{"id":592879,"date":"2026-07-19T02:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T02:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/592879\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T02:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T02:13:14","slug":"freddy-cannon-dead-early-rocker-who-sang-palisades-park-was-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/592879\/","title":{"rendered":"Freddy Cannon Dead: Early Rocker Who Sang ‘Palisades Park’ Was 89"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFreddy Cannon<\/a>, a veteran of the early rock scene whose hits of the late \u201950s and early \u201960s included the top 10 hits \u201cPalisades Park,\u201d \u201cTallahassee Lassie\u201d and \u201cWay Down Yonder in New Orleans,\u201d died Friday at 89. <\/p>\n

\n\tA representative said Cannon, who lived in Oxnard, California, died at a hospice facility after very recently being diagnosed with cancer, as confirmed by his longtime friend, iHeart Radio\u2019s Tom Cuddy. Cannon had been scheduled to do \u201cwhat would have been his final interview\u201d on July 11\u00a0with legendary DJ \u201cCousin Brucie\u201d Morrow, but he ended up being taken to the hospital the day before.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon, who was sometimes billed as Freddy \u201cBoom Boom\u201d Cannon, was revered by many fans of his original era because, for one thing, he \u201cdidn\u2019t do ballads,\u201d said Cuddy. \u201cI had never seen a performer who kept his performance so upbeat and fun.\u00a0Dick Clark<\/a> once told me that every time he hosted an oldies concert, he asked Freddy to open it, because he knew Freddy would get the audience on their feet with up-tempo rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon\u2019s acolytes included Mick Jagger (who said the groove of \u201cBrown Sugar\u201d was Cannon-inspired), Robert Plant (who said Led Zeppelin played \u201cTallahassee Lassie\u201d in jams when they were just finding their sea legs) and Stephen King (who mentioned Cannon\u2019s music in four of his books).<\/p>\n

\n\tHis first hit, \u201cTallahassee Lassie,\u201d made it to No. 6 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 in 1959, with a No. 13 showing on the R&B chart and a No. 17 peak in the U.K. That same year, he reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 with \u201cWay Down in New Orleans,\u201d which peaked at No. 14 on the R&B chart and went all the way to No. 3 in the U.K.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis third, last and biggest top 10 hit was \u201cPalisades Park\u201d in 1962. It went to No. 3 on the Hot 100, landed at No. 15 on the R&B chart and made it to No. 20 in the U.K. The song, written by future \u201cGong Show\u201d host Chuck Barris, was subsequently covered by Jan and Dean, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, the Beach Boys (in the 1970s, as a nostalgic throwback on \u201c15 Big Ones\u201d) and the Ramones (on 1989\u2019s \u201cBrain Drain\u201d), among others.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon continued to have hits through 1964\u2019s No. 16-peaking \u201cAbigail Beecher\u201d and 1965\u2019s No. 13 \u201cAction,\u201d released after he switched from the Swan to the Warner Bros. label. In 1981, he made one last return to the Hot 100 with \u201cLet\u2019s Put the Fun Back in Rock N Roll,\u201d which peaked at No. 81. Shout! Factory released a compilation, \u201cBoom Boom Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll: The Best Of Freddy Cannon,\u201d in 2009.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon\u2019s rep said he held the record for the most appearances on Dick Clark\u2019s \u201cAmerican Bandstand,\u201d with 110.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther screen appearances ranged from \u201cWhere the Action Is\u201d (which became the title of his 2011 memoir) to the cult genre film \u201cVillage of the Giants\u201d to the soap opera \u201cNever Too Young.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFreddy Cannon in May 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy David Salidor<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was born Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. on Dec. 4, 1936 in Lynn, Massachusetts. In his late teens, he and his high school sweetheart-turned-wife, Jeanette, moved to Philadelphia at the behest of Dick Clark, the city that then hosted \u201cAmerican Bandstand,\u201d early in that lifelong friendship.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe resisted being grouped with some of his fellow Italians in the pop teen idol grouping. \u201cI think most of them were handed songs, but with me \u2014 \u2018Tallahassee Lassie,\u2019 I wrote with my mom,\u201d he pointed out in a 2017 interview with the Ventura County Star<\/a>. \u201cSo for me to get started was because of her, and I play guitar, so I can\u2019t put myself with those other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe had a signature expression of exhilaration. \u201cI think I owe a lot of the \u2018Whoo\u2019 to Little Richard; you know, Little Richard was doing that way before me like, in 1955 or 1956,\u201d he told the Ventura paper. \u201c\u2018Tallahassee Lassie\u2019 came out in \u201959. I wrote it with my mom in \u201958, so I don\u2019t want to take full credit for it, but his \u2018Whoo\u2019 was a little different than mine and he held it a lot longer. Mine was just a \u2018Whoo.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon assessed his influence. \u201cI hope I fit in somewhere. I think I made a little dent in the music business by being a songwriter. There was a few songs I didn\u2019t write but a lot of them, I did. And all I gotta say is that I go back to \u2018Tallahassee\u2019 all the time \u2014 to that song only because the Rolling Stones covered it; Fleetwood Mac covered the song \u2014 all these bands in England covered the song and put it on their albums and everything. It makes me feel a hundred feet tall, you know? I must\u2019ve influenced somebody with that song.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon continued to work on music in Oxnard right up to his recent hospitalization, the rep said. Among his latter day contributions was \u201cThe Svengoolie Stomp,\u201d written for horror-movie TV host Svengoolie, who programmed the singer\u2019s vintage appearance in \u201cVillage of the Giants\u201d last weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon is survived by his children Conny and Billy, his sister Mary Lou, his son-in-law Jim and daughter- in-law Beth, five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.\u00a0Cannon was pre-deceased by his son,\u00a0John, in April of this year, and by his wife and high school sweetheart, Jeanette, in September 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe would like to thank everyone for their love and support throughout our dad\u2019s life,\u201d said Conny Cannon. \u201cHe will be remembered as a rock \u2018and\u2019n\u2019 roll icon. His music will live forever in our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freddy Cannon, a veteran of the early rock scene whose hits of the late \u201950s and early \u201960s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[187509,18,117,251223,19,17,337],"class_list":["post-592879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-dick-clark","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-freddy-cannon","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}