SINGAPORE — Mr Reggie Verghese, the lead guitarist for the country’s biggest pop group of the 1960s, The Quests, died of heart failure this afternoon (June 17).

Mr Verghese, who would have been 68 in August, was warded at the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital at the time of his death.

Mr Vernon Cornelius, who sang with The Quests from 1966 to 1968, said Mr Verghese had been in hospital for the last few days. “He’d been unwell for years with a string of ailments,” he added.

Mr Verghese joined The Quests after their original guitarist Raymond Leong left to pursue his studies in 1964. Within months, the band would have a No 1 hit, Shanty, and Mr Verghese’s guitar-playing on that song would be the talk of the town.

It was his prowess on the guitar, whether on instrumental songs such as Tea Break or Champagne (which he wrote); or on vocal tracks such as Rollercoaster Man and Don’t Play That Song For Me, that helped cement The Quests as the country’s top band.

“If you ask anybody from that era about Singapore ’60s pop music, they will say ‘Reggie Verghese’,” said Mr Joseph Pereira, who authored Apache Over Singapore, a book about Singapore’s music scene in the ’60s.

The Quests’ bassist, Mr Henry Chua, said: “Tunes just gushed out from his head. (He was) incredible and gifted.”

“Bands have tried to emulate Shanty but it never came near to what he played. He had that feel — and that feel was magic,” said Mr Cornelius, adding that Mr Verghese brought him into the band and was, for all intents and purposes, Singapore’s first guitar hero. Other band members came and went, but Mr Verghese stayed with the band throughout, and shared lead vocal duties with the band’s other guitarist, the late Jap Chong, after Mr Cornelius left the band in 1968.

After The Quests split in 1971, Mr Verghese went on to make his mark as a music producer.

He was instrumental, for example, in giving Tokyo Square their big hit of the 1980s, Within You’ll Remain. “He was specifically looking for a song which sounded ethnic because he thought it would do well in the Singapore market,” said Tokyo Square’s singer Max Surin in a previous interview. Their recording of the song topped the charts in Bangkok and became one of the biggest hits here.

Tributes for Mr Verghese starting pouring in online hours after his death.

In a Facebook post, noted jazz musician Jeremy Monteiro said: “I am still in shock.”

“When I worked closely with him in 1977 and 1978 as session pianist for EMI Records, he guided, shouted, scolded and also praised, encouraged and counselled me and gave me a baptism of fire in the music scene and taught me how to become the music producer and musician I now am,” Mr Monteiro wrote. “I simply would not be half the musician I am now if not for Reggie Verghese.”

In another Facebook post, Mr Jimmy Appudurai-Chua, the guitarist for Singapore’s seminal ’60s R&B band The Straydogs, said: “RIP Reggie Verghese. We have just heard the passing of a dear friend ....”

“Reggie Vergheese was the undisputed Hank Marvin of Asia,” he added, referring to the the famous lead guitarist for the British band, The Shadows.