Services For Sugarloaf Frontman Corbetta
A funeral mass is being held today (23) for Jerry Corbetta, the frontman with Denver rock band Sugarloaf, who died 16 September. He had been battling Pick’s disease, a rare form of progressive dementia, and was 68.
Sugarloaf rode the album rock boom of the turn of the 1970s and scored a No. 3 US hit with their signature song ‘Green-Eyed Lady’ in 1970. That helped take their self-titled album to a No. 24 peak during a 29-week run on the American chart.
The band had lesser success with the subsequent singles ‘Tongue In Cheek’ and ‘Mother Nature’s Wine’ and the album Spaceship Earth, before resurfacing in 1974. ‘Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You,’ credited to Sugarloaf/Jerry Corbetta, reached No. 9 on the Hot 100, and the album of the same name made a minor chart showing. The single included a recurring, audacious and obvious reference to the guitar riff from The Beatles‘ ‘I Feel Fine.’
Later, Corbetta served as music director for Frankie Valli’s touring band, a role he held until 1984. He wrote songs for both Peabo Bryson and Grace Jones, and was inducted as a member of Sugarloaf into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, performing at the ceremony despite the illness that had developed by that time.
Listen to ‘Green-Eyed Lady’ on Spotify
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