Singer and guitarist Jack Lee, leader of the band The Nerves and author of the hit ‘Hanging on the Telephone’, popularized by the band Blondie, has died at the age of 71. He died May 26 in Santa Monica after a three-year battle with colon cancer, his family announced Wednesday.
Born in Alaska on March 25, 1952, Lee moved to Santa Monica at age 15 and settled in San Francisco four years later. In 1974 he formed The Nerves with Peter Case and Paul Collins, and two years later the trio released their first independent, self-produced EP with four tracks, one of which was “Hanging on the Telephone”.
The group moved to Los Angeles on the first day of 1977, and also began their US tour that year, playing with the Ramones, Pere Ubu, Devo and Mink DeVille. However, lack of success caused the trio to disband in 1978.
Ironically, later that year, the president of Blondie’s fan club showed a copy of the Nerves EP to Debbie Harry, who decided to bring “Hanging on the Telephone” into her band’s repertoire. Blondie’s recording mimicked the Nerves’ original arrangement in detail, adding a more punk edge. And the song became a hit, helping propel Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” album to No. 6 in the US and No. 1 in the UK in 1978.
With the demise of the Nervers, Case formed the band The Plimsouls and Collins started The Beat, but Lee pressed for a solo career, releasing two albums in 1983 and 1985, funded by royalties from ‘Hanging on the Telephone’. Again, the songs were ignored. In 2016, a compilation of 23 songs was the legacy of her work.
In a statement, his family noted that “he never gave up on his music, until the very end. His guitar was always by his side. He lived his songs. One by one, they told the story of his life. Some dreams die. His will never die.”
We recall below the original recording and the famous cover of “Hanging on the Telephone”.
Source: Terra
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