David Appell, writer, producer of hit records

David Appell told an interviewer in 2012 that "my first instrument was my brother's ukulele."

His musical abilities eventually expanded.

And they expanded enough that the nation soon heard much of what he published, beginning as a song writer and producer for Cameo-Parkway Records in Philadelphia in the 1950s and 1960s.

Among the hits which Mr. Appell wrote was "Let's Twist Again," which Chubby Checker made famous.

On Tuesday, Nov. 18, Mr. Appell, 92, formerly of Cherry Hill, died at Collingswood Manor, an assisted living community.

Alan Rubens, chairman of the Philadelphia Music Alliance, said, "We've lost one of the true pioneers of Philadelphia's pop music scene."

"He was very much a part of the Philly pop explosion in the late '50s and early '60s, due to his work with Chubby Checker, the Dovells, Bobby Rydell, the Orlons, and many more" through his work with Cameo-Parkway.

Rubens noted that Mr. Appell was inducted into the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame, whose sidewalk plaques are on the two blocks of Broad Street south of Walnut Street.

Mr. Appell grew up in the Fishtown section and graduated from Central High School, daughter Roslyn Appell Purdy said.

During much of his three years of Navy service in World War II, he was the arranger for the band at Camp Peary in Williamsburg, Va., his separation document states.

He played trombone in Navy bands and after the war worked in house bands at Philadelphia nightclubs such as Ciro's at 15th and Walnut Streets.

And he worked with his own group, Dave Appell and the Apple Jacks.

But he made his mark as a producer with Cameo-Parkway, which had begun in Philadelphia in 1958, with Mr. Appell as artist and repertoire director.

"He wrote the music for songs and produced a lot of the records there," his daughter said.

Kal Mann, one of the founders of Cameo-Parkway, was his principal lyricist, she said.

Mr. Appel had another finger in the pie. His Apple Jacks group worked sometimes as the house band for Cameo-Parkway, accompanying singers on the label's recordings.

By the mid-1960s, both Mann and Mr. Appell had left the firm. But he continued to mine gems.

Looking at plaques marking his recordings that made gold, his daughter noted that her father produced the greatest hits album of Tony Orlando and Dawn for Arista Records in 1975.

Earlier, Orlando and Dawn had made gold with "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," which Mr. Appell helped produce for Bell Records.

And in 1982, she said, Richard Simmons, the exercise celebrity, earned a gold for Mr. Appell's production of the Reach album on Elektra Records.

As an independent producer, his daughter said, "he never really stopped."

Besides his daughter, Mr. Appell is survived by daughter Lynda and a granddaughter. He was predeceased by his wife, Evelyn.

A visitation was set for 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 21, at the Platt Memorial Chapels, 2001 Berlin Rd., Cherry Hill, before an 11 a.m. funeral service there, with burial in Crescent Memorial Park in Pennsauken.

Donations may be sent to www.grammy.org/musicares..

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.plattmemorial.com.