Dave Somerville

Somerville died of pancreatic cancer in Santa Barbara, California on July 14, 2015 at the age of 81.

In 1972, Somerville formed the group WW Fancy, which also included Keith Barbour and Gail Jensen as members. In the late 1980s, he again sang with original members of The Diamonds and also returned to The Four Preps with Bruce Belland, Ed Cobb and Jim Yester of The Association. In 1972, Somerville sang background vocals along with The Blossoms in B. J. Thomas' version of "Rock and Roll Lullaby".

In 1967, Dave joined The Four Preps as a replacement for Ed Cobb, the original bass singer. In 1969, he and Bruce Belland, the Four Preps's original lead singer, concentrated on a folk/comedy act as the duo of Belland & Somerville. As such, they appeared in concert with Henry Mancini and Johnny Mathis and were regulars on The Tim Conway Show, a CBS-TV prime-time comedy series. As songwriters, Bruce and Dave co-wrote "The Troublemaker," which became the title track of two Willie Nelson albums; and the duo sang in a later roster of the Four Preps with Jim Pike of The Lettermen.

In 1967, Somerville's only child from his marriage to Corns, David Orlando Somerville, was born.

Somerville's last stage show, On The 1957 Rock & Roll Greyhound Bus, was based on rock and roll’s first major tour. In it, he told road stories and sang the songs of such pioneer jukebox giants as Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, and Chuck Berry.

On August 1, 1955, the group tied for first place on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts in New York City. In February 1956 with the recommendation of Cleveland’s genius DJ, Dr. Bill Randle, they signed a long-term contract with Mercury Records. Somerville performed eight years with The Diamonds, singing lead on all sixteen of their Billboard chart selections, peaking with the song "Little Darlin';" for eight weeks, this selection remained at #2 on the charts, becoming the third best selling single record of 1957. Multiple appearances on American Bandstand, The Perry Como Show, and The Steve Allen Show increased Dave's visibility. In August 1961, he left The Diamonds.

In the hallway of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during the fall of 1953, Somerville met by chance an unnamed quartet (Stan Fisher, Ted Kowalski, Phil Levitt and Bill Reed) and soon became their vocal coach. Later that year when Fisher opted for college, Dave became the group’s lead singer. That quartet became The Diamonds.

Born in Guelph, Ontario, Somerville grew up in a musical family in the nearby farming village of Rockwood, 50 miles west of Toronto. In 1947, at the age of 14, he moved to Toronto with his parents and brother Marc, where he entered Central Tech to study architecture and building construction. He changed the focus of his studies to radio, and in 1952, at the age of 19, secured a position at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the engineering department as a radio operator while concurrently studying voice with Dr. Ernesto Vinci at the University of Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music.

David Troy Somerville (October 2, 1933 – July 14, 2015) was a Canadian singer operating primarily in the United States, best known as the co-founder, and original lead singer, of The Diamonds, one of the most popular vocal groups of the 1950s.