Early promo photo of The Critters
The Critters were a successful American pop group with several hits in the 1960s, most notably “Mr. Dieingly Sad” a Billboard top-25 hit in 1966.
The group formed in New Jersey in 1964 when singer-guitarist Don Ciccone (March 3, 1946 – October 10, 2016) and saxophonist Bob Podstawski joined local group the Vibratones, comprising Jim Ryan (lead guitar), Ken Gorka (bass), Jack Decker (drums), and Chris Darway (keyboards). They named themselves The Critters in emulation of similar band names like the Animals.
The Critters were originally signed to Musicor Records by Jimmy Radcliffe, who also produced their first release “Georgianna” backed with “I’m Gonna Give” in 1964. They eventually signed with Kapp Records, and in 1965 recorded John Sebastian’s song “Younger Girl” for their first release. The song was selected for the band by producer Artie Ripp. However, because Ciccone, Ryan, and Podstawski were then all accepted at Villanova University, the record was not completed until late 1965. “Younger Girl” became a minor pop hit in early 1966, and reached #38 in the UK Singles Chart in July that year. It was followed by Ciccone’s song “Mr. Dieingly Sad”, also produced by Ripp, which reached #17 later in the year, and by “Bad Misunderstanding”, which reached #55 still later in 1966. The group had their final chart hit with “Don’t Let the Rain Fall Down on Me” in 1967, at #39.
After recording several singles and one album (Younger Girl), the original band split up when Podstawski, Ciccone, and Decker joined the armed services and Darway left for art college. Ryan and Gorka then attempted to maintain the group with new members for some time, releasing two more albums (Touch ‘n Go With The Critters and Critters).
Later, Ryan recorded and toured with Carly Simon before working as a studio guitarist. Ciccone joined the Four Seasons, and later toured with Tommy James and the Shondells. Gorka became booker and co-owner of The Bitter End in Greenwich Village; he died on March 20, 2015.
Chris Darway went on to form Johnny’s Dance Band, a popular group in the Philadelphia area in the late 1970s, followed by the Chet Bolins Band.
Kurt Shanaman of Mountainside, New Jersey filled in on drums on tour and in the studio in 1967.
In 2007, The Critters re-formed when Don Ciccone was asked to join the band Skeezix, which included Albert Miller, Lenny Rocco, and Milt Koster. Their repertoire included classic hits from all the bands Ciccone was involved with (including a slightly retitled “Mr. Dyingly Sad”), as well as original and cover material. The band performed mostly on the Treasure Coast of Florida. The Critters recorded a new album, Time Pieces, which includes the updated “Mr. Dyingly Sad” and a new version of “Younger Girl”. The band announced their breakup in the summer of 2013. Lead singer Don Ciccone passed away on October 8, 2016 from a heart attack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Critters
[Editor’s note: Unbelievably, no one has written a nice bio of Mr. Ciccone on Wikipedia who had an absolutely remarkable career in music.]
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Leo Leroy Beranek, 102, American Acoustics Expert, Dies
Leo Leroy Beranek (September 15, 1914 – October 11, 2016) was an American acoustics expert, former MIT professor, and a founder and former president of Bolt, Beranek and Newman (now BBN Technologies). He authored Acoustics, considered a classic textbook in this field, and its updated and extended version published in 2012 under the title Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers. He is also an expert in the design and evaluation of concert halls and opera houses, and authored the classic textbook Music, Acoustics, and Architecture, revised and extended in 2004 under the title Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics, and Architecture.
Beranek was born in 1914 in Solon, Iowa. His father was a farmer whose ancestors came from Bohemia in Czechoslovakia and his mother, previously a schoolteacher, had become a farmwife. Beranek first started school in a one-room schoolhouse in Tipton, Iowa. After his first year, he rode in a horse-drawn school bus on a two-hour trip to a somewhat larger school. In 1922 his family moved back to Solon, where he was soon skipped over third grade and moved directly into fourth grade classes. Around that time, a baby brother was born, named Lyle Edward Beranek.
In 1924 Beranek’s father brought home a battery-powered radio containing a single vacuum tube. His eldest son became fascinated with both the technology and the musical aspects of radio. In the harsh winter of January 1926, Beranek’s mother died suddenly, leaving his father with huge debts and forcing his father to sell the farm within two months. In junior high school Beranek earned his first independent money by selling silk stockings and fabric. Beranek’s father remarried and moved the family to the nearby town of Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he became co-owner of a hardware store. At his father’s suggestion, Beranek learned radio repair via a correspondence course, and apprenticed to an older repairman. The younger Beranek quickly learned the trade, and was soon able to buy a Model T automobile. He also earned some spare cash by playing trap drums in a 6-person dance band. He continued to excel in his studies, including a typing class (rarely studied by boys) where he was the top performer.
Beranek applied for and was accepted at nearby Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. In the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, money was tight, but he had managed to save $500. Worried about the shaky financial situation, he went to his bank and managed to withdraw $400 to pay his college tuition in advance. The bank failed the next day, and Beranek lost the remaining $100. During freshman year at college, Beranek was told by his father that he could not expect any family money and that he was on his own. In the summers of 1932 and 1933 Beranek worked as a field hand on local farms, to earn tuition money and to improve his physical condition. Beranek moved into two rooms above a bakery, shared with three other students to save money. He also continued to repair radios and played in a dance band, but falling income forced him to consider dropping down to a single class (in mathematics) during the next academic year.
In August 1933 Beranek was invited to accompany the family of a local dentist to the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago. This was his first trip to a big city and it was a revelation. He attended concert performances by the Chicago Symphony and Detroit Symphony daily, was dazzled by the displays of industrial products and technology, and fascinated by the international pavilions. He lived on a shoestring, spending a total of $12 for four days, and felt compelled to make a return trip the following summer.
In college Beranek became friends with a fellow student who had an amateur radio setup, inspiring him to study Morse Code and to earn his own amateur radio license. In fall of 1933, he bought an early disc sound recorder to earn a modest fee by recording students before and after taking a speech training class. This was his first hands-on experience with the developing science of acoustics. By early 1934 he was forced to stop out from college and work full-time to earn more tuition money. He found a position at the fledgling Collins Radio Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he studied German in his spare time. While there, he also met and dated Florence “Floss” Martin, a business school student. He was able to save enough money to attend the Spring 1935 semester at Cornell College, then returned to Collins Radio for the summer.
In August 1935 Beranek had a chance encounter with a stranger whose car had developed a flat tire while passing through Mount Vernon. While helping the stranger (who turned out to be Glenn Browning), he learned that the passing motorist had written a technical paper on radio technology. When Beranek mentioned plans for graduate school, Browning encouraged him to apply to Harvard University, a possibility he had regarded as financially out of reach.
Beranek was very busy in his final year at Cornell, running a radio repair and sales business and then transitioning to house wiring for electricity, while carrying a full course load. He managed three major wiring jobs for Cornell, including designing and installing a master antenna system in a new men’s dormitory then under construction. He also continued to date his girlfriend Floss. Beranek graduated from Cornell College in summer 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts. He continued studies at Harvard University, where he received a doctorate in 1940.
During World War II Beranek managed Harvard’s electro-acoustics laboratory, which designed communications and noise reduction systems for World War II aircraft, while at the same time developing other military technologies. During this time he built the first anechoic chamber, an extremely quiet room for studying noise effects which later would inspire John Cage’s philosophy of silence. Beranek joined the staff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as professor of communications engineering from 1947 to 1958. In 1948, he helped found Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), serving as the company’s president from 1952 to 1971.
In 1945 Beranek became involved with a small company called Hush-A-Phone, which marketed a cup that fit over the mouthpiece of a telephone receiver in order to prevent the person speaking from being overheard. Although Hush-A-Phone had been around since the 1920s, Beranek used his acoustical expertise to develop an improved version of the device. AT&T threatened Hush-A-Phone users with termination of their telephone service. At the time, AT&T maintained a monopoly on American telephone service and telephones were leased from AT&T, rather than owned by customers. The resulting legal case, Hush-A-Phone v. United States, resulted in a victory for Hush-A-Phone. In finding that AT&T did not have the right to restrict use of the Hush-A-Phone, the courts established a precedent that would eventually lead to the breakup of AT&T’s monopoly.
Beranek’s 1954 book, Acoustics, is considered the classic textbook in this field; it was revised in 1986. In 2012, at the age of 98, he collaborated with Tim Mellow to produce an updated and extended revision, published under the new title Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers.
Beranek’s 1962 book, Music, Acoustics, and Architecture, developed from his analysis of 55 concert halls throughout the world, also became a classic; the 2004 edition of the text expanded the study to 100 halls. Beranek has participated in the design of numerous concert halls and opera houses, and has traveled worldwide to conduct his research and to enjoy musical performances.
From 1983 to 1986, Beranek was Chairman of the Board of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he remains a Life Trustee. He also serves on the MIT Council for the Arts, “an international volunteer group of alumni and friends established to support the arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology”. In 2008 he published Riding the Waves: A Life in Sound, Science, and Industry, an autobiography about his lengthy career and research in sound and music. He turned 100 in September 2014, an occasion marked by a special celebration at Boston Symphony Hall.
Awards and honors
● Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1952)[6]
● Wallace Clement Sabine Medal of the Acoustical Society of America (1961) for internationally recognized achievements in all phases of architectural acoustics, and his publications on acoustical measurements, and the world’s great concert halls.
● Gold Medal of the Audio Engineering Society (1971)
● Gold Medal from the Acoustical Society of America (1975) for leadership in developing, in the United States and abroad, the desire and the capability for achieving good acoustics in communications, workplaces, concert halls, and communities.
● National Medal of Science in Engineering (2002)
● IEEE Founders Medal (2013)
● Rayleigh Medal of the Institute of Acoustics, United Kingdom (2014)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Beranek
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Teacher Dies Minutes After Students Sings to Her
The students at Alvin Junior High School went to the home of beloved choir teacher Mariana Walker to sing to her while she was in hospice. Moments later, Walker took her last breath.
Source: CNN
http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2016/10/07/choir-teacher-dies-students-sing-pkg.ktrk
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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
October 2016
11: Leo Beranek, 102, American acoustics expert (BBN Technologies); Peter Reynolds, 58, Welsh composer; Gurcharan Virk, 48, Indian Punjabi writer, director, lyricist and producer.
9: Bored Nothing, 26, Australian musician, suicide; Måns Edwall, 56, Swedish actor, director and musician (Varuhuset); Angus R. Grant, 49, Scottish fiddler (Shooglenifty, Swamptrash); Michiyuki Kawashima, 47, Japanese musician (Boom Boom Satellites), brain tumor; Quique Lucca, 103, Puerto Rican musician, founder of La Sonora Ponceña; Guy Nadon, 82, Canadian jazz drummer; Marin Petrache Pechea, 71, Romanian jazz musician, cancer.
8: Don Ciccone, 70, American singer-songwriter and musician (The Critters, The Four Seasons, Tommy James and the Shondells).
7: Anne Pashley, 80, British Olympic athlete and opera singer (death announced on this date).
6: Barbara Oliver Hagerman, 73, Canadian music teacher and public servant, Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island (2006–2011), cancer.
5: Joan Marie Johnson, 72, American singer (The Dixie Cups), heart failure; Rod Temperton, 66, English keyboardist (Heatwave) and songwriter (“Rock with You”, “Give Me the Night”, “Thriller”), cancer (death announced on this date).