but the songs live on forever

Songwriter

Country Musician Radio Singer Songwriter

Died On This Date (February 13, 2002) Waylon Jennings / Country Music Icon

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Waylon Jennings
June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002

waylon-jenningsWaylon Jennings was a hugely influential country singer, songwriter and musician who was one of the pioneers of the genre’s “outlaw” movement of the ’70s.  Jennings learned to play the guitar and formed his own band before he even hit his teen years.  One of Jennings’ first jobs in music was as a disc jockey at a local Texas radio station.  It was there that he met an up-and-coming rockabilly singer named Buddy Holly.  Before long, Jennings was playing bass in Holly’s band.  On February 3, 1959, Jennings career path suffered a tragic setback when Holly, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens all perished in a plane crash while they were on tour of the Midwest.  The accident, which has been memorialized as “the day the music died,” almost claimed Jennings’ life as well.  At the last minute Jennings gave up his seat to Richardson who hadn’t been feeling well.  As the musicians were boarding the plane, Holly quipped to Jennings, “I hope your ‘ol bus freezes up.”  Jennings’ retort, “Well, I hope your ‘ol plane crashes” haunted him for the rest of his life.   Jennings took a hiatus from performing and moved to Arizona where he went back to DJ’ing.  By the mid ’60s, he was making music again.     As he began building a following, Jennings met resistance from the Nashville music community for in part, not using the usual session players for his records.  Jennings was adamant that he would only use his traveling band in the studio.  And the rock edge to his music fell outside what was perceived as the “Nashville Sound,” a more slick country-pop.  This “outlaw” movement began to take hold as fellow country men like Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson who preferred to hang on to country’s honky tonk roots.   Over the course of his career, Jennings released a series of top-selling and influential country records.  That list includes Honky Tonk Heroes, Waylon Live, Are You Ready For The Country Lonesome, On’ry and Mean, Good Hearted Woman, and Dreaming My Dreams.  His collaborations with the likes of Nelson, Jessi Colter, the Highwaymen and the Outlaws were critically and commercially acclaimed as well.  Jennings stayed active through the ’90s even as his health began to fail due to diabetes.  On February 13, 2002, the disease claimed Waylon Jennings’ life.  He was 64.

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Honky Tonk Heroes - Waylon Jennings

Early Rock Musician Producer Record Label Rock Singer Songwriter

Died On This Date (February 13, 2010) Dale Hawkins / Rockabilly Pioneer; Wrote “Suzie Q”

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Delmar “Dale” Hawkins
August 22, 1936 – February 13, 2010

Dale Hawkins was a singer, songwriter and guitarist who launched his career in Louisiana during the mid ’50s.   He was one of the earliest to take the rock and rockabilly of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly and marry it with the deep Louisiana blues he grew up hearing around him.  It was the birth of swamp rock that would later reach the masses thanks to the likes of Elvin Bishop and Creedance Clearwater Revival.  In 1957, Hawkins released “Susie Q,” a single that took up both sides of the record.  It peaked at #27 on the singles chart but was eventually recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.  The song has been since covered by the likes of the Rolling Stones, Gene Vincent, Johnny Rivers, the Velvet Underground, Bruce Springsteen, and most famously, Creedance Clearwater Revival in 1968.  Hawkins was reportedly the third artist ever to perform on American Bandstand and the first white person to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.  During the late ’50s,  he hosted his own dance show for NBC-TV, The Dale Hawkins Show.  Later, he worked as a producer and label executive, most notably for RCA Records.  He began working as a social worker during the late ’80s.  In 2006, Dale Hawkins learned he had colon cancer which would be the ultimate cause of his death on February 13, 2010.  He was 73 years old.

Thanks to Ed Hardy for the assist.

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Dale Hawkins

Rock Singer Songwriter

Died On This Date (February 9, 1997) Brian Connolly / The Sweet

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Brian Connolly (born Brian McManus)
October 5, 1945 – February 9, 1997

Born in Scotland, Brian Connolly grew up to become the lead singer of the internationally acclaimed ’70s glam rock band, Sweet (sometimes referred to as The Sweet).  When Connolly was a teen, he moved with his family to England where he eventually joined a band that included Ian Gillan and Mick Tucker.  After the 1968 break-up of the band,  Connelly and Tucker recruited Steve Priest and Frank Torpey to form a group that would eventually be known as Sweet.  Over the next decade, the band released a series of albums that made them international superstars by successfully marrying the best of bubblegum with that of glam rock.  Albums like Desolation Boulevard, Give Us A Wink and Level Headed produced iconic hits like “Ballroom Blitz,” “Fox on the Run,” “Action,” and “Love is Like Oxygen.”  Connelly left the Sweet in 1978 and tried without much success to launch a solo career.  He suffered multiple heart attacks in 1982 but soldiered on through the mid ’90s, either on his own or in reformatted versions of Sweet.  On February 9, 1997, Brian Connelly, age 51, died liver failure that was likely brought on by many years of heavy alcohol consumption.

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Sweet

Early Rock Musician Rock Singer Songwriter

Died On This Date (February 9, 1981) Bill Haley / Rock and Roll Pioneer

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Bill Haley
July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981

With Elvis Presley

Bill Haley was a popular rockabilly band leader who came to be known as the Father of Rock ‘n Roll thanks, in part, to his “Rock Around the Clock” record of 1954.  Haley was just 13 when he got his first professional gig entertaining at a local auction in Wilmington, Delaware.  In 1951, he formed a band with whom he’d soon come to be known as Bill Haley & His Comets.  Two years later, their “Crazy Man, Crazy” became the first rock ‘n roll song to crack the Billboard singles chart where it peaked at #15.  In April of 1954, Haley released “Rock Around the Clock” to little fanfare.  His next single, a cover of Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” sold over a million copies and became the first rock ‘n roll song to crack the British charts.  In 1955, the all-but-forgotten “Rock Around the Clock” appeared in the credits for the groundbreaking film, Blackboard Jungle.  In a matter of weeks, the song sat at the top of the U.S. singles chart.  The song found a new audience with the nostalgia fueled youth of the 1970s thanks to prominent placement in the American Graffiti film and Happy Days television series.  Haley remained active on the road well into the ‘7os, but in the spring of 1980, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Bill Haley was 55 when he died in his home on February 9, 1981.  Cause of death was listed as heart failure, but the brain tumor likely played a role.

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20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: Best of Bill Haley & His Comets - Bill Haley & His Comets

Early Rock Musician Rock Singer Songwriter

Died On This Date (February 8, 1990) Del Shannon / Early ’60s Rock ‘n Roll Star

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Del Shannon (Born Charles Westover)
December 30, 1934 – February 8, 1990

With Tom Petty

Del Shannon was a country leaning rock ‘n roll star of the early ’60s.  His hits included “Hats Off to Larry,” “Little Town Flirt,” and 1961’s “Runaway,” which became a #1 single.  Shannon continued to release moderate hits until he turned to producing during the mid ’60s.  In a 1968 comeback attempt, Shannon released an album more fitting of the time, the psychedelic leaning The Further Adventures of Charles Westover.   Although it was considered his masterpiece by many critics and core fans alike, it failed to produce any hit singles and struggled with sales.  Shannon all but vanished from the music business during the ’70s, only to resurface in 1981 thanks to the help of fan, Tom Petty who produced and lent his Heartbreakers to his Drop Down and Get Me.  The album was a welcome return, and Shannon continued to release albums throughout much of the ’80s.  Around that time, his “Runaway” found a new audience by way of the NBC television drama, Crime Story, for which it became the theme song.  As the ’90s dawned, there was talk that Shannon was to replace the recently deceased Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys.  Sadly however, Shannon, who reportedly struggled with depression, fatally shot himself at his Canyon Country, California home on February 8, 1990.  He was 55.

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Drop Down and Get Me - Del Shannon

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