CORTEZ STORY
Here is a genuinely happy story that turns sad, and ends in an unmarked grave at NYC potters field nearby in The Bronx.
Dave "Baby" Cortez was the musician behind "The Happy Organ," The 1959 song became the first instrumental to top the Billboard Hot 100. Dave died quietly at his home in The Bronx on May 31, 2022, at age 83. Nobody noticed CC died a pauper until three years later.
He was born David Cortez Clowney in Detroit in 1938, where he'd worked as a doo-wop pianist before literally stumbling into and then plying "The Happy Organ" almost by accident.