Posted by Harold Groot on 12/04/06 02:53

On Sun, 3 Dec 2006 23:35:20 +1100, "Bob" <bob_carr5@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>Hello all
>I am researching a rather obscure point and am hoping there is some
>collective knowledge that can help me.
>I want to know if there are any musicians who had their first hit after the
>age of 50. I would prefer to know about ones who then went on to achieve
>more rather than to be one hit wonders.
>Can anyone help? If you respond, please remove the underscore in my hotmail
>address.
>Thanks in advance
>Bob

Benny Bell was born in 1906 and had his first "Billboard Top-40" hit
with the novelty song "Shaving Cream" in 1975 (courtesy of Cousin
Brucie in New York and Dr. Demento, who pushed it). But the song had
first been released in 1946. I don't put Benny in the same category
as Louis Armstrong and Count Basie, but he had a number of novelty
records that sold. Without sales figures, I'm not sure if the 1946
version was considered a "hit" back then or not. But he certainly
would not have been considered famous in the same way Louis Armstrong
and Count Basie were at the time his recording made the charts.

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