1.
Capitol Records
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Capitol Records, LLC is an American record label which operates as a division of the Capitol Music Group. The label was founded as the first West Coast-based record label in the United States in 1942 by three industry insiders named Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva and Glenn Wallichs, in 1955, the label was acquired by the British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary. EMI was later acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012 and was merged with the company in 2013, making Capitol Records, Capitol Records circular headquarter building located in Los Angeles is a recognized landmark of California. Mercer first raised the idea of starting a company while golfing with Harold Arlen. By 1941, Mercer was a songwriter and a singer with multiple successful releases. Mercer next suggested the idea to Wallichs while visiting his record store, Wallichs expressed interest in the idea and the pair negotiated an agreement whereby Mercer would run the company and identify their artists, while Wallichs managed the business side. On February 2,1942, Mercer and Wallichs met with DeSylva at a Hollywood restaurant to inquire about the possibility of investment of the company from Paramount Pictures, while DeSylva declined the proposal, he handed the pair a check worth $15,000. On March 27,1942, the three men incorporated as Liberty Records, in May 1942, the application was amended to change the companys name to Capitol Records. On April 6,1942, Mercer supervised Capitols first recording session where Martha Tilton recorded the song Moon Dreams, on May 5, Bobby Sherwood and his orchestra recorded two tracks in the studio. On May 21, Freddie Slack and his orchestra recorded three tracks in the studio, one with the orchestra, one with Ella Mae Morse called Cow-Cow Boogie, on June 4,1942, Capitol opened its first office in a second-floor room south of Sunset Boulevard. On that same day, Wallichs presented the companys first free record to Los Angeles disc jockey Peter Potter, on June 5,1942, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded four songs at the studio. On June 12, the recorded five more songs in the studio. On June 11, Tex Ritter recorded Jingle Jangle Jingle and Goodbye My Little Cherokee for his first Capitol recording session, and the songs formed Capitols 110th produced record. 133 - Get On Board Little Chillun - July 31,1942 - is a Freddie Slack/Ella Mae Morse/Mellowaires recording that might be the first rock n roll record and she has sometimes been called the first rock n roll singer. A good example is her 1942 recording of song which, with strong gospel, blues, boogie. Bone Walker recorded Mean Old World a pioneering example of the use of electric guitar. The earliest recording artists included co-owner Mercer, Whiteman, Tilton, Morse, Margaret Whiting, Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, Johnnie Johnston, Tex Ritter, Capitols first gold single was Morses Cow Cow Boogie in 1942. Capitols first album was Capitol Presents Songs By Johnny Mercer, a three 78-rpm disc set with recordings by Mercer, Stafford and the Pied Pipers, all with Westons Orchestra
2.
The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)
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The Adventures of Robin Hood is a British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes broadcast weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV. It stars Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the show followed the legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most episodes were original dramas created by the writers and producers. The programme was produced by Sapphire Films Ltd for ITC Entertainment, was filmed at Nettlefold Studios with some location work, Grade was so impressed by her proposal that he agreed immediately to back the series, hoping to make large profits by selling programmes to the lucrative American market. To mark the end of production on the series Mr. the show aired on CBC in Canada, and on CBS in the US. Robin Hood, a Saxon nobleman returned from the Crusades and forced into outlawry in Sherwood Forest, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hoods enemy who schemes to capture the outlaw. Little John, Robin Hoods trusted friend and his second in command, archie Duncan grabbed the bridle, stopping the horse, but the cart it was pulling ran him over, causing a fractured kneecap and cuts and bruises. He received the Queens Commendation for Bravery Award and £1,360 in damages from Sapphire films, maid Marian, a Norman-Irish noblewoman and Robin Hoods lover. Played in series one and two by Bernadette OFarrell and in three and four by Patricia Driscoll. Friar Tuck, a member of Robin Hoods band, will Scarlet, a member of Robin Hoods band. Played by Ronald Howard and Paul Eddington, Derwent, a member of Robins band. Excepting Robin, this character was featured in the most episodes of the show, joan, the barmaid at the Blue Boar Inn, a friend of Robin and his band. Sir Richard of the Lea, a friend of Robin and his band, hunter had earlier played King Richard the Lionheart in the 1938 production The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn. Lady Leonia, wife of Sir Richard of the Lea, played by Patricia Burke in 5 episodes. The Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham, played by John Arnatt, alan-a-Dale, a member of Robin Hoods band. Played by John Schlesinger, Richard Coleman, played by Donald Pleasence, Hubert Gregg, and Brian Haines. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell, Barbara Mullen, Richard OSullivan, Geoffrey Bayldon, Billie Whitelaw, Ronald Allen, Gordon Jackson, Conrad Phillips, John Schlesinger as an actor appeared in three episodes as singing minstrels. Frank Maher later Patrick McGoohans stunt double played many small non-speaking parts, and stuntman Terry Yorke, the series is set in the 12th Century, during the reign of King Richard
3.
The Beatles
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The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them. They acquired the nickname the Fab Four as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, from 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road, after their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in November 2001. The Beatles are the band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act, according to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazines list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, as of 2016 and they have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and they were also collectively included in Time magazines compilation of the twentieth centurys 100 most influential people. In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he, in February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, after a month of Harrisons persistence, they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennons Quarry Bank friends had left the group, the three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer. By early July, they had changed their name to the Silver Beatles, allan Williams, the Beatles unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned and hired Pete Best in mid-August 1960
4.
Buddy Holly
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Buddy Holly was an American musician and singer-songwriter who was a central figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. Holly was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a family during the Great Depression, he learned to play guitar. His style was influenced by music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts. He made his first appearance on television in 1952. In 1955, after opening for Elvis Presley, Holly decided to pursue a career in music and he opened for Presley three times that year, his bands style shifted from country and western to entirely rock and roll. In October that year, when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets, Holly was spotted by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall, Hollys recording sessions at Decca were produced by Owen Bradley. Petty became the manager and sent the demo to Brunswick Records, which released it as a single credited to The Crickets. In September 1957, as the band toured, Thatll Be the Day topped the US Best Sellers in Stores chart and its success was followed in October by another major hit, Peggy Sue. The album Chirping Crickets, released in November 1957, reached five on the UK Albums Chart. Holly made his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1958 and soon after, toured Australia. In early 1959, Holly assembled a new band, consisting of country music star Waylon Jennings, famed session musician Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered an airplane to travel to his show, in Moorhead. Soon after takeoff, the crashed, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper. During his short career, Holly wrote, recorded, and produced his own material and he is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums. Holly was an influence on later popular music artists, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton. He was among the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 13 in its list of 100 Greatest Artists. Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley on September 7,1936, in Lubbock, Texas, at 3,30 pm, he was the child of Lawrence Odell L. O. Holley. His older siblings were Larry, Travis, and Patricia Lou, from early childhood, he was nicknamed Buddy
5.
True Love Ways
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Which Holly recorded with the Dick Jacobs Orchestra on Tuesday evening October 211958, four months before the singers death. Some argue that this song is the most played first song at weddings, sadly played at his funeral in his hometown Lubbock, Texas on Saturday 7 February 1959. True Love Ways was first released on the posthumous album The Buddy Holly Story, Vol.2, the song was a hit in Britain in 1960, reaching number 25 on the pop singles chart. In the extended version of the song, in the first ten seconds Holly can be heard preparing to sing, the audio starts with audio saying Yeah, were rolling. A piano player and a saxophone player play some notes, and Holly mutters, Okay. To everyone else in the room, and at the end of the talkback, the producer says, Pitch, Ernie, to signal the player to give Holly his starting note. Along with It Doesnt Matter Anymore, Raining in My Heart, and Moondreams, the session took place at the Pythian Temple on October 21,1958. On April 29,2011, she unveiled the rarely seen True Love Ways photo of their kiss, first published in John Goldrosens 1975 Holly-biography Buddy Holly, His Life. The photo is now displayed at P. J. Clarkes above Table 53, https, //www. shazam. com/nl/track/57427898/ill-be-alright https, //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Angelic_Gospel_Singers https, //www. youtube. com/watch. v=IxQS_l6yzIc USA, True Love Ways b/w That Makes It Tough. UK, True Love Ways b/w Moondreams, mickey Gilley, country singer, released a successful cover version in 1980. Gilleys version reached the No.1 spot on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart in July 1980, british pop singer Cliff Richard released his cover as the lead single from his Dressed for the Occasion album in April 1983. The recording is of a performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 1982 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Richards version reached No.8 on the UK Singles Chart and was a hit in other countries. Bobby Vee recorded the song on his 1963 album I Remember Buddy Holly, frank Ifield recorded it in the UK as the B-side of his October 1964, hit Summer Is Over, on Columbia DB7355. Peter and Gordons 1965 Capitol remake hit #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it also reached #2 in the UK and #4 in Ireland, released in April 1965 on Columbia DB7524. Dick Rivers, a French singer, recorded an adaptation as Ne pleure pas Gary Busey made a version of this song in the biographic film The Buddy Holly Story. Ricky Nelsons version is recorded in winter 1978/1979, but was left unreleased from the album Rockabilly Renaissance and it was released in May 1986 after Nelsons death on the album The Memphis Sessions. Joan Jett performed the song in the film Light of Day, johnny Mathis on the 1989 album In the Still of the Night
6.
James Taylor
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James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and he is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the No.3 single Fire and Rain and had his first No.1 hit the year with Youve Got a Friend. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies, following his 1977 album, JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. Every album that he released from 1977 to 2007 sold over a million copies and his chart performance had a resurgence during the late 1990s and 2000s, when he recorded some of his most-awarded work. He achieved his first number one album in the US in 2015 with his recording Before This World. He is notable for his covers of other peoples songs, such as How Sweet It Is. James Vernon Taylor was born at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on March 12,1948 and his father was from a well-off family of Southerners of Scottish ancestry. His mother, the former Gertrude Woodard, studied singing with Marie Sundelius at the New England Conservatory of Music and was an opera singer before the couples marriage in 1946. James was the second of five children, the others being Alex, Kate, Livingston and they built a house in the Morgan Creek area off the present Morgan Creek Road, which was sparsely populated. James would later say, Chapel Hill, the Piedmont, the hills, were tranquil, rural, beautiful. Thinking of the red soil, the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape, James attended public primary school in Chapel Hill. Isaacs career prospered, but he was away from home, on military service at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Isaac Taylor later rose to dean of the UNC School of Medicine from 1964 to 1971. The Taylors spent summers on Marthas Vineyard beginning in 1953, Taylor first learned to play the cello as a child in North Carolina and switched to the guitar in 1960. He began attending Milton Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts in fall 1961. Summering before then with his family on Marthas Vineyard, he met Danny Kortchmar, the two began listening to and playing blues and folk music together, and Kortchmar quickly realized that Taylors singing had a natural sense of phrasing, every syllable beautifully in time. I knew James had that thing, Taylor wrote his first song on guitar at 14, and he continued to learn the instrument effortlessly
7.
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
8.
10,000 Maniacs
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10,000 Maniacs is a United States-based multi-platinum alternative rock band, formed in 1981, that continues to perform and release music. In 2016, the band celebrated its 35th anniversary, the band was formed as Still Life in 1981 in Jamestown, New York, by Dennis Drew, Steven Gustafson, Chet Cardinale, Robert Buck and Teri Newhouse. Gustafson invited Natalie Merchant, who was 17 at the time, John Lombardo, who was in a band called The Mills and used to play occasionally with Still Life, was invited to join permanently on guitar and vocals. Newhouse and Cardinale left the band in July, and Merchant became the main singer, the band changed its name to Burn Victims and then to 10,000 Maniacs after the low-budget horror movie Two Thousand Maniacs. They performed as 10,000 Maniacs for the first time on Labor Day, September 7,1981, with a line-up of Merchant, Lombardo, Buck, Drew, Gustafson, Edborg left and Bob Bob O Matic Wachter was on drums for most of the 1981 gigs. In March 1982, with Jim Foti on drums, the recorded a EP album called Human Conflict Number Five. During this time lived in Atlanta, Georgia for a short while at the encouragement of friends who said that many gigs were available there. Discouraged by the lack of gigs, and by having to sell plasma and rake leaves to buy food. At the beginning of 1983, Jerry Augustyniak joined the band as their permanent drummer, the Maniacs met Augustyniak when they played in Buffalo, New York, where he was in a punk band called The Stains. The record was received by critics and caught the attention of respected BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel in London. One song, My Mother the War, turned out to be a hit in the United Kingdom. The band toured extensively during 1983 and 1984, and played gigs in the UK, Peter Leak, an Englishman living in New York City, became interested in the band, made contact and was made their manager. With the help of Leak and Elektra Records A & R man Howard Thompson,10,000 Maniacs signed to Elektra in November 1984. In the spring of 1985, they recorded their second album, The Wishing Chair, in London at Livingston Studios. Though the album was not a hit, its status as the bands major label debut did win it some notice. Co-founder Lombardo left the band during a rehearsal on July 14,1986, the remaining five members started recording a new album in Los Angeles, with Peter Asher as the producer. The album originally contained Peace Train and it was removed from subsequent pressings after Cat Stevens made comments implying he agreed with a death Fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. The next album,1989 Blind Mans Zoo hit No.13 and went gold, in May 1989, the British music magazine, NME reported that 10,000 Maniacs had won the songwriter category prize at the New York Music Awards
9.
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
10.
San Diego
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San Diego is a major city in California, United States. It is in San Diego County, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, approximately 120 miles south of Los Angeles and immediately adjacent to the border with Mexico. With an estimated population of 1,394,928 as of July 1,2015, San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest in California. It is part of the San Diego–Tijuana conurbation, the second-largest transborder agglomeration between the US and a country after Detroit–Windsor, with a population of 4,922,723 people. San Diego has been called the birthplace of California, historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, the Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly independent Mexico, in 1850, California became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War and the admission of California to the union. The city is the seat of San Diego County and is the center of the region as well as the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. San Diegos main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, the presence of the University of California, San Diego, with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center, has helped make the area a center of research in biotechnology. The original inhabitants of the region are now known as the San Dieguito, the area of San Diego has been inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was Portuguese-born explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailing under the flag of Castile, sailing his flagship San Salvador from Navidad, New Spain, Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire in 1542, and named the site San Miguel. In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent to map the California coast, in May 1769, Gaspar de Portolà established the Fort Presidio of San Diego on a hill near the San Diego River. It was the first settlement by Europeans in what is now the state of California, in July of the same year, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded by Franciscan friars under Junípero Serra. By 1797, the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in, Mission San Diego was the southern anchor in California of the historic mission trail El Camino Real. Both the Presidio and the Mission are National Historic Landmarks, in 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain, and San Diego became part of the Mexican territory of Alta California. In 1822, Mexico began attempting to extend its authority over the territory of Alta California. The fort on Presidio Hill was gradually abandoned, while the town of San Diego grew up on the land below Presidio Hill. The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1833, the 432 residents of the town petitioned the governor to form a pueblo, and Juan María Osuna was elected the first alcalde, defeating Pío Pico in the vote
11.
Santa Monica, California
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Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. The Census Bureau population for Santa Monica in 2010 was 89,736, due in part to an agreeable climate, Santa Monica became a famed resort town by the early 20th century. The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its core, significant job growth. The Santa Monica Pier remains a popular and iconic destination, Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people. Santa Monica was called Kecheek in the Tongva language, the first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3,1769. Named after the Christian saint Monica, there are two different accounts of how the name came to be. One says it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica, another version says it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her sons early impiety. In Los Angeles, several battles were fought by the Californios, following the Mexican–American War, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in state certain unalienable rights. US government sovereignty in California began on February 2,1848, in the 1870s the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was a modest 1873 brick building, later a beer hall and it is Santa Monicas oldest extant structure. By 1885, the towns first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel, around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice. A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica, the two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans who were often well-disposed towards the Japanese but condescending towards the Chinese. The Japanese village fishermen were an economic part of the Santa Monica Bay community. Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field for the Douglas Aircraft Company, in 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Two planes returned after covering 27,553 miles in 175 days, the Douglas Company kept facilities in the city until the 1960s. The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply, one report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt, in the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica. The federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings, most notably City Hall, the main Post Office and Barnum Hall were also among other WPA projects
12.
Ritchie Valens
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Richard Steven Valenzuela, known as Ritchie Valens, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. A rock & roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens recording career lasted eight months, during this time, he had several hits, most notably La Bamba, which he had adapted from a Mexican folk song. Valens transformed the song one with a rock rhythm and beat. On February 3,1959, on what has become known as the Day the Music Died, Valens died in a crash in Iowa. The Big Bopper Richardson, as well as pilot Roger Peterson, Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Valens was born Richard Steven Valenzuela in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, Ritchie Valenzuela was brought up hearing traditional Mexican mariachi music, as well as flamenco guitar, R&B, and jump blues. Valenzuela expressed an interest in making music of his own by the age of five, and he was encouraged by his father to take up guitar and trumpet, and later taught himself the drums. Though Valenzuela was left handed, he was so eager to learn the guitar that he mastered the traditionally right-handed version of the instrument. When he was 16 years old, he was invited to join a band, the Silhouettes, as a guitarist. On October 19,1957, he made his debut with the Silhouettes. Valenzuela attended Pacoima Junior High School, by the time Valenzuela was attending junior high school, he brought the guitar to school and would sing and play songs to his friends on the bleachers. A self-taught musician, Valenzuela was a singer and guitarist. At his appearances, he often improvised new lyrics and added new riffs to popular songs while he was playing, kids knew the performer as the Little Richard of San Fernando. Swayed by the Little Richard comparison, Keane went to see Valenzuela play a Saturday morning matinée at a theater in San Fernando. Impressed by the performance, he invited the youth to audition at his home in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, an early stereo recorder and a pair of Neumann U-47 condenser microphones comprised his recording equipment. After this first audition, Keane signed Ritchie to Del-Fi on May 27,1958, at this point, the musician took the name Ritchie because, as Keane said, There were a bunch of Richards around at that time, and I wanted it to be different. Similarly, Keane recommended shortening his surname to Valens from Valenzuela to widen his appeal beyond any obvious ethnic group, Valens demonstrated several songs in Keanes studio that he later recorded at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. The demos primarily consisted of Valens singing and playing guitar, and these originals can be heard on the Del-Fi album, Ritchie Valens – The Lost Tapes
