Phenomenon (film)
Phenomenon is a 1996 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Jon Turteltaub, written by Gerald Di Pego, starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall, Jeffrey DeMunn. In the film, an amiable, small-town everyman is inexplicably transformed into a genius with telekinetic powers; the original music score was composed by Thomas Newman. George Malley is a average auto mechanic in a small town in Northern California. While celebrating his 37th birthday at a local bar with his best friend and father figure, Doc Brunder, he steps outside while drunk. A ball of shining bright white lights moves around in the sky, grows closer and hits him in the head, making a loud sound and knocking him down; when he comes to and re-enters the bar, he learns that nobody else saw the lights nor did they hear the sound. Doc notices something is amiss when George achieves a checkmate in their chess game. George begins to exhibit remarkable levels of intelligence, he absorbs vast amounts of information, formulates new, revolutionary ideas, as well as developing psychokinesis.
Not needing sleep, he spends each night reading multiple books. George tries to use his new intelligence for the good of his community, he predicts an earthquake without any equipment. When Doc is called to aid a sick Portuguese man, George learns the language in minutes and helps translate, he uses his telekinesis to rescue the man's young relative. Visiting Nate, George decodes and responds to a signal on Nate's shortwave radio, though Nate asks him to forget about it out of fear that they might be picking up information from a nearby air force base. During this time of upheaval the townsfolk become wary, but George finds support from Doc and from a growing relationship with a single mother and her children, Al and Glory. George sets a plan in place to help Nate get together with the mother of the Portuguese boy he rescued. George invites Lace to join him on a trip to UC Berkeley to meet with seismologist Professor Ringold about George's earthquake prediction. Instead, the FBI takes Nate into custody over his code-breaking.
He breaks more codes astounds Dr. Nierdof by answering a series of difficult quizzes and exams; when George threatens to talk to the press, he is released. Returning to the local bar, George becomes frustrated with friends' questions about his abilities, he causes a large mirror to break via telekinesis. Lace visits him to provide a haircut, their innocent intimacy scares her since she has tried so hard to not like him, but it encourages him to stop avoiding the townsfolk. He goes to the county fair to ease fear with a demonstration of his powers, but the crowd goes into a frenzy, demanding his attention and his perceived healing powers. George is knocked to the ground, where he again sees the balls of light, before losing consciousness. George awakens in a hospital. With Lace and Nate there for support, Doc explains; this has stimulated George's phenomenal brain functions. They have called a leading brain surgeon, to see if an operation can save George's life. Dr. Wellin determines there is only a 1 in 500 chance of survival, but wants to proceed with an invasive operation to do research on George's living brain.
When George refuses, saying he still has work to do, the doctor has him declared mentally unfit and held against his will. George escapes from the hospital and returns home, he spends time with Nate goes to Lace's to spend time with her and her children. The FBI agent shows up. George and Lace share a romantic and intimate time, but he informs her that he is about to die and she cries as she holds him. Professor Ringold arrives at Lace's house, only to learn. Lace gives him George's research materials, so he can finish George's breakthrough work. A year George's friends are gathered for what would have been his 38th birthday. Nate, now fluent in Portuguese, is married to a visibly pregnant Ella. Other signs of George's phenomenal impact on the town and its people are seen all around. John Travolta as George Malley Kyra Sedgwick as Lace Pennamin Forest Whitaker as Nate Pope Robert Duvall as Doc Brunder Jeffrey DeMunn as Prof. John Ringold Richard Kiley as Dr. Wellin David Gallagher as Al Pennamin Ashley Buccille as Glory Pennamin Brent Spiner as Dr. Bob Nierdof Elisabeth Nunziato as Ella The film grossed more than $16,000,000 on its opening weekend, debuting in third position and climbing up to second.
It grossed $104,636,382 in the US and $47,400,000 elsewhere, grossing $152,000,000 overall. The film received mixed reviews, it holds a 50%'rotten' score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times gave the film three out of four stars, questioning if it could have been more challenging but remarking,'But that's not what it's about. It's about change and love, it rounds those three bases nicely if it never quite gets to home.'Janet Maslin of The New York Times, complimented the concept but said'during the grimness of the film's final half hour, jaws may drop. A whopping wrong turn throws this lightweight, benign-looking movie terminally off course.' Empire awarded the film three out of five stars, complaining on the film's tendency to overexplain itself, but complimented Travolta's performance. Travolta and Whitaker both won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for their performances in 1997. Whitaker received an Image Award. In the same year the film was nominated for a Saturn Award.
Travolta was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for his performance, as well as for Best Kiss with Kyra Sedgwick. Eric Clapton was
Bruce Springsteen 1992–1993 World Tour
The Bruce Springsteen 1992–1993 World Tour was a concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and a new backing band, that took place from mid-1992 to mid-1993. It followed the simultaneous release of his albums Human Touch and Lucky Town earlier in 1992, it was his first of four non-E Street Band tours. Springsteen had more non-E Street Band tours, the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, the Seeger Sessions Tour, the Devils & Dust Tour; the tour was not as commercially or critically successful as past tours, due to poor reception of Human Touch and Lucky Town as well as changes from previous tours. According to Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh, die-hard fans have informally referred to the backing band as "the Other Band"; the tour was preceded by a June 5, 1992 U. S. "dress rehearsal" radio broadcast of the new band. Springsteen said, "I missed playing. I missed getting out. I missed the fans. I've been home a while. I've worked hard on the records." The tour's first leg was conducted in arenas in Western Europe, opening on June 15, 1992 at the Globen in Stockholm.
Springsteen said, "It's nice to start the tour here. It's nice to be back among people who have always been hospitable." After 15 dates there, including five at London's Wembley Arena, the tour came home to the United States. There, the second leg began in late July with a then-record 11 consecutive dates in New Jersey's Meadowlands Arena, it continued in arenas through the U. S. and Canada, for a total of 61 shows through mid-December. Springsteen took a three-month winter break, before starting up again in late March for the third leg, a longer stint in Western Europe that played 31 dates there, some in outdoor stadiums; the tour proper ended on June 1993 in Oslo's Valle Hovin. Springsteen had dissolved his long-time backing E Street Band in 1989, had not used them on Human Touch and Lucky Town; this tour was his first time out with another group. Looking for a somewhat different sound, he assembled an outfit that gave him both more guitar-based arrangements and a more R&B-based feel with more backup singers.
Keyboardist Roy Bittan was the only E Street Band member retained. Most of the rest of the touring band were experienced session musicians who were not well-known to the general music audience. Better-known ace session drummer Jeff Porcaro, who had played on Human Touch, was offered $1 million to join the tour, but instead stayed with his band Toto. Springsteen's new wife and previous E Street backup singer Patti Scialfa was not a regular member of this band, but made guest appearances at many shows to duet with Springsteen on some combination of "Brilliant Disguise", "Tougher Than The Rest", "Human Touch". Shows began with several selections from the new albums—typically the self-described happy songs "Better Days", "Local Hero", "Lucky Town"—and not emphasized the new material throughout. Slots for older songs were given to numbers from his massively-selling 1984 Born in the U. S. A. album. Highlights from the new material included Springsteen crowd surfing during "Leap of Faith"; the main set closer continued to be "Light of Day", a role that it had assumed in the Tunnel of Love Express and here was elongated with an "I'm just a prisoner... of Rock and Roll!" rap, while the band introductions song was "Glory Days" in the encores.
Springsteen 1970s classics that were identified with the E Street Band sound were finessed either by rearranging them, avoiding them, or just doing it. Springsteen's biggest hit single, 1984's "Dancing in the Dark", was stripped down to near-solo electric guitar and given a tired, weary reading, before being dropped from the set lists altogether; the tour sold many tickets. The eleven-show stint in the Meadowlands surpassed his 10-show run there in the first leg of the Born in the U. S. A. Tour, but ticket demand was much higher then. Ticket sales were strong along the Eastern Seaboard, but weaker in areas such as Cleveland and Detroit, a reflection of the two albums' lackluster sales performance and failure to generate much in the way of hit singles. Critical reception of the tour was varied. Lars Lindström reviewed the opening Stockholm show for Back Beat and said, "the musicians have not yet become a band – and they lack the moments of total togetherness both musically and physically. Only singer and percussionist Crystal Taliefero and singer Bobby King have the undisputed charisma."
USA Today nationally visible music writer Edna Gundersen thought highly of the opening New Jersey show, saying that "For those doubting that such inner contentment can co-exist with rebellious rock passion, Springsteen offers living proof: an resonating, downright rowdy 27-song rock'n' roll shindig." She said that the new band was "a cohesive force worthy of succeeding the crack E Street Band", called out Taliefero for praise. The New York Times's Jon Pareles, reviewing the same show commented about the show's themes of "the healing power and everyday comp
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks is an American singer and songwriter. His integration of rock and roll elements into the country genre has earned him immense popularity in the United States. Brooks has had great success on the country single and album charts, with multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances, while crossing over into the mainstream pop arena. According to the RIAA, he is the best-selling solo albums artist in the United States with 148 million domestic units sold, ahead of Elvis Presley, is second only to The Beatles in total album sales overall, he is one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 170 million records. As of 2019, Brooks is now the only artist in music history to have released seven albums that achieved diamond status in the United States. Since 1989, Brooks has released 22 records in all, which include: 12 studio albums, two live albums, three compilation albums, three Christmas albums and four box sets, along with 77 singles.
He won several awards in his career, including two Grammy Awards, 17 American Music Awards and the RIAA Award for best-selling solo albums artist of the century in the U. S. Troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2005. During this time, he sold millions of albums through an exclusive distribution deal with Walmart and sporadically released new singles. In 2005, Brooks started a partial comeback, giving select performances and releasing two compilation albums. In 2009, he began Garth at Wynn, a periodic weekend concert residency 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 comeback world tour, with wife and musician Trisha Yearwood, which culminated in 2017, his most recent album, was released in November 2016. Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 21, 2012.
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011. Troyal Garth Brooks was born on February 1962, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he was the youngest child of Troyal Raymond Brooks, Jr. a draftsman for an oil company, Colleen McElroy Carroll, a 1950s-era country singer of Irish ancestry who recorded on the Capitol Records label and appeared on Ozark Jubilee. This was the second marriage for each of his parents, giving Brooks four older half-siblings; the couple had two children together and Garth. At their home in Yukon, the family hosted weekly talent nights. All of the children were required to participate, either by doing skits. Brooks learned to play both banjo; as a child, Brooks sang in casual family settings, but his primary focus was athletics. In high school, he ran track and field, he received a track scholarship to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he competed in the javelin. Brooks graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising, his roommate, Ty England played guitar in his road band until going solo in 1995.
In 1985, Brooks began his professional music career and playing guitar in Oklahoma clubs and bars, most notably Wild Willie's Saloon in Stillwater. Through his elder siblings, Brooks was exposed to a wide range of music. Although he listened to some country music that of George Jones, Brooks was most fond of rock music, citing James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Townes Van Zandt as major influences. In 1981, after hearing "Unwound", the debut single of George Strait, Brooks decided that he was more interested in playing country music. In 1985, entertainment attorney Rod Phelps drove from Dallas to listen to Brooks. Phelps liked what he offered to produce Brooks' first demo. With Phelps' encouragement, including a list of Phelps' contacts in Nashville and some of his credit cards, Brooks traveled to Nashville to pursue a recording contract. Phelps continued to urge Brooks to return to Nashville. In 1987, Brooks and wife Sandy Mahl moved to Nashville, Brooks began making contacts in the music industry.
Garth Brooks' eponymous first album was a chart success. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart. Most of the album was traditionalist country, influenced in part by George Strait; the first single, "Much Too Young", was a country top 10 success. It was followed by Brooks' first number-one single on the Hot Country Songs chart, "If Tomorrow Never Comes". "Not Counting You" reached No. 2, "The Dance" reached No. 1. Brooks has claimed that out of all the songs he has recorded, "The Dance" remains his favorite. In 1989, Brooks embarked as opening act for Kenny Rogers. Brooks' second album, No Fences, was released in 1990 and spent 23 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200, became Brooks' highest-selling album, with domestic shipments of 17 million. It contained what would become Brooks' signature song, the blue collar anthem "Friends in Low Places", as well as other popular singles, "The Thunder Rolls" and "Unanswered Prayers".
Each of these songs
Babyface (musician)
Kenneth Brian Edmonds, known professionally as Babyface, is an American singer and record producer. He has written and produced over 26 number-one R&B hits throughout his career, has won 11 Grammy Awards, he was ranked number 20 on NME's 50 Of The Greatest Producers Ever list. Edmonds was born on April 10, 1959, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Barbara Edmonds. Barbara was a production operator at a pharmaceutical plant. Edmonds, the fifth of six brothers, attended North Central High School in Indianapolis, as a shy youth, wrote songs to express his emotions; when he was in eighth grade, Edmonds' father died of lung cancer, leaving his mother to raise her sons alone. At this stage, Edmonds became determined to have a career in music. Edmonds played with funk performer Bootsy Collins, who tagged him "Babyface" because of his youthful look, he performed in the group Manchild as a guitarist. He played keyboards in R&B group the Deele. One of his first major credits as a songwriter for outside artists came when he wrote the tune "Slow Jam" for the R&B band Midnight Star in 1983.
The tune was on Midnight Star's 1983 double-platinum No Parking on the Dance Floor album, while it never was a single, it received massive radio airplay and the song is still played on quiet storm radio stations. Babyface remained in the Deele until 1988, his album Playlist consists of two original works. It was released on September 18, 2007, it was the first album on the newly re-launched Mercury Records label. On February 4, 2014, he released a Grammy Award-winning duet album with Toni Braxton titled Love, Marriage & Divorce on Motown Records. In the late 1980s, he contributed to the creation of new jack swing and producing music for the likes of Bobby Brown, Karyn White, Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson and Sheena Easton. In 1989, Edmonds co-founded LaFace Records with Reid. Three of the label's early artists TLC, Toni Braxton were successful. TLC's second album CrazySexyCool, for which he wrote and produced some of the hits, became the best selling album of all time by an American girl group. Under his direction, TLC sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, a combined total of 75 million records.
Toni Braxton's first two albums, Toni Braxton and Secrets, for which he wrote the majority of the songs, went on to sell a combined total of over 10 million copies in America alone. Babyface helped form the popular late-1990s R&B group Az Yet. Edmonds helped to mold and work with some of his then-wife Tracey Edmonds' acts, such as Jon B and producer Jon-John Robinson. Edmonds has worked with many successful performers in contemporary music. “I’m Your Baby Tonight”, produced for Whitney Houston,this was the introduction of her to R&B music and was his first No. 1 Top 40 hit in the US. He wrote and produced Boyz II Men's 1992 "End of the Road" and 1994 "I'll Make Love to You", both of which established records for the longest stay at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He co-wrote, co-produced, provided backing vocals on Madonna's 1994 Bedtime Stories, which featured the seven-week No. 1 hit "Take a Bow", shared billing with Eric Clapton on the chart-topping Grammy winner "Change the World" from the Phenomenon soundtrack.
He wrote and produced the No. 1 hit "Exhale" for Houston as well as the rest of the critically acclaimed 10 million-selling Waiting to Exhale soundtrack in 1995, which spawned additional hits for Houston and Mary J. Blige. Additionally, Edmonds has produced and written music for many artists including Carole King, Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Janet Jackson, Faith Evans, Al Green, Beyoncé, Diana Ross, Sheena Easton, Toni Braxton, Michael Jackson, Michael Bolton, Paula Abdul, Eric Clapton, Tevin Campbell, Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Shola Ama, 3T, Sisqó, Dru Hill, Fall Out Boy, Céline Dion, Samantha Jade, Backstreet Boys, Katharine McPhee, Mariah Carey, Vanessa L. Williams, Bruno Mars, Kelly Clarkson, Chanté Moore, En Vogue, Kenny G, Kristinia DeBarge, Lil Wayne, Japanese singer Ken Hirai, P!nk, Colbie Caillat, Marc Nelson, TLC, Ariana Grande, Ella Henderson, Jessica Mauboy, Xscape, K-Ci & JoJo, NSYNC, Jordin Sparks and Phil Collins among others. He received three consecutive Grammy Awards for Producer of the Year from 1995 to 1997.
Babyface was in the studio for about two years with Ashanti to produce her album The Declaration. He worked on the Lil Wayne album Tha Carter III, on the Kanye West-produced "Comfortable", he worked with R&B singer Monica for her sixth studio album Still Standing. In 2013, Babyface served as producer for Ariana Grande's debut album Yours Truly, producing the majority of her songs, including her second single, "Baby I". In September 2014, Babyface collaborated with Barbra Streisand on her album Partners, performing a duet on the track "Evergreen" and background vocals for other album tracks. Babyface collaborated with Foxes on her second album, All I Need, producing and co-writing "Scar". In July 2016, Babyface along with Bruce Roberts and Carole Bayer Sager helped write the song "Stronger Together" sung by Jessica Sanchez; the song was played after Hillary Clinton's speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. The song's title is named after the slogan that the Clinton camp
Change the World
"Change the World" is a song written by Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy, Wayne Kirkpatrick whose best-known version was recorded by the English singer Eric Clapton for the soundtrack of the 1996 film Phenomenon. The track was produced by R&B record producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds; the Clapton release, recorded for Reprise and Warner Bros. Records, reached the Top 40 in twenty countries and topped the charts in Canada, as well as Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 charts in the United States; the single won eight awards, including three Grammy Awards at the 39th annual ceremony in 1997. In an interview with American Songwriter, Gordon Kennedy retold the recording history of the song: "'Change The World' was a song written over the course of a year by Tommy Sims, Wayne Kirkpatrick, myself. On a recording session in Quad Studios in Nashville, in the early'90s, Wayne and I were recording some demos in an attempt to do the'artist' thing. We recorded four songs that day, three of which wound up on Garth Brooks' Chris Gaines CD.
During that session, Tommy was there playing bass and played us the nugget of an idea he had, wondering if it might be something that would work for the sound we were doing. He had a chord progression and melody direction going. Wayne would ask him some months for a tape of the idea so he could work on it, he wrote the lyrics to all but one line of the second verse. It went dormant again for a time before I asked Wayne about its progress, he gave me. I finished writing the music, went to Columbus and laid down a demo track with Tommy, he was there working on a church choir album. On the way home, I listened to a tape of the track and dictated lyrics into another little handheld recorder. I wrote the lyrics to the missing line in the second verse; when I got home, I went into the studio and did a guitar and all of the vocals for a finished demo, the one Clapton heard later... None of the three of us were together when we wrote what we each wrote on the song". Although some of the recordings took place in London, most of the song's recording was conducted in Record Plant studios in Los Angeles, where for example Nathan East's bass parts were mixed and recorded.
East notes, the recording sessions were busy, because many international successful artists wanted to work with Babyface at the time, the pop producer put Clapton and "Change the World" first. In 2013, Clapton explained his take on the song in an interview with MOJO magazine: "When I heard Tommy Sims' demo, I could hear Paul McCartney doing that, so I needed to, with greatest respect to Paul, take that and put it somewhere black. So I asked Babyface who though he may not be aware of it, gave it the blues thing; the first two lines I play on that song on the acoustic guitar are lines I quote wherever I can and they come from the beginning of "Mannish Boy" by Muddy Waters. On every record I make where I think, this has got a chance of doing well, I make sure I pay my dues on this. So I think I've found a way to do it, but it has to have one foot in the blues if its subtly disguised". While journalists from MusicTunes were in conversation with the single's producer Babyface, the American R&B artist recalled: "It was a real pleasure working in the studio with Eric Clapton" and added, that Clapton's "music is legendary and he is one of the entertainment industry's musical geniuses".
For the recording sessions, several people were in charge of the production and making for the single, including Brad Gilderman and Thomas Russo as the recording engineers, Robbie Robertson as the soundtrack's producer, Mick Guzauski worked on the final mix, Babyface produced the "Change the World" songs, Clapton produced the B-side "Danny Boy" by himself. All the recording actions were overseen by music supervisor Kathy Nelson; the music mastering for the 1996 single release was done at Oasis Mastering in California. Matthew Greenwald of AllMusic notes the song is "melodic, soulful catchy", due to its folk-pop and acoustic-based conception. Billboard magazine's Paul Verna thinks the song features christian music styles. In the song, the performer expresses his desire to communicate his love to an unnamed woman; this love, will go unrequited without a drastic change in his life. Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin, who worked with Clapton and John on the 1992 single release "Runaway Train", uses this track an example of a song that can succeed without a great title or lyric.
He told Musician magazine: ``. And it had a good melody, but don't listen to the lyric. Because the lyric is appalling. It's a bad lyric. There are some rhymes in there that are awful, but that's not what sold the song". The song is written in the key of E major. "Change the World" begins with an intro, which features a chord progression of E7, E major, E6sus4, E7, E6sus4, E major chords, played around the E-based bass line, which turns into a E major, F-sharp minor and G major bass line. The intro is followed by the first verse, accompanied by the intro chord progression and an A major, A6sus4, A7, A7, A6sus4, A major chord progression for the B-section of the verse. After the E-major chord progression, including 6th and 7th chords was played again, it ends with a G#
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American singer and television personality. She rose to fame in 2002 after winning the inaugural season of the reality competition television series American Idol, which earned her a record deal with RCA Records. Clarkson's debut single, "A Moment Like This", topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and became the country's best-selling single of 2002, it was followed by the release of her debut album, which debuted atop the US Billboard 200. Trying to reinvent her image, Clarkson decided to part ways with Idol management and shifted to pop rock music for her second album, Breakaway. After numerous top 40 radio number-one singles, such as "Since U Been Gone" and "Because of You", the album sold over 15 million copies worldwide and earned Clarkson two Grammy Awards, she took further creative control for her third album, My December, by becoming the executive producer and co-writing the entire album. However, her label was reluctantly promoted the album. Clarkson returned to the top of the charts with her more mainstream-oriented fourth album, All I Ever Wanted.
Its lead single, "My Life Would Suck Without You", holds the record for the biggest jump to number one on the Hot 100 chart. Her fifth studio album, made Clarkson the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album twice, it spawned her third Hot 100 number-one single "Stronger". She became the first American female artist to achieve the best-selling holiday album of the year with Wrapped in Red. Following the release of her third number-one album Piece by Piece, Clarkson concluded her contract with RCA Records and signed with Atlantic Records in 2016, her soul-influenced eighth album, Meaning of Life, hit number two on the Billboard 200 and garnered her a record fifth Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. Clarkson has sold over 45 million singles worldwide, she has had eleven in the Top 10 and 27 songs in the Hot 100 Billboard charts. Her accolades include three Grammy Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, four American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards.
Billboard hailed Clarkson as "one of pop music's greatest singers" and honored her with the Powerhouse Award for her vocals. Known as a versatile singer, Clarkson became the first artist in history to top each of Billboard's pop, adult contemporary, adult pop and dance charts, she was ranked nineteenth on VH1's list of 100 Greatest Women in Music. Clarkson has ventured into film and writing children's books, she serves as a coach on the television competition series The Voice and will host her self-titled variety talk show in 2019. Kelly Clarkson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Jeanne Ann, a first grade English teacher, Stephen Michael Clarkson, a former engineer, she is the youngest of three children with a brother named a sister named Alyssa. Clarkson has two younger half brothers from her father's second marriage, her parents divorced when she was six years old, whereupon her brother went to live with their father, her sister went to live with an aunt, she stayed with her mother. Clarkson's mother remarried, to Jimmy Taylor.
Her ancestry is of Greek, Welsh and Irish.. Her mother is a descendant of Republican state senator Isaiah Rose, whose life story was discussed on Clarkson's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, in 2013. Clarkson was raised Southern Baptist, she has said: "I always grew up in church. I was the leader of our youth group. I've always grown up pretty close with God, but I think I've just gotten a lot closer just because He's the only one I can lean on." She said of her upbringing: "My family was conservative. Clarkson told her. Clarkson graduated from Burleson High School in 2000, where she performed in several musicals, such as Annie Get Your Gun, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Brigadoon, she sang at her high school talent show, after which an audience member shared some inspiring words with her: "God has given you this gift. You've got to sing. You're destined to sing." Clarkson continued singing and soon started classical training, hoping that music would be her ticket to a college scholarship.
Upon graduating from high school, Clarkson was offered full scholarships to University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas, Berklee College of Music, but declined them, explaining: "I've written so much music and wanted to try a career on my own" adding, "you're never too old to go to college."After graduation, Clarkson worked several jobs to finance a demo, recording material and trying to market it to record labels, but received little response. Clarkson turned down two recording contracts from Jive Records and Interscope Records, stating "They would have pigeonholed me as a bubblegum act. I was confident enough that something better would come along." In 2001, she traveled to Los Angeles. She appeared as an extra in a few television series such as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Dharma & Greg and worked with musician Gerry Goffin to record five demo tracks in trying to secure a record deal. According to Clarkson, her early attempts to launch her music career floundered when she was turned down by every US record label for sounding'too black'.
Lack of other
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen is an American singer-songwriter and leader of the E Street Band. Nicknamed "The Boss," he is recognized for his poetic lyrics, his Jersey Shore roots, his distinctive voice, lengthy, energetic stage performances. Springsteen has recorded more somber folk-oriented works, his most successful studio albums, Born to Run and Born in the U. S. A. find pleasures in the struggles of daily American life. He has sold more than 135 million records worldwide and more than 64 million records in the United States, making him one of the world's best-selling artists, he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, a Tony Award. Springsteen was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1999, received Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, was named MusiCares person of the year in 2013, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. Married to actress Julianne Phillips, Springsteen married musician Patti Scialfa in 1991.
Their three children are Evan James Springsteen, Jessica Rae Springsteen, Sam Ryan Springsteen. Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born on September 23, 1949, at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, he was brought home from the hospital to Freehold Borough. He attended Freehold Borough High School, his father, Douglas Frederick "Dutch" Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry, worked as a bus driver, among other jobs, but was unemployed most of the time. Springsteen said his mother, Adele Ann, a legal secretary and of Italian ancestry, was the main breadwinner, his maternal grandfather was born in a town near Naples. He has two younger sisters and Pamela. Pamela left acting to pursue still photography full-time. Douglas Springsteen, Bruce's father, suffered from mental health issues through his life which worsened in his years. Springsteen's last name is topographic and of Dutch origin translating to "jumping stone" but more meaning a kind of stone used as a stepping stone in unpaved streets or between two houses.
The Springsteens are among the early Dutch families who settled in the colony of New Netherland in the 1600s. Raised a Catholic, Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold Borough, where he was at odds with the nuns and rejected the strictures imposed upon him though some of his music reflects a Catholic ethos and includes a few rock-influenced, traditional Irish-Catholic hymns. In a 2012 interview, he explained that it was his Catholic upbringing rather than political ideology that most influenced his music, he noted in the interview that his faith had given him a "very active spiritual life", although he joked that this "made it difficult sexually." He added: "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic."In ninth grade, Springsteen began attending the public Freehold High School, but did not fit in there either. Former teachers have said he was a "loner, who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar." He felt so uncomfortable that he skipped the ceremony. He attended Ocean County College, but dropped out.
Springsteen grew up hearing fellow New Jersey singer Frank Sinatra on the radio. He became interested in being involved in music himself when, in 1956 and 1957, at the age of seven, he saw Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show. Soon after this his mother rented him a guitar from Mike Diehl's Music in Freehold for $6 a week but it failed to provide him with the'instant gratification' he desired. In 1964, Springsteen saw the Beatles appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and, inspired, he bought his first guitar for $18.95 at the Western Auto Appliance Store. Thereafter he started playing for audiences with a band called the Rogues at local venues such as the Elks Lodge in Freehold. In late 1964, Springsteen's mother took out a loan to buy her 16-year-old son a $60 Kent guitar, an act he subsequently memorialized in his song "The Wish"; the following year, he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town. They helped, his first gig with the Castiles was at a trailer park on New Jersey Route 34.
The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township and played a variety of venues, including Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. Marion Vinyard said. Called for conscription in the United States Army when he was 18, Springsteen failed the physical examination and did not serve in the Vietnam War, he had suffered a concussion in a motorcycle accident when he was 17, this together with his "crazy" behavior at induction gave him a classification of 4F, which made him unacceptable for service. In the late-1960s, Springsteen performed in a power trio known as Earth, playing in clubs in New Jersey, with one major show at the Hotel Diplomat in New York City. Earth consisted of John Graham on bass, Mike Burke on drums. Bob Alfano was added on organ was replaced for two gigs by Frank'Flash' Craig. From 1969 through early 1971, Springsteen performed with Steel Mill, which included Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin and Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson. During this time he performed at venues on the Jersey Shore, in Richmond, Nashville, a set of gigs in California gatheri
