Eddie Willis: at a ceremony in March 2013 to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the Funk Brothers. (Photo by Angela George)
Eddie “Chank” Willis (June 3, 1936 – August 20, 2018) was an American soul musician. Willis played electric guitar and occasional electric sitar for Motown’s in-house studio band, The Funk Brothers, during the 1960s and early 1970s.
Born in Grenada, Mississippi, Willis was known for his signature style of muted guitar riffs which added a distinctive tone or “color” to the beat, often timed with the snare, of the hundreds of hit songs recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. for Motown artists. Among the recordings Willis performed on are “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes, “The Way You Do the Things You Do” by The Temptations, “You Keep Me Hanging On” by The Supremes, and “I Was Made to Love Her” by Stevie Wonder.
Influences for Willis include Chet Atkins, Wes Montgomery, and Albert King. He played a Gibson Firebird guitar on most of his early 1960s work, later moving on to use a Gibson ES-335. On recordings such as The Supremes’ “No Matter What Sign You Are”, Willis performed on a Coral sitar.
He accepted an offer from Phil Collins to perform on his album of Motown and 1960s soul classics, Going Back.
Willis died on August 20, 2018 in Gore Springs, Mississippi from complications of polio at the age of 82
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Willis
Photo: Eddie Willis:
Willis at a ceremony in March 2013 to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the Funk Brothers. (Photo by Angela George)
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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
August 2018
21: Spencer P. Jones, 61, New Zealand singer and guitarist (The Johnnys, Beasts of Bourbon, Sacred Cowboys), liver cancer.
20: Eddie Willis, 82, American studio guitarist (The Funk Brothers), complications from poliomyelitis.
19: Khaira Arby (fr), 59, Malian singer; Deivison Kellrs, 30, Brazilian singer, liver cancer.
18: Jack Costanzo, 98, American percussionist, complications from a ruptured aneurysm.
17: Claudio Lolli, 68, Italian singer-songwriter, cancer; Danny Pearson, 65, American R&B singer, liver cancer; Sahar Taha, 61, Iraqi-born Lebanese musician and journalist.
16: Benny Andersen, 88, Danish author, poet and pianist; Aretha Franklin, 76, American Hall of Fame singer (“Respect”, “Chain of Fools”, “A Natural Woman”), pianist and songwriter, 18-time Grammy winner, pancreatic cancer; Count Prince Miller, 83, Jamaican-born British singer and actor (Desmond’s), cancer.
15: Marie-Françoise Bucquet, 80, French pianist and teacher; Stuart Mitchell, 52, British pianist and composer, lung cancer (death announced on this date); Queeneth Ndaba, 82, South African jazz singer and manager (Dorkay House, African Jazz Pioneers).
14: Jill Janus, 42, American rock singer (Huntress), suicide; Valentina Levko, 92, Russian opera and chamber singer; Teo Maiste (et), 86, Estonian opera singer; Randy Rampage, 58, Canadian thrash metal singer and bassist (D.O.A., Annihilator, Stress Factor 9), heart attack; Alberto Tosca, 63, Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist.