Please help me identify this singer?

Question

My Uncle who passed away used to listen to this singer quite often. I wish I could remember his name, but I can't. The best I can offer is a pretty plain description.

He was a older man that sung and just played his guitar. As his career progressed he started sounding awful (to be blunt) due to throat, or lung cancer? The biggest key I have to offer is he sang a song in a really awful raspy voice "Oh Lord won't you buy me, a night on the town". I do remember my Uncle telling me he (the singer) used to actually sing before he became ill, then after that he basically just started talk/singing (if you will). I don't remember the name of the song, and I haven't been able to find it on Google.

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The song is Mercedes Benz originally sung by Janis Joplin. Bob Neuwirth co-wrote it, and to his own admittance - his voice has significantly worsened from what it used to be, so it's possible it could be him.

Answer 2

Well,the lyrics you mentioned are from the song "Mercedes Benz" by Janis Joplin.She was a singer with Big Brother and the Holding Company in the 1960's and '70 and '71.She died from a heroin OD on Oct. 4th,1971.

Answer 3

I think it would help if you specified the genre of music he sang... I have a few in mind that sound like they could be possible matches. Kenny Rankin was a singer/musician and he died of lung cancer, he worked with artists like Bob Dylan. George Harrison was the lead singer of the Beatles but eventually went solo and also unfortunately died of cancer (throat to be exact). I really hope this is some kind of help to you. Good luck in your search!

Answer 4

Ken Peltier?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3leJts3vBA

Answer 5

well The song you told in description is sang by Janis Joplin in "Mercedes-Benz".

Music Is from :- Janis Joplin, Michael McClure, Bob Neuwirth

This are the song lyrics - may be you need it.



"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz

My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends

Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,

So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz



Oh Lord, won't you buy me a color TV

Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me

I wait for delivery each day until three,

So oh Lord, won't you buy me a color TV



Oh Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town

I'm counting on you, Lord, please don't let me down

Prove that you love me and buy the next round,



Oh Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town



Everybody!

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz

My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,

Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,

So oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz"



Singer Biographi :- Janis Joplin



Joplin, Janis (1943-1970), American rock singer, considered by many to be the greatest white female blues artist of all time. Born to a middle-class family in Port Arthur, Texas, she ran away from home at the age of 17 to sing folk music in clubs in the Texas cities of Austin and Houston. In 1963 she hitchhiked to California, where she witnessed the birth of the student and hippie movements. Joplin sang folk and blues in clubs in San Francisco and Venice, a Los Angeles beach community. She returned to Texas in 1966 to sing in a country-and-western band, but returned to San Francisco that same year to join a blues band called Big Brother and the Holding Company.



In 1967 the group appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in California, one of the earliest large-scale rock festivals, and Joplin became an overnight star. Her singing, documented in the film Monterey Pop (1969),was characterized as raw, vulnerable, and explosive. Albert Grossman, the manager of American folk singer Bob Dylan, became Joplin’s manager and she and her band signed with Columbia Records.



In 1968 Columbia released the album Cheap Thrills, whichtopped the Billboard magazine popular music charts for eight weeks, yielding the hit single “Piece of My Heart.” The album, which includes such songs as “Ball and Chain” and “Turtle Blues,” became one of the best-loved recordings in rock history. Also in 1968 Joplin left Big Brother and the Holding Company, striking out on her own and forming two backup groups, the Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie.



In 1969 Joplin recorded her final completed album, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again, Mama, whichfeatured the song “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder).” She was working on her next release when she died the following year of a heroin overdose. The unfinished record, called Pearl (Joplin’s nickname), was released in 1971 and showed a new direction in her work. She had begun singing in a lighter, less frantically intense manner, especially in such songs as “Mercedes Benz” and “Me and Bobby McGee,” a song written by singer Kris Kristofferson that became Joplin’s first number-one single on the pop charts. In 1979 Bette Midler starred in The Rose, a motion picture widely thought to be based on Joplin’s life. Joplin was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. --Encarta Encyclopedia 2002



I hope you are cleared in your mind now still If you have any Query in mind let me know.It was nice to help you.Thank you.Have a nice day.