In Memory Joe Sample of Crusaders

Joe Sample of the Crusaders died in September 2013. He founded a group called the Jazz Crusaders that became the Crusaders.

In 1979 the group had a huge hit with Street Life featuring Randy Crawford.

• Crusaders pianist Joe Sample wrote this with the lyricist Will Jennings, who told us: "The lyric, all that came right off of Hollywood Boulevard. It's also been used in a lot of rap songs, some samples, they always do the chorus."
• An inspiration for Sample was the beginner's ski slope at Mammoth Mountain in California. In a Reuters interview, Sample said, "I saw people falling, running into each other... it was absolute chaos. It looked like a boulevard of madness. And I said, 'That's what street life is."'