1.
Guns N' Roses
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Guns N Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles formed in 1985. The lineup, when first signed to Geffen Records in 1986, consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. The current lineup consists of Rose, Slash, McKagan, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese, guitarist Richard Fortus, the success of the debut was followed by the eight-song album G N R Lies which reached number two on the Billboard 200. The cover album The Spaghetti Incident. was the bands last studio album to feature Slash and it debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 but undersold industry expectations, despite mostly positive critical reception. Former members Slash and McKagan both rejoined the band in 2016, embarking on the Not in This Lifetime, Guns N Roses has been credited with reviving the mainstream popularity of rock n roll, at a time when popular music was dominated by dance music and glam metal. The bands classic lineup, along with later members Reed and drummer Matt Sorum, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, in 1984, Hollywood Rose member Izzy Stradlin was living with L. A. Guns needed a new vocalist, Stradlin suggested Hollywood Rose singer Axl Rose, Guns N Roses was formed in March 1985 by Rose and rhythm guitarist Stradlin, along with lead guitarist Tracii Guns, bassist Ole Beich, and drummer Rob Gardner of L. A. Guns. The band coined its name by combining the names of both previous groups, rejected names for the band included Heads of Amazon and AIDS. After a short time, during which the band played two or three shows, Beich was fired and replaced by Duff McKagan. Tracii Guns left the band after an argument with Rose leading to his replacement by Rose and Stradlins one-time Hollywood Rose bandmate, Gardner quit soon after and was replaced by another former Hollywood Rose member, Steven Adler. Slash had also played with McKagan and Adler in Road Crew. In June 1985, four days after the lineup was finalized, through the bands increasing presence on the Hollywood club scene – playing famed bars such as The Troubadour and The Roxy – Guns N Roses drew the attention of major record labels. The group was signed by Geffen Records in March 1986, receiving a $75,000 advance. In December of that year, the released the four-song EP Live. *@ Like a Suicide. The EP contained covers of Rose Tattoos Nice Boys and Aerosmiths Mama Kin, although billed as a live recording, the four songs were taken from the bands demo tapes and overdubbed with crowd noise. Live. *@ Like a Suicide was released on the Geffen subsidiary Uzi Suicide, Guns N Roses debut album Appetite for Destruction was released July 21,1987. The band stated the artwork was a symbolic social statement. The revised cover was done by Andy Engell, based on a design by tattoo artist Bill White Jr. who had designed the artwork for a tattoo Rose had acquired the previous year, the artwork featured each of the five band members skulls layered on a cross
2.
Hard rock
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Hard rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. It is typified by a use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums. Hard rock developed into a form of popular music in the 1970s, with bands such as The Who, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, AC/DC. During the 1980s, some rock bands moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock. Hard rock began losing popularity with the success of R&B, hip-hop, urban pop, grunge. Out of this movement came garage rock bands like The White Stripes, The Strokes, Interpol and, later on, in the 2000s, only a few hard rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s managed to sustain highly successful recording careers. Hard rock is a form of loud, aggressive rock music, the electric guitar is often emphasised, used with distortion and other effects, both as a rhythm instrument using repetitive riffs with a varying degree of complexity, and as a solo lead instrument. Drumming characteristically focuses on driving rhythms, strong drum and a backbeat on snare. The bass guitar works in conjunction with the drums, occasionally playing riffs, vocals are often growling, raspy, or involve screaming or wailing, sometimes in a high range, or even falsetto voice. In the late 1960s, the heavy metal was used interchangeably with hard rock. Heavy metal took on darker characteristics after Black Sabbaths breakthrough at the beginning of the 1970s, in the 1980s it developed a number of subgenres, often termed extreme metal, some of which were influenced by hardcore punk, and which further differentiated the two styles. Despite this differentiation, hard rock and heavy metal have existed side by side, with bands frequently standing on the boundary of, other antecedents include Link Wrays instrumental Rumble in 1958, and the surf rock instrumentals of Dick Dale, such as Lets Go Trippin and Misirlou. In the 1960s, American and British blues and rock bands began to rock and roll by adding harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs, bombastic drumming. From the late 1960s, it common to divide mainstream rock music that emerged from psychedelia into soft. Soft rock was often derived from rock, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody. In contrast, hard rock was most often derived from rock and was played louder. Blues rock acts that pioneered the sound included Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, in songs like I Feel Free combined blues rock with pop and psychedelia, particularly in the riffs and guitar solos of Eric Clapton. Jimi Hendrix produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz, blues and rock, from 1967 Jeff Beck brought lead guitar to new heights of technical virtuosity and moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band, The Jeff Beck Group
3.
Heavy metal music
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Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are associated with aggression. The first heavy metal such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. During the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the evolution by discarding much of its blues influence, Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility. Beginning in the late 1970s, bands in the new wave of British heavy metal such as Iron Maiden, before the end of the decade, heavy metal fans became known as metalheads or headbangers. During the 1980s, glam metal became popular with such as Mötley Crüe. Since the mid-1990s popular styles have further expanded the definition of the genre and these include groove metal and nu metal, the latter of which often incorporates elements of grunge and hip hop. Heavy metal is characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound. Metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter, or omit one or more of these attributes, the typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Keyboard instruments are used to enhance the fullness of the sound. Deep Purples Jon Lord played an overdriven Hammond organ, in 1970, John Paul Jones used a Moog synthesizer on Led Zeppelin III, by the 1990s, in. almost every subgenre of heavy metal synthesizers were used. The electric guitar and the power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal. The heavy metal guitar sound comes from a use of high volumes. Guitar solos are an element of the heavy metal code. That underscores the significance of the guitar to the genre, most heavy metal songs featur at least one guitar solo, which is a primary means through which the heavy metal performer expresses virtuosity. One exception is nu metal bands, which tend to omit guitar solos, with rhythm guitar parts, the heavy crunch sound in heavy metal. Palm muting the strings with the hand and using distortion. Palm muting creates a tighter, more sound and it emphasizes the low end
4.
Chinese Democracy
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Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N Roses. It was released on November 23,2008, by Geffen Records, although it debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, Chinese Democracy domestically undersold expectations. It received generally favorable reviews from music critics, the album achieved international chart success and has sold over one million copies in Europe. In 1994, Guns N Roses progress on a follow-up to The Spaghetti Incident. was halted due to differences between members of the band. Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, and Gilby Clarke all resigned or were fired from the band in the mid-1990s, lead singer Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed were the only members from the previous lineup remaining by the time production had started. A new lineup, consisting of Rose, Reed, guitarists Robin Finck and Paul Tobias, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Josh Freese, initially intended to be released in 1999 or 2000, the album was re-recorded completely in 2000. The album was worked on by multiple lineups of the band, including later members Bryan Mantia, Buckethead, Richard Fortus, Ron Bumblefoot Thal, personnel and legal reasons, as well as Roses alleged perfectionism, caused the album to be delayed multiple times. The album missed an announced March 2007 release date, before being released in November 2008, with production costs reportedly eclipsing $13 million, the album is the most expensive rock album ever produced. Guns N Roses began to write and record new music in 1994. Bassist Duff McKagan said the band was so stoned at that point that nothing got finished, guitarist Slash criticized Axl Rose for making the band seem like a dictatorship. Rose later stated about the dysfunction of the group at the time, since none of that happened, thats the reason why that material got scrapped. Roses childhood friend and Hollywood Rose collaborator Paul Tobias was brought in to replace Gilby Clarke, due to creative differences with Rose and personal problems with Tobias, Slash quit the band in 1996. McKagan left soon after and Sorum was fired in 1997, Slash was replaced by Nine Inch Nails touring guitarist Robin Finck, ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson replaced McKagan, and Josh Freese joined as the drummer. During this time, Geffen paid Rose $1 million to try to finish the album, by August 1999, the band had recorded over 30 songs for the album, tentatively titled 2000 Intentions. It could also just be like an ironic statement, I dont know, I just like the sound of it. Rose also mentioned the album would feature lot of different sounds, theres some heavy songs, theres a lot of aggressive songs, but theyre all in different styles and different sounds. It is truly a melting pot, in 1999, the industrial metal song Oh My God was released on the soundtrack of the movie End of Days and played over the movies end credits. It featured Axl Rose, Paul Tobias, Tommy Stinson, Dizzy Reed, Chris Pitman, Dave Navarro and Gary Sunshine also recorded guitar parts for the song
5.
Axl Rose
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W. Axl Rose is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. He is the lead vocalist of the rock band Guns N Roses. In addition to Guns N Roses, he is also the current lead singer of AC/DC since 2016. Due to his powerful and wide range and energetic live performances, Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone. In 1985, he co-founded Guns N Roses, with whom he had success and recognition in the late 1980s. Their first album, Appetite for Destruction, has sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide, as its sole remaining original member, he was able to continue working under the Guns N Roses banner because he had legally obtained the band name. In 2012, Rose was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Guns N Roses, though he declined to attend the event and requested exclusion from the Hall. In 2016, Rose partially reunited the classic lineup of Guns N Roses and has toured the world as part of the Not In This Lifetime. Axl Rose was born William Bruce Rose, Jr. in Lafayette, Indiana, the oldest child of Sharon Elizabeth, then 16 years old and still in high school and his father has been described as a troubled and charismatic local delinquent, and the pregnancy was unplanned. His parents separated when Rose was approximately two years old, prompting his father to abduct and allegedly molest him before disappearing from Lafayette and his mother remarried to Stephen L. Bailey, and changed her sons name to William Bruce Bailey. He has two younger sister, Amy, and a half-brother, Stuart. Until the age of 17, Rose believed that Bailey was his natural father. He never met his father as an adult, William Rose, Sr. was murdered in Marion, Illinois. Rose did not learn about the murder years later. The Bailey household was religious, Rose and his family attended a Pentecostal church. Rose later recalled an oppressive upbringing, stating, Wed have televisions one week, I wasnt allowed to listen to music. He accused his stepfather of physically abusing him and his siblings, Rose found solace in music from an early age. He sang in the choir from the age of five
6.
Amazon (company)
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Amazon. com, also called Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company that was founded on July 5,1994, by Jeff Bezos and is based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the world by total sales, the company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo—and is the worlds largest provider of cloud infrastructure services. Amazon also sells certain low-end products like USB cables under its in-house brand AmazonBasics. Amazon has separate retail websites for the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India, and Mexico. Amazon also offers international shipping to other countries for some of its products. In 2016, Dutch, Polish, and Turkish language versions of the German Amazon website were launched. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization, in 1994, Bezos left his employment as vice-president of D. E. Shaw & Co. a Wall Street firm and moved to Seattle. He began to work on a plan for what would eventually become Amazon. com. Bezos incorporated the company as Cadabra on July 5,1994, Bezos changed the name to Amazon a year later after a lawyer misheard its original name as cadaver. In September 1994, Bezos purchased the URL Relentless. com and briefly considered naming his online store Relentless, the domain is still owned by Bezos and still redirects to the retailer. The company went online as Amazon. com in 1995, Bezos placed a premium on his head start in building a brand, telling a reporter, Theres nothing about our model that cant be copied over time. But you know, McDonalds got copied, and it still built a huge, multibillion-dollar company. A lot of it comes down to the brand name, brand names are more important online than they are in the physical world. Additionally, a beginning with A was preferential due to the probability it would occur at the top of any list that was alphabetized. Since June 19,2000, Amazons logotype has featured a curved arrow leading from A to Z, representing that the company carries every product from A to Z, with the arrow shaped like a smile. After reading a report about the future of the Internet that projected annual Web commerce growth at 2, 300% and he narrowed the list to what he felt were the five most promising products, which included, compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos and books. Amazon was founded in the garage of Bezos home in Bellevue, the company began as an online bookstore, an idea spurred off with discussion with John Ingram of Ingram Book, along with Keyur Patel who still holds a stake in Amazon. Amazon was able to access books at wholesale from Ingram, in the first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries
7.
Slash (musician)
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Saul Hudson, better known by his stage name Slash, is a British-born American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist of the American rock band Guns N Roses, with whom he achieved success in the late 1980s. During his later years with Guns N Roses, Slash formed the side project Slashs Snakepit, after leaving Guns N Roses in 1996, he co-founded the supergroup Velvet Revolver, which re-established him as a mainstream performer in the mid to late 2000s. Slash has since released three albums, Slash, featuring an array of famous guest musicians, and Apocalyptic Love and World on Fire, recorded with his band, Myles Kennedy. He returned to Guns N Roses in 2016, nearly 20 years after he had left, Slash has received critical acclaim as a guitarist. During 2010 Gibson Guitar Corporation ranked Slash as No.34 on their Top 50 Guitarists of All Time, in 2012, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Guns N Roses classic line-up. Saul Hudson was born in Hampstead, London and he was named for Saul Steinberg, an artist. During his early years, Slash was raised by his father and paternal grandparents in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, when Slash was around five years old, he and his father joined his mother in Los Angeles, California. His brother, Albion Ash Hudson, was born in 1972, following his parents separation in 1974, Slash became a self-described problem child. He chose to live with his mother and was sent to live with his beloved maternal grandmother whenever his mother had to travel for her job. Slash sometimes accompanied his mother to work, where he met several film and he was given the nickname Slash by actor Seymour Cassel, because he was always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another. In 1979, Slash decided to form a band with his friend Steven Adler, the band never materialized, but it prompted Slash to take up an instrument. Since Adler had designated himself the role of guitarist, Slash decided to learn how to play bass, equipped with a one-string flamenco guitar given to him by his grandmother, he began taking classes with Robert Wolin, a teacher at Fairfax Music School. During his first lesson, Slash decided to switch from bass to guitar after hearing Wolin play Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones and his decision to play guitar was further influenced by one of his school teachers, who would play songs by Cream and Led Zeppelin for his students. As a result, Slash stated, When I heard him do that, I said, a champion BMX rider, Slash put the bike aside to devote himself to playing guitar, practicing up to 12 hours a day. Slash joined his first band, Tidus Sloan, in 1981, in 1983, he formed the band Road Crew—named for the Motörhead song The Road Crew—with his childhood friend Steven Adler, who by then had learned to play drums. He placed an advertisement in a looking for a bassist. They auditioned a number of singers, including one-time Black Flag vocalist Ron Reyes, Slash disbanded the group the following year due to them not being able to find a singer, as well as Adlers lack of work ethic compared to himself and McKagan
8.
NME
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New Musical Express is a British music journalism magazine published since 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. It started as a newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s. An online version of NME, NME. com, was launched in 1996 and it became the worlds biggest standalone music site, with over seven million users per month. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector, the paid circulation in the first half of 2014 was 15,830. In 2013, the list of NMEs The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, NME magazine was relaunched in September 2015 as a nationally distributed free publication. NMEs headquarters are in Southwark, London, England, the brands editor-in-chief is Mike Williams, who replaced Krissi Murison in 2012. The paper was established in 1952, the Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn, for the sum of £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It was relaunched as the New Musical Express, and was published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart, the first of these was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was Here in My Heart by Al Martino, during the 1960s the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The NME circulation peaked under Andy Gray, Editor 1957–1972, with a figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists appeared at the NME Poll Winners Concert. The concert also featured a ceremony where the winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners Concerts took place between 1959 and 1972, from 1964 onwards they were filmed, edited and transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place. The latter part of the 1960s saw the chart the rise of psychedelia. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as rock, in early 1972 the paper found itself on the verge of closure by its owner IPC. Alan Smith was made editor and in 1972 was told by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure, according to The Economist, the New Musical Express started to champion underground, up-and-coming music. NME became the gateway to a more rebellious world
9.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
10.
Bob Dylan
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Bob Dylan is an American songwriter, singer, painter, and writer. He has been influential in music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when his songs chronicled social unrest, early songs such as Blowin in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement. Leaving behind his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single Like a Rolling Stone, recorded in 1965, Dylans lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture, initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica, backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, since 1994, Dylan has published seven books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a musician, Dylan has sold more than 100 million records and he has also received numerous awards including eleven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a citation for his profound impact on popular music and American culture. In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, in 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in St. Marys Hospital on May 24,1941, in Duluth, Minnesota and he has a younger brother, David. Dylans paternal grandparents, Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa, in the Russian Empire and his maternal grandparents, Ben and Florence Stone, were Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the United States in 1902. Dylans father, Abram Zimmerman – an electric-appliance shop owner – and mother, Beatrice Beatty Stone, were part of a small, close-knit Jewish community. They lived in Duluth until Robert was six, when his father had polio and the returned to his mothers hometown, Hibbing. In his early years he listened to the radio—first to blues and country stations from Shreveport, Louisiana, and later and he formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School. In the Golden Chords, he performed covers of songs by Little Richard and their performance of Danny & the Juniors Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone. In 1959, his high school yearbook carried the caption Robert Zimmerman, the same year, as Elston Gunnn, he performed two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and clapping
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