Nashville saxophone session player Boots Randolph has died at 80. He played sax on Elvis Presley's Return to Sender, Roy Orbison's Oh, Prettty Woman, Brenda Lee's Rockin Around The Christmas Tree, Al Hirt's Java and REO Speedwagon's Little Queenie-- and he was a member of the house band on Hee Haw.
His one solo hit was Yakety Sax, an instrumental released in 1963. It became his signature. And it became the theme song for The Benny Hill Show.
And if only for that reason, the passing of Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph is a star-spangled TVgasm.
""It rejuvenated the song," Boots said about the Benny Hill connection. "So many people know it from the show."
And who'd deny that The Benny Hill Show is among the funniest in TV history?