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Kenny Rankin (Los Angeles, February 10, 1940 - June 7, 2009) was an American pop and jazz singer and songwriter, originally from the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, New York.
Rankin was raised in New York and was introduced to music by his
mother, who sang at home and for friends. Early in his career he worked
as a singer-songwriter, and developed a considerable following during
the 70s with a steady flow of albums, three of which broke into the Top
100 of the Billboard Album Chart. His liking for jazz was evident from
an early age, but the times were such that in order to survive his
career had to take a more pop-oriented course. By the 90s, however, he
was able to angle his repertoire to accommodate his own musical
preferences and to please a new audience while still keeping faith with
the faithful. Rankin's warm singing style and his soft, nylon-stringed
guitar sound might suggest an artist more attuned to the supper-club
circuit than the jazz arena, but his work contains many touches that
appeal to the jazz audience.
Rankin appeared on The Tonight Show more than twenty times. Host Johnny Carson was so impressed by him that he wrote the liner notes to Rankin's 1967 debut album Mind Dusters, which featured the single "Peaceful." Kenny's friend Helen Reddy would reach #2 Adult Contemporary and #12 Pop in 1973 with a cover of it, released as her follow-up single to "I Am Woman". Georgie Fame
also had a hit with this song in 1969, his only songwriting credit to
hit the British charts reaching number sixteen and spending 9 weeks on
the chart.
Rankin's accompanists from time to time included Alan Broadbent, Mike
Wofford and Bill Watrous, and on such occasions the mood slips easily
into a jazz groove. His compositions have been performed by artists such
as Mel Tormé and Carmen McRae, while Stan Getz said of him that he was "a horn with a heartbeat". Rankin was deeply interested in Brazilian music and his Here In My Heart, on which he used jazz guests including Michael Brecker and Ernie Watts, was recorded mostly in Rio De Janeiro. More contemporary songs were given an airing following his move to Verve Records, including the Beatles' "I've Just Seen A Face" and Leon Russell's "A Song For You."
Rankin's own unique gift for reworking classic songs such as The Beatles' "Blackbird," which he recorded for his Silver Morning
album, so impressed Paul McCartney that he asked Rankin to perform his
interpretation of the song when McCartney and John Lennon were
inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He can be heard singing the song "Miles From Here" in the first episode of the television series Fame titled "Metamorphosis".
Rankin was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, just three weeks before he died in Los Angeles, California - where he had resided for many years - from the disease on June 7, 2009. He was 69 years old.
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