Died On This Date (November 23, 1969) Spade Cooley / Influential Country Swing Fiddler
themusicsover Donnell “Spade” Cooley
December 17, 1910 – November 23, 1969
Spade Cooley was a western swing fiddle player, band leader and television personality who came to prominence during the 1940s. Born in Oklahoma, Cooley eventually settled in Southern California where he and his band took up residence in the Venice Pier Ballroom. During the first part of the ’40s, the band performed a then-unheard of run of eighteen months. During that time, Cooley released his first of a string of Top 10 singles, “Shame On You.” By the early ’50s, Cooley was a popular face on film and television as well, appearing in almost forty westerns, and hosting his own television program from 1949 to 1959. His career came to an abrupt end in 1961 when he was convicted of beating his second wife, Ella Mae Evans, to death when she told him she wanted a divorce. After serving eight years of his sentence, Spade Cooley was permitted to perform at a sheriff’s benefit concert on November 23, 1969. Following his set, Cooley suffered a fatal heart attack backstage.
What You Should Own
Junior Walker was a saxophone player whose band, Junior Walker and the All Stars became part of the Motown family in 1961. In 1965, the band released the Walker penned “Shotgun” which reached the top of the Billboard R&B chart, and hit #4 on the pop chart. The tune became Walker’s signature song even though it was followed by several other hits over the next few years. Walker had another top 5 pop hit with “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)” in 1969. In 1981, rock band, Foreigner took tapes of old Walker sax solos to put together their own “solo” to use as the centerpiece of their hit single, “Urgent.” On November 23, 1995, Junior Walker died of cancer at the age of 64.
O.C. Smith was an R&B and jazz vocalist whose recording career began with a cover of Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” in 1955. In 1961, Smith was hired by 
