Charlie Gracie, 86, Philadelphia’s first rock and roll star, has died

Charlie Gracie, 86, the South Philadelphia singer and guitarist whose 1950s hits made him an international star, has died. His music had a major impact on the Beatles and many other British acts of the 1960s.

Mr. Gracie died Friday in Aldan, Delaware County, his son, Charlie Gracie Jr., said. Mr. Gracie had been ill with a series of complications since contracting COVID-19, after playing his final two shows in Wilkes Barre and Long Island in April.

Charlie Gracie was Philadelphia’s first native son rock and roll star. Though he was never as well-known as peers like Elvis Presley and Little Richard, he recorded as early as 1951 and scored two rockabilly hits in 1957 that ranked him as among the last surviving first-generation rock heroes.

His song “Butterfly,” written by Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann, topped the Billboard charts and became the first No. 1 hit for Cameo Records, the label that would later produce hits for Philadelphia teen idols like Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker.

Cameo’s second No. 1 hit was “Fabulous,” which found Mr. Gracie a lifelong audience in the United Kingdom, where he was among the first American rock acts to tour after the song written by Harold Land and Mann reached No. 8 on the British charts.

A 15-year-old Paul McCartney saw Mr. Gracie perform in England, and recorded “Fabulous” on his 1999 album Run Devil Run. Mr. Gracie’s 2014 memoir, Rock & Roll’s Hidden Giant, written with John A. Jackson, has a McCartney quote on the cover: “When we were starting out with the Beatles, the music coming over from America was magical to us — and one of the artists who epitomized this magic was Charlie Gracie.”

Graham Nash also saw Mr. Gracie when he was 15. “When you want to know the history of rockabilly and rock and roll, one has to go back to the beginning of the music that changed our lives. Charlie Gracie was there at the start.” Nash tells the story of his sister saving a cigarette stub Mr. Gracie tossed after a show in Manchester, England, in 1957. “She still has it!” he said in 2014.

Charlie Graci grew up in a Pierce Street row house in South Philadelphia. When he was 10, his father, Ray, who worked for the Stetson Hat Company, passed up buying a new suit for his son.

“‘He said, ‘To hell with the suit. Get a guitar. You’ll be a one man band’,” the singer told The Inquirer in 2016. “‘I don’t want you to work like a jackass like I did all my life.’”

Taking lessons from guitarist Anthony Panto, the young musician developed a style as a rhythm and lead player of which he was justly proud, and began entertaining at South Philly taprooms like Sabatino’s.

When he was a 15-year-old student at South Philadelphia High School, Mr. Gracie — who by then had added an e to his name — recorded his first single, “Boogie Woogie Blues” for Cadillac Records. “He was recording before Elvis or Eddie Cochran or Buddy Holly ever set foot in the studio,” says his son, who was his father’s publicist.

Mr. Gracie was a regular winner on local talent show Paul Whiteman’s TV Teen Club, and Lowe signed him to Cameo. “Everybody was looking for another Elvis,” Mr. Gracie said in 2016. “Compared to Elvis, I looked like The Hunchback of Notre Dame… I was born with this mug.”

“Butterfly” and “Fabulous” led to appearances on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, $1,000-a-night concert engagements, and The Ed Sullivan Show. Mr. Gracie took to heart advice given to him by his Sicilian grandmother after the latter: “Don’t get a big head.”

Mr. Gracie’s time at the top was brief. In a move he said he came to regret, he sued Cameo in a dispute over royalties, and settled out of court, using the money to buy his parents a house in Havertown.

He was never on Bandstand again, and his career shifted to $150-a-week venues like Hoagie Joe’s in Havertown, where he played five hours a night. “My calluses had calluses,” he wrote in Hidden Giant, whose title plays on his stature: Standing 5 foot 4, he was known as “the Pocket Rocker.”

In the late 1970s, Mr. Gracie’s music was re-issued and his career gained momentum. George Harrison cited him as an influence. Van Morrison hired him as an opening act in 2000. His 2012 single “Baby Doll” returned him to the pop charts. He toured Europe 40 times, his son said, with a final UK run in 2019.

In a seven-decade career, Mr. Gracie, who lived in Drexel Hill with his wife, Joan, (to whom he was married for 64 years) before moving to Springfield this year, only worked as a musician.

“My Dad loved to entertain,” Gracie Jr. said. “He wasn’t embarrassed to play a small bar or restaurant. He played big theaters, too, but he wanted to work.”

Adam Weiner of Philadelphia band Low Cut Connie said: “Charlie put his footprint down for rock n’ roll in this city almost 70 years ago. He had the edgy guitar chops, the sweet voice, and the killer sense of humor that combined for that classic Philadelphia flavor.”

Camden County rocker Ben Vaughn said of Mr. Gracie: “What a loss for Philly. And for music lovers all over the world.” On Facebook, The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn radio host remembered watching Mr. Gracie at the South Jersey venue Capriotti’s in the early 1970s where Vaughn worked as a dishwasher.

“It was an invaluable experience. A master class, really. He demonstrated how important it is to be engaged with an audience, no matter how big or small. It’s impossible to calculate how much I learned from watching him.”

In 2018, Vaughn’s band backed Mr. Gracie at Johnny Brenda’s in a show presented by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “It was wild. He was 80 years old at the time but his fingers flew all over the guitar and he still did the leg kicks! Needless to say, the crowd went nuts but we were worn out by the end. He practically murdered us!”

Mr. Gracie told The Inquirer in 2012: “I’ve never had the fame of Elvis Presley or Paul McCartney. But you know what? Being respected and loved by the people who followed you and became famous because of you — a little bit because of you — what more do you want out of life as a performer and artist?”

Mr. Gracie is survived by his wife, Joan, brother Frank, daughter Angela, son Charlie Jr. and his wife, Kimberly. Funeral services will be private. A celebration of life is being planned for May 14, 2023, which would have been Mr. Gracie’s 87th birthday.