Eddie Fisher, Fifties Singing Great, Dies at 82

Eddie Fisher, one of the most renowned crooners of the fifties, passed away in Berkeley, California on September 22nd, following complications from hip surgery, the Los Angeles Times reports. Fisher was 82. Between 1950 and 1956, Fisher placed 19 singles in the Top Ten, including four Number One singles ("Wish You Were Here," "I'm Walking Behind You," "Oh! My Pa-Pa" and "I Need You Now").

Yet Fisher's recording career was nearly eclipsed by his personal life: He married three of Hollywood's most famous Actresses — Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor and Connie Stevens — over the span of a decade. Fisher and Reynolds had two children together, include actress Carrie Fisher, who portrayed Princess Leia in Star Wars.

Although Fisher's peak predated rock n' roll's dominance, his music did leave a mark on it: His 1956 single "Cindy, Oh Cindy" was covered by the Beach Boys in 1962, and Frank Zappa worked Fisher's "Oh! My Pa-Pa" into his 1972 track "Billy the Mountain."

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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