Dennis Yost led The Classics IV of '60s

CINCINNATI - Dennis Yost, lead singer of the 1960s soft rock group The Classics IV, has died in an Ohio hospital. He was 65.Yost died Sunday at Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton, about 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati. He died of respiratory failure at 2:25 a.m., said hospital spokeswoman Marielou Vierling.The Classics IV's hits included Spooky, Stormy and Traces of Love.Yost had been in nursing homes since suffering a brain injury in a 2005 fall, said the singer's friend and biographer Joe Glickman.The Classics IV got their start in Jacksonville, where Yost, a native of Detroit, was raised, Glickman said. Their hit recordings were produced in Atlanta under the supervision of producer Buddy Buie and Bill Lowery, founder of Lowery Music Inc.The group performed together for about five years.Buie, who was a co-writer of the group's songs with the group's guitarist, J.R. Cobb, said he hadn't seen Yost for several years when he learned of his death Sunday."Dennis had an incredible voice - just a great voice for love songs," said Buie, 67, who is retired and lives in Eufaula, Ala. "I am deeply saddened by his passing."Cobb, 65, said he and Yost grew up in Jacksonville and rode motorcycles together. Cobb, who later performed with the Atlanta Rhythm Section and with famed The Highwaymen - a country group that included Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson - is retired and lives in Monticello, Ga."Dennis was a friend as well as a fellow musician," said Cobb. "I always thought he had a very distinctive voice, and I think we had some of the hits we had because of him and his ability as a singer."Yost and The Classics IV were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1993.Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, a vocalist with the former rock and comedy group Sha Na Na, held a benefit concert last year to help with Yost's increasing medical costs, Glickman said.Yost is survived by his wife, Linda Yost, of suburban Hamilton.