Jody Reynolds, 75, a 1950s rockabilly singer and songwriter whose only Top 10 hit, “Endless Sleep,” was the first of a wave of melodramatic “teen tragedy” tales, died Nov. 7 in Palm Desert, Calif.
He had been in failing health in recent years, according to Alan Clark, a musician who had performed numerous shows with Reynolds since 1983. The cause of death was not immediately available.
“Endless Sleep,” which peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart in 1958, opened the door for a string of similarly tragic pop hits, including Mark Dinning’s “Teen Angel,” Ray Peterson’s “Tell Laura I Love Her,” Johnny Preston’s “Running Bear,” the Everly Brothers’ “Ebony Eyes,” Dickey Lee’s “Patches” and the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack.”
Ralph Joseph Reynolds was born in Denver on Dec. 3, 1932, according to an interview with Reynolds posted at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame’s website, although many pop-music sources list the year as 1938. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall in 1999.
His family moved to Oklahoma when he was a child, and he grew up listening to country music and Western swing acts such as Bob Wills and Hank Thompson. He started playing guitar in his early teens and formed a band, the Storms, in the early ’50s after he had moved to Arizona. When radio stations started playing the music of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and other rising rockabilly acts, Reynolds liked what he heard and started emulating it. Reynolds told the Phoenix New Times in 2001 that he wrote “Endless Sleep” in 1956, after listening to Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” five times through. The Los Angeles Times
