By Kerry Byrne, Fox News | John Lennon, songwriting genius and founding member of The Beatles — a man who gifted the world with beautiful music that still rouses the human spirit long after his death — was murdered in New York City on this day in history, Dec. 8, 1980.
He was 40 years old.
“An unspeakable tragedy,” legendary sports host Howard Cosell blurted in shock to the nation near midnight, interrupting the dramatic final seconds of a Monday Night Football broadcast.
“John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York, the most famous perhaps of all the Beatles, shot twice in the back. Rushed to Roosevelt Hospital. Dead on arrival.”
Cosell’s dramatic words spoken on national television, decades before the internet spread news instantly, were the first that many Americans heard of the celebrated musician’s death. The world learned soon after initial reports that Lennon was actually shot four times.
> > > > > > > > > >
“His music made people happy,” Ethan Doyle, 12, of Philadelphia, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday outside the stately residence, accompanied by his mother, Monique, and brother Brodie, 9.
“This place radiates importance.”
Strawberry Fields is highlighted by a black-and-white tile mosaic on a Central Park pathway with the word “Imagine,” a reference to one of Lennon’s best-known solo tunes.
> > > > > > > > > >
One incredible testament to the ongoing appeal of The Beatles comes from Billboard.
“Abbey Road,” a classic album released by The Beatles in 1969, was the 12th best-selling album of the year — here in 2022.
“Like most of us he was often selfish and unpleasant,” influential British entertainment magazine New Musical Express wrote in its obituary of Lennon in December 1980.
“But he was never miserly with himself or his soul … He gave. He shared. And now [that] he’s gone we, too, seem diminished.”
Read the full tribute here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/day-history-dec-8-1980-050219172.html
* * * * *
OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS
If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com
December 2022
6: Carmen Jara, 85, Spanish copla singer; Hamish Kilgour, 65, New Zealand musician (The Clean); Edino Krieger, 94, Brazilian composer and conductor.
5: Jess Barr, 46, American guitarist (Slobberbone); John Beckwith, 95, Canadian composer, writer and pianist; Hamsou Garba, 63, Nigerien singer; Jim Stewart*, 92, American Hall of Fame record producer, co-founder of Stax Records.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Stewart_(record_producer)
James F. Stewart (July 29, 1930 – December 5, 2022) was an American record producer and executive who in 1957 co-founded Stax Records, one of the leading recording companies during soul and R&B music’s heyday. The label also scored many hits on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart, and internationally, during this time.
4: Bob McGrath*, 90, American actor and singer (Sesame Street, Follow That Bird, Sing Along with Mitch).
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McGrath
Robert Emmett McGrath (June 13, 1932 – December 4, 2022) was an American actor, musician, and children’s author best known for playing original human character Bob Johnson on the long-running educational television series Sesame Street. || McGrath worked with Mitch Miller and was the featured tenor on Miller’s NBC-TV television singalong series Sing Along with Mitch for four seasons from 1960 to 1964. He was a singer on the Walt Kelly album Songs of the Pogo. || In the mid-1960s, McGrath became a well-known recording artist in Japan, releasing a series of successful albums of Irish and other folk songs and ballads sung in Japanese. This aspect of his career was the basis of his “secret” when he appeared on the game shows To Tell the Truth in 1966 and I’ve Got a Secret in 1967.
3: Konysbai Abil, 68, Kazakh poet, composer and journalist; Jamie Freeman, 57, British singer and songwriter, brain cancer; Svenne Hedlund, 77, Swedish singer (Hep Stars, Idolerna, Svenne and Lotta); Janis Hunter*, 66, American music manager; Volodymyr Kozhukhar, 81, Ukrainian classical conductor.
* Janis Hunter-Gaye | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Gaye
Gaye … later married Janis Hunter in October 1977. The couple separated in 1979 and officially divorced in February 1981. | Gaye was the father of three children: Marvin III, Nona, and Frankie. Marvin III was the biological son of Anna’s niece, Denise Gordy, who was 16 at the time of the birth. Nona and Frankie were born to Gaye’s second wife, Janis.
2: Jo Carol Pierce, 78, American singer-songwriter and playwright, cancer; Laila Storch, 101, American oboist.
1: Yuri Remesnik, 83, Russian poet and songwriter; Haralds Simanis, 71, Latvian singer; Andrew Speight, 58, Australian-born American saxophonist, struck by train.
November 2022
30: Glynne Adams, 94, New Zealand violist, principal violist of the London Symphony Orchestra (1967–1968); Christine McVie, 79, English Hall of Fame musician (Fleetwood Mac) and songwriter (“Don’t Stop”, “Everywhere”); Steve Smith, British punk singer (Red Alert), blood infection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2022
December 8, 2022| In Memoriam| Barb Dye