Singer

EYEWITNESS NEWS anchor Susan Barnett is leaving CBS 3 and the CW Philly. Barnett has been at CBS since 2006, anchoring the evening newscasts since 2008. She anchored the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. broadcasts on CBS, and the 10 p.m. broadcast at the CW Philly, along with co-anchor Chris May . Her contract expired in March. "I have decided to not renew my contract with the stations at this time. I am incredibly thankful for having been a part of the CBS Philly family, but I feel that this is the right decision at this time," Barnett said in a statement yesterday.

Bobbie Smith, 76, a former lead singer of the Spinners, has died in Orlando, Fla. A statement released Monday by the manager of the rhythm-and-blues group said Mr. Smith died Saturday of complications from pneumonia and influenza. The statement said he had been diagnosed with lung cancer in November. Mr. Smith was the group's original lead singer and was the voice on its first hit, "That's What Girls Are Made For. " The group earned nearly a dozen gold records and a half-dozen Grammy nominations.

Rhythm-and-blues singer Billy Scott, 70, died from pancreatic and liver cancer Saturday at his home in Charlotte, N.C. Born Peter Pendleton in Huntington, W.Va., he sang with various groups while in the Army. After he was discharged in 1964, he changed his name, and with his wife, Barbara, began recording in 1966 as the Prophets. The band's first gold record was 1968's "I Got the Fever. " Other hits included "California" and "Seaside Love" as the Georgia Prophets. The group recorded a number of hits in the 1970s in the beach-music genre, a regional variant of R&B. In 1999, Mr. Scott was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.

Ray Collins, a singer whose dispute with one guitarist led him to hire another, Frank Zappa, with whom he would go on to form the avant-garde rock group the Mothers of Invention, died Monday in Pomona, Calif. The death of Mr. Collins, who was in his mid-70s, followed his admission to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center a week earlier for cardiac arrest, according to local news accounts. Mr. Collins entered the national spotlight with the Mothers of Invention, an outlet for Zappa's unique sense of humor and challenging, unorthodox compositions.

Jani Lane, 47, former lead singer of the metal rock band Warrant, has died in Los Angeles. Officer Sara Faden said Mr. Lane's body was found Thursday in a Woodland Hills hotel. She had no immediate information on the cause or circumstances of his death. Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Friday that an autopsy did not reveal what killed the rocker and that the cause would be determined after results from toxicology and other tests are received. With his long blond hair and tight leather outfits, Mr. Lane, born John Kennedy Oswald in Akron, Ohio, embodied the excess of 1980s "hair metal" rock bands.

Reg Presley, 71, lead singer of the Troggs on hit songs including the garage-rock classic "Wild Thing," died Monday at his home in Andover, England, after a yearlong bout with lung cancer. Mr. Presley and the Troggs scored their breakthrough hit in the early days of the British music invasion. The song, a cover of a version by Jordan Christopher and the Wild Ones, was later picked up not only by garage bands the world over - the lead guitar riffs were easily copied - but also by icons like Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen.

HERE'S HOW A FAN commented on a couple of hit songs by Major Harris: " 'Love Won't Let Me Wait' and 'I Believe in Love' were two of his biggest hits that we played so much, my parents wanted to break the records. " Such devotion was a typical reaction of R&B fans to the lead singer of Philadelphia's own Delfonics, a group graced by the Major's dulcet tones in the 1970s. He was a major player in the success of the iconic "Philadelphia Sound," as promoted by the songwriting and producing team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and their Philadelphia International Records.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Rhythm and blues singer Billy Scott has died in North Carolina at age 70. Scott died Saturday of pancreatic and liver cancer at his home in Charlotte, said Bill Kopald with the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. Scott, who was born Peter Pendleton in Huntington, W. Va., sang with various groups while in the Army. After he was discharged in 1964, he changed his name, and with his wife, Barbara, in 1966 began recording as The Prophets. Their first gold record was 1968's "I Got the Fever.

This is getting to be routine. About four years ago, Chris Squire of the veteran progressive-rock band Yes called to explain why and how Benoit David had replaced original lead singer Jon Anderson in the then-40-year-old outfit. Recently, Squire, the group's charter bassist, was back on the blower, this time talking about David's replacement, Jon Davison, who over the next five days, will be introduced to local fans as Yes performs Friday at Tropicana Atlantic City and Wednesday at Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem.

"EVERYBODY knows what happened to Marvin," acknowledged Zeola Gaye, speaking of her masterful musician brother Marvin Gaye. "Or at least, they think they know . . . " Motown Records's first solo superstar and major force for social reform, Gaye was abruptly killed at age 45 on April 1, 1984, by his father's hand, after a brutal argument and several attempts by the younger Gaye to take his own life. The tragedy cut short a career landmarked by masterworks such as Gaye's self-penned "What's Going On" and super-bold (for its time)

IN THE MID-1950S, Bobby Palese and Joe Giglio graduated from Camden Catholic High School with one conviction: They weren't going to take 9-to-5 jobs. They wanted to be entertainers. Lots of kids start out with fanciful notions of what they want to do with their lives: cop, fireman, pilot, professional athlete. Most come to their senses when confronted with the realities of the world. Not Bobby and Joe. They went on to pursue and fulfill their dreams, eventually as two of the four members of the Echoes doo-wop group, which performed widely and cut some records that got airplay in the Philadelphia region.

When first heard, Alfred Schnittke's Choir Concerto seems like an unapproachable musical anomaly - a piece that crashed into the repertoire with undeniable greatness but with challenges so steep that performers might not know where to start. Yet the Philadelphia Singers took the piece out of its ivory tower Sunday and put it where it belongs: In your face. When he wrote the piece in the 1980s, Schnittke was known for uninhibited explosiveness in symphonic works and operas that symbolized the old Soviet Union breaking free of Brezhnevian torpor and propelling itself toward a long-delayed arrival in the musical vanguard.

Chrissy Amphlett, 53, the raunchy lead singer of the Australian rock band Divinyls whose hit "I Touch Myself" brought her international fame in the early 1990s, died at her home in New York on Sunday. "Christine Joy Amphlett succumbed to the effects of breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, diseases she vigorously fought with exceptional bravery and dignity," her husband, the musician Charley Drayton, said in a statement. "Chrissy's light burns so very brightly. Hers was a life of passion and creativity.

Richie Havens, 72, the New York City folk singer thrust by circumstance onto center stage as the opening act of Woodstock, the legendary 1969 music festival, died of a heart attack Monday at his home in Jersey City, N.J., according to Tim Drake, president of his booking agent, the Roots Agency of Westwood, N.J. Scheduled fifth on the program for opening day of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Aug. 15, 1969, Mr. Havens and two members of his band were...

George Beverly Shea, 104, a gospel singer and songwriter who was a featured part of the Billy Graham crusades for more than 50 years, died Tuesday, April 16, in Asheville, N.C., after a brief illness, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association told the Associated Press. "Bev" Shea, who received a lifetime-achievement award at the 2011 Grammy Awards, became the soloist for the Billy Graham Evangelical Team in 1947. Tall and slim with a resonant baritone, Mr. Shea was known for his straightforward singing style.

IF YOU COULD make it at Spider Kelly's, you had already made it in the Philly jazz scene. After all, John Coltrane played there, as well as organist Jimmy Smith and numerous other local luminaries at a time ('50s and '60s) when Philadelphia was the place to be for the best in jazz. It was a tough crowd. A piano player kept a bottle of wine and a pistol under his piano. The denizens expected only the best in their kind of music, and they got it. The likes of Louis Jordan and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, playing at the nearby Earle Theatre, came by to scoop up talent for their bands.

Daniel Mungall Jr., 97, of Radnor, a lawyer whose singing, and the friendships he formed through music weaved a sustaining thread throughout his life, died Monday, March 18, at the Quadrangle in Haverford, where he had lived for the last few years. Well into his 90s, Mr. Mungall continued to sing with the Orpheus Club of Philadelphia, whose goal is "the attainment of the greatest possible excellence in the performance of part songs for male voice. " Mr. Mungall joined the club in 1942 and was president from 1974 to 1976.

Gordon Stoker, 88, a member of the Jordanaires vocal group that backed up Elvis Presley, died Wednesday at his home in Brentwood, Tenn., after a lengthy illness, his son, Alan, told the Associated Press. Mr. Stoker, who was born in Gleason, Tenn., got his start playing the piano on WSM radio and its signature show, The Grand Ole Opry . He joined the Jordanaires as a piano player, but then became a tenor vocalist. The quartet originated in Missouri and went to Nashville, where it backed Red Foley on a segment of the Opry called "the Prince Albert Show.

Frank O'Hara (1926-1966): New Yorker, gay man, poet. Billie Holiday (1915-1959): Philly-born New Yorker, black woman, singer. Both famous. Both, because of what they were, relegated to the margins. That irony - that two of America's great artists could speak so centrally yet be denied centrality - informs Azuka Theatre's world premiere of Everyone and I , a play by Philadelphia poet Elizabeth Scanlon. It runs Thursday through April 7 at Hamilton Garden at the Kimmel Center, as part of the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

Alternative singer-songwriter Jason Molina, 39, died at his home in Indianapolis on Saturday of organ failure after a long battle with alcoholism. His record label, Indiana-based Secretly Canadian, said he stopped touring in 2009 "to deal with severe alcoholism. " On its website Monday, the label said Mr. Molina, a native of Lorain, Ohio, released more than 12 albums under the name Songs: Ohia and the band Magnolia Electric Co., which he started in 2003. The label said Mr. Molina was its cornerstone.