(b.30 Dec 1939 The Bronx, NY, d. 17 April 1983)

Mountain or Mountain Fan Page 

Felix Pappalardi was a member of the rock-group Mountain who hit in 1970 with “Mississippi Queen”. Guided by the wizardry of Pappalardi, Mountain pioneered techniques that would become industry standards. Beginning with his renowned production work with Cream and then with Mountain, Pappalardi demonstrated a genius for approaching music in a totally new and fascinating way. He earned an impressive reputation and garnered a tremendous amount of praise from his peers. Bud Prager recalls Jimi Hendrix saying “I wish Felix would produce one of my albums. . . . Felix knows things I don’t. He could help me make better records.”~©1995-98 iMusic, Inc. 

His girlfriend shot him to death during an argument on April 17th of 1983. Leslie West: “We were in Indiana. We were leaving for the show and Corky got a phone call at the hotel and he had to run back inside and that was his wife calling to tell us the police were going to call us. And the police were going to ask us a few questions. We were suspects, believe it or not, at first, ’cause he was suing us. But that was quickly dismissed once they had his wife. That was really a sad day.”
~ from Goldmine interview.