Singer Earl Carroll Dies
He was not on the list.
The Cadillacs star Earl Carroll has died at the age of 75.
The singer passed away on Sunday (25Nov12) at a nursing home in New York following a stroke and a battle with diabetes.
Carroll co-founded the doo-wop group in the early 1950s, and the band went on to enjoy chart success with several singles, including their most famous hit Speedo.
He joined rival R&B group The Coasters in 1961, and performed with them for 20 years, before reforming with his original band in the early 1990s for a car commercial.
As well as touring with the reunited The Cadillacs, Carroll also worked as a janitor at Public School 87 in the Big Apple.
The group's biggest hit was "Speedoo", which with a minor spelling change became Carroll's subsequent nickname. It was released in 1955. He joined The Coasters in 1961, leaving the group in the early 1980s to permanently reform The Cadillacs.
In 1982, Earl took a job as a custodian at the PS 87 elementary school in New York City and worked there until retiring in 2005. A popular figure with the students, he was chosen to be the subject of a children's book, That's Our Custodian, by Ann Morris (Brookfield, Connecticut: Millbrook Press). The publicity helped him to revive his career. He became a mainstay of the PBS series honoring doo wop, hosted by Jerry Butler and continued performing until the early 2010s when deteriorating health forced him to retire.
The death Sunday was confirmed to the newspaper by Vito Picone, the lead singer of the doo-wop group the Elegants and a longtime friend.
The Cadillacs were one of many doo-wop groups to come out of the streets of Harlem, but one of the first to choreograph dance moves.
Carroll got the nickname "Speedo" because fellow singer Bobby Phillips pointed at a torpedo on display in Massachusetts and said, "Hey Speedo! There's your torpedo!" because Carroll had a pointy head. Carroll responded icily, "My name is Earl."
They wrote that into a song called "Speedo" they recorded the next day. It was a hit in 1956. The Cadillacs also recorded the hit "Gloria."
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