Cleveland rock/pop singer Sonny Geraci, the voice of several major hits in the late ’60s and early ’70s, died February 5 at age 69 after a long illness. He had been incapacitated for nearly five years due to a brain aneurism.
Part of the “golden years” generation of Cleveland music, when dozens of local bands and artists were signed to major labels and many were producing hits, Geraci first found success with the Outsiders, who had four energetic top 40 hits during 1966, “Time Won’t Let Me (which reached #5 on the national charts),” Respectable,” “Help Me Girl” and “Girl in Love.” They were the area’s most successful charting group until the Raspberries hit in 1972.
By the late ‘60s, Geraci had moved to Los Angeles where he hooked up with Climax, basically a studio project that included another Clevelander, guitarist/songwriter Walt Nims. While it only released one album, its 1971/72 #1 hit “Precious and Few” is still an oldies radio staple.
Although Geraci released a pseudonymous album in 1983 called The Peter Emmett Story, backed by Donnie Iris’ Cruisers, he dropped out of the music business for all practical purposes until he started doing the oldies circuit in the mid ’00s, a comeback cut short by his illness.