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Today we commemorate Rusty Young, guitar and pedal steel guitar player with Poco, who unfortunately died of a heart attack on April 14, 2021. He was 75 years old. Norman Russell “Rusty“ Young (February 23, 1946 – April 14, 2021) was an American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, best known as one of the frontmen in the influential country rock and Americana band Poco. A virtuoso on pedal steel guitar, he was celebrated for the ability to get a Hammond B3 organ sound out of the instrument by playing it through a Leslie speaker cabinet and as an innovator of producing other rock sounds from the instrument. Poco is an American country rock band originally formed in 1968 after the demise of Buffalo Springfield. Guitarists Richie Furay and Jim Messina, former members of Buffalo Springfield, were joined by multi-instrumentalist Rusty Young, bassist Randy Meisner, and drummer George Grantham. Meisner quit the band during the recording process for the first album, Pickin’ Up the Pieces, though his bass and backing vocal parts were kept in the final mix. He was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit in 1969, and Messina left in 1970 to be replaced by Paul Cotton. The line-up would change numerous times over the next several decades, with Rusty Young being the only constant member. A reunion of the founding members occurred in the late 1980s-early 1990s, and the band has continued in some form through the present day, though they retired from active touring in 2013, with Young citing health concerns as the primary cause of his retirement. He died from a heart attack in April 2021. To date, the band has released 19 studio albums, the most successful of which was 1978’s Legend, which featured the Billboard Hot 100 #17 and Adult Contemporary #1 hit “Crazy Love“. The band’s most recent album was 2013’s All Fired Up. Poco are considered one of the founders of the Southern California country rock sound, and three of the members of the band have been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as members of other bands (Furay with Buffalo Springfield, Meisner and Schmit with The Eagles). In this Toppop video Poco’s line up was: Paul Cotton, vocals and electric guitar Timothy B. Schmit, vocals and bass guitar (now with the Eagles) Al Garth, violin (now with the Eagles) Rusty Young, acoustic guitar George Grantham, drums. Watch our great music videos ❯ More TopPop? Subscribe here ❯ More info on Wikipedia ❯ Broadcast date: October 5, 1976 This is to let you know that the video recording of the video clip was originally recorded by AVROTROS Broadcasting. AVROTROS Broadcasting hereby warrants and represents that it is the sole and exclusive owner of the physical film and/or videotape footage in this video clip. The performance of the artist(s) in the clip was filmed and recorded with the written consent of the artist(s) and their representatives. AVROTROS is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, founded in 2014 from a merger of AVRO and TROS. From January 1st, 2014 the name of the merged broadcaster was used in joint programmes. AVRO was founded in 1923 as the Netherlands first public broadcaster. TROS started broadcasting in 1964. Toppop was a weekly AVRO pop program that was aired between 1970 and 1988. AVROTROS Broadcasting PO Box 2 1200 JA Hilversum The Netherlands TopPop was the first regular dedicated pop music TV show in the Dutch language area. Dutch broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from 1970 to 1988. Presenter Ad Visser hosted the show for its first fifteen years. World famous music artists performed on TopPop: ABBA, 10CC, Bee Gees, The Jacksons with Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Earth & Fire, Queen, Golden Earring, Boney M, KC & The Sunshine Band, Chic, Donna Summer and many many more.
