Name	Barry Gibb
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Barry Alan Crompton Gibb
Born	September 01, 1946Douglas, Isle of Man
Origin	Raised in:Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, EnglandMoved to:Brisbane, Australia
Instrument	Guitar, vocals
Genre	Pop, rock, disco, country
Occupation	Singer-songwriter,record producer
Years active	1958–present
Associated acts	Bee Gees(1958–2003,2009–present)
Url	Official website}}

Barry Alan Crompton Gibb, CBE (born 1 September 1946), is a singer, songwriter and producer. He was born on the Isle of Man to English parents. With his brothers Robin and Maurice, he formed the Bee Gees, one of the most successful pop groups of all time. The trio got their start in Australia, and found their major success when they returned to England. Known for his high-pitched falsetto singing voice, Gibb holds the record for consecutive Billboard Hot 100 Number Ones as a writer with six. He also is the only songwriter to have written or co-written five songs that were simultaneously in the Top Ten.

Early life

Barry Gibb was born to Barbara and Hugh Gibb on the Isle of Man. He has an older sister, Lesley (b. 1945), and three younger brothers, fraternal twins Maurice (1949–2003) and Robin (b. 1949), and Andy (1958–1988). He and his family moved to Chorlton-cum-Hardy in Manchester in 1953. When he was 12 years old, his family moved to Brisbane, Australia, settling in one of the city's poorest suburbs, Cribb Island. The suburb was later bulldozed to make way for Brisbane Airport. It was in Australia that Gibb and his brothers Robin and Maurice starting performing as the Bee Gees. The Gibb family returned to England in 1967. Shortly afterward, the Bee Gees became international stars.

Career

The Bee Gees rank sixth on the all-time top-sellers list. Only Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, and Garth Brooks are known to have outsold the Gibb brothers. The trio's contribution to Saturday Night Fever pushed the film's soundtrack pass the 40 million mark in sales. It reigned as the top-selling album in history until Michael Jackson's Thriller. They are the only group in pop history to write, produce, and record six straight #1 hits. They have sixteen Grammy nominations and nine Grammy wins.

As a songwriter, working alone and with his brothers, Gibb has had great success. In 1978, he had five songs simultaneously in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100, and for one week in March, four of the top five songs were written by him. His songs were #1 for 27 out of 37 weeks from December 24, 1977 to September 2, 1978. As a songwriter Gibb has had #1 songs in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, when (Barry) Islands in the Stream became number 1 in the UK as the Comic Relief single for 2009. His songs have been recorded by hundreds of artists, including Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Barbra Streisand, Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Al Green, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers, Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross, Sarah Vaughn, and Wyclef Jean.

Gibb has written and produced successful albums for Andy Gibb, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Rogers, and Diana Ross.

The Bee Gees are inductees of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Barry Gibb married a former "Miss Edinburgh (Scotland)" Linda Gray on 1 September 1970, choosing his birthday "so he wouldn't forget [their] anniversary" according to his wife from a 1979 biography of the Bee Gees. At that time they lived in Abbey House, a mansion block in London near the Abbey Road crossing made famous by The Beatles. They have five children: Stephen (b. 1973), Ashley (b. 1977), Travis (b. 1981), Michael (b. 1984), and Alexandra (b. 1991). Michael Jackson was the godfather of Gibb's son Michael. Gibb's son Steve Gibb has toured with the Bee Gees and has played guitar with the bands Crowbar and Kingdom Of Sorrow.

According to the biography Tales from The Brothers' Gibb..., Gibb had a heart attack in the early 1990s, which was brought on by morphine during a back operation. He also suffers from arthritis. Gibb thought that his career might be over because his hands were so badly affected. He sometimes wears a glove to keep his hand warm while playing the guitar.

In January 2006, Gibb purchased the former home of country legends Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee, intending to restore it and turn it into a songwriting retreat. The house was destroyed by fire on 10 April 2007 while under renovation.

On 2 May 2004, Barry and Robin Gibb received the CBE award at Buckingham Palace with their nephew Adam, who collected the award in honor of his late father, Maurice Gibb.

On 10 July 2009, both Barry and Robin were made Freemen of the Borough of Douglas. The award was also bestowed posthumously on Maurice, therefore confirming the freedom of the town of their birth to all three brothers.

In 2009, The Sunday Times estimated that Gibb and his brother Robin's combined net worth at $180 million.

Gibb resides in Miami Beach, Florida and Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

Legislation lobbying

On 7 December 2006, Barry Gibb, along with around 4,500 other musicians, took out a full-page advertisement in the Financial Times newspaper calling for the British Government to extend the existing 50 years copyright protection for sound recordings in the United Kingdom. They proposed that the copyright be extended to the American standard of 95 years. The fair play for musicians advertisement was viewed as a direct response to the Gowers Review published by the British Government on 6 December 2006, which recommended the retention of the 50 year protection for sound recordings.

Recent work

On the 8 May 2007 episode of American Idol, Gibb mentored the four remaining contestants. On the following night, he sang his own song "To Love Somebody" before the elimination of LaKisha Jones.

As a preview to his forthcoming country album, Gibb released the song "Drown On The River" to iTunes. The song is also be featured in the 2008 movie Deal, starring Burt Reynolds.

Gibb composed the theme music for ITV's Grease Is The Word.

On 14 March 2009, Gibb teamed with Olivia Newton-John to present the one-hour finale performance at a star studded twelve-hour live concert at Sydney's Sydney Cricket Ground, part of Sound Relief, a fundraiser to aid victims of the February 2009 Victorian Bushfires that devastated large tracts of heavily wooded and populated south-eastern Australia. The concert was televised live nationally across Australia on the Max TV cable network.

In late 2009, Barry and Robin announced plans to record and perform together as the Bee Gees.

The Barry Gibb Talk Show

"The Barry Gibb Talk Show" has been a popular satirical segment on Saturday Night Live. It features Jimmy Fallon as a temperamental Barry Gibb and Justin Timberlake as his brother Robin.

On 16 March 2010, Barry and Robin Gibb appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They talked about their 50-year career, their recent appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and "The Barry Gibb Talk Show."

Discography

The Kid's No Good

1970 (unreleased)

Side 1

Mando Bay (or Born)

One Bad Thing

The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine

Happiness

Peace In My Mind

Clyde O'Reilly

Side 2

I Just Wanna Take Care Of You

I'll Kiss Your Memory

The Victim

This Time

What's It All About

Born (or Mando Bay)

Album Notes

The album is known by this title but it is not definite. The line 'the kid's no good' features in a Bee Gees song by Barry Gibb, "Come Home Johnny Bride", on the 1973 album Life In A Tin Can.

This is most likely the intended lineup, though available sources differ as to the placement of the first and last tracks. Bootleg versions add a number of additional tracks, and one claims to be a Polydor release.

"I'll Kiss Your Memory" and "This Time" were released on a single (Polydor in much of the world, Atco in North America), which did not chart. A second single of "One Bad Thing" and "The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine" was pressed by Atco Canada but not released.

1984: Now Voyager

Polydor, 1984 (MCA in North America)

Side 1

I Am Your Driver

Fine Line

Face To Face

Shatterproof

Shine Shine

Side 2

Lesson In Love

One Night (For Lovers)

Stay Alone

Temptation

She Says

The Hunter

Album Notes

To tie in with the album, Gibb filmed a "video album" version with a storyline, including nine of the songs and an instrumental title theme that is not on the LP or CD albums. The Now Voyager film is currently available as a Region 0 (all region) NTSC DVD. The video for "Fine Line" features a rarely seen Barry Gibb minus his trademark beard.

"Shine Shine" reached the Top 40 in the U.S. and the Top 10 in Adult Contemporary Charts.

Moonlight Madness

Polydor, 1986 (unreleased)

Side 1

Moonlight Madness

My Eternal Love

System Of Love

Where Tomorrow Is

In Search Of Love

Cover You

Side 2

The Savage Is Loose

Not In Love At All

Words Of A Fool

Distant Strangers

Change

Letting Go

Album Notes

Also known as When Tomorrow Comes and My Eternal Love.

Several songs would later appear on the Hawks soundtrack.

A bootleg version exists, titled The Original Hawks. This disc features the entire unreleased album, as well as a number of bonus tracks.

1988: Hawks (OST)

Polydor, 1988

System Of Love

Childhood Days

My Eternal Love

Moonlight Madness

Where Tomorrow Is

Celebration De La Vie (Theme From Hawks)

Chain Reaction

Cover You

Not In Love At All

Letting Go

Album Notes

The final incarnation of the unreleased Moonlight Madness album.

"Chain Reaction" is performed by Diana Ross.

2006: The Guilty Demos

private, 1979 (unreleased) / iTunes, 2006

Guilty

Woman in Love

Run Wild

Promises

The Love Inside

What Kind Of Fool

Life Story

Make It Like A Memory

Carried Away

Secrets

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Barbra Streisand.

Finally released on iTunes in 2006 as The Guilty Demos.

A demo of "Never Give Up" was also recorded, but remains unreleased.

"Carried Away" and "Secrets" were not used on Streisand's version.

2006: The Heartbreaker Demos

private, 1982 (unreleased) / iTunes, 2006

Heartbreaker

It Makes No Difference

Yours

Take The Short Way Home

Misunderstood

All The Love In The World

I Can't See Anything (But You)

Just One More Night

You Are My Love

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Dionne Warwick.

Released on iTunes in 2006 as The Heartbreaker Demos.

2006: The Eyes That See in the Dark Demos

private, 1983 (unreleased) / iTunes, 2006

This Woman

You And I

Buried Treasure

Islands In The Stream

Living With You

Evening Star

Hold Me

Midsummer Nights

I Will Always Love You

Eyes That See In The Dark

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Kenny Rogers. The released versions include instrumental tracks from these demos.

Released on iTunes in 2006 as The Eyes That See In The Dark Demos.

Gibb's demo of "Islands in the Stream" was not used when the song was chosen for inclusion on the 2001 Bee Gees compilation, . Instead, Robin and Maurice, sans Barry, recorded a brand new version.

2006: The Eaten Alive Demos

private, 1985 / iTunes, 2006

Oh Teacher

Experience

More And More

I'm Watching You

Love On The Line

(I Love) Being In Love With You

Crime Of Passion

Don't Give Up On Each Other

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Diana Ross.

Released on iTunes in 2006 as The Eatin Alive Demos. The spelling of "Eaten" was later corrected.

Notable for their absences are "Eaten Alive" and "Chain Reaction." Though a demo exists, the album's title track was not included as the song is currently the property of its co-author, Michael Jackson. Gibb and Albhy Galuten did not send any demo of "Chain Reaction" to Diana Ross, and evidently Gibb did not want to release whatever work tape they had of it.

Guilty Pleasures Demos

private, 2005 (unreleased) / Barry Gibb Radio, 2006

Come Tomorrow

Stranger In A Strange Land

Hideaway

It's Up To You

Night Of My Life

Above The Law

Without Your Love

All Our Children

Golden Dawn

Album Notes

Recorded as a guideline for Barbra Streisand.

As of yet, the full-length demos have not been released. All nine songs appeared on the online "Barry Gibb Radio" as two or three minute fragments, with a fade at each end.

Two songs are missing from the above tracklist - "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away" and "Letting Go." As both songs were previously released, no new demos were necessary.

Albums

1970: The Kid's No Good (Unreleased)

1984: Now Voyager

1988: Hawks (Soundtrack album)

2006: The Eaten Alive Demos (iTunes)

2006: The Guilty Demos (iTunes)

2006: The Eyes That See In The Dark Demos (iTunes)

2006: The Heartbreaker Demos (iTunes)

Singles

1969: "I'll Kiss Your Memory"

1978: "A Day in the Life"

1981: "Guilty" (duet with Barbra Streisand)

1981: "What Kind of Fool" (duet with Barbra Streisand)

1984: "Shine Shine"

1984: "Fine Line"

1988: "Childhood Days"

2006: "Dr. Mann"

2006: "Underworld"

2007: "Drown On the River"

References

External links

Official Barry Gibb Website

Official Bee Gees Website

Category:Bee Gees members Category:English pop singers Category:English-language singers Category:English male singers Category:English record producers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English songwriters Category:English tenors Category:Countertenors Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Musicians from Manchester Category:People from Brisbane Category:Australian people of English descent Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:English expatriates in Australia Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:Manx people

Background	solo_singer
Born	September 26, 1948Cambridge, England
Instrument	Vocal, Piano
Genre	Pop, country
Occupation	Singer, actress, songwriter, entrepreneur
Years active	1963–present
Associated acts	Cliff Richard, John Travolta, Andy Gibb, Barry Gibb, Bee Gees, ELO, John Farrar, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb, Anni-Frid Lyngstad among others.
Url	olivianewton-john.com

Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE (born 26 September 1948) is an English-born, Australian-raised singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two platinum and four double platinum) have been certified gold by the RIAA. Her music has been successful in multiple formats including pop, country and adult contemporary. She co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Grease, which became one of the most successful films and movie soundtracks in Hollywood history.

Newton-John has been a long-time activist for environmental and animal rights issues. Since surviving breast cancer in 1992, she has been an advocate for health awareness becoming involved with various charities, health products and fundraising efforts. Her business interests have included launching several product lines for Koala Blue and co-owning the Gaia Retreat & Spa in Australia.

Newton-John has been married twice. She currently lives with her second husband, John Easterling, in Jupiter Inlet Colony, Florida. She is the mother of one daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi, with her first husband, actor Matt Lattanzi.

Beginnings

Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, to a Welsh father, Brinley ("Bryn") Newton-John, and a Jewish-German mother, Irene Born, the eldest child of the Nobel prize-winning atomic physicist Max Born. Newton-John's family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1954 where her father worked as a professor of German and as Master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne.

At 14, Newton-John formed a short-lived all-girl band, Sol Four, with three classmates often performing in a coffee shop owned by her brother-in-law. She became a regular on local Australian radio and television shows including HSV-7's The Happy Show where she performed as "Lovely Livvy." She also appeared on the Go Show where she met future duet partner, Pat Carroll, and future music producer John Farrar. (Carroll and Farrar would later marry.) She entered and won a talent contest on the television program, Sing, Sing, Sing, hosted by 1960s Australian icon Johnny O'Keefe performing the songs "Anyone Who Had A Heart" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses." Newton-John was initially reluctant to use the prize she had won, a trip to England, but travelled there nearly a year later after her mother encouraged her to broaden her horizons. After Carroll's visa expired forcing her to return to Australia, Newton-John remained in England to pursue solo work until 1975. She became engaged to, but never married, The Shadows' guitarist Bruce Welch.

Newton-John was recruited for the group Toomorrow formed by American producer Don Kirshner who was also the music consultant for the earliest recordings of The Monkees. In 1970, the group starred in a "science fiction musical" film and recorded an accompanying soundtrack both named after the group. The project bombed and the group disbanded.

Early success

Newton-John released her first solo album, If Not For You (No. 158 Pop), in 1971. The title track, written by Bob Dylan and previously recorded by Beatle George Harrison for his 1970 album, All Things Must Pass, was her first international hit (No. 25 Pop, No. 1 AC). Her follow-up single, "Banks of the Ohio," was a Top 10 hit in England and Australia. She was voted Best British Female Vocalist two years in a row by the magazine Record Mirror. She made frequent appearances on Cliff Richard's weekly show, It's Cliff Richard, and starred with him in the telefilm, The Case.

In 1974, Newton-John represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song, Long Live Love. The song was chosen for Newton-John by the British public out of six possible entries. (Newton-John later admitted that she disliked the song.) Newton-John placed fourth at the contest held in Brighton behind ABBA's winning Waterloo. All six Eurovision contest song candidates were recorded by Newton-John and included on her Long Live Love album, her first for the EMI Records label.

In the United States, Newton-John's career floundered after If Not For You. Subsequent singles including "Banks of the Ohio" (No. 94 Pop, No. 34 AC) and remakes of George Harrison's "What Is Life" (No. 34 AC) and John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (No. 119 Pop) made minimal chart impact until the release of "Let Me Be There" in 1973. The song reached the American Top 10 on the Pop (No. 6), Country (No. 7), and AC (No. 3) charts and earned her a Grammy for Best Country Female and Best Pop Vocal Performance-Female. The success of both singles helped the album reach No. 1 on both the Pop (one week) and Country (eight weeks) Albums charts.

Newton-John's country success sparked a debate among purists who believed a foreigner singing country-flavored pop music did not belong in country music. This outrage led to the formation of the short-lived Association of Country Entertainers (ACE). Newton-John was eventually supported by the country music community. Stella Parton, Dolly's sister, recorded "Ode To Olivia" and Newton-John recorded her 1976 album, Don't Stop Believin', in Nashville. and "Please Mr. Please" (No. 3 Pop, No. 5 Country, No. 1 AC). The soundtrack spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 and yielded three Top 5 singles for Newton-John: the platinum No. 1 "You're The One That I Want" (with John Travolta), the gold No. 3 "Hopelessly Devoted To You" and the gold No. 5 "Summer Nights" (with John Travolta and the film's cast). The former two songs were written and composed by Newton-John's long-time music producer, John Farrar, specifically for the film. ("Summer Nights" was written for the original play by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey.) Newton-John became the second female (after Linda Ronstadt in 1977) to have two singles – "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Summer Nights" – in the Billboard Top 5 simultaneously. Newton-John's performance earned her a People's Choice award for Favorite Motion Picture Actress. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Musical and performed the Oscar-nominated "Hopelessly Devoted To You" at the 1979 Academy Awards.

The film's popularity has endured through the years. It was re-released for its 20th anniversary in 1998 and ranked as the second highest grossing film behind Titanic in its opening weekend. It was most recently re-released in July 2010 as a sing-along version in select American theatres. The soundtrack still sells strongly enough to often appear on Billboard's Top Soundtracks chart.

New image

Newton-John's transformation in Grease from goody-goody "Sandy 1" to spandex-clad "Sandy 2" emboldened Newton-John to do the same with her music career. In November 1978, she released her next studio album Totally Hot, which became her first solo Top 10 (No. 7) album since Have You Never Been Mellow. Dressed on the cover all in leather, the album's singles "A Little More Love" (No. 3 Pop, No. 94 Country, No. 4 AC), "Deeper Than The Night" (No. 11 Pop, No. 87 Country, No. 4 AC), and the title track (No. 52 Pop) all demonstrated a more aggressive and more uptempo sound for Newton-John. Although the album clearly de-emphasized country, it still reached No. 4 on the Country Albums chart. Newton-John released the B-side, "Dancin' 'Round And 'Round," of the "Totally Hot" single to Country radio, where it peaked at No. 29 (as well as No. 82 Pop and No. 25 AC), becoming her last charted solo Country airplay single to date.

Newton-John began 1980 by releasing I Can't Help It (No. 12 Pop, No. 8 AC), a duet with Andy Gibb from his After Dark album, and by starring in her third television special, Hollywood Nights. Later that year, she appeared in her first film since Grease, starring in the musical Xanadu with Gene Kelly and Michael Beck. Although the movie was a critical failure, its soundtrack (No. 4 Pop) was certified double platinum boasting five Top 20 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Newton-John charted with Magic (No. 1 Pop, No. 1 AC), Suddenly with Cliff Richard (No. 20 Pop, No. 4 AC), and the title song with the Electric Light Orchestra (No. 8 Pop, No. 2 AC). The Electric Light Orchestra also charted with "I'm Alive" (No. 16 Pop, No. 48 AC) and "All Over The World" (No. 13 Pop, No. 46 AC). Magic was Newton-John's biggest Pop hit to that point (four weeks at No. 1) (A successful national tour of the show followed.)

In 1981, Newton-John released her most successful studio album, the double platinum Physical. The title track, written by Steve Kipner and Terry Shaddick, spent ten weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, matching the record of most weeks at No. 1 held by Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life. The single was certified platinum and it ultimately ranked as the biggest song of the decade. (In 2008, Billboard ranked the song No. 6 among all songs that charted in the 50-year history of the Hot 100.) "Physical" even earned Newton-John her only placement ever on the R&B; Singles (No. 28) and Albums (No. 32) chart. The Physical album spawned two more singles, Make a Move on Me (No. 5 Pop, No. 6 AC) and Landslide (No. 52 Pop).

The provocative lyrics of the title track prompted two Utah radio stations to ban the single from their playlists. (In 2010, Billboard magazine ranked this as the most popular single ever about sex.) To counter its overtly suggestive tone, Newton-John filmed an exercise-themed video that turned the song into an aerobics anthem and made headbands a fashion accessory outside the gym. Newton-John became a pioneer in the nascent music video industry by recording a video album for Physical featuring videos of all the album's tracks and three of her older hits. The video album earned her a fourth Grammy and was aired as an ABC prime time special, Let's Get Physical, redeemed by its platinum soundtrack (No. 26 Pop) featuring Twist Of Fate (No. 5 Pop), The couple had met four years earlier while filming Xanadu. Their daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi, was born in January 1986. (They divorced in 1995.) Newton-John's music career cooled again with the release of her next studio album, the gold Soul Kiss (No. 29 Pop), in 1985. The album's only charted single was the title track (No. 20 Pop, No. 20 AC). The album's second single, Toughen Up, failed to even chart. The video album for Soul Kiss featured videos of only five (two concept, three performance) of the album's ten tracks. Newton-John limited her publicity for the album due to her pregnancy.

Motherhood and advocacy

After a nearly three-year hiatus to raise Chloe, Newton-John resumed her recording career with the 1988 album, The Rumour. The album was promoted by an HBO special, Olivia Down Under, and its first single, the title track, was written and produced by Elton John. Both the single (No. 62 Pop, No. 33 AC) and the album (No. 67 Pop) fizzled as the nearly 40 year-old Newton-John seemed "old" when compared with the teen queens Debbie Gibson and Tiffany ruling the Pop charts at that time. (Ironically, this album was praised by critics as more mature with Newton-John addressing topics such as AIDS, the environment and single parent households.) The second single, the Sandy Linzer/Irwin Levine–penned Can't We Talk It Over In Bed, did not chart. (Grayson Hugh, the song's arranger, subsequently released his version of the song as Talk It Over in 1989 and it became a Top 20 Pop hit.) A year later, Newton-John recorded her self-described "self-indulgent" album, Warm and Tender. Inspired by her daughter, who appeared on the album cover, the album featured lullabies and love songs for parents and their children. Newton-John recovered and since became a tireless advocate for breast cancer research and other health issues. She is a product spokesperson for the Liv-Kit, a breast self-examination product. She is also partial owner of the Gaia Retreat and Spa in Byron Bay, Australia advertised as "the ideal place to renew, refresh, and restore your mind, body and soul."

Newton-John's advocacy for health issues was presaged by her prior involvement with many humanitarian causes. Newton-John cancelled a 1978 concert tour of Japan to protest the slaughter of dolphins caught in tuna fishing nets. (She subsequently rescheduled the tour when the Japanese government assured her the matter was being addressed.) She was a performer on the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert for the United Nations' International Year of the Child televised worldwide. During the concert, artists performed songs for which they donated their royalties, some in perpetuity, to benefit the cause. She was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Environment Programme. In 1991, she became the National Spokesperson for the Colette Chuda Environmental Fund/CHEC (Children’s Health Environmental Coalition) following the death of four year old Colette Chuda, a family friend, from cancer. (Chuda was featured along with Newton-John and daughter Chloe on the cover of Newton-John's Warm and Tender album.)

Newton-John's cancer diagnosis also affected the type of music she recorded. In 1994, she released Gaia: One Woman's Journey which chronicled her ordeal. This was the first album on which Newton-John wrote and composed all of the songs encouraging her to become more active as a songwriter thereafter. In 2005, she released Stronger Than Before, sold exclusively in the United States by Hallmark. Proceeds from the album's sales benefited breast cancer research. The album featured the song Phenomenal Woman based on the poem by Maya Angelou that featured guest vocals from Diahann Carroll, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Delta Goodrem, Amy Holland, Patti LaBelle, and Mindy Smith - all survivors of or affected by cancer. The following year, Newton-John released a healing CD, Grace And Gratitude. The album was sold exclusively by Walgreens also benefitting various charities including Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization. The CD was the "heart" of their "Body – Heart – Spirit" Wellness Collection which also featured a re-branded Liv-Kit and breast-health dietary supplements.

In 2008, Newton-John raised funds to help build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia. She led a three-week, 228 km. walk along the Great Wall of China during April joined by various celebrities and cancer survivors throughout her trek. The walk symbolized the steps cancer patients must take on their road to recovery. Newton-John released a companion CD, A Celebration In Song, the following month in Australia and later worldwide featuring new and previously recorded duets by "Olivia Newton-John & Friends." Her "Friends" included Jann Arden, Jimmy Barnes, John Farrar, Barry Gibb, Delta Goodrem, Sun Ho, Richard Marx, Cliff Richard, Melinda Schneider, Amy Sky and Keith Urban. In October, Newton-John helped launch the www.liv.com website and teamed with fitness franchise Curves to distribute one million Liv-Aid breast self-examination aids for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Newton-John collaborated with producer David Foster to record Hope Is Always Here for the November 2009 television special, Kaleidoscope. The song was written and composed for the show's performance by another breast cancer survivor, figure skater Dorothy Hamill. The song was released as a digital single after the show aired.

Newton-John's spirituality also extended to the release of several Christmas albums. In 2000, she teamed with Vince Gill and the London Symphony Orchestra for 'Tis The Season sold exclusively through Hallmark. The following year, she released The Christmas Collection which compiled seasonal music previously recorded for her Hallmark Christmas album, her appearance on Kenny Loggins's 1999 TNN Christmas special and her contributions to the Mother And Child and Spirit Of Christmas multi-artist collections. In 2007, she re-teamed with her Grace And Gratitude producer, Amy Sky, for Christmas Wish (No. 187 Pop) which was sold exclusively by Target in its first year of release.

Later career

Newton-John continued to record and perform pop-oriented music as well. In 1998, she returned to Nashville to record Back With A Heart (No. 59 Pop).

Newton-John's television work included starring in two Christmas movies, A Mom For Christmas (1990) and A Christmas Romance (1994) – both Top 10 Nielsen hits. Her daughter, Chloe, starred as one of her children in both A Christmas Romance and in the 2001 Showtime film The Wilde Girls. Newton-John guest-starred as herself in the sitcoms Ned and Stacey, Murphy Brown, and Bette, and made two appearances as herself on Glee. For her first Glee appearance, Newton-John re-created her "Physical" video with series regular Jane Lynch. The performance was released as a digital single, returning Newton-John to the Billboard Hot 100 (No. 89) for the first time since her 1998 re-release of I Honestly Love You. In Australia, Newton-John hosted the animal and nature series Wild Life and guest starred as Joanna on two episodes of the Australian series The Man From Snowy River.

Newton-John met gaffer/cameraman Patrick McDermott a year after her 1995 divorce from Matt Lattanzi. The couple dated on and off for nine years. McDermott disappeared following a 2005 fishing trip off the California coast. Various theories abounded regarding his disappearance ranging from his death by accident or foul play to McDermott staging his disappearance to avoid child support payments to his ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar. Newton-John, who was in Australia at her Gaia Retreat & Spa at the time of his disappearance, was never a suspect in McDermott's disappearance and has refused to comment on any speculation. A US Coast Guard investigation released in 2008 "suggest[ed] McDermott was lost at sea," although some have claimed contact with McDermott since his disappearance. Newton-John returned to the tabloid headlines again in 2007 when it was revealed that her daughter Chloe was recovering from anorexia.

Newton-John released another concert DVD, Olivia Newton-John and the Sydney Symphony: Live at the Sydney Opera House, and a companion CD, Olivia's Live Hits, in January 2008. An edited version of the DVD premiered on PBS station, WLIW (Garden City, New York), in October 2007 and subsequently aired nationally during the network's fund-raising pledge drives. This was Newton-John's third live album after the 1981 Japanese release, Love Performance, and her 2000 Australian release, One Woman's Live Journey.

In June 2008, Newton-John secretly wed John ("Amazon John") Easterling, founder and president of natural remedy firm, Amazon Herb Company. The couple had first met 15 years earlier, but they only became romantically involved in 2007. (Like Newton-John, this was Easterling's second marriage.) The couple married alone in a private Incan spiritual ceremony in Cuzco, Peru on June 21 followed nine days later by a legal ceremony on the Jupiter Island beachfront in Florida. There were no guests at either service since the couple preferred to marry simply and privately. Only Newton-John's daughter, Chloe, was aware of the nuptials. The couple did not announce their marriage until a July 4th barbecue at Newton-John's Malibu, California home, where guests were surprised with the news. The wedding was confirmed thereafter by HELLO! Magazine which published exclusive pictures of both weddings. In June 2009, the Easterlings purchased a new $4.1 million home in Jupiter Inlet, and Newton-John sold her home in Malibu, California.

Current endeavors

Newton-John still occasionally tours. Most of her recent public performances have been at charitable functions or to promote products such as Zamu, produced by Amazon Herb, a company founded by John Easterling. Her tour schedule can be found at http://olivianewton-john.com/tour.html.

Newton-John joined Judy Brooks and Roy Walkenhorst as co-host of the health and well-being series Healing Quest, currently airing on PBS.

Newton-John re-recorded some tracks from her 2006 Grace And Gratitude album and re-released the album as Grace And Gratitude Renewed in September 2010 on the Green Hill music label. The Renewed CD includes a new track, "Help Me To Heal", which was not featured on the original album. Her 2001 The Christmas Collection was also re-released in October 2010 with different artwork. Green Hill will re-release Newton-John's 2008 CD, A Celebration In Song, with different artwork on January 25. The Renewed CD charted in Billboard as follows:

* Christian Albums (No. 36)

* Christian & Gospel Albums (No. 54)

* New Age (No. 2)

Newton-John starred in the film , released in Canada. Newton-John portrays Hope Gordon, the mother of a home-schooled hockey prodigy. The film opened the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2010, and it features a duet by Newton-John with her co-star, Marc Jordan.

Newton-John is featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docu-drama, 1 a Minute, released October 2010. The documentary was made by actress Namrata Singh Gujral, and it features breast cancer survivors Diahann Carroll, Melissa Etheridge, Namrata Singh Gujral, Mumtaz and Jaclyn Smith. The film also features brothers Daniel and William Baldwin, Morgan Brittany, Deepak Chopra, Priya Dutt, Barbara Mori and Lisa Ray.

Bluewater Productions released a comic book featuring Newton-John in October 2010 to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Ten of Newton-John's albums were re-released separately and combined as a box set in October 2010 by Universal Music Japan. The albums include Long Live Love, Have You Never Been Mellow, Clearly Love, Come On Over, Don't Stop Believin', Making A Good Thing Better, Totally Hot, Physical, Soul Kiss, and The Rumour. Each studio album featured two additional bonus tracks not included on the original releases of each album. On the same day, Universal Music Japan also released a "40/40" compilation that included 40 of Newton-John's hits as voted for by her Japanese fans as well as a previously unreleased bonus track, "Come on Home". Newton-John promoted these re-releases with a five-date tour of Japan.

Discography and videography

;Studio albums

If Not For You (1971)

Olivia (1972)

Let Me Be There/Music Makes My Day (1973)

Long Live Love (1974)

If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974)

Have You Never Been Mellow (1975)

Clearly Love (1975)

Come On Over (1976)

Don't Stop Believin' (1976)

Making a Good Thing Better (1977)

Totally Hot (1978)

Physical (1981)

Soul Kiss (1985)

The Rumour (1988)

Warm and Tender (1989)

Gaia (1994)

Back With a Heart (1998)

'Tis the Season (2000)

The Christmas Collection (Olivia Newton-John album) (2001)

(2) (2002)

(2004)

Stronger Than Before (2005)

Grace and Gratitude (2006)

Christmas Wish (2007)

A Celebration in Song (2008)

Grace And Gratitude Renewed (2010)

;Main compilation albums

Greatest Hits (1977)

Olivia's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (1982)

(1992)

;Live albums

Love Performance (1981)

Highlights from The Main Event (1998)

One Woman's Live Journey (2000)

Olivia's Live Hits (2008)

;Soundtracks

Toomorrow (1970)

(1978)

Xanadu (1980)

Two of a Kind (1983)

Sordid Lives (2000)

(2008)

;DVDs

Olivia Physical (1982)

Olivia in Concert (1983)

Twist of Fate (1983)

Soul Kiss (1985)

Olivia Down Under (1988)

Live at the Sydney Opera House (2008)

Video Gold 1 (2005)

Video Gold 2 (2005)

Filmography

Tours

If Not For You Tour (1972)

Cliff Richard Japan tour w/Pat Carroll (1972)

Clearly Love Tour (1975)

Love Performance Tour (1976)

Totally Hot World Tour (1978)

Physical World Tour (1982)

The Main Event Tour (1998)

Greatest Hits Tour (1999)

One Woman's Live Journey Tour (1999)

Millennium Tour (2000)

30 Musical Years Tour (2001)

Heartstrings World Tour (2002)

Japan 2006 Tour (2006)

Live at the Sydney Opera House Tour (2006)

Grace and Gratitude Tour (2006)

Body Heart & Spirit Tour (2007)

Verona-Canadian 2007 Tour (2007)

United States 2009 Tour (2009)

Awards and honours

{| class=wikitable |- style="background:#ccc;" !Year !Category !Genre !Recording !Result |- style="background:#ddd;" | colspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| Grammy Awards |- align=left | style="text-align:left;"|1973 |Best Female Country Vocal Performance |Country |"Let Me Be There" | |- align=left | style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"|1974 |Record of the Year |General |"I Honestly Love You" | |- align=left |Best Female Pop Vocal Performance |Pop |"I Honestly Love You" | |- align=left | style="text-align:left;"|1975 |Best Female Pop Vocal Performance |Pop |"Have You Never Been Mellow" | |- align=left | style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"|1978 |Album of the Year |General |"Grease" (Soundtrack) | |- align=left |Best Female Pop Vocal Performance |Pop |"Hopelessly Devoted to You" | |- align=left | style="text-align:left;"|1980 |Best Female Pop Vocal Performance |Pop |"Magic" | |- align=left | style="text-align:left;"|1981 |Best Female Pop Vocal Performance |Pop |"Physical" | |- align=left | style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"|1982 |Best Female Pop Vocal Performance |Pop |"Heart Attack" | |- align=left |Video of the Year |General |Olivia Physical | |- align=left | style="text-align:left;"|1983 |Best Long Form Music Video |General |Olivia in Concert | |- align=left | style="text-align:left;"|1984 |Best Short Form Music Video |General |Twist of Fate | |}

See also

List of best-selling music artists

List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards

List of songs by Australian artists which reached number-one on the Hot 100 (USA)

List of songs by British artists which reached number-one on the Hot 100 (USA)

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart

References

Bibliography

Wood, Gerry. (1998). "Olivia Newton-John." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 380–1.

The Story of the Shadows by Mike Read. 1983. Elm Tree books. ISBN 0-241-10861-6.

Rock 'n' Roll, I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life – A Life In The Shadows by Bruce Welch ISBN 0-670-82705-3 (Penguin Books).

External links

Olivia Newton-John

Gaia Retreat

Great Walk To Beijing

ON-J Cancer Centre Appeal

Breast Health

Newton-John, Olivia (1948-) National Library of Australia, Trove, People and Organisation record for Olivia Newton-John

Category:1948 births Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Living people Category:Actors from Melbourne Category:ARIA Award winners Category:ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Category:Australian country singers Category:Australian dance musicians Category:Australian expatriate actors in the United States Category:Australian female singers Category:Australian film actors Category:Australian people of English descent Category:Australian people of German descent Category:Australian people of Welsh descent Category:Australian pop singers Category:Australian television actors Category:Breast cancer survivors Category:British Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:English country singers Category:English dance musicians Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:English female singers Category:English film actors Category:English immigrants to Australia Category:English pop singers Category:English people of German descent Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:English television actors Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1974 Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Naturalised citizens of Australia Category:Officers of the Order of Australia Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Cambridge Category:Singers from Melbourne

Name	Barbra Streisand
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Barbara Joan Streisand
Born	April 24, 1942Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genre	Broadway, traditional pop, adult contemporary
Occupation	singer-songwriter, actress, film producer, director
Other names	Mrs. Elliotvt Gould, Barbra Streisand Gould, Mrs. Barbra Gould, Ms. Barbra Streisand, Mrs. James Brolin, Barbra Gould Brolin, Barbra Streisand Gould Brolin, Mrs. Barbra Streisand, Mrs. Barbra Brolin
Years active	1957–present
Label	Columbia Records
Url
Spouse	Elliott Gould (1963–1971)James Brolin (1998–present)

Barbra Joan Streisand (pronounced ; born April 24, 1942) is a American singer-songwriter, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, and a Peabody Award. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre. Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top ten albums of any female recording artist - a total of 31 since 1963. Streisand has the widest span (46 years) between first and latest top ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became the only artist to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades. According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and joined the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club. Diana Rosen Streisand remarried and gave Barbra a half-sister who grew up to become a professional singer with the name Roslyn Kind.

Barbra Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She wanted to be an actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood (1959), with the then-unknown Joan Rivers. (In her autobiography, Rivers wrote that she played a lesbian with a crush on Streisand's character, but this was later refuted by the play's author.) Driftwood ran for only six weeks. When her boyfriend, Barry Dennen, helped her create a club act—first performed at The Lion, a popular gay nightclub in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960—she achieved success as a singer. While singing at The Lion for several weeks, she changed her name to Barbra. One early appearance outside of New York City was at Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub in San Francisco. In 1961, Streisand appeared at the Town and Country nightclub in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but her appearance was cut short; the club owner did not appreciate her singing style. Streisand's first television appearance was on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Jack Paar, in 1961, singing Harold Arlen's A Sleepin' Bee. Orson Bean, who substituted for Paar that night, had seen the singer perform at a gay bar and booked her for the telecast. (Her older brother Sheldon paid NBC for a kinescope film so she could use it in 1961 to promote herself. Decades later the film was preserved through digitizing and is available for viewing on a website.) Streisand became a semi-regular on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series hosted by Mike Wallace, in late 1961. Westinghouse Broadcasting, which aired PM East/PM West in a select few cities (Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco), has since wiped all the videotapes because of the cost of videotape at the time. Audio segments from some episodes are part of the compilation CD Just for the Record, which went platinum in 1991. The singer said on 60 Minutes in 1991 that 30 years earlier Mike Wallace had been "mean" to her on PM East/PM West. He countered that she had been "self-absorbed". 60 Minutes included the audio of Streisand saying to him in 1961, "I like the fact that you are provoking. But don't provoke me."

In 1962, after several appearances on PM East/PM West, Streisand first appeared on Broadway, in the small but star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her first album, The Barbra Streisand Album, won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Following her success in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Streisand made several appearances on The Tonight Show in 1962. Topics covered in her interviews with host Johnny Carson included the empire-waisted dresses that she bought wholesale, to her "crazy" reputation at Erasmus Hall High School. It was at about this time that Streisand entered into a long and successful professional relationship with Lee Solters and Sheldon Roskin as her publicists with the firm Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman).

Streisand returned to Broadway in 1964 with an acclaimed performance as entertainer Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show introduced two of her signature songs, "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade". Because of the play's overnight success she appeared on the cover of Time. In 1966, she repeated her success with Funny Girl in London's West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre. From 1965 to 1967 she appeared in her first four solo television specials.

Singing career

Streisand has recorded 35 studio albums, almost all with Columbia Records. Her early works in the 1960s (her debut The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, The Third Album, My Name Is Barbra, etc.) are considered classic renditions of theater and cabaret standards, including her slow version of the normally uptempo Happy Days Are Here Again. She performed this in a duet with Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show. Garland referred to her on the air as one of the last great belters. They also sang There's No Business Like Show Business, with Ethel Merman joining them.

Beginning with My Name Is Barbra, her early albums were often medley-filled keepsakes of her television specials. Starting in 1969, she began attempting more contemporary material, but like many talented singers of the day, she found herself out of her element with rock. Her vocal talents prevailed, and she gained newfound success with the pop and ballad-oriented Richard Perry-produced album Stoney End in 1971. The title track, written by Laura Nyro, was a major hit for Streisand.

During the 1970s, she was also highly prominent on the pop charts, with Top 10 recordings such as The Way We Were (US No. 1), Evergreen (US No. 1), No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) (1979, with Donna Summer), which as of 2010 is reportedly still the most commercially successful duet,(US No. 1), You Don't Bring Me Flowers (with Neil Diamond) (US No. 1) and The Main Event (US No. 3), some of which came from soundtrack recordings of her films.

As the 1970s ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer in the U.S.—only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had sold more albums. In 1980, she released her best-selling effort to date, the Barry Gibb-produced Guilty. The album contained the hits Woman In Love (which spent several weeks atop the pop charts in the Fall of 1980), Guilty, and What Kind of Fool.

After years of largely ignoring Broadway and traditional pop music in favor of more contemporary material, Streisand returned to her musical-theater roots with 1985's The Broadway Album, which was unexpectedly successful, holding the coveted No. 1 Billboard position for three straight weeks, and being certified quadruple platinum. The album featured tunes by Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Stephen Sondheim, who was persuaded to rework some of his songs especially for this recording. The Broadway Album was met with acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for album of the year and, ultimately, handed Streisand her eighth Grammy as Best Female Vocalist. After releasing the live album One Voice in 1986, Streisand was set to take another musical journey along the Great White Way in 1988. She recorded several cuts for the album under the direction of Rupert Holmes, including On My Own (from Les Misérables), a medley of How Are Things in Glocca Morra? and Heather on the Hill (from Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon, respectively), All I Ask of You (from Phantom of the Opera), Warm All Over (from The Most Happy Fella) and an unusual solo version of Make Our Garden Grow (from Candide). Streisand was not happy with the direction of the project and it was ultimately scrapped. Only Warm All Over and a reworked, lite FM-friendly version of All I Ask of You were ever released, the latter appearing on Streisand's 1988 effort, Till I Loved You.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Streisand started focusing on her film directorial efforts and became almost inactive in the recording studio. In 1991, a four-disc box set, Just for the Record, was released. A compilation spanning Streisand's entire career to date, it featured over 70 tracks of live performances, greatest hits, rarities and previously unreleased material.

The following year, Streisand's concert fundraising events helped propel former President Bill Clinton into the spotlight and into office. Streisand later introduced Clinton at his inauguration in 1993. Streisand's music career, however, was largely on hold. A 1992 appearance at an APLA benefit as well as the aforementioned inaugural performance hinted that Streisand was becoming more receptive to the idea of live performances. A tour was suggested, though Streisand would not immediately commit to it, citing her well-known stage fright as well as security concerns. During this time, Streisand finally returned to the recording studio and released Back to Broadway in June 1993. The album was not as universally lauded as its predecessor, but it did debut at No. 1 on the pop charts (a rare feat for an artist of Streisand's age, especially given that it relegated Janet Jackson's Janet to the No. 2 spot). One of the album's highlights was a medley of I Have A Love/One Hand, One Heart, a duet with the legendary Johnny Mathis, who Streisand said is one of her favorite singers.

In 1993, New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote that Streisand "enjoys a cultural status that only one other American entertainer, Frank Sinatra, has achieved in the last half century."

In September 1993, Streisand announced her first public concert appearances in 27 years. What began as a two-night New Year's event at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas eventually led to a multi-city tour in the summer of 1994. Tickets to the tour were sold out in under one hour. Streisand also appeared on the covers of major magazines in anticipation of what Time magazine named "The Music Event of the Century". The tour was one of the biggest all-media merchandise parlays in history. Ticket prices ranged from US$50 to US$1,500 – making Streisand the highest-paid concert performer in history. Barbra Streisand: The Concert went on to be the top-grossing concert of the year and earn five Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award, while the taped broadcast on HBO is, to date, the highest-rated concert special in HBO's 30-year history.

Following the tour's conclusion, Streisand once again kept a low profile musically, instead focusing her efforts on acting and directing duties as well as a burgeoning romance with actor James Brolin. In 1997, she finally returned to the recording studio, releasing Higher Ground, a collection of songs of a loosely-inspirational nature which also featured a duet with Celine Dion. The album received generally favorable reviews and, remarkably, once again debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts.

Following her marriage to Brolin in 1998, Streisand recorded an album of love songs entitled A Love Like Ours the following year. Reviews were mixed, with many critics carping about the somewhat syrupy sentiments and overly-lush arrangements; however, it did produce a modest hit for Streisand in the country-tinged If You Ever Leave Me, a duet with Vince Gill.

On New Year's Eve 1999, Streisand returned to the concert stage, with the highest-grossing single concert in Las Vegas history to date. At the end of the millennium, she was the number-one female singer in the U.S., with at least two No. 1 albums in each decade since she began performing. A two-disc live album of the concert entitled was released in 2000. Streisand performed versions of the "Timeless" concert in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, in early 2000.

In advance of four concerts (two each in Los Angeles and New York) in September 2000, Streisand announced she was retiring from paying public concerts. Her performance of the song People was broadcast on the Internet via America Online.

Streisand's most-recent albums have been Christmas Memories (2001), a somewhat somber collection of holiday songs (which felt entirely—albeit unintentionally—appropriate in the early post-9/11 days), and The Movie Album (2003), featuring famous film themes and backed by a large symphony orchestra. Guilty Pleasures (called Guilty Too in the UK), a collaboration with Barry Gibb and a sequel to their Guilty, was released worldwide in 2005.

In February 2006, Streisand recorded the song Smile alongside Tony Bennett at Streisand's Malibu home. The song is included on Tony Bennett's 80th birthday album, Duets. In September 2006, the pair filmed a live performance of the song for a special directed by Rob Marshall entitled Tony Bennett: An American Classic. The special aired on NBC November 21, 2006, and was released on DVD the same day. Streisand's duet with Bennett opens the special.

In 2006, Streisand announced her intent to tour again, in an effort to raise money and awareness for multiple issues. After four days of rehearsal at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, the tour began on October 4 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, continued with a featured stop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (this was the concert Streisand chose to film for a TV special), and concluded at Staples Center in Los Angeles on November 20, 2006. Special guests Il Divo were interwoven throughout the show. On stage closing night, Streisand hinted that six more concerts may follow on foreign soil. The show was known as .

Streisand's 20-concert tour set box-office records. At the age of 64, well past the prime of most performers, she grossed US$92,457,062, and set house gross records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour. She set the third-place record for her October 9, 2006, show at Madison Square Garden, the first- and second-place records of which are held by her two shows in September 2000. She set the second-place record at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with her December 31, 1999, show being the house record and the highest-grossing concert of all time. This led many people to openly criticize Streisand for price gouging, as many tickets sold for upwards of US$1,000.

A collection of performances culled from different stops on this tour, Live in Concert 2006, debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it Streisand's 29th Top 10 album. In the summer of 2007, Streisand gave concerts for the first time in continental Europe. The first concert took place in Zürich (June 18), then Vienna (June 22), Paris (June 26), Berlin (June 30), Stockholm (July 4, canceled), Manchester (July 10) and Celbridge, near Dublin (July 14), followed by three concerts in London (July 18, 22 and 25), the only European city where Streisand had performed before 2007. Tickets for the London dates cost between £100.00 and GB£1,500.00 and for the Ireland date between €118 and €500. The tour included a 58-piece orchestra.

In February 2008, Forbes listed Streisand as the No. 2 earning female musician, between June 2006 and June 2007, with earnings of about US$60 million. Although Streisand's range has changed with time and her voice has deepened over the years, her vocal prowess has remained remarkably secure for a singer whose career has endured for nearly half a century. Streisand is a contralto or possibly a mezzo-soprano who has a range consisting of well over two octaves from “low E to a high G and probably a bit more that in either direction.”

On November 17, 2008, Streisand returned to the studio to begin recording what will be her sixty-third album and it was announced that Diana Krall was producing the album.

On April 25, 2009, CBS aired Streisand's latest TV special, , highlighting the aforementioned featured stop from her 2006 North American tour, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Streisand is one of the recipients of the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors. On December 7, 2008, she visited the White House as part of the ceremonies. This performance was later released on DVD as One Night Only Barbra Streisand and Quartet at The Village Vanguard.

On September 29, 2009, Streisand and Columbia Records released her newest studio album, Love is the Answer, produced by Diana Krall. On October 2, 2009, Streisand made her British television performance debut with an interview on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross to promote the album. This album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and registered her biggest weekly sales since 1997, making Streisand the only artist in history to achieve No. 1 albums in five different decades.

On February 1, 2010, Streisand joined over 80 other artists in recording a new version of the 1985 charity single "We Are the World". Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie planned to release the new version to mark the 25th anniversary of its original recording. These plans changed, however, in view of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, and on February 12, the song, now called "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", made its debut as a charity single to support relief aid for the beleaguered island nation.

Streisand will be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on February 11, 2011, two days prior to the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Streisand is one of many singers who uses teleprompters during their live performances. Streisand has defended her choice in using teleprompters to display lyrics and, sometimes, banter.

Film career

(1969)]] Her first film was a reprise of her Broadway hit, Funny Girl (1968), an artistic and commercial success directed by Hollywood veteran William Wyler, for which she won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress, sharing it with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), the first (and only) time there was a tie in this Oscar category. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!, directed by Gene Kelly (1969), and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli (1970), while her fourth film was based on the Broadway play The Owl and the Pussycat (1970).

During the 1970s, Streisand starred in several screwball comedies, including What's Up, Doc? (1972) and The Main Event (1979), both co-starring Ryan O'Neal, and For Pete's Sake (1974) with Michael Sarrazin. One of her most famous roles during this period was in the drama The Way We Were (1973) with Robert Redford, for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She earned her second Academy Award for Best Original Song as composer (together with lyricist Paul Williams) for the song "Evergreen", from A Star Is Born in 1976.

Along with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and later Steve McQueen, Streisand formed First Artists Production Company in 1969, so the actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves. Streisand's initial outing with First Artists was Up the Sandbox (1972).

From a period beginning in 1969 and ending in 1980, Streisand appeared in the annual motion picture exhibitors poll of Top 10 Box Office attractions a total of 10 times, often as the only woman on the list. After the commercially disappointing All Night Long in 1981, Streisand's film output decreased considerably. She has only acted in five films since.

Streisand produced a number of her own films, setting up Barwood Films in 1972. For Yentl (1983), she was producer, director, and star, an experience she repeated for The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). There was controversy when Yentl received five Academy Award nominations, but none for the major categories of Best Picture, Actress, or Director. Prince of Tides received even more Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but the director was not nominated. Streisand also scripted "Yentl", something she is not always given credit for. According to New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal in an interview (story begins at minute 16) with Allan Wolper, "the one thing that makes Barbra Streisand crazy is when nobody gives her the credit for having written 'Yentl'."

In 2004, Streisand made a return to film acting, after an eight-year hiatus, in the comedy Meet the Fockers (a sequel to Meet the Parents), playing opposite Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro.

In 2005, Streisand's Barwood Films, Gary Smith, and Sonny Murray purchased the rights to Simon Mawer's book Mendel's Dwarf. In December 2008, she stated that she was considering directing an adaptation of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart, a project she has worked on since the mid-1990s In 2009, Andrew Lloyd Webber stated that Streisand was one of several actresses (alongside Meryl Streep and Glenn Close) who were interested in playing the role of Norma Desmond in the film adaptation of Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard

In December 2010, Streisand appeared in Little Fockers, the third film from the Meet the Parents trilogy. She reprised the role of Roz Focker alongside Dustin Hoffman.

On 4 January 2011, the New York Post reported that Streisand was in negotiations to produce, direct, and star in a new film version of Gypsy. In an interview with the New York Post, Arthur Laurents said: "We've talked about it a lot, and she knows what she's doing. She has my approval." He said that he would not write the screenplay. The following day, the New York Times reported that Arthur Laurents clarified in a telephonic interview that Streisand would not direct the film "but playing Rose is enough to make her happy." Streisand's spokesperson confirmed that "there have been conversations".

Politics

Streisand has long been an active supporter of the Democratic Party and many of their causes. Streisand said, "The Democrats have always been the party of working people and minorities. I've always identified with the minorities." Streisand has personally raised $15 million for organizations through her live performances. The Streisand Foundation, established in 1986, has contributed over $16 million through its grants to "national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear disarmament." In 2006, Streisand donated $1 million to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation in support of former President Bill Clinton’s climate change initiative.

Lawsuit

Streisand sued aerial photographer Kenneth Adelman for displaying a photograph of her Malibu, California home, along with other photos of the California coastline. Her suit was dismissed under the anti-SLAPP provisions of California law. Mike Masnick of Techdirt.com coined the term "Streisand effect" in January 2005 to describe the publicity generated by Streisand's efforts to suppress the publication of the photograph.

Awards

In 2000, Barbra Streisand was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Music awards

Streisand's works have been nominated for over 57 Grammy Awards; she won 8 of these, including two special awards. She has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame three times. In 2011 she will be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year.

Film awards

Personal life

Streisand has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who would go on to star as her on-screen son in The Prince of Tides. Her second husband is James Brolin, whom she married on July 1, 1998. While they have no children together, Brolin has two children from his first marriage, including Academy Award nominated actor Josh Brolin, and one child from his second marriage. Both of her husbands starred in the 1970s conspiracy sci-fi thriller Capricorn One.

Jon Peters' daughters, Caleigh Peters and Skye Peters, are her goddaughters.

Streisand shares a birthday with Shirley MacLaine, and they celebrate together every year.

Streisand is the older sister of singer/actress Roslyn Kind. Kind was born 9 January 1951 in Brooklyn, New York.

Streisand's philanthropic organization, The Streisand Foundation, gives grants to "national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear disarmament" and has given large donations to programs related to women's health. Streisand was named third most generous celebrity. The Giving Back Fund claimed Streisand donated $11 million, which The Streisand Foundation distributed.

At Julien’s Auctions in October 2009, Streisand, a long-time collector of art and furniture, sold 526 items with all the proceeds going to her foundation. Items included a costume from Funny Lady and a vintage dental cabinet purchased by the performer at 18 years old. The sale’s most valuable lot was a painting by Kees van Dongen.

Name

Streisand changed her name from Barbara to Barbra because, she said, "I hated the name, but I refused to change it.". Streisand further explained, ""Well, I was 18 and I wanted to be unique, but I didn't want to change my name because that was too false. You know, people were saying you could be Joanie Sands, or something like that. [My middle name is Joan.] And I said, 'No, let's see, if I take out the 'a,' it's still 'Barbara,' but it's unique." A 1967 biography with a concert program said, "the spelling of her first name is an instance of partial rebellion: she was advised to change her last name and retaliated by dropping an “a” from the first instead."

References in popular culture

On television

The most memorable parody of Streisand's iconic status has been on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live in the recurring skit Coffee Talk where character Linda Richman, played by Mike Myers, hosts a talk show dedicated to, among other things, the adoration of Streisand. Streisand, in turn, made an unannounced guest appearance on the show, surprising Myers and guests, Madonna and Roseanne Barr. Mike Myers also appeared as the Linda Richman character on stage with Streisand at her 1994 MGM Grand concert, as well as a few of the 1994 Streisand tour shows.

Streisand is mentioned many times in television sitcoms. In the CBS 1993–1999 sitcom The Nanny, Fran Drescher's character Fran Fine, along with her entire family, is obsessed with the performer. And Fran is obsessed with the fact that many times she almost meets Ms. Streisand, most notably when her stepdaughter, Margret S. Sheffield, marries Michael Brolin, nephew of James Brolin who is Barbra Gould Brolin's husband.

Streisand is frequently mentioned in the sitcom Will & Grace, particularly by the character Jack McFarland. Songs made famous by Streisand, such as "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from The Broadway Album are reproduced by characters in the show.

The sitcom Friends refers to Streisand in at least two episodes. In "The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister", Monica names a sandwich at her 1950s-styled restaurant after Barbra Streisand. A soup is also named after Streisand's movie Yentl. Meanwhile, in The One After 'I Do', Phoebe pretends she is pregnant with James Brolin's baby, to which Chandler Bing responds "[A]s in Barbra Streisand's husband, James Brolin?" In the same episode, Gould appears on the show as Ross and Monica's father.

At least four episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons refer to Streisand. Outside Springfield Elementary School, announcing Lisa's jazz concert and noting tickets have been sold out, is an advertisement for a Streisand concert in the same venue for the following day, with tickets still on sale. In another episode, after Marge undergoes therapy, she informs the therapist that whenever she hears the wind blow, she'll hear it saying "Lowenstein", Streisand's therapist character in The Prince of Tides, despite Marge's therapist having a completely different name. Another reference comes in "Sleeping with the Enemy" when Bart exclaims after seeing Lisa make a snow-angel in a cake on the kitchen table, "At least she's not singing Streisand". Nelson Muntz sings a song from Yentl earlier in the episode, which is the reason for Bart's reference. In "Simple Simpson", the on-stage patriotic western-singer says that Ms. Streisand is unpatriotic and could be pleased by spitting on the flag and strangling a bald eagle.

Another enduring satirical reference is in the animated series South Park, most notably in the episode "Mecha-Streisand", where Streisand is portrayed as a self-important, evil, gigantic robotic dinosaur with a terrible singing voice about to conquer the universe before being defeated by Robert Smith of The Cure. This was because she criticized South Park saying it was bad for children. On another occasion, the Halloween episode "Spookyfish" is promoted for a week as being done in "Spooky-Vision", which involves Streisand's face seen at times during the episode in the four corners of the screen. At the end of the feature film , her name is used as a powerful curse word, a gag repeated in the episode "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants". The Mecha-Streisand character made a return in the Season 14 episodes "200" and "201", as one of several celebrities the show had lampooned over the years.

In the episode titled "Ex in the City" from Season 2 of Sex and the City, protagonist Carrie Bradshaw likens herself and her lovelife to that of Streisand's character, Katie Morosky in The Way We Were before breaking into a rendition of the title song.

In the 2002–04 Icebox.com cartoon and animated TV series Queer Duck, the title character is obsessed with Streisand. He undergoes Christian-based conversion therapy to be made straight; only Barbra's magic nose can return him to his gayness.

In the 2005 Fox animated sitcom American Dad!, Season 5 Episode 1 shows Roger preparing to watch a Streisand special where the entertainer sings the collected works of Celine Dion in Las Vegas.

In Season 1 Episode 12 of Boston Legal aired in August 2005, Denny Crane boasts that he once had a threesome with Shirley Schmidt and Barbra Streisand. Schmidt corrects him by reminding him that "Barbra Streisand" was actually a female impersonator, whose penis should have been a clue.

In the 2007 Fox animated sitcom Family Guy, one episode shows Lois singing a cabaret act with "Don't Rain on My Parade"—originally sung by Streisand in Funny Girl—only slowed down and jazzier, as an act of defiance to Peter. In another episode, Peter received life insurance after Lois died and claimed that he has more money than Streisand. This was followed by a cut scene showing Streisand and her husband in their home. The husband asked for money and Streisand pressed one nostril of her nose and dollar bills came out the other nostril. Another earlier episode shows Streisand and husband James Brolin, with Streisand remarking "I'm glad I married you and not a celebrity".

Streisand is referenced frequently on the Fox TV musical series Glee. The character Rachel (Lea Michele) mentions that Streisand refused to alter her nose in order to become famous in the show's third episode Acafellas. Also, in the mid-season finale of Glee, Rachel sings the Streisand anthem "Don't Rain on My Parade". In the episode Hell-O, she says that she will be heartbroken for life, "Like Barbra in The Way We Were." Also in the episode Hell-O, Jesse St.James (Jonathan Groff) criticizes Rachel's performance of "Don't Rain on My Parade" by saying that she "lacked Barbra's emotional depth." In the episode Theatricality, Rachel is spying on the opposing team's dance rehearsal when the director, Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), expresses dissatisfaction at the team's routine. She demonstrates how it's done with the title song from Funny Girl, and Rachel, sitting in the audience, whispers to her friend, "Exactly what I would have done--Barbra. I could do it in my sleep."

When Glee won the prize for "Best TV Series-Comedy Or Musical" at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards, creator Ryan Murphy quipped on stage, "Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press and Miss Barbra Streisand".

On film

In movies, Streisand is remembered as the favorite of the character Howard Brackett, played by Kevin Kline, who finally admits to being gay while standing at the altar in the 1997 romantic comedy In & Out. His unfortunate bride-to-be, played by Joan Cusack, cries out in frustration to family and friends present, "Does anybody here KNOW how many times I've had to sit through Funny Lady?" In an earlier scene, Howard is taunted by a friend during an argument at a bar with a jeering, "The studio thought that Barbra was too ol-l-ld to play Yentl." The film also mentions the album Color Me Barbra. Barbra's signature tune, "People", is played by a school orchestra in honor of teacher Howard as the story wraps at the end of the credits. This and similar references refer to her popularity among gay men.

In the 1980 musical film Fame, one of the characters, Mrs. Finsecker, announces that Barbra Streisand did not have to change her name to get to the top. Also, Doris Finsecker, played by Maureen Teefy, sings "The Way We Were" for her audition to get into the drama department.

In the 1988 comedy, BIG, Tom Hanks goes home and to prove to his mother that he is her "little" boy he sings the first line of her favorite song, "Memories, like the corner of my mind..." from "The Way We Were."

In the 1993 romantic comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin Williams, while trying different looks to apply to the Mrs. Doubtfire character that he portrays, uses a wig "a la Streisand" and sings some lines from "Don't Rain on My Parade".

In the 1996 comedy "The Associate", Whoopi Goldberg plays a business woman, Laurel Ayers, who creates a business associate, Robert S. Cutty, who is said to have known and dated Streisand. In addition to having an autographed picture of Streisand in her office, Ayers also has a cross-dressing friend who dresses up to resemble Streisand throughout the film.

In the 1998 film adaptation of the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a teenage runaway played by Christina Ricci paints images of Streisand while being administered large amounts of LSD by Hunter Thompson's Samoan attorney.

In the 1999 film based on the TV series, Cartman shouted out Barbra Streisand's name and shot electricity out of his hands. She is also mentioned in a relationship conversation between the characters of Satan and Saddam Hussein.

In the 2000 remake of the comedy Bedazzled, the Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) tells Elliot (Brendan Fraser): "It's not easy being the Barbra Streisand of evil, you know."

The characters Carla and Connie, as aspiring song-and-dance acts in the 2004 comedy Connie and Carla, include four Streisand references. They sing "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "Memory" at an airport lounge and "Don't Rain on My Parade" onstage in a gay bar, and talk about the plot of Yentl at the climax of the film after they ask how many in their audience have seen the movie (everyone raised their hands).

In the 2005 animated feature Chicken Little, Chicken's best friend Runt's mom says, after she thinks he is lying about seeing an alien spaceship, "Don't make me take away your Streisand collection!" and Runt returns with, "Mother, you leave Barbra out of this!"

In music

Sound clips of Streisand's heated exchange with a supporter of former U.S. president George W. Bush were sampled in the 2009 Lucian Piane dance song "Bale Out", making it sound as if she were arguing with actor Christian Bale (whose recorded outbursts during the filming of Terminator Salvation were the centerpiece of the song).

Her name consists both the title and the complete lyrics of the "Barbra Streisand" disco house song by Duck Sauce which reached number 1 in the UK Dance charts. It also reached number 1 in several other countries.

On stage

Daniel Stern's 2003 Off-Broadway play Barbra's Wedding was set against the backdrop of Streisand's 1998 wedding to James Brolin.

The 2005 Broadway musical Spamalot carries the song "You won't succeed on Broadway" which references lines from "People" and "Papa, Can You Hear Me?".

The 2008 Broadway musical "Title of show" has a line where the character, Susan, was suggesting names for the title of the show. She threw out the name "Color Me Susan", a reference to Barbra's Color Me Barbra.

Appearances

Broadway performances

West End performances

Television specials

Discography

1963: The Barbra Streisand Album

1963: The Second Barbra Streisand Album

1964: The Third Album

1964: Funny Girl

1964: People

1965: My Name Is Barbra

1965: My Name Is Barbra, Two...

1966: Color Me Barbra

1966: Je m'appelle Barbra

1967: Simply Streisand

1967: A Christmas Album

1969: What About Today?

1971: Stoney End

1971: Barbra Joan Streisand

1973: Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments

1974: The Way We Were

1974: ButterFly

1975: Lazy Afternoon

1976: Classical Barbra

1977: Streisand Superman

1978: Songbird

1979: Wet

1980: Guilty

1984: Emotion

1985: The Broadway Album

1988: Till I Loved You

1993: Back to Broadway

1997: Higher Ground

1999: A Love Like Ours

2001: Christmas Memories

2003: The Movie Album

2005: Guilty Pleasures

2009: Love Is the Answer

Tours and live performances

Filmography

References

Further reading

External links

BarbraStreisand.com, the Official Site

BJSMusic.com

* Category:1942 births Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from New York City Category:American dance musicians Category:American female pop singers Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:English-language singers Category:Erasmus Hall High School alumni Category:Female film directors Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters Category:Jewish singers Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:New York Democrats Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People of Jewish descent Category:Tony Award winners Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

Name	Paul Anka
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Paul Albert Anka
Born	July 30, 1941
Origin	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar
Genre	Pop, jazz, soft rock, doo-wop
Occupation	Singer, songwriter
Years active	1955–present
Label	EMI Columbia, RCA, Columbia
Url	Official Facebook

Paul Albert Anka, OC (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian/American singer, songwriter, and actor.

Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder". He went on to write such well-known music as the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and one of Tom Jones's biggest hits, "She's a Lady", and the English lyrics for Frank Sinatra's signature song, "My Way".

In 1983, he co-wrote with Michael Jackson the song "I Never Heard", which was retitled and released in 2009 under the name "This Is It". An additional song that Jackson co-wrote with Anka from this 1983 session, "Love Never Felt So Good", has since been discovered, and will be released in the near future. The song was also released by Johnny Mathis in 1984.

Anka became a naturalized US citizen in 1990.

Early life

Anka was born in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada to Andy and Camelia Anka, immigrants from Lebanon who owned a restaurant called The Locanda there. He sang with the St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church choir under the direction of Frederick Karam, with whom he studied music theory. He also studied piano with Winnifred Rees.

Career

Early success

, Stockholm 1959.]] Anka recorded his first single "I Confess" at age 14. In 1957 he went to New York City where he auditioned for Don Costa at ABC, singing what was widely believed to be a lovestruck verse he had written to a former babysitter. In an interview with NPR's Terry Gross in 2005, he stated that it was to a girl at his church who he hardly knew. The song, "Diana", brought Anka instant stardom as it rocketed to number one on the Canadian and U.S. music charts. "Diana" is one of the best selling singles ever by a Canadian recording artist. He followed up with four songs that made it into the Top 20 in 1958, including "It's Time to Cry", which made #4 and "(All Of a Sudden) My Heart Sings", which reached #15, making him, at 17, one of the biggest teen idols of the time. He toured Britain and then, with Buddy Holly, he toured Australia. Anka also wrote "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" a song written for Buddy Holly which Holly recorded just before he died in 1959. Anka stated shortly afterward - NME - June 1959

His talent went beyond the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (reworked in 1962 from a song Anka wrote earlier called "Toot Sweet" which had been rewritten with lyrics and recorded by Annette Funicello in 1959 as "It's Really Love") since Anka composed Tom Jones' biggest hit record "She's a Lady" and wrote the English lyrics to "My Way", Frank Sinatra's signature song sung by many well known artists.

In the 1960s Anka began acting in motion pictures as well as writing songs for them, most notably the theme for the hit movie The Longest Day, in which he made a cameo appearance as a US Army Ranger. From his movie work, he wrote and recorded one of his greatest hits, "Lonely Boy" and also "My Home Town", which was a #8 pop hit for him the same year. He then went on to become one of the first pop singers to perform at the Las Vegas casinos. Anka returns to Canada several times a year, regularly playing to sold out crowds at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario in Canada. In 1960, he appeared twice as himself in NBC's short-lived crime drama Dan Raven, starring Skip Homeier and set on the Sunset Strip of West Hollywood.

Comeback

.]] In 1960 Anka signed with RCA Records, but like most North American recording artists saw his career stalled by the British Invasion. By the late 1960s, Anka's career centered around adult contemporary and big-band standards, played regularly in Las Vegas. In the early 1970s he signed with Buddah Records. After more than ten years without a hit record he signed with United Artists and in 1974 teamed up with Odia Coates to record the number one hit, (You're) Having My Baby. They would record two more duets that made it into the Top 10, I Don't Like to Sleep Alone (#8) and One Man Woman/One Woman Man (#7). In 1975 he recorded a jingle for Kodak written by Bill Lane (lyrics) and Roger Nichols (melody) called Times of Your Life. It became so popular Anka recorded it as a full song, which peaked at #7 in the U.S. pop charts in 1976. His final Top-40 hit in the U.S. to date was Hold Me Til The Mornin' Comes that debuted in the summer of 1983, which included backing vocals from then-Chicago frontman Peter Cetera.

His 1998 album A Body of Work was his first new U.S. studio release since Walk a Fine Line in 1983; vocals and performers include Celine Dion, Kenny G, Patti LaBelle and Skyler Jett. On September 6, 1990, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 2005, his album of big-band arrangements of contemporary standards, Rock Swings, provided a mainstream comeback of sorts that saw Anka awarded a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.

On October 12, 2009, Anka stated that Michael Jackson's new release titled "This Is It" was a collaborative effort between the two musicians, and that it was co-written by Anka in 1983. According to Anka, after recording the song, Michael Jackson decided not to use it and the tune was then recorded and released by singer Sa-Fire. After he threatened to sue for credit and a share of royalties the administrators of Jackson's estate granted Anka fifty percent of the copyright. An additional song that Jackson co-wrote with Anka from this 1983 session, "Love Never Felt So Good", was discovered shortly thereafter and will be released in the near future. opening a promising foreign career. Anka then underwent an intense collaboration with Italian musicians of the time, including composer/director Ennio Morricone, singer/songwriter Lucio Battisti and lyricist Mogol. His official discography reports nine 45rpm records released by RCA Italy, but the Italian charts list at least six other songs he interpreted or recorded in Italian language. His top hit has been "Ogni giorno" which scored #1 in 1962, followed by "Piangerò per te" and "Ogni volta", that reached both #2 in 1963 and 1964 respectively. "Ogni volta" ("Every Time") was sung by Anka during the Festival di San Remo of 1964 and then sold over one million copies in Italy alone; it was also awarded a gold disc. Anka went to San Remo again in 1968, this time with the song "La farfalla impazzita" by Battisti-Mogol. In that occasion, the same title was interpreted by Italian crooner Johnny Dorelli; however, the pair of singers was eliminated before the final stage of the competition. Anka, maybe only coincidentally, left the Italian scene shortly thereafter.

In 2003, Anka came back with an exclusive concert in Bologna, organized by Italian company Mapei during the CERSAIE exhibition. He also recorded a version of "My Way" with alternate lyrics dedicated to the sponsor of the evening.

In 2006, Anka recorded in duet with 1960's Italian hitmaker Adriano Celentano a new cover of "Diana", with Italian lyrics by Celentano-Mogol and with singer/songwriter Alex Britti on the guitar. The song immediately reached #3 on the charts.

Other countries

With less success than in Italy, Anka tried the French market as well. At least two songs by Anka with French lyrics are known: one reported by the Italian charts (Faibles femmes, 1959 and is the stepfather of Anna Anka's daughter Elli, born 2002. Anka and Anna Åberg (she reverted to her maiden name after the divorce) were married in Sardinia during the summer of 2008. She is thirty years his junior. Paul and Anna divorced in 2010 and share custody of son, Ethan.

Anna was featured in the Swedish TV3 show Svenska Hollywoodfruar (Swedish Hollywood wives).

In 1981, Ottawa City Council named 26 August 'Paul Anka Day' to celebrate his 25th anniversary in show business. A street in Ottawa was named 'Paul Anka Drive' in 1975 in his honor. He attended Fisher Park High School as well as Lisgar Collegiate Institute.

The woman that inspired 'Diana' lives with her family in Ottawa. After receiving a negative review for a 1981 performance in Ottawa, he swore off performing there and did not play there again for almost twenty years, until an April 2002 fundraiser gala at the Ottawa Congress Centre.

In 1991, he signed an investment agreement with the new Ottawa Senators NHL franchise. The agreement ended up being dissolved in an out-of-court settlement in 1993.

Acting career

Anka played a yacht broker in the 1992 film Captain Ron.

In October 1995, he appeared in "Treehouse of Horror VI" on The Simpsons.

He also made a guest appearance as himself in episode 'Red's Last Day' in the sitcom That '70s Show. The scene is like an episode of Playboy After Dark, but in Kelso's old van.

He made several appearances on the NBC TV series Las Vegas.

On The CW show Gilmore Girls, Lorelai named her new dog Paul Anka. He made a guest appearance as himself in the episode 'The Real Paul Anka', which aired April 11, 2006.

Paul also played a part in the film 3000 Miles To Graceland as the Pit Manager.

Other film and television appearances

Anka was the subject of the 1962 National Film Board of Canada documentary Lonely Boy, considered a classic work of cinema verite.

Anka wrote and performed songs in a 1985 Canadian children's Christmas cartoon, George and the Christmas Star.

In American Idol's Seasons 2 and 3, he made a special appearance and sang an adapted version of "My Way" that mocked the format of the show, as well as participants, participants of past seasons, judges and the host. The performance was praised as "One of the Best Moments in American Idol" by several members of the cast.

Soundtrack appearances

In the popular video game , in the Abbatoir party mission, in the room where the player finds a girl hanging upside down and severely mutilated, 'Put Your Head On My Shoulder' is playing from a music player on repeat on the desk.

Anka's song "(You're) Having My Baby" was featured on the first season of the TV show Glee, namely in Episode 10, "Ballad", in which the character Finn sings the song to his pregnant girlfriend, Quinn.

References in popular culture

Sometime in the mid-1980s, Anka was secretly recorded while launching a tirade against his crew and band members, berating them for unprofessional behavior in the show they had just played. (Asked about it on the interview program Fresh Air, Anka referred to the person who did the recording as a "snake we later fired"). The recording became widely known after being uploaded to the internet, and a number of quotes from it have since become famous, including "The guys get shirts", "Don't make a maniac out of me", and "Slice like a fucking hammer". Some of the quotes were reproduced verbatim by Al Pacino's character in the 2007 film Ocean's Thirteen.

Singles discography

|- *with IV & Nash **with Odia Coates

Music videos

See also

Canadian rock

Music of Canada

References

External links

Official site

Category:1941 births Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:ABC Records artists Category:American crooners Category:American film actors Category:American male singers Category:American pop singers Category:American songwriters Category:American people of Arab descent Category:Canadian people of Arab descent Category:Arab Christians Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian immigrants to the United States Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian songwriters Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian people of Lebanese descent Category:American people of Lebanese descent Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Musicians from Ottawa Category:RPM Records artists Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Canada

Name	Kenny Rogers
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kenneth Donald Rogers
Born	August 21, 1938
Origin	Houston, Texas, United States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, harmonica
Genre	Country, country pop, rock (with The First Edition)
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, actor, record producer
Years active	1958–present
Label	Cue Records, Carlton Records, Mercury Records, United Artists Records, RCA Records, Reprise Records, Giant Records, Atlantic Records, Curb Records, Dreamcatcher, Capitol Nashville, WEA
Associated acts	The New Christy Minstrels, The First Edition, Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Juice Newton, Sheena Easton, Kim Carnes
Url	www.kennyrogers.com
Spouse	Janice Gordon (1958-1960)Jean Rogers (1960-1963)Margo Anderson (1964-1976)Marianne Gordon (1977-1993)Wanda Miller (1997-present)

Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People. He has received hundreds of awards for both his music and charity work. These include AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003.

Later success includes the 2006 album release, Water & Bridges, an across the board hit, that peaked at #5 in the Billboard Country Albums sales charts, also charting high in the Billboard 200. The first single from the album, "I Can't Unlove You," was also a chart hit. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, the following year he completed a tour of the United Kingdom and the Ireland telling BBC Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright, his favorite hit was "The Gambler". He has also acted in a variety of movies and television shows, most notably the title roles in Kenny Rogers as The Gambler and the MacShayne series as well as his appearance on the Muppet Show. Rogers currently resides in Nicholson, Georgia.

Personal life

Rogers was born "Kenneth Ray Rogers" in Houston, Texas in 1938, the fourth of seven children born to Lucille (née Hester), a nurse, and Edward Floyd Rogers, a carpenter. Rogers graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in Houston. According to the Texas birth records, his middle given name is Ray and he is sometimes credited in his film roles as "Kenneth Ray Rogers".

He has been married five times. His fourth wife was actress Marianne Gordon Rogers. His current wife is the former Wanda Miller. He has a daughter and four sons.

As of 2005, Rogers had become an avid Atlanta Thrashers fan, and can often be seen at Philips Arena taking in a game.

Career

Early career

His career began in the mid-1950s, when he recorded with a doo-wop group called The Scholars who had some success with a single called "Poor Little Doggie". Rogers was not the lead singer of the group and after two more singles they disbanded when their leader went solo.

Now on his own, Kenneth Rogers (as he was billed then) followed the break up with his own single, a minor solo hit called "That Crazy Feeling" (1958). After sales slowed down, Rogers joined a jazz group called The Bobby Doyle Trio, who got a lot of work in clubs thanks to a reasonable fan following and also recorded for Columbia Records. The group disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called "Here's That Rainy Day" failed. Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers; including country artists Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold. In 1966 he joined The New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player.

Feeling that the Minstrels were not offering the success they wanted, Rogers and fellow members Mike Settle, Terry Williams and Thelma Camacho left the group. They formed The First Edition in 1967 (later renamed "Kenny Rogers and The First Edition"). They chalked up a string of hits on both the pop and country charts, including "Something's Burning", "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town", "Reuben James" and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)". In his First Edition days, Rogers had something of a hippie image, with long brown hair, an earring, and pink sunglasses. Known affectionately in retrospect as "Hippie Kenny", Rogers had a much smoother vocal style than in his later career.

When the group split in 1976, Rogers launched his solo career. Rogers soon developed a more middle of the road sound, with a somewhat rough but tuneful voiced style that sold to both pop and country audiences; to date, he has charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including upwards of 25 #1's) and 50 of his albums have charted. His music has also been featured in top selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy and The Big Lebowski.

Solo career

After leaving The First Edition in 1976, after almost a decade with the group, Rogers signed a solo deal with United Artists. Although producer Larry Butler had no doubts about Rogers's talent, he was advised by several colleagues not to sign Rogers, who some saw as a has-been. Nevertheless, Butler and Rogers began a partnership that would last four years.

Rogers first outing for his new label was Love Lifted Me. The album charted and two singles "Love Lifted Me" and "While The Feeling's Good" were minor hits. The song "Runaway Girl" was featured in the motion picture Trackdown. Later in 1976, Rogers issued his second album, the self-titled Kenny Rogers, whose first single "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)", was another solo hit.

However, the single "Lucille" (1977) was a major hit, reaching number one on the pop charts in 12 countries, selling over five million copies, and firmly establishing Rogers's post-First Edition career. On the strength of "Lucille", the album Kenny Rogers reached #1 in the Billboard Country Album Chart. More success was to follow, including the multi-million selling album The Gambler and another international Number 1 single, "Coward of the County", taken from the equally successful album, Kenny. In 1980, the Rogers/Butler partnership came to an end, though they would occasionally reunite: in 1987 on the album I Prefer The Moonlight and again in 1993 on the album If Only My Heart Had A Voice.

In the late 1970s, Rogers teamed up with close friend and country singer Dottie West for a series of albums and duets. Together the duo had three hit albums, selling out stadiums and arenas while on tour. Their hits together "Every Time Two Fools Collide", "Anyone Who Isn't Me Tonight" and "What Are We Doin' in Love" became Country standards. Of West, Rogers stated in a 1995 TNN interview "She, more than anybody else I ever worked with sang with such emotion that you actually believed what she sang." Rogers was with West when she died after sustaining injuries in a 1991 car accident. In 1995 he starred opposite Michele Lee in the CBS biopic .

In 1980, his duet with Kim Carnes "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" became a major hit. Later in 1980 came his partnership with Lionel Richie who wrote and produced Rogers's #1 hit "Lady". Richie went on to write and produce Rogers's 1981 album Share Your Love, a chart topper and commercial favorite featuring hits such as "I Don't Need You" (Pop #3), "Through the Years" (Pop #13), and "Share Your Love with Me" (Pop #14). In 1982, Rogers released the album Love Will Turn You Around. The title track reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the country and AC charts. Shortly after he started working with producer David Foster in 1983 recording the smash Bob Seger cover "We've Got Tonight", a duet with Sheena Easton.

He went on to work with the Bee Gees to record and produce his 1983 hit album Eyes That See in the Dark, featuring the title track and yet another #1 hit "Islands in the Stream", a duet with Dolly Parton. The Gibbs originally wrote the song for Marvin Gaye in an R&B; style, only later to change it for the Kenny Rogers album. The partnership with Bee Gees only lasted one album, which was not a surprise considering that Rogers's original intentions were to work with Barry Gibb in only one song but Barry insisted on them doing the entire album.

"Islands in the Stream", the first single to be released from Eyes That See in the Dark in the United States, quickly went to #1 in the Billboard Hot 100. It was the last country single to reach #1 on that chart until "Amazed" by Lonestar did so in 2000. However, RCA insisted on releasing the title track as the first UK single, and the song stalled at a disappointing #61 there, although it did stay in the top 100 for several weeks (when it was eventually released in the US, it was more successful, charting high on the Adult Contemporary chart and making the country top 30). "Islands in the Stream" was issued as a follow up single in Britain and sold well, making #7. The album itself reached #1 on the country charts on both sides of the Atlantic and enjoyed multi-million sales. "Buried Treasure," "This Woman" and "Evening Star"/"Midsummer Nights" were also all successful singles from the album.

Shortly after came the album What About Me?, a hit whose title track, a trio performance with James Ingram and Kim Carnes, was nominated for a Grammy award; the single "Crazy" (not to be confused with the Willie Nelson-penned Patsy Cline hit) topped the country charts. David Foster was to work again with Rogers in his 1985 album The Heart of the Matter, although this time Foster was playing backing music rather than producing, a role given to George Martin. This album was another success, going to #1, with the title track making to the top ten category in the singles charts.

The next few years saw Rogers scoring several top country hits on a regular basis, including "Twenty Years Ago," "Morning Desire," "Tomb of the Unknown Love," among others. On 28 January 1985 Rogers was one of the 45 artists who recorded the worldwide charity song "We Are the World" to support hunger victims in Africa. The following year he played at Giants Stadium.

On January 1987, Rogers co-hosted the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. By 1988 to 1990, Rogers had In the 1990s Rogers continued to chart with singles such as "Crazy In Love", "If You Want To Find Love" and "The Greatest". From 1991 to 1994, Rogers hosted The Real West on A&E;, and on The History Channel since 1995 (Reruns only on The History Channel.). He also visited Miller's during this time period. From 1992 to 1995 Rogers co-owned and headlined Branson, Missouri’s 4,000 seat Grand Palace Theatre. In 1994, Rogers released his "dream" album titled Timepiece on Atlantic Records. It consisted of 30's and 40's jazz standards; it was the type of music he performed in his early days with The Bobby Doyle Three in Houston. In 1996 he released an album Vote For Love where the public requested their favorite love songs and Rogers performed the songs (several of his own hits were in there). The album was the first for the TV shopping channel QVC's record label, onQ Music. The album, sold exclusively by QVC, was a huge success and was later issued in stores under a variety of different titles. It reached #1 in the UK country charts under the title Love Songs (a title also used for various compilations) and also crossed over into the mainstream charts.

In 1999 Rogers scored with the single "The Greatest", a song about life from a child's point of view (looked at through a baseball game). The song reached the top 40 of Billboard's Country singles chart and was a Country Music Television Number One video. It was on Rogers's album She Rides Wild Horses the following year (itself a top 10 success). In 1999, Rogers also produced a song, "We've Got It All", specifically for the series finale of the ABC show Home Improvement. Not on any album, the recording sells for a high sum at auction.

Beyond the 1990s

In the 21st century, Rogers was back at #1 for the first time in more than a decade with the 2000 single "Buy Me a Rose", making him, at 61, the oldest artist in the history of country music to reach the chart summit. In doing so, he broke a 26-year-old record held by Hank Snow (who, in April 1974, was 59 years and 11 months old when he scored with "Hello Love"). Rogers held the record until 2003, when then 70-year-old Willie Nelson became the oldest artist to have a No. 1 on the country charts with his duet with Toby Keith, "Beer For My Horses."

Rogers also released the critically acclaimed album Back to the Well.

Although Rogers didn't record new albums for a couple of years, he continued to have success in many countries with more greatest hits packages. In 2004 42 Ultimate Hits, which was the first hits collection to span his days with the First Edition to the present, reached Number 6 on the American country charts and went gold. It also featured two new songs, "My World Is Over" with Whitney Duncan and "We Are the Same". "My World Is Over" was released as a single and was a minor hit. In 2005 The Very Best of Kenny Rogers, a double album, sold well in Europe. It was the first new solo Kenny Rogers hits album to reach the United Kingdom for over a decade, despite many compilations there that were not true hits packages.

Rogers also signed with Capitol Records and had more success with the TV advertised release 21 Number Ones in January 2006. Although this CD did contain 21 chart-toppers as the title claims (recorded between 1976 and the present day), this was not a complete collection of Rogers's #1 singles, omitting such singles as "Crazy in Love" and "What About Me?"

Much of his success was during the period from 1976 to 1983, when he was signed to United Artists and later Liberty. It is very rare for an artist of Rogers's age to be signed to a major label. Capitol followed 21 Number Ones with Rogers's new studio album, Water And Bridges, in March 2006 on the Capitol Nashville Records label. The first single from the album was "I Can't Unlove You" which peaked at #17 on the country charts, after spending over 6 months on the hit list, more than 50 years after he formed his first group and 38 years after his first major hit as leader of The First Edition; the song remains in recurrent airplay on some radio stations today. "I Can't Unlove You" was followed up with the second single from the album, "The Last Ten Years (Superman)", in September 2006. The third single, "Calling Me," which features Don Henley, became popular in early 2007, and was nominated for a Grammy Award at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Also in 2007, the 1977 "Kenny Rogers" album was re-issued as a double play CD, also featuring the 1979 "Kenny" album and this once again put Rogers's name into the sales charts worldwide. The following year, another compilation album ("A Love Song Collection") also charted. He currently lives in Atlanta.

In 2003, Rogers made a guest appearance in two episodes of Reno 911! as himself.

To date Rogers has recorded 65 albums and sold over 165 million records.

On August 26, 2008, Rogers released "50 Years" exclusively at Cracker Barrel stores. The album includes some of Rogers's greatest hits, plus 3 new songs. The release is designed to celebrate Rogers's 50th year in the music business. However, it should be noted Rogers has been in the music business for more than 50 years including his releases with The Scholars, who recorded for a local label in Houston. 1958 was the year he signed his first recording deal with a major label.

In 2008 Rogers toured with his very popular Christmas Show. However, he decided to split the show up, making the first half his "best of" and the second half consisted of his Christmas songs. One such show was at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT.

In 2009 he toured the UK, playing in Cardiff CIA (March 27)Birmingham NIA (28)Manchester MEN (29)Newcastle Arena (30)Plymouth Pavilions (April 1)Nottingham Concert Hall (2)London Hammersmith Apollo (3)Bournemouth BIC (4)with support band - Savannah Jack.

In 2009, Kenny embarked on his 50th Anniversary Tour. The tour went around the United States, Britain and Ireland. It will continue into 2010.

In 2010, Rogers and his long-time friend Dolly Parton are set to release a new album. They previously worked together on such songs as Islands in the Stream and Real Love.

On April 10, 2010, a TV special was taped, Kenny Rogers: The First 50 Years. Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie are among those set to perform with Kenny during a show celebrating his contribution to country, blues and pop music, It took place at the MGM Grand in Foxwoods, CT. To date, it has not been aired.

Outside music

Rogers also had success as an actor. His 1982 movie Six Pack, in which he played a race-car driver, took more than $20 million at the US box office, while made-for-TV movies such as The Gambler, Christmas in America, and Coward of the County (based on hit songs of his) topped ratings lists.

As an entrepreneur, he collaborated with former Kentucky Fried Chicken CEO John Y. Brown, Jr. in 1991 to start up the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters. The chicken and ribs chain, which is similar to Boston Market, was famously featured in an episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld called "The Chicken Roaster". On the November 27, 1997, broadcast of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Rogers could not pick his chicken out in a taste test, claiming he preferred "greasy burgers."

Rogers and his restaurant were subjects of comedy from MADtv, especially the impersonation done by Will Sasso; the sketch of the faux-Rogers hosting Jackass became popular on the Internet. Sasso had him making noises such as "Ding Ding Ding Di da Ding Ding Ding" and getting sloppily drunk.

Rogers appeared in a 2004 episode of Reno 911 as himself being subjected to incompetent security provided by starstruck sheriff's deputies to comical effect. In this episode, Deputy Garcia, who is obsessed with Rogers, reveals that he thinks that Rogers should focus all of his effort on acting, and "give that singing thing a rest for a while," because Garcia believes that Rogers could win an Oscar. In order to "protect" Rogers the deputies take down all of the posters announcing his appearance in Reno, when he finds out he angrily berates the deputies and leaves. He is then promptly shot and wounded by an obsessed fan played by Patton Oswalt, though he is only superficially wounded, and asks for "mall security".

Rogers is also the inspiration behind the pop culture website menwholooklikekennyrogers.com . The site features close to a thousand photos of men who look like the real Rogers, as well as tips on how to look like Rogers, places to spot Rogers look-alikes, and even a Kenny of the Month and sells t-shirts and buttons.

Discography

Kenny Rogers is to headline the annual music festival Nevada Wild Fest in Henderson, Nevada.

Awards/Honors

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! Year ! Award ! Category |- | 2010 | American Eagle Award | American Eagle Award |- | 2009 | ACM Honors | Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award (w/ Jerry Reed, Randy Travis, Hank Williams Jr.) |- | 2007 | ASCAP Golden Note Award | ASCAP Golden Note Award |- | 2007 | CMT Music Awards | Album of the Year - Water & Bridges |- | 2005 | CMT Music Awards | Favorite All Time Country Duet - "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton) |- | 2004 | CMT's 100 Greatest Cheating Songs | "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town"- #6 |- | 2003 | International Entertainment Buyers Association | Lifetime Achievement Award |- | 2003 | CMT's 100 Greatest Country Songs | "The Gambler" - #26 |- | 2002 | CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music | Ranking - #19 |- | 2000 | TNN Music Awards | Career Achievement Award |- | 1999 | BBC's Greatest Country Singer | Ranking - #2 |- | 1988 | Grammy Awards | Best Duo Country Vocal Performance - "Make No Mistake She's Mine" (w/ Ronnie Milsap) |- | 1986 | USA Today | Favorite Singer of All Time |- | 1985 | American Music Awards | Favorite Country Album - Eyes That See In the Dark |- | 1985 | American Music Awards | Favorite Male Country Artist |- | 1983 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Single of the Year - "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton) |- | 1983 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Top Vocal Duet - (w/ Dolly Parton) |- | 1983 | American Music Awards | Favorite Pop/Rock Country Artist |- | 1983 | American Music Awards | Favorite Country Single - "Love Will Turn You Around" |- | 1983 | ASAP Awards | Favorite Single - "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton) |- | 1982 | American Music Awards | Favorite Country Album - Greatest Hits |- | 1981 | American Music Awards | Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist |- | 1981 | American Music Awards | Favorite Country Album - The Gambler |- | 1981 | American Music Awards | Favorite Country Single - "Coward of the County" |- | 1980 | American Music Awards | Favorite Male Country Artist |- | 1980 | American Music Awards | Favorite Country Album - The Gambler |- | 1980 | Music City News Country | Single of the Year |- | 1979 | American Music Awards | Favorite Male Country Artist |- | 1979 | American Music Awards | Favorite Country Album - 10 Years of Gold |- | 1979 | Country Music Association Awards | Male Vocalist of the Year |- | 1979 | Country Music Association Awards | Vocal Duo of the Year - (w/ Dottie West) |- | 1979 | Country Music Association Awards | Album of the Year - The Gambler |- | 1979 | Music City News Country | Male Artist of the Year |- | 1979 | Music City News Country | Single of the Year - "The Gambler" |- | 1979 | Grammy Awards | Best Male Country Vocal Performance - "The Gambler" |- | 1978 | American Music Awards | Favorite Single - "Lucille" |- | 1978 | Country Music Association Awards | Vocal Duo of the Year - (w/ Dottie West) |- | 1978 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Entertainer of the Year |- | 1978 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Top Male Vocalist |- | 1977 | Country Music Association Awards | Single of the Year - "Lucille" |- | 1977 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Top Male Vocalist |- | 1977 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Single of the Year - "Lucille" |- | 1977 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Song of the Year - "Lucille" |- | 1977 | Grammy Awards | Best Male Country Vocal Performance - "Lucille" |}

Record labels

The following is a list of record labels to which Rogers signed:

Cue (1957, with the band The Scholars and also as a solo singer)

Carlton (1958, solo deal)

KenLee (one single, label owned by Rogers and his brother Lelan)

Columbia (1960s, with jazz combo, The Bobby Doyle Three)

Reprise (1967, with The First Edition, all material recorded during this time has since been acquired by Universal Music)

Jolly Rogers (1973, with The First Edition, label was owned by Rogers)

United Artists (1975, solo deal)

Liberty (1980, United Artists merged into EMI/Capitol in 1980; some pressings of albums were issued on Capitol's imprint labels, EMI, EMI America, and EMI Manhattan.)

RCA (1983, solo deal)

Reprise (1989, solo deal)

Giant (1993, one solo album)

Atlantic (1994, one solo album)

onQ Music (1996, one solo album; onQ Music was created by the QVC Network to release exclusive albums for sale only on QVC. The first onQ release was Rogers's Vote for Love, a two-disc set that would later become available in standard retail stores.)

Magnatone (1996, solo deal)

Dreamcatcher (1998, solo deal; Dreamcatcher was owned and run by Rogers and Jim Mazza for the purpose of releasing Rogers albums and certain reissues of Rogers's catalog. Other artists such as Marshall Dyllon and Randy Dorman were released on Dreamcatcher Records, also. The label closed in 2004)

Capitol Nashville (2004, solo deal)

See also

Brady Hawkes

References

External links

Official website

delafont.com profile

[ Allmusic.com profile]

CMT.com profile

Kenny Rogers's Classic Weekend 1988

Goldsmith, Thomas. (1998). "Kenny Rogers". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 455–6.

Category:1938 births Category:American country singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American male singers Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Houston, Texas Category:University of Houston alumni Category:The First Edition members Category:United Artists Records artists

Name	Diana Ross
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Diana Ernestine Earle Ross
Born	March 26, 1944
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Genre	R&B;, soul, disco, jazz, pop
Occupation	Singer, record producer, actress
Years active	1959–present
Label	Lu Pine, Motown, RCA, EMI
Associated acts	The Supremes, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, CHIC, The Temptations, Ashford & Simpson
Url	www.dianaross.com

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Ross served as lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her 1972 role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, for which she won a Golden Globe award. She won awards at the American Music Awards, garnered twelve Grammy Award nominations, and won a Tony Award for her one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross, in 1977.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist on the chart; Madonna would surpass that feat six years later. Ross is one of the few recording artists to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one as a solo artist and the other as a member of The Supremes. In December 2007, she received a John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Honors Award. Diana Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Early life

Diana Ross, the daughter of Ernestine (née Moten) (January 27, 1916October 9, 1984), a schoolteacher, and Fred Ross, Sr. (July 4, 1920November 21, 2007), a former United States Army soldier, was born at Hutzel Women's Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Ross said she didn't see her father until he returned from the service. Although her given name was "Diana", Ross went by "Diane" at home and school, and continued to use the name professionally until she was twenty-one.

After living at 635 Belmont Avenue in Detroit's North End for several years, Ross's family settled on St. Antoine Street in the Brewster-Douglass housing projects on Diana's fourteenth birthday in 1958. Ross aspired to be a fashion designer, and studied design, millinery, pattern-making and seamstress skills while attending Cass Technical High School, a four-year college preparatory magnet school, in downtown Detroit. In her late teens, Ross worked at Hudson's Department Store where, it was claimed in biographies, that she was the first black employee "allowed outside the kitchen". Ross graduated in January 1962, one semester earlier than her classmates. Ross' parents had a difficult marriage and separated when Ross was still in her teens.

Career

The Supremes: 1959-1970

In 1959, Ross was brought to the attention of Milton Jenkins, the manager of the local doo-wop group The Primes, by Mary Wilson. Primes member Paul Williams convinced Jenkins to enlist Ross in the sister group The Primettes, which included Wilson, Florence Ballard and Betty McGlown. Ross, Wilson and Ballard each sang lead during live performances. In 1960, Lu Pine Records signed the group and issued the Ross-led single "Tears of Sorrow" backed with the Wilson-led "Pretty Baby".Soon after winning a singing contest in Winnipeg, Ontario, Ross approached former neighbor William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. for an audition at the label with which he recorded, Motown Records. The group garnered the audition and impressed Motown's CEO, Berry Gordy, Jr. (who arrived at the audition during the group's performance), but declined to work with the group due to them being underaged. Undeterred, the group would stand outside the label's Hitsville USA studios hoping to grab attention, eventually providing backing vocals & hand claps for many of Motown's more established artists. Meanwhile during the group's struggling early years Ross earned pay in the day as Berry Gordy's secretary. She also served at the group's main hair stylist, make-up artist, seamstress & costume designer during this period.

in 1965. Left to right: Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross.]] In 1961, having already replaced McGlown with Barbara Martin, the quartet signed with Motown Records under their new moniker, The Supremes, chosen by Florence Ballard, who was the only member to be present when the group was offered a name change. Both Ross and Wilson initially disliked the name, afraid they would be mistaken for a men's group (Ruby & The Romantics' original name was The Supremes) but the name stuck regardless.

Following Martin's exit in 1962, the group remained a trio. In 1963, Ross became the group's lead singer, as Berry Gordy felt the group could "cross over" to the pop charts with Ross' unique vocal quality, and the Ross-led "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" became the group's first Billboard Top 20 Pop single. The Supremes hit number one with "Where Did Our Love Go", a song rejected by The Marvelettes, and then achieved unprecedented success: between August 1964 and May 1967, Ross, Wilson and Ballard sang on ten number-one hit singles, all of which also made the United Kingdom Top 40.

Gordy removed Florence Ballard from the group in July 1967 and chose Cindy Birdsong, a member of Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, as her replacement. Shortly thereafter, he changed the group's name to Diana Ross & the Supremes.

Motown initially conceived of a solo career for Diana Ross in 1966, but did not act on it until 1968. Television specials such as TCB (1968) and G.I.T. on Broadway (1969) were designed to spotlight her as a star in her own right, and much of the later Ross-led Supremes material was recorded by Ross with session singers The Andantes, not Wilson and Birdsong, on backing vocals. By the summer of 1969, Ross began her first solo recordings. In November of the same year, three years after it was first rumored, Billboard magazine confirmed Ross's departure from the group to begin her solo career. That same year, Ross introduced Motown's newest act, The Jackson 5, to national audiences on the Hollywood Palace television variety program.

Ross recorded her initial solo sessions with a number of producers, including Bones Howe and Johnny Bristol. Her first track with Bristol, "Someday We'll Be Together", was tagged as a potential solo single, but it instead was issued as the final Diana Ross & the Supremes release. "Someday We'll Be Together" was the 12th and final number-one hit for the Supremes and the last American number-one hit of the 1960s. Ross made her final appearance with the Supremes at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas on January 14, 1970.

Early solo career: 1970-1981

, featured her first solo number-one hit, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".]] After a half-year of recording material with various producers, Ross settled with the production team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, the creative force behind Marvin Gaye's and Tammi Terrell's hit duets and Diana Ross & the Supremes' "Some Things You Never Get Used To". Ashford and Simpson helmed most of Ross's first album, Diana Ross, and continued to write and produce for her for the next decade.

In May 1970, Diana Ross was released on Motown. The first single, the gospel-influenced waltz, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)", peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, a fully rearranged cover of Gaye's and Terrell's 1967 hit, and another Ashford and Simpson composition, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", was an international hit, and gave Ross her first #1 pop single and gold record award as a solo artist. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. In 1971, Motown released Ross's second album Everything Is Everything, which produced Ross's first UK number-one solo single, "I'm Still Waiting". Several months later, Ross released Surrender, which included the top-20 pop hit, "Remember Me". That year, she hosted her first solo television special, Diana!, featuring guest appearances by The Jackson 5, Bill Cosby and Danny Thomas.

In 1973 Ross returned to number-one with the single "Touch Me in the Morning". The album of the same name became her first top five charted pop release. Later that same year, Ross and fellow Motown star Marvin Gaye released a duet album, Diana & Marvin. The duo scored an international hit with their cover of The Stylistics' "You Are Everything". Ross' 1974 follow-up album, Last Time I Saw Him, wasn't as successful despite the success of its country-tinged title track. Two years later Ross ventured into disco with "Love Hangover", which returned her to number-one. The self-titled parent album became another top five hit and included her previous number-one, the movie theme, "Do You Know Where You're Going To (Theme from Mahogany)". Ross' subsequent follow-ups, including Baby It's Me (1977) and Ross (1978) fell off the charts soon after they appeared. Ross did have success with her first Broadway one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross. Her performance later won her a Tony. She was featured in TV special with the same name.

, was her final LP for Motown before leaving for RCA the following year.]] In 1979 Ross hired former collaborators Ashford & Simpson, who had left Motown in 1973 due to contractual issues with Berry Gordy, to overlook the production of her next album, The Boss. That album produced the hit title track and the modestly successful "It's My House". Ross' working relationship with Berry Gordy had deteriorated at that point as Gordy refused to be an executive producer of the project. In 1980, Ross hired Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the group CHIC to overlook production of her final contractual Motown album, diana. That album led to major success with "Upside Down" returning Ross to number-one on the pop charts for the first time since "Love Hangover". Its follow-up, "I'm Coming Out", was as successful and both songs found major success overseas.

In 1981, Ross decided not to renew her Motown contract only to discover that everything she thought she had owned was only leased to her by Berry Gordy. Ross accepted a $20 million deal with RCA in 1981, then the most lucrative contract in music. To complete contractual obligations, Ross recorded several songs with Lionel Richie, one of which, "Endless Love", led to the duo having an international number-one hit. The song was the theme song of the movie of the same name. Motown issued a compilation album, To Love Again, to compete with Ross' RCA debut.

Film career: 1972-1999

Though Ross had previously appeared in two films while a member of The Supremes, it wasn't until the early 1970s when Berry Gordy began to focus on making Ross an actress. In late 1971, Motown announced that Diana Ross was going to portray jazz icon Billie Holiday in a Motown-produced film loosely based on Holiday's autobiography Lady Sings the Blues (1956) written by Holiday and William Dufty. Some critics ridiculed Ross's casting in the role. Ross and Holiday were considered to be "miles apart" in vocal styling and appearance. Ross immersed herself in Holiday's music and life story; she knew little about Holiday and was not a big fan of jazz in general. Instead of imitating Holiday's voice, Ross focused on Holiday's vocal phrasing.

Opening in October 1972, Lady Sings the Blues was a major success, and Ross's performance drew favorable reviews. The movie co-starred Billy Dee Williams as Holiday's lover, Louis McKay. The cast also included comedian Richard Pryor as the "Piano Man". In 1973, Ross was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for "Best Actress". Ross along with fellow nominee that year Cicely Tyson, were the second African American actresses to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress after Dorothy Dandridge. Ross won the Golden Globe for Best Newcomer, but lost the Best Actress Oscar to her friend Liza Minnelli for her role in Cabaret. The soundtrack album for Lady Sings the Blues reached number one on the Billboard 200 for two weeks and shipped 300,000 copies during its first eight days of release. The double-pocket custom label record is one of Ross's best-selling albums of all time, with total sales to date of nearly two million copies.

In 1975, Ross again co-starred with Billy Dee Williams in the Motown film Mahogany. The story of an aspiring fashion designer who becomes a runway model and the toast of the industry, Mahogany was a troubled production from its inception. The film's original director, Tony Richardson, was fired during production and Berry Gordy assumed the director's chair himself. In addition, Gordy and Ross clashed during filming, with Ross leaving the production before shooting was completed, forcing Gordy to use secretary Edna Anderson as a body double for Ross. While a box office success, the film was not well received by the critics: Time magazine's review of the film chastised Gordy for "squandering one of America's most natural resources: Diana Ross".

In 1977, Motown acquired the film rights to the Broadway play The Wiz, an African-American reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Although teenage Stephanie Mills, a veteran of the play, was originally cast as Dorothy, Ross convinced Universal Pictures producer Rob Cohen to have Ross cast as Dorothy. Because of Ross' age, the script was modified to make the protagonist a school teacher rather than a schoolgirl. Among Ross's costars were Lena Horne, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Nipsey Russell and Ted Ross. Upon its October 1978 release, the film adaptation of The Wiz, a $24 million production, earned $13.6 million at the box office. Though pre-release television broadcast rights had been sold to CBS for over $10 million, the film produced a net loss of $10.4 million for Motown and Universal. The film's failure ended Ross' short career on the big screen and contributed to the Hollywood studios' reluctance to produce the all-black film projects which had become popular during the blaxploitation era of the early-to-mid 1970s for several years. The Wiz was Ross' final film for Motown.

Ross had more success with movie-themed songs. While her version of Holiday's "Good Morning Heartache" only performed modestly well in early 1973, her recording of "Do You Know Where You're Going To (Theme from Mahogany)" gave Ross her fourth number-one hit in late 1975. Three years later, Ross and Michael Jackson had a modest dance hit with their recording of "Ease on Down the Road". Their second duet, actually as part of the ensemble of The Wiz, "Brand New Day", found some success overseas. Ross scored a Top 10 hit in late 1980 with the theme song to the 1980 film It's My Turn. The following year, she collaborated with former Commodores singer-songwriter Lionel Richie on the theme song for the film Endless Love. The Academy Award-nominated "Endless Love" single became her final hit on Motown Records, and the number one record of the year. Several years later, in 1988, Ross recorded the theme song to The Land Before Time. "If We Hold On Together" became an international hit reaching number-one in Japan.

Ross would be given movie offers over the years but reportedly turned them down because of either contractual obligations or fears of being typecasted. Ross had campaigned to portray pioneering entertainer Josephine Baker in a feature film even during her later years in Motown. However, in 1991, the feature film turned into a TV film with Lynn Whitfield playing Baker instead of Ross. Ross was also offered a role in an early adaptation of The Bodyguard with Ryan O'Neal. However, plans of this adaptation fell through. Years later, Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner assumed the roles of Ross and O'Neal in the 1992 film. In 1993, Ross returned to making movies with a dramatic role in the TV film, Out of Darkness. Ross won acclaim for her role in the film. In 1999, she and Brandy co-starred in the modestly received film, Double Platinum, which was released prior to the release of Ross' album, Every Day Is a New Day.

Later solo career: 1981-1999

was Ross's debut LP for Ross Records distributed by RCA Records.]] Diana Ross's RCA Records debut, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, was issued in October 1981. The album yielded three Top 10 hits including the title track "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", a remake of the 1956 Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers classic of the same name, and the single "Mirror Mirror". A third single, "Work That Body", hit the Top Ten in the UK. That success was repeated if only more modestly with the 1982 album, Silk Electric. Ross' recording of Michael Jackson's "Muscles" gave Ross another top ten hit. Ross' 1983 album, Ross, failed to produce any success.

On July 21, 1983, Ross performed a concert in Central Park for a taped Showtime special. Proceeds of the concert would be donated to build a playground in the singer's name. Midway through the beginning of the show, a torrential downpour occurred. Ross tried to keep on performing, but the severe weather required that the show be stopped. Ross urged the large crowd to exit the venue safely, promising to perform the next day. The second concert held the very next day was without rain. The funds for the playground were to be derived from sales of different items at the concert; however, all profits earned from the first concert were spent on the second. When the mainstream media discovered the exorbitant costs of the two concerts, Diana Ross faced criticism and poor publicity. Although representatives of Diana Ross originally refused to pay anything for the proposed playground, Ross later paid the $250,000 required to build the park. The Diana Ross Playground was finally built three years later.

In 1984, Ross' career was revived modestly again with the release of Swept Away. The title track became an international hit as did the ballad, "Missing You", which was a tribute to Marvin Gaye, who had died earlier that year. Her 1985 album, Eaten Alive, found success overseas with the title track and "Chain Reaction", while neither of the songs found success in America. Ross' 1987 follow-up, Red Hot Rhythm & Blues, performed worse. In 1988, Ross chose to not renew her RCA contract.

Motown Records was being sold by Berry Gordy for $60 million. Ross advised Gordy not to make the move. Before leaving Motown, Gordy offered Ross a contract back to Motown. Ross was at first hesitant to return to the label but agreed after Gordy offered her part-ownership of the label. Despite initial promotion, Ross' next album, Workin' Overtime, bombed. Subsequent follow-ups including The Force Behind the Power (1991), Take Me Higher (1995) and Every Day is a New Day (1999) produced similarly disappointing sales. Ross had more success overseas with the albums than she did in America. In 1994, Ross performed at the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup, hosted in the USA. Her performance has become a running joke in football circles due to her obvious miming and for missing the goal from close range. In 1999, she was named the most successful female singer in the history of the United Kingdom charts, based upon a tally of her career hits. Madonna would eventually succeed Ross as the most successful female artist in the UK.

Later that year, Ross presented at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards in September of the year and shocked the audience by touching rapper Lil' Kim's exposed, pasty-covered breast, amazed at the young rapper's brashness.

Supremes reunions and Return to Love

In 1983, Ross reunited with former Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong for the television special . The three performed their 1969 number-one hit "Someday We'll Be Together", although alleged onstage altercations between Ross and Wilson became an issue during and after the taping of the special. A four-song Supremes set was planned but Ross, suffering from influenza, declined to rehearse with "The Girls" and stated that they would have to be happy just doing "Someday We'll Be Together". Before the special was taped later that evening, Wilson allegedly planned with Birdsong to take a step forward every time Ross did the same. This appeared to frustrate Ross, causing her to push Wilson's shoulder. Later, Wilson was not aware of the script set by producer Suzanne DePasse, in which Ross was to introduce Berry Gordy. Wilson took it upon herself to do so, at which point Ross pushed down Wilson's hand-held microphone, stating "It's been taken care of." Ross, then, introduced Gordy. These incidents were excised from the final edit of the taped special, but still made their way into the news media; People magazine reported that "Ross [did] some elbowing to get Wilson out of the spotlight."

The original Supremes were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Original member Florence Ballard had died twelve years earlier. Ross was performing around the time of the induction ceremony and was unable to attend; Mary Wilson accepted the award. In 1999, Ross, Wilson and Cindy Birdsong held discussions about a possible Supremes reunion tour. These negotiations failed, and Ross hired late-era Supremes members Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne, who were touring as the Former Ladies of the Supremes, to participate. The Return to Love tour was launched in June 2000 but ended after just fourteen dates due to poor ticket sales.

Current work

Following successful European and American tours in 2004, Diana Ross returned to the Billboard music charts with two duets in 2005. "I've Got a Crush on You", recorded with Rod Stewart for his album The Great American Songbook, reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart. The second, recorded with Westlife, was a remake of Ross's 1991 number-2 UK single, "When You Tell Me You Love Me", and reached number 2 in the UK, just as the original had, and number 1 in Ireland. In January, 2005, M.A.C. Cosmetics named Diana Ross its beauty icon for 2005. In June 2006, Motown released the shelved Blue album, which peaked at number 2 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart. Ross' new studio album, I Love You, was released worldwide on October 2, 2006 and January 16, 2007, in North America, on the Manhattan Records/EMI label. Since its release in 2007, EMI Inside reports that I Love You has sold more than 622,000 copies worldwide.

honorees as she is recognized for her career achievements by then-President George W. Bush in the East Room of the White House Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007, during the Kennedy Center Gala Reception. From left are singer-songwriter Brian Wilson; filmmaker Martin Scorsese; Ross; comedian, actor and author Steve Martin and pianist Leon Fleisher.]] In January 2007, Ross appeared on a number of television shows across the U.S. to promote her new album and began touring in the spring. She appeared on American Idol as a mentor to the contestants Ross's United States "I Love You" tour garnered positive reviews, as did her European tour of the same year.

At the 2007 BET Awards, Ross was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by her five children and singer Alicia Keys. Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu and Chaka Khan performed musical tributes to Ross, covering several of her most popular recordings. During her acceptance speech, Ross lambasted the declining level of professional standards among the younger generation's musicians, as well as their overabundant use of vulgarity and profanity to garner press attention and record sales. Later that year, the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors committee, which recognizes career excellence, cultural influence and contributions to American culture, named Diana Ross as one of its honorees. Past honoree and fellow Motown alumni Smokey Robinson and actor Terrence Howard spoke on her behalf at the official ceremony that December, and singers Ciara, Vanessa L. Williams, Yolanda Adams and American Idol winner Jordin Sparks performed musical tributes. In February 2008, Ross was guest speaker at the Houston-based Brilliant Lecture series at The Hobby Center, Houston.

The lectures are designed to present prolific and influential characters to speak about their life and inspirations. During her lecture Ross stated that it is "unlikely" that she would undertake any further movie projects.

In May 2008, Ross headlined at New York City's Radio City Music Hall's 'Divas with Heart' concert event, which also featured fellow performers Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle. The following month she was a headliner at the City Stages music festival in Birmingham, AL, next to The Flaming Lips. The New York Times said about the duo, "the most incongruous headliners at an outdoor urban concert series, with the once-in-a-lifetime-at-most combination of Diana Ross and the Flaming Lips. Something for everyone, surely." She performed at two major events in the UK in July 2008: the famous Liverpool Pops Festival and the National Trust Summer Festival at Petworth House, West Sussex. On October 16–17, 2009, Diana Ross headlined the annual Dutch concert event, Symphonica in Rosso, in the 34,000-seat Gelredome Stadium, in Arnhem, The Netherlands. She was accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra. Each of the two concerts was sold-out.

Ross performed a cross-country tour in the summer of 2010. The "More Today Than Yesterday: The Greatest Hits" tour featured an all-new set list, stage design, and costumes galore, and was dedicated to her friend Michael Jackson who died in June 2009. The tour, which commenced on May 15, 2010, in Boston, Massachusetts, earned Ross excellent reviews in every city in which she performed, and concluded in Saratoga, California. An extended American leg of the tour began in September, 2010, and is scheduled to continue until March 2011, in Stamford, Connecticut. It is rumored that Ross will mount European & Asian legs of the tour.

Personal life

Ross' parents separated when Ross was seventeen. After twelve years of estrangement, the couple divorced in 1973. Ernestine Ross later married John Jordan in 1977. Fred Ross remained divorced, never remarrying. While Ross' mother was supportive of her career, her father was disappointed in her choice to be an entertainer rather than attend college like her other siblings. Biographies later stated Ross' drive was inspired by a lack of a support she felt from her father. Ross and her father's relationship repaired over the years until Fred Ross died in 2007. Ross' mother died in 1984.

Ross' elder sister Barbara found success as a doctor and in 1993, was appointed as dean of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, becoming the first black American woman to administer a medical school in the states. Rita Ross, Diana's younger sister, became a teacher. Brothers Arthur and Wilbert "Chico" Ross followed their sister into the recording industry and entertainment business, respectively; eldest brother Fred Ross, Jr. didn't go into show business. Brother Arthur was later murdered in 1996 in Detroit after being found bound and gagged along with his wife Patricia Robinson.

Ross married twice. Her first husband was music business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein, whom she married in January 1971. They divorced in March 1977. In January 1986, after a romantic courtship, Ross married Norwegian shipping magnate Arne Næss, Jr.. After several years of legal separation, the couple were officially divorced in 2000. Næss was later killed in a mountain climbing accident in 2004. Ross attended the funeral.

Ross is the mother of five children. Daughter Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein was born on August 13, 1971, Rhonda's biological father is Berry Gordy. She is now married; her married name is Rhonda Ross Kendrick. Ross and Silberstein had two daughters: Tracee Joy Silberstein, born October 29, 1972 (now known as Tracee Ellis Ross) and Chudney Lane Silberstein, born November 4, 1975 (now known as Chudney Ross). Ross had two sons with Næss. Their sons are Ross Arne Næss (born October 7, 1987) and Evan Olav Næss (born August 26, 1988), now known as Evan Ross). In the summer of 2009, Ross became a grandmother when her daughter, Rhonda Ross-Kendrick, gave birth to a boy.

Rhonda and Tracee graduated from Brown University, and Chudney from Georgetown University. All have followed their mother to show business. Rhonda gained success as an actress in television movies and daytime soap operas. Tracee was a co-star of the UPN sitcom Girlfriends. Chudney is active in behind-the-scenes work and is also a model. Son Ross currently attends New York's Marist College, where he is a ski club member, and has not followed his siblings into show business. Youngest son Evan Ross is a successful actor, who starred in the films ATL and Pride (co-starring Terrance Howard) and the HBO film, "Life Support", co-starring Dana Owens (Queen Latifah) and his older sister, Tracee Ellis-Ross. He currently is starring in The CW's hit show "90210" playing the character named Charlie.

A month after the Lil Kim incident, authorities at London's Heathrow Airport detained Ross for "assaulting" a female security guard. The singer claimed that she had felt "violated as a woman" by the full-body search to which she was subjected. In retaliation, she was alleged to have touched the female airport security guard in a similar manner. The singer was detained but later released. In December 2002, Ross was arrested in Tucson, Arizona for drunk driving. She pleaded "no contest", and later served a two-day jail sentence near her home in Greenwich, Connecticut. Following the arrest and jail sentence, Ross stayed out of the American public eye during much of the following year. She performed a well-received set at Britain's Prince Charles' Prince's Trust concert, held in London's Hyde Park, in 2002, but would not return to touring until 2004.

Ross was a close friend and longtime mentor of Michael Jackson, with whom she co-starred in the 1978 film version of the Broadway musical, The Wiz (a remake of The Wizard of Oz). After Jackson's sudden death on June 25, 2009, Ross was named in his will as the custodian of his children in the event of the death of his mother, Katherine Jackson. Ross was invited to speak at the memorial held in Los Angeles on Tuesday July 7, 2009, but declined in a letter read by Smokey Robinson at the ceremony. Like Jackson's other close friends, Macaulay Culkin, Elizabeth Taylor, Quincy Jones, and Liza Minnelli, Ross stated that she wanted to grieve in private.

In popular culture

Ross was portrayed by actress Samantha Kaine in the 2004 VH1 film , a biographical film about Michael Jackson.

Actress Holly Robinson Peete portrayed Ross in the 1992 television mini-series .

In the 1996 film Phenomenon, Forest Whitaker's character, Nate Pope, is obsessed with Diana Ross.

In the 2001 comedy film Get Over It, the Dr Desmond Forrest-Oates character once claimed he made a song for Ross, which even included a flashback of the event, however Ross is not actually seen, only her leg passing (she did not, however, actually star in the film).

Ross contributed her voice to the fictionalized version of herself in the debut episode of popular 1970's classic cartoon by ABC entitled, The Jackson 5ive.

In the 2007 comedy "Juno", the main character, Juno MacGuff says about her name, "Zeus had tons of lays, but I'm pretty sure Juno was his only wife. She was supposed to be super beautiful, but really mean, like Diana Ross."

New Zealand band Diana Rozz take their name from Ross.

In 2010, Keri Hilson portrayed Diana Ross in the music video for her song, Pretty Girl Rock.

Her voice can be heard introducing The Jackson 5, in a Jackson 5 section in Michael Jackson's This is it.

Solo discography

Filmography

1964: T.A.M.I. Show (with The Supremes)

1965: Beach Ball (with The Supremes)

1972: Lady Sings the Blues

1975: Mahogany

1978: The Wiz

1994: Out of Darkness

1999: Double Platinum

2002: The Making and Meaning of We Are Family (documentary)

2010: Met With Sandra Ellison and Tamia Holmes

Television

1968: [Tarzan (TV Series)] (with The Supremes)

1968: T.C.B. (with The Supremes)

1969: G.I.T. on Broadway (with The Supremes)

1971: Diana!

1977: The Big Event: An Evening with Diana Ross

1979: Diana Ross in Concert!

1981: diana

1981: Standing Room Only: Diana Ross

1983:

1983: For One And For All - Diana Ross Live! in Central Park

1987: Diana Ross: Red Hot Rhythm and Blues

1989: Diana Ross: Workin' Overtime

1992:

1994: Out of Darkness

1996: Super Bowl XXX

1999: Double Platinum

2000: VH1 Divas 2000: A Tribute to Diana Ross

2005: Tsunami Aid

2007: BET Awards 2007

2007: Kennedy Center Honors

2008: Nobel Peace Prize Concert

Autobiographies

(A scrapbook-style collection of photographs)

See also

List of awards and nominations received by Diana Ross

List of best-selling music artists

List of number-one hits (United States)

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of number-one dance hits (United States)

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. dance chart

References

http://sixmillionsteps.com/drupal/node/1085 - 80 minute audio mix of Diana Ross songs/interviews

Further reading

External Links

Barbara Walters interviews Diana Ross about "Return To Love" Tour

International Diana Ross website

International Diana Ross Fanclub website

DIANA ROSS SUPERSTAR website

Diana Ross discography at MusicBrainz

Carlo's Supremes website

Mark's Diana Ross website

unofficial biography page

Supremes 9.0 — fansite

Diana Ross interview recorded 10.13.1968 on the Pop Chronicles

Category:1944 births Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from Michigan Category:African American actors Category:African American female singers Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:American disco musicians Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American jazz singers Category:American pop singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American soul singers Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Ballad musicians Category:Baptists from the United States Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Marvin Gaye vocalists Category:Motown artists Category:Musicians from Detroit, Michigan Category:Musicians from Michigan Category:People convicted of alcohol-related driving offenses Category:People from Detroit, Michigan Category:The Supremes members Category:Tony Award winners Category:Women in jazz Category:World record holders

Name	Cliff Richard
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Harry Rodger Webb
Born	October 14, 1940Lucknow, United Provinces, British India
Bmi	'25'
Instrument	Vocals, guitar
Genre	Skiffle, rock and roll, pop, gospel, CCM
Occupation	Musician, actor, entrepreneur
Years active	1958–present
Label	EMI, Decca, Columbia, Epic, Rocket, Papillon
Associated acts	The Shadows, Olivia Newton-John
Url	CliffRichard.org

Sir Cliff Richard, OBE (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an English singer, musician, performer, actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, who has sold over 260 million records worldwide.

With his backing group The Shadows, Richard, originally positioned as a rebellious rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard and Elvis Presley, dominated the British popular music scene in the pre-Beatles period of the late 1950s and early 1960s. His 1958 hit single "Move It" is often described as Britain's first authentic rock and roll song, and John Lennon once claimed that "before Cliff and the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music." A conversion to Christianity and subsequent softening of his music later led to a more middle of the road pop image, sometimes venturing into gospel.

Over a 52-year career, Richard has become a fixture of the British entertainment world. He has amassed hundreds of gold and platinum discs and awards, including three Brit awards and two Ivor Novello awards, making him one of the most successful singers of all time. He has had more than 130 singles, albums and EPs make the UK Top 20, more than any other artist. He holds the record (with Elvis Presley) as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its first six decades (1950s–2000s). He has achieved 14 UK number one singles (or 18, depending on the counting methodology) and is the only singer to have had a number one single in the UK in six consecutive decades: the 1950s through to the 2000s (discounting digital downloads and counting only CDs, he also had a UK number one single in the 2000s). He is the biggest selling singles artist of all time in the UK, with total sales of over 27 million and UK album sales of over 18 million. He has sold more than 150 million singles worldwide.

Richard holds many records for the number of concerts held at various venues around the world. In the UK he holds the record for most performances at the Royal Albert Hall, with over 80 performances at the venue with audiences reaching 450,000. He also holds the record for most shows at Wembley Arena, were he has performed at least 66 concerts to audiences of nearly 800,000. In Birmingham, Richard has performed at least 56 shows at the NIA (totalling 620,000 attendees), in addition to over 20 shows at the NEC arena. In Manchester Richard has performed at the MEN arena eight times with over 120,000 fans attending the shows. He appeared twice at Wembley Stadium in 1989 in celebration of his 30th year in music; over 144,000 fans attended the sold-out shows. Richard has also performed hundreds of times in Australia and New Zealand in cities including Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, audience members totalling hundreds of thousands.

Richard has never achieved the same impact in the United States despite eight US Top 40 singles, three of which peaked in the Top 10, including the million-selling "Devil Woman" and "We Don't Talk Anymore" (with the latter, becoming the first act to reach the Hot 100's top 40 in the 1980s who had also been in that chart's top 40 in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s). In the USA, his singles sales stand at around 10 million while his album sales are about 6 million. In Canada Richard achieved moderate success in the 1980s with a couple of albums gaining platinum status, he has sold around 5 million records there. He has remained a popular music, film, and television personality in Australia (where he has sold more than 5 million records), New Zealand, South Africa, Europe (especially in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland and Belgium) and Asia (especially Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong), and he retains a following in other countries also. He has sold more than 260 million records worldwide.

Biography

1940–58: Childhood

Harry Rodger Webb was born on 14 October 1940 at the King George Hospital, Victoria Street, in Lucknow, India, to Rodger Oscar Webb, a manager for a catering contractor that serviced the Indian Railways, and Dorothy Marie Webb (née Dazely). Rodger Webb was 17 years senior to his wife, Dorothy. Richard was baptised Harry Rodger Webb on 2 November 1940 at St Thomas's Church, Dehradun, India. The family lived in a modest house with other Anglo-Indians at Maqbara, close to the main shopping centre of Hazratganj. The Anglo-Indians living at Maqbara often were employed as musicians; a band from there played at the Royal Cafe Restaurant, Lucknow, and another at the Mohmmad Bagh club, which was the officers' military club serving the large garrison at Lucknow. Dorothy's mother served as the dormitory matron at the La Martinier Girls' School. Anglo-Indians did not enjoy any social status in India and were looked down upon by the British. A development of flats, Cliff Richard Court, has been named after him in Cheshunt.

Harry Webb became interested in skiffle. His father bought him a guitar at 16 and he formed the Quintones vocal group in 1957. He then sang in the Dick Teague Skiffle Group.

1958–1963: Success and stardom

Harry Webb became lead singer of a rock and roll group, The Drifters (not to be confused with the U.S. group of the same name). 1950s entrepreneur Harry Greatorex wanted the up and coming Rock 'n' Roll singer to change from his real name of Harry Webb. The name "Cliff" was adopted as it sounded like cliff face, which suggested "Rock." It was "Move It" writer Ian Samwell who suggested that the former Harry Webb be surnamed Richard as a tribute to Webb's musical hero Little Richard. Before their first large-scale appearance, at the Regal Ballroom in Ripley, Derbyshire in 1958, they adopted the name "Cliff Richard and the Drifters". The four members were Harry Webb (now going under the stage name "Cliff Richard"), Ian "Sammy" Samwell on guitar, Terry Smart on drums and Norman Mitham on guitar. None of the other three played with the later and better known Shadows, although Samwell wrote songs for Richard's later career.

For his debut session, Norrie Paramor provided Richard with "Schoolboy Crush", a cover of an American record by Bobby Helms. Richard was permitted to record one of his own songs for the B-side; this was "Move It", written by the Drifters' Samwell on a number 715 Green Line bus on the way to Richard's house for a rehearsal. For the "Move It" session Paramor used the session guitarist Ernie Shears on lead guitar and Frank Clark on bass.

There are a number of stories about why the A-side was replaced by the intended B-side. One is that Norrie Paramor's young daughter raved about the B-side; another was that influential TV producer Jack Good, who used the act for his TV show Oh Boy!, wanted the only song on his show to be "Move It". Richard was quoted as saying - NME - September 1958

The single went to No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. Music critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler wrote that it was the first genuine British rock classic, followed by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over". John Lennon was quoted as saying that "Move It" was the first English rock record.

In the early days, Richard was marketed as the British equivalent to Elvis Presley. Like previous British rockers such as Tommy Steele and Marty Wilde, Richard adopted Presley-like dress and hairstyle. In performance he struck a pose of rock attitude, rarely smiling or looking at the audience or camera. His late 1958 and early 1959 follow-up singles, "High Class Baby" and "Livin' Lovin' Doll", were followed by "Mean Streak", which carried a rocker's sense of speed and passion, and Lionel Bart's "Living Doll". It was on "Living Doll" that the Drifters began to back Richard on record. It was his fifth record,and became his first number 1 single . By that time the group's lineup had changed with the arrival of Jet Harris, Tony Meehan, Hank Marvin, and Bruce Welch. The group was obliged to change its name to "The Shadows" after legal complications with the U.S. Drifters as "Living Doll" entered the American top 40, licensed by ABC-Paramount. "Living Doll" was used in Richard's debut film Serious Charge, but as a country standard, rather than a rock and roll standard.

The Shadows were not a typical backing group. They would become contractually separate from Richard, and the group received no royalties for records backing Richard. In 1959, The Shadows (then still the Drifters) landed an EMI recording contract of their own, for independent recordings. That year, they released three singles, two of which featured double-sided vocals and one of which had instrumental A and B sides. In 1960, they recorded and released "Apache". Reaching the top of the charts in more than one country, the single set The Shadows on a path of their own. They thereafter had several major hits, including five UK No. 1s. The band also continued to appear and record with Richard and wrote many of his hits. On more than one occasion, a Shadows' instrumental replaced a Richard song at the top of the British charts.

Richard's fifth single "Living Doll" triggered a softer, more relaxed, sound. Subsequent hits, the No. 1s "Travellin' Light" and "I Love You" and also "A Voice in the Wilderness "lifted from his film "Expresso Bongo" and "Theme for a Dream" cemented Richard's status as a mainstream pop entertainer along with contemporaries such as Adam Faith and Billy Fury. Throughout the early sixties his hits were consistently in the top five.

Typically, The Shadows closed the first half of the show with a 30-minute set of their own, then backed Richard on his show-closing 45-minute stint. Tony Meehan and Jet Harris left the group in 1961 and 1962 respectively and later had their own chart successes for Decca. The Shadows added bass players and took on Brian Bennett on drums.

In the early days, Richard sometimes recorded without The Shadows in order to cater to other styles. Even after the Beatles' rise he continued to achieve hits, although more often with an orchestra rather than The Shadows: a revival of "It's All In The Game" and "Constantly". A session under the direction of Billy Sherrill in Nashville yielded two more top two hits: "The Minute You're Gone" and "Wind Me Up" in 1965.

Cliff Richard, and in particular The Shadows, never achieved star status in the United States. In 1960 they toured the U.S. and were well-received; however, lacklustre support and distribution from a revolving door of American record labels proved an obstacle to long-term success Stateside despite several chart records by Cliff including the aforementioned "It's All In The Game" on Epic, via a renewed linking of the worldwide Columbia labels after Philips ended its distribution deal with CBS. To the Shadows' chagrin, Apache reached #1 in the U.S. via a cover version by Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann which was virtually unchanged from their worldwide hit, save a sound effect Ingmann added evoking whooshing arrows in flight created by flicking his fingers on the fretboard. Cliff and the band appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was crucial for The Beatles, but these performances did not help them gain sustained success in North America.

Richard and The Shadows appeared in six feature films all commercially successful,( although the films title was changed to suit various countries' markets) , including a rather odd debut in the 1959 film Serious Charge but most notably in The Young Ones, (the title song being his biggest hit up to "Mistletoe and Wine"), Summer Holiday (which featured a slimmed-down Richard with visible dancing skills), Wonderful Life and Finders Keepers. These films created their own genre known as the "Cliff Richard musical" and led to Richard being named the number one cinema box office attraction in Britain for both 1962 and 1963 beating that of even James Bond. The irreverent 1980s TV sitcom The Young Ones took its name from Richard's 1962 movie, and also made references to the singer. In 1966, Richard and the Shadows appeared as marionettes in the Gerry Anderson film Thunderbirds Are GO. In the summer of 1963 Cliff and the Shadows appeared for a season in Blackpool, where Cliff had his portrait modelled by Victor Heyfron, M.A.

1964–1975: Changing circumstances

As with the other existing rock acts in Britain, Richard's career was affected by the sudden advent of The Beatles and the Mersey sound in 1963 and 1964. However, his popularity was established enough to allow him to weather the storm and continue to have hits in the charts throughout the 1960s, albeit not at the level that he had enjoyed before. Nor did doors open to him in the U.S. market; he was not considered part of the British Invasion, and despite four Hot 100 hits (including the top 25 "It's All In The Game") between August 1963 and August 1964, the U.S. public had little awareness of him. However, he continued having international hits, including 1967's "The Day I Met Marie", which reached #10 in the UK Singles Chart and #5 in the Australian charts, and is considered a quintessential summer hit, due to its summery nature.

Although baptised as an Anglican, Richard did not appear to practise the faith in his early years. However, in 1964, he became an active Christian and this conversion has become an important aspect of his life. Standing up publicly as a Christian affected his career in several ways. Initially, he believed that he should quit rock 'n roll, feeling he could no longer be the rocker who had been called a "crude exhibitionist" and "too sexy for TV" and a threat to parents' daughters. However, by the time Richard converted, his image had become tamer because of his film roles and well-spoken manners on radio and TV. Richard intended at first to 'reform his ways' and become a teacher, but Christian friends advised him not to abandon his career just because he had become a Christian. Soon after, Cliff Richard re-emerged, performing with Christian groups and recording some Christian material. He still recorded secular songs with the Shadows, but devoted a lot of his time to Christian work, including appearances with the Billy Graham crusades. As time progressed, Richard balanced his faith and work, enabling him to remain one of the most popular singers in Britain as well as one of its best-known Christians. He was a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light during 1971, protesting against the commercial exploitation of sex and violence in Britain, and advocating the teaching of Christ as the key to recovering moral stability in the nation.

Cliff Richard's first serious acting role took place in the 1967 film Two a Penny, released by Billy Graham's World Wide Pictures, in which he played a young man who gets involved in drug dealing while questioning his life after his girlfriend changes her attitude. He released the live album "Cliff in Japan", which featured Olivia Newton-John as backing singer and John Farrar on guitar (Farrar would later be Newton-John's producer).

Also in 1968 he sang the UK's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest: "Congratulations" by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter; it lost by just one point to Spain's "La La La". According to John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest—The Official History, this was the closest result yet in the contest and Richard locked himself in the toilet to avoid the nerves of the voting. In May 2008 a Reuters news report claimed that voting in the competition had been fixed by the Spanish dictator leader, Francisco Franco, to ensure that the Spanish entry won, allowing them to host the contest the following year (1969). In particular, it is claimed that Spanish TVE television executives offered to buy programmes in exchange for votes. The story was widely covered and featured on UK Channel 4 News as a main story, with Jon Snow interviewing author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor about the matter. Eurovision later ended voting by national juries in a bid to eradicate such alleged scams. Nevertheless, "Congratulations" was a huge hit throughout Europe and yet another No. 1 in April 1968.

After the Shadows split in 1968, Richard continued to record. He had already become accustomed to the Shadows' absence, and was able to record in a variety of settings. Although many of his earliest fans regretted that Richard had tried out songs which were not strictly in the rock 'n roll genre, most had got used to his habit of recording rockier material with the Shadows, while producing more middle-of-the-road material at other times; this versatility extended Richard's career prospects. During the 1970s, Richard took part in several television shows and fronted his own show It's Cliff Richard! from 1970 - 1976. It starred Hank Marvin and Una Stubbs, and included A Song for Europe. These shows, for a time, branded Cliff Richard as a television personality more than a recording artist. He began 1970 by appearing live on the BBC's review of the sixties music scene, Pop Go The Sixties, which was broadcast across Britain and Europe on 31 December 1969. He performed "Bachelor Boy" with The Shadows and "Congratulations" solo. In 1972, he made a short BBC television comedy film called The Case with appearances from comedians and his first ever duets with a woman, Olivia Newton-John. In 1973 he starred in the film Take Me High.

In 1973 he sang the British Eurovision entry "Power to All Our Friends"; the song finished third, close behind Luxembourg's "Tu Te Reconnaîtras" and Spain's "Eres Tú". This time, Richard took Valium in order to overcome his nerves and his manager was almost unable to wake him for the performance. Richard also hosted the BBC's qualifying heat for the Eurovision Song Contest, A Song for Europe, in 1970, 1971 and 1972 as part of his BBCTV variety series. He presented the Eurovision Song Contest Previews for the BBC in 1971 and 1972.

1976–1994: Comeback

In 1976 the decision was made to repackage Cliff Richard as a "rock" artist. That year he produced the landmark album I'm Nearly Famous, which included the successful but controversial guitar-driven track "Devil Woman" (Richard's first true hit in the United States) and the ballad "Miss You Nights". Richard's fans were excited about this revival of a performer who had been a part of British rock from its early days. Many music names such as Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Elton John were seen sporting I'm Nearly Famous badges, pleased that their boyhood idol was getting back into the heavier rock in which he had begun his career.

Notwithstanding this, Richard continued to release Gospel-tinged albums in parallel with his rock and pop albums, for example: Small Corners from 1978 contained the single "Yes He Lives". Despite his 1976 comeback, this single failed to chart in the United Kingdom. In 1980, the singer would legally change his name by deed poll from Harry Webb to Cliff Richard. On 31 December 1976, he performed his latest single "Hey, Mr. Dream Maker" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee.

In 1979, Richard teamed up with the producer Bruce Welch for the pop hit single "We Don't Talk Anymore", written by Alan Tarney, which hit #1 in the UK and #7 in the U.S. Bryan Ferry added hummed backing vocals to the song. The record gave Richard the distinction of becoming the first act to reach the Hot 100 in the 1980s who had also reached the Hot 100 in each of the three previous decades. The song was quickly added onto the end of his latest album Rock 'n' Roll Juvenile. It was his first time at the top of the UK singles chart in over ten years, and the song would become his biggest-selling single ever. The accompanying music video was the sixth to appear on American cable channel MTV when it debuted on 1 August 1981.

At long last he had some extended success in the United States following "Devil Woman". The follow-up "Dreamin'" also reached the top ten, peaking at #10. His 1980 duet "Suddenly" with Olivia Newton-John, from the film Xanadu, was a Top 20 hit in America, peaking at #20. Richard continued with a string of top ten albums, including I'm No Hero, Wired for Sound, Now You See Me, Now You Don't, and, marking his 25th year in show business, Silver. The singles chart also saw his most consistent period of top twenty hits since the mid 1960s, with three of them on the Hot 100 at the same time at the end of 1980. His 1985 single "She's So Beautiful" reached No. 17 in the UK. 1987 saw Richard record his Always Guaranteed album, which became his best selling album of all new material. It contained the two top ten hit singles "My Pretty One" and "Some People". Richard concluded his thirtieth year in music by reaching number one on the British singles chart with "Mistletoe and Wine", while simultaneously holding the number one positions on the album and video charts with the compilation Private Collection summing up his biggest hits from 1979-1988. "Mistletoe and Wine" was his biggest seller to that point.

In 1986, Richard teamed up with The Young Ones to re-record his smash hit "Living Doll" for the charity Comic Relief. Along with the song, the recording contained comedy dialogue between Richard and The Young Ones. The release went to No. 1. That same year he opened in the West End as a rock musician called upon to defend Earth in a trial set in the Andromeda Galaxy in the multi-media Dave Clark musical Time. Two Richard singles, "She's So Beautiful" and "Born To Rock 'n Roll", were released respectively in 1985 and 1986 from the concept album recorded for Time.

Further top ten albums included Stronger in 1989, which included the UK No. 2 hit "Best Of Me", and UK No. 3 "Just Don't Have The Heart" written and produced by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, and From a Distance in 1990. Later that year, Richard scored his second UK Christmas No. 1 single with "Saviour's Day". Richard unsuccessfully bid for the Christmas No. 1 spot again with "We Should Be Together" and "Healing Love" in 1991 and 1993 respectively – the latter being taken from his No. 1 studio album Cliff Richard – The Album. The next few years saw Richard concentrate on bringing the musical Heathcliff to the stage. The production was a resounding success, but the time it took seemed to take a toll on his reinvigorated chart status. Back in the UK during the next years and throughout the 1980s, Richard remained one of the best-known music artists in the country. In the space of a few years he worked with Elton John, Mark Knopfler, Julian Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Stevie Wonder, Phil Everly, Janet Jackson, Sheila Walsh, and Van Morrison. Richard also reunited with Olivia Newton-John. In 1989, he filled the Wembley Stadium for a few nights with a spectacular titled "The Event". Meanwhile, The Shadows later re-formed (and again split). They recorded on their own, but also reunited with Richard in 1978, 1984, and 1989–90 for some concerts. On 14 June 2004 Cliff Richard joined the Shadows on-stage at the London Palladium. The Shadows had decided to re-form for one final tour of the UK, with this concert heralded as their final ever concert as "Cliff and the Shadows."

1995–2009: Sir Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard was knighted on 25 October 1995, the first rock star to be so honoured (Bob Geldof had received his honorary knighthood a full nine years earlier, but not being a British subject, he is not permitted to use the title 'Sir', whether in the UK or abroad). Richard was knighted ahead of Paul McCartney (1997), Elton John (1998), Mick Jagger and Tom Jones.

In 1996 he famously led the Wimbledon Centre Court crowd in singing during a rain delay when asked by Wimbledon officials to entertain the crowd. Richard was not aware this performance was being televised by the BBC and after singing six of his golden greats, TV presenter Des Lynam commented on this and added jokingly "we'll probably get one hell of a bill". The performance was front page headlines on many of the major British newspapers the following day.

In 1998, Richard demonstrated that radio station radios were refusing to play his music by releasing his latest single "Can't Keep This Feeling In" on a white label under the pseudonym of Blacknight. The single was well regarded and featured on playlists until the true artist was revealed. In 1999, controversy again arose regarding radio stations refusing to play his releases when EMI, Richard's label since 1958, refused to release his latest song, "Millennium Prayer". Richard took it to an independent label, Papillon, which released the charity recording (in aid of Children's Promise). The single went on to top the UK chart for three weeks, becoming his fourteenth No. 1 and the third-highest-selling single of his career. Richard's next album, in 2001, was a covers project, Wanted, followed by another top ten album, Cliff at Christmas. The holiday album contained both new and older recordings, including the single "Santa's List", which reached No. 5 in 2003.

Cliff Richard finished number 56 in the 2002 100 Greatest Britons list, sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public.

Richard decamped to Nashville, Tennessee for his next album project in 2004, employing a writers' conclave to give him the pick of all new songs for the album Something's Goin' On. Though the collection was critically well-received, it had disappointing sales. Nevertheless it was yet another top ten album, and produced three top fifteen singles: "Something's Goin' On", "I Cannot Give You My Love", with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and the lively "What Car". Richard did not hide his disappointment with the album's lacklustre sales, and it was speculated that it might have been his last ever album of original songs.

Two's Company, an album of duets released in 2006, was another top 10 success and included newly recorded material with Brian May, Dionne Warwick, Anne Murray, Barry Gibb and Daniel O'Donnell, plus some previously recorded duets with artists such as Phil Everly, Elton John and Olivia Newton-John. Two's Company was released to coincide with the UK leg of his latest world tour, "Here and Now", which included a number of lesser known but fan-favourite songs such as "My Kinda Life", "How Did She Get Here", "Hey Mr. Dream Maker", "For Life", "A Matter Of Moments", "When The Girl In Your Arms", "Every Face Tells A Story", "Peace In Our Time" and the Christmas single "21st Century Christmas", which debuted at No. 2 on the UK singles chart.

Richard's mother, Dorothy Webb, suffered from dementia. In a September 2006 interview with the Daily Mail, he spoke about the difficulties he and his sisters had in dealing with their mother's condition. On 18 October 2007 a statement on the star's website read, "We are sad to report that Cliff's mother, Dorothy, passed away early on 17 October; she was 87."

Another compilation album, Love... The Album was released on 12 November 2007. Like Two's Company before it, this album includes both previously released material and newly recorded songs, namely "Waiting For A Girl Like You", "When You Say Nothing At All", "All Out Of Love", "If You're Not the One" and "When I Need You" (the last was released as a single, reaching number 38; the album peaked at number 13). The concept of the project has divided fans who anticipate an album of new material.

2008, Richard's 50th year in music, saw the release of the 8 CD box set And They Said It Wouldn't Last (My 50 Years In Music). In September, a single celebrating his 50 years in pop music, titled "Thank You for a Lifetime" was released. On 14 September 2008 it reached No. 3 on the UK music charts. On 2 November 2008, British newspaper The Mail on Sunday gave away a free promotional CD entitled 50th Anniversary containing 12 tracks picked by Richard himself. On 11 November 2008, Cliff Richard's official website announced that 20 years after their latest concert together, Cliff and The Shadows would reunite to celebrate their 50th anniversary in the music business. A month later they performed at the Royal Variety Performance. In 2009 Cliff and The Shadows will bring their partnership to an end with the "Golden Anniversary concert tour of the UK". A new album by Cliff Richard and the Shadows was released in September 2009. Titled Reunited, It was their first studio project in forty years. The 28 tracks recorded comprise 25 re-recordings of their earlier classics, with three "new" tracks, originally from that era (and earlier), the single "Singing the Blues", along with Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody" and the Frankie Ford hit "Sea Cruise". The tracks are to be spread across the single and its bonus tracks, a limited edition version of the album, as well as a standard CD release. The album charted at number 6 in the UK charts in its opening week and peaked at number 4. The reunion tour is to continue into Europe in 2010.

In June 2009 it was reported by Sound Kitchen Studios in Nashville that Cliff was to return there shortly to record a new album of original recordings of jazz songs. He was to record fourteen tracks in a week. He also stated his intention to record with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss.

2010: Bold as Brass – 70th birthday

Sir Cliff performed "Congratulations" at the 70th birthday celebrations of Queen Margrethe II in Denmark on 13 April 2010.

In October 2010 Cliff Richard celebrated his 70th birthday. To mark the occasion Richard performed a series of six concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, London performing to over 30,000 fans. Tickets for the concerts went on sale on 7 March and sold out within a few hours. To accompany the concerts a new album of cover versions of swing standards, Bold as Brass, was released on 11 October. The album, an homage to the early jazz and big band era, features many classic standards such as "I've Got You Under My Skin", "They Can't Take That Away From Me" and "I Just Want To Make Love To You". The album was recorded in Nashville and produced by Grammy Award-winning Michael Omartian. It charted the following week at number 3, his highest chart placing on the UK album charts in over 15 years. The album though well received by fans has not followed the success of his albums from the last 5 years, shifting nearly 50,000 copies in its first four weeks. And a further 40,000 by year end. Cliff appeared on The One Show on the 18th October, The Alan Titchmarsh Show on the 19th October and Loose Women on the 22nd October.

His official 70th birthday party was held on the 23rd October with guests including Cilla Black, Elaine Paige and Daniel O'Donnell.

After a quick week of promotion Cliff flew out to rehearse for the German Night Of The Proms concerts in Belgium at the end of October. Cliff made a surprise appearance at the Antwerp, Belgium concert of the Night Of The Proms on Thursday, 28 October 2010. He sang We Don't Talk Anymore to a great reaction from the surprised 20,000 fans at Sportpaleis Antwerp.

Cliff will tour 12 German cities during November/December 2010 during the Night Of The Proms concerts as the headline act. The total of 18 concerts will be attended by over 300,000 fans. Cliff will perform a selection of hits and also some new tracks from his new album Bold As Brass.

The first two performances were in Köln at the Lanxess Arena where audiences totaled 50,000.

In Munich Cliff added his hand prints to the Munich Olympic Walk Of Stars during a break when the concerts were held there.

With the DVD release of Bold As Brass in November 2010 Cliff achieved his 3rd consecutive number 1 music DVD in three years. It has so far achieved a total of 7 weeks on the UK chart selling nearly 60,000 copies. It also charted in New Zealand, and Denmark in the top 10 and in Holland in the top 20. Selling a further 10,000 copies.

Lack of commercial support

Cliff Richard openly complains about the lack of commercial support he receives from radio stations and record labels. He spoke about this on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV in December 2007, pointing out that while new bands needed airplay for promotion and sales, long-established artists like himself also relied upon airplay for the same ends. He did note, however, that so-called eighties radio stations did play his records and that this went some way to help sales and maintain his media presence. In the recent BBC Radio 2 documentary "Cliff – Take Another Look", he pointed out that many documentaries charting the history of British music (e.g. I'm in a Rock 'n' Roll Band!) fail to even mention him.

Cliff Richard's protracted chart success undermines radio stations' claims that he does not enjoy the support of their target audiences. Richard believes he is "the most radical rock star there has ever been". In a letter written in October 1961 to "his first serious girlfriend", Australian dancer Delia Wicks, and made public in April 2010 after her death from cancer, Sir Cliff writes: "Being a pop singer I have to give up one priceless thing – the right to any lasting relationship with any special girl." In his autobiography he states that "... many of my friends are gay – let's face it, homosexuality has been legal for more than thirty years. For me, the commitment is what counts – and I'll leave the judging to God."

Richard's father, Roger Webb, died in 1961, and his mother Dorothy died in 2007.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2010, Richard is worth £50M. As well as owning various houses and apartments around the world, Richard has become joint owner of the Arora International Hotel in Manchester, which opened in June 2004. He also owns a Quinta in the Algarve, Portugal, where he is involved in the production of wines at the Adega do Cantor (“Winery of the Singer”), a state-of-the-art winery in Guia, near Albufeira. In 2006 Cliff Richard received Portugal’s equivalent of a knighthood

1958 – Best New Disc or TV Singer

1959 – UK Male Singer

1959 – Best Single: "Living Doll"

1960 – Best UK Single: "Living Doll"

1961 – UK Male Singer

1962 – UK Male Singer

1963 – UK Male Singer

1963 – Best World Male Singer

1964 – UK Male Singer

1964 – UK Vocal Personality

1965 – UK Male Singer

1966 – UK Male Singer

1966 – UK Vocal Personality

1967 – UK Vocal Personality

1968 – UK Vocal Personality

1969 – British Vocal Personality

1970 – UK Male Singer

1970 – UK Vocal Personality

1970 – World's Best Recording Artist of the 60s

1971 – UK Male Singer

1971 – British Vocal Personality

1972 – UK Male Singer

1972 – British Vocal Personality

;Ivor Novello

1968 – Most Performed Work: "Congratulations" by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter

1970 – Outstanding Services to Music

;Melody Maker

1959 – Best Male Singer

1960 – Top British Male Singer

1962 – The Emen Award – Top male singer

1962 – Top British Male Singer

1962 – Top single of the year: "The Young Ones"

1963 – Best Male Singer

1964 – Best Male Singer

1965 – Best UK Male Singer

1967 – Top Male Singer

;Disc & Music Echo

1967 – Best-Dressed Male

1968 – Best-Dressed Male

1969 – Best-Dressed Male

1970 – Top British Male Singer

1970 – Best-Dressed Male

1970 – Mr. Valentine

1971 – Mr. Valentine

;Bravo Magazine (Germany)

1964 – Best Male Singer – Gold

1964 – Year End Singles Charts – 1. "Sag 'no' Zu Ihm" ("Don't talk to him")

1965 – Best Male Singer – Gold

1980 – Top International Male Singer

;Record Mirror

1961 – Record Mirror Survey – Most successful chart records 1958–1961 – No 1: Cliff Richard, "Living Doll" (Cliff had three of the top five records and a further two in the Top 50)

1964 – Record Mirror Poll – Best-Dressed Singer in the World

;1960s

1961 – Royal Variety Club – Show Business Personality

1961 – Weekend Magazine – Star of Stars

1962 – Motion Picture Herald Box-Office Survey Of 1962 – Most Popular Male Film Actor

1963 – Motion Picture Herald Box-Office Survey Of 1963 – Most Popular Male Film Actor

1963 – 16 (US Magazine) – Most Promising Singer

1964 – Billboard (US Magazine) – Best Recording Artist UK

1969 – Valentine Magazine – Mr Valentine

;1970s

1970 – National Viewers' and Listeners' Association – Outstanding Contribution to Religious Broadcasting and Light Entertainment

1971 – Record Mirror – UK Male Singer

1974 – Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Committee – Silver Clef – Outstanding Services to the Music Industry

1977 – The Songwriter's Guild Of Great Britain – Golden Badge Award

1979 – Music Week – Special Award for 21 years as successful recording artistes – Cliff Richard and The Shadows

1979 – EMI Records – Gold Clock and Gold Key award – EMI celebrates 21-year partnership with Cliff

;1980s

1980 – Cliff receives O.B.E. from The Queen

1980 – BBC TV Multi-Coloured Swap Shop – Best UK Male Vocalist

1980 – National Pop And Rock Awards – Best Family Entertainer

1980 – Nationwide, in conjunction with Radio 1 and the Daily Mirror – Best Family Entertainer

1981 – Sunday Telegraph Readers Poll – Top Pop Star

1981 – Daily Mirror Readers Award – Outstanding Music Personality Of The Year

1989 – The Lifetime Achievement Diamond Award (Antwerp)

;1990s 1992 – Spectacle Wearer Of The Year

1995 – American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers – Pied Piper Award (Cliff became the first British recipient of Ascap's coveted Pied Piper Award, which recognises outstanding contributions to the songwriter and music community)

1995 – The formal investiture of Cliff Richard as Knight Bachelor took place at 10.30 a.m. in Buckingham Palace on Wednesday 25 October

1998 – Dutch Edison – Lifetime Achievement Award

;2000s

2000 – South Bank Awards – Outstanding Achievement Award

2003 – British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors – Gold Badge of merit

2003 – Lawn Tennis Association – 20 Years of Service to Tennis Award

2004 – Induction into UK Music Hall of Fame (representing the 1950s – Cliff and The Shadows)

2004 – Ultimate Pop Star (No. 1 singles recording artist in UK)

2005 – Avenue of Stars (star on the pavement, London)

2005 – Rose D'or Music Festival (Paris) – Golden Rose

2006 – Portuguese Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique - Order of Prince Henry (awarded for services to Portugal)

Tours and concerts

Filmography

Film

Serious Charge (1959)

Expresso Bongo (1960)

The Young Ones (1961) (aka It's Wonderful to be Young)

Summer Holiday (1963)

Wonderful Life (aka Swingers' Paradise, 1964)

Finders Keepers (1966)

Rhythm 'n Greens (B-movie) (guest appearance: CR plays "King Canute")

Thunderbirds Are GO (as puppet-marionettes)

Two a Penny (1969)

His land (1970)

The Case (1972) (features Olivia Newton-John)

Take Me High (1973)

TV series

1970: Cliff Richard Show featuring Marvin, Welch, Farrar, Olivia Newton-John and Una Stubbs (BBC Television)

1971: Cliff Richard Show featuring Marvin, Welch, Farrar, Olivia Newton-John and Una Stubbs (BBC Television)

1972: Cliff Richard Show featuring Marvin, Welch, Farrar, Olivia Newton-John and Una Stubbs (BBC Television)

Stage musicals

Aladdin – music by The Shadows and Norrie Paramor

Cinderella – music by The Shadows and Norrie Paramor

Time – music by Dave Clark

Heathcliff – music by John Farrar and lyrics by Sir Tim Rice

See also

Best selling music artists

List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards

Further reading

The Cliff Richard Story by George Tremlett , pub: Futura Publications Limited, London, 1975, ISBN 0 8600 7232 0

The Complete Recording Sessions, 1958–90, by Peter Lewry and Nigel Goodall. ISBN 9780713722420.

Which One's Cliff?, by Cliff Richard Coronet ISBN 0340271590.

You, Me and Jesus, by Cliff Richard with Bill Latham, pub: Hodder & Stoughton, London.

The Biography, by Steve Turner. ISBN 9780745952796.

The Bachelor Boy, by S.Turner. ISBN 9781844420377.

The Story of the Shadows, by Mike Read. 1983. Elm Tree books. ISBN 0-241-10861-6.

The Complete Rock Family Rock Trees, by Pete Frame. Omnibus. ISBN 0711968799.

Guinness World Records: British Hit Singles and Albums (19th Edn), David Roberts. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.

The Complete Book of the British Charts Singles and Albums, by Neil Warwick, Jon Kutner & Tony Brown, 3rd Edn. ISBN 978-1844490585.

Jet Harris — Survivor, by Dave Nicolson, ISBN 978-0-9562679-0-0, 31 October 2009.

References

External links

Cliff Richard's official website

Cliff Richard Songs site

bfi.org.uk - Cliff Richard on film (bfi database)

Category:1940 births Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:British Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1968 Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1973 Category:Converts to Christianity Category:English pop musicians Category:English businesspeople Category:English Christians Category:English evangelicals Category:English-language singers Category:English male singers Category:English pop singers Category:English child singers Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:BRIT Award winners Category:People from Cheshunt Category:People from Lucknow Category:British performers of Christian music Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Silver Clef Awards winners Category:The Shadows

Name	Arif Mardin
Caption	Arif Mardin at the Grammy Awards, February, 1990.
Birth date	March 15, 1932
Birth place	Istanbul, Turkey
Death date	June 25, 2006
Death place	New York, U.S.
Occupation	Music producer

Arif Mardin (Istanbul, March 15, 1932 – New York, June 25, 2006) was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for over 30 years, as both an assistant, producer, arranger, studio manager, and vice president, before moving to EMI and serving as vice president and general manager of Manhattan Records. His collaborations include working with The Bee Gees, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Laura Branigan, Chaka Khan, Scritti Politti, Phil Collins, Daniel Rodriguez, Norah Jones, Richard Marx, Culture Club and Jewel. Mardin was awarded 11 Grammy Awards.

Biography

Early life

Arif Mardin was born in Istanbul into a renowned family that included statesmen, diplomats and leaders in the civic, military and business sectors of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. His father was co-owner in a petroleum gas station chain.

Mardin grew up listening to the likes of Bing Crosby and Glenn Miller. Through his sister he met jazz critic Cuneyt Sermet, who turned him onto this music and eventually became his mentor. After graduating from Istanbul University in Economics and Commerce, Mardin studied at the London School of Economics. Influenced by his sister's music records and jazz, he was also an accomplished orchestrator and arranger, but he never intended to pursue a career in music. However, he made two excellent solo albums: Glass Onion, in 1970, and Journey, in 1975. In Journey, a masterpiece, he was the composer and arranger, but he also played electric piano and percussion, and was accompanied by many stars of jazz (Randy and Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell, Gary Burton, Ron Carter, Stephen Gadd, Billy Cobham and many others).

However, his fate changed in 1956 after meeting the American jazz musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones at a concert in Istanbul. He sent three demo compositions to his friend Tahir Sur who worked at a radio station in America. Sur took these compositions to Quincy Jones and Mardin became the first recipient of the Quincy Jones Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1958 he and his fiancé Latife moved from Istanbul to Boston. After graduating in 1961, he taught at Berklee for one year and then moved to New York City to try his luck. Arif Mardin was later made a trustee of Berklee and was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Career

Mardin began his career at Atlantic Records in 1963 as an assistant to Nesuhi Ertegün. A fellow Turkish émigré, Nesuhi was the brother of Ahmet Ertegün, Atlantic's co-founder and a jazz enthusiast when they met at the Newport Jazz Festival. Mardin rose through the ranks quickly, becoming studio manager, label house producer and arranger. In 1969, he became the Vice President and later served as Senior Vice President until 2001. He worked closely on many projects with co-founders Ertegün and Jerry Wexler, as well as noted recording engineer Tom Dowd; the three legends (Dowd, Mardin, and Wexler) were responsible for establishing the "Atlantic Sound". Arif Mardin retired from Atlantic Records in May 2001 and re-activated his label Manhattan Records. He maintained ties to the Turkish music industry.

He produced countless hit artists including Margie Joseph, The Rascals, Carly Simon, Petula Clark, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, the Bee Gees, Diana Ross, Queen, Patti Labelle, Aretha Franklin, Lulu, Anita Baker, Judy Collins, Phil Collins, Scritti Politti, Culture Club, Roberta Flack, Average White Band, Hall & Oates, Donny Hathaway, Norah Jones, Daniel Rodriguez, Chaka Khan, George Benson, Melissa Manchester, Side Show, The Manhattan Transfer, Modern Jazz Quartet, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Jewel and Ringo Starr.

Mardin, when producing the Bee Gees' 1975 Main Course album track "Nights on Broadway" famously discovered the distinctive falsetto of Barry Gibb, which became a familiar trademark of the band throughout the disco era.

In his career of more than 40 years, he collected over 40 gold and platinum albums, over 15 Grammy nominations and 12 Grammy Awards. In 1990, Arif Mardin was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

Mardin died at his home in New York on June 25, 2006 following a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. His remains were brought to Turkey and were interred at Karacaahmet Cemetery in Üsküdar district of Istanbul on July 5, 2006. Bee Gees' soloist Robin Gibb and his wife Dwina attended also the funeral service among other prominent people.

Arif’s widow Latife is a playwright. Their son Yusuf "Joe" Muhittin (aka Joe Mardin), also a Berklee graduate, is a producer and arranger while their daughter Julie is an avant-garde artist-photographer. The other daughter, Nazan Joffre, works along with her brother. Joe Mardin created a documentary about his father called which was released on June 15, 2010. The documentary was directed by Doug Biro. It was premiered at several screenings at different chapters of The Recording Academy. The first screening took place in New York on June 15, 2010.

Awards

Grammy Awards

* Album of the Year 1979 (Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack)), 2003 (Come Away with Me)

* Best Female Pop 1982 (You Should Hear How She Talks About You-Melissa Manchester)

* Best Album Notes 1993 ()

* Best Jazz Vocal Album 2004 (A Little Moonlight)

* Best Musical Show Album 1996 (Smokey Joe's Cafe)

* Best Pop Vocal Album 2003 (Come Away with Me)

* Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices 1984 ("Be Bop Medley" with Chaka Khan)

* Producer of the Year, Non-Classical 1976, 2003 (Come Away with Me)

* Record of the Year 1990 ("Wind Beneath My Wings"), 2003 ("Don't Know Why")

* Trustees Award 2002

Trustee Award for a Lifetime of Achievement in Music by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) 2001

"Man of the Year" by the Nordoff-Robbins Music Foundation 2001

Ertegün Impact Award

References

External links

Category:1932 births Category:2006 deaths Category:American people of Turkish descent Category:American music industry executives Category:Berklee College of Music alumni Category:Burials at Karacaahmet Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Istanbul University alumni Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Istanbul Category:Turkish immigrants to the United States Category:Turkish musicians Category:Turkish record producers