4/17/24-Pooch Tavares passes away

Hear both Pooch and brother Ralph say hello on our Interviews Page.

Source: SouthEastCoastToday.com

Faith Harrington
Frank Mulligan
The Standard-Times

NEW BEDFORD — Arthur “Pooch” Tavares, member of the iconic music group Tavares, has passed away.

His brother, Perry Lee “Tiny” Tavares, posted a photo tribute on his Facebook page Wednesday morning, with the message, “Miss what we had.”

On the final photo, depicting Pooch with brother Ralph, who passed away in 2021, he wrote, “Now you two can get the stage ready for us. RI-Paradise.”

The post quickly drew over 400 expressions of sympathy and condolence.

“You have to take your music seriously. You have to have a passion for it. If you don’t work hard at it you will never last,” said Pooch in a previous Standard-Times article. “The constant rehearsing the fighting for everything you want … without that passion for it you have nothing.”

Pooch suffered a massive stroke in 2014, which ultimately led to his retirement from the group.

It was only a little over a week ago that the New Bedford City Council met to discuss the dedication ceremony for Tavares Brothers Way, a street honoring the brothers and their accomplishments.

The five Tavares brothers made New Bedford proud with numerous chart-topping songs, tours with The Jackson Five and even winning a Grammy.

The R&B group Tavares featured brothers Feliciano, aka “Butch,” Perry Lee, aka “Tiny,” Antone, aka “Chubby” Arthur “Pooch” and Ralph Tavares who grew up in Providence and later New Bedford.

They had eight singles on Billboard’s Top 40, 12 Singles on the R&B Top 10 Chart (Including three No. 1 records), three Dance Chart Hits, including a No. 1, and 10 Hit Albums. This included their best-known 1976 hit “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” and the Bee Gees song “More Than a Woman.”

The brothers were inducted into the Cape Verdean Museum Hall of Fame in 2006; in 2013, they were honored with “Lifetime Achievement Awards” by The National R&B Music Society Black Tie Gala; and they were inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

Ralph, the oldest member of the group, passed away in 2021 of natural causes two days shy of his 80th birthday.

Their work on the soundtrack to the iconic movie, “Saturday Night Fever,” won them a Grammy in 1978.