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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, March 15th, 2024, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently. It’s our one-year anniversary show, and man, did The Reaper pull together a great lineup this week with our headliner, The Raspberries’ Eric Carmen. This week brings the piano king of boogaloo, a drummer turned darts official, a bass player from The Pretenders, and a Scottish songstress to the Main Stage. We’ve also got three Americans in the House of Blues, including one of the greatest session guitarists ever, as well as a trip to the Jazz Cellar with one of the greatest session saxophonists ever. 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:
[07 Mar 2024] Pete Rodriguez, 89, American pianist (“I Like It Like That“) and bandleader.
Pete Rodriguez, who died on March 7th, was born in the Bronx, New York, to Puerto Rican parents in 1934. He rose to fame as a pianist and bandleader in the Latin Boogaloo style, recording a dozen albums between 1964 and 1971, the most successful of which was 1966’s A Mi Me Gusta Así, the title track of which you have heard at the movies, in video games, and sampled by numerous hip-hop artists, in English you know it as “I Like it Like That.”
Pete Rodriguez – I Like It Like That
Headliner:
[11 Mar 2024] Eric Carmen, 74, American musician (Raspberries), singer (“Hungry Eyes“), and songwriter (“All by Myself“).
Our headliner this week joined the gig eternal on March 11th, having died in his sleep. Eric Carmen first hit the scene in 1972 when his band Raspberries had this #5 hit called “Go All the Way.”
Raspberries – Go All The Way
Eric Carmen then went solo and had a #4 hit, a #3 hit, and a #2 hit, but never reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Here’s Eric Carmen’s #4 hit from 1987, off the juggernaut Dirty Dancing movie soundtrack—we’ll finish the countdown in the Encore—this is “Hungry Eyes.”
Eric Carmen – Hungry Eyes
Main Stage:
[13 Mar 2024] Dick Allix, 78, British drummer (Vanity Fare) and darts official.
Never before have we had a member of the Professional Darts Hall of Fame on the program. Dick Allix, who went bulls out on March 13th, co-founded the Professional Darts Corporation in 1992, the world’s leading darts organization that holds televised championships and provides world rankings for the sport. Oh, and he was also the drummer for a 60s UK pop band called Vanity Fare that had this 1970 #5 hit in the USA called “Hitchin’ a Ride.”
Vanity Fare – Hitchin’ A Ride (Murray)
[10 Mar 2024] T. M. Stevens, 72, American bass guitarist (The Pretenders), complications from dementia.
Next up we have Thomas Michael, or “T.M.” Stevens, an American bass guitarist who did recording and tour work for artists including James Brown, Nona Hendryx, Dan Hartman, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Little Steven, Tina Turner, Taylor Dayne, and Billy Joel. However, he’s best known for being a member of The Pretenders from 1986–87, during which he appeared on the Get Close album. Here’s its biggest hit, “Don’t Get Me Wrong.”
The Pretenders – Don’t Get Me Wrong
[14 Mar 2024] Angela McCluskey, 64, Scottish singer-songwriter.
Closing out the Main Stage we have a California-based singer I’m going to call the Scottish Amy Winehouse. Angela McCluskey passed away on March 14th and her voice appeared on numerous commercials and in film and television soundtracks. Born in Glasgow in 1960, she relocated to Hollywood in 1993, and also performed with the groups The Garden of Eden, Wild Colonials, and Telepopmusik. Here she is on one of her solo efforts entitled “It’s Been Done.”
Angela McCluskey – It’s Been Done
House of Blues:
[10 Mar 2024] Paul Nelson, American guitarist, record producer and songwriter, heart attack.
Paul Nelson, who died March 10th, was an American Grammy award winning blues and rock guitarist, record producer and songwriter. He was an A-list, first call session player whose list of collaborations would take the rest of the hour to read. Let’s just say that he was handpicked to join the legendary Johnny Winter’s band, leading to the Grammy-winning album Step Back, which debuted at #1 on the blues album charts and #16 on the pop charts, the highest point of Winter’s career. Here’ Paul Nelson featured on that album with the song “Killing Floor.”
Johnny Winter – Killing Floor (With Paul Nelson)
[02 Mar 2024] Blues Boy Willie, 77, American blues musician.
William Daniel McFall, better known as Blues Boy Willie, was a Texas blues man who made a splash in the 90s with character-driven songs that relied on comedy and innuendo, harkening back to the “jelly roll” era of early censored blues and jazz. Blues Boy Willie left us on March 2nd. Here’s a track from his 2002 album Back Again called “Hungry Harp Blues.”
Blues Boy Willie – Hungry Harp Blues
[01 Mar 2024] Don Wise, 81, American tenor saxophonist.
Don Wise, who passed on March 1st, wraps up the House of Blues this week. He played tenor saxophone with a variety of artists, including Jeffrey Osborne, Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson, Tower of Power, Huey Lewis, and Ray Charles. He also played at the inaugural for President George H.W. Bush. But his main gig for 23 years was as the sax man for Texas blues-rock legend Delbert McClinton, heard on his biggest hit, “Giving it Up For Your Love.”
Delbert McClinton – Giving It Up for Your Love
The Jazz Cellar:
[13 Mar 2024] Sylvain Luc, 58, French jazz guitarist.
Our next guitarist took up guitar, cello, violin, and mandolin as a child, and by age 9 was recording on albums with his brothers. Sylvain Luc is a French jazz guitarist who died on March 13th. He started recording his own solo material at 15 and quickly became the most sought-after guitarist and bassist in the Basque region. He went on to perform with Al Jarreau, Steve Gadd, Wynton Marsalis, John McLaughlin, Steve Lukather, Billy Cobham, Victor Bailey, and Al Di Meola, to name but a few. Here he is performing the Ray Charles classic, “I Got a Woman.”
Sylvain Luc – I Got A Woman
[08 Mar 2024] Ernie Fields Jr., 89, American baritone saxophonist and session musician.
Ernie Fields Jr, who left us on March 8th, was an American baritone saxophonist and session musician. He worked with blues, soul and funk artists including B. B. King, Bobby Bland, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Rick James, and Marvin Gaye. In the 1990s he began touring with trombonist Fred Wesley, known for his work with James Brown, playing bagpipes as well as saxophone. Here he is on a Fred Wesley track for which he did all the horn arrangements, “Wuda Cuda Shuda.”
Fred Wesley – Wuda Cuda Shuda
Encore:
[11 Mar 2024] Eric Carmen, 74, American musician (Raspberries), singer (“Hungry Eyes“), and songwriter (“All by Myself“).
We welcome Eric Carmen back to the stage. We played his #5 hit with the Raspberries and his #4 hit from Dirty Dancing. In 1988 Carmen released a Greatest Hits album that contained this new single, which became his biggest hit of the 80s, making it all the way to #3. This is “Make Me Lose Control.”
Eric Carmen – Make Me Lose Control
Eric Carmen’s biggest success came off his debut album from 1975. It has a classical background, its verse based on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, and its chorus was taken from a 1972 Raspberries single called “Let’s Pretend.” This is the song kept out of the #1 spot by The Miracles’ “Love Machine” and The Four Seasons’ “Oh, What a Night,” this is Eric Carmen at #2 with “All By Myself.”
Eric Carmen – All By Myself
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, March 15th, 2024. Join us here next week as we chronicle the latest musicians, singers, and songwriters to join the Great Gig in the Sky. 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.
