Snooky Lanson, `Your Hit Parade' Singer, Dies At 76

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Snooky Lanson, the smiling crooner of ``Your Hit Parade,'' television's pop music show of the 1950s, has died at age 76.

Lanson died Monday night at St. Thomas Hospital, where he had been a patient since Saturday, said hospital spokeswoman Elise Shelton. The hospital did not release the cause of death.

Lanson sang on ``Your Hit Parade,'' a spinoff of radio's ``Lucky Strike Hit Parade,'' from 1950 to 1957. The TV show featured elaborate production numbers of the week's seven most popular songs, with No. 1 always presented last.

``I sang `Mona Lisa' 13 straight weeks because it was a man's song and I was the only man on the show then,'' Lanson once recalled.

He later was joined by Russell Arms. Other singers on ``Your Hit Parade'' included Dorothy Collins, Polly Bergen, Gisele MacKenzie, Eileen Wilson and June Valli.

``The show didn't have any stars per se, and we all got along well,'' Lanson said. ``It was very clean and there was no suggestive dancing: a 5- or 6-year-old could watch it.

``And, of course, a lot of people watched it to see what song was No. 1 that week.''

Lanson, whose real name was Roy Landman, was born in Memphis, Tenn. He was nicknamed ``Snooky'' at age 2 after the Irving Berlin tune ``Snooky-Ookums.''

Lanson began singing in a church choir as a boy. He moved to Nashville after high school and got a job with band leader Francis Craig at radio station WSM.

In 1940, he was hired by the Ray Noble Band. A year later, he recorded the hit record ``By the Light of the Silvery Moon'' with the band.

In the late 1940s, he sang ``The Old Master Painter,'' a hit that helped him land the spot on ``Your Hit Parade.''

The Saturday night show's popularity waned when rock 'n' roll began dominating the pop charts.

Lanson went on to perform in nightclubs and to be a host of TV variety shows in Atlanta and Shreveport, La.

He is survived by his wife, Florence, two sons, a daughter and eight grandchildren.