2020

Mountain’s Leslie West died December 23, 2020

Leslie West (October 22, 1945 – December 23, 2020) was an American rock guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, best known as a founding member and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Mountain. Leslie West was born Leslie Weinstein, in New York City, and grew up in various parts of New York. He changed his surname to West after his parents divorced. His musical career began with the Vagrants, an R&B/soul-rock band influenced by bands like the Rascals. The Vagrants had two minor hits in the Eastern United States, “I Can’t Make a Friend” in 1966, and a cover of Otis…
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Country Music Legend Charley Pride died December 12, 2020 from COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Charley Pride (March 18, 1934 – December 12, 2020) was an American singer, guitarist, and professional baseball player. His greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s, when he was the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. During the peak years of his recording career (1966–1987), he had 52 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, including 30 which went to number one. Charley Pride won the Entertainer of the Year award at the Country Music Association Awards in 1971, was one of three African-American members of the Grand Ole Opry and was inducted into…
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Ken Hensley from Uriah Heap died November 4 2020

Ken Hensley (August 24, 1945 – November 4, 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, best known for his work with Uriah Heep during the 1970s. He wrote or co-wrote the majority of Uriah Heep’s songs during this period, including the hit singles “Lady in Black” (on which he sang lead vocals), “Easy Livin’” and “Stealin’”, as well as “Look at Yourself”, on which he also sang lead vocals, and “Free Me” Kenneth William David Hensley was born in Plumstead, south-east London, Hensley moved with his parents, three brothers and sister to Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 1945. He learned…
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Mr Bojangles writer Jerry Jeff Walker died October 23, 2020

Jerry Jeff Walker (March 16, 1942 – October 23, 2020) was an country music singer, songwriter and a leading figure in the outlaw country music movement. Jerry Jeff Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York. His father, Mel, was as a sports referee and bartender and his mother, Alma, was a housewife. His grandparents played for square dances with his grandmother, Jessie Conroe, playing piano and his grandfather playing fiddle. During the late 1950s, Ronald Crosby was a member of a local teen band called The Tones. After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but went AWOL…
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Spencer Davis died October 19, 2020

Spencer Davis (July 17, 1939 – October 19, 2020) was born Spencer David Nelson Davies, and was a Welsh multi-instrument musician and founder of the Spencer Davis Group. Spencer Davis was born in Swansea, South-West Wales, and began learning to play the accordion and harmonica at the age of six. He attended Dynevor School and was very good at languages. When he was 16 he moved to London and started working for the UK Government before going back to his old school to study for Advanced Levels in languages. In 1960, he moved to Birmingham, to study German at the…
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Johnny Nash died October 6, 2020

Johnny Nash (August 19, 1940 – October 6, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1972 classic hit “I Can See Clearly Now”. He was primarily a reggae and pop singer and was one of the first non-Jamaican artists to record reggae music in Kingston. Johnny Nash was born was born John Lester Nash Jr. in Houston, Texas, and sang in the choir at Progressive New Hope Baptist Church in South Central Houston as a child. From 1953, Johnny Nash sang covers of R&B hits on Matinee, a local variety show on KPRC-TV, and from 1956 he sang on…
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Eddie Van Halen died October 6, 2020

Eddie Van Halen was born Edward Lodewijk Van Halen (January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) and was a Dutch-American musician, songwriter and producer. He was the main songwriter and lead guitarist of the legendary rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded in 1972 with his brother, drummer Alex, bassist Mark Stone, and singer David Lee Roth. He was well known for popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique, allowing rapid arpeggios to be played with both hands on the fretboard. Eddie Van Halen was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands and in 1962, his family moved to the United States and settled…
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Elvis songwrited Mac Davis died September 29, 2020

Mac Davis (January 21, 1942 – September 29, 2020) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and actor. During his early career wrote for Elvis Presley, providing him with the hits “Memories”, “In the Ghetto”, “Don’t Cry Daddy”, and “A Little Less Conversation”. A subsequent solo career in the 1970s produced hits such as “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me”. Scoot Mac Davis was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas, the son of Edith Irene (Lankford) and T. J. Davis. He graduated from Lubbock High School at 16 and, looking to escape Lubbock, moved to Atlanta where his mother was…
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I Am Woman singer Helen Reddy died September 29, 2020

Helen Reddy (October 25, 1941 – September 29, 2020) was an Australian-American singer, songwriter, author, actress, and activist. She was born in Melbourne, Victoria, to a show-business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on radio and television and won a talent contest on the television program, Bandstand in 1966; her prize was a ticket to New York City and a record audition, which was unsuccessful. Helen Reddy pursued her international singing career by moving to Chicago, and then on to Los Angeles, where she made her debut singles “One Way Ticket” in 1968 and…
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The Four Seasons founder Tommy DeVito died September 21, 2020 from COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Tommy DeVito, born Gaetano DeVito (June 19, 1928 – September 21, 2020) was an American musician and singer, best known as a founding member, vocalist, and lead guitarist of rock band the Four Seasons. Tommy DeVito was born on June 19, 1928 in New Jersey, United States, the youngest of nine children in an big, traditional Italian-American family. At 8 years old, he taught himself to play his brother’s guitar by listening to country music on the radio, by 12 he was playing for tips in neighborhood bars and by 16, he had his own R&B band and was making $25…
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