{"id":344720,"date":"2026-07-18T20:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T20:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/344720\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T20:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T20:17:09","slug":"freddy-boom-boom-cannon-dead-palisades-park-rock-roller-was-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/344720\/","title":{"rendered":"Freddy \u201cBoom Boom\u201d Cannon Dead: ‘Palisades Park’ Rock & Roller Was 89"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFreddy \u201cBoom Boom\u201d Cannon, the early rock & roller who scored big, joyful radio hits with, among others, 1959\u2019s \u201cTallahassee Lassie<\/a>\u201d and 1962\u2019s \u201cPalisades Park<\/a>,\u201d died yesterday, July 17, at a California hospice facility following a brief battle with cancer. He was 89.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis death was announced by Tom Cuddy, a longtime friend and iHeart Radio producer. Cuddy noted that Cannon\u2019s children Conny Weber and Billy Cannon were with him in the days before his passing.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon, who earned the nickname \u201cBoom Boom\u201d from the percussive power of his songs as well as the double entendre of his last name, took a spot in the post-Elvis\/pre-Beatles rock & roll landscape through a string of hits and, perhaps more significantly, repeated appearances on Dick Clark\u2019s American Bandstand musical variety series.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Clark\u2019s program introduced Cannon to TV audiences \u2013 at first when the show was produced locally in Philadelphia and later when it went national \u2013 the singer-guitarist would also appear on such music programs of the era as Shindig, Hullabaloo, Where the Action Is and, later, The Midnight Special.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCannon in one of his many \u2018American Bandstand\u2019 appearances (1959)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tABC Photo Archives\/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFreddy didn\u2019t do ballads,\u201d Cuddy said. \u201cDick Clark once told me that every time he hosted an oldies concert, he asked Freddy to open it, because he knew Freddy would get the audience on their feet with up-tempo rock and roll.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to \u201cTallahassee Lassie\u201d (cowritten with The Four Seasons\u2019 Bob Crewe) and \u201cPalisades Park,\u201d the latter remembered for its prominent use of circus calliope sounds as a recurring motif, Cannon\u2019s other hits included \u201cWay Down Yonder In New Orleans,\u201d \u201cToo Much Monkey Business,\u201d \u201cAction\u201d (used as the theme song for Clark\u2019s Where The Action Is series), \u201cTransistor Sister\u201d and \u201cAbigail Beecher.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBorn Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. on December 4, 1936, in Lynn, Massachusetts, Cannon lived in the state until his late teens, enjoying some musical success in the Boston area before he and his wife Jeanette moved to Philadelphia at the encouragement of TV host Clark, who had become aware of Cannon\u2019s music through \u201cTallahassee Lassie.\u201d Clark suggested Cannon re-edit and overdub the recording with the stronger bass drums that would become Cannon\u2019s trademark sound and nickname inspiration.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon is thought to hold the record for appearing on American Bandstand over the years, with estimates putting the number of his visits to over 100. <\/p>\n

\n\tHis visibility and chart success \u2013 he scored three Top 10 songs and 29 Top 100 \u2013 led to a fan base that would include such future superstars as Mick Jagger and Led Zeppelin\u2019s Robert Plant, who once told Cannon during a backstage visit that he and his Zeppelin bandmates loved \u201cTallahassee Lassie\u201d so much they recorded a blues version of it (if true, the recording has never surfaced).<\/p>\n

\n\tJagger has said in interviews that \u201cTallahassee Lassie\u201d inspired the Stones\u2019 hit \u201cBrown Sugar,\u201d noting, \u201cThe groove is similar to Freddy\u2019s song.\u201d (The Stones recorded their own cover of \u201cTallahassee Lassie\u201d in 1978, with the song surfacing as a bonus track on the band\u2019s 2011 re-issue of Some Girls.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother fan was a young Stephen King, who mentioned Cannon in at least four of his books, most notably in the time-travel novel 11\/22\/63, in which \u201cPalisades Park\u201d features prominently.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver a career that spanned 70 years, Cannon, a longtime resident of Oxnard, California, performed on bills with some of the top musical performers the early rock & roll era, including Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chubby Checker, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Connie Francis and Brenda Lee. <\/p>\n

\n\tCannon was working on music at his home in Oxnard right up to his death, Cuddy notes. He currently has a Top 20 song in the United Kingdom on the Heritage Charts with a number he recorded this year called \u201cAll She Wants To Do Is Dance.\u201d The song is also in regular rotation on the Sirius XM 1960s channel.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon\u2019s songs have appeared in such films as George Clooney\u2019s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and 2011\u2019s X-Men: First Class. The MeTV horror host Svengoolie has featured Cannon\u2019s music and recently paid tribute to the singer with an airing of 1965\u2019s Village of the Giants, which includes an acting performance by Cannon.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Cuddy, Cannon was scheduled to do what would have been his final interview on July 11 with longtime friend and NYC DJ Cousin Brucie Morrow, but was forced to cancel when he was hospitalized the day prior.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannon published his autobiography Where the Action Is (with Mark Bego) in 2011.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to his children Conny and Billy, Cannon is survived by sister Mary Lou, son-in-law Jim, daughter-in-law Beth, five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. He was pre-deceased by his son John, who died this past April 13, and wife Jeanette, who died in 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\tDaughter Weber said in a statement, \u201cWe would like to thank everyone for their love and support throughout our dad\u2019s life. He will be remembered as a rock and roll icon. His music will live forever in our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freddy \u201cBoom Boom\u201d Cannon, the early rock & roller who scored big, joyful radio hits with, among others,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[141294,141287,4915,141295,232,234,141296,233],"class_list":["post-344720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-freddy-boom-boom-cannon","tag-freddy-cannon","tag-obituary","tag-palisades-park","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-lassie","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}