1.
Gary, Indiana
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Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States,25 miles from downtown Chicago, Illinois. The population of Gary was 80,294 at the 2010 census, from the middle of the twentieth century to the present, Gary has experienced drastic population loss, falling by 55 percent from its peak of 178,320 in 1960. Gary is adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and borders Lake Michigan, the city is known for its large steel mills, and for being the birthplace of The Jackson 5 music group. Gary, Indiana, was founded in 1906 by the United States Steel Corporation as the home for its new plant, the city was named after lawyer Elbert Henry Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation. Gary was the site of civil unrest in the Steel Strike of 1919, on October 4,1919, a riot broke out on Broadway, the main north-south street through downtown Gary, between striking steel workers and strike breakers brought in from outside. Three days later, Indiana governor James P. Goodrich declared martial law, shortly thereafter, over 4,000 federal troops under the command of Major General Leonard Wood arrived to restore order. The jobs offered by the industry provided Gary with very rapid growth. At that time,19. 3% of the population was classified as foreign-born, Gary was also becoming increasingly racially diverse, with 17. 8% of the population classified as black, and 3. 5% as Mexican. Garys fortunes have risen and fallen with those of the steel industry, the growth of the steel industry brought prosperity to the community. Broadway was known as a center for the region. Department stores and architecturally significant movie houses were built in the downtown area, in the 1960s, like many other American urban centers reliant on one particular industry, Gary entered a spiral of decline. Garys decline was brought on by the growing overseas competitiveness in the steel industry, the U. S. Steel Gary Works employed over 30,000 in 1970, declined to just 6,000 by 1990, and further declined to 5,100 in August of 2015. As the city declined, crime increased, rapid racial change occurred in Gary during the late 20th century. Non-whites were primarily restricted to live in the Midtown section just south of downtown, Gary had one of the nations first African-American mayors, Richard G. Hatcher, and hosted the ground-breaking 1972 National Black Political Convention. Since the 1930s, Gary had developed a reputation as a city due to rampant political corruption, racial violence & segregation, labor unrest. In the 1960s through the 1980s, surrounding localities such as Merrillville and Crown Point experienced rapid growth, including new homes. Owing to white flight, economic distress, and a perception of skyrocketing crime, many middle-class, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Gary had the highest percentage of African-Americans of U. S. cities with a population of 100,000 or more, 84%. This no longer applies to Gary since the population of the city has now fallen well below 100,000 residents, as of 2013, the Gary Department of Redevelopment has estimated that one-third of all homes in the city are unoccupied and/or abandoned
2.
Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40
3.
Soul music
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Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music, catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and a tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds, Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black, Soul music dominated the U. S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U. S. By 1968, the music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, by the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994, there are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music. The term soul had been used among African-American musicians to emphasize the feeling of being an African-American in the United States, according to another source, Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s. The phrase soul music itself, referring to music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961. The term soul in African-American parlance has connotations of African-American pride, gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz style that derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz, important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles is often cited as popularizing the genre with his string of hits starting with 1954s I Got a Woman. Singer Bobby Womack said, Ray was the genius and he turned the world onto soul music. Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style, little Richard and James Brown were equally influential. Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also acknowledged as soul forefathers. Cooke became popular as the singer of gospel group The Soul Stirrers
4.
Blues
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Blues is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also a part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove, Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times, Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the troubles experienced in African-American society. Many elements, such as the format and the use of blue notes. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery and, later and it is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century, the first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, such as Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues, World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a form called blues rock evolved. The term blues may have come from blue devils, meaning melancholy and sadness, the phrase blue devils may also have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, by the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, in lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. The lyrics of traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. Two of the first published songs, Dallas Blues and Saint Louis Blues, were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times, the lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody
5.
Jehovah's Witnesses
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Jehovahs Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a membership of more than 8.3 million adherents involved in evangelism. Jehovahs Witnesses are directed by the Governing Body of Jehovahs Witnesses, a group of elders in Warwick, New York and they prefer to use their own translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, although their literature occasionally quotes and cites other Bible translations. The name Jehovahs witnesses was adopted in 1931 to distinguish themselves from other Bible Student groups, Jehovahs Witnesses are best known for their door-to-door preaching, distributing literature such as The Watchtower and Awake. and refusing military service and blood transfusions. They consider use of the name Jehovah vital for proper worship and they reject Trinitarianism, inherent immortality of the soul, and hellfire, which they consider to be unscriptural doctrines. They do not observe Christmas, Easter, birthdays or other holidays, adherents commonly refer to their body of beliefs as the truth and consider themselves to be in the truth. They consider secular society to be corrupt and under the influence of Satan. Congregational disciplinary actions include disfellowshipping, their term for formal expulsion, baptized individuals who formally leave are considered disassociated and are also shunned. Disfellowshipped and disassociated individuals may eventually be reinstated if deemed repentant, the religions position regarding conscientious objection to military service and refusal to salute national flags has brought it into conflict with some governments. Consequently, some Jehovahs Witnesses have been persecuted and their activities are banned or restricted in some countries, persistent legal challenges by Jehovahs Witnesses have influenced legislation related to civil rights in several countries. The organization has received criticism over issues surrounding biblical translation, doctrines, handling of abuse cases. The claims are rejected by the leaders, and some have been disputed by courts. In 1870, Charles Taze Russell and others formed a group in Pittsburgh, in 1876, Russell met Nelson H. Barbour, later that year they jointly produced the book Three Worlds, which combined restitutionist views with end time prophecy. Beginning in 1878 Russell and Barbour jointly edited a religious journal, from 1879, Watch Tower supporters gathered as autonomous congregations to study the Bible topically. Thirty congregations were founded, and during 1879 and 1880, Russell visited each to provide the format he recommended for conducting meetings, as congregations continued to form during Russells ministry, they each remained self-administrative, functioning under the congregationalist style of church governance. In 1881, Zions Watch Tower Tract Society was presided over by William Henry Conley, by about 1900, Russell had organized thousands of part- and full-time colporteurs, and was appointing foreign missionaries and establishing branch offices. By the 1910s, Russells organization maintained nearly a hundred pilgrims, Russell engaged in significant global publishing efforts during his ministry, and by 1912, he was the most distributed Christian author in the United States. He identified the movement as Bible Students, and more formally as the International Bible Students Association
6.
Michael Jackson
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Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, actor, and philanthropist. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music, dance, the eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5. He began his career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music, the popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jacksons 1987 album Bad spawned the U. S and he continued to innovate with videos such as Black or White and Scream throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and his distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres. Thriller is the album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jacksons other albums, including Off the Wall, Bad, Dangerous and he is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when Love Never Felt So Good reached number nine on May 21,2014. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, aspects of Jacksons personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of sexual abuse, but the civil case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of child sexual abuse allegations. While preparing for his concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25,2009. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician, Jacksons death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Forbes ranks Jackson as the dead celebrity with earnings of $825 million in 2016. Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29,1958 and his mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovahs Witness. She played clarinet and piano and once aspired to be a country-and-western performer, michaels father, Joseph Walter Joe Jackson, a former boxer, was a steelworker at U. S. Steel
7.
Madison Square Garden
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Madison Square Garden, often called MSG or simply The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Located in Midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenues from 31st to 33rd Streets, it is situated atop Pennsylvania Station. The Garden is used for basketball and ice hockey, as well as boxing, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports. It is close to other midtown Manhattan landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown and it is home to the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League, the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, and residency to singer-songwriter Billy Joel. The Garden opened on February 11,1968, and is the oldest major sporting facility in the New York metropolitan area and it is the oldest arena in the National Hockey League and the second-oldest arena in the National Basketball Association. MSG is the fourth-busiest music arena in the world in terms of sales, behind The O2 Arena. At a total construction cost of approximately $1.1 billion and it is part of the Pennsylvania Plaza office and retail complex. Several other operating entities related to the Garden share its name, Madison Square is formed by the intersection of 5th Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in Manhattan. It was named after James Madison, fourth President of the United States, two venues called Madison Square Garden were located just northeast of the square, the first from 1879 to 1890, and the second from 1890 to 1925. The first Garden, leased to P. T. Barnum, had no roof and was inconvenient to use during inclement weather, Madison Square Garden II was designed by noted architect Stanford White. The new building was built by a syndicate which included J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, P. T. Barnum, Darius Mills, James Stillman and W. W. Astor. It was 200 feet by 485 feet, and the main hall and it had a 1, 200-seat theatre, a concert hall with a capacity of 1,500, the largest restaurant in the city and a roof garden cabaret. A third Madison Square Garden opened in a new location, on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, from 1925 to 1968, groundbreaking on the third Madison Square Garden took place on January 9,1925. Designed by the theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, it was built at the cost of $4.75 million in 249 days by boxing promoter Tex Rickard. The arena was 200 feet by 375 feet, with seating on three levels, and a capacity of 18,496 spectators for boxing. Demolition commenced in 1968 after the opening of the current Garden and it finished up in early 1969, and the site is now where One Worldwide Plaza is located. The new structure was one of the first of its kind to be built above the platforms of a railroad station. It was an engineering feat constructed by Robert E. McKee of El Paso, public outcry over the demolition of the Pennsylvania Station structure—an outstanding example of Beaux-Arts architecture—led to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
8.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
9.
Detroit
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Detroit is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Michigan, the fourth-largest city in the Midwest and the largest city on the United States–Canada border. It is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state, the municipality of Detroit had a 2015 estimated population of 677,116, making it the 21st-most populous city in the United States. Roughly one-half of Michigans population lives in Metro Detroit alone, the Detroit–Windsor area, a commercial link straddling the Canada–U. S. Border, has a population of about 5.7 million. Detroit is a port on the Detroit River, a strait that connects the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Detroit Metropolitan Airport is among the most important hubs in the United States, the City of Detroit anchors the second-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind Chicago, and the thirteenth-largest in the United States. Detroit and its neighboring Canadian city Windsor are connected through a tunnel and various bridges, Detroit was founded on July 24,1701 by the French explorer and adventurer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and a party of settlers. During the 19th century, it became an important industrial hub at the center of the Great Lakes region, with expansion of the American automobile industry in the early 20th century, the Detroit area emerged as a significant metropolitan region within the United States. The city became the fourth-largest in the country for a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, suburban expansion continued with construction of a regional freeway system. A great portion of Detroits public transport was abandoned in favour of becoming a city in the post-war period. Due to industrial restructuring and loss of jobs in the auto industry, between 2000 and 2010 the citys population fell by 25 percent, changing its ranking from the nations 10th-largest city to 18th. In 2010, the city had a population of 713,777 and this resulted from suburbanization, corruption, industrial restructuring and the decline of Detroits auto industry. In 2013, the state of Michigan declared an emergency for the city. Detroit has experienced urban decay as its population and jobs have shifted to its suburbs or elsewhere, conservation efforts managed to save many architectural pieces since the 2000s and allowed several large-scale revitalisations. More recently, the population of Downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, paleo-Indian people inhabited areas near Detroit as early as 11,000 years ago. In the 17th century, the region was inhabited by Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi, for the next hundred years, virtually no British, colonist, or French action was contemplated without consultation with, or consideration of the Iroquois likely response. When the French and Indian War evicted the Kingdom of France from Canada, the 1798 raids and resultant 1799 decisive Sullivan Expedition reopened the Ohio Country to westward emigration, which began almost immediately, and by 1800 white settlers were pouring westwards. By 1773, the population of Detroit was 1,400, by 1778, its population was up to 2,144 and it was the third-largest city in the Province of Quebec
10.
Pop music
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Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions
11.
Apollo Theater
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It was the home of Showtime at the Apollo, a nationally syndicated television variety show which showcased new talent, from 1987 to 2008, encompassing 1,093 episodes. The theater, which has a capacity of 1,506, opened its doors in 1914 as Hurtig & Seamons New Burlesque Theater and it became the Apollo in 1934, when it was opened to black patrons – previously it had been a whites-only venue. In 1983, both the interior and exterior of the building were designated as New York City Landmarks, and it is estimated that 1.3 million people visit the Apollo every year. The building which became the Apollo Theater was built in 1913-14 and was designed by architect George Keister. It was originally Hurtig and Seamons New Theater, which enforced a strict Whites Only policy, the theatre was operated by noted burlesque producers Jules Hurtig and Harry Seamon, who obtained a 30-year lease. It remained in operation until 1928, when Billy Minsky took over, the song I May Be Wrong by Harry Sullivan and Harry Ruskin, written in 1929, became the theme song of the theater. During the early 1930s, the fell into disrepair and closed once more. The show ran for an engagement and was highly praised by the press. Leo Brechers Harlem Opera House was another competing venue, to improve the shows at the Apollo, Cohen hired noted talent scout John Hammond to book his shows. However, the deal fell through when Cohen died, and the end result was the merger of the Apollo with the Harlem Opera House, the Opera House became a movie theater, but the Apollo, under the ownership of Brecher and Schiffman, continued to present stage shows. Schiffman hired Clarence Robinson as in-house producer, Originally, a show presented at the Apollo was akin to a vaudeville show. As the years progressed, such variety shows were presented less often, comic acts also appeared on the Apollo stage, including those who performed in blackface, such as Butterbeans and Susie, much to the horror of the NAACP and the elite of Harlem. Gospel acts which played the Apollo include the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, The Clark Sisters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Clara Ward and Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers. Performers of soul music on the Apollo stage included Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, and jazz was represented as well, by acts such as Art Blakey and Horace Silver. The theaters audience was often mixed, in the 1940s it was estimated that during the week about 40% of the audience was white, Jazz singer Anita ODay headlined for the week of September 21,1950, billed as the Jezebel of Jazz. Schiffman had first introduced a night at the Lafayette Theater, where it was known as Harlem Amateur Hour. At the Apollo, it was originally called Audition Night, but later became Amateur Night in Harlem, held every Monday evening and broadcast on the radio over WMCA, the Apollo grew to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance of the pre-World War II years. Fitzgeralds performances pulled in an audience at the Apollo and she won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its Amateur Nights
12.
I'll Be There (The Jackson 5 song)
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Ill Be There is a soul song written by Berry Gordy, Hal Davis, Bob West, and Willie Hutch. The song was recorded by The Jackson 5 and released by Motown Records on August 28,1970 as the first single from their Third Album on the same date. Produced by the songwriters, Ill Be There was The Jackson 5s fourth number one hit in a row, Ill Be There is also notable as the most successful single released by Motown during its Detroit era. The Mariah Carey and Trey Lorenz cover was recorded during Careys appearance on MTV Unplugged in 1992, co-produced by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, Ill Be There became Careys sixth number one single in the U. S. and her biggest hit elsewhere at the time. After three upbeat bubblegum soul number one singles from the Jackson 5, Motown head Berry Gordy decided to take a risk and craft a ballad for the group. For this song, he brought in songwriters Hal Davis, Willie Hutch, and Bob West, as opposed to working with the rest of The Corporation, who had crafted the first three hits. He promises that hell always be there to comfort you, Jackson 5 lead singers Michael Jackson and his older brother Jermaine share the lead vocals on this song. Michaels ad-libbed just look over your shoulders, honey is an allusion to Reach Out Ill Be There and he was instructed by Gordy to say just look over your shoulder, but the slightly flubbed line was allowed to remain in the final mix. In his autobiography Moon Walk, Michael Jackson noted that Ill Be There was the song that solidified The Jackson 5s careers and showed audiences that the group had potential beyond bubblegum pop. Said Allmusic about the song, Rarely, if ever, had one so young sung with so much authority and grace, investing this achingly tender ballad with wisdom and understanding far beyond his years. The most successful single released by the Jackson 5, Ill Be There sold 4.2 million copies in the United States. I Heard It Through the Grapevine remained Motowns biggest-selling record with sales of over seven million copies. Ill Be There was also a one hit on the Billboard Black Singles Chart for six weeks. The singles B-side was One More Chance, a song from their second album, Ill Be There was the Jackson 5s final number one Hot 100 hit as a group. For the rest of their career as an act, Jackson 5 singles would climb no higher than number 2. Michael Jackson scored numerous number one hits as a solo artist, Ill Be There was one of the songs used in the showcase for Grease, Youre the One that I Want. Andy Williams released a version in 1971 on his album, Youve Got a Friend, kings Stand by Me, then back into Shout. The song was performed in the Jackson 5 medley during all of Michaels tours, The Bad, Dangerous, the song was performed by Michael Jackson in the 2009 film Michael Jacksons This Is It
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