Obituaries: Iron Butterfly's Doug Ingle, Disney Film Songwriter Richard M. Sherman

Doug Ingle, singer/keyboardist who co-founded the heavy rock band Iron Butterfly, died on May 24, at age 78. A cause has not been reported.

"Ingle, writer of Iron Butterfly’s signature song In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, was the last surviving member of the group’s classic lineup, which was formed in San Diego in 1966. Drummer Ron Bushy died in 2021 at age 79, bassist Lee Dornan passed in 2012 at age 70, and guitarist Erik Brann died in 2003 at age 52," Billboard's obituary notes.

"Following numerous lineup changes early on, Ingle and Bushy was part of the five-piece Iron Butterfly that released the act’s 1968 debut album, Heavy. Soon after, the band’s other three members departed and were replaced by Brann and Dornan, who were part of the lineup that released the 17-minute version of 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.'"

A shortened version of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” peaked at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968, one of four Iron Butterfly titles to impact the chart. Its parent album hit No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (and remained on the chart for 140 weeks, a long run at the time for a rock album), and for a while it stood as the bestselling album in Atlantic Records’ history. The LP went on to be certified quadruple-platinum.

Recognized as a psychedelic/hard rock classic, the song has been covered by Bart Simpson’s church congregation, Slayer (on the soundtrack for the film Less Than Zero), the Residents, Boney M and the Incredible Bongo Band, whose version was twice-sampled by the rapper Nas. It also appeared memorably in Michael Mann’s thriller Manhunter.

A following album, 1969’s Ball, went to No. 3. Ingle remained with Iron Butterfly through the release of its 1970 album, Metamorphosis, and left when the band broke up a year later. He did not take part in an Iron Butterfly reunion organized in the mid-1970s, but he did perform with various versions of the group over the decades before retiring from performing in 1999.

Four musicians tour as Iron Butterfly today, none of whom go further back with the band than 1995.

Charlie Colin, bassist and founding member of the popular American rock band Train, has died at age 58, after a fall. The exact date of his death has not been verified.

Colin grew up in Southern California, later attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. His bandmates in a group called Apostles relocated with him to San Francisco, and helped form Train in the early ‘90s with singer Pat Monahan.

Colin played on the band’s first three records, 1998′s self-titled album, 2001′s Drops of Jupiter and 2003′s My Private Nation. The latter two releases peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart. “Meet Virginia,” from Train’s debut album, broke the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, but it was their sophomore album that confirmed the band’s success.

The eight-times platinum title track “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” hit No. 5 on the Billboard chart and earned two Grammys, including best rock song. Colin left Train in 2003 because of substance abuse issues.

In 2015, he helped start a new band called Painbirds, and in 2017, he formed another band, the Side Deal, with Sugar Ray’s Stan Frazier and the PawnShop Kings’ Joel and Scott Owen. Colin also worked as the musical director of the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Read more in this Billboard obituary and this feature.

Richard M. Sherman, the Oscar-winning songwriter who partnered with his late brother to craft tunes for such Disney classics as Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Jungle Book, died on May 25 at 95, of age-related illness.A Billboard obituary notes that " Sherman, who also co-wrote 'It’s a Small World (After All)' — considered to be among the most performed songs ever — as well as 'You’re Sixteen,' a 1960 hit for Johnny Burnette which Ringo Starr took to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974.

"Members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and recipients of the National Medal of Honor, Richard and his older brother, Robert Sherman, wrote an estimated 1,000 songs and music for 50 movies, and they were reportedly responsible for more movie musical songs than anyone in history. For their work on Mary Poppins (1964), the Sherman brothers won Academy Awards for best original score and best song (“Chim Chim Cher-ee”).

"The pair, who were hired by Walt Disney himself and worked directly with the Hollywood legend for almost a decade, also were nominated for the songs 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' from the 1968 United Artists film; 'The Age of Not Believing' from Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971); 'The Slipper and the Rose Waltz (He Danced With Me/She Danced With Me)' from The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella (1976) and 'When You’re Loved' from The Magic of Lassie (1978). They received three other nominations for their scores."

Movie work also included The Parent Trap (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), The AristoCats (1970), Snoopy, Come Home (1972), Charlotte’s Web (1973), Tom Sawyer (1973) and The Tigger Movie (2000).

Sherman's mother was a Broadway actress and his father was Tin Pan Alley composer Al Sherman, whose tunes were recorded by the likes of Maurice Chevalier, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Cyndi Lauper.

The first song written by Richard and his brother, “Gold Can Buy You Anything But Love,” was recorded in 1951 by the singing cowboy Gene Autry. In 1958, they celebrated their first top 10 hit with “Tall Paul,” covered by Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, and this helped bring them to Walt Disney's attention.

Jon Wysocki, founding member and drummer of Staind, died on May 18, at age 53. An official cause of death has not been released, but he had reportedly had liver problems recently.

In its obituary, Billboardnotes that "Wysocki co-founded second-wave grunge band Staind in Springfield, Mass. in 1995 with singer/rhythm guitarist Aaron Lewis, lead guitarist Mike Mushok and bassist Johnny April. The band self-released their debut album, Tormented, in 1997, followed by their 1999 major label debut, Dysfunction, which was co-produced by Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst and featured the singles 'Mudshovel' and 'Home.'

"After co-headlining the Family Values tour with Limp Bizkit in late 1999, the band dropped their third LP, Break the Cycle, in May 2001, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and spawned their signature No. 5 Hot 100 hit, 'It's Been A While.'

"Wysocki played on seven on the band’s eight studio albums — through 2011’s self-titled seventh LP — before taking his leave in 2011, reportedly due to friction with singer Lewis; he was replaced by drummer Sal Giancarelli."

After leaving Staind, Wysocki briefly joined Chicago hard rock group Soil, but never recorded with them. His current project was Lydia's Castle.