Johnny Jackson, a.k.a. “Johnny J,” was a multi-platinum songwriter, music producer, & rapper who was perhaps best known for his production on Tupac Shakur’s albums All Eyez on Me and Me Against the World (the former of which included Shakur’s only Billboard Hot 100 hit, “How Do U Want It,” which J also produced.) According to his own MySpace page, J died on October 3, 2008 at the age of 39. While serving a sentence for DWI in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility located in Los Angeles, California, he allegedly jumped off an upper tier of the prison in an apparent suicide. He was born in Juárez, Mexico, in 1969 and raised in South Central Los Angeles. Johnny J was owner and CEO of Klock Work Entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the founding members of folk music pioneers The Kingston Trio, Nick Reynolds, died Wednesday, October 1, in San Diego. He was 75. Reynolds had been hospitalized in recent weeks with acute respiratory disease and a range of other illnesses, his son, Josh Reynolds, said of his father. His family chose to take him off life support. He is survived by his wife, Leslie; sons Joshua Stewart Reynolds and John Pike Reynolds; daughters Annie Clancy Reynolds Moore and Jennifer Kristie Reynolds; and sisters Jane Reynolds Meade and Barbara Reynolds Haines. No services have been set, Josh said. Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, September 26, 2008, screen legend Paul Newman died at his longtime home in Westport, Connecticut, of complications arising from lung cancer. Why am I blogging about an actor on I Hear Dead People.com? He may not have been a musician, but his movies have featured songs that have entered into the pop culture lexicon. Some of the songs that are in his movies play on both I Hear Dead People.com and on our sister station AllNumberOneRadio.com. Instead of giving you an obituary of Newman (since everyone else has already done that), I am going to give you a musical obituary of his films. Read the rest of this entry »

Nappy Brown is the stage name of Napoleon Brown Culp. Brown was a gospel-influenced blues singer, whose hits include the 1955 Billboard Chart #2, “Don’t Be Angry” and “Night Time is the Right Time.” His style is instantly recognizable; Brown used a wide vibrato, melisma, and distinctive extra syllables, in particular, “li-li-li-li-li.” Read the rest of this entry »

Earl Palmer, the session drummer who provided the drums for such classics as Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” Smiley Lewis’s “I Hear You Knockin’,” Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin,”‘ Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away,” The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” and so many more, has died. He was 84. Palmer died Friday (Sept. 19) at his Los Angeles home after fighting a lengthy illness, his spokesman Kevin Sasaki said. Born in New Orleans in 1924 and later moving to Los Angeles, Palmer worked extensively in both cities, recording with some of the music world’s all-time greats on thousands of tracks. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are the notable deaths on September 19 throughout the years:

Clyde Julian “Red” Foley (June 17, 1910 – September 19, 1968) - A country music singer. Foley was born in Blue Lick, Kentucky. He began playing the guitar and the harmonica as a young boy and at age seventeen, he won first prize in a statewide talent show. Ultimately, he signed with Decca Records in 1941. His hit songs include “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy,” “Birmingham Bounce,” “Old Shep,” “Sugarfoot Rag,” and “Tennessee Saturday Night.” “Peace in the Valley,” backed up by The Sunshine Boys, in 1951 became the first gospel record to sell a million copies, and “One By One,” a duet with Kitty Wells, became a chart topper in 1954. In the 1960s, he also had a hit dance record with square dancers from that era known as “The Salty Dog Rag.” For more than two decades, Foley was a major star of country music, selling in excess of twenty-five million records. He hosted the popular “Ozark Jubilee” television program between 1955 and 1960. During 1962-63, Foley was a regular cast member along with Fess Parker in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” an ABC television series based on the famous 1939 movie. Foley was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967. He died unexpectedly in 1968 in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the age of 58 from a heart attack. He is interred in the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville. His daughter from his second marriage to Judy Martin (née Eva Alaine Overstake) is Shirley Lee Foley, who has been married to actor/singer Pat Boone since 1953. Shirley and Pat’s daughters are Cherry, Lindy, Laury, and singer Debby Boone. A dance to Red Foley’s song “The Salty Dog Rag” has been traditional at Dartmouth College since 1972, where it is taught to incoming freshman during orientation activities. The dance is believed to originate from The Putney School, and is also performed at the YMCA Sandy Island Camp in Lake Winnipesaukee. Here is Foley performing “Peace in the Valley”: