Good grief .. yet another loss to the soul world. Founding member of The
Whispers, Gordy Harmon, who was the only remaining original member, apart from the Scott twins,
has died aged 79. It is reported that he died in his sleep at home in L.A.
on Thursday night (5 Jan).
It is not long ago that we did a full feature on The Whispers to
celebrate Wallace and Water Scott's 79th birthday in Sep 2022 so refer you there to reflect on
his contribution to the music we love. I have to say that The Whisper
are one of my all time favourite male groups.
Also posted only a few weeks ago was a compilation of their early Dore
material "The Dore Singles". He wrote / co-wrote many of their Dore and Soul Clock singles e.g. "As
I Sit Here", "Take A Lesson From The Teacher", "Can't Fight What's Right",
"The Time Will Come", "What Will I Do" and "Needle In a Haystack"
Harmon had to retire from the group in 1973 owing to an injury to his
larynx suffered in a driving accident and
was replaced by former Friends of Distinction member Leaveil Degree. The
other two original members of the quintet are also now deceased, Marcus
Hutson in 2000 aged 56 and Nicholas Caldwell in 2016 aged 71. The group
remain a trio of the Scott twins along with Harmon's
replacement Leaveil Degree as when Hutson retired from the group in 1992 with prostate
cancer they vowed never to replace him and continued as a quartet until the
death of Caldwell in 2016.
UPDATE: A joint tribute playlist of songs has been posted on the post for the posthumous birthday of Marcus Hutson.
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The sad law of series. As for me, you are right to say that the Whispers are among the best bands like the Temptations, The Stylistics, etc. which, alas, were never replaced. We always listen to them with the same passion.
ReplyDeleteYves