Eric Gale
September 20, 1938 – May 25, 1994
Eric Gale was a jazz guitarist whose skills made him one of the most in-demand session players, appearing on some 500 albums. Those he recorded with include Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Nina Simone, Lena Horne, Billy Joel, Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, Grover Washington Jr., Jesse Belvin, and Carly Simon. He died of cancer on May 25, 1994.
Jesse Belvin
December 15, 1932 – February 6, 1960
Member of the 27 Club
Jesse Belvin was a young R&B star during the ’50s. Besides being a talented singer and pianist, he wrote a few of the era’s most popular songs. His first hit, “Dream Girl,” which he recorded with Marvin Phillips, shot to #2 on the R&B charts in 1952. That was followed a couple of years later by “Earth Angel,” one of the first R&B songs to crossover to the pop charts when it was recorded by The Penguins in 1954. The record went on to sell over a million copies in just a year’s time. His biggest hit came in 1957 with his recording of “Goodnight My Love,” one of the era’s signature songs. An eleven year old Barry White supposedly played the piano on that recording. Belvin signed to RCA Records in 1959 and began to develop into a more sophisticated R&B crooner – a style that was similar to Nat King Cole’s. In early 1960, he had just finished recording an album of soulful standards when his life was cut tragically short. He and his wife were driving home from a performance that included Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson when they were involved in a head-on collision that killed them instantly. Jesse Belvin was 27 years old on the night he died.
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