Artists Who Passed Away in 2025 ~ Did Anyone Notice?
So, let's start with what I remember best.
I never understood the lack of respect and/or renown for The Turtles. Sure, they were a singles act, but who wasn't in those days? AM radio was king; a group needed a catchy song in order to take off. And The Turtles, singles-wise, were as successful as any artists of the '60's. And guess what? They actually wrote their own songs, unlike, say, The Monkees.
Who can listen to the following and claim The Turtles weren't a great pop group?
I actually like this one better:
I once found an old documentary on YouTube about the group (they have a great history!) and I was struck by Howard Kaylan talking about how their record label rejected a song he'd written and demanded something more "catchy" and "poppy". So, he sat down and wrote what he considered the worst, most cliche-ridden, song ever, just to get back at them:
(That "awful" song rose to #6 on the charts.)
Mark Volman, the "Eddie" of Flo and Eddie, the names Howard and Mark chose for themselves once their label forbade them from touring as The Turtles or even under their real names, passed away this year.
(No, Mark is the singer in the background.)
Volman was the enthusiastic half of the duo; not saying that Kaylan wasn't enthusiastic, but they each had their roles to play. The Turtles were adept at writing and performing radio-friendly songs that a listener (e.g., me) couldn't ignore. Big, bright choruses were their specialty.
Mark Volman died on September 5 at the age of 78. His place in the history of pop deserves to be remembered.
I don't think even my sisters listened to Connie Francis. I'm almost certain they didn't. She was more my mom's style. But in the early sixties she was big--huge.
Francis' recording career began in the mid-to-late fifties, a time when pop music was big on orchestral ballads. Yes, of course, there were rockabilly stars like Chuck Berry and Elvis, but believe it or not, AM radio leaned toward playing the Percy Faith style singles. (If you've seen Good Morning, Vietnam, you'll know that Percy Faith was a running joke.) So, Connie didn't record "rock" as it was defined at the time. She landed firmly in the pop category.
When I was a young kid, I'd hear her tracks on my local AM station, even long after they'd sunk in the charts, because songs stuck around back then. Radio stations had rules, no doubt, but not necessarily rigid rules. Plus disc jockeys still had a modicum of independence. And the housewives in their thirties liked Connie Francis. She came across as sweet, with a touch of romantic angst. Just the right fit for watchers of As The World Turns.
Later, once her career faded and she was relegated to playing casino gigs, female country artists found her earlier hits and covered them. Of course, there is nothing like the originals:
(It might be the harmonies, but I really like this song.)
There was a schlocky movie made in 1960 that I watched as a kid on a little black and white TV. It starred, among others, Dolores Hart (later to become a nun), the ever-fatalistic Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton, Paula Prentiss, and...Connie Francis. I loved it! So over the top! The plot involved a group of college girls and boys on spring break in Florida. (Nope, couldn't be further from the antics of today.)
A huge hit single resulted from that movie:
Connie Francis did not have a happy personal life. After her father essentially chased the man she called the love of her life, Bobby Darin, away, she subsequently married four times, and none of the marriages lasted. She was raped in a hotel room in 1974; the perpetrator never caught. Afterward, she went into seclusion for several years. Those keycard locks on hotel room doors? They were invented as a result of Francis' unimaginable ordeal.
Her career never recovered, but her hitmaking years were really between the late fifties to early sixties. There were a couple of women whose careers took off during those years, the other being Brenda Lee; and though only Brenda turned to country music, Connie Francis' hits were readily adaptable to country, as evidence by the multiple covers produced of her music. This one, for example:
For you youngsters out there, as Ed Sullivan would say, it's almost unfathomable how universally popular Connie Francis' was. So, for her death this year to go virtually unrecognized is truly a sin. Connie passed away on July 16 at the age of 87. She had a huge impact on pop music, and the world is better for it.
My big sisters didn't own many albums. They were lucky, in fact, to even own a record player. My parents didn't have one. I got my own as a Christmas present when I was maybe seven or eight--still the best Christmas gift I've ever gotten. And I hadn't even asked for it!
I can only remember one album that my sisters shared (all their records were joint property). They may have had a couple more, but damn, I'm old; I can't remember everything. This was the hit from that album that they tried to pass off as "rock 'n roll". Sorry, gals; I'm no longer that six-year-old rube. This song is country:
I was interested in learning about Johnny Tillotson, since I knew absolutely nothing about him.
According to Wikipedia (which isn't always a definitive source) his career was sort of scattered. So, I pulled up his official website and his bio there is naturally positive, bypassing the snark that Wikipedia inserted. But it is true that aside from his album, "It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'", his trajectory was rather short-lived and his advisors were not particularly savvy. This, album, however, was the eighth highest charting LP of 1962, and the title song, which he wrote, has been covered by more than 100 artists, including Dean Martin and Elvis.
It seems that while starting his recording career in Nashville, that afore-mentioned advisor talked him into aiming for teen idol status; and thus, he began appearing on the covers of 16 Magazine and a bunch of other teen rags, alongside guys like Fabian and Bobby Rydell, and just look how their careers lasted...
He should have stayed in Nashville, but his preferences (I'm assuming they were his) leaned toward a more poppish country, with violins and female background choruses, although clearly Floyd Cramer played piano on It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'.
Strangely, almost no performance videos can be found from his heyday, and surely he must have done at least the American Bandstand circuit. Here is one:
I just looked at the track listing for his eponymous album, and except for the title track, they're all country covers. I think I'm owed an apology for the lie that my sisters spewed about "rock 'n roll".
I'm guessing that all in all, Johnny Tillotson had the type of career he chose to have. He certainly could have moved back to Nashville and reinvented himself as a country artist. He had the voice and the background to do it. His hitmaking days essentially ended around 1963, but he kept on--with various labels and with charity projects.
Johnny Tillotson passed away on April 1 of this year. I, for one, have always loved It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin', and I bet there's a bunch of us still around who do.
I'll just get this out of the way, because I have to be honest: most of Lou Christie's singles I hate with the fire of a thousand suns. But never fear; he did redeem himself with one single recording.
Surprisingly (to me) Lou Christie (born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco) actually had a very nice, normal voice; but early on in his recording career he was urged to record his songs in falsetto. I normally love falsetto, but maybe I wasn't so much turned off by that than by the posture of his songs, which, come on, were really misogynistic (and I'm no feminist). Sadly it seems, he wrote or co-wrote most of them.
I actually like this one (I'll refrain from looking up the lyrics):
(I cannot explain this video's "effects", but it was 1969, after all.)
Sometime around 1971, Lou got tired of singing in falsetto (thank you!) and he moved further away from the teen pop sound, branching out into new endeavors and different sounds. He even recorded a country album in 1974 that included the track that finally won me over.
So, one night we were watching a DVD of Rain Man. Shoot, I'd seen the movie a couple of times before--liked Dustin Hoffman's performance; thought Tom Cruise came off as shrill. And in one scene, a song showed up that I hadn't remembered hearing the first few times I watched the movie. Who was it? How do I get a copy of it? No clue.
Imagine my shock when I finally Googled the artist. What the hell? He can sing like this? Why hadn't he before?
Yes, this one track totally vindicates Lou Christie in my eyes (and ears). I know it's an old, old song, but I never heard anyone do it better than this. It almost makes me want to track down that 1974 country album.
I've been wrong about artists a few times, and over the years I came to appreciate them. I'm still not on board with his self-penned lyrics, but as for talent, Lou Christie definitely had it.
Lou Christie died on June 18. He left his mark on music, even if many are too young to recognize it.
So, some tidbits; some ramblings about some of the artists we lost this year. I firmly believe that artists should not be forgotten. They brought happiness to many, and that's what art, good art, is about.
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