The irony of losing name entertainers closely together continues

I know it is nothing but coincidence, but the fact that we continue to lose bigname entertainers so closely together always strikes me as being a bit ironic.

For instance in the space of a precious few days, the entertainment world has had to say goodbye to the likes of Mac Davis, Helen Reddy, Johnny Nash and most recently Eddie Van Halen. ( Now allow me to say here that any of these four great entertainers certainly deserve their own individual tributes in this space, but I opted to use all four in the same piece rather than keep delaying someone over and over.)

Let’s look first at Davis and his incredible resume. He was 78 when he died on September 29.

The Lubbock, Texas product succeeded with flying colors in many areas, including being a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In that realm, he wrote ( or co- wrote) some of Elvis Presley’s biggest hits “Don’t Cry Daddy”, “In The Ghetto”, “A Little Less

Conversation”, and “Memories”.

A former Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year, Davis had many huge hits of his own including “Stop and Smell the Roses”, “It’s Hard To Be Humble”, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me”, and his personal favorite ( as well as my own personal favorite MD song), the emotional “Texas In My Rearview Mirror.”

But take a look at these other areas Davis also excelled in: He had a hit television show, acted on the Broadway stage and appeared in several popular movies. His incredible career spanned six decades.

Helen Reddy who also died September 29 held dual citizenships in Australia and the United States. The pop- easy listening star had a total of 15 singles on Billboard’ s Top 40 with six of those going Top 10 and three more going all the way to the top. In addition, she also had eight other songs reach No. One on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary charts.

One of her biggest honors came when Billboard voted her Favorite Pop/ Rock Female Artist at the inaugural American Music Awards.

Her signature song is the iconic “I Am Woman”.

Though best known for his monster hit “I Can See Clearly Now”, it would be a mistake to label Johnny Nash a one- hit wonder despite the fact that he wrote, produced and sang the song that was also covered by many others, including the great Ray Charles and the great Gladys Knight.

Nash, who died October 6 at the age of 80, had a Top 5 hit with “Hold Me Tight” as well as “A Very Special

Love”, which sailed up the charts before dropping anchor at No. 27. A final fact about Nash that I surely hadn’t heard before is that he was the first to sign the popular family group, The Cowsills ( of “Indian Lake” fame).

The shocking passing of iconic rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen on October 6th rounds out this particular group of celebrity deaths. Van Halen, a co- founder of the band, had been battling cancer for more than a decade. He was only 65.

Originally from The Netherlands, Eddie is credited with developing the technique called “Tapping”.

I think it was a quote from Australian country star Keith Urban that I thought best summed up Eddie: “He was not only a great player; he was a great innovator.”

All four of these acts leave strong legacies, and their memories will live in our minds and hearts for years to come.