THEY ALSO SERVED

COUNTRY SINGER JODY MILLER (below, b.1941) enjoyed US country hits in the ’60s and ’70s, the biggest being Queen Of The House (an answer record to Roger Miller’s King Of The Road) and Home Of The Brave, both in 1965. The same year she competed in the San Remo song festival, where she sang Pino Donaggio’s Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te); also present, Dusty Springfield covered it in English as her 1966 smash You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me. Miller later made Christian music. DRUMMER PAUL DUFOUR (b.1947) was, in his sixth decade, the original drummer with The Libertines. He left the band in 2001, but can be heard on live recordings and demos, and in 2014 played with Pete Doherty again on two dates of a solo tour. Dufour also ran a studio in east London, backed Tommy Cooper in cabaret, and played with Venus Edge, Roger Moon and UK rapper Blade.

DJ ART LABOE (b.1925) debuted playing jazz on San Francisco’s airwaves during the Second World War, and never stopped broadcasting. He was a trailblazer in non-segregated rock’n’roll programming, released the 1959 instrumental hits Teen Beat by Sandy Nelson and Bongo Rock by Preston Epps on his Original Sound label (the loquacious Laboe received a co-writing credit on both) and coined the phrase ‘Oldies But Goodies.’ He recorded his last show the day before his death on October 7. STAX RECORDS songwriter BETTYE CRUTCHER (b.1939) became a staff writer at the storied Memphis soul label in 1967. Her most famous co-composition was Johnnie Taylor’s 1968 smash Who’s Making Love. She also wrote for The Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Albert King and William Bell (Paul Weller covered Bell’s My Whole World Is Falling Down, written by Crutcher and Booker T Jones; her other non-soul interpreters included Joe Cocker and Joan Baez), and later, for Hi Records, Anne Peebles, Otis Clay and others. In 1974 she released her solo LP, Long As You Love Me (I’ll Be Alright). COMPOSER and singer LUCY SIMON (right, b.1940) released three ’60s LPs with her sister Carly as The Simon Sisters and two solo LPs in the mid-’70s. Later her music for Broadway show The Secret Garden was nominated for a Tony Award, and she won two Grammys, with her husband David Levine for collections of children’s music.

REO SPEEDWAGON bassist GREGG PHILBIN (b.1947) joined the Illinois rockers in 1968 and, as vocalists came and went, played on their first six studio LPs. A progressive bassist by instinct, the group’s evolution into the chart-oriented platinumselling outfit of the ’80s led to his departure in 1977. In 2018 he announced his memoir, Roll With The Changes. BROOKLYN-BORN sax player

RONNIE CUBER (b.1941) worked with Maynard Ferguson and George Benson in the ’60s. He went on to record his own jazz LPs and play with eminent jazzers including Jimmy McGriff, Idris Muhammad, Mark Murphy, Horace Silver, Eddie Palmieri and Lee Konitz. His rock, blues and soul credits included Aretha Franklin, Frank Zappa, Chaka Khan, Candi Staton, Yoko Ono, B.B. King, Steely Dan, Luther Vandross, Dr. John, Paul Simon, Gladys Knight, Chic, Average White Band and Eric Clapton. He was also a member of the Mingus Big Band and the Saturday Night Live Band. FOLK SINGER MARY

McCASLIN (b.1946) released her first album, Goodnight Everybody, in 1969, and her last, Better Late Than Never, in 2006. Mixing country with singer-songwriter sophistication, she was admired for her open-tuning guitar playing, shared stages with Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, and played in a duo with her husband Jim Ringer.

GUITARIST DAVID MALACHOWSKI (b.1955) played in groups including Reckless and the Greg Austin Band before becoming Shania Twain’s bandleader from 1995-97. He also played with Garth Hudson, Savoy Brown, Michelle Shocked, Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen and Pavlov’s Dog, and wrote music criticism.

COWBOY SINGER and musicologist DON EDWARDS (b.1935) sang about the old West from 1961. In 1980 he made The Happy Cowboy with Gene Autry’s band, and later recorded albums including Songs Of The Trail, West Of Yesterday and, with bluegrass luminary Peter Rowan, High Lonesome Cowboy.

PIANIST/ARRANGER KENNY CLAYTON (b.1936) played with Alma Cogan and recorded solo before becoming Petula Clark’s musical director in 1962. Thereafter he worked with Shirley Bassey, Charles Aznavour, Matt Monro, Roger Whittaker, Robin Gibb, Sacha Distel and Anita Harris, before rejoining Clark from 1979 to 2009. His stage and screen credits included the music for Morecambe & Wise’s 1985 TV movie farewell Night Train To Murder, an interpretation of Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, and a stage version of concert party comedydrama Privates On Parade. MOTOWN songwriter and publisher ROBERT GORDY (below, b.1931) recorded solo singles until 1962, by which time he was already working for his younger brother Berry’s Motown label, first as a recording engineer and later running the imprint’s publishing arm Jobete Music. He continued to compose – Marvin Gaye and The Supremes recorded his co-writes – and also acted, playing the character

The Hawk in 1972 Diana Ross-starring Billie Holiday bio-pic Lady Sings The Blues. Ian Harrison