Died On This Date (June 4, 2013) Joey Covington / Drummer For Hot Tuna & Jefferson Airplane

Joey Covington
June 27, 1945 – June 4, 2013

joey-covingtonJoey Covington was a journeyman drummer who is perhaps best remembered for his tenure with both Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.  Playing since the age of 10, Covington found his influence in jazz drummers of the day.  He also took a shine to the playing of the great Sandy Nelson.  By the time he was 14, he had already been playing with local polka groups for a couple of years, often chaperoned by his parents.  He soon gave his parents the slip and found work playing in strip club bands, which was fairly common for up-and-coming rock drummers during the ’50s and early ’60s.  During high school, Covington started playing with fellow students in rock bands.  When he turned 20, he went to New York City where he found work playing in back-up bands for such visiting acts as the Supremes, the Fenways, and the Shangri-Las.  He also played in the band for a Dick Clark cavalcade-of-stars type roadshow.  By the late ’60s, Covington found himself in Los Angeles and playing around with violin great and Jefferson Airplane member, Papa John Creach which lead to his relationship with the band and other musicians in their inner circle.  In 1969, Covington helped form Hot Tuna, a side project for Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady who needed something to do during a break while singer, Grace Slick recovered from a surgery.  The Hot Tuna recordings that featured Covington were not released at the time.  In 1969, Jefferson Airplane hired Covington to replace Spencer Dryden. He played on Volunteers, Bark, and Long John Silver and wrote or co-wrote a number of the band’s songs including the hit, “With Your Love.”  After leaving the band in 1972, Covington formed Fat Fandango.  In later years, he participated in various Jefferson Airplane/Starship configurations called the San Francisco All-Stars.  On June 4, 2013, Joey Covington was reportedly killed when his car crashed into a wall in Palm Springs, California.  Details of the accident were not immediately released.  Covington was 67.

Thanks to Ben Anderson for the assist.

What You Should Own

Click to find at amazon.com
Click to find at amazon.com



Died On This Date (December 20, 2012) Jimmy McCracklin / West Coast Blues Great

Jimmy McCracklin
August 13, 1921 – December 20, 2012

jimmy-mccracklinOver a career that spanned almost 70 years, Jimmy McCracklin made some of the finest jump blues to ever come out of California.  Born in the south, McCracklin settled just outside of San Francisco after serving in the Navy during WWII.  Influenced by blues piano great, Walter Davis, he cut his first record, “Miss Mattie Left Me,” for Globe Records in 1948.  In 1957, he released what has become his signature song, “The Walk,” whose re-release by Checker Records a year later reached #7 on the Billboard pop chart while cracking the top 5 on the R&B chart.  Its popularity also earned him a slot on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.  As a songwriter, McCracklin is credited with “Stomp,” which became hits for Lowell Fulson, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, and Salt-n-Pepa.  Over his long and prolific career, he wrote 1000s of songs, made 100s of records, released 30 albums (four of them gold), and played with the likes of B.B. King and Charles Brown.  Obviously an influence on many, a couple of notables who have sourced McCracklin as a favorite are Bob Dylan and Phil Alvin of the Blasters.  Jimmy McCracklin performed, wrote and recorded well into the 2000s and ultimately passed away on December 20, 2012.  He was 91.

Thanks to Kevin Walsh for the assist.

What You Should Own

Click to find at amazon.com
Click to find at amazon.com

My Story - Jimmy McCracklin

Died On This Date (April 18, 2012) Dick Clark / America’s Oldest Teenager

Richard Clark
November 30, 1929 – April 18, 2012

dick-clark1Dick Clark was a world-famous radio and television pioneer who, because of his longtime championing of pop music, along with his youthful good looks, was dubbed “America’s Oldest Teenager.”  Clark was just 17 when he took his first job in the music business – as a sales rep for a New York radio station.  By the early ’50s, he was hosting his own radio program, Caravan of Music at WFIL in Philadelphia.  In 1956, he took over the station’s TV affiliate’s teen music program, Bob Horn’s Bandstand.  Within a year, ABC brought the show, now American Bandstand, into living rooms across the United States.  Over the next four decades, American Bandstand, with Clark as host, presented new records and “live” performances by hundreds if not thousands of famous and not-so-famous pop acts the world has ever known.  The program, which aired until 1989, became the blueprint for teen music television programming, but none of its followers (except perhaps Soul Train) were ever able to come close to matching its cultural impact.  Despite Clark’s clean-cut persona, he was a tireless supporter of the music he presented – whether he was speaking out against censorship, or choosing to play the original R&B records by their Black performers over the “sanitized” versions by White artists which were popular in his early days of radio.  In 1972, Clark launched Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve which rang in the new year from Times Square in New York City with a program filled with performances from popular music acts of that particular year.  Even after suffering a significant stroke in 2004, Clark returned in 2006, albeit with less screen time, as co-host of the program with Ryan Seacrest.  Over the years, Clark ran several other ventures as well – game shows, award shows, restaurants, and live theaters.  On April 18, 2012, Dick Clark died after suffering a heart attack.  He was 82.

Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number 1 Albums for the assist.



Died On This Date (April 5, 1983) Danny Rapp / Danny & the Juniors

Danny Rapp
May 9, 1941 – April 5, 1983

Danny Rapp at far right

Danny Rapp was the lead singer of ’50s teen sensations, Danny & the Juniors. In 1957, their single, “Do The Bop” landed in the hands of Dick Clark who liked it and played it on American Bandstand after suggesting to the group that they change in to “At The Hop.” They had two more hits, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Here To Stay,” and “Twistin’ USA.” The group continued to record throughout the ’60s but were never able to come close to the success they had with those three tracks. Danny Rapp fell out of the public eye until his apparent suicide in 1983.

What You Should Own

Click to find at amazon.com

Danny & The Juniors