Deaths elsewhere

Updated: June 26, 2012 - 4:21 PM

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"Sweet Joe" Russell, 72, who spent half a century harmonizing with the Persuasions, an influential vocal group widely regarded as the "kings of a cappella," died in Brooklyn on May 5.

"If the Persuasions were a single body, Joe was the heart and soul," said David Dashev, who was their manager and producer in the 1970s at the height of their fame. "He had a larger-than-life personality combined with a genius voice." He was a tenor who occasionally sang falsetto and sometimes the lead, including on the Persuasions' version of "Papa Oom Mow Mow" that was featured in the 1982 film "E.T."

On their 1970s albums, "Chirpin'" and the gospel-flavored "Spread the Word," Russell "has the largest, most powerful voice," Dashev said.

LOS ANGELES TIMES