Glenn Yarbrough, the folk singer and founding member of The Limeliters, died at the age of 86 in his Nashville home on Thursday.

His daughter, Holly Yarbrough Burnett, told The New York Times that he succumbed to complications of dementia.

Yarbrough was born in 1930 in Milwaukee but grew up in New York City, where he helped support his family as a paid boy soprano at a local church. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, starting as a code breaker before transitioning to the entertainment corps. Upon returning from his stint overseas, Yarbrough began performing in clubs and on local television shows.

In 1959, along with Lou Gottlieb and Alex Hassilev, he founded The Limeliters, named after the club in Aspen, Colorado, that Yarbrough ran. The group soon signed with Elektra Records, which was founded by Jac Holzman, Yarbrough’s roommate at St. John’s College. In 1961, their second album, Tonight: In Person, reached No. 5 on the Billboard charts, where it stayed for 74 weeks.

Yarbrough left the group in 1963 to pursue a solo career, even though he eventually he rejoined The Limeliters in subsequent years for multiple reunion tours. His biggest hit came in 1965 with “Baby the Rain Must Fall,” the title song from the Steve McQueen film of the same name.

He later brought his talents to the screen, providing vocals for the animated adaptations of The Hobbit and The Return of the King, based on the fantasy books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The singer continued to make music later in life, releasing an album with his daughter, Holly in 1997, but he lost his ability to sing in 2010 due to throat surgery.

“I wouldn’t call myself a folk singer any more, although I started out that way,” Yarbrough told The Los Angeles Times in 1996. “You know, I never thought I’d spend a lifetime doing this; it just happened.”