A gospel music fan who moved into the fields of R&B and early rock ‘n’ roll, his Specialty Records label gave us some of the greatest classics of the era.
Browsing: RIP – Rock In Perpetuity
Mourning the loss of classic rock stars, other musical greats and related figures
Part of a wave of young, Philadelphia based teen idols, his hits included “Wild One” and “Volare,” and he starred in ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ with Ann-Margret.
A core member of the Detroit label’s house band, Messina played on hits by the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, 4 Tops and many others.
His biggest early break was when he became recording engineer for Steppenwolf. He went on to produce the #1 hits “Joy to the World” and “Black and White”
“I started writing songs, which I really hadn’t planned on doing. I heard the other songs that groups were recording and I just tried my hand at it”
The group, consisting of two sisters and a cousin, knocked the Beatles out of the #1 spot and returned to the charts with “People Say” and “Iko Iko.”
He formed a doo-wop quintet with George Clinton called the Parliaments and they eventually evolved into the collectives known as Parliament-Funkadelic
She joined the singing group just prior to their signing with Motown in 1961. Their first single, “Please Mr. Postman,” became the label’s first #1 pop hit
An original member of the group that scored with the dance-pop hit “Smalltown Boy” in 1984 is dead. He later re-formed the band and recorded a new album.
The Grammy winner once said, “No matter how much people hail Sly and Robbie as legends, there have been a lot of sleepless nights and ‘eatless’ nights, too”