DemBones

Yeah, they had a huge top 5 hit in the US in 1989 with a cover of Ian Hunter’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, but unfortunately that incident is what they’re mostly going to be remembered for.

Dead. That was fast.

Former Great White vocalist Jack Russell announces that he has Lewy Body Dementia. https://blabbermouth.net/news/ex-great-white-singer-jack-russell-diagnosed-with-lewy-body-dementia-announces-retirement-from-touring

He had actually been scheduled to perform at a local club in my area tomorrow. They sent out an announcement about a week ago that the show was postponed because David had just undergone back surgery to repair two spinal stress fractures. I know the announcement said cause of death was cancer, but I can’t help wondering if that contributed to it.

Not quite true. The rest of the d-line died a long time ago but Mean Joe Greene is still very much alive.

Wow, I remember him. A one-season wonder who had a great rookie year and then fell straight off a cliff.

Bobby Shantz is also the last living player from the Philadelphia Athletics.

Van Brett Watkins, the hitman hired by former NFL football player Rae Carruth to kill Carruth’s pregnant girlfriend in 1999, has died in a North Carolina prison from natural causes at age 63.

First one I remember hearing the news reports about when it happened was Rock Hudson, which is also when I first learned what AIDS was. I was 7 at the time.

It interested me finding out out that the Jacksons had to wait until 1977 for their first UK #1, a full eight years after their first US #1. Though to be fair, they did have two UK top fives in 69/70, so they could’ve broken through much earlier with a bit more luck.

Not going to have time today to continue the methodical research I was doing before, but I did remember some potential candidates, including one that supersedes an existing list entry (sorry, Kate Bush fans!). 1948: Steve Winwood (The Spencer Davis Group) #1 in early 1966 1953: Jimmy McCulloch (Thunderclap Newman), #1 in 1969 1957: Stuart Wood (The Bay City Rollers) #1 in early 1975 1958: Michael Jackson (The Jacksons) #1 in 1977 1959: Terry Hall (The Specials) #1 in early 1980 1961: Randy Jackson (The Jacksons) #1 in 1977 (same song as Michael)

Just one to add from 1959’s chart-toppers. 1943: Tony Meehan (Cliff Richard & The Shadows). I edited several artists from the 1957/58 charts into my previous post, in case you missed it - might’ve been some overlap there.

Artists who hit #1 in 1955: 1916: Pérez Prado 1929: Dickie Valentine 1930: Johnny Grande (Bill Haley & His Comets) 1932: Alma Cogan 1933: Marshall Lytle (Bill Haley & His Comets) 1934: Joey Ambrose (Bill Haley & His Comets) 1935: Ruby Murray (first chart-topper born in the 1930s) Artists who hit #1 in 1956: 1940: Sherman Garnes, Jimmy Merchant, & Joe Negroni (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers) (apologies to both John Lennon and Tom Jones) 1941: Herman Santiago (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers) 1942: Frankie Lymon (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers) (All five would count as the first chart-toppers born in the 1940s) The one piece of missing information from 1956 is the birth date of Gene Adkinson from the vocal duo “The Dream Weavers” who hit #1 in March. Wade Buff, the other half of the duo, was born in 1934 (and just died this past April, I found his obit) so he loses out to Ambrose, but Adkinson is still a mystery. Edit to add: Artists who hit #1 in 1957: 1931: Tab Hunter 1936: Tommy Steele 1937: Niki Sullivan (The Crickets) 1939: Jerry Allison (The Crickets) Artists who hit #1 in 1958: 1924: Michael Holliday 1938: Connie Francis That should take care of both the 1920s and the 1930s, unless we find out later that Fred Datchler and/or Gene Adkinson had a superseding birthday.

Artists with #1 singles in 1953 who are first in their birth years: 1905: Mantovani 1912: Perry Como 1913: Frankie Laine 1917: Jo Stafford 1922: Kay Starr 1925: David Whitfield 1926: Lita Roza 1928: Eddie Fisher I don’t know how (or if) you want to count groups as opposed to solo artists, but the Stargazers also had a #1 hit that year. Members at the time of recording are listed as Cliff Adams (b. 1923), Ronnie Milne (b. 1921), Dick James (b. 1920), Marie Benson, and Fred Datchler. I haven’t found birth dates for the latter two yet. Edit: Marie Benson was born in 1928. The Stargazers hit #1 before Eddie Fisher, so if you’re counting group members then she wins for that year. Artists with #1 singles in 1954 who are first in their birth years: Una Atwell (birth year disputed; either 1910 or 1914) 1915: Frank Sinatra 1919: Don Cornell 1921: Kitty Kallen (only if Ronnie Milne doesn’t count).

Actually, doing that in Gran Turismo would probably get you like a five second penalty. The newer iterations of the game are hyper-sensitive about track limits to the point where I’ve occasionally been penalized for hitting the wall even when someone else punted me off! That was actually one of the first things I thought of when I heard about this maneuver, because GT’s programmers have zero tolerance for wall-riding. And yeah, pretty much the only guys we’ve heard griping about his little maneuver are the guys he beat with it.

I’m trying to think of who might have been potential misses in 1988, if we had the actual list to compare it to. There were a lot of notable deaths that year that couldn’t have been easily anticipated, either because of deadly accidents or falls (Charles Hawtrey, Roy Kinnear), acute health incidents (Andy Gibb, Kenneth Williams), or cold war politics (Kim Philby). The biggest names I can come up with who weren’t on 1987’s list and might have warranted serious consideration going into ‘88 due to age and/or infirmity are Richard Feynman, Barbara Wootton, Alan Paton, and Enzo Ferrari, but other than Feynman who had known health problems going all the way back to the late 1970s, I don’t know how much news was out there about the other three before they passed. Of course, without the real list to know who was actually on it or not, that’s all just an exercise in speculation anyway.

I guess Satch Sanders should consider himself officially on notice now.

Only American player ever to score five goals in an NHL game, when he was with the Rangers. I’m a San Jose Sharks fan since the team’s founding, and he also has a minor claim to fame in their history too, with an assist on the first goal they ever scored. RIP

Gustavo Pena, who played in two World Cups for Mexico and was team captain in 1970, dead from Covid at age 78. (link is in Spanish)

I didn’t even know that Norman Jewison was still alive. Thought he’d popped it a few years ago somehow.

One of my favorite movie soundtracks too, by Tangerine Dream. On the topic, when I was a kid I got very confused by the pop group Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. When I saw that name crop up in the charts I thought it was just describing some musical collaboration between The Cult and Lisa Lisa (whoever she was). Wasn’t until years later I actually got that straightened out, but I still tend to lump them both together in my head even though their musical styles are totally different.

I wanted him to play Slughorn in the Harry Potter movies. From the first time I read Half-Blood Prince I always pictured him in that role.

I’m guessing you can probably thank Shirley Temple for that, she was such a megastar in the 30s.

There were 18 players left from the first Super Bowl team when I looked it up back in April, though I didn’t list them all out. So I guess 17 now, plus one coach.

Sorry. I never looked at the other thread, just this one.