1.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
2.
Andy Williams
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Howard Andrew Andy Williams was an American popular music singer. He recorded 44 albums in his career,15 of which have been gold-certified and he was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a variety show, from 1962 to 1971. The Andy Williams Show garnered three Emmy awards, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri, is named after the song he is most known for singing—Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancinis Moon River. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including 10.5 million certified units in the United States, Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa, the son of Jay Emerson and Florence Williams. While living in Cheviot, Ohio, Williams attended Western Hills High School in Cincinnati and he finished high school at University High School, in West Los Angeles, because of his familys move to California. Williams had three older brothers—Bob, Don, and Dick Williams and his first performance was in a childrens choir at the local Presbyterian church. Moving to Los Angeles in 1943, the Williams Brothers sang with Bing Crosby on the hit record Swinging on a Star and they appeared in four musical films, Janie, Kansas City Kitty, Something in the Wind and Ladies Man. A persistent myth is that as a teenager the future singing star dubbed the singing for Lauren Bacall in the 1944 feature film To Have and Have Not, according to authoritative sources, including Howard Hawks and Bacall herself, this was not true. Williams and some female singers were tested to dub for Bacall, but those fears were overshadowed by the desire to have Bacall do her own singing despite her less-than-perfect vocal talent. This myth is refuted in Leonard Maltins Movie Guide in the entry for this film, when Bob completed his military service, Kay hired all four brothers to sing on the soundtrack to Good News. They made their debut in Las Vegas in 1947 and became an overnight sensation, within a year, they were the highest paid nightclub act in the world, breaking records wherever they appeared. Williams revealed in his memoir Moon River and Me that he and Thompson became romantically involved while on tour, the act broke up in 1949 but reunited for another hugely successful tour from the fall of 1951 through the summer of 1953. After that, the four went their separate ways. A complete itinerary of both tours is listed on the Kay Thompson biography website, Williams and Thompson, however, remained very close, both personally and professionally. She mentored his emergence as a singing star. She coached him, wrote his arrangements, and composed songs that he recorded. Using her contacts in the business, Thompson helped Williams land his breakthrough television gig as a singer for two-and-a-half years on The Tonight Show starring Steve Allen
3.
You've Got a Friend (Andy Williams album)
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Youve Got a Friend is an album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released in August 1971 by Columbia Records. It made its first appearance on Billboard magazines Top LPs & Tapes chart in the issue dated August 28,1971, for its release in the UK, the album was entitled A Song for You. The single from the album, A Song for You, entered the Hot 100 in the US in the issue of Billboard dated August 21,1971, and stayed on the chart for four weeks, eventually peaking at number 82. The song entered the magazines list of the 40 most popular Easy Listening songs of the week in the issue, on August 28, for its first of five weeks. The album bears a striking resemblance to the Johnny Mathis album Youve Got a Friend. Collectables included this CD in a box set entitled Classic Album Collection, Vol.2, Youve Got a Friend –4,44 Help Me Make It Through the Night –2,36 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. Rainy Days and Mondays by The Carpenters is yet another Gold record covered here and they enjoyed two weeks with the song at number two pop and four weeks at number one Easy Listening. The Jackson 5 had the most successful version of Never Can Say Goodbye with three weeks at number two on the Hot 100, three weeks at one on the R&B chart, and a number 33 hit in the UK. The Jackson 5 song Ill Be There had five weeks at one on the Hot 100 and six weeks at number one R&B and reached number 24 Easy Listening. The Fortunes got as high as number 15 pop and number eight Easy Listening with Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again, bread took If to number four on the Hot 100 and also spent three weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart. A Song for You originally appeared on Leon Russells self-titled debut album in 1970, aside from Williams, the only other artist to chart the song during this period was Jaye P
4.
A-side and B-side
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The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78,45, and 33 1/3 rpm phonograph records, whether singles, extended plays, or long-playing records. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits with both A-side and B-side releases, others took the opposite approach, producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side, the earliest 10-inch,78 rpm, shellac records were single sided. Double-sided recordings, with one song on side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records. There were no record charts until the 1930s, and radio stations did not play recorded music until the 1950s, in this time, A-sides and B-sides existed, but neither side was considered more important, the side did not convey anything about the content of the record. The term single came into use with the advent of vinyl records in the early 1950s. At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side, under this random system, many artists had so-called double-sided hits, where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts, or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places. As time wore on, however, the convention for assigning songs to sides of the record changed. By the early sixties, the song on the A-side was the song that the company wanted radio stations to play. It was not until 1968, for instance, that the production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom. In the late 1960s stereo versions of pop and rock songs began to appear on 45s. The majority of the 45s were played on AM radio stations, by the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, and B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, with the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the dominant medium. However, the term B-side is still used to refer to the tracks or coupling tracks on a CD single. With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other media have declined. B-side songs may be released on the record as a single to provide extra value for money. There are several types of material released in this way, including a different version, or, in a concept record
5.
You've Got a Friend
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Youve Got a Friend is a 1971 song written by Carole King. It was first recorded by King, and included in her album Tapestry, another well-known version is by James Taylor from his album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. His was released as a single in 1971 reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the two versions were recorded simultaneously in 1971 with shared musicians. Youve Got a Friend won Grammy Awards both for Taylor and King, dozens of other artists have recorded the song over the years, including Dusty Springfield, Michael Jackson, Anne Murray and Donny Hathaway. Youve Got a Friend was written by Carole King during the January 1971 recording sessions for her own album Tapestry, and James Taylors album Mud Slide Slim, King has stated that the song was as close to pure inspiration as Ive ever experienced. It was written by something outside myself, through me, according to Taylor, King told him that the song was a response to a line in Taylors earlier song Fire and Rain that I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend. Kings album was recorded in an overlap with Taylors, and King, Danny Kortchmar, the song is included on both albums, King said in a 1972 interview that she didnt write it with James or anybody really specifically in mind. But when James heard it he really liked it and wanted to record it, Taylors version was released as a single, and reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. The James Taylor version also spent one week at the top of the Easy Listening charts, Billboard ranked it as the No.17 song for 1971. During the recording process, Taylor also offered to his Apple Records labelmate Mary Hopkin a chance to record the song, which she turned down, James Taylor and Carole King performed Youve Got a Friend together in 2010 during their Troubadour Reunion Tour. According to author James D. Perone, the themes include an expression of a universal, sisterly/brotherly, agape-type love of one human being for another. The reassuring lyrics have made the song popular with lonely people needing a boost of self-confidence. The songs messages of friendship having no boundaries and a friend being there when you are in need has universal appeal, for Taylor the lyrics had particular resonance due to the depression he had recovered from shortly before hearing King play the song. The music moves between a major and minor key, which according to music critic Maury Dean gives the song a sympathetic mood, in his review of Tapestry, Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau called Youve Got a Friend Carole Kings most perfect new song. He particularly praised how the melody and lyrics support each other, mojo considered the song to probably be the core of Tapestry. Allmusic critic Stewart Mason commented on the intimacy of Kings performance. Mason finds that the shyness of Kings voice gives her recording of the song a sincerity that he finds Taylors to lack, Mason also praises the depth and shading provided by the string instruments on Kings recording. Music critic Maury Dean describes Taylors performance style for the song as minimalist and folkish, Dusty Springfield recorded the song in early 1971 during the sessions for her third Atlantic Records album Faithful
6.
1971 in music
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List of notable events in music that took place in the year 1971. February 1 – After months of feuding in the press, Ginger Baker, february 3 - Davy Jones announces he is leaving the Monkees. February 8 – Bob Dylans hour-long documentary film, Eat the Document, is premièred at New Yorks Academy of Music, the film includes footage from Dylans 1966 UK tour. March 1 – The line-up for Queen is completed when bassist John Deacon joins the band, march 4 – The Rolling Stones open their UK tour in Newcastle upon Tyne, intended as a farewell to the UK prior to the bands relocation to France as tax exiles. March 5 – Ulster Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, sees the first live performance of Led Zeppelins iconic song Stairway to Heaven, march 6 - The Soul to Soul concert takes place in Accra, Ghana, headlined by Wilson Pickett. March 12-13 – The Allman Brothers Band records its live album, march 16 – The 13th Grammy Awards, honoring musical accomplishments of 1970, are presented. The ceremonies are broadcast on television for the first time. April 3 – The 16th Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, is won by Monaco with the song Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue sung by Séverine. April 6 – The Rolling Stones hold a party in Cannes to officially announce their new contract with Atlantic, may 12 – Mick Jagger marries Bianca de Macías in Saint-Tropez, France, in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and their wives are among the wedding guests, june - Rafael Kubelík becomes music director of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, at the invitation of Göran Gentele, the new general manager. June 6 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono join Frank Zappa on stage at the Fillmore East for an encore jam, the performance would be released the following year on the Some Time in New York City album. June 8 - Carole King gives her first live concert, at Carnegie Hall, june 20-24 – The first Glastonbury Festival to take place at the summer solstice is held in South West England. Performers include David Bowie, Traffic, Fairport Convention, Quintessence, june 27 – Promoter Bill Graham closes the Fillmore East in New York City with a final concert featuring The Allman Brothers Band, The Beach Boys and Mountain. July 3 – Jim Morrison is found dead in a tub in Paris, France. Alain Ronay would claim, years later, that he assisted Morrisons lover, Pamela Courson, july 4 – The Fillmore West is closed in San Francisco with a final show featuring Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Grateful Dead. July 9 – Grand Funk Railroad becomes only the band to perform a sold-out concert at Shea Stadium breaking The Beatles record of selling out the venue. The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour premieres on CBS, august 14 - The Who release their fifth studio album Whos Next, reaching No.1 in the UK and No.1 in the US. September 11 – The Jackson 5ive, a Saturday morning cartoon based on the popular Motown group The Jackson 5
7.
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
8.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
9.
Leon Russell
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Leon Russell was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling pop music records over the course of his 60-year career. His genres included pop, rock, blues, country, bluegrass, standards, gospel and he was awarded six gold records. His collaborations rank as some of the most successful in music history and he recorded 33 albums and at least 430 songs. He wrote Delta Lady, recorded by Joe Cocker, and organized and performed with Cockers Mad Dogs and his A Song for You has been recorded by more than 200 artists, and his This Masquerade by more than 75. As a pianist, he played in his years on albums by the Beach Boys. On his first album, Leon Russell, in 1970, the musicians included Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, One of his biggest early fans, Elton John said Russell was a mentor and inspiration. They recorded their album The Union in 2010, which earned them a Grammy nomination, Russell produced and played in recording sessions for Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Ike & Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, and others. He wrote and recorded the hits Tight Rope and Lady Blue and he performed at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 along with Dylan and Eric Clapton. In 2011, he was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Russell was born in Lawton, Oklahoma. He began playing the piano at the age of four and he attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Also at Will Rogers High School were Anita Bryant, who was two years older, and in the same 1959 class, David Gates, Russell and Gates played and recorded together as the Fencemen. Another student at Will Rogers at the time was Elvin Bishop, during this time Russell was already performing at Tulsa nightclubs. He took the name Leon from a friend who lent him a fake ID to get into clubs he was too young to perform in. After moving to Los Angeles in 1958, Russell became a session musician, by the late 1960s, he had diversified, becoming successful as an arranger and songwriter. By 1970, he had become a recording artist. After performing country music under the name Hank Wilson in the 1970s and 1980s, Russell re-emerged in 2010 when Elton John called on him to record the album that became The Union. The album, which included contributions from Brian Wilson and Neil Young, brought renewed popularity to Russell, Russell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14,2011. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June 2011, according to his wife, Jan Bridges, Russell died quietly in his sleep at his suburban Nashville home on the morning of November 13,2016, at the age of 74
10.
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
11.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
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.
Ray Charles
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Ray Charles Robinson, known professionally as Ray Charles, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called Brother Ray and he was often referred to as The Genius. Charles was blind from the age of seven and he pioneered the genre of soul music during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records. He also contributed to the integration of music, rhythm and blues and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records. While he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a record company. Charles cited Nat King Cole as an influence, but his music was also influenced by country, jazz, blues. In the late forties, he became friends with Quincy Jones and their friendship would last till the end of Charless life. Frank Sinatra called him the true genius in show business. In 2002, Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Billy Joel observed, This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. Robinson was the son of Bailey Robinson, a laborer, at the time, she was a teenage orphan making a living as a sharecropper. They lived in Greenville, Florida, with Robinsons mother and his wife, the Robinson family had informally adopted Aretha, and she became known as Aretha Robinson. When she, scandalously, became pregnant by Bailey, she briefly left Greenville late in the summer of 1930 to be family members in Albany, Georgia. After that, mother and child returned to Greenville, and Aretha and he was deeply devoted to his mother and later recalled her perseverance, self-sufficiency, and pride as guiding lights in his life. His father abandoned the family, left Greenville, and took another wife elsewhere, in his early years, Charles showed a fondness about mechanical objects and would often watch his neighbors working on their cars and farm machinery. Charles and his mother were always welcome at the Red Wing Cafe, pitman would also care for Rays brother George, to take the burden off Aretha. George drowned in Arethas laundry tub when he was four years old, Charles started to lose his sight at the age of four or five, and was completely blind by the age of seven, apparently as a result of glaucoma. Destitute, uneducated and still mourning the loss of George, Aretha used her connections in the community to find a school that would accept a blind African-American student. Despite his initial protest, Charles attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf, Charles further developed his musical talent at school, and was taught to play the classical piano music of J. S
14.
Peggy Lee
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Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on radio to singing with Benny Goodmans big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist. During her career, she wrote music for films, acted and she and her family were Lutherans. Her father was Swedish-American and her mother was Norwegian-American, after her mother died when Lee was four, her father married Min Schaumber. Lee first sang professionally over KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota and she later had her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her a salary in food. Both during and after her school years, Lee sang for small sums on local radio stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy, of WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota, Lee left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17. She returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy and was noticed by hotel owner Frank Bering while working at the Doll House in Palm Springs and it was here that she developed her trademark sultry purr – having decided to compete with the noisy crowd with subtlety rather than volume. Beringin offered her a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel East in Chicago, There, she was noticed by bandleader Benny Goodman. According to Lee, Bennys then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into The Buttery, so the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for a replacement for Helen Forrest. And although I didnt know, I was it and he was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking. I thought that he didnt like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing and she joined his band in 1941 and stayed for two years. In 1942 Lee had her first No.1 hit, Somebody Else Is Taking My Place, which sold over a million copies and made her famous. She sang with Goodmans orchestra in two 1943 films, Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl, in March 1943 Lee married Dave Barbour, a guitarist in Goodmans band. Lee said, David joined Bennys band and there was a ruling that no one should fraternize with the girl singer, but I fell in love with David the first time I heard him play, and so I married him. Benny then fired David, so I quit, too, Benny and I made up, although David didnt play with him anymore. Its to Mr. Barbours credit that he refused to let his wifes singing and composing talent lay dormant for too long, I fell in love with David Barbour, she recalled. But Why Dont You Do Right was such a giant hit that I kept getting offers, and at that time it was a lot of money
15.
Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota
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Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota is a 1972 album by Peggy Lee. It was her album for Capitol Records, her label since 1957 and, prior to that. Peggy Lees stage name does not appear on the cover of this album and its title refers to her given name and birthplace. The recording sessions for this took place in Los Angeles. During the sessions for this album, Lee also recorded the song It Changes and it Changes was left off the original 1972 LP, but added to a 2004 U. K. compact disc reissue of the album by EMI. After finishing Norma Deloris Egstrom, Lee did not make any recordings until two years later, when she recorded Lets Love for Atlantic Records in April 1974. Capitol Records released Love Song as a 45 single in 1972 and it was a minor hit, spending four weeks on the Billboard Easy Listening chart and peaking at #34 in October 1972. It was also Lees last single for Capitol, nearly three decades after she released her first on the label, the album received a modestly positive review in Stereo Review in October 1973. The reviewer, Peter Reilly, wrote, By the standards Peggy Lee herself has set, the new album isn’t particularly outstanding. But, as always, there are three or four stunning bands – I’ll Be Seeing You, I’ll Get By and Someone Who Cares here – that reach the highest level of her accomplishments, and that is high indeed. To the ire of Lees fans, the 2004 EMI reissue of this contains a number of alternate takes that are not identified as such on the packaging. This was reportedly done because the original master recordings have disappeared
16.
Elkie Brooks
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Elkie Brooks is an English singer, a vocalist with the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe, and later a solo artist. She gained her biggest success in the late 1970s and 1980s and has been nominated twice for Brit Awards. She is known for her husky voice and hit singles such as Pearls a Singer, Lilac Wine, Dont Cry Out Loud, Fool, and No More the Fool. She is generally referred to as the British Queen of Blues, by April 2012, Brooks had released more albums that had reached the top 75 of the UK album chart than any other British female artist. Brooks was born Elaine Bookbinder in Broughton, Salford, the daughter of Marjorie Violet Vi and her paternal grandparents and great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Kielce, Russian Poland. Her mother, who had been born to a Catholic family and she attended North Salford Secondary Modern School. Her older brother is Anthony Bookbinder, who went by the name of Tony Mansfield. According to Brooks, her debut was a gig at a club called the Laronde on Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester. She first sang professionally at the age of 15, and her first record, Brooks spent most of the 1960s on Britains cabaret scene, a period of her life that she did not particularly enjoy. In the mid 1960s she supported the Beatles in their Christmas show in London, then, as an established act and she went on to tour the United States with several bands, including the Animals. After she met Pete Gage, whom she would marry, she joined the short-lived fusioneers Dada before forming Vinegar Joe with Gage, Brooks gained the reputation as the wild woman of rock n roll due to her wild stage performances. After three albums, they split up in 1974, and Brooks and Palmer formed separate solo careers, after a time as backing singer with the American southern boogie band Wet Willie, she returned to England. Her first solo album on A&M records was Rich Mans Woman and it was released to critical acclaim, but Brooks was given a hard time because of the albums cover, which was considered outrageous for the time. It came before a run of 16 albums in 25 years, starting with Two Days Away, produced by the songwriting duo Leiber & Stoller, Brooks also wrote some tracks with them. The hits Pearls a Singer and Sunshine After the Rain came from this album, the albums Shooting Star and Live and Learn also saw success along with the singles Lilac Wine and Dont Cry Out Loud. However, her polished, powerful cover of Gallagher and Lyles The Runaway, in 1980 Brooks performed at the Knebworth Festival with the Beach Boys, Santana and Mike Oldfield. Pearls, released in 1981 achieved the biggest success of her career, Fool was a hit for Brooks taken from this album, written by Chris Rea. Pearls II, Minutes and Screen Gems, were all UK chart hits, in 1986 she sang the title song for the BBC television series A Very Peculiar Practice
17.
Neil Diamond
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Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. One of the worlds best-selling artists of all time, he has sold over 120 million records worldwide since the start of his career in the 1960s. With 38 songs in the Top 10, he is the second most successful artist in the history of the Billboard Adult Contemporary Top 10 charts and his songs have been covered internationally by many performers from a variety of musical genres. Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock, additionally, he received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and in 2011 was an honoree at Kennedy Center. On the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, he has had eleven No, Sweet Caroline is played frequently at sporting events, and has become an anthem for the Boston Red Sox. Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family descended from Russian and his parents were Rose and Akeeba Kieve Diamond, a dry-goods merchant. He grew up in homes in Brooklyn, having also spent four years in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In Brooklyn he attended Erasmus Hall High School and was a member of the Freshman Chorus and they were not close friends at the time, Diamond recalls, We were two poor kids in Brooklyn. We hung out in the front of Erasmus High and smoked cigarettes, after his family moved he then attended Abraham Lincoln High School, and was a member of the fencing team. For his 16th birthday, he received his first guitar, and the next thing, I got a guitar when we got back to Brooklyn, started to take lessons and almost immediately began to write songs, he said. He adds that his attraction to songwriting was the first real interest he had growing up, Diamond also used his newly-developing skill at writing lyrics to write poetry. By writing poems for girls he was attracted to in school and his male classmates took note and began asking him to write poems for them which they would sing and use with equal success. He spent the following his graduation as a waiter in the Catskills resort area. There he first met Jaye Posner, who would, years later, Diamond next attended New York University as a pre-med major on a fencing scholarship. His skill at fencing made him a member of the 1960 NCAA mens championship team, however, he was often bored in classes, and found writing song lyrics more to his liking. He began cutting classes and taking the train up to Tin Pan Alley where he tried to get some of his songs heard by music publishers. By his senior year, and just 10 units short of graduation, Sunbeam Music Publishing offered him a 16-week job writing songs for $50 a week, and he dropped out of college to accept it. After his 16 weeks at Sunbeam Music were up, he was not rehired, I never really chose songwriting, he says
18.
Dreams (Neil Diamond album)
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Dreams is the thirty-first studio album by Neil Diamond. It was produced by Diamond and released by Columbia Records in 2010, the album contains cover versions of popular songs that Diamond claims in the liner notes are among his favorites. Among them is Im a Believer, which he wrote for The Monkees back in 1966, dreams ranked at number eight on the Billboard 200 chart
19.
The Carpenters
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The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. Producing a distinctively soft musical style, they one of the best-selling music artists of all time. During their 14-year career, The Carpenters recorded 11 albums,31 singles, five television specials, and their career ended in 1983 by Karens death from heart failure brought on by complications of anorexia. Extensive news coverage surrounding the circumstances of her death increased public awareness of eating disorders, the Carpenters had three No.1 singles and five No.2 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen No.1 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart. In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles, to date, The Carpenters album and single sales total more than 100 million units. Richard Carpenter was the force behind the Carpenters sound. An accomplished keyboard player, composer and arranger, Richard Carpenter was called by music critic Daniel Levitin one of the most gifted arrangers to emerge in popular music. In a period when music was dominated by heavy rock. Most of Richards arrangements were classical in style, with frequent use of strings and occasional brass, by use of multi-tracked recordings, Richard was able to use Karen and himself for the harmonies to back Karens lead. The overdubbed background harmonies were distinctive to the Carpenters, but it was the soulful, Karen did not possess a powerful singing voice, but close miking brought out many nuances in her performances. Richard Coles, a musician and broadcaster, commented, No singer is so closely miked up so unforgivingly as Karen Carpenter and that is frightening for singers because the closer the microphone the more unforgiving it is in exposing the weaknesses in a singers voice. Karens lower register was warm and distinctive, Richard arranged their music to take advantage of the qualities of said lower register, even if Karens full vocal range spanned over three octaves. Many of the Carpenters songs are in the keys of D, E flat, E, F and he also played the grand piano, Hammond organ, synthesizer and even the harpsichord with the band. In the recording studio, he often would overdub his acoustic piano parts with a Wurlitzer electric piano to thicken the sound, from the mid-1970s, Richard also used Fender Rhodes pianos. While touring, he often would have a piano as well as both a Rhodes and a Wurlitzer electric piano on stage for different songs. Karen was a drummer and initially only played drums. Before 1974, Karen played the drums for a number of their songs, according to Richard, she considered herself a drummer who sang. Although unwilling, she agreed to sing the ballads standing up front
20.
A Song for You (The Carpenters album)
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A Song for You is the fourth album released by the Carpenters, released on June 22,1972. According to Richard Carpenter, A Song for You was intended to be an album with the title tune opening and closing the set. In Cash Boxs Top 100 Albums of 1972, A Song for You was ranked number 26, the song had a significant impact on the power ballad songs which followed. The albums biggest hit single, the number one smash Top of the World, was not issued until over a year after the albums release. The song went through a few revisions, including a slight remix. With the exception of Bless the Beasts, which peaked at number 26 on the AC chart, all of the albums charted singles made either number one or number two on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album and its singles were also internationally, Goodbye to Love. Made the top ten on the UK Singles Chart as a double A-side, and Top of the World made the Oricon singles chart in Japan on three separate occasions
21.
Beacon Theatre (New York City)
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The Beacon Theatre is a historic theater at 2124 Broadway on Broadway in Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City. The 2, 894-seat, three-tiered theatre was designed by Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager and opened in 1929 as a palace for motion pictures. Today it is one of New Yorks leading live music and entertainment venues, the theater was the site of the 2011,2012, and 2016 Tony Awards. The Beacon Theatre was originally conceived by film producer Herbert Lubin in 1926 as part of a chain of deluxe New York City movie palaces. The planned Roxy Theatre Circuit was to be operated by Lubin, planned as the Roxy Midway Theatre, the future Beacon was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager of Chicago, the architect of the 6000 seat Roxy, as a smaller mate to the larger Times Square theater. However, the collapse of Lubins fortunes doomed the Roxy scheme, the nearly completed theater sat vacant for a time and was eventually acquired by Warner Theatres to be a first-run showcase for Warner Bros. films on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The renamed Warners Beacon Theatre opened on December 24,1929, designed as a silent film showplace, the theaters delayed opening featured a talking picture, silent films having already become obsolete. Later operated by Brandt Theaters, the Beacon continued as a primarily first-run movie theater into the early 1970s, in 1974, Steven Singer bought the theater to present live pop concerts promoted by Stephen Metz. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, in 1987, an effort to convert the theater into a nightclub was blocked in court on the grounds that it would irreparably damage the theaters historic and protected architecture. The Madison Square Garden Company began operating the Beacon in 2006, in November 2006, the theater began a 20-year lease by Cablevision, which also leases Radio City Music Hall and owns Madison Square Garden. The company announced a planned $10 million renovation of the theater, in late September 1989, the Allman Brothers Band played four shows at the Beacon Theatre. They played 10 nights in spring 1992, and played from 8 to 19 shows each spring in the nineteen following years, except for in 2010, when the band could not play at the theatre. They chose to record an album at the theatre in March 2000. In 2009, the Allman Brothers Band celebrated its 40th anniversary by inviting famous musical guests from an array of genres to perform with them at the Beacon Theatre. Dedicated to the founder and original frontman, Duane Allman. Some of the invitees included Eric Clapton, Boz Scaggs, and Levon Helm, formerly of The Band, according to The New York Times, at that time the Allmans had played 190 shows over the past 20 years at the Beacon, beginning in 1989. After the Cirque du Soleil show closed sooner than planned, the Allman Brothers were invited back to the Beacon Theatre in 2011, the show of March 25 was their 200th at the Beacon. The band played the show of its career at the Beacon Theatre on October 28,2014
22.
Willie Nelson
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Willie Hugh Nelson is an American musician, singer, songwriter, author, poet, actor, and activist. He was one of the figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has involved in activism for the use of biofuels. Born during the Great Depression, and raised by his grandparents, Nelson wrote his first song at age seven, during high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Polka as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from school in 1950, he joined the Air Force but was later discharged due to back problems. After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music, during this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in Honky-tonks. Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he wrote Family Bible, in 1958, he moved to Houston, Texas after signing a contract with D Records. He sang at the Esquire Ballroom weekly and he worked as a disk jockey, during that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including Funny How Time Slips Away, Hello Walls, Pretty Paper, and Crazy. In 1960 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and later signed a contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Prices band as a bassist. In 1962, he recorded his first album. And Then I Wrote, due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year. After mid-chart hits in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Nelson retired in 1972 and moved to Austin, the ongoing music scene of Austin motivated Nelson to return from retirement, performing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters. In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to country, including albums such as Shotgun Willie. In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the acclaimed album. The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, Wanted, the Outlaws, along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. In 1990, Nelsons assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, the difficulty of paying his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments he had made during the 1980s. In 1992, Nelson released The IRS Tapes, Wholl Buy My Memories, the profits of the double album—destined to the IRS—and the auction of Nelsons assets cleared his debt. During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively, reviews ranged from positive to mixed. He explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz, Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film The Electric Horseman, followed by other appearances in movies and on television
23.
Donny Hathaway
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Donny Edward Hathaway was an American jazz, blues, soul and gospel singer, songwriter, arranger and pianist. Hathaway signed with Atlantic Records in 1969 and with his first single for the Atco label, The Ghetto, in early 1970, where Is the Love won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1973. At the height of his career Hathaway was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was known to not take his prescribed medication regularly enough to properly control his symptoms. On January 13,1979, Hathaways body was found outside the luxury hotel Essex House in New York City, his death was ruled a suicide. Hathaway, the son of Drusella Huntley, was born in Chicago but raised with his grandmother, Martha Pitts, also known as Martha Crumwell, Hathaway began singing in a church choir with his grandmother, a professional gospel singer, at the age of three and studying piano. He graduated from Vashon High School in 1963, Hathaway then studied music on a fine arts scholarship at Howard University in Washington, D. C. where he met close friend Roberta Flack. At Howard, he was also a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Hathaway formed a jazz trio with drummer Ric Powell while there but during 1967 left Howard just before completing a degree, after receiving job offers in the music business. Hathaway worked as songwriter, session musician and producer for Curtis Mayfields Curtom Records in Chicago and he did the arrangements for hits by the Unifics and took part in projects by the Staple Singers, Jerry Butler, Aretha Franklin, the Impressions and Curtis Mayfield himself. After becoming a producer at Curtom, he also started recording there. Hathaway recorded his first single under his own name in 1969 and they also recorded the duet Just Another Reason, released as the b-side. That year, Hathaway signed to Atco Records, then a division of Atlantic Records and he released his first single of note, The Ghetto, Pt.1, which he co-wrote with former Howard roommate Leroy Hutson, who became a performer, writer and producer with Curtom. The track appeared the year on his critically acclaimed debut LP, Everything Is Everything. His second LP, Donny Hathaway, consisted mostly of covers of pop, soul. His third album Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway was an album of duets with former Howard University associate and label mate Roberta Flack that established him and it sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA on September 5,1972. The album also included a number of covers, including versions of Carole Kings Youve Got a Friend, Baby I Love You, originally a hit for Aretha Franklin. Perhaps Hathaways most influential recording is his 1972 album, Live, the album can also be found on the British online music and culture magazine The Quietus list of 40 Favourite Live Albums. It was recorded at two concerts, side one at The Troubadour in Hollywood, and side two at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, Donny Hathaway is also known as the co-composer and performer of the Christmas standard, This Christmas. The song, released in 1970, has become a staple and is often used in movies, television
24.
Cher
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Cher is an American singer and actress. Commonly referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she is described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. Cher gained popularity in 1965 as one-half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher after their song I Got You Babe reached number one on the American and she began her solo career simultaneously, releasing in 1966 her first million-seller song, Bang Bang. She became a personality in the 1970s with her shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run. She emerged as a trendsetter by wearing elaborate outfits on her television shows. While working on television, she established herself as a solo artist with the U. S. Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves, Half-Breed, and Dark Lady. After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, Cher launched a comeback in 1979 with the disco-oriented album Take Me Home and earned $300,000 a week for her 1980–82 residency show in Las Vegas. In 1982, Cher made her Broadway debut in the play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and starred in the film adaptation of the same title. She subsequently earned critical acclaim for her performances in such as Silkwood, Mask. She then revived her career by recording the rock-inflected albums Cher, Heart of Stone. She reached a new peak in 1998 with the album Believe. It also features the use of Auto-Tune, also known as the Cher effect. Her 2002–2005 Living Proof, The Farewell Tour became one of the concert tours of all time. In 2008, she signed a $180 million deal to headline the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for three years, after seven years of absence, she returned to film in the 2010 musical Burlesque. Chers first studio album in 12 years, Closer to the Truth, Cher has won a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and a special CFDA Fashion Award, among several other honors. Throughout her career, she has sold 100 million records worldwide and she is the only artist to date to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in each decade from the 1960s to the 2010s. Outside of her music and acting, she is noted for her views, philanthropic endeavors and social activism, including LGBT rights. Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California, on May 20,1946, Chers father was rarely home when she was an infant, and her parents divorced when Cher was ten months old
25.
Foxy Lady (Cher album)
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Foxy Lady is the eighth studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released in July 1972 by Kapp Records. Following the commercial success of the previous album Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, Cher again collaborated with Snuff Garrett, Al Capp, Foxy Lady was also the second and last record for Kapp. The album was promoted on Chers successful The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour show. After its release, it was received by critics, but unlike her previous effort Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, had only moderate chart and sales success. When it was released, Foxy Lady was on the charts with two other Cher-related albums, Chers Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves and Sonny & Chers comeback album All I Ever Need Is You. This period was successful for Cher, in which she established herself as a solo recording artist. During this period Snuff Garrett helped with Chers records and these collaborations were so stress filled that Garrett resigned as producer after the album was finished. Bono then went on to produce Chers next album Bittersweet White Light, Garrett was then approached to return to record Half-Breed, he accepted with the condition that Bono not be involved. The opening track of the album is Living in a House Divided, a song about divorce, but the album as a whole wasnt able to compete with Chers other early 1970s solo records. The album contains two covers, A Song for You and Hoyt Axtons Never Been to Spain, the latter had been a hit in the US for rock band Three Dog Night before The Way of Love. On this album, Cher again collaborated with Bob Stone, who had written the song Gypsys. Two songs from the album were later covered by American singer Maureen McGovern for her 1973 debut album The Morning After. In 1976, when Cher was busy with the Cher TV show, one outfit was dedicated to the album. The Foxy Lady outfit is in two pieces, a pink metallic with a black lace. This outfit also includes a black cape, in 1993, Foxy Lady and Chers 1971 album Cher were reissued onto one CD called Cher/Foxy Lady, which features all tracks from both albums. The original Foxy Lady album in its entirety remains unreleased on compact disc, Foxy Lady received positive reviews from music critics. Rolling Stone praised the album saying that it is work and will take her right up the charts once again and described it as a sure. Despite good sales of the first single, Living in a House Divided, the album wasnt appreciated by the public, and unlike its predecessor, the war between Garrett and Bono may have damaged the sales of the record
26.
Herbie Hancock
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Herbert Jeffrey Herbie Hancock is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesizers, Hancocks music is often melodic and accessible, he has had many songs cross over and achieved success among pop audiences. Hancocks best-known compositions include Cantaloupe Island, Watermelon Man, Maiden Voyage, Chameleon, and his 2007 tribute album River, The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album ever to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965. Hancock was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Winnie Belle, a secretary, and Wayman Edward Hancock and his parents named him after the singer and actor Herb Jeffries. He attended the Hyde Park Academy, like many jazz pianists, Hancock started with a classical music education. He studied from age seven, and his talent was recognized early, through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher, but developed his ear and sense of harmony. He was also influenced by records of the group the Hi-Los. He reported that. by the time I actually heard the Hi-Los, I started picking that stuff out, my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and thats when I really learned some much farther-out voicings – like the harmonies I used on Speak Like a Child – just being able to do that, I really got that from Clare Fischers arrangements for the Hi-Los. Clare Fischer was an influence on my harmonic concept. he and Bill Evans. You know, thats where it came from, in 1960, he heard Chris Anderson play just once, and begged him to accept him as a student. Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru, Hancock left Grinnell College, moved to Chicago and began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, during which period he also took courses at Roosevelt University. Byrd was attending the Manhattan School of Music in New York at the time and suggested that Hancock study composition with Vittorio Giannini, the pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. He recorded his first solo album Takin Off for Blue Note Records in 1962, Watermelon Man was to provide Mongo Santamaría with a hit single, but more importantly for Hancock, Takin Off caught the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, Hancock received considerable attention when, in May 1963, he joined Daviss Second Great Quintet. Davis personally sought out Hancock, whom he saw as one of the most promising talents in jazz, the rhythm section Davis organized was young but effective, comprising bassist Ron Carter, 17-year-old drummer Williams, and Hancock on piano. After George Coleman and Sam Rivers each took a turn at the saxophone spot and this quintet is often regarded as one of the finest jazz ensembles, and the rhythm section has been especially praised for its innovation and flexibility. The second great quintet was where Hancock found his own voice as a pianist, not only did he find new ways to use common chords, but he also popularized chords that had not previously been used in jazz
27.
Christina Aguilera
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Christina María Aguilera is an American singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. Born in Staten Island, New York and raised in Rochester and Wexford, Pennsylvania, she appeared on the television series Star Search, after recording Reflection, the theme for Disneys 1998 film Mulan, Aguilera signed with RCA Records. She rose to prominence with her 1999 self-titled debut album spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles, Genie in a Bottle, What a Girl Wants. The following year, Aguilera released two albums, the Spanish-language album Mi Reflejo and the holiday album My Kind of Christmas. She assumed creative control for her studio album, Stripped, which produced Dirrty, Beautiful. Aguileras fifth studio album, Back to Basics, debuted at one on the album charts of ten countries and spawned the tracks Aint No Other Man. In 2010, Aguilera released her studio album Bionic and starred in the film Burlesque. The following year, she debuted as a coach on the reality television series The Voice. Her seventh studio album, Lotus, was released in 2012, Aguilera has also been featured on several successful collaborations during her career, including Lady Marmalade, Moves like Jagger, and Say Something. Aguilera has been recognized as a pop icon and earned the title Pop Princess in her early years and her work has earned her five Grammy Awards, one Latin Grammy Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has sold over 17.9 million albums in the United States as of 2014 and 50 million albums worldwide as of 2015. In 2009, she ranked at number 58 on Rolling Stones list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, thereby becoming the youngest and the only artist under 30 to be named. Billboard recognized her as the 20th most successful artist of the 2000s, aside from her work in the entertainment industry, Aguilera is involved in charitable activities through human rights, world issues, and her work as a UN ambassador for the World Food Programme. Christina María Aguilera was born in Staten Island, New York, on December 18,1980, to Shelly Loraine, a musician, and Fausto Xavier Aguilera and her father is Ecuadorian, while her mother has German, Irish, Welsh, and Dutch ancestry. Her family moved frequently because of her fathers service, and lived in places including New Jersey, Texas, New York. Aguilera and her mother alleged that her father was physically and emotionally abusive, claims which he denied, Aguilera used music as a form of escape from her turbulent household. Following her parents divorce when she was six years old, Aguilera, her younger sister Rachel, after several years of being estranged, Aguilera expressed interest in reconciling with her father in 2012. Growing up, Aguilera, known locally as the girl with the big voice, aspired to be a singer, singing in local talent shows
28.
48th Annual Grammy Awards
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The 48th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8,2006, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Irish rock band U2 were the recipients with five awards including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey, John Legend, and Kanye West were each nominated for eight awards, green Day were amongst the big winners, winning the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. U2 was the top winner, with five awards. Their win for Album of the Year was their win for that particular award. They previously won it back in 1988 for The Joshua Tree and they are the only rock act to have more than one Album of the Year win. Top nominees included Mariah Carey, John Legend and Kanye West with eight each, Kelly Clarkson won two awards, becoming the first American Idol to win a Grammy. No. -Jo-El Sonnier Best Contemporary Folk Album Fair & Square-John Prine Chávez Ravine-Ry Cooder The Outsider-Rodney Crowell Why Should the Fire Die. Brightside - The Killers This Love - Maroon 5 More Than Love - Los Lonely Boys My Doorbell - The White Stripes Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals Feel Good Inc. Number One Spot-Ludacris Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group Dont Phunk With My Heart - The Black Eyed Peas The Corner-Common & The Last Poets Encore-Eminem, L. U2s win for Album of the Year was their second win for that respective award. They previously won it back at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards in 1988 for The Joshua Tree and they are the only rock act to have more than one Album of the Year win. Sly Stone made his first public Appearance since 1987 wearing a Cockatoo-Style mohawk While presenting Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Alicia Keys & Stevie Wonder led a sing-along of Higher Ground, slipknots win for Before I Forget was their first Grammy Award win. Steven Tyler & Joe Perry are from Aerosmith, in the Midnight Hour is originally sung by Wilson Pickett. A Song for You is originally performed by Andy Williams from his 1971 album Youve Got a Friend, the song was written by Leon Russell. Neil Portnow made an appearance 48th Annual Grammy Awards Winners List
29.
Whitney Houston
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Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, Guinness World Records cited her as the most awarded female act of all time, Houston is one of pop musics best-selling music artists of all-time, with an estimated 170–200 million records sold worldwide. She released seven albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No.1 Billboard Hot 100 hits and she is the second artist behind Elton John and the only woman to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards on the Billboard magazine year-end charts. Houstons debut album, Whitney Houston, became the debut album by a woman in history. Rolling Stone named it the best album of 1986, and ranked it at number 254 on the magazines list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album, Whitney, became the first album by a woman to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Houstons first acting role was as the star of the feature film The Bodyguard. The films original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year and its lead single, I Will Always Love You, won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history. With the album, Houston became the first act to sell more than a million copies of an album within a week period under Nielsen SoundScan system. The album makes her the top female act in the top 10 list of the albums of all time. Houston continued to star in movies and contribute to their soundtracks, including the films Waiting to Exhale, the Preachers Wife soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history. On February 11,2012, Houston was found dead in her guest room at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, the official coroners report showed that she had accidentally drowned in the bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards and featured prominently in American, Whitney Houston was born on August 9,1963 in what was then a middle-income neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston, Jr. and her elder brother Michael is a singer, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player Gary Garland. Her parents were both African American, through her mother, Houston was a first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Her godmother was Darlene Love and her aunt was Aretha Franklin. Houston was raised a Baptist, but was exposed to the Pentecostal church. After the 1967 Newark riots, the moved to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey
30.
I Look to You
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I Look to You is the seventh and final studio album by American singer Whitney Houston. The album was Houstons first studio album since 2003s One Wish, additionally it became her fourth chart-topping album, thus extending her as the female artist with the most cumulative weeks at the number one position. Since its release, I Look to You has gone on to sell over 3 million copies worldwide, earning platinum certification in seven countries and gold certification in eight. A promotional single, Nothin But Love, taken from the album, was released to UK radio stations to promote the accompanying Nothing. I Look to You had first been conceived in 2007 with recording and production taking place in 2008, onlookers included her mother Cissy Houston, musicians Paul McCartney, Jamie Foxx and Barry Manilow as well as actors Antonio Banderas and Sylvester Stallone. She told press in London that her latest album will reflect her emotional state and she said That makes it real. The changes that we go through, the transitions that we go through and it all had its ups and its downs, but for the most part, I kept my faith and I kept my head up. All the triumphs and the ups and downs and stuff, its all incorporated on the album, and hopefully not only does it inspire me, but inspires a whole lot of other people. According to Davis, I Look to You was not aimed at simply following current music marketing trends, but instead, staying true to who Houston is and the impact she has made on the music industry. The albums opener Million Dollar Bill was written and co-produced by Alicia Keys, shaheem Reed from MTV commented Houstons voice over a club-friendly beat that blends a rough-riding thump with R&B. Nothin But Love, produced by contemporary R&B and hip-hop producer Nathaniel Danja Hills, was described by Rap-Up magazine as being uptempo danceable hand-clapping beat and it was also described as being made for urban radio. Call You Tonight is one of two written by Johntá Austin and was produced by Norwegian production team Stargate featuring their trademark guitar riffs. The other Austin track on the album is a mid-tempo R&B track titled, Worth It, in the Summer 2009 edition of Rap-Up, R&B singer Akon spoke about working with Houston for the then-upcoming album. In the interview he revealed that he had worked with her on two songs for the album, one of which, Like I Never Left, was leaked to the internet. It had initially been tipped as a single, Davis said Houston wanted an island song, so they reached out to Akon. The song was likened to Janet Jacksons My Baby, which featured Kanye West, American singer R. Kelly also wrote two songs for the album. One of the songs Salute was described as being militaristic marching beat that also features Kelly on the vocals in the chorus. In the song Houston makes reference to LL Cool J with the lyric, Dont call it a comeback, kellys other contribution, I Look to You became the albums title song, and was released as the albums debut single
31.
Welcome Home Heroes with Whitney Houston
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Welcome Home Heroes with Whitney Houston, was Whitney Houstons first ever solo televised concert and DVD/video release. The DVD/video presents Houston performing live at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, the video was originally released on May 14,1991, and the DVD was released in 2002. The concert was dedicated to the troops, their families, and military, the DVD was later re-released in the United States and released worldwide with the title A Song for You. The concert was broadcast live on HBO, the cable network agreed to unscramble its signal allowing it to be available to over 50 million cable households. The concert was open to only 3,100 people, all of whom were military personnel or their families. The show won a Cable ACE award for Performance music special in 1992, khandi Alexander was the choreographer for Whitney Houstons show as well as her world tours from 1988 through 1992.9 million viewers
32.
Jaye P. Morgan
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Jaye P. Morgan is a retired popular music American singer, actress and game show panelist. Morgan was born in Mancos in Montezuma County in far southwestern Colorado and her family moved to California by the time she was in high school. Morgan had six siblings, five brothers and one sister, in the late 1940s, at Verdugo Hills High School in the Tujunga neighborhood of Los Angeles, she served as class treasurer and sang at school assemblies, accompanied by her brother on guitar. In 1950, a year after her graduation from school, Morgan made a recording of Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries issued by Derby Records. Soon after, she received an RCA Victor recording contract, and she had five hits in one year, including Thats All I Want from You, her biggest hit, other notable hits included The Longest Walk and Pepper Hot Baby. In 1954, she married Michael Baiano and she joined MGM Records in 1959 after spending the previous six years with RCA Victor. From 1954 to 1955, Morgan was a vocalist on the ABC television series show Stop the Music, in November 1955, the British music magazine, NME, reported that Morgan was the top female vocalist in the U. S. In 1956, she had her own The Jaye P. Morgan Show and she was a charter member of the Robert Q. Lewis gang on Lewiss weekday program on CBS, and was featured on a episode of The Jackie Gleason Show in which Lewiss entire company substituted for the vacationing Gleason. In 1958, Morgan appeared on ABCs The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, on October 6,1960, she guest starred on NBCs The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. In 1961, Morgan was cast as Sally Dwight in the episode Money, in 1962, she played Patty Maxwell in Pattis Tune of the CBS military sitcom/drama Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper. That same year, she was cast as Kitty Flanders in Thats Showbiz on NBCs The Joey Bishop Show, in 1964, Morgan was cast as Ruth Evans in the episode Sunday Father of the NBC medical drama, The Eleventh Hour. She spent considerable time in the 1960s making nightclub appearances, in 1966, she guest starred on CBSs My Three Sons as fading singer Claudia Farrell in the episode entitled A Falling Star. In 1973, Morgan played herself in the episode The Songwriter of the sitcom and she appeared as Magda Valentine in the film The All-American Boy, and continued to play small roles in films such as Loose Shoes, Night Patrol and Home Alone 2, Lost in New York. Morgan guest starred on The Muppet Show in which she and Dr. Teeth sang That Old Black Magic, from 1976 to 1978, Morgan was a regular panelist on the popular game/variety show The Gong Show. She also appeared on Rhyme and Reason and Match Game and in the 1980 behind-the-scenes movie version of The Gong Show and she also appeared on the Playboy Channel game show Everything Goes, and with her former Gong partner Jamie Farr on Hollywood Squares Game Show Week II in 2004. The official website of Jaye P. Morgan Jaye P. Morgan at AllMusic Jaye P. Morgan discography, forum, and marketplace at Discogs Jaye P. Morgan at the Internet Movie Database
33.
Shotgun Willie
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Shotgun Willie is a 1973 album by Willie Nelson. The recording marks a change of style for Nelson, who stated that the album cleared his throat. When Nelson refused to sign an extension of his contract with RCA in 1972. In Nashville, Nelson met producer Jerry Wexler, vice president of Atlantic Records, Reshen solved the problems with RCA and signed Nelson with Atlantic Records as their first country music artist. The album was recorded in the Atlantic Records studio in New York City in February 1973, Nelson and his backup musicians were joined by Doug Sahm and his band. After recording several tracks, Nelson was still not inspired, following a recording session, he wrote Shotgun Willie—the song that would become the title track of the album—on the empty packaging of a sanitary napkin while in the bathroom of his hotel room. The album, produced mostly by Arif Mardin, included covers of two Bob Wills songs—Stay All Night and Bubbles in My Beer—that were co-produced by Wexler, waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter collaborated on the album, providing vocals and guitar. Shotgun Willie was released in June 1973, in spite of poor sales, the album received good reviews and gained Nelson major recognition with younger audiences. Neil Reshen, who Nelson hired as his manager to negotiate with the label, at the same time, Nelson had moved to Austin, Texas, to take a short break. Austins burgeoning hippie music scene at venues like Armadillo World Headquarters rejuvenated the singer and his popularity in Austin soared as he played his own brand of music that was a blend of country, folk, and jazz influences. During a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, Nelson attended a party in Harlan Howards house, another guest was Atlantic Records vice-president Jerry Wexler, who previously had produced works for artists such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. Wexler was interested in Nelsons music, so when Atlantic opened a music division of their label. When Nelson was released from his RCA contract, he signed with Atlantic for US$25,000 per year, the recording sessions took place in February 1973, Wexler provided Nelson and his band with a studio in New York City, where most of the recordings were produced. Doug Sahm and his band were invited to the sessions. During the first session, Nelson recorded the songs for The Troublemaker, later, he proceeded with Shotgun Willie. Wexler had encouraged Nelson after singing the gospel album to start with the new one, to old material with new. He initially recorded twenty-three tracks along with his and Sahms band and he wrote the title song after one of the sessions. Pacing in his room, he went to the bathroom, where he sat on the toilet and took the empty envelope from a sanitary napkin from the sink
