Died On This Date (February 6, 1998) Carl Wilson / The Beach Boys
themusicsover Carl Wilson
December 21, 1946 – February 6, 1998
Carl Wilson was the youngest of three brothers who formed the Beach Boys. With Dennis Wilson, Brian Wilson, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine, Wilson helped create one of the best-selling and most influential bands in pop music history back in 1961. Some have called them the “American Beatles,” a band with which they had a friendly rivalry during their early years while actually strongly influencing each other. Carl was the lead guitarist for the band while handling an occasional lead vocal. It was he who sang lead on “God Only Knows,” “Good Vibrations,” and “Darlin’.” Carl released a handful solo albums during the ’70s and became the first Beach Boy to mount a solo tour. The turbulent goings-on within the band as well as at the Wilson home have been well documented. What many don’t know is that Carl was seen as the peacekeeper within the group. It was he who generally tried to keep the peace within the family and band. In 1997, Carl was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died less than a year later at the age of 51.
What You Should Own
King Tubby’s path to music success was a bit unconventional in that he was not originally a musician, singer, songwriter, or producer, but a skilled Jamaican radio repairman. As sound systems and recording equipment began to grow in popularity throughout Jamaica during the ’50s, and ’60s, so did the demand for Tubby’s skill to fix equipment was continually exposed to bad elements of the island. He soon opened his own repair shop where he put together some of the island’s best sound systems. He soon became skilled at creating sound effects like reverb and echo and was eventually working at the island’s top studios working on some of ska and reggae’s earliest records as a mixer or engineer. It was in this capacity that Tubby began experimenting in what would later be called “remixes,” a practice that he has been credited for inventing. By the ’70s, Tubby was arguably the most popular mixers in Jamaica. Though not a musician in the traditional sense, Tubby was able to manipulate the knobs and dials of a mixing board in a way that made him just as vital to the final product as any of the guitarists or drummers. By removing vocals and certain instruments from the mixes, he created a new form of music called “dub.” Over the course of his career, he mixed or remixed albums by the greatest producers in Jamaica. Tragedy struck on February 6, 1989 when King Tubby, who had just turned 48, was shot and killed in what was believed to be a random robbery. His murder was never solved.
Falco was an Austrian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who scored four massive international hits during the ’80s. His biggest in the U.S. were 1981’s “Der Kommissar” and 1986’s “Rock Me Amadeus.” “Der Kommissar” makes Falco the first to have a German language song go to #1 in the United States. Falco was a gifted musician growing up, so he dropped out of high school at 17 to pursue his calling. In those early days, he sang in a jazz-rock band and later played bass in an Austrian punk band. Following that, Falco released a string of hits that stretched through the early ’90s. On February 6, 1998, Falco was killed when he got into an accident with a bus in the Dominican Republic. He was 40 years old.
Vince Guaraldi was a jazz pianist who is best remembered for his beloved theme music for The Peanuts cartoons. Guaraldi spent the early years of his professional career playing and recording with Cal Tjader. He made is recording debut on The Cal Tjader Trio and then launched his solo career in 1959. In 1962, his “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” which was actually a B-side, won a Grammy for Best Original Jazz Composition. Thanks to the success and sound of that song, Guaraldi caught the attention of the producer of a Peanuts documentary. He was soon hired to compose the music for 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s “Linus and Lucy” has since become one of the most recognized pieces of music in the world and the de facto theme song of the entire Peanuts franchise. In all, Guaraldi scored 16 Peanuts specials and a Peanuts animated feature film. On February 6, 1976, Vince Guaraldi died of a heart attack in between his sets at a nightclub near his home. He was 47.