13 Facts About Felix Pappalardi

Felix Pappalardi is best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist of the band Mountain, whose song "Mississippi Queen" peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a classic rock radio staple.

Felix Pappalardi was born in the Bronx, New York City, to an Italian family who immigrated from Gravina in Puglia.

In 1964, Felix Pappalardi was a member of Max Morath's Original Rag Quartet in their premier engagement at New York City's Village Vanguard.

Felix Pappalardi contributed instrumentation for his studio arrangements and he and his wife, Gail Collins, wrote the Cream hit "Strange Brew" with Eric Clapton.

Felix Pappalardi produced the band's albums, and co-wrote and arranged a number of the band's songs with Collins and West.

Felix Pappalardi was forced to retire because of partial deafness, ostensibly from his high-volume shows with Mountain.

Felix Pappalardi continued producing throughout the 1970s, released a solo album and recorded with Kazuo Takeda's band Creation.

In May 1973, the British music magazine NME reported that Felix Pappalardi would be producing and playing bass on Queen of the Night, the debut album for Maggie Bell, former singer of Stone the Crows, but this proved to be false.

Felix Pappalardi produced The Dead Boys album We Have Come for Your Children in 1978.

Felix Pappalardi worked on the NBC show Hot Hero Sandwich in 1979.

Felix Pappalardi was shot and killed by his wife, Gail Collins Felix Pappalardi, on April 17,1983, in their apartment on the East Side of Manhattan, with a derringer he had given her as a gift a few months previously.

Felix Pappalardi was charged with second-degree murder and was found guilty of the lesser criminally negligent homicide.

Felix Pappalardi is interred next to his mother at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.