Singer Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon, who had three top-10 hits during the late 1950s and early 1960s, including “Palisades Park” and “Tallahassee Lassie,” died on Friday. He was 89.
Cannon died at a hospice facility in Oxnard, California, his friend, iHeart Radio’s Tom Cuddy, announced, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He had been scheduled to do an interview with disc jockey “Cousin Brucie” Morrow on July 11 but fell ill the day before, Cuddy said.
Cannon hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1962 with “Palisades Park,” a song written by game show producer and future “Gong Show” host Chuck Barris. The rollicking, frenetic carnival-like song, inspired by the amusement park overlooking the Hudson River in northern New Jersey, spent 15 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Cannon also had a top-3 hit in 1960 with “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans,” and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Tallahassee Lassie” in 1959.
Cannon’s nickname, “Boom Boom,” was inspired by the big bass drum sound on his records, Billboard reported.
Cannon was born Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. on Dec. 4, 1936, in Lynn, Massachusetts, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
He moved to Philadelphia in the late 1950s at the urging of Dick Clark, and he would appear on “American Bandstand” a record 110 times, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I had never seen a performer who kept his performance so upbeat and fun,” Cuddy said, according to Variety. “Dick Clark once told me that every time he hosted an oldies concert, he asked Freddy to open it, because he knew Freddy would get the audience on their feet with up-tempo rock ‘n’ roll.”
The entertainment news website reported that Cannon’s fans included Mick Jagger. who said the groove of the Rolling Stones’ hit “Brown Sugar” was inspired by Cannon’s work; Robert Plant (who said that Led Zeppelin played “Tallahassee Lassie” in jams when they were starting out; and author Stephen King, who mentioned Cannon’s music in four of his books.
Cannon’s other screen credits also included “Where the Action Is” -- the title of his 2011 memoir -- the cult genre film “Village of the Giants” and the soap opera “Never Too Young,” Variety reported.
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