http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/station.asp?u=1863239315

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Ritchie Valens album cover
Background information
Birth name	Richard Steven Valenzuela
Born	May 13, 1941
Origin	Pacoima, California, USA
Died	February 3, 1959 Clear Lake, Iowa, USA
Genre(s)	Rock’n'Roll
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1958–1959
Label(s)	Del-Fi Records

The Day The Music Died
Monument at Crash Site, September 16, 2003.

Willie Lewis (born 1946) is a rockabilly recording artist and owner of the label Rock-A-Billy Records, based in Denver, Colorado. He started the label in order to release rare and authentic rockabilly recordings, most of which were pressed on colored vinyl between 1982 and 1998. He released music from artists such as Go Cat Go, Ronnie Dawson, Don Rader, Marti Brom, and Little Roy Williamson & the Denver Ramblers.

Lewis recorded his own music under a variety of names, including Willy & the String Poppers, Billy & the Bop Cats, King Cat & the Pharaohs, and most recently, the Bop-a-Whiles.

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Bobby Vee

The Very Best of Bobby Vee by Bobby Vee

Bobby Vee (born April 30, 1943) is an American pop music singer.

Born Robert Thomas Velline in Fargo, North Dakota, United States, his 1961 performance of the song “Take Good Care Of My Baby” went to No.1 on the Billboard U.S. charts and on the U.K. Charts. Known primarily as a performer of Brill Building pop-factory singles, Vee nevertheless became a bona fide star, and went on to record a string of international chart hits in the 1960s, including “Devil or Angel”, “More Than I Can Say”, “Run to Him”, “Rubber Ball”, “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes”, and “Come Back When You Grow Up”.

Bobby Vee appeared in several British and American motion pictures as well as the Scopitone series of early film-and-music recordings, which predicted the rise of rock music videos. Vee is still active and touring internationally as a performer as of 2006. His sons and daughter have shown much interest in his music career and legacy, some of who are in a band known as “The Vees”.

Vee’s career began amid tragedy. On “The Day the Music Died” (3 February 1959) — the day Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson were killed in the crash of aircraft N3974N near Clear Lake, Iowa —

Monument at Crash Site, September 16, 2003.

fifteen-year-old Velline and a scratched-together band of Fargo, North Dakota schoolboys calling themselves Bobby Vee and the Shadows volunteered for and were given the unenviable job of filling in for Holly and his band The Crickets in the lineup of the traveling “Winter Dance Party” rock and roll show in Moorhead, Minnesota in which Holly was to have performed. Their engagement there was a success, setting in motion a chain of events that led to Vee’s career as a popular singer. Bobby Vee regularly performs at the Winter Dance Party memorial concerts in Clear Lake to this day.

Bobby Vee is a recipient of the state of North Dakota’s Roughrider Award and his contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

The Very Best of Bobby Vee by Bobby Vee

http://www.delafont.com/music_acts/Bobby-Vee.htm

The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton era
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Blues-Rock\Pop\Folk Rock
Years active	1962 – 1968 1992 – present
Label(s)	Columbia Records (UK) Epic Records (US)
Website	www.theyardbirds.com
Members
Keith Relf Chris Dreja Jim McCarty Paul Samwell-Smith Top Topham Eric Clapton Jeff Beck Jimmy Page

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Steppenwolf is a rock ‘n’ roll band, starting out in 1967 and best known for the hits “Born to Be Wild”, “Magic Carpet Ride” and “The Pusher”. Due to the German background of the band’s leader John Kay, they were named after the novel Steppenwolf by author Hermann Hesse.

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Gallery was a soft rock band of the 1970s. It was formed in Detroit, Michigan by Jim Gold. While Gallery did record a good amount of songs, they are most famous for their 1972 song called “(It’s So) Nice To Be With You,” released by Sussex Records, which earned the band a gold record for sales of one million copies. Gallery also had a hit in 1972 with a cover of Mac Davis’ “I Believe In Music,” which charted moderately well at number 22.

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Gigi D’Agostino
DJ, remixer and music producer Gigi D’Agostino
Country	Italy
Years active	1994 -
Genres	Electronic/Dance, Trance
Labels	Arista Records, ZYX Music

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Formed:
1957

Representative Songs:

“Get on Up,” “You Got the Power,” “And Get Away”

Representative Albums:

Get on Up…And Get Away With the Esquires, Get on Up, Best of the Esquires

Similar Artists:

The Tams, The Stylistics, The Impressions, The Dramatics, The Dells, The Delfonics, The Chi-Lites

Followers:

Triple S, Flavor

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George Michael
Background information
Birth name	Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou
Also known as	George Michael
Born	June 25, 1963
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Pop Pop rock Blue-eyed soul
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Instrument(s)	Vocals, multiple instruments
Years active	1982 – present
Label(s)	Columbia Records, DreamWorks, Virgin, Epic, Sony Music
Associated acts	WHAM!
Website	http://www.georgemichael.com

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Samuel Paul “Sammy” Kershaw (born February 24, 1958, in Kaplan, Louisiana) is an American Country and Western music singer and songwriter.

He is a relative of Cajun music legend, Doug Kershaw.

After the death of his father when Sammy was 11, he worked a variety of jobs by day while playing roadhouses at night to support his family.

During that time, he opened shows for Ray Price, Merle Haggard and George Jones while barely into his teens. When the pressures of growing up fast took their toll in the form of a serious drug and alcohol problem, he quit his bad habits cold turkey in 1988 and took a break from music to work as a remodeling supervisor at Wal-Mart. Kershaw married and divorced Lorrie Morgan.
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Tamy Wynette
Background information
Birth name	Virginia Wynette Pugh
Born	May 5, 1942
Origin	Tremont, Mississippi
Died	April 6, 1998
Genre(s)	country music
Occupation(s)	country singer
Instrument(s)	singing/guitar
Years active	1966-1998
Label(s)	Epic
Associated acts	Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, George Jones, David Houston, Lynn Anderson
Website	Tammy Wynette Official Site

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Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter. Through the mid-1960s, he enjoyed considerable success on both sides of the Atlantic, and charted more than 20 Top 40 hit singles. He was also an accomplished guitarist, pianist, drummer, and skilled sound engineer.

Biography

Pitney was born in Hartford, Connecticut. In his youth, he lived primarily in Rockville, part of the town of Vernon. He attended Rockville High School from which he earned the name “The Rockville Rocket,” and where he formed his first band called “Gene & the Genials.” He also made a couple of records as part of a duo called “Jamie and Jane” with a lady called Ginny Arnell and then released a single as Billy Bryan.

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Ricky Skaggs(born July 18, 1954 in Lawrence County, Kentucky) is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. Skaggs’s music career began in 1970 when he joined Ralph Stanley’s bluegrass band, the Clinch Mountain Boys. He plays mandolin, fiddle, guitar and banjo. For a few years, Skaggs was a member of Emmylou Harris’s “Hot Band“. He wrote the arrangements for Harris’s bluegrass-roots album, Roses in the Snow. In addition to arranging, Skaggs sang harmony, and played mandolin and fiddle. In 2000, he shared the stage with the now defunct jam band Phish.

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Background information
Born	February 4, 1977
Origin	South Fallsburg, New York, United States.
Genre(s)	Rock
Years active	2001–present
Label(s)	J Records, Sony BMG
Website	Official site

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• Into the groove.wav
• Lucky Star.wav
•  Material Girl.wav
• Open Your Heart.mp3
• True Blue.wav

Madonna performing during her 2006 Confessions Tour.
Background information
Birth name	Madonna Louise Ciccone
Born	August 16, 1958 (age 48)
Origin	Bay City, Michigan, United States of America
Genre(s)	Pop, R&B, Electronica, Dance
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, record producer, film producer, musician, dancer, author, actress
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, percussion
Years active	1982–present
Label(s)	Warner Bros. (2004-Present), Maverick/Warner Bros. (1995-2004), Maverick/Sire/Warner Bros. (1992-1995), Sire/Warner Bros. (1982-1992)
Website	Madonna.com

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James Joseph Croce (January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973), popularly known as Jim Croce (pronounced CROW-chee), was an American singer-songwriter.

Croce, 30, and Muehleisen, 24, died in a small commercial plane crash on September 20, 1973 in Natchitoches, Louisiana two months before the release of his third ABC album, I Got a Name. The posthumous release included three hits, “I Got A Name”, “Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues” and “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song.”

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Gary Morris (born December 7, 1948) is an American country music singer. His peak years were the 1980s. His first big hit was “Headed For A Heartache” in 1981. Other hits included “Baby Bye Bye,” “Second Hand Heart,” “Between Two Fires” (all from the 1984 album Faded Blue); “I’ll Never Stop Loving You”, “Velvet Chains”, and “100% Chance of Rain.” He also had two smash duets with Crystal Gayle: “Makin’ Up For Lost Time” and “(You Take Me Away) To Another World”. His son Matthew Morris also is a singer.

Morris is one of various singers to have recorded “The Wind Beneath My Wings.” He is also well-known as the second Jean Valjean in the Broadway production of Les Misérables, where he replaced Colm Wilkinson in the role. He is featured on the Complete Symphonic Recording of the musical.

external links

• Official Site
• CMT.com: Gary Morris

Feargal Sharkey (born Sean Feargal Sharkey on August 13, 1958, in Derry) is a Northern Irish singer, who first found fame as the lead vocalist of pop punk band The Undertones, famous for the hit single “Teenage Kicks”. Before his actual solo career took off, he was also the singer of the one-shot group The Assembly, with the ex-Yazoo supremo Vince Clarke in 1983 (with their UK singles chart number 4 hit, “Never Never”).

His best-known solo material is the 1985 UK chart-topping single penned by Maria McKee, “A Good Heart”, which went to number one in several countries. His solo work is significantly different from the semi-punk offerings of The Undertones. He also got a UK number 2 in 1986 with “You Little Thief”.

Starting in the early 1990s Sharkey moved into the business side of the music industry, initially as an A&R manager for Polydor Records and then as Managing Director of EXP Ltd. He was appointed a Member of the Radio Authority for five years from December 1998 to December 2003. He then became Chairman of the UK Government task force the ‘Live Music Forum’ in 2004.

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Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, USA
Genre(s)	Range includes: Rock Folk Metal Acoustic Rock Comedy Rock
Years active	1997–present
Label(s)	Sony BMG Music Entertainment Epic Records
Website	www.tenaciousd.com
Members
Jack Black (Lead vocals, Rhythm guitar) Kyle Gass (Lead guitar, Backup vocals)

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John Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951 in Seymour, Indiana) is an American rock/roots rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, known for a long and successful recording and performing career highlighted by a series of 1980s hits, including “Jack and Diane”, “Pink Houses” and others, and by his role in the Farm Aid charity event.

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Paul Revere & the Raiders is an American rock band that saw enormous mainstream success in the 1960s, best-known for hits like “Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian)” (1971), “Steppin’ Out”(1965), “Kicks”(1966), “Let Me” (1969) and “Hungry” (1966).

The band, initially located in Boise, Idaho, started as an instrumental rock outfit led by organist Paul Revere (legal name Paul Revere Dick; original stage name Revere Dick [1]), whose distinctive given names were in honor of the Revolutionary War hero. In his early twenties, Revere already owned several restaurants in Caldwell, Idaho, and first met singer Mark Lindsay while picking up an order of hamburger buns from the bakery where Lindsay worked. Lindsay joined Revere’s band in 1958. Originally called The Downbeats, they changed their name to Paul Revere & The Raiders in 1960 on the eve of their first record release for Gardena Records. The band scored their first Pacific Northwest regional hit in 1961 with “Like, Long Hair”, an instrumental. Revere was drafted, became a conscientious objector and worked at a mental institution for a year and half of deferred service. After reforming the band, they attracted national attention again with a cover of “Louie Louie”, which was picked up by Columbia Records although beaten in the charts by The Kingsmen’s version.

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• Genre: Rock
• Active: ’70s
• Instrument: Vocals

Biography

Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods shot to prominence in 1974 with “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero.” Sales that topped three million copies brought the group a gold record. The single spent two weeks in the top spot on the charts. The number one single was the band’s greatest success, but it didn’t mark the first time that the group charted. Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods made a showing on the charts with “Someone Special” in 1972 and “Deeper and Deeper” the following year. The band was ten years old when “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” made such a splash, and it had already performed as the opening act for such artists as Herman’s Hermits, the Box Tops, the Osmond Brothers, the Rascals, the Grass Roots, and Paul Revere & the Raiders. The group also performed on American Bandstand. After “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero,” the band took “Who Do You Think You Are” into the Top 20. “The Heartbreak Kid” followed, reaching the Top 40. The group charted again with “House on Telegraph Hill” and “Our Last Song Together.”

Donaldson, whose real name is Robert Walter Donaldson, sang and played keyboard and the trumpet. The group also included lead vocalist James Michael Gibbons on bass and trumpet; lead vocalist Richard Leon Joswick on percussion; Gary James Coveyou on vocals, woodwinds, and reeds; David Alan Krock on vocals, trumpet, and bass; Richard Brunetti on vocals, percussion, and drums; and Earl Baker Scott on vocals and guitar. Danny Loveland, a co-vocalist on the Heywoods’ number one single, dropped out in 1975 to pursue a solo career and record “Black Is Black.” Originally a drummer, Loveland began singing because the group kept losing its lead singers. When he gave up singing, the Kansas native launched a disco that he named Backstage. He went on to establish a restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand.

BILLY Don’t Be a HERO Song and Lyrics on another Site

http://users.cis.net/sammy/bllyhero.htm

Freddie King (September 3, 1934 – December 28, 1976) was an influential American blues guitarist and singer, best known for his recordings “Hide Away“, “Have You Ever Loved A Woman” and “Going Down“.

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Background information
Birth name	Jewel Kilcher
Born	May 23, 1974 (age 32)
Origin	Payson, Utah, United States
Genre(s)	Pop, folk, rock, dance, adult contemporary, country
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, guitarist, poet, actress
Instrument(s)	Singing, guitar
Years active	1995–present
Label(s)	Atlantic Records (1995–2006)
Website	JewelJk.com

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Hootie & the Blowfish

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Hootie & the Blowfish is an American pop-rock band, originally formed at the University of South Carolina by Darius Rucker, Dean Felber, Jim “Soni” Sonefeld and Mark Bryan.

Their debut album was Cracked Rear View (1994) and it was an instant success, ultimately selling over 16 million copies in the U.S. and becoming the best-selling album of 1994. The album was propelled by four hits, “Hold My Hand”, “Let Her Cry”, “Only Wanna Be With You”, and “Time”. In 1995, Hootie and the Blowfish and Bob Dylan reached an out-of-court settlement for the group’s unauthorized use of Dylan’s lyrics in their song “Only Wanna Be With You.” The band won the “Best New Artist” award at the 1996 Grammy Awards.

In 1995, Hootie & the Blowfish contributed the song “Hey Hey What Can I Do” to the Encomium tribute album to Led Zeppelin. Also, their cover of Canadian group 54-40’s “I Go Blind”, originally released on the soundtrack to the TV series Friends in 1995, did not appear on Cracked Rear View or Fairweather Johnson, but nevertheless became a surprise hit at radio in 1997 after three singles from Fairweather Johnson had been released. Both “Hey Hey What Can I Do” and “I Go Blind” were later released on the rarities/B-sides collection, Scattered, Smothered and Covered.

Hootie & the Blowfish appeared on MTV Unplugged on the eve of the release of their second album, 1996’s Fairweather Johnson. Though sales began promisingly, the album quickly ran out of steam, having sold four million copies in the U.S. Hootie & the Blowfish has since released four more studio albums, Musical Chairs; Scattered, Smothered and Covered; Hootie & the Blowfish; and Looking for Lucky.

The band’s name comes from two of frontman Darius Rucker’s college choir friends, neither of whom was ever a band member. One, with a round face and glasses, was nicknamed Hootie because of his perceived owl-like appearance. The Blowfish also got his nickname from his facial appearance, in his case chubby cheeks.

Hootie & the Blowfish’s members are avid golfers, and have sponsored the Monday After the Masters charity golf tournament since 1995.

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Edwin McCain

Edwin McCain (born January 20, 1970 in Greenville, South Carolina) is an alternative and indie rock singer-songwriter. While his albums are released under his name, he does have a permanent band, referred to as the Edwin McCain Band. Members of the band include Larry Chaney, lead guitar; Pete Riley, rhythm guitar and background vocals; Craig Shields, saxophone and keyboards; Manny Yanes, bass guitar; and Tromell Blassingame, drums.

Long time touring friends with Hootie and the Blowfish, the Edwin McCain band signed with same label, Atlantic Records. In 1994, he recorded his first major-label album, Honor Among Thieves under the Lava Records imprint (matchbox twenty, Kid Rock and Jewel). The record was then released in 1995. His second album, Misguided Roses, spawned I’ll Be, a major hit single in 1998. This song is also featured on the charitable album, Live in the X Lounge, along with a live version of “Solitude”. Two more albums (Messenger and Far from Over) followed, but at the end of 2001, he split from Lava. In 2003 he released a collection of acoustic versions of songs both old and new called The Austin Sessions via ATC Records, a Nashville-based independent record label (at which McCain was the first artist signed following its creation in 2001). Mid-2004 saw the arrival of his first studio album in three years, entitled Scream & Whisper, which was released on another indie label, DRT Entertainment.

He has released two DVDs to date. The first was through ATC records in late 2002, called Mile Marker: Songs and Stories from the Acoustic Highway, and it consisted of interviews, live performances, and other material. The other was in late 2004, Tinsel & Tap Shoes. It was his first live concert DVD, recorded at The House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Co-written & performed with singer/songwriter Maia Sharp, McCain released a single, “Hold Out a Hand.” This song, available for a 99 cent download on iTunes.com, gives all profits to the relief of the hurricane victims of 2005.

Edwin McCain Band’s newest CD, titled, “Lost in America,” was released on April 11, 2006, under the Vanguard Records label. This album (#9) is said to be a true “rock ‘n roll” collection. There are 2 single releases from this CD: #1 – “Gramercy Park Hotel.” #2 – “Truly Believe.”

The band is currently on an extensive U.S. tour, promoting the “Lost in America” album.

Brutal Truth was a New York City based deathgrind band that was formed in 1990 by ex-Anthrax and Nuclear Assault bassist Dan Lilker. The group disbanded in 1999. Brutal Truth was one of the pioneers of deathgrind who enjoyed world wide success, particularly in Japan and Australia.

Originally signed to Earache Records, on which they released two albums, 1992’s Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses, and 1994’s Need to Control, as well as an EP entitled Perpetual Conversion, and a 7″ single for the song “Godplayer”. During this time, music videos were made for the songs “Ill Neglect”, “Collatoral Damage”, and “Godplayer”. Brutal Truth found frustration with Earache Records, as did many 1990s Relapse Records bands, and switched to Relapse Records, known for its roster of grindcore acts, with whom they stayed until the band’s demise.

On Relapse they released the mini album Kill Trend Suicide, a full length release entitled Sounds of the Animal Kingdom, and a double CD live album called Goodbye Cruel World. The band has also released many split 7″ singles on smaller labels, with most of these being out of print and difficult to find.

In 2001, the Guinness Book of Records awarded Brutal Truth the record for “Shortest Music Video” for their video “Collateral Damage,” which weighs in at 2.18 seconds long and consists of 48 still images in rapid succession followed by a clip of an explosion.

Drummer Rich Hoak now provides vocals and drums for a new project titled Total Fucking Destruction. Kevin Sharp released an album with Venomous Concept in 2004, a hardcore punk band featuring members from The Melvins and Napalm Death. He was also a member of Australian grind band Damaged for a little over a year from 1999. Dan Lilker now plays for a host of bands and is currently bassist for the re-united Nuclear Assault.

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• Tell Me A Storyw/Frankie Laine
• Jim Boyd is an American actor, born in Philadelphia.Boyd spent four years in the Air Force and studied at the American Academy for Dramatic Arts.

  He did voice work (along with Wayland Flowers and Cleavon Little) for puppets on The Surprise Show, a children’s program that aired locally in the New York City area in the late 1960s. The puppets used on the show, called Aniforms, had been developed by puppeteer Morey Bunin.

  In 1971, the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) contacted Boyd because they wanted to use Aniforms in a television show that became known as The Electric Company. During the first season, Boyd’s voice was used extensively, especially for the character J. Arthur Crank (who was just an angry voice at the time). Boyd was unseen until season two, when he became a regular cast member, appearing on-camera until the show stopped production in 1977.

  Boyd is often confused with Mississippi-born Jimmy Boyd, singer of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” who was also an actor. The Internet Movie Database mistakenly lists the two men as the same person, combining their television and film credits, but a correction order has been submitted there.

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Tell Me A Story w/Jimmy Boyd

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Jerry Reed Hubbard (born March 20, 1937) is an American country music singer, country guitarist, songwriter, and actor. He has appeared in over a dozen films. As a singer, he may be best remembered for his novelty song “When you’re Hot, You’re Hot” for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1972. As an actor, he is remembered for his role as Burt Reynolds’s buddy in the Smokey and the Bandit movies.

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Helen Reddy (born October 25, 1941 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian pop singer and actor.

Reddy was immensely successful as a singer in the 1970s with numerous hit records including three U.S. #1 singles. She has sold more than 15 million albums and 10 million singles, and was the first Australian-born performer to win a Grammy award. In 1974, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States, but currently lives near Sydney, Australia.

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• After The Love Has Gone
• Fantasy

Background information
Origin	Chicago, Illinois USA
Genre(s)	R&B Funk Soul Disco
Years active	1969 – Present
Label(s)	Columbia, Sanctuary
Website	http://www.earthwindandfire.com/
Members
Maurice White Verdine White Ralph Johnson Philip Bailey John Paris David Whitworth Myron McKinely Greg Moore Vadim Zilberstein Gary Bias Bobby Burns Jr. Reggie Young Krystal Bailey Kimberly Johnson

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• That’s the Way You Make an Ex

Mark Chesnutt is an American country music singer. Although his first hit, 1990’s “Too Cold at Home,” was extremely neotraditional, subsequent songs were more mainstream Contemporary Country. Chesnutt surprised many fans in late 1998 when he recorded a cover of Aerosmith’s recent hit, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. As reported on American Country Countdown, Chesnutt first heard the song when his teenage daughter changed the presets on his truck radio. Chesnutt’s version of this song was a #1 country hit for two weeks in February 1999, and peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100.

His other hits include:

• Bubba Shot the Jukebox
• She Dreams
• Down in Tennessee
• Big D
• Let It Rain
• I Just Wanted You to Know
• A Good Way to Get on My Bad Side (with Tracy Byrd)
• http://www.markchesnutt.com/

• Refugee

• Just Because

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• Love Of A Lifetime

FireHouse is an American glam metal band formed in Charlotte, NC in 1988. The band released its self-titled debut FireHouse in 1990 which provided the hit singles “Don’t Treat Me Bad”, “All She Wrote”, and “Love Of A Lifetime”. Their second album Hold Your Fire in 1992 provided the hits “Reach For The Sky”, “Sleeping With You”, and “When I Look In Your Eyes”. At the 1991 American Music Awards, FireHouse won the award for Best New Hard Rock/Metal Band, chosen over Nirvana and Alice in Chains.

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• Peeping Tom
  

Background information
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Rock Alternative rock
Years active	1994–present
Label(s)	EMI Virgin Records (current), Hut Records, Caroline Records
Website	http://www.placeboworld.co.uk/
Members
Brian Molko Stefan Olsdal Steve Hewitt
Former members
Robert Schultzberg (1994–1996)

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• For What Its Worth ( Buffalo Springfield)<more here
  
• Our House ( Crosby Stills Nash & Young)<More here

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Background information
Origin	Birmingham, England
Genre(s)	Heavy metal
Years active	1969 – present
Label(s)	Warner Bros. Vertigo Records I.R.S. Records EMI
Website	black-sabbath.com
Members
Ozzy Osbourne Tony Iommi Geezer Butler Bill Ward
Former members
Ronnie James Dio Vinny Appice Ian Gillan Geoff Nicholls Tony Martin Cozy Powell (Deceased) Neil Murray Bobby Rondinelli Laurence Cottle Terry Chimes Jo Burt Bob Daisley Bev Bevan Dave Spitz Eric Singer Glenn Hughes David Donato Ray Gillen (Deceased)

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H-Town is an American R&B hip hop band from Houston, Texas which formed in 1992. The band consists of three members: Keven “Dino” Conner, his fraternal twin brother Shazam, and Conner’s long-time friend Darryl “G.I.” Jackson. The “H” in H-Town stands for Houston

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• Posession

Sarah McLachlan performing at John Labatt Centre, London, Ontario, Canada during the 2005 Afterglow tour.
Background information
Born	January 28, 1968
Origin	Halifax, Nova Scotia
Genre(s)	Rock and Roll Alternative
Occupation(s)	Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, painter, osteopath
Instrument(s)	Vocals Piano Keyboard Guitar Harp[1]
Years active	1988 – present
Label(s)	Arista Nettwerk
Website	www.sarahmclachlan.com

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• Break Down Here

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The Supremes in 1965. Left to right: Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross.
Background information
Also known as	The Primettes; Diana Ross & the Supremes
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, USA
Genre(s)	R&B, pop, soul
Years active	1959 – 1977
Label(s)	Lupine, Motown
Associated acts	The Temptations
Former members
Diana Ross Florence Ballard Mary Wilson Betty McGlown Barbara Martin Cindy Birdsong Jean Terrell Lynda Laurence Scherrie Payne Susaye Greene

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Freda Charcelia Payne (born September 19, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan) is an African-American singer and actress. She is the older sister of Scherrie Payne, the final lead singer for the Motown act The Supremes.

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• Bridge Over Troubled Waters
• Scarboro Fair

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Ronnie Milsap

Born:
Jan 16, 1944 in Robbinsville, North Carolina

• Genre: Country
• Active: ’60s – 2000s
• Instruments: Vocals, Piano

Biography

Ronnie Milsap was one of the major figures of country music in the 1970s, developing a hybrid of country and pop that brought him a large audience. Milsap was born in Robbinsville, NC, and was raised by his father and grandparents following his parents’ divorce. He was born blind from congenital glaucoma, and when he was five, he began attending the Governor Moorhead School for the Blind. When he was seven, his instructors noticed his extraordinary musical talents and he began to study classical music formally. A single year after he began learning the violin, Milsap was declared a virtuoso; he also mastered piano, guitar, and a variety of other stringed instruments, as well as various woodwinds. Eventually, he became interested in rock & roll music and while still in school formed his first rock band, the Apparitions. He briefly attended college in Atlanta where he studied pre-law; though he was awarded a comprehensive scholarship, Milsap decided to become a full-time musician instead. His first professional gig was as a member of J.J. Cale’s band in the early ’60s.

In 1965, Milsap started his own band and four years later, after having an R&B hit with “Never Had It So Good,” moved to Memphis to become a session musician. There he frequently worked for Chips Moman and can be heard playing keyboards on Elvis‘ “Kentucky Rain” and singing harmony on “Don’t Cry Daddy.” When not doing session work, Milsap and his backing group were the house band at TJ’s Club. In 1970, he had a pop hit with “Loving You Is a Natural Thing.” Following its success, in 1971 he released his eponymous debut. Two years later, Milsap moved to Nashville in hopes of jump-starting his flagging career and became a client of Charley Pride’s manager, Jack D. Johnson. Within a year, he signed to RCA Victor, where he would remain for the bulk of his career. “I Hate You,” his first single for RCA, reached the country Top Ten in the summer of 1973. The following year, he had three number one hits in a row — “Pure Love,” “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” and “(I’d Be) A Legend in My Time,” a cover of Don Gibson’s classic.

Milsap had a handful of Top Ten hits in 1975, but in late 1976 he became a genuine star, with a string of six number one hits in a row. In turn, that string of hits begat a remarkable run where Milsap didn’t leave the Top Ten for 15 straight years. During that time, he had a number of pop crossover hits, beginning with 1977’s “It Was Almost Like a Song.” Between 1980 and 1982, Milsap had ten more consecutive number one hits, including the crossover smashes “Smoky Mountain Rain,” “No Gettin’ Over Me,” and “Any Day Now.” Milsap had yet another string of uninterrupted number one hits between 1985 and 1987, racking up eight consecutive chart toppers. He had his last number one hit in 1989, when “A Woman in Love” spent two weeks on the top of the charts. In total, he had 35 number one singles.

In the early ’90s, Milsap’s commercial appeal began to decline — after 1992, he wasn’t able to break into the country Top Ten. Nevertheless, he continued to record. In 1992, he left RCA and signed to Liberty, where he recorded True Believer, which failed to yield any major hits. Despite his decline in popularity, Milsap continued to record and perform successfully throughout the ’90s. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Music Guide

• The Talking Leaves
• A Boy Named Sue
  

Johnny Cash in 1969
Background information
Born	February 26, 1932, Kingsland, Arkansas, USA
Died	September 12, 2003, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Genre(s)	Country Blues Rock ‘n’ Roll Folk
Website	www.johnnycash.com

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• Normal Life
• New Black Car

Comparable to bands like Default, Third Eye Blind and Familiar 48, July for Kings is a melodic post-grunge/alternative pop-rock outfit whose primary influences include Pearl Jam, Live and Creed (with hints of U2 at times). Joe Hedges, July for Kings? lead singer, is obviously well aware of Pearl Jam?s Eddie Vedder, and Live?s Ed Kowalczyk has clearly had a major impact on his vocals. July for Kings generally rocks harder than U2, although some of the band?s lyrics hint at U2?s spirituality. Much like Creed and Default, July for Kings has a way of combining loud, amplified, crunching guitars with poppy melodies and sensitive, reflective lyrics–in other words, July for Kings? sound is quite typical of what alternative rock radio formats were playing in the late ?90s and early 2000s.

Previously known as Swim, July for Kings was formed in the Cincinnati, OH area in 1998; that was when Hedges (who plays rhythm guitar in addition to singing lead) officially joined forces with Travis Delaney (lead guitar), Jason Morgan (bass), T. Miller (cello, guitar, background vocals) and Sam Dobrozsi (drums). Hedges, Delaney and Dobrozsi had been friends since childhood, and they were high school students when they first met Morgan and Miller. After reaching adulthood and officially becoming Swim, the five Midwesterners played around Cincinnati for several months before they started recording their debut album, Safe Unless, in late 1998. They put out the CD independently the following year, and their second indie album, The Laughter and the Noise, came out in 2000. By that time, Swim had acquired a small local following and had created enough of a Midwestern buzz to attract the attention of Wind-Up Records (home of Creed). It was also in 2000 that five of Swim?s songs were heard on MTV?s hit series The Real World.

At first, Wind-Up seemed to be seriously interested in signing Swim. But after five months of negotiations with Wind-Up, things fell apart–and Wind-Up ended up passing on the band. But all was not lost. A&R person Joel Mark, who was with Wind-Up in 2000, subsequently moved to Los Angeles and joined MCA?s A&R department. Mark still felt that Swim had potential, and MCA signed the band in 2001. After signing with MCA, the members of Swim agreed that a name change was in order. The Midwesterners learned that there were at least seven other bands in the United States that were using the name Swim, and they decided to change their name rather than risk any possible lawsuits or intellectual property hassles. So Swim officially became July for Kings in 2001, and the new name was a combination of two of their songs: “July” and “Kings”. As July for Kings, the rockers paid tribute to their old name when they opted to call their third album Swim. Released by MCA in November 2002, Swim is the band?s first major label release, first album as July for Kings and third album overall. ~

1955 to 1960

They first recorded in 1957, with The Chosen Few and Out in Colorado for Mohawk Records. Also recording on Mohawk was Dion DiMucci, who joined the group as lead vocalist shortly thereafter. Now known as Dion and the Belmonts, they recorded We Went Away and Tag Along for Mohawk, before leaving for the newly formed record label, Laurie Records.

Their first release on Laurie, I Wonder Why, brought them their first real success, charting in 1958. They followed it with the ballad No One Knows, which was also a hit in their local area. They continued recording, and in 1959, were part of a tour that lost three members to a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa — Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J. P. Richardson, a.k.a. The Big Bopper.

Almost immediately after this tragedy, the quartet hit again with Teenager in Love. They recorded a few more songs, including Where or When which reached #3 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1960

1960 to 1971

In late 1960, Dion decided to leave the group – (the decision partly due to a heroin problem that had developed) – but the Belmonts carried on with Mastrangelo singing the lead vocal parts. Their success dwindled at this point, but they continued to record through the 1960s.

Their biggest separate hit was Tell Me Why in 1961 on the Sabrina (aka Sabina) label. It reached #18. They had a total of six hits on the US top 100 between 1961 and 1963. In 1960 before leaving the Laurie label they released an enchanted rendition of We Belong Together (the Robert and Johnny hit), which was not a hit but is valued today.

Mastrangelo himself would attempt a solo career in 1962 and was replaced by Frank Lyndon, who was also replaced after a short time by Warren Gradus. Later still they were a quartet with Milano, D’Aleo, Gradus, and Daniel Elliott.

1972 to 1990

The group reunited in 1972 with Mastrangelo, D’Aleo, Milano, and Dion, and carried on recording, with Dion eventually returning to his solo career. Dion also recorded with a group of ‘Belmonts’ in the mid 1980s – the group was Mastrangelo, Louis Colletti, and Tommy Moran (Colletti and Moran were backing vocalists on Dion’s 1992 Dream On Fire). Meanwhile, in the original group, D’Aleo left, leaving the group a trio of Milano, Gradus, and Elliott. Art Loria also came in for singing duties in the mid to late 1980s.

1994 onwards

In 1994, a lawsuit was filed by Fred Milano and Warren Gradus, claiming trademark infringement against DiMucci, Mastrangelo, and D’Aleo. It was alleged that, while Dion had agreed to reunite with Milano, he had simultaneously agreed to take part in a reunion with Mastrangelo and D’Aleo. Milano won the suit.

Elliott was later replaced by Daniel Rubado in the late 1990s. Presently the still performing singing group features Fred Milano, Warren Gradus, and Frank DeLigio.

• Wanted

Carlton on the Harmonium (2004) album cover

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• Build Me Up Buttercup

Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Soul
Years active	1967–1970
Label(s)	Castle, Uni
Former members
Pat Burke Clem Curtis Eric Allan Dale Mike Elliot Tony Gomez Tim Harris Peter MacBeth Allan Warner Colin Young

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80s Hits: Top 40 Chart List – 1980

1. Call Me – Blondie
2. Another Brick In The Wall – Pink Floyd
3. Magic – Olivia Newton-John
4. Rock With You – Michael Jackson
5. Do That To Me One More Time – Captain & Tennille
6. Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
7. Coming Up – Paul McCartney
8. Funkytown – Lipps Inc.
9. It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me – Billy Joel
10. The Rose – Bette Midler
11. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) – Rupert Holmes
12. Cars – Gary Numan
13. Cruisin’ – Smokey Robinson
14. Working My Way Back To You-Forgive Me Girl – Spinners
15. Lost In Love – Air Supply
16. Little Jeannie – Elton John
17. Ride Like The Wind – Cristopher Cross
18. Upside Down – Diana Ross
19. Please Don’t Go – K.C. & The Sunshine Band
20. Babe – Styx
21. With You I’m Born Again – Billy Preston & Syreeta
22. Shining Star – Manhattans
23. Still – Commodores
24. Yes – I’m Ready – Teri De Sario With K.C.
25. Sexy Eyes – Dr. Hook
26. Steal Away – Robbie Dupree
27. Biggest Part Of Me – Ambrosia
28. This Is It – Kenny Loggins
29. Cupid-I’ve Loved You For A Long Time – Spinners
30. Let’s Get Serious – Jermaine Jackson
31. Don’t Fall In Love With A Dreamer – Kenny Rogers & Kim Carnes
32. Sailing – Christopher Cross
33. Longer – Dan Fogelberg
34. Coward Of The County – Kenny Rogers
35. Ladies Night – Kool & The Gang
36. Take Your Time – S.O.S. Band
37. No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) – Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer
38. Too Hot – Kool & The Gang
39. More Love – Kim Carnes
40. Pop Muzik – M

60’s |1970|  1980-1981| 1982-1983|  1984-1985|    1986-1987 |  1988-1989 

| 1990| 2000-present ||

GREATEST HITS OF 1960

Anita Bryant – In My Little Corner Of The World – 08-60
Anita Bryant – Paper Roses – 05-60
Annette – O Dio Mio – 03-60 – Vista
Annette – Pineapple Princess – 09-60 – Vista
Bill Black’s Combo – Don’t Be Cruel – 10-60
Bill Black’s Combo – Smokie Part 2 – 01-60
Bill Black’s Combo – White Silver Sands – 04-60
Billy Bland – Let The Little Girl Dance – 05-60
Bobby Darin – Beyond The Sea – 02-60
Brook Benton – Kiddio – 09-60
Chubby Checker – The Hucklebuck – 11-60 – Parkway
Chubby Checker – The Twist – 08-60
Dante & The Evergreens – Alley-Oop – 07-60 – Madison
Dion & The Belmonts – Lonely Tennager – 12-60
Dion & The Belmonts – Where Or When – 02-60
Donnie Brooks – Mission Bell – 08-60 – Era
Gary U.S. Bonds – New Orleans – 11-60
Hank Ballard & The Midnighters – Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go – 11-60
Hank Ballard & The Midnighters – Finger Poppin’ Time – 08-60
Jeanne Black – He’ll Have To Stay – 05-60
Jerry Butler – He Will Break Your Heart – 11-60
Jimmy Charles – A Million To One – 09-60 – Promo
Jimmy Clanton – Go Jimmy Go – 01-60
Johnny Burnette – Dreamin’ – 08-60
Johnny Burnette – You’re Sixteen – 12-60
Mark Dinning – Teen Angel – 01-60
Paul Anka – Puppy Love- 03-60 – ABC Paramount
Paul Anka – My Home Town – 06-60 – ABC Paramount
Paul Chaplain & His Emeralds – Shortnin’ Bread – 10-60
Perry Como – Delaware – 03-60
Ray Charles – Georgia On My Mind – 10-60 – ABC Paramount
Sam Cooke – Chain Gang – 09-60
Sam Cooke – Wonderful World – 06-60
The Brothers Four – Green Fields – 04-60
The Browns – The Old Lamplighter – 04-60
The Crests – Step By Step – 04-60

Fats Domino – My Girl Josephine – 12-60
Fats Domino – Walking To New Orleans – 07-60
Fats Domino – Three Nights A Week – 10-60
The Drifters – Save The Last Dance For Me – 09-60
Duane Eddy – Because They’re Young – 06-60
Duane Eddy – Pepe – 12-60
Paul Evans – Happy-Go-Lucky-Me – 6-60
Paul Evans – Midnight Special – 03-60
The Everly Brothers – Cathy’s Clown – 05-60
The Everly Brothers – When Will I Be Loved – 07-60
The Everly Brothers – Let It Be Me – 02-60
The Everly Brothers – So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad) – 09-60
The Percy Faith Orchestra – Theme From ‘A Summer Place’ – 02-60
The Fendermen – Mule Skinner Blues – 07-60
Ferrante & Teicher – Theme From ‘The Apartment’ – 09-60
Ferrante & Teicher – Theme From ‘Exodus’ – 12-60
The Four Preps – Down By The Station – 02-60
Connie Francis – Mama – 03-60
Connie Francis - Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool – 06-60
Connie Francis – Many Tears Ago – 12-60
Connie Francis – My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own – 09-60
Larry Hall – Sandy – 01-60
Ron Holden – I Love You So – 05-60
The Hollywood Argyles – Alley-Oop – 06-60 – Lute
Johnny Horton - North To Alaska – 11-60
Johnny Horton – Sink The Bismarck – 04-60
Brian Hyland - Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini – 07-60 – Leader
The Ivy Three – Yogi – 09-60
Johnny & The Hurricanes – Beatnik Fly – 03-62
Marv Johnson – I Love The Way You Love – 04-60
Marv Johnson – You Got What It Takes – 01-60
Jimmy Jones – Handy Man – 02-60 – Cub
Jimmy Jones - Good Timin’ – 05-60 – Cub
Joe Jones – You Talk Too Much – 10-60 – Roulette
Bert Kaempfert - Wonderland By Night – 12-60 – Decca
Steve Lawrence – Footsteps – 04-60 – ABC Paramount
Brenda Lee – I Want To Be Wanted – 10-60 – Decca
Brenda Lee – I’m Sorry – 06-60 – Decca
Brenda Lee – Sweet Nothin’s – 03-60 – Decca
Brenda Lee – That’s All You Gotta Do – 07-60 – Decca
The Little Dippers – Forever – 03-60
Little Willie John – Sleep – 10-60
Hank Locklin – Please Help Me I’m Falling – 07-60
Lolita – Sailor (Your Home Is The Sea) – 12-60
Bob Luman – Let’s Think About Living – 10-60
Ricky Nelson – Young Emotions – 06-60
Roy Orbison – Blue Angel – 11-60
Roy Orbison – Only The Lonely – 07-60
Ray Peterson – Corinna, Corinna – 12-60
Ray Peterson – Tell Laura I Love Her – 07-60
The Platters – Harbor Lights – 03-60
Elvis Presley – It’s Now Or Never – 08-60
Elvis Presley – Stuck On You – 04-60
Elvis Presley – Are You Lonesome Tonight – 11-60
Johnny Preston – Cradle Of Love – 04-60
Johnny Preston – Feel So Fine – 08-60
Johnny Preston – Running Bear – 01-60
Lloyd Price – Lady Luck – 03-60
Della Reese – Not One Minute More 01-60
Jim Reeves – He’ll Have To Go – 02-60
Bobby Rydell – Sway – 12-60
Bobby Rydell – Swinging School – 06-60
Bobby Rydell – Wild One – 02-60
Bobby Rydell – Volare – 08-60
The Safaris – Image Of A Girl – 07-60
Jack Scott – Burning Bridges – 05-60 – Top Rank
Jack Scott – What In The World’s Come Over You – 02-60 – Top Rank
Neil Sedaka - Stairway To Heaven – 05-60
Skip & Flip – Cherry Pie – 05-60
Connie Stevens – Sixteen Reasons – 04-60
Johnny Tillotson – Poetry In Motion – 10-60
Conway Twitty – Lonely Blue Boy – 02-60
Bobby Vee - Devil Or Angel – 10-60
The Ventures – Perfidia – 12-60
The Ventures – Walk Don’t Run – 08-60
Larry Verne – Mr. Custer – 09-60 – Era
Dinah Washington & Brook Benton – A Rockin’ Good Way – 06-60
Dinah Washington & Brook Benton – Baby, You’ve Got What It Takes – 02-60
Andy Williams - Village Of St. Bernadette – 01-60
Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs – Stay – 11-60
Jackie Wilson – Alone At Last – 11-60
Jackie Wilson – Night – 04-60
Jackie Wilson – (You Were Made For) All My Love – 08-60
Kathy Young & The Innocents – A Thousand Stars – 11-60 sand Stars – 11-60

Background information
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Rock, British Invasion, Pop, Hard Rock, Proto-Punk
Years active	1964–1996
Label(s)	Pye, Reprise, RCA, Arista, London, MCA, Sony, Konk/Guardian
Website	The Kinks.com
Former members
Dave Davies Ray Davies Pete Quaife Mick Avory John Dalton John Gosling Andy Pyle Gordon Edwards Mark Haley Jim Rodford Ian Gibbons Bob Henrit

The Kinks were an English rock group, formed

The Rolling Stones
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Rock and Roll, Country, R&B, Reggae, Blues
Years active	1962—present
Label(s)	Decca, Rolling Stones
Website	Rolling Stones.com
Members
Mick Jagger Keith Richards Ron Wood Charlie Watts
Former members
Brian Jones(Deceased) Bill Wyman (Deceased) Mick Taylor Ian Stewart (Deceased)Kevin Wirth (Bass Guitar) (had to retire because of awsomeness)

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band that helped spearhead the British Invasion of the early 1960s. During their 1969 American tour, the Stones were introduced as and since have been often called “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.” ^[1]

Originally an R&B outfit that recorded rock n’ roll as well as ballads on their first album, they later took up country blues, country music, psychedelia, and reggae. By 1965 lead singer and harmonica player Mick Jagger (born July 26, 1943) and guitarist Keith Richards (born December 18, 1943) wrote almost all of the band’s new material, including a string of number one songs for The Stones that continued until the early eighties.

The Rolling Stones still record and perform and are one of the longest running and most successful acts in show business. They are often the highest grossing concert act the years they tour, and every album of primarily new studio material has placed in the top 5 in the United States.

For more than forty years of The Stones’ existence, Jagger, Richards, and drummer Charlie have been constant members.

The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and they were rated #4 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

History

Hank Williams, Jr.

Hank Williams, Jr. Background information Birth name Randall Hank Williams Also known as Bocephus Born May 26, 1949 (age 57) Origin Shreveport, LA, USA Genre(s) Country Music
Outlaw Country
Southern Rock Occupation(s) Country music singer and songwriter Years active 1957 – Present Label(s) MGM Records
(1963 – 1976)
Warner Bros. Records
(1977 – 1994)
Curb Records
(1994 – Present) Website www.hankjr.com

Early life and career

Born Randall Hank Williams in Shreveport, Louisiana, and known by the nickname Bocephus (a name given to him by his father because he thought his son as a baby resembled a TV ventriloquist dummy named Bocephus), he was raised by his mother Audrey after his father’s death in 1953. He began performing when eight years old, and in 1963 made his recording debut with “Lone Gone Lonesome Blues”, a staple of his father’s career.

Williams’ early career was guided, some say outright dominated, by his mother Audrey Williams, who many claim was the driving force that led his father to musical superstardom during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Audrey, in many ways, wished for young Hank to be nothing more than a “Hank Williams, Sr. impersonator”, sometimes going as far as to have clothes designed for him that were identical to his father’s stage clothes and vocal stylings very similar to those of his father.

A change in musical direction

Although Williams’ recordings earned him numerous country hits throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, he became disillusioned with his role as a ‘Hank Williams clone’ and severed ties with his mother in order to pursue his own musical direction and tastes. After recording the soundtrack to Your Cheatin’ Heart, a biography of his father, Williams, Jr. hit the charts with one of his own compositions, “Standing in the Shadows”. The song signalled a move to rock and roll and other influences as he stepped from the shadow of his father.

Also during this time, Williams had his first two No. 1 songs: “All For the Love of Sunshine” (1970, featured on the soundtrack to Kelly’s Heroes) and “Eleven Roses” (1972).

By the mid-1970s, Williams had finally found the musical direction that would, eventually, make him a superstar. Williams’ unique blend of traditional country with southern rock and blues earned him a devoted following, although some mainstream country radio stations wouldn’t touch his new songs in this blatantly untraditional sound.

While recording a series of hit songs, Williams began abusing drugs, including alcohol and eventually tried to commit suicide in 1974. Moving to Alabama, Williams began playing music with Southern rock musicians Toy Caldwell, Marshall Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels, and others.

 Injury and recovery

On August 8, 1975, Williams was severely injured in a mountain-climbing accident in Montana. The accident shattered every bone within his face and actually exposed his brain to open air. It would eventually take nine major surgeries to put his face back together again.

His recovery took two years. In order to hide the numerous scars, Williams adopted the look that would become his trademark, a thick, full beard, cowboy hat, and dark sunglasses. Upon his re-entry into the recording studio, Williams worked with Waylon Jennings on the album entitled The New South. But as far as singles were concerned, Williams didn’t reach the charts again until the late 1970s, with Bobby Fuller’s I Fought the Law, Family Tradition and Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound.

 Popular success

The singles “Family Tradition” and “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound” sent Williams’ career into orbit. During the 1980s alone, he scored no less than 35 top ten and number one singles on the country music charts and an impressive string of gold, platinum, and multi-platinum selling albums. Despite selling millions of albums, setting concert attendance records, and being one of Country Music’s biggest stars, Williams received very little recognition by the country music establishment. Williams’ untraditional approach, style, behavior, sound, and Rock and Roll attitude was seen as not being ‘country’ enough for hardcore country loyalists within the Nashville music scene.

In the mid-1980s, Williams took advantage of the emerging popularity of music videos and shot a video to showcase the single, “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight“. The song became one of Williams’ true signature songs, due in great part to the video that featured, quite literally, many of Williams’ closest friends, many of whom were among the most recognizable names in music such as George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and George Thorogood. The video for “All My Rowdy Friends” became the first video to be named Video Of The Year by the Country Music Association in 1985. In 1989, ABC asked Williams to change his lyrics of “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” to “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here On Monday Night”, leading to one of television’s most famous quotes: “Are You Ready For Some Football?”

Well known Ultimate Fighting Champion Matt Hughes walks out into the octagon to the tune of ‘A Country Boy Can Survive.’This song was modified to ‘America Will Survive’ following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Also, Professional Wrestler James Gibson used ‘A Country Boy Can Survive’ as his theme tune during his 2005 run in the Ring Of Honor.

Acceptance by country music establishment

Williams’ career began to hit its peak after his first taste of recognition by the country music establishment. His popularity had risen to such levels, he could no longer be overlooked for major industry awards. In 1987 and 1988, Williams was named Entertainer Of The Year by the Country Music Association. In 1987, 1988, and 1989, he won the same award from the Academy of Country Music. During the 1980s, Williams became a country music superstar known for catchy anthems and hard-edged rock-influenced country. By the end of the decade, however, the hits had begun to dry up. A new generation of country singers began to emerge that brought with them songs and vocal stylings with a more traditional sound. These singers, which would include Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, and Garth Brooks, became known as ‘Neo-Traditionalists’. Williams was now seen as somewhat out of step with this new traditionalist movement.

His last major success was “There’s a Tear in My Beer”, a duet with his father created using electronic dubbing techniques. The song itself was written by his father, presumably, sometime between 1950 and 1953 and was recorded with Hank Williams playing just his guitar. The music video for the song combined existing television footage of Hank Williams performing and the dubbing techniques transferred the image of Hank Jr. onto the screen, so it appeared as if he were actually playing with his father. The video was an overwhelming success, both critically and commercially. It was named Video Of The Year by both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country music. Hank Williams, Jr. would go on to win a Grammy award in 1990 for Best Country Vocal Collaboration.

Despite his slumping album sales, Hank Williams Jr. continued to be a popular concert draw during the early 1990s and continued to record, with several of his recordings during this time still managing to achieve gold status, selling 500,000 copies.

He is probably best known today as the performer of the theme song for Monday Night Football, based on “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight”. The opening theme became a classic, as much a part of the show as the football itself. In 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994, Williams’ opening themes for Monday Night Football would earn him four Emmy awards.

In 2004, Williams, Jr appeared on CMT Outlaws.

He has made a cameo appearance along with Larry the Cable Guy, Kid Rock, and Charlie Daniels in Gretchen Wilson’s music video for the song “All Jacked Up“, whose album has been released. He also appeared in Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman” video as well.

Williams, Jr. donated $125,000 to hurricane relief efforts in Biloxi, Mississippi on October 14, 2005.

On December 26, 2005 Hank Williams, Jr opened for Monday Night Football on ABC for the last time. Starting this year 2006, the series will be on Disney corporate sibling ESPN.

On January 7, 2006, Hank Williams, Jr opened up for two games on ABC for the NFL Playoffs.

Hank Williams Jr. visited with Randal McCloy Jr., the only survivor of the Sago Mine accident, on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 in Morgantown, West Virginia. Williams traveled to the hospital after learning that McCloy was a fan of his music. “It just hit me like a ton of bricks because I had a big mountain fall in the ’70s, and they said I wouldn’t live,” Williams told Pittsburgh TV station KDKA. “It really, really affected me, and I said, ‘I’ve just got to go there and meet the family.”

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling stating that Hank Williams’ heirs — son Hank Williams Jr. and daughter Jett Williams — have the sole rights to sell his old recordings made for a Nashville radio station in the early ’50s. The court rejected claims made by Polygram Records and Legacy Entertainment in releasing recordings Williams made for the Mother’s Best Flour Show, a program that originally aired on WSM-AM. The recordings, which Legacy Entertainment acquired in 1997, include live versions of Williams’ hits and his cover version of other songs. Polygram contended that Williams’ contract with MGM Records, which Polygram now owns, gave them rights to release the radio recordings.

Hank Williams, Jr. opened for Super Bowl XL which was aired February 5, 2006 on ABC. Williams Jr was in the stands as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

On April 10, 2006 CMT honored country music icon Hank Williams Jr. with the Johnny Cash Visionary Award, presenting it to him at the 2006 CMT Music Awards. Williams joins an elite circle of gifted performers to have received this prestigious mark of distinction, including Loretta Lynn (2005), Reba McEntire (2004), Johnny Cash (2003).

In August of 2006 an on-line fan website started a petition to get Williams, Jr into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

For MNF’s 2006 debut on ESPN, Williams Jr. re-recorded the MNF opening theme with an all-star jam band that included Little Richard, ?uestlove, Joe Perry, Clarence Clemons, Rick Nielsen, Bootsy Collins, Charlie Daniels, Steven Van Zandt and others.

When not performing, Williams lives at his compound outside of Missoula, where he spends his time composing new material, hunting and fishing.

Controversy

Williams Jr., after being arrested in April of 2006

In a bizarre incident, he was charged with attempting to choke a teenage waitress of a Memphis hotel in April of 2006.

Hiram “Hank” King Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, who has become an icon of country music, Rock ‘n’ Roll and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. A leading exponent of the Honky Tonk style, he had numerous hit records, and his charismatic performances and succinct compositions fueled his fame. His songbook is one of the backbones of country music, several are pop standards as well. He has been covered in a range of pop, gospel, and rock styles. His legend has only grown since his premature death at the age of 29. His son Hank Williams Jr., his daughter Jett Williams, and his grandchildren Hank Williams III and Holly Williams are also professional singers.

Williams was born in 1923, in the small unincorporated town of Mount Olive, about eight miles southwest of Georgiana, Alabama. He was named after Hiram I of Tyre, but his name was misspelled as “Hiriam” on his birth certificate.^[1] He was born with a mild undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a disorder of the spinal column, which gave him life-long pain—a factor in his later abuse of alcohol and drugs. His parents were Alonzo Huble Williams, known as “Lon,” a train conductor for a regional lumber company and World War I veteran, and Jessie Lillybelle Williams, known as “Lillie.” He had an older sister named Irene.

Early childhood

During his early childhood, the Williams family moved frequently throughout southern Alabama as his father’s job required. In 1930, when Williams was seven years old, his father began suffering from face paralysis. At a VA clinic in Pensacola, Florida, doctors determined that the cause was a brain aneurysm, so they sent Lon Williams to the VA Medical Center in Alexandria, Louisiana. Lon remained hospitalized for eight years and was thus mostly absent throughout Hank’s childhood.

In 1931, Lillie Williams settled her family in Georgiana, Alabama, where she worked as the manager of a boarding house. She managed to find several side jobs to support her children, despite the bleak economic climate of the Great Depression. She worked in a cannery and served as a night-shift nurse in the local hospital. Hiram and Irene also helped out by selling peanuts, shining shoes, delivering newspapers, and doing other simple jobs. With the help of U.S. Representative J. Lister Hill, the family began collecting Lon’s military disability pension. Despite Lon’s medical condition, the Williams family managed fairly well financially throughout the Depression.

Preteen years

In 1933, Hank Williams moved to Fountain, Alabama, to live with his uncle and aunt, Walter and Alice McNeil. Meanwhile, his cousin Opal McNeil moved in with the Williams family in Georgiana to attend the high school there. In Fountain, ten-year-old Williams became close friends with his cousin J.C. McNeil, who was the same age. There he learned some of the trades and habits that would dominate the rest of his life. His Aunt Alice taught him to play the guitar, and his cousin J.C. taught him to drink whiskey.

After a year of living with his relatives in Fountain, Williams moved back to Georgiana, where he met Rufus Payne, a black blues musician living in the nearby town of Greenville. Payne often travelled through Georgiana and other towns in the area to perform in the streets and other public places. Payne, who was known more commonly as “Tee-Tot,” became Williams mentor and greatly influenced his musical style.

In the fall of 1934, the Williams family moved to Greenville, Alabama, a larger town about fifteen miles to the north of Georgiana. Lillie opened a boarding house next to the Butler County courthouse, and Williams was able to spend more time with Payne. Sometimes Williams would stay at Payne’s house overnight. In 1937, Williams got into a rough fight with his physical-education coach. Furious with the coach, his mother demanded that the school board fire him. When the school board refused to take action, she decided to move the family to Montgomery.

Hiram “Hank” Williams at 13

Career

[edit] Early career

In July, 1937, the Williams and McNeil families opened a boarding house on South Perry Street in downtown Montgomery, a much larger city than any of them had ever lived in. It was at this time that Hiram decided to informally change his name to Hank, a name which he said was better suited to his desired career in country music,

After school and on weekends, Hank sang and played his Silvertone guitar on the sidewalk in front of the WSFA radio studios. He quickly caught the attention of WSFA producers, who occasionally invited him to come inside and perform on air. So many listeners contacted the radio station asking for more of the “Singing Kid” that the producers hired him to host his own fifteen-minute show, twice a week for a weekly salary of fifteen dollars.

In August 1938, Lon Williams was temporarily released from the hospital, and he showed up unannounced at the family’s home in Montgomery. Lillie was unwilling to let him reclaim his position at the head of the household, so he stayed only long enough to celebrate Hank’s birthday in September before he returned to the medical center in Lousiana. It was the first time Hank had seen his father in over eight years, and even after the reunion, he felt as though he had grown up without a father.

Drifting Cowboys

Hank’s successful radio show fueled his entrance to a music career. His generous salary was enough for him to start his own band, which he dubbed the Drifting Cowboys. The original members of the band were guitarist Braxton Schuffert, fiddler Freddie Beach, and comic Smith “Hezzy” Adair. The Drifting Cowboys travelled throughout central and southern Alabama, performing in clubs and at private parties. Hank dropped out of school in October, 1939, so that the Drifting Cowboys could work full time.

Lillie Williams stepped up to be the Drifting Cowboys’ manager. She began booking show dates, negotiating prices, and driving them to some of their shows. Now free to travel without Hank’s school schedule taking precedence, the band was able to tour as far away as western Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle. Meanwhile, Hank returned to Montgomery every weekday to host his radio show.

The nation’s entrance into World War II in 1941 marked the beginning of hard times for Hank Williams. All his band members were drafted to serve in the military, and many of their replacements refused to continue playing in the band because of Hank’s worsening alcoholism. His idol, Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff warned him of the dangers of alcohol, saying “You’ve got a million-dollar voice[,] son, but a ten-cent brain.”^[2] Despite Acuff’s advice, Williams continued to show up for his radio show intoxicated, so in August, 1942, WSFA fired him due to “habitual drunkenness.”

Death

On January 1, 1953, Williams was due to play in Canton, Ohio, but he was unable to fly due to weather problems. He hired a chauffeur and, before leaving the old Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee was injected with B12 and morphine. He then left in a Cadillac, carrying a bottle of whiskey with him.

When the seventeen year-old chauffeur Charles Carr pulled over at an all-night service station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, he discovered that Williams was unresponsive and becoming rigid^[3] Upon closer examination, it was discovered that Hank Williams was dead. Controversy has since surrounded Williams’ death with some claiming Williams was dead before leaving Knoxville^[4]. Approximate estimation of Hank’s death is around 3 AM.

Williams’ final single was ominously titled “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive”. Five days after his death, his illegitimate daughter by Bobbie Jett (Jett Williams) was born. His widow, Billie Jean, married country singer Johnny Horton in September of that year (1953).

Legacy and influence

A life-size statue of Williams stands in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, where he began his music career.

His son Hank Williams, Jr., daughter Jett Williams, grandson Hank Williams III, and granddaughters Hillary Williams and Holly Williams are also country musicians.

Hank Williams’ remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery, Alabama. His funeral was said to have been far larger than any ever held for a citizen of Alabama and is still, as of 2005, the largest such event ever held in Montgomery. As of 2005, more than fifty years after Williams’ death, members of his Drifting Cowboys continue to tour and bring his music to generations of fans.

In February 2005 the Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling stating that Hank Williams’ heirs — son Hank Williams Jr. and daughter Jett Williams — have the sole rights to sell his old recordings made for a Nashville, Tennessee radio station in the early ’50s. The court rejected claims made by Polygram Records and Legacy Entertainment in releasing recordings Williams made for the “Mother’s Best Flour Show“, a program that originally aired on WSM-AM. The recordings, which Legacy Entertainment acquired in 1997, include live versions of Williams’ hits and his cover version of other songs. Polygram contended that Williams’ contract with MGM Records, which Polygram now owns, gave them rights to release the radio recordings.

Awards

• 2003 — CMT – Ranked #2 of the 40 greatest men in country music
• 1990 — TNN/Music City News – Video of the Year
• 1990 — TNN/Music City News – Vocal Collaboration of the Year
• 1989 — Academy of Country Music – Video of the Year
• 1989 — CMA – Vocal Event of the Year
• 1989 — CMA – Music Video of the Year
• 1989 — Grammy for Best Country Vocal Collaboration

• I Can’t Help It if I am Still in Love With you

Jett Williams (born January 6, 1953) is an American country music performer.

Jett is the daughter of country music icon Hank Williams, Sr., the product of a brief relationship between him and a woman named Bobbie Jett which occurred between his two marriages. She is a posthumous child; her birth in Montgomery, Alabama occurred five days after her father’s still-controversial death. She was legally adopted by Hank Williams’ mother Lillian in December 1954. Lillian had already named her Cathy Yvonne Williams. Lillian died in 1955 and the young Cathy was made a ward of the state of Alabama and subsequently adopted by new parents.

Jett knew she was adopted but it was not until the early 1980s that she learned who her biological parents were. She was forced to go to extreme lengths to prove the relationship and be recognized as Williams’ daughter, despite a very strong physical resemblance to her father. She was reportedly very slow to be accepted as kin by her half-brother, country music icon Hank Williams, Jr..

In 1985 the Alabama State Court ruled that she was the daughter of Hank Williams, and in 1987 the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that she was entitled to her half-share in the Williams estate, as she had been the victim of fraud and judicial error.

Jett has also been slow to be recognized for having considerable musical talent in her own right; she has never become one of the top-tier country entertainers. Detractors suggest that she would have never been heard of if not for her famous father while her supporters say that her drive to claim her legacy may well have hurt her career in other ways and that she would have been able to make a good living, perhaps a better one, based on her talent alone. Williams tours with the current touring version of the Drifting Cowboys led by original band member Don Helms.

In 1990 she published her autobiography Ain’t Nothin’ as Sweet as my Baby.

In February 2005 the Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling stating that Hank Williams’ heirs — son Hank Williams Jr. and daughter Jett Williams — have the sole rights to sell his old recordings made for a Nashville radio station in the early ’50s. The court rejected claims made by Polygram Records and Legacy Entertainment in releasing recordings Williams made for the “Mother’s Best Flour Show”, a program that originally aired on WSM-AM. The recordings, which Legacy Entertainment acquired in 1997, include live versions of Williams’ hits and his cover version of other songs. Polygram contended that Williams’ contract with MGM Records, which Polygram now owns, gave them rights to release the radio recordings.

Milli Vanilli
Country	Germany
Years active	1988–1990
Genres	Dance, Pop
Labels	Hansa Records, BMG, Arista Records
Members	Fab Morvan, Rob Pilatus

Milli Vanilli was a pop and dance music ensemble formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1988 and fronted by Fab Morvan (b. May 14, 1966) and Rob Pilatus (June 8, 1965 – April 2, 1998). The group’s debut album achieved high sales internationally and garnered them a Grammy award for Best New Artist in 1989. However, their success turned to infamy when the award was revoked after it was revealed that the purported singers did not actually sing on the record.

Beginning

Farian chose Pilatus and Morvan to front a studio project featuring the vocal talents of Charles Shaw, John Davis, and Brad Howell. Farian felt that those musicians were talented but unmarketable. The first Milli Vanilli album was All or Nothing (see 1988 in music). Despite critical pans, Milli Vanilli’s fame continued to grow worldwide. All Or Nothing was repackaged, remixed and retitled Girl You Know It’s True for its U.S. release, and spun four hit singles: the title track, and the group’s three #1 hits, “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You,” “Baby Don’t Forget My Number” and “Blame It On The Rain.” Milli Vanilli won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist on February 22, 1990 for Girl You Know It’s True (1990 in music).

The duo were a frequent target of jokes by late-night television host Arsenio Hall, whose lambasting of the group only increased as rumors and allegations of on-stage lip-synching and studio trickery circulated amongst the music media. Charles Shaw told a reporter the truth about Milli Vanilli, but he later retracted his statement after Farian paid him off.^{[citation needed]} Pilatus was ridiculed in the press for comparing himself to Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan; he also developed a cocaine problem.

Public backlash

In July 1989, during a live performance recorded by MTV at the Lake Compounce theme park in Connecticut, the recording of the song “Girl You Know It’s True” jammed and began to skip, repeating the line “Girl, you know it’s-” over and over. This was not unusual, as many popular artists used the same technique. The fame of this event may have been amplified by the fact that the word “true” was poetically omitted by the whim of the playback device. This was a prime example of the kind of happenstances that could make Milli Vanilli poster boys for the entire range of misrepresentation in the music industry.

Unlike the international release of All or Nothing, the inserts for the American version clearly attributed the voices on the album to Morvan and Pilatus, “brothers of soul”. Due to rising public questions regarding the source of talent in the group, as well as the insistence of Morvan and Pilatus to Farian that they be allowed to sing on the next album, Farian confirmed to reporters on November 15, 1990, that Morvan and Pilatus did not sing on the records. As a result of American media pressure, Milli Vanilli’s Grammy was withdrawn four days later (however, their three American Music Awards were never withdrawn due to the fact the organizers felt the awards were given to them by music consumers^[1]), and Arista Records dropped the act from its roster and deleted their album and its masters from their catalog, making Girl You Know It’s True the largest-selling album to ever be taken out of print. (Record stores were also not allowed to return copies of the albums to Arista, and many used stores completely refused to buy copies of the album from others.)

After the details emerged, at least 26 different lawsuits^[2] were filed under various U.S. consumer fraud protection laws against Pilatus, Morvan and Arista Records. One such filing occurred on November 22, 1990 in Ohio, where lawyers there filed a class action lawsuit asking for refunds for at least 1,000 local citizens who had bought Girl You Know It’s True.^[3] On August 12, 1991, a proposed settlement to a refund lawsuit in Chicago, Illinois was rejected. This settlement would have refunded buyers of a Milli Vanilli CD $3.00 (USD), a cassette or L.P. $2.00 (USD), and a single $1.00 (USD). However, the refunds would only be given as a credit for a future Arista release.^[2] On August 28, a new settlement was approved. The same pricing structure was approved, along with a $2.50 (USD) refund to be given for concerts. A proof of purchase or ticket stub was required to take advantage of the refunds.

A Detroit radio station offered to give the first 1000 people who showed up with a copy of the album a shirt saying “Screw Milli Vanilli”.

Follow-up albums

Keep On Running (Second Album)

The material for Milli Vanilli’s second album had been recorded and finalized in spring 1990. In the autumn, the first single, “Keep On Running”, was released for radio play, shortly before Farian revealed the truth about Milli Vanilli.

Farian was forced to reveal his secret because Morvan and Pilatus would not go on promoting the second album.^{[citation needed]} The public had received the single with enthusiam, and it would have been another hit for the group, as indicated by unusually high chart entries in countries like Germany. At the last minute, Farian had the artwork to the second Milli Vanilli album changed to depict the actual singers instead of Morvan and Pilatus, changed the album’s title from Keep on Running (the name had been meant to correspond with the first single), and changed the artist name to The Real Milli Vanilli. However, the graphic artist who performed the change forgot to update the album cover’s spine, so anyone with the second album still has the original artist and album name on the spine (”Milli Vanilli – Keep On Running”).

The resulting album, released in Europe in early 1991, was renamed The Moment of Truth and spawned three singles, “Keep On Running,” “Nice ‘n Easy” and “Too Late (True Love).” A Morvan / Pilatus lookalike named Ray Horton was depicted on the cover and provided vocals on four tracks. In addition, the album featured rappers Icy Bro on “Hard As Hell” and Tammy T on “Too Late (True Love).” A Diane Warren-penned song, “When I Die,” has been covered by several other artists, including Farian’s No Mercy.

Rob & Fab

For the American market, Farian chose to avoid any association to Milli Vanilli and had the tracks re-recorded with Ray Horton on the majority of lead vocals. In 1992, RCA signed on to release the album as the debut of the newly created group Try ‘N’ B. The self-titled release included three additional tracks not on The Real Milli Vanilli release: “Ding Dong,” “Who Do You Love”, and a remake of Dr. Hook’s “Sexy Eyes.” Due to significantly better sales under the name Try ‘N’ B in America, a slightly modified Try ‘N’ B debut album was released globally.

Meanwhile, Morvan and Pilatus moved to Los Angeles and signed to the Joss Entertainment Group, where they recorded their follow-up album under the name Rob & Fab. Almost all the songs on the album were written by Kenny Taylor and Fabrice Morvan. Morvan provides the lead vocals, while Pilatus presents self-written rap punch-ins. Morvan’s voice was considered by critics to be overly nasal and whiney. Due to financial constraints, Joss were only able to release the album in the U.S., the most critical of all markets to Milli Vanilli. A single, “We Can Get It On”, was made available for radio play shortly before the album’s release.

Attempted comeback

In order to restore their career and prominence after a series of failures, Farian agreed in 1997 to produce a new Milli Vanilli album with Morvan and Pilatus on lead vocals. On Farian’s tab, the performers took extensive vocal training to enhance their singing voice and went to elocution experts to improve their English pronunciation. This all led up to the recording of the 1998 Milli Vanilli comeback album Back and in Attack.^[4] Even some of the original studio singers backed the performers in their attempt to bring back some of the fame that had been shed so quickly.

However, Pilatus encountered a number of mental roadblocks during the production of the new album. He turned again to drugs and a life of crime, committing a series of robberies and ultimately serving three months in jail in California. Farian paid for Pilatus to attend six months of drug rehabilitation and plane tickets for him to fly back to Germany. On the eve of the new album’s promotional tour on April 2, 1998, Pilatus was found dead of a drug overdose in a Frankfurt hotel at the age of 32. The record was never released.

Genre(s)	Disco, pop
Years active	1975–present

Boney M was a Eurodance, pop, and disco group, comprised four West Indian singers and dancers and masterminded by German record producer Frank Farian, and who were successful during the 1970s.

Boney M, with their bubble gum infectious tunes, became one of the few Western groups at that time to become well-known outside of the West, including Africa, Arab countries, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. To this day, along with Swedish pop group ABBA, they are among the most widely known 1970s western music acts in these regions.

Frank Farian recorded the single “Baby Do You Wanna Bump?” in 1975, performing the sparse vocals of the song himself. Released under the name Boney M, it became a hit in the Netherlands and Belgium. It was then that Farian decided to hire a team of dancers and vocalists to ‘front’ the group, so it was created thereafter, and made up of four West Indian artists working in London, Germany and the Netherlands: singers Marcia Barrett and Liz Mitchell, model Maizie Williams, and DJ Bobby Farrell.

The line-up of the group went through numerous changes, Maizie Williams being the only original member that remained. Not satisfied with merely miming to Farian’s songs, one of the members, Claudja Barry, left on short notice in February 1976 – days before the group was scheduled to appear on a local television gig in Saarbrücken. Liz Mitchell, then an unemployed singer and formerly a member of the Les Humphries Singers, was brought in as a temporary replacement for the gig, under the recommendation of Marcia Barrett. Farian was impressed with her performance, and she went on to record Boney M’s first LP, Take The Heat Off Me, along with Marcia Barrett, who had already recorded some songs with Farian for the album; these were the title track, and “Lovin’ Or Leavin’”.

The commercial response to the album was lukewarm. However, the group rigorously toured discos, clubs and even country fairs, to earn a reputation for themselves. The group’s big break came when, at the end of that summer, music-TV-producer Michael ‘Mike’ Leckebusch of Radio Bremen, requested the group for his show Musikladen. Boney M appeared on the live music show on 18 September 1976, after 10pm, in their now trademark daring costumes; by the end of the following week, “Daddy Cool” became Germany’s #1 single in the charts. The album was to follow the success of the single.

In 1977, Boney M released their second album Love For Sale, and this contained further hits “Ma Baker” and “Belfast”. Neither Love For Sale nor Take The Heat Off Me did very well in the UK Album Charts, due to their rather risqué covers. In 1978, Boney M had their biggest year: they released a new single, “Rivers of Babylon”, which became a massive selling single all over Europe and #1 in the UK Singles Chart. (It also became their closest attempt to a hit in the United States, reaching number 30 on the U.S. pop singles chart). Next came their biggest-selling album, Nightflight to Venus, which spawned a further single “Rasputin”. Continuing with their success, they released “Mary’s Boy Child”, which was the 1978 Christmas number one single in the UK. Also during 1978, Boney M became the first Western pop group to tour the Soviet Union.

1979 saw Boney M release their fourth album, Oceans Of Fantasy, containing two hit singles – “El Lute”/”Gotta Go Home” and “I’m Born Again”/”Bahama Mama”. The track “No More Chain Gang”, one of a number of black freedom songs the group recorded, exemplified Boney M’s mix of white and black music – the producer Farian is white, and the singers are black. They also released another hit single, “Hooray! Hooray! It’s A Holi-Holiday”. In 1980, Boney M released a greatest hits album, The Magic Of Boney M, which also contained two new songs, “My Friend Jack” and “I See A Boat On The River”. This album made the #1 spot in the UK, and was their last big UK-seller until “Boney M Megamix” in 1992. American-born singer Madeleine Davis, who was one of the group’s recording backing vocalist, replaced Liz Mitchell for live concerts, due to the fact that Liz wished to promote her solo career, rather than join Maizie, Marica and Bobby on stage. She appeared in the video, “The Summer Mega Mix” and became a member of Marcia / Maizie and Bobby’s Boney M for the single release “Everybody Wants To Dance Like Josephine Baker”.

Despite his success with Boney M, controversy followed the group’s founder, Frank Farian, in what was to foreshadow his fakery involvement with Milli Vanilli. Bobby Farrell – the male face of the group – and Maizie Williams contributed to studio recordings, but for reasons only known to Farian, were apparently left off the final mixes, while their numerous and highly competent live performances from 1977 onwards were never in any doubt. Almost all of the male vocals, along with some of the choir sections in songs such as “Dancing In The Streets” and “Bye Bye Bluebird”, were performed by Farian himself. Farrell, as Farian had finally admitted on German television in 2003, had been chosen for his personality and innovative dancing. However, in Germany, it was considered acceptable that ‘producer music’ just works this way.

As of 2006, Liz Mitchell is currently touring the world with her line-up of Boney M, which is the only official line-up supported by Farian, as well as releasing solo albums. Marcia Barrett has released two solo albums, and Maizie and Bobby are touring with their own Boney M groups which is not what Farian wants as he only allowed Liz Mitchell to use the name Boney M. Madeleine Davis is currently working on a solo jazz CD to be released in 2007.

A musical based on the music of Boney M, Daddy Cool, is now open in London.

In a sign of their continued popularity in South Asia, a concert by Boney M is a featured attraction at the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which begins November 23, 2006 in Panaji, the state capital of Goa, India.

• macho man.wav

Background information
Origin New York City, USA
Genre(s) Disco
New Wave
Funk
Dance music
Years active 1977 – present
Label(s) Casablanca Records
Scorpio Music
Website www.officialvillagepeople.com
Members
G. Jeff Olsen
Eric Anzalone
Ray Simpson
Felipe Rose
Alex Briley
David “Scar” Hodo
Former members
Randy Jones
Glenn Hughes
Victor Willis

Background information
Origin New York City, USA
Genre(s) Disco
New Wave
Funk
Dance music
Years active 1977 – present
Label(s) Casablanca Records
Scorpio Music
Website www.officialvillagepeople.com
Members
G. Jeff Olsen
Eric Anzalone
Ray Simpson
Felipe Rose
Alex Briley
David “Scar” Hodo
Former members
Randy Jones
Glenn Hughes
Victor Willis

Village People is a novelty disco band of the late 1970s. The group is as well known for its outrageous on-stage costumes as for its catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics. The members each dress as a police officer, an American Indian chief, a construction worker, a member of the military, a leatherman (biker), and a cowboy. Depending on the era, the member of the military could be an enlisted member of the Army, an enlisted member of the Navy, or a Navy officer. Each of the members were basically dressed as forms of masculinity to emphasize their song lyrics that hid homosexually charged innuendo. Many of the gay stereotypes originally appear in erotic art by Tom of Finland.

The band was assembled (in 1977) By two French musicians, Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo (see picture), specifically to showcase and perform their disco music creations. Much like Frank Farian’s Boney M or The Spice Girls, the group was manufactured. Despite the French songwriters, the songs were all in English.

The band’s name references New York City’s Greenwich Village, at the time known for having a substantial gay population. Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo got the inspiration for creating an assembly of American man archetypes based on the gay men of The Village who frequently dressed in various fantasy ways.

The United States Navy considered using the Village People hit “In the Navy” in a recruiting advertising campaign on television and radio. They contacted Belolo, who decided to give the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, Village People arrived at the San Diego Naval base. The Navy provided them with a war ship, several aircraft, and hundreds of Navy men. When the video started showing and the Navy started the planned ad campaign, some newspapers protested using taxpayers’ money to fund music videos (especially for a group considered by some to be “morally dubious”). The Navy quickly cancelled the campaign. The scandal tremendously boosted the popularity of the song.

Other hits include their trademark “Macho Man”, “Go West”, the classic club medley of San Francisco (You’ve got me) / In Hollywood (Everybody is a star) and “YMCA”. Almost thirty years later, a dance that involves forming the latter four letters with the dancer’s arms is still popular at summer camps, office functions, wedding receptions, school dances, sporting events and B’nai Mitzvah. At the end of the fifth inning of each baseball game at Yankee Stadium, the grounds crew take an on-field break from grooming the infield to dance as “YMCA” is played, typically to enthusiastic cheers from the fans.

The group also appeared in its 1980 feature film Can’t Stop the Music, directed by Nancy Walker, written by Allan Carr and Bronte Woodard, music and lyrics by Jacques Morali and starring Steve Guttenberg, Valerie Perrine, Bruce Jenner, and the Village People. The movie “won” the Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay prizes at the 1980 Golden Raspberry Awards in March 1981 and was nominated in almost all the other categories. The soundtrack also featured the talents of “David London,” who under his real name Dennis “Fergie” Frederiksen went on to become the future lead singer of Toto and one of the main contributors to the Village People’s next album.

In 1981, with the popularity of disco waning and New Wave music on the rise, Village People replaced its on-stage costumes with a new look inspired by the New Romantic movement, and released the New Wave album Renaissance; it was not a commercial success.

• A Little Bit Country Donny and Marie mp3

The Osmonds are an American family pop group who achieved enormous worldwide success as teenybopper idols in the 1970s.

The group originally comprised brothers Alan Ralph Osmond (born June 22, 1949), Melvin Wayne Osmond (known as Wayne Osmond) (born August 28, 1951), Merrill Davis Osmond (born April 30, 1953), and Jay Wesley Osmond (born March 2, 1955).

The Osmonds’ career started with a big break at Disneyland, followed quickly by regular appearances on The Andy Williams Show in the early 1960s. In the mid-60s they performed with Sweden’s most popular singer Lars Lönndahl, and gained a lot of popularity in Sweden. However, their most successful period was the early 1970s, when they achieved a string of chart hits.

They were joined for a time by younger brothers Donny Osmond (born December 9, 1957) and subsequently ‘Little’ Jimmy Osmond (born April 16, 1963). They had a self-titled Rankin/Bass-produced Saturday morning cartoon series on ABC-TV from 1972 to 1973. Donny, and to a lesser extent Jimmy, both achieved success as solo artists, as did their one sister, (Olive) Marie Osmond (born October 13, 1959). Marie’s signature hit was the country song “Paper Roses” (hence the recurring theme on their variety show where Marie sang, “I’m a little bit country,” and Donny responded by singing “and I’m a little bit rock and roll”). Jimmy achieved particular success in the UK and Japan (most notably for his single “I’m a Long-Haired Lover from Liverpool”), while Donny and Marie’s success was nearly worldwide. Donny and Marie also performed as a duo, and hosted their own variety show, Donny & Marie, on ABC from 1976 to 1979.

The family members are well-known as devout members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Osmonds are of English descent on both their paternal and maternal sides

The Osmonds’ breakthrough US hit, “One Bad Apple”, featuring lead vocals by Merrill and Donny, bore an uncanny similarity to the ‘bubblegum soul’ sound of their contemporaries, The Jackson 5. The song spent five weeks at No. 1 in the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1971, and even hit #6 on the R&B chart. The single and the accompanying debut album (also called “One Bad Apple”) were recorded at Muscle Shoals by the legendary R&B producer Rick Hall.

The follow-up to “One Bad Apple”, “Double Lovin’” stalled at #14, but the mildly psychedelic “Yo-Yo” climbed all the way to #3 in late 1971. “Yo-Yo” marks the point where the brothers began recording as a self-contained rock and roll band (instead of relying on session musicians.) In spite of their squeaky clean image, the Osmonds had a soulful, sometimes raucous sound which was a precursor of the power pop of later years. (For a time in the mid-1970s, they were the one of the few rock acts on TV, since the entire Osmond family appeared on a variety show which was mostly devoted to Donny and Marie, but where the Brothers were given a segment or two each week to rock out.)

Their first single release of 1972, “Down By The Lazy River”, headed to #4 and finally broke the group in the UK, where it peaked at #40. Their British fanbase exploded overnight. All members of the Osmond family, counting group and solo recordings, charted an astonishing thirteen singles in the UK charts during 1973.

The front and back covers of their 1972 LP

Their 1972 LP Crazy Horses and its title track were met with mixed critical reaction. The album attempted a more rock-oriented sound and image, its lead track, “Hold Her Tight” bearing a marked similarity to Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song with its churning bass line and wailing guitar breaks. The album, however, was a real testament to the brother’s ability to write and play (they played all the instruments on the album) and featured some serious songwriting, singing and playing chops.

Following quickly on its heels was the ambitious 1973 release, The Plan, perhaps best described as a Mormon concept album with prog rock aspirations. These albums were followed with gentler, more sentimental songs such as “Let Me In” and “Love Me For A Reason”. This music, combined with the brothers’ good looks and clean image, greatly appealed to the teenybopper market. Like the word ‘Beatlemania’, a new word, ‘Osmania’, was coined to describe the phenomenon.

The Osmonds today

Wayne, Jay, and Merrill continue to perform as The Osmond Brothers, with frequent appearances in Branson, Missouri, as well as the UK, both as a quartet with Jimmy. Merrill also performs as a solo artist. Alan no longer performs except on very rare occasions, as he suffers from multiple sclerosis (although his typically positive Osmond motto is ‘I may have MS… but, MS does not have me!’). Today, their sound is more country & western, with a bit of rock, and adult contemporary thrown in.

Jimmy performs in Branson and the UK, as well, and has become a successful businessman. He recently appeared in the UK series I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.

Marie has been a radio host and makes and sells dolls.

Donny maintains a successful touring and recording pop career in the UK, and occasionally the US. He was a theatrical hit, starring for a time in the lead role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

All of the brothers are married with some of them having large families themselves. Alan’s eight sons sometimes perform as “The Osmonds – Second Generation” or “2ndG”. Due to a resurgence of interest, they are to tour the UK in February and March of 2006.

• Break Away.mp3

Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is a Grammy Award-winning American singer and actress who has enjoyed success in the pop and rock music genres. Clarkson made her debut under RCA Records after she won the highly-publicized first season of the television series American Idol in 2002. She was originally marketed as a pop musician with her debut album Thankful (2003). With the release of her multi-platinum sophomore album Breakaway (2004), Clarkson moved to a more rock-oriented style of music.

Early life

Clarkson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in the small town of Burleson, Texas. She is the third and youngest child of Jeanne Ann Rose, a first grade teacher who is of Greek and Irish descent, and Stephen Michael Clarkson, a former engineer who is of Welsh extraction. Clarkson’s siblings include her brother Jason, and her sister Alyssa. When Clarkson was six years old, her parents split up after seventeen years of marriage; her brother went to live with her father, her sister went to live with an aunt, and Clarkson remained with her mother. Clarkson frequently moved around Texas while her mother managed several professions in order to support the family. Clarkson has since stated that, being six years old at the time, she did not understand why her family had been constantly moving. Eventually, the family settled in Burleson, where Clarkson’s mother married her second husband, Jimmy Taylor.

Clarkson attended Pauline Hughes Middle School when she reached seventh grade. She had originally wanted to become a marine biologist, but during the same school year, a teacher overheard her singing in a hallway and asked her to audition for the school choir. Clarkson told the teacher that she had never received professional vocal training before. Following middle school, she attended Burleson High School and performed in musicals such as Brigadoon.

Upon graduation in 2000, Clarkson worked several occupations to finance her demo CD that she had been hoping to market toward record labels. She received few responses though, and eventually decided to move to Hollywood to seek out other opportunities in music, one of which was a mentorship under songwriter Gerry Goffin. However, Goffin fell ill, and to make ends meet, Clarkson appeared as an extra on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and That ’80s Show among others, as well as played a small role in the film Issues 101, which was released in 2002. Following four months in Hollywood, Clarkson was discouraged when her apartment burnt down and returned to Texas, where she worked at a cinema, and as a cocktail waitress, Six Flags performer, telemarketer, Kirby Vacuum saleperson, and a Red Bull promoter.

American Idol

Once Clarkson returned to Burleson, several of her friends encouraged her to audition for the 2002 debut of the reality television program American Idol. She entered the competition with 10,000 others, and the judges Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson were impressed with her voice. She earned a position in the Top 30 finalists and week-by-week performed a song on live television to North America. When American Idol concluded each week, the viewers would vote based on the performance they enjoyed the most. Clarkson sang a rendition of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” which garnered her a top ten position. Other songs Clarkson performed on American Idol include Carole King’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, Badfinger’s “Without You”, and Céline Dion’s “I Surrender”.

• Must Be Love

Though their name might lead you to believe that Lonestar was formed in Texas, the quintet actually hails from Tennessee. Originally called Texassee, the band features Richie McDonald (lead vocals, guitar), John Rich (lead vocals, bass), Michael Britt (lead guitar, background vocals), Dean Sams (keyboard, background vocals), and Keech Rainwater (drums). All the members are in fact Texas natives — they just formed in Tennessee in 1992.

In 1993, Lonestar played their first concert at Backstage Pass in Nashville in January of 1993. A booking agent happened to hear the show. Impressed, he added the group to his roster, and the group headed out on the road. Over the next two years, they played nearly 500 shows. In 1994, the group landed a record contract with BNA Records. The following year they released their eponymous debut, which spawned the Top Ten hit “Tequila Talkin’.” Crazy Nights followed in 1997, and two years later Lonestar returned with Lonely Grill, which featured the hit “Amazed.” Their seasonal effort This Christmas Time followed in fall 2000, and I’m Already There appeared the next spring. They released three more records after their 2003 greatest-hits compilation From There to Here: 2004’s Let’s Be Us Again, 2005’s Coming Home, and 2006’s Mountains. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine,

• Just Good Ole Boys.wavw/Joe Stampley

Moe Bandy (born in 1944, Meridian, Mississippi, but raised in Texas since the age of six) is a country musicsinger, currently performing primarily in Branson, Missouri at the Moe Bandy Theater. He was most popular during the 1970’s, when he had several hits, both alone and with his partner Joe Stampley.Born 1944, Meridian, Mississippi
Genre(s) Country
Occupation(s) country singer
Instrument(s) singing, guitar
Years active 1964 to present.
Label(s) Satin, GRC, MCA/Curb
Website www.moebandy.com

• The Reflex mp3

Duran Duran in 2006
Origin	Birmingham, England
Genre(s)	Rock New Wave New Romantic
Years active	1978–present
Label(s)	EMI / Capitol Records Hollywood Records Epic Records
Website	Duran Duran Official Website Duran Duran Official Fan Community

Duran Duran are an English New Wave band notable for a long series of catchy, synthesizer-driven hit singles and vivid music videos. They were a leading band in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the United States, and the most commercially successful of the New Romantic bands. They are still often identified as an “Eighties band” despite continuous recording and chart success over their twenty-eight year history.

The band has sold well over 70 million records worldwide, and has had eighteen singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and thirty in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, including “Rio”, “Hungry Like the Wolf”, “Is There Something I Should Know?”, “The Reflex” and the James Bond theme “A View to a Kill” in the 1980s, “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone” in the early-1990s, and “Sunrise” and “What Happens Tomorrow” in the 2000s.^[1]

Duran Duran was created by Nick Rhodes (keyboards) and John Taylor (bass), with the later addition of Roger Taylor (drums), Andy Taylor (guitar), and Simon Le Bon (lead vocals); none of the Taylors are related. Guitarist Warren Cuccurullo was also a member of the band from 1989 to 2001, and drummer Sterling Campbell was a member from 1989 to 1991.

Although the group never disbanded, it went through several line-up changes over the years. The reunion of the original five members in the early 2000s created a stir among music media and the band’s fans. Duran Duran released Astronaut from the reunited line-up in 2004. Andy Taylor dropped out of the band in October 2006, but the band has continued recording their next album, which is expected to be released in mid-2007.

•  Master Jack.wav

Four Jacks & A Jill is one of few South African groups to score a Stateside hit. Their folksy tale “Master Jack,” made the Top 20, nesting at #18, June 8, 1968. The members were Glenys Lynne (Jill), Clive Harding (bass), Till Hanamann (guitar), Bruce Barks (guitar), and Tony Hughes (drums). Glenys sung lead and had a voice that was undeniably folksy, rather she tried to sing that style or not, everything came out that way. Their second single “Mr. Nico” made the States chart too, but barely, entering the Pop 100 and immediately stalling at #98. The four guys sans Jill originally formed in 1964 and went through two name changes before adding Glenys and becoming Four Jacks & A Jill. Out-the-box they scored a South African hit entitled “Timothy.” Unfortunately, they never graced the charts in the States after “Mr. Nico,” but remained viable and quite popular in South Africa.

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American blues-influenced rock singer and occasional songwriter with a highly distinctive voice. Joplin released four albums as the frontwoman for several bands from 1967 to a posthumous release in 1971.

Background information
Birth name	Janis Lyn Joplin
Born	January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, USA
Died	October 4, 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA
Genre(s)	Blues-rock Hard rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, arranger
Instrument(s)	Guitar Vocals
Label(s)	Columbia
Associated acts	Big Brother & the Holding Company

Janis Joplin was born at St. Mary Hospital in Port Arthur, Texas, the daughter of Seth Ward Joplin and Dorothy Bonita East.[1] Her father was an engineer at Texaco. Janis had two younger siblings, Michael and Laura. As a teenager, she befriended a group of outcasts, including Jim Langdon and Grant Lyons, the latter of whom played her the blues for the first time. She began listening to musicians such as Leadbelly, Bessie Smith, Odetta, and Big Mama Thornton and singing in the local choir. While at Thomas Jefferson High School, she was mostly shunned. Among her high school classmates was another individual destined for stardom: future college and NFL coach Jimmy Johnson. In a 1992 Sports Illustrated profile of his career, Johnson claimed that he gave Janis the high school nickname of “beat weeds.” Primarily a painter, it was in high school that she first began singing blues and folk music with friends. Joplin graduated from high school in 1960 and attended the University of Texas in Austin, though she never attained a degree. One persistent story is of her being nominated in a Fraternity contest “The Ugliest Man on Campus.” She lived in a building commonly refered to as “The Ghetto” which was located at 2812 1/2 Nueces Street. The building has since been torn down and replaced with new apartment buildings. The rent was a mere $40 a month when she lived there.

Cultivating a rebellious manner that could be viewed as “liberated” — the women’s liberation movement was still in its infancy at this time — Joplin styled herself in part after her female blues heroines, and in part after the beat poets. She left Texas for San Francisco in 1963, lived in North Beach and in Haight-Ashbury as well as Corte Madera. On 25 June 1964 Janis and Jefferson Airplane guitar player Jorma Kaukonen recorded a number of blues standards at Jorma’s Mother’s House in San Jose, CA , further accompanied by Margaretta Kaukonen on typewriter (as percussion instrument). These lo-fi sessions included seven tracks: “Typewriter Talk”, “Trouble In Mind”, “Kansas City Blues”, “Hesitation Blues”, “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out”, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy” and “Long Black Train Blues”, and were later released as the Bootleg Album The Typewriter Tape.

Around this time her drug use began to increase, and she acquired a reputation as a “speed freak” and occasional heroin user. She also used other intoxicants. She was a heavy drinker throughout her career, and her trademark beverage was Southern Comfort.

Like many other female singers of the era, Joplin’s feisty public image was at odds with her real personality. The book Love, Janis, written by her sister, has done much to further the reassessment of her life and work and reveals the private Joplin to have been a highly intelligent, articulate, shy and sensitive woman who was devoted to her family.

Big Brother and the Holding Company

Joplin again moved to San Francisco in 1966, where her bluesy vocal style saw her join Big Brother and The Holding Company, a band that was gaining some renown among the nascent hippie community in Haight-Ashbury. The band signed a deal with independent Mainstream Records and recorded an eponymously titled album in 1967. However, the lack of success of their early singles led to the album being withheld until after their subsequent success.

The band’s big break came with their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, which included a version of Big Mama Thornton’s “Ball and Chain” and featured a barnstorming vocal by Joplin. (The D.A. Pennebaker documentary Monterey Pop captured Cass Elliot in the crowd silently mouthing “Wow, that’s really heavy” during Joplin’s performance.) Their 1968 album Cheap Thrills featured more raw emotional performances and together with the Monterey performance, it made Joplin into one of the leading musical stars of the late Sixties. It also produced Joplin’s breakthrough hit single, “Piece of My Heart”, whose chorus would be borrowed two years later by Alive N Kickin’’s one-hit wonder “Tighter, Tighter”. Cheap Thrills sold over one million copies in its first month of release. Live at Winterland ‘68, recorded at the Winterland Ballroom on April 12 and 13, 1968 shows Janis and Big Brother and the Holding Company at the height of their mutual career working through an inspired selection of tracks from their studio albums.

Solo career and Woodstock

After splitting from Big Brother in December of 1968, she formed a new backup group, modelled on the classic soul revue bands, named the Kozmic Blues Band, which backed her on I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969: the year she played at Woodstock). The band contained a horn section and many reviewers felt the horns competed with her. The album was certified gold later that year but was a more modest success than Cheap Thrills. The group was indifferently received and soon broke up after a year, and Joplin then formed The Full Tilt Boogie Band. The result was the posthumously released Pearl (1971). It became the biggest selling album of her short career and featured her biggest hit single, the definitive version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee”, as well as the wry social commentary of the a cappella “Mercedes Benz”, written by Joplin and beat poet Michael McClure.

Among her last public appearances were two broadcasts of The Dick Cavett Show on June 25 and August 3, 1970. On the June 25 show she announced that she would attend her ten-year high school Class reunion, although she admitted that when in high school she had been “laughed out of class, out of school, out of town, out of the state”. She made it there, but it would be one of the last decisions of her life and it reportedly proved to be a rather unhappy experience for her.

Death

During the fall 1970 recording sessions for the Pearl album with The Doors and Phil Ochs producer Paul A. Rothchild, Joplin died, aged 27. Her death was caused by an overdose of heroin on October 4, 1970. The last recordings she completed were “Mercedes Benz” and a birthday greeting for John Lennon on October 1, 1970; Lennon later told Dick Cavett that her taped greeting arrived at his New York home after her death.

She was cremated in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California, and her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean. The album Pearl, released six weeks after her death, included a version of Nick Gravenites’ song “Buried Alive In The Blues”, which was left as an instrumental because Joplin had died before she was able to record her vocal over the backing track.

Legacy

Joplin is now remembered best for her powerful, and distinctive voice — her rasping, overtone-rich sound was significantly divergent from the soft folk and jazz-influenced styles that were common among many white artists at the time — as well as for her lyrical themes of pain and loss. To many, she personified that period of the Sixties when the San Francisco sound, along with (then considered) outlandish dress and life style jolted the country. Many Joplin fans remember her appearance on the Dick Cavett show with an obviously delighted Dick Cavett. She is mentioned in the book, “Small Steps”, a sequel to the hit novel, “Holes”. ^[1] The genuineness of her personality always came across in press interviews, for better or worse.

Joplin’s contributions to the rock idiom were long overlooked^{[citation needed]}, but her importance is now becoming more widely appreciated, thanks in part to the recent release of the long-unreleased documentary film Festival Express, which captured her at her very best. Janis’s vocal style, her flamboyant dress, her outspokenness and sense of humour, her liberated stance (politically and sexually) and her strident, hard-living “one of the boys” image all combined to create an entirely new kind of female persona in rock.

It can be argued that, prior to Joplin, there was a tendency for solo, white female pop performers to be pigeonholed in to a few broadly defined roles — the gentle, guitar-strumming ‘folkie’ (e.g. Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell), the virginal ‘pop goddess’ (e.g. Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney) or the cool, elegantly dressed chanteuse (e.g. Dusty Springfield)^{[citation needed]} who, in fact, included a version of “Piece Of My Heart” on her 1968 album “Dusty…Definitely”, released within a few months of Joplin’s studio version. As one of the first women to front a fully-fledged rock band, Joplin followed the precedent set by her white, male counterparts in adopting the image, repertoire and performance style of African American blues and rhythm and blues artists, both male and female. In so doing, Joplin was pivotal in redefining what was possible for white female singers in mainstream American popular music.

Not recognized by her hometown during her life, she was remembered much later. In 1988, her life and achievements were showcased and recognized in Port Arthur by the dedication of the Janis Joplin Memorial, with an original bronze, multi-image sculpture of Joplin by Douglas Clark.

Alongside Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, she pioneered an entirely new range of expression for white women in the previously male-dominated world of post-Beatles rock. It is also notable that, in a very short time, she transcended the role of “chick singer” fronting an all-male band, to being an internationally famous solo star in her own right.

Joplin is also notable as one of the few female performers of her day to regularly wear pants (or slacks), rather than skirts or dresses.^{[citation needed]} Her body decoration with a wristlet and a small heart on her left breast, by the San Francisco tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle, is taken as a seminal moment in the tattoo revolution and was an early moment in the popular culture’s acceptance of tattoos as art.^[2]. Another trademark was her flamboyant hair styles, often including colored streaks and accessories such as scarves, beads and feathers, a style strikingly at odds with the ‘regulation’ perms or wigs sported by most female singers of the day.^{[citation needed]} It is especially notable that she is probably the only major female pop-rock star of the period who never wore makeup — something that was very striking at a time when the wearing of makeup was de rigueur for female performers.

People have drawn comparisons between Joplin and her close contemporary Jimi Hendrix (with whom it was rumored that she had a tryst in a bathroom stall)^{[citation needed]}, who similarly was catapulted to fame by his appearance at Monterey, had a brief, successful career, and who also died from drug-related causes within weeks of Joplin, also at the age of twenty-seven.

Joplin also has been compared with Jim Morrison, another contemporary who died at twenty-seven after a successful and drug-fueled career. She and Morrison also reportedly had an affair.

The 1979 film The Rose was loosely based on Joplin’s life. The lead role earned Bette Midler an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress (Joplin had gone to see Midler perform several times at the Continental Baths at the Ansonia Hotel in New York, when Midler was first starting out). In the late 1990s, a musical based on “Love, Janis,” was launched, with an aim to take it to Off-Broadway. Opening there in the summer of 2001 and scheduled for only a few weeks of performances, the show won acclaim and packed houses and was held over several times, the demanding role of the singing Janis attracting rock vocalists from relative unknowns to pop stars Laura Branigan and Beth Hart. A national tour followed. Gospel According to Janis, a biographical film starring Zooey Deschanel as Joplin as currently in production and scheduled for a 2008 release.

Contemporary singer P!nk has cited Janis Joplin as one of her first idols. During her 2004 Try This Tour, P!nk performed a three song acoustic medley of: Summertime/Me and Bobby McGee/Piece of My Heart

• Delicate.mp3

Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D’Arby and born Terence Trent Howard on March 15, 1962) is an American-born singer-songwriter currently living in Milan, Italy. He is recognizable through his trademark voice resembling that of Sam Cooke, and the fact that, like such artists as Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren and Prince before him, he produces his own albums and plays most of the instruments.
A graduate of DeLand High School, Terence Trent Howard was born in Manhattan, New York and joined the army after leaving college, serving in Elvis Presley’s old regiment in Germany. He was formally discharged by the army in 1985 after going absent without leave. While in Germany, he also worked with the band The Touch , releasing an album of material called Love On Time (1984). It was later re-issued in 1989 as Early Works after Maitreya’s world-wide success as a solo artist. In 1986 he left Germany for London, where he briefly joined the band The Bojangels, after which he signed a solo recording deal.

As Terence Trent D’Arby
His debut solo album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby, released in 1987, is his best-known and, in commercial terms, most successful work. The album, which produced such hits as “If You Let Me Stay,” “Wishing Well,” “Dance Little Sister,” and “Sign Your Name,” sold over a million copies in the first three days of its release, and its sales currently total over 12 million. The album also earned Maitreya a Grammy Award in March 1988 in the category Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male. In that same year, he earned a Soul Train Award nomination for Best New Artist.
Maitreya’s follow-up was the somewhat more experimental and serious Neither Fish Nor Flesh: A Soundtrack of Love, Faith, Hope & Destruction (1989). It gathered generally hostile reviews from the critics, and was not commercially as successful as its predecessor. Nevertheless, it sold over 2 million copies.
It took four more years and a move to Los Angeles until his next project, Symphony or Damn: Exploring the Tension Inside the Sweetness (1993) was released. The record touched many of the issues that had been raised also in Neither Fish Nor Flesh, but was musically more straightforward and rock-influenced than its predecessors. It gathered favourable reviews and gained much airplay in major music stations.
In 1995 Maitreya released Vibrator, which largely followed Symphony or Damn in its musical direction. It was well received, but like the previous album, failed to return the artist back to the public status that he had enjoyed at the time of his first release.
During the 1990s the relations between the artist and his record label Columbia Records became strained, eventually leading to the artist’s departure in 1996. This was followed by a four-year spell on Java Records, during which he recorded Terence Trent D’Arby’s Solar Return, which was not released. In 2000, he bought the rights to his unreleased album and left the record company as well as his then-management-team Lippman Entertainment.
In 1999, Maitreya was briefly hired by INXS to replace his friend, late vocalist Michael Hutchence, so the band could play at the opening of facilities for the Sydney Olympics.

As Sananda Maitreya
Following a series of dreams, the artist adopted the name Sananda Maitreya. His name was legally changed to that on October 4, 2001.
2001 also saw Maitreya moving back to Europe and Germany, as he resettled in Munich and started his own independent record label, Sananda Records. The year also marked his first album release in six years, as the unreleased Terence Trent D’Arby’s Soular Return was revamped into Wildcard. The album, which received a warm critical welcome, was at first available for free through his website, and later gained also a commercial release through a one-album distribution deal with Universal Music.
In 2002 Maitreya moved to Milan, Italy, and began working on his next project, Angels & Vampires – Volume I. Rough demo versions of the songs were initially released through Weedshare, allowing the fans to get a glimpse of the work as it evolved. In July 29, 2005, the fully mastered album was finally released through his webshop utilizing the mp3 format.
In July 2005 Maitreya started working on Angels & Vampires – Volume II, he released chapter after chapter online as soon he finished recording the songs. On April 29, 2006 he released the fully finished and mastered album in his webshop.

Film career
Maitreya has appeared in two films, as well the TV series Shake, Rattle And Roll where he played the part of Jackie Wilson. His music has also been included on several movie soundtracks, most notably as the theme song of 1991’s Frankie and Johnny.

•  Begging To You.wav

Marty Robbins, (September 26, 1925 – December 8, 1982), was an American Country & Western Hall of Fame musician. He was one of the most popular and successful country singers of his era. For most of his nearly four-decade career, Robbins was rarely far from the country music charts. Several of his songs became pop hits, as well.

Born Martin David Robinson near Glendale, Arizona, Robbins served in the United States Navy as an LCT coxswain during World War II. To pass the time during the war, he learned to play the guitar, started writing songs, and grew to love Hawaiian music.

After his discharge from the military in 1945, he started playing at local venues in Phoenix, then moved on to host his own radio station show, on KTYL, and ended up with his own television (TV) show on KPHO in Phoenix. After Little Jimmy Dickens made a guest appearance on Robbins’ TV show, Dickens got Robbins a record deal with Columbia. He went on to become an immensely popular singing star of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

Marty Robbins

His musical accomplishments include the first Grammy Award ever awarded for a country song, for his 1959 hit and signature song “El Paso”. “El Paso” was also the first song to hit #1 on the pop chart in the 1960s. It was taken from his album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. He won the Grammy Award for the Best Country & Western Recording 1961, for the follow-up album More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, and was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1970, for “My Woman, My Woman, My Wife.” Robbins was named “Artist of the Decade” (1960-69) by the Academy of Country Music, was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982, and was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998 for his song “El Paso”.

Marty Robbins was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. For his contribution to the recording industry, Marty Robbins has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6666 Hollywood Blvd.

Between recording songs and touring, Marty Robbins was an avid race car driver, competing in NASCAR with the best stock car drivers in the world, including at the Daytona 500. In 1967, Robbins starred in Hell on Wheels, a car racing film; Robbins played himself in the film.[1]

Marty Robbins died in Nashville on December 8, 1982, at the age of 57, due to surgical complications. He was interred in the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville.

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George Thorogood (born December 31, 1951) is a blues-rock and rock performer from Wilmington, Delaware. He was raised on Clearview Avenue in Naamans Gardens, a suburb of Wilmington, Delaware. During this time he went to Brandywine High School.

Thorogood cut his debut album titled Better Than the Rest in 1974, and released it that same year. In the autumn of 1976 he recorded his second album, the eponymous George Thorogood with his band, The Destroyers (sometimes also known as The Delaware Destroyers or simply GT and D) and issued the album in 1977. Thorogood released his next album titled Move It On Over in the autumn of 1978 with The Destroyers, which included the hit “Move It On Over” in 1978. “Please Set A Date” and “Who Do You Love” both followed in 1979.

During the 1980s, and 1990s, Thorogood recorded some of his most well known works, Bad to the Bone (used to great effect during the bar scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and in the opening scene of John Carpenter’s Christine) and in the movie Major Payne, “I Drink Alone” (from his Maverick album), “You Talk Too Much”, and “If You Don’t Start Drinking, I’m Gonna Leave”.

Thorogood is best known for his animated stage presence and loud, raucous electric slide guitar playing. He is also known as “Lonesome George”.

Conga.mp3

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Gloria Estefan (born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García on September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning Cuban-American singer and songwriter.

Estefan began her career as lead vocalist for the Hispanic dance music band, Miami Sound Machine, in 1975. They crossed over to mainstream popular success with English-speaking audiences with the international hit singles, “Dr. Beat” (1984) and “Conga” (1986).

Known as the “Queen of Latin Pop,” Estefan is one of the world’s most recognized popular music artists. With over 70 million albums sold worldwide, she is the single most successful crossover performer in Latin music history.

Fleeing Cuba
Cuban-born, Gloria’s family moved to Miami, Florida when she was 16 months old, following the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Gloria’s father José Fajardo, who in the 1950s was a personal bodyguard to then Cuban president Fulgencio Batista’s wife, was captured in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion that attempted to overthrow the new communist government established by Fidel Castro. Gloria’s father was held as a prisoner until an exchange was arranged by President John F. Kennedy

Parents
Gloria’s father served as an officer in the United States Army in Vietnam, where he is suspected of having been exposed to Agent Orange, a defoliant used extensively during the Vietnam war to clear combat areas. He subsequently contracted multiple sclerosis, and was nursed by a young Estefan for many years. He died in 1980.
Gloria’s mother, Gloria García Pérez de Fajardo, now living in Miami, ran a school in Cuba in the 1950s for kindergarten students.
University of Miami
Gloria was raised primarily in Miami (though she accompanied her mother, father and younger sister, Becky, to several military bases in the 1960s during her father’s military service). She attended the University of Miami. As a student there, she also worked as a Spanish and French translator at Miami International Airport’s Customs Department.
Gloria graduated from the University of Miami in 1978 with a degree in communications and psychology (with a minor in French). Since graduating, she has been a prominent advocate for the university and a member of its Board of Trustees. She has appeared in national television advertisements for the university and is one of several highly prominent University of Miami alumni.

Miami Sound Machine
Estefan’s first public musical performance was at a large Cuban wedding when her future husband, Emilio Estefan, Jr., asked her to join Miami Sound Machine in singing.
Her appearance was well-received and, a few weeks later, she became the lead singer for Miami Sound Machine, which performed and recorded in Spanish in the early years of its existence. The Miami Sound Machine soon gained a large fan base and released an LP in 1977. It was the first all-Spanish album from CBS International.
With Estefan on vocals, The Miami Sound Machine had its first English-language hit with “Dr. Beat,” which topped the dance charts across Europe and went Top 5 in the UK and Australia, from the album Eyes of Innocence, in 1984. Primitive Love was released in 1986; The single “Conga” broke MSM into the American pop market. “Bad Boy”, and “Words Get in the Way” became follow up hits in the US and around the world; “Words Get In The Way” reached #1 in the US Adult Contemporary chart, establishing that the group could do pop ballads equally as well as dance tunes. The song “Hot Summer Nights” was also released that year and was part of the blockbuster movie Top Gun.
Estefan’s next album, 1988’s Let It Loose, went multi-platinum, with six million copies sold alone in the US and featured the following hits: “Anything For You” (#1 Pop), “1,2,3″ (#3 Pop), “Betcha Say That” (#36 Pop), “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” (#5 Pop), and “Can’t Stay Away From You” (#6 Pop). “Can’t Stay Away From You,” “Anything For You” and “1-2-3″ were all #1 Adult Contemporary hits as well.
In 1988, Estefan took top billing as the band’s name changed to Gloria Estefan and The Miami Sound Machine. Beginning in 1989, the group’s name was dropped altogether and Estefan was credited as a solo artist, though the ever-changing line-up of Miami Sound Machine has continued to be her backing band to this day.
In 1989, after the worldwide chart success of single “Anything For You”, their Let It Loose album was repackaged as Anything For You. It became the band’s first UK #1 album, selling over a million copies. It was the biggest selling album of the year in Holland, staying at #1 for 22 weeks. The album also took top honors in Australia and Canada launching Estefan to superstar status.
In 1989, she released her best-selling album to date, Cuts Both Ways, the title of which refers to Estefan’s desire to appeal to both English and Spanish-speaking fans. Hits included “Don’t Wanna Lose You” (a USA #1 hit), “Oye mi Canto (Hear my Voice)”, “Here We Are”, “Cuts Both Ways” (#1 in Australia and on the US AC chart), and “Get on Your Feet” .
Cuts Both Ways sold over 1 million copies and went platinum within its first month of release in the US. The success followed in the UK, where it debuted at #1, with Gloria being the first act in 10 years to have two # 1 albums on the UK charts in one calendar year. Cuts Both Ways then shot to # 1 in Australia, Holland, Belgium, Japan and more, selling over ten million copies worldwide.

Marriage and children
Gloria Fajardo became romantically involved with the Miami Sound Machine’s band leader, Emilio Estefan, in 1976. She and Emilio married on September 2, 1978. They have a son, Nayib (born September 2, 1980), and a daughter, Emily Marie (born December 5, 1994).

Tour bus crash
While touring in support of Cuts Both Ways on March 20, 1990, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, Estefan was critically injured and her back broken when a tractor trailer crashed into her tour bus. She was flown by helicopter to New York City, where surgeons permanently implanted two titanium rods to stabilize her spinal column. Her grueling rehabilitation required almost a year of intensive physical therapy but she sustained a fairly complete recovery.

Comeback
Estefan returned to the charts with a concept album, Into the Light in 1991. “Coming Out of the Dark” was performed publicly for the first time on the American Music Awards in January 1991, and reached #1 in the US as a single a few months later. The Into the Light World Tour covered 100 cities in nine countries and was seen by more than 10 million people worldwide. She followed up Into the Light with her first greatest-hits album in 1992, which included the minor US hit ballads “Always Tomorrow” and “I See Your Smile” and the international hit dance track “Go Away.” Also in 1992, Estefan helped contribute to the mainstream success of fellow Cuban-American singer-songwriter Jon Secada, including singing backup on his breakthrough hit, “Just Another Day.” Estefan spent much of the latter half of the year in Miami, helping with relief from the devastation of Hurricane Andrew.
1993’s Mi Tierra saw Estefan return to her Cuban roots with a Spanish-language album, for which she won a Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album. Mi Tierra was a successful album worldwide, with over eight million copies sold. In Spain, Mi Tierra became the country’s best selling international album ever.
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, a cover album of some of Estefan’s favorite 1960s and 1970s songs (including the title song, the Classics IV’s “Traces,” and Blood, Sweat & Tears’ “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” among others), was released in 1994. “Turn the Beat Around”, the first single and a remake of Vicki Sue Robinson’s 1976 disco classic, became another international hit, certified gold in the US and also featured in the Sharon Stone movie The Specialist. “Everlasting Love” (the 1967 Robert Knight and 1974 Carl Carlton classic) was a successful club and pop hit, and a third single, a remake of Carole King’s signature song “It’s Too Late,” did well on Adult Contemporary radio.
1995’s Spanish-language album Abriendo Puertas earned Estefan her second Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album. It spun off two #1 Dance hits, “Abriendo Puertas” and “Tres Deseos,” and two #1 Latin singles, “Abriendo Puertas” and “Mas Allá.” The Miami Herald called Abriendo Puertas “a danceable pan-Latin American fusion, brilliantly built on improbable instrumental combinations and layers of styles and rhythms.”
In 1995, Estefan sang the Billboard Latin #1 song “Mas Allá” for Pope John Paul II as part of the celebration of his 50th anniversary in the priesthood. She was the first pop star invited to perform for the Pope. At their meeting, Estefan, an anti-communist, asked the Pope to pray for a free Cuba. She has been an active opponent of Fidel Castro’s government, and after some ambiguous statements supported the unsuccessful effort to keep young Elián González in the United States.

•  Mickey.wav

Toni Basil (born Antonia Christina Basilotta on September 22, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a musician, video artist, actress, and choreographer.

Her recording career began in 1966 with a rare one-off single for A&M Records, the title song from the film Breakaway. Although she appeared three times as musical guest during the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975–76, it wasn’t until 1982 that she released a follow-up, the international smash “Mickey”. This song is, in fact, a cover of “Kitty”, a 1979 release by UK band Racey, written by British hitmakers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. “Mickey” itself would be covered in a parody by “Weird Al” Yankovic as “Ricky”. Furthermore, “Mickey” was actually recorded in 1979, and when her record label wanted to release the song in 1982, Basil was reluctant, believing the song already sounded “dated”. But the label persevered, and pop-music history was made.

Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers. This is one of their compilation albums, Super Hits.

Larry Gatlin (born May 2, 1948 in Seminole, Texas) is a Country Music singer best known for his string of countrypolitan hits in the 1970s and 80s. In 1979, he teamed up with his brothers to create Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers. Larry Gatlin had his greatest success with his brothers in this band. He is also known for his tenor voice.

Larry Gatlin might best be known for his string of glitzy-styled Country Music songs he recorded during the 70s and 80s. During this time, country music trended toward the edge of Pop music. Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers became famous during this period. They became one of the most successful artists in this genre.

Larry Gatlin was born in Seminole, Texas in 1948. He was the son of an oil field worker, the oldest of three children. He and his brothers began performing at family and church gatherings. He was football star in high school. After graduating he studied at the University of Houston on a football scholarship.

While in college, Gatlin began performing locally, which eventually led to a chance meeting with Dottie West, a reknowned Country singer during the 60s. West was impressed by Gatlin’s songwriting talents and, in addition to recording a couple of his compositions herself, talked Gatlin into moving to Nashville. West sent him a plane ticket for the trip. He would landed a record deal with Monument Records

In 1974, Larry released his first album on Monument called The Pilgrim. His brothers, Steve and Rudy appeared on this album. This album led to his first Top Twenty Country single called “Delta Dirt”. The song also reached the Pop charts, peaking at #84.

He had more success following the release of his first album. Hits such as “Broken Lady”, “Anything But Leavin’”, “I Don’t Wanna Cry” and “Love Is Just a Game” are all notable hits from 70s. In 1976, he became part of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1977, Larry Gatlin won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song for his composition of “Broken Lady” and in 1979 he was voted the “Top Male Vocalist of the Year” by the Academy of Country Music.

Larry Gatlin is also well known for his partnership with his younger brothers Steven and Rudy Gatlin in the Gatlin Brothers Band on Monument Records, and later Columbia Records. The Gatlins first hit No. 1 in 1978 with “I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love,” a year before their most famous hit, “All the Gold in California”. Their only other No. 1 hit was 1983’s “Houston (Means I’m One Day Closer to You)”.

Other well-known hits by the Gatlins include “Love is Just a Game” (1977); “Take Me to Your Lovin’ Place” (1980); “Denver” (1984); and “She Used to Be Somebody’s Baby” (1986).

In 1985, Larry Gatlin wrote the song “Indian Summer” with Barry Gibb, which he recorded as a duet with Roy Orbison.

Decline & Comeback

After more than a decade of singing together, in December 1992 the Gatlin Brothers embarked on a farewell tour before retiring to their own theater in [[Myrtle Beach, South Carolina]. Larry Gatlin went on to star in the Broadway production of The Will Rogers Follies.

Larry Gatlin wrote a memoir called All the Gold in California that was published in 1998.

The Gatlin Brothers are the subject of a well-known country-music inside joke: They’re mentioned as the collective nemesis of Kenny Rogers in his hit song “Coward of the County”. In the movie inspired by this song, the brothers’ names were changed to “Jimmy, Paul and Luke Gatlin.”

In the 1990s, Larry Gatlin built his own entertainment career in Branson, Missouri.

I Don’t Want To Cry.wav 

Jeff Bates was only 17 when he entered a honky tonk in his hometown of Bunker Hill, MS. He wasn’t there for the smoking, drinking, or rabble-rousing; he was there to audition, hoping to land a show or two. The audience went wild for his voice — a mix of Barry White, Elvis Presley, and Otis Redding — and before he knew it, Bates was offered a six-nights-a-week gig. Everything pointed to Nashville, but before he would get there, Bates had to battle a crippling methamphetamine addiction that eventually landed him in jail. He had a spiritual awakening while locked up and emerged from jail not only clean and sober but also driven and ambitious in a way he never was before. Moving to Nashville and working extra hard, Bates caught the ear of the RCA label and landed a deal in 2002. The label issued his debut, Rainbow Man, in 2003 and his sophomore effort, Good People, in 2005. He kicked off the promotional campaign for his 2006 release Leave the Light On by performing the album’s single, “One Second Chance,” live at the Grand Old Opry

•  If You Could Only See.wav
• 
  

Photo Courtesy of Bo Streeter

Chris Abbondanza – Vocals/Guitar

Ryan Lucotch – Drums
Dave Cramer – Keyboard/Vocals
Bob Crafton – Steel Guitar
Chris Higbee – Fiddle
David Guthrie – Electric Guitar
Jeff Volek – Bass/Accordion/Guitar/Vocals

“We did things backwards,” PovertyNeck Hillbillies lead singer Abby proudly declares.

What Abby means is that, in this day of style’s triumph over substance, he and his bandmates – fiddler Chris Higbee, keyboardist Dave Cramer, guitarist David “Junior” Guthrie, pedal steel guitarist Bob “Crafty” Crafton, bass player Jeff Volek and drummer Ryan Lucotch – started with the music, not the marketing. The Hillbillies built a fervent fan base in their home state of Pennsylvania based on their wild, charismatic live shows, their muscular, melodic playing, and their catchy, crowd-pleasing songs – and they’re now expanding that rapidly growing audience nationwide.

“It was grassroots, word-of-mouth stuff,” says Abby. “That’s how we did it. We kept throwing out pebbles, and the ripples went out a little further each time.”

And so by the time the PovertyNeck Hillbillies set foot on a Nashville stage for the first time, they had already sold tens of thousands of CDs and boasted a fan club larger than many acts in the mainstream country Top 10. The Hillbillies are poised to make a play for that mainstream themselves – and make no mistake, the 10 tracks on The PovertyNeck Hillbillies, their debut album, are as radio-ready and instantly accessible as they are honest, heartfelt and fresh.

The Hillbillies’ music is as direct and down-home as their striking moniker, which comes from a sign that founding member Chris Higbee discovered on his grandfather’s farm on Poverty Neck Lane in Southwestern Pennsylvania. “It’s typical farmland,” says Higbee of the area that he and his bandmates – country boys, outdoorsmen, hunters and fishermen – all call their homeland.

The Hillbillies began playing there together in 2000. “We were originally just a bunch of friends getting together,” remembers Higbee. “We all lived around each other. We just heard about this guy through that guy and started playing music very naturally.” Their upbringings had been similar, but their tastes in music were varied. “There’s seven different personalities in the band, and seven different musical backgrounds,” explains Abby. “Two of the guys grew up playing polka, Chris Higbee grew up listening to rock, Dave Cramer liked ’80s music, “Crafty” listened to Southern rock, and Junior and I always liked old country. When we get together though, it all blends together.”

When they took their act to the clubs in the state’s rock stronghold of Pittsburgh, the group quickly began amassing a following for their rootsy, hard-hitting country music. Their blistering live shows and relentless determination have gotten them where they are today. “We’re all goal-driven so we took things into our own hands and did it,” recalls Abby. “For us there was no question about getting things done because we love what we do and have the best fans a group could ask for. We are first and foremost musicians but we are also entertainers. So our goal is to give the fans what they want – great music and an even greater live show.”

After a while it was so long day jobs, hello music-making. “Everybody gave up everything in their lives to do this 100 percent,” adds Higbee. “The little goals were what kept us going.”

Little goals turned into big accolades. The Country Music Association named the Hillbillies one of 2005’s top independent artists, and they were declared the official band of the Pittsburgh Steelers – quite an honor indeed for these diehard pigskin fans.

“We started out by doing the national anthem at a Steelers game, then the halftime show,” says Abby of the band’s association with the 2005 Superbowl champs. “We were asked to do some private functions, then we got asked to do the pep rally at Heinz field four days before they left to go to the Superbowl. We played in front of 40,000 people, then Art Rooney, the owner of the Steelers, came up onstage and said, ‘I’d like to welcome and thank the new official band of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the PovertyNeck Hillbillies.’ We had no warning. If you’d have taken a picture of our faces ? It is such an honor.” (Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger guest stars in the group’s “Mr. Right Now” video, shot at Heinz Field.)

Just as thrilling was the moment the Hillbillies hooked up with Bob Corbin, who had enjoyed country success with the Corbin/Hanner Band and gone on to a successful songwriting and production career. Corbin began writing with primary group tunesmith Abby, and finally wound up producing The PovertyNeck Hillbillies. Most of the album’s tracks come with a pedigree, having been tested on the rowdy, rabid audiences at the group’s live shows. “The crowd helps to decide whether we record a song,” explains Abby. “Usually you know it’s a keeper if you see people catching on to the chorus by the end of the song.”

The biggest challenge the Hillbillies faced was capturing the infectious, uncontainable energy of those concerts on record. “We’ve always said that if we can play in front of you live, you’ll at some point in the show become a fan,” says Abby. “We’re not a sit-down-and-watch band and people across the country appreciate that. With seven members it’s hard not to be high energy and give it everything we got every time we go on stage.” Abby’s vocals blend a deep, country twang with a hint of rock-n-roll gravel, and are backed by powerful harmonies in songs such as, “She Rides Wild Horses” and “Mr. Right Now.” The six-piece band provides the full, articulate sound that makes The PovertyNeck Hillbillies unique in their genre.

Finally, the group decided it was time to take on Nashville, signing with Rust Records in February 2006. To their surprise, this organic, homegrown phenomenon has already found a place in Music City.

“We’re glad they’re accepting us with open arms, because that was a fear of ours,” admits Abby. “We’re not the typical Nashville band.”

The Hillbillies released their self-titled debut album nationally in June 2006, throwing in a two-hour DVD so newcomers to the band’s trademark sound can get a glimpse of their live shows and behind-the-scenes personalities. “We wanted you to get face-to-face with the music,” says Abby. “It gives you a better idea of what we’re about.”

What this band is about is a fresh, varied and wide-ranging approach to country music, held together by boundless energy and a fierce commitment to the songs, the audience and one another. The PovertyNeck Hillbillies might have gotten to where they are backward, but the only direction they’re moving in now is straight up.