MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group (now Universal Music Group), of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003. MCA's country division, MCA Nashville Records, is a still active imprint of Universal Music Group Nashville.

Pre-history

MCA entered the recorded music business in 1962 with the purchase of the New York-based US Decca Records (established in 1934), including Coral Records and Brunswick Records. As American Decca owned Universal Pictures, MCA assumed full ownership of Universal and made it into the top film studio in town, producing hit after hit. In 1966, MCA formed Uni Records and in 1967 purchased Kapp Records which was placed under Uni Records management.

History

MCA Records formation outside North America

The U.S. and U.K. Decca companies were forced to sever their ties because of World War II. MCA's U.S. based Decca Records had the rights to the Decca name in North and South America and parts of Asia including Japan. U.K. Decca owned the rights to the Decca name in the rest of the world. After the war, British Decca formed a new U.S. subsidiary, London Records.

During this time U.S. Decca issued records outside North America on the Brunswick and Coral labels. In 1967, Brunswick and Coral were replaced by the MCA Records label to release U.S. Decca and Kapp label material outside North America. Initial activity under the MCA Records name was based in London. MCA Records in the UK was formally launched on February 16, 1968. The label signed only a few artists until the 1970-1971 period. Among the first artists were groups Wishbone Ash; Osibisa; Stackridge; and Budgie; and solo artists Tony Christie; Mick Greenwood; and Roy Young. Early MCA releases were distributed by U.K. Decca but moved to EMI from 1974 to 1979. Distribution then moved to CBS, while the last releases in the 1980s were self distributed. As the U.S. division of MCA Records was not established until 1972, the earliest U.K. MCA Records material was released in the U.S. on either Kapp or Decca.

MCA U.K. also issued American Brunswick material on the MCA label until MCA lost control of Brunswick in 1970 at which point American Brunswick material was issued in the UK on the Brunswick label. Uni label material was issued on the Uni label worldwide.

MCA Records formation in North America

In 1970, MCA reorganized its Canadian record company Compo Company Ltd. into MCA Records (Canada). In April 1970, former Warner Bros. Records president Mike Maitland joined MCA and initially served as Decca's general manager. Maitland was unsuccessful in his attempt to consolidate Warner Bros. Records with co-owned Atlantic Records which led to his departure from Warner.

In April 1971, Maitland supervised the consolidation of the New York based Decca and Kapp labels plus the California based Uni label into MCA Records based in Universal City, California with Maitland serving as president. The three labels maintained their identities for a short time but were retired in favor of the MCA label in 1973. Drift Away by Dobie Gray became the final Decca pop label release in the U.S in 1973. Beginning the same year the catalogs of Decca, Uni and Kapp were reissued in the U.S. on the MCA Records label under the supervision of veteran Decca producer Milt Gabler.

Early success

The first MCA Records release in the U.S. was former Uni artist Elton John's Crocodile Rock single in 1972. In December 1972, Neil Diamond, another Uni artist, reached superstar status with his first MCA release, the live multi-platinum Hot August Night. Elton John's double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released in October 1973 and was number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart for eight straight weeks. The management of former Decca artists The Who had formed their own label Track Records in the U.K. but were still under contract with MCA for U.S. distribution. The Who's double album Quadrophenia was released by Track/MCA also in October 1973. Quadrophenia peaked at number 2 as it was held back from the number 1 slot by Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Other successful artists on MCA after the consolidation included former Kapp artist Cher, and Uni artist Olivia Newton-John. MCA released the highly successful soundtrack album to the 1973 film The Sting. The soundtrack music was arranged and conducted by Marvin Hamlisch and won an Academy Award for Best Original Score (MCA issued many other soundtracks to films from Universal, along with some non-Universal films).

One of the most successful new MCA artists in this era was the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their song Free Bird peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in edited form, but the full length version became one of the most popular songs of all time on Album-oriented rock radio stations. On their second album, Second Helping, the group recorded a song about their signing to the label, "Workin' for MCA." Three Lynyrd Skynyrd albums released by MCA reached the double platinum sales level and at least two others reached platinum or gold levels. Lynyrd Skynyrd's hit streak ended following a tragic 1977 plane crash in which three members of the group and one crew member were killed and others were severely injured.

During the 1970s and 1980s MCA profited from reissuing classic early rock and roll recordings made by artists who recorded for the numerous labels absorbed by MCA over the years. One notable example was the 1954 Decca recording Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets, which was featured as the lead track of MCA's No. 1-charting American Graffiti soundtrack album, and as a single returned to the American top 40 that year, 20 years after it was recorded.

Expansion and struggles

In 1977 MCA president Sidney Sheinberg set up the Infinity Records division, based in New York City with Ron Alexenberg as CEO. Alexenberg had previously been with the Epic division of CBS Records, now Sony Music Entertainment. The intention was to give MCA a stronger presence on the east coast. The only big hit the Infinity label had was Escape by Rupert Holmes which was #1 at the end of 1979. Infinity also had some success with Hot Chocolate, Spyro Gyra, New England and TKO. But MCA pulled the plug on Infinity after it failed to sell most of the 1 million advance copies of an album featuring Pope John Paul II in October 1979. Infinity was fully absorbed by the parent company in 1980.

In 1979, Bob Siner replaced Maitland as MCA Records president. Shortly afterwards, MCA acquired ABC Records along with its subsidiaries Paramount Records, Dunhill Records, Impulse! Records, Westminster Records, and Dot Records. ABC had acquired the Paramount and Dot labels when they purchased Gulf+Western's record labels, the Famous Music Group. Thus MCA now controlled the following material once owned by Paramount Pictures: the music released by Paramount's record labels, and the pre-1950 films by Paramount as well. Also included in the deal were recordings controlled by ABC, including albums by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers which were originally released by Shelter Records. Petty was furious about the re-assignment of his contract and refused to record for MCA. This led to a series of lawsuits, which resulted in his bankruptcy in 1980. Petty and other ABC/Shelter artists eventually had their contracts transferred to the Backstreet Records label, which was distributed by MCA. ABC Records' independent distributors sued ABC and MCA for $1.3 million in damages for being stuck with unsold ABC recordings they could not return to MCA. The better selling ABC Records catalog albums were reissued on the MCA label.

The combined effects of the Infinity Records failure, the purchase of ABC Records, rising vinyl costs and a huge slump in record sales produced tremendous losses for the company between 1979 and 1982. It was not until the mid 1980s that the record labels returned to significant profitability. In late 1980 MCA received negative publicity when it attempted to raise the list price of new releases by top selling artists from $8.98 to $9.98. This policy, known as "superstar pricing", ultimately failed. The Xanadu soundtrack album and former ABC artist Steely Dan's Gaucho were the first $9.98 list albums. Backstreet artist Tom Petty succeeded in his campaign to force MCA to drop prices back to $8.98 for his album Hard Promises released in May 1981.

Recovery, further expansion and MCA Music Entertainment Group formation

From 1983 to 1989, MCA Records was headed by Irving Azoff and is credited with saving the company from bankruptcy. Azoff resigned from MCA in 1989 to form his own record label, Giant Records, now defunct. Richard Palmese was named president of MCA Records after Azoff in 1990.

In the late 1980s, MCA formed Mechanic Records as a sub-label for releasing heavy metal music. Bands signed to Mechanic included Voivod, Dream Theater, Bang Tango, and Trixter.

The Chess Records catalog was acquired from the remnants of Sugar Hill Records in 1985. Motown Records was bought in 1988 (and sold to PolyGram in 1993). GRP Records and Geffen Records were acquired in 1990. Unlike most of MCA's previous acquisitions, the GRP (which began managing MCA's jazz holdings) and Geffen (which became a second mainstream subsidiary) labels kept their identities and MCA created a new holding company in 1989 called MCA Music Entertainment Group, headed by Al Teller, former President of United Artists Records, and Co-Chairman of Turf Classics, a concert production company, run by Producer Richard Flanzer; among several other music industry positions Teller held. with Palmese continuing to run the MCA label. In the same year, the MCA Inc. parent company was purchased by the Matsushita group.

MCA Music Entertainment Group becomes Universal Music Group

In 1995, Seagram Company Ltd. acquired 80% of MCA. On November of that year, Teller was fired and replaced by former Warner Music head Doug Morris. Palmese left MCA a week later. The following year, the new owners dropped the MCA name; the company became Universal Studios, Inc. and its music division, MCA Music Entertainment Group, was renamed Universal Music Group (UMG), headed by Morris.

In 1997, MCA Records adopted a new logo that featured the parent company's former full name. Many younger people had been unaware of what MCA had stood for in the past, hence the new logo.

In 1998 Seagram acquired PolyGram (owner of British Decca) from Philips and merged it with its music holdings. When Seagram's drinks business was bought by France-based Pernod Ricard, its media holdings (including Universal) were sold to Vivendi which became Vivendi Universal which was later renamed back to Vivendi SA after selling most of the entertainment division (which included Universal Pictures) to General Electric. Morris continued to head the combined company, still called Universal Music Group.

MCA label phaseout

In spring 2003, the MCA Records label was absorbed by sister UMG label Geffen Records. Today Universal Music Enterprises manages MCA's rock, pop, and urban back catalogues (including those from ABC Records and Famous Music Group) in conjunction with Geffen - UME and Geffen have re-released various albums from MCA in the years since, as well as several compilations. Its country music label, MCA Nashville Records is still in operation. MCA's jazz catalogue is managed by Verve Records (through either the GRP or Impulse! imprints, depending on if the release was acquired from ABC or not), while its classical music catalogue is managed by Deutsche Grammophon. MCA's musical theatre catalogue is managed by Decca Records on its Decca Broadway imprint.

Today, the only operation by MCA that lives is the MCA Nashville imprint.

MCA Music (Philippines)

The MCA name is still in use in the Philippines because of a trademark dispute with an unrelated label known as Universal Records, which holds the rights to the word "Universal" for recorded music in the Philippines. As a result, Universal Music Group is instead traded as MCA Music, Inc. Philippines in that country. However, the company has adopted the moniker "Universal Music Philippines" to simplify identification, even though no formal "Universal" branding is exercised.

Logos

Labels

MCA Records recording artists

See also

ABC Records

Chess Records

Decca Records

Dunhill Records

Geffen Records

Infinity Records

Kapp Records

MCA Nashville Records

Uni Records

Universal Music Group

Uptown Records

References

External links

The official website of MCA Music PHILIPPINES

MCA Music Philippines Facebook page

A collection of MCA record labels

MCA UK 45 RPM labels and sleeves 1967-1985

MCA US 45 RPM labels and sleeves 1972-1985

Category:American record labels Category:Defunct record labels Category:Film soundtrack record labels Category:Record labels established in 1934 Category:Record labels disestablished in 2003 Category:Vivendi subsidiaries

cs:MCA Records es:MCA Records it:MCA Records ka:MCA Records ja:MCAレコード pl:MCA Records ru:MCA Records sv:MCA Records uk:MCA Records

birth name	Richard St John Harris
birth date	October 01, 1930
birth place	Limerick, Irish Free State
death date	October 25, 2002
death place	London, England, UK
death cause	Hodgkin's Lymphoma
alma mater	London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
occupation	Actor, singer-songwriter, producer, director, writer
years active	1958–2002
spouse	Elizabeth Rees-Williams (1957–69)Ann Turkel (1974–82)
parents	Ivan John Harris,Mildred Josephine Harris }}

Richard St John Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer.

He appeared on stage and in many films, and is perhaps best known for his roles as King Arthur in Camelot (1967), as Oliver Cromwell in Cromwell (1970) and as Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) (Released in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), his final film. He also played a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse (1970), Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000), St. John The Apostle in Apocalypse Revelation (2002), and the gunfighter English Bob in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992).

Harris had a top ten hit in Britain and the US with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park".

Early life and career

Harris, the fifth of nine children, was born in Limerick City, County Limerick, Munster, Irish Free State into a middle-class, staunchly Roman Catholic family. His parents were Ivan John Harris (b. 1896, son of Richard Harris, b. 1854, son of James Harris of St. Michael's, Limerick) and Mildred Josephine Harty Harris (b. 1898, daughter of James Harty, St. John's, Limerick, who owned a flour mill.) Harris' siblings include Patrick Ivan (born 1929), Noel William Michael (born 1932), Diarmid (Dermot, born 1939), and William George Harris (born 1942). He was schooled by the Jesuits at Crescent College. A talented rugby player, he was on several Munster Junior and Senior Cup teams for Crescent, and played for Garryowen. Harris might have become a provincial or international-standard rugby player, but his athletic career was cut short when he caught tuberculosis in his teens. He remained an ardent fan of the Munster Rugby and Young Munster teams then until his death, and attending many of its matches, and there are numerous stories of japes at rugby matches with the actors and fellow rugby fans Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton.

After recovering from tuberculosis, Harris moved to England, wanting to become a director. He could not find any suitable training courses, and he enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) to learn acting. He had failed an audition at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and had been rejected by the Central School of Speech and Drama because they felt he was too old at 24. While still a student, Harris rented the tiny "off-West End" Irving Theatre, and there directed his own production of Clifford Odets's play Winter Journey (The Country Girl). This show was a critical success, but it was a financial failure, and Harris lost all his savings in this venture.

As a result, Harris ended up temporarily homeless, sleeping in a coal cellar for six weeks. Accounts of Harris' contemporaries from his hometown of Limerick, however, indicate that Harris may have exaggerated these stories somewhat and that he actually stayed with a few aunts, sleeping on their living room sofas. After completing his studies at the Academy, Harris joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. He began getting roles in West End theatre productions, starting with The Quare Fellow in 1956, a transfer from the Theatre Workshop. Harris spent nearly a decade in obscurity, learning his profession on stages throughout the UK.

Career

Harris made his movie debut in 1958 in the film Alive and Kicking, and played the lead role in The Ginger Man in the West End in 1959. He hated filming The Wreck of the Mary Deare so much that he refused to return to Hollywood for several years, turning down the role of Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire. He had a memorable bit part in the movie The Guns of Navarone as a Royal Australian Air Force pilot who reports that blowing up the "bloody guns" of the island of Navarone is impossible by an air raid.

For his role in the film Mutiny on the Bounty, despite being virtually unknown to film audiences, Harris reportedly insisted on third billing, behind Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando. He did not get along with Brando at all during filming.

Harris's first starring role was in the movie This Sporting Life in 1963, as the bitter young coal miner, Frank Machin, who becomes an acclaimed rugby league football player. For his role, Harris won the award for best actor in 1963 at the Cannes Film Festival. Harris followed this with a leading role in the Italian film, Antonioni's Il deserto rosso (1964), and he also won notice for his role in Sam Peckinpah's "lost masterpiece" Major Dundee (1965), as an Irish immigrant who became a Confederate cavalryman during the Civil Warl; again, he did not get along with co-star Charlton Heston at all.

Harris next performed the role of King Arthur in the film adaptation of the musical play Camelot. Harris continued to appear on stage in this role for years, including a successful Broadway run in 1981–82. In 1966, Harris starred as Adam's son Cain in John Huston's film The Bible: In the Beginning.

Harris recorded several albums of music, one of which (A Tramp Shining) included the seven-minute hit song "MacArthur Park" (Harris insisted on singing the lyric as "MacArthur's Park"). This song had been written by Jimmy Webb, and it reached #2 on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also topped several music sales charts in Europe during the summer of 1968. "MacArthur Park" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. A second album, with music mostly composed by Webb, The Yard Went on Forever, was published in 1969. Harris also wrote and arranged the orchestral accompaniment for one of the tracks, a scathing commentary on the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland delivered as a spoken-word poem written by Dr T James and entitled "There are Too Many Saviours on My Cross".

Some memorable movie performances followed this, among them a role as a reluctant police informant in the coal-mining tale The Molly Maguires (1970), starring with Sean Connery. Harris starred in the Man in the Wilderness in 1971, the Juggernaut in 1974 (a British suspense movie about the hijacking of an ocean liner), in 1976 in The Cassandra Crossing, along with the actresses Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner, and in a B-movie, Orca, in 1977. Harris achieved a form of cult status for his role as the mercenary tactician Rafer Janders in the movie The Wild Geese (1978).

In 1973, Harris published a widely-acclaimed book of poetry, I, In The Membership Of My Days, which was later re-published as an audio recording of his reading his own poems. In 1989, Harris played the beggar King J.J. Peachum in Mack the Knife, the third screen adaptation of The Threepenny Opera.

By the end of the 1980s, Harris had gone for an extended time without a significant movie role. He was familiar with the stage plays of fellow Irishman John B. Keane, and had heard that one of them, The Field, was being adapted for film by director Jim Sheridan. Sheridan was working with actor Ray McAnally on the adaptation, intending to feature McAnally in the lead role of Bull McCabe. When McAnally died suddenly during initial preparations, Harris began a concerted campaign to be cast as McCabe. The campaign succeeded, and the movie version of The Field was released in 1990. Harris earned an American Academy Award nomination for his performance, but lost to Jeremy Irons for Reversal of Fortune. In 1992, Harris had a supporting but memorable role in the film Patriot Games, as an Irish-American radical.

Later career

Harris appeared in two films which won the Oscar for Best Picture. First, as the gunfighter "English Bob" in the 1992 Western, Unforgiven; second, as the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000). He also played a lead role alongside James Earl Jones in the 1995 Darrell Roodt film adaptation of Cry, the Beloved Country. In 1999, Harris starred in the film To Walk With Lions. After Gladiator, Harris gained further fame playing the supporting role of Albus Dumbledore in the first two of the Harry Potter films, and as Abbé Faria in Kevin Reynolds' 2002 film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. The film Kaena: The Prophecy (released in 2003) was dedicated to him posthumously as he had voiced the character Opaz before his death.

Concerning his role as Dumbledore, Harris had stated that he did not intend to take the part, at first, since he knew that his own health was in decline, but he relented and accepted it because his 10-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he did not take it. In an interview with the Toronto Star in 2001, Harris expressed his concern that his association with the Harry Potter movies would outshine the rest of his career. He explained by saying: "Because, you see, I don't just want to be remembered for being in those bloody films, and I'm afraid that's what's going to happen to me."

Personal life and death

In 1957, he married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, the daughter of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore. Their three children are the actors Jared Harris, once married to Emilia Fox, the actor Jamie Harris, and the director Damian Harris, once married to Annabel Brooks and partner of Peta Wilson. Harris and Rees-Williams divorced in 1969, after which Elizabeth married Sir Rex Harrison. His maternal niece is actress Annabelle Wallis.

Harris' second marriage was to the American actress Ann Turkel, who was 16 years younger than he. This marriage also ended in a divorce.

Despite his divorces, Harris was a member of the Roman Catholic Knights of Malta, and was also dubbed a knight by the Queen of Denmark in 1985.

Harris often told stories about his haunted London home, The Tower House, which was sold later to the musician Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. According to Harris, the tower was haunted by an eight-year-old boy who had been buried in the tower. The boy often kept Harris awake at night until he one day built a nursery for the boy to play in, which calmed the disturbances to some extent.

Harris was a vocal supporter of the IRA from the early 1970s until the bombing of Harrod's in 1983, after which he disavowed them.

Harris was a longtime alcoholic until he became a teetotaler in 1981, although he did resume drinking Guinness a decade later. He gave up drugs after almost dying from a cocaine overdose in 1978. A memorable incident concerning his massive alcohol consumption was an appearance on The Late Late Show where he recounted to host Gay Byrne how he had just polished off two bottles of fine wine in a restaurant and decided that he would then be going on the wagon: "And I looked at my watch and it was... Well isn't that spooky! It was the same time it is now: 11:20!"

Harris is also attributed with an anecdote in which he was found lying drunk in a street in London. A passing policeman asked him what he was doing, and he replied that the world was spinning. The policeman inquired as to how lying in the street was going to help, and he said "I'm waiting for my house to go by." In a 1994 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, Harris said he had his driver's licence permanently suspended for knocking over a double-decker bus in Dublin, Ireland.

Harris died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma on 25 October 2002, aged 72, two and a half weeks before the American premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Harris was a lifelong friend of actor Peter O'Toole, and his family reportedly hoped that O'Toole would replace Harris as Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. There were, however, worries of insuring O'Toole for the 5 remaining films, and he was ultimately replaced as Dumbledore by the Irish-born actor Sir Michael Gambon.

For years, whenever he was in London, Harris resided at the Savoy Hotel. According to the hotel archivist Susan Scott, as Harris was being taken from the hotel on a stretcher, shortly before his death, he warned the diners, "It was the food!"

Harris's remains were cremated, and his ashes were scattered in The Bahamas, where he had owned a home.

Memorials

On 30 September 2006, Manuel Di Lucia, of Kilkee, County Clare, a long-time friend, organized a bronze life-size statue of Richard Harris, at the age of eighteen, playing rackets. The sculptor was Seamus Connolly and the sculpture (unveiled by Russell Crowe) stands in Kilkee, Ireland.

Another life-size statue of Richard Harris, as King Arthur from his film, Camelot, has been erected in Bedford Row, in the center of his home town of Limerick. The sculptor of this statue was the Irish sculptor Jim Connolly, a graduate of the Limerick School of Art and Design.

At the 2009 BAFTAs, Mickey Rourke dedicated his Best Actor award to Harris, calling him a "good friend, and great actor."

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

1963 – Nominated – Best Actor in a Leading Role – This Sporting Life

1990 – Nominated – Best Actor in a Leading Role – The Field

Golden Globes

1968 – Won – Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy – Camelot

1991 – Nominated – Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama – The Field

Grammy Awards

– Won – Best Spoken Word Recording for Jonathan Livingston Seagull – 1973

– Nominated – Album of the Year for A Tramp Shining – 1968

– Nominated – Contemporary Pop Male Vocalist for MacArthur Park- 1968

– Nominated – Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording for The Prophet – 1975

Filmography

Discography

Albums

Camelot (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1967)

A Tramp Shining (1968)

The Yard Went on Forever (1968)

My Boy (1971)

The Richard Harris Love Album (1972)

Slides (1972)

His Greatest Performances (1973)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)

The Prophet (1974)

I, in the Membership of My Days (1974)

Camelot (Original 1982 London Cast recording) (1982)

Singles

"Here in My Heart (Theme from This Sporting Life)" (1963)

"MacArthur Park" (1968)

"Fill the World With Love" (1969)

"Ballad of A Man Called Horse" (1970)

"Morning of the Mourning for Another Kennedy" (1970)

"Go to the Mirror" (1971)

"My Boy" (1971)

"Turning Back the Pages" (1972)

"Half of Every Dream" (1972)

"Trilogy (Love, Marriage, Children)" (1974)

"The Last Castle (Theme from Echoes of a Summer)" (1976)

"Lilliput (Theme from Gulliver's Travels)" (1977)

CD releases and compilations

Camelot (Original 1982 London Cast Recording) (1988)

Mack the Knife (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1989)

Tommy (studio recording) (1990)

Camelot (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1993)

A Tramp Shining (1993)

The Prophet (1995)

The Webb Sessions 1968–1969 (1996)

MacArthur Park (1997)

Slides/My Boy (2 CD Set) (2005)

My Boy (2006)

See also

List of people on stamps of Ireland

Further reading

References

External links

Harris' Bar Limerick: A Bar in Limerick City Dedicated to Richard

The Round Table, The Richard Harris Fansite

Category:1930 births Category:2002 deaths Category:Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Cancer deaths in England Category:Deaths from lymphoma Category:Garryowen Football Club players Category:European Film Awards winners (people) Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Irish film actors Category:Irish film directors Category:Irish male singers Category:Irish rugby union players Category:Irish stage actors Category:Knights of Malta Category:People from County Limerick Category:Racquets players Category:People from Limerick (city)

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: For the TV series character, see Stephanie Mills (All in the Family).

name	Stephanie Mills
background	solo_singer
birth name	Stephanie Dorthea Mills
alias	Cookie
birth date	March 22, 1957
origin	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
genre	R&B;, soul, gospel
occupation	Singer
years active	1968–present
label	Motown, 20th Century, Casablanca MCA, GospoCentric, LightYear, Expansion Records
website	Official website
notable instruments	}}

Stephanie Dorthea Mills (born March 22, 1957) is an American R&B; and soul singer, and a former Broadway star.

Career

Mills began her career appearing in her first play at the age of nine. Two years later, Mills won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater a record six times. The victory led to her being cast in her first Broadway role, the orphaned child of a runaway slave in the musical Maggie Flynn.

In 1973, Mills' musical recording career was launched when she was signed to Paramount records by Michael Barbiero, and her first single "I Knew It Was Love" was released. She was later signed to Motown. Her first two albums there failed to generate a buzz as the label could not find Mills' sound and she left the label in 1976.

Mills' career took a rise when she portrayed Dorothy in an African American adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz entitled The Wiz, where she began dating Michael Jackson. Filled with a more urban style of music and scenery, The Wiz made Mills a star particularly because of her stellar performance of the song "Home." It would become her signature tune for years, and would be covered later by Diana Ross for the big-screen adaptation three years later and by Whitney Houston for her dramatic musical performance debut on TV in the early 1980s.

Musical success was elusive until 1979, when signed under the 20th Century Fox Records record label, Mills found her breakthrough in disco music, recording songs such as "Put Your Body In It," "You Can Get Over," and "What Cha' Gonna Do With My Lovin'." The resulting album, What Cha' Gonna Do with My Lovin', was Mills' first gold record.

She quickly followed the success with 1980's Sweet Sensation, which featured Mills' biggest hit to date, the Reggie Lucas-produced "Never Knew Love Like This Before". The single became a #12 R&B; and #6 Pop hit in 1980, as well as reaching #4 in the UK Singles Chart. 1981's Stephanie featured a top hit for her and Teddy Pendergrass entitled "Two Hearts," while her 1983 album, Merciless, featured her hit cover of Prince's "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?", as well as the #3 dance chart hit "Pilot Error", which was her first dance hit in the U.S. In 1984, Mills had her third UK hit with "The Medicine Song" (#29), but that both marriages had ended in less than two years. "I also wanted to know why my relationships never made it to two years. I knew it was me," says Mills. "You can't blame it on another person. That's where a lot of women go wrong... carrying over from a bad relationship to a new relationship."

Mills married a third time to Charlotte, North Carolina radio program manager Michael Saunders in 1993 in a wedding ceremony performed by Minister Louis Farrakhan. The couple divorced sometime later.

In an interview with Soul Music in 2002, Mills said that she had a son, Farad. Mills would not comment on the identity of Farad’s father, other than to say that she is not married, and that her ex-husband Michael Saunders is not Farad's father. Mills added that giving birth “was the best thing I’ve ever done. It was amazingly wonderful and I wish I had started earlier. I might have had two or three before but I had some problems before in being able to have children. But things work out when they’re supposed to... now I’m a single working parent and loving it!"

In an interview with Windy City Times in 2010, Mills said that she presently makes her home in Charlotte, North Carolina and that her son, Farad has Down's Syndrome. "The Shriners are celebrating their 88th anniversary, and they have 22 hospitals nationwide," says Mills. "And what I love is even my son — I have a child with Down's syndrome — can get access to the best spinal-cord doctors in the country."

Discography

Movin' in the Right Direction – 1974

For the First Time – 1975

What Cha' Gonna Do with My Lovin' – 1979

Sweet Sensation – 1980

Stephanie – 1981

Tantalizingly Hot – 1982

Merciless – 1983

I've Got the Cure – 1984

Stephanie Mills – 1985

If I Were Your Woman – 1987

Home – 1989

Christmas – 1991

Something Real – 1992

Personal Inspirations – 1995

Born for This! – 2004

Breathless – 2010

Awards

1974 – nominated for Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress - Musical ("The Wiz").

1979 – nominated for American Music Award: Favorite Female Artist - Soul / Rhythm & Blues.

1980 – won Grammy Award: Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance - Female ("Never Knew Love Like This Before").

1980 – nominated for an American Music Award: Favorite Female Artist - Soul / Rhythm & Blues

1980 – nominated for Young Artist Awards: Best Young Musical Recording Artist - Female ("Two Hearts").

1981 – nominated for a Grammy Award: Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance - Female (Stephanie).

1981 – won American Music Award for Favorite Female Artist - Soul / Rhythm & Blues

1983 – nominated for a Grammy Award: Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance - Female ("Merciless").

1989 – nominated for American Music Award: Favorite Female Artist - Soul / Rhythm & Blues

See also

List of number-one dance hits (United States)

List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

References

External links

Stephanie Mills official website

Stephanie Mills at Wenig-LaMonica Associates

Category:1957 births Category:African American singers Category:African American female singers Category:American child singers Category:American dance musicians Category:American female singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American soul singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Motown artists Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Erasmus Hall High School alumni Category:MCA Records artists Category:GospoCentric artists

de:Stephanie Mills fr:Stephanie Mills nl:Stephanie Mills pt:Stephanie Mills

Name	DJ Premier
Background	non_performing_personnel
Birth name	Christopher Edward Martin
Origin	Brooklyn, New York, United States
Born	March 21, 1966Houston, Texas, United States
Instrument	Drum machineKeyboardSamplerTurntable
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Record producer, DJ
Years active	1984present
Label	Wild Pitch/EMI (1987–1990)Chrysalis/EMI (1991–1998)Virgin/EMI (1998–2003)Year Round (2003–)
Website	}}

Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966, in Houston, Texas), better known by his stage name DJ Premier (also known as Preem, Premo, or Primo for short), is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with MC Guru. Born in Houston and raised in Grand Prairie, he has lived in Brooklyn, New York, for much of his professional career. Rolling Stone identified Premier as arguably Hip-Hop's greatest producer of all time.

The Source named DJ Premier one of the five greatest producers in hip-hop history, while the editors of About.com ranked him #1 on their Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers list. He also made the "Elite 8" in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe.

Productions

Premier is known for producing the majority of Gang Starr's songs as well as many of the Gang Starr Foundation's songs. His work also includes production for heavyweight rappers such as Apathy, Bun B, Canibus, KRS-One, Kanye West, Nas, Jay-Z, Mos Def, 50 Cent, Big L, Lord Finesse, M.O.P., Rakim, The Notorious B.I.G., D.I.T.C., The LOX, Royce Da 5'9", Fat Joe, Snoop Dogg, rock band Limp Bizkit and pop/R&B; singer Christina Aguilera among a plethora of others.

Premier collaborated with MC Jeru the Damaja on the album The Sun Rises in the East, released in 1994, as well as the 1996 follow-up, Wrath of the Math. Also from the Gang Starr Foundation, Premier produced and supervised Group Home's Livin' Proof; although overlooked at the time of its 1995 release, the album has since come to find similar acclaim. Among others in that are closely tied to the Gang Starr Foundation who have worked with DJ Premier include Afu Ra, Krumbsnatcha, Big Shug, Smiley the Ghetto Child, and NYGz. He recently produced the majority of Blaq Poet's The Blaqprint in 2009 and will produce the entirety of NYG'z debut album.

Style and influences

DJ Premier's style of production epitomizes the New York sound of his earlier peers. He is known for sampling jazz, funk, and soul artists, as well as sampling an artist's past work when creating a new track for that same artist. For example, on Jay-Z's "So Ghetto", from the 1999 album, Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter, Premier samples an older Jay-Z song, 1997's "Who You Wit II". In addition, his encyclopedic memory of hip-hop lyrics allows him to distinctively speak with his hands by scratching in lyrics from several different songs to construct new phrases. Premier's beats are known for his oft-imitated combinations of short vocal samples, often from multiple artists, to create a chorus. Premier has also experimented with atonal samples that are not confined to soul, jazz, and funk. For example, he sampled chopped up seminal electro-acoustic music from the 1960s on the track “Mental Stamina” by Jeru the Damaja.

In an interview with XXL Magazine, DJ Premier was asked how his sound evolved, to which he replied, "Marley Marl is my number one inspiration. Jam Master Jay, Mixmaster Ice and UTFO. Grandmaster D and Whodini. DJ Cheese, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa. Jazzy Jay, even Cut Creator. Seeing them do what they do. It’s black music, it’s black culture, it comes from the ghetto. How can you not relate to ghetto people when that’s the rawest form of blackness? Even though it’s not a good place in regards to the economy and how bad people have it in the neighborhood, the realism’s there, and that’s what we were born out of. So I very much pay respect by doing the same type of music in return." DJ Premier attended Prairie View A & M University and may have been influenced by the musical atmosphere at the university.

Relationships with artists

The early line-up of the Gang Starr Foundation in the mid-’90s included Jeru The Damaja, Group Home, Big Shug, and Gang Starr. DJ Premier was fully responsible for the production of Jeru the Damaja's first two albums, The Sun Rises in the East and Wrath of the Math. Jeru released three albums since then, with Premier having nothing to do with any of them.

As far as Group Home was concerned, Premier commented, "They don't respect what fed them," in a 2003 interview, going on to say that the only reason he produced a track on their second album was because Guru said he would rhyme on it.

Besides the Gang Starr Foundation, Premier is closely affiliated with M.O.P., which he names as one of his all-time favorite groups. The relationship started with the remix of “Rugged, Neva Smoove” in 1994, a single from the group's first album, which also included the exclusive B-side “Downtown Swinga.” From then, Premier produced about one-third of the songs on each subsequent album and overseeing and mixing the projects. On M.O.P.'s 2009 Foundation album, however, DJ Premier provided only one track, which was called "What I Wanna B."

Recent and future projects

DJ Premier has his own record company named Year Round Records. Among its artists are New York group NYGz, New Jersey rapper Nick Javas, and Houston rapper Khaleel. Tha Blaqprint by Blaq Poet, which has thirteen Premier productions, was released by Year Round Records through Fat Beats Records. On December 7, Premier's label Year Round Records released a digital compilation album titled Get Used to Us. At the moment Year Round plans to release an debut album fully produced by DJ Premier with the NYGz tenatively called Hustla's Union: Local NYG along with an Nick Javas debut album named Destination Unknown. Khaleel, another label-mate of Year Round Records, is planned to release an debut album titled Already!.

DJ Premier hosts a weekly 2 hour show Live From HeadQCourterz on SIRIUS Satellite Radio's Hip-Hop Nation on Fridays.

In a recent interview, DJ Premier said that he has the desire to work with Drake and J. Cole. He said that he will produce a beat for Immortal Technique's upcoming album, titled The Middle Passage. He contributed a song on Game's last album (The R.E.D. Album) called "Born in the Trap." and a song on Bushido's last album Jenseits von Gut und Böse.

Discography

References

External links

Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:African hip hop DJs Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Musicians from Texas Category:Musicians from New York Category:Hip hop record producers Category:American record producers Category:American hip hop record producers Category:Southern hip hop musicians Category:African American musicians Category:East Coast hip hop musicians Category:Members of the Nation of Gods and Earths Category:African American record producers

da:DJ Premier de:DJ Premier es:DJ Premier fr:DJ Premier ko:디제이 프리미어 it:DJ Premier he:די ג'יי פרמייר sw:DJ Premier nl:DJ Premier ja:DJプレミア pl:DJ Premier pt:DJ Premier fi:DJ Premier sv:DJ Premier tr:DJ Premier

name	Marley Marl
background	non_performing_personnel
birth name	Marlon Williams
born	September 30, 1962New York City, New York, United States
origin	Queensbridge, Queens, New York, U.S.
genre	Hip hop
occupation	CEO, DJ, record producer, rapper
years active	1983 present
label	Cold Chillin', Warner Bros.
associated acts	Juice Crew, Kool G. Rap, Rakim, King Tee, LL Cool J, KRS-One, Masta Ace
notable instruments	}}

Marlon Williams (born September 30, 1962), better known as Marley Marl, is an American DJ and record producer, who is considered one of the most important and influential hip-hop producers in the history of hip hop.

Biography

Marley Marl was the house producer of the Juice Crew, known for The Bridge Wars, a feud with Boogie Down Productions seen as one of the earliest and influential hip hop beefs. The Juice Crew included Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Roxanne Shanté, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, MC Shan (his cousin) and Masta Ace, and produced many songs for outside artists including King Tee, LL Cool J, and Lords of the Underground. He was also an important figure in the careers of Eric B. & Rakim, producing their first hits "My Melody" and "Eric B Is President".

Marl was the first to sample a breakbeat and reprogram it, which he did with The Honey Drippers' "Impeach the President" breakbeat on the MC Shan single "The Bridge" from 1985. This was an extremely important feat as it completely changed the way hip hop beats were made, as well as other sample based genres. In his early records, Marl mixed James Brown samples and synthetic beats in a fashion previously unheard of, for the most part.

Marl started his career working for Tuff City Records. He debuted as an electro producer, with a track called "Sucker DJ's" in 1983 like a response to Run DMC's hit called "Sucker MC's", performed by his girlfriend Crystal Smith under the nickname of Dimples D.The next year, Marl also recorded a diss response to "Roxanne Roxanne" by UTFO, in the voice of Roxanne Shanté. In 1985 released his first own track, "DJ's Cuttin" under the pseudonym NYC Cutter. Soon however, Marl's records became more sample heavy, as can be seen by comparing the MC Shan LPs Down By Law (1987) and Born to be Wild (1988); the rhythms became less electronic, with drum machines becoming more prominent.

One of hip-hop's first superproducers, Marley Marl was an early innovator in the art of sampling, developing new techniques that resulted in some of the sharpest beats and hooks in rap's Golden Age. His trademark raw sound became from triggering short samples loaded in 3 Korg SDD-2000 sampling-delay units through the trigger out of the Roland TR-808. As the founder of Cold Chillin' Records, Marl assembled a roster filled with some of the most prominent hip hop talent then working in New York: MC Shan, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Roxanne Shanté, Kool G Rap & Polo, and Masta Ace. His production work for those and many other artists generally boasted a bright, booming, and robust sound that—along with his ear for a catchy sample—helped move street-level hip-hop's sonic blueprint into more accessible territory. Most important, though, were his skills as a beatmaker; Marl was among the first to mine James Brown records for grooves and also learned how to craft his own drum loops through sampling, which decreased hip-hop's reliance on tinny-sounding drum machines and gave his '80s productions a fresh, modern flavor.

The end of the '80s is often referred to as hip-hop's Golden Era, a time when the form's creativity was expanding by leaps and bounds. Marl's Juice Crew was an important force in ushering in this era thanks to its advances in lyrical technique and the distinctive personalities of emerging stars like Biz Markie and Big Daddy Kane. With business at Cold Chillin' booming, Marl put out the first full-length release under his own name in 1988 (he'd previously recorded the single "DJ Cuttin'" in 1985 with the alias NYC Cutter). In Control, Vol. 1 was mostly a showcase for various Juice Crew affiliates to strut their stuff, notably on the larger-than-life posse cut "The Symphony." Marl scored his greatest crossover success in 1990 by helming LL Cool J's Mama Said Knock You Out; bolstered by Marl's state-of-the-art production, the album restored LL's street cred while becoming his biggest seller ever, making Marl an in-demand remixer. 1991 brought the release of In Control, Vol. 2, which unfortunately displayed signs that the Cold Chillin' talent pool was being depleted.

After working with TLC on their 1992 debut, Marl remained mostly quiet for a few years; 1995 brought the release of House of Hits, a retrospective of his best productions over the years. Splitting off from Cold Chillin', Marl spent several years in a legal battle over money and ownership rights that, in 1998, finally resulted in his being awarded control of all the songs he'd produced for the label. In the '90s, Marl's status as a high-profile producer was restored thanks to his work with artists like Rakim, Lords Of The Underground, Queensbridge's own Capone-N-Noreaga, Da Youngtas and Fat Joe. In 2001, Marl put together another compilation of original productions with guest rappers for the British BBE label, titled Re-Entry. In 1994, Marley Marl was referenced on Biggie Smalls' track "Juicy" as being one of his early influences.

In September 2007, Marley Marl received an award from the Berklee College of Music for his contribution to music. Marley Marl has also been a legend as a radio deejay along side Mr. Magic in the 80's on a show called Rap Attack on WBLS New York. Marley took the torch to start his own radio show called Private Radio, later with Pete Rock and K-Def. The radio show was called Future Flavas that was an online station and radio show that bounced around from New York radio stations like Hot 97, Power 105.1. Now Marley is currently back where it all started, WBLS, with his radio show called Golden Era Radio. Marley is still touring the world deejaying, playing his brand of funk for fans of Golden Era hip hop. He is also in the works of producing a film called The Vapors. The film will be based on Marl and the Juice Crew in the late 80's the golden era of Hip Hop.

He and KRS-One released Hip-Hop Lives in May 2007 with Marley Marl as the executive producer.

On June 5, 2007, Marley Marl suffered a heart attack. He was released from the hospital a few days later on the 8th. According to an interview in The Source, he blamed the heart attack on stress brought on by his worries about being a good father.

In 2008, Craig G and he released a collaborative album titled Operation: Take Back Hip-Hop.

Marl's music has had influences on RZA, DJ Premier, as well as Pete Rock, who is also a longtime friend. Marley Marl is also a legendary DJ member of the worldwide DJ organization, The Core DJ's.

Discography

Albums

In Control, Volume 1 (1988)

In Control, Volume 2: For Your Steering Pleasure (1991)

Hip Hop Dictionary (2000)

Re-entry (2001)

Hip-Hop Lives (2007) (with KRS-One)

Operation: Take Back Hip-Hop (2008) (with Craig G)

Compilations

House of Hits (1995)

Best of Cold Chillin' (2001)

Marley Marl's House of Hits (released 2007)

Hip Hop's Hero w/ Nikal Fieldz (released 2010)

References

External links

Marley Marl bio The 411 on super-producer, Marley Marl [authored by Balance: 411@hiphop.sh]

[ Allmusic biography]

Globaldarkness biography

DJ Marley Marl - beatbuggy.com

Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:African American rappers Category:Rappers from New York City Category:People from Queens Category:American hip hop record producers Category:Musicians from New York City Category:Warner Bros. Records artists Category:Cold Chillin' Records artists

de:Marley Marl es:Marley Marl fr:Marley Marl it:Marley Marl nl:Marley Marl ja:マーリー・マール pl:Marley Marl tr:Marley Marl