Jerry Lee Lewis was born on September 29, 1935 into a very religious family . His family, though not very wealthy, sold their house when he was a child to get their son a piano. He loved to play piano. He was sent to a religious school, but was soon thrown out shortly thereafter -- he did a boogie version of a song about Jesus, something the school could not accept. At 17, he married for the first time, but it only lasted seven months. He married a second time three weeks before he his divorce from his first wife was final. His second marriage lasted about four years and produced his first child. In November 1956 he moved in with a cousin, J. W. Brown, in Memphis. They started a band together, with Jerry as singer. They sold a copy of their first song, "Crazy Arms", to the legendary 'Sam Phillips (IV)' (qv), president of Sun Records. Phillips had become famous because of his discovery of 'Elvis Presley' (qv) and 'Johnny Cash (I)' (qv). Phillips liked the song, and Jerry Lee Lewis began to establish his name in Memphis in late 1956. In January 1957, he recorded a new song, the self-penned "End of the Road." It was unusual in that singers did not write their own songs at that time. Jerry was fresh in other ways, too. He not only wrote some of his own songs, he played piano. Other rock singer of that era played guitar, such as 'Elvis Presley' (qv), 'Tommy Steele' (qv), 'Johnny Cash (I)' (qv), 'Chuck Berry (I)' (qv), etc. The piano wasn't considered a rock and roll instrument - Jerry Lee Lewis changed all that. Jerry got his big break in April 1957, when he went to New York and appeared on _"The Steve Allen Show" (1956)_ (qv) with the "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On". A couple of #1 hits would soon follow -- "Great Balls of Fire" (which became his signature song) and "High School Confidential". Many people predicted that Jerry Lee would be bigger than the King of Rock-n-Roll - 'Elvis Presley' (qv). In late 1957 the audiences at one of his shows stormed the stage when he set a piano on fire. 'Chuck Berry (I)' (qv) was supposed to have ended the evening's show, but he refused to go on, wisely understanding that he could never top what Jerry just did. Elvis went into the army in the late winter of 1958, so Jerry Lee was now virtually alone at the top of the rock heap. All was not rosy, however. Problems did arise--very serious problems. In 1957, he married for a third time, secretly, to the 13-year-old daughter of his cousin and partner J. W. Brown, 'Myra Gale Brown (I)'. Her parents were deeply hurt when they found out, but after a discussion with 'Sam Phillips (IV)' (qv), they forgave Jerry. The marriage was unknown to the press and fans until Jerry's arrival in England for a tour in the spring of 1958. Fans again stormed the stage -- but this time to express their disgust. The marriage was front-page news around the world. His career was in shambles. He had just signed a five-year contract with Sun Records, and he did continue to record songs until 1963. During the last years of the contract, however, he made very few rock songs. Most of his compositions were ballads, possibly due to his depression at the direction his career had taken. Jerry and Myra had one son, Steve Allen Lewis, who drowned at age three. The couple divorced in 1970, after 13 years of bad treatment in the press. However, Jerry's career was not completely finished. In 1968 he made his great comeback, as a country singer. During the next few years, he more and more rock 'n' roll. He married a fourth time in October 1971 but the marriage ended two years later, after producing one child. That same year, Jerry's son from his first marriage died in an auto accident. The combination of divorce, personal tragedies and his career stagnation contributed to his turning to the bottle, and for the next 15 years Jerry had a severe drinking problem. His drinking also contributed to a rash of health problems, and he almost died of a ruptured stomach in 1981. People thought that The Killer was finished. But he wasn't. Jerry Lee Lewis puts on brilliant concerts even today, in his 70's, and with his wild life behind him. He divorced his sixth wife in the summer of 2005, after over 20 years of marriage. He is still a wild man - and he is still on fire!
name | Jerry Lee Lewis |
---|---|
background | solo_singer |
landscape | yes |
alias | The Killer |
birth date | September 29, 1935 |
origin | Ferriday, Louisiana, U.S. |
instrument | Vocals, piano, guitar |
genre | Rock and roll, country, rockabilly, blues, Honky tonk, gospel |
occupation | Singer, songwriter, pianist |
label | Sun, Mercury, Sire/Warner Bros, MCA |
years active | 1954–present |
website | www.jerryleelewis.com}} |
Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The Killer'. His guitarist for more than 40 years is Kenny Lovelace.
Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 2003, Rolling Stone Magazine listed his box set ''All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology'' number 242 on their list of "500 greatest albums of all time". In 2004, they ranked him number 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2008, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
Jerry Lee Lewis is the last surviving member of both Sun Records' Class of 55 and the Million Dollar Quartet - which both alltogether included Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley, as well as Lewis himself.
Lewis was born to the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, and began playing piano in his youth with two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. His parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano. Influenced by a piano-playing older cousin, Carl McVoy (who later recorded with Bill Black's Combo), the radio, and the sounds from the black juke joint across the tracks, Haney's Big House, Lewis main influence growing up was Moon Mullican.
His mother enrolled him in Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, so that her son would be exclusively singing his songs to the Lord. But Lewis daringly played a boogie woogie rendition of "My God Is Real" at a church assembly that sent him packing the same night. Pearry Green, then president of the student body, related how during a talent show Lewis played some "worldly" music. The next morning, the dean of the school called Lewis and Green into his office to expel them. Lewis said that Green should not be expelled because "he didn't know what I was going to do." Years later Green asked Lewis: "Are you still playing the devil's music?" Lewis replied "Yes, I am. But you know it's strange, the same music that they kicked me out of school for is the same kind of music they play in their churches today. The difference is, I know I am playing for the devil and they don't."
After that incident, he went home and started playing at clubs in and around Ferriday and Natchez, Mississippi, becoming part of the burgeoning new rock and roll sound and cutting his first demo recording in 1954. He made a trip to Nashville circa 1955 where he played clubs and attempted to build interest, but was turned down by the Grand Ole Opry as he had been at the Louisiana Hayride country stage and radio show in Shreveport. Recording executives in Nashville suggested he switch to playing a guitar.
Lewis traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in November 1956, to audition for Sun Records. Label owner Sam Phillips was in Florida, but producer and engineer Jack Clement recorded Lewis's rendition of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms" and his own composition "End of The Road". During December 1956, Lewis began recording prolifically, as a solo artist and as a session musician for such Sun artists as Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. His distinctive piano can be heard on many tracks recorded at Sun during late 1956 and early 1957, including Carl Perkins' "Matchbox", "Your True Love", "You Can Do No Wrong", and "Put Your Cat Clothes On", and Billy Lee Riley's "Flyin' Saucers Rock'n'Roll". Formerly, rockabilly had rarely featured piano, but it proved an influential addition and rockabilly artists on other labels also started working with pianists.
On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley dropped in on Phillips to pay a social visit while Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks with Lewis backing him on piano. Johnny Cash was also there watching Perkins. The four started an impromptu jam session, and Phillips left the tape running. These recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived, and have been released on CD under the title ''Million Dollar Quartet''. Tracks also include Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and "Paralyzed", Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", Pat Boone's "Don't Forbid Me" and Presley doing an impersonation of Jackie Wilson (who was then with Billy Ward and the Dominoes) on "Don't Be Cruel".
Lewis's own singles (on which he was billed as "Jerry Lee Lewis and his Pumping Piano") advanced his career as a soloist during 1957, with hits such as "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire", his biggest hit, bringing him international fame, despite criticism for the songs' overtly sexual undertones which prompted some radio stations to boycott them. In 2005, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
According to several first hand sources, including Johnny Cash, Lewis himself, who was devoutly Christian, was also troubled by the sinful nature of his own material, which he firmly believed was leading himself and his audience to hell. This aspect of Lewis's character was depicted in Waylon Payne's portrayal of Lewis in the 2005 film ''Walk the Line'', based on Cash's autobiographies.
Lewis would often kick the piano bench aside and play standing, rake his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic accent, sit on the keyboard and even stand on top of the instrument. His first TV appearance, in which he demonstrated some of these moves, was on ''The Steve Allen Show'' on July 28, 1957, where he played the song "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On". It is widely believed that he once set fire to a piano at the end of a live performance, in protest at being billed below Chuck Berry. but he is quoted in an online article in Esquire Magazine as saying "I never set fire to a piano. I'd like to have got away with it, though. I pushed a couple of them in the river. They wasn't any good."
His dynamic performance style can be seen in films such as ''High School Confidential'' (he sang the title song from the back of a flatbed truck), and ''Jamboree''. He has been called "rock & roll's first great wild man" and also "rock & roll's first great eclectic." Classical composer Michael Nyman has also cited Lewis's style as the progenitor of his own aesthetic.
The scandal followed Lewis home to America, and as a result, he was blacklisted from radio and almost vanished from the music scene. Lewis felt betrayed by numerous people who had been his supporters. Dick Clark dropped him from his shows. Lewis even felt that Sam Phillips had sold him out when the Sun Records boss released "The Return of Jerry Lee", a bogus "interview" cut together by Jack Clement from excerpts of Lewis's songs, which made light of his marital and publicity problems. Only Alan Freed stayed true to Jerry Lee Lewis, playing his records until Freed was removed from the air because of payola allegations.
Jerry Lee Lewis was still under contract with Sun Records, and kept recording, regularly releasing singles. He had gone from $10,000 a night concerts to $250 a night spots in beer joints and small clubs. He had few friends at the time whom he felt he could trust. It was only through Kay Martin, the president of Lewis's fan club, T. L. Meade, (aka Franz Douskey) a sometime Memphis musician and friend of Sam Phillips, and Gary Skala, that Lewis went back to record at Sun Records.
By this time, Phillips had built a new state-of-the-art studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, thus abandoning the old Union Avenue studio where Phillips had recorded B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Lewis, Johnny Cash and others, and also opened a studio in Nashville. It was at the latter studio that Lewis recorded his only major hit during this period, a rendition of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" in 1961. In Europe other updated versions of "Sweet Little Sixteen" (September 1962 UK) and "Good Golly Miss Molly" (March 1963) entered the Hit Parade. On popular EPs, "Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes", "I've Been Twistin'", "Money" and "Hello Josephine" also became turntable hits, especially in nascent discothèques. Another recording of Lewis playing an instrumental boogie arrangement of the Glenn Miller Orchestra favorite "In the Mood", was issued on the Phillips International label under the pseudonym of "The Hawk," but disc jockeys quickly figured out the distinctive piano style, and this gambit failed.
Lewis's Sun recording contract ended in 1963 and he joined Smash Records, where he made a number of rock recordings that did not further his career.
His popularity recovered somewhat in Europe, especially in the UK and Germany, during the mid-1960s. A concert album, ''Live at the Star Club, Hamburg'' (1964), recorded with The Nashville Teens, is widely considered one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes: "''Live at the Star Club'' is extraordinary, the purest, hardest rock & roll ever committed to record."
Lewis has had at least four children. Two additional people have claimed to be his children, but they had no proof. In 1962, his son Steve Allen Lewis drowned in a swimming pool accident when he was three, and in 1973, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr., was killed at the age of 19 when he overturned the Jeep he was driving. His current living children are a son, Jerry Lee Lewis III, and a daughter, Phoebe Allan Lewis.
In 1989, a major motion picture based on his early life in rock & roll, ''Great Balls of Fire!'', brought him back into the public eye, especially when he decided to re-record all his songs for the movie soundtrack. The film was based on the book by Lewis's ex-wife, Myra Gale Lewis, and starred Dennis Quaid as Lewis, Winona Ryder as Myra, and Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Swaggart. The movie focuses on Lewis's early career and his relationship with Myra, and ends with the scandal of the late 1950s. A year later, in 1990, Lewis made minor news when a new song he co-wrote called "It Was the Whiskey Talking, Not Me" was included in the soundtrack to the hit movie ''Dick Tracy''. The song is also heard in the movie, playing on a radio.
The public downfall of his cousin, television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, resulted in more adverse publicity to a troubled family. Swaggart is also a piano player, as is another cousin, country music star Mickey Gilley. All three listened to the same music in their youth, and frequented Haney's Big House, the Ferriday club that featured black blues acts. Lewis and Swaggart have had a complex relationship over the years.
Lewis's sister, Linda Gail Lewis has recorded with Lewis, toured with his stage show for a time and more recently recorded with Van Morrison.
"The Killer", a nickname he has had since childhood, is known for his forceful voice and piano production on stage. He was described by Roy Orbison as the best raw performer in the history of rock and roll music.
In 1986, Lewis was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That year, he returned to Sun Studio in Memphis to team up with Orbison, Cash, and Perkins along with longtime admirers like John Fogerty to create the album ''Class of '55'', a sort of followup to the "Million Dollar Quartet" session, though in the eyes of many critics and fans, lacking the spirit of the old days at Sun.
In 1998 he toured Europe with Chuck Berry and Little Richard. On February 12, 2005, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy (which also grants the Grammy Awards). On September 26, 2006, a new album titled ''Last Man Standing'' was released, featuring many of rock and roll's elite as guest stars. Receiving positive reviews, the album charted in four different Billboard charts, including a two week stay at number one on the Indie charts.
A DVD entitled ''Last Man Standing Live'', featuring concert footage with many guest artists, was released in March 2007, and the CD achieved Lewis's 10th official gold disk for selling over half-a-million copies in the US alone. ''Last Man Standing'' is Lewis's biggest selling album of all time. It features contributions from Mick Jagger, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Rod Stewart, among others.
On November 5, 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio honored Jerry Lee Lewis with six days of conferences, interviews, a DVD premiere and film clips, dedicated to him entitled ''The Life And Music of Jerry Lee Lewis.'' On November 10, the week culminated with a tribute concert compered by Kris Kristofferson. Lewis was present to accept the American Music Masters Award and closed his own tribute show with a rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
On February 10, 2008, he appeared with John Fogerty and Little Richard on the 50th Grammy Awards Show, performing "Great Balls of Fire" in a medley with "Good Golly Miss Molly".
Lewis now lives on a ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi with his family.
On June 4, 2008, Jerry Lee Lewis was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
On July 4, 2008, he appeared on ''A Capitol Fourth'' and performed the finale's final act with a medley of "Roll Over Beethoven", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" and "Great Balls of Fire".
In October 2008 as part of a very successful European tour, Jerry Lee Lewis returned to the UK, almost exactly 50 years after his ill-fated first tour. He appeared at two London shows: a special private show at the 100 Club on October 25 and at the London Forum on October 28 with Wanda Jackson and his sister, Linda Gail Lewis.
2009 marked the sixtieth year since Lewis's first public performance when he performed "“Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" at a car dealership on November 19, 1949 in Ferriday Louisiana.
In August 2009, in advance of his new album, a single entitled "Mean Old Man" was released for download. It was written by Kris Kristofferson. An EP featuring this song and four more was also released on amazon.com on November 11.
On October 29, 2009, Lewis opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York.
''NME'' – November 1978
Category:1935 births Category:Living people Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:American rock musicians Category:American rock pianists Category:American rock singers Category:American pop singers Category:American pop pianists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Rockabilly musicians Category:American composers Category:Sun Records artists Category:Sire Records artists Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:American Pentecostals Category:People from Ferriday, Louisiana Category:People from Concordia Parish, Louisiana Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductees Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Charly Records artists Category:Smash Records artists
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Name | Steve Allen |
---|---|
Birth name | Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen |
Birth date | December 26, 1921 |
Birth place | New York City, New York, U.S. |
Death date | October 30, 2000 |
Death place | Los Angeles, California, U.S |
Spouse | (divorced) (his death) |
Occupation | Actor, comedian, television personality, musician, writer |
Years active | 1940s–2000 }} |
Allen was a "creditable" pianist, and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000 songs, one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting, others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne. Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his song ''The Gravy Waltz''. His vast number of songs have never been equaled, however; singer/songwriter Julian Barry is said to have written over 5000 compositions. Allen wrote more than 50 books and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Allen's first radio job was on station KOY in Phoenix, Arizona, after he left Arizona State Teachers College (now Arizona State University) in Tempe, while still a sophomore. He enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II and was trained as an infantryman. He spent his service time at Camp Roberts, near Monterey, California and did not serve overseas. Allen returned to Phoenix before deciding to move back to California.
Allen's first television experience had come in 1949 when he answered an ad for a TV announcer for professional wrestling. He knew nothing about wrestling, so he watched some shows and discovered that the announcers did not have well-defined names for the holds. When he got the job, he created names for many of the holds, some of which are still used today. The gig lasted several months before ABC decided to replace the matches with old movies.
After CBS radio gave Allen a weekly prime time show, CBS television believed it could groom him for national small-screen stardom and gave Allen his first network television show. ''The Steve Allen Show'' premiered at 11 am on Christmas Day, 1950, and was later moved into a thirty-minute, early evening slot. This new show required him to uproot his family and move from LA to New York, since at that time a coast to coast program could not originate from LA. The show was only a modest ratings success, and was canceled in 1952, after which CBS tried several shows to showcase Allen's talent.
Allen achieved national attention when he was pressed into service at the last minute to host ''Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts'' because Godfrey was unable to appear. Allen turned one of Godfrey's live Lipton commercials upside down, preparing tea and instant soup on camera and then pouring both into Godfrey's ukulele. With the audience (including Godfrey, watching from Miami) uproariously and thoroughly entertained, Allen gained major recognition as a comedian and host.
He was a regular on the popular panel game show ''What's My Line?'' (where he coined the popular phrase, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?") from 1953 to 1954 and returned frequently as a panelist after Fred Allen died in March 1956, until the series ended in 1967.
While ''Today'' developer Sylvester "Pat" Weaver is often credited as the ''Tonight'' creator, Allen often pointed out that he had previously created it as a local New York show. Allen told his nationwide audience that first evening: "This is ''Tonight'', and I can't think of too much to tell you about it except I want to give you the bad news first: this program is going to go on ''forever...'' you think you're tired now. Wait until you see one o'clock roll around!"
It was as host of ''The Tonight Show'' that Allen pioneered the "man on the street" interviews and audience-participation comedy breaks that have become commonplace on late-night TV.
The show's regulars were Tom Poston, Louis Nye, Bill Dana, Don Knotts, Pat Harrington, Jr., Dayton Allen, and Gabriel Dell. All except film veteran Dell were relatively obscure performers prior to their stints with Allen, and all went on to stardom. The comedians in Allen's gang were often seen in "The Man in the Street," featuring interviews about some topical subject. Poston would appear as a dullard who couldn't remember his own name; Nye was "Gordon Hathaway," fey Madison Avenue executive; Dana played amiable Latino "Jose Jimenez"; Knotts was an exceedingly jittery man who, when asked if he was nervous, invariably replied with an alarmed "No!"; Harrington was Italian immigrant "Guido Panzini"; Dayton Allen played wild-eyed zanies answering any given question with "Why not?". Gabe Dell usually played straight men in sketches (policemen, newsmen, dramatic actors, etc.).
Other recurring routines included "Crazy Shots" (also known as "Wild Pictures"), a series of sight gags accompanied by Allen on piano; Allen inviting audience members to select three musical notes at random, and then composing a song based on the three notes; a satire on radio's long-running ''The Answer Man'' and a precursor to Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent (Sample answer: "Et tu, Brute."/Allen's reply: "How many pizzas did you eat, Caesar?")
The live Sunday night show aired opposite ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' on CBS and ''Maverick'' on ABC. One of Allen's guests was comedian Johnny Carson, a future successor to Allen as host of ''The Tonight Show''. Among Carson's material during that appearance was a portrayal of how a poker game between Allen, Sullivan, and ''Maverick'' star James Garner (all impersonated by Carson) would transpire. Allen's programs also featured a good deal of music; he helped the careers of singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, who were regulars on his early ''Tonight Show'', and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Allen's show also had one of the longest unscripted "crack-ups" on live TV when Allen began laughing hysterically during "Big Bill Allen's Sports Roundup." He laughed uncontrollably for over a minute, with the audience laughing along, because, as he later explained, he caught sight of his unkempt hair on an off-camera monitor. He kept brushing his hair and changing hats to hide the messy hair, and the more he tried to correct his appearance the funnier it got.
Allen helped the recently invented Polaroid camera become popular by demonstrating its use in live commercials and amassed a huge windfall for his work because he had opted to be paid in Polaroid Corporation stock.
Allen remained host of "Tonight" for three nights a week (Monday and Tuesday nights were taken up by Ernie Kovacs) until early 1957, when he left the "Tonight" show to devote his attention to the Sunday night program. It was his (and NBC's) hope that the Steve Allen show could defeat Ed Sullivan in the ratings. Nevertheless the TV Western ''Maverick'' often bested both ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' and ''The Steve Allen Show'' in audience size. In September 1959, Allen relocated to Los Angeles and left Sunday night television (the 1959-'60 season originated from NBC Color City in Burbank as ''The Steve Allen Plymouth Show'', on Monday nights). Back in Los Angeles, he continued to write songs, hosted other variety shows, and wrote books and articles about comedy.
The show was marked by the same wild and unpredictable stunts and comedy skits that often extended down the street to a supermarket known as the Hollywood Ranch Market. He also presented Southern California eccentrics, including health food advocate Gypsy Boots, quirky physics professor Dr. Julius Sumner Miller, wacko comic Prof. Irwin Corey, and an early musical performance by Frank Zappa.
During one episode, Allen placed a telephone call to the home of Johnny Carson, posing as a ratings company interviewer, asking Carson if the Television was on, and what program he was watching. Carson didn't immediately realize the caller was Allen, and the exchange is classic humor from both, beginning to end. A rarity is the exchange between Allen and Carson about Carson's guests, permitting him to plug his own show on a competing network.
One notable program, which Westinghouse refused to distribute, featured Lenny Bruce during the time the comic was repeatedly being arrested on obscenity charges; footage from this program was first telecast in 1998 in a Bruce documentary aired on HBO. Regis Philbin took over hosting the Westinghouse show in 1964, but only briefly.
The show also featured plenty of jazz played by Allen and members of the show's band, the Donn Trenner Orchestra, which included such virtuoso musicians as guitarist Herb Ellis and flamboyantly comedic hipster trombonist Frank Rosolino (whom Allen credited with originating the "Hiyo!" chant later popularized by Ed McMahon). While the show was not an overwhelming success in its day, David Letterman, Steve Martin, Harry Shearer, Robin Williams, and a number of other prominent comedians have cited Allen's "Westinghouse show," which they watched as teenagers, as being highly influential on their own comedic visions.
Allen later produced a second half-hour show for Westinghouse, titled ''Jazz Scene'', which featured West Coast jazz musicians such as Rosolino, Stan Kenton, and Teddy Edwards. The short-lived show was hosted by Oscar Brown, Jr.
Allen hosted a number of television programs up until the 1980s, including ''The New Steve Allen Show'' in 1961 and the game show ''I've Got a Secret'' (replacing original host Garry Moore) in 1964. In the summer of 1967, he brought most of the regulars from over the years back with ''The Steve Allen Comedy Hour'', featuring the debuts of Rob Reiner, Richard Dreyfuss, and John Byner and featuring Ruth Buzzi, who would become famous soon after on "Laugh-In." In 1968–71, he returned to syndicated nightly variety-talk with the same wacky stunts that would influence David Letterman in later years, including becoming a human hood ornament; jumping into vats of oatmeal and cottage cheese; and being slathered with dog food, allowing dogs backstage to feast on the free food. During the run of this series, Allen also introduced Albert Brooks and Steve Martin to a national audience for the first time.
A syndicated version of ''I've Got A Secret'' hosted by Allen and featuring panelists Pat Carroll and Richard Dawson was taped in Hollywood and aired during the 1972-73 season. In 1977, he produced ''Steve Allen's Laugh-Back'', a syndicated series combining vintage Allen film clips with new talk-show material reuniting his 1950s TV gang. From 1986 through 1988, Allen hosted a daily three-hour comedy show heard nationally on the NBC Radio Network that featured sketches and America's best-known comedians as regular guests. His cohost was radio personality Mark Simone, and they were joined frequently by comedy writers Larry Gelbart, Herb Sargent, and Bob Einstein.
Allen was also an actor. He wrote and starred in his first film, the Mack Sennett comedy compilation ''Down Memory Lane'', in 1949. His most famous film appearance is in 1955's ''The Benny Goodman Story'', in the title role. The film, while an average biopic of its day, was heralded for its music, featuring many alumni of the Goodman band. Allen later recalled his one contribution to the film's music, used in the film's early scenes: the accomplished Benny Goodman could no longer produce the sound of a clarinet beginner, and that was the only sound Allen ''could'' make on a clarinet! In 1960, he appeared as the character "Dr. Ellison" in the episode "Play Acting" of CBS's anthology series ''The DuPont Show with June Allyson'' though his ''The Steve Allen Show'' had been in competition with the June Allyson program the preceding season.
Allen could play a trumpet—sort of. He wrote and recorded a tune called "Impossible," in which he tries to play it straight, but continues to burst out laughing. (The recording has been played on the Dr. Demento radio show.)
From 1977 to 1981, Allen was the producer of the award-winning PBS series, ''Meeting of Minds'', a "talk show" with actors playing the parts of notable historical figures and Steve Allen as the host. This series pitted the likes of Socrates, Marie Antoinette, Thomas Paine, Sir Thomas More, Attila the Hun, Karl Marx, Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and Galileo Galilei in dialogue and argument. This was the show Allen wanted to be remembered for, because he believed that the issues and characters were timeless and would survive long after his passing. This may be more an indictment of popular tastes—which Allen himself wrote about in his last book, "Vulgarians at the Gates"—than of any obtuseness on the show's part.
Allen was a comedy writer and author of more than 50 books, including ''Dumbth'', a commentary on the American educational system, and ''Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality''. Twenty of his books were concerned with his viewsa about religion. He also wrote book-length commentaries on show business personalities ("Funny People"; "More Funny People"). Perhaps influenced by his son's involvement with a religious cult, he became an outspoken critic of organized religion and an active member of such humanist and skeptical organizations as the Council for Media Integrity, a group that debunked pseudoscientific claims.
The singer "was later featured in a mediocre cowboy sketch with Allen, Andy Griffith, and Imogene Coca. As 'Tumbleweed Presley,' his big joke was, 'I'm warning you galoots, don't step on my blue suede boots.' " That apparent mockery was consistent with other situations in which Allen had singers in such comic scenarios on his show, in contrast to the simple "singing in front of a curtain" style of the Sullivan show. The house singers on the early ''Tonight'' show were subjected to many such stunts. In addition, Allen's skit with Presley actually was less a put-down of Presley and mainly a satire of country music stage shows like the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride, the Shreveport-based country music radio show (over KWKH) Presley performed on in 1954 and 1955. It's highly debatable, given Presley's spirited performance, whether unlike the top hat and tails performance, there was any put-down motivation on Allen's part with this particular skit, since he could have easily done it in any of his other programs.
In a 1996 interview Allen was asked about the show. Asked if NBC executives expressed any concerns about Elvis's planned appearance, Allen replied that he'd "read more nonsense about " it, and "a lot of wrong reports have gotten into the public -". "If there ever was, I never heard about it. And since it was my show, I think it would have brought to my attention. " Regarding Elvis's movements he stated "No! I took no objection to the movements I'd seen him make on the Dorsey Brothers show. I didn't see a problem. Of course, I had read about some of the controversy, much of it generated by Ed Sullivan, who was opposite of our show on CBS. It didn't matter to me. I was using good production sense in booking him."
In his book "Hi-Ho Steverino!" Allen wrote the following: "When I booked Elvis, I naturally had no interest in just presenting him vaudeville-style and letting him do his spot as he might in concert. Instead we worked him into the comedy fabric of our program." "We certainly didn't inhibit Elvis' then-notorious pelvic gyrations, but I think the fact that he had on formal evening attire made him, purely on his own, slightly alter his presentation."
Allen also appeared on the shows of entertainers, even the rock and roll program ''The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom on ABC.
The 1985 documentary film ''Kerouac, the Movie'' starts and ends with footage of Jack Kerouac reading from ''On the Road'' as Allen accompanies on soft jazz piano from ''The Steve Allen Plymouth Show'' in 1959. "Are you nervous?" Allen asks him; Kerouac answers nervously, "Noo," a take-off on the character usually played by Don Knotts.
Allen appeared in a PSA advocating for New Eyes for the Needy in the 1990s.
Allen received a traditional Irish Catholic upbringing. He later became a secular humanist and Humanist Laureate for the Academy of Humanism, a member of CSICOP and the Council for Secular Humanism. He received the Rose Elizabeth Bird Commitment to Justice Award from Death Penalty Focus in 1998. He was a student and supporter of general semantics, recommending it in ''Dumbth'' and giving the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture in 1992. In spite of his liberal position on free speech, his later concerns about the lewdness he saw on radio and television, particularly the programs of Howard Stern, caused him to make proposals restricting the content of programs, allying himself with the Parents Television Council. His full-page ad on the subject appeared in newspapers a day or two before his unexpected death. Allen's views evolved in the last dozen years of his life, as he called himself an "involved Presbyterian". He had been married for decades to Jayne Meadows, who was the daughter of a Christian missonary.
Allen made a last appearance on ''The Tonight Show'' on September 27, 1994, for the show's 40th anniversary broadcast. Jay Leno was effusive in praise and actually knelt down and kissed his ring.
Shortly after arriving at his son's home (after carving pumpkins with his grandchildren and taping a radio tribute to an old friend, satirist Paul Krassner), Allen did not feel right and decided to take a nap. While napping, he suffered a massive heart attack and was pronounced dead shortly after 8 p.m. Autopsy results concluded that the traffic accident earlier in the day had caused a blood vessel in his chest to rupture, causing blood to leak into the sac surrounding the heart (known as haemopericardium.) In addition, he suffered four broken ribs as a result of the accident.
Allen was two months shy of his 79th birthday at the time of his death. He is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park-Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.
Allen has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — a television star at 1720 Vine St. and a radio star at 1537 Vine St.
Allen's series of mystery novels "starring" himself and wife Jayne Meadows were in part ghostwritten by Walter J. Sheldon, and later Robert Westbrook.
Category:1921 births Category:2000 deaths Category:American comedians Category:American comedy musicians Category:American game show hosts Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American skeptics Category:American television talk show hosts Category:Arizona State University alumni Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:Dot Records artists Category:Drake University alumni Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from New York City Category:Westinghouse Broadcasting Category:People from Tempe, Arizona Category:American writers
ca:Steve Allen da:Steve Allen de:Steve Allen es:Steve Allen fr:Steve Allen it:Steve Allen no:Steve Allen pl:Steve Allen (komik) pt:Steve Allen simple:Steve Allen sh:Steve Allen (komičar) fi:Steve AllenThis 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.
Name | Little Richard |image Little Richard in 2007.jpg |
---|---|
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Richard Wayne Penniman |
Alias | Little Richard |
Birth date | December 05, 1932 |
Origin | Macon, Georgia, U.S. |
Occupation | Musician, songwriter, recording artist, actor |
Instrument | Vocals, piano, keyboards. saxophone |
Genre | Rock and roll, rhythm and blues, soul, gospel |
Years active | 1945–present |
Background | solo_singer |
Label | RCA Camden, Peacock, Specialty, Gone, Atlantic, Bell, Brunswick, Coral, Critique, Elektra, End, Guest Star, Kent, Lost-Nite, Mainstream, Manticore, MCA, Mercury, Modern, Vee Jay, Okeh, Reprise, K-Tel, Black Label, Warner Bros., WTG}} |
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and contributed significantly to the development of soul music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame web site entry on Penniman states that:
He claims to be "the architect of rock and roll", and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.
Penniman began performing on stage and on the road in 1945, when he was in his early teens. He began his recording career on October 16, 1951 by imitating the gospel-influenced style of late-1940s jump blues artist Billy Wright, who was a friend of his that set him up with the opportunity to record. His early fifties recordings, however, did not achieve remarkable commercial success. However, in 1955, under the guidance of Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Penniman began recording in a style he had been performing onstage for years, featuring varied rhythm (derived from everything from drum beats he would hear in his voice to the sounds of trains he would hear thundering by him as a child), a heavy backbeat, funky saxophone grooves, over-the-top gospel-style singing, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections, accompanied by a combination of boogie-woogie and rhythm and blues music. This new music, which included an original injection of funk into the rock and roll beat, inspired many of the greatest recording artists of the twentieth century, including James Brown, Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, and generations of other rhythm & blues, rock, and soul music artists.
On October 12, 1957, while at the height of stardom, Penniman abruptly quit rock and roll music and became a born-again Christian. He had charted seventeen original hits in less than three years. In January 1958, he enrolled in and attended Bible college to become a preacher and evangelist and began recording and performing only gospel music for a number of years. He then moved back and forth from rock and roll to the ministry, until he was able to reconcile the two roles in later life.
Penniman was among the first group of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and one of only four of those artists (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003, Penniman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2007, his 1955 original hit "Tutti Frutti" was voted Number 1 by an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists on ''Mojo'''s The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll." In 2010, The United States of America's Library of Congress National Recording Registry added the groundbreaking recording to its registry, claiming that the hit, with its original “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom!” ''a cappella'' introduction, announced a new era in music.
Almost all of Penniman's dramatic phrasing and swift vocal turns are derived from black gospel artists of the 1930s and '40s. He said Sister Rosetta Tharpe was his favorite singer when he was a child. She had invited him to sing a song with her onstage at the Macon City Auditorium in 1945, after hearing him sing before the concert. The crowd cheered, and she paid him more money than he had ever seen after the show. He was also influenced by Marion Williams, from whom he got the trademark "whoooo" in his vocal, Mahalia Jackson and Brother Joe May. He was influenced in appearance (hair, clothing, shoes, makeup, etc.) and sound by late 1940s gospel-style, jump blues shouter Billy Wright, a friend of his who was known as the "Prince of the Blues". Wright set Penniman up with DJ Zenas Sears, who scored the newcomer his first recording contract in 1951. One of Penniman's main influences in piano-playing was Esquerita (Eskew Reeder, Jr.), who showed him how to play high notes without compromising bass. Penniman met Esquerita when he traveled through Macon with a preacher named Sister Rosa.
Penniman lived in a black neighborhood; he had some contact with whites but, due to racial segregation, he could not cross the line where the whites lived. While in high school, Penniman played alto saxophone in the marching band. He began losing interest in school and began performing in a variety of travelling shows in his mid-teens.
Following two recording sessions with Peacock in 1953, Penniman, dissatisfied with his solo career, began to form a new R&B; road band that he called "The Upsetters." The band began with New Orleans drummer Charles "Chuck" Connors and two saxophonists, including Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith. By 1955, the band was joined by saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and Grady Gaines, who became its leader, along with Olsie "Baysee" Robinson on bass, and Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas on guitar.
At Lloyd Price's suggestion, Penniman recorded a demo for gospel/R&B; label Specialty Records on February 9, 1955. Specialty's owner, Art Rupe, loaned him money to buy out his contract from Peacock Records and placed his career in the hands of Specialty's A&R; man Robert "Bumps" Blackwell.
Rupe and Blackwell originally pictured Penniman as a commercial rival to Ray Charles, who was experiencing success with Atlantic Records by taking gospel songs and developing them in a bluesy setting with a beat. Penniman told Rupe he liked Fats Domino's sound, so Rupe and Blackwell booked Cosimo Matassa's J & M Recording Studio in New Orleans, and hired studio musicians who had worked with Domino (including Earl Palmer on drums and Lee Allen on sax) rather than members of Penniman's road band on many of the mid-1950s Specialty tracks.
Following some recordings that did not satisfy Blackwell, they took a break. Penniman began pounding out a boogie woogie rhythm on piano and hollering out impromptu recital of "Tutti Frutti", a song he had written and had been performing on stage for years. Blackwell was so impressed with the sound that he had Penniman record the song. However, in order to make it commercially acceptable, Penniman's lyrics were rewritten. Blackwell recognized that the lyrics, with their “minstrel modes and homosexuality humor” needed to be cleaned up. For example “Tutti Frutti, good booty", were replaced with “Tutti Frutti, aw-rooty”. The song featured the a cappella intro "A-wop-bop-a-loo-lop-a-lop-bam-boom!", which Penniman first belted out years before onstage based on a drum beat he heard in his voice, that had also been altered slightly to make it commercially acceptable. The recording was released on Specialty in October 1955.
"Tutti Frutti" was quickly covered by both Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. While Presley's versions only appeared as album tracks, Boone's covers were released as singles and his "Tutti Frutti" single outsold the source record and "outdid Richard's on the hit parade". Boone also released a version of "Long Tall Sally" with slightly bowdlerized lyrics, but this time, the original version outperformed the cover on the Billboard pop chart. Presley and Bill Haley tackled Penniman's fourth R&B; chart topper, "Rip It Up", but his single was the hit.
Penniman, along with his road band, performed his hits in sports stadiums and concert venues across the United States through 1956 and 1957. He brought the races together at his concerts, at a time in the United States when laws still dictated that public facilities (including concert venues) be divided into separate "white" and "colored" domains. His audiences would start out segregated in the building, usually with one race on the floor and the other on the balcony, but most of the time, by the end of the night they were mixed together. Racists in the south, such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council, responded by putting out statements on television, warning the public that "Rock n Roll is part of a test to undermine the morals of the youth of our nation. It is sexualistic, unmoralistic and ... brings people of both races together." The demand for him was so great, however, that even in the south where segregation was most rampant, the taboos against black artists appearing in white venues were being shattered.
Penniman was an innovative and charismatic performer, appearing in sequined capes under flicker lights that he brought from show business into the music world. He would run off and on the stage, jumping, yelling, and whipping the audience into a frenzy. At a concert in Baltimore, Maryland, US concert history was made when excited people had to be restrained from jumping off the balconies, and the police had to stop the show twice to remove dozens of girls that had climbed onstage to try to rip souvenirs from Penniman. Later in the show, girls began to throw their undergarments onto the stage.
While on the road in the mid-50s, Penniman would have notorious parties, replete with orgies, in hotel rooms wherever they appeared. In late 1956, he met a voluptuous high school graduate in Savannah, Georgia, by the name of Lee Angel (née Audrey Robinson). She became his girlfriend and started traveling on the road with him. Penniman would invite attractive men to his parties and would enjoy watching them having sex with his girlfriend.
The news of his quitting at the height of his career had broken all over the world by the time he returned to the United States. He attended one more recording session for Specialty on October 18, 1957, and, at the request of DJ Alan Freed, performed a farewell concert at the Apollo Theatre in New York. He then had his roadies drive his Cadillacs across the United States to a property he bought for his mother in California and gave her the keys. He formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, travelling across the country preaching, and helped people locally through a ministry on skid row in Los Angeles.
From October 1957 to 1962, Penniman recorded gospel music for End, Mercury, and Atlantic Records. In 1958, he enrolled in the Seventh-day Adventist Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), in Huntsville, Alabama, where he planned to take a three-year course which was to culminate in ordination. In November 1957, he met Ernestine Campbell at an evangelistic meeting in Washington, D.C.. They were married on July 11, 1959.
Although rock and roll sales were in a slump in America in 1962, Penniman's records were still selling well in England. From April to May of that year, The Beatles, then still an obscure band, co-resided with Penniman at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, during which time he advised them on the proper technique for performing his songs. Included in this instruction was teaching Paul McCartney his "woo holler." British promoter Don Arden then booked Penniman for an October 1962 tour of Great Britain, with the Beatles as an opening act. Penniman thought he was going to perform gospel music, but Arden had promoted the concert as a rock and roll show. On the first night of the tour he began performing gospel music, but gave in to the pressure and began performing his secular hits. He walked off to a standing ovation. The frenzied crowd reaction was to be repeated wherever he appeared.
He returned to Specialty Records in March 1964, recording one secular track, following a Don Arden headlining deal, accepted by Penniman, who decided not to disclose his reactivated Rock and Roll activity to the church community because he was convinced that rock and roll was evil and still wanted to keep his options open in the ministry.
He had successfully toured England and Wales in October and November 1963, Mick Jagger would later state, "I heard so much about the audience reaction, I thought there must be some exaggeration. But it was all true. He drove the whole house into a complete frenzy... I couldn't believe the power of Little Richard onstage. He was amazing." Near the end of the tour, Penniman recorded a television show, ''The Little Richard Spectacular'', with Sounds Incorporated as the backing band and The Shirelles performing backing vocals, for Britain's largest independent television company at the time, Granada. After the show was first aired in May 1964, Granada received over 60,000 letters from fans, which prompted the company to two repeat broadcasts of the show. Much of the footage was used for a TV special, highlighting the frenzy and excitement associated with rock and roll, that was seen all over the world.
Penniman recorded four more secular tracks for Specialty in April 1964. One of these recordings, "Bama Lama, Bama Loo" was released as a single and was a minor hit on the Billboard charts but a Top Twenty in the U.K.
Around January 1965 he brought a fledgling Jimi Hendrix (who wanted to be known at the time as 'Maurice James') into his band, full-time. Hendrix began dressing and growing a mustache like Penniman's. He toured with Penniman and played on at least a dozen tracks for Vee Jay Records between the spring of 1964 and 1965. Of these, "I Don't Know What You Got But It's Got Me" and covers of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" and "Goodnight, Irene" hit the pop and/or R&B; charts with moderate success.
Penniman continued to record and perform only secular music in the mid-60s, during which time he began drinking heavily. He has stated that he could have had more commercial success during this period, but southern preachers displeased with his backslide from the ministry pressured R&B; radio stations throughout the southern U.S. not to play his music, while on the West Coast, particularly in Los Angeles following the Watts Riots, some black DJs were not playing his music because he was drawing both races to his concerts.
In 1966 and 1967, Penniman recorded two soul albums for Okeh Records, with his old friend from the mid-'50s, Larry Williams, as producer, and Johnny Guitar Watson on guitar. The first album produced the hit single, "Poor Dog." In August 1967, the second album, which was an Okeh Club concert performance, returned Penniman to ''Billboard'''s Top 200 Albums chart for the first time in 10 years. Williams also acted as the musical director for Penniman's live performances used for the album, and Penniman's bookings during this period skyrocketed.
With the emergence of the Black Power movement in the latter part of the decade, Penniman was invited to perform for strictly black crowds. He refused because he did not want to exclude any races from attending his shows. He remained a popular concert attraction, travelling extensively in the United States and Europe, as well as in Mexico and Canada, throughout the remainder of the decade. These albums resulted in four minor hits for Reprise Records between 1970 and 1973 and a single charted briefly for Manticore in 1975. That same year, he played piano on the Top 40 single "Take It Like a Man" from the Bachman–Turner Overdrive hit album ''Head On'' and recorded a gospel song entitled, "Try To Help Your Brother". In 1976, he re-recorded twenty of his biggest '50s hits in Nashville for a K-Tel Records album.
Penniman also continued his wild partying through the first half of the seventies and developed a dependency on a variety of drugs and alcohol. He and his brothers started their own management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
Penniman repented for his wayward living and returned to evangelism. He also represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the many black people in the Bible. In 1979, he recorded a gospel album entitled ''God's Beautiful City'', and embarked upon an evangelical campaign across the U.S. During this period, he proclaimed that it was not possible to perform rock and roll music and serve God at the same time.
Penniman evangelized to crowds of as few as 250 in small churches to packed auditoriums of 21,000 through the remainder of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. His preaching focused on bringing the races together and lost souls to repentance through God's love, as well as the rejection of his former lifestyle of alcoholism, drug addiction and bisexuality.
Shortly before the publication of the biography, Penniman's mother died. Not long before she died he promised her that he would remain a Christian. He thereafter reconciled his role as an evangelist and as a rock and roll artist, stating that he believed that rock and roll music could be used for good or evil.
In an effort to merge his faith with his music, Penniman enrolled his old friend Billy Preston to help him write a song with religious lyrics that sounded like rock and roll. The song was destined for the soundtrack of a new motion picture entitled ''Down and Out in Beverly Hills''. The result was "Great Gosh A'Mighty (It's a Matter of Time)", which became a hit. The hit theme song appeared in a different version on an album of faith-based material entitled ''Lifetime Friend'', recorded (primarily in England) from late 1985 into early 1986. Penniman referred to his new style of music as "message music" and "messages in rhythm", which included a track that was an innovative blend of rap and funky rock music. Penniman also acted in the hit motion picture and received critical acclaim for his performance.
Near the end of the recording process for ''Lifetime Friend'', Penniman flew back to the United States to appear in an episode of the television show ''Miami Vice''. Following the filming he broke his leg in an automobile accident, which prevented him from attending the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on January 23, 1986, at which he was honored as one of the first inductees.
In 1987, Penniman recorded a track for the 1988 tribute album ''Folkways: A Vision Shared'' ("The Rock Island Line", backed by Fishbone). He also recorded the theme song for the ''Twins'' motion picture soundtrack with Philip Bailey and appeared in a promotional music video of the recording for the movie with Bailey, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.
The pressure to return to singing his classic secular hits seemed to mount as the spotlight on Penniman continued. On November 11, 1988, Penniman was filmed as he appeared at "The Legends of Rock and Roll Concert" in Rome, Italy, along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, B.B. King, Ray Charles, and James Brown. Penniman sang three songs; two faith-based ("Great Gosh a'Mighty" and "Joy, Joy, Joy") and the third family-themed ("No Place Like Home"). While others sang the lyrics of one of his secular hits ("Tutti Frutti"), introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis during the all-star jam session finale involving all of the artists, Penniman refused to sing the lyric, instead passing the microphone to Bo Diddley, who seemed to support him by changing the song. However, at an AIDS benefit concert hosted by Cher in March 1989, Penniman performed his classic, "Lucille" for the first time in 13 years. This event marked Penniman's second return to performing his classic brand of rock 'n' roll, though not to the hedonistic lifestyle he had ventured after his first return to secular music in the sixties.
Penniman would go on to continue to perform some of his faith-based brand of rock 'n' roll music at his concerts, as well. In April 1989, he preached, rapped in funky rhyme style, and sang background vocals on the live, extended version of the 1989 U2/B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". He also recorded on a gospel music track with John P. Kee.
Penniman remained active throughout the 1990s on television, in music videos, commercials, movies, in concert and as a guest recording artist. In 1990, he recorded a rap segment for Living Colour's "Elvis Is Dead" (featuring Maceo Parker on saxophone) and then performed it with the band live on television. He appeared in "Mother Goose Rock N Rhyme" (as Ol' King Cole)in 1990. He appeared (as a preacher) in music videos for Cinderella's "Shelter Me" and in a new recording of "Good Golly Miss Molly" for the motion picture ''King Ralph'' (1991). He recorded an album of classic children's songs in his original rocking style for Disney, as well as the opening theme song for the science mystery cartoon ''The Magic School Bus''. He has also voiced an animated version of himself in an episode of ''Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures''. He recorded duets with Jon Bon Jovi, Hank Williams, Jr., Elton John, Tanya Tucker and Solomon Burke on his ''Definition of Soul'' album. He also recorded new tracks for two motion picture soundtracks: ''Casper'' (1995) and ''Why Do Fools Fall in Love'' (1998).
Penniman appeared (as himself) in ''Why Do Fools Fall in Love'', as well as in the 1999 film ''Mystery, Alaska'', in which he sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada". He also guest starred as himself in television shows including ''Columbo'' (in an episode entitled "The Murder of a Rock Star"), ''Full House'' (in the episode entitled "Too Little Richard Too Late"), ''Muppets Tonight'' (in an episode full of cameo appearances), ''Martin'' (in the episode entitled "Three Men and a Mouse") and ''The Fresh Prince of Bel Air''. On June 2, 1995, he appeared on the ABC daytime soap opera ''One Life to Live''. He portrayed a fictionalized version of himself, officiating the wedding of supercouple Bo Buchanan and Nora Gannon, who were huge fans of 1950s rock and roll music.
In the summer of 1998 he toured Europe with Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Penniman's continued to record, tour, and appear on television throughout the decade. Later that year, he was retained by Simon Cowell to be a judge in the Fox television series ''Celebrity Duets''. On March 24, 2007, Penniman performed and lectured students at the University of Texas event "40 Acres Fest", featuring 1,200 bands. He also performed that year at the Capitol Fourth, a July 4 celebration in front of the White House. On July 25, 2007, he made an appearance on the ABC show ''The Next Best Thing''. On November 22, 2007, he headlined the half-time show for a Thanksgiving football game at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. In 2007, to help raise funds to benefit sick and dying children, as well as to debunk the notion that Don Imus was a racist, he recorded a guest track for ''The Imus Ranch Record'' (2008). In June 2008, Penniman also made a cameo appearance on ''The Young and the Restless'' as an ordained piano-playing minister.
Reverend Richard Penniman, who had performed wedding ceremonies for celebrities including Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Steve van Zandt and John Branca (for whom Michael Jackson was best man), spoke a message with a heavy spiritual emphasis at his old friend Wilson Pickett's January 2006 funeral, officiated at a wedding of 20 couples in December 2006, and preached at Ike Turner's December 2007 funeral. On May 30, 2009, following a performance in honor of Fats Domino to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Penniman led Domino and others present in prayer. On June 12, 2009, prior to performing for the grand finale of 29th annual Riverbend Music Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee he said, "although I sing rock 'n' roll, God still loves me. I'm a rock 'n' roll singer, but I'm still a Christian." In late November 2009, Penniman asked for fans to pray for his quick and full recovery from a recent surgery on a hip, which had been causing him pain in his left leg for some time.
Little Richard continued to recover from the operation on his left hip in the first part of 2010. On June 5–6, 2010, he spent time at The Rock House in Franklin, Tennessee to record a new track — a cover of Dottie Rambo's "He Ain't Never Done Me Nothing But Good", as part of a star-studded tribute to the late gospel songwriting legend which is slated for release in 2011.
In January 2011, Penniman appeared for an interview on the set of Charles Wright's "Express Yourself Show." Interviewed by Mr. Duran, Penniman preached a brief messsage to his Latino fans, spoke of his ongoing recovery from the operation on his hip, and introduced his rap recording artist nephew, RR112, who performed a partial rhyme at the end of the interview. He performed at "A Capital Fourth" celebration in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 2011. His performance included several of his most well known hits, including Good Golly Miss Molly.
Penniman became actively involved in orgies in the mid-1950s. In June 1956, Penniman met what has been described as his life-long soul mate, a young woman by the name of Audrey Robinson, who also went by the name Lee Angel. Robinson, who was 16 years of age when they first met, had graduated from high school early and was a college student at the time. Penniman converted to Christianity in October 1957, and met Ernestine Campbell at an evangelical church rally. They were wed in 1959. Penniman had some difficulty living a disciplined Christian life and was drawn so much to show business that he ended up divorcing his wife in 1963. The marriage did not produce any children. However, Penniman did adopt the son of a deceased church associate in the early 1960s.
Penniman's sexuality has been a long topic of debate with the singer himself admitting that he had homosexual experiences as a young adult but later in life after becoming born again, he told a biographer that homosexuality was "contagious". In the same breath, he announced to the same biographer that he was "omnisexual" and in an interview with ''Penthouse'' magazine in 1995, said that he knew he was homosexual. Richard has had affairs with both men and women in the past.
Following over a decade of wild living, Penniman encountered a series of devastating personal experiences, including a near fatal, drug-fueled clash with his long-time friend Larry Williams in 1977. He returned to evangelical ministry and walked away again from rock and roll music, stating that it was not possible to serve God and perform that style of music at the same time. Prior to the death of his mother in 1984, Penniman promised her that he would remain a Christian. He proceeded to use rock and roll to produce gospel recordings that he referred to as "messages in rhythm," changing his stance by stating that rock and roll could be used for good or evil.
Penniman has remained single for many years, is deeply spiritual, and now lives in Tennessee. In recent years, he has been in the company of his former girlfriend from the mid-1950s, Audrey Robinson.
Penniman has been recognized for his outstanding musical contributions by many other high-profile artists. In November 1988, Ray Charles introduced him at the Legends of Rock n Roll concert in Rome, as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Paul McCartney said that he idolized Penniman when he was in school and always wanted to sing like him, and Mick Jagger called Penniman "the originator" and "my first idol." Bob Dylan performed Little Richard songs on piano as a schoolboy in his first band and declared in his high school yearbook in 1959 that his ambition was "to join Little Richard", and in 1966, Jimi Hendrix, who recorded and performed with Penniman from 1964 to 1965." and began to emulate him in appearance (mustache, clothing, etc.) during that time, was quoted as saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Cliff Richard, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Bob Seger, John Fogerty, David Bowie, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Rod Stewart, and AC/DC band members Bon Scott, Angus Young, and Brian Johnson are among the many other top-selling recording artists of the twentieth century who indicated that Penniman was a primary rock 'n' roll influence. In 1979, as he began to develop his solo career, Michael Jackson was quoted as saying that Penniman was a huge influence on him.
Category:1932 births Category:African American pianists Category:African American songwriters Category:American Christians Category:African American male singers Category:American Seventh-day Adventists Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:American soul singers Category:African American rock musicians Category:African American rock singers Category:Bisexual musicians Category:Charly Records artists Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:LGBT African Americans Category:LGBT Christians Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:Living people Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Okeh Records artists Category:People from Macon, Georgia Category:People from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductees Category:Songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Specialty Records artists Category:Vee-Jay Records artists
bg:Литъл Ричард ca:Little Richard cs:Little Richard da:Little Richard de:Little Richard et:Little Richard es:Little Richard fr:Little Richard gl:Little Richard ko:리틀 리처드 it:Little Richard he:ריצ'רד הקטן hu:Little Richard nl:Little Richard ja:リトル・リチャード no:Little Richard nn:Little Richard pl:Little Richard pt:Little Richard ro:Little Richard ru:Литл Ричард simple:Little Richard fi:Little Richard sv:Little Richard th:ลิตเทิล ริชาร์ด uk:Літл РічардThis 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.
Ray was born in Fort Valley, Georgia, and graduated from Crawford County High School in Roberta, Georgia, in 1944. He then served in the United States Navy during World War II, from 1944 to 1946. After the war, Ray was a farmer and local businessman before serving as mayor of Perry, Georgia, from 1964 to 1970. During that time Sam Nunn was city attorney, and after Nunn's election to the United States Senate in 1972, Ray became Nunn's administrative assistant.
In 1982, Ray was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives representing Georgia's 3rd congressional district in 1982. He was re-elected to that position four times.
After the 1990 Census, Georgia picked up a congressional district. Despite this, the Democratic-controlled Georgia General Assembly, seeing a chance to get rid of Newt Gingrich, dismantled his old 6th District and shifted much of the southern portion of Gingrich's old territory into Ray's Columbus-based district. However, the new territory was considerably more urban and Republican than Ray's old territory. Ray lost to Republican state senator Mac Collins, a resident of the former Gingrich territory, by almost 10 points.
After his congressional service, Ray resided in both Byron, Georgia and Alexandria, Virginia. He died in 1999 in Macon, Georgia.
Category:1927 births Category:1999 deaths Category:People from Peach County, Georgia Category:United States Navy sailors Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Georgia (U.S. state) Democrats Category:Mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)
de:Richard Ray
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.
name | Ray Charles |
---|---|
background | solo_singer |
birth name | Ray Charles Robinson |
origin | Greenville, Florida, United States |
born | September 23, 1930Albany, Georgia, United States |
died | June 10, 2004Beverly Hills, California, United States |
instrument | Vocals, piano, keyboards, alto saxophone, trombone |
genre | Rhythm and blues, soul, blues, rock and roll, jazz, country, pop, gospel |
occupation | Composer, musician, arranger, bandleader |
years active | 1947–2004 |
label | Atlantic, ABC, Warner Bros., Swing Time, Concord, Columbia, Flashback |
associated acts | The Raelettes, Quincy Jones, Betty Carter, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Little Richard |
website | Official website 200px|altA signature penned in black inkSignature of Ray Charles }} |
The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.
''Rolling Stone'' ranked Charles number 10 on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"
Charles started to lose his sight at the age of five. He went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently due to glaucoma. He attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine from 1937 to 1945, where he developed his musical talent. During this time he performed on WFOY radio in St. Augustine. His father died when he was 10 and his mother died five years after.
In school, Charles was taught only classical music, but he wanted to play the jazz and blues he heard on the family radio. While at school, he became the school's premier musician. On Fridays, the South Campus Literary Society held assemblies where Charles would play piano and sing popular songs. On Halloween and Washington's birthday, the Colored Department of the school had socials where Charles would play. It was here he established "RC Robinson and the Shop Boys" and sang his own arrangement of "Jingle Bell Boogie." He spent his first Christmas at the school, but later the staff pitched in so that Charles could return to Greenville, as he did each summer.
Henry and Alice Johnson, who owned a store not unlike Mr. Pit's store in Greenville, moved to the Frenchtown section of Tallahassee, just west of Greenville; and they, as well as Freddy and Margaret Bryant, took Charles in. He worked the register in the Bryants' store under the direction of Lucille Bryant, their daughter. It's said he loved Tallahassee and often used the drug store delivery boy's motorbike to run up and down hills using the exhaust sound of a friend's bike to guide him. Charles found Tallahassee musically exciting too and sat in with the Florida A&M; University student band. He played with the Adderley brothers, Nat and Cannonball, and began playing gigs with Lawyer Smith and his Band in 1943 at the Red Bird Club and DeLuxe Clubs in Frenchtown and roadhouse theatres around Tallahassee, as well as the Governor's Ball.
Charles had always played for other people, but he wanted his own band. He decided to leave Florida for a large city, but Chicago and New York City were too big. After asking a friend to look in a map and note the city in the United States that was farthest from Florida, he moved to Seattle in 1947 (where he first met and befriended a 14 year old Quincy Jones) and soon started recording, first for the Down Beat label as the Maxin Trio with guitarist G.D. McKee and bassist Milton Garrett, achieving his first hit with "Confession Blues" in 1949. The song soared to No. 2 on the R&B; charts. He joined Swing Time Records and under his own name ("Ray Charles" to avoid being confused with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson) recorded two more R&B; hits, "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (No. 5) in 1951 and "Kissa Me Baby" (No. 8) in 1952. The following year, Swing Time folded and Ahmet Ertegün signed him to Atlantic Records.
The song reached the top of Billboard's R&B; singles chart in 1955 and from there until 1959 he would have a series of R&B; successes including "A Fool For You" (No. 1), "This Little Girl of Mine", "Lonely Avenue", "Mary Ann", "Drown in My Own Tears" (No. 1) and the No. 5 hit "The Night Time (Is the Right Time)", which were compiled on his Atlantic releases ''Hallelujah, I Love Her So'', ''Yes Indeed!'', and ''The Genius Sings the Blues''.
During this time of transition, he recruited a young girl group from Philadelphia, The Cookies, as his background singing group, recording with them in New York and changing their name to the Raelettes in the process.
With his first hit single for ABC-Paramount, Charles received national acclaim and a Grammy Award for the Sid Feller-produced "Georgia on My Mind", originally written by composers Stuart Gorrell and Hoagy Carmichael, released as a single by Charles in 1960. The song served as Charles's first work with Feller, who arranged and conducted the recording. Charles also earned another Grammy for the follow-up "Hit the Road Jack", written by R&B; singer Percy Mayfield. By late 1961, Charles had expanded his small road ensemble to a full-scale big band, partly as a response to increasing royalties and touring fees, becoming one of the few black artists to crossover into mainstream pop with such a level of creative control. This success, however, came to a momentary halt in November 1961, as a police search of Charles's hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana during a concert tour led to the discovery of heroin in his medicine cabinet. The case was eventually dropped, as the search lacked a proper warrant by the police, and Charles soon returned his focus on music and recording.
The 1962 album, ''Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music'' and its sequel ''Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2'', helped to bring country into the mainstream of music. His version of the Don Gibson song, ''I Can't Stop Loving You'' topped the Pop chart for five weeks and stayed at No. 1 R&B; for ten weeks in 1962. It also gave him his only number one record in the UK. In 1962, he founded his own record label, Tangerine Records which ABC-Paramount promoted and distributed. He also had major pop hits in 1963 with "Busted" (US No. 4) and ''Take These Chains From My Heart'' (US No. 8), and a Top 20 hit four years later, in 1967, with "Here We Go Again" (US No. 15) (which would be a duet with Norah Jones in 2004).
During the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Charles's releases were hit-or-miss, with some big hits and critically acclaimed work. His version of "Georgia On My Mind" was proclaimed the state song of Georgia on April 24, 1979, and he performed it on the floor of the state legislature. He also had success with his unique version of "America the Beautiful".
In November 1977 he appeared as the host of NBC's ''Saturday Night Live''. In the 1980s a number of other events increased Charles's recognition among young audiences. He made a cameo appearance in the popular 1980 film ''The Blues Brothers''. In 1985, "The Right Time" was featured in the episode "Happy Anniversary" of ''The Cosby Show'' on NBC. The next year, he sang America The Beautiful at Wrestlemania 2. In a Pepsi Cola commercial of the early 1990s – composed by Kenny Ascher, Joseph C. Caro, and Helary Jay Lipsitz – Charles popularized the catchphrase "You Got the Right One, Baby!" and he was featured in the recording of "We Are the World" for USA for Africa.
After having supported Martin Luther King, Jr. and for the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Charles courted controversy when he toured South Africa in 1981, during an international boycott of the country because of its apartheid policy.
In 1989, Charles recorded a cover version of the Japanese band Southern All Stars' song "Itoshi no Ellie" as "Ellie My Love" for a Suntory TV advertisement, reaching No. 3 on Japan's Oricon chart. Eventually, it sold more than 400,000 copies, and became that year's best-selling single performed by a Western artist for the Japanese music market.
Charles also appeared at two Presidential inaugurations in his lifetime. In 1985, he performed for Ronald Reagan's second inauguration, and in 1993 for Bill Clinton's first.
In the late 1980s/early 1990s, Charles made appearances on the Super Dave Osbourne TV show, where he performed and appeared in a few vignettes where he was somehow driving a car, often as Super Dave's chauffeur. At the height of his newfound fame in the early nineties, Charles did guest vocals for several projects. He also appeared (with Chaka Khan) on long time friend Quincy Jones' hit "I'll Be Good to You" in 1990, from Jones's album ''Back on the Block''. Following Jim Henson's death in 1990, Ray Charles appeared in the one-hour CBS tribute, ''The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson''. He gave a short speech about Henson, stating that he "took a simple song and a piece of felt and turned it into a moment of great power". Charles was referring to the song "It's Not Easy Being Green", which he later performed with the rest of the Muppet cast in a tribute to Henson's legacy.
During the sixth season of ''Designing Women'', Charles sang "Georgia on My Mind", instead of the song being rendered instrumentally by other musicians as in the previous five seasons. He also appeared in 4 episodes of the popular TV comedy ''The Nanny'' in Seasons 4 & 5 (1997 & 1998) as 'Sammy', in one episode singing "My Yiddish Mamma" to December romance and later fiancee of character Gramma Yetta, played by veteran actress Ann Guilbert.
In 2003, Ray Charles headlined the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C. where the President, First Lady, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice attended. He also presented one of his greatest admirers, Van Morrison, with his award upon being inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the two sang Morrison's song "Crazy Love". This performance appears on Morrison's 2007 album, ''The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3''.
In 2003 Charles performed "Georgia On My Mind" and "America the Beautiful" at a televised annual electronic media journalist banquet held in Washington, D.C., at what may have been his final performance in public. His final public appearance came on April 30, 2004, at the dedication of his music studio as a historic landmark in the city of Los Angeles.
A list of his children:
Charles gave 10 of his 12 children one million USD cheques each in December 2002 at a family luncheon, while the other two could not make it.
By 1964 Charles's drug addiction caught up with him and he was arrested for possession of marijuana and heroin. Following a self-imposed stay at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood, California, Charles received five years' probation. Charles responded to the saga of his drug use and reform with the songs "I Don't Need No Doctor", "Let's Go Get Stoned", and the release of his first album since having kicked his heroin addiction in 1966, ''Crying Time''.
His final album, ''Genius Loves Company'', released two months after his death, consists of duets with various admirers and contemporaries: B.B. King, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, and Johnny Mathis. The album won eight Grammy Awards, including five for Ray Charles for Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones, and Best Gospel Performance for "Heaven Help Us All" with Gladys Knight; he also received nods for his duets with Elton John and B.B. King. The album included a version of Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow", sung as a duet by Charles and Johnny Mathis, which recording was later played at his memorial service.
Two more posthumous albums, ''Genius & Friends'' (2005) and ''Ray Sings, Basie Swings'' (2006), were released. ''Genius & Friends'' consisted of duets recorded from 1997 to 2005 with his choice of artists. ''Ray Sings, Basie Swings'' consists of archived vocals of Ray Charles from live mid-1970s performances added to new instrumental tracks specially recorded by the contemporary Count Basie Orchestra and other musicians. Charles's vocals recorded from the concert mixing board were added to new accompaniments to create a "fantasy concert" recording. Gregg Field, who had performed as a drummer with both Charles and Basie, produced the album.
Charles possessed one of the most recognizable voices in American music. In the words of musicologist Henry Pleasants:
Sinatra, and Bing Crosby before him, had been masters of words. Ray Charles is a master of sounds. His records disclose an extraordinary assortment of slurs, glides, turns, shrieks, wails, breaks, shouts, screams and hollers, all wonderfully controlled, disciplined by inspired musicianship, and harnessed to ingenious subtleties of harmony, dynamics and rhythm... It is either the singing of a man whose vocabulary is inadequate to express what is in his heart and mind or of one whose feelings are too intense for satisfactory verbal or conventionally melodic articulation. He can’t tell it to you. He can’t even sing it to you. He has to cry out to you, or shout to you, in tones eloquent of despair — or exaltation. The voice alone, with little assistance from the text or the notated music, conveys the message.
Ray Charles is usually described as a baritone, and his speaking voice would suggest as much, as would the difficulty he experiences in reaching and sustaining the baritone's high E and F in a popular ballad. But the voice undergoes some sort of transfiguration under stress, and in music of gospel or blues character he can and does sing for measures on end in the high tenor range of A, B flat, B, C and ev in full voice, sometimes in an ecstatic head voice, sometimes in falsetto. In falsetto he continues up to E and F above high C. On one extraordinary record, "I’m Going Down to the River’ . . . he hits an incredible B flat . . . . giving him an overall range, including the falsetto extension, of at least three octaves.
In 1979, Charles was one of the first of the Georgia State Music Hall of Fame to be recognized as a musician born in the state. Ray's version of "Georgia On My Mind" was made the official state song for Georgia. In 1981, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was one of the first inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony in 1986. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986.
In 1987, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1991, he was inducted to the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 1998 he was awarded the Polar Music Prize together with Ravi Shankar in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2004 he was inducted to the Jazz Hall of Fame, and inducted to the National Black Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame. The Grammy Awards of 2005 were dedicated to Charles.
On December 7, 2007, Ray Charles Plaza was opened in Albany, Georgia, with a revolving, lighted bronze sculpture of Charles seated at a piano. Later that month, on December 26, 2007, Ray Charles was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. He was also presented with the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, during the 1991 UCLA Spring Sing.
In 2003, Charles was awarded an honorary degree by Dillard University. Upon his death, he endowed a professorship of African-American culinary history at the school, which is the first such chair in the nation. A $20 million performing arts center at Morehouse College was named after Charles and was dedicated in September 2010.
The biopic ''Ray'', an October 2004 film portrays his life and career between 1930 and 1966 and stars Jamie Foxx as Charles. Foxx won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor for the role. The movie is the all-time number one biopic per screen average, opening on 2006 screens and making 20 million dollars.
The RPM International building is located on the corner of Westmorland Blvd. and Washington Blvd., which is also dedicated as the "Ray Charles Square".
Category:1930 births Category:2004 deaths Category:ABC Records artists Category:African American musicians Category:African American singers Category:American blues pianists Category:American blues singers Category:American composers Category:American country singers Category:American gospel singers Category:American keyboardists Category:American male singers Category:American pop pianists Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American soul singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American soul musicians Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Blind musicians Category:Blind bluesmen Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:Burials at Inglewood Park Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Deaths from liver cancer Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Musicians from Florida Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:People from Albany, Georgia Category:People from Madison County, Florida Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rhythm and blues pianists Category:Songwriters from Florida Category:Songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Urban blues musicians
ar:ري تشارلز an:Ray Charles zh-min-nan:Ray Charles br:Ray Charles bg:Рей Чарлс ca:Ray Charles cs:Ray Charles cy:Ray Charles da:Ray Charles de:Ray Charles et:Ray Charles es:Ray Charles eo:Ray Charles fa:ری چارلز fr:Ray Charles fy:Ray Charles ga:Ray Charles gl:Ray Charles ko:레이 찰스 hr:Ray Charles io:Ray Charles id:Ray Charles is:Ray Charles it:Ray Charles he:ריי צ'ארלס ka:რეი ჩარლზი la:Ray Charles lv:Rejs Čārlzs lb:Ray Charles hu:Ray Charles mr:रे चार्ल्स nl:Ray Charles ja:レイ・チャールズ no:Ray Charles nn:Ray Charles oc:Ray Charles uz:Ray Charles pl:Ray Charles pt:Ray Charles ro:Ray Charles ru:Рэй Чарльз scn:Ray Charles simple:Ray Charles sk:Ray Charles sl:Ray Charles sh:Ray Charles fi:Ray Charles sv:Ray Charles tl:Ray Charles ta:ரே சார்ல்ஸ் th:เรย์ ชาร์ลส tr:Ray Charles uk:Рей Чарлз vi:Ray Charles yo:Ray Charles zh:雷·查尔斯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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