Donnie Brooks, a singer with rockabilly roots who had a top 10 pop hit with the love song “Mission Bell” in 1960, died February 23 of heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 71.

Brooks was a part of an early Southern California soul and rock scene, appearing at El Monte Legion Stadium, then a popular venue for rock concerts.

Crowds as large as 3,000 would show up to see such entertainers as Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder. Brooks was one of the few white performers.

Recording under the name Johnny Faire in the late 1950s, Brooks released the single “Bertha Lou,” which became a rockabilly favorite.

Another top 40 hit, “Doll House,” came out in 1960. A year later, the equally listenable “Memphis” cracked the top 100 on the Billboard charts.

In 2003, Brooks was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Burns, Tenn.

When he joined Era Records in the late 1950s, he had recorded under several names, including Johnny Jordan. The label decided on another that stuck: Donnie Brooks.

“A donnybrook is a riotous occasion, and Donnie was a riot,” said his friend Howard Thomason. “This man didn’t have a serious bone in his body.” Onstage, Brooks enjoyed telling one-liners such as: “My favorite color is plaid.”

In the 1970s, Brooks began producing and appearing in oldies revival tours that featured musical acts from the 1950s and 1960s. He was still performing in them before being injured in a car accident in 2003.

He was born John Dee Abohosh on February 6, 1936, in Dallas.

His parents divorced when he was a boy, and he took the last name of Faircloth after his stepfather adopted him, Mr. Thomason said.

Out of that he pulled his first recording name — Johnny Faire.

“Li’l Sweetheart,” his first recording as Donnie Brooks, was released in 1959.