81-year-old Bill Pinkney, the last remaining original member of The Drifters, was found dead in a Florida hotel room Wednesday night, just hours before he was supposed to perform at a July Fourth celebration with the Original Drifters. Pinkney was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted R&B group from 1953 to 1958, during which time they dominated the charts with hits like “Such a Night” and “Adorable.”

Last Friday, we learned that Bradley Delp, lead singer of Boston, had passed away. The news came as a shock to everybody, including Tom Scholz, Delp’s partner in the classic ’70s band. In his first public comments since Delp’s death, Scholz has reached out to Rolling Stone to talk about his friend and collaborator. In an extensive Q&A, Scholz reminisces about his first audition with Bradley and explains why Delp was such a great rock vocalist. (more…)

As some of you fellow rock nerds know, yesterday marked the twenty-ninth anniversary of the death our much-beloved, junk food-loving rock & roll hero, one Mr. Elvis Presley. In his honor, we put together a playlist of our fave songs, and came across this incredible clip of the King performing “Unchained Melody” six weeks before his death. This much is still clear: Homeboy could emote.

Arthur Lee, founder of the much-beloved, highly influential Sixties band Love, died yesterday afternoon at Methodist Hospital in Memphis, with his wife at his side. The cause was leukemia.

• Go to the rollingstone.com obit here.
• Hear some essential Arthur Lee tracks here.

The long-lost founding lead singer of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, has died at his home in Cambridge, England; the cause was diabetes. Go to the full RS.com obit here.

Music: Hear a playlist of Barrett’s crucial songs here.

Video: Barrett with Pink Floyd in 1968 performing “Jugband Blues”

Plus: Get our 1971 interview with Syd Barrett, by Mick Rock, and hear a playlist of Syd Barrett’s best tracks.

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The final installment in our tribute week for the now-defunct UK pop show:

1. Madonna, “Holiday“: You’ve never seen anybody lip-sync with so much commitment and joy.

2. The Kinks, “Apeman“: One of many great Kinks TOTP performances.

3. U2, “New Year’s Day“: Young Bono rocks the mullet.

4. T. Rex, “Get It On (Bang a Gong)”: Check out Elton John kicking away the piano bench.

5. The Rolling Stones, “The Last Time”: One of the few bits of ’60s TOTP footage available; watch the audience dance in an arrhythmic shuffle. (George Best, whom the camera seeks out in the crowd, was a British soccer superstar.)

Johnny Jenkins, the influential guitarist who backed Otis Redding at some of his earliest sessions, died June 26th in Macon Georgia; he was 67.

We just got word that Arif Mardin – the Atlantic Records producer and arranger who worked with artists including The Young Rascals, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, The Bee-Gees, David Bowie and Norah Jones – died in New York yesterday of prostate cancer. He was 74. Mardin was the arranger of Aretha’s classic Lady Soul, among other records; in recent years he was best known for producing Jones’ 2003 smash Come Away With Me.