I’m surprised to hear you didn’t know who he was. I’m about your age and I knew exactly who he was. Seem like most of the kids in my grade did as well.
While he wasn’t the musical powerhouse he had been, even in the 70s he was a huge star. Just a few years before he died his aloha from Hawaii TV special became the most watched TV broadcast of all time, with over a billion viewers (it may have been surpassed since then). There was also the fact that at the time he died America was right in the middle of the whole 50s revival fad with Grease, Happy Days and ShaNaNa, all of which featured his music (or covers thereof).
