Dave Clark Five vocalist Mike Smith dead at 64
February 28th, 2008, 2:51 pm · 4 Comments · posted by Ben Wener
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And another ’60s favorite falls: Mike Smith, lead singer and keyboardist for the Dave Clark Five, has died from pneuomonia at hospital just outside of London - a little more than a week before he was due to be induced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was 64.
I know I’ve been critical of the DC5’s inclusion in the Hall - that’s putting it nicely, actually - but Smith’s story as of late is such a sad one that I do wish he had lived long enough to experience the honor and hear Tom Hanks‘ induction speech on March 10 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. (Fyi: Justin Timberlake inducts Madonna … Lou Reed for Leonard Cohen … Billy Joel for John Mellencamp … Jerry Butler for Gamble & Huff … John Fogerty for the Ventures … and Ben Harper for Little Walter.)
In September 2003, mere months after losing his only son in a car wreck, Smith fell off a ladder while working at home (he was living in Spain at the time) and suffered a severe spinal cord injury. That left him a tetraplegic, paralyzed below his ribcage and with minimal use of his upper body. He remained hospitalized until last December, when he was moved to a specially prepared home near the hospital, where he lived with his wife, Charlie. Arrangements had been underway to transport him to New York for the Hall of Fame ceremony.
Medical expenses for the voice of “Glad All Over” and “Catch Us If You Can” and “Over and Over” and “Because” (watch him lip-synch in the above clip) had been defrayed in recent years thanks to donations and fund-raising events from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven Van Zandt, Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits and Paul Shaffer. The Late Show bandleader, in fact, helped organize a benefit concert in August 2005, featuring the Zombies and Peter & Gordon. A DVD of that, Paul Shaffer and His British Invasion: A Tribute to Mike Smith, is reportedly being released in March by VDI Entertainment, though Amazon.com doesn’t list it yet.
And one other thing I found while fact-checking this item …
The DC5 apparently should have gotten in last year, when, according to this unsubstantiated report, they received six more votes than Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five … and thus had earned the fifth spot for induction. What changed? Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, who had taken over as Hall chairman after the departure (and then death) of Ahmet Ertegun, couldn’t bear another year with no hip-hop entry … so he ignored the final vote on the basis of a technicality, and put in Grandmaster Flash instead.
While I appreciate the effort at diversifying - hip-hop was overdue for recognition, and a group like the DC5 should have been installed years ago, when its peers were being honored - I can’t abide such voter tampering. Just one more reason to question the increasingly dubious Hall.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
If you’re not old enough to remember the DC5 when they were literally pushing the Beatles on the popularity front as well as commercially, then it’s understandable that you’d be critical of their inclusion. Those of us that were around at the time KNOW that the DC5 put more into a 2 minute song than any other band of the time. The clip doesn’t do them justice as it’s a ballad and it’s the only one they made famous. It’s possible that clips of Glad All Over, Catch Us If You Can (also the title of there movie), or You’ve Got What It Takes would be better examples of what they were about. They were the second band from England before the Stones and rightfully deserve their place in the Hall.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Agreed, and their use of sax, their energy, and the husky vocals of Mr. Smith made them a stand out in the group of early Brits. Not to mention that characteristic single-roll drum break. Great stuff.
If not the greatest song writers in the bunch, they definitely had their own style.
RIP Mike Smith.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Jann Wenner…..JERK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!