It has come across the wires within the last two hours of the passing of singer-songwriter Greg Kihn at 75. Kihn first burst on the scene in 1981 with "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)", but is better remembered for 1983's "Jeopardy", with its B-movie horror theme.
Here's "The Breakup Song":
And, then, there was a massive gut punch to anyone who was into game shows back in the 60's & 70's.
Peter Marshall, the genial, original master of The Hollywood Squares, passed away earlier today at 98 due to kidney failure.
Born Ralph Pierre LaCock, Marshall began as a big band singer before joining forces with comic Tommy Noonan in a nightclub act in the late 50's. Marshall then transitioned into acting, appearing on such shows as The Lucy Show (as Lucy's brother-in-law in season 1) before Merrill Heatter & Bob Quigley brought him in to pilot Squares in 1966, leading to a 15 year run, ending in syndication in 1981. In the midst of this, Marshall also found time to front a syndicated variety show in 1976, from whence we get this duet with Bill Hayes (Days of Our Lives), a cover of "Trouble", from "The Music Man".
After his Squares run ended, Marshall returned to NBC with Fantasy in 1982. That series lasted a year before a rebooted Squares, now fused together with Match Game, took its place, with Jon Bauman filling Marshall's role as Squares MC. That lasted 9 months. Peter had last been doing an oldies show on satellite radio, returning to his first love, music.
Rest in peace.
4 comments:
Also noted Greg Kihn wrote quite a number of novels with a horror/entertainment industry theme.
Which would explain the inspiration for "Jeopardy".
Greg Kihn was the morning DJ at KUFX in San Jose, CA for about 17 years. I used to listen to that station a lot.
I would assume it was after his chart success?
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