Donnie Brooks had hit with ‘Mission Bell’

LOS ANGELES – Donnie Brooks, a singer with rockabilly roots who had a top 10 pop hit with the love song “Mission Bell” in 1960, has died. He was 71.

Brooks died Friday of congestive heart failure at Mission Community Hospital, said his wife, Penny Brooks.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Brooks “was on the scene hanging with other teen-oriented rockers and a pretty big deal,” local rock historian Steve Propes said. “He was a game showman.”

Early on, he appeared at El Monte Legion Stadium, then a popular venue for rock concerts. Crowds as large as 3,000 would show up to see such entertainers as Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder. Brooks was one of the few white performers, Propes said.

Recording under the name Johnny Faire in the late 1950s, Brooks released the single “Bertha Lou,” which became a rockabilly favorite, according to the “Encyclopedia of Popular Music.”

His only other top 40 hit, “Doll House,” came out in 1960. A year later, the equally listenable “Memphis” cracked the top 100 on the Billboard charts.

In 2003, Brooks was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Burns, Tenn.