Alan Thicke
Alan Willis Thicke (né Jeffrey; March 1, 1947 – December 13, 2016) was a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He was best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the father on the ABC television series Growing Pains, which ran for seven seasons. He was the father of singer Robin Thicke. In 2013, Thicke was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Thicke was born Alan Willis Jeffrey on March 1, 1947 in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, the son of Shirley “Joan” Isobel Marie (née Greer), a nurse, and William Jeffrey, a stockbroker. They divorced in 1953. His mother remarried to Brian Thicke, a physician, and they moved to Elliot Lake. Thicke graduated from Elliot Lake Secondary School in 1965, and was elected homecoming king. He went on to attend the University of Western Ontario, where he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity.
Producing and composing
Thicke had a successful career as a TV theme song composer, often collaborating with his then-wife Gloria Loring on these projects, which included the themes to the popular sitcoms Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. He also wrote a number of TV game show themes, including The Wizard of Odds (for which he also sang the vocal introduction), The Joker’s Wild, Celebrity Sweepstakes, The Diamond Head Game, Animal Crack-Ups (which he co-wrote with his brother Todd Thicke and Gary Pickus), Blank Check, Stumpers!, Whew!, and the original theme to Wheel of Fortune. Thicke was a popular songwriter. He co-wrote “Sara”, a solo hit for Bill Champlin and included on the latter’s Runaway album (1981).
Thicke produced a variety of television shows, including Anne Murray Christmas specials for the CBC, beginning in the late 1970s.
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Thicke was married three times: His first marriage, to Days of Our Lives actress Gloria Loring, lasted from 1970 until around 1984; they had two sons, Brennan and Robin. He started dating actress Kristy Swanson when she was 17 years old in 1986 and got engaged to her two years later when he was 42. He married his second wife, Miss World 1990 Gina Tolleson, on August 13, 1994, and had a son, Carter William Thicke, before their divorce was finalized on September 29, 1999. In 1999, he met Tanya Callau in Miami, where he was a celebrity host and she was a model. They were married from 2005 until his death.
Death
On December 13, 2016, Thicke collapsed while playing hockey with his son Carter at Pickwick Gardens in Burbank, California. The manager of the rink said he was talking and even joked to his son to take a photo as he was being wheeled out on a stretcher. Thicke subsequently died of a heart attack at the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, at the age of 69.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Thicke
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Jim Lowe – Beats Out Elvis with The Green Door
James Ellsworth “Jim” Lowe (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1956 number-one hit song, “The Green Door”. He also served as a disc jockey and radio host and personality, and was considered an expert on the popular music of the 1940s and 1950s.
Born in Springfield, Missouri, Lowe graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1948. He worked for several radio stations in Springfield, Indianapolis and Chicago, before moving to WCBS in New York City in 1956.
A million-seller and gold record recipient, Lowe’s 1956 hit “The Green Door” was written by Marvin Moore and Bob Davie. The song reached No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart in November 1956. Lowe earlier wrote “Gambler’s Guitar”, a million-selling hit for Rusty Draper in 1953.
His most notable run as a disc jockey was with WNEW AM in New York, from 1964. Lowe also worked at WNBC AM in New York where he was heard both locally and on the coast-to-coast NBC Radio weekend program Monitor.
He retired in 2004 at the age of 81, and lived in Southampton, New York. For contributions to the music industry, Lowe was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6341 Hollywood Boulevard.
Lowe died on December 12, 2016 at his home in East Hampton, Long Island, after a long illness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Lowe
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Robert “Bob” Krasnow – Co-Founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Robert Alan “Bob” Krasnow (July 20, 1934 – December 11, 2016) was an American music industry entrepreneur. He founded Blue Thumb Records, later became chairman of Elektra Records, and was a co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Robert Krasnow was born in Rochester, New York, to Ben Krasnow, a commercial artist (sign painter), and to the former Gertrude Goldstein from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, both of Russian Jewish parentage.
Krasnow’s early career included working as a promotions man for James Brown and sales representative for Decca Records. In the early 1960s, Krasnow founded MK Records, which released the novelty record “Report To The Nation,” a parody of the 1960 presidential campaign between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.
He ran the King Records branch office in San Francisco from 1958 to 1964 before founding Loma Records, which he headed from 1964 to 1966. He became vice president of Kama Sutra Records in Los Angeles in 1966, where he founded the Buddah Records subsidiary label. He discovered, signed and then produced the debut album Safe As Milk by Captain Beefheart.
He left Kama Sutra/Buddha in 1968 to create Beverly Hills-based Blue Thumb Records, with producers Don Graham and Tommy LiPuma. Among the acts Krasnow brought to Blue Thumb were Ike & Tina Turner, the Pointer Sisters, Dave Mason, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Marc Bolan, Arthur Lee, Captain Beefheart, Clifton Chenier, Albert King and John Mayall.
Krasnow served as president of Blue Thumb until 1974, when he became vice president/talent acquisition for Warner Bros. Records, a role he held until 1983 when he was elevated to chairman and CEO of Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records (later known as Elektra Entertainment). While with Warner and Elektra, he signed Chaka Khan, George Benson, George Clinton and The Cure to the labels. Krasnow also became notorious for shelving projects such as Dee Snider’s post-Twisted Sister outfit, Desperado, as detailed in Snider’s 2012 autobiography, Shut Up and Give Me the Mic.
Krasnow abruptly resigned from his position at Elektra in July 1994, the result of a bitter internal struggle within the Warner Music group during 1994-95 that also led to the departure of long-serving and highly respected Warner Bros. Records executives Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker. Following his resignation he established Krasnow Entertainment, a joint venture with the MCA Music Entertainment Group, with offices at 1755 Broadway in Manhattan.
In private life, Krasnow has been a member of board of directors of New York City Center (theater for independent choreography); a member of the board of directors and president’s council of the Brooklyn Academy of Music; co-president of the French Music Office; national committee member of the March of Dimes; executive vice-president of the Paul Taylor Dance Company; and a member of board of directors of the Wadleigh School (New York) and a co- founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Krasnow died on December 11, 2016 in Wellington, Florida.
Krasnow’s honors include being named the T.J. Martell Foundation Cancer Research Man of the Year in 1984 and 1989; Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy honoree in 1989; and recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1992.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Krasnow
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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
December 2016
14: Bunny Walters, 63, New Zealand singer (“Brandy”).
13: Ahuva Ozeri, 68, Israeli singer, cancer; Betsy Pecanins, 62, American-born Mexican singer, songwriter and record producer, stroke; Alan Thicke, 69, Canadian actor (Growing Pains, Not Quite Human), talk show host (The Alan Thicke Show) and songwriter, heart attack.
12: Barrelhouse Chuck, 58, American blues musician, prostate cancer; Lucila Campos, 78, Peruvian singer; Mark Fisher, British pop musician (Matt Bianco); Jim Lowe, 93, American singer-songwriter (“Green Door”).
11: Bob Krasnow, 82, American record label executive (Elektra Records), co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Joe Ligon, 80, American gospel singer (Mighty Clouds of Joy); Esma Redžepova, 73, Macedonian Romani singer.
10: Damião Experiença, 81, Brazilian singer and musician; George Mantalis, 81, American pop singer (The Four Coins), lung cancer.
9: Romualdas Aleliunas, 57, Lithuanian ceramics designer.
8: Palani Vaughan, 72, American Hawaiian music singer.
7: Mohamed Tahar Fergani, 88, Algerian singer; Junaid Jamshed, 52, Pakistani musician, television personality and preacher, plane crash; Greg Lake, 69, English singer and musician (King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer), cancer; Elliott Schwartz, 80, American composer.