Thomas R. King (July 13, 1942 – April 23, 2011) was an American songwriter, guitarist, and arranger. He founded the 1960s rock band The Outsiders, and co-wrote the band's biggest hit song, "

Time Won't Let Me "Time Won't Let Me" is a garage rock song that was recorded by the Outsiders in September 1965. The song became a major hit in the United States in 1966, reaching #5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the week of April 16 of that year. It is ranke ...

Life and career

Born in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, King attended East Cleveland's Shaw High School in the late 1950s. He formed The Starfires, also known as Tom King & the Starfires, at the age of 15. He formed the rock band The Outsiders in 1965, as a continuation of The Starfires. King co-wrote the band's 1966 hit "Time Won't Let Me", from the album of the same name, with brother-in-law Chet Kelley. The song spent 15 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 5, and selling over a million copies.

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

redid the song on his album

Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

in 1981, then

The Smithereens The Smithereens are an American rock band from Carteret, New Jersey, United States. The group formed in 1980 with members Pat DiNizio (vocals & guitar), Jim Babjak (guitar & vocals), Mike Mesaros (bass guitar & vocals), and Dennis Diken (drums & ...

also had a hit with the song, remaking it in 1994. King won a BMI award for the song having been played on the radio over four million times. King died at a nursing home in Wickliffe, Ohio on April 23, 2011, at the age of 68."Passings: Harold Garfinkel, Gerald Allison, Tom King, Ronald D. Asmus, Christian Ferry" ''latimes.com''
May 5, 2011 He suffered from congestive heart failure.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Tom 1942 births 2011 deaths American rock songwriters American rock guitarists American male guitarists American rock singers American male singer-songwriters Musicians from Cleveland Singer-songwriters from Ohio Guitarists from Ohio 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians