Just a Step from Heaven
"Just a Step from Heaven" is the third single by the British girl group Eternal. It was the third single to be released from their debut album Forever; the single entered at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart dated 30 April 1994, climbing to its peak of number 8 three weeks later. The single spent 11 weeks on the UK Singles Chart; the music video features the group doing dance moves. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Always & Forever (Eternal album)
Always & Forever is the debut studio album by British girl group Eternal. It was released through EMI on 29 November 1993 before Louise Nurding left to embark on a solo career, before Eternal's follow up album Power of a Woman; the album became a commercial success, selling over one million copies in the UK alone and yielding six top 20 single releases. As of 1997, the album has sold over 4 million copies worldwide. Always & Forever yielded two Top 5 singles. "Stay" was the first single to be released from the album. This was followed by "Save Our Love" and "Just A Step From Heaven", both of which peaked at No. 8. "So Good" was the next single, peaking at No. 13, followed by "Oh Baby I..." which reached No. 4. "Crazy" was the final single released from the album. Always & Forever was a huge success, peaking at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified 4x Platinum by the BPI for sales of over 1.2 million copies. It was 1994's third best-selling album in the UK, spending over 76 weeks in the charts.
The album broke records for being the first to sell over 1 million copies in the UK by a female group. As of 2015, it is the only album by a debut act to contain six top 15 hits and the first album by a female group to be nominated for best album at the BRIT Awards; the album had an American release in March 1994, selling 81,000 copies by December 1994. "Stay" – 3:56 "Crazy" – 4:02 "Save Our Love" – 4:21 "Oh Baby I..." – 5:29 "I'll Be There" – 5:13 "Sweet Funky Thing" – 4:46 "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:58 "Just a Step from Heaven" – 4:16 "Let's Stay Together" – 4:38 "This Love Is for Real" – 3:44 "So Good" – 3:57 "If You Need Me Tonight" – 4:00 "Don't Say Goodbye" – 4:14 "Amazing Grace" – 1:50
Power of a Woman (Tairrie B album)
Power of a Woman is the debut studio album by the rapper Tairrie B, released on January 1, 1990 for Ruthless Records and distributed through MCA Records. It was produced by Tairrie B, with guest stars such as Schoolly D, Bilal Bashir & Greg Kuehn lending their talents to more than a few tracks. Despite gaining rather favorable reviews, it did not manage to chart on Billboard. "Swingin' Wit' T" 4:30 "Anything You Want" feat. Eazy-E 3:57 "Vinnie Tha' Moocha" feat. Everlast 4:01 "Step 2 This" 6:06 "Murder She Wrote" 3:15 "Packin' A Punch" 5:25 "Let The Beat Rock" 3:33 "Player" feat. Eazy-E, Dr. Dre & The D. O. C. 5:35 "School's In" 4:49 "Ruthless Bitch" 8:01
Stay (Eternal song)
"Stay" is a song written by Bob Khozouri and Mark Stevens, recorded by Glenn Jones and released in 1990. It reached number six on the U. S. R&B chart.. Glenn Jones recorded a song with the same title, but different lyrics in 1986. Three years after the first recording, "Stay" was the debut single by British girl group Eternal, it released on 20 September 1993 as the lead single from their debut album Forever. The single entered at number 16 on 26 September 1993 on the UK Singles Chart peaking at number four on 17 October 1993; the single was a hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 19 on 12 March 1994 and selling over 220,000 copies in the US. The music video for "Stay" was filmed in New York City, directed by Marcus Nispel and features the girls in colorful backdrops while doing dance moves; the video became a staple on the American cable network BET's Video Soul in early 1994. Glenn Jones Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Who Are You? (Eternal song)
"Who Are You?" is a song by Eternal released as the fourth single from the album Power of a Woman. The single was only released in Japan, it was produced by producers Ronnie Dennis Charles. The song was used in a South East Asian Toyota advertisement, reached no. 1 on the Japanese singles chart. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures. The 34th Disney animated feature film and the seventh animated film produced and released during the period called the Disney Renaissance, the film is based on the 1831 novel of the same name written by Victor Hugo; the plot centers on Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame, his struggle to gain acceptance into society. Directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale and produced by Don Hahn, the film's voice cast features Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, Kevin Kline, Paul Kandel, Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, David Ogden Stiers, Mary Wickes in her final film role; as the seventh animated film produced and released during a period known as the Disney Renaissance, the film is considered to be one of Disney's darkest animated films as its narrative explores such mature themes as infanticide, damnation and sin, despite the changes made from the original source material in order to ensure a G rating received by the MPAA.
The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with songs written by Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had collaborated on Pocahontas, released the year before. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released on June 21, 1996 to positive reviews and was a commercial success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming the fifth highest-grossing release of 1996; the film received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Menken's musical score. A darker, more gothic stage adaptation of the film, was rewritten and directed by James Lapine and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical in Berlin, Germany, as Der Glöckner von Notre Dame, ran from 1999 to 2002. A direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, was released in 2002. A live-action adaptation of the film is in development. In 1482 Paris, Clopin, a gypsy puppeteer, narrates the origin of the titular hunchback. A group of gypsies sneak illegally into Paris, but are ambushed by Judge Claude Frollo, Paris' Minister of Justice, his soldiers.
A gypsy woman in the group attempts to flee with her deformed baby, but Frollo chases and kills her outside Notre Dame. He tries to kill the baby as well, but the cathedral's archdeacon intervenes and accuses Frollo of murdering an innocent woman. To atone for his sin, Frollo reluctantly agrees to raise the deformed child in Notre Dame as his son, naming him "Quasimodo". Twenty years Quasimodo develops into a kind yet isolated young man who has lived inside the cathedral his entire life. A trio of living stone gargoyles—Victor and Laverne—serve as Quasimodo's only company, encourage him to attend the annually-held Festival of Fools. Despite Frollo's warnings that he would be shunned for his deformity, Quasimodo attends the festival and is celebrated for his awkward appearance, only to be humiliated by the crowd after two of Frollo's guards start a riot. Frollo refuses to help Quasimodo, but Esmeralda, a kind gypsy, intervenes by freeing the hunchback, uses a magic trick to evade arrest. Frollo sends him back inside the cathedral.
Esmeralda follows Quasimodo inside, only to be followed herself by Captain Phoebus of Frollo's guard. Phoebus refuses to arrest her for alleged witchcraft inside Notre Dame and instead has her confined to the cathedral. Esmeralda finds and befriends Quasimodo, who helps her escape Notre Dame out of gratitude for defending him, she entrusts Quasimodo a pendant containing a map to the gypsies' hideout, the Court of Miracles. Frollo soon develops lustful feelings for Esmeralda and, upon realizing them, begs the Virgin Mary to save him from her "spell" to avoid eternal damnation; when Frollo discovers that she escaped, he instigates a citywide manhunt for her which involves setting fire to countless houses in his way. Phoebus is appalled by Frollo's evil and defies him, Frollo sentences him to death. While fleeing, Phoebus is struck by an arrow and falls into the River Seine, but Esmeralda rescues him and takes him to Notre Dame for refuge; the gargoyles encourage Quasimodo to confess his feelings for Esmeralda, but he is heartbroken to discover she and Phoebus have fallen in love.
Frollo returns to Notre Dame that night and discovers that Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape. He bluffs to Quasimodo, saying that he knows about the Court of Miracles and that he intends to attack at dawn with 1,000 men. Using the map Esmeralda gave him and Phoebus find the court to warn the gypsies, only for Frollo to follow them and capture all the gypsies present. Frollo prepares to burn Esmeralda at the stake after she rejects his advances, but Quasimodo rescues her and brings her to the cathedral. Phoebus releases the gypsies and rallies the Paris citizens against Frollo and his men, who try to break into the cathedral. Quasimodo and the gargoyles pour molten lead onto the streets to ensure no one enters, but Frollo manages to get inside, he pursues Quasimodo and Esmeralda to the balcony where he and Quasimodo fight and both fall over the edge. Frollo falls to his death in the molten lead. Afterward, Quasimodo comes to accept that Phoebus and Esmeralda are in love, he gives them his blessing.
The two encourage him to leave the cathedral into the outside world, where the citizens hail him as a hero and accept him into society. Tom Hulce as Quasimodo, Notre Dame Cathedral's 20-year-old hunchbacked bell ringer who dreams of seeing life outside the bell tower. Despite the fact that Quasimodo is being informed by his guardian Judge Claude Frollo that he is an ugly monster, Clopin's opening song asks listeners to judge for themselves "who is the monster and, the man" of the two. James Baxter served as t
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues abbreviated as R&B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African American communities in the 1940s. The term was used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands consisted of piano, one or two guitars, drums, one or more saxophones, sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships and aspirations; the term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music.
In the 1960s, several British rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Animals were referred to and promoted as being R&B bands. Their mix of rock and roll and R&B is now known as "British rhythm and blues". By the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "contemporary R&B", it combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop, electronic music. Popular R&B vocalists at the end of the 20th century included Prince, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey. In the 21st century, R&B has remained a popular genre becoming more pop orientated and alternatively influenced with successful artists including Usher, Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean and Khalid. Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term "rhythm and blues" as a musical term in the United States in 1948, the term was used in Billboard as early as 1943.
It replaced the term "race music", which came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world. The term "rhythm and blues" was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, when its "Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles" chart was renamed as "Best Selling Soul Singles". Before the "Rhythm and Blues" name was instated, various record companies had begun replacing the term "race music" with "sepia series". Writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music, made by and for black Americans", he has used the term "R&B" as a synonym for jump blues. However, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of R&B's stronger gospel influences. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that "rhythm and blues" was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience. According to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts.
Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use to categorize music made by black musicians, as distinct from styles of music made by other musicians. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass and saxophone. Arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow and hypnotic textures while calling attention to no individual sound. While singers are engaged with the lyrics intensely so, they remain cool, in control; the bands dressed in suits, uniforms, a practice associated with the modern popular music that rhythm and blues performers aspired to dominate. Lyrics seemed fatalistic, the music followed predictable patterns of chords and structure; the migration of African Americans to the urban industrial centers of Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and elsewhere in the 1920s and 1930s created a new market for jazz and related genres of music.
These genres of music were performed by full-time musicians, either working alone or in small groups. The precursors of rhythm and blues came from jazz and blues, which overlapped in the late-1920s and 1930s through the work of musicians such as the Harlem Hamfats, with their 1936 hit "Oh Red", as well as Lonnie Johnson, Leroy Carr, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, T-Bone Walker. There was increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone. In 1948, RCA Victor was marketing black music under the name "Blues and Rhythm". In that year, Louis Jordan dominated the top five listings of the R&B charts with three songs, two of the top five songs were based on the boogie-woogie rhythms that had come to prominence during the 1940s. Jordan's band, the Tympany Five, consisted of him on saxophone and vocals, along with musicians on trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano and drums. Lawrence Cohn described the music as "grittier than his boogie-era jazz-tinged blues". Robert Palmer described it as "urbane, jazz-based music with a heavy, insistent beat".
Jordan's music, along with that of Big Joe Turner, Roy Brown, Billy Wright, Wynonie Harris, is now referred to as jump blues. Paul Gayten, Roy Brown, others had had hits in the style now referred to as rhythm and blu
