FILE- 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 ...

England's Acker Bilk's big hit of 1961, the sugary, vibrato packed "Stranger on the Shore" masked the fact that Bilk had been (and continues to be ) a fine New Orleans jazz performer. Bilk was a ...

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 ...