The Great Clay Cole

January 5th, 2011 by David Gross | 2

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

I am writing today to express my deep sadness over the passing of one of the legends of music television in the late 1950′s and 1960′s, Clay Cole. Clay passed on Dec 18th.

In October 2009 I started this blog as an homage to my sister Denyse as well as to  New York City in the 1960′s. I never dreamed I would one day receive an email from Clay Cole telling me he loved the blog and thanking me for mentioning him. Clay was thanking me! I immediately wrote back telling him how important he and his show was to me and we immediately became friends. Clay in the short time I knew him was one of the most gracious and generous people I had ever met. I was fortunate to meet him on April 18, 2010 for a book signing in NYC. There were so many memories going through my mind that day. I saw the Stones on his show. I saw the Who on his show. Music already had transformed my life that any chance I got to see bands on TV, I jumped on it! Clay’s show was not only a great piece of music history, it was a great piece of NY history as well.

It would be a fitting tribute to induct Clay Cole into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! He certainly deserves it!

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/rabcdfcc/

All I can say is thank you for all of the memories! aI am so happy to have met you!

The Clay Cole Show

 
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 at 9:29 am and is filed under 1960's, 1960's Music, 1960's Television, 1960's TV Commercials, Bass Players, Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, British Invasion, Charlie Watts, Christmas, Cilla Black, Clay Cole, Cream, Disc Jockeys, Dusty Springfield, England, Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac, Free, George Harrison, George Martin, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Humble Pie, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Keith RIchards, Lindisfarne, Los Angeles, Lulu, Manfred Mann, Mick Jagger, Mick Taylor, Music, New York, Paul and Barry Ryan, Paul McCartney, Pete Best, PJ Proby, Rhinocerous, Richard Thompson, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood, San Francisco, Sandi Shaw, Sandy Denny, The Allman Brothers, The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Strawbs, The Velvet Underground, The Walker Brothers, The Who, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Comments

  1. John Pierse
    January 5 11 at 1:45 pm

    Hey David,
    good to have you back in the fight,this time i know we will win.(to paraphrase Victor Laszlo to Rick).

    anyway i was fortunate enough to have actually been to one of Clays shows with the Rolling Stones
    thru a friends dad who worked for WPIX.i will never forget how nice Clay was to the audience and i NEVER missed a show.
    also a small little story the Stones were on Clay’s show a few times before they did Ed Sullivan and as was the deal in those days Ed Sullivan had a cluse in the contracts saying acts couldn’t appear anywhere else for a week either side of their appearance on his show(i am not really sure of the time frame restriction but it was something like that)the Stones,God bless them,ignored this and did Clays’ show and said he had been good to them and tough luck if you didn’t like it.
    once again good to have you back even if its only briefly
    Rock on Clay,you were such an influential person in my life and so many others you do deserve the R’n'R HOF

  2. David Gross
    January 5 11 at 1:52 pm

    I think it was Herman of the Hermits who said there were only two shows to be on in NY, Ed Sullivan and Clay Cole.
    I will be posting some stuff again and I will keep you posted

    Thanks John!

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