Jimmy Beaumont, at 76, doo-wop songwriter
McKEESPORT, Pa. — Jimmy Beaumont, the lead singer of the doo-wop group the Skyliners and a co-writer of the iconic ballad “Since I Don’t Have You,” has died at age 76.
Mr. Beaumont died in his sleep Saturday at his home in McKeesport, about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, his hometown, his family said.
Joe Rock, who would eventually manage the Skyliners, was helping to promote Mr. Beaumont’s former group, the Crescents, when Rock wrote some lyrics lamenting his girlfriend’s impending departure for flight attendants’ school out of state. That was 1958, and Mr. Beaumont was 18.
Mr. Beaumont set the lyrics to music, and a hit was born.
“I had been listening to all the doo-wop groups from that period — The Platters, the Moonglows. I guess just from listening it came out of me,” Mr. Beaumont told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a 2009 interview.
The song has been covered by Barbra Streisand, Patti LaBelle, Art Garfunkel, Don McLean and even Guns N’ Roses. The song was released in December 1958 but hit No. 1 on the Cashbox R&B chart and No. 3 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1959.