You may or may not have heard that Dennis Yost, the lead singer of Classics IV, died earlier this week in a Cincinatti hospital. He'd been in a nursing home since sustaining a brain injury following a fall in 2005. And depending on your age, you may or may not care. Whatever the case, the band was responsible for four massive AM radio hit singles -- one right after the other -- in the late '60s, including "Spooky" (which went onto be covered by Dusty Springfield, REM, Andy Williams, King Curtis, Martha Reeves and Percy Sledge, among numerous others) "Traces" (which was one of the "cool" songs my classically-oriented piano teacher actually let me learn at the time; I eventually traded that teacher in for one who let me play real rock 'n' roll), "Everyday With You, Girl" and "Stormy."
What you may not know is that Mr. Yost also happened to be a native Detroiter! I didn't realize that until I read his obituary online the other day. I'm constantly amazed at the number, not to mention wide variety (in so many genres), of great musical artists who've come out of this city. Never fails to boggle the mind...
Wimpy, yes, but it also always made me sad (especially when nursing a broken heart):
