Remembering 2023’s Music Losses: Ed Ames

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Happy New Year! It looks like 2024 is starting out where 2023 left off…an earthquake in Japan. This month I’m reviewing the year 2023 as it relates to the music talent we lost. Always too many sing their final song every year. Here’s the first of the people I chose to highlight from last year. Ed Ames When I was a kid, I knew Ed Ames as Mingo on Daniel Boone. And, as most of his solo songs in the 60s were of the “easy listening” variety (e.g., “Try to Remember,” “My Cup Runneth Over”), I kept it that way. Then I discovered the Ames Brothers. You can thank Homer and Jethro for that, as they spoofed “The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane.” I also had heard “Rag Mop” a few times (and if I ever do a “dumbest songs ever recorded” countdown, “Rag Mop” will be on it). But “Melodie D’Amour” sealed the deal. Ames continued acting and singing long after his popularity in the 60s faded. He was the final surviving member of the Ames Brothers when he died from complications of Alzheimer’s on May 21, 2023 at the age of 95. Ed Ames Born Edmund Dantes Urick July 9, 1927 - May 21, 2023 (95) HALL OF FAME: Vocal Group (as part of the Ames Brothers), 1998 My favorite Ames Brothers song, “Melodie D’Amour”: