Mike Smith, the lead singer, keyboardist and face of the Dave Clark Five at the height of the British band's popularity, died Thursday of pneumonia. He was 64.
Smith was admitted Wednesday morning to Stoke Mandeville Hospital outside London with a chest infection stemming from complications of a 2003 spinal cord injury that had left him paralyzed, his New York agent, Margo Lewis, said in a statement.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, March 01, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 34 words Type of Material: Correction
Smith obituary: The obituary of Dave Clark Five singer Mike Smith in Friday's California section credited Smith and Clark with writing "I Like It Like That." Chris Kenner and Allen Toussaint wrote the song.
Smith had been hospitalized since the accident and was released in December when he moved into a specially prepared home near the hospital with his wife, Arlene.
His death came two weeks before the group was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Smith had said that he was hoping to attend the March 10 induction ceremony in New York.
Although the Beatles were the most popular of the British Invasion bands of the 1960s, the Dave Clark Five claimed a string of U.S. billboard hits, many of them co-written by Smith and Clark, including "Because," "Glad All Over," "Any Way You Want It" and "I Like It Like That."
The band made 12 appearances on Ed Sullivan's variety show, the most for any British act.
The group's antics were captured in John Boorman's 1965 documentary, "Catch Us if You Can," which followed Smith and the band through the English city of Bristol.
The group was founded by Clark, who played drums, in 1958. Smith was not an original member. He joined in 1961 as keyboardist, lead singer and the band's most recognizable face. The "Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll" called Smith "a truly outstanding soul shouter."
Years later, Smith noted that there was a certain irony in the British Invasion. While groups from England were bringing new sounds to America, many of the musicians in those groups were soaking up American blues and pop recordings.
"I used to buy import records and discovered the Contours, Isley Brothers, Lightnin' Hopkins. . . . America wasn't listening to that, but in England we thought they were brilliant," Smith told the Record newspaper of Bergen County, N.J., in 2003.
Smith was born in London on Dec. 12, 1943. He began studying classical music at age 5 and was admitted to Trinity Music College in London at 13. He was also a fan of the great jazz artists Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson. When he joined the Dave Clark Five, he was the only member of the group to have had classical music training.
