Yost, Dennis
Dennis Yost
This teenage drummer from Jacksonville’s Northside helped form Jacksonville’s Classics. The group was spotted in Daytona Beach by booking agent Alan Diggs, who worked for Atlanta entrepreneur Bill Lowery. Diggs brought the band to Atlanta, and Lowery, who already managed Tommy Roe, scored a deal with Capitol. The band’s first two Capitol singles, including “Pollyanna,” written by Joe South, flopped, but the band moved to Imperial Records in 1967, where it scored a No. 2 hit with “Spooky.” At that point, Yost, as lead singer, moved up front and was replaced on drums by Alabama musician Kim Venable. The Classics IV scored three top-10 hits. After a period as Dennis Yost and the Classics IV, Yost went solo and signed with
Liberty Records in 1969.
Yost was based in Nashville for several years. While touring in 2006, he became ill and while recuperating fell down a flight of stairs. He suffered severe brain trauma and has been unable to sing. Yost, who owns the rights to the name “Classics IV,” has hired a replacement singer for the band. His prognosis is indeterminate.
A sad update – Dennis Yost passed away December 7, 2008 at Fort Hamilton Hospital near Cincinnati. The official cause of death was respiratory failure, the AP reports, but a spokesman said Yost had been in various nursing homes since his fall.
“I’m still in shock because he was fine Saturday morning,” said his wife, Linda Yost, of suburban Hamilton. “And by, you know, early Sunday morning he was gone.”
“Dennis was a friend as well as a fellow musician,” said (Jacksonville native and Classics IV member J.R.) Cobb. “I always thought he had a very distinctive voice, and I think we had some of the hits we had because of him and his ability as a singer.”
Dennis Yost was 65.
Also see Echoes.
Dennis Yost & The Classics IV “Stormy”
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