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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, August 25th, 2023, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently. Summer’s almost over and this week the Reaper has brings us some oldies, some soul, and some metal from America; pop music from Canada, Belgium, and Slovakia; and traditional music from Italy, Argentina, and Iran. Get ready to expand your musical horizons on this global jam session from the great beyond. Let’s kick things off with our Opening Act.
Opening Act:
[18 Aug 2023] Ray Hildebrand, 82, American singer (Paul & Paula) and songwriter (“Hey Paula”, “Young Lovers”).
Opening the show this week we have Ray Hildebrand, who passed on August 18th at the age of 82. Sixty years ago, Ray wrote this little song, and he and his friend Jill sang it for a radio station’s cancer benefit. They then recorded the tune, and after changing their stage names to match the lyrics, it went all the way to number 1. Here’s Ray “Paul” Hildebrant and the still-alive Jill “Paula” Jackson with “Hey, Paula.”
Paul & Paula – Hey Paula
Headliner:
[17 Aug 2023] Bobby Eli, 77, American guitarist (MFSB), songwriter (“Love Won’t Let Me Wait”), and record producer.
Our headliner is a prolific studio musician who recorded with The Jacksons, David Bowie, Jay-Z, Hall and Oates, Elton John, The Temptations, and many more. But Bobby Eli, who joined the afterlife on August 17th, was also known as the lead guitarist and founding member of the Philadelphia studio band MFSB, which allegedly stands for Mothers Fathers Sisters Brothers… but you, me, and Samuel L. Jackson know that there’s a “Soul” in there somewhere. Here’s their biggest hit, T.S.O.P., The Sound of Philadelphia.
MFSB – T.S.O.P. (The Sound Of Philadelphia)
Main Stage:
[21 Aug 2023] Nini Nobles, 74, Canadian musician (Lime) and songwriter (“Your Love”), cancer.
Opening up the Main Stage this week we have Nini Nobles, who checked in to Club Ethereal on August 21st. She was a transgender woman from Quebec who produced electronic music. She made her chart splash pre-transition in 1981 as Denis LePage, half of the married Canadian disco duo, Lime, which had this #1 disco hit, “Your Love.”
Lime – Your Love (Radio Edit)
[17 Aug 2023] Walter “Bruddah Waltah” Aipolani, 68, American singer.
Walter Aipolani, known as Bruddah Waltah, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist known as the Father of Hawaiian Reggae. He found success combining the sounds of Bob Marley and Jamaican reggae with the native music and culture of Hawaii, birthing the “Jawaiian” sound that influenced the charts of the 1990s. Bruddah Waltah passed on August 17th. Here’s his biggest hit, “Sweet Lady of Waiahole.”
Bruddah Waltah – Sweet Lady of Waiahole
[13 Aug 2023] Patricia Bredin, 88, English actress (Left Right and Centre, The Treasure of Monte Cristo) and singer (Eurovision Song Contest 1957).
Closing our Main Stage, we head to Britain for the first of three 88-year-old’s to make the Reaper’s Rotation this week. Patricia Bredin first turned heads as the first British participant in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1957, where she finished 7th. She went on to have an illustrious career as a movie and stage actress. Here she is onstage with Vincent Charles and John Yap, performing “I’m Up Early” from the play “Free as Air.”
Patricia Bredin – I’m Up Early (feat. Vincent Charles, John Yap)
Festival Stage:
[20 Aug 2023] Luc Smets [nl], 76, Belgian singer, composer and keyboardist (The Pebbles).
We begin the Festival Stage with Luc Smets, keyboardist for the Belgian band The Pebbles, who crossed over on August 20th. The band had some minor success in Europe, opening for Jimi Hendrix and the Small Faces. But their management was not interested in pursuing the English-speaking market and stopped them from signing on to The Beatles’ Apple Records label. This is “The Pebbles Twist.”
The Pebbles – The Pebbles Twist
[19 Aug 2023] Václav Patejdl, 68, Slovak musician and composer (Elán).
Also, on our Festival Stage we welcome Václav Patejdl, founding member of the Slovak band Elán. He founded the band in 1968 and aside from a dozen-year hiatus to work on solo material, played with the band as recently as last month. Patejdl died on August 19th. Here’s Elán with “Zanedbany Sex,” which means “Neglected Sex” in Slovakian.
Elán – Zanedbany Sex
International Stage:
[22 Aug 2023] Toto Cutugno, 80, Italian singer-songwriter (“L’Italiano”, “Insieme: 1992”, “Solo noi”) and musician, prostate cancer.
Opening the International Stage we have Italy’s Toto Cutugno, who began his career as a drummer, but became a multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter who became the oldest winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1992 at age 46. He’s best known for this 1983 song that became his biggest international hit, “L’Italiano.” Cutugno went to the great beyond on August 22nd.
Toto Cutugno – L’Italiano
[18 Aug 2023] Chico Novarro [es], 88, Argentine singer-songwriter.
Chico Novarro was an actor, composer, and singer/songwriter from Argentina. Born Bernardo Mitnik, the second 88-year-old in this week’s playlist was already making money playing drums by age 14 in 1947. By the mid-1960s, he began writing his own songs and adopted his stage name. Here he is singing “Algo Contigo.”
Chico Novarro – Algo Contigo
[13 Aug 2023] Mohammad Esmaili, 88, Iranian musician.
I can’t tell you much about our 3rd 88-year-old, Iranian musician Mohammad Esmaili, aside from the fact that he plays an instrument called the tombak. Here he is with Faramarz Payvar with the song “Chaharmezrab.”
Faramarz Payvar – Chaharmezrab (feat. Mohammad Esmaili)
Mosh Pit:
[17 Aug 2023] Gary Young, 70, American drummer (Pavement).
We make a complete 180 with our closing acts this week, so if the harder stuff hurts your ears, maybe it’s time to call it a night. First up we have Gary Young, drummer from the metal band Pavement, who died on August 17th at the age of 70. Sadly, Young was only with the band for their first album before his problems with alcohol became too much for the rest of the band to bear.
Pavement – In The Mouth A Desert
[10 Aug 2023] Brad Thomson, American guitarist (The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza).
Finally, we have Brad Thomson, a guitarist with the mathcore band with my favorite name of the year, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza. The band’s name sometimes attracted shocked older folks expecting to see the actor from Taxi and Who’s the Boss. The band produced four albums in the 2000s. Thomson died on August 10th.
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza – Passenger 57
Encore:
[17 Aug 2023] Bobby Eli, 77, American guitarist (MFSB), songwriter (“Love Won’t Let Me Wait”), and record producer.
For an encore, we bring back Bobby Eli, born Eli Tatarsky, who, in addition to his studio work with MFSB, was also a prodigious producer and songwriter, with four top ten R&B songwriting credits, including this #1 hit that also made it to #5 on the pop charts. If you’re Gen-X like me, you know it as the song that mom turned off on the radio before you ever heard the ending. This is Major Harris with “Love Won’t Let Me Wait.”
Major Harris – Love Won’t Let Me Wait
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, August 25th, 2023. Join us here next week for a tribute to the latest artists to cross over to eternity. Catch up on every year of Rest in Playlist back to 2016 on Spotify and RadicalRuss.com. For Rest in Playlist, I’m “Radical” Russ Belville reminding you to seize the day, it may be your last.
