Interesting Bits|

Fats Domino: He didn’t evacuate during Hurricane Katrina, and afterward someone spray-painted a message on his New Orleans home: “RIP Fats. You will be missed.” In fact, the famously shy rock and roll pioneer is very much alive at 86, though he lost 20 gold record awards—for hits like “Blueberry Hill” and “Ain’t That a Shame”—when his house was flooded. A happy ending: The music trade group RIAA replaced the awards.

Bobby Gentry

Her haunting “Ode to Billy Joe” soared to No. 1 in July 1967, edging out the Beatles’All You Need Is Love.” Bobby Gentry, who studied philosophy at UCLA, later settled in Los Angeles, where she has avoided the public eye for more than three decades. In July, she celebrated her 70th birthday—and we’re still waiting for Gentry to tell us exactly what the young couple in her song threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Pete Best

“Pete forever, Ringo never!” fans yelled after the Fab Three fired him in 1962. There were reasons—producer George Martin viewed the Beatles’ original drummer as a weak link—but the dismissal was handled poorly. Still, life goes on: Best, 72, supported his family as a civil servant, enjoys touring off and on with the Pete Best Band, and just celebrated his 51st wedding anniversary. Some say he’s the happiest Beatle of all.

Brenda Lee

Only Elvis, Ray Charles and the Beatles had more hits than she did in the ’60s. In fact, Brenda Lee began the decade with what would become her signature song (“I’m Sorry”), and the Beatles opened for her when she toured the U.K. in 1963. And the four-foot-nine singer known as Little Miss Dynamite hasn’t fizzled. Her November 15 concert in Biloxi, Miss., took place two weeks before her 70th birthday.

Billy Gray

Busted for marijuana possession in 1962, Billy Gray didn’t seem to be taking the straight-and-narrow path you might expect from the boy he played on the wholesome sitcom “Father Knows Best.” Maybe just as well. Today Gray, a diehard motorcycle collector at 76, co-owns BigRock Engineering, which markets various products that he invented, including ergonomic guitar picks.

Millie Small

The Jamaican singer-songwriter’s career took off with her cover of “My Boy Lollipop” (1964), which she turned into one of the best-selling ska tunes of all time. But in the early ’70s Millie Small moved to Singapore, quit performing and seemed to drop off the face of the earth. Now 68 and living in the U.K., she has announced plans to perform in Jamaica for the first time in four decades.

Bobby Vinton

He looked and sounded great in “Goodfellas” — but that was actually Bobby Vinton’s son Robbie. Not that the original Polish Prince is unable to hold his own. From 1962 to 1972, he had more No. 1 hits than any other male solo artist. Today, at 79, he lives on Florida’s Gulf Coast with his wife, Dolly. They’ve been married since 1962, the year Vinton recorded “Roses Are Red (My Love),” his first single.

http://www.purpleclover.com/life-reimagined/3440-20-stars-who-dropped-off-your-radar/item/bobby-vinton/

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