A-side and B-side
The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78, 45, 331⁄3 rpm phonograph records, or cassettes, whether singles, extended plays, or long-playing records. The A-side featured the recording that the artist, record producer, or the record company intended to receive the initial promotional effort and receive radio airplay to become a "hit" record; the B-side is a secondary recording that has a history of its own: some artists released B-sides that were considered as strong as the A-side and became hits in their own right. 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. Music recordings have moved away from records onto other formats such as CDs and digital downloads, which do not have "sides", but the terms are still used to describe the type of content, with B-side sometimes standing for "bonus" track.
The first sound recordings at the end of the 19th century were made on cylinder records, which had a single round surface capable of holding two minutes of sound. Early shellac disc records records only had recordings on one side of the disc, with a similar capacity. Double-sided recordings, with one selection on each side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records in 1908, by 1910 most record labels had adopted the format in both Europe and the United States. There were no record charts until the 1930s, radio stations did not play recorded music until the 1950s. In this time, A-sides and B-sides existed. In June 1948, Columbia Records introduced the modern 331⁄3 rpm long-playing microgroove vinyl record for commercial sales, its rival RCA Victor, responded the next year with the seven-inch 45 rpm vinylite record, which would replace the 78 for single record releases; the term "single" came into popular 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 and which would be a B-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, 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 record company wanted radio stations to play, as 45 rpm single records dominated the market in terms of cash sales, it was not until 1968, for example, that the total production of albums on a unit basis 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, which were not equipped for stereo broadcast at the time, so stereo was not a priority. However, the FM rock stations did not like to play monaural content, so the record companies adopted a protocol for DJ versions with the mono version of the song on one side, stereo version of the same song on the other.
By the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, instrumental versions or inferior recordings were placed. In order to further ensure that radio stations played the side that the record companies had chosen, it was common for the promotional copies of a single to have the "plug side" on both sides of the disc. With the decline of 45 rpm vinyl records, after the introduction of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. At first, cassette singles would have one song on each side of the cassette, matching the arrangement of vinyl records, but cassette maxi-singles, containing more than two songs, became more popular. Cassette singles were phased out beginning in the late 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became extinct, as the remaining dominant medium, the compact disc, lacked an equivalent physical distinction.
However, the term "B-side" is still used to refer to the "bonus" tracks or "coupling" tracks on a CD single. With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other physical media have declined, the term "B-side" is now less used. Songs that were not part of an artist's collection of albums are made available through the same downloadable catalogs as tracks from their albums, are referred to as "unreleased", "bonus", "non-album", "rare", "outtakes" or "exclusive" tracks, the latter in the case of a song being available from a certain provider of music. B-side songs may be released on the same 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, a song that does not fit into the story lin
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian Hopkins was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins recorded and performed on many notable British and American pop and rock music releases from the 1960s through the 1990s including many songs by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who. Nicholas Christian Hopkins was born in Perivale, England, on 24 February 1944, he began playing piano at the age of three. He attended Sudbury Primary School in Perrin Road and Wembley County Grammar School, which now forms part of Alperton Community School, was tutored by a local piano teacher, he suffered from Crohn's disease for most of his life. His poor health and repeated surgery made it difficult for him to tour, he worked as a session musician for most of his career. Hopkins' studies were interrupted in 1960 when he left school at 16 to become the pianist with Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages until, two years he and fellow Savages Bernie Watson, Rick Brown and Carlo Little, joined the renowned blues harmonica player Cyril Davies, who had just left Blues Incorporated, became the Cyril Davies All-Stars.
Hopkins played piano on their first single, Davies' much-admired theme tune "Country Line Special". However he was forced to leave the All Stars in May 1963 for a series of operations that cost him his life and was bed-ridden for nineteen months in his late teenage years. During his convalescence Davies died of the All Stars disbanded. Hopkins' frail health led him to concentrate on working as a session musician instead of joining bands, although he left his mark performing with a wide variety of famous bands, he became one of London's most in-demand session pianists and performed on many hit recordings from this period. He worked extensively for leading UK independent producers Shel Talmy and Andrew Loog Oldham and performed on albums and singles by the Easybeats, the Kinks, the Pretty Things, the Move, the Rolling Stones and the Who. In 1967, he joined The Jeff Beck Group. Intended as a vehicle for former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck, the band included vocalist Rod Stewart, bassist Ronnie Wood and drummer Micky Waller.
He remained with the ensemble through its dissolution in August 1969, performing on Truth and Beck-Ola. The following year, Hopkins recorded Beggars Banquet with The Rolling Stones, having worked for them on their 1967 single "We Love You" and the album Their Satanic Majesties Request, he began to record for several San Franciscan groups, playing on albums by Jefferson Airplane, the New Riders of the Purple Sage and the Steve Miller Band. From 1969 to 1970, Hopkins was a full member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, appearing on Shady Grove, Just for Love and What About Me. In 1975, he contributed to the Solid Silver reunion album as a session musician. By this point Hopkins was one of Britain's best-known session players through his work with the Rolling Stones and after playing electric piano on The Beatles' "Revolution" – a rare occasion when an outside rock musician appeared on a Beatles recording. Further raising his profile, he contributed to several Harry Nilsson albums in the early 1970s, including Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson, recordings by Donovan.
Hopkins played with the Rolling Stones on their studio albums from Between the Buttons in 1967 through Tattoo You in 1981. Among his contributions, he supplied the prominent piano parts on "We Love You" and "She's a Rainbow", "Sympathy for the Devil", "Monkey Man", "Sway", "Loving Cup" and "Ventilator Blues", "Angie", "Time Waits for No One" and "Waiting on a Friend"; when working with the band during their critical and commercial zenith in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hopkins tended to be employed on a wide range of slower ballads, uptempo rockers and acoustic material. Hopkins' work with the Rolling Stones is most prominent on their 1972 studio album, Exile on Main St. where he contributed in a variety of musical styles. Along with Ry Cooder, Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, Hopkins released the 1972 album Jamming with Edward! It was recorded in 1969, during the Stones' Let It Bleed sessions, when guitarist Keith Richards was not present in the studio; the eponymous "Edward" was an alias of Nicky Hopkins derived from studio banter with Brian Jones.
It was incorporated into the title of an outstanding Hopkins instrumental performance released on Shady Grove in December 1969. Hopkins contributed to the Jamming With Edward! Cover art. Hopkins was added to the Rolling Stones touring line-up for the 1971 Good-Bye Britain Tour, as well as the notorious 1972 North American tour and the 1973 Pacific tour, he contemplated forming his own band with multi-instrumentalist Pete Sears and drummer Prairie Prince around this time but decided against it after the Stones tour. Hopkins failed to make the Rolling Stones' 1973 European tour due to ill health and, aside from a guest appearance in 1978, did not play again with the Stones live on stage. Hopkins was invited in 1965 by producer Shel Talmy to record with The Kinks, he recorded 4 studio albums: The Kink Kontroversy, Face to Face, Something Else by The Kinks and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. Part of Warwickshire, Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, it is the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham. Coventry is 19 miles east-southeast of Birmingham, 24 miles southwest of Leicester, 11 miles north of Warwick and 94 miles northwest of London. Coventry is the most central city in England, being only 11 miles south-southwest of the country's geographical centre in Leicestershire; the current Coventry Cathedral was built after the majority of the 14th century cathedral church of Saint Michael was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in the Coventry Blitz of 14 November 1940. Coventry motor companies have contributed to the British motor industry; the city has two universities, Coventry University in the city centre and the University of Warwick on the southern outskirts. On 7 December 2017, the city won the title of UK City of Culture 2021, after beating Paisley, Stoke-on-Trent and Sunderland to the title.
They will be the third title holder, of the quadrennial award which began in 2013. The Romans founded a settlement in Baginton, next to the River Sowe, another formed around a Saxon nunnery, founded c. AD 700 by St Osburga, left in ruins by King Canute's invading Danish army in 1016. Earl Leofric of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary. In time, a market was established at the settlement expanded. Coventry Castle was a bailey castle in the city, it was built in the early 12th century by 4th Earl of Chester. Its first known use was during The Anarchy when Robert Marmion, a supporter of King Stephen, expelled the monks from the adjacent priory of Saint Mary in 1144, converted it into a fortress from which he waged a battle against the Earl. Marmion perished in the battle, it was demolished in the late 12th century and St Mary's Guildhall was built on part of the site. It is assumed. By the 14th century, Coventry was an important centre of the cloth trade, throughout the Middle Ages was one of the largest and most important cities in England.
The bishops of Lichfield were referred to as bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry. Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, was granted a charter of incorporation in 1345, in 1451 became a county in its own right; the plays that William Shakespeare witnessed in Coventry during his boyhood or'teens' may have influenced how his plays, such as Hamlet, came about. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three main British centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot, in Lancashire and Clerkenwell in London; as the industry declined, due to competition from Swiss Made clock and watch manufacturers, the skilled pool of workers proved crucial to the setting up of bicycle manufacture and the motorbike, machine tool and aircraft industries. In the late 19th century, Coventry became a major centre of bicycle manufacture; the industry energised by the invention by James Starley and his nephew John Kemp Starley of the Rover safety bicycle, safer and more popular than the pioneering penny-farthing.
The company became Rover. By the early 20th century, bicycle manufacture had evolved into motor manufacture, Coventry became a major centre of the British motor industry; the research and design headquarters of Jaguar Cars is in the city at their Whitley plant and although vehicle assembly ceased at the Browns Lane plant in 2004, Jaguar's head office returned to the city in 2011, is sited in Whitley. Jaguar is owned by Tata Motors. With many of the city's older properties becoming unfit for habitation, the first council houses were let to their tenants in 1917. With Coventry's industrial base continuing to soar after the end of the Great War a year numerous private and council housing developments took place across the city in the 1920s and 1930s; the development of a southern by-pass around the city, starting in the 1930s and being completed in 1940, helped deliver more urban areas to the city on rural land. Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during the Second World War. There was a massive Luftwaffe air raid that the Germans called Operation Moonlight Sonata, part of the "Coventry Blitz", on 14 November 1940.
Firebombing on this date led to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and to Coventry's historic cathedral, leaving only a shell and the spire. More than 4,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with around three quarters of the city's industrial plants. More than 800 people were killed, with thousands injured and homeless. Aside from London and Plymouth, Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge firestorms devastating most of the city centre; the city was targeted due to its high concentration of armaments, munitions and aero-engine plants which contributed to the British war effort, although there have been claims that Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of Munich by the RAF six days before the Coventry Blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Britain. Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings could not be saved as they were in ruinous states or were deemed unsafe for any future use.
Several structures were demolished to make way for
Jimmy Page
James Patrick Page is an English musician and record producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in London and, by the mid-1960s, alongside Big Jim Sullivan, was one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Britain, he was a member of the Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968. In late 1968, he founded Led Zeppelin. Page is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Rolling Stone magazine has described Page as "the pontiff of power riffing" and ranked him number three in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", behind Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. In 2010, he was ranked number two in Gibson's list of "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time" and, in 2007, number four on Classic Rock's "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes", he was inducted into the Roll Hall of Fame twice. Page was born to James Patrick Page and Patricia Elizabeth Gaffikin in the west London suburb of Heston on 9 January 1944.
His father was an personnel manager at a plastic-coatings plant and his mother, of Irish descent, was a doctor's secretary. In 1952, they moved to Feltham and to Miles Road, Epsom in Surrey. Page was educated from the age of eight at Epsom County Pound Lane Primary School, when he was eleven he went to Ewell County Secondary School in West Ewell, he came across his first guitar, a Spanish guitar, in the Miles Road house: "I don't know whether was left behind by the people before, or whether it was a friend of the family's—nobody seemed to know why it was there." First playing the instrument when aged 12, he took a few lessons in nearby Kingston, but was self-taught: When I grew up there weren't many other guitarists... There was one other guitarist in my school who showed me the first chords that I learned and I went on from there. I was bored. So it was a personal thing; this "other guitarist" was a boy called Rod Wyatt, a few years his senior, together with another boy, Pete Calvert, they would practise at Page's house.
Among Page's early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley. Presley's song "Baby Let's Play House" is cited by Page as being his inspiration to take up the guitar, he would reprise Moore's playing on the song in the live version of "Whole Lotta Love" on The Song Remains the Same, he appeared on BBC1 in 1957 with a Höfner President, Page states that his first guitar was a second-hand 1959 Futurama Grazioso replaced by a Fender Telecaster. Page's musical tastes included skiffle and acoustic folk playing, the blues sounds of Elmore James, B. B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Freddie King and Hubert Sumlin. "Basically, the start: a mixture between rock and blues."At the age of 13, Page appeared on Huw Wheldon's All Your Own talent quest programme in a skiffle quartet, one performance of which aired on BBC1 in 1957. The group played "Mama Don't Want to Skiffle Anymore" and another American-flavoured song, "In Them Ol' Cottonfields Back Home".
When asked by Wheldon what he wanted to do after schooling, Page said, "I want to do biological research cancer, if it isn't discovered by then."In an interview with Guitar Player magazine, Page stated that "there was a lot of busking in the early days, but as they say, I had to come to grips with it and it was a good schooling." Page took a guitar to school each day only to have it returned to him after class. Although interviewed for a job as a laboratory assistant, he chose to leave Danetree Secondary School, West Ewell, to pursue music. Page had difficulty finding other musicians with. "It wasn't as. I used to play in many groups... anyone who could get a gig together, really." Following stints backing recitals by Beat poet Royston Ellis at the Mermaid Theatre between 1960–61, singer Red E. Lewis, he was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band, the Crusaders, after Christian had seen a fifteen-year-old Page playing in a local hall. Page toured with Christian for two years and played on several of his records, including the 1962 single, "The Road to Love."During his stint with Christian, Page fell ill with infectious mononucleosis and could not continue touring.
While recovering, he decided to put his musical career on hold and concentrate on his other love and enrolled at Sutton Art College in Surrey. As he explained in 1975: travelling around all the time in a bus. I did that for two years after I left school, to the point where I was starting to get good bread, but I was getting ill. So I went back to art college. And, a total change in direction. That's; as dedicated as I was to playing the guitar, I knew doing it. Every two months I had glandular fever. So for the next 18 months I was getting my strength up, but I was still playing. While still a student, Page performed on stage at the Marquee Club with bands such as Cyril Davies' All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, fellow guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, he was spotted one night by John Gibb of Brian Howard & the Silhouettes, who asked him to help record some singles for Columb
Folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre combining elements of folk music and rock music, which arose in the United States and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U. S. folk rock emerged from the folk music revival and the influence that the Beatles and other British Invasion bands had on members of that movement. Performers such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds—several of whose members had earlier played in folk ensembles—attempted to blend the sounds of rock with their preexisting folk repertoire, adopting the use of electric instrumentation and drums in a way discouraged in the U. S. folk community. The term "folk rock" was used in the U. S. music press in June 1965 to describe the Byrds' music. The commercial success of the Byrds' cover version of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and their debut album of the same name, along with Dylan's own recordings with rock instrumentation—on the albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde —encouraged other folk acts, such as Simon & Garfunkel, to use electric backing on their records and new groups, such as Buffalo Springfield, to form.
Dylan's controversial appearance at the Newport Folk Festival on 25 July 1965, where he was backed by an electric band, was a pivotal moment in the development of the genre. During the late 1960s in Britain and Europe, a distinct, eclectic British folk rock style was created by Pentangle, Fairport Convention and Alan Stivell. Inspired by British psychedelic folk and the North American style of folk rock, British folk rock bands began to incorporate elements of traditional British folk music into their repertoire, leading to other variants, including the overtly English folk rock of the Albion Band and Celtic rock. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term "folk rock" refers to the blending of elements of folk music and rock music, which arose in the U. S. and UK in the mid-1960s. The genre was pioneered by the Byrds, who began playing traditional folk music and songs by Bob Dylan with rock instrumentation, in a style influenced by the Beatles and other British Invasion bands; the term "folk rock" was coined by the U.
S. music press to describe the Byrds' music in June 1965, the month in which the band's debut album was issued. Dylan contributed to the creation of the genre, with his recordings utilizing rock instrumentation on the albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde. In a broader sense, folk rock encompasses inspired musical genres and movements in different regions of the world. Folk rock may lean more towards either folk or rock in instrumentation and vocal style, choice of material. While the original genre draws on music of Europe and North America, there is no clear delineation of which other culture's music might be included as influences; the term is not associated with blues-based rock music, African American music, Cajun-based rock music, nor music with non-European folk roots. There are some exceptions; the American folk-music revival began during the 1940s. In 1948, Seeger formed the Weavers, whose mainstream popularity set the stage for the folk revival of the 1950s and early 1960s and served to bridge the gap between folk, popular music, topical song.
The Weavers' sound and repertoire of traditional folk material and topical songs directly inspired the Kingston Trio, a three-piece folk group who came to prominence in 1958 with their hit recording of "Tom Dooley". The Kingston Trio provided the template for a flood of "collegiate folk" groups between 1958 and 1962. At the same time as these "collegiate folk" vocal groups came to national prominence, a second group of urban folk revivalists, influenced by the music and guitar picking styles of folk and blues artist such as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Brownie McGhee, Josh White came to the fore. Many of these urban revivalists were influenced by recordings of traditional American music from the 1920s and 1930s, reissued by Folkways Records. While this urban folk revival flourished in many cities, New York City, with its burgeoning Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene and population of topical folk singers, was regarded as the centre of the movement. Out of this fertile environment came such folk-protest luminaries as Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Peter and Mary, many of whom would transition into folk rock performers as the 1960s progressed.
The vast majority of the urban folk revivalists shared a disdain for the values of mainstream American mass culture and led many folk singers to begin composing their own "protest" material. The influence of this folk-protest movement would manifest itself in the sociopolitical lyrics and mildly anti-establishment sentiments of many folk rock songs, including hit singles such as "Eve of Destruction", "Like a Rolling Stone", "For What It's Worth", "Let's Live for Today". During the 1950s and early 1960s in the UK, a parallel folk revival referred to as the second British folk revival, was led by folk singers Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd. Both viewed British folk music as a vehicle for leftist political concepts and an antidote to the American-dominated popular music of the time. However, it wasn't until 1956 and the advent of the skiffle craze that the British folk revival crossed over into the mainstream and connected with British youth culture. Skiffle renewed popularity of folk music forms in Britain and led directly to the progressive folk movement and the attendant B
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited is a German-British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the company was founded in 8 August 1923 as The Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name and release library, merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited. George Martin joined EMI in 1950 as assistant label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of product, including comedy recordings of the Goons, pianist Mrs Mills, teen idol Adam Faith. In 1962, Martin signed the Beatles, at the time a struggling rock band from Liverpool. During the 1960s, when Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer, the Fourmost, the Hollies signed, Parlophone became one of the world's most famous labels. For several years, Parlophone claimed the best-selling UK single, "She Loves You", the best-selling UK album, Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, both by the Beatles. The label placed seven singles at No. 1 during 1964, when it claimed top spot on the UK Albums Chart for 40 weeks. Parlophone continued as a division of EMI until it was merged into the Gramophone Co. on 1 July 1965. On 1 July 1973, the Gramophone Co. was renamed EMI Records Limited. On 28 September 2012, regulators approved Universal Music Group's planned acquisition of EMI on condition that its EMI Records group would be divested from the combined group. EMI Records Ltd. included Parlophone and other labels to be divested and were for a short time operated in a single entity known as the Parlophone Label Group, while UMG pended their sale. Warner Music Group acquired Parlophone and PLG in 7 February 2013, making Parlophone their third flagship label alongside Warner Bros. and Atlantic. PLG was renamed Parlophone Records Limited in May 2013. Parlophone is the oldest of WMG's "flagship" record labels. Parlophone was founded "Parlophon" by Carl Lindström Company in 1896.
The name Parlophon was used for gramophones. The label's ₤ trademark is a German L. On 8 August 1923, the British branch of "Parlophone" was established, led by artists and repertoire manager Oscar Preuss. In its early years, Parlophone established itself as a leading jazz label in Britain. In 1927, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired a controlling interest in the Carl Lindström Company, including Parlophone. Parlophone became a subsidiary of Electric & Musical Industries, after Columbia Graphophone merged with the Gramophone Company in 1931. In 1950, Oscar Preuss hired record producer George Martin as his assistant; when Preuss retired in 1955, Martin succeeded him as Parlophone's manager. Parlophone specialized in classical music, cast recordings, regional British music. Musicians signed to the labels include the Vipers Skiffle Group. One of the label's successful acts was teen idol Adam Faith, signed to the label in 1959; the label gained significant popularity in 1962. Parlophone gained more attention after signing the Hollies, Ella Fitzgerald, Gerry and the Pacemakers in the 1960s.
Martin left to form Associated Independent Recording Studios in 1965. Parlophone became dormant in 1973 when most of EMI's heritage labels were phased out in favor of EMI. Parlophone was revived in 1980. During the next decades the label signed Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, Radiohead, Guy Berryman, the Chemical Brothers, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, Damon Albarn, Conor Maynard, Gabrielle Aplin, Gorillaz. On 23 April 2008, Miles Leonard was confirmed as the label's president. On 28 September 2012, regulators approved Universal Music Group's planned acquisition of Parlophone's parent group EMI for £1.2 billion, subject to conditions imposed by the European Commission requiring that UMG sell off a number of labels, including Parlophone itself, Ensign, Virgin Classics, EMI Classics, EMI's operations in Portugal, France, Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic and Poland. These labels and catalogues were operated independently from Universal as Parlophone Label Group to prepare for a transaction early in 2013.
UMG received several offers for PLG, including those from Island founder Chris Blackwell, Simon Fuller, a Sony/BMG consortium, Warner Music Group, MacAndrews & Forbes. On 7 February 2013, it was confirmed that Warner Music Group would acquire Parlophone Label Group for US$765 million; the deal was approved in May 2013 by the European Union, which saw no concerns about the deal because of WMG's smaller reach compared to the merged UMG and Sony. Warner Music closed the deal on July 1. Parlophone Label Group was the old EMI Records company that included both the Parlophone and the eponymous EMI labels; the EMI name was retained by Universal. Soon after acquiring Parlophone, WMG signed an agreement with IMPALA and the Merlin Network to divest $200 million worth of artists to independent labels in order to help offset the consolidation triggered by the merger. In April 2016, the back catalog
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Simon's musical career has spanned seven decades with his fame and commercial success beginning as half of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, formed in 1956 with Art Garfunkel. Simon was responsible for writing nearly all of the pair's songs including three that reached number one on the U. S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "Bridge over Troubled Water"; the duo split up in 1970 at the height of their popularity, Simon began a successful solo career, recording three acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music, which sold 14 million copies worldwide on its release and remains his most popular solo work. Simon wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman with the poet Derek Walcott. On June 3, 2016, Simon released his 13th solo album, Stranger to Stranger, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Album Chart and the UK charts.
Simon has earned sixteen Grammys for his solo and collaborative work, including three for Album of the Year, a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time. In 2011, Rolling Stone named Simon one of the 100 greatest guitarists. In 2015, he was named one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time by Rolling Stone. Among many other honors, Simon was the first recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007. In 1986, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music, where he serves on the Board of Trustees. Simon was born on October 1941, in Newark, New Jersey, to Hungarian Jewish parents, his father, was a college professor, double-bass player, dance bandleader who performed under the name "Lee Sims". His mother, was an elementary school teacher. In 1945, his family moved to the Kew Gardens Hills section of Queens, in New York City.
The musician Donald Fagen has described Simon's childhood as that of "a certain kind of New York Jew a stereotype to whom music and baseball are important. I think; the parents are either immigrants or first-generation Americans who felt like outsiders, assimilation was the key thought—they gravitated to black music and baseball looking for an alternative culture." Simon, upon hearing Fagen's description, said it "isn't far from the truth." Simon says about his childhood, "I was a ballplayer. I'd go on my bike, I'd hustle kids in stickball." He adds that his father was a New York Yankees fan: I used to listen to games with my father. He was a nice guy. Fun. Funny. Smart, he didn't play with me as much. He was at work until late at night.... Sometimes two in the morning. Simon's musical career began after meeting Art Garfunkel when they were both 11, they performed in a production of Alice in Wonderland for their sixth-grade graduation, began singing together when they were 13 performing at school dances.
Their idols were the Everly Brothers. Simon developed an interest in jazz and blues in the music of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly. Simon's first song written for himself and Garfunkel, when Simon was 12 or 13, was called "The Girl for Me," and according to Simon became the "neighborhood hit." His father wrote the chords on paper for the boys to use. That paper became the first copyrighted Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel song, is now in the Library of Congress. In 1957, in their mid-teens, they recorded the song "Hey, Schoolgirl" under the name "Tom & Jerry", a name, given to them by their label Big Records; the single reached No. 49 on the pop charts. After graduating from Forest Hills High School, Simon majored in English at Queens College and graduated in 1963, while Garfunkel studied mathematics at Columbia University in Manhattan. Simon was a brother in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, earned a degree in English literature, attended Brooklyn Law School for one semester after graduation in 1963, but his real passion was rock and roll.
Between 1957 and 1964, Simon wrote and released more than 30 songs reuniting with Garfunkel as Tom & Jerry for some singles, including "Our Song" and "That's My Story". Most of the songs Simon recorded during that time were performed alone or with musicians other than Garfunkel, they were released on several minor record labels, such as Amy, Hunt, King and Madison. He used several pseudonyms for these recordings, most "Jerry Landis", but "Paul Kane" and "True Taylor". By 1962, working as Jerry Landis, he was a frequent writer/producer for several Amy Records artists, overseeing material released by Dotty Daniels, The Vels and Ritchie Cordell. Simon enjoyed some moderate success in recording a few singles as part of a group called Tico and the Triumphs, including a song called "Motorcycle" that reached No. 97 on the Billboard charts in 1962. Tico and the Triumphs released four 45s. Marty Cooper, known as Tico, sang lead on several of these releases, but not on "Motorcycle", which featured Simon's vocal.
That same year, Simon reached No. 99 on the pop charts as Jerry Landis with the novelty song "The Lone Teen Ranger." Both chart singles were released on Amy Records. In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel got an audition with Columbia Records, whose executive Clive Davis was impressed enough to sign the du
