AP Photo/Ed Betz
Robert Townsend, who presented stands with The Dells, from left, Verne Allison, Charles Barkside, John Carter, Marvin Curtis Junior, Michael McGill after the Dells were inducted into the 19th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Monday, March 15, 2004, at New York's Waldorf Astoria
John E. Carter
R&B singer with the Flamingos and Dells dies at 75
HARVEY, Ill. - John E. Carter, the R&B lead tenor and two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, died Friday. He was 75.
His death was confirmed by Susan Fine, a spokeswoman for Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Carter's hometown of Harvey.
Carter, who was known for his falsetto, was the last surviving founding member of the Flamingos. The classic doo-wop group gained fame with such hits as "Golden Teardrops" and their reworking of the pop classic "I Only Have Eyes for You."
Carter left the Flamingos the first time in 1957 to do military service, and left permanently in 1960 to join the Dells, which had been formed in the early 1950s by some of his high school friends from Harvey.
The Dells' 1954 breakout hit, "Oh What A Night," sold more than a million records when it was reissued in 1969 with Carter on falsetto lead. The Dells were also famous for "Stay in My Corner," one of the first R&B hits to run more than six minutes.
The Dells performed publicly for one of the last times in 2004, when they did an outdoor concert in downtown Chicago to celebrate their induction into the hall of fame.
The Flamingos were inducted in 2000.
John E. Carter
June 2, 1934 - August 21, 2009
Memory Book
“ I met the Dells in 1968 when I lived in Phila. Pa. I was sad to hear that John passed away. He was a great guy with a wonderful smile and sense of...Read More » ”
Posted by: Brenda Norman - Goldsboro, NC
