OBITUARIES.....
I never thought about them really.
I have been listening to Kenny Rankin all of my life.
Seriously.
All of my life, starting at 16 years old.
If you haven't heard his music, or even heard of him as an artist I have included just 3 of my favorite songs of his.
It never crossed my mind that he would die someday.
I have seen him in small concerts, and you really end up staring at your friends,
(who love him as well)
and cocking your heads saying; "is that really his voice ?"
"it can't be that perfect and beautiful"
" can it ?"
I was surfing around trying to find a music widget for my blog.
I wanted to load Kenny Rankin.
So I googled him and this is what I found. I had no idea that he had died.
I was shocked.
Shocked enough to blog about it, and share him with you.
Oh how I loved his voice first, and the man later.
When he was young, he was pretty cute.
Do you agree ?
*This is taken from The La Times
Kenny Rankin dies at 69;
singer-songwriter's long career almost defied categorization
"A well-regarded guitarist, he wrote the hit song 'Peaceful' for Helen Reddy and played in Bob Dylan's backup band on the influential 1965 album 'Bringing It All Back Home.'
June 09, 2009|Jon Thurber
His career, which spanned more than five decades, almost defied categorization. A well-regarded guitarist, he played in Bob Dylan's backup band on the influential 1965 album "Bringing It All Back Home." He also spent several years on the road opening for comedian George Carlin.
Rankin appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson more than 25 times. Carson was such a fan that he wrote the liner notes for Rankin's 1967 debut LP, "Mind Dusters."
As a singer with a velveteen tenor voice, he had highly successful covers of the Beatles' "Blackbird" and "Penny Lane" in the mid-1970s and in 1976 recorded an LP of standards, "The Kenny Rankin Album," with a large orchestra conducted by Don Costa." (Don Costa used to work with Sinatra)
"In a review of a 2000 Rankin performance at a San Fernando Valley jazz club, critic Don Heckman wrote in The Times: "Rankin has been -- for a decade or more -- a singer whose unusual improvisational skills and innate capacity to deliver a melody with a strong sense of swing stamp him as a consistently appealing jazz artist."
In addition to Reddy's version of "Peaceful," jazz singers Carmen McRae and Mel Torme recorded versions of Rankin's and Ruth Batchelor's "Haven't We Met."
Rankin was born Feb. 10, 1940, and grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City. He was signed to Decca Records as a teenager and released a few singles. He later signed with Columbia Records.
One of his major influences was Laura Nyro, the late songwriter who wrote "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic," whom he met in Greenwich Village in 1960.
"She profoundly changed my musical life and affected it to this day, more than anyone or anything else," Rankin told the Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto in 2007. "She was deep, dark and light, the spectrum of passion."
His peak recording years were in the 1970s, when he released the LPs "Silver Morning," "Inside" and "The Kenny Rankin Album."
Paul McCartney was so pleased with Rankin's covers of the Beatles hits, he asked him to sing a medley of them when McCartney was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987.
Rankin is survived by his son, Chris; daughters Gena and Chanda; and a granddaughter.
A memorial service is being planned in Los Angeles."
jon.thurber@latimes.com
download his songs here
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=141142
I have loved this song forever.
This is the absolute most fabulous song ever. I love love love love it.
Do You Like His Music ?
Do You Like His Voice ?
You can tell me. Really.
Renee Finberg 'TELLS ALL' in her BLOG.....
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