DEATH : ‘Hit Parade’ Snooky Lanson Dies

Snooky Lanson, singing star of the popular 1950s show “Your Hit Parade,” has died at the age of 76.

Lanson died Monday night at St. Thomas Hospital. The cause of death was not released.

Lanson sang on the show from 1950 to 1957 as a replacement for Frank Sinatra. The TV version of the legendary radio “Lucky Strike Hit Parade,” the show counted down the top tunes of the week and featured “extras.”

After Lanson and other regulars on the Saturday night show were dropped from the cast in 1957, he sang in nightclubs and was host of TV variety shows in Atlanta and in Shreveport, La.

“The show didn’t have any stars per se and we all got along well,” Lanson recalled in a 1979 interview. “It was very clean, and there was no suggestive dancing. A 5- or 6-year-old could watch it.”

Among the songs Lanson sang were “Ebb Tide,” “He” and “Mr. Sandman.”

“I sang ‘Mona Lisa’ 13 straight weeks because it was a man’s song and I was the only man on the show then,” Lanson said.

Lanson also said he was lucky to have been on the hit program.

“I have no illusions of grandeur,” he said in 1979. “I know that 99% of the singers roaming the country then were better than me.

“I know my time has come and gone. I had my time.”

Born Roy Landman, he was nicknamed “Snooky” at age 2 for the Irving Berlin tune “Snooky-Ookums.”