60s rocker Paul Revere, born in Harvard, NE, dies of cancer at 76

Revere, the zany organist who got top billing in the group he founded, is shown below performing Kicks, the first commercially successful antidrug rock song, for a very impatient Ed Sullivan on the impressario's hugely popular Sunday night variety show on CBS.
     After the Raiders finished, the musically agnostic (and rushed) Sullivan teased the next Sunday's show by announcing an appearance by bandleader Xavier Cougat, the man who unleashed his much younger wife Charo on an unsuspecting world. Charo was a lovable, idiotic sexpot; Xavier Cougat was amazing. Check out his biggest hit, Perfidia, here.



From the New York Times:

     Mr. Revere spent more than 50 years in the music business. He decided on a career in music as a teenager, and later formed a band called the Downbeats. He renamed it the Raiders in 1960.

     Mr. Lindsay joined in 1958, and five years later the band recorded “Louie Louie,” written by Richard Berry and originally recorded by Richard Berry and the Pharoahs. The Raiders’ version was overshadowed by the Kingsmen’s, which reached No. 2.

     After catching the attention of Dick Clark, the group appeared regularly on “Where the Action Is,” the ABC spinoff of “American Bandstand.” In 1966, it appeared on an episode of “Batman,” and performed the following year on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

     The band went through a number of members over the years. By 1968, Mr. Revere and Mr. Lindsay were the last original members, and Mr. Lindsay left to embark on a solo career in 1975.

     Mr. Revere’s survivors include his wife of 35 years, Sydney, and a son, Jamie. Two longtime Raiders have also died: the drummer Mike Smith in 2001, and the guitarist Drake Levin in 2009.