1.
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
2.
Bonnie Tyler
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Bonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, known for her distinctive husky voice. Tyler came to prominence with the release of her 1977 album The World Starts Tonight and its singles Lost in France and her 1978 single Its a Heartache reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, and number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. In the 1980s, Tyler ventured into music with songwriter and producer Jim Steinman. He wrote Tylers biggest hit Total Eclipse of the Heart, the single from her 1983 UK chart topping album Faster Than the Speed of Night. Steinman also wrote Tylers other major 1980s hit Holding Out for a Hero and she had success in mainland Europe during the 1990s with Dieter Bohlen, who wrote and produced her hit Bitterblue. In 2003, Tyler re-recorded Total Eclipse of the Heart with singer Kareen Antonn and their bilingual duet topped the French charts. Her latest album Rocks and Honey was released in 2013 and features the single Believe in Me which she performed representing the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Both Its a Heartache and Total Eclipse of the Heart are among the singles of all time. Her work has earned her three Grammy Award nominations and three Brit Award nominations, among other accolades, Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins in Skewen, Wales, to coal miner Glyndwr and housewife Elsie Hopkins. She grew up in a council house with three sisters and two brothers. Her siblings had varied music tastes, exposing her to such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra. Hopkins and her family were deeply religious Protestants and her first public performance took place in a chapel as a child, singing the Anglican hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful. Leaving school with no qualifications, Hopkins began working in a grocery shop. In 1969, she entered a talent contest, and after coming in second place, was inspired to pursue a career in singing. Responding to an advertisement, she found work as a backing singer for Bobby Wayne & the Dixies before forming her own soul band called Imagination. It was around this time that she changed her name to Sherene Davis in order to avoid being confused with Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin. In 1975, Davis was spotted singing with her band in the Townsman Club, Swansea, by talent scout Roger Bell, after many months had passed, she received a phone call from RCA Records, offering her a recording contract. They also recommended that she change her name again, after compiling a list of surnames and Christian names from a newspaper, Davis found a new name in Bonnie Tyler
3.
Hide Your Heart
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Hide Your Heart, is the seventh studio album by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. It was released on 9 May 1988, by Columbia Records, the album was recorded in Woodstock, New York, and produced by Desmond Child. Unlike Tylers previous two releases, the failed to chart on the Billboard 200, but did see success in Europe. The album features the song Hide Your Heart written by Paul Stanley, Desmond Child and this song was later covered three times in 1989 Ace Frehleys Trouble Walkin, Robin Becks Trouble Or Nothin, and Molly Hatchets Lightning Strikes Twice. And performed in 1989 by Paul Stanley with Kiss on their Hot in the Shade album, also included are Bonnie Tylers remake of Turners 1986 b-side Dont Turn Around, and the Bee Gees To Love Somebody, a hit two years later for Jimmy Somerville. Hide Your Heart was recorded at the Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, Desmond Child had received a budget from CBS Records to write and produce three songs for Tylers next album. Within a few days, they recorded an album on that budget. I begged the musicians to stay overtime, Child recalled in a 2013 interview, bass guitarist Seth Glassman and lead guitarist John McCurry swapped instruments to record Turtle Blues, which was not planned to feature on the album. The song was recorded at 2 a. m. after a jamming session, McCurry overdubbed the guitar solo after the song was recorded. Turtle Blues was originally written and recorded by Janis Joplin for her 1968 album Cheap Thrills with Big Brother, Tyler recorded her vocals in the same booth as Joplins original version. Additional recording took place at The Hit Factory and Right Track in New York City, Hide Your Heart received generally positive from music critics. Mario Tarradell of The Miami News described Tyler as revitalized after her work with Jim Steinman, Tarradell added that Tyler isnt always blessed with the best material and has been a victim of a roller-coaster career, but described the album as an impressive return to rock music. Curt Anderson of Bangor Daily News agreed that Turtle Blues is the album highlight and he also opined that Tylers cover of To Love Somebody is better than the original. He did argue, however, that the album is over-produced and he concluded, saying that the track Notes from America sounds like much of the commercial rock n roll on the radio, and that its a shame isnt singing more memorable music. Tylers first single from the album was The Best, which was the best performing single, reaching #10 in Norway and Portugal, #34 in Spain and #95 in the UK. Other singles included Hide Your Heart, Save Up All Your Tears, Dont Turn Around, and the U. S. title track Notes From America
4.
A-side and B-side
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The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78,45, and 33 1/3 rpm phonograph records, whether singles, extended plays, or long-playing records. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits with both A-side and B-side releases, others took the opposite approach, producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side, the earliest 10-inch,78 rpm, shellac records were single sided. Double-sided recordings, with one song on side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records. There were no record charts until the 1930s, and radio stations did not play recorded music until the 1950s, in this time, A-sides and B-sides existed, but neither side was considered more important, the side did not convey anything about the content of the record. The term single came into use with the advent of vinyl records in the early 1950s. At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side, under this random system, many artists had so-called double-sided hits, where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts, or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places. As time wore on, however, the convention for assigning songs to sides of the record changed. By the early sixties, the song on the A-side was the song that the company wanted radio stations to play. It was not until 1968, for instance, that the production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom. In the late 1960s stereo versions of pop and rock songs began to appear on 45s. The majority of the 45s were played on AM radio stations, by the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, and B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, with the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the dominant medium. However, the term B-side is still used to refer to the tracks or coupling tracks on a CD single. With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other media have declined. B-side songs may be released on the record as a single to provide extra value for money. There are several types of material released in this way, including a different version, or, in a concept record
5.
The Hit Factory
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The Hit Factory was a recording studio in New York City famous for its clientele. It closed on April 1,2005, the building is now the headquarters of Music Theatre International. However, other Hit Factory studio locations remained open, such as in Miami, the New York facility was purchased from Jerry Ragovoy by Edward Germano on March 6,1975. From 1989 to 1993, the company also operated The Hit Factory London, after Germanos death in 2003, the business was taken over by his wife Janice Germano. Hit Factory was closed on April 1,2005, the last album to be recorded there was Octavarium by Dream Theater. The business base of operations moved to the remaining Hit Factory Criteria Miami in March 2005, in a statement, The Hit Factory acknowledged the industry is moving away from large-scale studios to destination locations like Miami that offer sunny weather and a hot nightlife. In December 2006 Stribling and Assocs, a New York real-estate broker, twenty-seven loft-style apartments went on sale, including six duplexes. Prices started at about $1 million, the developers have said that there will continue to be rehearsal space for musicians on the ground floor. In 2011, New York Knicks basketball player Carmelo Anthony and his wife, entertainer La La Vazquez, the studios occupied several spaces in and around Times Square and Midtown West after Germanos purchase. Locations included Hit Factory Times Square at 130 West 42nd Street, Hit Factory Broadway, at 237 West 54th Street, the Hit Factory Broadway, located between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, was a four-studio complex that housed a mix of Solid State Logic and Neve VR-series consoles. The Hit Factory Mastering facility at 421 West 54th street was opened in 1992 and all moved there. To avoid confusion, studio names at the new location were given instead of the more-traditional letters. The Hit Factory Broadway closed in early 2002, as new studios were planned in the main Hit Factory Mastering facility, the main studio facility at 421 West 54th Street occupied most of a 100, 000+ square foot building. Studio 1 occupied the top floor of the building and included four overdub booths. The control room was equipped with an 80-input Solid State Logic 9000J as the centerpiece, the lounge was also a flexible space, with room for a large orchestra or cast party, coat room, green room, office, production room, gym and several storage areas. On July 24,2002, it opened Studios 6 and 7, each studio contained a 48-channel Pro Tools MIXPlus system, a Sony 3348 HR, two Studer A827s, Lexicon 960L and 480L reverbs, and outboard racks tailored for surround mixing. Studio 7 was designed as a room, with a small booth adjacent to the control room. Custom Augspurger monitors featured dual 15-inch TAD drivers, horns and 18-inch hidden stereo subs, studio 6 had a silver color scheme, also with custom Augspurgers and silver credenza ends in the control room, and a circle Hit Factory Studios logo at the back of studio
6.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership
