Ray Collins November 19, 1936 – December 24, 2012

Once upon a time there was a band called The Soul Giants. After their guitar player quit the band’s vocalist, [wikipop search=”Ray Collins (rock musician)”]Ray Collins[/wikipop], asked a guy called [wikipop]Frank Zappa[/wikipop] to join the band. The band’s name was subsequently changed to [wikipop]The Mothers[/wikipop] and the rest is history…

Collins had been working as a vocalist during the late 1950s and early 1960s adding his high backing vocals to I Remember Linda by Little Julian Herrera and the Tigers…

He had featured on recordings made by Paul Buff at his [wikipop]Pal Recording Studio[/wikipop] which Buff would later sell to Zappa, who renamed it Studio Z, and the rest is history…

Here is Collins singing Deserie…

…which he would later record with The Mothers (having frequently been in and out of the band) for Cruising with Ruben and The Jets…

It was the How’s Your Bird that he recorded as Baby Ray and The Ferns…

that Zappa was promoting with his performance on bicycle on [wikipop]The Steve Allen Show[/wikipop] in 1963…