Lawrence "Bullfrog" Hooper (July 22, 1917 in

Independence, Missouri Independence is a city in and one of two county seats of Jackson County, Missouri, United States. It is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020 Unite ...

– June 10, 1983 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) was an American musician and vocalist. He was best known to television audiences as part of ''

The Lawrence Welk Show ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years, from 1951 to 1955, then nationally for another 16 years on ABC from 1955 t ...

'' as a featured singer and pianist in Welk's orchestra. Born in

and raised in

Lebanon, Missouri Lebanon is a city in and the county seat of Laclede County, Missouri, Laclede County in Missouri. The population was estimated at 15,013 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Laclede County. The Lebanon Micropolitan Statistical ...

, he joined the Welk band in 1948 when they were doing evening performances at the Roosevelt Hotel in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. His popularity was largely due to his basso profundo voice, renditions of "This Old House" and "Asleep In The Deep," and his sense of humor. He also achieved success with songs like " Oh Happy Day" (Hooper's 1953 recording of the song with the Welk orchestra was a top-5 hit for the orchestra), "Ding Dong Daddy" and "Minnie the Mermaid", a duet sung with Jo Ann Castle. Plagued with health problems for years, he left the show on sick leave in 1969 due to a heart condition, occasionally filling in with the orchestra when one of the other keyboardists got sick and making guest appearances during that time frame. He returned full-time for the first show of the 1973-74 season (the "Tribute to Disney" episode, singing "Oh Happy Day"). It drew a huge emotional standing ovation from the audience and cast although Larry was visibly lip-syncing and was always uncomfortable and short of breath during the performance. Larry had fewer solo and singing roles and was primarily in the band during the last couple of years of his appearances when his health began to fail again. He left the show for the final time in 1980 and three years later, he died of kidney failure. In recent years, Hooper received new interest because of a video tape-loop played before Howie Mandel's stand-up shows of his singing "Oh Happy Day" for 20 minutes.

References

External links

Lawrence Welk Show
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooper, Larry 1917 births 1983 deaths People from Independence, Missouri American basses Deaths from kidney failure in California 20th-century American singers Lawrence Welk 20th-century American male singers