Sharon Sheeley RIP

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Songwriter Sharon Sheeley, who as a teen-ager
wrote the 1950s hit "Poor Little Fool," has died of complications
following a cerebral hemorrhage. She was 62.

Sheeley died at Sherman Oaks Hospital Medical Center on Friday, family
friend Elizabeth Asher said. A hospital spokesman confirmed the death
and declined to give further details. Asher said Sheeley had been
hospitalized since she suffered the hemorrhage on May 12.

Rick Nelson, teen idol and star of TV's "Ozzie and Harriet," recorded
"Poor Little Fool" and it climbed to the top of the charts in 1958.

Sheeley also was the girlfriend of guitarist Eddie Cochran, who sang
"Summertime Blues" and "C'mon Everybody." Cochran has a wide
following in England and was killed in a car crash there at age 21.

Cochran influenced a generation of British musicians, including the
Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who (who covered "Summertime Blues")
and Rod Stewart. British fans mark the anniversaries of his birth and
death.

Cochran had just completed a tour of England in 1960 when the hired
car carrying him to London's Heathrow Airport smashed into a concrete
telephone post. Cochran died the next day. Sheeley and fellow rocker
Gene Vincent survived the crash.

"My most vivid memory of Sharon was of her living in London in the
swingin' 60s," Sheeley's friend Asher told The Associated Press on
Saturday.

"She was such a California gal so she was always in a miniskirt and
sandals then complained about being cold all the time."

Asher also remembers the notes commending her talent that Sheeley
received from the Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

"She was inspirational to other people, certainly women, since she was
an integral part of the male-dominated rock world," Asher said.