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Gene McDaniels obituary

Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 August 2011

GENE MCDANIELS, the American singer and songwriter, who has died aged 76, began and ended his career as the smoothest of vocal stylists. His hits of the early 1960s, such as 'A Hundred Pounds of Clay' and 'Tower of Strength', cast him as a suave performer of upbeat pop songs aimed at white teenagers; in his last years he would occasionally take the stage to deliver standards with all the graceful inventiveness of the great jazz singer he might have been.

Total word count of piece: 1054

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