Benjamin Orzechowski (8 September 1947 - 3 October 2000), known professionally as Benjamin Orr , is an American musician known as a singer, bassist and founder of the rock band Cars. She sings lead vocals on some of their famous songs, including "Just What I Needed", "Let's Go" and "Drive". He also scored a moderate solo hit with "Stay the Night." Orr was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Car member in 2018.
Video Benjamin Orr
Early life and career
Benjamin Orr was born in Lakewood, Ohio to parents of Polish, Russian, Czechoslovakia and German descent. Her family actively supports her musical endeavors. He became proficient in several instruments including guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, and drums. Known locally as "Benny 11-Letters," he grew up in Lakewood, Ohio, and Parma, Ohio, and attended Valley Forge High School before joining local band Grasshoppers as lead vocalist and guitarist in 1964.
In 1965, Grasshopper released two singles on the label Sunburst, "Mod Socks" and "Pink Champagne (and Red Roses)", most recently written by Orzechowski. The Grasshoppers is also a band house on Big Big Show, a variety music TV show produced by WEWS-TV in Cleveland. The Grasshoppers were dissolved in 1966 when two members of the band were recruited into the US Army, after Orzechowski joined the band Mixed Emotions and later, the Colors. Then Orzechowski was also designed, although he received a delay after about a year and a half in the Army.
Orr first met Ric Ocasek, Cars's future leader, in Cleveland in the 1960s after Ocasek saw Orr performing with Grasshoppers on the Big 5 Show. A few years later, Orr moved to Columbus, Ohio where he and Ocasek formed a musical partnership that would continue in various incarnations until the Car's outbreak in 1988. After moving to Boston, the two formed a folk band called Milkwood with guitarist James Goodkind.
In 1973, the group released one album, How Weather? , which failed to graph. The rest in Boston, Ocasek and Orr later formed another band, Richard and Rabbit, featuring keyboardist Greg Hawkes, followed by another band, Cap'n Swing, which included guitarist Elliot Easton. After the group broke up in 1976, the three of them shared with Hawkes and drummer David Robinson formed the Car.
As a member of Cars, Orr sang the lead vocalist on some of the band's most famous songs, including their first 40 hit hit "Just What I Needed", "Let's Go," and on "Drive", their highest single in the US..
Orr released his solo solo album, The Lace, in 1986. He co-wrote music and lyrics with his longtime girlfriend, Diane Gray Page, who also sings backing vocals, and the album has a top 40 hit , "Stay the Night". The song is a hit rock top 10 album and the video is playing on MTV. The second single "Too Hot to Stop" was also released, but was not on Hot Billboard despite reaching # 25 on the rock charts. The album art for The Lace shows Orr on the front and Page in the back.
Orr continued to work with Cars for one more album, Door to Door , and the tour before the group broke up in 1988, after which he and other members pursued solo work. Sometimes in the mid-1990s, Orr recorded a song with guitarist John Kalishes for an unreleased follow-up to The Lace. From 1998 to his death in 2000, he performed with his own band ORR and two side bands, "The Voices of Classic Rock" with Mickey Thomas and John Cafferty, and "Big People", which was a cover band with Pat Travers (from Band Pat Travers), Jeff Carlisi (of 38 Special), Derek St. Holmes (from Ted Nugent), and Liberty DeVitto (from Billy Joel).
Maps Benjamin Orr
Disease and death
In April 2000, Orr was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was hospitalized, though he continued to perform concerts with Big People bands during the summer at music festivals and fairs. She reunited with The Cars for the last time in Atlanta, for an interview that was included in the live concert video of Rhino Records The Cars Live .
His last public appearance was on September 27, 2000, at the Big People concert in Anchorage, Alaska. She died at home in Atlanta on October 4, aged 53, surrounded by fellow band members Big People Jeff Carlisi, Derek St Holmes and Rob Wilson. Manager David Tedeschi was absent but ruined by the loss of his best friend. Orr survived his son Ben.
Ric Ocasek wrote and recorded the song "Silver," which is his music awards for Orr. It appeared on Ocasek's solo album in 2005, Nexterday . The Cars reunited ten years after Orr's death and released their seventh studio album Move Like This in May 2011. Orr was thanked in a liner note: "Ben, your spirit is with us on this. "Orr is buried at St. Joseph's Cemetery." Patrick in Thompson, Ohio.
Discography
solo album
- Lace (1986)
With Grasshoppers
- "Mod Socks" b/w "Shake Twins" (1965)
- "Pink Champagne (and Red Roses)" b/w "The Wasp" (1965)
With Milkwood
- How's the weather? (1973)
By Car
- The Cars (1978)
- Candy-O (1979)
- Panorama (1980)
- Shake It Up (1981)
- Heartbeat City (1984)
- Door to Door (1987)
Single solo
References
External links
- Benjamin Orr biography - Allmusic
- Benjamin Orr on IMDb
- Benjamin Orr: The Legacy
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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