Chuck Barris, who hosted “The Gong Show” and created “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game,” died Tuesday of natural causes in Palisades, N.Y., his publicist confirmed. He was 87.
Barris was also a composer, creating the musical themes for some of his game shows. Otherwise, his most famous composition was a song about an amusement park. It was suggested he use the name of an actual amusement park as the title. One night he was in Manhattan when he looked toward the New Jersey Palisades Cliffs, on which the Palisades amusement park sat. That was when inspiration hit, and the title was added.
"Palisades Park" was recorded by Freddy Cannon. It's an up-tempo rock and roll tune led by a distinctive organ part, and also incorporates amusement park sound effects. It was released in 1962 by Swan Records.
I'm not familiar with U.S. TV shows, entertainment, Mr Barris had a lot nice numbers going there good rating's, solid tv show's, & a composer a skilled guy in the tv industry , I will listen to that music, thanks. I've learnt some think new.
I was tripped up a little when they announced the death of Chuck Barris because I thought they were still talking about Chuck Berry, who died three days earlier. Until that happened, I would never have put the two names together in a sentence or notice how similar they are.
In Barris's autobiography, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, he claims to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an assassin in the 1960s and the 1970s. A 2002 feature film version, directed by George Clooney and starring Sam Rockwell, depicts Barris as killing 33 people. Barris wrote a sequel, Bad Grass Never Dies, in 2004. The CIA denies Barris ever worked for them in any capacity. After the release of the movie, CIA spokesman Paul Nowack said Barris' assertions that he worked for the spy agency "[are] ridiculous. It's absolutely not true."
