Wells Kelly

Wells Kelly (April 7, 1949 – October 28, 1984) was an American pop and soft rock drummer.^[1]

Wells Kelly
Background information
Born	April 7, 1949 New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Died	October 28, 1984(1984-10-28) (aged 35) London, England, UK
Genres	Pop rock, soft rock
Occupation(s)	drummer
Instrument(s)	drums
Years active	1969–1984
Formerly of	Boffalongo, King Harvest, Orleans, Neverland Express

Kelly was born in New Orleans in 1949. He grew up in New York. His father, Burnham Kelly, was a dean of architecture at Cornell University.^[2] He was one of six siblings, including older brother Sherman Kelly, who Wells worked with in the 1970s.^[3]

From 1968 to 1970, he played drums for Boffalongo, who recorded the original version of "Dancing in the Moonlight". The song, written by Well's brother Sherman after surviving a near-fatal assault by a St. Croix gang,^[3] failed to chart. In 1970, Boffalongo disbanded, and members went on to form either King Harvest or Orleans. Kelly was a member of both groups; King Harvest from 1970 to 1971, and then Orleans from 1972 to 1981. A year after leaving King Harvest, the band, that included Sherman, had a hit with their own song from their previous band Boffalongo with "Dancing in the Moonlight". Their version went to number thirteen in the US in February and March 1973.^[4][5][6]

With Orleans, Kelly played on all of their highest selling songs, such as "Dance with Me" (number six in 1975),^[4] "Still the One" (number five in 1976), and "Love Takes Time" (number eleven in 1979). Wells left Orleans in early 1981 to relocate to New York City. Kelly went on to join Steve Forbert's Flying Squirrels in 1981 and did a few shows in the Central New York area with Mick Ronson. He also played with Clarence Clemons and the Red Bank Rockers.

Kelly joined the Neverland Express, the backing band for Meat Loaf, in 1983.^[7] He played on one album, Bad Attitude, and played on Meat Loaf's song "Nowhere Fast", both released a month after Kelly's death. Wells played on two tours: "Midnight at the Lost & Found" (1983), and "Bad Attitude" (1984–1985), the latter tour Kelly died mid-way through.

Wells and Sherman Kelly often wrote songs for their own bands. In one of Sherman's most recent solo albums "Burnin' the Candle", he finished some of the unfinished songs the two brothers wrote together.^[3]

Death

On October 29, 1984 Wells died while on tour in England with Meat Loaf. After a night of partying with members from the band Tower of Power,^[8] his body was found on the front stairs of a London flat at which he was staying. According to pathologist Dr. Ian West, a post mortem examination revealed "high levels of morphine and cocaine" in Kelly's body. "Death came from the drummer inhaling his own vomit 'induced by snorting a mixture of heroin and cocaine'."^[9] He was reportedly last seen alive drinking with Huey Lewis.^[10]

References

1. Larkin, Colin, ed. (2006). The encyclopedia of popular music (4th ed.). New York: MUZE : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531373-4. OCLC 70062973.
2. "Burnham Kelly | Commission of Fine Arts". www.cfa.gov. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
3. "About". shermankelly. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
4. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
5. tolsen (2013-01-02). "Billboard Hot 100™". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
6. tolsen (2013-01-02). "Billboard Hot 100™". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
7. Meatloaf (1971), Stoney &; Hell (1977), Bat Out of; Ringer (1981), Dead; Found (1983), Midnight at the Lost and; Attitude (1984), Bad; Stop (1986), Blind Before I.; Hell (1993), Bat Out of Hell II: Back into; Neighbourhood (1995), Welcome to the; Better (2003), Couldn’t Have Said It (2016-09-26). "Neverland Express". In and Out of Hell | The Meat Loaf Story (in Dutch). Retrieved 2024-05-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
8. "Matt Jordan • Trumpet • Band Leader • Futurband Publishing • Futurband Records". www.mattjordanmusic.com. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
9. "Wells Kelly, the drummer for the rock group Meatloaf,... - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
10. "Wells Kelly – Death by Partying". 2 November 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2024.