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Ace Frehley
Paul David "Ace" Frehley (; born April 27, 1951) is an American musician best known as an original member of the rock band Kiss. He took on the persona of the "Spaceman" or "Space Ace" when the band adopted costumes and theatrics. Frehley played with the group from its inception in 1973 until his departure in 1982.
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Adnan Menderes
Adnan Menderes (ː 1899 – 17 September 1961) was the first democratically elected political leader in Turkish history. He served as prime minister between 1950–1960. He was one of the founders of the Democratic Party (DP) in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey. He was hanged by the military junta after the 1960 coup d'état, along with two other cabinet members, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan. He was the last Turkish political leader to be executed after a military coup and is also one of the three political leaders of the Turkish Republic (along with Atatürk and Turgut Özal) to have a mausoleum built in his honour.
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Adrian Borland
Adrian Borland (6 December 1957 – 26 April 1999) was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, best
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Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Charles "Ade" Edmondson (born 24 January 1957) is an English actor, comedian, director, writer and musician. He is probably best known for his comedic roles as Vyvyan Basterd in The Young Ones (1982–1984), and Eddie Hitler in Bottom (1991–1995), which he also wrote together with co-star Rik Mayall, his long-time comedy partner.
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Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei, (born 1957, Beijing) is a Chinese artist, curator, architectural designer, social commentator, and activist.
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Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (; born 4 April 1957, Orimattila, Finland) is a Finnish script writer and film director.
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Alagappa Chettiar
Padmabushan Alagappa Chettiar, in Tamil: வள்ளல் டாக்டர் திரு க.வி.அழ.அழகப்பா செட்டியார் (April 6, 1909 - April 5, 1957), was an Indian businessman and philanthropist.
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Alan Duncan
Alan James Carter Duncan (born 31 March 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland and Melton. He is also a Minister of State in the Department for International Development.
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Albert Camus
Albert Camus (; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French Algerian author, philosopher and journalist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He was a key philosopher of the 20th-century, with his most famous work being the novel ''L'Étranger (The Stranger'').
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Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE (2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai. His most prominent role in his later career was as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy.
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Alexander Dityatin
Alexander Nikolaevich Dityatin (, born August 7, 1957 in Leningrad) is a Russian gymnast, three-time Olympic Champion, and Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. Winning eight medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics, he set the record for achieving the most medals of any type at a single Olympic Games. The American swimmer Michael Phelps has now twice equalled this record, at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Dityatin competed for the Leningrad Dinamo sports society.
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Alexander R. Todd
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Alfred Döblin
Alfred Döblin (10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German expressionist novelist, best known for the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929).
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Alfred Walton Hinds
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Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet who vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression. In the 1950s, Ginsberg was a leading figure of the Beat Generation, an anarchic group of young men and women who joined poetry, song, sex, wine and illicit drugs with passionate political ideas that championed personal freedoms. Ginsberg's epic poem Howl, in which he celebrates his fellow "angel-headed hipsters" and excoriates what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States, is one of the classic poems of the Beat Generation The poem, dedicated to writer Carl Solomon, has a memorable opening:
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Andrei Gromyko
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (; Belarusian Андрэ́й Андрэ́евіч Грамы́ка; – July 2, 1989) was a Soviet statesman from the beginning to the end of the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR from 1957 to 1985, and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, equivelant to head of state and President of the USSR, from 1985 to 1987. Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions regarding Soviet foreign policy. He retired in 1985 after being replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev as head of state. In the Free World he was given the nickname Mr. Nyet, literally meaning Mr. No.
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Anna Lindh
Ylva Anna Maria Lindh (19 June 1957 – 11 September 2003) was a Swedish Social Democratic politician who served as Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1998 until her assassination in 2003. She previously served as Minister for the Environment from 1994 to 1998. Anna Lindh was married to Bo Holmberg, the Governor of Södermanland, with whom she had two sons.
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Anna Vissi
Anna Vissi (; born December 20, 1957), known as Anna Vishy in Cypriot Greek, is a Cypriot–Greek singer, songwriter and actress, known mainly in Greece and her native country of Cyprus, with some international success within Europe, the United States and elsewhere. In the 1980s, Vissi began an exclusive collaboration with Nikos Karvelas, resulting in one of the most successful music partnerships in the nation's history.
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Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957. He was also Foreign Secretary for three periods between 1935 and 1955, including during the Second World War.
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Arturo Lezama
Arturo Lezama (1899-1964) was a Uruguayan political figure.
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Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; March 25, 1867 – January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th century and 20th century, he was renowned for his brilliant intensity, his restless perfectionism, his phenomenal ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory. As music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra he became a household name through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century.
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Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand (; born '''Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum'''; – March 6, 1982), was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism.
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B.P. Schulberg
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Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli, (March 20, 1890 - November 30, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism of his interpretations. Nevertheless, such was Gigli's talent, he is considered to be one of the very finest tenors in the recorded history of music.
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Bernie Mac
Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (October 5, 1957August 9, 2008) better known by his stage name Bernie Mac, was an American actor and comedian. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L. Hughley as The Original Kings of Comedy.
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Bibie
Bibie (pseudonym of Béatrice Adjorkor Anyankor, born on January 9, 1957, in Accra, Ghana) is an African singer, famous for her 1985 hit "Tout doucement".
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Big Van Vader
:For other pages with the word Vader, see Vader.
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Billy Bevan
Billy Bevan (born William Bevan Harris, 29 September 188726 November 1957) was an Australian film actor. He appeared in 254 films between 1916 and 1950.
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Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957), known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left wing activist who blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes. His music career has lasted more than 30 years, and he has collaborated with Natalie Merchant, Johnny Marr, Hank Wangford, Florence and the Machine, Kate Nash, Leon Rosselson, members of R.E.M., Michelle Shocked, Less Than Jake, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, Kirsty MacColl, and Wilco. Bragg often plays and speaks at the Tolpuddle Martyrs festival. Bragg Close, a street in Dagenham, is named in his honour, and he currently lives in Dorset.
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Bob Golic
Robert Perry "Bob" Golic (born October 26, 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio) is a retired American football player, as well as a television and radio personality. He was a NFL defensive tackle who played for the New England Patriots (1979-1981), Cleveland Browns (1982-1988) and Los Angeles Raiders (1989-1992) in the NFL.
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Brad Bird
Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird (born September 11, 1957) is an American director, animator and screenwriter. His best known works are Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles (2004), which he wrote and directed, and Ratatouille (2007), for which he directed and wrote the screenplay. He also adapted and directed the critically-acclaimed 2-D hand-animated 1999 Warner Brothers film The Iron Giant. Reviewing the Ratatouille DVD, Eye Weekly offered this characterization of Bird's work: "It’s very hard to think of another mainstream American director with a comparably fluid visual style or such a vise-grip on storytelling mechanics." He also directed the The Simpsons ' episode "Like Father, Like Clown".
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Bret Hart
Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian on-screen personality, writer and retired professional and amateur wrestler who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), appearing on the Raw brand.
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Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and a former player. He is best known for playing in midfield for Manchester United, where he was the longest serving captain in club history. He was the manager of Sheffield United, being relieved of his first team duties at the club in February 2008. The following month, Robson returned to Manchester United as an ambassador for the club.
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Bugs Moran
George Clarence Moran (born Adelard Cunin on August 21, 1891 - February 25, 1957), better known by the alias "Bugs" Moran, was a Chicago Prohibition-era gangster born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Moran, of Irish and Polish descent, moved to the north side of Chicago when he was 19, where he became affiliated with several gangs. He was incarcerated three times before turning 21. On February 14, 1929, in an event which has become known as the Saint Valentine's Day massacre, seven members of his gang were gunned down in a warehouse, supposedly by Moran's rival Al Capone. He has been credited with popularizing the act of driving by a rival's hangout and spraying it with gunfire, now referred to as a drive-by shooting.
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Butch Vig
Butch Vig (born August 2, 1955) is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the drummer of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of multi-platinum selling album Nevermind by Nirvana.
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Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., (July 4, 1872 January 5, 1933) was the 30th President of the United States (1923–1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight. Soon after, he was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative.
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Cameron Crowe
Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes.
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Carole Bouquet
Carole Bouquet (born 18 August 1957) is a French actress and fashion model, who has appeared in more than 40 films since 1977. Bouquet was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
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Celal Bayar
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Charles Brabin
Charles J. Brabin (April 17, 1882 in Liverpool, England - November 3, 1957 in Santa Monica, California) was an American film director and screenwriter. He was active during the silent era, then pursued a short-lived career in talkies.
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Charles Pathé
Charles Pathé (26 December 1863 – 25 December 1957) was a major French pioneer of the film and recording industries.
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Chen Ning Yang
Chen-Ning Franklin Yang () (born October 1, 1922) is a Chinese-American physicist who worked on statistical mechanics and particle physics. He, together with Tsung-dao Lee, received the 1957 Nobel prize in physics for their work on parity nonconservation of weak interaction. Yang naturalized as a United States citizen in 1964.
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China
China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity.
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Chris Roupas
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Christian Dior
Christian Dior (21 January 1905, Granville, Manche – 23 October 1957), was an influential French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior.
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Christopher Lambert
Christophe Guy Denis "Christopher" Lambert (born March 29, 1957) is a French actor who has appeared in French, European, and American productions. He is best known for his role as Connor MacLeod, or simply "The Highlander", from the movie and subsequent movie franchise series of the same name. He is also known for his roles as Tarzan in and as the thunder god Raiden in the first movie adaption of the popular video game Mortal Kombat. He is credited in French-speaking countries as Christophe Lambert.
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Cindy Wilson
Cynthia Leigh Wilson (born February 28, 1957 in Athens, Georgia) is a founding member of new wave rock band The B-52s.
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Clayton Rohner
Clayton Rohner (born August 5, 1957) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Rick Morehouse in the 1985 comedy movie Just One of the Guys. He also starred in the 1986 film Modern Girls as Clifford and Bruno X. He is a main character in the 1994 film Caroline at Midnight. Other credits include the films ''April Fool's Day, Destroyer and The Relic. Clayton starred in the short-lived science fiction series E.A.R.T.H. Force and G vs E. He starred in the 2005 film role in Formosa''. Clayton's most recent film role is in the 2006 film Trespassers. His most recent TV role was Jared Pryor in the short-lived ABC midseason replacement Day Break.
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Colin Mochrie
Colin Andrew Mochrie (; born November 30, 1957) is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and US versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
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Constantin Brâncuşi
Constantin Brâncuşi (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was an internationally renowned Romanian sculptor whose works, which blend simplicity and sophistication, led the way for numerous modernist sculptors.
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Cora Witherspoon
Cora Witherspoon (January 5, 1890 – November 17, 1957) was an American actress who played supporting roles in films from the 1930s until the 1950s.
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Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta (born October 29, 1957) is an American film, theatre and television actor, comedian, voice artist and television writer. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he also voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby and Hans Moleman.
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Daniel Bovet
Daniel Bovet (23 March 1907 – 8 April 1992) was a Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of drugs that block the actions of specific neurotransmitters. He is best known for his discovery in 1937 of antihistamines, which block the neurotransmitter histamine and are used in allergy medication. His other research included work on chemotherapy, sulfa drugs, the sympathetic nervous system, the pharmacology of curare, and other neuropharmacological interests.
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Daniel Stern (actor)
Daniel Jacob Stern (born August 28, 1957) is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.
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David Lean
Sir David Lean CBE (25 March 190816 April 1991) was a British filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia,
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Dawn French
Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a Welsh-born English actress, writer and comedian. She is best-known for starring in and writing for the comedy sketch show French and Saunders with comedy partner Jennifer Saunders and also for playing the lead role of Geraldine Granger in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley. So far in her career, she has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards and also won a Fellowship BAFTA along with Jennifer Saunders.
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Debbie Arnold
Jeanette Debbie Arnold (born 14 June 1955 in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear) is an English actress and voice artiste. She is best known for her work on British television, although she is also a veteran stage actress. She is one of the top voiceover artistes in England.
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Debbie Thrower
Debbie Thrower (born 17 November 1957) is a British television presenter who anchored for ITV Meridian's flagship news programme (the Southern edition of) Meridian Tonight from its inception in 1993 to 2009. She was educated at Edgehill College, formerly a girls' independent school in Bideford, Devon.
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Dedan Kimathi
Dedan Kimathi Waciuri (truly, Kimathi wa Waciuri), (31 October 1920 – 18 February 1957) was a Kenyan rebel leader who fought against British colonization in Kenya in the 1950s. He was convicted and executed by the British colonial government.
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Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary (born August 18, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. He is known for his often biting comedic style and his chain smoking. Leary is the star and co-creator of the television show Rescue Me, which began its sixth season in June 2010.
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Denise Crosby
Denise Michelle Crosby (born November 24, 1957) is an American actress best known for portraying Security Chief Tasha Yar on . She is also known for her numerous film and television roles, for starring in and producing the film Trekkies, and for being the granddaughter of Bing Crosby.
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Denise Nickerson
Denise Nickerson (born April 1, 1957) is an American former child actress best known for her roles as the gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Amy Jennings in the soap opera Dark Shadows.
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Dennis Brain
Dennis Brain (17 May 19211 September 1957) was a British virtuoso horn player and was largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public. With the collaboration of Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra, he produced what many still consider to be the definitive recordings of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's horn concerti.
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Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez (December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Gto, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo (1929–1939 and 1940–1954). His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals among others in Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
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Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond (born December 9, 1957) is an American singer, musician, actor and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk show and game show host, record producer, race car driver, and author. In the mid 1960s, he and his four elder brothers gained fame as the "Osmond Brothers" on the long running variety program, the "Andy Williams Show". Donnie went solo in the early 1970s covering such hits as "Go Away Little Girl" and "Puppy Love". In 1978 he became known for being half of the brother-sister singing duet Donny & Marie, with a four year variety series of their own on ABC. Between a highly successful teen career in the 1970s and a rebirth in the 1990s, the singer/ actor's career was stymied in the 1980s, by what some have called a "boy scout image". Osmond stated on the May 1, 2009 "Larry King Live" show, that Michael Jackson once suggested that Osmond change his name. Osmond's agent even suggested that spreading false rumors about drug arrest charges might boost his career. In 1989, Osmond had two chart-topping recordings, the first of which was being credited to a "mystery artist". From 1992-1997 he played Joseph in the Toronto production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Creator Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, impressed by Osmond's talents and the show's long run, chose Osmond to do the 1999 film version (which also starred Sir Richard Attenborough as Jacob). On November 24, 2009, two weeks shy of his 52nd birthday, Osmond was crowned Dancing with the Stars season nine champion.
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Dorota Kędzierzawska
Dorota Kędzierzawska (born June 1, 1957 in Łódź) is a Polish director of feature and documentary films.
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Dorothy Richardson
Dorothy Miller Richardson (17 May 1873 - 17 June 1957) was the first writer to publish an English-language novel using what was to become known as the stream-of-consciousness technique. Her thirteen novel sequence Pilgrimage is one of the great 20th century works of modernist and feminist literature in English.
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Dorothy Sebastian
Dorothy Sebastian (April 26, 1903 – April 8, 1957) was an American film and stage actress.
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Dr. Alban
Alban Uzoma Nwapa (born 26 August 1957 in Oguta, Imo State, Nigeria), known by his stage name Dr. Alban, is a Nigerian, Sweden-based musician and producer with his own record label dr-records. His music can best be described as a Eurodance/hip-hop reggae with a dancehall style.
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Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (; March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was an American writer and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo. LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone. He published 44 children's books, which were often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of trisyllabic meter. His most celebrated books include the bestselling Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Horton Hears a Who!, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Numerous adaptations of his work have been created, including eleven television specials, three feature films, and a Broadway musical
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower ( ; October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas – March 28, 1969), at Walter Reed Army Hospital, in Washington D. C. was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961, and the last to be born in the 19th century. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
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E. Herbert Norman
Egerton Herbert Norman (September 1, 1909 – April 4, 1957) was a Canadian diplomat and historian.
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Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of a TV variety show called The Ed Sullivan Show that was broadcast from 1948 until 1971. Its 23-year run made The Ed Sullivan Show one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S. broadcast history.
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Edith Abbott
Edith Abbott (September 26, 1876 – July 28, 1957) was an American economist, social worker, educator, and author. Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. Her younger sister was Grace Abbott.
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Edward Gein
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Elaine Carbines
Elaine Cafferty Carbines (born Elaine Cafferty, 4 February 1957) is an Australian politician. She was an Australian Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Council from September 1999 to November 2006, representing Geelong Province. A former teacher and community campaigner, Carbines was a prominent backbench member of the government, often raising issues of local concern. She was a member of the Labor Right faction.
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Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
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Eric Bristow
Eric Bristow MBE ("The Crafty Cockney") (born 25 April 1957 in Hackney, London) is a British darts player, whose skill at the game in the 1980s helped turn it into a worldwide spectator sport.
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Eric S. Raymond
Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4, 1957), often referred to as ESR, is a computer programmer, author and open source software advocate. His name became known within the hacker culture when he picked up maintenance of the "Jargon File" in 1990. After the 1997 publication of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", Raymond became, for a number of years, an unofficial spokesman of the open source movement.
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Eric Walters
Eric Robert Walters (born 1957) is a Canadian author of children's literature.
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Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim (September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work. As an actor, he is noted for his arrogant Teutonic character parts which led him to be described as "not a character actor, but what a character!". Playing villainous German roles during the Great War, he became known as "The Man You Love to Hate".
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Ethan Coen
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Eugenio Castellotti
Eugenio Castellotti (10 October 1930 - 14 March 1957) was a Formula One driver from Italy.
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Ewan Stewart
Ewan Stewart (born 8 August 1957) is a Scottish film, television and stage actor.
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Ezio Pinza
Ezio Pinza (May 18, 1892 - May 9 1957) was an Italian basso opera singer with a rich, smooth and sonorous voice. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. Pinza also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan, and at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden.
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Falco (musician)
Johann (Hans) Hölzel (19 February 1957 – 6 February 1998), better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian pop and rock musician and rapper. He had six number-one hits: "Der Kommissar", "Rock Me Amadeus", "Jeanny", "Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2)", "Vienna Calling" and, with Brigitte Nielsen, "Body next to Body". With "Rock Me Amadeus" he is the first and only artist to date to score a number-one hit in the U.S. with a German-language song. His estate claims he has sold 40 million albums and 20 million singles to date, which makes him one of the best selling Austrian singers ever.
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Fergal O'Hanlon
'''Feargal O'Hanlon (Irish: Feargal Ó hAnnluain''' (b. 2 February 1936, Ballybay, County Monaghan, Ireland – d. 1 January 1957, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland) was a member/volunteer in the Pearse Column of the Irish Republican Army.
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Fern Britton
Fern Britton (born 17 July 1957) is an English television presenter, known as the former main co-presenter on the ITV magazine programme This Morning alongside Phillip Schofield. She left the show on 17 July 2009, her 52nd birthday.
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Finlay Calder
Finlay ("Fin") Calder (born on 20 August 1957) is a Scottish former rugby player.
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Fran Drescher
Francine Joy "Fran" Drescher (born September 30, 1957) is an American film and television actress, comedian, screenwriter, television director, producer, author, activist, singer, political lobbyist and talk show host. Drescher is best known for playing Fran Fine on the television series The Nanny, for which she was nominated for two Emmys and two Golden Globe Awards.
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Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand (born June 23, 1957) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1996 for her role as Marge Gunderson in Fargo.
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Frank Costello
Frank Costello (born Francesco Castiglia; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was a New York City gangster who rose to the top of America's underworld, controlled a vast gambling empire across the United States and enjoyed political influence.
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Friedrich Paulus
Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (23 September 1890 – 1 February 1957) was an officer in the German military from 1910 to 1943. He attained the rank of Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal) during World War II, and is best known for having commanded the Sixth Army's assault on Stalingrad during Operation Blue in 1942. The battle ended in disaster for Nazi Germany when approximately 270,000 soldiers of the Wehrmacht, Axis allies, and Hilfswillige were encircled and defeated in a massive Soviet counterattack in November 1942, with casualties reaching as high as 740,000.
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Gary Sweet
Gary Sweet (born 22 May 1957 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian film and television actor known for his roles in ''Alexandra's Project (2003), Police Rescue, Cody, Big Sky, The Battlers, Bodyline and Stingers''.
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Gene Lockhart
Eugene "Gene" Lockhart (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957) was a Canadian character actor, singer, and playwright. He also wrote the lyrics to a number of popular songs.
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Genie (feral child)
Genie is the pseudonym for a feral child who spent nearly all of the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom strapped to a potty chair. She was a victim of one of the most severe cases of social isolation in American history. Genie was discovered by Los Angeles authorities on November 4, 1970.
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George Cleveland
George Alan Cleveland (September 17, 1885 – July 15, 1957) was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in over 180 films between 1933 and 1954.
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George P. Metesky
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Georgi Parvanov
Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov (, ) (born June 28, 1957) is the current President of Bulgaria; he has been elected after defeating his predecessor Petar Stoyanov in the second round of the presidential elections in November 2001 and he came into office in January 22, 2002. Georgi Parvanov started his second presidential mandate following victory in the 2006 presidential elections. Parvanov supports membership of Bulgaria in NATO and the European Union. According to Bulgarian law Bulgarian president is not allowed to be a member of a political party thus Parvanov is independent and he left the Socialist Party after his success in the presidential elections, although of course he identified as a socialist. Parvanov often declares being a 'social president' as his election platform was such - focusing on social care for unemployed, disadvantaged and poor. His major political and governmental contribution is helping to create the three-party government coalition on the August 16, 2005 which was a guarantee for the successful joining of Bulgaria in the EU.
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Gerty Cori
Gerty Theresa Cori (née Radnitz, August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957) was an American biochemist who became the third woman—and first American woman—to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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Giuliana De Sio
Giuliana De Sio (born April 2, 1957) is an Italian actress and the sister of folk singer Teresa De Sio.
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Goodluck Jonathan
Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan (born 20 November 1957) is a Nigerian politician and currently the President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). On 13 January 2010, a federal court handed him the power to carry out state affairs while President Umaru Yar'Adua received medical treatment in a Saudi Arabian hospital. A motion from the Nigerian Senate on 9 February 2010 confirmed these powers to act as President. On 24 February 2010 Yar'Adua returned to Nigeria, but Jonathan continued as acting president. Upon Yar'Adua's death on 5 May 2010, Jonathan succeeded to the Presidency, taking the oath of office on 6 May 2010.
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Gordon Gould
Gordon Gould (July 17, 1920 – September 16, 2005) was an American physicist who is widely, but not universally, credited with the invention of the laser. Gould is best known for his thirty-year fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to obtain patents for the laser and related technologies. He also fought with laser manufacturers in court battles to enforce the patents he subsequently did obtain.
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Grace Coolidge
Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge (January 3, 1879 – July 8, 1957) was the wife of Calvin Coolidge and First Lady of the United States from 1923 to 1929.
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Grazyna Miller
Grażyna Miller (29 January 1957 – 17 August 2009) was a poet, born in Poland.
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Greg Ryan (soccer)
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Gregg Burge
Gregg Burge (November 14, 1957 - July 4, 1998) was a tap dancer and choreographer.
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Grzegorz Ciechowski
Grzegorz Ciechowski (b. August 29, 1957, Tczew - d. Dec. 22, 2001, Warsaw) was a Polish rock musician and film music composer.
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Haakon VII of Norway
Haakon VII (Prince Carl of Denmark and Iceland, born Christian Frederik Carl Georg Valdemar Axel) (3 August 1872 at Charlottenlund Palace 21 September 1957 in Oslo), known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden. He was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. As one of the few elected monarchs, Haakon quickly won the respect and affection of his people and played a pivotal role in uniting the Norwegian nation in its resistance to the attack and five-year-long Nazi occupation during World War II.
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Habib Bourguiba
Habib Bourguiba () (August 3, 1903 – April 6, 2000) was a Tunisian statesman, the Founder and First President of the Republic of Tunisia from July 25, 1957 until November 7, 1987. He is often compared to Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk because of the pro-Western reforms enacted during his presidency.
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Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG (Ḥāmid Karzay; born 24 December 1957) is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban government in late 2001. During the International Conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany, on 5 December 2001, Karzai was selected by prominent Afghan political figures to serve a six month term as Chairman of the Transitional Administration.
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Hannu Kamppuri
Hannu Juhani Kamppuri (born June 1, 1957 in Helsinki, Finland) is a former professional ice hockey goaltender. Kamppuri was an accomplished SM-liiga goaltender, but is probably best known in North America for being one of the first Finnish goaltenders to compete in the National Hockey League, where he played 13 games for the New Jersey Devils. He also appeared in net for the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association, as well as various minor league teams.
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Hansi Müller
Hans-Peter "Hansi" Müller (born 27 July 1957 in Stuttgart) is a former German footballer.
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Harold Gatty
Harold Charles Gatty (5 January 1903, Campbell Town, Tasmania - 30 August 1957, Fiji) was an Australian navigator, inventor, and aviation pioneer. Charles Lindbergh called Gatty the "Prince of Navigators."[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/aviation_history/3029141.html] In 1931, Gatty served as navigator, along with pilot Wiley Post, on the flight which set the record for aerial circumnavigation of the world, flying a distance of 15,747 miles (24,903 km) in a Lockheed Vega named the Winnie Mae, in 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes.
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Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963.
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Heather Thomas
Heather Anne Thomas (born September 8, 1957) is an American actress, screenwriter, author and political activist, best known for her co-starring role of Jody Banks on the TV series The Fall Guy.
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Helene Costello
Helene Costello (June 21, 1906 - January 26, 1957) was an American motion picture actress, most notably of the silent film era.
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Henry Cluney
Henry Cluney (born 4 August 1957, Belfast, Northern Ireland) was a guitarist in Highway Star, the school band that became Stiff Little Fingers in 1977. He remained with the group until lead singer Jake Burns disbanded the group in 1983.
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Henry Norris Russell
Henry Norris Russell (October 25, 1877 – February 18, 1957) was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (1910). In 1923, working with Frederick Saunders, he developed Russell–Saunders coupling which is also known as LS coupling.
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Hermann Buhl
Hermann Buhl (September 21, 1924 – June 27, 1957) is considered one of the best post-World War II Austrian climbers and one of the best climbers of all time. He was particularly innovative in applying alpine style to Himalayan climbing. His accomplishments include:
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Hidetsugu Aneha
is a former Japanese architect and builder accused of falsifying structural data regarding the earthquake resistance of various condominiums and hotels.
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Horst-Ulrich Hänel
Horst-Ulrich Hänel (born June 3, 1957 in Plau am See, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is a former field hockey player from West Germany, who twice won the silver medal at the Summer Olympics. He did so in 1984 (Los Angeles) and 1988 (Seoul).
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Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.
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Ian Stuart Donaldson
Ian Stuart Donaldson (11 August 1957-24 September 1993) was a singer, musician and songwriter, most known as the frontman of Skrewdriver, a British punk rock band that later became a white power rock band. He was born in Lancashire, England and raised in Poulton-le-Fylde. He died on 24 September 1993 due to injuries resulting from a car crash the night before in Derbyshire.
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Ifni War
The Ifni War, sometimes called the Forgotten War in Spain (la Guerra Olvidada), was a series of armed incursions into Spanish West Africa by Moroccan insurgents and Sahrawi rebels that began in October 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege of Sidi Ifni.
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Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (; 14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. His influential body of work dealt with bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and influential film directors of all time. However, despite critical acclaim, his films rarely earned large grosses or gained wide audiences, perhaps because their dialogues were spoken for the most part in Swedish and the films were shown in most places with subtitles in a format many audiences found difficult to follow. Similarly, Bergman's films were almost always about families, relationships, and the eternal verities; very little "action" ever took place over the course of his films. Yet Bergman explored the landscape of human emotions as no director had ever dared attempt.
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Ingrid Washinawatok
Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa (also known as ''O'Peqtaw-Metamoh and Flying Eagle Woman'') (July 31, 1957- February 1999) was an internationally-known member of the Menominee Nation of upper Wisconsin. She was murdered by FARC guerrillas in Colombia. At the time of her death she was forty-one years old, the wife of Ali El-Issa, a Palestinian, and the mother of her 14-year-old son, Maehkiwkasic (meaning "Red Sky"). She was born in Keshena, Wisconsin.
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Irving Baxter
Irving Knot Baxter (March 25, 1876 – June 13, 1957) was an American athlete, who won the gold medal in both the men's high jump and the pole vault at the 1900 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France.
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Irving Langmuir
Irving Langmuir (31 January 1881 – 16 August 1957) was an American chemist and physicist. His most noted publication was the famous 1919 article "The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules" in which, building on Gilbert N. Lewis's cubical atom theory and Walther Kossel's chemical bonding theory, he outlined his "concentric theory of atomic structure". Langmuir became embroiled in a priority dispute with Lewis over this work; Langmuir's presentation skills were largely responsible for the popularization of the theory, although the credit for the theory itself belongs mostly to Lewis. While at General Electric, from 1909–1950, Langmuir advanced several basic fields of physics and chemistry, invented the gas-filled incandescent lamp, the hydrogen welding technique, and was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in surface chemistry. He was the first industrial chemist to become a Nobel laureate. The Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research near Socorro, New Mexico was named in his honor as was the American Chemical Society journal for Surface Science, called Langmuir.
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Isaac Heinemann
Isaac Heinemann (Hebrew: יצחק היינמן) (born 5 June 1876; died 28 July 1957) was Israeli rabbinical scholar and a professor of classical literature, Hellenistic literature and philology.
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Iskander Mirza
Major-General Sahibzada Sayyid Iskander Ali Mirza, CIE, OBE (Urdu: اسکندر مرزا) (November 13, 1899 – November 12, 1969) was the last Governor-General of the Dominion of Pakistan (6 October 1955 to 23 March 1956), and the first President of the Republic of Pakistan (23 March 1956 to 27 October 1958).
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Italian people
The Italian people () are a people that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence (though the principle of Jus Sanguinis is used extensively and arguably more favorably in the Italian nationality law), and are distinguished from people of Italian descent and, historically, from ethnic Italians living in the unredeemed territories adjacent to the Italian peninsula.
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Ivan Corea
Canon Hector Vernon Ivan Seneviratne Corea was a highly respected clergyman of the Church of Ceylon.
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Ivo Josipovic
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J. Karjalainen
Jukka Tapio Karjalainen (born 1957 in Helsinki) is a Finnish singer-songwriter. His first album came out in 1981 and he has been called the "Bruce Springsteen of Finland." He states that his music is a mix of "Blues, Rock´n´roll, Folk, Country, Soul, Funky, New Orleans stuff." He also listened to old-time musicians like Tommy Jarrell and Clarence Ashley while learning the 5-string banjo.
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Jack Buchanan
Walter John "Jack" Buchanan (2 April 1891 – 20 October 1957) was a British theatre and film actor, singer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr. and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts".
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Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Kerouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast, and alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing covering topics such as jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. His writings have inspired other writers, including Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Robbins, Thomas Pynchon, Lester Bangs, Will Clarke, Richard Brautigan, Ken Kesey, Haruki Murakami, Jon Foreman, and Bob Dylan. Unsympathetic critics of his work have labeled it "slapdash", "grossly sentimental", and "immoral". Kerouac became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the Hippie movement. At age 47 in 1969 Kerouac died from internal bleeding due to long-standing abuse of alcohol. Since his death Kerouac's literary prestige has grown and several previously unseen works have been published. All of his books are in print today, among them: On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody and ''Big Sur.
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Jackie Woodburne
Jackie Woodburne (born 5 February 1956) is a Northern Irish-born Australian actress.
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James Whale
James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), all recognized as classics of the genre. Whale directed over a dozen films in other genres, including what is considered the definitive film version of the musical Show Boat (1936). He became increasingly disenchanted with his association with horror, but many of his non-horror films have fallen into obscurity.
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Javed Miandad
Mohammad Javed Miandad Khan (Urdu: ) (born June 12, 1957), popularly known as Javed Miandad (Urdu: ) is a former Pakistani cricketer who played between 1975-1996. He is the Pakistan's leading run scorer in test cricket. He has served as a captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. He is widely known for his big Six against India in 1986 where 4 runs were required out of 1 ball.
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Jayne Torvill
MedalCountry|the
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Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius () (8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious".
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Jeb Hensarling
Jeb Hensarling (born May 29, 1957) has been the Republican congressman representing Texas' 5th congressional district ([http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/tx05_109.gif map]) in the United States House of Representatives since 2003.
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Jim Lauderdale
Jim Lauderdale is a musician & singer-songwriter who performs bluegrass and country music. He has recorded since 1986 and has released nineteen studio albums. Artists who have recorded his material include George Strait and Patty Loveless.
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Jim McGreevey
James Edward "Jim" McGreevey (born August 6, 1957) is an American Democratic politician. He served as the 52nd Governor of New Jersey from 12 noon on January 15, 2002, until he resigned from office at 11:59 p.m. on November 15, 2004. His term was set to expire at 12 noon on January 17, 2006. On the afternoon of August 12, 2004, McGreevey coupled the announcement of his decision to resign with a public declaration of his homosexuality and an admission to having had an extramarital affair with a man, Golan Cipel, an Israeli citizen and veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, whom McGreevey appointed New Jersey homeland security adviser. Cipel, who had joined the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994 as Chief Information Officer at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, subsequently left the United States and returned to Israel after their affair was revealed. McGreevey was the first and, to date, the only openly gay state governor in United States history.
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Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD". He composed the standards "I'm Glad There is You (In This World of Ordinary People)" and "It's the Dreamer in Me".
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Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975, declared legally dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader and author.
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Jo Brand
Josephine "Jo" Grace Brand (born 23 July 1957) is an English stand-up comedienne.
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Joaquim de Almeida
Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida, CavIH (; born 15 March 1957) is a Portuguese actor. He has worked in Europe, Argentina, Mexico, the United States and Brazil in many film and stage productions.
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Johannes Stark
Johannes Stark (15 April 1874 – 21 June 1957) was a German physicist, and Physics Nobel Prize laureate who was closely involved with the Deutsche Physik movement under the Nazi regime.
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John Axon
John Axon GC (4 December 1900 – 9 February 1957) was an English train driver from Stockport (Edgeley Depot) who died while trying to stop a runaway freight train on a 1 in 58 gradient near Buxton in Derbyshire after a brake failure. The train consisted of an ex-LMS Stanier Class 8F 2-8-0 No. 48188 hauling 33 wagons and a brake van.
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John Bodkin Adams
John Bodkin Adams (21 January 1899 – 4 July 1983) was an Irish-born British general practitioner, convicted fraudster and suspected serial killer. Between the years 1946-1956, more than 160 of his patients died under suspicious circumstances. Of these 132 left him money or items in their will. He was tried and acquitted for the murder of one patient in 1957. Another count of murder was withdrawn by the prosecution in what was later described as "an abuse of process" by the presiding judge Patrick Devlin, causing questions to be asked in Parliament about the prosecution's handling of events. The trial featured in headlines around the world and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of all time" and "murder trial of the century". It was also described at the time as "unique" because, in the words of the judge, "the act of murder" had "to be proved by expert evidence."
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John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) led Canada as its 13th Prime Minister, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative (PC, or Tory) party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an election victory, doing so three times, although only once with a majority of the seats in the Canadian House of Commons.
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John Eriksen
John Hartmann Eriksen (20 November 1957 in Assens – 12 February 2002 in Svendborg) was a Danish footballer. During his career he played for Svendborg FB and Odense BK in his native Denmark, Roda JC and Feyenoord in Holland, FC Mulhouse in France and Servette FC and FC Luzern in Switzerland.
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John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. (born July 18, 1921) is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut and United States senator who was the first American and third person to orbit the Earth. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original astronaut group. He orbited the Earth in Friendship 7 in 1962. After retiring from NASA, he entered politics as a Democrat and represented Ohio in the United States Senate from 1974 to 1999.
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John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter (born January 12, 1957) is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.
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John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles and, with Paul McCartney, formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
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John Turturro
John Michael Turturro (born February 28, 1957) is an American actor, writer, and director best known for his performances in Barton Fink (1991), Quiz Show (1994), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). He has appeared in over sixty movies, and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler and Spike Lee. He is well known for his ability to change both his demeanor and physique.
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John von Neumann
John von Neumann (December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian American mathematician who made major contributions to a vast range of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, continuous geometry, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis, hydrodynamics (of explosions), and statistics, as well as many other mathematical fields. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians in modern history. The mathematician Jean Dieudonné called von Neumann "the last of the great mathematicians", while Peter Lax described him as possessing the most "fearsome technical prowess" and "scintillating intellect" of the century. Even in Budapest, in the time that produced geniuses like Theodore von Kármán (b. 1881), Leó Szilárd (b. 1898), Eugene Wigner (b. 1902), and Edward Teller (b. 1908), his brilliance stood out.
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John Wark
John Wark (born 4 August 1957) is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame. Wark had long spells at the club, which bookended his career, and a third, brief interlude dividing his briefer periods at Liverpool and Middlesbrough. A versatile player, Wark played most of his professional games as a midfielder, although he sometimes played as a central defender and on occasion as a striker.
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Johnny Torrio
John "Papa Johnny" Torrio, also known as "The Fox" (February 1882 – April 16, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that would later be inherited by his protege, Al Capone. He also put forth the idea of the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an unofficial advisor to the Genovese crime family.
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Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion.
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Josephine Hull
Josephine Hull (born January 3, reportedly 1886, but probably 1883 – died March 12, 1957) was an American actress. She had a successful 50-year career on stage while taking some of her better known roles to film.
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Joyce Cary
Joyce Cary (born Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary, December 7, 1888 – March 29, 1957), was an Irish novelist and artist.
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Joyce Hyser
Joyce Hyser (born December 20, 1957) is an American actress.
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Juan José Ibarretxe
Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu (born May 15, 1957) is a Basque politician of Spain. A leading member of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), he was President (lehendakari) of Spain's Basque Country autonomous community from January 2, 1999 to May 7, 2009.
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Juan Luis Guerra
Juan Luis Guerra Seijas (born June 7, 1957) is a Dominican singer, songwriter, and self-producer who has sold over 30 million records, and won numerous awards including nine Latin Grammy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Latin Billboard Music Awards. He won 5 Latin Grammy awards in 2007 tying him with Juanes for the record of most Latin Grammys won in one night. He was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and is the son of Olga Seijas and Gilberto Guerra, a basketball player.
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Juan Manuel Fangio
Juan Manuel Fangio (June 24, 1911July 17, 1995), nicknamed El Chueco ("knock-kneed") or El Maestro ("The Master"), was a racing car driver from Argentina, who dominated the first decade of Formula One racing. He won five Formula One World Driver's Championships — a record which stood for 46 years until eventually beaten by Michael Schumacher — with four different teams (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati), a feat that has not been repeated since. Many still consider him to be the greatest driver of all time.
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Judge Reinhold
Edward Ernest "Judge" Reinhold, Jr. (born May 21, 1957) is an American actor, perhaps best known for co-starring in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Ruthless People, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and The Santa Clause.
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Judy Tyler
Judy Tyler (October 9, 1932–July 4, 1957) was an American actress.
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Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French author who helped pioneer the science-fiction genre. He is best known for his novels A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869–1870), Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) and The Mysterious Island (1875).
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Julian Solis
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Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE ( Wells; born 1 October 1935) is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honours. Andrews was a former British child actress and singer who made her Broadway debut in 1954 with The Boy Friend, and rose to prominence starring in other musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, and in musical films such as Mary Poppins (1964), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and The Sound of Music (1965): the roles for which she is still best-known. Her voice spanned four octaves until it was damaged by a throat operation in 1997.
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Julio Lozano Díaz
Julio Lozano Díaz (27 March 1885 – 20 August 1957), was first vice-president (1949–1954) and then president of Honduras, from 5 December 1954 until 21 October 1956.
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János Esterházy
Count János Esterházy (Nyitraújlak, Austria-Hungary, March 14, 1901 – Czechoslovakia, March 8, 1957) a member of the House of Esterházy was the most prominent ethnic Hungarian politician in former Czechoslovakia.
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Józef Hofmann
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Kathy Najimy
Kathy Ann Najimy (born February 6, 1957) is an American actress, most notable as Olive Massery on the television series ''Veronica's Closet, Sister Mary Patrick in Sister Act and the voice of Peggy Hill on the animated television series King of the Hill''. Prior to her film work, she was best known for two off-Broadway shows with Mo Gaffney working as the duo Kathy and Mo. One of the shows became an HBO comedy special and garnered Najimy her first nationwide fan base.
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Katie Couric
Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric (born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist, currently the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, a correspondent for 60 Minutes, and host of @katiecouric (her twitter handle), a webshow on CBSNews.com. She is the first solo female anchor of a weekday evening news program on one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks. Before CBS, she was a co-host of NBC's Today, a position she held from 1991 until 2006.
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Kelly McGillis
Kelly Ann McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American actress whose movies include Witness, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, Top Gun, and The Accused.
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Ken Ober
Ken Ober (July 3, 1957–November 15, 2009) was an American game show host, comedian, and actor.
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Kenny Acheson
Kenneth Henry Acheson (born November 27, 1957 in Cookstown, Northern Ireland) is a British former racing driver who participated during the 1983 and 1985 Formula One seasons for the RAM team. He completed only one of his three race starts, finishing in 12th position in the 1983 South African Grand Prix. In 1985, he was a substitute for Manfred Winkelhock, who was killed in a sportscar race during the season.
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Kenny Neal
Kenny Neal (born October 14, 1957, New Orleans, Louisiana), son of Raful Neal, is a blues and swamp blues guitar player, singer and band member. Neal comes from a musical family and has often performed with his brothers in his band.
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Kevin Eubanks
Kevin Tyrone Eubanks (born November 15, 1957 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz guitarist and composer who was the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led The Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.
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Kevin McHale
Kevin Edward McHale (born December 19, 1957) is a retired American professional basketball player who starred for thirteen seasons in the NBA for the Boston Celtics. After his playing career, he worked for the Minnesota Timberwolves as the team's general manager and later its coach. He was fired as coach in June 2009. He now works as an analyst for NBA TV and Turner Sports.
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Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian politician, the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, and a former Prime Minister of Australia. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives since the 1998 federal election, representing Griffith, Queensland. He was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia, from December 2007 until June 2010.
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King of Norway
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Klaus Kleinfeld
Klaus Kleinfeld (born November 6, 1957 in Bremen, Germany) is chief executive officer (CEO) of Alcoa Inc., and former CEO of Siemens AG.
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Komla Agbeli Gbdemah
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Laika
Laika (, literally meaning "Barker") was a Soviet space dog (c. 1954 – November 3, 1957) that became the first animal to orbit the Earth and the first orbital death. The technology to deorbit had not yet been developed, so there was no expectation for survival. Little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living things at the time Laika's mission was launched. Some scientists believed humans would be unable to survive the launch or the conditions of outer space, so engineers viewed flights by non-human animals as a necessary precursor to human missions. Laika, a stray, originally named Kudryavka ( Little Curly), underwent training with two other dogs, and was eventually chosen as the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 that was launched into outer space on November 3, 1957.
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Lance Nethery
Lance Nethery (born June 28, 1957 in Toronto, Ontario) is a former professional ice hockey centre and coach, and current executive. Nethery attended Cornell University, playing for the Cornell Big Red, and midway through his college career he was selected by the New York Rangers, 131st overall, in the eighth round of the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft. The same year he was named to the ECAC Second All-Star team, and the following two seasons he would be named to both the ECAC First All-Star Team and the NCAA East First All-American Team. He was also named ECAC Player of the Year in 1978. Nethery still holds the Cornell records for assists and points in a season, as well as career assists and points. His scoring touch stayed with him as a professional player, and he average over a point per game in parts of three seasons with the New Haven Nighthawks and Springfield Indians of the AHL. He also played 41 NHL games in two seasons, for the New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers. After joining the Oilers (in a trade for Eddie Mio), Nethery played only 3 NHL games, despite putting up two points. He played dominantly in the minor leagues before signing a contract with HC Davos of the Swiss Nationalliga A. Nethery won two championships with Davos, and retired in 1988.
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Laura Branigan
Laura Ann Branigan (July 3, 1957 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer-songwriter and actress of Italian and Irish ancestry. She is best known in the United States for her 1982 Platinum-certified hit "Gloria" and in Europe for the number-one single "Self Control". Branigan is also remembered for the Top 10 "Solitaire," and for the number-one Adult Contemporary hit "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", as well as four other US Top 40 hits.
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Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family.
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Laura Innes
Laura Elizabeth Innes (born August 16, 1957) is an American actress and director, probably best known for her role as Dr. Kerry Weaver on ER, and most recently, the NBC thriller The Event.
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Leopold Staff
Leopold Staff (November 14, 1878 in Lwów [now Lviv, Ukraine] – May 31, 1957 in Skarżysko-Kamienna) was a Polish poet and one of the greatest artists of European modernism honored two times by honorary degrees (honoris causa). He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Representative of classicism and symbolism in the poetry of Young Poland, an author of many philosophical poems strong influenced by the idea of the Übermensch, the ideas of the Franciscan order, and paradoxes of Christianity.
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Lester B Pearson
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LeVar Burton
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. (born February 16, 1957) professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director and author who first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley. He is also well known for his portrayal of Geordi La Forge on the syndicated science fiction series and as the host of the PBS children's program Reading Rainbow.
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Li-Young Lee
Li-Young Lee (李立揚, pinyin: Lǐ Lìyáng) (born August 19, 1957) is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted to make himself emperor. Lee's father, who was a personal physician to Mao Zedong while in China, relocated his family to Indonesia, where he helped found Gamaliel University. His father was exiled and spent 19 months in an Indonesian prison camp in Macau. In 1959 the Lee family fled the country to escape anti-Chinese sentiment and after a five-year trek through Hong Kong and Japan, they settled in the United States in 1964. Li-Young Lee attended the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Arizona, and the State University of New York at Brockport.
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Loreena McKennitt
Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, warbling soprano vocals. She has sold more than 13 million records worldwide.
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Lorrie Moore
:For the journalist, please see Lori Moore
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Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer (1884 – October 29, 1957) was a Belarus-born American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in its golden years. Known always as Louis B. Mayer and often simply as "L.B.", he believed in wholesome entertainment and went to great lengths so that MGM had "more stars than there are in the heavens".
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Luigi De Canio
Luigi "Gigi" De Canio (born September 26, 1957 in Matera) is an Italian football manager and former player, and the current manager of Serie A team Lecce.
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Luis Cluzeau Mortet
Luis Cluzeau Mortet (November 16, 1888 – 28 September 1957), Uruguayan composer and musician.
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Luis Guzmán
Luis Guzmán (born August 28, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his character work. For much of his career, his squat build, wolfish features, and brooding countenance have garnered him roles largely as sidekicks, thugs, or policemen, but his later career has seen him move into more mainstream roles. He is a favorite of director Steven Soderbergh, who cast him in Out of Sight, The Limey, and Traffic, and Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast him in Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love. He also voiced Ricardo Diaz in ' and '.
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Mad Bomber
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Mait Metsanurk
Mait Metsanurk (Born Eduard Hubel, November 19, 1879 on the farm Saare, Metsanuka village, Tartu Parish, Tartu County / Livonia; died 21 August 1957 in Tallinn), was an Estonian writer who lead the neo-realist school of Estonian literature.
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Malcolm Lowry
Clarence Malcolm Lowry (28 July 1909 – 26 June 1957) was a British poet and novelist who was best known for his novel, Under the Volcano.
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Manu Tuiasosopo
'''Manu'ula Asovalu Tuiasosopo''' (born August 30, 1957 in Los Angeles, California) is a former NFL defensive lineman. He is the father of Leslie Tuiasosopo, Marques Tuiasosopo, Zach Tuiasosopo, Matt Tuiasosopo and Ashley Tuiasosopo. He attended St. Anthony High School and UCLA.
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Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong (; December 26, 1893 September 9, 1976) was a Han Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism-Leninism, military strategies, and his brand of Communist policies are now collectively known as Maoism.
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Marc Almond
Marc Almond (born Peter Mark Sinclair Almond, 9 July 1957, Southport, Lancashire) is an English singer, songwriter and recording artist, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell. Including his time with Soft Cell, he has sold over 30 million records worldwide.
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Marika Ninou
Marika Ninou () (1922 – 23 February 1957), was an Armenian-Greek rembetiko singer, born Evangelia Atamian (Greek: Ευαγγελία Αταμιάν'').
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Mario Van Peebles
Mario "Chip" Cain Van Peebles (born January 15, 1957) is an American director and actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films. He is son of legendary filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles.
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Marlon Jackson
Marlon David Jackson (born March 12, 1957) is an American entertainer singer, dancer, former member of The Jackson 5, and elder brother of American pop stars Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson.
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Masako Natsume
(family name: Nishiyama) was a Japanese model and actress from Tokyo. Widely popular in Japan she gained worldwide recognition for her portrayal as Tripitaka in the TV series Monkey which is now considered a cult classic.
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Matt Lauer
Matthew "Matt" Todd Lauer (born December 30, 1957) is an American television journalist best known as the host of NBC's The Today Show since 1997. He was previously a news anchor in New York and a local talk-show host in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and Richmond. He was also host of PM Magazine (or "Evening Magazine" 1980-1986)
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Maurice McLoughlin
Maurice McLoughlin (January 7, 1890 in Carson City, Nevada – December 10, 1957 in Hermosa Beach, California) was an American tennis player.
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Max Ophüls
Max Ophüls (born Maximillian Oppenheimer, 6 May 1902, Saarbrücken, Germany - 26 March 1957, Hamburg, Germany) was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany, the United States and France. He made nearly thirty films.
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Maxi Jazz
Maxwell Alexander Fraser (born 15 June 1957 in Brixton, London), better known as Maxi Jazz, is an English rapper. He is best known as the lead vocalist of British band Faithless.
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Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith (born August 9, 1957) is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl. She is the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, and the wife of actor Antonio Banderas.
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Meredith Willson
Robert Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1958. The cast recording of The Music Man won the first Grammy Award given for best cast album, and its 1962 film adaptation was a success.
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Michael Card
Michael Card (born April 11, 1957) is an American Christian singer-songwriter, musician, author, and radio host from Franklin, Tennessee. He is best known for his contributions in Contemporary Christian Music, which couple folk-style melodies and instrumentation with lyrics that stem from intensive study of the Bible. Since his debut in 1981, he has sold more than 4 million albums and has written 19 number one singles. He has also authored several books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner A Sacred Sorrow.
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Michael Fekete
Michael (Mihály) Fekete (; July 19, 1886–May 13, 1957) was an Israeli-Hungarian mathematician.
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Michel Barrette
Michel Barrette (born April 26, 1957 in Chicoutimi, Quebec) is a television and movie actor, television and radio host and stand-up comedian. He played in various roles in Quebec movies and television shows since 1982.
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Mikhail Pletnev
Mikhail Vasilievich Pletnev ( - ''Mikhail Vasil'evič Pletnëv''; born 14 April 1957) is a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer.
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Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya (, , German: Nikolaus von Horthy und Nagybánya; Kenderes, 18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957, Estoril) was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" (Hungarian: Ő Főméltósága a Magyar Királyság Kormányzója).
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Mitchell Symons
Mitchell Symons is a Journalist/Writer from London, England. Born in 1957, he was educated at Mill Hill School and the LSE where he studied Law. Since leaving the BBC, where he was a researcher and director, he worked as a writer, broadcaster and journalist. He was a principal writer for the early UK editions of the world-renowned board game Trivial Pursuit, and has devised many television formats. He wrote an award-winning opinion column for the Daily Express. Currently, he writes a weekly column for the Sunday Express.
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Mojo Nixon
Mojo Nixon (born Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr., August 2, 1957 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) is an American musician, known for playing psychobilly music. He has officially retired from playing live and recording, though he does host several radio shows on Sirius Satellite Radio and has come out of retirement for one-off events, such as an event to support fellow musician Kinky Friedman's candidacy for Texas governor.
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Muhammad al-Muqri
Muhammad al-Muqri (1844? – September 9, 1957) was an adviser and grand vizier to several sultans of Morocco while that country was still under French colonial domination.
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Musidora
:Musidora is also an invalid name for the fly genus Lonchoptera.
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Märta Torén
Märta Torén (21 May 1926 – 19 February 1957) was a Swedish stage and film actress of the 1940s and 1950s.
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Nana Visitor
Nana Visitor (born Nana Tucker on July 26, 1957) is an American actress, best known for playing Kira Nerys in the television series (DS9) and Jean Ritter in the television series Wildfire.
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Nancy Lopez
Nancy Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events during her LPGA career, including three major championships.
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Ned Sparks
Ned Sparks (November 19, 1883 - April 3, 1957) was a Canadian character actor. Sparks was well known for his deadpan expression and deep, gravelly voice.
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Nellie Kim
gymnast
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Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction and professor at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. As a novelist, he often focuses on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness, and has written about such provocative topics as voyeurism and planned assassination. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization. Baker's enthusiasts appreciate his ability to candidly explore the human psyche, while critics have charged that his subject matter is trivial.
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Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.
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Nick Faldo
Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo, MBE (born 18 July 1957) is an English professional golfer on the European Tour and occasional on air golf analyst. Over his career, he has won six majors: three Open Championships and three Masters. He was ranked the World No. 1 on the Official World Golf Rankings for a total of 98 weeks. In 2006, Faldo became the lead golf analyst for CBS Sports.
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Norina Matchabelli
Princess Norina Matchabelli (3 March 1880 – 15 June 1957), born Norina Gilli in Florence, Italy, was co-founder of the perfume company Prince Matchabelli, a stage and screen actress, mime, mystic, publisher, and a devoted mandali of Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba. Her stage name was Maria Carmi.
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Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge (May 26, 1893 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.
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Olav V of Norway
Olav V (2 July 1903 – 17 January 1991) was the king of Norway from 1957 until his death.
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Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy (January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted over 31 years, from 1926 to 1957.
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Olivia Heussler
Olivia Heussler (born 18 November 1957 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a freelance Swiss video and photojournalist, artist, and co-founder of international image and photo agencies.
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Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (with numerous variations; , Usāmah bin Muḥammad bin ‘Awaḍ bin Lādin; born March 10, 1957) is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the Islamic extremist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. As a result of his dealings in violent, extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his wealthy Saudi Arabian family. Bin Laden is on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives due to several 1998 US embassy bombings.
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Park Overall
Park Overall (born March 15, 1957) is an American film and television actress, known for her trademark heavy Southern accent.
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Patrick Dixon
Dr Patrick Dixon is an author and business consultant, often described as a futurist. In 2005 he was ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive according to the Thinkers 50 (a private survey printed in The Times). He is Chairman of the trends forecasting company Global Change Ltd, founder of the international AIDS agency ACET, and Chairman of the ACET International Alliance.
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Patrick Moore
Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, HonFRS, FRAS (born 4 March 1923 in Pinner), known as Patrick Moore, is an English amateur astronomer who has attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter of the subject, and who is credited as having done more than any other to raise the profile of astronomy among the British general public. He was born to Captain Charles Trachsel Caldwell-Moore MC (died 1947) and Gertrude, née White (died 1981 aged 94).
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Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame (born October 23, 1957) is the current President of the Republic of Rwanda. He rose to prominence as the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), whose victory over the incumbent government in July 1994 effectively ended the Rwandan genocide. Under his leadership, Rwanda has been called Africa’s “biggest success story” and Kagame has become a public advocate of new models for foreign aid designed to help recipients become self-reliant. "There was a desire to correct what we thought was wrong," Kagame said on The Jazz Joy and Roy syndicated radio show in 2009, via a press feed supplied for a remote broadcast from Saddleback Church in California that featured Saddleback officials and parishioners.
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Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music, according to Guinness World Records.
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Paul Reiser
Paul Reiser (born March 30, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, author and screenwriter.
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Payne Stewart
William Payne Stewart (January 30, 1957 – October 25, 1999) was an American professional golfer who won three majors in his career, the last of which occurred only months before he died in an airplane accident at the age of 42.
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Pedro Infante
José Pedro Infante Cruz (November 18, 1917 - April 15, 1957), better known as Pedro Infante, is perhaps the most famous actor and singer of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and was the idol of the Mexican people, together with Jorge Negrete and Javier Solís, who were styled the Tres Gallos Mexicanos (the Three Mexican Roosters). He was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. He was raised in Guamúchil. He died on April 15, 1957, in Mérida, Yucatán, in a plane crash during a flight that he was piloting himself en route to Mexico City.
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Peter Costello
Peter Howard Costello (born 14 August 1957) is an Australian lawyer and former politician. Elected to the seat of Higgins in 1990, he was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 2007, and served as Treasurer of Australia from 1996 to 2007, making him the longest serving treasurer in Australian history.
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Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars (born September 27, 1957) is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays. Sellars is professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, where he teaches Art as Social Action and Art as Moral Action.
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Phil Barney
Phil Barney (real name : Philippe Baranés, born on February 2, 1957, in Annaba, Algeria) is a French singer-songwriter. He was particularly successful with his 1987 song "Un Enfant de toi".
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Pontso Sekatle
Pontso S. M. Sekatle (born 26 May 1957) is a politician and academic in Lesotho. Sekatle lectured at the National University of Lesotho from 1984 to 2001. In June 2001, she was appointed to the Senate of Lesotho, and on July 6, 2001 she became Minister of Health and Social Welfare. In the May 2002 parliamentary election, which was her first election, she stood as the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) candidate in the Qacha's Nek constituency, previously held by Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili (who contested the Tsoelike constituency instead), and won 72.4% of the vote. Following this election, in June 2002 she was moved from her position as Minister of Health to that of Minister of Local Government. Following the February 2007 parliamentary election, she remained in the latter position in the government of March 2007. Her husband, Semano Sekatle, is also a member of the government, currently serving as Minister of Public Service.
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Qi Baishi
Qi Baishi () (January 1, 1864 - September 16, 1957) was a Chinese painter.
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Rachel Ward
Rachel Claire Ward, AM (born 12 September 1957) is a British actress, columnist, film director, and screenwriter who has primarily pursued her career in Australia.
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Ramon Magsaysay
Ramón del Fierro Magsaysay (August 31, 1907 - March 17, 1957) was the third President of the Third Republic of the Philippines (and 7th president overall) from December 30, 1953 until his death in a plane crash in 1957. He was elected President under the banner of the Nacionalista Party.
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Rawya Ateya
Rawya Ateya () (19 April 1926 – 9 May 1997) was an Egyptian woman who became in 1957 the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.
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Ray Romano
Raymond Albert "Ray" Romano (born December 21, 1957) is an American actor, writer, and stand-up comedian, best known for his roles on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and in the Ice Age film series. He currently stars on the TNT comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age.
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Reginald Sheffield
Reginald Sheffield (February 18, 1901 - December 8, 1957) was an English-born actor.
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Rene Requiestas
Renato "Rene" Requiestas (January 22, 1957 - July 24, 1993) was one of the top Filipino comedians of the late 1980s up to the early 1990s.
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Renée Soutendijk
Renette Pauline Soutendijk, known as Renée Soutendijk, (born May 21, 1957 in The Hague) is a Dutch actress.
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Ria Brieffies
Maria Petronella "Ria" Brieffies (born 23 February 1957, Lutjebroek, Netherlands - died 20 July 2009, Westerland, Netherlands) was a Dutch singer, best known as a member of 1980s girl group "Dolly Dots".
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Ricardo Darin
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Ricardo Montaner
Ricardo Montaner (born as Hector Eduardo Reglero Montaner on September 8, 1957) is an Argentine-Venezuelan singer and songwriter. Starting his career in the early 80s, he has already released more than 15 albums with numerous successful singles and over 22 million units sold.
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Richard E. Byrd
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Richard E. Grant
Richard E. Grant (born 5 May 1957) is a naturalised British actor, screenwriter and director of Afrikaaner origin.
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Richard Jeni
Richard John Colangelo (April 14, 1957 – March 10, 2007), better known by the stage name of Richard Jeni, was an American stand-up comedian and actor.
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Richie Ramone
Richie Ramone (born Richard Reinhardt on August 11, 1957) is an American drummer best known for his five year stint as the drummer for the punk rock group the Ramones.
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Rick Mast
Rick Mast (born March 4, 1957, in Rockbridge Baths, Virginia) is a former NASCAR driver. He competed in both the Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup Series) and Busch Series (now Nationwide Series) before retiring in 2002. He holds a business administration degree from Blue Ridge Community College.
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Rob de Castella
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Rob Paulsen
Robert Fredrick Paulsen III (born March 11, 1956), sometimes credited as Rob Paulson, is an American voice actor, best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr. Otto Scratchansniff from Animaniacs, Pinky from Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs, and Throttle from the 1990s and 2006 versions of Biker Mice From Mars. His role as Yakko won him a Daytime Emmy Award for male vocal performance; he won a second one for his portrayal of Pinky.
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Robert Alton
Robert Alton (28 January 1906 – 12 June 1957) was an American dancer and choreographer, a major figure in dance choreography of Broadway and Hollywood musicals from the 1930s through to the early 1950s. He is principally remembered today as the discoverer of Gene Kelly, for his collaborations with Fred Astaire, and for choreographic sequences he designed for Hollywood musicals such as Show Boat (1951) and The Harvey Girls (1946).
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Robert Pollard
Robert Pollard (born October 31, 1957) is a Dayton, Ohio, USA singer-songwriter who, until 2004, was the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices.
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Robin Cousins
Robin Cousins (born 17 August 1957 in Bristol) is a British retired competitive figure skater. He is the 1980 Olympic Champion. He was coached by Carlo Fassi.
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Russell Endean
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Scott Adams
Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is the American creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, business, and general speculation.
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Seve Ballesteros
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Seán South
Seán South (; 1928–1 January 1957) was a member of an IRA military column led by Sean Garland on a raid against a Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland on New Year's Day, 1957. . South died of wounds sustained during the raid along with another volunteer, Fergal O'Hanlon.
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Shane McGowan
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Shinji Morisue
is a Japanese gymnast and Olympic champion. He hails from Okayama City.
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Shoghi Effendi
Shoghí Effendí Rabbání (March 1, 1897 — November 4, 1957), better known as Shoghi Effendi, was the Guardian and appointed head of the Bahá'í Faith from 1921 until his death in 1957. After the death of `Abdu'l-Bahá in 1921, the leadership of the Bahá'í community entered a new phase, evolving from that of a single individual to an administrative order with executive and legislative branches, the head of each being the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice. Shoghi Effendi was referred to as the Guardian, and held the explicit authority to interpret the writings of the three central figures of the religion and define the sphere of legislative authority. His writings are effectively limited to commentaries on the works of the central figures, and broad directives for the future.
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Simon McBurney
Simon Montagu McBurney, OBE (born 25 August 1957) is an English Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actor, writer and director.
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Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux (born Susan Janet Ballion; May 27, 1957) is an English singer-songwriter. She is best known for her work as the lead singer of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees (1976–1996) and of its splinter group The Creatures (1981–2005). She has also sung with artists such as Morrissey and John Cale. In 2004, she began a solo career.
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Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983.
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Stacy Peralta
Stacy Peralta (born October 15, 1957) is an American director and entrepreneur. He has previously been a professional skateboarder and team surfer as one of the original Z-Boys.
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Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards. Matthews' nicknames included The Wizard of the Dribble and The Magician. A vegetarian teetotaller, he kept fit enough to play at the top level until he was 50 years old. He was also the oldest player ever to play in England's top football division and the oldest player ever to represent the country. He played his final competitive game in 1985, at the age of 70. Matthews was also an inaugural inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 to honour his contribution to the English game.
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Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, writer, journalist, comedian, television presenter, film director and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also included Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery. With Hugh Laurie, as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and the duo also played the title roles in Jeeves and Wooster.
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Steve Davis
Steve Davis, OBE (born 22 August 1957 in Plumstead, London) is an English professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years and reached eight world finals, becoming the sport's first millionaire.
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Steve Harvey
Broderick Steven "Steve" Harvey (born January 17, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, entertainer, television & radio personality and best-selling author. He is best known as the star of the WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show, and as one of the four comedians featured in the Spike Lee film The Original Kings of Comedy. Currently, he is the host of the nationally syndicated radio program The Steve Harvey Morning Show, and the sixth host of the television game show Family Feud. He is the author of , which was published in March 2009.
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Stewart Nozette
Dr. Stewart David Nozette (born May 20, 1957) is an American scientist and astronomer. He has worked for the United States Department of Energy, the United States Department of Defense, and NASA. His research has resulted in multiple publications in the journal Science. The FBI arrested him October 19, 2009 charging him with attempted espionage, after a sting operation. Nozette allegedly sold U.S. classified information to someone he believed was an Israeli Mossad operative, but was in reality an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation employee.
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Strom Thurmond
James Strom Thurmond (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American politician who served as the 103rd Governor of South Carolina and as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrat) candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes. Thurmond later represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to April 1956 and November 1956 to January 2003, at first as a Democrat and after 1964 as a Republican, switching parties as the conservative base shifted.
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Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was the first President of Indonesia.
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Suzzanne Douglas
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Taiwan
Taiwan, also known (especially in the past) as Formosa (from , "Beautiful Island"), is an island situated in East Asia in the Western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It comprises most (99%) of the territory of the Republic of China (ROC) since the 1950s. The term "Taiwan" is also a common name to refer to the entire country of the Republic of China.
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Tchaikovsky
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Teresa Ganzel
Teresa Ganzel (born March 23, 1957, Toledo, Ohio) is an actress, comedienne, and cartoon voice-over actress.
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The Pogues
The Pogues is a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and folk, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before breaking up in 1996. The band reformed in 2001, and has been playing regularly ever since, most notably on the US East Coast every spring (bar 2010) and around the UK and Ireland every December. The group has yet to record any new music and according to Spider Stacy on Pogues.com has no inclination to do so.
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The Ramones
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Tim Farriss
Timothy William Farriss (born 16 August 1957, Perth, Western Australia, Australia) is a member of the rock band INXS.
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Tom Henke
Thomas Anthony (Tom) Henke (born December 21, 1957 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He was one of the most dominant closers during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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Toyoda Soemu
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Tsai Ming-liang
Tsai Ming-liang () (born October 27, 1957) is one of the most celebrated "Second New Wave" film directors of Taiwanese Cinema, along with earlier contemporaries such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang. His films have been acclaimed worldwide and have won numerous film festival awards.
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Tsung-Dao Lee
Tsung-Dao Lee (T.D. Lee, ) (born November 24, 1926) is a Chinese-born American physicist, well known for his work on parity violation, the Lee Model, particle physics, relativistic heavy ion (RHIC) physics, nontopological solitons and soliton stars.
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U Nu
For other people with the Burmese name Nu, see Nu (Burmese name).
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Uzo
Uzo (born August 1957) is a Nigerian-American filmmaker and graphic artist. He has made two feature films, Walls & Bridges (1992) and Better Than Ever (1997). After losing the option on the novel, ''Mendel's Dwarf'', after many years of work, he is currently working on a third film.
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Vanna White
Vanna White (born February 18, 1957) is an American television personality. She is best known for being the hostess and puzzle-board turner of Wheel of Fortune since 1982.
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Vasily Maklakov
Vasily Alekseyevich Maklakov (Russian: Василий Алексеевич Маклаков, , Moscow - July 15, 1957, Baden) was a Russian trial lawyer and liberal parliamentary orator, one of the leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party and Russian Freemasonry, notable for his advocacy of a constitutional Russian state. His brother Nikolay Maklakov served as Russia's Interior Minister in 1912-15.
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Vere Gordon Childe
Vere Gordon Childe (14 April 1892 – 19 October 1957) was an Australian philologist by training who later specialised in archaeology. Usually known as just Gordon Childe, he was perhaps best known for his excavation of the unique Neolithic site of Skara Brae in Orkney and for his Marxist views which influenced his thinking about prehistory. He is also credited with coining the terms "Neolithic Revolution" and "Urban Revolution" and combined with his innovative theories, he is recognized as a major contributor to the field of sociocultural evolution. With new found emphasis on African history, he was one of the great archaeological synthesizers attempting to place his discoveries inside a theory of prehistoric development on a wider European and world scale.
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Viktor Markin
Viktor Fyodorovich Markin () (born February 23, 1957 in the village of Oktyabrsky, Ust-Tarksky District, Novosibirsk Oblast) is a former Soviet athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics.
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Vincent Gigante
Vincent "The Chin" Gigante (March 29, 1928 – December 19, 2005) was a New York mobster in the American Mafia. Gigante started out as a boxer who fought 25 matches between 1944 and 1947. He then started working as a Mafia enforcer for the Genovese crime family. Gigante was one of five brothers: himself, Mario, Pasquale and Ralph all became mobsters in the Genovese family. Only one brother, Louis, stayed out of the crime family, instead becoming a priest. Gigante was the shooter in the failed assassination of Frank Costello. After sharing a prison cell with Boss Vito Genovese following his conviction for heroin trafficking, Gigante became a caporegime overseeing his own crew of Genovese soldiers, that operated out of Greenwich Village.
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Vinny Appice
Vincent Appice (born September 13, 1957 in Brooklyn, New York), also known as Vinny Appice is a rock drummer of American Italian descent and the younger brother of drummer Carmine Appice. He is best known for his work with the bands Dio and Black Sabbath.
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Walter James Bolton
Walter James Bolton (13 August 1888 – 18 February 1957) was a New Zealand farmer who was found guilty of poisoning his wife. He is known as the last person to be executed in New Zealand before the abolition of capital punishment.
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Walter Moers
Walter Moers (born 24 May 1957, Mönchengladbach, Germany) is one of the best-known and most commercially successful German comic creators and authors.
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Walter O'Malley
'''Walter Francis O'Malley''' (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from to . He served as Brooklyn Dodgers chief legal counsel when Jackie Robinson broke the racial color barrier in . In , as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Missouri. For this, he was long vilified by Brooklyn Dodgers fans. However, neutral parties describe him as a visionary for the same business action, and many authorities cite him as one of the most influential sportsmen of the 20th century. His detractors who say that he was not a visionary, but instead a man who was in the right place at the right time, still regard him as the most powerful and influential owner in baseball after moving the team. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball.
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Walther Bothe
Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (8 January 1891 in Oranienburg – 8 February 1957 in Heidelberg) was a German nuclear physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 with Max Born.
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Willie Edwards
Willie Edwards, Jr. (1932 - January 23, 1957) was a 25-year-old African American, husband and father, murdered by members of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan.
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Wolfgang Ketterle
Wolfgang Ketterle (born 21 October 1957) is a German physicist and professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research has focused on experiments that trap and cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute zero, and he led one of the first groups to realize Bose-Einstein condensation in these systems in 1995.[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/phenom-200801.html] For this achievement, as well as early fundamental studies of condensates, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001, together with Eric Allin Cornell and Carl Wieman. He was married to Gabriele Sauer from 1986 to 2002. They have 3 children; Jonas, Johanna, and Holger.
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Yuen Biao
Yuen Biao (born 26 July 1957) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist. He specialises in acrobatics and Chinese martial arts and has worked on over 80 films as actor, stuntman and action choreographer. Along with Peking Opera School "brothers" at the China Drama Academy, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, he was one of the Seven Little Fortunes.
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Zodi Ikhia
Zodi Ikhia (b. around 1919, Winditen, d. February 16, 1996, Niamey) was a Nigerien politician.
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Željko Ivanek
Željko Ivanek (; born 15 August 1957) is a Slovenian-born American actor.
http://wn.com/Željko_Ivanek
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Acapulco
Acapulco (officially known as Acapulco de Juárez) is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history. It is a port of call for shipping and cruising lines running between Panama and San Francisco, California, United States. The city of Acapulco is the largest in the state, far larger than the state capital Chilpancingo.
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Algeria
Algeria (Arabic: , al-Jazā’ir, Berber: Dzayer, French: Algérie), officially the '''People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria'''), is a country in North Africa. In terms of land area, it is the largest country on the Mediterranean Sea, the second largest on the African continent after Sudan, and the eleventh-largest country in the world.
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anchorages
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Apalachin Meeting
The Apalachin Meeting was a historic summit of the American Mafia held on November 14, 1957, at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara in Apalachin, New York.
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Apalachin, New York
Apalachin is a census-designated place within the Town of Owego in Tioga County, New York, United States. The population was 1,126 in the 2000 census. It is named after the Apalachin Creek. Apalachin means From where the messenger returned in the Lenape.
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Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.
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Bishop, Virginia
Bishop is an unincorporated community in Tazewell County, Virginia, United States. Bishop is located on the West Virginia state line across from Bishop, West Virginia.
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Boston
Boston (pronounced ) is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. Boston city proper had a 2009 estimated population of 645,169, making it the twentieth largest in the country. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region includes six Massachusetts counties, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Plymouth, and Worcester, all of Rhode Island and parts of New Hampshire; it is home to 7.5 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.
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Brazil
Brazil (; , ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (, ), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
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Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 large professional theatres with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan, New York City.Although theater is the preferred spelling in the U.S.A. (see further at American and British English Spelling Differences), the majority of venues, performers, and trade groups for live dramatic presentations use the spelling theatre. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.
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Brooklyn, New York
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Burma
Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the second largest country by geographical area in Southeast Asia. The country is bordered by People's Republic of China on the north-east, Laos on the east, Thailand on the south-east, Bangladesh on the west, India on the north-west and the Bay of Bengal to the south-west with the Andaman Sea defining its southern periphery. One-third of Burma's total perimeter, 1,930 kilometers (1,199 mi), forms an uninterrupted coastline.
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California
California (pronounced ) is the most populous state in the United States and the third-largest by land area, after Alaska and Texas. California is also the most populous sub-national entity in North America. It's on the U.S. West Coast, bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and by the states of Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, Baja California, Mexico, to the south. Its 5 largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Long Beach, with Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose each having at least 1 million residents. Like many populous states, California's capital, Sacramento is smaller than the state's largest city, Los Angeles. The state is home to the nation's 2nd- and 6th-largest census statistical areas and 8 of the nation's 50 most populous cities. California has a varied climate and geography and a multi-cultural population.
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Canada
Canada () is a country in North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area. Canada's common border with the United States to the south and northwest is the longest in the world.
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Celilo Falls
Celilo Falls (Wyam, meaning "echo of falling water" or "sound of water upon the rocks," in several native languages) was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. The name refers to a series of cascades and waterfalls on the river, as well as to the native settlements and trading villages that existed there in various configurations for 15,000 years. Celilo was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent until 1957, when the falls and nearby settlements were submerged by the construction of The Dalles Dam.
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Cheshire
Cheshire ( ); also known, archaically, as the County of Chester) is a ceremonial county and former principality in North West England. The traditional county town is the city of Chester, although Cheshire's largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Widnes, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow. The county is bordered by Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south, and Flintshire and Wrexham in Wales to the west.
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China
China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity.
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Cleveland, Ohio
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Dakar
Dakar is the capital city of Senegal, located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula, on the country's Atlantic coast. It is Senegal's largest city. Its position, on the western edge of Africa (it is the westernmost city on the African mainland), is an advantageous departure point for trans-Atlantic and European trade; this fact aided its growth into a major regional port.
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Egypt
Egypt (; , Miṣr, ; Egyptian Arabic: مصر, Maṣr, ; Coptic: , ; Greek: Αίγυπτος, Aiguptos; Egyptian:
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Federation of Malaya
The Federation of Malaya (), is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. Comprising the nine Malay states and the British settlements of Penang and Malacca, it was eventually superseded by Malaysia.
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France
{{Infobox Country
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German Grand Prix
The German Grand Prix (Großer Preis von Deutschland) is an annual automobile race.
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Ghana
The Republic of Ghana is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King" and is derived from the ancient
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Guddu Barrage
Guddu Barrage is a barrage across river Indus, near Kashmore in Pakistan. President Iskander Mirza laid foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage on February 2, 1957. The barrage was completed in 1962. Inaugurated by Field Marshal AYUB KHAN.
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Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city in Virginia, and therefore not part of any Virginia county. As one of the seven major cities that comprise the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts the northern terminus of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRTB) on Interstate 64. First opened in 1957, it was the world's first bridge-tunnel, crossing the channel which serves as the gateway to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean from the eastern United States' largest ice-free harbor and its tributary rivers. Although expanded in the 1970s, the HRBT remains Virginia's busiest and deepest such facility.
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Ibirapuera
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Indonesia
Indonesia ( or ), officially the Republic of Indonesia (), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With a population of around 238 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, and has the world's largest population of Muslims. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies.
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Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, 3–5 miles (5–8 km) off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent. The island is known for its natural beauty, its sailing based at the town of Cowes, and its resorts, which have been holiday destinations since Victorian times.
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Israel
Israel (, ''Yisrā'el; , Isrā'īl), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: , Medīnat Yisrā'el; , Dawlat Isrā'īl''), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and Gaza on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is the world's only predominantly Jewish state, and is defined as A Jewish and Democratic State by the Israeli government.
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Italy
Italy (; ), officially the Italian Republic (), is a country located in south-central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia — the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea — and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, whilst Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.4 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third most populous in the world.
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Jakarta
Jakarta (; Indonesian: ), officially the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Located on the northwest coast of Java, it has an area of and a 2010 census count population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre. It is the most populous city in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia, and is the twelfth-largest city in the world. The metropolitan area, Jabodetabek, is the second largest in the world. Jakarta is listed as a global city in the 2008 Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) research. The city's name is derived from the Old Javanese word "Jayakarta" which translates as "victorious deed", "complete act", or "complete victory".
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Jamaica
Jamaica () is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Its indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno inhabitants named the island Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water", or the "Land of Springs".
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Japan
Japan (日本 Nihon or Nippon), officially the State of Japan ( or Nihon-koku), is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin" (because it lies to the east of nearby countries), which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
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Kenya
The Republic of Kenya (pronounced ) is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean to its southeast and at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Somalia to the northeast, Ethiopia to the north, Sudan to the northwest, Uganda to the west and Tanzania to the south. Lake Victoria is to the southwest and is shared between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya has numerous wildlife reserves, containing thousands of animal species. The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya's area is 580,000 km2 with a population of nearly 39 million which is diverse: more than 40 different ethnic groups are present. The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and second among Africa's highest mountain peaks.
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Kerala
Kerala (Malayalam: , {{audio|Ml-Kerala.ogg|) is a state in India. It is located on the south-western region of the country. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act bringing together the areas where Malayalam was the dominant language.
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Kyshtym disaster
The Kyshtym disaster was a radiation contamination incident that occurred on 29 September 1957 in Mayak, a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Russia (then a part of the Soviet Union). It measured as a Level 6 disaster on the International Nuclear Event Scale, making it the second most serious nuclear accident ever recorded (after the Chernobyl disaster). The event occurred in the town of Ozyorsk, a closed city in the USSR built around Mayak. Since Ozyorsk/Mayak (also known as Chelyabinsk-40 and Chelyabinsk-65) were not marked on maps, the disaster was named after Kyshtym, the nearest known town.
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Kyūshū
or Kyushu is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include Kyūkoku (九国 Nine States), Chinzei (鎮西 West of the Pacified Area), and Tsukushi-no-shima (筑紫島 Island of Tsukushi). The historical regional name Saikaidō (西海道 West Sea Circuit) referred to Kyūshū and its surrounding islands.
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Lewisham rail crash
The Lewisham rail crash was an accident on the British railway system which occurred on 4 December 1957 just outside St Johns railway station in Lewisham, south London. Ninety people were killed and 173 injured, making it the third worst rail crash in the UK in terms of death toll.
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Little Rock
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Liverpool
Liverpool () is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. Liverpool is the fourth largest city in the United Kingdom (third largest in England) and has a population of 435,500, and lies at the centre of the wider Liverpool Urban Area, which has a population of 816,216.
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; , Spanish for "The Angels") is the second most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of California and the western United States, with a population of 3.83 million within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Los Angeles extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of over 14.8 million and it is the 14th largest urban area in the world, affording it megacity status. The metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is home to nearly 12.9 million residents while the broader Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside combined statistical area (CSA) contains nearly 17.8 million people. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most multicultural counties in the United States. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos" ().
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Malden Island
Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the nineteenth century, is a low, arid, uninhabited island in the central Pacific Ocean, about in area. It is one of the Line Islands belonging to the Republic of Kiribati.
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Manhattan
Manhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York. It consists of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, Wards Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, part of Ellis Island, and U Thant Island; as well as Marble Hill, a small section on the mainland adjacent to the Bronx. The original city of New York began at the southern end of Manhattan, and expanded in 1898 to include surrounding counties. It is the smallest, yet most urbanized of the five boroughs.
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Maserati
Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993. Inside the Fiat Group, Maserati was initially associated with Ferrari S.p.A., but more recently it has become part of the sports car group including Alfa Romeo.
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Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts () is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of 6.6 million lives in the Boston metropolitan area. The eastern half of the state consists of urban, suburban, and rural areas, while Western Massachusetts is mostly rural. Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states and ranks third among U.S. states in GDP per capita.
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Mexico City
Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México) is the capital and largest city in Mexico as well as the largest city in the Americas and the world's third largest metropolitan area by population, after Seoul and Tokyo. Mexico City is also the Federal District (Distrito Federal), the seat of the federal government. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole. Mexico City is the most important political, cultural, and financial center in the country.
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Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is a French corruption of the Ojibwe word mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake".
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Morocco
Morocco (, al-Maġrib; Berber: Amerruk / Murakuc; French: Maroc), officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية, al-Mamlakah al-Maġribiyya), is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of nearly 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², including the disputed Western Sahara which is mainly under Moroccan administration. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Spain to the north (a water border through the Strait and land borders with three small Spanish-controlled exclaves, Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera), Algeria to the east, and Mauritania to the south.
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Moscow
Moscow ( or ; ; see also ) is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a global city. Moscow is the most populous city on the continent of Europe and the seventh largest city proper in the world, a megacity. The population of Moscow (as of 1 January 2010) is 10,563,038.
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Mount Eden Prison
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Negeri Sembilan
Negeri Sembilan (Jawi: ; Chinese: 森美兰; English: "the State of nine") , is one of the 13 states that constitutes Malaysia. It is located on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia, just south of Kuala Lumpur and is bordered in the north by Selangor, in the east by Pahang and in the south by Malacca and Johor.
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Netherlands
{{Infobox country
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New York
New York (; locally or ) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the north and west, and Quebec to the north. New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
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New Zealand
{{Infobox Country
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Niger
Niger ( or ; ), officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km2, over 80 percent of which is covered by the Sahara desert. The country's predominantly Islamic population of just above 15,000,000 is mostly clustered in the far south and west of the nation. The capital city is Niamey.
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Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.
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Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( or ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 237,764 as of the 2000 census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach.
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Oklahoma
Oklahoma () is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,687,050 residents in 2009 and a land area of 68,667 square miles (177,847 km²), Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people", and is known informally by its nickname, The Sooner State. Formed by the combination of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory on November 16, 1907, Oklahoma was the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.
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Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court. The Crown Court sitting at the Central Criminal Court deals with major criminal cases from Greater London and, in exceptional cases, from other parts of England. Part of the present building stands on the site of the medieval Newgate Gaol, on Old Bailey, a road which follows the line of the City of London's fortified wall (or bailey). It lies between Holborn Circus and St Paul's Cathedral.
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Oregon
Oregon ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern boundaries, respectively. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers, and settlers who formed an autonomous government in Oregon Country in 1843; the Oregon Territory was created in 1848, and Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859. Salem is the state's capital and third-most-populous city; Portland is the most populous. Portland is the 30th-largest U.S. city, with a population of 582,130 (2009 estimate) and a metro population of 2,241,841 (2009 estimate), the 23rd-largest U.S. metro area.
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Pacific
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Pacoima, California
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Pakistan
{{Infobox country
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Philippines
The Philippines ( ), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (), is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
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river Indus
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Rome
Rome (; , ; ) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . In 2006 the population of the metropolitan area was estimated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to have a population of 3.7 million.
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Saarland
Saarland (; , ) is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states (Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg). Its location on the border between France and Germany has given Saarland a unique history.
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San Fernando Valley
[[Image:San Fernando Valley vista.jpg|thumb|right|400px|San Fernando Valley looking northeast; from the [http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=59 Top of Topanga Overlook Park] above foreground Woodland Hills]]
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Scotland
Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Alba) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland includes over 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.
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Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai; ''sīnā'a''; Hebrew סיני) is a triangular peninsula in Egypt which is about . It lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa. In addition to its formal name, Egyptians also refer to it affectionately as the "Land of Fayrouz", based on the Ancient Egyptian "Dumafkat", which has the same meaning. The peninsula is divided into two Egyptian governorates, and has a population of approximately 1.3 million people.
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Singapore
{{Infobox Country
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, , abbreviated СССР, SSSR), informally known as the Soviet Union () or Soviet Russia, was a constitutionally socialist state that existed on the territory of most of the former Russian Empire in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
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Spain under Franco
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Suez Canal
The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa. The northern terminus is Port Said and the southern terminus is Port Tawfik at the city of Suez. Ismailia lies on its west bank, north of the half-way point.
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Sukkur
Sukkur, or Sakharu (Urdu:سکھر, Sindhi:سکر, IPA: ), formerly Aror (Sanskrit: अरोड, Urdu: اروڑ, IPA: ), is the third largest city of Sindh province, situated on the west bank of Indus River in Pakistan in Sukkur District. One conjecture is that when Arabs invaded Sukkur (Sindh) in the 8th century, they found an extreme climate (hot and cold), and called it Saqar, which means intense. However, the word Sakharu in Sindhi means "superior", which the spelling of the city's name in Sindhi suggests is the origin of the name. Sukkur is nicknamed Darya Dino (درياءَ ڏنو, meaning the gift of river), as without the Indus the city would be a desert.people of sukkur are sindhis(70%),urdu (17.5%),punjabi(8%),pushto (1.5%),baloch(1%),and others 2%
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Sweden
Sweden (pronounced , ), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: ), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and water borders with Denmark, Germany, and Poland to the south, and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia to the east. Sweden is also connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.
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São Paulo
São Paulo ( "St. Paul"; , , or commonly ) is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere, and the world's 7th largest metropolitan area. The city is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous Brazilian state. The name of the city honors Saint Paul. São Paulo exerts strong regional influence in commerce and finance as well as arts and entertainment. São Paulo is considered an Alpha - World City.
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Taipei
Taipei City (; literally "Northern Taiwan City") is the largest city of Taiwan and the capital of the Republic of China (commonly known as "Taiwan"). Situated at the tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Danshui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean. Another coastal city, Danshui, is about 20 km northwest at the river's mouth on the Taiwan Strait. It lies in the two relatively narrow valleys of the Keelung (基隆河) and Xindian (新店溪) rivers, which join to form the Danshui River along the city's western border. The city proper (Taipei City) is home to an estimated 2,607,428 people. Taipei City, Taipei County, and Keelung City together form the Taipei metropolitan area with a population of 6,776,264. However, they are administered under different local governing bodies. "Taipei" sometimes refers to the whole metropolitan area, while "Taipei City" refers to the city proper.
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Taiwan
Taiwan, also known (especially in the past) as Formosa (from , "Beautiful Island"), is an island situated in East Asia in the Western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It comprises most (99%) of the territory of the Republic of China (ROC) since the 1950s. The term "Taiwan" is also a common name to refer to the entire country of the Republic of China.
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The Cavern Club
The Cavern Club is a rock and roll club in Liverpool, England. Opened on Wednesday 16 January 1957, the club is where Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles performing on 9 November 1961.
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The Dalles Dam
The Dalles Dam is a concrete-gravity run-of-the-river dam spanning the Columbia River, two-miles (3 km) east of the city of The Dalles, Oregon, United States. It joins Wasco County, Oregon with Klickitat County, Washington, 192 miles (309 km) upriver from the mouth of the Columbia near Astoria, Oregon. The closest towns on the Washington side are Dallesport and Wishram.
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Tunisia
Tunisia (pronounced , ; Tūnis), officially the Tunisian Republic ( al-Jumhūriyya at-Tūnisiyya), is the northernmost country in Africa. It is an Arab country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area is almost 165,000 km², with an estimated population of just over 10.3 million. Its name is derived from the capital Tunis located in the north-east.
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Turkey
Turkey (), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between Eastern Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a country and sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island nation, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border with another sovereign state, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Great Britain is linked to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel.
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United States
The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
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Uruguay
Uruguay (, ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (sometimes rendered as the Eastern Republic of Uruguay in the English language; , ), is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.4 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88% of the population are of European descent.
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Venice
Venice ( , Venetian: Venesia) is a city in northern Italy known both for tourism and for industry, and is the capital of the region Veneto, with a population of about 272,000 (census estimate 1 January 2004). Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area (population 1,600,000).
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Vietnam
Vietnam ( ; , ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (, ), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China (PRC) to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea, referred to as East Sea (), to the east. With a population of over 86 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.
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Warrenton, Missouri
Warrenton is a city in Warren County, Missouri, United States. The population was estimated at 7,398 in 2008. It is the county seat of Warren County. Warrenton is located in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area. Warrenton's slogan is "A City for All Seasons."
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West Germany
West Germany () is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG () in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. This period, during which Germany and Berlin were divided, ended when communist East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the eleven states of the Federal Republic of Germany. The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany with sixteen states (known simply as "Germany") is thus the continuation of the pre-1990 Federal Republic of Germany, and not its successor.
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Windscale fire
On 10 October 1957, the graphite core of a British nuclear reactor at Windscale, Cumberland (now Sellafield, Cumbria) caught fire, releasing substantial amounts of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area. The event, known as the Windscale fire, was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain. However, epidemiological studies have shown no significant health effects from the fire.
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Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (Croatian, Serbian, Slovene: Jugoslavija; Macedonian, Serbian Cyrillic: Југославија) is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the western part of Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.
http://wn.com/Yugoslavia
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The Christmas Broadcast, 1957
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:27
- Published: 20 Dec 2007
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: TheRoyalChannel
The first televised Christmas Broadcast or 'Queen's Speech', filmed at Sandringham House in Norfolk.
http://wn.com/The_Christmas_Broadcast,_1957
Jimmy Page 1957
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:27
- Published: 16 Sep 2007
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: radiostesh
Jimmy Page 1957 (Huw Wheldon Show, BBC TV 1957). It is a very beautiful image!! Mama Don't Want To Skiffle Anymore / Cottonfield
http://wn.com/Jimmy_Page_1957
Milo Greene - 1957 (Live: Downtown Session)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:03
- Published: 22 Mar 2011
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: milogreenemusic
milogreene.com Recorded Live at the Downtown Loft Cinematographer Joe Toman Editor: Ilana Foglia Art Direction: Spencer Williams Audio Engineering: Aaron Molho
http://wn.com/Milo_Greene__1957_Live_Downtown_Session
Elvis Presley Jailhouse Rock 1957 colour
Colourised version of the song from the film
http://wn.com/Elvis_Presley_Jailhouse_Rock_1957_colour
Paul Anka - Diana (1957)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:12
- Published: 04 Mar 2007
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: draganmiljkovich
For old best time...
http://wn.com/Paul_Anka__Diana_1957
1957 Chevy Commercial
Check out this great car! 1957 Chevy Commercial
http://wn.com/1957_Chevy_Commercial
Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On (1957)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:01
- Published: 24 Feb 2007
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: Rockabrotas
As a pianist, "The Killer" Jerry Lee Lewis always complained because he had to sit down during his shows. Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash suggested him to stand up. Jerry Lee accepted their advice. So he started to kick the chairs, to go up on the keyboards and even to burn pianos.
http://wn.com/Jerry_Lee_Lewis__Whole_Lotta_Shakin'_Going_On_1957
![Diamonds - Little Darlin [1957]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120222082627im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sI_LVtatBsU/0.jpg "Diamonds - Little Darlin [1957]")
Diamonds - Little Darlin [1957]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:56
- Published: 05 Jan 2009
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: CapCapello
1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner Commercial
1957 ford skyliner Retractable HardTop Commercial
http://wn.com/1957_Ford_Fairlane_500_Skyliner_Commercial
The Everly Brothers - Bye Bye Love (1957)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:49
- Published: 27 Feb 2007
- Uploaded: 19 Feb 2012
- Author: Rockabrotas
The Everly Brothers are the sound and the image of the innocence of the fifties. The close harmony singing and the steel-string guitar playing are their trademark. So simple and so good.
http://wn.com/The_Everly_Brothers__Bye_Bye_Love_1957
Elvis Presley-Rare Home Movie 1957
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:08
- Published: 12 Aug 2007
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: Gaslightsqyare
Elvis gets his tractor stuck in the mud at Graceland. Col. Tom Parker stops at the gates to greet the kids. Home movie from the Davidson family collection.
http://wn.com/Elvis_Presley-Rare_Home_Movie_1957
Swing Dancing from the Movie Untamed Youth (1957)
Swing Dancing from the Movie Untamed Youth (1957). Dancers - Gil & Nikki Brady, Lenny Smith & Freda Angela Wyckoff. Brought to you by the San Francisco Jitterbugs, www.jitterbugs.info
http://wn.com/Swing_Dancing_from_the_Movie_Untamed_Youth_1957
Fats Domino - Blue Monday 1957
Fats Domino - Blue Monday 1957
http://wn.com/Fats_Domino__Blue_Monday_1957
Little Darlin'-The Diamonds-1957
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:30
- Published: 22 Feb 2008
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: AK47bandit
Original song, oldie.
http://wn.com/Little_Darlin'-The_Diamonds-1957
1957 NAPCO Promotion!!
A Chevrolet 4x4 promo showing these old classic NAPCO trucks at work! Come join our NAPCO Owner's Group at www.napco4x4.org start rebuilding your Napco 4x4 today!
http://wn.com/1957_NAPCO_Promotion!!
New Years Eve - 1957
Here is an old kinescope from over 50 years ago!! For 100 years, the slow drop of a lighted glass ball on New Year's Eve from atop One Times Square in New York City has become an American tradition. A huge crowd gathers every year to welcome in the New Year. Beginning in 1956, Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians entertained the US on New Year's Eve with a combination of music and the live "ball drop" at Midnight. Guy continued this tradition until his death in 1977. His band still played on at CBS Television on New Years for an additional 2 years. (Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve began in 1972 on ABC and still broadcasts annually.) This broadcast began right after the 15-minute news and ran for an hour. Guy plays the music and newsman Robert Trout announces the beginning of the New Year. If you look closely, you'll see acerbic television personality Henry Morgan in the crowd. TV was very primitive 50 years ago. Harsh lighting, a cheap office clock and a World War II searchlight scans the crowd below. I hope you'll enjoy ringing in the New Year - 1958! Recorded: December 31, 1957
http://wn.com/New_Years_Eve__1957
DODGE TV COMMERCIAL 1957
As theunofficial Baby-Boomer( IRA GALLEN )Guru of my Television Collecting Generation I knew it was the right time to create a Video Network for Baby-Boomers Only. www.YouTube.com www.YouTube.com www.YouTube.com What makes my content unique is that I have spent over 30 collecting and restoring from 16mm & 35mm Film Prints and Kinescopes some of the rarest and in many cases one of a kind FILMS, CARTOONS, NEWS REELS FILM SHORTS, FEATURES, INDUSTRIALS, TV SHOWS and especially COMMERCIALS from the birth of Film and early television. www.TVDAYS.com - 400 DVD's for Sale from my personal collection. Now my Video & Film Collection is decomposing and what you're seeing is my work digitizing my Video Elements and funding it by selling Stock Footage and now my line of over 400 DVD's http Rare TV SHOWS, FILMS, CARTOONS, NEWSREELS, FILM SHORT SUBJECTS, SILENT & SOUND FILMS, HOME MOVIES, SOUNDIES, INDUSTRIALS & especially COMMERCIALS from the 1950's/60's. ALSO GOOGLE VIDEO DOWNLOADS www.YouTube.com Links to over 3500 hours of Video's housed on both Google & YouTube www.YouTube.com Over 7,5000 Commercials to watch -- Sports-Toys-Cars-Soft Drinks-Beer-Cigarettes-Milk-Cosmetics- Household Products-Drugs-Cereal- Gasoline -Clothing-TV Sets. In Search of TV History -- Hey Boys & Girls of 50's TV were you on a LIVE show, was a family member always telling you they were in commercials back then...Now spot someone. SPECIAL HELP SAVING MY TV HISTORY www.adobe.com PRIEMERE EDITING PROGRAMS FOR <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/DODGE_TV_COMMERCIAL_1957
The 1957 Chevy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:24
- Published: 12 Jul 2007
- Uploaded: 17 Jan 2012
- Author: hotpodcaster
My most favorite car of all time has to be the 1957 Chevy Nomad (and the '57 Belair...). So I was definitely in car heaven when I visited the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Height's, Mich., for an up-close and personal tour of this living repository of automotive history with Heritage Center Manager Greg Wallace. More than just a museum, the HC is an automotive enthusiast's dream garage, housing such famous classic, antique and concept vehicles as the 1931 V-16 Cadillac, the 1938 Buick Y-job, 1949 Buick Roadmaster, and 1957 Chevrolet Nomad and Belair convertibles — and it's only open to GM employees, scholars, analysts and the media. While I was in car heaven during my personal tour, my only regret was not being able to get some of these beauties out on the open road!
http://wn.com/The_1957_Chevy
Billy Graham 1957
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:05
- Published: 11 Mar 2008
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: regionsbeyond
Billy Graham Crusade 1957. God will give you a new heart. God will accept you into His kingdom. God will forgive the past. Check out our worship videos from different cultures around the world.
http://wn.com/Billy_Graham_1957
Lionel Hampton - Flying Home (1957)
Watch Lionel Hampton and his band perform Flying Home Broadcast on American Television in 1957. Use this link to open my Jazz Giants library playlist. www.youtube.com The name of the show is in the intro to the video and stars Patti Page.
http://wn.com/Lionel_Hampton__Flying_Home_1957
Disneyland Canon 1957
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:25
- Published: 27 Jan 2012
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: DisneyHistory
There have been so many comments about the style of dress that we've posted up an response essay to our site. It's here... www.disneyhistoryinstitute.com
http://wn.com/Disneyland_Canon_1957
Singapore - The Lion City, 1957
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 15:37
- Published: 05 Nov 2009
- Uploaded: 20 Feb 2012
- Author: travelfilmarchive
A visit to Singapore in 1957. Topurchase a clean DVD or digital download of this film for personal home use or educational use only contact us at questions@archivesfarms.com. To license footage from this film for commercial use visit: www.travelfilmarchive.com
http://wn.com/Singapore__The_Lion_City,_1957
Creative Commons / ANGELUS
Creative Commons / Joe![Heinkel Perle built the Perle moped from 1954 to 1957.[5] The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloy unit frame, rear suspension, a fully enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with the swingarm, and interchangeable wheels.](http://web.archive.org./web/20120222082627im_/http://cdn4.wn.com/pd/bb/1f/faf8bb1908e2ea4dcfa06f62f6eb_small.jpg "Heinkel Perle built the Perle moped from 1954 to 1957.[5] The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloy unit frame, rear suspension, a fully enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with the swingarm, and interchangeable wheels.")
Creative Commons / Stahlkocher
Creative Commons / Jakob Dahlgaard Kristensen
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Creative Commons / MarmadukePercy
Creative Commons / Milkmom0529
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Creative Commons / Toni Frissell.
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Creative Commons / Bull-Doser![Camp Nou (Catalan pronunciation: [kamˈnɔw],](http://web.archive.org./web/20120222082627im_/http://cdn8.wn.com/pd/94/75/35bb9508c70046c9c76bcfe90051_small.jpg "Camp Nou (Catalan pronunciation: [kamˈnɔw],")
Creative Commons / JoJan
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Creative Commons / Christopher Ziemnowicz
Creative Commons / Christopher Ziemnowicz
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Creative Commons / Fastfission
Creative Commons / Bomazi
![Heinkel Perle built the Perle moped from 1954 to 1957.[5] The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloy unit frame, rear suspension, a fully enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with the swingarm, and interchangeable wheels.](http://web.archive.org./web/20120222082627/http://cdn8.wn.com/pd/bb/1f/faf8bb1908e2ea4dcfa06f62f6eb_medium.jpg "Heinkel Perle built the Perle moped from 1954 to 1957.[5] The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloy unit frame, rear suspension, a fully enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with the swingarm, and interchangeable wheels.")
![Camp Nou (Catalan pronunciation: [kamˈnɔw],](http://web.archive.org./web/20120222082627/http://cdn2.wn.com/pd/94/75/35bb9508c70046c9c76bcfe90051_medium.jpg "Camp Nou (Catalan pronunciation: [kamˈnɔw],")
photo: AP / Damian Dovarganes
21 Feb 2012
When Dolores Hart, 73, walks the red carpet at this year's Academy Awards as planned, no interviewer will need to ask who made her dress. She will be wearing her nun's habit from the Benedictine Abbey...
photo: Public Domain / Aruna Mirasdar
20 Feb 2012
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__NOTOC__
Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
January 1
* The Saarland joins West Germany.
* An Irish Republican Army attack on the Brookeborough police barracks leads to the deaths of Seán South and Fergal O'Hanlon.
* Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini suffers the stroke that leads to his death a little over two weeks later.
January 2 – The San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge to form the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.
January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
January 4 – After 69 years the last issue of ''Collier's Weekly'' Magazine is published.
January 5 – Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be dismissed for having ''handled the ball'' in test match cricket.
January 6 – Elvis Presley appears on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' for the 3rd and final time. He is only shown from the waist up, even during the gospel segment, singing "Peace In The Valley". Ed Sullivan describes Elvis thus: "This is a real decent, fine boy. We've never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we've had with you. You're thoroughly all right."
January 9 – British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigns.
January 10 – Harold Macmillan becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
January 11 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar.
January 13 – ''Wham-O'' Company produces the first Frisbee.
January 16 – The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool.
January 20
* Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.
* Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (captured from Egypt on October 29, 1956).
* The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut, and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
January 23 – Ku Klux Klan members force truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge into the Alabama River; he drowns as a result.
January 26 – The Ibirapuera Planetarium (the first in the Southern Hemisphere) is inaugurated in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.
January 31 – Three students on a junior high school playground in Pacoima, California, are among the 8 persons killed following a mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet, in the skies above the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, US.
February 2 – President Iskander Mirza of Pakistan lays the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage across the river Indus near Sukkur.
February 4
* France prohibits U.N. involvement in Algeria.
The first nuclear-powered submarine, the , logs its 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional ''Nautilus'' described in Jules Verne's novel ''"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"''.
* A coal gas explosion at the giant Bishop coal mine in Bishop, Virginia kills 37 men.
February 15 – Andrei Gromyko becomes foreign minister of the Soviet Union.
February 16
* The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television closedown between 6.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m., is abolished in the United Kingdom.
* Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal opens in Sweden.
February 17 – A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri, kills 72 people.
February 18
* Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
* The last person to be executed in New Zealand, Walter James Bolton, is hanged at Mount Eden Prison for poisoning his wife.
February 23 – The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc opens in Dakar.
March 1
* U Nu becomes Prime Minister of Burma.
* Arturo Lezama becomes President of the National Council of Government of Uruguay.
* Sud Aviation forms from a merger between SNCASE (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Est) and SNCASO (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest).
* Dr. Seuss' ''The Cat in the Hat'' is published.
March 3 – ''Net als toen'' by Corry Brokken (music by Guus Jansen, text by Willy van Hemert) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 for the Netherlands.
March 4 – Standard and Poor's first publishes the S&P; 500 guide.
March 6
* United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent nation of Ghana.
* Zodi Ikhia founds the Nigerien Democratic Front (FDN) in Niger.
March 7 – The United States Congress approves the Eisenhower Doctrine.
March 8 – Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal.
March 10 – Floodgates of The Dalles Dam are closed, inundating Celilo Falls and ancient Indian fisheries along the Columbia River in Oregon, US.
March 13
* The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.
* Anglo-Jordanian Treaty of 1948 expires.
March 14 – President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia.
March 17 – Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others are killed in a plane crash.
March 20 – The French newspaper ''L'Express'' reveals that the French army tortures Algerian prisoners.
March 25 – The Treaty of Rome (patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC) (see European Union).
March 26 – 22-year-old Elvis Presley buys Graceland on 3734 Bellevue Boulevard (Highway 51 South) for $US100,000. He and his family move from the house on 1034 Audubon Drive.
March 27 – The 29th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
March 31 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''Cinderella'', the team's only musical written especially for television, is telecast live and in color by CBS, starring Julie Andrews in the title role. The production is seen by millions, but this 1957 version is not be telecast again for more than 40 years, when a kinescope of it is shown.
April – IBM sells the first compiler for the FORTRAN scientific programming language.
April 1 – The first new conscripts join the Bundeswehr.
April 5 – The Communist Party of India wins the elections in Kerala, making E. M. S. Namboodiripad its first chief minister.
April 9 – Egypt reopens the Suez Canal to all shipping.
April 12
* The United Kingdom announces that Singapore will gain self-rule on January 1, 1958.
* Allen Ginsberg's poem ''Howl'', printed in England, is seized by U.S. customs officials on the grounds of obscenity.
April 17 – Suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams is found not guilty of murder at the Old Bailey.
April 24 – Patrick Moore presents the first episode of ''The Sky at Night'', a BBC television programme for astronomy enthusiasts.
May 2 – Vincent Gigante fails to assassinate mafioso Frank Costello in Manhattan.
May 3 – Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.
May 15
* Operation Grapple: At Malden Island in the Pacific, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb, which fails to detonate properly.
* Stanley Matthews plays his final international game, ending an English record international career of almost 23 years.
May 16 – Paul-Henri Spaak becomes the new Secretary General of NATO.
May 24 – Anti-American riots erupt in Taipei, Taiwan.
June 9 – Broad Peak, on the China-Pakistan border, is first ascended.
June 15 – Oklahoma celebrates its semi-centennial statehood. A brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere is buried in a time capsule (to be opened 50 years later on June 15, 2007).
June 21 – John Diefenbaker becomes Canada's 13th prime minister.
June 25 – The United Church of Christ is formed in Cleveland, Ohio, by the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
June 27 – Hurricane Audrey demolishes Cameron, Louisiana, US, killing 400 people.
July
* The International Geophysical Year begins.
* The University of Waterloo is founded in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
July 6 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, 3 years before forming the Beatles.
July 9 – Elvis Presley's ''Loving You'' opens in theaters.
July 11 – His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan becomes the 49th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims at age 20. His grandfather Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan III appoints Prince Karim in his will.
July 14 – Rawya Ateya takes her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.
July 16 – United States Marine Major John Glenn flies an F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new transcontinental speed record.
July 25 – Tunisia becomes a republic, with Habib Bourguiba its first president.
July 28
* The 6th World Festival of Youth and Students, a high point of the Khruschev Thaw, kicks off in Moscow.
* Heavy rains and mudslides at Isahaya, western Kyūshū, Japan, kill 992.
* A strong earthquake shakes Mexico City and Mexican port city Acapulco.
July 29 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
August 4 – Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for Maserati, wins the Formula One German Grand Prix, clinching (with 4 wins that season) his record 5th world drivers championship, including his 4th consecutive championship (also a record); these 2 records endure for nearly half a century.
August 5 – ''American Bandstand'', a local dance show produced by WFIL-TV in Philadelphia, joins the ABC Television Network.
August 21 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces a 2-year suspension of nuclear testing.
August 28 – United States Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) sets the record for the longest filibuster with his 24-hour, 18-minute speech railing against a civil rights bill.
August 31 – The Federation of Malaya gains independence from the United Kingdom. Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan becomes the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaya.
September 1 – 175 die in Jamaica's worst railway disaster.
September 3 – The Wolfenden Report on homosexuality is published in the United Kingdom.
September 4
* American Civil Rights Movement – Little Rock Crisis: Governor Orville Faubus of Arkansas calls out the US National Guard, to prevent African-American students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock.
* The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel on what the company proclaims as "E Day".
September 5 – The first edition of Jack Kerouac's ''On the Road'' goes on sale.
September 9 – Catholic Memorial High School opens its doors for the first time in Boston, Massachusetts.
September 14 – Have Gun, Will Travel premiers on CBS.
September 21
* Olav V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father Haakon VII.
* The sailing ship ''Pamir'' sinks off the Azores in a hurricane.
September 23 – The Academy Award-winning movie ''The Three Faces of Eve'' is released.
September 24 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Arkansas to provide safe passage into Central High School for the Little Rock Nine.
September 29 – Kyshtym disaster occurs at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Russia.
October 2 – David Lean's film ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' opens in the UK.
October 4
* Space Age – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.
* Canada's Avro Arrow is unveiled to the public.
* The comedy sitcom, Leave It To Beaver premieres on television.
October 9 – Neil H. McElroy is sworn in as United States Secretary of Defense.
October 10
* U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he is refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
* A fire at the Windscale power station in the UK releases radioactive material into the surrounding environment, including Iodine-131.
October 11
* The Jodrell Bank Radio telescope opens in Cheshire, UK.
* The orbit of the last stage of the R-7 Semyorka rocket (carrying Sputnik I) is first successfully calculated on an IBM 704 computer by teams at The M.I.T. Computation Center and Operation Moonwatch, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
October 12
* Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged is published.
October 21
* Two trains collide in Turkey; 95 die.
* The U.S. military sustains its first combat fatality in Vietnam, Army Capt. Hank Cramer of the 1st Special Forces Group.
October 23 – Morocco begins its invasion of Ifni.
October 25 – Mafia boss Albert Anastasia is assassinated in a barber shop, at the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City, US.
October 27 – Celal Bayar is re-elected president of Turkey.
October 31 – Toyota begins exporting vehicles to the U.S., beginning with the Toyota Crown and the Toyota Land Cruiser
November 1 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens in the US to connect Michigan's two peninsulas.
* The westbound tube AKA the first tube of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel linking to Norfolk, Virginia and Hampton, Virginia opens at a cost of $44 million dollars.
November 3 – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2, with the first animal in space (a dog named Laika) on board.
November 6 – ''Jailhouse Rock'' opens nationally and Elvis Presley continues to gain more notoriety.
November 7 – Cold War: In the United States, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
November 13
* Gordon Gould invents the laser.
* Flooding in the Po River valley of Italy leads to flooding also in Venice.
November 14 – Apalachin Meeting: American Mafia leaders meet in Apalachin, New York at the house of Joseph Barbara; the meeting is broken up by a curious patrolman.
November 15
* A plane crash in the Isle of Wight leaves 43 dead.
* Yugoslavia announces the end of an economic boycott of Franco's Spain (although it does not reinstitute diplomatic relations).
November 16
* Serial killer Edward Gein murders his last victim, Bernice Worden of Plainfield, Wisconsin, US.
* In the US Oklahoma celebrates its 50th anniversary of statehood. Notre Dame beats the Oklahoma Sooners 7–0 to end the Sooners record 47 straight college football winning streak.
November 25
* U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower has a stroke
* Adnan Menderes of DP forms the new government of Turkey (23rd government,last government formed by DP and Adnan Menderes)
November 30 – Indonesian president Sukarno survives a grenade attack at the Cikini School in Jakarta, but six children are killed.
December 1 – In Indonesia, Sukarno announces the nationalization of 246 Dutch businesses.
December 4 – The Lewisham train disaster in the UK leaves 92 dead.
December 5 – All 326,000 Dutch nationals are expelled from Indonesia.
December 6 – First U.S. attempt to launch a satellite fails, the rocket blowing up on the launch pad.
December 10 – Canadian diplomat Lester B. Pearson receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his peackeeping efforts in the United Nations.
December 18 – ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' is released in the U.S. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Additional Oscars go to Alec Guinness (Best Actor) and David Lean (Best Director), among others. This is Lean's first Oscar for directing.
December 19 – Meredith Willson's classic musical ''The Music Man'', starring Robert Preston, debuts on Broadway.
December 20 – The Boeing 707 airliner flies for the first time.
December 22 – The CBS afternoon anthology series ''Seven Lively Arts'' presents Tchaikovsky's ballet ''The Nutcracker'' on U.S. television for the first time, although heavily abridged.
The Consumers' Association is founded in the United Kingdom.
The Civil Rights Commission is established in the USA under the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Citroën stops production of its Traction Avant motor car (production started in 1934).
Gruppe SPUR is founded.
The Confederation of African Football is founded.
Operation Dropshot, an all-out U.S. war with the Soviet Union, is expected to be triggered by the Soviet takeover of Western Europe, the Near East and parts of Eastern Asia, as it was anticipated in 1949.
Mao Zedong admits that 800,000 "class enemies" have been summarily liquidated between 1949 and 1954.
The so-called 'mound of Midas', the Great Tumulus near Gordium, is excavated.
The Africanized bee is accidentally released in Brazil.
The Asian Flu pandemic begins in China.
January 1
* Ewa Kasprzyk, Polish actress
* Luis Guzmán, Puerto Rican actor
January 4 – Charles Allen, British television magnate
January 6 – Nancy Lopez, American golfer
January 7
* Nicholson Baker, American novelist
* Katie Couric, American television host
* Hannu Kamppuri, Finnish ice hockey goaltender
* Julian Solis, Puerto Rican boxer
January 9 – Bibie, Ghanaian singer
January 11 – Bryan Robson, English footballer
January 12 – John Lasseter, American director, writer, and animator
January 13 – Lorrie Moore, American writer
January 14 – Anchee Min, Chinese writer
January 15
* Mario Van Peebles, American actor and director
* Patrick Dixon, British business guru and author
January 16 – Ricardo Darin, Argentinian actor
January 17 – Steve Harvey, American actor
January 21 – Greg Ryan, American soccer coach
January 22
* Mike Bossy, Canadian hockey player
* Rene Requiestas, Filipino comedian (d. 1993)
* Godfrey Thoma, Nauruan politician
January 23 – Princess Caroline of Monaco
January 24 – Adrian Edmondson, British comedian
January 27 – Frank Miller, American comic book writer
January 29 – Grazyna Miller, Polish poet
January 30 – Payne Stewart, American golfer (d. 1999)
February 2 – Phil Barney, French singer
February 4 – Elaine Carbines, Member of the Australian Labor Party
February 5 – Jackie Woodburne, Australian actress
February 6 – Kathy Najimy, American actress and comedian
February 8
* John Turturro, American actor, writer and director
* Cindy Wilson, American rock singer (The B-52's)
February 9 – Gordon Strachan, Scottish footballer and manager
February 11 – Mitchell Symons, British writer
February 15 – Shahriyar Mandanipour, Iranian writer
February 16 – LeVar Burton, American actor
February 17 – Loreena McKennitt, Canadian singer, composer, harpist
February 18
* Vanna White, American game show presenter
* Marita Koch, German athlete
February 19 – Falco, Austrian rock musician (d. 1998)
February 20 – Glen Hanlon, Canadian ice hockey coach
February 23 – Ria Brieffies, Dutch singer (d. 2009)
February 27
* Viktor Markin, Russian athlete
* Rob de Castella, Australian long-distance runner
February 28 – Ian Smith, New Zealand cricketer
March 3 – Eric Walters, Canadian author
March 4
* Rick Mast, American NASCAR driver
* Jim Dwyer, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner
March 9 – Mona Sahlin, Swedish politician
March 10 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi-born Islamist terrorist (d. 2011)
March 11 – Rob Paulsen, American voice actor
March 12 – Marlon Jackson, American singer
March 15
* Joaquim de Almeida, Portuguese actor
* Park Overall, American film and television actress
March 17 – Mal Donaghy, Northern Irish footballer
March 18 – György Pazdera, Hungarian rock bassist (Pokolgép)
March 20
* Vanessa Bell Calloway, American actress
* Spike Lee, American film director and actor
* Theresa Russell, American actress
March 23 – Teresa Ganzel, American comedienne and actress
March 26 – Leeza Gibbons, American television personality
March 29 – Christopher Lambert, French actor
March 30 – Paul Reiser, American comedian and actor
March 31 – Alan Duncan, British politician
April 1
* J. Karjalainen, Finnish rock musician
* Denise Nickerson, American child actress
April 2 – Giuliana De Sio, Italian actress
April 4 – Aki Kaurismäki, Finnish film director
April 5 – Ivan Corea, Sri Lankan autism campaigner
April 8 – Henry Cluney, Irish musician
April 9 – Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer (d. 2011)
April 11
* Michael Card, American Christian musician
* Ian Stuart, singer for white power skinhead band Skrewdriver
* Jim Lauderdale, bluegrass musician
April 12
* Suzzanne Douglas, American actress
* Ace Frehley, American musician
April 14 – Mikhail Pletnev, Russian pianist, conductor and composer
April 18 – Genie (feral child), "Genie", American feral child
April 22 – Vladimir Alexeyevich Smirnov, Russian businessman
April 25 – Eric Bristow, English darts player
April 27 – Michel Barrette, Canadian actor and stand-up comedian
April 29 – Daniel Day-Lewis, English-born actor
May 2 – Michael Coyle, American composer
May 3
* William Clay Ford, Jr., American automobile executive
* Jo Brand, English comedian
May 5 – Richard E. Grant, English actor
May 10 – Sid Vicious, English rock bassist (Sex Pistols) (d. 1979)
May 14 – Big Van Vader, American professional wrestler
May 15 – Juan José Ibarretxe, Basque Lehendakari (Prime Minister)
May 16 – Jean Benoit, American Olympic gold medal-winning marathon runner
May 17 – Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish rock singer and songwriter (Leevi and the Leavings) (d. 2003)
May 18 - Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist, philosopher
May 20 – Stewart Nozette, American astronomer.
May 21
* Judge Reinhold, American actor
* Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
May 22
* Gary Sweet, Australian actor
* Shinji Morisue, Japanese gymnast
May 23 – Jimmy McShane (aka Baltimora), Northern Irish dancer (d. 1995)
May 24 – Walter Moers, German comic artist and writer
May 26 – Pontso Sekatle, Lesotho academic and politician
May 27 – Siouxsie Sioux, British rock singer (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
May 28 – Kirk Gibson, American baseball player
May 29 – Jeb Hensarling, American politician
June 1 – Dorota Kędzierzawska, Polish film director
June 3 – Horst-Ulrich Hänel, German field hockey player
June 7 – Juan Luis Guerra, Dominican singer and songwriter
June 8 – Scott Adams, American cartoonist (Dilbert)
June 10 – Hidetsugu Aneha, Japanese architect
June 12
* Timothy Busfield, American actor
* Javed Miandad, Pakistani cricketer
June 14 – Debbie Arnold, British actress and voice artiste
June 15 – Seppo Pääkkönen, Finnish actor
June 19
* Anna Lindh, Swedish politician (d. 2003)
* Maxwell Fraiser, African-British rapper for Faithless, DJ
June 23 – Frances McDormand, American actress
June 27
* John Bolaris, American meteorologist
* Georgi Parvanov, President of Bulgaria
June 28 – Lance Nethery, Canadian ice hockey player
July 1 – Hannu Kamppuri, Finnish ice hockey player
July 2 – Bret Hart, Canadian professional wrestler
July 3
* Laura Branigan, American singer (d. 2004)
* Ken Ober, American actor and game show host (d. 2009)
July 9
* Marc Almond, English singer
* Kelly McGillis, American actress
July 13 – Cameron Crowe, American writer and film director
July 17 – Fern Britton, British television presenter
July 18 – Nick Faldo, British golfer
July 23 – Theo van Gogh, Dutch film director (d. 2004)
July 26
* Nana Visitor, American actress
* Yuen Biao, Hong Kong actor
July 27 – Hansi Müller, German footballer
July 29 – Nellie Kim, Russian gymnast
August 2
* Mojo Nixon, American singer, lyricist and actor
* Butch Vig, American record producer and drummer (Garbage)
August 4 – John Wark, Scottish footballer
August 5 – Clayton Rohner, American actor
August 6 – Jim McGreevey, 52nd Governor of New Jersey
August 7 – Alexander Dityatin, Soviet gymnast
August 9 – Melanie Griffith, American actress
August 11 – Richie Ramone, American rock drummer (The Ramones)
August 14 – Peter Costello, Australian politician
August 15 – Željko Ivanek, Slovenian-American actor
August 16
* Laura Innes, American actress and director (''ER'')
* Tim Farriss, Australian rock guitarist (INXS)
August 17 – Robin Cousins, British figure skater
August 18
* Carole Bouquet, French actress
* Denis Leary, American comedian and actor
August 19 – Li-Young Lee, Indonesian-born poet
August 20 – Finlay Calder, Scottish rugby player
August 22 – Steve Davis, British snooker player
August 24 – Stephen Fry, British comedian, author, and actor
August 25 – Simon McBurney, British actor, writer and theatre director
August 26
* Dr. Alban, Nigerian-born Swedish singer
* Uzo, Nigerian-American film producer and director
August 27 – Bernhard Langer, German golfer
August 28
* Rick Rossovich, American actor
* Daniel Stern, American actor
* Ivo Josipovic, President of Croatia
August 29 – Grzegorz Ciechowski, Polish musician (d. 2001)
August 30 – Manu Tuiasosopo, American football player
August 31 – Ingrid Washinawatok, Native American activist (d. 1999)
September 1 – Gloria Estefan, Cuban-born American singer
September 7 – Ewa Kasprzyk, Polish athlete
September 8
* Ricardo Montaner, Argentine-born Venezuelan singer
* Heather Thomas, American actress and activist
September 11 – Preben Elkjaer Larsen, Danish footballer
September 12 – Rachel Ward, British actress
September 13 – Vinny Appice, American drummer
September 15 – Brad Bird, American animator and director
September 16 – David McCreery, Irish footballer
September 19 – Chris Roupas, Greek-American basketball player
September 21
* Ethan Coen, American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor
* Kevin Rudd, Australian prime minister
September 22 – Nick Cave, Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter and actor
September 26 – Luigi De Canio, Italian footballer and football manager
September 27 – Peter Sellars, American theatre director
September 28 – Luis Cluzeau Mortet, Uruguayan composer and musician
September 30 – Fran Drescher, American actress
October 4 – Alexander Tkachyov, Soviet gymnast
October 5 – Bernie Mac, American stand-up comedian and actor (d. 2008)
October 7 – Jayne Torvill, British ice skater
October 8 – Ewan Stewart, Scottish actor
October 11 – Dawn French, British comedian
October 14 – Kenny Neal, American guitarist
October 15 – Stacy Peralta, American director and skateboarder
October 21 – Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
October 23 – Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda
October 26 – Bob Golic, American football player
October 27 – Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwanese film director
October 29 – Dan Castellaneta, American voice actor (Homer Simpson from 'The Simpsons')
October 30 – Richard Jeni, American comedian (d. 2007)
October 31
* Robert Pollard, American musician
* Brian Stokes Mitchell, American actor and singer
November 5 – Jon-Erik Hexum, American actor (d. 1984)
November 6 – Klaus Kleinfeld, German business executive
November 7 – Christopher Knight, American actor
November 14 – Gregg Burge, American tap dancer and choreographer (d. 1998)
November 15 – Kevin Eubanks, American jazz guitarist
November 17 – Debbie Thrower, British TV news presenter
November 18 – Olivia Heussler, Swiss photojournalist
November 20 – John Eriksen, Danish footballer (d. 2002)
November 20 – Goodluck Jonathan President of Nigeria
November 24 – Denise Crosby, American actress
November 27 – Kenny Acheson, Irish race car driver
November 30 – Colin Mochrie, Scottish-born Canadian comedian
December 4 – Eric S. Raymond, American open source software advocate
December 6
* Thomas Brinkman, American politician
* Adrian Borland, British musician and producer (The Sound) (d. 1999)
December 9
* Donny Osmond, American pop singer
* Peter O’Mara, Australian jazz guitarist and composer
December 10 – Michael Clarke Duncan, American actor
December 13 – Steve Buscemi, American actor
December 15 – Laura Molina, American artist, musician and actress
December 17 – Masako Natsume, Japanese model and actress (d. 1985)
December 19 – Kevin McHale, American basketball player
December 20
* Billy Bragg, British singer
* Joyce Hyser, American actress
* Anna Vissi, Greek singer
December 21
* Tom Henke, American baseball player
* Ray Romano, American actor and comedian
December 24 – Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan
December 25 – Shane McGowan, Irish singer and songwriter (The Pogues)
December 30 – Matt Lauer, American newscaster
January 10 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
January 14 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (b. 1899)
January 16 – Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor (b. 1867)
January 20 – James Connolly, American athlete (b. 1868)
January 26
* Helene Costello, American actress (b. 1906)
* William Eythe, American actor (b. 1918)
February 1 – Friedrich Paulus, German field marshal (b. 1890)
February 8
* Walther Bothe, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
* John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (b. 1903)
February 9
* Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and regent (b. 1868)
* John Axon, British railwayman and hero (b. 1900)
February 10 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b. 1867)
February 16 – Józef Hofmann, Polish-born pianist and composer (b. 1876)
February 18
* Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
* Walter James Bolton, Last person to be executed in New Zealand (b. 1888)
February 19 – Märta Torén, Swedish actress (b. 1926)
February 23 – Marika Ninou, Greek singer (b. 1918)
February 25
* Bugs Moran, American gangster (b. 1893)
* B.P. Schulberg, American film producer (b. 1892)
March 5 – William Cameron Menzies, American film production designer (b. 1896)
March 7 – Wyndham Lewis, English painter (b. 1882)
March 8 – János Esterházy, Hungarian politician in Czechoslovakia (b. 1901)
March 11 – Richard E. Byrd, American explorer (b. 1888)
March 12 – Josephine Hull, American actres (b. 1886)
March 14 – Eugenio Castellotti, Italian racing driver (car crash) (b. 1930)
March 16 – Constantin Brâncuşi, Romanian sculptor (b. 1876)
March 17 – Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines (b. 1907)
March 25 – Max Ophüls, German film director and writer (b. 1902)
March 29 – Joyce Cary, Irish author (b. 1888)
March 31 – Gene Lockhart, Canadian actor (b. 1891)
April 3 – Ned Sparks, Canadian character actor (b. 1883)
April 4 – E. Herbert Norman, Canadian diplomat (b. 1909)
April 5 – Alagappa Chettiar, Indian philanthropist (b. 1909)
April 8 – Dorothy Sebastian, American actress (b. 1903)
April 15 – Pedro Infante, Mexican actor and singer (b. 1917)
April 16 – Johnny Torrio, Italian-American gangster (b. 1882)
April 26 – Elinor Fair, American actress (b. 1903)
May 1 – Grant Mitchell, American actor (b. 1874)
May 2 – Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator (b. 1908)
May 7 – Wilhelm Filchner, German explorer (b. 1877)
May 9 – Ezio Pinza, Italian bass (b. 1892)
May 12 – Erich von Stroheim, Austrian actor and director (b. 1885)
May 13 – Michael Fekete, Hungarian-born Israeli mathematician (b. 1886)
May 14 – Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (b. 1884)
May 16 – Eliot Ness, American policeman (b. 1903)
May 29 – James Whale, English film director (b. 1889)
May 31 – Leopold Staff, Polish poet (b. 1878)
June 1
* Luisa Casati, Italian patron of the arts (b. 1881)
* Feliksas Baltušis-Žemaitis, Lithuanian military leader (b. 1897)
* Russell Hicks, American actor (b. 1895)
June 12
* Robert Alton, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1906)
* Jimmy Dorsey, American jazz musician (b. 1904)
June 13 – Irving Baxter, American athlete (b. 1876)
June 15 – Princess Norina Matchabelli, Italian perfumier (b. 1880)
June 17 – Dorothy Richardson, English feminist writer (b. 1873)
June 21 – Johannes Stark, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
June 26 – Alfred Döblin, German writer (b. 1878)
June 27
* Malcolm Lowry, English novelist (b. 1909)
* Hermann Buhl, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1924)
July 4 – Judy Tyler, American actress (b. 1932)
July 8 – Grace Coolidge, wife of United States President Calvin Coolidge (b. 1879)
July 11 – Aga Khan III, 48th Nizari Imam (b. 1877)
July 15
* George Cleveland, Canadian actor (b. 1885)
* Vasily Maklakov, Russian liberal politician and parliamentary orator (b. 1869)
July 23 – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Sicilian writer (b. 1896)
July 24
* Metodija Andonov-Čento, Macedonian statesman (b. 1902)
* Sacha Guitry, Russian-born playwright, actor, and director (b. 1885)
July 28
* Edith Abbott, American social worker, educator, and author (b. 1876)
* Isaac Heinemann, German-born Israeli scholar and professor of classical literature (b. 1876)
August 5 – Heinrich Otto Wieland, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
August 7 – Oliver Hardy, American actor (b. 1892)
August 16 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
August 19 – David Bomberg, Vorticist painter (b. 1890)
August 20 – Julio Lozano Díaz, President of Honduras (b. 1885)
August 21 – Mait Metsanurk, Estonian writer (b. 1879)
August 30 – Harold Gatty, Australian aviator (b. 1903)
September 1 – Dennis Brain, English French horn player (b. 1921) (car crash)
September 9 – Muhammad al-Muqri, grand vizier of Morocco (b. ?1844)
September 16 – Qi Baishi, Chinese painter (b. 1864)
September 20 – Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (b. 1865)
September 21 – Haakon VII of Norway (b. 1872)
September 22 – Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral (b. 1885)
September 28 – Luis Cluzeau Mortet, Uruguayan composer and musician (b. 1888)
October 19 – Vere Gordon Childe, Australian archaeologist (b. 1892)
October 20 – Jack Buchanan, British actor (b. 1891)
October 24
* Christian Dior, French fashion designer (b. 1905)
* Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef, South African artist (b. 1886)
October 25
* Albert Anastasia, American gangster (b. 1902)
* Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author (b. 1878)
October 26 – Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
October 29 – Louis B. Mayer, American studio mogul and former head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (b. 1885)
November 3 – Charles Brabin, American director and screenwriter (b. 1882)
November 4
* William Haywood, British architect (b. 1876)
* Shoghi Effendi, Bahá'í leader (b. 1897)
November 17 – Cora Witherspoon, American actress (b. 1890)
November 24 – Diego Rivera, Mexican painter (b. 1886)
November 25 – Raymond Griffith, American actor (b. 1895)
November 26 – Billy Bevan, Australian actor (b. 1887)
November 29 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Austrian composer (b. 1897)
November 30 – Beniamino Gigli, Italian tenor (b. 1890)
December 2 – Harrison Ford, American silent film actor (b. 1884)
December 8 – Reginald Sheffield, English actor (b. 1901)
December 10 – Maurice McLoughlin, American tennis champion (b. 1890)
December 11 – Musidora, French actress (b. 1889)
December 21 – Eric Coates, English composer (b. 1886)
December 24 – Norma Talmadge, American actress (b. 1893)
December 25
* Alfred Walton Hinds, 17th Naval Governor of Guam (b. 1874)
* Stanley Vestal, American writer, poet, historian (b. 1877)
December 26 – Charles Pathé, French film pioneer (b. 1863)
Physics – Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee
Chemistry – Lord Alexander R. Todd
Physiology or Medicine – Daniel Bovet
Literature – Albert Camus
Peace – Lester Bowles Pearson
Events
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Date unknown
Births
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Deaths
January–March
April–June
July–September
October–December
Nobel Prizes
References
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| Coordinates | 53°23′″N23°36′″N |
|---|---|
| name | The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) |
| type | Christmas song |
| artist | The King Cole Trio |
| b-side | "In the Cool of Evening" (Capitol 311)"Laguna Mood" (Capitol 15201)"(All I Want for Christmas Is) My Two Front Teeth" (Capitol F90036; Capitol F2955)"The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot" (Capitol 3561) |
| published | 1944 |
| released | |
| recorded | |
| format | 10-inch, 7-inch |
| genre | Christmas, Jazz, Pop |
| length | (1946 recording) (1953 recording) |
| label | Capitol 311 (1946)Capitol 15201 (1948)Capitol F90036 (1953)Capitol F2955 (1954)Capitol 3561 (1956) |
| writer | Mel Tormé,Bob Wells |
| misc | }} |
"The Christmas Song" (commonly subtitled "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" or, as it was originally subtitled, "Merry Christmas to You") is a classic Christmas song written in 1944 by musician, composer, and vocalist Mel Tormé (aka The Velvet Fog), and Bob Wells. According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer. In an effort to "stay cool by thinking cool", the most-performed (according to BMI) Christmas song was born.
"I saw a spiral pad on his piano with four lines written in pencil", Tormé recalled. "They started, "Chestnuts roasting..., Jack Frost nipping..., Yuletide carols..., Folks dressed up like Eskimos.' Bob (Wells, co-writer) didn't think he was writing a song lyric. He said he thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off. Forty minutes later that song was written. I wrote all the music and some of the lyrics."
The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song early in 1946. At Cole's behest and over the objections of his label, Capitol Records a second recording was made the same year utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B; charts. Cole again recorded the song in 1953, using the same arrangement with a full orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle, and once more in 1961, in a stereophonic version with orchestra conducted by Ralph Carmichael. Nat King Cole's 1961 version is generally regarded as definitive, and in 2004 was the most loved seasonal song with women aged 30–49, while Cole's original 1946 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974. Mel Tormé recorded the song himself in 1954, and again in 1961, 1966 and 1992.
The Nat King Cole recordings
First recording: Recorded at WMCA Radio Studios, New York City, June 14, 1946. Label credit: The King Cole Trio (Nat King Cole, vocal-pianist; Oscar Moore, guitarist; Johnny Miller, bassist). Not issued until 1989, when it was (accidentally) included on the various-artists compilation ''Billboard Greatest Christmas Hits (1935–1954)'' Rhino R1 70637(LP) / R2 70637(CD).Second recording: Recorded at WMCA Radio Studios, New York City, August 19, 1946. First record issue. Label credit: The King Cole Trio with String Choir (Nat King Cole, vocal-pianist, Oscar Moore, guitarist; Johnny Miller, bassist; Charlie Grean, conductor of 4 string players, a harpist and a drummer) Lacquer disc master #981. Issued November 1946 as Capitol 311 (78rpm). This is featured on a CD called ''The Holiday Album'', which has 1940s Christmas songs recorded by Cole and Bing Crosby. In 2005 Capitol restored and re-released it for the 25 bit re-mastered Cole album "The Christmas Song", which also contains tracks from his 1960 and 1963 holiday albums.
Third recording: Recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, August 24, 1953. This was the song,s first magnetic tape recording. Label credit: The King Cole Trio with String Choir (Actual artists: Nat King Cole, vocal; Nelson Riddle, orchestra conductor) Master #11726, take 11. Issued November 1953 as the "new" Capitol 90036(78rpm) / F90036(45rpm) (Capitol first issued 90036 in 1950 with the second recording). Correct label credit issued on October 18, 1954 as Capitol 2955(78rpm) / F2955(45rpm). Label credit: Nat "King" Cole with Orchestra Conducted by Nelson Riddle. This recording is available on the 1990 CD ''Cole, Christmas and Kids,'' as well as the various-artists compilation ''Casey Kasem Presents All Time Christmas Favorites''. It was also included, along with both 1946 recordings, on the 1991 Mosaic Records box set ''The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio''.
Fourth recording: Recorded at Capitol Studios, New York City, March 30, 1961. This rendition, the first recorded in stereo, is widely played on radio stations during the Christmas season, and is probably the most famous version of this song. Label credit: Nat King Cole (Nat King Cole, vocal; Charles Grean and Pete Rugolo, orchestration; Ralph Carmichael, orchestra conductor). The instrumental arrangement is nearly identical with the 1953 version, but the vocals are much deeper and more focused. Originally done for ''The Nat King Cole Story'' (a 1961 LP devoted to stereo re-recordings of Cole's earlier hits), this recording was later appended to a reissue of Cole's 1960 holiday album ''The Magic of Christmas''. Retitled ''The Christmas Song'', the album was issued in 1963 as Capitol W-1967(mono) / SW-1967(stereo) and today is in print on compact disc. This recording of "The Christmas Song" is also available on numerous compilation albums. Some are Capitol pop standards Christmas compilations while others are broader-based. It's available on WCBS-FM's ''Ultimate Christmas Album Volume 3'', for example.
There were several covers of Nat Cole's original record in the 1940s. The first of these was said to be by Dick Haymes on the Decca label, but his was released first not recorded first. The first cover of "The Christmas Song" was performed by pop tenor and bandleader Eddy Howard on Majestic. Howard was a big Cole fan, and also covered Nat's versions of "I Want to Thank Your Folks" and "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons", among others.
Selective list of notable recordings
"The Christmas Song" has been covered by numerous artists from a wide variety of genres, including:
Parodies
Footnotes
External links
Category:Christmas songs Category:1946 songs Category:1961 singles Category:1999 singles Category:2009 singles Category:Nat King Cole songs Category:Amy Grant songs Category:Christina Aguilera songs Category:Toby Keith songs Category:Martina McBride songs Category:Joe Nichols songs Category:George Strait songs Category:Kenny Loggins songs Category:Trisha Yearwood songs Category:Vocal duets Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Category:Barbra Streisand songs Category:Bob Dylan songs Category:Sheryl Crow songs Category:CeCe Peniston songs Category:The Partridge Family songs
es:The Christmas Song fr:The Christmas Song id:The Christmas Song it:The Christmas Song no:The Christmas Song pl:The Christmas Song pt:The Christmas Song simple:The Christmas Song sv:The Christmas Song tr:The Christmas Song vi:The Christmas SongThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Coordinates | 53°23′″N23°36′″N |
|---|---|
| name | Jimmy Page |
| background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| birth name | James Patrick Page |
| born | January 09, 1944Heston, Middlesex, England |
| instrument | Guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, theremin, bass, banjo, harmonica, dobro, sitar, keyboards, tambourine, tamboura, hurdy gurdy, pedal steel guitar |
| genre | Hard rock, heavy metal, blues rock, rock and roll, folk rock |
| occupation | Musician, songwriter, producer |
| years active | 1957–present |
| label | Swan Song, Atlantic, Geffen, Fontana, Mercury |
| associated acts | The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, The Honeydrippers, The Firm, Coverdale and Page, Page and Plant, Herman's Hermits, XYZ, Joe Cocker, The Edge, Jack White, Donovan, The Black Crowes |
| website | |
| notable instruments | }} |
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.
Jimmy Page is viewed by critics and fans alike as one of the most influential and important guitarists and songwriters in rock music. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine has described him as "the pontiff of power riffing & probably the most digitally sampled artist in pop today after James Brown." In 2010, Jimmy Page was ranked No.2 in Gibson's list of "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time" and, in 2007, No.4 on ''Classic Rock Magazine'''s "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes". Page was ranked ninth in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; once as a member of The Yardbirds (1992), and once as a member of Led Zeppelin (1995).
Early years
Jimmy Page was born to parents James and Patricia Page in the West London suburb of Heston, which today forms part of the London Borough of Hounslow. His father was an industrial personnel manager and his mother was a doctor's secretary. In 1952 they moved to Feltham, and later again to Miles Road, Epsom in Surrey, which is where Page came across his first guitar. "I don't know whether [the guitar] was left behind by the people [in the house] before [us], or whether it was a friend of the family's — nobody seemed to know why it was there." First playing the instrument at the age of twelve years, he took a few lessons in nearby Kingston, but was largely self-taught:
When I grew up there weren't many other guitarists ... There was one other guitarist in my school who actually showed me the first chords that I learned, and I went on from there. I was bored so I taught myself the guitar from listening to records. So obviously it was a very personal thing.
Among Page's early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley. Hearing the Elvis Presley song "Baby Let's Play House" is cited by Page as being his inspiration to take up playing the guitar. Although he appears on BBC1 in 1957 with another guitar, Page states that his first guitar was a second-hand 1959 Futurama Grazioso, which was later replaced by a Telecaster.
Page's musical tastes included skiffle (a popular English music genre of the time) and acoustic folk playing, particularly that of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and the blues sounds of Elmore James, B.B. King, Willie Dixon, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Freddie King and Hubert Sumlin. "Basically, that was the start: a mixture between rock and blues."
At the age of 13, Page appeared on Huw Wheldon's ''All Your Own'' talent quest programme in a skiffle quartet, one performance of which aired on BBC TV in 1957. The group played "Mama Don't Want To Skiffle Anymore" and another very American-flavoured song, "In Them Ol' Cottonfields Back Home". Televised Contest. When asked by Wheldon what he wanted to do after schooling, Page said, "I want to do biological research" to find a cure for "cancer, if it isn't discovered by then".
In an interview with ''Guitar Player'' magazine, Page stated that "there was a lot of busking in the early days, but as they say, I had to come to grips with it, and it was a good schooling." Page would take a guitar to school each day and have it confiscated and handed back to him at 4:00 P.M. Although he had an interview for a job as a laboratory assistant, he ultimately chose to leave Danetree Secondary School, West Ewell, to pursue music instead.
Initially, Page had difficulty finding other musicians with whom he could play on a regular basis. "It wasn't as though there was an abundance. I used to play in many groups... anyone who could get a gig together, really." Following stints backing recitals by Beat poet Royston Ellis at the Mermaid Theatre between 1960–61, and singer Red E. Lewis, he was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band, The Crusaders, after Christian had seen a fifteen-year-old Page playing in a local hall. Page toured with Christian for approximately two years and later played on several of his records, including the November 1962 single, "The Road to Love".
During his stint with Christian, Page fell seriously ill with glandular fever (infectious mononucleosis) and couldn't continue touring. While recovering, he decided to put his musical career on hold and concentrate on his other love, painting, and enrolled at Sutton Art College in Surrey. As he explained in 1975:
Session musician
While still a student, Page would often perform on stage at The Marquee with bands such as Cyril Davies' All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and with guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. He was spotted one night by John Gibb of Brian Howard & The Silhouettes, who asked him to help record a number of singles for Columbia Graphophone Company, including "The Worrying Kind". Mike Leander of Decca Records first offered Page regular studio work. His first session for the label was the recording "Diamonds" by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan, which went to Number 1 on the singles chart in early 1963.After brief stints with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, Mike Hurst and the Method, and Mickey Finn and the Blue Men, Page committed himself to full-time session work. As a session guitarist he was known as 'Little Jim' so there was no confusion with other noted British session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan. Page was mainly called in to sessions as "insurance" in instances when a replacement or second guitarist was required by the recording artist. "It was usually myself and a drummer", he explained, "though they never mention the drummer these days, just me ... Anyone needing a guitarist either went to Big Jim [Sullivan] or myself." He has also stated that "In the initial stages they just said, play what you want, cos at that time I couldn't read music or anything."
Page was the favoured session guitarist of producer Shel Talmy. As a result, he secured session work on songs for The Who and The Kinks. Page is credited with playing acoustic twelve string guitar on two tracks on The Kinks' debut album "I'm a Lover Not a Fighter" and "I've Been Driving On Bald Mountain" and possibly on the b-side "I Gotta Move". He played six-string rhythm guitar on the sessions for The Who's first single "I Can't Explain" (although Pete Townshend was reluctant to allow Page's contribution on the final recording, Page also played lead guitar on the B-side "Bald Headed Woman"). Page's studio output in 1964 included Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By", The Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road", The Rolling Stones' "Heart of Stone" (released on ''Metamorphosis''), Van Morrison & Them's "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Here Comes the Night", Dave Berry's "The Crying Game" and "My Baby Left Me", Brenda Lee's "Is It True," and Petula Clark's "Downtown".
In 1965 Page was hired by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to act as house producer and A&R; man for the newly-formed Immediate Records label, which also allowed him to play on and/or produce tracks by John Mayall, Nico, Chris Farlowe, Twice as Much and Eric Clapton. Page also formed a brief songwriting partnership with then romantic interest, Jackie DeShannon. He also composed and recorded songs for the John Williams album ''The Maureeny Wishful Album'' with Big Jim Sullivan. Page worked as session musician on Donovan Leitch's ''Sunshine Superman'' (1966) and the Johnny Hallyday albums ''Jeune Homme'' (1968) and ''Je Suis Né Dans La Rue'' (1969), the Al Stewart album ''Love Chronicles'' (1969), and played guitar on five tracks of Joe Cocker's debut album, ''With a Little Help from My Friends''.
When questioned about which songs he played on, especially ones where there exists some controversy as to what his exact role was, Page often points out that it is hard to remember exactly what he did given the enormous number of sessions he was playing at the time. In a radio interview he explained that "I was doing three sessions a day, fifteen sessions a week. Sometimes I would be playing with a group, sometimes I could be doing film music, it could be a folk session ... I was able to fit all these different roles."
Although Page recorded with many notable musicians, many of these early tracks are only available as bootleg recordings, several of which were released by the Led Zeppelin fan club in the late 1970s. One of the rarest of these is the early jam session featuring Jimmy Page playing with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, featuring a cover of "Little Queen of Spades" by Robert Johnson. Several songs which featured Page's involvement were compiled on the twin album release, ''Jimmy Page: Session Man''.
Page decided to leave studio work when the increasing influence of Stax Records on popular music led to the greater incorporation of brass and orchestral arrangements into recordings at the expense of guitars. However, he has stated that his time as a session player served as extremely good schooling for his development as a musician:
The Yardbirds
In late 1964, Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, but he declined the offer out of loyalty to his friend. In February 1965 Clapton quit the Yardbirds, and Page was formally offered Clapton's spot, but because he was unwilling to give up his lucrative career as a session musician, and because he was still worried about his health under touring conditions, he suggested his friend, Jeff Beck. On 16 May 1966, drummer Keith Moon, bass player John Paul Jones, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Jeff Beck and Page recorded "Beck's Bolero" in London's IBC Studios. The experience gave Page an idea to form a new supergroup featuring Beck, along with The Who's John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums. However, the lack of a quality vocalist and contractual problems prevented the project from getting off the ground. During this time, Moon suggested the name "Lead Zeppelin" for the first time, after Entwistle commented that the proceedings would take to the air like a lead balloon.Within weeks, Page attended a Yardbirds concert at Oxford. After the show he went backstage where Paul Samwell-Smith announced that he was leaving the group. Page offered to replace Samwell-Smith and this was accepted by the group. He initially played electric bass with the Yardbirds before finally switching to twin lead guitar with Beck when Chris Dreja moved to bass. The musical potential of the line-up was scuttled, however, by interpersonal conflicts caused by constant touring and a lack of commercial success, although they released one single, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago". (While Page and Jeff Beck played together in The Yardbirds, the trio of Page, Beck and Clapton never played in the original group at the same time. The three guitarists did appear on stage together at the ARMS charity concerts in 1983.)
After Beck's departure, the Yardbirds remained a quartet. They recorded one album with Page on lead guitar, ''Little Games''. The album received indifferent reviews and was not a commercial success, peaking at only number 80 on the Billboard Music Charts. Though their studio sound was fairly commercial at the time, the band's live performances were just the opposite, becoming heavier and more experimental. These concerts featured musical aspects that Page would later perfect with Led Zeppelin, most notably performances of "Dazed and Confused".
After the departure of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty in 1968, Page reconfigured the group with a new line-up to fulfill unfinished tour dates in Scandinavia. As he said:
To this end, Page recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, and he was also contacted by John Paul Jones who asked to join. During the Scandinavian tour the new group appeared as "The New Yardbirds", but soon recalled the old joke by Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Page stuck with that name to use for his new band. Peter Grant changed it to "Led Zeppelin", to avoid a mispronunciation of ''"Leed Zeppelin."''
Led Zeppelin
Page has explained that he had a very specific idea in mind as to what he wanted Led Zeppelin to be, from the very beginning:
Post-Led Zeppelin career
Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham at Page's home, The Old Mill House at Clewer in Berkshire. For some time Page refused to touch a guitar out of sadness for the loss of his friend Bonham, but he eventually made a return to the stage at a Jeff Beck show in March 1981 at the Hammersmith Odeon. Also in 1981 Page joined with Yes bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White to form a supergroup called XYZ (for ex-Yes-Zeppelin). They rehearsed several times, but the project was shelved. Demos of these sessions have turned up on bootleg and they reveal that some of the material emerged on later projects, notably The Firm's "Fortune Hunter" and Yes songs "Mind Drive" and "Can You Imagine?". Page would later join Yes on stage in 1984 at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, playing "I'm Down".In 1982 Page collaborated with director Michael Winner to record the ''Death Wish II'' soundtrack. This, and several subsequent Page recordings including ''Death Wish III'' soundtrack (1985), were recorded and produced at his own recording studio, The Sol in Cookham, which he had purchased from Gus Dudgeon in the early 1980s.
In 1983 Page appeared with the A.R.M.S. (Action Research for Multiple Sclerosis) charity series of concerts which honoured Small Faces bass player Ronnie Lane, who suffered from the disease. For the first shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Page's set consisted of songs from the ''Death Wish II'' soundtrack (with Steve Winwood on vocals) and an instrumental version of "Stairway to Heaven". A four-city tour of the United States followed, with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company replacing Winwood as vocalist. During the US tour, Page and Rodgers also performed "Midnight Moonlight" which would later be recorded for The Firm's first album. All of the shows featured an on stage jam of "Layla" that reunited Page with Yardbirds guitarists Beck and Eric Clapton. According to the book ''Hammer of the Gods'', it was reportedly around this time that Page told friends that he'd just given up heroin after seven years of use. On 13 December 1983, Page joined Robert Plant on-stage for one encore at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.
Page next linked up with Roy Harper for the 1984 album (''Whatever Happened to Jugula?'') and occasional concerts, performing a predominantly acoustic set at folk festivals under various guises such as the MacGregors, and Themselves. Also in 1984 Page recorded with former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant as The Honeydrippers on the album''The Honeydrippers: Volume 1'', and with John Paul Jones on the film soundtrack ''Scream for Help''.
Page subsequently collaborated with Paul Rodgers to record two albums under the name The Firm. The first album, released in 1985, was the self-titled ''The Firm''. Popular songs included "Radioactive" and "Satisfaction Guaranteed". The album peaked at number 17 on the ''Billboard'' pop albums chart and went gold in the US. It was followed by ''Mean Business'' in 1986. The band toured in support of both albums but soon split up.
Various other projects followed, such as session work for Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and The Rolling Stones (on their 1986 single "One Hit (to the Body)"). In 1986, Page reunited temporarily with his ex-Yardbirds band members to play on several tracks of the Box of Frogs album ''Strange Land''. Page released a solo album entitled ''Outrider'' in 1988 which featured contributions from Robert Plant, with Page contributing in turn to Plant's solo album ''Now and Zen'', which was released the same year. Page also embarked on a collaboration with David Coverdale in 1993 entitled Coverdale Page.
Throughout these years Page also reunited with the other former members of Led Zeppelin to perform live on a few occasions, most notably in 1985 for the Live Aid concert with both Phil Collins and Tony Thompson filling drum duties. However, the band members considered this performance to be sub-standard, with Page having been let down by a poorly tuned Les Paul. Page, Plant and Jones, as well as John Bonham's son Jason, performed at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary show on 14 May 1988, closing the 12-hour show. In 1990, a Knebworth concert to aid the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre and the British School for Performing Arts and Technology saw Plant unexpectedly joined by Page to perform "Misty Mountain Hop", "Wearing and Tearing" and "Rock and Roll". Page also performed with the band's former members at various private family functions.
In 1994, Page reunited with Plant for the penultimate performance in ''MTV'''s "Unplugged" series. The 90-minute special, dubbed ''Unledded'', premiered to the highest ratings in MTV's history. In October of the same year, the session was released as the CD ''No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded'', and in 2004 as the DVD ''No Quarter Unledded''. Following a highly successful mid-90s tour to support ''No Quarter'', Page and Plant recorded 1998's ''Walking into Clarksdale''.
Since 1990, Page has been heavily involved in remastering the entire Led Zeppelin back catalogue and is currently participating in various charity concerts and charity work, particularly the ''Action for Brazil's Children Trust'' (ABC Trust), founded by his wife Jimena Gomez-Paratcha in 1998. In the same year, Page played guitar for rap singer/producer Puff Daddy's song "Come with Me", which heavily samples Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and was included in the soundtrack of ''Godzilla''. The two later performed the song on ''Saturday Night Live''.
In October 1999, Page teamed up with The Black Crowes for a two-night performance of material from the Led Zeppelin catalogue and old blues and rock standards. The concert was recorded and released as a double live album, ''Live at the Greek'' in 2000. In 2001 he made an appearance on stage with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd at the MTV Europe Video Music Awards in Frankfurt, where they performed a version of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You".
In 2005, Page was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his Brazilian charity work for Task Brazil and Action For Brazil's Children's Trust, made an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro later that year, and was awarded a Grammy award.
In November 2006, Led Zeppelin was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. The television broadcasting of the event consisted of an introduction to the band by various famous admirers (including Roger Taylor, Slash, Joe Perry, Steven Tyler, Jack White and Tony Iommi), a presentation of an award to Jimmy Page, and then a short speech by the guitarist. After this, rock group Wolfmother played a tribute to Led Zeppelin, playing the song "Communication Breakdown".
In 2006, Page attended the induction of Led Zeppelin to the UK Music Hall of Fame. During an interview for the BBC for said event, he expressed plans to record new material in 2007, saying "It's an album that I really need to get out of my system... there's a good album in there and it's ready to come out" and "Also there will be some Zeppelin things on the horizon".
On 10 December 2007, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, as well as John Bonham's son, Jason Bonham played a charity concert at the O2 Arena London.
For the 2008 Olympics, Jimmy Page, David Beckham and Leona Lewis represented Britain during the closing ceremonies on 24 August 2008. Beckham rode a double-decker bus into the stadium, and Page and Lewis performed "Whole Lotta Love".
In 2008 Page co-produced a documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim entitled ''It Might Get Loud''. The film examines the history of the electric guitar, focusing on the careers and styles of Page, The Edge, and Jack White. The film premiered on 5 September 2008 at the Toronto Film Festival. Page also participated in the 3 part BBC documentary ''London Calling: The making of the Olympic handover ceremony'' on 4 March 2009. On 4 April 2009, Page inducted Jeff Beck into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Page has announced his 2010 solo tour while talking to the Sky News on 16 December 2009.
On 7 June 2008, Page and John Paul Jones appeared with the Foo Fighters to close out the band's concert at Wembley Stadium, performing "Rock and Roll" and "Ramble On."
In January 2010, Jimmy Page announced he is publishing an autobiography through Genesis Publications, in a hand-crafted, limited edition of 2,500 copies. Page has also been honoured with a first-ever Global Peace Award by the United Nations' Pathways to Peace organisation after confirming reports that he would be among the headliners at a planned Show of Peace Concert in Beijing, China on 10 October 2010.
On 13 July 2011, Page made an unannounced appearance with The Black Crowes at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.
Legacy and influence
Page's past experiences both in the studio and with the Yardbirds were very influential in contributing to the success of Led Zeppelin in the 1970s. As a producer, composer, and guitarist he helped make Led Zeppelin a prototype for countless future rock bands, and was one of the major driving forces behind the rock sound of that era, influencing a host of other guitarists. Allmusic states that "just about every rock guitarist from the late '60s/early '70s to the present day has been influenced by Page's work with Led Zeppelin". For example, Dictators bassist Andy Shernoff states that Jimmy Page's sped up, downstroke guitar riff in "Communication Breakdown", an influential song that contained elements of protopunk, was an inspiration for The Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone's downstroke guitar style. Ramone, who has described Page as "probably the greatest guitarist who ever lived", stated in the documentary ''"Ramones:The True Story"'' that he improved at his down-stroke picking style by playing the song over and over again for the bulk of his early career. Brian May of Queen, who was also influenced by Page, has said "I don't think anyone has epitomised riff writing better than Jimmy Page – he's one of the great brains of rock music". Tom Scholz of Boston was heavily influenced by Jimmy Page and credits the dual guitar harmonies in Led Zeppelin's "How Many More Times" as the inspiration for Boston's distinctive sound. Page's guitar solo from the song "Heartbreaker" has been credited by Eddie Van Halen as being the inspiration for his two-hand tapping technique after he had seen Led Zeppelin perform in 1971. Similarly, Steve Vai has also commented about the song in a September 1998 ''Guitar World'' interview: "This one [Heartbreaker] had the biggest impact on me as a youth. It was defiant, bold, and edgier than hell. It really is the definitive rock guitar solo."Many other rock guitarists were also influenced by Jimmy Page, such as Ace Frehley, Joe Satriani, John Frusciante, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, Tony Iommi, Joe Perry, Richie Sambora, Angus Young, Slash, Dave Mustaine, Mike McCready, Jerry Cantrell, Stone Gossard, Mick Mars, Paul Stanley, Alex Lifeson, and Dan Hawkins.
Page has been described by ''Uncut'' as the "rock's greatest and most mysterious guitar hero". According to ''msnbc.com'' Jimmy Page "played some of the most fundamental and memorable guitar in rock history—from the heaviest crunch to the most delicate acoustic finger picking." Page's solo in the famous epic "Stairway to Heaven" has been voted by readers of ''Guitar World'' and ''Total Guitar'' as the greatest guitar solo of all time, and he was named 'Guitarist of the Year' five times during the 1970s in ''Creem'' magazine's annual reader poll. ''Guitar World'' wrote: "Truly a guitar god, Jimmy Page is one of the most captivating soloists the rock world has ever known." In 1996 ''Mojo Magazine'' ranked him number 7 on their list of "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time". In 2002 he was voted the second greatest guitarist of all time in a ''Total Guitar'' magazine reader poll. In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine named him number nine on their list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time". In 2007, ''Classic Rock Magazine'' ranked him #4 on their list of the "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes". ''Gigwise.com'', an online music magazine, ranked Page #2 on their list of the "50 greatest guitarists ever" in 2008. In August 2009, ''Time Magazine'' ranked him the 6th greatest electric-guitar player of all time. In 2010, Jimmy Page was ranked #2 on Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time".
David Fricke, a senior editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, described Jimmy Page in 1988 as "probably the most digitally sampled artist in pop today after James Brown." Roger Daltrey of The Who has been a longtime fan of Page and expressed his desire to form a supergroup with Page in 2010 saying: "I’d love to do something, I’d love to do an album with Jimmy Page." Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones has described Jimmy Page as "one of the best guitar players I've ever known." Jimmy Page was the first inductee onto the British Walk of Fame in August 2004. Page was awarded "Living Legend Award" at ''Classic Rock Magazine'' Roll of Honour 2007. In June 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Surrey for his services to the music industry. Page was inducted into ''Mojo'' Hall Of Fame at the magazine's award ceremony on 11 June 2010.
In August 2010, Auburn University graduate student Justin Havird named a new species of fish "Lepidocephalichthys zeppelini" after Led Zeppelin, because the fish's pectoral fin reminded him of the double-neck guitar used by Jimmy Page.
Equipment and recording techniques
Guitars
For the recording of most of Led Zeppelin material from Led Zeppelin's second album onwards, Page used a Gibson Les Paul guitar (sold to him by Joe Walsh) with Marshall amplification. A Harmony Sovereign H-1260 was used in-studio on ''Led Zeppelin III'' and ''Led Zeppelin IV'' and on-stage from 5 March 1971 to 28 June 1972. During the studio sessions for ''Led Zeppelin'', and later for recording the guitar solo in "Stairway to Heaven", he used a Fender Telecaster (a gift from Jeff Beck). He also used a Danelectro 3021, tuned to DADGAD, most notably on live performances of "Kashmir".Page also plays his guitar with a cello bow, as on the live versions of the songs "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times". This was a technique he developed during his session days. On MTV's ''Led Zeppelin Rockumentary'', Page said that he obtained the idea of playing the guitar with a bow from David McCallum, Sr. who was also a session musician. Page used his Fender Telecaster and later his Gibson Les Paul for his bow solos.
Notable guitars
Strings
Ernie Ball electric guitar strings
Signature models
Gibson released Jimmy Page Signature Les Paul which was discontinued in 1999, then released another version in 2004, which has also been discontinued. The 2004 version included 25 guitars signed by Page, 150 aged by a former Gibson employee (an acknowledged ageing 'master'), and 840 'unlimited' production guitars. The Jimmy Page Signature EDS-1275 has been produced by Gibson. Recently, Gibson reproduced Page's 1960 Les Paul Black Beauty, the one stolen from him in 1970, with modern modifications. This guitar was sold in 2008 with a run of 25, again signed by Page, plus an additional 500 unsigned guitars.In December 2009, Gibson released the 'Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul'. This is a re-creation of Page's famous number 2 Les Paul used by him since about 1974 until present. The model includes the same pick-up switching setup as devised by Page, shaved-down neck profile, Burstbucker pick-up at neck and 'Pagebucker' at the bridge. A total of 325 were made in three finishes: 25 Aged by Gibson's Tom Murphy, signed and played by Page ($26,000), 100 aged ($16,000) and 200 with VOS finish ($12,000).
Amplifiers and effects
He usually recorded in studio with a Vox AC30, Fender, and Orange amplification. The first Led Zeppelin album and the solo on "Stairway to Heaven" were played on a Fender Telecaster through a Supro amplifier.Page used a limited number of effects, including a Maestro Echoplex, a Dunlop Cry Baby, and an MXR phaser and Blue Box (distortion/octaver). Page also played a theremin.
Music production techniques
Jimmy Page is credited for the innovations in sound recording he brought to the studio during the years he was a member of Led Zeppelin, many of which he had initially developed as a session musician:
This apprenticeship ... became a part of [learning] how things were recorded. I started to learn microphone placements and things like that, what did and what didn't work. I certainly knew what did and didn't work with drummers because they put drummers in these little sound booths that had no sound deflection at all, and the drums would just sound awful. The reality of it is the drum is a musical instrument, it relies on having a bright room and a live room ... And so bit by bit I was learning really how ''not'' to record.
He developed a reputation for employing effects in new ways and trying out different methods of using microphones and amplification. During the late 1960s, most British music producers placed microphones directly in front of amplifiers and drums, resulting in the sometimes "tinny" sound of the recordings of the era. Page commented to ''Guitar World'' magazine that he felt the drum sounds of the day in particular "sounded like cardboard boxes." Instead, Page was a fan of 1950s recording techniques, Sun Studios being a particular favourite. In the same ''Guitar World'' interview, Page remarked, "Recording used to be a science", and "[engineers] used to have a maxim: distance equals depth." Taking this maxim to heart, Page developed the idea of placing an additional microphone some distance from the amplifier (as much as twenty feet) and then recording the balance between the two. By adopting this technique, Page became one of the first British producers to record a band's "ambient sound" – the distance of a note's time-lag from one end of the room to the other.
For the recording of several Led Zeppelin tracks, such as "Whole Lotta Love" and "You Shook Me", Page additionally utilised "reverse echo" – a technique which he claims to have invented himself while with The Yardbirds (he had originally developed the method when recording the 1967 single "Ten Little Indians"). This production technique involved hearing the echo before the main sound instead of after it, achieved by turning the tape over and employing the echo on a spare track, then turning the tape back over again to get the echo preceding the signal.
Page has stated that, as producer, he deliberately changed the audio engineers on Led Zeppelin albums, from Glyn Johns for the first album, to Eddie Kramer for ''Led Zeppelin II'', to Andy Johns for ''Led Zeppelin III'' and later albums. He explained that "I consciously kept changing engineers because I didn't want people to think that they were responsible for our sound. I wanted people to know it was me."
John Paul Jones acknowledged that Page's production techniques were a key component of the success of Led Zeppelin:
In an interview that Page himself gave to ''Guitar World'' magazine in 1993, he remarked on his work as a producer:
Personal life
Page had relationships with a number of rock groupies in the 1970s, including Pamela Des Barres, Bebe Buell and Lori Maddox. French model Charlotte Martin was Page's partner from 1970 to about 1982 or 1983. Page called her 'My Lady'. Together they have a daughter, Scarlet Page (born in 1971), who is a photographer.From 1986 to 1995 Page was married to Patricia Ecker, a model and waitress. They have a son, James Patrick Page III (born April 1988). Page later married Jimena Gómez-Paratcha, whom he met in Brazil on the No Quarter tour. He adopted her oldest daughter Jana (born 1994), and they have two children together: Zofia Jade (born 1997) and Ashen Josan (born 1999).
In 1972 Page bought, from Richard Harris, the home which William Burges (1827–1881) designed for himself in London, The Tower House. "I had an interest going back to my teens in the pre-Raphaelite movement and the architecture of Burges", he said. "What a wonderful world to discover." The reputation of Burges rests on his extravagant designs and his contribution to the Gothic revival in architecture in the nineteenth century.
From 1980 to 2004 Page owned The Mill House, Mill Lane, Windsor, which was formerly the home of actor Michael Caine. Fellow Led Zeppelin band member John Bonham died at the house in 1980.
From the early 1970s to the early 1990s, Page owned the Boleskine House, the former residence of occultist Aleister Crowley. Sections of Page's fantasy sequence in the film ''The Song Remains the Same'' were filmed at night on the mountain side directly behind Boleskine House.
According to ''The Sunday Times'' Rich List, Page's assets are worth £75 million as of 2009. He resides in West Sussex.
Recreational drug use
Page has acknowledged heavy recreational drug use throughout the 1970s. In an interview with ''Guitar World'' magazine in 2003, he stated, "I can't speak for the [other members of the band], but for me drugs were an integral part of the whole thing, right from the beginning, right to the end." After the band's 1973 concert tour of the United States, Page told Nick Kent, "Oh, everyone went over the top a few times. I know I did and, to be honest with you, I don't really remember much of what happened."In 1975, Page began to use heroin, a fact attributed to Richard Cole, who stated that Page (in addition to himself) was taking the drug during the recording sessions of the album ''Presence'' in that year, and that Page admitted to him shortly afterwards that he was addicted to the drug.
By Led Zeppelin's 1977 tour of the United States, Page's heroin addiction was beginning to hamper his guitar playing performances. By this time the guitarist had lost a noticeable amount of weight. His onstage appearance was not the only obvious change; his addiction caused Page to become so inward and isolated it altered the dynamic between him and Plant considerably. During the recording sessions for ''In Through the Out Door'' in 1978, Page's diminished influence on the album (relative to bassist John Paul Jones) is partly attributed to his heroin addiction, which resulted in his absence from the studio for long periods of time.
Page reportedly kicked his heroin habit in the early 1980s. In a 1988 interview with ''Musician'' magazine, Page took offence when the interviewer noted that heroin had been associated with his name, and insisted "Do I look as if I'm a smack addict? Well, I'm not. Thank you very much."
In an interview he gave to ''Q magazine'' in 2003, Page responded to a question as to whether he regrets getting so involved in heroin and cocaine:
Interest in the occult
The appearance of four symbols on the jacket of Led Zeppelin's fourth album has been linked to Page's interest in the occult. The four symbols represented each member of the band. Page's own so-called "Zoso" symbol originated in 'Ars Magica Arteficii' (1557) by Gerolamo Cardano, an old alchemical grimoire, where it has been identified as a sigil consisting of zodiac signs. The sigil is reproduced in "Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils" by Fred Gettings.During tours and performances after the release of the fourth album, Page often had the "Zoso" symbol embroidered on his clothes, along with zodiac symbols. These were visible most notably on his "Dragon Suit", which included the signs for Capricorn, Scorpio and Cancer which are Page's Sun, Ascendant, and Moon signs, respectively.
The artwork inside the album cover of ''Led Zeppelin IV'' is from a painting by William Holman Hunt, influenced by the traditional Rider/Waite Tarot card design for the card called "The Hermit". Page transforms into this character during his fantasy sequence in Led Zeppelin's concert film ''The Song Remains the Same''.
In the early 1970s Page owned an occult bookshop and publishing house, "The Equinox Booksellers and Publishers" in Kensington High Street, London, eventually closing it as the increasing success of Led Zeppelin resulted in his having insufficient time to devote to it. The company published a facsimile of English occultist's Aleister Crowley's 1904 edition of ''The Goetia''. Page has maintained a strong interest in Crowley for many years. In 1978, he explained:
Page was commissioned to write the soundtrack music for the film ''Lucifer Rising'' by another occultist and Crowley admirer, underground movie director Kenneth Anger. Page ultimately produced 23 minutes of music which Anger felt was insufficient because the film ran for 28 minutes and Anger wanted the film to have a full soundtrack. Anger claimed Page took three years to deliver the music, and the final product was only 23 minutes of droning. The director also slammed the guitarist in the press by calling him a "dabbler" in the occult and an addict, and being too strung out on drugs to complete the project. Page countered that he had fulfilled all his obligations, even going so far as to lend Anger his own film editing equipment to help him finish the project.
Although Page collected works by Crowley, he has never described himself as a Thelemite nor was he ever initiated into the O.T.O. The Equinox Bookstore and Boleskine House were both sold off during the 1980s, as Page settled into family life and participated in charity work.
Discography
Single
Albums
Pre-Led Zeppelin (1963–1969)
Many pre-Led Zeppelin session recordings have been released on various labels and compilation packages, including:Please note that there are several duplicates amongst all these albums.
Post-Led Zeppelin
References
Published sources
External links
Category:English blues guitarists Category:English heavy metal guitarists Category:English rock guitarists Category:English session musicians Category:English songwriters Category:TVT Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Kerrang! Awards winners Category:Lead guitarists Category:Led Zeppelin members Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Pedal steel guitarists Category:People from Heston Category:Musicians from London Category:People from Windsor, Berkshire Category:Slide guitarists Category:The Yardbirds members Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Skiffle Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:British rhythm and blues boom musicians
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| Coordinates | 53°23′″N23°36′″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Elvis Presley |
| Alt | A young man dancing, swiveling his hips. He has dark hair, short and slicked up a bit. He wears an unbuttoned band-collared jacket over a shirt with bold black-and-white horizontal stripes. Behind him, on either side, are a pair of barred frames, like prison doors. |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Elvis Aaron Presley |
| Birth date | January 08, 1935 |
| Birth place | |
| Death date | August 16, 1977 |
| Death place | |
| Genre | Rock and roll, pop, rockabilly, country, blues, gospel, R&B; |
| Associated acts | The Blue Moon Boys, The Jordanaires, The Imperials |
| Occupation | Musician, actor |
| Instrument | Vocals, guitar, piano |
| Years active | 1953–77 |
| Label | Sun, RCA Victor |
| Website | }} |
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was one of the originators of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in ''Love Me Tender''.
Conscripted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He staged few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special that led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973 Presley staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, ''Aloha from Hawaii'', seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.
Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music. Nominated for 14 competitive Grammys, he won three, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.
Life and career
Early years (1935–53)
Childhood in Tupelo
Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to 18-year-old Vernon Elvis and 22-year-old Gladys Love Presley. In the two-room shotgun house built by his father in readiness for the birth, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. As an only child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an unusually tight bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church where he found his initial musical inspiration.Presley's ancestry was primarily a Western European mix: On his mother's side, he was Scots-Irish, with some French Norman; one of Gladys's great-great-grandmothers was Cherokee. His father's forebears were of Scottish or German origin. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family. Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evidencing little ambition. The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by the landowner. He was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives.
In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his instructors regarded him as "average". He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, saw his first public performance: dressed as a cowboy, the ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth. A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle. Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."
Entering a new school, Milam, for sixth grade in September 1946, Presley was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar in on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime, and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. The family was by then living in a largely African American neighborhood. A devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO, Presley was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, a classmate of Presley's, who often took him in to the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques. When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.
Teenage life in Memphis
In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Courts. Enrolled at Humes High School, Presley received only a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher told him he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me", in an effort to prove otherwise. A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of singing." He was generally too shy to perform openly, and was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy". In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of Jesse Lee Denson, a neighbor two-and-a-half years his senior. They and three other boys—including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective that played frequently around the Courts. That September, he began ushering at Loew's State Theater. Other jobs followed during his school years: Precision Tool, Loew's again, and MARL Metal Products.During his junior year, Presley began to stand out more among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew out his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and Vaseline. On his own time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze longingly at the wild, flashy clothes in the windows of Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing them. Overcoming his reticence about performing outside the Courts, he competed in Humes's Annual "Minstrel" show in April 1953. Singing and playing guitar, he opened with "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation: "I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show ... when I came onstage I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became after that."
Presley, who never received formal music training or learned to read music, studied and played by ear. He frequented record stores with jukeboxes and listening booths. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills. The Southern Gospel singer Jake Hess, one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style. He was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African American spiritual music. He adored the music of black gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues—of necessity, in the segregated South, only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences. He certainly listened to the regional radio stations that played "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy sound of rhythm and blues. Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas. B.B. King recalled that he knew Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street. By the time he graduated high school in June 1953, Presley had already singled out music as his future.
First recordings (1953–55)
Sam Phillips and Sun Records
In August 1953, Presley walked into the offices of Sun Records. He aimed to pay for a few minutes of studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". He would later claim he intended the record as a gift for his mother, or was merely interested in what he "sounded like", though there was a much cheaper, amateur record-making service at a nearby general store. Biographer Peter Guralnick argues that he chose Sun in the hope of being discovered. Asked by receptionist Marion Keisker what kind of singer he was, Presley responded, "I sing all kinds." When she pressed him on whom he sounded like, he repeatedly answered, "I don't sound like nobody." After he recorded, Sun boss Sam Phillips asked Keisker to note down the young man's name, which she did along with her own commentary: "Good ballad singer. Hold." Presley cut a second acetate in January 1954—"I'll Never Stand In Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"—but again nothing came of it.Not long after, he failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows. He explained to his father, "They told me I couldn't sing." Songfellow Jim Hamill later claimed that he was turned down because he did not demonstrate an ear for harmony at the time. In April, Presley began working for the Crown Electric company as a truck driver. His friend Ronnie Smith, after playing a few local gigs with him, suggested he contact Eddie Bond, leader of Smith's professional band, which had an opening for a vocalist. Bond rejected him after a tryout, advising Presley to stick to truck driving "because you're never going to make it as a singer."
Phillips, meanwhile, was always on the lookout for someone who could bring the sound of the black musicians on whom Sun focused to a broader audience. As Keisker reported, "Over and over I remember Sam saying, 'If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.'" In June, he acquired a demo recording of a ballad, "Without You", that he thought might suit the teenaged singer. Presley came by the studio, but was unable to do it justice. Despite this, Phillips asked Presley to sing as many numbers as he knew. He was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and upright bass player Bill Black, to work something up with Presley for a recording session. }} The session, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to give up and go home, Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right". Moore recalled, "All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open ... he stuck his head out and said, 'What are you doing?' And we said, 'We don't know.' 'Well, back up,' he said, 'try to find a place to start, and do it again.'" Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for. Three days later, popular Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips played "That's All Right" on his ''Red, Hot, and Blue'' show. Listeners began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer was. The interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the last two hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended in order to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed he was black. During the next few days the trio recorded a bluegrass number, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", again in a distinctive style and employing a jury-rigged echo effect that Sam Phillips dubbed "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.
Early live performances and signing to RCA
The trio played publicly for the first time on July 17 at the Bon Air club—Presley still sporting his child-size guitar. At the end of the month, they appeared at the Overton Park Shell, with Slim Whitman headlining. A combination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness at playing before a large crowd led Presley to shake his legs as he performed: his wide-cut pants emphasized his movements, causing young women in the audience to start screaming. Moore recalled, "During the instrumental parts he would back off from the mike and be playing and shaking, and the crowd would just go wild". Black, a natural showman, whooped and rode his bass, hitting double licks that Presley would later remember as "really a wild sound, like a jungle drum or something". Soon after, Moore and Black quit their old band to play with Presley regularly, and DJ and promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager. From August through October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest club and returned to Sun Studio for more recording sessions, and Presley quickly grew more confident on stage. According to Moore, "His movement was a natural thing, but he was also very conscious of what got a reaction. He'd do something one time and then he would expand on it real quick." Presley made what would be his only appearance on Nashville's ''Grand Ole Opry'' on October 2; after a polite audience response, ''Opry'' manager Jim Denny told Phillips that his singer was "not bad" but did not suit the program. Two weeks later, Presley was booked on ''Louisiana Hayride'', the ''Opry''s chief, and more adventurous, rival. The Shreveport-based show was broadcast to 198 radio stations in 28 states. Presley had another attack of nerves during the first set, which drew a muted reaction. A more composed and energetic second set inspired an enthusiastic response. House drummer D.J. Fontana brought a new element, complementing Presley's movements with accented beats that he had mastered playing in strip clubs. Soon after the show, the ''Hayride'' engaged Presley for a year's worth of Saturday-night appearances. Trading in his old guitar for $8 (and seeing it promptly dispatched to the garbage), he purchased a Martin instrument for $175, and his trio began playing in new locales including Houston, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas.By early 1955, Presley's regular ''Hayride'' appearances, constant touring, and well-received record releases had made him a substantial regional star, from Tennessee to West Texas. In January, Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought the singer to the attention of Colonel Tom Parker, whom he considered the best promoter in the music business. Parker—Dutch-born, though he claimed to be from West Virginia—had acquired an honorary colonel's commission from country singer turned Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis. Having successfully managed top country star Eddy Arnold, he was now working with the new number one country singer, Hank Snow. Parker booked Presley on Snow's February tour. When the tour reached Odessa, Texas, a 19-year-old Roy Orbison saw Presley for the first time: "His energy was incredible, his instinct was just amazing. ... I just didn't know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it." Presley made his television debut on March 3 on the KSLA-TV broadcast of ''Louisiana Hayride''. Soon after, he failed an audition for ''Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts'' on the CBS television network. By August, Sun had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill"; on the latest recordings, the trio were joined by a drummer. Some of the songs, like "That's All Right", were in what one Memphis journalist described as the "R&B; idiom of negro field jazz"; others, like "Blue Moon of Kentucky", were "more in the country field", "but there was a curious blending of the two different musics in both". This blend of styles made it difficult for Presley's music to find radio airplay. According to Neal, many country music disc jockeys would not play it because he sounded too much like a black artist and none of the rhythm and blues stations would touch him because "he sounded too much like a hillbilly." The blend came to be known as rockabilly. At the time, Presley was variously billed as "The King of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat", and "The Memphis Flash".
Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Parker as his special adviser. The group maintained an extensive touring schedule throughout the second half of the year. Neal recalled, "It was almost frightening, the reaction that came to Elvis from the teenaged boys. So many of them, through some sort of jealousy, would practically hate him. There were occasions in some towns in Texas when we'd have to be sure to have a police guard because somebody'd always try to take a crack at him. They'd get a gang and try to waylay him or something." The trio became a quartet when ''Hayride'' drummer Fontana joined as a full member. In mid-October, they played a few shows in support of Bill Haley, whose "Rock Around the Clock" had been a number one hit the previous year. Haley observed that Presley had a natural feel for rhythm, and advised him to sing fewer ballads.
At the Country Disc Jockey Convention in early November, Presley was voted the year's most promising male artist. Several record companies had by now shown interest in signing him. After three major labels made offers of up to $25,000, Parker and Phillips struck a deal with RCA Victor on November 21 to acquire Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $40,000. Presley, at 20, was still a minor, so his father signed the contract. Parker arranged with the owners of Hill and Range Publishing, Jean and Julian Aberbach, to create two entities, Elvis Presley Music and Gladys Music, to handle all of the new material recorded by Presley. Songwriters were obliged to forego one third of their customary royalties in exchange for having him perform their compositions. By December, RCA had begun to heavily promote its new singer, and before month's end had reissued many of his Sun recordings.
Commercial breakout and controversy (1956–58)
First national TV appearances and debut album
On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA in Nashville. Extending the singer's by now customary backup of Moore, Black, and Fontana, RCA enlisted pianist Floyd Cramer, guitarist Chet Atkins, and three background singers, including Gordon Stoker of the popular Jordanaires quartet, to fill out the sound. The session produced the moody, unusual "Heartbreak Hotel", released as a single on January 27. Parker finally brought Presley to national television, booking him on CBS's ''Stage Show'' for six appearances over two months. The program, produced in New York, was hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. After his first appearance, on January 28, Presley stayed in town to record at RCA's New York studio. The sessions yielded eight songs, including a cover of Carl Perkins' rockabilly anthem "Blue Suede Shoes". In February, Presley's "I Forgot to Remember to Forget", a Sun recording initially released the previous August, reached the top of the ''Billboard'' country chart. Neal's contract was terminated and, on March 2, Parker became Presley's manager. RCA Victor released Presley's self-titled debut album on March 23. Joined by five previously unreleased Sun recordings, its seven recently recorded tracks were of a broad variety. There were two country songs and a bouncy pop tune. The others would centrally define the evolving sound of rock and roll: "Blue Suede Shoes"—"an improvement over Perkins' in almost every way", according to critic Robert Hilburn—and three R&B; numbers that had been part of Presley's stage repertoire for some time, covers of Little Richard, Ray Charles, and The Drifters. As described by Hilburn, these "were the most revealing of all. Unlike many white artists ... who watered down the gritty edges of the original R&B; versions of songs in the '50s, Presley reshaped them. He not only injected the tunes with his own vocal character but also made guitar, not piano, the lead instrument in all three cases." It became the first rock and roll album to top the ''Billboard'' chart, a position it held for 10 weeks. While Presley was not an innovative instrumentalist like Moore or contemporary African American rockers Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, cultural historian Gilbert B. Rodman argues that the album's cover image, "of Elvis having the time of his life on stage ''with a guitar in his hands'' played a crucial role in positioning the guitar...as the instrument that best captured the style and spirit of this new music."
''Milton Berle Show'' and "Hound Dog"
Presley made the first of two appearances on NBC's ''Milton Berle Show'' on April 3. His performance, on the deck of the USS ''Hancock'' in San Diego, prompted cheers and screams from an audience of sailors and their dates. A few days later, a flight taking Presley and his band to Nashville for a recording session left all three badly shaken when an engine died and the plane almost went down over Arkansas. Twelve weeks after its original release, "Heartbreak Hotel" became Presley's first number one pop hit. In late April, Presley began a two-week residency at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The shows were poorly received by the conservative, middle-aged hotel guests—"like a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party", wrote a critic for ''Newsweek''. Amid his Vegas tenure, Presley, who had serious acting ambitions, signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures. He began a tour of the Midwest in mid-May, taking in 15 cities in as many days. He had attended several shows by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys in Vegas, and was struck by their cover of "Hound Dog", a hit in 1952 for blues singer Big Mama Thornton by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It became the new closing number of his act. After a show in La Crosse, Wisconsin, an urgent message on the letterhead of the local Catholic diocese's newspaper was sent to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. It warned that "Presley is a definite danger to the security of the United States. ... [His] actions and motions were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. ... After the show, more than 1,000 teenagers tried to gang into Presley's room at the auditorium. ... Indications of the harm Presley did just in La Crosse were the two high school girls ... whose abdomen and thigh had Presley's autograph."The second ''Milton Berle Show'' appearance came on June 5 at NBC's Hollywood studio, amid another hectic tour. Berle persuaded the singer to leave his guitar backstage, advising, "Let 'em see you, son." During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an uptempo rendition of "Hound Dog" with a wave of his arm and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with energetic, exaggerated body movements. Presley's gyrations created a storm of controversy. Television critics were outraged: Jack Gould of ''The New York Times'' wrote, "Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability. ... His phrasing, if it can be called that, consists of the stereotyped variations that go with a beginner's aria in a bathtub. ... His one specialty is an accented movement of the body ... primarily identified with the repertoire of the blond bombshells of the burlesque runway." Ben Gross of the New York ''Daily News'' opined that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley. ... Elvis, who rotates his pelvis ... gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos". Ed Sullivan, whose own variety show was the nation's most popular, declared him "unfit for family viewing". To Presley's displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as "Elvis the Pelvis", which he called "one of the most childish expressions I ever heard, comin' from an adult."
''Steve Allen Show'' and first Sullivan appearance
The Berle shows drew such high ratings that Presley was booked for a July 1 appearance on NBC's ''Steve Allen Show'' in New York. Allen, no fan of rock and roll, introduced a "new Elvis" in a white bow tie and black tails. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a basset hound wearing a top hat and bow tie. As described by television historian Jake Austen, "Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd... [he] set things up so that Presley would show his contrition". Allen, for his part, later wrote that he found Presley's "strange, gangly, country-boy charisma, his hard-to-define cuteness, and his charming eccentricity intriguing" and simply worked the singer into the customary "comedy fabric" of his program. Presley would refer back to the Allen show as the most ridiculous performance of his career. Later that night, he appeared on ''Hy Gardner Calling'', a popular local TV show. Pressed on whether he had learned anything from the criticism to which he was being subjected, Presley responded, "No, I haven't, I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong. ... I don't see how any type of music would have any bad influence on people when it's only music. ... I mean, how would rock 'n' roll music make anyone rebel against their parents?"The next day, Presley recorded "Hound Dog", along with "Any Way You Want Me" and "Don't Be Cruel". The Jordanaires sang harmony, as they had on ''The Steve Allen Show''; they would work with Presley through the 1960s. A few days later, the singer made an outdoor concert appearance in Memphis at which he announced, "You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight." In August, a judge in Jacksonville, Florida, ordered Presley to tame his act. Throughout the following performance, he largely kept still, except for wiggling his little finger suggestively in mockery of the order. The single pairing "Don't Be Cruel" with "Hound Dog" ruled the top of the charts for 11 weeks—a mark that would not be surpassed for 36 years. Recording sessions for Presley's second album took place in Hollywood during the first week of September. Leiber and Stoller, the writers of "Hound Dog", contributed "Love Me".
Allen's show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten CBS's ''Ed Sullivan Show'' in the ratings. Sullivan, despite his June pronouncement, booked the singer for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000. The first, on September 9, 1956, was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—a record 82.6 percent of the television audience. Actor Charles Laughton hosted the show, filling in while Sullivan recuperated from a car accident. Presley appeared in two segments that night from CBS Television City in Los Angeles. According to Elvis legend, Presley was shot only from the waist up. Watching clips of the Allen and Berle shows with his producer, Sullivan had opined that Presley "got some kind of device hanging down below the crotch of his pants–so when he moves his legs back and forth you can see the outline of his cock. ... I think it's a Coke bottle. ... We just can't have this on a Sunday night. This is a family show!" Sullivan publicly told ''TV Guide'', "As for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots." In fact, Presley was shown head-to-toe in the first and second shows. Though the camerawork was relatively discreet during his debut, with leg-concealing closeups when he danced, the studio audience reacted in customary style: screaming. Presley's performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad "Love Me Tender", prompted a record-shattering million advance orders. More than any other single event, it was this first appearance on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' that made Presley a national celebrity of barely precedented proportions.
Accompanying Presley's rise to fame, a cultural shift was taking place that he both helped inspire and came to symbolize. Igniting the "biggest pop craze since Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra ... Presley brought rock'n'roll into the mainstream of popular culture", writes historian Marty Jezer. "As Presley set the artistic pace, other artists followed. ... Presley, more than anyone else, gave the young a belief in themselves as a distinct and somehow unified generation—the first in America ever to feel the power of an integrated youth culture."
Crazed crowds and movie debut
The audience response at Presley's live shows became increasingly fevered. Moore recalled, "He'd start out, 'You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog,' and they'd just go to pieces. They'd always react the same way. There'd be a riot every time." At the two concerts he performed in September at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, 50 National Guardsmen were added to the police security to prevent crowd trouble. ''Elvis'', Presley's second album, was released in October and quickly rose to number one. Assessing the musical and cultural impact of Presley's recordings from "That's All Right" through ''Elvis'', rock critic Dave Marsh wrote that "these records, more than any others, contain the seeds of what rock & roll was, has been and most likely what it may foreseeably become."Presley returned to the Sullivan show at its main studio in New York, hosted this time by its namesake, on October 28. After the performance, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis burned him in effigy. His first motion picture, ''Love Me Tender'', was released on November 21. Though he was not top billed, the film's original title—''The Reno Brothers''—was changed to capitalize on his latest number one record: "Love Me Tender" had hit the top of the charts earlier that month. To further take advantage of Presley's popularity, four musical numbers were added to what was originally a straight acting role. The movie was panned by the critics but did very well at the box office. Presley would receive top billing on every subsequent film he made.
On December 4, Presley dropped into Sun Records where Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were recording and jammed with them. Though Phillips no longer had the right to release any Presley material, he made sure the session was captured on tape. The results became legendary as the "Million Dollar Quartet" recordings—Johnny Cash was long thought to have played as well, but he was present only briefly at Phillips' instigation for a photo opportunity. The year ended with a front-page story in ''The Wall Street Journal'' reporting that Presley merchandise had brought in $22 million on top of his record sales, and ''Billboard''s declaration that he had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted. In his first full year on RCA, one of the music industry's largest companies, Presley had accounted for over 50 percent of the label's singles sales.
Leiber and Stoller collaboration and draft notice
Presley made his third and final ''Ed Sullivan Show'' appearance on January 6, 1957—on this occasion indeed shot only down to the waist. Some commentators have claimed that Parker orchestrated an appearance of censorship to generate publicity. In any event, as critic Greil Marcus describes, Presley "did not tie himself down. Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows, he stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in ''The Sheik'', with all stops out." To close, displaying his range and defying Sullivan's wishes, Presley sang a gentle black spiritual, "Peace in the Valley". At the end of the show, Sullivan declared Presley "a real decent, fine boy". Two days later, the Memphis draft board announced that Presley would be classified 1A and would probably be drafted sometime that year. Each of the three Presley singles released in the first half of 1957 went to number one: "Too Much", "All Shook Up", and "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear". Already an international star, he was attracting fans even where his music was not officially released. Under the headline "Presley Records a Craze in Soviet", ''The New York Times'' reported that pressings of his music on discarded X-ray plates were commanding high prices in Leningrad. Between film shoots and recording sessions, the singer also found time to purchase an 18-room mansion eight miles (13 km) south of downtown Memphis for himself and his parents: Graceland. ''Loving You''—the soundtrack to his second film, released in July—was Presley's third straight number one album. The title track was written by Leiber and Stoller, who were then retained to write four of the six songs recorded at the sessions for ''Jailhouse Rock'', Presley's next movie. The songwriting team effectively produced the ''Jailhouse'' sessions and developed a close working relationship with Presley, who came to regard them as his "good-luck charm". The title track was yet another number one hit, as was the ''Jailhouse Rock'' EP.Presley undertook three brief tours during the year, continuing to generate a crazed audience response. A Detroit newspaper suggested that "the trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're liable to get killed." Villanova students pelted him with eggs in Philadelphia, and in Vancouver, the crowd rioted after the end of the show, destroying the stage. Frank Sinatra, who had famously inspired the swooning of teenaged girls in the 1940s, condemned the new musical phenomenon. In a magazine article, he decried rock and roll as "brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious. ... It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phoney and false. It is sung, played and written, for the most part, by cretinous goons. ... This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore." Asked for a response, Presley said, "I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it. ... This is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago."
Leiber and Stoller were again in the studio for the recording of ''Elvis' Christmas Album''. Toward the end of the session, they wrote a song on the spot at Presley's request: "Santa Claus Is Back In Town", an innuendo-laden blues. The holiday release stretched Presley's string of number one albums to four and would eventually become the best selling Christmas album of all time. After the session, Moore and Black—drawing only modest weekly salaries, sharing in none of Presley's massive financial success—resigned. Though they were brought back on a per diem basis a few weeks later, it was clear that they had not been part of Presley's inner circle for some time. On December 20, Presley received his draft notice. He was granted a deferment to finish the forthcoming ''King Creole'', in which $350,000 had already been invested by Paramount and producer Hal Wallis. A couple of weeks into the new year, "Don't", another Leiber and Stoller tune, became Presley's tenth number one seller. It had been only 21 months since "Heartbreak Hotel" had brought him to the top for the first time. Recording sessions for the ''King Creole'' soundtrack were held in Hollywood mid-January. Leiber and Stoller provided three songs and were again on hand, but it would be the last time they worked closely with Presley. A studio session on February 1 marked another ending: it was the final occasion on which Black was to perform with Presley. He died in 1965.
Military service and mother's death (1958–60)
On March 24, Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army as a private at Fort Chaffee, near Fort Smith, Arkansas. His arrival was a major media event. Hundreds of people descended on Presley as he stepped from the bus; photographers then accompanied him into the base. Presley announced that he was looking forward to his military stint, saying he did not want to be treated any differently from anyone else: "The Army can do anything it wants with me."Soon after Presley commenced basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, he received a visit from Eddie Fadal, a businessman he had met on tour. According to Fadal, Presley had become convinced his career was finished—"He firmly believed that." During a two-week leave in early June, Presley cut five sides in Nashville. In early August, his mother was diagnosed with hepatitis and her condition swiftly worsened. Presley, granted emergency leave to visit her, arrived in Memphis on August 12. Two days later, she died of heart failure, aged 46. Presley was devastated; their relationship had remained extremely close—even into his adulthood, they would use baby talk with each other and Presley would address her with pet names.
After training, Presley joined the 3rd Armored Division in Friedberg, Germany, on October 1. Introduced to amphetamines by a sergeant while on maneuvers, he became "practically evangelical about their benefits"—not only for energy, but for "strength" and weight loss, as well—and many of his friends in the outfit joined him in indulging. The Army also introduced Presley to karate, which he studied seriously, later including it in his live performances. Fellow soldiers have attested to Presley's wish to be seen as an able, ordinary soldier, despite his fame, and to his generosity. He donated his Army pay to charity, purchased TV sets for the base, and bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit.
While in Friedberg, Presley met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. They would eventually marry after a seven-and-a-half-year courtship. In her autobiography, Priscilla says that despite his worries that it would ruin his career, Parker convinced Presley that to gain popular respect, he should serve his country as a regular soldier rather than in Special Services, where he would have been able to give some musical performances and remain in touch with the public. Media reports echoed Presley's concerns about his career, but RCA producer Steve Sholes and Freddy Bienstock of Hill and Range had carefully prepared for his two-year hiatus. Armed with a substantial amount of unreleased material, they kept up a regular stream of successful releases. Between his induction and discharge, Presley had ten top 40 hits, including "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck", the best-selling "Hard Headed Woman", and "One Night" in 1958, and "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I" and the number one "A Big Hunk o' Love" in 1959. RCA also generated four albums compiling old material during this period, most successfully ''Elvis' Golden Records'' (1958), which hit number three on the LP chart.
Focus on movies (1960–67)
''Elvis Is Back''
}} Presley returned to the United States on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant on March 5. The train that carried him from New Jersey to Tennessee was mobbed all the way, and Presley was called upon to appear at scheduled stops to please his fans. On the night of March 20, he entered RCA's Nashville studio to cut tracks for a new album along with a single—"Stuck on You" was rushed into release and swiftly became a number one hit. Another Nashville session two weeks later yielded a pair of his best-selling singles, the ballads "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", along with the rest of ''Elvis Is Back!'' The album features several songs described by Greil Marcus as full of Chicago blues "menace, driven by Presley's own super-miked acoustic guitar, brilliant playing by Scotty Moore, and demonic sax work from Boots Randolph. Elvis's singing wasn't sexy, it was pornographic." As a whole, the record "conjured up the vision of a performer who could be all things", in the words of music historian John Robertson: "a flirtatious teenage idol with a heart of gold; a tempestuous, dangerous lover; a gutbucket blues singer; a sophisticated nightclub entertainer; [a] raucous rocker". Released only days after recording was complete, it reached number two on the album chart.Presley returned to television on May 12 as a guest on ''The Frank Sinatra Timex Special''—ironic for both stars, given Sinatra's not-so-distant excoriation of rock and roll. Also known as ''Welcome Home Elvis'', the show had been taped in late March, the only time all year Presley performed in front of an audience. Parker secured an unheard-of $125,000 fee for eight minutes of singing. The broadcast drew an enormous viewership.
''G.I. Blues'', the soundtrack to Presley's first film since his return, was a number one album in October. His first LP of sacred material, ''His Hand in Mine'', followed two months later. It reached number 13 on the U.S. pop chart and number 3 in Great Britain, remarkable figures for a gospel album. In February 1961, Presley performed two shows for a benefit event in Memphis, on behalf of 24 local charities. During a luncheon preceding the event, RCA presented him with a plaque certifying worldwide sales of over 75 million records. A 12-hour Nashville session in mid-March yielded nearly all of Presley's next studio album, ''Something for Everybody''. As described by John Robertson, it exemplifies the Nashville sound, the restrained, cosmopolitan style that would define country music in the 1960s. Presaging much of what was to come from Presley himself over the next half-decade, the album is largely "a pleasant, unthreatening pastiche of the music that had once been Elvis's birthright." It would be his sixth number one LP. Another benefit concert, raising money for a Pearl Harbor memorial, was staged on March 25, in Hawaii. It was to be Presley's last public performance for seven years.
Lost in Hollywood
Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy moviemaking schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted musical comedies. Presley at first insisted on pursuing more serious roles, but when two films in a more dramatic vein—''Flaming Star'' (1960) and ''Wild in the Country'' (1961)—were less commercially successful, he reverted to the formula. Among the 27 movies he made during the 1960s, there were few further exceptions. His films were almost universally panned; one critic dismissed them as a "pantheon of bad taste". Nonetheless, they were virtually all profitable. Hal Wallis, who produced nine of them, declared, "A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood."Of Presley's films in the 1960s, 15 were accompanied by soundtrack albums and another 5 by soundtrack EPs. The movies' rapid production and release schedules—he frequently starred in three a year—affected his music. According to Jerry Leiber, the soundtrack formula was already evident before Presley left for the Army: "three ballads, one medium-tempo [number], one up-tempo, and one break blues boogie". As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew "progressively worse". Julie Parrish, who appeared in ''Paradise, Hawaiian Style'' (1966), says that he hated many of the songs chosen for his films. The Jordanaires' Gordon Stoker describes how Presley would retreat from the studio microphone: "The material was so bad that he felt like he couldn't sing it." Most of the movie albums featured a song or two from respected writers such as the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. But by and large, according to biographer Jerry Hopkins, the numbers seemed to be "written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll." Regardless of the songs' quality, it has been argued that Presley generally sang them well, with commitment. Critic Dave Marsh heard the opposite: "Presley isn't trying, probably the wisest course in the face of material like 'No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car' and 'Rock-a-Hula Baby.'"
In the first half of the decade, three of Presley's soundtrack albums hit number one on the pop charts, and a few of his most popular songs came from his films, such as "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1961) and "Return to Sender" (1962). ("Viva Las Vegas", the title track to the 1964 film, was a minor hit as a B-side, and became truly popular only later.) But, as with artistic merit, the commercial returns steadily diminished. During a five-year span—1964 through 1968—Presley had only one top ten hit: "Crying in the Chapel" (1965), a gospel number recorded back in 1960. As for non-movie albums, between the June 1962 release of ''Pot Luck'' and the November 1968 release of the soundtrack to the television special that signaled his comeback, only one LP of new material by Presley was issued: the gospel album ''How Great Thou Art'' (1967). It won him his first Grammy Award, for Best Sacred Performance. As Marsh described, Presley was "arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time [and] really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs."
Shortly before Christmas 1966, more than seven years since they first met, Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu. They were married on May 1, 1967, in a brief ceremony in their suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. The flow of formulaic movies and assembly-line soundtracks rolled on. It was not until October 1967, when the ''Clambake'' soundtrack LP registered record low sales for a new Presley album, that RCA executives recognized a problem. "By then, of course, the damage had been done", as historians Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx put it. "Elvis was viewed as a joke by serious music lovers and a has-been to all but his most loyal fans."
Comeback (1968–73)
''Elvis'': the '68 Comeback Special
Presley's only child, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1, 1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career. Of the eight Presley singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two charted in the top 40, and none higher than number 28. His forthcoming soundtrack album, ''Speedway'', would die at number 82 on the ''Billboard'' chart. Parker had already shifted his plans to television, where Presley had not appeared since the Sinatra Timex show in 1960. He maneuvered a deal with NBC that committed the network to both finance a theatrical feature and broadcast a Christmas special.Recorded in late June in Burbank, California, the special, called simply ''Elvis'', aired on December 3, 1968. Later known as the '68 Comeback Special, the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley's first live performances since 1961. The live segments saw Presley clad in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock and roll days. Director and coproducer Steve Binder had worked hard to reassure the nervous singer and to produce a show that was far from the hour of Christmas songs Parker had originally planned. The show, NBC's highest rated that season, captured 42 percent of the total viewing audience. Jon Landau of ''Eye'' magazine remarked, "There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home. He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect of rock 'n' roll singers. He moved his body with a lack of pretension and effort that must have made Jim Morrison green with envy." Dave Marsh calls the performance one of "emotional grandeur and historical resonance."
By January 1969, the single "If I Can Dream", written for the special, reached number 12. The soundtrack album broke into the top ten. According to friend Jerry Schilling, the special reminded Presley of what "he had not been able to do for years, being able to choose the people; being able to choose what songs and not being told what had to be on the soundtrack. ... He was out of prison, man." Binder said of Presley's reaction, "I played Elvis the 60-minute show, and he told me in the screening room, 'Steve, it's the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. I give you my word I will never sing a song I don't believe in.'"
''From Elvis In Memphis'' and the International
}} Buoyed by the experience of the Comeback Special, Presley engaged in a prolific series of recording sessions at American Sound Studio, which led to the acclaimed ''From Elvis in Memphis''. Released in June 1969, it was his first secular, non-soundtrack album from a dedicated period in the studio in eight years. As described by Dave Marsh, it is "a masterpiece in which Presley immediately catches up with pop music trends that had seemed to pass him by during the movie years. He sings country songs, soul songs and rockers with real conviction, a stunning achievement." The album featured the hit single "In the Ghetto", issued in April, which reached number three on the pop chart—Presley's first non-gospel top ten hit since "Bossa Nova Baby" in 1963. Further hit singles were culled from the American Sound sessions: "Suspicious Minds", "Don't Cry Daddy", and "Kentucky Rain".Presley was keen to resume regular live performing. Following the success of the Comeback Special, offers came in from around the world. The London Palladium offered Parker $28,000 for a one-week engagement. He responded, "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?" In May, the brand new International Hotel in Las Vegas, boasting the largest showroom in the city, announced that it had booked Presley. He was scheduled to perform 57 shows over four weeks beginning July 31. Moore, Fontana, and the Jordanaires declined to participate, afraid of losing the lucrative session work they had in Nashville. Presley assembled new, top-notch accompaniment, led by guitarist James Burton and including two gospel groups, The Imperials and Sweet Inspirations. Nonetheless, he was nervous: his only previous Las Vegas engagement, in 1956, had been dismal. Parker, who intended to make Presley's return the show business event of the year, oversaw a major promotional push. For his part, hotel owner Kirk Kerkorian arranged to send his own plane to New York to fly in rock journalists for the debut performance.
Presley took to the stage without introduction. The audience of 2,200, including many celebrities, gave him a standing ovation before he sang a note and another after his performance. A third followed his encore, "Can't Help Falling in Love" (a song that would be his closing number for much of the 1970s). At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to him as "The King", Presley gestured toward Fats Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll." The next day, Parker's negotiations with the hotel resulted in a five-year contract for Presley to play each February and August, at an annual salary of $1 million. ''Newsweek'' commented, "There are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade like shooting stars." ''Rolling Stone'' called Presley "supernatural, his own resurrection." In November, Presley's final non-concert movie, ''Change of Habit'', opened. The double album ''From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis'' came out the same month; the first LP consisted of live performances from the International, the second of more cuts from the American Sound sessions. "Suspicious Minds" reached the top of the charts—Presley's first U.S. pop number one in over seven years, and his last.
Cassandra Peterson, later television's Elvira, met Presley during this period in Las Vegas, where she was working as showgirl. She recalls of their encounter, "He was so anti-drug when I met him. I mentioned to him that I smoked marijuana, and he was just appalled. He said, 'Don't ever do that again.'" Presley was not only deeply opposed to recreational drugs, he also rarely drank. Several of his family members had been alcoholics, a fate he intended to avoid.
Back on tour and meeting Nixon
Presley returned to the International early in 1970 for the first of the year's two month-long engagements, performing two shows a night. Recordings from these shows were issued on the album ''On Stage''. In late February, Presley performed six attendance-record–breaking shows at the Houston Astrodome. In April, the single "The Wonder of You" was issued—a number one hit in Great Britain, it topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart, as well. MGM filmed rehearsal and concert footage at the International during August for the documentary ''Elvis: That's the Way It Is''. Presley was by now performing in a jumpsuit, which would become a trademark of his live act. During this engagement, he was threatened with murder unless $50,000 was paid. Presley had been the target of many threats since the 1950s, often without his knowledge. The FBI took the threat seriously and security was stepped up for the next two shows. Presley went onstage with a Derringer in his right boot and a .45 pistol in his waistband, but the concerts went off without incident.The album ''That's the Way It Is'', produced to accompany the documentary and featuring both studio and live recordings, marked a stylistic shift. As music historian John Robertson notes, "The authority of Presley's singing helped disguise the fact that the album stepped decisively away from the American-roots inspiration of the Memphis sessions towards a more middle-of-the-road sound. With country put on the back burner, and soul and R&B; left in Memphis, what was left was very classy, very clean white pop—perfect for the Las Vegas crowd, but a definite retrograde step for Elvis." After the end of his International engagement on September 7, Presley embarked on a week-long concert tour, largely of the South, his first since 1958. Another week-long tour, of the West Coast, followed in November.
On December 21, 1970, Presley engineered a meeting with President Richard Nixon at the White House, where he expressed his patriotism and his contempt for the hippie drug culture. He asked Nixon for a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to add to similar items he had begun collecting and to signify official sanction of his patriotic efforts. Nixon, who apparently found the encounter awkward, expressed a belief that Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was therefore important he "retain his credibility". Presley told Nixon that The Beatles, whose songs he regularly performed in concert during the era, exemplified what he saw as a trend of anti-Americanism and drug abuse in popular culture. (Presley and his friends had had a four-hour get-together with The Beatles five years earlier.) On hearing reports of the meeting, Paul McCartney later said that he "felt a bit betrayed. ... The great joke was that we were taking [illegal] drugs, and look what happened to him", a reference to Presley's death, hastened by prescription drug abuse.
The U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named Presley one of its annual Ten Most Outstanding Young Men of the Nation on January 16, 1971. Not long after, the City of Memphis named the stretch of Highway 51 South on which Graceland is located "Elvis Presley Boulevard". The same year, Presley became the first rock and roll singer to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award (then known as the Bing Crosby Award) by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Grammy Award organization. Three new, non-movie Presley studio albums were released in 1971, as many as had come out over the previous eight years. Best received by critics was ''Elvis Country'', a concept record that focused on genre standards. The biggest seller was ''Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas'', "the truest statement of all", according to Greil Marcus. "In the midst of ten painfully genteel Christmas songs, every one sung with appalling sincerity and humility, one could find Elvis tom-catting his way through six blazing minutes of 'Merry Christmas, Baby,' a raunchy old Charles Brown blues. ... If [Presley's] sin was his lifelessness, it was his sinfulness that brought him to life".
Marriage breakdown and ''Aloha from Hawaii''
MGM again filmed Presley in April 1972, this time for ''Elvis on Tour'', which went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film that year. His gospel album ''He Touched Me'', released that month, would earn him his second Grammy Award, for Best Inspirational Performance. A 14-date tour commenced with an unprecedented four consecutive sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. The evening concert on July 10 was recorded and issued in LP form a week later. ''Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden'' became one of Presley's biggest-selling albums. After the tour, the single "Burning Love" was released—Presley's last top ten hit on the U.S. pop chart. "The most exciting single Elvis has made since 'All Shook Up'", wrote rock critic Robert Christgau. "Who else could make 'It's coming closer, the flames are now licking my body' sound like an assignation with James Brown's backup band?"Presley and his wife, meanwhile, had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting. In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion. He often raised the possibility of her moving in to Graceland, saying that he was likely to leave Priscilla. The Presleys separated on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla disclosed her relationship with Mike Stone, a karate instructor Presley had recommended to her. Priscilla relates that when she told him, Presley "grabbed ... and forcefully made love to" her, declaring, "This is how a real man makes love to his woman." Five months later, Presley's new girlfriend, Linda Thompson, a songwriter and one-time Memphis beauty queen, moved in with him. Presley and his wife filed for divorce on August 18. According to Joe Moscheo of the Imperials, the failure of Presley's marriage "was a blow from which he never recovered."
In January 1973, Presley performed two benefit concerts for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in connection with a groundbreaking TV special, ''Aloha from Hawaii''. The first show served as a practice run and backup should technical problems affect the live broadcast two days later. Aired as scheduled on January 14, ''Aloha from Hawaii'' was the first global concert satellite broadcast, reaching approximately 1.5 billion viewers live and on tape delay. Presley's costume became the most recognized example of the elaborate concert garb with which his latter-day persona became closely associated. As described by Bobbie Ann Mason, "At the end of the show, when he spreads out his American Eagle cape, with the full stretched wings of the eagle studded on the back, he becomes a god figure." The accompanying double album, released in February, went to number one and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the United States. It proved to be Presley's last U.S. number one pop album during his lifetime.
At a midnight show the same month, four men rushed onto the stage in an apparent attack. Security men leapt to Presley's defense, and the singer's karate instinct took over as he ejected one invader from the stage himself. Following the show, he became obsessed with the idea that the men had been sent by Mike Stone to kill him. Though they were shown to have been only overexuberant fans, he raged, "There's too much pain in me ... Stone [must] die." His outbursts continued with such intensity that a physician was unable to calm him, despite administering large doses of medication. After another two full days of raging, Red West, his friend and bodyguard, felt compelled to get a price for a contract killing and was relieved when Presley decided, "Aw hell, let's just leave it for now. Maybe it's a bit heavy."
Health deterioration and death (1973–77)
Medical crises and last studio sessions
Presley's divorce took effect on October 9, 1973. He was now becoming increasingly unwell. Twice during the year he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. Toward the end of 1973, he was hospitalized, semicomatose from the effects of Demerol addiction. According to his main physician, Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, Presley "felt that by getting [drugs] from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street." Since his comeback, he had staged more live shows with each passing year, and 1973 saw 168 concerts, his busiest schedule ever. Despite his failing health, in 1974 he undertook another intensive touring schedule.Presley's condition declined precipitously in September. Keyboardist Tony Brown remembers the singer's arrival at a University of Maryland concert: "He fell out of the limousine, to his knees. People jumped to help, and he pushed them away like, 'Don't help me.' He walked on stage and held onto the mike for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody's looking at each other like, Is the tour gonna happen?" Guitarist John Wilkinson recalled, "He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions". Wilkinson recounted that a few nights later in Detroit, "I watched him in his dressing room, just draped over a chair, unable to move. So often I thought, 'Boss, why don't you just cancel this tour and take a year off...?' I mentioned something once in a guarded moment. He patted me on the back and said, 'It'll be all right. Don't you worry about it.'" Presley continued to play to sellout crowds. As cultural critic Marjorie Garber describes, he was now widely seen as a garish pop crooner: "in effect he had become Liberace. Even his fans were now middle-aged matrons and blue-haired grandmothers."
On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—fired "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West (Presley's friend since the 1950s), Sonny West, and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses". Presley was in Palm Springs at the time, and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits. However, Presley's stepbrother David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency. Presley and Linda Thompson split in November, and he took up with a new girlfriend, Ginger Alden. He proposed to Alden and gave her an engagement ring two months later, though several of his friends later claimed that he had no serious intention of marrying again.
RCA, which had enjoyed a steady stream of product from Presley for over a decade, grew anxious as his interest in spending time in the studio waned. After a December 1973 session that produced 18 songs, enough for almost two albums, he did not enter the studio in 1974. Parker sold RCA on another concert record, ''Elvis: As Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis''. Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "How Great Thou Art" that would win Presley his third and final competitive Grammy Award. (All three of his competitive Grammy wins—out of 14 total nominations—were for gospel recordings.) Presley returned to the studio in Hollywood in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful. In 1976, RCA sent a mobile studio to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions at Presley's home. Even in that comfortable context, the recording process was now a struggle for him.
}} For all the concerns of his label and manager, in studio sessions between July 1973 and October 1976, Presley recorded virtually the entire contents of six albums. Though he was no longer a major presence on the pop charts, five of those albums entered the top five of the country chart, and three went to number one: ''Promised Land'' (1975), ''From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee'' (1976), and ''Moody Blue'' (1977). The story was similar with his singles—there were no major pop hits, but Presley was a significant force in not just the country market, but on adult contemporary radio as well. Eight studio singles from this period released during his lifetime were top ten hits on one or both charts, four in 1974 alone. "My Boy" was a number one AC hit in 1975, and "Moody Blue" topped the country chart and reached the second spot on the AC in 1976. Perhaps his most critically acclaimed recording of the era came that year, with what Greil Marcus described as his "apocalyptic attack" on the soul classic "Hurt". "If he felt the way he sounded", Dave Marsh wrote of Presley's performance, "the wonder isn't that he had only a year left to live but that he managed to survive that long."
Final year and death
Journalist Tony Scherman writes that by early 1977, "Elvis Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Hugely overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopoeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts." In Alexandria, Louisiana, the singer was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand". Presley failed to appear in Baton Rouge; he was unable to get out of his hotel bed, and the rest of the tour was cancelled. Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, he stuck to most touring commitments. In Rapid City, South Dakota, "he was so nervous on stage that he could hardly talk", according to Presley historian Samuel Roy, and unable to "perform any significant movement." Guralnick relates that fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Elvis, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his spiritualism books." A cousin, Billy Smith, recalled how Presley would sit in his room and chat for hours, sometimes recounting favorite Monty Python sketches and his own past escapades, but more often gripped by paranoid obsessions that reminded Smith of Howard Hughes. "Way Down", Presley's last single issued during his lifetime, came out on June 6. His final concert was held in Indianapolis at the Market Square Arena, on June 26.The book ''Elvis: What Happened?'', cowritten by the three bodyguards fired the previous year, was published on August 1. It was the first exposé to detail Presley's years of drug misuse. He was devastated by the book and tried unsuccessfully to halt its release by offering money to the publishers. By this point, he suffered from multiple ailments: glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon, each aggravated—and possibly caused—by drug abuse.
Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis on the evening of August 16, 1977, to begin another tour. That afternoon, Alden discovered him unresponsive on his bathroom floor. Attempts to revive him failed, and death was officially pronounced at 3:30 pm at Baptist Memorial Hospital.
President Jimmy Carter issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture". Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. One of Presley's cousins, Billy Mann, accepted $18,000 to secretly photograph the corpse; the picture appeared on the cover of the ''National Enquirer''s biggest-selling issue ever. Alden struck a $105,000 deal with the ''Enquirer'' for her story, but settled for less when she broke her exclusivity agreement. Presley left her nothing in his will.
Presley's funeral was held at Graceland, on Thursday, August 18. Outside the gates, a car plowed into a group of fans, killing two women and critically injuring a third. Approximately 80,000 people lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery, where Presley was buried next to his mother. Within a few days, "Way Down" topped the country and UK pop charts. Following an attempt to steal the singer's body in late August, the remains of both Elvis Presley and his mother were reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden on October 2.
Since 1977
Between 1977 and 1981, six posthumously released singles by Presley were top ten country hits. Graceland was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it is the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.Presley has been inducted into four music halls of fame: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001), and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (2007). In 1984, he received the W. C. Handy Award from the Blues Foundation and the Academy of Country Music's first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the American Music Awards' Award of Merit.
A Junkie XL remix of Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" (credited as "Elvis Vs JXL") was used in a Nike advertising campaign during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It topped the charts in over 20 countries, and was included in a compilation of Presley's number one hits, ''ELV1S'', that was also an international success. In 2003, a remix of "Rubberneckin'", a 1969 recording of Presley's, topped the U.S. sales chart, as did a 50th-anniversary re-release of "That's All Right" the following year. The latter was an outright hit in Great Britain, reaching number three on the pop chart.
In 2005, another three reissued singles, "Jailhouse Rock", "One Night"/"I Got Stung", and "It's Now or Never", went to number one in Great Britain. A total of 17 Presley singles were reissued during the year; all made the British top five. For the fifth straight year, ''Forbes'' named Presley the top-earning deceased celebrity, with a gross income of $45 million. He placed second in 2006, returned to the top spot the next two years, and ranked fourth in 2009. The following year, he was ranked second, with his highest annual income ever—$60 million—spurred by the celebration of his 75th birthday and the launch of Cirque du Soleil's ''Viva Elvis'' show in Las Vegas. In November 2010, ''Viva Elvis: The Album'' was released, setting his voice to newly recorded instrumental tracks. As of mid-2011, there were an estimated 15,000 licensed Presley products. He was again the second-highest-earning deceased celebrity.
Presley holds the records for most songs charting in ''Billboard''s top 40 and top 100: chart statistician Joel Whitburn calculates the respective totals as 104 and 151; Presley historian Adam Victor gives 114 and 138. Presley's rankings for top ten and number one hits vary depending on how the double-sided "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles, which precede the inception of ''Billboard''s unified Hot 100 chart, are analyzed. According to Whitburn, Presley holds the record for most top ten hits with 38; per ''Billboard''s current assessment, he ranks second with 36, behind Madonna's 37. Whitburn and ''Billboard'' concur that The Beatles hold the record for most number one hits with 20 and that Mariah Carey is second with 18. Whitburn has Presley also with 18 and thus tied for second; ''Billboard'' has him third with 17. Presley retains the record for cumulative weeks at number one: alone at 80, according to Whitburn and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; tied with Carey at 79, according to ''Billboard''. He holds the records for most British number one hits, with 21, and top ten hits, with 76.
Musical style
Influences
Presley's earliest musical influence came from gospel. His mother recalled that from the age of two, at the Assembly of God church in Tupelo attended by the family, "he would slide down off my lap, run into the aisle and scramble up to the platform. There he would stand looking at the choir and trying to sing with them." In Memphis, Presley frequently attended all-night gospel singings at the Ellis Auditorium, where groups such as the Statesmen Quartet led the music in a style that, Guralnick suggests, sowed the seeds of Presley's future stage act: }} As a teenager, Presley's musical interests were wide-ranging, and he was deeply informed about African American musical idioms as well as white ones (see "Teenage life in Memphis"). Though he never had any formal training, he was blessed with a remarkable memory, and his musical knowledge was already considerable by the time he made his first professional recordings in 1954 at the age of 19. When Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met him two years later, they were astonished at his encyclopedic understanding of the blues. At a press conference the following year, he proudly declared, "I know practically every religious song that's ever been written."
Genres
Presley was a central figure in the development of rockabilly, according to music historians. Katherine Charlton calls him "rockabilly's originator". "Rockabilly crystallized into a recognizable style in 1954 with Elvis Presley's first release, on the Sun label", writes Craig Morrison. Paul Friedlander describes the defining elements of rockabilly, which he similarly characterizes as "essentially ... an Elvis Presley construction": "the raw, emotive, and slurred vocal style and emphasis on rhythmic feeling [of] the blues with the string band and strummed rhythm guitar [of] country". In "That's All Right", the Presley trio's first record, Scotty Moore's guitar solo, "a combination of Merle Travis–style country finger-picking, double-stop slides from acoustic boogie, and blues-based bent-note, single-string work, is a microcosm of this fusion."At RCA, Presley's rock and roll sound grew distinct from rockabilly with group chorus vocals, more heavily amplified electric guitars and a tougher, more intense manner. While he was known for taking songs from various sources and giving them a rockabilly/rock and roll treatment, he also recorded songs in other genres from early in his career, from the pop standard "Blue Moon" at Sun to the country ballad "How's the World Treating You?" on his second LP to the blues of "Santa Claus Is Back In Town". In 1957, his first gospel record was released, the four-song EP ''Peace in the Valley''. Certified as a million seller, it became the top-selling gospel EP in recording history. Presley would record gospel periodically for the rest of his life. }} After his return from military service in 1960, Presley continued to perform rock and roll, but the characteristic style was substantially toned down. His first post-Army single, the number one hit "Stuck on You", is typical of this shift. RCA publicity materials referred to its "mild rock beat"; discographer Ernst Jorgensen calls it "upbeat pop". The modern blues/R&B; sound captured so successfully on ''Elvis Is Back!'' was essentially abandoned for six years until such 1966–67 recordings as "Down in the Alley" and "Hi-Heel Sneakers". The singer's output during most of the 1960s emphasized pop music, often in the form of ballads such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", a number one in 1960. While that was a dramatic number, most of what Presley recorded for his movie soundtracks was in a much lighter vein.
While Presley performed several of his classic ballads for the '68 Comeback Special, the sound of the show was dominated by aggressive rock and roll. He would record few new straight-ahead rock and roll songs thereafter; as he explained, they were "hard to find". A significant exception was "Burning Love", his last major hit on the pop charts. Like his work of the 1950s, Presley's subsequent recordings reworked pop and country songs, but in markedly different permutations. His stylistic range now began to embrace a more contemporary rock sound as well as soul and funk. Much of ''Elvis In Memphis'', as well as "Suspicious Minds", cut at the same sessions, reflected his new rock and soul fusion. In the mid-1970s, many of his singles found a home on country radio, the field where he first became a star.
Vocal style and range
Music critic Henry Pleasants observes that "Elvis Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass ... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion." He identifies Presley as a high baritone, calculating his range as two octaves and a third, "from the baritone low G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D-flat. Presley's best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down." In Pleasants' view, his voice was "variable and unpredictable" at the bottom, "often brilliant" at the top, with the capacity for "full-voiced high Gs and As that an opera baritone might envy." Scholar Lindsay Waters, who figures Presley's range as two and a quarter octaves, emphasizes that "his voice had an emotional range from tender whispers to sighs down to shouts, grunts, grumbles and sheer gruffness that could move the listener from calmness and surrender, to fear. His voice can not be measured in octaves, but in decibels; even that misses the problem of how to measure delicate whispers that are hardly audible at all." Presley was always "able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers," writes Pleasants, and also demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate many other vocal styles.
Questions over cause of death
"Drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. "No one ruled out the possibility of anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills ... to which he was known to have had a mild allergy." A pair of lab reports filed two months later each strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity." Forensic historian and pathologist Michael Baden views the situation as complicated: "Elvis had had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Before the autopsy was complete and toxicology results known, medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco declared the cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia, a condition that can be determined only in someone who is still alive. Allegations of a cover-up were widespread. While Presley's main physician, Dr. Nichopoulos, was exonerated of criminal liability for the singer's death, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had [prescribed] more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines and narcotics: all in Elvis's name." His license was suspended for three months. It was permanently revoked in the 1990s after the Tennessee Medical Board brought new charges of over-prescription.
In 1994, the Presley autopsy was reopened. Coroner Dr. Joseph Davis declared, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack." Whether or not combined drug intoxication was in fact the cause, there is little doubt that polypharmacy contributed significantly to Presley's premature death.
Racial issues
When Dewey Phillips first aired "That's All Right" on Memphis radio, many listeners who contacted the station by phone and telegram to ask for it again assumed that its singer was black. From the beginning of his national fame, Presley expressed respect for African American performers and their music, and disregard for the norms of segregation and racial prejudice then prevalent in the South. Interviewed in 1956, he recalled how in his childhood he would listen to blues musician Arthur Crudup—the originator of "That's All Right"—"bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw." ''The Memphis World'', an African American newspaper, reported that Presley, "the rock 'n' roll phenomenon", "cracked Memphis's segregation laws" by attending the local amusement park on what was designated as its "colored night". Such statements and actions led Presley to be generally hailed in the black community during the early days of his stardom. By contrast, many white adults, according to ''Billboard''s Arnold Shaw, "did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex."Despite the largely positive view of Presley held by African Americans, a rumor spread in mid-1957 that he had at some point announced, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes." A journalist with the national African American weekly ''Jet'', Louie Robinson, pursued the story. On the set of ''Jailhouse Rock'', Presley granted him an interview, though he was no longer dealing with the mainstream press. He denied making such a statement or holding in any way to its racist view. Robinson found no evidence that the remark had ever been made, and on the contrary elicited testimony from many individuals indicating that Presley was anything but racist. Blues singer Ivory Joe Hunter, who had heard the rumor before he visited Graceland one evening, reported of Presley, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest." Though the rumored remark was wholly discredited at the time, it was still being used against Presley decades later. The identification of Presley with racism—either personally or symbolically—was expressed most famously in the lyrics of the 1989 rap hit "Fight the Power", by Public Enemy: "Elvis was a hero to most / But he never meant shit to me / Straight-up racist that sucker was / Simple and plain".
The persistence of such attitudes was fueled by resentment over the fact that Presley, whose musical and visual performance idiom owed much to African American sources, achieved the cultural acknowledgment and commercial success largely denied his black peers. Into the 21st century, the notion that Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents. Notable among African American entertainers expressly rejecting this view was Jackie Wilson, who argued, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis." And throughout his career, Presley plainly acknowledged his debt. Addressing his '68 Comeback Special audience, he said, "Rock 'n' roll music is basically gospel or rhythm and blues, or it sprang from that. People have been adding to it, adding instruments to it, experimenting with it, but it all boils down to [that]." Nine years earlier, he had said, "Rock 'n' roll has been around for many years. It used to be called rhythm and blues."
Influence of Colonel Parker and others
Parker and the Aberbachs
Once he became Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker insisted on exceptionally tight control over his client's career. Early on, he and his Hill and Range allies, the brothers Jean and Julian Aberbach, perceived the close relationship that developed between Presley and songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as a serious threat to that control. Parker effectively ended the relationship, deliberately or not, with the new contract he sent Leiber in early 1958. Leiber thought there was a mistake—the sheet of paper was blank except for Parker's signature and a line on which to enter his. "There's no mistake, boy, just sign it and return it", Parker directed. "Don't worry, we'll fill it in later." Leiber declined, and Presley's fruitful collaboration with the writing team was over. Other respected songwriters lost interest in or simply avoided writing for Presley because of the requirement that they surrender a third of their usual royalties.By 1967, Parker's contracts with Presley gave him 50 percent of most of the singer's earnings from recordings, films, and merchandise. Beginning in February 1972, he took a third of the profit from live appearances; a January 1976 agreement entitled him to half of that as well. Priscilla Presley noted that "Elvis detested the business side of his career. He would sign a contract without even reading it." Presley's friend Marty Lacker regarded Parker as a "hustler and a con artist. He was only interested in 'now money'—get the buck and get gone."
Lacker was instrumental in convincing Presley to record with Memphis producer Chips Moman and his handpicked musicians at American Sound Studio in early 1969. The American Sound sessions represented a significant departure from the control customarily exerted by Hill and Range. Moman still had to deal with the publisher's staff on site, whose song suggestions he regarded as unacceptable. He was on the verge of quitting, until Presley ordered the Hill and Range personnel out of the studio. Although RCA executive Joan Deary was later full of praise for the producer's song choices and the quality of the recordings, Moman, to his fury, received neither credit on the records nor royalties for his work.
Throughout his entire career, Presley performed in only three venues outside the United States—all of them in Canada, during brief tours there in 1957. Rumors that he would play overseas for the first time were fueled in 1974 by a million-dollar bid for an Australian tour. Parker was uncharacteristically reluctant, prompting those close to Presley to speculate about the manager's past and the reasons for his apparent unwillingness to apply for a passport. Parker ultimately squelched any notions Presley had of working abroad, claiming that foreign security was poor and the venues unsuitable for a star of his magnitude.
Parker arguably exercised tightest control over Presley's movie career. In 1957, Robert Mitchum asked Presley to costar with him in ''Thunder Road'', on which Mitchum was writer and producer. According to George Klein, one of his oldest friends, Presley was offered starring roles in ''West Side Story'' and ''Midnight Cowboy''. In 1974, Barbra Streisand approached Presley to star with her in the remake of ''A Star is Born''. In each case, any ambitions the singer may have had to play such parts were thwarted by his manager's negotiating demands or flat refusals. In Lacker's description, "The only thing that kept Elvis going after the early years was a new challenge. But Parker kept running everything into the ground." The operative attitude may have been summed up best by the response Leiber and Stoller received when they brought a serious film project for Presley to Parker and the Hill and Range owners for their consideration. In Leiber's telling, Jean Aberbach warned them to never again "try to interfere with the business or artistic workings of the process known as Elvis Presley".
Memphis Mafia
In the early 1960s, the circle of friends with whom Presley constantly surrounded himself until his death came to be known as the "Memphis Mafia". "Surrounded by the[ir] parasitic presence", as journalist John Harris puts it, "it was no wonder that as he slid into addiction and torpor, no-one raised the alarm: to them, Elvis was the bank, and it had to remain open." Tony Brown, who played piano for Presley regularly in the last two years of the singer's life, observed his rapidly declining health and the urgent need to address it: "But we all knew it was hopeless because Elvis was surrounded by that little circle of people ... all those so-called friends". In the Memphis Mafia's defense, Marty Lacker has said, "[Presley] was his own man. ... If we hadn't been around, he would have been dead a lot earlier."Larry Geller became Presley's hairdresser in 1964. Unlike others in the Memphis Mafia, he was interested in spiritual questions and recalls how, from their first conversation, Presley revealed his secret thoughts and anxieties: "I mean there ''has'' to be a purpose...there's got to be a reason...why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley. ... I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get. And how empty I really feel." Thereafter, Geller supplied him with books on religion and mysticism, which the singer read voraciously. Presley would be preoccupied by such matters for much of his life, taking trunkloads of books with him on tour.
Sex symbol
Presley's physical attractiveness and sexual appeal were widely acknowledged. "He was once beautiful, astonishingly beautiful", in the words of critic Mark Feeney. Television director Steve Binder, no fan of Presley's music before he oversaw the '68 Comeback Special, reported, "I'm straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you're male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn't make any difference; if he'd walked in the room, you'd know somebody special was in your presence." His performance style, as much as his physical beauty, was responsible for Presley's eroticized image. Writing in 1970, critic George Melly described him as "the master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl." In his Presley obituary, Lester Bangs credited him as "the man who brought overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America." Ed Sullivan's declaration that he perceived a soda bottle in Presley's trousers was echoed by rumors involving a similarly positioned toilet roll tube or lead bar.While Presley was marketed as an icon of heterosexuality, some cultural critics have argued that his image was ambiguous. In 1959, ''Sight and Sound''s Peter John Dyer described his onscreen persona as "aggressively bisexual in appeal". Brett Farmer places the "orgasmic gyrations" of the title dance sequence in ''Jailhouse Rock'' within a lineage of cinematic musical numbers that offer a "spectacular eroticization, if not homoeroticization, of the male image". In the analysis of Yvonne Tasker, "Elvis was an ambivalent figure who articulated a peculiar feminised, objectifying version of white working-class masculinity as aggressive sexual display."
Reinforcing Presley's image as a sex symbol were the reports of his dalliances with various Hollywood stars and starlets, from Natalie Wood in the 1950s to Connie Stevens and Ann-Margret in the 1960s to Candice Bergen and Cybill Shepherd in the 1970s. June Juanico of Memphis, one of Presley's early girlfriends, later blamed Parker for encouraging him to choose his dating partners with publicity in mind. Presley, however, never grew comfortable with the Hollywood scene, and most of these relationships were insubstantial.
Legacy
Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture. As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude. With its racially mixed origins—repeatedly affirmed by Presley—rock and roll's occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture. In this regard, Little Richard said of Presley, "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music." Al Green agreed: "He broke the ice for all of us." Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication: at the age of 21, within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was one of the most famous people in the world.
Presley's name, image, and voice are instantly recognizable around the globe. He has inspired a legion of impersonators. In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans. "Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century", said composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. "He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything—music, language, clothes. It's a whole new social revolution—the sixties came from it." Bob Dylan described the sensation of first hearing Presley as "like busting out of jail".
A ''New York Times'' editorial on the 25th anniversary of Presley's death observed, "All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force. ... Elvis's breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely." Not only Presley's achievements, but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus:
Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. ... The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues. ... Elvis has emerged as a great ''artist,'' a great ''rocker,'' a great ''purveyor of schlock,'' a great ''heart throb,'' a great ''bore,'' a great ''symbol of potency,'' a great ''ham,'' a great ''nice person,'' and, yes, a great American.
Discography
A vast number of recordings have been issued under Presley's name. The total number of his original master recordings has been variously calculated as 665 and 711. His career began and he was most successful during an era when singles were the primary commercial medium for pop music. In the case of his albums, the distinction between "official" studio records and other forms is often blurred. For most of the 1960s, his recording career focused on soundtrack albums. In the 1970s, his most heavily promoted and best-selling LP releases tended to be concert albums. This summary discography lists only the albums and singles that reached the top of one or more of the following charts: the main U.S. ''Billboard'' pop chart; the ''Billboard'' country chart, the genre chart with which he was most identified (there was no country album chart before 1964); and the official British pop chart. In the United States, Presley also had five or six number one R&B; singles and seven number one adult contemporary singles; in 1964, his "Blue Christmas" topped the Christmas singles chart during a period when ''Billboard'' did not rank holiday singles in its primary pop chart. He also had number one hits in many countries beside the United States and United Kingdom.
Number one albums
| Year | Album | Type | Chart positions | ||
| !style="width: 60px;" | !style="width: 60px;" | !style="width: 60px;" | |||
| style="text-align:left;" | studio/comp. | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | studio | 1 | n.a. | 3 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | sound./studio | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
| studio | 1 | n.a. | 2 | ||
| studio | 2 | n.a. | 1 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | soundtrack | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
| studio | 1 | n.a. | 2 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | soundtrack | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
| 1962 | style="text-align:left;" | studio | 4 | n.a. | 1 |
| 1964 | style="text-align:left;" | soundtrack | 1 | — | 12 |
| 1969 | studio | 13 | 2 | 1 | |
| 1973 | live | 1 | 1 | 11 | |
| 1974 | compilation | 43 | 1 | 20 | |
| 1975 | style="text-align:left;" | studio | 47 | 1 | 21 |
| 1976 | studio | 41 | 1 | 29 | |
| compilation | — | — | 1 | ||
| studio/live | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | live | 5 | 1 | 13 | |
| 2002 | style="text-align:left;" | compilation | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2007 | compilation | — | — | 1 |
Number one singles
| Year | Single | Chart positions | ||
| !style="width: 45px;" | !style="width: 45px;" | !style="width: 45px;" | ||
| — | 1 | — | ||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 14 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | 3 | 11 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | 3 | 6 | |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 4/8 | 24/— | 1 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 2/4 | — | 1 | |
| 1 | — | 4 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | 27 | 3 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | — | 1 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | 22 | 1 | |
| — | — | 1 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | — | 1 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 4/5 | — | 1 | |
| 2/23 | — | 1 | ||
| 1 | — | 1 | ||
| 5 | — | 1 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 2 | — | 1 | |
| 1963 | 3 | — | 1 | |
| 1965 | 3 | — | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | — | 2 | |
| 1970 | 9 | 37 | 1 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 31 | 1 | 6 | |
| 18 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1981 | style="text-align:left;" | 28 | 1 | 43 |
| 2002 | style="text-align:left;" | 50 | — | 1 |
| — | — | 1 | ||
| — | — | 1 | ||
| — | — | 1 |
Filmography
See also
Notes
Although some pronounce his surname "PREZ-lee", Presley himself used the pronunciation of the American South, "PRESS-lee", as did his family and those who worked with him. The correct spelling of his middle name has long been a matter of debate. The physician who delivered him wrote "Elvis Aaron Presley" in his ledger. The state-issued birth certificate reads "Elvis Aron Presley". The name was chosen after the Presleys' friend and fellow congregation member Aaron Kennedy, though a single-A spelling was probably intended by Presley's parents in order to parallel the middle name of Presley's stillborn brother, Jesse Garon. It reads Aron on most official documents produced during his lifetime, including his high school diploma, RCA record contract, and marriage license, and this was generally taken to be the proper spelling. In 1966, Presley expressed the desire to his father that the more traditional biblical rendering, Aaron, be used henceforth, "especially on legal documents." Five years later, the Jaycees citation honoring him as one of the country's Outstanding Young Men used Aaron. Late in his life, he sought to officially change the spelling to Aaron and discovered that state records already listed it that way. Knowing his wishes for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Presley's tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as official. According to a third cousin of Presley's, one of Gladys's great-grandmothers was Jewish. There is no evidence that Presley or his mother shared this belief in a Jewish heritage. Syndicated columnist Nate Bloom has challenged the cousin's account, which he calls a "tall tale". Of the $40,000, $5,000 covered back royalties owed by Sun. In 1956–57, Presley was also credited as a cowriter on several songs where he had no hand in the writing process: "Heartbreak Hotel"; "Don't Be Cruel"; all four songs from his first film, including the title track, "Love Me Tender"; "Paralyzed"; and "All Shook Up". He received credit on two other songs to which he did contribute: he provided the title for "That's Someone You Never Forget" (1961), written by his friend Red West; Presley and West collaborated with another friend, guitarist Charlie Hodge, on "You'll Be Gone" (1962). Whitburn follows actual ''Billboard'' history in considering the four songs on the "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles as distinct. He tallies each side of the former single as a number one (''Billboard''s sales chart had "Don't Be Cruel" at number one for five weeks, then "Hound Dog" for six) and reckons "I Beg of You" as a top ten, as it reached number eight on the old Top 100 chart. ''Billboard'' now considers both singles as unified items, ignoring the historical sales split of the former and its old Top 100 chart entirely. Whitburn thus analyzes the four songs as yielding three number ones and a total of four top tens. ''Billboard'' now states that they yielded just two number ones and a total of two top tens, voiding the separate chart appearances of "Hound Dog" and "I Beg of You". VH1 ranked Presley #8 among the "100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll" in 1998. The BBC ranked him as the #2 "Voice of the Century" in 2001. ''Rolling Stone'' placed him #3 in its list of "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004. CMT ranked him #15 among the "40 Greatest Men in Country Music" in 2005. The Discovery Channel placed him #8 on its "Greatest American" list in 2005. ''Variety'' put him in the top ten of its "100 Icons of the Century" in 2005. ''The Atlantic Monthly'' ranked him #66 among the "100 Most Influential Figures in American History" in 2006. (1) The year given is the year the record first reached number one, rather than its original year of release. For instance, in 1974, ''Elvis' 40 Greatest'', a compilation on the budget Arcade label, was the fourth highest selling album of the year in the United Kingdom; at the time, the main British chart did not rank such compilations, relegating them to a chart for midpriced and TV-advertised albums, which ''Elvis' 40 Greatest'' topped for 15 weeks. The policy was altered in 1975, allowing the album to hit number one on the main chart in 1977, following Presley's death. (2) Before late 1958, rather than unified pop and country singles charts, ''Billboard'' had as many as four charts for each, separately ranking records according to sales, jukebox play, jockey spins (i.e., airplay), and, in the case of pop, a general Top 100. ''Billboard'' now regards the sales charts as definitive for the period. Widely cited chart statistician Joel Whitburn accords historical releases the highest ranking they achieved among the separate charts. Presley discographer Ernst Jorgensen refers only to the Top 100 chart for pop hits. All of the 1956–58 songs listed here as number one U.S. pop hits reached the top of both the sales and, with three exceptions, the Top 100 charts: "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" (three), "Hound Dog" (two, behind its flip side, "Don't Be Cruel"), and "Hard Headed Woman" (two). (3) Several Presley singles reached number one in the United Kingdom as double A-sides; in the United States, the respective sides of those singles were ranked separately by ''Billboard''. Whitburn calculates a total of six number one R&B; singles, including "Don't Be Cruel", released as a double A-side with "Hound Dog"; ''Billboard''s Keith Caulfield excludes "Don't Be Cruel".
Citations
References
Further reading
External links
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| Coordinates | 53°23′″N23°36′″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Paul Anka |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Paul Albert Anka |
| Birth date | 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 |
| Website | Official Facebook }} |
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" (originally French song "Comme d'habitude").
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 who owned a restaurant called The Locanda there. His parents are of Lebanese descent. 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
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 1959His 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. The album also included a new version of "Hold Me 'Til the Morning Comes," once again performed with Peter Cetera. 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.
Italy
Already locally famous as a teenage idol for his songs in English language, in 1960 Anka tried to hit the Italian market with "Summer's Gone", released as "Dove Sei?" with lyrics translated into Italian. The record got immediate success charting #4 in Italian hit lists 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 another reported by his official discography (''Comme Avant'') with Mireille Mathieu.A single release in Japanese (''Kokoro No Sasae / Shiawase E No Tabiji'') is also reported on his discography.
In 1993 he recorded a duet with Philippine singer Regine Velasquez entitled "It's Hard to Say Goodbye" included in her album ''Reason Enough''. This song was re-recorded several years later by Anka and Celine Dion and was included in his album ''A Body of Work''.
Personal life
Anka was married to Anne de Zogheb, the daughter of Lebanese diplomat Charles de Zogheb, from February 16, 1963 to September 28, 2000. He met Zogheb, a fashion model on assignment and under contract to the Eileen Ford Agency in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1962. Zogheb, raised in Egypt, is of English, Lebanese, French, Dutch and Greek descent. The couple married the following year in a ceremony at Orly Airport in Paris. She quit modeling after their second child was born. They have five daughters (youngest to oldest): Amelia, singer and writer Anthea Anka, Alicia, Amanda (wife of actor Jason Bateman) and Alexandra. Anka has a son (Ethan, born 2005) with Swedish model and actress Anna Anka (maiden name Åberg and earlier married Yeager), 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 their 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
In the late 1950s and early 1960s he starred in a couple of teen exploitation films including ''Girls Town'' (1959) and ''Look in Any Window'' (1961) in which he played a peeping tom.Anka guest starred as a rival mobster and suspect in murder in a 1991 ''Perry Mason'' mystery movie (''The Case of the Maligned Mobster'') and 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 has also 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.
Anka also played a part in the film ''3000 Miles To Graceland'' as an Elvis-hating 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.
In an episode of the animated TV series ''The Simpsons'' entitled "Treehouse of Horror VI", he guest stars as himself.
He makes a special appearance in Las Vegas, a show on Star World.
Soundtrack appearances
In the popular video game Hitman: Contracts, 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''.On the TV show Gilmore Girls, Lorelai's dog was named Paul Anka; series co-creator Dan Palladino said he chose that name after hearing the ''Rock Swings'' album.
Singles discography
| Year | Single | Chart positions | |||||
| ! style="width:40px;" | ! style="width:40px;" | ! style="width:40px;" | ! style="width:40px;" | ! style="width:40px;" | ! style="width:40px;" | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | |
| 97 | - | - | 3 | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | 25 | - | - | ||
| 7 | - | 14 | 6 | - | - | ||
| 15 | - | - | 26 | - | - | ||
| 16 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 69 | - | - | 26 | - | - | ||
| 80 | - | - | - | - | 15 | ||
| 29 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 15 | - | - | 10 | 7 | 9 | ||
| 33 | - | - | - | - | 15 | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 1 | - | 6 | 3 | 8 | 2 | |
| style="text-align:left;" | 2 | - | 12 | 7 | 25 | 2 | |
| 4 | - | 13 | 28 | - | 2 | ||
| 2 | - | - | 33 | - | 3 | ||
| 90 | - | - | - | - | 21 | ||
| 8 | - | - | - | - | 6 | ||
| 41 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 23 | - | - | 44 | - | 13 | ||
| 40 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 11 | - | 29 | - | - | - | ||
| 104 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 16 | - | - | - | - | 26 | ||
| 108 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 13 | - | - | - | - | 8 | ||
| 10 | - | - | - | - | 12 | ||
| 35 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 70 | - | - | - | - | 12 | ||
| 104 | - | - | - | - | 26 | ||
| 110 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 103 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 106 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 94 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 12 | - | - | 19 | 45 | - | ||
| 13 | - | - | 41 | 35 | - | ||
| 46 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 19 | - | - | - | 14 | 23 | ||
| 26 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 39 | - | - | - | 42 | - | ||
| 97 | - | - | - | 46 | - | ||
| 89 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1964 | 113 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 27 | 2 | - | - | - | - | ||
| style="text-align:left;" | 64 | 36 | - | - | - | - | |
| 80 | 30 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 86 | 13 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1971 | 53 | 14 | - | - | - | - | |
| 1972 | 65 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 80 | 40 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1 | 5 | - | 6 | 15 | - | ||
| 7 | 5 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 8 | 8 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 15 | 3 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 7 | 1 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 33 | 2 | - | - | - | - | ||
| - | 20 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 60 | 10 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 80 | 41 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 75 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1978 | 35 | 3 | - | - | - | - | |
| 1979 | - | 29 | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 48 | 16 | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1983 | 40 | 2 | - | - | - | - | |
| 1984 | - | 14 | - | - | - | - | |
See also
References
External links
Category:1941 births 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:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian emigrants 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
bg:Пол Анка ca:Paul Anka cs:Paul Anka da:Paul Anka de:Paul Anka es:Paul Anka fr:Paul Anka gl:Paul Anka ko:폴 앵카 hr:Paul Anka id:Paul Anka it:Paul Anka he:פול אנקה la:Paulus Anka hu:Paul Anka nl:Paul Anka ja:ポール・アンカ no:Paul Anka pl:Paul Anka pt:Paul Anka ru:Анка, Пол sc:Paul Anka scn:Paul Anka simple:Paul Anka fi:Paul Anka sv:Paul Anka th:พอล แองคา tr:Paul Anka zh-yue:保羅安卡 zh:保羅·安卡This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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