Dee Clark
Dee Clark (November 7, 1938 – December 7, 1990)[1] was an American soul singer and songwriter best known for a string of R&B and pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the song "Raindrops", which became a million-seller in the United States in 1961.[2] In 1953, he joined an R&B group called the Goldentones, who later became the Kool Gents and were discovered by Chicago radio DJ Herb Kent upon winning a talent competition.[7] His biggest single, "Raindrops", was a dramatic ballad with a mid-tempo Latin beat that was augmented by heavy rain and thunder sound effects and Clark's swooping falsetto."Raindrops" remains a staple on oldies and adult standards radio station playlists to this day, and has also been covered by several other artists in the years since, including David Cassidy, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and Narvel Felts, who took the song to number 30 on the country chart in 1974.Despite suffering a stroke in 1987 that left him partially paralyzed and with a mild speech impediment, he continued to perform until his death on December 7, 1990, in Smyrna, Georgia, from a heart attack at the age of 52.