Ron Henry, Local Musician, Passes…
Laura Newman, 5/15/16: Rest in peace “Gig Daddy” Ron Henry. Much love and respect. You are in the Colorado Hall of Musicians Fame Who’s Who.
Kay L. Coats: I worked with Ron in the early ’90s playing keyboards. Richard Reeder was also in his band with me. . . He was truly a good man and an amazing musician and band leader. He will be missed.
Liz Lujan: Wonderful memories bar tending Sunday nights at Regas Cafe jazz club with Ron and Laura Newman in the late 80’s! Great tips towards my college education too. May you rest in peace, Ron Henry.
Lannie Garrett: He gave me my first singing job. And introduced me to the stage and my dear friends Chery Barnes and pianist, Billy Wallace who encouraged me at every turn. Thank you, Mr. Henry.
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BILL BACKER – WRITER OF “I’D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING…” DIES AT 89
William Montague “Bill” Backer (June 9, 1926 – May 13, 2016) was an American advertising executive.
He became an industry legend for creating the slogans “Things go better with Coke”, further defining the product as “the real thing”, and convinced the world that Miller Lite was “everything you ever wanted in a beer, and less”, and should be consumed at “Miller Time”.
In 1971, Backer created the Coca-Cola campaign and accompanying song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)”.
His advertising career started in the mailroom of McCann Erickson in 1953, rising to creative director in 1972, and vice chairman of the agency in 1978.
In 1979, he co-founded Backer & Spielvogel (with Carl Spielvogel), which eight years later became Backer, Spielvogel & Bates Worldwide, Inc., one of the world’s largest marketing and advertising communications companies. This worldwide corporation had 178 companies in 55 countries, and employed 8,500 persons—1,000 Americans and 7,500 nationals of the countries in which business was being conducted.
In 1999, Advertising Age included his name in a list of the top 100 players in advertising history.
. . . . . . . . .
Backer was born June 9, 1926, and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. He graduated from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, and served two years in the United States Navy. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1950. Backer was married for 30 years to his wife Ann (née Mudge). The two split time between Smitten Farm and a home in Nokomis, Florida.
Backer died on May 13, 2016, in Warrenton, Virginia. He was 89.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Backer
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JANE LITTLE – HELD RECORD FOR LONGEST TENURE WITH AN ORCHESTRA
Woman who held record for longest tenure with an orchestra collapses on stage, dies
Jane Little, a bassist who held the Guinness World Record for the longest professional tenure with a single orchestra, died Sunday night after collapsing on stage during a performance earlier that afternoon. Little joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at 16 years old after studying bass in high school for two years, the group said in a statement. Jane Little, a founding member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, died Sunday, May 15. “We can truly say that Jane Little was fortunate to do what she loved until the very end of her storied life and career,” the ASO said in a statement. …
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/16/us/jane-little-atlanta-symphony-orchestra/index.html
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SINGER JULIUS LA ROSA, FIRED LIVE ON GODFREY SHOW, DIES AT 86
Julius La Rosa, a pop singer known for hits including “Eh, Cumpari,” whose firing live on the air by Arthur Godfrey in 1953 overshadowed his successes that followed, has died. He was 86.
His death was confirmed Saturday by his daughter, Maria La Rosa Smith, of Ridgefield, Conn., and Joe Charapata of the Rhodes-Charapata Funeral Home in Crivitz, Wis. Smith said her father died Thursday in his sleep of natural causes at his home in Crivitz. Services will be private, she said.
La Rosa, a native of Brooklyn, was in the Navy when Godfrey heard him sing and invited him to appear on his CBS TV show. Godfrey also urged him to come back after his discharge. La Rosa became a star of Godfrey’s show from 1951 to 1953, recording several hits including “Eh, Cumpari.”
But his growing popularity annoyed Godfrey. On Oct. 19, 1953, La Rosa was due to begin the TV portion of Godfrey’s show but was kept waiting backstage until the final minutes of the radio-only part of the program. As he finished singing “Manhattan,” La Rosa and the audience heard Godfrey precede his sign-off by saying, “That was Julie’s swan song with us.”
Godfrey said he fired him because he lacked “humility” and because he had hired an agent.
“I was 23 years old then and filled with myself,” La Rosa said in a 1991 interview with The New York Times. “Who isn’t at 23, especially if you’re a celebrity?”
The public firing actually boosted La Rosa’s career for a while. He served as the summer replacement on Perry Como’s TV show in 1955. That’s when he met Como’s secretary, Rosemary Meyer, and married her. He went on to get his own TV show in 1955. He also appeared on numerous other variety shows in the 1950s and ’60s, including Ed Sullivan’s. La Rosa also was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 1980 for best supporting actor for his role on Another World.
La Rosa lived for 42 years in Irvington, in New York’s Westchester County, his daughter said, and continued to tour, perform and act for decades. He also was a longtime disc jockey on WNEW-AM in New York.
La Rosa and his wife moved to Crivitz, a small town in northeastern Wisconsin, in November, said Smith, who added that her mother was originally from the state. She said the La Rosa family vacationed in Wisconsin every summer and spent every other Christmas with her mother’s family. Smith also said her brother, Christopher, lives in Crivitz.
“It’s a different way of life, but he was ready for that,” she said. “He didn’t need the hustle and the bustle at 86 years old. He loved Wisconsin.”
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/singer-julius-la-rosa-fired-live-godfrey-show-163914555.html
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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
May 2016
18: Lino Toffolo, 81, Italian actor (Yuppi du, Brancaleone at the Crusades) and singer.
17: Guy Clark, 74, American folk singer-songwriter (“Desperados Waiting for a Train”, “Workbench Songs”, “My Favorite Picture of You”), Grammy winner (2014), cancer; Deddy Dores (id), 65, Indonesian singer and song writer; Huguette Dreyfus, 87, French harpsichordist; Marlene Marder, Swiss punk rock guitarist (LiLiPUT).
16: Svyatoslav Lyuter, 46, Russian conductor, suicide (death announced on this date); Emilio Navaira, 53, American country and Tejano singer (Life Is Good), heart failure; Fredrik Norén, 75, Swedish jazz drummer (death announced on this date).
15: Jane Little, 87, American musician (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra); Cauby Peixoto, 85, Brazilian singer, pneumonia.
14: Lasse Mårtenson, 81, Finnish singer (“Laiskotellen”), brain haemorrhage; Paul Smoker, 75, American jazz trumpeter.
13: Bill Backer, 89, American advertising executive (McCann Erickson) and songwriter (“I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)”); Buster Cooper, 87, American jazz trombonist, prostate cancer.
12: Julius La Rosa, 86, American pop singer (“Anywhere I Wander”, “Eh, Cumpari!”) and actor (Another World).
11: Peter Behrens, 68, German drummer (Trio), multiple organ failure; Joe Temperley, 86, Scottish saxophonist (Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra), cancer.