs will always be the Melodies that makes my heart sing,Your emails always like a hand written note of encouragement and love.♥️ to Anne & David & kids thank you for being the best yard stick a man can ask for xx pic.twitter.com/AEQOKml8YN— Troy Cassar-Daley (@troycassardaley) May 26, 2023
“Vale Joy McKean OAM, the ‘Grand Lady of Country Music’, who has passed away at age 93,” reads a post from APRA AMCOS. “We extend our condolences to Joy’s family, friends and many fans. She will be greatly missed.”
Vale Joy McKean OAM, the ‘Grand Lady of Country Music’, who has passed away at age 93. We extend our condolences to Joy’s family, friends and many fans. She will be greatly missed.https://t.co/gQ7adMCdeU— APRA AMCOS (@APRAAMCOS) May 26, 2023
ARIA Award-winning country artist Fanny Lumsden writes, “What an icon. Someone I didn’t even realize I was following in the path of until quite recently. (I know, shameful). But will I will draw strength from as I continue to play halls throughout regional aus, sharing stories, running a business & a family. Thank you Joy.”
Joy McKean. What an icon. Someone I didn’t even realise I was following in the path of until quite recently. (I know, shameful). But will I will draw strength from as I continue to play halls throughout regional aus, sharing stories, running a business & a family. Thank you Joy— Fanny Lumsden (@Fannylumsden) May 26, 2023
Bill Lee — a well-regarded jazz musician who accompanied such artists as Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and Harry Belafonte as well as scoring four of his son Spike Lee’s early films, including the hit Do the Right Thing and two songs for Jungle Fever — has died. He was 94. Explore Explore See latest […]
Tina Turner, whose gritty vocals and fierce, sizzling performances powered two iconic music careers — first as one-half of husband-and-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner and, later, an internationally revered solo star — died Wednesday (May 24) at age 83. Turner, who has born Anna Mae Bullock on Nov. 26, 1939, made her Billboard chart debut as […]
Tina Turner, whose gritty vocals and fierce, sizzling performances powered two iconic music careers —as one-half of husband-and-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner and later internationally revered solo star — has died, her rep confirmed to Billboard on Wednesday (May 24). The eight-time Grammy Award winner was 83.
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A statement announcing her death was also posted to her Instagram account. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow,” read the caption. “Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly.”
By the time her last compilation album, Love Songs, was released in 2014, Turner had retired from music. But not before triumphing over a hard-fought journey that spanned more than 50 years, culminating in a legacy that’s influenced a diverse range of singers from Janis Joplin to Beyoncé and beyond. Her transformation from soul singer to survivor to pop superstar yielded three Grammy Hall of Fame entries: “River Deep — Mountain High,” “Proud Mary” and “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Kennedy Center honoree, Turner also played memorable roles as the Acid Queen in the rock musical Tommy and as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome with Mel Gibson.
She became a best-selling author with 1986’s I, Tina. Written with Kurt Loder, the autobiography detailed Turner’s childhood, early success with musician husband Ike, his domestic abuse and her adoption of Buddhism. Its highlight is Turner’s 1984 resurrection as a star in her own right with the album Private Dancer and its runaway Hot 100 No. 1 ,“What’s Love Got to Do With It.” Capping one of music’s most dramatic comebacks, the song rewarded Turner with three of her eight Grammys including record and song of the year. Eight years later, the track doubled as the title of the Turner biopic starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne.
Turner’s journey began in Nutbush, Tenn. Born Anna Mae Bullock on Nov. 26, 1939, the youngest of the family’s two daughters, she picked cotton on the farm where her father was caretaker and sang in the local Baptist church. Relocating to St. Louis as a teenager to live with her divorced mother, Bullock met future husband Ike when the guitarist and his band the Kings of Rhythm were playing the city’s Club Manhattan. Taking advantage of an impromptu moment to sing one night with the band, Bullock sparked her metamorphosis into Tina Turner.
Ike and Tina Turner pose for a portrait in 1972.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
With backing vocalists the Ikettes in tow, the Ike & Tina Turner Revue began drawing raves for its dynamic stage performances — as well as the first of several top 10 R&B chart hits beginning in 1960 with “A Fool in Love.” An appearance in the 1966 rock film The Big T.N.T. Show captured the attention of the film’s musical director Phil Spector. The famed “Wall of Sound” producer tapped Tina to sing the lead that same year for what has since gained status as a sonic classic, “River Deep, Mountain High.” By this time, the revue had been headlining shows in Las Vegas that brought out such music celebrities as David Bowie (whom she called “a passionate supporter of my career” in a tweet upon his death), Cher, James Brown and Elvis Presley.
Following a succession of signings with various labels plus high-profile gigs opening for the Rolling Stones, the Turners covered Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.” Tina’s sultry vocals start the song off slowly. Then the track’s pace revs up (“we never do nothing nice and into an energetic funk-rock romp. Not only did the song net the pair its biggest pop hit in 1971 (No. 4), it also won a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a group. The pair’s last major hit together was the Tina-penned “Nutbush City Limits” in 1973. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, Ike & Turner notched 20 hits from 1960 through 1975.
A fight en route to a show in Dallas the following year prompted Turner to leave Ike and file for divorce — setting the stage for Turner’s second act as a solo artist. Maintaining the rigorous touring schedule she began with Ike, Turner performed in a series of cabaret shows around the country in the late ‘70s before signing with veteran manager Roger Davies in 1980.
Aligning her gritty vocals with a harder rock style, Turner notched the first step in her comeback with a cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” Reaching No. 3 R&B and No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song gave the new Capitol Records signee her first solo U.S. hit.. Soon thereafter, the label released the singer’s career-defining album, Private Dancer. The 1984 set spun off the subsequent Grammy-winning singles “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and “Better Be Good to Me” plus the title track before peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
In the Billboard Book of Number One Hits, Turner recounted that she hated British songwriter Terry Britten’s demo of “What’s Love Got to Do With It” when she first heard it. “He said for me that he needed to make it a bit rougher, a bit more sharp around the edges,” she recalled. “All of a sudden, just siting there with him in the studio, the song became mine.”
With her famous mini-skirted legs sashaying energetically across the stage, black high heels flashing and wild mane of hair whipping back and forth, Turner crisscrossed the world in a series of top-grossing tours. Her last road trip, the 90-show Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour, was the No. 9 top-grossing tour in 2009, according to Billboard Boxscore.
Tina Turner and Ike Turner playing acoustic guitar in the 1970s.
RB/Redferns
Between recording and touring, Turner pursued acting. Cast as the Acid Queen in the Who’s rock musical Tommy, Turner waited 10 years before her next acting role as Aunty Entity with co-star Mel Gibson in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. That was followed by a cameo in the 1993 film Last Action Hero. She sang the U2-penned “GoldenEye” for the same-tilted 1995 James Bond Film.
Turner charted a total of 17 solo hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome),” “One of the Living,” “Typical Male” and “I Don’t Wanna Fight.” Among her other top-selling solo albums: Break Every Rule and Foreign Affair as well as the compilation album All the Best. Her last studio album was 1999’s Twenty Four Seven.
Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé, Melissa Etheridge and Al Green saluted her in 2005 at the Kennedy Center Honors. Beyoncé reprised her then-performance of “Proud Mary” once more in 2008 — this time singing and dancing with the indefatigable Turner at the Grammy Awards. And proving that age is nothing but a number, Turner graced the cover of the German issue of Vogue in 2013. At 73, she was the oldest person to do so.
Turner married longtime beau Erwin Bach in July 2013, the same year she became a Swiss citizen. She had two sons, Raymond Craig from an earlier relationship and Ronald, her only child with Ike.
Rolf Harris, the disgraced entertainer who, prior to his downfall, enjoyed hits in the U.K. and his homeland, Australia, and who was once commissioned to paint Queen Elizabeth II, has died at the age of 93.
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Born March 30, 1930 in Perth, Australia, Harris’ life and career will be remembered in two halves.
At the peak of his celebrity, following a relocation to the U.K., Harris enjoyed a-list status on both sides of the globe, a star of TV and popular music, an enthusiast for the wobble board and didgeridoo who had a string of hit singles, and collaborations with The Wiggles and others.
Harris was, for decades, the face of British Paints in Australia, and was lampooned in the popular ‘70s and early ‘80s British comedy series The Goodies. For millions of Australians and Britons, he was a broadcast star from their youth.
He enjoyed a string of U.K. chart hits including “Two Little Boys” (Columbia), which has the distinction of being the very last No. 1 in Britain in the 1960s. “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport” reached No. 9 in Britain back in 1960, and he had a No. 3 hit with “Sun Arise” in 1962. He enjoyed another U.K. top 10 in 1993, when his cover of “Stairway to Heaven,” a spin-off from the Australian TV show Money or the Gun, reached No. 7.
The Guinness World Records book of British Hit Singles had summed-up Harris as a “lovable Australian musician, artist and presenter.”
Along the way, he was elevated into the highest circles, by being named as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
In 2005, another honor, when he was tapped by the BBC to create an oil painting of the Queen for the occasion of her 80th birthday, the sittings for which were captured for a documentary. The following year, in 2006, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
In 2013, Harris was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), in recognition for his distinguished service to the performing and visual arts, to charitable organizations and to international relations through the promotion of Australian culture, following his induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2008.
When his downfall was complete, Harris’ name had been scrubbed from those history books.
His spectacular fall from grace began in 2013, when Harris was questioned and arrested police under Operation Yewtree, the investigation into sexual abuse among members of the English media elite, including the late Jimmy Savile.Following a trial in 2014, Harris was found guilty of various indecent assaults between 1968 and 1986, and was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison. He was released in 2017, but denied any wrongdoing and never issued an apology to his victims.According to the BBC, Harris passed May 10, and has already been buried, though details have been kept under lock and key until now. His death certificate, the Corporation reports, notes that he died from neck cancer and “frailty of old age” at his home in Bray, Berkshire.
A statement from his family reads: “This is to confirm that Rolf Harris recently died peacefully surrounded by family and friends and has now been laid to rest. They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made.”