Dory Previn
October 22, 1925 – February 14, 2012
Dory Previn was an American singer-songwriter and lyricist who counted several Academy Award nominations to her credit. Beginning in the late ’50s, Previn, along with her then-husband and songwriting partner, Andre Previn, wrote numerous songs for such films as Pepe, Two for the Seesaw, and Valley of the Dolls. Their songs have been recorded by such music luminaries as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Dionne Warwick, and Sammy Davis, Jr., to name just a handful. After parting ways with her husband in 1969, Previn launched a successful career as a singer-songwriter. Over the next decade, she released a half-dozen albums, including 1972′s Reflections in a Mud Puddle, which Newsweek magazine named one of the best albums of the year, while the New York Times lauded it as one of the best singer-songwriters of 1972. She went on to win two Emmys for music she created for television, and wrote two autobiographies as well as a one-woman play. Dory Previn passed away on February 14, 2012. She was 86.
Thanks to Harold Lepidus for the assist.
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Leslie Carter was an aspiring pop singer and songwriter who happened to be the sister of world-famous singers, Nick Carter and Aaron Carter. Singing since a young age, Carter was signed to Dreamworks Records in 1999 and released the moderately successful single, “Like Wow” in 2001. The song received a fair amount of airplay and was featured on the Shrek soundtrack. Carter and Dreamworks parted ways before her debut album, Leslie Carter, could be released. In 2006, Carter relaunched her career with a new band, The Other Half, who had a more rock-leaning sound than her early pop days. The band broke up in 2009. Carter was also featured with her family on their own House Of Carters reality show in 2006. Leslie Carter was 25 when she passed away on January 31, 2012. Cause of death was not immediately released.
Clare Fischer was a pianist, composer and arranger who, besides having his own respectable career as a musician, arranged music for some of pop music’s biggest stars. Fischer was still a child when he first started making music, and after graduating from college and serving in the Army, he pursued a career in music. During the late ’50s, he took on his first gig of note as the pianist and arranger for popular vocal quartet, the Hi-Los. It was his work with the group that helped establish them as a major influence on the likes of the Manhattan Transfer, Brian Wilson, and Quincy Jones. It was around that time that he also arranged music for jazz greats Cal Tjader, Donald Byrd, and 
Malina Olinescu was a Romanian pop singer. In 1998, Olinescu represented Romania in the popular Eurovision Song Contest with her song, “Eu Cred” which came in at #22. On December 12, 2011, Malina Olinescu reportedly took her own life by leaping from the 6th floor of a building. She was 37.