Kenny Rankin, a brilliant pop vocalist and highly regarded musician-songwriter whose stylings included jazz, pop and world music, died Sunday in Los Angeles of complications related to lung cancer, his record company announced. He was 69.
Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Mack Avenue Records spokesman Don Lucoff said.
The musician, who first gained acclaim as one of the guitarists on Bob Dylan’s landmark 1965 album, “Bringing it all Back Home,” wrote and recorded the pop standard “Peaceful” and also wrote “In The Name of Love,” which was recorded by Peggy Lee, and “Haven’t We Met,” performed by Carmen McRae and Mel Torme.
His supple tenor voice on such recordings as “Spanish Harlem,” “‘Round Midnight” and the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and “I’ve Just a Face” also won him the respect of fellow musicians as a singer’s singer.
Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans died accidentally last month because of a toxic reaction to a painkiller, a coroner said Tuesday, adding that the 52-year-old Gans’ death was not an issue of drug abuse.
Murphy said Gans had toxic levels of hydromorphone, an opiate drug used to treat chronic pain. He had a toxic reaction to the drug because of an existing heart condition.
Police say Gans was found dead in bed at home in Henderson early May 1 after his wife, Julie, reported she couldn’t rouse him.
Gans was a singer, actor and impressionist who spent more than a decade working his way to top billing on the Las Vegas Strip.
Associated Press
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