Janice Brooks
From:
Pleasant Gap Pa
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Posted 24 Nov 2001 8:31 am |
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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- O.C. Smith, best known for singing a Grammy
Award-winning
rendition of the song "Little Green Apples, was found dead Friday. The cause
of
death was not immediately clear. He was 65.
A minister at the City of Angels Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles
since 1985, Smith was considered in good health. He presided over an
hourlong
Thanksgiving Day service, where he told jokes and appeared in good spirits,
a
church member said.
Smith recorded "Little Green Apples,'' along with Roger Miller and Patti
Page,
and won Grammys in 1968 for song of the year and best country song.
He was born Ocie Lee Smith on June 21, 1932, in Mansfield, Louisiana, and
raised in Los Angeles, where he began singing jazz and standards in clubs at
the end of the 40s.
After serving in the U.S. Air Force, Smith signed with Cadence Records in
1956,
enjoying some success the following year with the single "Lighthouse."
He remained predominantly a club performer until 1961, when he replaced Joe
Williams in the Count Basie Band. Smith resumed his solo career in 1963,
finally attaining a commercial breakthrough in 1968 with the notable
story-song, "The Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp", recorded at Fame Studios in
Muscle Shoals, Louisiana.
A major hit in Britain, the song was overshadowed in the U.S. by Smith's
rendition of Bobby Russell's "Little Green Apples," which outsold a rival
versions by Roger Miller and Patti Page.
"Daddy's Little Man" was Smith's last song to enter the Top 40 charts, in
1969.
AP-NY / 11-23-01 16:34 EST
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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047
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