Acker Bilk has won immortality on rock oldies radio for his surprise 1962 hit "Stranger on the Shore," an evocative ballad featuring his heavily quavering low-register clarinet over a bank of strings.

In this file photo dated March 13, 2001, clarinettist and vocalist Acker Bilk holds his MBE awarded to him for services to the music industry, who has died Sunday Nov. 2, 2014, aged 85. The legendary ...

Clarinettist Acker Bilk, who personified the trad jazz revival of the 1950s and '60s, has died after a lengthy illness at the age of 85. His most famous song Stranger on the Shore was the UK's biggest ...

The music world is in mourning as it has lost yet another legend. Clarinettist Acker Bilk has passed away after battling a long illness. Hailing from Somerset he became famous in the 50s and 60s as ...

LONDON (AP) — English clarinet player Acker Bilk, who beat the Beatles and other British rockers to the top of the U.S. music charts with the instrumental “Stranger on the Shore,” has died at the age ...

"[Acker had] been ill for some time. He was my great friend and his music was legendary," Sutton said. The Somerset-born musician emerged as a major figure in the traditional jazz revival in the 1950s ...

LONDON — Clarinet player Acker Bilk, whose smooth sound topped music charts on both sides of the Atlantic, has died at the age of 85. Manager Pamela Sutton says Bilk died Sunday at a hospital in Bath, ...

Acker Bilk, the legendary jazz clarinettist, has died at the age of 85. The musician, who lived in Pensford, Somerset, died this afternoon at Bath's Royal United Hospital, his manager Pamela Sutton ...

English clarinet player Acker Bilk, who beat the Beatles and other British rockers to the top of the U.S. music charts with the instrumental "Stranger on the Shore," has died at the age of 85. By ...