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| Coordinates | 53°11′21″N23°5′45″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Nick Tosches |
| Birthname | Nick Tosches |
| Birthdate | 1949 |
| Birthplace | Newark, New Jersey, United States |
| Occupation | biographer, essayist, journalist, novelist, poet |
| Nationality | American |
| Website | http://nicktosches.com/ |
Tosches' second book, a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis named Hellfire was published in 1982. Subsequent biographies have covered the lives of Dean Martin, Michele Sindona, Sonny Liston, Emmett Miller, and Arnold Rothstein.
Tosches has also published a collection of poetry, and three novels. He has been published in Vanity Fair, Esquire and Open City. The Nick Tosches Reader collects writings from over the course of his career.
Tosches was featured on the popular Travel Channel show in the episode "". He and Bourdain shared a drink at Sophie's in the East Village, a Manhattan dive bar, and they discussed the changing nature of the city.
I’ve been sitting here watching the remains of this short-lived country go down the drain, and there is no better soundtrack to this than People Take Warning, a grand and beautiful set—in every sense, from the remastered recordings to the notes to the extraordinary design work—that gives perspective both to these days and those of the past. This is white-hot history, a danse macabre, and, above all, a wealth of great old and timeless music.
Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:American non-fiction writers Category:American novelists Category:American biographers Category:American poets Category:American music critics Category:American people of Albanian descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:People from Newark, New Jersey
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.
| Coordinates | 53°11′21″N23°5′45″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Dionne Warwick |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Marie Dionne Warrick |
| Born | December 12, 1940 |
| Origen | East Orange, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Genre | R&B;, Soul, Urban, Soft rock, Adult contemporary, Quiet storm, Pop |
| Occupation | Singer/Actress |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Label | Scepter (1962-1971)Warner Bros. (1972-1977)Arista (1979-1995)Concord (2005-2007)Rhino (2008-present) |
| Associated acts | Burt Bacharach, The Spinners, Isaac Hayes, Sacha Distel, Whitney Houston, Jeffrey Osborne, June Pointer, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Dieter Bohlen, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Chuck Jackson, Barry Manilow, Bee Gees, Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye |
Marie Dionne Warwick (born December 12, 1940) is an American singer and actress who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health.
Best known for her partnership with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era (1955 - 1999), based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts. According to Billboard Magazine, Warwick ranks second only to Aretha Franklin as the most charted female vocalist with 56 singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998.
Dionne's career as a singer was almost inevitable considering her family background. Dionne's mother, aunts and uncles were members of a renowned gospel group known as the Drinkard Singers that frequently performed throughout the New York metropolitan area. The Drinkard family originated in Blakley, Georgia and migrated to Newark, New Jersey in the late 20's. The family was composed of Nitcholas "Nitch" Drinkard, and Delia Drinkard, Warwick's grandparents, and their children: William, Lee (Warwick's mother), Marie "Rebbie" (Warwick's namesake), Hansom, Anne, Larry, Nicky, and Emily "Cissy" (who is the mother of Warwick's cousin, Whitney Houston). Dionne's paternal grandfather Elzae Warrick was the preacher at St. Luke's AME, the church attended by the Drinkard family. Lee Drinkard and the preacher's son, Mancel, were later married, and Dionne became the Drinkard family's first grandchild on December 12, 1940. The original Drinkard Singers (known as the Drinkard Jubilairs) consisted of Cissy, Anne, Larry, and Nicky. Marie instructed the group and they were managed by Lee. As they became more successful, Lee and Marie also began performing with the group, and they were augmented by Judy Guoins, later known as pop/R&B; singer Judy Clay, whom Lee had unofficially adopted. The Drinkards became so well known that even Elvis Presly expressed an interest in having them join his touring entourage. Dionne began singing gospel as a child at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. She performed her first gospel solo at the age of six and frequently joined The Drinkard Singers. Her first televised performances were in the mid-and late 1950s with the Drinkard Singers on local television stations in New Jersey and New York City. Warwick grew up in a racially mixed middle-class neighborhood. She stated in an interview on The Biography Channel in 2002 that the neighborhood in East Orange "was literally the United Nations of neighborhoods. We had every nationality, every creed, every religion right there on our street." Warwick was untouched by the harsher aspects of racial intolerance and discrimination until her early professional career, when she began touring nationally.
Warwick graduated from East Orange High School in 1958 and was awarded a Scholarship in Music Education to the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut (a school from which she earned her Doctorate of Music Education in 1973).
Also, in 1958, Warwick, Myrna Utley, Carol Slade, and Warwick's sister Delia, who by this time had begun to be known professionally as Dee Dee Warwick, formed their own group, which they called called "The Gospelaires." Their first performance together was at the world famous Apollo Theater, where they won the weekly amateur contest. Various other singers joined The Gospelaires from time to time, including Judy Clay, Cissy Houston, and Doris Troy, whose chart selection "Just One Look," when she recorded it in 1963, featured backing vocals from the Gospelaires. After various personnel changes (Dionne and Doris left the group after achieving solo success) The Gospelaires eventually became the recording group the Sweet Inspirations, which had minor chart success but were much sought-after as studio background singers. The Gospelaires and later the Sweet Inspirations performed on dozens and dozens of records cut in New York City for artist such as Garnet Mims, the Drifters, Jerry Butler, and later Dionne's recordings, Aretha Franklin, and Elvis Presley.
Warwick recalled, in her 2002 A&E; Biography, that "a man came running frantically backstage at The Apollo and said he needed background singers for a session for Sam 'The Man' Taylor and old big-mouth here spoke up and said 'We'll do it!' and we left and did the session. I wish I remembered the gentleman's name because he was responsible for the beginning of my professional career."
The backstage encounter led to the group being asked to sing background sessions at recording studios in New York. Soon, the group was in demand in New York music circles for their background work for such artists as The Drifters, Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Dinah Washington, Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks, and Solomon Burke among many others.
Warwick remembered, in her A&E; Biography, that after school, they would catch a bus from East Orange to the Port Authority Terminal, and then subway to recording studios in Manhattan, perform their background gigs and be back at home in East Orange in time to do their school homework. The background vocal work would continue while Warwick pursued her studies at Hartt.
While she was performing background on The Drifters's recording of "Mexican Divorce," Warwick's voice and star presence were noticed by the song's composer, Burt Bacharach, a Brill Building songwriter who was writing songs with many other songwriters, including lyricist Hal David. According to a July 14, 1967, article on Warwick from Time, Bacharach stated, "She has a tremendous strong side and a delicacy when singing softly—like miniature ships in bottles." Musically, she was "no play-safe girl. What emotion I could get away with!" And what complexity, compared with the usual run of pop songs.
During the session, Bacharach asked Warwick if she would be interested in recording demonstration recordings of his compositions to be used to pitch the tunes to record labels. One such demo, "It's Love That Really Counts"--destined to be recorded by Scepter-signed act The Shirelles--caught the attention of Scepter Records President Florence Greenberg. Greenberg, according to Current Biography 1969 Yearbook, told Bacharach, "Forget the song, get the girl!"
Warwick was signed to Bacharach's and David's production company, according to Warwick, which in turn was signed to Scepter Records in 1962 by Greenberg. The partnership would provide Bacharach with the freedom to produce Warwick without the control of recording company executives and company A&R; men. Warwick's musical ability and education would also allow Bacharach to compose more challenging tunes. The demo version of "It's Love That Really Counts," along with her original demo of "Make It Easy on Yourself," would surface on Dionne's debut Scepter album, titled Presenting Dionne Warwick, which was released early in 1963.
Her first solo single for Scepter Records was released in November, 1962. The song was titled "Don't Make Me Over", the title (according to the A&E; Biography of Dionne Warwick) supplied by Warwick herself when she snapped the phrase at producers Burt Bacharach and Hal David in anger. Warwick found "Make It Easy on Yourself"—-a song on which she had recorded the original demo and had wanted to be her first single release—-had been given to another artist, Jerry Butler. From the phrase, Bacharach and David created their first top 40 pop hit (#21) and a top 5 US R&B; hit. Warrick's name was misspelled on the single's label, and she began using the new spelling (i.e., "Warwick") both professionally and personally. According to the July 14, 1967 Time magazine article, after "Don't Make Me Over" hit in 1962, she answered the call of her manager ("C'mon, baby, you gotta go"), left school and went on a tour of France, where critics crowned her "Paris' Black Pearl," having been introduced on stage at Paris Olympia that year by Marlene Dietrich. Rhapsodized Jean Monteaux in Arts: "The play of this voice makes you think sometimes of an eel, of a storm, of a cradle, a knot of seaweed, a dagger. It is not a voice so much as an organ. You could write fugues for Warwick's voice."
The two immediate follow-ups to "Don't Make Me Over"—-"This Empty Place" (with "B" Side "Wishin' and Hopin'" later covered by Dusty Springfield) and "Make The Music Play"-—charted briefly in the top 100. Her fourth single, "Anyone Who Had a Heart," released in December 1963, was Warwick's first top 10 pop hit (#8) in the USA and also an international hit. This was followed by "Walk On By" in April 1964, a major international hit and million seller that solidified her career. For the rest of the 1960s, Warwick was a fixture on the US and Canadian charts, and much of Warwick's output from 1962-1971 was written and produced by the Bacharach/David team.
Warwick weathered the British Invasion better than most American artists. Her UK hits were most notably "Walk On By" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" In the UK, a number of Bacharach-David-Warwick songs were covered by UK singers Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield, most notably Black's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" which went to #1 in the UK. This upset Warwick and she has described feeling insulted when told that in the UK, record company executives wanted her songs recorded by someone else. Warwick even met Cilla Black while on tour in the UK. She recalled what she said to her: "I told her that "You're My World" would be my next single in the States. I honestly believe that if I'd sneezed on my next record, then Cilla would have sneezed on hers too. There was no imagination in her recording." "You're My World"--recorded in no time by Black—was not released as a single by Warwick, but it did appear on a later album, Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls, released in 1968.
Warwick was named the Bestselling Female Vocalist in the Cash Box Magazine Poll in 1964, with six chart hits in that year. Cash Box also named her the Top Female Vocalist in 1969, 1970 and 1971. In the 1967 Cash Box Poll, she was second to Petula Clark, and in 1968's poll second to Aretha Franklin. Playboy's influential Music Poll of 1970 named her the Top Female Vocalist. In 1969, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Society named her Woman of the Year.
In a May 21, 1965 Time Magazine cover article entitled "The Sound of the Sixties," Dionne Warwick's sound was described as follows: "Swinging World. Scholarly articles probe the relationship between the Beatles and the nouvelle vague films of Jean-Luc Godard, discuss 'the brio and elegance' of Dionne Warwick's singing style as a 'pleasurable but complex' event to be 'experienced without condescension.' In chic circles, anyone damning rock 'n' roll is labeled not only square but uncultured. For inspirational purposes, such hip artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers and Andy Warhol occasionally paint while listening to rock 'n' roll music. Explains Warhol: 'It makes me mindless, and I paint better.' After gallery openings in Manhattan, the black-tie gatherings often adjourn to a discotheque."
The mid 1960s to early 1970s became an even more successful time period for Warwick, who saw a string of Gold selling albums and Top 20 and Top 10 hit singles. "Message to Michael", a Bacharach-David composition that the duo was certain was a "man's song", became a top 10 hit for Warwick in May 1966. The January 1967 LP Here Where There Is Love was her first RIAA certified Gold Album and featured "Alfie", and two 1966 hits "Trains and Boats and Planes", and "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself". "Alfie" had become a radio hit when disc jockeys across the nation began to play the album cut early in 1967. "Alfie" was released as the "B" side of a Bacharach/David ballad, "The Beginning of Loneliness" in which charted in the Hot 100. Disc jockeys flipped the single and made it a double-sided hit. Bacharach had been contracted to produce "Alfie" for the Michael Caine film of the same name and wanted Dionne Warwick to sing the tune but the British producers wanted a British subject to cut the tune. Cilla Black was selected to record the song, and her version peaked at #95 upon its release in the USA. A cover version by Cher used in the USA prints of the film peaked at #33. In the UK and Australia, Black's version was a Top 10 hit. In a 1983 concert appearance televised on PBS, Warwick states she was the 43rd person to record "Alfie", at Bacharach's insistence, who felt Dionne could make it a big hit. Warwick, at first, balked at recording the tune and asked Bacharach "How many more versions of Alfie do you need?" to which Bacharach replied "Just one more, yours." Bacharach took Warwick into the studio with his new arrangement and cut the tune the way he wanted it to be, which she nailed in one take. Warwick's version peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on both the R&B; Chart and the AC Charts. Warwick performed the song at the Academy Awards in 1967. Today, "Alfie" is considered a signature song for Warwick.
Later that same year, Warwick earned her first RIAA Gold Single for US sales of over one million units for the single "I Say a Little Prayer" (from her album The Windows of the World). When disc jockeys across the nation began to play the track from the album in the fall of 1967 and demanded its release as a single, Florence Greenberg, President of Scepter Records, complied and "I Say a Little Prayer" became Warwick's biggest US hit to that point, reaching #4 on the US and Canadian Charts and # 8 on the R & B Charts. Aretha Franklin would cover the tune a year later hitting #10 on the hot 100,#3 on the R&B; charts as well a turning the song into a million seller as well. The tune was also the first RIAA certified USA million seller for Bacharach-David.
Her follow-up to "I Say a Little Prayer","(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls", was unusual in several respects. It was not written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, it was the "B" side of her "I Say a Little Prayer" single, and it was a song that she almost didn't record. While the film version of Valley of the Dolls was being made, actress Barbara Parkins suggested that Warwick be considered to sing the film's theme song, written by songwriting team Andre and Dory Previn. The song was to be recorded by Judy Garland, who was fired from the film. Warwick performed the song, and when the film became a success in the early weeks of 1968, disc jockeys flipped the single and made the single one of the biggest double-sided hits of the rock era and another million seller. At the time, RIAA rules allowed only one side of a double-sided hit single to be certified as Gold, but Scepter awarded Warwick an "in-house award" to recognize "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls" as a million selling tune.
Warwick had re-recorded a Pat Williams-arranged version of the theme at A&R; Studios in New York because contractual restrictions would not allow the Warwick version from the film to be included in the 20th Century Fox soundtrack LP. The LP Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls, released in early 1968 and containing the re-recorded version of the movie theme (#2–4 weeks), "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" and several new Bacharach-David compositions, hit the #6 position on the Billboard Hot 100 Album Chart and would remain on the chart for over a year. The film soundtrack LP, without Warwick vocals, failed to impress the public, while Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls earned an RIAA Gold certification.
The single "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?", an international million seller and a Top 10 hit in several countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Japan and Mexico, was also a double sided hit with the "B" side "Let Me Be Lonely" charting at #79.
More hits followed into 1971 including "Promises, Promises" (#19, 1968); "Who Is Gonna Love Me" (#32, 1968) with "B" side, "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" becoming another double-sided hit; "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (#6, 1969); "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (#15, 1969); "This Girl's in Love with You" (#7, 1969); "Make It Easy on Yourself" (#37, 1970); "Who Is Gonna Love Me" (#33, 1968); "The April Fools" (#37, 1969); "Let Me Go To Him" (#32, 1970); and "Paper Mache" (#43, 1970). Warwick's final Bacharach/David penned single was March 1971's "Who Gets the Guy" and her final "official" Scepter single release was "He's Moving On" backed with "Amanda" both from the soundtrack of the motion picture adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's The Love Machine.Warwick had become the priority act of Scepter Records, according to the website "The Scepter Records Story" and producer/A&R; chief, Luther Dixon in a 2002 A&E; Biography of Burt Bacharach, with the release of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" in 1963. Other Scepter LPs certified RIAA Gold include Dionne Warwick's Golden Hits Part 1 released in 1967 and The Dionne Warwicke Story: A Decade of Gold released in 1971. By the end of 1971, Dionne Warwick had sold an estimated thirty-five million singles and albums internationally in less than nine years and more than 16 million singles in the USA alone. Exact figures of Warwick's sales are unknown and probably underestimated, due to Scepter Records apparently lax accounting policies and the company policy of not submitting recordings for RIAA audit. Dionne Warwick became the first Scepter artist to request RIAA audits of her recordings in 1967 with the release of "I Say A Little Prayer."
On Wednesday, September 17, 1969, CBS Television aired Dionne Warwick's first television special entitled "The Dionne Warwick Chevy Special." Dionne's guests were Burt Bacharach, George Kirby, Glen Campbell, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
In 1971, Dionne Warwick left the family atmosphere of Scepter Records for Warner Bros. Records, for a $5 million contract, the most lucrative recording contract ever given to a female vocalist up to that time, according to Variety. Warwick's last LP for Scepter was the aforementioned soundtrack for the motion picture The Love Machine (in which she appeared in an uncredited cameo), released in July 1971. In 1975, Bacharach and David sued Scepter Records for an accurate accounting of royalties due the team from their recordings with Warwick and labelmate B. J. Thomas. They were awarded almost $600,000 and the rights to all Bacharach/David recordings on the Scepter label. The label, with the defection of Warwick to Warner Bros. Records, filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and was sold to Springboard International Records in 1976.
Following her signing with Warners, with Bacharach and David as writers and producers, Dionne returned to New York City's A&R; Studios in late 1971 to begin recording her first album for the new label, the self-titled album Dionne (not to be confused with her later Arista debut album) in January 1972. The album peaked at #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album Chart. In 1972, Burt Bacharach and Hal David scored and wrote the tunes for the motion picture Lost Horizon. But the film was panned by the critics, and in the fallout from the film, the songwriting duo decided to terminate their working relationship. The break-up left Dionne devoid of their services as her producers and songwriters. Dionne was contractually obligated to fulfill her contract with Warners without Bacharach and David and she would team with a variety of producers during her tenure with the label.
Faced with the prospect of being sued by Warner Bros. Records due to the breakup of Bacharach/David and their failure to honor their contract with Dionne, she filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against her former partners for breach of contract. The suit was settled out of court in 1979 for $5 million including the rights to all Warwick recordings produced by Bacharach and David.
Warwick, for years an aficionado of psychic phenomena, was advised by famed astrologer Linda Goodman in 1971 to add a small "e" to her last name, making Warwick "WARWICKe" for good luck and to recognize her married name and her spouse, actor and drummer William "Bill" Elliott. Goodman convinced Warwick that the extra small "e" would add a vibration needed to balance her last name and bring her even more good fortune in her marriage and her professional life. Unfortunately, Goodman proved to be mistaken about this. The extra "e," according to Dionne, "was the worst thing I could have done in retrospect, and in 1975 I finally got rid of that damn 'e' and became 'Dionne Warwick' again."
Warwick recorded five unsuccessful albums with Warners: Dionne, produced by Bacharach and David; Just Being Myself, produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland; Then Came You, produced by Jerry Ragovoy; Track of the Cat, produced by Thom Bell; and Love at First Sight, produced by Steve Barri and Michael Omartian. The singer's five-year contract with Warners expired in 1977, and with that, Warwick ended her stay at the label.
In January 1980, while under contract to Arista Records, Dionne Warwick hosted a two-hour TV special called Solid Gold '79. This was adapted into the weekly one-hour show Solid Gold, which she hosted throughout 1980 and 1981 and again in 1985-86.
After a brief appearance in the Top Forty in early 1982 with Johnny Mathis on "Friends In Love" - from the album of the same name - Warwick's next hit later that same year was her full-length collaboration with Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees for the album Heartbreaker. The song "Heartbreaker" became one of Dionne's biggest international hits, returning her to the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 - for the first time since 1979 - as well as #1 Adult Contemporary and #2 in the UK. Internationally, the tune was also a Top 10 hit throughout continential Europe, Australia (#1), Japan, South Africa, Canada, and Asia. The title track was taken from the album of the same name which sold over 3 million copies internationally and earned Dionne an RIAA USA Gold record award for the album. The album peaked at #25 on the Billboard Album Chart, #13 on the R&B; Albums Chart and #3 in the UK. Dionne stated to Wesley Hyatt in his The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits that she was not fond of "Heartbreaker" but recorded the tune because she trusted The Bee Gees' judgment that it would be a hit. The project came about when Clive Davis was attending his aunt's wedding in Orlando, Florida in early 1982 and spoke with Barry Gibb. Barry mentioned that he had always been a fan of Dionne's and Clive arranged for Dionne and The Bee Gees to discuss a project. Dionne and the brothers Gibb hit it off and the album and the title single were released in October 1982.
In 1983, Dionne released How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye produced by Luther Vandross. The album's most successful single was the title track, "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye", a Warwick/Vandross duet, which peaked at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became a Top 10 hit on the Adult Contemporary and R&B; charts. The album peaked at #57 on the Billboard album chart. Of note was a reunion with the original Shirelles on Warwick's cover of "Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow?" The album Finder Of Lost Loves followed in 1985 and reunited her with both Barry Manilow and Burt Bacharach, who was writing with his then current lyricist partner and wife, Carole Bayer Sager.
In 1985, Warwick contributed her voice to the multi-Grammy Award winning charity song We Are the World, along with vocalists like Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, and Ray Charles. The song spent four consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. It was the year's biggest hit - certified four times Platinum in the United States alone.
In 1985, Warwick recorded the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) benefit single "That's What Friends Are For" alongside Gladys Knight, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder. The single, credited to "Dionne and Friends" was released in October and eventually raised over three million dollars for that cause. The tune was a triple #1 - R&B;, Adult Contemporary, and four weeks at the summit on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1986 - selling close to two million 45s in the United States alone. In 1988, the Washington Post wrote: So working against AIDS, especially after years of raising money for work on many blood-related diseases such as sickle-cell anemia, seemed the right thing to do. "You have to be granite not to want to help people with AIDS, because the devastation that it causes is so painful to see. I was so hurt to see my friend die with such agony," Warwick remembers. "I am tired of hurting and it does hurt." The single won the performers the NARAS Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, as well as Song of the Year for its writers, Bacharach and Bayer Sager. It also was ranked by Billboard magazine as the most popular song of 1986. With this single Warwick also released her most successful album of the 1980s, titled Friends, which reached #12 on Billboard's album chart.
In 1987 Dionne scored another hit with "Love Power", her eighth career #1 Adult Contemporary hit that went to #5 R&B; and #10 on Billboard's Hot 100. "Love Power", a duet with Jeffrey Osborne, was another written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, and featured in Warwick's album Reservations for Two. The album's title song, a duet with Kashif, was also a chart hit. Other artists featured on the album included Smokey Robinson and the late June Pointer.
Warwick's most publicized album during this period was 1993's "Friends Can Be Lovers", which was produced in part by Ian Devaney and Lisa Stansfield. Featured on the album was "Sunny Weather Lover", which was the first song that Burt Bacharach and Hal David had written together for Warwick since 1972. It was Warwick's lead single in the US, and was heavily promoted by Arista, but failed to chart. A follow-up "Where My Lips Have Been" peaked at #95 on the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. 1994 marked the end of Warwick's contract with Arista Records.
In 1990 Dionne recorded a song "It's All Over" with former member of Modern Talking Dieter Bohlen (Blue System). The single peaked at #84 on U.S R&B; charts and it appears on Blue System's album "Deja Vu".
In 1993, Forrest Sawyer, host of the ABC News/Entertainment program "Day One", alleged financial improprieties by the Warwick Foundation, founded in 1989 to benefit AIDS patients, particularly Dionne Warwick's charity concert performances organized to benefit the organization. ABC alleged the Foundation was operating at a near 90% administrative cost. ABC also alleged that Warwick flew first class and was accommodated at first class hotels for charity concerts and events in which she participated for the Foundation. Warwick, who had no executive, administrative or management role in the organization, challenged ABC to investigate the foundation further and alleged that the ABC report was racially motivated. An Internal Revenue Service investigation of the Warwick Foundation found no wrongdoing or criminal activity on the part of the Board of Directors or Warwick and its status as a non-profit charity was upheld. ABC maintained the report to be factually correct but the item has not been repeated since the original air date. The Foundation was later dissolved.
On 16 October 2002, Dionne Warwick was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In 2004, Dionne Warwick's first Christmas album was released. The CD, entitled "My Favorite Time of the Year" featured jazzy interpretations of many holiday classics. In 2007, Rhino Records re-released the CD with new cover art.
In 2005, Dionne Warwick was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her Legends Ball.
Warwick appeared on the May 24, 2006, fifth-season finale of American Idol. Millions of U.S. viewers watched Warwick sing a medley of "Walk On By" and "That's What Friends Are For", with longtime collaborator Burt Bacharach accompanying her on the piano.
In 2006, Warwick signed with Concord Records after a fifteen-year tenure at Arista which had ended in 1994. Her first and only release for the label was My Friends and Me, a duets album containing reworkings of her old hits, very similar in fashion to her 1998 CD "Dionne Sings Dionne" . Among her singing partners were Gloria Estefan, Olivia Newton-John, Wynonna Judd and Reba McEntire. The album peaked at #66 on the Top R&B;/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album was produced by her son, Damon Elliott. A followup album featuring Warwick's old hits as duets with male vocalists was planned but the project was cancelled. The relationship with Concord concluded with the release of My Friends and Me.
A compilation CD of her greatest hits and love songs "The Love Collection" entered the UK pop charts at number 27 on February 16, 2008.
Dionne Warwick's second gospel album, "Why We Sing", was released on February 26, 2008 in the UK and on April 1, 2008 in the USA. The album features guest spots by her sister Dee Dee Warwick and BeBe Winans.
On October 18, 2008, Warwick's sister Dee Dee Warwick died in a nursing home in Essex County, New Jersey. She had been in failing health for several months which lead up to her death. Warwick was with her sister Dee Dee when she died.
On November 24, 2008 Dionne was the star performer on "Divas II" a UK ITV1 special. The show also featured Rihanna, Leona Lewis, Sugababes, Pink, Gabriella Climi and Anastacia.
In 2008 Dionne began recording an album of songs written by Sammy Cahn, reportedly produced by George Duke. As of 2010 the album is in post-production, according to the artist's blog. The album will be released sometime in 2011.
On October 20, 2009, Starlight Children's Foundation and New Gold Music Ltd. released a song that Dionne recorded about 10 years prior called "Starlight." The song was written by Dean Pitchford, prolific writer of "Fame" and creator of "Footloose," and Bill Goldstein, whose versatile career includes the original music for NBC's "Fame" TV series. Dionne, Dean and Bill are donating 100% of their royalties to Starlight Children's Foundation as a way to raise money to support Starlight's mission to help seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities.
“When Bill and Dean brought this song to me, I instantly felt connected to its message of shining a little light into the lives of people who need it most,” said Warwick. “I admire the work of Starlight Children’s Foundation and know that if the song brings hope to even just one sick child, we have succeeded.”
In March 2011, Dionne will take part in the NBC show, The Celebrity Apprentice.
Dionne Warwick married actor and drummer William Elliott (CBS's Bridget Loves Bernie-1972-73) in 1966 and the couple divorced in May 1967 after being wed for less than a year. They reconciled and were remarried in Milan, Italy, in August 1967 according to Time. Warwick has stated in many interviews that "It was a case of can't do with, can't do without, so I married him again." On May 30, 1975, the couple separated and Warwick was granted a divorce in December 1975 in Los Angeles. The court denied Elliott's request for $2,000 a month in support pending a community property trial and for $5,000, when Elliott insisted that he was making $500 a month in comparison to Warwick making $100,000 a month. Dionne stated in "Don't Make Me Over: Dionne Warwick", a 2002 Biography Channel interview, "I was the breadwinner. The male ego is a fragile thing. It's hard when the woman is the breadwinner. All my life, the only man who ever took care of me financially was my father. I have always taken care of myself." Warwick has been connected romantically with Philadelphia Eagles great Timmy Brown, French singer-songwriter Sacha Distel, actor Philip Michael Thomas ("Miami Vice"), Seagram heir and CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr., and Las Vegas restaurateur and actor Gianni Russo ("The Godfather").
On January 18, 1969, while living in East Orange, NJ, Warwick gave birth to her first son, David Elliott. Elliott is a singer-songwriter (Luther Vandross' "Here and Now" among others) and a former Los Angeles police officer. In 1993, David co-wrote with Terry Steele the Dionne Warwick-Whitney Houston duet "Love Will Find A Way" featured on her album Friends Can Be Lovers. Since 2002, David has toured with and performed duets with his famous mother periodically, and had his acting debut in the film "Ali" as the singer Sam Cooke. In 1973, Warwick's second son Damon Elliott was born. Damon Elliott is a noted music producer (Mýa, Pink, Keyshia Cole) and arranged and produced his mother's 2006 Concord release My Friends and Me.
Dionne Warwick made the Top 250 Delinquent Taxpayers List published in October 2007. California Revenue & Taxation Code Section 19195 directs the Franchise Tax Board to publish an annual list of the top 250 taxpayers with liened state income tax delinquencies greater than $100,000 in an effort to collect money from those taxpayers, some of whom have been delinquent since 1987. Dionne Warwick is listed with a tax delinquency of $2,665,305.83 in personal income tax and a tax lien was filed July 24, 1997. As of 2010, Warwick is still delinquent although now owes $2,185,901.08. Her publicist stated that she is actively paying off the debt.
On May 8, 2010, she received an honorary Doctor of Arts from Lincoln College in Lincoln IL. http://www.lincolncollege.edu/pr/feed/42710b.html
Dionne Warwick now lives in Brazil. Warwick first visited Brazil in the early 1960s and has become so entranced by the South American country that she has studied Portuguese. She lives part time in Rio de Janeiro and part time in Sao Paulo. In April 2010, in a interview to Programa do Jô, a famous brazilian talk-show, she said Brazil is the place she intends to spend the rest of her life after she retires.
Dionne Warwick's U.S. Charted Singles with peak Billboard magazine chart positions (*During 1964 Billboard's Top 100 and R & B Charts were combined)
;As an actress
;Documentary film appearances
;Compilations
Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Baptists from the United States Category:African American female singers Category:American female singers Category:American immigrants to Brazil Category:American pop singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American soul singers Category:Arista Records artists Category:American people of Native American descent Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:Brazilian people of American descent Category:Brazilian people of Black African descent Category:Brazilian people of Dutch descent Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:Naturalized citizens of Brazil Category:People from East Orange, New Jersey Category:Zeta Phi Beta Category:University of Hartford Category:The Apprentice (U.S. TV series) contestants
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In 1943, Hubert Sr. returned to the United States Merchant Marine. His son, Hubert Jr., dropped out of school, and at the age of 15, was able to persuade the recruiters to allow him to join the merchant marine. The young Selby quickly experienced a number of misfortunes.
In 1947, while at sea, Selby was diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis. The doctors predicted that he would live less than a year. He was taken off the ship in Bremen, Germany, and sent back to America. For the next three and a half years, Selby was in and out of the Marine Hospital in New York for treatment.
Selby went through an experimental drug treatment, streptomycin, that later caused some severe complications. During an operation, surgeons removed several of Selby's ribs in order to reach his lungs. One of the lungs collapsed, and the doctors removed part of the other. The surgery saved Selby's life, but left him with a year-long recuperation and chronic pulmonary problems for the rest of his life. The medical treatments also marked the beginning of Selby's dependence on painkillers and heroin, an addiction that lasted for decades.
For the next ten years, Selby remained bedridden and was frequently hospitalized with a variety of lung-related ailments. The doctors continued to issue bleak prognoses on Selby's life, telling him repeatedly that he could not possibly survive because he "just didn't have enough lung capacity". A childhood friend, writer Gilbert Sorrentino, encouraged Selby to spend his time on fiction. Unable to make a living due to health concerns, Selby decided, "I know the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer."
Selby traced his desire to write to a sudden realization. He wrote:
I was sitting at home and had a profound experience. I experienced, in all of my Being, that someday I was going to die, and it wouldn't be like it had been happening, almost dying but somehow staying alive, but I would just die! And two things would happen right before I died: I would regret my entire life; I would want to live it over again. This terrified me. The thought that I would live my entire life, look at it and realize I blew it forced me to do something with my life.
With no formal training, Selby used his raw language to narrate the bleak and violent world that was part of his youth. He stated, "I write, in part, by ear. I hear, as well as feel and see, what I am writing. I have always been enamoured with the music of the speech in New York." In style, Selby also differed from other writers. He was not concerned with proper grammar, punctuation, or diction, although Selby's work is internally consistent; he uses the same unorthodox techniques in most of his works. He indented his paragraphs with alternating lengths, often by simply dropping down one line when he was finished with a paragraph. Like Jack Kerouac's "spontaneous prose", Selby's writing was often completed in a fast, stream of consciousness style, and to facilitate this he replaced his apostrophes with forward slashes "/" due to their closer proximity on his typewriter, thus allowing uninterrupted typing. He did not use quotation marks, and his dialogue might consist of a complete paragraph, with no denotion among alternating speakers. His prose was stripped down, bare and blunt.
His experience with longshoremen, the homeless, thugs, pimps, transvestites, prostitutes, queers, addicts and the overall poverty-stricken community, is best expressed in Last Exit to Brooklyn.
In 1961, one of Selby's short stories, "Tralala", was published in a literary journal, The Provincetown Review. It also appeared in Black Mountain Review and New Directions. With his unstructured style and coarse descriptions, Selby examined the seedy life (ridden with violence, theft and mediocre con-artistry) and the gang rape of a prostitute. He quickly drew negative attention from a number of critics. The editor was arrested for selling pornographic literature to a minor. The publication was used as evidence in an obscenity trial, but the case was later dismissed on appeal.
As Selby continued to work on his writing, Amiri Baraka, Selby's long-time friend, encouraged Selby to contact Sterling Lord, who at the time was Jack Kerouac's agent. In 1964, "Tralala", "The Queen is Dead" and four other loosely linked short stories appeared in Selby's first novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn. The novel was accepted and published by Grove Press, which had already released works by William S. Burroughs.
The novel was praised by many, including Allen Ginsberg, who predicted that it would "explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years". But as with any controversial work, not everyone was happy. Because of the detailed depictions of homosexuality and drug addiction, as well as gang rape and other forms of human brutality and cruelty in the novel, it was prosecuted for obscenity in Great Britain in 1967. Anthony Burgess was among a number of writers who appeared as witnesses in defense of the novel. The all-male jury's conviction was later reversed on appeal. The novel was successfully banned in Italy. (For more details on the British trial of Last Exit to Brooklyn see the entry Last Exit to Brooklyn Trial.)
In 1967, Selby moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in an attempt to escape his addictions. That same year, Selby met his future wife, Suzanne, at a bar in West Hollywood. The couple moved in together two days after they met, and married in 1969. For the next decade, they traveled back and forth between their home in Southern California and East Coast, settling down permanently in the Los Angeles area in 1983.
Even though all his work was written while he was sober, Selby continued to battle a drug addiction. In 1967 his heroin addiction eventually landed him in Los Angeles county jail, where he spent two months for heroin possession. After his release from jail, he kicked the habit and stayed clean of drugs and alcohol until his death. He even refused morphine on his deathbed, although he was in pain.
Selby continued to write short fiction, screenplays and teleplays at his apartment in West Hollywood. His work appeared in many magazines, including Yugen, Black Mountain Review, Evergreen Review, Provincetown Review, Kulchur, New Directions Annual, Swank and Open City. For the last 20 years of his life, Selby taught creative writing as an adjunct professor in the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California. Selby often wryly noted that The New York Times would not review his books when they were published, but he predicted that they'd print his obituary.
The movie "Last Exit to Brooklyn," Directed by Uli Edel, was made in 1989 and his 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream was made into a film that was released in 2000. Brooklyn featured Selby himself in a brief cameo as a taxi driver and Dream also had him in a small role as a prison guard. Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress for her role in the film. Also, during the filming of Last Exit, a documentary was shot, following Selby and some friends around the neighborhood as they reminisced.
In the 1980s, Selby made the acquaintance of rock singer Henry Rollins, who had long admired Selby's works and publicly championed them. Rollins not only helped broaden Selby's readership, but also arranged recording sessions and reading tours for Selby. Rollins issued original recordings through his own 2.13.61 publications, and distributed Selby's other works.
During the last years of his life, Selby suffered from depression and fits of rage, but was always a caring father and grandfather. The last month of his life Selby spent in and out of the hospital. He died in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California on April 26, 2004 of chronic obstructive pulmonary lung disease. Selby was survived by his wife of 35 years, Suzanne; four children and 11 grandchildren.
Category:1928 births Category:2004 deaths Category:American novelists Category:American sailors Category:American screenwriters Category:American short story writers Category:Writers from California Category:Deaths from pulmonary embolism Category:Stuyvesant High School alumni
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| Coordinates | 53°11′21″N23°5′45″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Clyde McPhatter |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Clyde Lensley McPhatter |
| Born | November 15, 1932Durham, North Carolina USA |
| Died | June 13, 1972Teaneck, New Jersey USA |
| Genre | R&B;, soul, pop |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1950–1972 |
| Associated acts | The Mount Lebanon Singers, Billy Ward & the Dominoes, The Drifters |
Clyde McPhatter (November 15, 1932 – June 13, 1972) was an American R&B; singer, perhaps the most widely imitated R&B; singer of the 1950s and 1960s, making him a key figure in the shaping of Doo-wop and R&B.; McPhatter was lead tenor for a gospel group he formed as a teenager called The Mount Lebanon Singers, for Billy Ward and His Dominoes, and founder of The Drifters before going solo, leaving a legacy of over 22 years of recording history.
In 1950, after winning "Amateur Night" at Harlem's Apollo Theater, McPhatter returned to his job as store manager and later was recruited by Billy Ward & the Dominoes, and was present for the recording of "Sixty Minute Man" for Federal Records, a song regarded by historians and fans alike as the "first record of rock 'n roll," produced by Ralph Bass. Clyde's fervent, high-pitched tenor was largely responsible for the Dominoes' success. He was regarded as the main singer to infuse his gospel-steeped singing style into mainstream R&B;, though blues singer Roy Brown was actually the first to do so. Although Roy Brown started the trend, McPhatter was more widely imitated, and he was a much bigger influence in the shaping of Doo-Wop/R&B.; In his book The Drifters, Bill Millar names Ben E. King, Smokey Robinson of the Miracles, Sammy Turner, and Marv Johnson among the vocalists who patterned themselves after McPhatter. "Most important," he concludes, "McPhatter took hold of the Ink Spots' simple major chord harmonies, drenched them in call-and-response patterns and sang as if he were back in church. In doing so, he created a revolutionary musical style from which---thankfully---popular music will never recover." Strangely, McPhatter didn't think much of his own singing abilities. The numerous Clyde McPhatter imitators tell a different story, namely Nolan Strong of The Diablos, Bobby Day, and Dee Clark. After recording several more songs, including "Have Mercy Baby", "Do Something for Me," and "The Bells," McPhatter quit The Dominoes in 1953. He was sometimes passed off as "Clyde Ward," Billy's little brother. Others assumed it was Billy Ward doing the lead singing. Because of such occurrences, and because he was frequently at odds with Ward, McPhatter quit the Dominoes, intent on making a name for himself. Billy Ward is remembered as a petty tyrant, often levying fines against his group for stepping out of line (an approach James Brown used with his group, The Famous Flames). Before leaving The Dominoes, McPhatter was asked by Ward to coach the group's replacement lead tenor. Auditions were held at Detroit's Fox Theater, and a young Jackie Wilson would take over as The Dominoes' lead tenor. Wilson's singing style was much influenced by McPhatter. "I fell in love with the man's voice. I toured with the group and watched Clyde and listened..."---and apparently learned. Privately, McPhatter and Ward often argued, but publicly Clyde expressed his appreciation to Ward for giving him his start in show business.
Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, eagerly sought McPhatter after noticing he was not present for an appearance The Dominoes made at Birdland, which was "an odd booking for the Dominoes", in Ertegun's words. After locating him, McPhatter was then signed to Atlantic on the condition that he form his own group. Clyde promptly assembled a group and called them The Drifters. They recorded a few tracks, including a song called "Lucille," written by McPhatter himself. This group of Drifters did not have the sound Atlantic executives were looking for, however, and Clyde was prompted to assemble another group of singers. The revised lineup recorded and released such hits as "Money Honey," "Such a Night," "Honey Love," "White Christmas" and "Whatcha Gonna Do," with the record label proudly displaying the group name "Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters." (The story of The Drifters is full of personnel changes. The first group of Drifters Clyde formed were mostly members of The Mount Lebanon Singers.)
In late 1954, McPhatter was drafted into the Army and assigned to Special Services in the continental United States, which allowed him to continue recording. After his tour of duty was up, he left The Drifters and launched a solo career. His first solo hit occurred just after being discharged - "Love Has Joined Us Together" (with Ruth Brown). He released several R&B; recordings in the next few years, including "Seven Days" (later a bigger hit for Tom Jones), "Treasure of Love," "Just to Hold my Hand", and his biggest solo hit, "A Lover's Question," written by Brook Benton and Clyde Otis, which peaked at No. 6 in 1958. In 1962, the song "Lover Please," written by country artist Billy Swan was released. His 1956 recording "Treasure of Love" saw his first solo No. 1 on the R&B; charts and one week in the UK Singles Chart. It reached No. 16 on the U.S. Pop charts.
After leaving Atlantic Records, McPhatter then signed on with MGM Records, and released several more songs, including "I Told Myself a Lie" and "Think Me a Kiss" (1960) and his first single for Mercury Records "Ta Ta." He recorded more singles, including "I Never Knew" and his final Top Ten hit "Lover Please," which made it to No. 7 in 1962. It was after "Lover Please" that McPhatter saw a downward turn in his career, as musical styles and tastes were constantly changing during the 1960s.
In 1968, McPhatter moved to England, where he was still highly revered, and he was backed by UK band "ICE".
McPhatter returned to America in 1970, making a few appearances in Rock 'N Roll revival tours, but remaining mostly a recluse. Hopes for a major comeback with a Decca album were crushed on June 13, 1972, when Clyde McPhatter died in his sleep at the age of 39 from complications of heart, liver, and kidney disease, brought on by alcohol abuse - abuse that had been fueled by a failed career and the resentment he harbored towards the fans he felt had deserted him. In a 1971 interview with journalist Marcia Vance, McPhatter told Vance "I have no fans." He was buried at George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, New Jersey.
Ruth Brown acknowledged in her later years that McPhatter was the actual father of her son Ronald, born in 1954. Ron now tours occasionally with a show of Drifters songs.
The Rockabilly Hall of Fame recognized his pioneering efforts.
The Original Drifters were inducted in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.
The United States Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor in 1993.
The song "Money Honey" (1953) was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
No album he recorded ever appeared on the charts.
Category:1932 births Category:1972 deaths Category:American male singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American rock singers Category:The Drifters members Category:African American singers Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Durham, North Carolina Category:Musicians from North Carolina Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:MGM Records artists Category:Alcohol-related deaths in New Jersey
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.
| Coordinates | 53°11′21″N23°5′45″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Frank Sinatra |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Francis Albert Sinatra |
| Alias | Ol' Blue EyesThe Chairman of the Board |
| Death date | May 14, 1998 |
| Death place | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Death cause | Heart attack |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Genre | Traditional pop, jazz, swing, big band, vocal |
| Occupation | Singer, |
| Years active | 1935–1995 |
| Label | Columbia, Capitol, Reprise |
| Associated acts | Rat Pack, Bing Crosby, Nancy Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Dean Martin |
| Url | |
| Spouse | Nancy Barbato (1939-1951)Ava Gardner (1951–57)Mia Farrow (1966-1968)Barbara Marx (1976-1998) |
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for his performance in From Here to Eternity).
He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records (finding success with albums such as Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special , and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
With sales of his music dwindling and after appearing in several poorly received films, Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. Two years later, however, he came out of retirement and in 1973 recorded several albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally, until a short time before his death in 1998.
Sinatra also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
On March 18, 1939, Sinatra made a demo recording of a song called "Our Love", with the Frank Mane band. The record has "Frank Sinatra" signed on the front. The bandleader kept the original record in a safe for nearly 60 years. In June, Harry James hired Sinatra on a one year contract of $75 a week. It was with the James band that Sinatra released his first commercial record "From the Bottom of My Heart" in July, 1939 - US Brunswick #8443 and UK Columbia #DB2150.
Fewer than 8,000 copies of "From the Bottom of My Heart" (Brunswick #8443) were sold, making the record a very rare find that is sought after by record collectors worldwide. Sinatra released ten commercial tracks with James through 1939, including "All or Nothing At All" which had weak sales on its initial release but then sold millions of copies when re-released by Columbia at the height of Sinatra's popularity a few years later.
In November 1939, in a meeting at the Palmer House in Chicago, Sinatra was asked by bandleader Tommy Dorsey to join his band as a replacement for Jack Leonard, who had recently left to launch a solo career. This meeting was a turning point in Sinatra's career, since by signing with Dorsey's band, one of the hottest bands at the time, he got greatly increased visibility with the American public. Though Sinatra was still under contract with James, James recognized the opportunity Dorsey offered and graciously released Sinatra from his contract. Sinatra recognized his debt to James throughout his life and upon hearing of James's death in 1983, stated: "he [James] is the one that made it all possible."
On January 26, 1940, Sinatra made his first public appearance with the Dorsey band at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, Illinois. In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra released more than forty songs, with "I'll Never Smile Again" topping the charts for twelve weeks beginning in mid-July.
Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was troubled, because of their contract, which awarded Dorsey ⅓ of Sinatra's lifetime earnings in the entertainment industry. In January 1942, Sinatra recorded his first solo sessions without the Dorsey band (but with Dorsey's arranger Axel Stordahl and with Dorsey's approval). These sessions were released commercially on the Bluebird label. Sinatra left the Dorsey band late in 1942 in an incident that started rumors of Sinatra's involvement with the Mafia. A story appeared in the Hearst newspapers that mobster Sam Giancana coerced Dorsey to let Sinatra out of his contract for a few thousand dollars. This story was famously fictionalized in the movie The Godfather. According to Nancy Sinatra's biography, the Hearst rumors were started because of Frank's Democratic politics. In fact, the contract was bought out by MCA founder Jules Stein for $75,000.
His appeal to bobby soxers, as teenage girls of that time were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had been recorded mainly for adults up to that time.
On December 31, 1942, Sinatra opened at the Paramount Theater in New York.
during World War II.]]
During the musicians' strike of 1942–44, Columbia re-released Harry James and Sinatra's version of "All or Nothing at All" (music by Arthur Altman and lyrics by Jack Lawrence), recorded in August 1939 and released before Sinatra had made a name for himself. The original release didn’t even mention the vocalist's name. When the recording was re–released in 1943 with Sinatra's name prominently displayed, the record was on the best–selling list for 18 weeks and reached number 2 on June 2, 1943.
Sinatra signed with Columbia on June 1, 1943 as a solo artist, and he initially had great success, particularly during the 1942-43 musicians' strike. And while no new records had been issued during the strike, he had been performing on the radio (on Your Hit Parade), and on stage. Columbia wanted to get new recordings of their growing star as fast as possible, so Sinatra convinced them to hire Alec Wilder as arranger and conductor for several sessions with a vocal group called the Bobby Tucker Singers. These first sessions were on June 7, June 22, August 5, and November 10, 1943. Of the nine songs recorded during these sessions, seven charted on the best–selling list.
Sinatra did not serve in the military during World War II. On December 11, 1943, he was classified 4-F ("Registrant not acceptable for military service") for a perforated eardrum by his draft board. Additionally, an FBI report on Sinatra, released in 1998, showed that the doctors had also written that he was a "neurotic" and "not acceptable material from a psychiatric standpoint." This was omitted from his record to avoid "undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service." Active-duty servicemen, like journalist William Manchester, said of Sinatra, "I think Frank Sinatra was the most hated man of World War II, much more than Hitler", because Sinatra was back home making all of that money and being shown in photographs surrounded by beautiful women. His deferment would resurface throughout his life and cause him grief when he had to defend himself. There were accusations, including some from noted columnist Walter Winchell, that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid the service — but the FBI found no evidence of this.
When Sinatra returned to the Paramount Theater in October 1944, 35,000 fans caused a near riot outside the venue because they were not allowed in.
In 1945, Sinatra co-starred with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh. That same year, he was loaned out to RKO to star in a short film titled The House I Live In. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, this film on tolerance and racial equality earned a special Academy Award shared among Sinatra and those who brought the film to the screen, along with a special Golden Globe for "Promoting Good Will." 1946 saw the release of his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, and the debut of his own weekly radio show.
By the end of 1948, Sinatra felt that his career was stalling, something that was confirmed when he slipped to No. 4 on Down Beat's annual poll of most popular singers (behind Billy Eckstine, Frankie Laine, and Bing Crosby).
The year 1949 saw an upswing, as Frank co-starred with Gene Kelly in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. It was well received critically and became a major commercial success. That same year, Sinatra teamed up with Kelly for a third time in On the Town.
Also in 1953, Sinatra starred in the NBC radio program Rocky Fortune. His character, Rocko Fortunato (aka Rocky Fortune) was a temp worker for the Gridley Employment Agency who stumbled into crime-solving by way of the odd jobs to which he was dispatched. The series aired on NBC radio Tuesday nights from October 1953 to March 1954, following the network's crime drama hit Dragnet. During the final months of the show, just before the 1954 Oscars, it became a running gag that Sinatra would manage to work the phrase "from here to eternity" into each episode, a reference to his Oscar-nominated performance.
In 1953, Sinatra signed with Capitol Records, where he worked with many of the finest musical arrangers of the era, most notably Nelson Riddle,
His fourth and final Timex TV special was broadcast in March, 1960, and earned massive viewing figures. Titled It's Nice to Go Travelling, the show is more commonly known as . Elvis Presley's appearance after his army discharge was somewhat ironic; Sinatra had been scathing about him in the mid fifties, saying: "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people." Presley had responded: "... [Sinatra] is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it... [rock and roll] is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago." Later, in efforts to maintain his commercial viability, Sinatra recorded Presley's hit "Love Me Tender" as well as works by Paul Simon ("Mrs. Robinson"), The Beatles ("Something", "Yesterday"), and Joni Mitchell ("Both Sides Now").
Following on the heels of the film Can Can was Ocean's 11, the movie that became the definitive on-screen outing for "The Rat Pack".
From his youth, Sinatra displayed sympathy for African Americans and worked both publicly and privately all his life to help them win equal rights. He played a major role in the desegregation of Nevada hotels and casinos in the 1960s. On January 27, 1961, Sinatra played a benefit show at Carnegie Hall for Martin Luther King, Jr. and led his fellow Rat Pack members and Reprise label mates in boycotting hotels and casinos that refused entry to black patrons and performers. He often spoke from the stage on desegregation and repeatedly played benefits on behalf of Dr. King and his movement. According to his son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., King sat weeping in the audience at a concert in 1963 as Sinatra sang Ol' Man River, a song from the musical Show Boat that is sung by an African-American stevedore.
On September 11 and 12, 1961, Sinatra recorded his final songs for Capitol.
In 1962, he starred with Janet Leigh and Laurence Harvey in the political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, playing Bennett Marco. That same year, Sinatra and Count Basie collaborated for the album Sinatra-Basie. This popular and successful release prompted them to rejoin two years later for the follow-up It Might as Well Be Swing, which was arranged by Quincy Jones. One of Sinatra's more ambitious albums from the mid-1960s, The Concert Sinatra, was recorded with a 73-piece symphony orchestra on 35mm tape.
Sinatra's first live album, Sinatra at the Sands, was recorded during January and February 1966 at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
In June, 1965, Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin played live in Saint Louis to benefit Dismas House. The concert was broadcast live via satellite to numerous movie theaters across America. Released in August, 1965, was the Grammy Award–winning album of the year, September of My Years, with a career anthology, A Man and His Music, following in November, itself winning Album of the Year at the Grammys in 1966. The TV special, Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, garnered both an Emmy award and a Peabody Award.
In the spring, That's Life appeared, with both the single and album becoming Top Ten hits in the US on Billboard's pop charts. Strangers in the Night went on to top the Billboard and UK pop singles charts, winning the award for Record of the Year at the Grammys. The album of the same name also topped the Billboard chart and reached number 4 in the UK.
Sinatra started 1967 with a series of important recording sessions with Antônio Carlos Jobim. Later in the year, a duet with daughter Nancy, "Somethin' Stupid", topped the Billboard pop and UK singles charts. In December, Sinatra collaborated with Duke Ellington on the album Francis A. & Edward K..
During the late 1960s, press agent Lee Solters would invite columnists and their spouses into Sinatra's dressing room just before he was about to go on stage. The New Yorker recounted that "the first columnist they tried this on was Larry Fields of the Philadelphia Daily News, whose wife fainted when Sinatra kissed her cheek. 'Take care of it, Lee,' Sinatra said, and he was off." The professional relationship Sinatra shared with Solters focused on projects on the west coast while those focused on the east coast were handled by Solters' partner, Sheldon Roskin of Solters/Roskin/Friedman, a well-known firm at the time.
Back on the small-screen, Sinatra once again worked with Jobim and Ella Fitzgerald on the TV special, A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim.
Watertown (1970) was one of Sinatra's most acclaimed concept albums but was all but ignored by the public. Selling a mere 30,000 copies and reaching a peak chart position of 101, its failure put an end to plans for a television special based on the album.
With Sinatra in mind, singer-songwriter Paul Anka wrote the song "My Way", inspired from the French "Comme d'habitude" ("As Usual"), composed by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. (The song had been previously commissioned to David Bowie, whose lyrics did not please the involved agents.) "My Way" would, ironically, become more closely identified with him than any other song over his seven decades as a singer even though he reputedly did not care for it.
In 1973, Sinatra came out of retirement with a television special and album, both entitled Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. The album, arranged by Gordon Jenkins and Don Costa, was a great success, reaching number 13 on Billboard and number 12 in the UK. The TV special was highlighted by a dramatic reading of "Send in the Clowns" and a song and dance sequence with former co-star Gene Kelly.
In January, 1974, Sinatra returned to Las Vegas, performing at Caesars Palace despite vowing in 1970 never to play there again after the manager of the resort, Sanford Waterman, pulled a gun on him during a heated argument. With Waterman recently shot, the door was open for Sinatra to return.
In Australia, he caused an uproar by describing journalists there — who were aggressively pursuing his every move and pushing for a press conference — as "fags", "pimps", and "whores." Australian unions representing transport workers, waiters, and journalists went on strike, demanding that Sinatra apologize for his remarks. Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for "fifteen years of abuse I have taken from the world press."
Also in 1981, Sinatra was embroiled in controversy when he worked a ten-day engagement for $2 million in Sun City, South Africa, breaking a cultural boycott against Apartheid South Africa. See Artists United Against Apartheid
He was selected as one of the five recipients of the 1983 Kennedy Center Honors, alongside Katharine Dunham, James Stewart, Elia Kazan, and Virgil Thomson. Quoting Henry James in honoring his old friend, President Ronald Reagan said that "art was the shadow of humanity" and that Sinatra had "spent his life casting a magnificent and powerful shadow."
In 1984, Sinatra worked with Quincy Jones for the first time in nearly two decades on the album, L.A. Is My Lady, which was well received critically. The album was a substitute for another Jones project, an album of duets with Lena Horne, which had to be abandoned. (Horne developed vocal problems and Sinatra, committed to other engagements, could not wait to record.)
In December, as part of Sinatra's birthday celebrations, Patrick Pasculli, the Mayor of Hoboken, made a proclamation in his honor, declaring that "no other vocalist in history has sung, swung, crooned, and serenaded into the hearts of the young and old ... as this consummate artist from Hoboken." The same month Sinatra gave the first show of his Diamond Jubilee Tour at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
In 1993 Sinatra made a surprise return to Capitol and the recording studio for Duets, which was released in November.
The other artists who added their vocals to the album worked for free, and a follow-up album (Duets II) was released in 1994 that reached #9 on the Billboard charts.
Still touring despite various health problems, Sinatra remained a top concert attraction on a global scale during the first half of the 1990s. At times during concerts his memory failed him and a fall onstage in Richmond, Virginia, in March, 1994, signaled further problems.
Sinatra's final public concerts were held in Japan's Fukuoka Dome in December, 1994. The following year, on February 25, 1995, at a private party for 1200 select guests on the closing night of the Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament, Sinatra sang before a live audience for the very last time. Esquire reported of the show that Sinatra was "clear, tough, on the money" and "in absolute control." His closing song was "The Best is Yet to Come".
Sinatra was awarded the Legend Award at the 1994 Grammy Awards, where he was introduced by Bono, who said of him, "Frank's the chairman of the bad attitude.... Rock 'n roll plays at being tough, but this guy is the boss--the chairman of boss.... I'm not going to mess with him, are you?" Sinatra called it "the best welcome...I ever had." But his acceptance speech ran too long and was abruptly cut off, leaving him looking confused and talking into a dead microphone.
In 1995, to mark Sinatra's 80th birthday, the Empire State Building glowed blue. A star-studded birthday tribute, Sinatra: 80 Years My Way, was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was Sinatra's last televised appearance.
In recognition of his many years of association with Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.
Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of depression. He acknowledged this, telling an interviewer in the 1950s: "Being an 18-karat manic-depressive, and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation." In her memoirs My Father's Daughter, his daughter Tina wrote about the "eighteen-karat" remark: "As flippant as Dad could be about his mental state, I believe that a Zoloft a day might have kept his demons away. But that kind of medicine was decades off."
Sinatra began to show signs of senility in his last years and after a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering a further heart attack,The official cause of death was listed as complications from senility, heart and kidney disease, and bladder cancer. His death was confirmed by the Sinatra family on their website with a statement accompanied by a recording of the singer's version of "Softly As I Leave You." The next night the lights on the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed for 10 minutes in his honor. President Bill Clinton, as an amateur saxophonist and musician, led the world's tributes to Sinatra, saying that after meeting and getting to know the singer as President, he had "come to appreciate on a personal level what millions of people had appreciated from afar." Elton John stated that Sinatra, "was simply the best - no one else even comes close." Tony Curtis,
To commemorate the anniversary of Sinatra's death, Patsy's Restaurant in New York City, which Sinatra frequented, exhibited in May 2009 fifteen previously unseen photographs of Sinatra taken by Bobby Bank. The photos are of his recording "Everybody Ought to Be in Love" at a nearby recording studio. Memorabilia in the restaurant includes his Oscar for "From Here to Eternity", his Emmy for "", his Grammy for "Strangers in the Night", photographs and a gold album he received for "Classic Sinatra".
There is a residence hall at Montclair State University named for him in recognition of his status as an iconic New Jersey native.
The Frank Sinatra International Student Center at Israel's Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus campus, was dedicated in 1978 in recognition of Sinatra's charitable and advocacy activities on behalf of the State of Israel.
In 2003, Sinatra was portrayed by James Russo in "Stealing Sinatra", which revolved around the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. in 1963
Also in 2003, he was portrayed by Dennis Hopper in "The Night we Called it a Day", based upon events that occurred during a tour of Australia where Frank had called a member of the news media a "two-bit hooker" and all the unions in the country came crashing down on him.
Brett Ratner is currently developing a film adaptation of George Jacobs' memoir Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra. Jacobs, who was Sinatra's valet, will be portrayed by Chris Tucker.
Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime, including figures such as Carlo Gambino, Lucky Luciano, The FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades beginning in the 1940s. The documents include accounts of Sinatra as the target of death threats and extortion schemes. They also portray rampant paranoia and strange obsessions at the FBI and reveal nearly every celebrated Sinatra foible and peccadillo.
For a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but found no evidence. The files include his rendezvous with prostitutes, and his extramarital affair with Ava Gardner, which preceded their marriage. Celebrities mentioned in the files are Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Lawford, and Giancana's girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire.
The FBI's secret dossier on Sinatra was released in 1998 in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Sinatra's parents had immigrated to the United States in 1895 and 1897 respectively. His mother, Dolly Sinatra (1896–1977), was a Democratic Party ward boss.
in 1960, was an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party until 1968.]]
Sinatra remained a supporter of the Democratic Party until the early 1970's when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.
He donated $5,000 to the Democrats for the 1944 presidential election, and by the end of the campaign was appearing at two or three political events every day.
After World War II, Sinatra's politics grew steadily more left wing, and he became more publicly associated with the Popular Front. He started reading liberal literature, and supported many organizations that were later identified as front organizations of the Communist party by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, though Sinatra was never brought before the Committee.
Sinatra spoke at a number of New Jersey high schools in 1945, where students had gone on strike in opposition to racial integration. Later that year Sinatra would appear in The House I Live In, a short film that stood against racism. The film was scripted by Albert Maltz, with the title song written by Earl Robinson and Abel Meeropol (under the pseudonym of Lewis Allen).
In 1948, Sinatra actively campaigned for President Harry S. Truman. In 1952 and 1956, he also campaigned for Adlai Stevenson. a rival singer and a Republican, for Kennedy's visit to Palm Springs in 1962. Kennedy had planned to stay at Sinatra's home over the Easter holiday weekend, but decided against doing so, because of problems with Sinatra's alleged connections to organized crime, President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was intensifying his own investigations into organized crime figures at the time, such as Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, who had earlier stayed at Sinatra's home.
Despite his break with Kennedy, however, he still mourned over Kennedy after he learned he was assassinated.
During Nixon's Presidency, Sinatra visited the White House on several occasions.
by President Ronald Reagan.]]
In the 1980 presidential election, Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan, and donated $4 million to Reagan's campaign. Sinatra said he supported Reagan as he was "the proper man to be the President of the United States... it's so screwed up now, we need someone to straighten it out." Reagan's victory gave Sinatra his closest relationship with the White House since the early 1960s. as he had done for Kennedy 20 years previously.
In 1984 Sinatra returned to his birthplace in Hoboken, bringing with him President Reagan, who was in the midst of campaigning for the 1984 presidential election. Reagan had made Sinatra a fund-raising ambassador as part of the Republicans' 'Victory 84'' get-the-vote-out-drive.
President Clinton never met Sinatra before taking office. They had dinner after Clinton's inauguration. Clinton later said that he was glad "to appreciate on a personal level what hundreds of millions of people around the world, including me, appreciated from afar."
Category:1915 births Category:1998 deaths Category:1930s singers Category:1940s singers Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:20th-century actors Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:American actors of Italian descent Category:American crooners Category:American film actors Category:American jazz musicians of Sicilian descent Category:American jazz singers Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American pop singers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Burials at Desert Memorial Park Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:California Republicans Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:New Jersey Democrats Category:People from Hoboken, New Jersey Category:People with bipolar disorder Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Qwest Records artists Category:Reprise Records artists Category:Swing singers Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers
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| Coordinates | 53°11′21″N23°5′45″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Elliott Smith |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Steven Paul Smith |
| Born | August 06, 1969Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | October 21, 2003 |
| Genre | Lo-fi, indie rock, indie folk |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Years active | 1993–2003 |
| Instrument | Guitar, vocals, piano, clarinet, bass guitar, harmonica, drums |
| Label | Virgin/Caroline, Cavity Search, Kill Rock Stars, Suicide Squeeze, DreamWorks, ANTI-, Domino |
| Associated acts | Heatmiser, Quasi, Mary Lou Lord, Pete Krebs, No. 2 |
| Url | elliottsmith.net |
After playing in rock band Heatmiser for several years, Smith began his solo career in 1994 with releases on the independent record labels Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars. In 1997 he signed a contract with DreamWorks Records, for which he recorded two albums. Smith rose to mainstream prominence when his song "Miss Misery" — included in the soundtrack for the film Good Will Hunting — was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category in 1998.
Smith suffered from depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction, and these topics often appeared in his lyrics. At age 34, he died in Los Angeles, California from two stab wounds to the chest. At the time of his death, Smith was working on his sixth studio album, From a Basement on the Hill, which was posthumously released.
Smith endured a difficult childhood He reflected the impact of this part of his life in the lyrics of "Some Song": "Charlie beat you up week after week, and when you grow up you're going to be a freak." The name "Charlie" also appeared in the lyrics for "Flowers for Charlie" and "No Confidence Man". The family was a part of the Community of Christ through much of Smith's childhood, but eventually began attending services at a local Methodist Church. Smith felt that going to church did little for him, except make him "really scared of Hell". In a 2001 interview, he stated, "I don't necessarily buy into any officially structured version of spirituality. But I have my own version of it".
At the age of nine, Smith began playing the piano, and at 10 began learning guitar on a small acoustic guitar bought for him by his father. At this age he also composed an original piano piece, "Fantasy", which won him a prize at an arts festival. Many of the people on his mother's side of the family were non-professional musicians; his grandfather was a Dixieland drummer and his grandmother sang in a glee club. billed as either Steven Smith or "Johnny Panic". He graduated from Lincoln High School as a National Merit Scholar.
After graduation, Smith began calling himself "Elliott", saying that he thought "Steve" sounded too much like a "jock" name, and that "Steven" sounded "too bookish". Biographer S. R. Shutt speculates that it was either inspired by Elliott Avenue, a street that Smith had lived on in Portland, or that it was suggested by his then-girlfriend. A junior high acquaintance of Smith speculates that it was so as not to be confused with Steve Smith, the drummer of Journey.
Smith graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1991 with a degree in philosophy and political science. "Went straight through in four years," he explained to Under the Radar in 2003. "I guess it proved to myself that I could do something I really didn't want to for four years. Except I did like what I was studying. At the time it seemed like, 'This is your one and only chance to go to college and you had just better do it because some day you might wish that you did.' Plus, the whole reason I applied in the first place was because of my girlfriend, and I had gotten accepted already even though we had broken up before the first day." After he graduated he "worked in a bakery back in Portland with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and legal theory." After graduating from Hampshire, the band added drummer Tony Lash and bassist Brandt Peterson and began performing around Portland in 1992. The group released the albums Dead Air (1993) and Cop and Speeder (1994) as well as the Yellow No. 5 EP (1994) on Frontier Records, and were then signed to Virgin Records to release what became their final album, Mic City Sons (1996).
Around this time, Smith and Gust worked a number of odd jobs around Portland, including installing drywall, spreading gravel, transplanting bamboo trees and painting the roof of a warehouse with heat reflective paint. The pair were also on unemployment, which they considered an "artist grant".
Smith had begun his solo career while still in Heatmiser, and the success of his first two releases created distance and tension with his band. Regarding the record, Smith said "I thought my head would be chopped off immediately when it came out because at the time it was so opposite to the grunge thing that was popular... The thing is that album was really well-received, which was a total shock, and it immediately eclipsed [Heatmiser] unfortunately."
The instrumentation of the recordings was primarily acoustic guitar, occasionally accompanied by brief electric guitar riffs or a small drum set played with brushes. Only the final track, an instrumental titled "Kiwi Maddog 20/20" (a reference to the low-end fortified wine), had full band instrumentation.
One of Smith's first solo performances was at the now-defunct Umbra Penumbra on September 17, 1994. Only three songs from Roman Candle were performed, with the majority of the ten-song set being B-sides, Heatmiser tunes, and unreleased tracks. Soon after this performance, he was asked to open for Mary Lou Lord on a week-long U.S. tour. Several more short tours followed, and Smith helped her record one of his songs "I Figured You Out", which he once called "a stupid pop song [written] in about a minute" that he discarded for sounding "like the fucking Eagles."
By this time, Smith's already-heavy drinking was now being compounded with use of anti-depressants. At the end of the Either/Or tour, some of his close friends staged an intervention in Chicago, at the 1998 Academy Awards.]] On March 5, 1998, Smith made his network television debut on Late Night With Conan O'Brien performing "Miss Misery" solo on acoustic guitar. A few days later, wearing a white suit, he played an abridged version of the song at the Oscars, accompanied by the house orchestra. James Horner and Will Jennings won the award that night for best song with "My Heart Will Go On" (sung by Celine Dion) from the film Titanic. Smith did not voice disappointment about not winning the award.
Smith commented on the surrealism of the Oscars experience: "That's exactly what it was, surreal... I enjoy performing almost as much as I enjoy making up songs in the first place. But the Oscars was a very strange show, where the set was only one song cut down to less than two minutes, and the audience was a lot of people who didn't come to hear me play. I wouldn't want to live in that world, but it was fun to walk around on the moon for a day."
Christopher Cooper, head of Cavity Search Records (which released Roman Candle), said about this time in Smith's life: "I talked him out of thinking that he wanted to kill himself numerous times when he was in Portland. I kept telling him that he was a brilliant man, and that life was worth living, and that people loved him." and number 123 on the UK Album Charts, while selling 400,000 copies (more than double that of each of his two Kill Rock Stars releases), becoming the best-selling release of his career. Smith's backing band during most of this period was the Portland-based group Quasi, consisting of former bandmate Sam Coomes on bass guitar and Coomes's ex-wife Janet Weiss on drums. Quasi also performed as the opening act at many shows on the tour, with Smith sometimes contributing bass guitar, guitar, or backing vocals. On October 17, 1998, Smith appeared on Saturday Night Live and performed "Waltz #2." His backing band for this appearance was John Moen, Jon Brion, Rob Schnapf, and Sam Coomes.
In response to whether the change to a bigger record label would influence his creative control, Smith said, "[S]ometimes people look at major labels as simply money-making machines, they're actually composed of individuals who are real people, and there's a part of them that needs to feel that part of their job is to put out good music." Smith also claimed in another interview that he never read his reviews for fear that they would interfere with his songwriting.
With things improving for Smith after several troubled years, he began experimenting with noise music and worked on his girlfriend Jennifer Chiba's iMac with the intent of learning how to record with computers, noting that it was the only method with which he was still unfamiliar. He said of the songs, "They're kind of more noisy with the pitch all distorted. Some are more acoustic, but there aren't too many like that. Lately I've just been making up a lot of noise." including Big Star's "Thirteen", and Cat Stevens' "Trouble".
The coroner's report revealed that no traces of illegal substances or alcohol were found in his system at the time of his death, but did find prescribed levels of antidepressant and ADHD medications in his system, including Clonazepam, Mirtazapine, Atomoxetine and Amphetamine. With his death not being officially declared a suicide, a journalist noted that some have suspected foul play, but also that the authorities do not seem to be investigating the case further. Smith's body was cremated. No public burial site or memorial was ever formally announced. in August 2006.]]
Memorial concerts were held in several cities in the United States and the United Kingdom. The plaque has the line "I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow," from Smith's song "Waltz #2".
Since Smith's death, many musical acts have paid him tribute. Songs in tribute to, or about Smith have been released by Backseat Goodbye ("Elliott Smith Is Still Alive" on The Good Years), Rilo Kiley ("Ripchord" and "It Just Is" on More Adventurous), Sparta ("Bombs and Us"), Rhett Miller ("The Believer" on The Believer), Earlimart ("Heaven Adores You" on Treble and Tremble), Joan As Police Woman ("We Don't Own It" on Real Life), and Pete Yorn ("Bandstand in the Sky" on Nightcrawler, a song jointly dedicated to Jeff Buckley). Several tribute albums have been released since his death, including Christopher O'Riley's .
On July 30, 2004, Jennifer Chiba filed a lawsuit against the Smith family for 15% of his earnings (over $1 million), claiming that she and Smith lived as "husband and wife", that the singer pledged to take care of her financially for the rest of her life, and that she worked as his manager and agent from around 2000 until his death. A state labor commissioner ruled her claim as manager to be invalid, as she had worked as an "unlicensed talent agent" under California's Talent Agencies Act. The case made it to the California appellate court in October 2007, but was defeated 2–1; Chiba could potentially appeal the case to the Supreme Court of California.
Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing, a biography by Benjamin Nugent, was rushed to publication and hit stores shortly after From a Basement on the Hill, barely beyond the first anniversary of the musician's death. Smith's family, as well as Joanna Bolme, Jennifer Chiba, Neil Gust, Sam Coomes, and Janet Weiss, all declined to be interviewed and did not support the publication of the book. It contained interviews with Rob Schnapf, David McConnell, and Pete Krebs. The book received mixed reviews, with Publishers Weekly remarking that while "Nugent manages to patch together the major beats of Smith's life, he can offer little meaningful insight" and that Smith's fans "will be disappointed by this short and shallow biography."
On May 8, 2007, a posthumous two-disc compilation album entitled New Moon was released by Kill Rock Stars. The album contained 24 songs recorded by Smith between 1994 and 1997 during his tenure with the label that were not included on albums, as well as a few early versions and previously released B-sides. In the United States, the album debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200, selling about 24,000 copies in its first week. The record received favorable reviews and was Metacritic's 15th best-reviewed album of 2007. A significant portion of the proceeds from album sales are to go to Outside In, a social service agency for low-income adults and homeless youth in Portland, Oregon.
On October 25, 2007, a book titled Elliott Smith was released by Autumn de Wilde, which consists of photographs, handwritten lyrics and "revealing talks with Smith's inner circle." De Wilde was responsible for the Figure 8 sleeve art, making a landmark and de facto Smith memorial of the Solutions Audio mural. A five-song CD featuring previously unreleased live recordings of Smith performing acoustically at Club Largo in Los Angeles was included in the release.
Following the singer's death, the Smith estate licensed his songs for use in a number of film and television projects, such as One Tree Hill, The Girl Next Door, Georgia Rule, and Paranoid Park.
In a March 2009 interview, Larry Crane said that the estate of Elliott Smith was now "defunct" and all rights previously held by the singer are now in the control of "his parents." Roman Candle will be remastered by Larry Crane.
In August 2010, it was announced that a compilation titled An Introduction to... Elliott Smith is set to be released on November 2 on Kill Rock Stars.
Smith was a dedicated fan of The Beatles (as well as their solo projects), once noting that he had been listening to them frequently since he was about "four years old" and also claimed that hearing The White Album was his original inspiration to become a musician.
Regarding his songwriting, Smith said:
Smith said that transitions were his favorite part of songs and that he preferred to write broader, more impressionistic music closer to pop rather than folk music. "I found songs recorded in high school reworked 15 years on. Lyrics became more important to him as he became older, and more time was spent working on them."
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Category:1969 births Category:2003 deaths Category:2003 murders in the United States Category:American alternative rock musicians Category:American indie rock musicians Category:American male singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:Deaths by stabbing Category:Hampshire College alumni Category:Kill Rock Stars Category:Musicians from Los Angeles, California Category:Musicians from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Musicians from Oregon Category:Musicians who committed suicide Category:People from Duncanville, Texas Category:People from Portland, Oregon Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Lincoln High School (Portland, Oregon) alumni Category:Artists who committed suicide
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.
| Coordinates | 53°11′21″N23°5′45″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Daryl Hall |
| Height | 1.85 meters |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Name | Daryl Hall |
| Birth name | Daryl Franklin Hohl |
| Born | October 11, 1946 |
| Origin | Pottstown, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Instrument | Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards |
| Genre | soulR&B;Pop rock |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Label | Atlantic Records |
| Associated acts | Carly Simon, Hall & Oates |
| Url | www.hallandoates.com |
Daryl Hall (born Daryl Franklin Hohl; October 11, 1946) is an American rock, R&B; and soul singer, keyboardist, guitarist, songwriter and producer, best known as the co-founder and lead vocalist of Hall & Oates (with guitarist/songwriter John Oates).
Hall is widely regarded as one of the best blue eyed soul singers of his generation Guitarist Robert Fripp, who collaborated with Hall in the late 1970s and early '80s, has written, "Daryl's pipes were a wonder. I have never worked with a more able singer."
He currently hosts the web tv series, Live From Daryl's House. Hall has written or co-written 11 Billboard Number One songs, "She's Gone" (with John Oates as covered by Tavares), "Rich Girl", "Kiss On My List" (with Janna Allen), "Private Eyes" (with Sara Allen, Janna Allen & Warren Pash), "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Say It Isn't So", "Maneater" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Out of Touch" (with John Oates), "Everytime You Go Away" (covered by Paul Young) and "Do It For Love" (with John Oates). Hall also sang lead vocals and has written or co-written 8 more popular Billboard songs that also made it to the Top 10, such as: "Adult Education" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Sara Smile" (with John Oates - a song that was referenced by Hall's ex-girlfriend), "Method of Modern Love" (with Janna Allen), "You Make My Dreams" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Everything Your Heart Desires", "One on One", "So Close" (with Jon Bon Jovi & Danny Kortchmar) and "Did It in a Minute" (with Sara Allen & Janna Allen).
In addition, he also sang lead vocals while covering on another Top 10 hit: "Family Man," a song that was written by Mike Oldfield, a year earlier than its release.
In 1967, he met John Oates, also a college student from Temple, and embarked on a 30-odd year creative journey. According to Daryl Hall they met when, "We got in the middle of a fight at a dance - I have no idea what the fight was about. I guess the Greek letters on one gang's jackets didn't appeal to the other gang. We both beat it out the back and met on the elevator while leaving the place rather quickly." Hall was already a senior, while Oates was a freshman, and both had played it out temporarily, until Oates transferred schools, at only 19. Daryl did not let this discourage his musical career as he worked in a short-lived rock band Gulliver. By 1969, just one year after his dropout from college, Hall went back to concentrating on recording other artists, which led them into signing their very first record contract, early in 1972.
From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Hall & Oates would score six U.S. #1 singles, including "Rich Girl" (also #1 R&B;), "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" (also #1 R&B;), "Maneater" and "Out of Touch" from their six multi-platinum albums - Bigger Than Both of Us, Voices, Private Eyes, H2O, Rock 'n Soul Part 1 and Big Bam Boom - the last five of which were released consecutively. The era would also produce an additional five U.S. Top 10 singles, "Sara Smile", "One on One", "Family Man," "You Make My Dreams", "Say It Isn't So" and "Method of Modern Love".
In 1984, he co-wrote and produced, with Arthur Baker, the single Swept Away for Diana Ross, which reached US #19, US R & B #3 and US Dance/Club Play #1.
In 1985, Hall participated in the We Are the World session as well as closing the Live Aid show in Philadelphia. He also made an album with Dave Stewart that year, Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine. He has recorded such solo works as Soul Alone in 1993 and Can't Stop Dreaming in 1996, both of which were received well internationally.
In July 2005, Hall was diagnosed with Lyme Disease causing him to cancel a majority of Hall & Oates' summer tour. The duo released a Christmas album in October 2006 titled Home for Christmas.
In 2007, Hall guest starred on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, portraying an MC of a world music fest.
On November 14, 2007, Hall appeared on the Howard Stern Show, discussed his hatred of deer and rabbits, prompted by his career-threatening bout with Lyme Disease, sang acoustic versions of "Sara Smile' and "Rich Girl", and talked about his new monthly performance webcast called "Live from Daryl's House". The webcast has so far featured appearances by KT Tunstall, Eric Hutchinson, and Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy, as well as a holiday special featuring songs from the Hall and Oates release, Home for Christmas. The show featured guests Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger of The Doors.
Speaking of his reasons for starting the Live From Daryl's House webcast, in June 2008 Hall told noted UK R&B; writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul: "For me it was sort of an obvious thing. I've been touring my whole adult life really, and, you know, you can't be EVERYWHERE! Nor do I WANT to be everywhere at this point! I only like to spend so much time per year on the road. So I thought 'Why don't I just do something where anyone who wants to see me anywhere in the world CAN?! And, instead of doing the artist/audience performance-type thing, I wanted to deconstruct it and make the audience more of a fly-on-the-wall kind of observer... I mean, what I've always done onstage is very natural. I talk to the audience and it's a very sitting-roomy kind of thing. So I just thought I'd basically bring that to the web."
On March 12, 2008, Hall played a well-received set with his band at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
Hall was slated to sing the National Anthem of the United States before Game 5 of the 2008 World Series at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Due to an illness Hall could not appear and Oates filled in for him.
In 2009, Hall guest starred on the Independent Film Channel series, Z-Rock (as himself).
Hall was also looking forward to going back into the studio to do a new solo effort with H&O; bassist, T-Bone Wolk, who despite long hours of completing Hall's session, died on February 28, 2010. Hall released a statement about the death of his bassist of nearly 30 years: “It’s not if I will go on, but how? T-Bone was one of the most sensitive and good human beings that I have ever known.”
On June 11, 2010 Hall shared the stage with electronic duo Chromeo for a special late night set at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The groups had previously collaborated in a 2008 episode of Live from Daryl's House. Their Bonnaroo set consisted of a mix of both Hall & Oates and Chromeo tracks with the encore featuring Fancy Footwork and You Make My Dreams.
Hall will host WGN America's New Year's Eve coverage as a Live from Daryl's House special on December 31, 2010. The special will feature clips of previous Live from Daryl's House episodes.
Hall restores and preserves historic homes in both the United States and England. According to the Associated Press, he is the new owner of the 18th century Bray House, in Kittery, Maine. He also has restored a Georgian-style home in London, England, first built in 1740, one of only 50 houses with direct waterfront access to the River Thames. He is currently restoring two homes, one built in 1771, the other in 1780, both now located on the same property in Dutchess County, New York. After he moved them together, he discovered both homes, by coincidence, were connected to the same family.
Category:1946 births Category:American rock musicians Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Category:American rhythm and blues musicians Category:American soul musicians Category:Smooth jazz musicians Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Temple University alumni
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He then became lead singer for The 5 Dollars in 1955, which already had a contract with Fortune Records. Though most of the songs were billed as 'Andre Williams and the Don Juans' (on Epic in 1956 billed as 'Andre Mr Rhythm Williams and his New Group'), "Bacon Fat" and "Jail Bait" were solo efforts. "Bacon Fat" hit #9 on the Billboard R&B; Charts in 1957. "Bacon Fat" (written by Williams) was such a success that Fortune Records sold the song to Epic Records, a much larger distributor (released as Epic 5-9196 "Bacon Fat/Just because of a Kiss"). Since "Bacon Fat" and "Jail Bait" were such successes, Williams figured that "talking instead of singing" was a better idea for him, for he didn't have as good a voice as some other singers from the 1950s. In 1960 Fortune released a complete LP, of all of his singles with the Don Juans, which was titled Jail Bait (rereleased in 1986). This was just the start of Williams' nationwide fame.
In 1960 he appeared on Motown's Miracle Record label releasing "Rosa Lee".
In the early 1960s, Williams co-wrote Stevie Wonder's first song called "Thank You for Loving Me." Williams' "Shake a Tail Feather" was also a hit in 1963 for the Five Du-Tones and then for Ike & Tina Turner. Alvin Cash & the Crawlers also made a hit out of the Williams song "Twine Time." As well as making these hits, Williams also supervised the making of two or more albums by The Contours. Additionally, in the '60s, Williams was the manager and roadie for soul singer Edwin Starr.
In 1966 Williams released two records on the Avin Record Label, then two records were released on Detroit's Wingate label:"Loose Juice" and "Do it". Then on the Ric Tic label in 1967 he released; "You Got It and I Want It".
In 1968, Williams was signed to Chess Records on Checker, Chicago's major blues label. He was back... wearing velvet lavender suits and playing "bucket-of-blood" styled joints. Chess released many hits for Williams — "Humpin' Bumpin' and Thumpin'" and "Cadillac Jack" in particular. Then, he began to work with many unknown black labels and release songs like "Sweet Little Pussy Cat" and "Rib Tips, Pts. 1 & 2." In 1968, Williams collaborated with the Natural Bridge Bunch to release "Pig Snoots," a novelty song about a man named Ricky who would "come all way cross town to get me some snoots". In the 1970s, Williams wrote some songs for Parliament (band) and Funkadelic, two popular funk groups. (Comedian Redd Foxx then dubbed Andre Williams his most famous nickname, Mr. Rhythm). Once again, Williams began to produce cuts for Ike Turner.
Throughout the 1980s, Andre Williams was in poverty because of his drug addictions. He lived in Chicago, Illinois; at one point, he was homeless and begging for money on a Chicago bridge.
In 1996, Andre Williams released Mr. Rhythm, which featured new renditions of his old tunes from the "Jail Bait" era. Some included "The Greasy Chicken," "Mean Jean," and "Pass the Biscuits Please." It was a definite comeback for Williams, but most of the crowd had already forgotten about him, and wanted newer-styled music.
He changed his style with 1998's Silky. Considered the "world's sleaziest album ever", Silky revolutionized the punky style, dubbed Sleaze rock. Mark Deming speaks about Silky: It's "noise-spattered, stripped-down, roots-punk assault, and the results are flat-out nuts." Though sleaze rockers idolized Williams, most critics preferred his original style.
In 1999, he began his relationship with Bloodshot Records by recording a country album with The Sadies, entitled Red Dirt.
In 2000, Andre Williams released The Black Godfather. The noisy, electric, fuzzy sound was back, with two songs backed by The Dirtbombs. By this time, Andre was already back on stage, performing at the "bucket-of-blood" clubs again. 'The Black Godfather' became his new nickname, along with the outdated 'Mr. Rhythm'.
In 2001 he discussed his recent conversion to Judaism and circumcision.
In 2002–2003 he toured with the Dutch sleaze rock band Green Hornet.
A return to soul-style music came with Aphrodisiac in 2006. "The result is a more laid-back and funky groove that's soulful but potent at the same time, fusing '70s blaxploitation sounds, Jimmy Smith-style jazz figures, and Booker T.-influenced R&B; workouts into one solid package" is the way Mark Deming described the album.
Williams still plays shows in the USA, and toured Europe in 2001 (with Dutch band Green Hornet as backing band), 2005 and 2006 (with the Marshall Brothers). From August to November 2006, he had a short European tour, ending in Switzerland. Then in early 2008 a European tour with The Flash Express.
In 2007, Andre finished recording his latest album with the New Orleans based band, Morning 40 Federation. The album, titled Can You Deal With It, was released by Bloodshot Records in 2008 and is credited to Andre Williams & the New Orleans Hellhounds (the pseudonymous Morning 40 Federation).
In 2010 Williams contributed a cover version of "The Way You Dog Me Around" for the compilation LP . The album is a tribute to the late Nolan Strong, a Fortune Records sensation during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Category:1936 births Category:American rhythm and blues musicians Category:Detroit blues musicians Category:Black Jews Category:Converts to Judaism Category:Living people Category:Norton Records artists Category:Musicians from Alabama Category:People from Bessemer, Alabama
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.
