British clarinetist Acker Bilk, who scored an international pop hit with his 1961 instrumental recording “Stranger On The Shore,” died on Nov. 2 in Bath, England, at the city’s Royal United Hospital. He was 85.

“Stranger On The Shore” was on the British charts for more than a year after its release. It also topped the U.S. charts, making him the first U.K. artist to do so in the 1960s, prior to rock’s British Invasion.

Born Bernard Stanley Bilk on Jan. 28, 1929, in Pensford, Somerset, England, he played piano before learning to play the clarinet while in the Royal Engineers corps of the British Army.

He changed his name to Acker, a slang term meaning “friend,” when he became active on Britain’s traditional jazz scene during the 1950s. In 1951, he formed the Paramount Jazz Band in London.

Bilk played with a smooth, distinctive vibrato, which he attributed to some missing teeth and the partial loss of one of his fingers during childhood. (He lost the teeth in a fight at school, and he injured his finger in a sledding accident.)

His star image was distinguished by his signature goatee, waistcoat and bowler hat. He made numerous TV appearances and had his own radio show, Acker’s Half Hour.

Bilk was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire, one of England’s top honors, in 2001. He received the BBC Jazz Award in 2005 and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards in 2012.

British poet and radio host Ian McMillan alluded to the clarinetist’s signature tune in a Nov. 2 message on Twitter: “Goodbye Acker Bilk, creator of one of the great earworms. That shore was strange, but memorable.”

Bilk experienced several health setbacks starting in 1999, but he continued to perform until last year.

Bilk is survived by his wife, Jean, and a son and daughter.

from http://www.downbeat.com