Record producer and songwriter Terry Melcher died Friday night at age 62 of melanoma. He was a prominent figure on the music scene in the 60's. He was Doris Day's son. He was linked to the Charles Manson murder of Sharon Tate because he used to live in the house on Cielo Drive that Tate was killed in and had refused to give Manson a record contract. [Melcher had been introduced to Manson by Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Manson and some of his group moved into Wilson's house for a year, during which time the Beach Boys recorded one of Manson's songs. Manson then auditioned for Melcher, who wouldn't give him a contract, leading many at the time to speculate that Melcher had been the real target that night. Melcher had moved to Malibu and rented the house to Tate and Roman Polanski. When Melcher did live in the Tate house, his live-in girlfriend was Candace Bergen.]

He worked with an impressive array of groups, from the Byrds to the Beach Boys, Mamas and Pappas, Ry Cooder, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and more. One of his last major produced hits was 'Kokomo' by the Beach Boys, that was featured in the Tom Cruise movie, 'Cocktail.'

Heres something I didn't know: He was a member of the two-man group, the Rip Chords, whose one hit was "Hey Little Cobra" in 1964. I loved that song. Or maybe I just think I did because the radio stations played it every ten minutes when I was a kid and I can still remember the words and the tune.

R.I.P., Mr. Melcher.