Danny Federici ✝

Daniel Paul "Danny" Federici (January 23, 1950 – April 17, 2008) was an American musician, best known as the organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player and a founding member for Bruce Springsteen\'s E Street Band. In 2014, Federici was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.\n', ' Federici started to play accordion when he was seven years old, which he learned from watching The Lawrence Welk Show. When he mastered classical music and polka, his mother booked him at parties, clubs and on radio. While he continued his studies in classical accordion, he gained an interest in jazz and blues, after he heard a professor at the Neupauer Conservatory of Music in Philadelphia play those styles on accordion.\n', ' During in-concert band intros, Springsteen often referred to him as "Phantom", sometimes said to be because of an incident in Asbury Park in the 1960s where Federici evaded a police crackdown that resulted in the arrest of numerous others. Federici attended Hunterdon Central High School in New Jersey. When he, along with Vini Lopez, started the band Child at the end of the 1960s, their choice for a singer fell on Bruce Springsteen; Federici also joined Springsteen in other early efforts such as Steel Mill.\n', '