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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/arts/music/dave-baby-cortez-dead.html
Dave rCyBabyrCO Cortez, Hitmaker Who Seemed to Vanish, Is Dead at 83
His rCLThe Happy OrganrCY reached No. 1 in 1959, but his pop stardom was short-lived, and his death in 2022, with an anonymous burial, remains a
source of mystery.
By Alex Williams
Published July 10, 2025
Updated July 12, 2025

ItrCOs not that Dave rCLBabyrCY Cortez was forgotten. A keyboardist, singer
and songwriter, he emerged from the thriving Detroit doo-wop scene of
the 1950s to score two Top 10 hits, one of which, rCLThe Happy Organ,rCY an aural Tilt-a-Whirl of an instrumental, soared to No. 1 in March 1959 and
sold more than a million copies.

But he rarely granted interviews, particularly after largely abandoning
the business, with a trace of bitterness, in the early 1970s. The few
available online biographies provide almost no details of his life
beyond his recording history and chart success.

Taryn Sheffield, his daughter, said in an interview that she had not
heard from him since 2009. rCLHerCOs been a recluse for many, many years,rCY she said.

At times, he appeared to serve as a church organist in Cincinnati, said
Miriam Linna, a founder of Norton Records, an independent New York label
that in 2011 persuaded Mr. Cortez to record his first album since 1972.
At other times, he appeared to be living in the Bronx, doing who knows
what.

It was only in recent weeks that Ms. Linna learned that he had been dead
for three years.

According to city records, Mr. Cortez rCo whose real name was David Cortez Clowney rCo died on May 31, 2022, at his home on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx. He was 83. His body lies in Plot 434 on Hart Island, the potterrCOs field off the Bronx shoreline, where some one million bodies are buried
in unmarked graves.

It was an ignominious end for an artist whose career was curious enough
to begin with.

Mr. Cortez was born on Aug. 13, 1938, in Detroit, one of two sons of
David and Lillian Mae Clowney. His father played piano and encouraged
David to follow suit.

His musical abilities flourished while he was a student at Northwestern
High School. When he was about 16, he joined a well-regarded local
doo-wop vocal group, the Five Pearls (later simply the Pearls), as
second tenor and pianist.

The group made some waves with songs like rCLPlease Let Me Know,rCY rCLShadows of LoverCY (written by in part by Mr. Cortez) and rCLBells of Love.rCY They eventually relocated to New York City, where Mr. Cortez also spent a
brief period with another vocal group, the Valentines.

But he had greater ambitions. rCLArmed with a pocketful of songs, a
self-taught mastery of the piano, an infectious voice and a lively wit,
Dave started making the rounds of Tin Pan Alley publishers, playing his
own tunes,rCY according to the liner notes of rCLThe Happy Organ,rCY his RCA Victor album from 1959.

He formed the David Clowney Band and released the vampy instrumental rCLMovinrCO and GroovinrCOrCY (1956) and the soulful rCLSoft LightsrCY (1957). He
adopted his stage name in 1958, the same year he stumbled across the
song that would define his career.

At the outset, the recording session for rCLThe Happy Organ,rCY held in a basement studio at 1650 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan in the fall of
1958, seemed anything but promising.

rCLI made the track first,rCY Mr. Cortez said in a rare interview, with the National Association of Music Merchants, and rCLit was supposed to be a vocal.rCY But, he added, rCLI didnrCOt like the vocal, rCOcause IrCOm not a great
singer.rCY

Then he spied a hulking shape under a plastic cover in the corner of the studio. rCLUsually in the studio, they have the Hammond organ covered up,rCY
he recalled. rCLPeople werenrCOt using it then, except in gospel. I said, rCyCan I try that over there?rCOrCY

rCLThey played the track back a couple of times, and I started playing
with this melody,rCY he said. rCLI guess God gave me this melody.rCY

rCLA lot of people called it rCyShortninrCO Bread,rCO other people called it this or that,rCY he added. rCLBut it worked.rCY

The result was an exuberant, if not exactly polished, tune with circus
calliope overtones.

rCLThe end of the take was rough,rCY Mr. Cortez was quoted as saying in a
brief biography of him on a European music site, TimrCOs This Is My Story. rCLIt went on and on and was full of wrong notes,rCY which, he added, was rCLone reason why it was faded out on the record after 1:58.rCY

Despite its modest prospects, rCLThe Happy OrganrCY took off, and it is now hailed as the first instrumental to top the Billboard Hot 100. It also
opened the floodgates. Other instrumental chart-toppers soon followed, including rCLSleep WalkrCY by Santo & Johnny and rCLThe Theme From rCyA Summer PlacerCOrCY by Percy Faith and His Orchestra.

To some music aficionados, the song helped liberate the organ from its Sunday-processional connotations and establish it as a viable rock
instrument rCo witness later hits like rCLGreen OnionsrCY by Booker T. and the M.G.rCOs, rCL96 TearsrCY by ? & the Mysterians and rCLLight My FirerCY by the Doors.

And rCLThe Happy OrganrCY lived on as a cover tune as well, recorded by
artists as diverse as the surf band the Ventures, the Jamaican reggae
band the Soul Vendors and the longtime Yankee Stadium organist Eddie
Layton.

Mr. Cortez managed to avoid one-hit-wonder status when another organ instrumental of his, rCLRinky Dink,rCY climbed to No. 10 in 1962. He
eventually steered toward soul and funk, and in 1972 released rCLSoul Vibration.rCY It would be his last album for nearly 40 years.

His last hit, a minor one, came in 1973, with rCLSomeone Has Taken Your Place,rCY a gospel-tinged vocal number that peaked at No. 45 on the
Billboard R&B chart.

By the 1980s, Mr. Cortez was working a day job and living in the Jamaica section of Queens, according to the site Allmusic. He was also batting
away journalistsrCO efforts to ask him about his career. rCLThe music
business wasnrCOt very kind to him,rCY Ms. Sheffield said, rCLand he was bitter.rCY

He appeared lost to music history when, in 2009, Ms. Linna, of Norton
Records, put out feelers to find him. (The label, which she founded with
her husband, Billy Miller, describes its mission as rCLto discover,
uncover and recover great unlauded music.rCY)

Ms. Linna heard nothing until she was shopping in a Brooklyn hardware
store one day and Mr. Cortez called her on her mobile phone. rCLI hear
yourCOre looking for me,rCY he said.

rCLI flipped out,rCY she recalled. rCLHe was very, very nice and fun.rCY

And, to her surprise, he was willing to take another stab at recording.
Two years later, Norton released the album rCLDave rCyBabyrCO Cortez With Lonnie Youngblood and His Bloodhounds.rCY (Mr. Youngblood, a renowned saxophonist, had recorded with Jimi Hendrix.) That same year, Mr. Cortez performed a joyous set at the labelrCOs 25th-anniversary concert in
Brooklyn.

After that, not much rCo at least until Ms. Linna mentioned Mr. Cortez on
her biweekly music radio show, rCLCrashing the Party,rCY in June. After
hearing that episode, Liam Waldon, a 15-year-old doo-wop historian in Australia, decided to track down Mr. Cortez himself rCo rCLfor an interview,
or just to talk to him,rCY he wrote in an email. rCLHe seemed like a cool guy.rCY

After a bit of online sleuthing, Liam discovered that Mr. Cortez had
died and that his body remained unclaimed. He alerted Ms. Linna.

Ms. Sheffield had learned of his death in 2022 only after BMI, the music
rights organization, contacted the family looking for his next of kin.
Efforts to locate his body were fruitless, she said. She declined to
provide information about other survivors.

As for her lack of communication with her father, Ms. Sheffield said
that there was no bad blood between them. Life just got in the way.

rCLIrCOm 60 years old and IrCOve got 10 grandchildren,rCY she said. rCLI really donrCOt have the time to move back.rCY

Alex Williams is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk.

A version of this article appears in print on July 12, 2025, Section B,
Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Dave rCyBabyrCO Cortez,
83, Hitmaker Who Vanished From Business, Is Dead.

-- 2025 The New York Times Company
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