Ben and I have taken to alerting each other about famous deaths. Partly it's to help me keep up to date on this feature; I'm not sure what Ben gets out of it. Maybe he's just a ghoul. It's got to the stage where we just message the name of the latest departee; further conversation may or may not ensue.
This was our conversation last Friday...
Ben: Rudolph Isley.
Rol: Damned shame. This Old Heart Of Mine is one of my all time Top Ten.
Ben: Top 5 here.
Rol: Beyond the number 1, I don't really put them in order. It is however one of the few songs that makes the hairs on the back of my next stand up whenever I hear the drum intro.
Ben: It's one of the best pop songs that's ever been written and performed.
Rol: Yes.
The Isley Brothers had many more great songs, but This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You) exists on another level. Take 2 minutes 45 seconds out of your day to appreciation sheer perfection...
I couldn't find any songs that mentioned Rudolph by name, but that didn't bother me. It was enough just to play that one again. And again.
Piper Laurie made her film debut in 1950 and her final screen appearance in 2018. She appeared in The Hustler with Paul Newman and played Sissy Spacek's domineering mother in Carrie, but she'll be best remembered at Top Ten Towers for her role as the conniving businesswoman Catherine Martell. Laurie was also a prominent civil rights activist, taking a 15 year break from acting during the 60s and 70s to protest against the Vietnam war.
I found a couple of songs in the jukebox dedicated to Piper. Firstly this...
And then this lost gem from The Dangtrippers, which manages to squeeze a bit of biographical detail into a two and a half minute jangly power pop song, including a mention of her real name, Rosetta Jacobs...
In black and white soft focus dreams
She was wiser than now, all the rest
Enigmatic femme fatale,
She quit the screen for a normal life
