Freddy Cannon, a veteran of the early rock scene whose hits of the late ’50s and early ’60s included the top 10 hits “Palisades Park,” “Tallahassee Lassie” and “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans,” died Friday at age 89.

A representative said Cannon, who lived in Oxnard, California, died in hospice after being recently diagnosed with cancer, confirmed by his longtime friend, iHeart Radio’s Tom Cuddy. Cannon was scheduled to do “what would have been his last interview” on July 11 with legendary DJ “Cousin Brucie” Morrow, but ended up being taken to the hospital the day before.

Cannon, who was sometimes billed as Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon, was revered by many fans of his original era because, for one thing, “he didn’t do ballads,” Cuddy said. “I’ve never seen an artist who kept his performance so upbeat and fun. Dick Clark once told me that every time he performed an oldies concert, he would ask Freddy to open it, because he knew Freddy would bring the audience to their feet with up-tempo rock ‘n’ roll.

Cannon’s acolytes included Mick Jagger (who said the beat of “Brown Sugar” was inspired by Cannon), Robert Plant (who said Led Zeppelin played “Tallahassee Lassie” in their jams when they were just finding their legs at sea), and Stephen King (who mentioned Cannon’s music in four of his books).

Their first hit, “Tallahassee Lassie,” peaked at No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1959, with a No. 13 hit on the R&B chart and a peak of No. 17 in the United Kingdom. That same year, he reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 with “Way Down in New Orleans,” which peaked at No. 14 on the R&B chart and peaked at No. 3 in the United Kingdom.

Their third, last, and biggest top 10 hit was “Palisades Park” in 1962. It peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100, landed at No. 15 on the R&B chart, and peaked at No. 20 in the United Kingdom. The song, written by future “Gong Show” host Chuck Barris, was later covered by Jan and Dean, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, the Beach Boys (in the 1970s, as a nostalgic throwback to “15 Big Ones”) and the Ramones (on 1989’s “Brain Drain”), among others.

Cannon continued to have hits through “Abigail Beecher” at No. 16 in 1964 and “Action” at No. 13 in 1965, released after switching from the Swan label to the Warner Bros. label. In 1981, he returned for the last time to the Hot 100 with “Let’s Put the Fun Back in Rock N Roll,” which peaked at No. 81. Shout! Factory released a compilation, “Boom Boom Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Best Of Freddy Cannon”, in 2009.

Cannon’s representative said he held the record for most appearances on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” with 110.

Other on-screen appearances ranged from “Where the Action Is” (which became the title of his 2011 memoir) to the cult genre film “Village of the Giants” and the soap opera “Never Too Young.”

He was born Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. on December 4, 1936 in Lynn, Massachusetts. In his late teens, he and his high school sweetheart-turned-wife, Jeanette, moved to Philadelphia at the urging of Dick Clark, the city then home to “American Bandstand,” at the beginning of that lifelong friendship.

He resisted being lumped in with some of his fellow Italians in the group of teen pop idols. “I think most of them were submitted songs, but with me, ‘Tallahassee Lassie,’ I wrote it with my mom,” he noted in a 2017 interview with the Ventura County Star. “So I got started because of her, and I play guitar, so I can’t compare myself to those other people.”

He had a characteristic expression of euphoria. “I think I owe a lot of ‘Whoo’ to Little Richard; you know, Little Richard was doing that before me, in 1955 or 1956,” he told the Ventura newspaper. “‘Tallahassee Lassie’ came out in ’59. I wrote it with my mom in ’58, so I don’t want to take all the credit, but her ‘Whoo’ was a little different than mine and she kept it up a lot longer. Mine was just a ‘Whoo.'”

Cannon assessed his influence. “I hope I fit in somewhere. I think I made a little bit of a dent in the music business by being a songwriter. There were some songs I didn’t write, but a lot of them I did. And all I have to say is, I go back to ‘Tallahassee’ all the time, that song just because the Rolling Stones covered it; Fleetwood Mac covered the song; all these bands in England covered the song and put it on their albums and all that. It makes me feel a hundred feet high, right? You know? “I must have influenced someone with that song.”

Cannon continued to work on music in Oxnard until his recent hospitalization, the representative said. Among his contributions of late is “The Svengoolie Stomp,” written for horror movie TV host Svengoolie, who scheduled the singer’s classic appearance on “Village of the Giants” last weekend.

Cannon is survived by his sons Conny and Billy, his sister Mary Lou, his son-in-law Jim and daughter-in-law Beth, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Cannon was predeceased by his son, John, in April of this year, and his wife and high school sweetheart, Jeanette, in September 2024.

“We would like to thank everyone for their love and support throughout our father’s life,” Conny Cannon said. “He will be remembered as a rock ‘and’ roll icon. His music will live forever in our hearts.”