1.
Recording Industry Association of America
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The Recording Industry Association of America is a continental North and South American trade organization that represents the recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors, which the RIAA says create, the RIAA headquarters is in Washington, D. C. The RIAA was formed in 1952 and its original mission was to administer recording copyright fees and problems, work with trade unions, and do research relating to the record industry and government regulations. Early RIAA standards included the RIAA equalization curve, the format of the record groove and the dimensions of 33 1/3 rpm,45 rpm. Since 2001, the RIAA has spent $2 to $6 million each year on lobbying in the United States, the RIAA also participates in the collective rights management of sound recordings, and it is responsible for certifying Gold and Platinum albums and singles in the United States. Cary Sherman has been the RIAAs chairman and CEO since 2011, Sherman joined the RIAA as its general counsel in 1997 and became president of the board of directors in 2001, serving in that position until being made chairman and CEO. Mitch Glazier has been the RIAAs senior executive vice president since 2011 and he served as executive vice president for public policy and industry relations from 2000 to 2011. The past RIAA chairman and CEO is Mitch Bainwol, who served from 2003 to 2011 and he left in 2011 to become president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. The board of directors consists of 26 members of the board, the RIAA operates an award program for albums that sell a large number of copies. The program originally began in 1958, with a Gold Award for singles, the criterion was changed in 1975 to the number of copies sold, with albums selling 500,000 copies awarded the Gold Award. In 1976, a Platinum Award was added for one million sales, the awards are open to both RIAA members and non-members. Since 2000, the RIAA also operates a program for Latin music sales. Currently, a Disco De Oro is awarded for 30,000 units, the RIAA defines Latin music as a type of release with 51% or more of its content recorded in Spanish. In 2006, digital ringtones were added to branch of certification. In the same year, the RIAA introduced the Latin Digital Award for digital recordings in Spanish and this release format includes DVD and VHS releases, and certain live albums and compilation albums. The certification criteria is different from other styles. Gold,50,000 Platinum,100,000 Multi-Platinum,200,000 copies The RIAA opposes unauthorized sharing of its music, studies conducted since the association began its campaign against peer-to-peer file-sharing have concluded that losses incurred per download range from negligible to moderate. The association has commenced high-profile lawsuits against file sharing service providers and it has also commenced a series of lawsuits against individuals suspected of file sharing, notably college students and parents of file sharing children
2.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
3.
Music recording sales certification
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Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies. The threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory, almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories, which are named after precious materials. The number of sales or shipments required for these awards depends upon the population of the territory in which the recording is released, typically, they are awarded only to international releases and are awarded individually for each country in which the album is sold. Different sales levels, some perhaps 10 times lower than others, the original gold record awards were presented to artists by their own record companies to publicize their sales achievements. The first of these was awarded by RCA Victor to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in February 1942, another example of a company award is the gold record awarded to Elvis Presley in 1956 for one million units sold of his single Dont Be Cruel. The first gold record for an LP was awarded by RCA Victor to Harry Belafonte in 1957 for the album Calypso and these sales were restricted to U. S. -based record companies and did not include exports to other countries. For albums in 1968, this would mean shipping approximately 250,000 units, the platinum certification was introduced in 1976 for the sale of one million units, album or single, with the gold certification redefined to mean sales of 500,000 units, album or single. No album was certified platinum prior to this year, for instance, the recording by Van Cliburn of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto from 1958 would eventually be awarded a platinum citation, but this would not happen until two decades after its release. In 1999, the certification was introduced for sales of ten million units. On 14 March 1958, the RIAA certified its first gold record, soundtrack was certified as the first gold album four months later. In 1976, RIAA introduced the platinum certification, first awarded to Johnnie Taylors single, Disco Lady, as music sales increased with the introduction of compact discs, the RIAA created the Multi-Platinum award in 1984. Diamond awards, honoring those artists whose sales of singles or albums reached 10,000,000 copies, were introduced in 1999 and this became much less common once the majority of retail sales became paid digital downloads and digital streaming. In most countries certifications no longer apply solely to physical media, in June 2006, the RIAA also certified the ringtone downloads of songs. Streaming from on-demand services such as Rhapsody and Spotify has been included into existing digital certification in the U. S since 2013, in the U. S. and Germany video streaming services like YouTube, VEVO, and Yahoo. Music also began to be counted towards the certification, in both cases using the formula of 100 streams being equivalent to one download, other countries, such as Denmark and Spain, maintain separate awards for digital download singles and streaming. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry was founded in 1996, and grants the IFPI Platinum Europe Award for album sales over one million within Europe, multi-platinum Europe Awards are presented for sales in subsequent multiples of one million. Eligibility is unaffected by time, and is not restricted to European-based artists, IMPALA sales awards were launched in 2005 as the first sales awards recognising that success on a pan-European basis begins well before sales reach one million. The award levels are Silver, Double Silver, Gold, Double Gold, Diamond, Platinum, below are certification thresholds for the United States and United Kingdom
4.
Mail order
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Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer, some merchants also allow the goods to be shipped directly to a third party consumer, which is an effective way to send a gift to an out-of-town recipient. A mail order catalogue is a publication containing a list of general merchandise from a company, companies who publish and operate mail order catalogues are referred to as cataloguers within the industry. Cataloguers buy or manufacture goods then market those goods to prospects, cataloguers may rent names from list brokers or cooperative databases. The catalogue itself is published in a fashion as any magazine publication and distributed through a variety of means, usually via a postal service. Sometimes supermarket products do mail order promotions, whereby people can send in the UPC plus shipping and handling to get a product made especially for the company, in 1498, the publisher Aldus Manutius of Venice printed a catalogue of the books he was printing. In 1667, the English gardener, William Lucas, published a seed catalogue, Catalogues spread to colonial America, where Benjamin Franklin is believed to have been the first cataloguer in British America. In 1744 he produced a catalogue of scientific and academic books. The Welsh entrepreneur Pryce Pryce-Jones set up the first modern mail order in 1861, starting off as an apprentice to a local draper in Newtown, Wales, he took over the business in 1856 and renamed it the Royal Welsh Warehouse, selling local Welsh flannel. The establishment of the Uniform Penny Post in 1840, and the extension of the network to Newtown. In 1861, Pryce-Jones hit upon a method of selling his wares. He distributed catalogues of his wares across the country, allowing people to choose the items they wished and order them via post, he would then dispatch the goods to the customer via the railways. It was a way of meeting the needs of customers in isolated rural locations who were either too busy or unable to get into Newtown to shop directly. This was the worlds first mail order business, an idea which would change the nature of retail in the coming century, the further expansion of the railways in the years that followed allowed Pryce Jones to greatly expand his customer base and his business grew rapidly. He supplied his products to a variety of famous clientele, including Florence Nightingale and Queen Victoria. He also began exporting drapery to the US and British colonies, by 1880, he had more than 100,000 customers and his success was rewarded in 1887 with a knighthood. In 1845, Tiffanys Blue Book was the first mail-order catalogue in the United States, in 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward of Chicago produced a mail-order catalogue for his Montgomery Ward mail order business
5.
GHV2
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GHV2 is the second greatest hits album by American recording artist Madonna. Maverick and Warner Bros. Records released it on November 12,2001, coinciding with the video album, a follow-up to The Immaculate Collection, GHV2 contains a collection of singles during the second decade of Madonnas career. Madonna mentioned that she included songs that I could listen to five times in a row on it. The album did not contain any new songs, but a single, GHV2 Megamix, was released to promote it, with remixes by Thunderpuss, John Rocks & Mac Quayle. Another promotional remix album was released alongside, titled GHV2 Remixed, GHV2 received generally positive reviews from music critics, who deemed it as an essential compilation, although some criticized the absence of new material. Commercially, the compilation was successful, peaking at seven on the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Elsewhere, GHV2 also attained success, reaching the top five in Australia, Germany and it was the 14th best-selling album of the year and has sold more than seven million units worldwide. In early September 2001, media reported that Madonna had recorded two songs, Sex Makes the World Go Round and Veronica Electronica, to be included on the forthcoming greatest hits album, the last title was from an unreleased remix album in collaboration with William Orbit. It was also reported that the album would be titled The Immaculate Collection 2, however, both the title and new songs rumors were proven false. After the final show of Madonnas Drowned World Tour on September 15,2001, on October 4,2001, Maverick Records eventually announced the track list of GHV2 as well as its official release date. The album coincided with the release of the DVD/VHS video album of the tour, unlike the former release, GHV2 did not feature any new material. In an interview with BBCs Jo Whiley, Madonna spoke about the selection of the tracks and she also added that If you listen to the record, you can really see my evolution as a singer, songwriter, and, more important, a human being. Madonna felt that because it was a greatest hits, it should only contain previously released hit songs, several of her popular singles of that period were excluded from the album. Despite being a worldwide hit in 2000, American Pie was not included because Madonna had regretted putting it on her eighth studio album. It was something a certain record company executive twisted my arm into doing and my gut told me not to, but I did it and then I regretted it so just for that reason it didnt deserve a place on GHV2. Other notable exclusions were This Used to Be My Playground, Rain, Ill Remember, the cover picture is from a 2001 photo shoot for InStyle magazine, by Regan Cameron. It was revealed through Madonnas official website, on October 18,2001, Cameron recalled that they had been given the assignment of shooting Madonna for InStyle and he was nervous. It was shot at Smashbox Studios in Los Angeles and he tried out first with a polaroid, Cameron also contributed artwork for the inner sleeve, which features 600 photographs of Madonna
6.
Gold record
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Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies. The threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory, almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories, which are named after precious materials. The number of sales or shipments required for these awards depends upon the population of the territory in which the recording is released, typically, they are awarded only to international releases and are awarded individually for each country in which the album is sold. Different sales levels, some perhaps 10 times lower than others, the original gold record awards were presented to artists by their own record companies to publicize their sales achievements. The first of these was awarded by RCA Victor to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in February 1942, another example of a company award is the gold record awarded to Elvis Presley in 1956 for one million units sold of his single Dont Be Cruel. The first gold record for an LP was awarded by RCA Victor to Harry Belafonte in 1957 for the album Calypso and these sales were restricted to U. S. -based record companies and did not include exports to other countries. For albums in 1968, this would mean shipping approximately 250,000 units, the platinum certification was introduced in 1976 for the sale of one million units, album or single, with the gold certification redefined to mean sales of 500,000 units, album or single. No album was certified platinum prior to this year, for instance, the recording by Van Cliburn of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto from 1958 would eventually be awarded a platinum citation, but this would not happen until two decades after its release. In 1999, the certification was introduced for sales of ten million units. On 14 March 1958, the RIAA certified its first gold record, soundtrack was certified as the first gold album four months later. In 1976, RIAA introduced the platinum certification, first awarded to Johnnie Taylors single, Disco Lady, as music sales increased with the introduction of compact discs, the RIAA created the Multi-Platinum award in 1984. Diamond awards, honoring those artists whose sales of singles or albums reached 10,000,000 copies, were introduced in 1999 and this became much less common once the majority of retail sales became paid digital downloads and digital streaming. In most countries certifications no longer apply solely to physical media, in June 2006, the RIAA also certified the ringtone downloads of songs. Streaming from on-demand services such as Rhapsody and Spotify has been included into existing digital certification in the U. S since 2013, in the U. S. and Germany video streaming services like YouTube, VEVO, and Yahoo. Music also began to be counted towards the certification, in both cases using the formula of 100 streams being equivalent to one download, other countries, such as Denmark and Spain, maintain separate awards for digital download singles and streaming. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry was founded in 1996, and grants the IFPI Platinum Europe Award for album sales over one million within Europe, multi-platinum Europe Awards are presented for sales in subsequent multiples of one million. Eligibility is unaffected by time, and is not restricted to European-based artists, IMPALA sales awards were launched in 2005 as the first sales awards recognising that success on a pan-European basis begins well before sales reach one million. The award levels are Silver, Double Silver, Gold, Double Gold, Diamond, Platinum, below are certification thresholds for the United States and United Kingdom
7.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (soundtrack)
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Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is a multi-platinum double album produced by George Martin, featuring covers of songs by The Beatles. It was released in July 1978, as the soundtrack to the film Sgt, peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, which starred the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Steve Martin. The project was managed by The Robert Stigwood Organisation, in 1975, the original plans for the album were suspended due to a dispute between Columbia and RSO. RSO invested $12 million into this soundtrack and the profit offset set against costs such as $1 million for promotion, hundreds of thousands of copies of the album ended up being destroyed by RSO. In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a D+ rating with an added Must to Avoid warning. T, barnum was right and that euthanasia may have untapped possibilities. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band debuted at number 5 on the U. S. Billboard album charts and stayed there for six weeks, darling and Aerosmiths Come Together both charted in the top 40. Radio airplay trailed off when the film was released with poor reviews, the album immediately dropped out of the top 100 and pre-sale shipments to USA failed to sell in the quantities predicted. Owing to low box office receipts the film failed to back its production costs, but profits from the soundtrack album. The Bee Gees blamed their declining popularity in part on their involvement with the whole project, the latter was exacerbated by the environment of making the film and its soundtrack, with Maurice Gibb expressing shock at seeing crew members carrying around bags full of cocaine. Robin Gibb in particular spent much of this period having to dose himself with barbiturates to even be able to sleep, the selections by Earth Wind & Fire and Aerosmith were the only tracks he did not work on. According to author Robert Rodriguez, Martin later rued his involvement in Sgt, peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Sgt. — Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, and George Burns The Long and Winding Road — Peter Frampton A Day in the Life — Barry Gibb, Reached #9 in the Billboard singles chart and #1 in U. S. R&B charts. Darling — Robin Gibb — Reached #15 in the Billboard singles chart, peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band The Robert Stigwood Organisation Bee Gees discography List of music considered the worst Ashyia, Gale and Henderson, N. ISBN 978-0-7876-4620-2 Denisoff, Serge R. and Romanowski, William D, ISBN 978-0-88738-843-9 Martin, George and Hornsby, Jeremy. The rock & roll film encyclopedia, fab Four FAQ2.0, The Beatles Solo Years, 1970–1980. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band at the Internet Movie Database
8.
Kiss (band)
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Kiss is an American hard rock group formed in New York City in January 1973 by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley. The band has gone through several changes, with Stanley. The original and best-known lineup consisted of Stanley, Simmons, Frehley, with their make-up and costumes, they took on the personae of comic book-style characters, The Starchild, The Demon, The Spaceman or Space Ace, and The Catman. Due to creative differences, both Criss and Frehley had departed the group by 1982, in 1983, Kiss began performing without makeup and costumes, thinking that it was time to leave the makeup behind. The band accordingly experienced a commercial resurgence, and their music videos received regular airplay on MTV. Drummer Eric Carr, who had replaced Criss in 1980, died in 1991 of a type of heart cancer and was replaced by Eric Singer. In response to a wave of Kiss nostalgia in the mid-1990s, the band announced a reunion of the lineup in 1996. The resulting Alive/Worldwide Tour was commercially successful, Criss and Frehley have both since left the band again and have been replaced by Singer and Tommy Thayer, respectively. Kiss has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including 25 million RIAA-certified albums, on April 10,2014, Kiss was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Kiss traces their roots to Wicked Lester, a New York City-based rock band led by Gene Simmons and they recorded one album, which was shelved by Epic Records, and played a handful of live shows. Simmons and Stanley, feeling a new direction was needed, abandoned Wicked Lester in 1972. Simmons and Stanley met him in a nightclub where he was playing drums, after hearing Criss sing, they thought of him being in the band. Criss then auditioned for and later joined the new version of Wicked Lester, the trio focused on a much harder style of rock than Wicked Lester played. They also began experimenting with their image by wearing makeup and various outfits, in November 1972, the trio played a showcase for Epic Records A&R director Don Ellis, in an effort to secure a record deal. Although the performance went well, Ellis disliked the groups image, in early January 1973, the group added lead guitarist Ace Frehley. Frehley impressed the group with his first audition, although he showed up wearing two different colored sneakers, one red and one orange, a few weeks after Frehley joined, Wicked Lester changed their name to Kiss. Stanley came up with the name while he, Simmons and Criss were driving around New York City, Criss mentioned that he had been in a band called Lips, so Stanley said something to the effect of What about Kiss. Frehley created the logo, making the SS look like lightning bolts
9.
Billboard 200
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The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists, often, a recording act will be remembered by its number ones, those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart is based mostly on sales of albums in the United States, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday and ends on Thursday. A new chart is published the following Tuesday with an issue post-dated to the Saturday of the following week, the charts streaming schedule is also tracked from Friday to Thursday. Example, Friday January 1 – sales tracking week begins Thursday January 7 – sales tracking week ends Tuesday January 12 – new chart published, New product is released to the American market on Fridays. Digital downloads of albums are included in Billboard 200 tabulation. Albums that are not licensed for sale in the United States are not eligible to chart. As of the issue dated April 15,2017, the album on the Billboard 200 is More Life by Drake. Billboard began an album chart in 1945, initially only five positions long, the album chart was not published on a weekly basis, sometimes three to seven weeks passing before it was updated. A biweekly, 15-position Best-Selling Popular Albums chart appeared in 1955, the position count varied anywhere from 10 to 30 albums. The first number-one album on the new weekly list was Belafonte by Harry Belafonte, the chart was renamed to Best-Selling Pop Albums later in 1956, and then to Best-Selling Pop LPs in 1957. Beginning on May 25,1959, Billboard split the ranking into two charts Best-Selling Stereophonic LPs for stereo albums and Best-Selling Monophonic LPs for mono albums and these were renamed to Stereo Action Charts and Mono Action Charts in 1960. In January 1961, they became Action Albums—Stereophonic and Action Albums—Monophonic, three months later, they became Top LPs—Stereo and Top LPs—Monaural. On August 17,1963 the stereo and mono charts were combined into a 150-position chart called Top LPs, on April 1,1967, the chart was expanded to 175 positions, then finally to 200 positions on May 13,1967. In 1960, Billboard began concurrently publishing album charts which ranked sales of older or mid-priced titles and these Essential Inventory charts were divided by stereo and mono albums, and featured titles that had already appeared on the main stereo and mono album charts. In January 1961, the Action Charts became Action Albums—Monophonic, Albums appeared on either chart for up to nine weeks, then were moved to an Essential Inventory list of approximately 200 titles, with no numerical ranking. This list continued to be published until the consolidated Top LPs chart debuted in 1963, in 1982, Billboard began publishing a Midline Albums chart which ranked older or mid-priced titles. The chart held 50 positions and was published on a bi-weekly basis, on May 25,1991, Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart
10.
Sony Music Entertainment
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Sony Music Entertainment is an American music company owned by Sony. It is incorporated as a partnership of Sony Music Holdings Inc. through Sony Entertainment. The company was first founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation and renamed Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938, in 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records. Sony Corporation bought the company in 1987 and renamed it Sony Music Entertainment in 1991, the buyout led to the dissolution of BMG, which relaunched as BMG Rights Management. Sony Music Entertainment is one of the Big Three record companies, being the second largest after Universal Music Group, in 1929, ARC was founded through a merger of several record companies. In 1934, in the midst of Great Depression, the Columbia Phonograph Company, ARC was acquired in 1938 by the Columbia Broadcasting System, which, in turn, had been formed by the Columbia Phonograph Company, but then sold off. ARC was renamed Columbia Recording Corporation, RCA Victor Records executive Ted Wallerstein convinced CBS head William S. Paley to buy ARC and Paley made Wallerstein head of the newly acquired record company. The renamed company made Columbia its flagship label and Okeh its subsidiary label and this allowed ARCs leased labels Brunswick Records and Vocalion Records to revert to their former owner Warner Bros. which sold them to Decca Records. Columbia kept the Brunswick catalogue recorded from December 1931 onward on the Columbia label and he was succeeded by James Conkling as head of Columbia Records. In 1951, Columbia severed its ties with the EMI-owned record label of the same name, Okeh Records continued to be distributed by EMI on the Columbia label. Columbia founded Epic Records in 1953 and in 1956, Conkling left Columbia and he would help establish the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences before eventually becoming the first president of the newly launched Warner Bros. His successor, Goddard Lieberson began the first of two stints as head of the record company, and in 1958, Columbia founded another label, Date Records, which initially issued rockabilly music. In 1960, Columbia/CBS began negotiations with its international distributor Philips Records with the goal of starting its own global record company. Philips acquisition of US-based Mercury Records in 1961 paved the way for this, elsewhere, CBSs Mexican record company, Discos Columbia, was renamed Discos CBS by 1963. In 1964, Columbia set out acquiring record companies in countries for its CBS Records International Unit. EMI continued to distribute Epic and Okeh label material on the Columbia label in the UK until the deal with EMI expired in 1968 when CBS took over distribution. In late 1965, the Date subsidiary label was revived and this label released the first string of hits for Peaches & Herb and scored a few minor hits from various other artists. Dates biggest success was Time of the Season by the Zombies, the label was discontinued in 1970
11.
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I
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HIStory, Past, Present and Future, Book I is the ninth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson, released on June 18,1995. It was Jacksons fifth album released through Epic Records, and the first released on his label MJJ Productions. HIStory consists of two discs, the first, HIStory Begins, is a greatest hits compilation, the second, HIStory Continues, comprises new material written and produced by Jackson and collaborators. The themes include environmental awareness, isolation, greed, suicide, and injustice, HIStory debuted at number one in countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, France and the United Kingdom, and charted in the top ten in Spain, India and Mexico. Six singles and two singles were released from HIStory, Scream/Childhood, You Are Not Alone, Earth Song, This Time Around, They Dont Care About Us. Earth Song, They Dont Care About Us and Stranger in Moscow peaked in the top ten in multiple countries, but were less successful within the United States. The greatest hits disc was reissued as a disc on November 13,2001, under the title Greatest Hits, HIStory. The second disc was released separately in some European countries in 2011, starting in the late 1980s, Jackson and the tabloid press had a difficult relationship. In 1986, tabloids claimed that Jackson slept in an oxygen chamber and had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick. These stories inspired the pejorative nickname Wacko Jacko, which Jackson despised and he stopped leaking untruths to the press, and the media began creating their own stories. In 1989, Jackson released Leave Me Alone, a song about the victimization he felt by press, the songs music video shows Jackson poking fun at the press and his situation. In 1993, the relationship between Jackson and the press crumbled entirely when he was accused of sexual abuse. Although he was not charged, Jackson was subject to media scrutiny while the criminal investigation took place. In 1994, Jackson said of the coverage, I am particularly upset by the handling of the matter by the incredible, terrible mass media. At every opportunity, the media has dissected and manipulated these allegations to reach their own conclusions, Jackson began taking painkillers, Valium, Xanax and Ativan to deal with the stress of the allegations. A few months after the allegations became news, Jackson stopped eating, soon after, Jacksons health deteriorated to the extent that he cancelled the remainder of his tour and went into rehabilitation. Jackson booked the fourth floor of a clinic and was put on Valium IV to wean him from painkillers. The media showed Jackson little sympathy, in 1993, The Daily Mirror held a Spot the Jacko contest, offering readers a trip to Disney World if they could correctly predict where Jackson would appear next
12.
The Lion King (soundtrack)
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The Lion King, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 1994 Disney animated film, The Lion King. It contains songs from the written by Elton John and Tim Rice. Elton John has a role of performer for several tracks. Additional performers include Carmen Twillie, Jason Weaver, Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeremy Irons, Cheech Marin, Jim Cummings, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, the album was released on May 30,1994 on CD and audio cassette. The soundtrack was recorded in three different countries, the U. S. the U. K. and South Africa. It is the soundtrack album to an animated film in the United States with over 7 million copies sold. In 2014, Hot Topic released a picture disc of the soundtrack. All music composed by Elton John and Tim Rice, and Hans Zimmer and this revision contains a new remastered mix by Alan Meyerson. The soundtrack shipped over 10 million copies in the U. S. and eventually went 10x platinum in 1995 and its certification was promoted to Diamond when the award was instituted in 1999. According to Nielsen Soundscan the soundtrack, as of April 2014, has sold a total of 7.873 million copies in the US and it is also the best-selling vinyl album in the Nielsen SoundScan era, with 1,043,000 copies sold as of June 2014. In 2010, Rhapsody called it one of the all-time great Disney & Pixar Soundtracks, list of best-selling albums in the United States Return to Pride Rock, Songs Inspired by Disneys The Lion King II, Simbas Pride
13.
The Smashing Pumpkins
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The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1988. Formed by frontman Billy Corgan and James Iha, the band included Darcy Wretzky and it has undergone many line-up changes over the course of its existence, with the current lineup being Corgan and rhythm guitarist Jeff Schroeder. The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the mainstream with their second album. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, with 20 million albums sold in the United States alone, The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up, in 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, by mid-2016, Corgan stated that they were considering reforming the bands original lineup, though no concrete plans have been revealed. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha, adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9,1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21 and this performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met Darcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band, after finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgans, Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, We were completely into the sad-rock and it took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined. On October 5,1988, the band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, The Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, the group released its first single, I Am One, in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, Tristessa, on Sub Pop, the band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, the music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Janes Addiction. Gish became a success, with the single Rhinoceros receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band signed with Virgin Records
14.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
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Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the third studio album by the American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on October 24,1995, on Virgin Records. Produced by frontman Billy Corgan with Flood and Alan Moulder, the 28-track album was released as a two-disc CD, the album features a wide array of styles, as well as greater musical input from bassist Darcy Wretzky and second guitarist James Iha. Led by the single Bullet with Butterfly Wings, the album debuted at one on the US Billboard 200. To date it remains the only album to top the Billboard 200. After the 13-month tour in support of The Smashing Pumpkins second album Siamese Dream, from the outset, the band intended the new record to be a double album, partly inspired by The Beatles eponymous album. Corgan said, We almost had enough material to make Siamese Dream a double album, with this new album, I really liked the notion that we would create a wider scope in which to put other kinds of material we were writing. Corgan felt that the musical approach was running its course. Corgan described the album at the time to the press as The Wall for Generation X. The band decided to forgo working with Butch Vig, who had produced the previous albums. Corgan explained, To be completely honest, I think it was a situation where wed become so close to Butch that it started to work to our disadvantage, I just felt we had to force the situation, sonically, and take ourselves out of normal Pumpkin recording mode. I didnt want to repeat past Pumpkin work, Flood immediately pushed the band to change its recording practices. Corgan later said, Flood felt like the band he would see live wasnt really captured on record, in April 1995, the band began recording in a rehearsal space, instead of entering the studio straight away. At these sessions, the band recorded rough rhythm tracks with Flood, originally designed to create a rough draft for the record, the rehearsal space sessions ended up yielding much of the new albums rhythm section parts. Flood also insisted the band set aside each day devoted to jamming or songwriting. Corgan said, Working like that kept the process very interesting—kept it from becoming a grind. Corgan sought to eliminate the tension that permeated the Siamese Dream recording sessions, Corgan said regarding the problems with recording Siamese Dream, o me, the biggest offender was the insidious amounts of time that everyone spends waiting for guitar parts to be overdubbed. There were literally weeks where no one had anything to do, the band decided to counter idleness by using two recording rooms at the same time. This tactic allowed Corgan to work on vocals and song arrangements in one room while recording was done in the other, during these sessions, Flood and Corgan would work in one room as Moulder, guitarist James Iha, and bassist Darcy Wretzky worked in a second
15.
OutKast
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Outkast is an American hip hop duo formed in 1991, in East Point, Atlanta, Georgia, composed of Atlanta-based rappers André André3000 Benjamin and Antwan Big Boi Patton. Benjamin and Patton formed the group as high school students in 1991, OutKast released their debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik in 1994, which gained popularity after the single Players Ball reached number one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart. With successive releases including ATLiens and Aquemini, the duo developed their sound, experimenting with a variety of styles. In 2000, Outkast released the critically acclaimed Stankonia, which included the singles Ms. Jackson, in 2003, the duo released the double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which featured the number one singles Hey Ya. and The Way You Move. The album would win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America. Outkast next released the soundtrack for the 2006 musical film Idlewild, in 2007, the duo went on hiatus and both members have since pursued solo careers. In 2014, Outkast reunited to celebrate their 20th anniversary by performing at more than 40 festivals worldwide in 2014, the duo is one of the most successful hip-hop groups of all time, having received six Grammy Awards. Between six studio albums and a greatest hits release, Outkast has sold over 25 million records, meanwhile, they have garnered widespread critical acclaim, with publications such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork Media listing albums such as Aquemini and Stankonia among the best of their era. Benjamin and Patton met in 1991 at the Lenox Square shopping mall when they were sixteen years old. The two lived in the East Point section of Atlanta and attended Tri-Cities High School, an arts based academy, during school, Benjamin and Patton participated in rap battles in the cafeteria. Benjamins parents were divorced and he was living with his father, meanwhile, Patton had to move with his four brothers and six sisters from Savannah to Atlanta. Benjamin and Patton eventually teamed up and were pursued by Organized Noize, OutKast, Organized Noize, and schoolmates Goodie Mob formed the nucleus of the Dungeon Family organization. During the holiday season of 1993, they released their first single, the songs funky style, much of it accomplished with live instrumentation, was a hit with audiences. Players Ball hit number-one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart, Players Ball also topped the R&B charts for six weeks. Their debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, was issued on April 26,1994 and this initial effort is credited with laying the foundation for southern hip hop and is considered a classic by many. Every track on Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was produced by Organized Noize and featured members of the Dungeon Family. Follow-up singles included the track and Git Up Git Out. OutKast won Best New Rap Group at the Source Awards in 1995, in the same year, the group contributed Benz or a Beamer to the popular New Jersey Drive soundtrack
16.
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
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Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is the fifth studio album by American hip hop duo Outkast. It was released on September 23,2003, by LaFace Records, issued as a double album, its playtime of more than two hours is distributed over solo albums from each of the groups members. Big Bois Speakerboxxx is a Southern hip hop album with a P-Funk influence, while André 3000s The Love Below features psychedelic, pop, funk, electro, and jazz styles. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the consistency of Big Bois Speakerboxxx. The album was supported with the hit singles Hey Ya. and The Way You Move, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below has been certified diamond and 11 times platinum by the RIAA. As of March 2012, it has shipped 5,702,000 units in the United States, following the release of OutKasts fourth studio album Stankonia, André3000 felt urged to do something different from his previous projects and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He was relatively unsuccessful, obtaining a minor role in Hollywood Homicide and he quickly returned to music and began recording a solo album that was very different from the material he had recorded as part of OutKast. The output was a blend of pop, jazz and funk with live instruments, when writing songs he used a micro cassette recorder in order to record melodic ideas and lyrics, then build the melody around the lyrics. The CD artwork is designed so that the Speakerboxxx artwork is on the front of the case and these images are merged on the artwork displayed on online stores. The recording of The Love Below began at André 3000s Los Angeles home, which was unconventional for the time, as a frequent collector of music equipment, André3000 had a wide variety of equipment at his disposal, including a drum machine, keyboards and various synthesizers. His initial sessions were hampered by his inexperience with Pro Tools and, unaware how to edit his recordings, other gear used included an Avalon VT737 SP and AD2055 EQ and AD2044 compressors for his vocals. After creating five songs, he informed Big Boi of the project he had been working on. Big Boi had already recorded some songs when André3000 had contacted him, describing his approach in the studio, Big Boi later commented to XXL, the idea was just to keep it funky, keep it jamming, its always bass-heavy. And lyricism, its all about lyrics, taking pride in your pen and his favorite song to record was Unhappy. He spent several days working on Unhappys hook before driving to his mothers home and playing the song in her driveway, at some point in the recording, the project moved to OutKasts Stankonia Studios in downtown Atlanta, which had been used to record OutKasts previous release and namesake. He concedes that both enjoyed working solo and were doing so frequently, but they continued to share. John Frye also describes how the format of the projects changed rapidly, initially intended as two separate solo releases, they decided to merge their work and create a soundtrack album as André3000 had initially intended. The duo then began preparing to work on a motion picture and they eventually settled on releasing a double album
17.
Pink Floyd
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Pink Floyd were an English rock band formed in London. They achieved international acclaim with their progressive and psychedelic music, Pink Floyd were founded in 1965 by students Syd Barrett on guitar and lead vocals, Nick Mason on drums, Roger Waters on bass and vocals, and Richard Wright on keyboards and vocals. Guitarist David Gilmour joined in December 1967, Barrett left in April 1968 due to deteriorating mental health. Waters became the primary lyricist and conceptual leader, devising the concepts behind their albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall. The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall became two of the albums of all time. Following creative tensions, Wright left Pink Floyd in 1979, followed by Waters in 1985, Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd, Wright rejoined them as a session musician and, later, a band member. The three produced two more albums—A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell —and toured through 1994, Barrett died in 2006, and Wright in 2008. The final Pink Floyd studio album, The Endless River, was recorded without Waters, Pink Floyd were inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. By 2013, the band had more than 250 million records worldwide. Roger Waters met Nick Mason while they were both studying architecture at the London Polytechnic at Regent Street and they first played music together in a group formed by Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe with Nobles sister Sheilagh. Richard Wright, an architecture student, joined later that year. Waters played lead guitar, Mason drums, and Wright rhythm guitar, the band performed at private functions and rehearsed in a tearoom in the basement of the Regent Street Polytechnic. They performed songs by the Searchers and material written by their manager and songwriter, Mason moved out after the 1964 academic year, and guitarist Bob Klose moved in during September 1964, prompting Waters switch to bass. Sigma 6 went through several names, including the Meggadeaths, the Abdabs and the Screaming Abdabs, Leonards Lodgers, in 1964, as Metcalfe and Noble left to form their own band, guitarist Syd Barrett joined Klose and Waters at Stanhope Gardens. Barrett, two younger, had moved to London in 1962 to study at the Camberwell College of Arts. Waters and Barrett were childhood friends, Waters had often visited Barrett, Noble and Metcalfe left the Tea Set in late 1963, and Klose introduced the band to singer Chris Dennis, a technician with the Royal Air Force. In December 1964, they secured their first recording time, at a studio in West Hampstead, through one of Wrights friends, Wright, who was taking a break from his studies, did not participate in the session. When the RAF assigned Dennis a post in Bahrain in early 1965, later that year, they became the resident band at the Countdown Club near Kensington High Street in London, where from late night until early morning they played three sets of 90 minutes each
18.
The Wall
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In 1982, the album was adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd – The Wall. Bass guitarist and lyricist Roger Waters conceived The Wall as an opera during Pink Floyds 1977 In the Flesh Tour. The story, which explores themes of abandonment and personal isolation, follows Pink, a character whom Waters modeled after himself, the band, who were then struggling with various personal and financial difficulties, supported the idea. Recording lasted from December 1978 to November 1979, keyboardist Richard Wright was unceremoniously fired from the band by Waters during its production but remained as a salaried musician, performing with Pink Floyd during the subsequent tour. The performances, which were released as a live album. Some of the themes would be continued in the bands next album, The Final Cut. The album was one of the best selling of 1980 and by 1999 it had sold over 23 million RIAA-certified units making it the third-highest certified album in the United States, rolling Stone placed The Wall at number 87 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It is the last studio album released with the 11-year-spanning line-up of Waters, Wright, guitarist David Gilmour and he articulated his desire to isolate himself by constructing a wall across the stage between the performers and the audience. He later said, I loathed playing in stadiums, I kept saying to people on that tour, Im not really enjoying this. There is something wrong with this. While Gilmour and Wright were in France recording solo albums, and Nick Mason was busy producing Steve Hillages Green, to execute The Wall concept was to attempt to analyse the performers psychological separation from the audience, using a physical structure as a metaphorical and theatrical device. In July 1978 the band reconvened at Britannia Row Studios, where Waters presented two new ideas for concept albums, the first was a 90-minute demo with the working title Bricks in the Wall. The second, a project about a mans dreams across one night that dealt with marriage, sex, and the pros and cons of monogamy and family life versus promiscuity. The first option was chosen by the group for the new Pink Floyd project and the idea eventually became Waterss first solo effort. By September, the band was experiencing financial difficulties, financial planners Norton Warburg Group had invested £1. 3–3.3 million of the groups money in high-risk venture capital to reduce their tax liabilities. The strategy failed as many of the businesses NWG invested in lost money and we made Dark Side and it looked as if wed cracked it, recalled Waters. Then suddenly these bastards had stolen it all and it looked as if we might be faced with huge tax bills for the money that had been lost. Eighty-three per cent was a lot of money in those days, Pink Floyd terminated their relationship with NWG, demanding the return of uninvested funds
19.
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
20.
The Beatles (album)
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The Beatles, also known as the White Album, is the ninth studio album by English rock group the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. A double album, its plain white sleeve has no graphics or text other than the name embossed. The albums songs range in style from British blues and ska to tracks influenced by Chuck Berry, most of the songs on the album were written during March and April 1968 at a Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh, India. The group returned to EMI Studios in May to commence recording sessions lasted through to October. During these sessions, arguments broke out among the Beatles, another divisive element was caused by the constant presence of John Lennons new partner, Yoko Ono, whose attendance at the sessions broke with the Beatles policy regarding wives and girlfriends. After a series of problems, including producer George Martin taking a leave of absence and engineer Geoff Emerick quitting. The same tensions continued throughout the year, leading to the eventual break-up of the Beatles in April 1970. On release, The Beatles received favourable reviews from the majority of music critics, other commentators found its satirical songs unimportant and apolitical amid the turbulent political and social climate of 1968. The band and Martin have since debated whether the group should have released an album instead. Nonetheless, The Beatles reached number one on the charts in both the United Kingdom and the United States and has since been viewed by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. By 1968, the Beatles had achieved commercial and critical success, peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, was number one in the UK the previous year and charted for 27 weeks, selling 250,000 copies in the first week after release. Time magazine had written in 1967 that Sgt, the band received a negative critical response for the film Magical Mystery Tour, but fan response was nevertheless positive. Most of the songs for The Beatles were written during a Transcendental Meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, between February and April 1968. The retreat involved long periods of meditation, conceived by the band as a respite from all worldly endeavours – a chance, in John Lennons words. Both Lennon and Paul McCartney quickly re-engaged themselves in songwriting, often meeting clandestinely in the afternoons in each others rooms to review their new work, regardless of what I was supposed to be doing, Lennon would later recall, I did write some of my best songs there. Author Ian MacDonald said Sgt Pepper was shaped by LSD, but the Beatles took no drugs with them to India aside from marijuana, and their clear minds helped the group with their songwriting. The stay in Rishikesh proved especially fruitful for George Harrison as a songwriter, the Beatles left Rishikesh before the end of the course. Ringo Starr was the first to leave, as he could not stomach the food, McCartney departed in mid-March, while Harrison and Lennon were more interested in Indian religion and remained until April
21.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
22.
La Bomba (Azul Azul song)
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La Bomba is the debut single released by Bolivian band Azul Azul. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Top Latin Songs and Billboard Tropical Songs charts, in 2000, Argentine singer King Africa released in many countries his version of La Bomba as a single from the eponymous album. His cover version was then re-issued in 2001 in more countries, including Switzerland, throughout these re-issues, the King Africa version was a top-10 hit in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy. A megamix available on the 12 maxi includes Mama Yo Quiero, Ciudad Maravillosa, El Camaleon, Bailando Pump It Up, Salta, in France, La Bomba is the 807th best-selling single of all time. List of number-one Billboard Hot Latin Tracks of 2001 List of number-one Billboard Hot Tropical Songs of 2001
23.
List of best-selling singles in the United States
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This is a list of best-selling singles in the United States, some of which have been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America. All of these singles have sold over four million copies according to either reliable third-party claims or multi-platinum certifications. In music, a single is a song considered commercially viable enough by the artist and record company to be released separately from an album, a full and complete list of RIAA-certified recordings would be a very incomplete list of popular American music. The RIAA only certifies a particular recording of a song, remixes, live and other versions count as separate. Prior to 1989, physical singles were awarded with a Gold certification for shipments of 1,000,000 units and a Platinum certification for shipments of 2,000,000 units. For certification dates since January 1,1989, a Gold award represented shipments of 500,000 units, since May 9,2013, RIAA certifications for singles in the digital category include on-demand audio and/or video song streams in addition to downloads. Physical sales figures backed by RIAA certifications may be inaccurate as physical singles can be overcertified or undercertified and this is a list of the best-selling songs in the United States since 1992. From 1992 through 2004, the numbers are for physical singles, from 2005 onwards, they are for digital songs. 1992, I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston –3,086,0001993, justin Timberlake -2,495,000 Digital songs Based on reliable sources like Billboard and Nielsen SoundScans year end report wherever available. Rihanna was named the Hot Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade, after his sudden death, Michael Jackson became the first artist in digital history to sell one million downloads in a week, with a record-breaking 2.6 million downloads of his songs. Katy Perry is the only artist to top the 5 million mark with six songs—Hot n Cold, California Gurls, Firework, in October 2015, Perry also became the first artist to top the 6 million mark with 3 of her songs. Lady Gagas debut single Just Dance is the debut single by any artist in the United States. Gaga is also the first and only artist to pass 7 million downloads with two songs, with Just Dance and Poker Face,2012 was the first year in which three songs sold over 6 million downloads. RIAA certification List of best-selling singles List of best-selling albums in the United States RIAA website Billboard Magazine - a magazine that publishes weekly music rankings
24.
AC/DC
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AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. A hard rock/blues rock band, they have also considered a heavy metal band, although they have always dubbed their music simply rock. AC/DC underwent several changes before releasing their first album, High Voltage, in 1975, Malcolm. Membership subsequently stabilised until bassist Mark Evans was replaced by Cliff Williams in 1977 for the album Powerage, within months of recording the album Highway to Hell, lead singer and co-songwriter Bon Scott died on 19 February 1980 after a night of heavy alcohol consumption. The group considered disbanding, but buoyed by support from Scotts parents, decided to continue, ex-Geordie singer Brian Johnson was auditioned and selected to replace Scott. Later that year, the released the new album, Back in Black. The album launched them to new heights of success and became their all-time best-seller, the bands next album, For Those About to Rock We Salute You, was their first album to reach number one in the United States. Drummer Phil Rudd was fired in 1983 and replaced by ex-A II Z drummer Simon Wright, the band experienced a resurgence in the early 1990s with the release of The Razors Edge. Phil Rudd returned in 1994 after Chris Slade, who was with the band from 1989 to 1994, was asked to leave in favour of him, Stiff Upper Lip, released in 2000, was well received by critics. The bands line-up remained the same until 2014 with Malcolm Youngs retirement, in 2016, Johnson was advised to stop touring on account of worsening hearing loss and Guns N Roses frontman Axl Rose stepped in as the bands vocalist for the remainder of that years dates. Long-term bass player Cliff Williams subsequently indicated that he would retire from the band on the completion of their current world tour, Back in Black has sold an estimated 50 million units worldwide, making it the second-highest-selling album by any artist – and the highest-selling album by any band. The album has sold 22 million units in the US alone, AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock and were named the seventh Greatest Heavy Metal Band of All Time by MTV. In 2004, AC/DC ranked No.72 on the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Producer Rick Rubin, who wrote an essay on the band for the Rolling Stone list, referred to AC/DC as the greatest rock, in 2010, AC/DC were ranked number 23 in the VH1 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Brothers Malcolm, Angus, and George Young were born in Glasgow, Scotland, George was the first to learn to play the guitar. He became a member of The Easybeats, one of Australias most successful bands of the 1960s, in 1966, they became the first local rock act to have an international hit, with the song Friday on My Mind. Malcolm followed in Georges footsteps by playing with a Newcastle, New South Wales and their oldest brother Alex Young chose to remain in Britain to pursue musical interests. Malcolm and Angus Young developed the idea for the name after their sister, Margaret Young
25.
Aerosmith
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Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as the Bad Boys from Boston and Americas Greatest Rock and Roll Band. Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues. They were formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970, in 1971, Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford, and the band began developing a following in Boston. They were signed to Columbia Records in 1972, and released a string of gold and platinum albums, beginning with their 1973 eponymous debut album, followed by Get Your Wings in 1974. In 1975, the broke into the mainstream with the album Toys in the Attic. Two additional albums followed in 1977 and 1979 and their first five albums have since attained multi-platinum status. Throughout the 1970s, the band toured extensively and charted a dozen Hot 100 singles, by the end of the decade, they were among the most popular hard rock bands in the world and developed a loyal following of fans, often referred to as the Blue Army. The band did not fare well between 1980 and 1984, releasing the album Rock in a Hard Place, which was certified gold, Perry and Whitford returned to Aerosmith in 1984 and the band signed a new deal with Geffen Records. After a comeback tour, the band recorded Done with Mirrors, the band also became a pop culture phenomenon with popular music videos and notable appearances in television, film, and video games. Their comeback has been described as one of the most remarkable, additional albums followed in 2001,2004, and 2012. Since 2001, the band has toured every year, except 2008, Aerosmith is the best-selling American hard rock band of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide, including over 70 million records in the United States alone. The band has scored 21 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, nine number-one Mainstream Rock hits, four Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, and ten MTV Video Music Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, in 2013, the bands principal songwriters, Tyler and Perry, were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1964, Steven Tyler formed his own called the Strangeurs—later Chain Reaction—in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Perry and Hamilton formed the Jam Band, which was based on free-form, Hamilton and Perry moved to Boston, Massachusetts in September 1969. There they met Joey Kramer, a drummer from Yonkers, New York, Kramer knew Tyler and had always hoped to play in a band with him. Kramer, a Berklee College of Music student, decided to school to join Jam Band. In 1970, Chain Reaction and Jam Band played at the same gig, Tyler immediately loved Jam Bands sound, and wanted to combine the two bands
26.
Alabama (band)
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Alabama is an American country, Southern rock and bluegrass band formed in Fort Payne, Alabama in 1969. The band was founded by Randy Owen and his cousin Teddy Gentry and they were soon joined by their other cousin, Jeff Cook. First operating under the name Wildcountry, the group toured the Southeast bar circuit in the early 1970s and they changed their name to Alabama in 1977 and following the chart success of two singles, were approached by RCA Records for a record deal. Alabamas biggest success came in the 1980s, where the band had over 27 number one hits, seven multi-platinum albums, the bands popularity waned slightly in the 1990s although they continued to produce hit singles and multi-platinum album sales. Alabama disbanded in 2006 following a tour and two albums of inspirational music but reunited in 2010 and have continued to record and tour worldwide. The bands blend of country music and Southern rock combined with elements of gospel. They also toured extensively and incorporated elements such as lighting. The band has over 30 number one records on the Billboard charts to their credit and have sold over 75 million records. AllMusic credited the band with popularizing the idea of a country band, Alabama was formed by guitarists Randy Owen and Jeff Cook, and bassist Teddy Gentry, three cousins born and raised near Fort Payne, Alabama, an area with strong country music roots. Owen and Gentry grew up on cotton farms on Lookout Mountain, learning guitar together. Gentry and Owen played in groups during the 1960s, ranging from pop to bluegrass. Cook joined the band in 1969 forming the group Young Country, Cook also played in numerous bands and was a rock and roll disk jockey. The three cousins all shared vocal duties, with cousin, drummer Jackie Owen, completing the groups first lineup. The bands first performance was at a school talent contest, for which they won first prize. Despite this, all were busy with commitments to pursue music, Owen still in high school, Cook working for Western Electric. The band grew further inactive when Cook went to college and Owen into the military, the group became a professional band in 1972, adding drummer Bennett Vartanian and changing their name to Wildcountry. During this time, the group accepted a position playing at the nearby Canyonland theme park, the park would bring in established stars, such as Jerry Wallace, Bobby Bare, and Narvel Felts, and the band would back them, afterwards performing a one-hour dance set. After a while, with opportunities for the band slimmed, a discouraged Cook took a government job in Anniston, Owen was studying English at Jacksonville State University, and Cook had an electronics job
27.
The Beach Boys
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The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The groups original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, distinguished by their vocal harmonies and early surf songs, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The Beach Boys began as a band managed by the Wilsons father Murry. Emerging at the vanguard of the California Sound, they performed material that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars. After 1964, they abandoned the surfing aesthetic for more personal lyrics, in 1966, the Pet Sounds album and Good Vibrations single vaulted the group to the top level of rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the nascent counterculture era. Following Smiles dissolution, Brian gradually ceded production and songwriting duties to the rest of the band, reducing his input because of mental health and substance abuse issues. The continued success of their greatest hits albums during the mid 1970s precipitated the transition into an oldies act. Since the 1980s, much-publicized legal wrangling over royalties, songwriting credits, Dennis drowned in 1983 and Carl died of lung cancer in 1998. After Carls death, many live configurations of the band fronted by Mike Love, Even though Wilson and Jardine have not performed with Love and Johnstons band since their one-off 2012 reunion tour, they remain a part of the Beach Boys corporation, Brother Records Inc. The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful, the group had over eighty songs chart worldwide, thirty-six of them US Top 40 hits, four reaching number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They received their only Grammy Award for The Smile Sessions, the core quintet of the three Wilsons, Love and Jardine were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. At the time of his birthday on June 20,1958, Brian Wilson shared a bedroom with his brothers, Dennis and Carl – aged thirteen and eleven. He had watched his father, Murry Wilson, play piano, after dissecting songs such as Ivory Tower and Good News, Brian would teach family members how to sing the background harmonies. For his birthday that year, Brian received a tape recorder. He learned how to overdub, using his vocals and those of Carl, Brian played piano with Carl and David Marks, an eleven-year-old longtime neighbor, playing guitars they had each received as Christmas presents. Soon Brian and Carl were avidly listening to Johnny Otis KFOX radio show, inspired by the simple structure and vocals of the rhythm and blues songs he heard, Brian changed his piano-playing style and started writing songs. His enthusiasm interfered with his studies at school. Family gatherings brought the Wilsons in contact with cousin Mike Love, Brian taught Loves sister Maureen and a friend harmonies
28.
Bee Gees
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The Bee Gees were a pop music group formed in 1958. Their line-up consisted of brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, the Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists. Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England, the family then moved to Redcliffe, in Queensland, Australia, and then to Cribb Island. The Bee Gees have sold more than 220 million records worldwide, the Bee Gees Hall of Fame citation says Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees. Following Maurices sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry, in 2009 Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012 at the age of 62, after a struggle with cancer and other health problems. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony, the story is told that they were going to lip sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema and as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live and received such a response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes were disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, with the Gibb brothers then forming Wee Johnny Hayes, in August 1958 the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy, emigrated to Redcliffe, just north-east of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money and they were introduced to leading Brisbane radio DJ Bill Gates by speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960. Gates renamed them the BGs after his, Goodes, and Barry Gibbs initials—thus the name was not specifically a reference to Brothers Gibb, the family relocated to Cribb Island which was later demolished for Brisbane Airport. While there, the brothers went to Northgate State School, by 1960 the Bee Gees were featured on television shows, including their performance of Time Is Passing By. In the next few years they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast, for his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped them get a record deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name Bee Gees. The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists, in 1962, the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checkers concert at Sydney Stadium. From 1963 to 1966 the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, the house was demolished in 2016. A minor hit in 1965, Wine and Women, led to the groups first LP, The Bee Gees Sing, by 1966 Festival was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. It was at time that they met American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur, Nat Kipner. Kipner briefly took over as the manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for Festival being granted the Australian distribution rights to the groups recordings
29.
Garth Brooks
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Troyal Garth Brooks is an American country singer and songwriter. His integration of rock and roll elements into the genre has earned him immense popularity in the United States. Brooks has had success in the country single and album charts, with multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances. He is also one of the worlds best-selling artists of all time, since 1989, Brooks has released 21 records in all, which include,12 studio albums,1 live album,3 compilation albums,3 Christmas albums and 4 box sets, along with 77 singles. He won several awards in his career, including 2 Grammy Awards,17 American Music Awards, troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2009. During this time, he sold millions of albums through a distribution deal with Walmart. In 2005, Brooks started a comeback, giving select performances. In 2009, he began Garth at Wynn, a periodic weekend residency show at Las Vegas Encore Theatre from December 2009 to January 2014, following the conclusion of the residency, Brooks announced his signing with Sony Music Nashville in July 2014. In September 2014, he began his tour, The Garth Brooks World Tour, with wife. His most recent album, Gunslinger, was released in November 2016, Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 21,2012. Troyal Garth Brooks was born on February 7,1962, in Tulsa and this was the second marriage for each of his parents, giving Brooks four older half-siblings. The couple had two children together, Kelly and Garth, at their home in Yukon, Oklahoma, the family hosted weekly talent nights. All of the children were required to participate, either by singing or doing skits, Brooks learned to play both the guitar and banjo. As a child, Brooks often sang in casual family settings, in high school, he played football and baseball and ran track and field. He received a scholarship to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Brooks graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising and his roommate, Ty England, later played guitar in his road band until going solo in 1995. In 1985, Brooks began his music career, singing and playing guitar in Oklahoma clubs and bars. Through his elder siblings, Brooks was exposed to a range of music
30.
Jimmy Buffett
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James William Jimmy Buffett is an American musician, songwriter, author, actor, and businessman. He is best known for his music, which portrays an island escapism lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett has recorded hit songs including Margaritaville and he has a devoted base of fans known as Parrotheads. Aside from his career in music, Buffett is also a writer and is involved in two restaurant chains named after two of his best-known songs, Cheeseburger in Paradise and Margaritaville. He owns the Margaritaville Cafe restaurant chain and co-developed the Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain, Buffett was born on December 25,1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and spent part of his childhood in Mobile, Alabama. He is the son of Mary Lorraine and James Delaney Buffett, in grade school years, he attended St. Ignatius School, where he played the trombone in the school band. Buffetts grandfather was a sailor, therefore he was exposed to sailing as a child which had an effect on his life. He later lived in Fairhope, Alabama and he graduated from McGill Institute for Boys in 1964. He was initiated into the fraternity Kappa Sigma at the University of Southern Mississippi, after graduating from college, Buffett worked as a correspondent for Billboard magazine in Nashville, breaking the news of the separation of Flatt and Scruggs. Buffett married Margie Washichek in 1969, they divorced in 1972, Buffett spent years working as the First Mate on the yacht of industrialist Foster Talge on the Petticoat III in Key West while perfecting the Caribbean Rock n Roll genre. Buffett and his wife, Jane have two daughters, Savannah Jane and Sarah Delaney, and an adopted son, Cameron Marley. They separated in the early 1980s but reconciled in 1991, Buffett also owns a home in St Barts, a Caribbean island where he lived on and off in the early 1980s while he was part-owner of the Autour de Rocher hotel and restaurant. He spends part of the summer traveling about the East Coast on his sailboat, an avid pilot, Buffett owns a Dassault Falcon 900 that he often uses while on concert tour and traveling worldwide. He has also owned a Boeing Stearman, Lake Amphibian and Grumman Albatross and his father died May 1,2003 at the age of 83. His mother died a few months after her husband, on September 25,2003, in 2015, Jimmy Buffett spoke at the University of Miamis graduation ceremony and received an honorary doctorate in music. Wearing flip flops and aviator sunglasses he told graduates, Its time to see the world, time to kiss a girl, and time to cross that wide meridian. Buffett began his career in Nashville, Tennessee, during the late 1960s as a country artist and recorded his first album. During this time, Buffett could be found busking for tourists in New Orleans
31.
Mariah Carey
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Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. In 1990, Carey rose to fame with the release of Vision of Love from her eponymous debut album, the album produced four chart-topping singles in the US and began what would become a string of commercially successful albums which solidified the singer as Columbias highest selling act. Carey and Boyz II Men spent a record sixteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995–1996 with One Sweet Day, following a contentious divorce from Sony Music head Tommy Mottola, Carey adopted a new image and traversed towards hip hop with the release of Butterfly. In 1998, she was honored as the worlds best-selling recording artist of the 1990s at the World Music Awards, Carey parted with Columbia in 2000, and signed a record-breaking $100 million recording contract with Virgin Records America. In the weeks prior to the release of her film Glitter and its soundtrack in 2001. The project was received and led to a general decline in the singers career. Careys recording contract was out for $50 million by Virgin. After a relatively unsuccessful period, she returned to the top of music charts with The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey once again ventured into film with a well-received supporting role in Precious, and was awarded the Breakthrough Performance Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Throughout her career, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, according to the RIAA, she is the third-best-selling female artist in the United States, with 63.5 million certified albums. With the release of Touch My Body, Carey gained her 18th number-one single in the United States, in 2012, the singer was ranked second on VH1s list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music. Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, New York, to Patricia and her mother is of Irish descent, while her father had African-American and Afro-Venezuelan ancestry. The surname Carey was adopted by her Venezuelan grandfather, Francisco Núñez, Patricia was an occasional opera singer and vocal coach before she met Alfred in 1960. As he began earning a living as an engineer, the couple married later that year. After their elopement, Patricias family disowned her for marrying a black man, Carey later explained that she felt neglected by her maternal family while growing up, which affected her greatly. In the years between the births of Careys older sister Alison and herself, the Carey family struggled within the community due to their ethnicity, Careys name was derived from the song They Call the Wind Maria, originally from the 1951 Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon. When Carey was three, her parents divorced, after their separation, Alison moved in with her father, while the other two children, Mariah and brother Morgan, remained with their mother. Carey grew apart from her father and would stop seeing him altogether. By age four, she recalled that she had begun to sneak the radio under her covers at night, during elementary school, she excelled in subjects that she enjoyed, such as music, art, and literature, but did not find interest in others
32.
Johnny Cash
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Johnny Cash was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and author. He is widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century and one of the music artists of all time. Although primarily remembered as an music icon, his genre-spanning songs and sound embraced rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk. This crossover appeal won Cash the rare honor of multiple inductions in the Country Music, Rock and Roll and he traditionally began his concerts with the simple Hello, Im Johnny Cash, followed by his signature Folsom Prison Blues. Much of Cashs music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption and his signature songs include I Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, Get Rhythm, and Man in Black. During the last stage of his career, Cash covered songs by several late 20th-century rock artists, notably Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, Cash was born on February 26,1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas, one of seven children born to Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree. He was mostly of Scottish and English ancestry, and as an adult traced his surname to 11th-century Fife, Scotland, after meeting with the then-laird of Falkland, Fife, Cash Loch and other locations in Fife bear the name of his family. At birth, Cash was named J. R. Cash, when Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force, he was not permitted to use initials as a first name, so he changed his name to John R. Cash. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name, the Cash children were, Roy, Margaret Louise, Jack, J. R. Reba, Joanne, and Tommy. Tommy Cash also became a country artist. In March 1935, when Cash was three years old, the family settled in Dyess, Arkansas and he started working in cotton fields at age five, singing along with his family while working. The family farm was flooded on at least two occasions, which inspired him to write the song Five Feet High and Rising. His familys economic and personal struggles during the Great Depression inspired many of his songs, Cash was very close to his older brother, Jack. In May 1944, Jack was pulled into a head saw in the mill where he worked and was almost cut in two. He suffered for over a week before he died on May 20,1944, Cash often spoke of the horrible guilt he felt over this incident. Jack insisted on working, as the family needed the money, on his deathbed, Jack said he had visions of Heaven and angels. Decades later, Cash spoke of looking forward to meeting his brother in Heaven, Cashs early memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. Taught guitar by his mother and a friend, Cash began playing and writing songs at the age of twelve
33.
Kenny Chesney
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Kenneth Arnold Kenny Chesney is an American country music singer, songwriter and record producer. He has recorded 20 albums,14 of which have been certified Gold or higher by the RIAA. He has also produced more than 40 top 10 singles on the U. S. Billboard Hot Country Songs, most of these have also charted high within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making him one of the few successful crossover country artists. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, Chesney co-directed and produced a film for ESPN entitled The Boys of Fall. He has received six Academy of Country Music awards, as well as six awards from the Country Music Association and he is one of the most popular touring acts in country music, regularly selling out the venues in which he performs. His 2007 Flip-Flop Summer Tour was the country road trip of the year. The Country Music Association honored Chesney with the Entertainer of the Year award in 2004,2006,2007, and 2008. Other notable awards he received include the Academy of Country Musics 1997 New Male Vocalist of the Year,2002 Top Male Vocalist of the Year, and he was awarded his fourth consecutive Entertainer of the Year award from the Academy of Country Music on May 18,2008. Chesney was born on March 26,1968, in Knoxville, Tennessee, at St. Marys Medical Center and was raised in Luttrell and he is the son of David Chesney, a former elementary school teacher, and Karen Chandler, a hair stylist in the Knoxville area. Chesney has one sibling, a sister named Jennifer Chandler. In 1986, Chesney graduated from Gibbs High School, where he played baseball and football and he received his first guitar, The Terminor, for Christmas and began teaching himself how to play it. He sold 1,000 copies while performing at the clubs in Johnson City. After graduation from East Tennessee State in 1990, he headed to Nashville and he became the resident performer at The Turf, a honky tonk bar in the citys historic district. In 1992, the head of writer relations at BMI, Clay Bradley, recommended Chesney to his friend at Opryland Music Group, Troy Tomlinson, by saying, I met this kid today from East Tennessee. He’s a good singer, a songwriter, and more than anything, I think you’re going to really like him as a person. ”For the audition for Tomlinson. I thought that he very well too. But more than anything there was a kind of this look in his eyes - I was really drawn in by the fact that he was so set on being successful in this business. Chesney left the audition with a songwriter’s contract, an appearance at a songwriter’s showcase the following year led to a contract with Capricorn Records, which had recently started a country division
34.
Chicago (band)
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Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described rock and roll band with horns began as a charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound. The group had a stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups, according to Billboard, Chicago was the leading U. S. singles charting group during the 1970s. They have sold over 40 million units in the U. S. with 23 gold,18 platinum, over the course of their career they have had five number-one albums and 21 top-ten singles. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 8,2016 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Original band members Peter Cetera, Robert Lamm, and James Pankow are among the 2017 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees for their efforts as members of the music group. Parazaider, Kath, Seraphine, Pankow and Loughnane met in 1967 while students at DePaul University, Lamm was recruited from Roosevelt University. The group of six called themselves The Big Thing, and continued playing top 40 hits, while gaining some success as a cover band, the group began working on original songs. In June 1968, at manager James William Guercios request, The Big Thing moved to Los Angeles, California, the band changed its name to Chicago Transit Authority. It was while performing on a basis at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub in West Hollywood that the band got exposure to more famous musical artists of the time. Subsequently, they were the act for Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. As related to William James Ruhlmann by Walt Parazaider, Jimi Hendrix once told Parazaider, Jeez, your horn players are one set of lungs. Their first record, the eponymous Chicago Transit Authority, is a double album and it sold over one million copies by 1970, and was awarded a platinum disc. The album included a number of pop-rock songs – Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is, beginnings, Questions 67 and 68, and Im a Man – which were later released as singles. After the release of their first album, the name was shortened to Chicago to avoid legal action being threatened by the actual mass-transit company of the same name. The band released an album, titled Chicago, which is another double-LP. The albums centerpiece track is a seven-part, 13-minute suite composed by Pankow called Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon, the suite yielded two top ten hits, Make Me Smile and Colour My World, both sung by Kath
35.
Eric Clapton
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Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the only inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important, Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazines list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and fourth in Gibsons Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. He was also named number five in Time magazines list of The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players in 2009, in the mid-1960s Clapton left the Yardbirds to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Furthermore, he formed rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood. For most of the 1970s Claptons output bore the influence of the style of J. J. Cale. His version of Marleys I Shot the Sheriff helped reggae reach a mass market, two of his most popular recordings were Layla, recorded with Derek and the Dominos, and Robert Johnsons Crossroads, recorded with Cream. Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Claptons grief was expressed in the song Tears in Heaven, Clapton has been the recipient of 18 Grammy Awards, and the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music, in 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers. Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, Fryer shipped off to war prior to Claptons birth and then returned to Canada. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the belief that Claptons real surname is Clapp. Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest. Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently, Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, and practised long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records. He preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder and his guitar playing was so advanced that, by the age of 16, he was getting noticed. Around this time, Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond, in 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in pubs around Surrey. When he was seventeen years old, Clapton joined his first band, an early British R&B group and he stayed with this band from January until August 1963. In October of that year, Clapton did a stint with Casey Jones & the Engineers. In October 1963, Clapton joined the Yardbirds, a rock and roll band
36.
John Denver
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He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the decade and one of its best selling artists. By 1974, he was established as Americas best selling performer. After traveling and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed, with total record sales of over 33 million. He recorded and performed primarily with a guitar and sang about his joy in nature, his disdain for city life, his enthusiasm for music. Denver starred in films and several television specials in the 1970s and 1980s. He continued to record in the 1990s, also focusing on issues by lending vocal support to space exploration. He lived in Aspen, Colorado for much of his life and was known for his love of Colorado which he sang about numerous times, in 1974 Denver was named poet laureate of the state. The Colorado state legislature also adopted Rocky Mountain High as one of its two songs in 2007. Denver was a pilot and died at the age of 53 in a single-fatality crash of his personal experimental aircraft. Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. was born in Roswell, New Mexico, to Lt. Col. Henry John Deutschendorf, Sr. an Air Force officer, Henry Sr. was of German ancestry, and met and married his Oklahoma Sweetheart. Denvers Irish Catholic and German maternal grandmother was the one who imbued Denver with his love of music. In his autobiography, Take Me Home, Denver described his life as the eldest son of a family shaped by a father who could not show his love for his children. He is also the nephew of singer Dave Deutschendorf of The New Christy Minstrels, because Denvers father was in the military and his family moved often, it was difficult for him to make friends and fit in with other children of his own age. Constantly being the new kid was troubling for the introverted Denver, and he grew up feeling like he should be somewhere else. While living in Tucson, Arizona, Denver was a member of the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus for two years, Denver was happy living in Tucson, but his father was transferred to Montgomery, Alabama, then in the midst of the Montgomery boycotts. The family later moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where Denver graduated from Arlington Heights High School, attending high school in Fort Worth was a distressing experience for the disenfranchised Denver. In his third year of school, he borrowed his fathers car and ran away to California to visit family friends. His father flew to California in a jet plane to retrieve him
37.
Neil Diamond
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Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. One of the worlds best-selling artists of all time, he has sold over 120 million records worldwide since the start of his career in the 1960s. With 38 songs in the Top 10, he is the second most successful artist in the history of the Billboard Adult Contemporary Top 10 charts and his songs have been covered internationally by many performers from a variety of musical genres. Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock, additionally, he received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and in 2011 was an honoree at Kennedy Center. On the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, he has had eleven No, Sweet Caroline is played frequently at sporting events, and has become an anthem for the Boston Red Sox. Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family descended from Russian and his parents were Rose and Akeeba Kieve Diamond, a dry-goods merchant. He grew up in homes in Brooklyn, having also spent four years in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In Brooklyn he attended Erasmus Hall High School and was a member of the Freshman Chorus and they were not close friends at the time, Diamond recalls, We were two poor kids in Brooklyn. We hung out in the front of Erasmus High and smoked cigarettes, after his family moved he then attended Abraham Lincoln High School, and was a member of the fencing team. For his 16th birthday, he received his first guitar, and the next thing, I got a guitar when we got back to Brooklyn, started to take lessons and almost immediately began to write songs, he said. He adds that his attraction to songwriting was the first real interest he had growing up, Diamond also used his newly-developing skill at writing lyrics to write poetry. By writing poems for girls he was attracted to in school and his male classmates took note and began asking him to write poems for them which they would sing and use with equal success. He spent the following his graduation as a waiter in the Catskills resort area. There he first met Jaye Posner, who would, years later, Diamond next attended New York University as a pre-med major on a fencing scholarship. His skill at fencing made him a member of the 1960 NCAA mens championship team, however, he was often bored in classes, and found writing song lyrics more to his liking. He began cutting classes and taking the train up to Tin Pan Alley where he tried to get some of his songs heard by music publishers. By his senior year, and just 10 units short of graduation, Sunbeam Music Publishing offered him a 16-week job writing songs for $50 a week, and he dropped out of college to accept it. After his 16 weeks at Sunbeam Music were up, he was not rehired, I never really chose songwriting, he says
38.
The Doors
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The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were unique and among the most controversial and influential acts of the 1960s, mostly because of Morrisons lyrics and charismatic. After Morrisons death in 1971 at age 27, the members continued as a trio until disbanding in 1973. Signing with Elektra Records in 1966, The Doors released eight albums between 1967 and 1971, All but one hit the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum or better. By the end of 1971, it was reported that The Doors had sold 4,190,457 albums domestically and 7,750,642 singles. The band had three million-selling singles in the U. S. with Light My Fire, Hello, I Love You, after Morrisons death in 1971, the surviving trio released two albums Other Voices and Full Circle with Manzarek and Krieger sharing lead vocals. The three members also collaborated on the spoken word recording of Morrisons An American Prayer in 1978, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore reunited in 2000 for an episode of VH1s Storytellers and subsequently recorded Stoned Immaculate, The Music of The Doors with a variety of vocalists. Although the Doors active career ended in 1973, their popularity has persisted, According to the RIAA, they have sold 33 million certified units in the US and over 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. The Doors have been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines, including Rolling Stone, the Doors were the first American band to accumulate eight consecutive gold and platinum LPs. In 2002, Manzarek and Krieger started playing again, branding themselves as the Doors of the 21st Century. Densmore opted to sit out and, along with the Morrison estate, sued the duo over proper use of the bands name and won. After a short time as Riders On the Storm, they settled on the name Manzarek-Krieger and continued to tour until Manzareks death in 2013 at the age of 74. Three of the studio albums, the self-titled debut, L. A. Woman, and Strange Days, were featured in Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at positions 42,362. According to The Washington Posts Martin Weil, the rose to the center of the counterculture of the 1960s. The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs and with Manzareks encouragement sang Moonlight Drive. The members came from a musical background of jazz, rock, blues. In August, Densmore joined the group, which had renamed the Doors. This has circulated widely since then as a bootleg recording, in mid-1965, after Manzareks two brothers left, the group recruited guitarist Robby Krieger and the best-known lineup – Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore – was complete
39.
Bob Dylan
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Bob Dylan is an American songwriter, singer, painter, and writer. He has been influential in music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when his songs chronicled social unrest, early songs such as Blowin in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement. Leaving behind his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single Like a Rolling Stone, recorded in 1965, Dylans lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture, initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica, backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, since 1994, Dylan has published seven books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a musician, Dylan has sold more than 100 million records and he has also received numerous awards including eleven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a citation for his profound impact on popular music and American culture. In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, in 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in St. Marys Hospital on May 24,1941, in Duluth, Minnesota and he has a younger brother, David. Dylans paternal grandparents, Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa, in the Russian Empire and his maternal grandparents, Ben and Florence Stone, were Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the United States in 1902. Dylans father, Abram Zimmerman – an electric-appliance shop owner – and mother, Beatrice Beatty Stone, were part of a small, close-knit Jewish community. They lived in Duluth until Robert was six, when his father had polio and the returned to his mothers hometown, Hibbing. In his early years he listened to the radio—first to blues and country stations from Shreveport, Louisiana, and later and he formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School. In the Golden Chords, he performed covers of songs by Little Richard and their performance of Danny & the Juniors Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone. In 1959, his high school yearbook carried the caption Robert Zimmerman, the same year, as Elston Gunnn, he performed two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and clapping
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Eminem
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Marshall Bruce Mathers III, known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the 2000s in the United States, throughout his career, he has had 10 number-one albums on the Billboard 200 and five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Globally, he has more than 172 million albums, thus being one of the worlds best-selling artists. Rolling Stone ranked him 83rd on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and they were followed by Encore in 2004, another critical and commercial success. Eminem went on hiatus after touring in 2005, releasing Relapse in 2009, both won Grammy Awards and Recovery was the best-selling album of 2010 worldwide, the second time he had the international best-selling album of the year. Eminems eighth album, 2013s The Marshall Mathers LP2, won two Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album, it expanded his record for the most wins in that category and his Grammy total to 15. In addition to his career, Eminem is an original member of the Midwest hip hop groups Soul Intent. He is also known for his collaborations with fellow Detroit-based rapper Royce da 59, Eminem has developed other ventures, including Shady Records, with manager Paul Rosenberg, which helped launch the careers of artists such as 50 Cent. Eminem has also established his own channel, Shade 45, on Sirius XM Radio. In November 2002, he starred in the hip hop film 8 Mile, Eminem has made cameo appearances in the films The Wash, Funny People, The Interview and the television series Entourage. Eminem was born on October 17,1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri, Debbie was 14 when she met 18-year-old Bruce, at age 17, she nearly died during her 73-hour labor. Eminems parents were in a band called Daddy Warbucks, playing in Ramada Inns along the Dakotas–Montana border before their separation, Bruce left the family, moving to California and having two other children, Michael and Sarah. Debbie had son Nathan Nate Kane Samara on February 3,1986, during his childhood, Eminem and Debbie shuttled between Michigan and Missouri, rarely staying in one house for more than a year or two and living primarily with family members. In Missouri, they lived in places, including St. Joseph, Savannah. As a teenager Eminem wrote letters to his father, according to Debbie, friends and family remember Eminem as a happy child, but a bit of a loner who was often bullied. One bully, DeAngelo Bailey, severely injured Eminems head, Debbie filed a lawsuit against the school in 1982, Eminem spent much of his youth in a working-class, primarily black, Detroit neighborhood. He and Debbie were one of three white households on their block, and Eminem was beaten by black youths several times, as a child he was interested in storytelling, aspiring to be a comic-book artist before discovering hip hop. Eminem heard his first rap song on the Breakin soundtrack, a gift from Debbies half-brother Ronnie Polkinghorn, when Polkinghorn committed suicide in 1991, Eminem stopped speaking for days and did not attend his funeral
