Jane Manly and Tom Chapman (Courtesy of Jane Manly)
From Jane Manly on Facebook: Honoring all the joyful times and fabulous music you gifted me with Tom Chapman when you walked this earth..sad to loose this precious fellow.
From Brandy McCartha: I met Tom when i was 19. I started my first band — “Brandylee band. Tom was so talented. I couldn’t believe how he could jump from the drums to playing guitar then piano. We had a lot of fun on stage. The best times were when we joined up with K99 and opened for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He always believed in me… Stuck with me and supported my music no matter what. That’s a true friend. We recorded a lot and he wanted me to finish it but life took me in another direction and we lost touch for a bit. I connected with him and I had hopes of coming back to get on stage again like old times and play. I always said if I get a deal, Tom’s gonna be in my band. He was a big brother to me. I won’t let you down, Tom. I will keep the music alive. That’s what we can do for you. I only wish I could of reached out to you more. RIP, Tom. I will miss the heck out of you but I will smile every time I hear your voice in my music. Thanks for all the great memories..
Tom posted an ad wanting a Band to Join: Vocalist, Vocalist – Bass, Vocalist – Baritone, Vocalist – Tenor, Vocalist – Soprano, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, Other Percussion, Violin, Trumpet, Saxophone, Keyboard, Piano, Background Singer, Harmonica, Flute, Other, Banjo, Mandolin, Fiddle, Dobro, Vocalist – Alto, Trombone, Bagpipes, Steel guitar, Upright bass, Cello, Accordion. Tells you a lot about him.
Tom Chapman’s Celebration of Life:
From Jeannine DiPerna: Please spread the word…Celebration of Tom’s Life, 1:00 Saturday, September 24th, at South Broadway Christian Church located at 23 Lincoln (one Blk East of Broadway, just south of 1st).
Hope to see many friends there.
* * * * *
Sugarloaf in 1974 (Photo courtesy of Jock Bartley of Firefall)
Denver/Boulder Musician Jerry Corbetta of Sugarloaf Dies
From Chris Daniels on Fb, 9/19/16: Jerry Corbetta, the keyboard player/ singer and Hammond B-3 Player on “Green Eyed Lady” and Sugarloaf founding member went into hospice care a few days ago and passed on Friday. I first met Jerry when he and Bob Yeazel were helping Magic Music try and land a deal with Asylum. He was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2012. I think they will have a great B3 for him in that heavenly band. Life is short – but wide. Big hugs to all. CD
Sugarloaf was an American rock band in the 1970s. The band, which originated in Denver, CO, scored two Top 10 hits with the singles “Green-Eyed Lady” and “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You”.
Lead vocalist and keyboardist Jerry Corbetta, along with guitarist Bob Webber, played together in the Denver-based band Moonrakers. The Moonrakers had previously released 4 singles on Tower; three of the songs being collected in 2005 on the Colorado garage rock compilation album Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 18 and another having been released earlier on the Pebbles Volume 10 LP. The Moonrakers had evolved from the early 1960s band The Classics (previously The Surfin’ Classics, until dropping their surf music focus)—various members of all three incarnations would later appear on Sugarloaf songs.
In late 1968, Corbetta and Webber formed the band Chocolate Hair, including drummer Myron Pollock, who’d played previously with Corbetta, plus Webber’s friend, bassist Bob Raymond.
Corbetta and Webber were signed to Frank Slay at this time and began recording demos during 1969. Slay got Chocolate Hair signed to Liberty Records after Liberty liked the demos the band presented to them. Slay then ended up having them put the demos on the album since they sounded so good.
In September 1969 Myron Pollock decided to leave the group and the former drummer for The Surfin’ Classics, Bob MacVittie, was recruited. Moonrakers singer Veeder Van Dorn was also brought in to sing on the record, making his most notable appearances on the tracks, “Things Gonna Change Some” and “West of Tomorrow”, though he didn’t end up becoming a permanent member. “Green-Eyed Lady”, recorded at Original Sound Studios in Hollywood, California, which featured MacVittie on drums, was a last minute addition to the album, which was released in the very late spring of 1970.
Just before the album’s release, however, the legal department at Liberty suggested the name Chocolate Hair might be taken as having racial overtones. The band members agreed to change their moniker to Sugarloaf, the name of a mountain outside of Boulder, Colorado, where Bob Webber resided in an A-frame house.
The single “Green-Eyed Lady” went on to peak at No. 3 on the Billboard chart in October 1970, while their eponymous debut album got to No. 24.
Just after the first album’s release, the group added member singer/guitarist/composer Bob Yeazel. Yeazel had previously played in Superband with Jimmy Greenspoon, who would go on to join Three Dog Night. Yeazel would feature heavily on Sugarloaf’s second album, Spaceship Earth (January 1971), which would only manage to make No. 111, while the two singles taken from it, “Tongue-In-Cheek” and “Mother Nature’s Wine”, would peak at No. 55 and No. 88 respectively.
During 1970 and 1971, Sugarloaf had a heavy touring schedule that included appearances with The Who, Deep Purple, Eric Burdon & War and other popular acts of the time. On March 16, 1971 they performed at an after party for the 13th Annual Grammy Awards with Aretha Franklin, Three Dog Night and others.
The band became a sextet when they welcomed bassist Bobby Pickett (not the “Monster Mash” performer) on May 16, 1971 and six days later, they appeared on American Bandstand to play “Green Eyed Lady” and “Mother Nature’s Wine”.
In 1972 Sugarloaf played on the single “I.O.I.O.”, a cover of a Bee Gees song recorded by TV actor Butch Patrick that was produced by Frank Slay.
Bob Yeazel and Bobby Pickett left Sugarloaf sometime in mid to late 1972. Pickett later went on to perform with Etta James, Gregg Allman, the rock group Detective and Cafe R&B. Yeazel stayed in music for a while playing in various bands, then took an eight-year break from performing before he once again began touring, writing songs and recording demos.
Resumption and Another Hit
Eventually Liberty decided to drop all their artists and Sugarloaf was in limbo in 1973 as Jerry Corbetta signed to Neil Bogart’s Brut Records label, which Bogart had created and distributed, via his Buddah Records imprint, for the Brut Fabergé company.
The next album, I Got a Song , released in late 1973, was started as a Corbetta solo record but ended up becoming Sugarloaf’s third album when Webber and Raymond rejoined Corbetta, with drummer Larry Ferris, to play on the album and once again began making live appearances. This iteration of Sugarloaf played a spot on The Midnight Special that aired on April 19, 1974.
But after Brut folded, the group’s future was once again in question as Corbetta and Frank Slay bought the album back from Bogart and went to a friend’s recording studio in Denver in 1974 to record a new song, “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You”, with session players Paul Humphries (drums), Max Bennett (bass), Ray Payne (guitar) and a group called the Flying Saucers (Jason Hickman, Mikkel Saks and David Queen) on harmony vocals. This song was notable because it contained a practical joke at the expense of CBS Records, which had just turned them down for a recording contract. The song includes the sound of a touch-tone telephone number being dialed near the beginning and ending of the song. Those numbers were an unlisted phone number at CBS Records in Manhattan (“area code 212” stated in the song) – coincidentally a public number at the White House as well (different area code). In addition, the recording includes snippets of the guitar riff of The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine,” Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” and a line of dialogue from disc jockey Ken Griffin imitating Wolfman Jack (who would later perform the song live with the group on their Midnight Special appearance) stating the call sign of a radio station (“Stereo 92” in the nationwide release); numerous tracks of this line were cut to match local markets. The song was written by Corbetta along with Ray Payne’s Sweet Pain bandmates J.C. Phillips and David Riordan. “Don’t Call Us…” was released in November 1974 on Slay’s Claridge Records label and after it took off and peaked at No. 9 in April 1975, the I Got a Song album was quickly re-released under the new title of Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You with the hit single added in place of another track, “Easy Evil”. But the album stalled out at US No. 152 on the Billboard Top 200.
Also in 1974, Corbetta played with the group Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes on their hit “Get Dancin'”, that was produced by Bob Crewe, Corbetta’s new partner, and contributed to other projects, including the band Chinook.
Another single not on the LP, “Stars in My Eyes”, peaked at No. 87 in June 1975 and Sugarloaf realigned with Corbetta, Webber, Raymond and original Chocolate Hair/first album drummer Myron Pollock and toured once again in 1975 behind the success of “Don’t Call Us..”. A live recording of the band was made at Ebbets Field (a small club, not the former Brooklyn ball park) in Denver in July 1975 that was eventually released in 2006 as the CD Alive in America.
“I Got a Song”, the title track of their 1973 album, was released as a single in October 1975 but only “bubbled under” on Billboard at No. 110. A Corbetta solo single, “You Set My Dreams to Music”, recorded around this time, ended up in a 1977 film The Legend of Frank Woods and Sugarloaf’s final single, “Satisfaction Guaranteed”, was released in 1976 but failed to chart. All singles from “Don’t Call Us..” on appeared on the Claridge label.
By the end of ’75, Webber and Raymond were gone from the group and Corbetta continued to tour as Jerry Corbetta and Sugarloaf with drummer Myron Pollock, adding Ray Payne on guitar and Rusty Buchanan (later with Player) on bass until 1978 when he decided to retire the Sugarloaf name and pursue a solo career. He was also a member of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons from 1980 to 1984.
On June 12, 1985 there was a one/off Sugarloaf reunion at the Colorado Cream Festival that included Corbetta, Myron Pollock, Bob Yeazel and new players Larry Wilkins (guitar) and Bryan Grassmeyer (bass).
During 1989 to 1991, Corbetta and Wilkins attempted to get Sugarloaf up and running again with the help of Bob Crewe, but without success.
In 1990 Corbetta was part of a touring rock & roll nostalgia show, 30 Years of Rock and Roll. This led to him teaming with two other rock vets on that bill, guitarist/singer Mike Pinera (ex-Blues Image and Iron Butterfly) and bassist Dennis Noda (ex-Cannibal & the Headhunters) to form another all stars touring act, The Classic Rock All-Stars in 1992, with former Rare Earth singer/drummer Peter Rivera and various others, like Micky Dolenz and Spencer Davis, who drifted in and out over the years.
According to Corbetta, a few times during the 1990s and in 2005, The Classic Rock All-Stars did a few shows as Sugarloaf with a different drummer in place of Rivera. Corbetta was forced to retire from performing in 2009 after contracting Pick’s disease, a progressive neurological problem similar to Alzheimer’s disease.
After a seven-year battle with the disease, Corbetta died in Denver on September 16, 2016, at the age of 68.
Former Sugarloaf guitarist Bob Webber went on to become an aerospace engineer and drummer Bob MacVittie moved to Arkansas and pursued restaurant management.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf_(band)
* * * * *
Danny Wein performs with friends at the Belmar’s Festival Italiano in Lakewood in 2012. Photo from Terri Fisher, 5 Star Talent and Entertainment, Inc.
Denver Crooner Danny Wein Dies at 55
The popular Sinatra-style crooner, 55, died Tuesday morning at his Denver home after an illness of about three months. Wein had suffered a heart attack on June 18 while setting up for a gig at Cherry Hills Country Club. He was rushed to Swedish Medical Center, where doctors resuscitated him twice and put him on life support. Wein eventually underwent quintuple bypass heart surgery — with Sinatra music playing in the operating room, per doctors’ orders — followed by several weeks of hospitalization and several more weeks in a rehabilitation facility. He had been released from rehab only Monday.
“I guess it wasn’t my time,” he told a friend in July after getting out of the hospital’s critical care unit.
But Wein’s aunt, Shirley Epstein, said Wein never wanted to be resuscitated initially and was bothered by his quality of life after his heart attack. He had lost weight and was weak, and his voice was raspy. He didn’t sing a note during his convalescence, he told Epstein, although he said he remembered all the songs.
“Every once in awhile I could tell he was angry,” Epstein said Tuesday. “He had a mountain full of pills to take. He went through so much during those two months.”
Wein subsequently made sure he had a do-not-resuscitate order, which is what his cousin showed 911 paramedics whom she called after finding Danny on the floor when she arrived at his house to pick him up for a doctor’s appointment Tuesday morning.
Graveside services will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at Emanuel Cemetery, 430 S. Quebec St., the same place his father, Melvin L. Wein, was buried 11 years ago. The elder Wein, almost 75, suffered a fatal heart attack soon after tap dancing in a father-son act with Danny at Hiwan Country Club in Evergreen.
Danny sang the popular Sinatra hit “My Way” a cappella at his father’s funeral.
Epstein said Wein was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 10, which is what weakened his heart. After his heart attack, he reflected that he was grateful to have gone 45 years without any serious health problems.
Daniel Aaron Wein was born on Oct. 24, 1960, in Denver. He attended George Washington High School, where his peers were into rock music. He was into Sinatra. He loved the music — and the man. He had Sinatra photos and posters throughout his house. He named one of his three cats Ava, after Sinatra flame and actress Ava Gardner.
Wein, who had a day job working at a Denver pawn shop, never knew he had a voice for singing until he started performing in karaoke clubs in the 1980s, Epstein said. He started using Sinatra CD backing tracks (without the vocals) and began developing his act.
“He never had any musical training,” Epstein said. “He had such a beautiful voice. He loved singing.”
For several years, Wein took care of his mother, Viola Wein, who has Alzheimer’s disease. He would come home at lunch time to feed her. Wein didn’t want her institutionalized, but when he had his heart attack, there was no other option for his mother.
Epstein said Wein went to see his mother this past Sunday. “He hadn’t seen her since his heart attack,” she said. “For a little bit, there was a recognition stage. They had such a wonderful reunion, a wonderful visit.”
Music was his outlet from the reality of life’s burdens and obligations. Wein performed throughout Colorado at night clubs, restaurants, country clubs, outdoor festivals and in private homes. He also entertained at various fund-raisers, sometimes waiving his fee.
When dressed formally in black tux, starched white tux shirt, black bow tie and black patent shoes, he exuded Sinatra polish and perfectionism, down to the ring on his pinky finger and the red folded square poking out of his breast pocket. Wein was the Chairman of the Board. He had Sinatra’s stage movements down pat, too — a shrug of the shoulder here, a swing of the microphone there.
He also had a penchant for schmaltzy jokes and reeled off one-liners worthy of rim shots.
“I am going to miss his smiles, his jokes, his music and his love,” said Terri Fisher, owner of 5 Star Talent and Entertainment Inc., who booked Wein at various jobs. “Danny was an awesome person to work with over the last 15 years. He would have done anything for anybody.”
Wein sometimes performed with Princess Wallace, who did a Marilyn Monroe schtick. “I’ve just been thinking about all the funny things he used to say,” she recalled Tuesday. “Sometimes we’d have to rein him in.”
Wallace, who also owns Connect 4 Events and Entertainment agency, said she told clients, “He may not look like Frank Sinatra, but he sounds exactly like Frank Sinatra.”
Wein would bristle when he was called a Sinatra “impersonator.”
“I don’t try to sound like him,” he said in an interview. “I just sing great vocals in that recognizable style.”
Deidra Catalano-Tudor, who hired Wein regularly at her Nonna’s Italian Bistro, Market & Deli in Centennial, said she didn’t believe he was singing when she first auditioned him years ago at another restaurant. “I thought he was lip-syncing the words along with Sinatra.”
Catalano-Tudor visited Wein frequently in the rehabilitation center. She brought him food and also took him to her restaurant, where they would listen to music. “I kept telling him, ‘You’ve gotta eat, you’ve gotta eat.’ ”
Just last Thursday, she took him to a memorial service and luncheon for a mutual friend.
“Danny was still making jokes to me, still making jokes. It wouldn’t be Danny if I didn’t hear jokes.”
In addition to his mother and aunt, Wein is survived by a daughter, Courtney Criner, of Denver; a sister, Susan Wein, Phoenix; and three first cousins, Barbara Becker, Colorado Springs, Alan Epstein, Toledo, Ohio, and Marc Epstein, Sacramento.
Talent agent Fisher said she had a call just last week to book Wein in December. “I guess he’ll have to sing from heaven.”
By Mim Swartz
Mim Swartz, former travel editor of The Denver Post, is a longtime friend and fan of Wein. (He would jokingly call her “Ava.”)
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/07/danny-wein-obituary/
Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
September 2016:
21: Shawty Lo, 40, American hip-hop musician (D4L), traffic collision; DJ Spank Spank, American electronic musician (Phuture).
19: Amy van Singel, 67, American journalist and blues writer (Living Blues).
18: Mandoza, 38, South African kwaito musician, pharyngeal cancer.
17: Charmian Carr, 73, American actress and singer (The Sound of Music), complications from dementia; Marsha Hervey, 79, American talent agent.
16: Jerry Corbetta, 68, American musician (Sugarloaf), Pick’s disease; Trisco Pearson, American R&B singer (Force MDs), cancer; Qiao Renliang, 28, Chinese singer and actor, suicide.
14: Don Buchla, 79, American synthesizer designer.
13: Sunil Bardewa, 44, Nepalese pop singer.
12: Hidayat Inayat Khan, 99, English-French composer and conductor; Tavin Pumarejo, 84, Puerto Rican actor, comedian and jíbaro singer.