Jazz and soul musician Gordy Harmon, best known as a founding member of The Whispers, has died at age 79. His family told news outlets that he passed away at his home in Los Angeles. They believe it was from natural causes.
Harmon, alongside Marcus Hutson, Nicholas Caldwell, and brothers Wallace and Walter Scott, formed The Whispers in the early 1960s in Los Angeles. They were reportedly given the band name by a local record label owner, who thought it reflected their singing style.
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Harmon would release three LPs with the band: 1969’s Planets of Life and 1972’s Life and Breath and The Whispers’ Love Story. He left the band in 1973 after injuring his larynx. The Whispers would go on to release their biggest hits without him: the disco funk song ‘And The Beat Goes On’, which arrived in 1979, and ‘Rock Steady’, from 1987.
The Whispers are still technically active today, with Wallace and Walter Scott the only surviving original members. Caldwell died of heart failure in 2016, and Hutson died of prostate cancer in 2000. The Whispers were inducted into the R&B Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
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