Larry Vern Erickson (February 8, 1936 – October 8, 2013) was an
American novelty song
A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...
vocalist
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...
.
Biography
Verne recorded two
U.S.
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...
hit single
A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...
s in 1960, "Mister Livingston" (No. 75) and "
Mr. Custer" (No. 1, and No. 9
R&B). "Mr. Custer" was
written by Fred Darian,
Al De Lory, and Joe Van Winkle.
The
record sold over one million copies, earning a
gold disc.
In the
UK, "Mr. Custer" was successfully
covered
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of ...
by
Charlie Drake. "Mr. Custer" was featured on an album of novelty songs recorded by Verne called ''Mister Larry Verne'', which was released that same year.
After growing tired of the
music industry
The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...
, Verne quit to become a successful builder of
Hollywood film sets, which he did for 35 years before retiring.
Death
Verne died on October 8, 2013, of heart failure in
Sylmar, California, at the age of 77.
He had long suffered from Alzheimer's disease and had suffered three strokes.
Discography
Singles
References
External links
*
*
*
American male singers
1936 births
2013 deaths
Musicians from Minneapolis
Era Records artists
Deaths from dementia in California
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in California
Singers from Minnesota
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