1.
1949
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January 1 – UN sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, january 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. January 4–February 22 – Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada – winds of up to 72 mph – tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish. January 4 – RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage, january 5 – U. S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program. January 11 – Los Angeles receives its first recorded snowfall, january 16 – Şemsettin Günaltay forms the new government of Turkey. January 17 – The first VW Type 1 to arrive in the United States, unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models were sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff the car had no future in the U. S, january 19 – The Poe Toaster first appears at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. January 20 – Harry S. Truman is sworn in for a term as President of the United States. January 25 Council for Mutual Economic Assistance established by Soviet Union, the first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club. In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister, january 26 – Australian citizenship comes into being and the Constitution of India is prepared. January 31 – Forces from the Communist Party of China enter Beijing, february 1 Rationing of clothes ends in Britain. Belgian astronomer Jean Meeus asserts that the orbits of all the planets of the Solar System are within the same 90° arc of the Solar System on this date, the next time it is thought this will occur is on May 6,2492. February 10 – Arthur Millers tragedy Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco Theatre in New York City, february 11 – London Mozart Players perform their first concert at the Wigmore Hall, London. February 13 – António Óscar Carmona is re-elected president of Portugal for lack of an opposing candidate, february 17 – Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel. February 19 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation, february 22 Cincinnati Gardens opens in Cincinnati. Grady the Cow, a 1, 200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma, february 28 – Margaret Roberts, the future Margaret Thatcher, is adopted as the Conservative candidate for Dartford. She will go on to fight two elections in the constituency unsuccessfully in 1950 and 1951, february 29 – Revolutionary Communist Party of India stages attacks at Dum Dum. March 1 World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires, Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch
2.
Burbank, California
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Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States,12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The population at the 2010 census was 103,340, Entertainment, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, NBC, Cartoon Network Studios with the West Coast branch of Cartoon Network, and Insomniac Games. The city is home to Bob Hope Airport. Burbank consists of two areas, a downtown/foothill section, in the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains. Burbank is the easternmost city in the San Fernando Valley, Burbanks neighbor, Glendale, is the westernmost city in the San Gabriel Valley. The city was referred to as Beautiful Downtown Burbank on Laugh-In, the city was named after David Burbank, a New Hampshire-born dentist and entrepreneur who established a sheep ranch there in 1867. Historically, this area was the scene of a skirmish which resulted in the unseating of the Spanish Governor of California. Remnants of the battle reportedly were found many years later in the vicinity of Warner Bros. Studio when residents dug up cannonballs, by 1876, the San Fernando Valley became the largest wheat-raising area in Los Angeles County. But the droughts of the 1860s and 1870s underlined the need for water supplies. A professionally trained dentist, Dr. Burbank began his career in Waterville and he joined the great migration westward in the early 1850s and, by 1853 was living in San Francisco. At the time the American Civil War broke out he was well established in his profession as a dentist in Pueblo de Los Angeles. In 1867, he purchased Rancho La Providencia from David W. Alexander and Francis Mellus, Dr. Burbanks property reached nearly 9,200 acres at a cost of $9,000. Dr. Burbank wouldnt acquire full titles to both properties until after a decision known as the Great Partition was made in 1871 dissolving the Rancho San Rafael. Dr. Burbank also later owned the Burbank Theatre, which opened on November 27,1893, though the theater was intended to be an opera house, instead it staged plays and became known nationally. The theatre featured famous actors of the time including Fay Bainter and Marjorie Rambeau, when the area that became Burbank was settled in the 1870s and 1880s, the streets were aligned along what is now Olive Avenue, the road to the Cahuenga Pass and downtown Los Angeles. These were largely the roads the Indians traveled and the settlers took their produce down to Los Angeles to sell. At the time, the primary long-distance transportation methods available to San Fernando Valley residents were stagecoach, stagecoaching between Los Angeles and San Francisco through the Valley began in 1858
3.
Grammy Award
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A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an honor awarded by The Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the mainly English-language music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of awards that have a more popular interest. It shares recognition of the industry as that of the other performance awards such as the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards. The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4,1959, to honor, following the 2011 ceremony, The Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 59th Grammy Awards, honoring the best achievements from October 2015 to September 2016, was held on February 12,2017, the Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. The music executives decided to rectify this by creating a given by their industry similar to the Oscars. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts, after it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of what to call it, one working title was the Eddie, to honor the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. They finally settled on using the name of the invention of Emile Berliner, the gramophone, for the awards, the number of awards given grew and fluctuated over the years with categories added and removed, at one time reaching over 100. The second Grammy Awards, also held in 1959, was the first ceremony to be televised, the gold-plated trophies, each depicting a gilded gramophone, are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. In 1990 the original Grammy design was revamped, changing the traditional soft lead for a stronger alloy less prone to damage, Billings developed a zinc alloy named grammium, which is trademarked. The trophies with the name engraved on them are not available until after the award announcements. By February 2009,7,578 Grammy trophies had been awarded, the General Field are four awards which are not restricted by genre. Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a full album if other than the performer. Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a single song if other than the performer. Song of the Year is awarded to the writer/composer of a single song, Best New Artist is awarded to a promising breakthrough performer who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist. The only two artists to win all four of these awards are Christopher Cross, who won all four in 1980, and Adele, who won the Best New Artist award in 2009 and the other three in 2012 and 2017. Other awards are given for performance and production in specific genres, as well as for other such as artwork. Special awards are given for longer-lasting contributions to the music industry, the many other Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony earlier in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast
4.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
5.
The New Don Ellis Band Goes Underground
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The New Don Ellis Band Goes Underground is an album by trumpeter/bandleader Don Ellis recorded in 1969 and released on the Columbia label. Scott Yanow of Allmusic says the album is one of trumpeter Don Ellis lesser efforts, on All About Jazz, Jim Santella said this big band album from Don Ellis proved inspirational. It gave a quality to big band music - the kind of force that influenced college. Vocals were added, and Ellis emphasized a smooth, pop quality to his arrangements, melodies were easy to follow, and the songs caught all the emotion that he pumped in so generously. Nevertheless, the contains the same kind of musical virtuosity that Ellis had demonstrated on earlier albums
6.
Connection (Don Ellis album)
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Connection is an album by trumpeter/bandleader Don Ellis recorded in 1972 and released on the Columbia label. On All About Jazz, Jim Santella observed the character of Ellis earlier work is missing on this recently reissued recording from 1972. He and the bandmembers solo less often, preferring instead to let the music flow with popular melodies, vocals are added to several selections. Electric guitar and electric bass take center stage much of the time, keyboards surround the band with lush scenery. Still, some of Ellis trademark features are still there and his trumpet rages powerfully on Superstar and his flugelhorn floats gently on Alone Again
7.
Gino Vannelli
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Gino Vannelli is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Vannelli is one of three born to Russ and Delia Vannelli. Russ, his father, was a big band musician, as a child, Ginos greatest passion was music, and he began playing percussion at an early age. By the age of 15, Vannelli began writing songs, Just out of high school, he signed his first recording contract with RCA under the pseudonym Vann Elli, but went on to study music at McGill University. After a stint in New York City, Vannelli and his brother, Joe, desperate and broke, they waited outside the gate of Herb Alpert, the A in A&M Records, in order to audition. Alpert liked what he heard, and two later he signed Vannelli to A&M, releasing his first album, Crazy Life. Joe Vanelli served as arranger and keyboardist for most of Ginos career, at a time when polyphonic synthesizers were non-existent, Joe overdubbed multiple parts to create a texture of sound that was progressive for the early 1970s. It is not widely known, but Vannelli played drums on the entire Crazy Life album, Gino and Joe performed all of the instruments except for flute and marimba. In 1974, People Gotta Move made it to No.22 on the Billboard Top 100, on February 15,1975, Vannelli became the second Caucasian performer to appear on the television show Soul Train. With his records climbing the charts, Vannelli toured as the act for Stevie Wonder. In 1978, the song I Just Wanna Stop earned Vannelli a Grammy Award nomination and was a number No.1 single in Canada Vannellis album Brother to Brother was certified platinum in early 1979 and he won Canadas Juno Award for Best Male Artist. He also won Juno Awards in 1976 and 1979, Vannelli met his wife Patricia in 1974 and they were married soon after. In April 1981, Living Inside Myself was on Billboards Top 100 at number 6, Canadian comedy legend Eugene Levy satirized Vannelli in Episode 4 of SCTV/Network 90 also in 1981. The Vannelli brothers shared the Juno Award for Recording Engineer of the Year in 1986 for Black Cars, the Juno Award for Recording Engineer of the Year was again shared by the Vannelli brothers in 1987 for Wild Horses and Young Lover. Ginos additional recordings of the 1980s era include Nightwalker and Big Dreamers Never Sleep, Vannellis second album for Arista was to be released in 1982. Entitled Twisted Heart, it was shelved due to label disagreements. The Longer You Wait b/w Bandito, an instrumental written by Joe Vannelli. Anton Vannelli, Ginos only son was born during the recording of Big Dreamers Never Sleep in 1986, Vannelli lives and works in Amersfoort, Netherlands, and in the United States
8.
Barbra Streisand
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Barbara Joan Barbra Streisand is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker. She is among a group of entertainers who have been honored with an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Streisand is one of the music artists of all time, with more than 68.5 million albums in the United States. She starred in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl, for which she won the Academy Award, with the release of Yentl in 1983, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film. The film won an Oscar for Best Score and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical, Streisand received the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the first woman to win that award. The RIAA and Billboard recognize Streisand as holding the record for the most top 10 albums of any recording artist. According to Billboard, Streisand holds the record for the female with the most number one albums, Billboard also recognizes Streisand as the greatest female of all time on its Billboard 200 chart and one of the greatest artists of all time on its Hot 100 chart. Barbara Joan Streisand was born on April 24,1942, in Brooklyn, New York and her mother had been a soprano singer in her youth and considered a career in music, but later became a school secretary. Her father was a school teacher at the same school. Streisands family was Jewish, her grandparents emigrated from Galicia and her maternal grandparents from the Russian Empire. Her father earned a degree from City College of New York in 1928 and was considered athletic. As a student, he spent his summers outdoors, once working as a lifeguard, hed try anything, his sister Molly said. He married Ida in 1930, two years after graduating, and became a respected educator with a focus on helping underprivileged. In August 1943, a few months after Streisands first birthday, her father died suddenly at age 34 from complications from an epileptic seizure, the family fell into near-poverty, with her mother working as a low-paid bookkeeper. As an adult, Streisand remembered those early years as always feeling like an outcast, explaining and her mother tried to pay their bills but could not give her daughter the attention she craved, When I wanted love from my mother, she gave me food, Streisand says. Streisand recalls that her mother had a voice and sang semi-professionally on occasion. During a visit to the Catskills when Streisand was thirteen, she told Rosie ODonnell, she and that session was the first time Streisand ever asserted herself as an artist, which also became her first moment of inspiration as an artist. She has a brother, Sheldon, and a half-sister
9.
Dolly Parton
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After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Dolly Parton made her album debut in 1967, with her album Hello, Im Dolly. However, in the new millennium, Parton achieved commercial success again and has released albums on independent labels since 2000, including albums on her own label, Parton is the most honored female country performer of all time. Achieving 25 RIAA certified Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum awards, she has had 25 songs reach No.1 on the Billboard country music charts, a record for a female artist. She has 41 career top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, all-inclusive sales of singles, albums, hits collections, and digital downloads during her career have topped 100 million worldwide. Parton has received 46 Grammy nominations, in 1999, Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She has composed over 3,000 songs, notably I Will Always Love You, Jolene, Coat of Many Colors and she is also one of the few to have received at least one nomination from the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, and Emmy Awards. As an actress, she starred in such as 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Rhinestone. Parton was born in Sevier County, Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children of Robert Lee Parton, a farmer and construction worker, Partons middle name comes from her maternal great-great grandmother, Rebecca Whitted. She has described her family as being dirt poor, Partons father paid the doctor who helped deliver her with a bag of oatmeal. She outlined her familys poverty in her early songs Coat of Many Colors and they lived in a rustic, one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, just north of the Greenbrier Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains, a predominantly Pentecostal area. Music played an important role in her early life and she was brought up in the Church of God, the church her grandfather, Jake Robert Owens pastored. Her earliest public performances were in the church, beginning at age six, at seven, she started playing a homemade guitar. When she was eight years old, her uncle bought her first real guitar, Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, the day after she graduated from high school in 1964, she moved to Nashville. Her songs were recorded by other artists during this period, including Kitty Wells. She signed with Monument Records in 1965, at 19, where she was pitched as a bubblegum pop singer. She released a string of singles, but the one that charted, Happy, Happy Birthday Baby. Although she expressed a desire to record country material, Monument resisted, after her composition, Put It Off Until Tomorrow, as recorded by Bill Phillips, went to number six on the country chart in 1966, the label relented and allowed her to record country
10.
Diana Ross
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Diane Ernestine Earle Ross, known professionally as Diana Ross, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. As part of the Supremes, her success made it possible for future African-American R&B, Dianas high-pitched and bright lyric-soprano voice has been enjoyed and still is by fans around the world. The group released a record-setting twelve number-one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including the hits Where Did Our Love Go, Baby Love, Come See About Me, Stop. In the Name of Love, You Cant Hurry Love, You Keep Me Hangin On, Love Child and she later released the album Touch Me in the Morning in 1973, its title track reached number 1, as her second solo hit. That same year, her album Lady Sings The Blues, which was the soundtrack of her film based on the life of jazz singer Billie Holiday. By 1975, the Mahogany soundtrack included her third number-one hit and her eponymous 1976 album included her fourth number-one hit, Love Hangover. In 1979, Ross released the album The Boss and her 1980 semi-eponymous album Diana reached number 2 on the US Billboard albums chart, and spawned the number-one hit Upside Down, and the international hit Im Coming Out. After leaving Motown, Ross achieved her sixth and final US number-one hit, Ross has also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award-nominated performance for her performance in the film Lady Sings the Blues. She also starred in two films, Mahogany and The Wiz, later acting in the television films Out of Darkness, for which she also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Ross was named the Female Entertainer of the Century by Billboard magazine, Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, when her releases with the Supremes and as a solo artist are tallied. In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as member of the Supremes, alongside Mary Wilson and she was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. She is a 12-time Grammy nominee, never earning a competitive honor, in December 2016, Billboard magazine named her the 50th most successful dance artist of all time. Diane Ross was born at Hutzel Womens Hospital in Detroit on March 26,1944 and she was the second eldest child of Ernestine, a schoolteacher, and Fred Ross, Sr. a former Army soldier. Much has been made of whether her first name ends in an a or an e, according to Ross, her mother actually named her Diane but a clerical error resulted in her name being recorded as Diana on her birth certificate. She was listed as Diane during the first Supremes records, she introduced herself as Diane until early in the groups heyday and her friends and family still call her Diane. Rosss grandfather John E. Ross, a native of Gloucester County, Virginia, was born to Washington Ross, Virginia Baytops mother Francis Frankey Baytop was a former slave who had become a midwife after the Civil War. Ross and her family lived at Belmont Road in the North End section of Detroit, near Highland Park, MI. When Ross was seven, her mother contracted tuberculosis, causing her to seriously ill
11.
The Jackson 5
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The Jackson 5, or Jackson Five, also known as The Jacksons in later years, was an American popular music group. Formed in 1964 under the name the Jackson Brothers, the members were elder brothers Jackie, Tito. Younger brothers Marlon and Michael would join soon after and they participated in talent shows and performed in clubs on the chitlin circuit. They entered the music scene in 1967, signing with Steeltown Records. In 1969, the group left Steeltown Records and signed with Motown, the Jackson 5 was one of the first groups of black American performers to attain a crossover following, preceded by the Supremes, the Four Tops and the Temptations. In 1983, Jermaine reunited with the band to perform on Motown 25, Yesterday, Today, Forever, after the end of their tour to promote the album, Michael and Marlon Jackson promptly left the group. The remaining four released the poorly received 2300 Jackson Street album in 1989 before being dropped from their label. Inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999, following the death of Michael Jackson in 2009, the four eldest of the brothers embarked on their Unity Tour in 2012. The five Jackson brothers interest in music began in Gary, Indiana, bolstered by their father, in 1964, Joe caught Tito playing with his guitar after a string broke. Upon fixing the string, threatening punishment, Titos father had him play and was impressed enough to buy Tito his own guitar, Marlon, then seven years old, eventually joined, playing the tambourine. Johnny Jackson and Ronnie Rancifer eventually replaced Milford Hite and Reynaud Jones, during early 1968, the group also performed at strip clubs on Joes behest to earn extra income. Following initial recordings at Detroits Hitsville USA studio, Berry Gordy sent the Jacksons to Hollywood in July, hiring Suzanne de Passe to become a mentor of the brothers. Starting in August, the Jackson Five performed as the act for The Supremes. In October, their first single for Motown was released and the group promoted it while performing at the Hollywood Palace with Ross hosting, in December, the brothers made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Afterwards, their album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5, was released that same month. In January 1970, I Want You Back topped the Billboard Hot 100, led by the Corporation, the Jackson 5 released two more number-one singles, ABC and The Love You Save. All four singles were almost as popular in countries as they were in the United States. Releasing a succession of four albums in one year, the Jackson 5 replaced The Supremes as Motowns best-selling group
12.
Alice Cooper
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Alice Cooper is an American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spans over five decades. He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre, the band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies. Furnier adopted the name as his own name in the 1970s. In 2011, he released Welcome 2 My Nightmare, his 19th album as a solo artist, in 2011, the original Alice Cooper band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cooper is known for his social and witty persona offstage, with The Rolling Stone Album Guide calling him the worlds most beloved heavy metal entertainer. Away from music, Cooper is an actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur, and, since 2004. Cooper was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Ella Mae and his father was a preacher in The Church of Jesus Christ headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. He has English, Huguenot French, Irish, Scottish, and he was named after his uncle, Vincent Collier Furnier, and the writer Damon Runyon. His paternal grandfather, Thurman Sylvester Furnier, was an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ, Cooper was active in his church at the ages of 11 and 12. While growing up in Detroit, Cooper attended Washington Elementary School, in 1964, 16-year-old Furnier was eager to participate in the local annual Lettermans talent show, so he gathered fellow cross-country teammates to form a group for the show. Because they did not know how to play any instruments at the time, they dressed up like the Beatles and mimed their performance to Beatles songs. As a result of winning the talent show and loving the experience of being onstage and they soon renamed themselves The Spiders, featuring Furnier on vocals, Glen Buxton on lead guitar, John Tatum on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and John Speer on drums. Musically, the group was inspired by such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Doors. For the next year the band performed regularly around the Phoenix area with a huge black spiders web as their backdrop, in 1965, the Spiders recorded their first single, Why Dont You Love Me, with Furnier learning the harmonica for the song. The singles B-side track was the Marvin Gaye Tamla Records hit Hitch Hike, the single was recorded at Copper State Recording Studio and issued by local micro-imprint Santa Cruz Records. By 1967, the band had begun to make regular trips to Los Angeles to play shows. They soon renamed themselves Nazz and released the single Wonder Whos Lovin Her Now, backed with future Alice Cooper track Lay Down and Die, around this time, drummer John Speer was replaced by Neal Smith. By the end of the year, the band had relocated to Los Angeles, in 1968, the band learned that Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz, and found themselves in need of another stage name
13.
Cheap Trick
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Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. As of 2016, the band consists of Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson and Daxx Nielsen. Their biggest hits include Surrender, I Want You to Want Me, Dream Police. They have often referred to in the Japanese press as the American Beatles. In October 2007, the Illinois Senate passed a resolution designating April 1 as Cheap Trick Day in the state, the band was also ranked No.25 in VH1s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. In April 2016, the band was inducted into the Rock, in 1961, Rick Nielsen began playing locally in Rockford, Illinois using an ever-increasing collection of rare and valuable guitars. He formed several bands with names like The Boyz and The Grim Reapers. Brad Carlson, later known as Bun E. Carlos, played in a rival Rockford band, finally, Nielsen formed Fuse in 1967 with Tom Peterson, later known as Tom Petersson, who had played in yet another local band called The Bo Weevils. Fuse released an album for Epic Records in 1970, which was generally ignored. With Bun E. Carlos joining on drums, Fuse moved to Philadelphia in 1971 and they began calling themselves Sick Man of Europe in 1972–1973. After a European tour in 1973, Nielsen and Petersson returned to Rockford, randy Xeno Hogan was the original lead singer for Cheap Trick. He left the band shortly after its formation and was replaced by Robin Zander, the name was inspired by the bands attendance of a Slade concert, where Petersson commented that the band used every cheap trick in the book as part of their act. The band recorded, a demo, Hot Tomato, around mid 1974, parts of which would form Ill Be with You Tonight, which was first called Tonight, Tonight. With Robin Zander now on vocals, the recorded their first official demo in 1975 and played in warehouses, bowling alleys. The band was signed to Epic Records in early 1976 by A&R man Tom Werman, at the insistence of producer Jack Douglas who had seen the band perform in Wisconsin. The songs they had written and performed, such as I Want You To Want Me which was first performed on April 17,1975, in Milwaukee, the later-hit song was played that summer, and frequently throughout the spring and summer of 1976 throughout the aforementioned Midwest locations. The band released their first album, Cheap Trick, in early 1977, while favored by critics, the album was not successful in terms of sales. The albums lone single Oh Candy failed to chart as did the album, however, the band began to develop a fan base in Japan and ELO Kiddies was a hit single in Europe. However, the band bemoaned In Colors production and would re-record it many years later, moreover, the album was largely unsuccessful
14.
Al Jarreau
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Alwin Lopez Al Jarreau was an American singer and musician. He received a total of seven Grammy Awards and was nominated for over a dozen more, Jarreau is perhaps best known for his 1981 album Breakin Away. He also sang the song of the late-1980s television series Moonlighting. Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 12,1940, the Jarreau website refers to Reservoir Avenue, the name of the street where he lived. Jarreaus father was a Seventh-day Adventist Church minister and singer, Jarreau and his family sang together in church concerts and in benefits, and he and his mother performed at PTA meetings. Jarreau was student council president and Badger Boys State delegate for Lincoln High School, at Boys State, he was elected governor. Jarreau went on to attend Ripon College, where he sang with a group called the Indigos. He graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science in psychology, two years later, in 1964, he earned a masters degree in vocational rehabilitation from the University of Iowa. Jarreau also worked as a counselor in San Francisco. In 1967, he joined forces with acoustic guitarist Julio Martinez, the duo became the star attraction at a small Sausalito night club called Gatsbys. This success contributed to Jarreaus decision to make professional singing his life, in 1968, Jarreau made jazz his primary occupation. In 1969, Jarreau and Martinez headed south, where Jarreau appeared at such Los Angeles hot spots as Dinos, The Troubadour, television exposure came from Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, Dinah Shore, and David Frost. He expanded his nightclub appearances performing at The Improv between the acts of such comics as Bette Midler, Jimmie Walker, and John Belushi. During this period, he involved with the United Church of Religious Science and the Church of Scientology. Also, roughly at the time, he began writing his own lyrics. In 1975, Jarreau was working with pianist Tom Canning when he was spotted by Warner Bros, on Valentines Day 1976 he sang on the 13th episode of NBCs new Saturday Night Live, that week hosted by Peter Boyle. Soon thereafter he released his acclaimed debut album, We Got By. A second Echo Award would follow with the release of his second album, in 1978, Al won his first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for his album, Look To The Rainbow
15.
Christopher Cross
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Christopher Chris Cross is an American singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas. His debut album earned him five Grammy Awards and he is perhaps best known for his US Top Five hit songs, Ride Like the Wind, Sailing, and Arthurs Theme, the latter recorded by him for the film Arthur starring Dudley Moore. Sailing earned three Grammys in 1981, while Arthurs Theme won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981, Cross first played with a San Antonio-based cover band named Flash before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros. in 1978. Cross released his debut album, Christopher Cross, in 1979. The Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hits from this album included Ride Like the Wind, Sailing, Never Be the Same, due to the almost immediate success and popularity gained by his first album, he was nominated for several Grammy Awards, garnering five. Crosss second album, Another Page, included the hit songs Arthurs Theme, All Right, No Time for Talk, Another Page sold well, getting Gold Certification. He also co-wrote and sang the song A Chance For Heaven for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, after 1984, Crosss star quickly dimmed. Crosss next two albums, 1985s Every Turn of the World and 1988s Back of My Mind did not produce any top 40 hits or reach Gold or Platinum status. Cross made three albums in the 1990s, and although some of his releases have gained critical response. After his decline in fame in the mid-1980s, he toured and opened for acts during the 1990s. In 2002 he released his Very Best of, album, and in 2007 he completed a Christmas album, A Christopher Cross Christmas. In 2008 recorded a new album of his hits titled The Cafe Carlyle Sessions. In 2011 Cross released a new album titled Doctor Faith. In 2013 he released A Night in Paris, a 2-CD live album he recorded and filmed in April 2012 at the Theatre Le Trianon in Paris, the song Ride Like The Wind was featured on the Anchorman 2, The Legend Continues original movie soundtrack, released in 2013. In September 2014 he released his latest album, Secret Ladder, Cross married Jan Bunch in 1988. They have two children, son Rain and daughter Madison and that home had earlier belonged to the Cummins family. Another notable San Antonian, the historian and author Light Townsend Cummins, had grown up in that house a decade earlier. He was joined by Michael McDonald, whom he has worked with in the past, as the credits were rolling, Cross, McDonald and The Roots, the Fallon house band, broke into Sailing, which he also performed in an online-only performance on NBC
16.
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
17.
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
18.
Joe Cocker
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John Robert Joseph Joe Cocker, OBE was an English singer and musician. He was known for his gritty voice, spasmodic body movement in performance, Cockers cover of the Beatles With a Little Help from My Friends reached number one in the UK in 1968. He performed the live at Woodstock in 1969 and at the Party at the Palace concert for the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2002. His version also became the song for the TV series The Wonder Years. His 1974 cover of You Are So Beautiful reached number five in the US, Cocker was the recipient of several awards, including a 1983 Grammy Award for his US number one Up Where We Belong, a duet with Jennifer Warnes. Cocker was ranked number 97 on Rolling Stones 100 greatest singers list, Cocker was born on 20 May 1944 at 38 Tasker Road, Crookes, Sheffield. He was the youngest son of a servant, Harold Cocker. According to differing family stories, Cocker received his nickname of Joe either from playing a game called Cowboy Joe. Cockers main musical influences growing up were Ray Charles and Lonnie Donegan, Cockers first experience singing in public was at age 12 when his elder brother Victor invited him on stage to sing during a gig of his skiffle group. In 1960, along with three friends, Cocker formed his first group, the Cavaliers, for the groups first performance at a youth club, they were required to pay the price of admission before entering. Cocker was not related to fellow Sheffield-born musician Jarvis Cocker, despite a rumour to this effect, in 1961, under the stage name Vance Arnold, Cocker continued his career with a new group, Vance Arnold and the Avengers. The name was a combination of Vince Everett, Elvis Presleys character in Jailhouse Rock, the group mostly played in the pubs of Sheffield, performing covers of Chuck Berry and Ray Charles songs. Cocker developed an interest in music and sought out recordings by John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins. In 1963, they booked their first significant gig when they supported the Rolling Stones at Sheffield City Hall, in 1964, Cocker signed a recording contract as a solo act with Decca and released his first single, a cover of the Beatles Ill Cry Instead. Despite extensive promotion from Decca lauding his youth and working-class roots, after Cocker recorded the single, he dropped his stage name and formed a new group, Joe Cockers Blues Band. There is only one recording of Joe Cockers Blues Band on an EP given out by The Sheffield College during Rag Week. In 1966, after a hiatus from music, Cocker teamed up with Chris Stainton. The Grease Band was named after Cocker read an interview with jazz keyboardist Jimmy Smith, like the Avengers, Cockers group mostly played in pubs in and around Sheffield
19.
Hall & Oates
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Daryl Hall and John Oates, often referred to as Hall & Oates, are an American musical duo from Philadelphia. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist of the pairing, John Oates primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two write most of the songs they perform, either separately or in collaboration and they achieved their greatest fame from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s with a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues. Hall and Oates have sold an estimated 40 million records throughout their career, in total, they had 34 chart hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, seven RIAA platinum albums, and six RIAA gold albums. Because of that success, Billboard magazine named them the most successful duo of the rock era. In 2003, Hall and Oates were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On September 2,2016 they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Daryl Franklin Hohl and John William Oates first met each other at the Adelphi Ballroom in Philadelphia in 1967. At the time they met, each was heading his own musical group and they were there for a band competition when gunfire rang out between two rival gangs, and in trying to escape, they ran to the same service elevator. One of the apartments they shared had Hall & Oates on the mailbox and it would take them another two years to form a musical duo, and three years after that, they signed to Atlantic Records and released their debut album. The two didnt start working together seriously until 1970 after Oates got back from a stay in Europe. Early in their careers, Hall & Oates had trouble clearly defining their sound, alternating among folk, soul, rock. None of their early albums - Whole Oats, Abandoned Luncheonette, despite being produced by such big-name producers such as Arif Mardin and Todd Rundgren, they had no hit singles during this time period, though Abandoned Luncheonette contained Shes Gone. This song would be covered by Lou Rawls and Tavares before Atlantic Records re-released the Hall & Oates version in 1976, Shes Gone, as covered by Tavares, did go to Number One on the R&B charts in 1974. It was originally written for Halls first wife, Bryna Lublin, another Abandoned Luncheonette single, Las Vegas Turnaround, was written about Halls girlfriend, flight attendant and future songwriting collaborator Sara Allen. Despite the fact none of the Atlantic albums were huge national hits. Paul, a number of tracks on Abandoned Luncheonette received significant airplay on local FM station KQRS resulting in the album being quite a big hit locally and this was enough to push the album into the charts, reaching #33 and staying on the charts for 38 weeks. Hall & Oates left their first record company, Atlantic Records, after the release of War Babies to join their second label and their first album for the new label Daryl Hall & John Oates was their first legitimate success. It contained the ballad Sara Smile, a song Hall wrote for his aforementioned girlfriend Sara Allen and it also featured an album cover in which Hall and Oates are overly made up with cosmetic blush to the point where they looked like women, especially the long-haired Hall
20.
Wayne Shorter
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Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Many of Shorters compositions have become standards, and his output has earned worldwide recognition, critical praise. Shorter first came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of. In the 1960s, he went on to join Miles Daviss Second Great Quintet and he has recorded over 20 albums as a bandleader. Shorter has won 10 Grammy Awards, the New York Times has described Shorter as probably jazzs greatest living small-group composer and a contender for greatest living improviser. In 2017, he was awarded the Polar Music Prize, Wayne Shorter was born in Newark, New Jersey, and attended Newark Arts High School, from which he graduated in 1952. He loved music, being encouraged by his father to take up the clarinet as a teenager, after graduating from New York University in 1956, Shorter spent two years in the U. S. Army, during which time he played briefly with Horace Silver. After his discharge, he played with Maynard Ferguson, in his youth Shorter had acquired the nickname Mr. Gone, which later became an album title for Weather Report. In 1959, Shorter joined Art Blakey and he stayed with Blakey for five years, and eventually became the bands musical director. When John Coltrane left Miles Davis band in 1960 to pursue his own group, Coltrane proposed Shorter as a replacement, Davis went with Sonny Stitt on tenor, followed by a revolving door of Hank Mobley, George Coleman, and Sam Rivers. In 1964 Davis persuaded Shorter to leave Blakey and join his quintet alongside Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and he composed extensively for Davis, on some albums, he provided half of the compositions. Hancock said of Shorters tenure in the group, The master writer to me, Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didnt get changed. Davis said, Wayne is a real composer and he writes scores, write the parts for everybody just as he wants them to sound. Wayne also brought in a kind of curiosity about working with musical rules. If they didnt work, then he broke them, but with musical sense, he understood that freedom in music was the ability to know the rules in order to them to your own satisfaction. Shorter remained in Daviss band after the breakup of the quintet in 1968, playing on early jazz recordings including In a Silent Way. His last live dates and studio recordings with Davis were in 1970, until 1968, he played tenor saxophone exclusively. The final album on which he played tenor in the sequence of Davis albums was Filles de Kilimanjaro
21.
Olivia Newton-John
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Olivia Newton-John, AO, OBE is a British-Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five number-one and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles, eleven of her singles and fourteen of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA. She has sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the worlds best-selling artists of all time and she starred in Grease, which featured one of the most successful soundtracks in Hollywood history. Newton-John has been a long-time activist for environmental and animal rights issues, since surviving breast cancer in 1992, she has been an advocate for health awareness becoming involved with various charities, health products and fundraising efforts. Her business interests have included launching several product lines for Koala Blue and she is the mother of one daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi, with her first husband, actor Matt Lattanzi. Her second husband is John Easterling, Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, to Irene Helene, the eldest child of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born and Welsh father, Brinley Bryn Newton-John. Her mothers family had left Germany before World War II to avoid the Nazi regime and she is a third cousin of comedian Ben Elton. Her maternal great-grandfather was jurist Victor Ehrenberg and her matrilineal great-grandmothers father was jurist Rudolf von Jhering. Newton-John is the youngest of three children, following brother Hugh, a doctor, and sister Rona, an actress who was married to Grease co-star Jeff Conaway from 1980 until their divorce in 1985. Newton-Johns father was an MI5 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park who took Rudolf Hess into custody during the Second World War. In 1954, when she was six, Newton-Johns family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia and she attended Christ Church Grammar School, and then University High School, adjacent to Ormond College. At fourteen, Newton-John formed a short-lived all-girl group, Sol Four and she became a regular on local Australian radio and television shows including HSV-7s The Happy Show where she performed as Lovely Livvy. She also appeared on the Go Show where she met future partner, Pat Carroll. Newton-John was initially reluctant to use the prize she had won, a trip to Britain, Newton-John recorded her first single, Till You Say Youll Be Mine Forever, in Britain for Decca Records in 1966. While in Britain, Newton-John missed her then-boyfriend, Ian Turpie, with whom she had co-starred in the Australian telefilm, Newton-John repeatedly booked trips back to Australia that her mother subsequently cancelled. Newton-Johns outlook changed when Pat Carroll also moved to the UK, the two formed a duo called Pat and Olivia and toured nightclubs in Europe. After Carrolls visa expired forcing her to return to Australia, Newton-John remained in Britain to pursue solo work until 1975 and she became engaged to The Shadows guitarist Bruce Welch, but they never married. Newton-John was recruited for the group Toomorrow formed by American producer Don Kirshner, in 1970, the group starred in a science fiction musical film and recorded an accompanying soundtrack album both named after the group
22.
Albert King
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Albert Nelson, known professionally as Albert King, was an American blues guitarist and singer, whose playing influenced many other blues guitarists. One of the Three Kings of the Blues Guitar, he is perhaps best known for the 1967 single Born Under a Bad Sign. King stood taller than average, with sources reporting 6 ft 4 in or 6 ft 7 in, in May 2013, King was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was born on a plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. During his childhood he would sing at a gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas, King was famed for his powerful string-bending style as well as for his soulful, smoky vocals. King often said he was born in Indianola and was a half-brother of B. B. King, King carved his own indelible niche in the blues hierarchy by creating a deep, dramatic sound that was widely imitated by both blues and rock guitarists. Albert King’s readily identifiable style made him one of the most important artists in the history of the blues, but his own identity was a longtime source of confusion. In interviews he said he was born in Indianola on April 25,1923, and whenever he appeared in Indianola at Club Ebony, the event was celebrated as a homecoming. He often claimed to be a half-brother of Indianola icon B. B. King, citing the fact that B. B. s father was named Albert King. But when he applied for a Social Security card in 1942, he gave his birthplace as “Aboden”, Mississippi, musicians also knew him as Albert Nelson in the 1940s and 50s. But when he made his first record in 1953–when B. B. had become a national blues star–he became Albert King and he also sometimes used the same nickname as B. B. –“Blues Boy”–and named his guitar Lucy. B. B. however, claimed Albert as just a friend, not a relative, and once retorted, “My name was King before I was famous. ”According to King, he was five when his left the family and eight when he moved with his mother, Mary Blevins. King said his family had lived in Arcola, Mississippi. He made his first guitar out of a box, a piece of a bush, and a strand of broom wire. As a left-hander learning guitar on his own, he used a normal string setup and tuning, King picked cotton, drove a bulldozer, worked in construction, and other jobs until he was finally able to support himself as a musician. He began his work as a musician with a group called the Groove Boys in Osceola. Moving north to Gary, Indiana, and later St. Louis, Missouri, he played drums for Jimmy Reeds band
23.
Steely Dan
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Steely Dan is an American jazz rock band whose music also blends elements of crossover jazz, latin music, blue-eyed soul, R&B, boogie, and pop. Founded by core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in 1972, Rolling Stone has called them the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies. Steely Dan reunited in 1993 and has toured ever since. Recorded with a revolving cast of musicians, Steely Dans music is characterized by complex jazz-influenced structures and harmonies. Becker and Fagen are whimsical, often sarcastic lyricists, having written cerebral, wry and eccentric songs about drugs, love affairs, gambling. Steely Dan toured from 1972 to 1974 before retiring from live performances, after the group disbanded in 1981, Becker and Fagen were less active throughout most of the next decade, though a cult following remained devoted to the group. Since reuniting in 1993 Steely Dan has released two albums of new material, the first of which, Two Against Nature, earned a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. They have sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock, Steely Dan was listed as one of the 100 greatest musical artists of all time according to VH1. Becker and Fagen met in 1968 at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, as Fagen passed by a café, The Red Balloon, he heard Becker practicing the electric guitar. In an interview, Fagen recounted the experience, I hear this guy practicing and it sounded like, you know, like a black person, really. He introduced himself to Becker and asked, Do you want to be in a band, discovering that they enjoyed similar music, the two began writing songs together. Becker and Fagen began playing in local groups, one such group, known as the Don Fagen Jazz Trio, the Bad Rock Group and later the Leather Canary, included future comedy star Chevy Chase on drums. They played covers of songs by the Rolling Stones, Moby Grape, terence Boylan, another Bard musician, remembered that Fagen took readily to the beatnik life while attending college, They never came out of their room, they stayed up all night. They looked like ghosts — black turtlenecks and skin so white that it looked like yogurt, absolutely no activity, chain-smoking Lucky Strikes and dope. Fagen himself would later remember it as probably the time in my life that I actually had friends. After Fagen graduated in 1969, the two moved to Brooklyn and tried to peddle their tunes in the Brill Building in midtown Manhattan, Becker later said bluntly, We did it for the money. A series of demos from 1968 to 1971 are available in bootleg form and this collection features approximately 25 tracks and is notable for its sparse arrangements and lo-fi production, a contrast with Steely Dans later work. Although some of songs were re-recorded for Steely Dan albums
24.
Peg (song)
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Peg is a song by American rock group Steely Dan, first released on the bands 1977 album Aja. The track was released as single in 1977 and reached number 11 on the US Billboard chart in 1978, in Canada, Peg spent three weeks at number seven during March 1978. The songs guitar solo was attempted by seven top studio session guitarists ‒ including Robben Ford and he worked on the song for about six hours before the band was satisfied. Pitchfork rated Peg as its 87th best song of the 1970s, describing it as the perfect Steely Dan song, drummer Rick Marotta calls Peg one of the greatest tracks he has ever played on. Peg was heavily sampled on the 1989 De La Soul song, in 2007, the song was covered by Nerina Pallot
25.
Doonesbury
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The name Doonesbury is a combination of the word doone and the surname of Charles Pillsbury, Trudeaus roommate at Yale University. Doonesbury is written and pencilled by Garry Trudeau, then inked and lettered by an assistant, Sunday strips are colored in by George Corsillo. A daily strip through most of its existence, since February 2014, Doonesbury has run repeat strips Monday through Saturday, Doonesbury began as a continuation of Bull Tales, which appeared in the Yale University student newspaper, the Yale Daily News, from 1968 to 1970. It focused on campus events at Yale. Doonesbury proper debuted as a strip in twenty-eight newspapers on October 26,1970. A Sunday strip began on March 21,1971, many of the early strips were reprints of the Bull Tales cartoons, with some changes to the drawings and plots. BDs helmet changed from having a Y to a star, Mike and BD started Doonesbury as roommates, they were not roommates in Bull Tales. Doonesbury became known for its social and political commentary, as of the mid-2010s, it is currently syndicated in approximately 1,400 newspapers worldwide. In May 1975, Doonesbury became the first daily strip to win a Pulitzer Prize. In 1977, Trudeau wrote a script for a 26-minute animated special, A Doonesbury Special, the special was first broadcast by NBC on November 27,1977. It won a Special Jury Award at the Cannes International Film Festival for best short film, voice actors for the special included Barbara Harris, William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Jack Gilford and Will Jordan. Also included were two songs sung by the character Jimmy Thudpucker, entitled Stop in the Middle and I Do Believe, label, and Jimmy Thudpuckers Greatest Hits, an LP released by Windsong Records, John Denvers subsidiary of RCA Records. Trudeau took a 22-month hiatus, from January 1983 to October 1984, before the break in the strip, the characters were eternal college students, living in a commune together near Walden College, which was modeled after Trudeaus alma mater, Yale. During the break, Trudeau helped create a Broadway musical of the strip, the Broadway adaptation opened at the Biltmore Theatre on November 21,1983, and played 104 performances. Elizabeth Swados composed the music for Trudeaus book and lyrics, the strip resumed some time after the events in the musical, with further changes having taken place after the end of the musicals plot. Mark was living in Washington, DC, working for National Public Radio, michael and J. J. had gotten married, and Mike had dropped out of business school to start work in an advertising agency in New York City. Zonker, still not ready for the world, was living with Mike. Prior to the hiatus, the characters had aged at the tectonically slow rate standard for comic strips
26.
Air Supply
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Air Supply is an Australian soft rock duo, consisting of singer-songwriter and guitarist Graham Russell and lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock. They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight Top Ten hits in the United States and they formed in Australia in 1975 and have included various accompanying musicians and singers. The Australian Recording Industry Association inducted Air Supply into their Hall of Fame on 1 December 2013 at the annual ARIA Awards. Chrissie Hammond, Russell Hitchcock, and Graham Russell met in May 1975 while performing in the Australian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. With Hammond and Hitchcock on vocals and Russell on guitar, they formed a vocal group in Melbourne. Hammond left the group to form Cheetah and was replaced by Jeremy Paul on bass guitar. Together, Hitchcock, Russell and Paul formed Air Supply, the groups first single, Love and Other Bruises, was released in November 1976 and peaked at No.6 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in January 1977. It was followed by Air Supply, their album, in December. The album was produced by Peter Dawkins with Air Supply line-up as Hitchcock, Paul, Russell and drummer Jeff Browne, guitarist Mark McEntee and keyboardist, Other singles were If You Knew Me, Empty Pages and Feel the Breeze but none reached the Top 40. A national tour followed with Hitchcock, Paul, Russell and Scott joined by Nigel Macara on drums, the album spawned the singles Do What You Do, Thats How the Whole Thing Started and Do It Again but neither album nor singles charted into the Top 40. From late 1977, the group supported Rod Stewart during his tour of Australia—he invited them to continue to the United States, Paul, in 1980, recruited fellow former Air Supply bandmate McEntee in the line-up of Divinyls, fronted by Chrissie Amphlett. Air Supply performed in London supporting Chicago and Boz Scaggs, by early 1978, the line-up was Hitchcock, Russell, and Macara with George Terry and Joey Murcia on guitar, George Bitzer on keyboards and Harold Cowart on bass guitar. However, by mid-1978, only Hitchcock and Russell remained in the line-up, backed by Ralph Cooper on drums and former Sailor members Brian Hamilton on bass guitar and vocals and David Moyse on guitar. In April 1979, the band released Life Support, an album which included a picture disc on its first printing. The album was recorded at Trafalgar Studios in Sydney, the album had a five-and-a-half-minute version of Lost in Love, written by Graham Russell in 15 minutes, it was released as a single and peaked at No.13 in Australia and No.13 in New Zealand. The track caught the attention of Arista Records boss Clive Davis, in late November 1979 Russell was embroiled in a bitter court case with Samuel Nay over accusations of assault at a backstage meet and greet in Oklahoma. Nay would later pass away during the case and all charges were dropped. The line-up for the album kept Hitchcock, Russell, Cooper, and Moyse, Esler-Smith had previously known Hitchcock and Russell from working with them in Jesus Christ Superstar
27.
George Benson
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George Benson is an American musician, guitarist and singer-songwriter. He began his career at 21 as a jazz guitarist. Benson uses a rest-stroke picking technique similar to that of jazz players such as Django Reinhardt. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, playing jazz with Jack McDuff. He then launched a solo career, alternating between jazz, pop, R&B singing, and scat singing. His album Breezin was certified triple-platinum, hitting no.1 on the Billboard album chart in 1976 and his concerts were well attended through the 1980s, and he still has a large following. He has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Benson was born and raised in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of seven, he first played the ukulele in a drug store. At the age of eight, he played guitar in a nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights. At the age of 10, he recorded his first single record, She Makes Me Mad, with RCA-Victor in New York, Benson attended and graduated from Schenley High School. As a youth he learned how to play straight-ahead instrumental jazz during a relationship performing for years with organist Jack McDuff. One of his early guitar heroes was country-jazz guitarist Hank Garland. At the age of 21, he recorded his first album as leader, The New Boss Guitar, Bensons next recording was Its Uptown with the George Benson Quartet, including Lonnie Smith on organ and Ronnie Cuber on baritone saxophone. Benson followed it up with The George Benson Cookbook, also with Lonnie Smith and Ronnie Cuber on baritone, Miles Davis employed Benson in the mid-1960s, featuring his guitar on Paraphernalia on his 1968 Columbia release, Miles in the Sky before going to Verve Records. Benson then signed with Creed Taylors jazz label CTI Records, where he recorded albums, with jazz heavyweights guesting, to some success. His 1974 release, Bad Benson, climbed to the top spot in the Billboard jazz chart, while the follow-ups, Good King Bad and Benson and Farrell, both reached the jazz top-three sellers. Benson played on sessions for other CTI artists during this time, including Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine. By the mid- to late-1970s, as he recorded for Warner Bros, Records, a whole new audience began to discover Benson
28.
DeBarge
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DeBarge was an American musical group whose repertoire included R&B, soul, funk, and pop music. Active throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, the group comprised members of the DeBarge family, the group originally consisted of Mark, Randy, and El. Bunny, James, and Bobby joined later, DeBarge released six studio albums, four of them with Motowns Gordy Records, The DeBarges, All This Love, In a Special Way, and Rhythm of the Night. The latter became the groups best-selling album and garnered the single Rhythm of the Night, DeBarge entered its decline in 1986, when Bunny and El were offered solo deals with Motown and departed the group, and DeBarge was dropped from Motown soon afterward. The remaining members signed with Stripe Horse Records, an independent label, in 1987, the group continued to perform for an additional two years, with Chico DeBarge joining the group in 1988. That year, Bobby and Chico were arrested for drug trafficking, the DeBarge family are the children of Robert DeBarge, Sr. a white man of French descent, and Etterlene DeBarge, a black woman born in Michigan in 1935. They married when Etterlene was 17, a year after the death of her father James Abney, a church choir leader and peanut retailer. Etterlene remembers Robert DeBarge, Sr. as physically and emotionally abusive to her and the children, and said he used her youth, the absence of her father, and continuous pregnancy to control her. DeBarge, Sr. has been characterized as domineering and physically abusive to his wife, Bunny Debarge, the eldest, recalls being sexually abused by him between the ages of 7 to 13. The group, named for their surname, hailed from the East Side of Detroit, Michigan. Members included sister Bunny and brothers Mark, William, Eldra, the siblings who became DeBarge started performing in various groups together in the Detroit, Michigan area in the mid 1970s. Bunny DeBarge had joined her brothers in 1979 as well. By 1981, Bobby and Tommy had left Switch and returned the favor to their siblings working with them on their album, which was released that year with Bobby, Bunny. The only single, the Bobby-led ballad Whats Your Name, failed to chart, in 1982 they added their 18-year-old brother James to the lineup and worked on their second album, All This Love, produced by El and Iris Gordy. The album launched them into R&B stardom with the records I Like It, both songs also became crossover pop hits with All This Love later going to number one on Billboards adult contemporary chart. In 1983, the made a impression after appearing on Motown 25. Their performance together ended in a standing ovation, later in 1983, the group issued their third album, In a Special Way, which spawned two further hit singles, Time Will Reveal and Love Me in a Special Way. Like All This Love before it, the album reached gold status in the United States, following that albums success, DeBarge were handpicked by Luther Vandross to open for him on his Busy Body Tour to support his album of the same name
29.
Sheena Easton
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Sheena Shirley Easton is a Scottish singer, recording artist and stage and screen actress with dual UK-United States nationality. Eastons first two singles, Modern Girl and 9 to 5, both entered the UK Top Ten, and she was the first UK female artist to appear twice in the same Top Ten since Ruby Murray. She has recorded 16 studio albums, released 45 singles total worldwide, Top 40 singles, seven U. S. top tens and one U. S. No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1981 and 1991. She also had 25 top 40 hits in international territories around the world, in Canada, Easton scored three gold and two platinum albums. She has sold over 20 million albums and singles worldwide, Eastons other hits include the James Bond theme For Your Eyes Only, Strut, U Got the Look and The Arms of Orion with Prince, The Lover in Me and What Comes Naturally. She has worked with prominent vocalists and producers, such as Prince, Christopher Neil, Kenny Rogers, David Foster, Luis Miguel, L. A. Reid & Babyface, Patrice Rushen and Nile Rodgers. Easton was born Sheena Shirley Orr in the Scottish town of Bellshill and she had two brothers, Robert and Alex, and three sisters, Marilyn, Anessa and Morag. Eastons father died in 1969 and her mother had to support the family, Easton did not consider a singing career until she saw the movie The Way We Were, with Barbra Streisand. Streisands singing over the opening credits overtook the young girl and convinced her that what she wanted most was to be a singer and she chose to study teaching rather than performing, because it was a course of study that would let her perfect her craft as a singer. In 1979, she married Sandi Easton, the first of her four husbands and they divorced after eight months, and Sheena decided to keep the surname Easton. That year, one of her tutors coaxed her into auditioning for Esther Rantzen, Rantzen was planning a documentary film to chronicle a relative unknowns rise to pop-music stardom. Easton was selected as the subject for the programme, where she met and sang with Dusty Springfield and Lulu, within a year of the programme airing, Sheena Easton proved Massey wrong as EMI executives awarded her a contract, and Christopher Neil was assigned as her recording producer. Deke Arlon became her first manager, and Easton spent much of 1980 being followed by camera crews and her first single, the disco-tinged soft-synth-pop tune, Modern Girl, was released in the UK before The Big Time aired, reached number 56 and was certified a Silver single. At the end of the show, Easton was still unsure of her future as a singer. The question was resolved soon after the show aired, when her single,9 to 5. Modern Girl re-entered the chart subsequently and climbed into the top 10, during 1980, Easton was voted Best British Female Singer by the Daily Mirror Pop & Rock Awards, Best Newcomer by Capital Radio, and Best Female Singer by the TV Times Readers Awards. Morning Train became Eastons first and only number 1 hit in the US, the song was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe award in 1982 in the category Best Music. Eastons US success culminated in her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist of 1981, Eastons first three US albums, Sheena Easton, You Could Have Been With Me, and Madness, Money and Music, were all in the same soft rock/adult contemporary pop vein
30.
Art Garfunkel
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Arthur Ira Art Garfunkel is an American singer, poet and actor. He is best known for his partnership in his years with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Through his solo and collaborative work, Garfunkel has earned six Grammys, in 1990, he and Simon were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Arthur Ira Garfunkel was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, the son of Rose and Jacob Jack Garfunkel, Art is a middle child with two brothers, the older named Jules and the younger named Jerome. Jacobs parents had immigrated to the United States at the turn of the century. Before his career in sales, Jacob worked as an actor in Dayton, Garfunkel is Jewish, his paternal grandparents emigrated from Iași in Romania. His maternal cousin was Lou Pearlman, founder of N Sync, according to the Across America DVD, Garfunkels love for singing originated in the first grade. Later, Garfunkels father bought him a wire recorder and from then on, Garfunkel spent his afternoons singing, recording, at his Bar Mitzvah in 1954, Garfunkel sang as a cantor and performed over four hours of his repertoire for his family. As a young teen, Garfunkel was struck with a lung infection and he explained in a 1998 Interview, In the summer of 55, I had a lung infection. I couldnt run around, but I loved basketball and there was a hoop nearby, Much of the summer I spent methodically hitting 96,98 foul shots out of 100. I never played on a team after Junior High School, just 3 against 3, half court pick up games in the schoolyard. He met his singing partner Paul Simon in the sixth grade at PS164. It has been said by Garfunkel that Simon first became interested in singing after hearing Garfunkel sing a rendition of Nat King Coles Too Young in a talent show. Between 1956 and 1962, the two performed together as Tom & Jerry, occasionally performing at school dances and their idols were The Everly Brothers, whom they imitated in their use of close two-part vocal harmony. In 1957, Simon & Garfunkel recorded the song Hey, Schoolgirl under the name Tom & Jerry, the single reached forty-ninth on the pop charts. Garfunkel chose his nickname because he liked to track, or graph hits and he also released some singles as a solo artist under the name Artie Garr, a shortened version of his name. In interviews, Garfunkel has noted how these early singles distinguished him as a crooner, with songs like Beat Love. Garfunkel was a member in tennis, skiing, fencing, and bowling at the College and also joined the all-male a cappella group on campus
31.
The Manhattan Transfer
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The Manhattan Transfer is a jazz vocal group founded in 1969 that has explored a capella, vocalese, swing, standards, Brazilian jazz, rhythm and blues, and pop music. There have been two editions of the Manhattan Transfer, with Tim Hauser the only person to be part of both, the first group consisted of Hauser, Erin Dickins, Marty Nelson, Pat Rosalia, and Gene Pistilli. The second version of the group, formed in 1972, consisted of Hauser, Alan Paul, Janis Siegel, in 1979, after Massé was badly injured in a car accident, she was replaced by Cheryl Bentyne. The groups long-time pianist, Yaron Gershovsky, accompanied the group on tour, Trist Curless from the Los Angeles a cappella group m-pact became a permanent member in October 2014 following Hausers death. In 1969, Tim Hauser formed a group in New York City called the Manhattan Transfer after the novel by John Dos Passos. The group consisted of Erin Dickins, Marty Nelson, and Pat Rosalia and this group made one album, Jukin, which looked at the music of the past critically and satirically, rather than respectfully as in all later incarnations of the group. The album was commercially and critically, and the group broke up. Three years later, Hauser met Laurel Massé while he was a cab driver, soon after, he met Janis Siegel and Alan Paul and started another version of the Manhattan Transfer. After performing in clubs in New York City, the quartet released its album with guest appearances by bona fide jazz musicians Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis. The Manhattan Transfer lacked the condescension of the album, presenting instead serious vocalese renditions of Java Jive and Tuxedo Junction. During the summer of 1975, the group hosted a variety show on TV. Their next album, Coming Out, produced Chanson dAmour, which was a one hit in England. In 1978, Laurel Massé was in a car accident and dropped out of the group and she was replaced by Cheryl Bentyne. The groups next album, Extensions, produced the hit Twilight Zone, Extensions featured a cover version of Birdland, an instrumental by the jazz fusion group Weather Report, with lyrics by Jon Hendricks of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. One of the most popular recordings of 1980, Birdland won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. In 1981, the Manhattan Transfer made music history by becoming the first group to win Grammy awards for popular and jazz categories in the same year. Both of these appeared on the groups fifth album, Mecca for Moderns. In 1982, the group won another Grammy, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group, the song was featured on the soundtrack to the Burt Reynolds film Sharkys Machine
32.
Johnny Mathis
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John Royce Johnny Mathis is an American singer of popular music and jazz. Mathis has sold well over 100 million records worldwide, according to Guinness Book of British Hit Singles writer and charts music historian Paul Gambaccini, Mathis also recorded six albums of Christmas music. In a 1968 interview, Mathis cited Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas, United States, in 1935, the fourth of seven children of Clem Mathis and Mildred Boyd. The family moved to San Francisco, California, settling on 32nd Avenue in the Richmond District and his father had worked in vaudeville, and when he saw his sons talent, he bought an old upright piano for $25 and encouraged him. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father and his first song was My Blue Heaven. Mathis started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, when he was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for work around her house. Mathis studied with Cox for six years, learning scales and exercises, voice production, classical. He is one of the few popular singers who received years of professional voice training that included opera. The first band he sang with was formed by his school friend Merl Saunders. Mathis eulogized him at his funeral in 2008, thanking him for giving him his first chance as a singer, Mathis was a star athlete at George Washington High School in San Francisco. He was a jumper and hurdler, and he played on the basketball team. In 1954, he enrolled at San Francisco State University on a scholarship, intending to become an English teacher. In San Francisco while singing at a Sunday afternoon jam session with a jazz sextet at the Black Hawk Club, Mathis attracted the attention of the clubs co-founder. After repeated calls, Noga finally persuaded Avakian to come hear Mathis at the 440 Club, after hearing Mathis sing, Avakian sent his record company a telegram stating, Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way. At San Francisco State, Mathis had become noteworthy as a jumper, and in 1956 he was asked to try out for the U. S. Olympic Team that would travel to Melbourne, Australia. Mathis had to decide whether to go to the Olympic trials or to keep his appointment in New York City to make his first recordings, on his fathers advice, Mathis opted to embark on a professional singing career. His LP record album was released in late 1956 instead of waiting until the first quarter of 1957, Mathiss first record album, Johnny Mathis, A New Sound In Popular Song, was a slow-selling jazz album, but Mathis stayed in New York City to sing in nightclubs. His second album was produced by Columbia Records vice-president and record producer Mitch Miller, Miller preferred that Mathis sing soft, romantic ballads, pairing him up with conductor and music arranger Ray Conniff, and later, Ray Ellis, Glenn Osser, and Robert Mersey
33.
Patti LaBelle
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Patricia Louise Holt-Edwards better known under the stage name Patti LaBelle, is an American singer, author, actress, and entrepreneur. LaBelle began her career in the early 1960s as lead singer and front woman of the group, Patti LaBelle. After the group split in 1976, LaBelle began a solo career, starting with her critically acclaimed debut album. Less than two years later, in 1986, LaBelle scored with the album, Winner in You. LaBelle eventually won a 1992 Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her 1991 album, Burnin, followed by a second Grammy win for the live album and her 1990s albums, Burnin, Gems and Flame, continued her popularity with young R&B audiences throughout the decade. LaBelles success has extended as an actress with a role in the film, A Soldiers Story. In 1992, LaBelle starred in her own TV sitcom, Out All Night, a decade later, LaBelle hosted her own lifestyle TV show, Living It Up with Patti LaBelle on TV One. In 2015, LaBelle took part in the competition, Dancing with the Stars. In a career that has spanned fifty years, she has more than 50 million records worldwide. LaBelle has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame, in 2005, the World Music Awards recognized her years in the music business by awarding her the Legend Award. Possessing the voice of a soprano, LaBelle was included in Rolling Stone on their list of 100 Greatest Singers, LaBelle is commonly identified as the Godmother of Soul. LaBelle was born Patricia Louise Holte on May 24,1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and her father was a railroad worker and her mother was a domestic. Despite enjoying her childhood, LaBelle would later write in her memoirs, Dont Block the Blessings, when Patti was seven, she was sexually molested by a family friend. At twelve, her parents came to an end though Patti remained close to her father. When she was fifteen, she won a talent competition at her high school and this success led to Patti forming her first singing group, the Ordettes, in 1960, with schoolmates Jean Brown, Yvonne Hogen and Johnnie Dawson. The group, with Patti as front woman, became an attraction until two of its members left to marry. In 1962, the Ordettes included three new members, Cindy Birdsong, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx, the two girls having sung for another defunct vocal group. That year, they auditioned for record label owner Harold Robinson
34.
Lou Rawls
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Louis Allen Lou Rawls was an American recording artist, voice actor, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his ability, Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had the classiest singing. Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records and he worked as a television, motion picture, and voice actor. He was also a three-time Grammy-winner, all for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, Rawls was born in Chicago on December 1,1933, and raised by his grandmother in the Ida B. Wells projects on the citys South Side, after graduating from Chicagos Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a local gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. In 1951, Rawls replaced Cooke in the Highway QCs after Cooke departed to join The Soul Stirrers in Los Angeles, Rawls was soon recruited by the Chosen Gospel Singers and moved to Los Angeles, where he subsequently joined the Pilgrim Travelers. In 1955, Rawls enlisted in the United States Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division and he left the All-Americans three years later as a sergeant and rejoined the Pilgrim Travelers. In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital, where he stayed in a coma for five and a half days. It took him months to regain his memory, and a year to fully recuperate, Rawls considered the event to be life-changing. Alongside Dick Clark as master of ceremonies, Rawls was recovered enough by 1959 to be able to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. His first 2 single releases were Love, Love, Love and Walkin on Herb Alperts Shar-Dee label in 1959-60, then 2 more in 1960-61 on Candix with In My Little Black Book and 80 Ways. He was signed to Capitol Records in 1962, the year he sang the soulful background vocals on the Sam Cooke recording of Bring It On Home to Me and Thats Where Its At. Rawls himself charted with a cover of Bring It On Home to Me in 1970, Rawls first Capitol solo release was Stormy Monday, a jazz album with Les McCann in 1962. Went gold, Rawls would not have a hit until he made a proper soul album, appropriately named Soulin. The album contained his first R&B #1 single, Love Is a Hurtin Thing, in 1967 Rawls won his first Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, for the single Dead End Street. In 1967, Rawls also performed at the first evening of the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, in 1969, the singer was co-host of NBCs summer replacement series for the Dean Martin Show along with Martins daughter, singer Gail Martin. After leaving Capitol in 1971, Rawls joined MGM, at which juncture he released his Grammy-winning single Natural Man written for him by comedian Sandy Baron and he had a brief stint with Bell Records in 1974, where he recorded a cover of Hall & Oates Shes Gone. In 1976, Rawls signed with Philadelphia International Records, where he had his greatest album success with the million-selling All Things in Time, subsequent albums, such as 1977s When You Hear Lou, Youve Heard It All yielded such hit singles as Lady Love
35.
Dionne Warwick
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Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV-show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health. Having been in a partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the rock era. She is second only to Aretha Franklin as the female vocalist of all time. Marie Dionne Warrick, later Warwick, was born on December 12,1940 in East Orange, New Jersey, to Mancel Warrick and her mother was manager of the Drinkard Singers, and her father was a Pullman porter, chef, record promoter and CPA. She was named after her aunt on her mothers side, Dionne had a sister Delia who died in 2008 and a brother, Mancel Jr. who was killed in an accident in 1968 at the age of 21. Her parents were both African American, and she also has Native American, Brazilian and Dutch ancestry, after finishing East Orange High School in 1959, Warwick pursued her passion at the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. She also landed work with her group singing backing vocals for recording sessions in New York City. During one session, Warwick met Burt Bacharach, who hired her to record demos featuring songs written by him, much of Warricks family were members of the Drinkard Singers, a renowned family gospel group and RCA recording artists that frequently performed throughout the New York metropolitan area. The original group consisted of Cissy, Anne, Larry, and Nicky, but later included Warwicks grandparents, Nicholas and Delia Drinkard, Marie instructed the group and they were managed by Lee. As they became successful, Lee and Marie began performing with the group, and they were augmented by pop/R&B singer Judy Clay. Elvis Presley eventually expressed an interest in having them join his touring entourage, Dionne began singing gospel as a child at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. After personnel changes, the Gospelaires became the group the Sweet Inspirations, which had some chart success. And we left and did the session, I wish I remembered the gentlemans name because he was responsible for the beginning of my professional career. The backstage encounter led to the group being asked to sing background sessions at recording studios in New York, the background vocal work would continue while Warwick pursued her studies at Hartt. According to a July 14,1967 article on Warwick from Time, Bacharach stated, She has a strong side. Musically, she was no play-safe girl, what emotion I could get away with. And what complexity, compared with the run of pop songs. During the session, Bacharach asked Warwick if she would be interested in recording demonstration recordings of his compositions to pitch the tunes to record labels
36.
Alan Sorrenti
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Alan Sorrenti is an Italian singer and composer. Sorrenti was born in Naples, but his mother was Welsh, as a result, he is fluent in both Italian and English and has sung in both languages throughout his career. In 1976, Alan Sorrenti shifted genre and released tracks more reminiscent of the dance genre, in late 1979 he scored a major European hit with the single Tu sei lunica donna per me, since then covered in a number of different languages. Alan represented Italy in the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Non so che darei and he finished sixth in the contest but the track became one of that years bestselling entries in Continental Europe and Scandinavia after the winner Johnny Logans Whats Another Year. In 2006, Sorrenti participated in the festival O Scià on the Lampedusa island, alans younger sister Jenny Sorrenti is also a recording artist and has released two albums with her progressive folk/rock band Saint Just, as well as several solo albums. Aria Come un vecchio incensiere allalba di un villaggio deserto Alan Sorrenti Sienteme, di notte Angeli di strada Bonno Soku Bodai Radici Kyoko mon amour Miami Sottacqua Artist ALAN SORRENTI Official website
37.
They Don't Make Them Like They Used To
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They Dont Make Them Like They Used To is the nineteenth studio album by country superstar Kenny Rogers. The albums title cut was used as the tune to the box office hit movie Tough Guys. The song Youre My Love was written by Prince under the pseudonym Joey Coco, the album was a top 20 success on the country charts with the single Twenty Years Ago peaking at #2. Two singles came from the album, the title cut, released at the end of 1986, only made #53 in the country charts although it did well by hitting #10 on the contemporary charts. When RCA released Twenty Years Ago in 1987, however, Rogers returned to the top five at #2, matching this feat in Canada as well
38.
Kenny Rogers
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Kenneth Ray Kenny Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, on September 25,2015, Rogers announced on NBCs Today Show that he was retiring from show business after a final tour to spend more time with his wife and twin boys. Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About. com poll of The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever and he was voted the Favorite Singer of All-Time in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People. He has received such awards as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs. The first single from the album, I Cant Unlove You, was also a chart hit. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, the year he completed a tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. He has also acted in a variety of movies and television shows, most notably the roles in Kenny Rogers as The Gambler. He is also a co-founder of the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters, kenneth Ray Rogers was born in Houston, Texas, on August 21,1938, the fourth of eight children, born to Lucille Lois, a nurses assistant, and Edward Floyd Rogers, a carpenter. Rogers is of Irish and Native American ancestry and he has five children from four of his five marriages. At his estate in Colbert, Georgia, Rogers keeps a pet goat named Smitty, according to Rogers, the goat has been center, providing a calming influence after long and stressful touring schedules. He had a solo hit in 1958 called That Crazy Feeling. After sales slowed down, Rogers joined a group called The Bobby Doyle Three. The group recorded for Columbia Records and they disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called Heres That Rainy Day, failed. Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers, including country artists Mickey Gilley, in 1966 he joined The New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player. Feeling that the Minstrels were not offering the success they wanted, Rogers and fellow members Mike Settle, Terry Williams and they formed The First Edition in 1967. They were later joined by Kin Vassy, when the First Edition disbanded in 1976, Rogers launched his solo career. He soon developed a more middle-of-the-road sound that sold to both pop and country audiences and he has charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles. Fifty of his albums have charted and his music has also been featured in top selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy, and The Big Lebowski
39.
Turn Your Love Around
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Turn Your Love Around is a vocal pop/R&B single by George Benson. The song was written by Bill Champlin of Chicago, Steve Lukather of Toto and producer Jay Graydon to help fill out Bensons 1981 greatest hits album, The George Benson Collection. The song won a Best R&B Song Grammy Award at the 25th Grammy Awards in 1983 for Champlin, Graydon, and Lukather as its co-writers. Turn Your Love Around reached number one on the singles charts and number five on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in early 1982. It is ranked as the 27th biggest hit of 1982, in Canada, the song spent two weeks at number 10. The original inspiration for the song came to co-songwriter Jay Graydon in the bathroom and he explained to Songfacts, Turn Your Love Around was a gift, and its the gift that keeps giving. I was in the bathroom when I came up with the melody, well, I got off the can as fast as I could and got to a cassette machine so I wouldnt forget it. George Benson was coming in town Tuesday, so I had four days to come up with a song for The George Benson Collection, I just came up with this melody for the chorus when I was in the bathroom. The song was one of the first pop hits to feature a Linn LM-1 drum machine, programmed by session drummer Jeff Porcaro. This song was sampled on the version of Lil Kims Not Tonight, Spice 1s The Thug In Me. Turn Your Love Around Song Review on Allmusic website Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
40.
After the Love Has Gone
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After the Love Has Gone is a 1979 hit single for Earth, Wind & Fire, written by David Foster, Jay Graydon, and Bill Champlin for the album I Am. It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks, behind The Knacks smash hit My Sharona, one of the songs writers David Foster worked on an album for Motown Records singer Jaye P. Morgan. The album was released in Japan and never took off in the United States, Foster later went to Motown to let the executives hear some of the material. Foster was in the middle of a song and ad-libbed the chorus to After The Love Has Gone, Foster and Jay Graydon then asked Bill Champlin to write lyrics to the music. At the time, Foster was producing Champlins 1978 solo debut Single for Full Moon/Epic Records and was working with Earth, Foster then showed Maurice White the song, which White loved and wanted to record it. Foster and Graydon later told Champlin that the song was being pulled off his album for inclusion on Earth and we cut it about six, seven times, and Maurice just said, No, its not right yet. Well come back and get it tomorrow, and then one day we nailed it, and it was right. It sounded like Earth, Wind & Fire, after the Love Has Gone was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year and won for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. The song also won a Best R & B Song Grammy Award for Foster, Graydon, after the Love Has Gone has been placed on Bruce Pollocks list of The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000. Venus Flytrap, the night DJ portrayed by Tim Reid, played the song after his announcement that numerous youngsters were killed by a stampede of concertgoers. The song was heard on an earlier episode, in a scene where staffer Bailey Quarters was brooding over being stood up on a planned date with morning drive DJ Johnny Fever. In 1981, Lynn Davis released a version of the song on Stanley Turrentines album Tender Togetherness, in 1993, Jay Graydon also released a version of the song on his solo album on which Bill Champlin provided the lead vocals. David Benoit and Russ Freeman also covered the song, under their 1994 collaboration album, The Benoit/Freeman Project, with Vesta Williams and Phil Perry on vocals. UK boyband Damage has covered the song, as well as such as Donny Osmond on his album Somewhere in Time and 112 on the album New York Undercover. The song was sampled by Ryan Shaw in 2008, norman Brown also covered the song in his 1996 smooth jazz album Better Days Ahead. Tommy Emmanuel and CDB released a version as the single from Emmanuels 1998 album. The song peaked at number 74 in Australia, kurt Elling, a Chicago-based Grammy-winning jazz vocalist, covered this song on his 2011 release The Gate. Filipino R&B singer Jay R covered the song on his 2008 album, Soul In Love
41.
Earth, Wind & Fire
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Earth, Wind & Fire is an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, Latin and African. They are one of the most successful bands of all time, rolling Stone Magazine described them as innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing and declared that the band changed the sound of black pop. The band was founded in Chicago by Maurice White in 1970, other members have included Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, Larry Dunn, Al McKay and Andrew Woolfolk. The band has received 20 Grammy nominations, they won six as a group, Earth, Wind & Fire have 12 American Music Awards nominations and four awards. Five members of Earth, Wind & Fire were also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Maurice White, Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Larry Dunn and Al McKay. The music industry and fans have bestowed Lifetime Achievement honors from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, NAACP, the kalimba is played on all of the bands albums. Two Earth, Wind & Fire classic songs have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, Thats the Way of the World, the band is also known as having been the first African-American act to sell out Madison Square Garden and to receive the MSG Gold Ticket Award. President Barack Obama invited Earth, Wind & Fire to perform at the White House for the first social event of the new administration. The three friends got a contract with Capitol, they called themselves The Salty Peppers and had a marginal hit in the Midwestern area called La La Time. The Salty Peppers second single, Uh Huh Yeah, did not fare as well, and Maurice moved from Chicago to Los Angeles. He then added to the band singer Sherry Scott and percussionist Yackov Ben Israel, on June 6,1970, Verdine left Chicago to join the band as their new bassist. Maurice began shopping demo tapes of the band, featuring Donny Hathaway, around to different record labels, Maurices astrological sign, Sagittarius, has a primary elemental quality of Fire and seasonal qualities of Earth and Air, according to classical triplicities. Based on this, he changed the name, to Earth. Maurice held further auditions in L. A. adding Michael Beale on guitar, Chester Washington on reeds, trombonist Alex Thomas completed the then ten-man EWF lineup. The bands self-titled debut album, Earth, Wind, & Fire, was released in February 1971 to critical acclaim, as was November 1971s The Need of Love. Both albums were produced by Joe Wissert and a single, from The Need of Love called I Think About Lovin You, with Sherry Scott on lead vocals, in 1971, the group also recorded the soundtrack of the Melvin Van Peebles film Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song. The soundtrack was recorded at Paramount Recording Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard, with only Verdine left, Maurice decided to re-form the group. Warner Brothers didnt know how to promote this new combo as the only other funk band on their label was Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, the band successfully auditioned for managers Bob Cavallo and Joe Ruffalo
