Kenny Rankin, RIP

[GA Russell]

Kenny Rankin died yesterday. I'm very moved by this. He was one of my four favorite singers, along with Mark Murphy, Mose Allison and Paul Jones.

I remember seeing and hearing him for the first time in 1974/75 on the late night show The Midnight Special which that week was hosted by Olivia Newton-John (who was the reason I was watching in the first place).

I still have one of his albums that I haven't opened yet. I'll have to get to it pronto.

Here's his LA Times obituary:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,5347669.story

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.' By Jon Thurber

7:27 PM PDT, June 8, 2009 Kenny Rankin, a singer-songwriter and musician whose song "Peaceful" was a hit for Helen Reddy and who had popular covers himself of a pair of Beatles hits, has died. He was 69.

Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The cause of death, according to his management company, was lung cancer, which was diagnosed three weeks ago.

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.

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 Chandra; and a granddaughter.

[ValerieB]

i don't know how i missed this in today's paper! i found this out earlier this evening and am extremely saddened. Kenny was such a unique talent.

hard to imagine being diagnosed with lung cancer and passing three weeks later!! guess there were some other complications. what a loss!

[Dave James]

That's a shame. I'll bet there probably lots of folks here who may not have heard or even heard of Kenny Rankin. I've been a fan of his since the '70's. I saw him in concert many moons ago at the Paramount Theater here in Portland. Several of his tunes currently reside on my iPod, mostly from his recording "Like A Seed", but my favorite by far is "Then I'll Be Tired Of You" from an album called "A Song For You." A quintessential vocal ballad from a unique talent.

Up over and out.

Edited June 9, 2009 by Dave James

[mr jazz]

Silver Morning remains a favorite. If anyone has a cd of this album they are willing to sell at a reasonable price, please PM me. RIP Kenny Rankin

[ValerieB]

i don't know how i missed this in today's paper! i found this out earlier this evening and am extremely saddened. Kenny was such a unique talent.

hard to imagine being diagnosed with lung cancer and passing three weeks later!! guess there were some other complications. what a loss!

the obit was actually in today's paper which is why i didn't see it yesterday.

apparently, from what i heard, he had sadly been neglecting his respiratory problems until three weeks ago!

Kenny was a magical talent. i will really miss him but am very grateful for what he's left behind for his fans.

[7/4]

That's a shame. I'll bet there probably lots of folks here who may not have heard or even heard of Kenny Rankin.

He's one of those many singer/song writers that I'd constantly hear mentioned on WNEW-FM's Concert Happenings back in the '70s/80s.

[CJ Shearn]

that sucks. I used to listen to the album Silver Morning when I was a kid.

[Chuck Nessa]

Remember hearing him in some small club in NY in the first half of the '70s. We went because Cuscuna (then an Atlantic employee) could get us a free meal.