Lenny Welch, "Mr. Asbury Park", Has Died

One of the Earliest Asbury Park Artists of the Rock and Roll Era was 86

Lenny Welch, the first hit recording artist from Asbury Park of the rock and roll era, died earlier this week in Kissimmee, Florida. (As of this writing, this Asbury Park Press article reports that he died on “Wednesday, April 8”; his Wikipedia page states April 8. April 8 was Tuesday.) He was eighty-six.

Born Leon Welch, the future vocalist moved to Asbury Park as a child. (The Press reports that he was born in New York City. Wikipedia’s main article concurs, but its sidebar, as of this writing, lists his birthplace as Long Branch, New Jersey.) The young Welch had no musical or show business aspirations; he reluctantly entered those worlds as a result of being approached. (The Who’s John Entwistle, among others, had similar origins.) Joe Major of The Mar-Keys approached him one day on Asbury Park’s Springwood Avenue and told Welch he wanted him to join the group. The reluctant youth, who didn’t think he could sing, resisted until Major’s persistence changed his mind.

Welch’s solo hits included “Since I Fell for You” (Cadence Records, 1963) and “Ebb Tide” (Cadence, 1964). His 1962 rendition of “A Taste of Honey”, reportedly the first with lyrics, is similar to The Beatles’ recording on their 1963 debut album Please Please Me. Welch’s version is widely considered to have inspired The Beatles’. (Please Please Me was not released in the United States until the compact disc era. Their “A Taste of Honey” was released in the United States on Introducing … the Beatles in 1964.) His final top 40 hit was a reimagining of Neil Sedaka’s “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” in 1970. Welch retooled the originally uptempo tune as a forlorn “torch song”. Sedaka later re-recorded the song himself in Welch’s style. Sedaka’s second version was a top-ten hit in Billboard in 1975.

Despite his early success, in the 1980s Welch eventually returned to school and worked various jobs to support himself, including taxi driver. He also acted (he had a recurring role on General Hospital) and sang in commercials.

He returned to live performance in the twenty-first century. His final performance in Asbury Park was a 2011 Soul of Asbury Park concert at the historic and currently shuttered Paramount Theatre. According to the Asbury Park Press, “The COVID lockdown effectively ended Welch’s concert career, but he was hopeful of returning to Asbury Park.” (He did, attending the funeral of Ronald Coleman, member of Asbury Park singing group The Broadways.)

The Press quotes Asbury Park journalist and historian Don Stine: “Lenny is the most famous native son from Asbury Park. Bruce, of course, gets those honors, but he’s not a native son. He was a real gentleman and a very talented entertainer who had the goods. I’m very, very sad.” Freehold native Springsteen, who lived in Asbury Park in the early 1970s as his career started to take off, has referred to Welch as “Mr. Asbury Park”.

Asbury Park has been an epicenter of music since at least Arthur Pryor in the 1910s. Welch arguably ushered that epicenter into the rock and roll era.