Tom Burdyshaw (1947-2008) “Tom from Garfield Heights”

I regret to inform my listeners that “Tom from Garfield Heights” has lost his battle with cancer.  Long time “loyal listeners” heard his name weekly for many years.  I began “the Innocent Age” approximately 10 years ago, and Tom found out about the show in April, 1989 at Steve Petryszyn’s Parma Record Convention.  He was excited about the show, but lived too far North of the station to be able to pick it up.  Later that year, we started broadcasting on the Internet, but Tom didn’t have a computer.  I sent him 2 cassettes every week for almost three years.  He would listen to the show and call me with his comments, which included his favorites and most shows contained at least 10 or 12 tunes he had never heard before.  That pattern continued week after week.  He came over a few times, and we would spend the entire time sharing music, just as I usually did with Steve and Frank Kramer.  Tom had the same passion for this music as the three of us did and it was a joy seeing the twinkle in his eye when he heard those “songs you should have heard” for the first time.

Tom had a fairly extensive collection of 45’s that he kept buying into the late 80’s.  Ironically, our mutual taste seemed to match as we talked about 70’s and 80’s music we liked as well.  Work schedules and family demands kept us from getting together very often, but we talked on the phone often.  If I found a really good CD, I’d let him know and he would go to the same store and buy it on my suggestion.  He was a good and genuine man.  I was devastated when I heard he had been diagnosed with cancer.  Not because I didn’t think he could beat this horrible disease, but because he simply didn’t deserve the pain and fear it takes to deal with it.  My wife has been cancer free for five years, but Steve Petryszyn lost his wife Sher after a five year battle.

I didn’t have much contact with Tom’s wife Liz other than to speak with her on the phone, but she knew how much music meant to Tom.  Tom’s entire family was with him the day he died.  While I never got a chance to say goodbye, his daughter Kimberly told me one of my shows was playing in the background when he passed.

I will miss Tom’s passion.  When I told him I wanted to some “nostalgia” on the station which included some vintage commercials if I could find them.  He called me back a few days later and read off over a hundred he thought would work.  I was able to find about 70 of those and the comprise the backbone of my “nostalgic” cuts.

Last year about this time, I brought him a tray of candy bars to keep his strength up.  Tom and I both shared a fondness for “Sky Bars” – a candy bar from our youth.  I found a place locally where I could buy a box of 24 took them over to him for Halloween.  I told his wife Liz that if she visits Tom at the cemetery and finds a Sky Bar, she’ll know I stopped by to say hello to him.

I am dedicating the Innocent Age running from November 10th through the 16th to Tom’s memory.  All the songs I’ll play on that show will be Tom’s favorites over the 9 years he listened to the show.  I’m hoping when people hear these songs in the future they’ll think of “Tom from Garfield Heights”…..

Jerry Wallace (1928 – 2008)

Smooth voiced pop-turned-country singer/guitarist/actor Jerry Wallace died May 5 at his home in Corona, Ca. of congestive heart failure. He was 79. Wallace is survived by four children and two grandchildren. A memorial service will be held May 9 in Corona, Ca., with burial to follow in Riverside, Ca.

Jerry Wallace was born in Guildford, Missouri on December 15, 1928, and grew up in Glendale, Arizona.

Wallace began his recording career in 1951 with Allied. Seven years later, after switching to Challenge Records, he broke onto the charts with How the Time Flies, which reached number eleven. A year later, he released the biggest hit of his career with Primrose Lane, which went to number eight. Interestingly, while both were very pop oriented, they crossed over onto the R&B charts and peaked at numbers eleven and twelve respectively.
In 1964, at the end of his time with Challenge, he once again challenged the upper parts of the charts with In the Misty Moonlight. While the single stopped at number nineteen on the pop charts, it ascended to number two on the Adult Contemporary. In total, Wallace placed thirteen singles in the top 100 between 1951 and 1972.

The following year, after signing a short term deal with Mercury, Wallace started to venture away from pop and toward a modern country sound. His Life’s Gone and Slipped Away was not a huge hit, but it did give him his first break on country radio. Wallace would continue to have minor hits on both Mercury and Decca until 1972 when he recorded a song for the series Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. If You Leave Me Tonight I Will Cry went to the top of the country charts and was followed just a few months later by the number two single Do You Know What It’s Like to Be Lonesome.

For the balance of the 70’s, Wallace would have ten more country hits on MCA, BMA and 4 Star before his popularity began to wain. He was also awarded the 1972 Male Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association.

Jerry also composed music for film and television, and appeared in films including “Flipper’s New Adventure” and “Goodbye Charlie.” He also worked on music for other television shows, including “Daniel Boone” and “Hec Ramsey.” Beyond recording, Wallace acted in films like Goodbye Charlie.

Listen for Jerry’s pop hits on TUNEDEX MEMORIES.

Dan Fogelberg (1951-2007)

I love the music I grew up with. The music of the late 50’s and early 60’s will ALWAYS be my favorites. However, I didn’t stop listening to music as I grew older. I had favorite singers in the 70’s and 80’s also. By the 90’s, I was pretty much done adopting new artists, but I was always a sucker for singer/songwriters. Carole King, Neil Diamond, Jackson Browne and Billy Joel were artists that I bought albums sight unheard. I trusted their talent. But the “wordsmith” at the top of this list had to be Dan Fogelberg.

From the innocence and sincerity of his lyrics to the simplicity of his music, I enjoyed everything Dan recorded. His talent knew no bounds. He wrote the music and lyrics. He played the instruments. He produced the records. He even painted the artwork for the album cover. He had a loyal and faithful following and avoided Corporate greed until the mid-eighties when his label made him join the “MTV Generation”. It was that “square peg in a round hole” decision that began the decline of Dan’s commercial success.

When I started my career in radio, I called my show “The Innocent Age”. I stole that from Dan. His two-record album of the same name included the hits “Same Old Lang Syne”, “Hard To Say”, “Leader Of The Band”, and “Run For The Roses”. This album makes my All-Time Top Ten list. If you’ve never listened to ALL the songs, check it out, you’ll be amazed as I was.

I feel blessed that I was able to see Dan perform live. He opened for Jackson Browne at Blossom Music Center. He opened the show with an acoustic set, but the crowd grew restless and demanded the band, so he shrugged it off, and continued the show. As a fan, I felt cheated out of the intimacy he was trying to share with the audience. With an outdoor venue, intimacy usually does not prevail, but I cherish the memories of that concert. I’ll never grow tired of Dan’s music. Dan made my life better for knowing him through his music. I never met my father and I still weep when I hear Dan’s moving and loving tribute to his father, “Leader of the Band”.

Dan battled prostate cancer for almost three years before he succumbed on December 16, 2007, at the age of 56. He is survived by his wife, Jean. Donations in Dan’s memory at the ProstateCancerFoundation.org website have raised over $40,000! Jean Fogelberg has announced on Dan’s website that a CD will be released this fall containing 11 previously unreleased songs called “Love In Time”. Dan is gone, but his music lives on.

Listen for Dan’s interpretation of “Rhythm of the Rain” on TUNEDEX MEMORIES

Tom Dawes (1943-2007)

Tom Dawes met Don Danneman at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. They soon formed a band with Marty Fried and Earle Pickens called the Rhondells. A local attorney, Nat Weiss heard them and got Columbia records to check them out. Before they knew what was happening, they were signed to a contract by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Not surprisingly, the newly named group (purportedly by John Lennon) opened for the Beatles on their ‘66 tour.

They had immediate success with “Red Rubber Ball” written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley of the Seekers. They hit the charts six times, but by the early 70’s the magic was gone. Tom turned to writing jingles and delivered one that made him a icon in the world of commercials. He wrote the “Plop-Plop Fizz-Fizz” ditty for Alka Seltzer. He met his wife Ginny Redington Dawes at a commercial writing competition. They would go on to collaborate on many writing projects.

Tom suffered a stroke from after carotid artery surgery and passed away on October 13, 2007. In additon to his wife Ginny, Tom is survived by his sister, Robin Ducey. We’ve always been big fans of the Cyrkle so you’ll find all their charted songs in our play list “the Honor Roll of Hits”.  Check us out here:  TUNEDEX MEMORIES

Arthur William Todd (1914-2007)

One of the biggest hits of 1958 was “Chanson D’Amour” by Art and Dotty Todd. The couple had already been married for 17 years when they hit the charts. While they only had that one hit, it enabled them to appear on both the Ed Sullivan show and American Bandstand. Arthur William Todd died October 10^th, at the age of 93 of congestive heart failure in Honolulu.

Mr Todd was born the fourth child of a family of six in Baltimore Maryland. His mother played piano, his father violin and young Arthur wanted to be a banjo player. So, when he was 10, he built one, out of a cigar box, a broom handle, and four pieces of wire. His father was so impressed, he bought him the best banjo he could find and Mr. Todd played that banjo his entire life.

He met his future wife, Doris “Dotty” Dabb, a piano player, while both were performing in Providence, R.I. They married in 1941 and Mr. Todd served in the Army in an entertainment unit during World War II. After the war, the couple worked the lounge circuit in California in the 1940s and 1950s as Art and Dotty Todd and later was signed by CBS for their own radio show.

Art & Dotty enjoyed a bit hit in England with ‘Broken Wings’ in 1953, but had no recording success in America until 1958. Composer “Wayne Shanklin stopped them one day and said, ‘I’ve got a great song for you.’ He had already written big the big hits, ‘Jezebel’ and ‘The Old Man and the Sea.’ Art knew that a lot of the success of their song came from the many old-time DJ’s who resisted the emerging rock sound. The song peaked at No. 6 on Billboard’s Top 40 list on April 21, 1958. It remained on the list for 11 weeks.

The Todds retired in Hawaii in 1980. They ran a supper club and were active members of the Oahu Country Club and Outrigger Canoe Club. Mrs. Todd died in 2000. Mr. Todd’s survivors include a sister, and eight nieces and nephews.

You’ll find ‘Chanson D’Amour’ on our play list, ‘the Honor Roll of Hits’. Listen for it on Tunedex Memories.

Teresa Brewer (1931-2007)

Sassy 50’s recording artist Teresa Brewer, passed away October 17th, at the age of 76. Ms. Brewer succumbed to progressive supranuclear palsy, a brain disorder. She is survived by her four daughters, Kathleen Monahan-Granzen of Rye Brook, N.Y., Susan M. Dorot of White Plains, N.Y., Megan Ahearn of Port Chester, N.Y., and Michelle McCann of New Rochelle. Other survivors include stepson Bob Thiele Jr. of California, a brother, four grandsons and five great-grandchildren.

Theresa Veronica Breuer was born May 7, 1931, in Toledo, Ohio. Her mother took her to her first audition at age 2 – for a radio show called “Uncle August’s Kiddie Show.” Brewer sang “Take Me Out to The Ball Game” and performed for pay consisting of cupcakes and cookies from the show’s sponsor. She continued singing at talent competitions and from 1938 to 1943 made regular appearances on the “Major Bowes Amateur Hour” radio program.

She quit high school at seventeen and moved to New York. There, she started performing in a string of talent shows, which eventually led to a recording career. Ms. Brewer topped the charts over 40 times, with great songs like “Music, Music, Music”, “Till I Waltz Again With You”, and “A Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl”. In 1956, she co-wrote “I Love Mickey”, written for and sung with Yankee slugger, Mickey Mantle.

A multi-talented performer, Teresa found herself on many TV shows during the 50’s and even Hollywood came calling, when she co-starred in “Those Redheads from Seattle.” Due to rave reviews, Paramount offered her a seven-year contract, but she declined, choosing instead to stay home in New Rochelle and raise her children.

After her marriage to William Monahan ended, she revived her singing career by recording a series of jazz albums. She worked with many jazz greats, including Count Basie, Earl Hines and Duke Ellington. It was during this time, she met her second husband, jazz producer, Bob Thiele. Mr. Thiele died in 1996.

Teresa Brewer was one of my favorite pop singers. You’ll hear many of her Charted hits,  and be sure to listen for “I Love Mickey” with Yankee great Mickey Mantle.  Catch them in rotation at TUNEDEX MEMORIES.

Lee Hazelwood (1928-2007)

Lee Hazelwood passed away at the age of 78 on August 4^th, in Henderson, Nevada after a three year struggle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Jeane, son Mark, and daughters Debbie and Samantha. Barton Lee Hazelwood was born in Mannford, Oklahoma in 1928. He served in the Army during the Korean War, disc jockeying for Armed Services Radio in Japan, which led him to his first job as a DJ in Coolidge, Arizona. He began writing songs and scored his first big hit in 1956. Lee wrote and produced the rockabilly single “The Fool” for Sanford Clark.

Lee also did some production for a local Phoenix guitarist named Duane Eddy. It was Hazlewood’s early ideas with different guitar effects that caught the ear of Jamie Records, who signed Eddy. The guitarist went on to score twelve top forty hits before leaving the label. Phil Spector also came under Hazlewood’s influence when he observed Lee’s recording techniques in the studio. Spector’s first productions were released on the Trey label which was owned by Hazlewood and Lester Sill.

In the early 60’s, he established the LHI label, which allowed him to launch his own singing career as well as others like Gram Parsons and his first group, The International Submarine Band. In 1963 he recorded a solo album of his own, “Trouble In A Lonesome Town” which earned him critical acclaim and his first commercial failure.

The mid sixties finally saw the spotlight of celebrity shine on Lee, with the help of Nancy Sinatra. He wrote and produced many of her biggest hits, including These Boots Were Made For Walking, Sugartown and the unforgettable Some Velvet Morning. Their work together helped Nancy become a worldwide star, but she insisted that Lee step our in front of the microphone also, leading to three “Nancy & Lee” albums.

In the early 1970s Lee moved to Sweden. He recorded “Cowboy In Sweden” for Swedish TV and dabbled in some film soundtracks, but unofficially retired and worked only occasionally over the next two decades. Instead he traveled a lot, living for a time in Ireland, Germany, Spain and of course America. His solo work was rediscovered by a new generation of performers like Primal Scream, Megadeath and Nick Cave. Drummer Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth was so taken with Lee’s work, that he re-issued many of Lee’s solo albums on his own label.

His final album, “Cake or Death”, was released in 2006, several months after his cancer diagnosis, but he nevertheless worked hard to promote it, granting interviews and even traveling. The Hazelwood family has requested that those wishing to honor Lee should make donations to the Salvation Army.

In addition to the many hit Nancy/Lee duets, we play other Lee Hazelwood compositions. Songs like “Houston” by Dean Martin, and “Little Arrows” by Leapy Lee, “Surfin’ Hootennany” by Al Casey and the Duane Eddy hits, “Rebel Rouser”, “Movin’ & Groovin”, and “Dance With The Guitar Man”. We’ll never forget Lee’s music – listen for them at: TUNEDEX MEMORIES

Rod Lauren (1940-2007)

Rod Lauren, the name RCA-Victor chose for Roger Strunk was an example of how a record company created singers out of next to nothing. Roger was a small club performer with an instrumental group called The Buddies when RCA spotted him on the West Coast and signed him. The company budgeted $50,000 to launch Rod’s first disk, bombarded dealers with promotional material, emphasizing the sullen good looks kids went for. For six weeks Rod toured the country wooing the jocks, bouncing from teen-age dance to teen-age dance. Unfortunately, the result was one charted song, “If I Had A Girl” and not much more success. Rod recorded many very nice “teeners” that never made it to radio. We’ll be playing some of these “songs you should have heard” on Tunedex Memories. He turned to acting and fared much better. In addition to bit parts on various television shows, he co-starred in a lot of “B-Movies”. One in particular, “The Crawling Hand” has gained cult status.

Sadly, the Police in Tracy City California have ruled Roger Lawrence “Rod” Strunk’s death a suicide. He was found bleeding from a second story fall on July 11^th. While unconfirmed, the source of his unhappiness may have been the scrutiny he had been under for the death of his wife of 23 years, Filipino actress Nida Blanca. Mrs. Strunk had been found stabbed to death in 2002, and after the funeral, Rod returned to Tracy City to be with his mother who was dying of cancer. Philippine authorities attempted to extradite Rod but never provided US officials with enough evidence to warrant the move.

Rod stayed in California after his mother’s death and was working at Tracy City’s public -access station, Channel 26. A friend said that more recently he was helping to plan the 50 year reunion for Tracy High School’s Class of 1957. Rod is survived by a sister, Sharolyn Grove.  Many of Rod’s early recordings can be heard on TUNEDEX MEMORIES!

Boots Randolph (1927-2007)

Boots Randolph has died at the age of 80. Mr. Randolph suffered a cerebral hemorrhage June 25 and had been hospitalized in a coma. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Dee Baker Randolph, his son, Randy, his daughter, Linda O’Neal and his brother Bob.

Randolph played regularly in Nashville nightclubs for 30 years, becoming a tourist draw for the city much like Wayne Newton in Las Vegas and Pete Fountain in New Orleans. He recorded more than 40 albums and spent 15 years touring with the Festival of Music, teaming with fellow instrumentalists Chet Atkins and Floyd Cramer. He also was part of the Million Dollar Band on the TV show “Hee Haw.”

As a session musician, he played on Elvis Presley’s “Return to Sender,” Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Round the Christmas Tree” and “I’m Sorry,” Al Hirt’s “Java” and many others. He had his biggest solo hit with “Yakety Sax,” which he wrote. “Yakety Sax” was used on the TV program “The Benny Hill Show” more than two decades after the tune was on the charts. He charted 13 albums on the pop charts from 1963 to 1972. His other single hits included “Hey, Mr. Sax Man” in 1964 and “Temptation” in 1967.

Randolph was born Homer Louis Randolph in Paducah, Kentucky. He said he didn’t know where or why he got the nickname “Boots,” although his Web site at the time of his death suggested it was to avoid confusion because he and his father shared the same first name.

He graduated from high school in Evansville, Ind., then joined the Army and became a member of the Army Band. After his discharge, he played primarily jazz at nightclubs for $60 a week. He finally landed a recording contract with RCA in Nashville in 1958 and also was hired as a musician for recording sessions.

Randolph had his own nightclub in Nashville’s Printer’s Alley for 17 years, closing it in 1994 because of declining business and to spend more time with his family. He played regularly at other nightclubs before and after that. He had lived in Nashville since 1961.

Listen for Hot 100 entries by Boots at:  TUNEDEX MEMORIES

Bill Pinkney (1925-2007)

Bill Pinkney, 81, the last survivor of the original members of the musical group the Drifters, died July 4th at a hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he was scheduled to perform for Independence Day festivities. A Daytona Beach police spokesman said Pinkney was found dead in his hotel room, but the death was not considered suspicious. Family members said he had heart problems.

Pinkney wasn’t with the Drifters when they recorded their biggest hits, which included “Under the Boardwalk,” “Up on the Roof” and “Save the Last Dance for Me.” He left the group in 1958, five years after it was formed, because of an argument over money. His distinctive bass voice can be heard on the Drifters’ version of the holiday classic “White Christmas” used in the 1990 movie “Home Alone.”

Even though he left the group, Pinkney hung on to the Drifters’ name and went on to lead a group that toured as the Original Drifters. He fought for laws allowing performers or bands to claim an affiliation with a classic group like the Drifters or the Coasters only if at least one member recorded with the original group.

Seven members of The Drifters, including Pinkney, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

Born in Dalzell, S.C., in 1925, Mr. Pinkney grew up singing in gospel choirs and picked cotton in South Carolina before entering the Army. He was awarded a Bronze Star and Silver Star after serving in Europe during World War II. He also pitched for the New York Blue Sox of the Negro Baseball League in the late 1940s and early ’50s.  You’ll hear lots of Drifters tunes on “the Honor Roll of Hits” exclusively at TUNEDEX MEMORIES!