LA Times: [1]
Dennis Yost, 65, the lead singer of the 1960s soft rock group the Classics IV [2], died Sunday at Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton, Ohio, of respiratory failure, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
he Classic IV had a series of hits, including “Spooky,” “Traces of Love” and “Stormy.”
Yost, a native of Detroit, played drums and sang. He was an original member of the band, which formed in Jacksonville, Fla., where Yost was raised, in the early 1960s. In 1967, the band relocated to Atlanta, and a year later they had their first national hit with “Spooky.”
A year later “Stormy” was a hit, and “Traces of Love” made it to No. 2 in 1969. That same year, the group had a top 20 hit with “Everyday With You Girl.”
Buddy Buie [3], co-writer of the group’s songs with guitarist J.R. Cobb [4], said: “Dennis had an incredible voice — just a great voice for love songs.”
No joke, that. There was a sound that was a serious part of radio then to now, and certainly ended up being a major part of the Atlanta sound, following in the footsteps of people like Billy Joe Royal, Joe South, Tommy Roe, and so on.
Here’s Dennis and the Band doing ‘Traces’ in a rather obvious overdub, using the original recording as the overdub.
Buie, for his part, along with Cobb, went on to be founding members of the Atlanta Rhythm Section [5], so I suppose you could say Yost and the band actually started the flight paths of two very popular bands.