Arnie Treffers
February 15, 1947 – August 25, 1995
Arnie Treffers was the main songwriter and lead singer of Netherlands rock band, Long Tall Ernie & the Shakers who became local favorites in the mid ’70s. The band’s sound fell somewhere between Elvis Presley and the Sweet. These days their recordings are prized by collectors around the world. Treffers died of lung cancer on August 25, 1995.
Berle Adams (Born Beryl Adasky)
June 11, 1917 – August 25, 2009
Berle Adams was a longtime music industry executive who, through his career was Vice President of MCA and co-founded Mercury Records. Adams began his career as an agent, representing such acts as Coleman Hawkins and Louis Jordan. He later formed his own agency as well as a couple of publishing companies. In 1945, he co-founded Mercury Records, quickly releasing hits by the likes of Vic Damone and Frankie Laine. In 1950, Lew Wasserman hired Adams at MCA where he stayed for the next two decades, working mostly in television. While with MCA, Adams formed Uni Records who signed the Who, Neil Diamond and Elton John to name a few. In 1971, Adams left MCA to work for the William Morris Agency. Berle Adams passed away on August 25, 2009 at the age of 92.
Bernard “Jack” Nitzsche
April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000
Jack Nitzsche was a respected arranger, composer, producer and session musician who was involved in many of the greatest west coast pop recordings of the ’60s and ’70s. His first significant contribution to pop music came in 1955 when he co-wrote “Needles And Pins” with Sonny Bono. The song was a hit for Jackie DeShannon and was later recorded by the Searchers, Cher and the Ramones. By the early ’60s, Nitzsche was working as an arranger for Phil Spector, orchestrating the celebrated “wall of sound” on hits like Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep Mountain High.” Nitzsche was also part of the famed Wrecking Crew, a group of studio musicians that included Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, and Hal Blaine. Much like their Motown counterparts, the Funk Brothers, the Wrecking Crew were the faceless band behind many ’60s pop hits coming out of Los Angeles. They could be heard on records by the likes of the Monkees and the Beach Boys. Nitzsche also worked on classic recordings by the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, Graham Parker and Willy DeVille to name a few. During the ’70s, Nitzsche created the music for several motion pictures including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Starman, 9-1/2 Weeks, and An Officer And A Gentlemen, for which won the best song Oscar for “Up Where We Belong.” Jack Nitzsche died of cardiac arrest at the age of 63.
Stacy Sutherland
May 28, 1946 – August 24, 1978
Stacy Sutherland was the original guitarist in Roky Erickson’s 13th Floor Elevators, a psychedelic garage band that burst out of Austin, Texas in 1965. Sutherland also had a hand in writing some of the band’s material. And it was Sutherland’s use of reverb and echo that inspired a generation of garage bands. When Erickson was committed to a mental institution in 1969, the band members went their separate ways with Sutherland formed his own band. Later that year, he went to prison on drug charges. Upon his release during the mid ’70s, Sutherland attempted to make another go with it, but was losing his battle with alcohol addiction. On August 24, 1978, Stacy Sutherland, age 32, was shot and killed by his wife during a domestic dispute. His death was ruled an accident.
Louis Prima
December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978
Louis Prima was a popular jazz trumpeter, singer, and band leader who came to prominence performing and recording with his then-wife, Keely Smith. Thanks to his big personality on stage, Prima and his jazz combo became a popular Las Vegas draw during the ’50s. Prima and Smith won a Grammy in 1959 for their single, “That Old Black Magic.” His widest exposure came thanks to the 1967 Disney film, Jungle Book. In it, Prima voiced the popular orangutan, King Louie and sang the hit song, “I Wanna Be Like You.” In 1975, Prima’s doctors discovered a stem brain tumor. During the surgery to remove it, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, putting him into a coma. He passed away on August 24, 1978 at the age of 67.
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