Alex Hassilev, a multilingual, multitalented troubadour and the final authentic member of the Limeliters, one of many greatest acts of the folks revival of the early Sixties, died on April 21 in Burbank, Calif. He was 91.
His spouse, Gladys Hassilev, mentioned the reason for his loss of life, in a hospital, was most cancers.
Earlier than Beatlemania gripped America’s youth in 1964, the nation fell in love with the tight harmonies and conventional preparations of folks music — and few acts drew extra adoration than the Limeliters, a trio made up of Mr. Hassilev, Glenn Yarbrough and Lou Gottlieb.
Mr. Hassilev performed banjo and guitar and sang baritone, not solely in English however in French, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian, all of which he spoke fluently. His bandmates have been equally brainy: Mr. Gottlieb had a doctorate in musicology and Mr. Yarbrough as soon as labored as a bouncer to pay for Greek classes.
Urbane and witty, they packed coffeehouses and faculty auditoriums with a repertoire that blended straight-faced people requirements like “The Hammer Music” and cheeky tunes like “Have Some Madeira, M’Pricey,” “The Ballad of Sigmund Freud” and “Charlie the Midnight Marauder.”
At their peak, between 1960 and 1962, the Limeliters have been enjoying 300 dates a 12 months and recording an album each few months, two of which — “Tonight in Individual” (1960) and “The Barely Fabulous Limeliters” (1961) — reached the Billboard Prime 10.
“The Limeliters have a sure musical and verbal finesse which locations them above and past their many contemporaries,” The Los Angeles Occasions wrote in 1961.
Alexander Hassilev was born on June 11, 1932, in Paris, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Leonide and Tamara (Rudd) Hassilev. With the specter of conflict with Germany mounting, the household emigrated to New York in 1939, the place Mr. Hassilev labored as a civil engineer.
Alex proved a diligent, good pupil, breezing by highschool and coming into Harvard after serving within the Military. However he reacted towards what he noticed because the college’s Yankee elitism and, after a 12 months, transferred to the College of Chicago. Even there he felt constrained by educational life; desirous to strive his hand at performing, he returned to New York.
He studied on the Neighborhood Playhouse, discovered the guitar and fell in with the rising people scene round Greenwich Village. He had a small however memorable position as a guitarist in Roger Corman’s 1959 horror-comedy “A Bucket of Blood.”
Across the identical time he met Mr. Yarborough, who was visiting from Aspen, Colo., at a celebration. Mr. Yarborough had an everyday gig enjoying at a restaurant there referred to as the Limelite. Mr. Hassilev, an avid skier, quickly joined him.
With the Limelite as their house base, the pair was quickly showing at venues alongside the West Coast. Whereas enjoying at a coffeehouse in Los Angeles, they caught the attention of Mr. Gottlieb, who had lately completed his dissertation on Fifteenth-century liturgical music and was arranging items for the Kingston Trio, one other fashionable people group.
The three males started jamming collectively, and in 1959 they took their act on the street. They booked a number of nights on the hungry i, a preferred venue in San Francisco; when the proprietor balked at placing all three of their names on the marquee, they determined to name themselves the Limeliters.
The trio’s success was swift. They signed with Elektra Information and launched their first album in 1960. In between touring and showing on tv, they recorded a string of economic jingles, together with “Issues Go Higher With Coke.”
However their tight harmonies weren’t matched offstage, the place their fixed squabbling earned them the nickname the Bicker Brothers. After a airplane crash in Utah in 1962 left them shaken (however principally unhurt), Mr. Yarbrough left. The trio formally broke up in 1965.
Mr. Hassilev recorded a solo album and rekindled his curiosity in performing. He had just a few successes, together with a visitor spot on the TV comedy “Get Good” and a task within the 1966 comedy “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming!” enjoying one of many titular Russians alongside two different people musicians who have been transitioning to performing: Theodore Bikel and Alan Arkin.
However he had a tough time breaking away from his fame as a people singer. He arrange a studio within the basement of his West Hollywood house, and for a number of years labored as a document producer.
His first marriage, to Ginger Stanjer, led to divorce. He married Gladys Rios in 1976. Alongside together with her, he’s survived by his son, David, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Mr. Hassilev reconvened the Limeliters a number of occasions within the late Sixties and ’70s after which completely in 1981, with Mr. Yarbrough dropping out and in of the lineup. After Mr. Gottlieb died in 1996, Mr. Hassilev introduced in new performers, a lot of them veterans of the Sixties people scene. Mr. Yarbrough died in 2016.
Mr. Hassilev retired from the Limeliters in 2006, although he continued to play with them sometimes, and the band stays energetic in the present day. Although they by no means returned to their Sixties reputation, they proceed to play to massive and enthusiastic audiences.
“With a purpose to stay fashionable, you need to outlive your competitors,” Mr. Hassilev advised The Charleston Every day Mail of West Virginia in 2005. “It makes me really feel good to be on this area. It makes me really feel clear.”
