Felix Pappalardi
Felix A. Pappalardi Jr. (December 30, 1939 – April 17, 1983) was an American music producer, songwriter, vocalist, and bassist. He is best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist of the band Mountain, whose song "Mississippi Queen" peaked at number 21 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and has become a classic rock radio staple. Originating in the eclectic music scene in New York's Greenwich Village, he became closely attached to the British power trio Cream, writing, arranging, and producing for their second album "Disraeli Gears". As a producer for Atlantic Records, he worked on several projects  with guitarist Leslie West; in 1969 their partnership evolved into the band Mountain. The band lasted less than five years, but their work influenced the first generation of heavy metal and hard rock music. Pappalardi continued to work as a producer, session musician, and songwriter until he was shot and killed by his wife Gail Collins in 1983. Early life. Pappalardi was born in the Bronx, New York City. A classically trained musician, he graduated from New York City's The High School of Music & Art and attended the University of Michigan. Career. In 1964, Pappalardi was a member of  Max Morath's Original Rag Quartet (ORQ) in their premier engagement at New York's Village Vanguard with several other musicians. Along with Pappalardi on guitarrón (Mexican acoustic bass) were pianist-singer Morath, who revived classic ragtime played in the Scott Joplin manner, Barry Kornfeld, a New York studio folk and jazz guitarist, and Jim Tyler, a Baroque and Renaissance lutenist, playing four-string banjo and mandolin. The ORQ then toured the college and concert circuit during the following year, and opened four engagements with the Dinah Shore show in Las Vegas and elsewhere. Pappalardi studied classical music at the  University of Michigan. Upon completing his studies and returning to New York, he was unable to find work and so became part of the Greenwich Village folk-music scene where he made a name for himself as a skilled arranger; he also appeared on albums by Tom Paxton as well as Vince Martin and Fred Neil for Elektra Records. From there he moved into record production, initially concentrating on folk and folk-rock acts for artists such as The Youngbloods and Joan Baez. As a producer, Pappalardi is perhaps best known for his work with Cream, beginning with their second  album, "Disraeli Gears". He contributed instrumentation for his studio arrangements and he and his wife, Gail Collins, wrote the Cream hit "Strange Brew" with Eric Clapton. He also produced The Youngbloods' first album. As a musician, Pappalardi is widely recognized as a bassist, vocalist, and founding member of the American hard rock band (and heavy metal forerunner) Mountain, a band born out of his working with future bandmate Leslie West's soul-inspired rock and roll band The Vagrants, and producing West's 1969 "Mountain" solo album. The band's original incarnation actively recorded and toured between 1969 and 1971 . Pappalardi produced the band's albums, and co-wrote and arranged a number of the band's songs with Collins and West. The band's signature song "Mississippi Queen" is still heard regularly on classic rock radio stations. They also had a hit with the song "Nantucket Sleighride" written by Pappalardi and Collins. Pappalardi generally played Gibson basses on Mountain's live and studio recordings. He was most often seen with an EB-1 violin bass but there are also photographs of him playing an EB-0 live (likely because they had the same pickup configuration and scale length). Pappalardi obtained his  sound by playing Gibson basses with a single Humbucker in the neck through a set of Sunn amplifiers that, he claimed, once belonged to Jimi Hendrix. Later life and death. Pappalardi was forced to retire because of partial deafness, ostensibly from his high-volume shows with Mountain. He continued producing throughout the 1970s, released a solo album ("Don't Worry, Ma") and recorded with Kazuo Takeda's band Creation (who had opened for a reunited Mountain during their 1973 tour of Japan). In May 1973, the British music magazine "NME" reported that Pappalardi would be producing and playing bass on  Queen of the Night, the debut album for Maggie Bell, former singer of Stone the Crows, but this proved to be false. He also worked on the NBC show "Hot Hero Sandwich" in 1979. Pappalardi was shot and killed by his wife, Gail Collins Pappalardi, on April 17, 1983, in their apartment on the East Side of Manhattan, with a derringer he had given her as a gift a few months previously. She was subsequently charged with second-degree murder and was found guilty of the lesser criminally negligent homicide. He is interred next to his mother at Woodlawn Cemetery  in the Bronx, New York City. Selected discography. For his work with Mountain, see their page.