Died On This Date (February 26, 1990) Cornell Gunter / The Platters
themusicsover Cornelius Gunter
November 14, 1936 – February 26, 1990
Cornell Gunter was a founding member of the Platters, one of R&B/rock ‘n roll’s most successful vocal groups. He was ALSO a member of another popular group, the Coasters. With the Platters, which he helped form in 1953, Gunter sang lead on such hits as “You Send Me,” and “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” He left the group in 1960. With the Coasters, he sang on “Yakety Yak,” “Charlie Brown,” and “Poison Ivy.” Gunter made several solo recordings throughout his career as well. Cornell Gunter was in the process of launching a comeback in Las Vegas when he was gunned down by an unknown assailant on February 26, 2009. The crime was never solved.
Florence Ballard was a founding member of influential Motown singing group, the Supremes. Born and raised in Detroit, Ballard began singing in local groups while still a teenager. In 1959, she successfully auditioned for a female vocal group called the Primettes who, after a few personnel changes eventually signed with Motown Records as the Supremes, with the most successful formation of the group including Ballard, Diana Ross and Mary Wilson. Over the next eight years with the Supremes, Ballard sang on nearly a dozen #1 hits and helped the women become one of the most influential female groups in history. In the spring of 1967, Ballard left the group and launched a solo career, but it failed to bring her back into the spotlight. Personal and financial problems plagued Florence Ballard during the final years of her life, and on February 22, 1976, she died of cardiac arrest. She was 32.
Snooks Eaglin was a popular New Orleans R&B performer who, due to a set list that drew from upwards of 2500 songs, was sometimes called “the human jukebox.” And to the dismay of his backing band, in most cases he performed without a written set list, preferring to just play what felt right in the moment. Even though he was blind since infancy, Eaglin learned to play the guitar at a very young age. When he was just 11, he won a local radio talent competition and within three years, he left school to make his living as a musician. By the mid ’50s, he was playing in the great Allen Toussaint’s band, the Flamingos. In 1958, Eaglin became the subject of several recordings by musicologist, Dr. Harry Oster. Many of these sides were later released on the Folkways label. Eaglin signed with Imperial Records in 1960 and released a series of records that were more in the tradition of New Orleans R&B than the more blues styled Oster recordings. He continued recording through the ’90s and was a common fixture at the New Orleans Jazzfest for many years. Snooks Eaglin was 73 when he suffered a fatal heart attack on February 18, 2009.
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a somewhat outrageous blues and rock ‘n roll singer and musician whose biggest hit, “I Put a Spell On You,” and spooky stage theatrics influenced the likes of Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath. Even Bruce Springsteen has borrowed from Hawkins by coming out of a coffin to kick off his shows around Halloween. After serving in WWII where he was reportedly captured and tortured, Hawkins came home to the U.S. where he became a middleweight boxing champ, and later, a recording artist. In 1956, he released “I Put a Spell On You,” which went on to become a radio staple each year in October and has since been recorded or performed by the likes of Creedance Clearwater Revival, 