1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Bill Withers
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William Harrison Bill Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded several hits, including Lean on Me, Aint No Sunshine, Use Me, Just the Two of Us, Lovely Day. Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more and his life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, Withers was born the youngest of six children in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. He was born with a stutter and has said he had a hard time fitting in, raised in nearby Beckley, he was thirteen years old when his father died. Withers enlisted with the United States Navy at the age of 18 and served for nine years, during which time he got over his stutter, Mr. Withers left the Navy in 1965. Using the $250 he received from selling his furniture to IBM co-worker Ron Sierra, he picked up, when he debuted with the song Aint No Sunshine he refused to resign from his job because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry. During early 1970, Withers demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. Jones to produce Withers first album. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a break between the second and final sessions. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks, Aint No Sunshine, the album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, at the 14th annual Grammy Awards on Tuesday, March 14,1972, Withers won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for Aint No Sunshine. The track had sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in September 1971. During a hiatus from touring, Withers recorded his second album, the single, Lean on Me went to number one the week of July 8,1972. It was Withers second gold single with confirmed sales in excess of three million and his follow-up, Use Me released in August 1972, became his third million seller, with the R. I. A. A. Gold disc award taking place on October 12,1972 and his performance at Carnegie Hall on October 6,1972, was recorded, and released as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall on November 30,1972. In 1974, Withers recorded the album +Justments, due to a legal dispute with the Sussex company, Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter. Footage of his performance was included in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, other footage of his performance is included in the 2008 documentary film Soul Power which is based on archival footage of the 1974 Zaire concert. After Sussex Records folded, Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975 and his first album release with the label, Making Music, Making Friends, included the single Shes Lonely, which was featured in the film Looking for Mr. Goodbar
3.
Soul music
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Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music, catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and a tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds, Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black, Soul music dominated the U. S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U. S. By 1968, the music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, by the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994, there are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music. The term soul had been used among African-American musicians to emphasize the feeling of being an African-American in the United States, according to another source, Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s. The phrase soul music itself, referring to music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961. The term soul in African-American parlance has connotations of African-American pride, gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz style that derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz, important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles is often cited as popularizing the genre with his string of hits starting with 1954s I Got a Woman. Singer Bobby Womack said, Ray was the genius and he turned the world onto soul music. Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style, little Richard and James Brown were equally influential. Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also acknowledged as soul forefathers. Cooke became popular as the singer of gospel group The Soul Stirrers
4.
Funk music
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Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Like much of African-inspired music, funk typically consists of a groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves. Funk uses the same richly-colored extended chords found in jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths. Other musical groups, including Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic, soon began to adopt, Funk samples have been used extensively in genres including hip hop, house music, and drum and bass. It is also the influence of go-go, a subgenre associated with funk. The word funk initially referred to a strong odor and it is originally derived from Latin fumigare via Old French fungiere and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 funky meaning musty was first documented, which, in turn, in early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to get down by telling one another, Now, put some stank on it. At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky, as late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when funk and funky were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer was the first to use the word funky to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated, the style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the set the pattern for later musicians. The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented, a great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Browns rhythm section used it to great effect. Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and bass lines, like Motown recordings, funk songs used bass lines as the centerpiece of songs. Slap basss mixture of thumb-slapped low notes and finger popped high notes allowed the bass to have a rhythmic role. In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a style, often using the wah-wah sound effect. Guitarist Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic were notably influenced by Jimi Hendrixs improvised solos, Eddie Hazel, who worked with George Clinton, is one of the most notable guitar soloists in funk. Ernie Isley was tutored at an age by Jimi Hendrix himself. Jimmy Nolen and Phelps Collins are famous funk rhythm guitarists who both worked with James Brown, on Browns Give It Up or Turnit a Loose, Jimmy Nolens guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure
5.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
6.
Making Music (Bill Withers album)
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Making Music is the fourth studio album by American R&B singer Bill Withers. It was also released in the UK as Making Friends, Making Music was released in 1975 and is Withers first album on Columbia Records due to Sussex Records folding in July 1975. The album charted at number seven on the R&B album charts, the album was released in the UK by CBS under the title of Making Friends also in 1975. All songs written by Bill Withers, except where noted
7.
Baby It's Me
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Baby Its Me is a 1977 album released by American singer Diana Ross on the Motown label that peaked at #18 on the Billboard Top 200 and #7 on the R&B album chart. The album was produced by producer Richard Perry, the LP yielded one Top 40 hit, Gettin Ready for Love, reaching number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Other charting singles released from the album include You Got It and Your Love is so Good for Me and her subsequent albums, save for compilations, were recorded away from Motown. Although this album never made the UK charts it was certified Silver for UK sales in excess of 60,000 copies, lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
8.
AllMusic
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AllMusic is an online music guide service website. It was launched in 1991 by All Media Guide which later became All Media Network, AllMusic was launched in 1991 by Michael Erlewine of All Media Guide. The aim was to discographic information on every artist whos made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost and its first reference book was published the following year. When first released onto the Internet, AMG predated the World Wide Web and was first available as a Gopher site, the AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in July 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. All Media Network, LLC. was formed by the founders of SideReel. com. The following are contributors to AllMusic, as of this date, All Media Network also produced the AllMusic guide series that includes the AllMusic Guide to Rock, the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series, in August 2007, PC Magazine included AllMusic in its Top 100 Classic Websites list. All Media Network AllGame AllMovie SideReel All Music Guide to the Blues All Music Guide to Jazz Stephen Thomas Erlewine Official website
9.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership
10.
Denise Nicholas
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Donna Denise Nicholas is an American actress and social activist who was involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Nicholas was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Louise Carolyn and she spent her early years in Detroit. With the remarriage of her mother to Robert Burgen, she moved to Milan, Michigan, at the age of 16, she appeared on the August 25,1960, cover of Jet magazine as a future school teacher prospect at the National High School Institute at Northwestern University. She graduated from Milan High School in 1961, Nicholas is the middle child of three, with an older brother, Otto, and a younger sister, Michele, who was murdered. She entered the University of Michigan as a Pre-Law major, while at Michigan, she switched her major to Latin-American politics, Spanish, and English. She subsequently transferred to Tulane University, where she majored in Fine Arts and her acting debut was in a Spanish language play presented by her language class. She left college early to join the Free Southern Theater, during the Civil Rights Movement, from the stage of the St. Marks Playhouse in New York, Nicholas was cast as Liz McIntyre, Nicholas received her Bachelor of Arts in Drama from the University of Southern California, after living in Southern California for a number of years. Nicholas began her acting career in 1968, with an episode of It Takes a Thief. Following Room 222, she appeared as Harriet DeLong in the cast of NBC/CBS In the Heat of the Night. Nicholas wrote six episodes of the series, beginning her career as a writer. She worked with Fitch for five years, Nicholas also attended the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Workshop, and the Natalie Goldberg Workshop, in Taos, New Mexico. Her first novel, Freshwater Road, was published by Agate Publishing, the novel won the Zora Neal Hurston/Richard Wright Award for debut fiction in 2006, as well as the American Library Associations Black Caucus Award for debut fiction the same year. Freshwater Road was reprinted by Pocket Books, brown University commissioned Nicholas to write a staged adaptation of Freshwater Road, which was presented in May 2008. In the 1970s, Nicholas married soul singer-songwriter Bill Withers, Nicholas later married former football player and CBS sports anchor Jim Hill, whom she divorced in 1984. Blacula Mr. Ricco Lets Do It Again A Piece of the Action Capricorn One Marvin & Tige Over Here, hotel 227 Amen In the Heat of the Night The Cosby Show A Different World Law & Order B. L
11.
Billboard 200
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The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists, often, a recording act will be remembered by its number ones, those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart is based mostly on sales of albums in the United States, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday and ends on Thursday. A new chart is published the following Tuesday with an issue post-dated to the Saturday of the following week, the charts streaming schedule is also tracked from Friday to Thursday. Example, Friday January 1 – sales tracking week begins Thursday January 7 – sales tracking week ends Tuesday January 12 – new chart published, New product is released to the American market on Fridays. Digital downloads of albums are included in Billboard 200 tabulation. Albums that are not licensed for sale in the United States are not eligible to chart. As of the issue dated April 15,2017, the album on the Billboard 200 is More Life by Drake. Billboard began an album chart in 1945, initially only five positions long, the album chart was not published on a weekly basis, sometimes three to seven weeks passing before it was updated. A biweekly, 15-position Best-Selling Popular Albums chart appeared in 1955, the position count varied anywhere from 10 to 30 albums. The first number-one album on the new weekly list was Belafonte by Harry Belafonte, the chart was renamed to Best-Selling Pop Albums later in 1956, and then to Best-Selling Pop LPs in 1957. Beginning on May 25,1959, Billboard split the ranking into two charts Best-Selling Stereophonic LPs for stereo albums and Best-Selling Monophonic LPs for mono albums and these were renamed to Stereo Action Charts and Mono Action Charts in 1960. In January 1961, they became Action Albums—Stereophonic and Action Albums—Monophonic, three months later, they became Top LPs—Stereo and Top LPs—Monaural. On August 17,1963 the stereo and mono charts were combined into a 150-position chart called Top LPs, on April 1,1967, the chart was expanded to 175 positions, then finally to 200 positions on May 13,1967. In 1960, Billboard began concurrently publishing album charts which ranked sales of older or mid-priced titles and these Essential Inventory charts were divided by stereo and mono albums, and featured titles that had already appeared on the main stereo and mono album charts. In January 1961, the Action Charts became Action Albums—Monophonic, Albums appeared on either chart for up to nine weeks, then were moved to an Essential Inventory list of approximately 200 titles, with no numerical ranking. This list continued to be published until the consolidated Top LPs chart debuted in 1963, in 1982, Billboard began publishing a Midline Albums chart which ranked older or mid-priced titles. The chart held 50 positions and was published on a bi-weekly basis, on May 25,1991, Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart
12.
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US
13.
'Bout Love
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Bout Love is the seventh studio album by American R&B singer Bill Withers, released in 1978 on the Columbia label. Bill Withers collaborated with Paul Smith on Bout Love, who co-wrote all, Bout Love features Witherss usual mellowness and introspective lyrics, however its lead single, Dont It Make It Better is up-tempo, and its follow-up single, You Got the Stuff is a funk song. Dont It Make It Better peaked at No.30 on Billboard R&B Singles, Bout Love peaked at #50 on the R&B chart and No.134 on the Billboard 200. It was re-released as a music download in 2008
14.
Ain't No Sunshine
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Aint No Sunshine is a song by Bill Withers from his 1971 album Just As I Am, produced by Booker T. Jones. The record featured musicians Donald Duck Dunn on bass guitar, Al Jackson, Jr. on drums, string arrangements were done by Booker T. Jones, and recorded in Memphis by engineer Terry Manning. The song is in the key of A minor, the song was released as a single in 1971, becoming a breakthrough hit for Withers, reaching number six on the U. S. R&B Chart and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Billboard ranked it as the No.23 song for 1971, Withers was inspired to write this song after watching the 1962 movie Days of Wine and Roses. He explained, in reference to the characters played by Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon and its like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that werent particularly good for you and its just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that Im not aware of. So when they said to leave it like that, I left it, Withers, then thirty-one years old, was working at a factory making toilet seats for 747s at the time he wrote the song. On the American Top 40 program of November 6,1976, Casey Kasem reported that when the song went gold, Aint No Sunshine was the first of Withers three gold records in the U. S. The song was released as the B-side to another song called Harlem. Disc jockeys played Aint No Sunshine as the single instead, and it became a huge hit, Harlem was subsequently covered by The 5th Dimension, which was featured on their Soul and Inspiration album and released as a single. Withers performed the song on The Old Grey Whistle Test, Aint No Sunshine is ranked 285th on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song won the Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1972, in 1971 singer Michael Jackson recorded a cover version of Bill Withers song for his debut album Got to Be There. In the UK the song was released as the single from the album. It was a hit, peaking in the UK Singles Chart at number 8 for 3 weeks in September 1972, boris Gardiner recorded a version of Aint No Sunshine in 1973 with Paul Douglas singing lead, for the album Is Whats Happening. In November 1991, Australian pop band Rockmelons, released a version as the single from their second studio album. The song peaked at number 5 and was certified Gold in Australia, in 1999, South African male choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, released a version as a single from their studio album, In Harmony. The single peaked at number 42 in the UK, polish band Budka Suflera covered the song in 1974 under the title Sen o dolinie as a non-album track. It was later added to the compilation albums
15.
Everybody's Talkin'
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Everybodys Talkin is a song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Fred Neil in 1966. A version of the performed by Harry Nilsson became a hit in 1969, reaching No.6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song, which describes the desire to retreat from other people to the ocean, is among the most famous works of both artists, and has been covered by many other notable performers. The song later appeared in the 1994 film Forrest Gump and is also on the soundtrack album. It also appeared in the comedy film Borat, on The Hangover Part III soundtrack, the song was first released on Neils second album, the self-titled Fred Neil, released in early 1967. It was composed towards the end of the session, after Neil had become anxious to wrap the album so he could return to his home in Miami, manager Herb Cohen promised that if Neil wrote and recorded a final track, he could go. Everybodys Talkin, recorded in one take, was the result, Nilsson was searching for a potentially successful song when Rick Jarrard played the track for him, and he decided to release it on his 1968 album Aerial Ballet. When released as a single in July 1968, it managed to reach No.113 on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. The song was used as the song for the movie and became closely identified with it. William J. Mann, in his biography of Schlesinger, noted that one cannot imagine Midnight Cowboy now without Everybodys Talkin, described in The Rock Snob*s Dictionary as an anti-urban plaint, Everybodys Talkin depicts the introverted speakers inability to connect with others. Not hearing or truly seeing them, the speaker declares an intention to leave for the ocean, Nilssons single for the song sold over a million copies and charted on both Billboards Adult Contemporary and Pop Singles charts, reaching numbers 2 and 6 respectively in 1969. Nilssons single also won a Grammy that year, the song became a global success and was followed by international appearances by Nilsson to perform it. After Nilssons death, Billboard noted that Nilsson remained popularly remembered for his covers of Everybodys Talkin, Neil, too, is largely remembered for this song. The song is regarded in the industry, having become a standard. A2006 New York Times article characterizes the song as a landmark of the classic-rock era, the songs usage in Midnight Cowboy has become iconic. In 2004, the song was listed by the American Film Institute as #20 in its top 100 movie songs for the first 100 years of film, Harry Dean Stanton described Everybodys Talkin as a heroin song which he claimed was inspired by Luke Askew, an actor. Since Nilssons version of the song achieved success, the song has been covered by many other artists—almost 100 as of 2006. Nilssons version was sampled in 2002 by Paul Oakenfold on Starry Eyed Surprise, team on Everyones a V. I. P. to Someone
16.
Let It Be (song)
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Let It Be is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released in March 1970 as a single, and as the title track of their album Let It Be. At the time, it had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 and it was written and sung by Paul McCartney. It was their final single before McCartney announced his departure from the band, Both the Let It Be album and the US single The Long and Winding Road were released after McCartneys announced departure from and the subsequent break-up of the group. The alternate mix on their album Let It Be features a guitar solo. In 1987, the song was recorded by charity supergroup Ferry Aid and it reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks and reached the top ten in many other European countries. McCartney said he had the idea of Let It Be after he had a dream about his mother during the period surrounding the sessions for The Beatles in 1968. According to McCartney, the reference to Mother Mary was not biblical.38. Nevertheless, McCartney explained that his mother – who died of cancer when he was fourteen – was the inspiration for the Mother Mary lyric and he later said, It was great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream, so that got me writing Let It Be. He also said in an interview about the dream that his mother had told him, It will be all right. When asked if the song referred to the Virgin Mary, McCartney has typically answered the question by assuring his fans that they can interpret the song however they like. The first rehearsal of Let It Be took place at Twickenham Film Studios on 3 January 1969, where the group had, the previous day, begun what would become the Let It Be film. During this stage of the film they were recording on the mono decks used for syncing to the film cameras. A single take was recorded, with just McCartney on piano, the first attempt with the other Beatles was made on 8 January. Work continued on the song throughout the month, multi-track recordings commenced on 23 January at Apple Studios. The master take was recorded on 31 January 1969, as part of the Apple studio performance for the project and this was one of two performances of Let It Be that day. The first version, designated take 27-A, would serve as the basis for all released versions of the song. The other version, take 27-B, was performed as part of the live performance, along with Two of Us
17.
Lean on Me (song)
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Lean on Me is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. It was released in April 1972 as the first single from his second album and it was his first and only number one single on both the soul singles and the Billboard Hot 100. Billboard ranked it as the No.7 song of 1972 and it is ranked number 208 on Rolling Stones list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Numerous cover versions have been recorded, and it is one of nine songs to have reached No.1 with versions recorded by two different artists. He lived in a house in the poor section of town. Withers recalled to Songfacts the original inspiration for the song, I bought a piano and I was sitting there just running my fingers up. In the course of doing the music, that crossed my mind, so then you go back and say, OK, I like the way that phrase, Lean On Me. Several members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band were used for the session in 1972. A string section was included as well. Withers version is noted for its Bridge section, as well as the Coda section, several radio stations, as well as the single version, fade out during the repeated Coda, due to time limits as well as the repetition of the lyrics. Some radio versions cut the number of Call Mes to six times before the songs end and it also reached number one on the dance charts, and number two on the Black Singles charts, kept out of the top spot by Jodi Watleys Looking for a New Love. It won a Grammy award in 1987 for Bill Withers, as the writer, epic Records published a 12-inch single and a CD maxi single in Germany. In 2008, several years after the dissolution of 2-4 Family, founding band-member Mike Johnson performed the song with backing vocalists, avril Lavigne and Heart made a duet singing this song at the 17th Race To Erase MS event in May 2010. Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow and Keith Urban performed the song at the 2010 Hope for Haiti earthquake relief telethon, the song was used in a 1970s drug awareness film titled Dead Is Dead, hosted and produced by actor Godfrey Cambridge. The original and Club Nouveau version was featured in the 1989 film Lean on Me, mary J. Blige performed this song at the HBO We Are One, The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. The next day, a crowd began singing the song in the Purple Tunnel of Doom under the National Mall as they waited to gain entrance to the inauguration ceremonies. The song plays at the end of Radioactive Man, an episode of The Simpsons, early TV comedy sketch parodies of Lean on Me included a famous sketch on In Living Color where Joe Louis Clark is played by Keenen Ivory Wayans. Paula Abdul and The Muppets performed this song on a 1997 episode of Muppets Tonight, on the fourth season of Martin, Martin and the crew sang the song in the hospital in the episode, Why Cant We Be Friends that was broadcast in 1996
18.
Lovely Day (song)
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Lovely Day is a song by American soul and R&B singer Bill Withers. Published in 1977, the song was written by Withers and Skip Scarborough, released as a single in late 1977, Lovely Day peaked at #6 on the Billboard R&B chart and at #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US in early 1978. It also made the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, where the song reached #7 on the British single chart. This remix resulted in renewed enthusiasm for the Withers original, which incurred a surge in airplay into the early 1990s and came to firmly overshadow the radio presence of Liebrands version. Public interest was piqued in 1995, when Lovely Day was used in adverts for Tetley tea. Producer Clarence McDonald also arranged the original 1977 version of the song, guitars were played by Ray Parker, Jr. Jerry Knight played bass, and Russ Kunkel played drums. Toward the end of the song, Withers holds a note for 18 seconds and this is believed to be the second-longest note in UK chart history, Morten Harket of A-has 20-second note in Summer Moved On is the longest. Withers note is sustained in chest voice, whereas Harket utilizes the falsetto range, the former remains the longest of any Top 40 hit in the United States. Bill Withers – Vocals Clarence McDonald – Keyboards Ray Parker, Jr and these alternate versions of the song span many different musical genres, including R&B, pop, jazz, gospel, dance, and rap. British pop group Central Line covered the song on their 1983 album Breaking Point, the song was covered by The S. O. U. L. Featuring Michelle Visage and was included on the soundtrack to the 1992 film The Bodyguard and this mostly rap version was titled Its Gonna Be a Lovely Day. This version also reached #17 on the UK Singles Chart,1990, American R&B singer Sybil released a cover on her Sybilization album, and released it as a single in 1991. 1992, British entertainer, Des O Connor, on his Portrait album,2010, American R&B singer and jazz saxophonist Walter Beasley on the album Backatcha. 2011, R&B Singer Jill Scott, on the album The Original Jill Scott from the Vault,2012, Elizabeth Mitchell, used in a UK advert for DFS2013, American band Robert Glasper Experiment, on the deluxe edition of their album Black Radio 2. 2013, Contemporary Christian artist The Katinas, on their 2013 album Love Chapter,2014, English rock band alt-J, as a bonus track on their album This Is All Yours. 2012, British Post hardcore band Enter Shikari covered this song in a live session over uStream,2017, Justin Timberlake covered the song along with Cant Stop the Feeling. at the 89th Academy Awards. O. U. L. Cover on their track Its Gonna Be,2012, American musician R. Kelly heavily sampled the original song on the track, Feelin Single from the Write Me Back album. 2000, The original song appears at the beginning of the 8th episode named The Whole Truth in the first season of the TV series Ed,2006, This song is featured in the opening scenes of the film School for Scoundrels
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Just the Two of Us (Grover Washington Jr. song)
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Just the Two of Us is a 1981 R&B single written by Bill Withers, William Salter and Ralph MacDonald, which was recorded by Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers. The song originally appeared on Washingtons 1980 album Winelight, an edited version reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, staying there for 3 weeks, behind Morning Train by Sheena Easton and Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes. The song won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, Bill Withers included the edited version on the 1981 compilation Bill Withers Greatest Hits and many subsequent greatest hits collections. Just the Two of Us was covered by Japanese singer Toshinobu Kubota as a duet with Caron Wheeler in 1991, for his album Kubojah, the song was credited as Just the 2 of Us, featuring a reggae-style beat. In 1995, Kubota re-recorded the song, which appeared on his album Sunshine, Moonlight, in 1996, he released the song as the second single from the album. The song charted at number 30 on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart, the song was included the setlist during the Oyeees. During the tour, Joi Cardwell, who sang backing vocals during the tour, in 2007, Double performed the song the MTV Japan Icons Special. During the performance, Kubota walk onto the stage to complete the song with her, in 2012, Kubota performed the song with Japanese singer Yuri, who was also a background vocalist during his Party Aint A Party Tour. The performance was included on his concert DVD Party Aint A Party, in 1996, Toshi Kubota and Caron Wheeler shot a music video for the song. The video setting takes place during the night at a party in Kubotas apartment, Wheeler watches the party from the fire escape of the next apartment building. The single version was used for the format of the video. In 1991 CKBE-FM David Tyler Bill Cosby did a version, Just the Slew of Us, as the theme music for his movie Bill Cosby. Regina Belle covered Just the Two of Us in 1991 on the tribute album To Grover, With Love, produced by Jason Miles, christian McBride covered the song with overdubbed basses only in a hidden track included in the album Philadelphia Experiment, released on Rope-A-Dope Records. Mietta in 1995 recorded an Italian language Just the Two of Us for her album Daniela è Felice, in 2004 Rebirth Brass Band released a New Orleans brass band-style cover on their album The Main Event, Live at the Maple Leaf. Keri Hilson sampled Just the Two of Us for her song Pretty Girl Rock, the South Korean K-Pop Indie band Urban Zakapa covered this song for their album Beautiful Day. The Japanese band Exile covered this song for their 2011 Exile Cover album, jessica Frech covered the song on her album Reality. The German/Italian singer/songwriter Nevio Passaro covered the song for his YouTube series The Monday Session, adult Swims online show entitled FishCenter Live made a parody of the song entitled Just the Ten of Us about the fish. Matt Dusk and Margaret version was a release, which promoted their collaborative jazz album of the same name
20.
Still Bill (film)
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Still Bill is a 2009 documentary film about musician Bill Withers. It received its premiere at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival. The title is a reference to Withers 1972 album of the same name, the film follows the life of Bill Withers, from his roots in West Virginia to his career in the United States Navy, to his famed musical career and post-retirement family life. Bill Withers Cornell Dupree James Gadson Jim James Angélique Kidjo Ralph MacDonald Raul Midón Tavis Smiley Sting Cornel West The film received positive reviews. Review aggregator website Metacritic gave the film a 76 out of 100, Still Bill is about a man who topped the charts, walked away from it all in 1985 and is pleased that he did. Perhaps in an attempt to slip some meaning into the film and it feels like theyre trying to lead Bill into heavy generalizations, but he wont go there. Withers seems as close to everyday Zen as I can imagine. He talks a deal about his philosophy, to be sure. A dialogue among Mr. Withers, the scholar Cornel West, Still Bill at the Internet Movie Database Still Bill at AllMovie
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