December 16, 2003
The Desert Sun
He was laid to rest alongside local legends. Sinatra, Bono and, on a clear December day in the desert, Jimmy Beaumont. Pompadoured teen idol, juke box king of the Pittsburgh dance floor when doo-wop dotted the dial, Beaumont and his Skyliners rode the charts in the late 1950s and early ’60s with now-classics "Since I Don’t Have You" and the ballad "This I Swear." Forty years later, listeners still remember the magic in those songs.
"When you hear the hook and chorus, it stays in your head. It’s like going to Disneyland and hearing ‘It’s a Small World.’ It stays in your head," said Bob Crosby, president and chief executive officer of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in Pennsylvania, an artist-run foundation that honors the bygone bands of the 1950s and 1960s. Beaumont and The Skyliners were named to the hall of fame in 2002. "They hear that hook and you know it’s a hit."
But Beaumont isn’t at Cathedral City’s Desert Memorial Park. Not because he isn’t qualified to share a granite marquee with the other legends. He just isn’t dead. He’s in Pittsburgh.
It’s a bizarre tale that began as a lot of stories do, from an interesting, but random tip, this one from an obituary on a small blues Web site. More
Posted by acapnews at December 16, 2003 8:31 AM
