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Capitol Records is a major American record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but as of 2011^[update] operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of EMI.

History[link]

1940s[link]

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The Capitol Records Company was founded by songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942, with the financial help of fellow songwriter and film producer Buddy DeSylva and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs (1910–1971), owner of Music City, at the time the biggest record store in Los Angeles.

Johnny Mercer first suggested the idea of starting a record company while he was golfing with Harold Arlen and Bobby Sherwood. He told them, "I’ve got this idea of starting a record company. I get so tired of listening to the way everyone treats music. I keep feeling they’re selling out. And I don’t like the way artists are treated either. Bing Crosby isn’t the only one who can make records. I don’t know, I think it would be fun." By 1941, Mercer was not only an experienced songwriter, but a singer with a number of records to his name. Mercer next suggested starting a record company to his friend Glenn Wallichs while Mercer was visiting Wallichs' record store. Wallichs responded, "Fine, you run the record company and find the artists,' and Mercer added, "and you run the business."

On February 2, 1942, they met with Buddy DeSylva at a Hollywood restaurant to ask if Paramount Pictures would invest in the new record company. On the Paramount deal DeSylva said no, but that he himself would, and he gave them a check for $15,000. On March 27 the three men got a statement notarized that they have applied to incorporate "Liberty Records" (later the name of a label which Capitol eventually acquired). In May they amended the application to change the name to Capitol Records. (citations for Feb. 2 to July 25, 1942, see individual day dates at #[1]

On April 6, 1942, Johnny Mercer supervised Capitol's first recording session, recording Martha Tilton singing 'Moon Dreams". On May 5, Bobby Sherwood and his orchestra recorded two tracks. On May 21, Freddie Slack and his orchestra recorded three tracks, one with just the orchestra, one with Ella Mae Morse—"Cow-Cow Boogie', and one with Mercer—"Air–Minded Executive".

On June 4, Capitol Records opened its first office in a second-floor room south of Sunset Boulevard. On the same day, Wallichs presented the first free record to a Los Angeles disc jockey named Peter Potter. Potter was so pleased Wallichs decided to give free records to other DJs, becoming the first in the business to do so.

On June 5, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded four sides for Capitol. On June 12, the orchestra recorded five more songs, including one side with Billie Holiday. On June 11, Tex Ritter recorded "(I Got Spurs That) Jingle Jangle Jingle" and "Goodbye My Little Cherokee" at his first Capitol recording session. They would become record #110.

On July 1, Capitol Records released its first nine records:

• 101—"I Found a New Baby"/"The General Jumped at Dawn"—Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra
• 102—"Cow-Cow Boogie" with Ella Mae Morse and Freddy Slack and His Orchestra/ "Here You Are"– Freddy Slack and His Orchestra
• 103—"Strip Polka"/"Air–Minded Executive"—both with vocals by Johnny Mercer
• 104—"Johnny Doughboy Found A Rose In Ireland"/ "Phil, The Fluters Ball" – both with vocals by Dennis Day
• 105—"The Angels Cried" – vocal Martha Tilton and The Mellowaires/I'll Remember April" – vocal Martha Tilton with Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra
• 106—"He Wears A Pair Of Silver Wings" – vocal Connie Haines/"I’m Always Chasing Rainbows" – Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra
• 107—"Elk's Parade"/"I Don't Know Why" – Bobby Sherwood and his Orchestra
• 108—"Serenade In Blue" – Martha Tilton with Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra/"(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo" – The Mellowaires with Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra
• 109—"Windmill Under The Stars"/"Conchita Lopez" – Johnnie Johnston

By July 25, "Cow Cow Boogie" had gone to #1 on the hit parade. (see dates at #[2]

The earliest recording artists included co–owner Johnny Mercer, Margaret Whiting, Jo Stafford, Paul Whiteman, Martha Tilton, Ella Mae Morse, the Pied Pipers, and Paul Weston and His Orchestra. Capitol's first gold single was Morse's "Cow Cow Boogie" in 1942. Capitol's first record album was Capitol Presents Songs By Johnny Mercer, a three 78-rpm record set with recordings by Mercer, Stafford, and the Pied Pipers, all with Paul Weston's Orchestra.

The label's other 1940s artists included Les Baxter, Les Paul, Peggy Lee, Stan Kenton, Les Brown, western swing artists Tex Williams, Merle Travis and Wesley Tuttle, Benny Goodman and Nat King Cole.

Capitol was the first major West Coast label, competing with RCA-Victor, Columbia and Decca, all based in New York. In addition to its Los Angeles recording studio Capitol had a second studio in New York City, and on occasion sent mobile recording equipment to New Orleans, Louisiana and other cities (Nordskog, Sunset and Aamor preceded Capitol on the West Coast).

By 1946, Capitol had sold 42 million records and was established as one of the Big Six record labels. It was also that year that writer–producer Alan W. Livingston created Bozo the Clown for their new children's record library. Some notable music appreciation albums for children by Capitol during that era included Sparky's Magic Piano and Rusty in Orchestraville.

Capitol also developed a noted jazz line, including the Capitol Jazz Men, and issued the Miles Davis–led sessions called "Birth of the Cool".

Capitol released a few classical albums in the 1940s, some featuring a heavily embossed, leather-like cover. These appeared initially in the 78-rpm format, then on some of Capitol's early LPs (33-1/3 rpm) which first appeared in 1949. Among the recordings was a unique performance of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos' Choros No. 10 with a Los Angeles choral group and the Janssen Symphony Orchestra (1940–1952) conducted by Werner Janssen, Symphony No. 3 by Russian composer Reinhold Moritzovich Glière, and César Franck's Symphony in D minor with Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

In 1949, the Canadian branch was established and Capitol purchased the KHJ Studios on Melrose Avenue next to the Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood. By the mid-1950s, Capitol had become a huge company, concentrating on popular music.

1950s[link]

The 1950s roster now included Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Stan Kenton, Judy Garland, The Andrews Sisters, Jackie Gleason, Jane Froman, Wesley Tuttle, Ray Anthony, Andy Griffith, Shirley Bassey, Merle Travis, The Kingston Trio (who in 1960 would account for 20% of all record sales for Capitol), Dean Martin, The Four Freshmen, Al Martino, Dinah Shore and Nancy Wilson (actually signed in 1960 to Capitol). There were also some notable comedy recordings, including several by Stan Freberg and the Yiddish-dialect parodies of Mickey Katz. The label also began recording rock and roll acts such as The Jodimars and Gene Vincent.

Many children became familiar with Capitol Records through the release of a number of Bozo the Clown albums, which featured 78-rpm discs and full color booklets which the children could follow as they listened to the recorded stories. Although there were a series of Bozo the Clowns on various television stations, Capitol used the voice of Pinto Colvig, who was also the voice for Walt Disney's cartoon character Goofy.

In 1955, the British record company EMI acquired 96% of Capitol Records stock for $8.5 million. Soon afterward, EMI built a new studio at Hollywood and Vine to match its state-of-the-art Abbey Road Studios in London — see the Capitol Tower below. EMI's classical Angel Records label was merged into Capitol in 1957. Some classical recordings were issued in high fidelity and even stereophonic sound on the Capitol label by William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski with various orchestras (including the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra), and Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as light classical albums by Carmen Dragon and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and a series of albums of film music conducted by leading Hollywood composers such as Alfred Newman. Eventually, most of the classical recordings were re-released exclusively on the Angel and Seraphim labels in the U.S. EMI reissued many of the historic Capitol classical recordings on CD.

In 1959, with the advent of stereo, Capitol changed its LP label design from a large "dome logo" with a gray background, to a smaller "dome logo" in a silver oval with a black background and a colorband around the edge. At first, the oval was on the left side of the label, with a tapering vertical line extending from the top and bottom. Classical labels replaced the vertical line with the words "INCOMPARABLE HIGH-FIDELITY" and added the round "FDS-Full Dimensional Sound" shield. In the early 1960s, the oval was moved to the top of the label, and the colorband was slightly narrower. This design is familiar to Beatles fans.

During the 1950s Capitol Records also introduced its series of "Hi-Q" production music LP's and tapes. Some television and film productions that made use of this extensive library included Gumby, Davey and Goliath, The Donna Reed Show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and the earliest Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Capitol released a number of soundtrack recordings in the 1950s, including the film versions of three Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The King and I, as well as excerpts from Dimitri Tiomkin's music from Warner Bros.' Giant. All of these were later reissued on CD.

1960s[link]

45rpm Beatles single on Capitol

As the British music scene was heating up in 1963, Capitol, being an EMI label had first rights of refusal on all EMI artists. After initial resistance to issuing records by The Beatles who were signed to sister EMI label Parlophone, Capitol exercised its option in November, 1963, and helped usher in Beatlemania in 1964. (The Beatles' earliest US issues had been on the independent Vee-Jay label and the key "She Loves You" single on the small Swan label.) Capitol's producers significantly altered the content of the Beatles albums (see "Record Altering", below) and, believing the Beatles' recordings were sonically unsuited to the US market, not only added equalization to brighten the sound, but also piped the recordings through the famous Capitol echo chamber, located underneath the parking lots outside the Capitol Tower.

As part of this "first rights of refusal", Capitol passed on such EMI acts as Dave Clark Five, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Hollies, and Manfred Mann (among others), all of which had their records issued on Canadian Capitol.

As Rock music's influence continued to grow in America, Capitol Records hired Artie Kornfeld, who later went on to co-create and produce the Woodstock Festival , as the vice president of Capitol Records in his early 20s, making him the youngest to hold the position and the first vice president of rock and roll ever.

Capitol also signed or became American distributors of albums by Badfinger, The Band, The Beach Boys, Grand Funk Railroad, If, Sandler and Young, Glen Campbell, Cathie Taylor, Steve Miller Band, People, Pink Floyd, Linda Ronstadt, The Human Beinz, Peter Tosh, and various solo albums by members of the Beatles.

The classic "swirl" 45 RPM label design, pictured to the right, first appeared in January, 1962. Originally yellow and orange, it had become yellow and red by the mid-1960s. It was brought back briefly 1979 to 1981 for use on 45s by the group The Knack. Before 1968, it also appeared on "Starline" label for reissues, albeit with light and dark green swirls replacing yellow and orange (or red) ones. (Several CD reissues, including an early-1990s version of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds," used the "swirl" label.)

In 1968, EMI increased its stake in Capitol Records to 98%; However that same year, Capitol merged with Audio Devices, Inc. A manufacturer of computer tape and recording to form a new holding company called Capitol Industries, Inc., reducing EMI's stake of the company to 68%.

In the summer of 1969, Capitol decided to modernize its logo and replaced its "dome logo" with a "C" logo incorporating a 45 rpm record design. The new logo would be on a light-green label on albums and a red & orange concentric-circle label on 45's. These became known as the "target" label. The target label for LP's had a red background for most albums released during or after May, 1971 until November, 1972, when both albums and 45's would have an orange label with the word "Capitol" printed at the bottom. (In 1971, Grand Funk Railroad became the first Capitol act to be given custom label designs for all its releases, beginning with the "E Pluribus Funk" album.) Budget albums had the same logos but with a yellow backdrop. (The "dome logo" did not disappear entirely: on many labels of this era it can be seen in the small print at the edge.) In 1978^{[citation needed]}, the "dome" design was brought back, with purple backgrounds for rock and pop releases, and red backgrounds for soul and disco. Budget albums had the same logo but a blue or green label. Between 1964 and 1970, Tower Records was a subsidiary label. Other short-lived subsidiary labels included Uptown, Crazy Horse and Sidewalk.

1970s[link]

In 1972, company changed its name to Capitol Industries-EMI, Inc. after EMI increased its holdings to 70.84%. By 1976, EMI purchased the remaining shares of the company. Throughout the seventies, Capitol launched two alternative labels: EMI America Records and EMI Manhattan Records. New artists included Helen Reddy, Anne Murray, Skylark (Canadian band), April Wine, Blondie, Burning Spear, Buzzcocks, David Bowie, Kim Carnes, Rosanne Cash, Max Webster, Natalie Cole, The Goose Creek Symphony, Sammy Hagar, John Hiatt, The Knack, Maze, Raspberries, Minnie Riperton, Diana Ross, Bob Seger, Sweet, The Specials, The Sylvers, Ten Wheel Drive, The Stranglers, Tavares, George Thorogood, Wings and The Persuasions. In 1977, EMI merged with THORN Electrical Industries to form Thorn EMI PLC. In 1979, Capitol was merged into the newly formed EMI Music Worldwide division^{[citation needed]}.

1980s[link]

Capitol added artists in a variety of genres during the 1980s: popular music groups and singers like Richard Marx, The Motels, Tina Turner, George Clinton, Crowded House, Peter Blakeley, Duran Duran (and spinoffs Arcadia and Power Station), Heart (band), Glass Tiger, Katrina & The Waves, Grace Jones, Lloyd Cole, Pet Shop Boys, Queen, Roxette, Brian Setzer, The Smithereens, Spandau Ballet, and Paul Westerberg; Punk/hard Rock groups such as Butthole Surfers, Concrete Blonde, Billy Idol, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers; thrash metal bands like Megadeth, Exodus and Rigor Mortis, heavy metal bands like Helix, W.A.S.P., Poison, Iron Maiden and Queensrÿche; rap groups like the Beastie Boys, King Tee, Mantronix; individuals like Mellow Man Ace, Robbie Robertson, Smooth Jazz artist Dave Koz, and Soul singer Freddie Jackson; and duo's like BeBe & CeCe Winans, and even a selective industrial/electronic artists such as Skinny Puppy. In 1983, the Beatles-era "colorband" label design was brought back, with white print, for both albums and 45's. The last label Capitol used on records was a return to the old purple design with the "dome logo"; after that, compact discs became the dominant format for recorded music. Since the advent of CD's, labels on the discs have varied greatly.

1990s[link]

Nineties acts include Selena, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Blind Melon, Garth Brooks, Meredith Brooks, Coldplay, The Dandy Warhols, Dilated Peoples, Doves, Everclear, Foo Fighters, Geri Halliwell, Ice Cube, Idlewild, Jane's Addiction, The Jesus Lizard, Jimmy Eat World, Ras Kass, Kottonmouth Kings, Ben Lee, Less Than Jake, Luscious Jackson, Tara MacLean, Marcy Playground, Mazzy Star, MC Eiht, MC Hammer, MC Ren, The Moffatts, Moist, Liz Phair, Lisa Marie Presley, Radiohead, Bonnie Raitt, Snoop Dogg, Spearhead, Starsailor, STIR, Supergrass, Télépopmusik, Television, Richard Thompson, Butthole Surfers and Robbie Williams. The Ultra-Lounge series of compilation CDs appeared in 1996.

2000s[link]

In 2001, EMI merged the Capitol Records label with the Priority Records label. Capitol lost the deal to Viacom and it was no longer a subsidiary. The combined label manages rap artists including Cee-Lo, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and C-Murder, Lil Romeo, and Lil Zane. Other first decade of the 21st century artists include Katy Perry (whose album, Teenage Dream is the most successful among others as it produced 6 #1 singles), J. Holiday, Jiggolo, LeToya (who had the first #1 album for the label since MC Hammer's 1990 Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em), Zay, Red Cafe, Aslyn, Auf Der Maur, Big Moe, Borialis, Chingy, The Decemberists, Dexter Freebish, From First to Last, The F-Ups, Faith Evans, Faultline, Fischerspooner, Interpol, Jonny Greenwood, Kudai, Ed Harcourt, Houston, Van Hunt, Javier, Mae, Matthew Jay, Methrone, Kylie Minogue, Dave Navarro, OK Go, Lisa Marie Presley, Relient K, Roscoe, RBD, Saosin, Squad Five-O, Otep, The Star Spangles, Steriogram, Supervision, Skye Sweetnam, The Vines, Yellowcard, Young Bleed, Young Life, Don Yute, Cherish, Shout Out Louds, Hurt, Corinne Bailey Rae, The Magic Numbers, Hedley, End of Fashion, Mims, Keith Urban and Morningwood.

In 2001, Robbie Williams released his smash jazz cover album Swing When You're Winning on the Capitol label (rather than his native Chrysalis Records) in tribute to his hero Frank Sinatra.

In 2006, the label signed a deal to distribute Fat Joe and his Terror Squad Entertainment. Around the same time, Capitol was able to sign New York phenom Mims. In this deal they also agreed to distribute his American King Music label. Around this time they were also able to add J. Holiday, the main artist for Music Line Group to the label as they have all become frequent collaborators. Now it seems that Capitol has gained ground on some of the more popular labels such as Def Jam, and Interscope Records with these signings. In 2007, they were able to strike up a distribution deal with The Game's The Black Wall Street Records and have signed former Bad Boy Records star Faith Evans. Jermaine Dupri and his So So Def Recordings label were briefly signed on to the label as a result of the Virgin Records merger. Dupri was the head of urban music for the label.

In February 2007, EMI announced the merger of Virgin Records and Capitol Records into the Capitol Music Group, and as part of this restructuring, hundreds of staff from multiple divisions were laid off and many artists were cut from the roster.^{[citation needed]} In September 2006, EMI announced that it had sold the tower and adjacent properties for $50 million to New York-based developer Argent Ventures. Capitol continues to use the building as its West Coast office.

Capitol Records has proceeded to sue Vimeo an online Video sharing website for audio copyright infringement. Capitol filed the claim after users were visibly lip-synching to some of their tracks. The full court filing is available here: http://newteevee.com/2009/12/15/vimeo-sued-over-lip-dubs

Broadway and Films[link]

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Capitol Records also released some of the most notable original cast albums and motion picture soundtrack albums ever made. Between 1955 and 1956, they released the soundtrack albums of three now-classic Rodgers and Hammerstein films, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The King and I. All three films were respectively based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein smash hit stage musicals of the same name. The mono versions of the albums were all released the same year that the films were released. But the films had been made in then state-of-the-art stereophonic sound, and so, Capitol was able to release stereo albums of the three respective soundtracks after stereo LP's became a reality. However, the mono and stereo versions did not contain always identical material. Because stereo grooves took up more space at the time than mono grooves, the stereo versions of the soundtracks were always somewhat shorter than the mono ones. This was not much of a problem with Oklahoma!, because the album itself as then printed was relatively short, so all that was missing from the stereo version was a few seconds of the overture. With Carousel, however, half of the Carousel Waltz had to be lopped off for the stereo LP, and with The King and I, the instrumental bridge from the song Getting to Know You was completely removed from the stereo version of the album. These soundtrack albums (especially Oklahoma!) were bestsellers for Capitol for many years, until, in the 1990s, the rights to them were bought by Angel Records. Angel Records not only restored the portions which had been omitted from the stereo LPs and original CD issues, but, in 2001, issued new expanded editions which included all music which had been omitted from every previous edition of these soundtracks, bringing the playing time of each to well over an hour. All three albums continue to be best sellers to this day.

In 1957, Capitol Records issued the original cast album of The Music Man, starring Robert Preston, an album which became one of the biggest cast album sellers of all time, even after the highly successful film version of the show was released in 1962. Capitol was also responsible for the original cast and film soundtrack albums of Cole Porter's Can-Can and the original cast album of Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In 1962, Capitol issued a studio cast recording of the songs from Lionel Bart's Oliver!, in anticipation of its U.S. tour prior to its opening on Broadway.

In 1966, Capitol released the soundtrack album of the documentary tribute, John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums, a film made by the United States Information Agency, and originally not intended for general viewing. However, the quality of the film was considered so high that the public was eventually allowed to see it. The film featured the voice of Gregory Peck as narrator, with narration written and music composed by Bruce Herschensohn. The album was virtually a condensed version of the film — it included the narration as well as the music.

One spoken word album which was immensely successful for Capitol was that of the soundtrack of Franco Zeffirelli's smash film Romeo and Juliet, based on Shakespeare's play. The film became the highest grossing Shakespeare film for years, and the album was also a tremendous hit. It featured not only Nino Rota's score, but large chunks of Shakespeare's dialog. The success of this album in that pre-VHS era spurred Capitol to issue two other Romeo and Juliet albums — one a three-disk album containing the entire soundtrack of the film (dialog and music), and another album containing only Nino Rota's score.

However, as Capitol was to be later accused of doing with Beatles albums, there was some tampering with the Years of Lightning and Romeo and Juliet albums. Extra music was added to some scenes which, in the actual film, contained little or no music, such as the duel between Romeo and Tybalt. Presumably this was done to show off the score — and at the end of both the abridged and complete versions of the Romeo albums, the end credits music was omitted, especially unfortunate since virtually all of the film's credits were saved for the end of the picture.

Capitol tried to strike gold again with another spoken word album, one made from the 1970 film Cromwell, starring Richard Harris and Alec Guinness, but in this case, both film and album were not successful.

The influence of the Romeo and Juliet album spread to other record companies for a brief while. Columbia Records issued an album of dialog and music excerpts from the successful 1970 Dustin Hoffman film, Little Big Man, and 20th Century Fox Records included George C. Scott's opening and closing speeches, as well as Jerry Goldsmith's score, in their soundtrack album made from the film Patton.

Record altering[link]

Capitol has been criticised many times for the heavy modification of albums being released in other countries before being released in the USA by Capitol. Possibly most infamous is the company's creation of "new" albums by The Beatles. This began with Capitol's release of Meet the Beatles!, the first album by the group to be released by Capitol in the USA. It was quite literally the British album With the Beatles, with five tracks ("Money", "You've Really Got A Hold On Me", "Devil In Her Heart", "Please Mister Postman", and "Roll Over Beethoven") removed in favor of both sides of the band's first American hit single, which consisted of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There." They also added on the British version of the single's B-Side, "This Boy." Also notable is the issuing of "duophonic" stereo releases of some recordings where the original master was monophonic. Capitol engineers split the single master monaural track into two, boosted the bass on the right channel, boosted treble on the left channel and add a split-second delay between channels to produce a "fake stereo" release. This Duophonic process meant that the Beatles' American fans would often hear a slightly different song from that heard by the rest of the world.^[1]

When With the Beatles was initially released in Brazil by EMI-Odeon, as well as in Canada, the title was at first modified to Beatlemania.

This trend continued through the Beatles' American discography, until the albums had little relation to their original British counterparts. The Beatles' albums were finally released unmodified starting with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This was thanks to a renegotiation of the Beatles' complicated management and recording contracts. Tired of the way Capitol in the US and other companies around the world were issuing their work in almost unrecognizable pieces, beginning in 1967, they had full approval of all album titles and cover art, track listing and running order, worldwide. Their first order of business was to stop the issuing of 45 RPM singles featuring tracks taken from their albums. Instead they would issue non-album tracks as singles in between album releases. This policy changed in late 1969 when a severe cash crunch hit the Beatles company, Apple Corps., and the band was forced (at the urgent behest of new manager Allen B. Klein) to issue a single immediately in conjunction with the Abbey Road album ("Something"/"Come Together") in order to pay bills. Four months later Apple allowed Capitol Records to issue the singles compilation Hey Jude (aka The Beatles Again) to keep cash flowing to the company.

This continued with other bands:

• Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (on the Tower label), had several tracks removed in favor of their first hit single "See Emily Play". This was criticized because the removed tracks combined ("Flaming", "Bike", and "Astronomy Domine") were much longer than "Emily", making the removal of the three completely unnecessary for reasons of running time.

• Iron Maiden's first two albums, Iron Maiden and Killers, had additional tracks as opposed to their UK counterparts. Iron Maiden's 1980 self-titled debut was released in the US a few months after its UK release with the track "Sanctuary" added on. Its follow-up, 1981's Killers, was also released a few months after later in the US after its initial UK release with the track "Twilight Zone" added to the album.

• Megadeth's "Risk" album was littered with samples and guitar pieces which Dave Mustaine never authorized, causing him to release one final album on Capitol, Capitol Punishment, and then move on to a new label Sanctuary Records. As of right now, Megadeth's future with Capitol seems very bright, as they have released all their Remastered discs and their most recent Greatest Hits albums with Capitol. After leaving Sanctuary Records, it was rumoured that Megadeth would return to Capitol, but the rumor turned out to be untrue as Megadeth have recently signed with Roadrunner Records.

The company has also had a history of making mistakes with album releases; the American release of Klaatu's debut album 3:47 EST had several spelling errors on the track list, and later Capitol pressings of CD versions of Klaatu's albums suffered severe quality problems. The poor sound quality of Duran Duran's May 1982 release Rio (on Capitol subsidiary Harvest), contributed to the lag in initial sales, until a remixed version of the album was released in November.

The Capitol Records Building[link]

The Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, with mural by Richard Wyatt titled Hollywood Jazz featuring prominent jazz artists Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington.

The Capitol Records Tower is one of the most distinctive landmarks in Hollywood. The 13-story earthquake-resistant tower, designed by Welton Becket, was the world's first circular office building, and is home to several recording studios. Although not originally specifically designed as such,^[2] the wide curved awnings over windows on each story and the tall spike emerging from the top of the building combine to give it the appearance of a stack of vinyl 45s on a turntable.

The construction of the building was ordered by British company EMI soon after its 1955 acquisition of Capitol Records, and was completed in April 1956. The building is located just north of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine and is the center of the consolidated West Coast operations of Capitol Records—and was nicknamed "The House That Nat Built" to recognize the enormous financial contributions of Capitol star Nat "King" Cole. The rectangular ground floor is a separate structure, joined to the tower after it was completed.

In mid-2008, a controversy erupted over a plan to build a condominium complex next door, igniting fears that the building's legendary acoustic properties (specifically its renowned underground echo chambers) would be compromised.

The blinking light atop the tower spells out the phrase "Hollywood" in Morse code, and has done so since the building's opening in 1956. This was an idea of Capitol's then president, Alan Livingston, who wanted to subtly advertise Capitol's status as the first record label with a base on the west coast. The switch activating the light was thrown by Leila Morse, Samuel Morse's granddaughter.^[2] In 1992 it was changed to read "Capitol 50" in honor of the label's fiftieth anniversary. It has since returned to spelling "Hollywood".

In the 1974 disaster blockbuster film Earthquake, the tower was shown collapsing during a massive tremor. Thirty years later, in an homage to Earthquake^{[citation needed]}, the tower was again depicted as being destroyed, this time by a massive tornado, in The Day After Tomorrow.

In September 2006, owner EMI announced that it had sold the tower and adjacent properties for $50 million to New York-based developer Argent Ventures.^[3] Coordinates: 34°06′11″N 118°19′34″W / 34.103085°N 118.326189°W / 34.103085; -118.326189

Capitol Studios[link]

Capitol's recording studios were designed by guitarist and sound expert Les Paul^{[citation needed]} to minimize noise and vibration, a newly important goal in the high-fidelity sound era.

The studios feature 10-inch-thick (250 mm) concrete exterior walls, surrounding a one-inch air gap, surrounding an inner wall that floats on layers of rubber and cork — all in an effort to provide complete sound isolation.^[4]

The facility also features echo chambers: subterranean concrete bunkers allowing engineers to add real physical reverberation during the recording process. The eight chambers are located 30 feet underground, and are trapezoidal-shaped with 10-inch concrete walls and 12-inch-thick (300 mm) concrete ceilings. The chambers feature speakers on one side and microphones on the other, permitting an echo effect lasting up to five seconds.

Studios A and B can be combined for the recording of orchestral music and symphonic film soundtracks. The first album recorded in the tower was Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color

International operations[link]

Canada[link]

Capitol Records of Canada was established in 1949 by independent businessman W. Lockwood Miller. Capitol Records broke with Miller's company and formed Capitol Record Distributors of Canada Limited in 1954. EMI acquired this company when it acquired Capitol Records. The company was renamed back to Capitol Records of Canada Ltd in 1958 after Miller's rights to the name expired. In 1959, Capitol of Canada picked up distribution rights for sister EMI labels Angel Records, Pathe Records, Odeon Records and Parlophone Records.^[5] In 1957, Paul White joined Capitol of Canada and in 1960 established an A&R department independent of the American company to promote talent for the Canadian market.^[6] They include home grown Canadian talent (of which Anne Murray is one of the more famous examples) as well as EMI artists from other countries. Canada-only issues bore 6000 series catalog numbers for LPs and 72000 series catalog numbers for singles. Capitol Canada issues of American Capitol recordings bore the same catalog numbers as their American counterparts. Beginning in 1962, Capitol of Canada issued albums by British artists such as Cliff Richard, Helen Shapiro and Frank Ifield. They said yes to The Beatles from day one, even though the American company turned them down during most of 1963. By 1967, they were also distributing non-EMI labels such as Disneyland Records, Buena Vista Records, 20th Century Fox Records and Pickwick Records.^[7] The company was renamed Capitol Records-EMI of Canada in 1974 then adopted its present name, EMI Music Canada, in 1993.^[8][9][10]

In 1982, Capitol Records-EMI of Canada developed the "SDR", or Super Dynamic Range, process of duplicating their cassette releases, which resulted in higher-quality audio. SDR was later adopted by Capitol's American operations that same year and renamed "XDR" (eXtended Dynamic Range). SDR/XDR cassette releases are most noted for the short burst of tones ascending in frequency at the beginning and end of the cassette before and after the program material, the tones being a part of the process.

The current headquarters for EMI Music Canada, which operates the Capitol label, are located in Toronto, Ontario.

The Canadian branch of Capitol won two Juno Awards in 1971, the leading music awards in that country. One Juno was for "Top Record Company" and the other was for "Top Promotional Company".

Latin America[link]

EMI Latin / EMI Televisa Music artists are distributed in The United States under Capitol Latin, a Capitol Records division.

Taiwan[link]

Capitol Music Taiwan was established in 2006. It is home to several artists who are megastars in the Chinese music industry. They include Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿), Zhang Hui Mei (張惠妹), Stanley Huang (黄立行) and Show Luo (羅志祥). Even though artistes are signed on with this label, the albums are still released under EMI Music Taiwan. The label is the label with the highest sales among all labels in Taiwan between 2006 and 2008.

In 2008, EMI Music Taiwan is acquired by Paco Wong's Gold Label Records and reformed as Gold Typhoon Entertainment Limited (金牌大風). The name is in reference to Jolin's Love Exercise album released after the acquisition.^{[citation needed]} However the label of "Capitol Music" is not part of Gold Typhoon.

See also[link]

• List of record labels
• Capitol Music Group
• List of Capitol Records artists

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Capitol Records

• Capitol Records
• Capitol Records, Inc. v. Naxos of America, Inc. legal case
• Capitol of Canada official site
• A history of Capitol Records
• 3D model of the Capitol Tower for use in Google Earth
• The Judy Garland Online Discography "Capitol Records" pages.
• Capitol Records's channel on YouTube
• Capitol Records Myspace page.
• Capitol of Canada 72000 series singles discography
• Capitol of Canada 6000 series LP discography
• Swirl Daze – The 1960s Capitol Singles Discography

Bob Marley
Bob Marley performing in concert, circa 1980.
Background information
Birth name	Robert Nesta Marley
Also known as	Tuff Gong
Born	(1945-02-06)6 February 1945 Nine Mile, Saint Ann, Jamaica
Died	11 May 1981(1981-05-11) (aged 36) Miami, Florida, U.S.
Genres	Reggae, ska, rocksteady
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, saxophone, harmonica, percussion
Years active	1962–1981
Labels	Studio One, Upsetter, Tuff Gong
Associated acts	Bob Marley & The Wailers, Wailers Band, The Upsetters, I Threes
Website	bobmarley.com

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers (1963–1981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited with helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.^[1]

Marley's music was heavily influenced by the social issues of his homeland, and he is considered to have given voice to the specific political and cultural nexus of Jamaica.^[2] His best-known hits include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Could You Be Loved", "Stir It Up", "Get Up Stand Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love" and, "Three Little Birds",^[3] as well as the posthumous releases "Buffalo Soldier" and "Iron Lion Zion". The compilation album Legend (1984), released three years after his death, is reggae's best-selling album, going ten times Platinum which is also known as one Diamond in the U.S.,^[4] and selling 25 million copies worldwide.^[5][6]

Early life and career[link]

Bob Marley was born in the village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica as Nesta Robert Marley.^[7] A Jamaican passport official would later swap his first and middle names.^[8] His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, was a white Jamaican of mixed and English descent whose family came from Sussex, England. Norval was a captain in the Royal Marines,^{[citation needed]} as well as a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, an Afro-Jamaican then 18 years old.^[9] Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. In 1955, when Bob Marley was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack at age 70.^[10] Marley faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life. He once reflected:

I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't deh pon nobody's side. Me don't deh pon the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me deh pon God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.^[11]

The Bob Marley House in Nine Mile is a home that he shared with his mother during his youth

Although Marley recognised his mixed ancestry, throughout his life and because of his beliefs, he self-identified as a black African, following the ideas of Pan-African leaders. Marley stated that his two biggest influences were the African-centered Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie. A central theme in Bob Marley's message was the repatriation of black people to Zion, which in his view was Ethiopia, or more generally, Africa.^[12] In songs such as "Black Survivor", "Babylon System", and "Blackman Redemption", Marley sings about the struggles of blacks and Africans against oppression from the West or "Babylon".^[13]

Marley and his step brother Bunny Wailer (Bob's mother had a daughter with Bunny's father, younger sister to both of them) started to play music while he was still at school, which he left at the age of 14 to make music with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devout Rastafari. At a jam session with Higgs and Livingston, Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical ambitions.^[14] In 1962, Marley recorded his first two singles, "Judge Not" and "One Cup of Coffee", with local music producer Leslie Kong. These songs, released on the Beverley's label under the pseudonym of Bobby Martell,^[15] attracted little attention. The songs were later re-released on the box set Songs of Freedom, a posthumous collection of Marley's work. Marley was also known to use an Epiphone guitar for much of his career.

Bob Marley Epiphone guitar at his birthplace in Nine Mile, Jamaica.

Bob Marley & The Wailers[link]

1963–1974[link]

Marley in concert in 1980, Zurich, Switzerland

In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith formed a ska and rocksteady group, calling themselves "The Teenagers". They later changed their name to "The Wailing Rudeboys", then to "The Wailing Wailers", at which point they were discovered by record producer Coxsone Dodd, and finally to "The Wailers". By 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the core trio of Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh.^[16]

In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother's residence in Wilmington, Delaware in the United States for a short time, during which he worked as a DuPont lab assistant and on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant, under the alias Donald Marley.^[17]

Though raised in the Catholic tradition, Marley became captivated by Rastafarian beliefs in the 1960s, when away from his mother's influence.^[18] Formally converted to Rastafari after returning to Jamaica, Marley began to wear his trademark dreadlocks (see the religion section for more on Marley's religious views). After a conflict with Dodd, Marley and his band teamed up with Lee "Scratch" Perry and his studio band, The Upsetters. Although the alliance lasted less than a year, they recorded what many consider The Wailers' finest work. Marley and Perry split after a dispute regarding the assignment of recording rights, but they would remain friends and work together again.

Bob Marley's flat in 1972 at 34 Ridgmount Gardens, Bloomsbury, London, his first UK address.^[19][20]

Between 1968 and 1972, Bob and Rita Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer re-cut some old tracks with JAD Records in Kingston and London in an attempt to commercialise The Wailers' sound. Bunny later asserted that these songs "should never be released on an album ... they were just demos for record companies to listen to". Also in 1968, Bob and Rita visited the Bronx to see Johnny Nash's songwriter Jimmy Norman.^[21] A three-day jam session with Norman and others, including Norman's co-writer Al Pyfrom, resulted in a 24-minute tape of Marley performing several of his own and Norman-Pyfrom's compositions. This tape is, according to Reggae archivist Roger Steffens, rare in that it was influenced by pop rather than reggae, as part of an effort to break Marley into the American charts.^[21] According to an article in The New York Times, Marley experimented on the tape with different sounds, adopting a doo-wop style on "Stay With Me" and "the slow love song style of 1960's artists" on "Splish for My Splash".^[21] An artist yet to establish himself outside his native Jamaica, Marley lived in Ridgmount Gardens, Bloomsbury, London during 1972.^[19][20]

In 1972, the Wailers entered into an ill-fated deal with CBS Records and embarked on a tour with American soul singer Johnny Nash. Broke, the Wailers became stranded in London. Marley turned up at Island Records founder and producer Chris Blackwell's London office, and asked him to advance the cost of a new single. Since Jimmy Cliff, Island's top reggae star, had recently left the label, Blackwell was primed for a replacement. In Marley, Blackwell recognized the elements needed to snare the rock audience: "I was dealing with rock music, which was really rebel music. I felt that would really be the way to break Jamaican music. But you needed someone who could be that image. When Bob walked in he really was that image."^[22] Blackwell told Marley he wanted The Wailers to record a complete album (essentially unheard of at the time). When Marley told him it would take between £3,000 and £4,000, Blackwell trusted him with the greater sum. Despite their "rude boy" reputation, the Wailers returned to Kingston and honored the deal, delivering the album Catch A Fire.

Primarily recorded on eight-track at Harry J's in Kingston, Catch A Fire marked the first time a reggae band had access to a state-of-the-art studio and were accorded the same care as their rock'n'roll peers.^[22] Blackwell desired to create "more of a drifting, hypnotic-type feel than a reggae rhythm",^[23] and restructured Marley's mixes and arrangements. Marley travelled to London to supervise Blackwell's overdubbing of the album, which included tempering the mix from the bass-heavy sound of Jamaican music, and omitting two tracks.^[22]

The Wailers' first major label album, Catch a Fire was released worldwide in April 1973, packaged like a rock record with a unique Zippo lighter lift-top. Initially selling 14,000 units, it didn't make Marley a star, but received a positive critical reception.^[22] It was followed later that year by Burnin', which included the standout songs "Get Up, Stand Up", and "I Shot the Sheriff", which appealed to the ear of Eric Clapton. He recorded a cover of the track in 1974 which became a huge American hit, raising Marley's international profile.^[24] Many Jamaicans were not keen on the new "improved" reggae sound on Catch A Fire, but the Trenchtown style of Burnin' found fans across both reggae and rock audiences.^[22]

During this period, Blackwell gifted his Kingston residence and company headquarters at 56 Hope Road (then known as Island House) to Marley. Housing Tuff Gong Studios, the property became not only Marley's office, but also his home.^[22]

The Wailers were scheduled to open 17 shows for the number one black act in the States, Sly and the Family Stone. After 4 shows, the band was fired because they were more popular than the acts they were opening for.^[25] The Wailers broke up in 1974 with each of the three main members pursuing solo careers. The reason for the breakup is shrouded in conjecture; some believe that there were disagreements amongst Bunny, Peter, and Bob concerning performances, while others claim that Bunny and Peter simply preferred solo work.

1974–1981[link]

Bob Marley & The Wailers live at Crystal Palace Park during the Uprising Tour

Despite the break-up, Marley continued recording as "Bob Marley & The Wailers". His new backing band included brothers Carlton and Aston "Family Man" Barrett on drums and bass respectively, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. The "I Threes", consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley's wife, Rita, provided backing vocals. In 1975, Marley had his international breakthrough with his first hit outside Jamaica, "No Woman, No Cry", from the Natty Dread album. This was followed by his breakthrough album in the United States, Rastaman Vibration (1976), which spent four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.^[26] On 3 December 1976, two days before "Smile Jamaica", a free concert organised by the Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley's home. Taylor and Marley's wife sustained serious injuries, but later made full recoveries. Bob Marley received minor wounds in the chest and arm.^[27] The shooting was thought to have been politically motivated, as many felt the concert was really a support rally for Manley. Nonetheless, the concert proceeded, and an injured Marley performed as scheduled, two days after the attempt. When asked why, Marley responded, "The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?" The members of the group Zap Pow, which had no radical religious or political beliefs, played as Bob Marley's backup band before a festival crowd of 80,000 while members of The Wailers were still missing or in hiding.^[28][29]

Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976, and after a month-long "recovery and writing" sojourn at the site of Chris Blackwell's Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, arrived in England, where he spent two years in self-imposed exile. Whilst there he recorded the albums Exodus and Kaya. Exodus stayed on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks. It included four UK hit singles: "Exodus", "Waiting in Vain", "Jamming", and "One Love" (a rendition of Curtis Mayfield's hit, "People Get Ready"). During his time in London, he was arrested and received a conviction for possession of a small quantity of cannabis.^[30] In 1978, Marley returned to Jamaica and performed at another political concert, the One Love Peace Concert, again in an effort to calm warring parties. Near the end of the performance, by Marley's request, Michael Manley (leader of then-ruling People's National Party) and his political rival Edward Seaga (leader of the opposing Jamaica Labour Party), joined each other on stage and shook hands.^[31]

Under the name Bob Marley and the Wailers eleven albums were released, four live albums and seven studio albums. The releases included Babylon by Bus, a double live album with thirteen tracks, were released in 1978 and received critical acclaim. This album, and specifically the final track "Jamming" with the audience in a frenzy, captured the intensity of Marley's live performances.^[32]

Survival, a defiant and politically charged album, was released in 1979. Tracks such as "Zimbabwe", "Africa Unite", "Wake Up and Live", and "Survival" reflected Marley's support for the struggles of Africans. His appearance at the Amandla Festival in Boston in July 1979 showed his strong opposition to South African apartheid, which he already had shown in his song "War" in 1976. In early 1980, he was invited to perform at the 17 April celebration of Zimbabwe's Independence Day. Uprising (1980) was Bob Marley's final studio album, and is one of his most religious productions; it includes "Redemption Song" and "Forever Loving Jah".^[34] Confrontation, released posthumously in 1983, contained unreleased material recorded during Marley's lifetime, including the hit "Buffalo Soldier" and new mixes of singles previously only available in Jamaica.^[35]

Personal life[link]

Religion[link]

Bob Marley was a member of the Rastafari movement, whose culture was a key element in the development of reggae. Bob Marley became an ardent proponent of Rastafari, taking their music out of the socially deprived areas of Jamaica and onto the international music scene. He once gave the following response, which was typical, to a question put to him during a recorded interview:

• Interviewer: "Can you tell the people what it means being a Rastafarian?"
• Bob: "I would say to the people, Be still, and know that His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the Almighty. Now, the Bible seh so, Babylon newspaper seh so, and I and I the children seh so. Yunno? So I don't see how much more reveal our people want. Wha' dem want? a white God, well God come black. True true."^[36]

Observant of the Rastafari practice Ital, a diet that shuns meat, Marley was a vegetarian.^[37] According to his biographers, he affiliated with the Twelve Tribes Mansion. He was in the denomination known as "Tribe of Joseph", because he was born in February (each of the twelve sects being composed of members born in a different month). He signified this in his album liner notes, quoting the portion from Genesis that includes Jacob's blessing to his son Joseph. Marley was baptised by the Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Kingston, Jamaica, on 4 November 1980.^[38][39]

Family[link]

Bob Marley had a number of children: three with his wife Rita, two adopted from Rita's previous relationships, and several others with different women. The Bob Marley official website acknowledges eleven children.

Those listed on the official site are:

1. Sharon, born 23 November 1964, to Rita in previous relationship
2. Cedella born 23 August 1967, to Rita
3. David "Ziggy", born 17 October 1968, to Rita
4. Stephen, born 20 April 1972, to Rita
5. Robert "Robbie", born 16 May 1972, to Pat Williams
6. Rohan, born 19 May 1972, to Janet Hunt
7. Karen, born 1973 to Janet Bowen
8. Stephanie, born 17 August 1974; according to Cedella Booker she was the daughter of Rita and a man called Ital with whom Rita had an affair; nonetheless she was acknowledged as Bob's daughter
9. Julian, born 4 June 1975, to Lucy Pounder
10. Ky-Mani, born 26 February 1976, to Anita Belnavis
11. Damian, born 21 July 1978, to Cindy Breakspeare

Makeda was born on 30 May 1981, to Yvette Crichton, after Marley's death.^[40] Meredith Dixon's book lists her as Marley's child, but she is not listed as such on the Bob Marley official website.

Various websites, for example,^[41] also list Imani Carole, born 22 May 1963 to Cheryl Murray; but she does not appear on the official Bob Marley website.^[40]

Final years and death[link]

Marley performing in Dalymount Park in the late 1970s

In July 1977, Marley was found to have a type of malignant melanoma under the nail of one of his toes. Contrary to urban legend, this lesion was not primarily caused by an injury during a football match in that year, but was instead a symptom of the already existing cancer. Marley turned down doctors' advice to have his toe amputated, citing his religious beliefs.^[42] Despite his illness, he continued touring and was in the process of scheduling a world tour in 1980. The intention was for Inner Circle to be his opening act on the tour but after their lead singer Jacob Miller died in Jamaica in March 1980 after returning from a scouting mission in Brazil this was no longer mentioned.^[43]

The album Uprising was released in May 1980 (produced by Chris Blackwell), on which "Redemption Song" is particularly considered to be about Marley coming to terms with his mortality.^{[citation needed]} The band completed a major tour of Europe, where they played their biggest concert, to a hundred thousand people in Milan. After the tour Marley went to America, where he performed two shows at Madison Square Garden as part of the Uprising Tour.

The final concert of Bob Marley's career was held 23 September 1980 at the Stanley Theater (now called The Benedum Center For The Performing Arts) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The audio recording of that concert is now available on CD, vinyl, and digital music services.

Shortly after, Marley's health deteriorated and he became very ill; the cancer had spread throughout his body. The rest of the tour was cancelled and Marley sought treatment at the Bavarian clinic of Josef Issels, where he received a controversial type of cancer therapy (Issels treatment) partly based on avoidance of certain foods, drinks, and other substances. After fighting the cancer without success for eight months, Marley boarded a plane for his home in Jamaica.^[44]

While flying home from Germany to Jamaica, Marley's vital functions worsened. After landing in Miami, Florida, he was taken to the hospital for immediate medical attention. He died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami (now University of Miami Hospital) on the morning of 11 May 1981, at the age of 36. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death. His final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life".^[45] Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica on 21 May 1981, which combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafari tradition.^[46] He was buried in a chapel near his birthplace with his red Gibson Les Paul (some accounts say it was a Fender Stratocaster).^[47]

On 21 May 1981, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga delivered the final funeral eulogy to Marley, declaring:

His voice was an omnipresent cry in our electronic world. His sharp features, majestic looks, and prancing style a vivid etching on the landscape of our minds. Bob Marley was never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible imprint with each encounter. Such a man cannot be erased from the mind. He is part of the collective consciousness of the nation.^[48]

Legacy[link]

Marley has remained popular for decades after his death—one of many memorials to him is this representation at Madame Tussaud Wax Museum in Amsterdam

Bob Marley was the Third World's first pop superstar. He was the man who introduced the world to the mystic power of reggae. He was a true rocker at heart, and as a songwriter, he brought the lyrical force of Bob Dylan, the personal charisma of John Lennon, and the essential vocal stylings of Smokey Robinson into one voice.

— Jann Wenner, at Marley’s 1994 posthumous introduction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame^[49]

In 1999 Time magazine chose Bob Marley & The Wailers' Exodus as the greatest album of the 20th century.^[50] In 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a feature-length documentary about his life, Rebel Music, won various awards at the Grammys. With contributions from Rita, The Wailers, and Marley's lovers and children, it also tells much of the story in his own words.^[51] A statue was inaugurated, next to the national stadium on Arthur Wint Drive in Kingston to commemorate him. In 2006, the State of New York renamed a portion of Church Avenue from Remsen Avenue to East 98th Street in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn "Bob Marley Boulevard".^[52] In 2008, a statue of Marley was inaugurated in Banatski Sokolac, Serbia.^[53]

Internationally, Marley’s message also continues to reverberate amongst various indigenous communities. For instance, the Aboriginal people of Australia continue to burn a sacred flame to honor his memory in Sydney’s Victoria Park, while members of the Native American Hopi and Havasupai tribe revere his work.^[54] There are also many tributes to Bob Marley throughout India, including restaurants, hotels, and cultural festivals.^[55][56]

Marley has also evolved into a global symbol, which has been endlessly merchandised through a variety of mediums. In light of this, author Dave Thompson in his book Reggae and Caribbean Music, laments what he perceives to be the commercialized pacification of Marley's more militant edge, stating:

Bob Marley ranks among both the most popular and the most misunderstood figures in modern culture ... That the machine has utterly emasculated Marley is beyond doubt. Gone from the public record is the ghetto kid who dreamed of Che Guevara and the Black Panthers, and pinned their posters up in the Wailers Soul Shack record store; who believed in freedom; and the fighting which it necessitated, and dressed the part on an early album sleeve; whose heroes were James Brown and Muhammad Ali; whose God was Ras Tafari and whose sacrament was marijuana. Instead, the Bob Marley who surveys his kingdom today is smiling benevolence, a shining sun, a waving palm tree, and a string of hits which tumble out of polite radio like candy from a gumball machine. Of course it has assured his immortality. But it has also demeaned him beyond recognition. Bob Marley was worth far more.^[57]

Film adaptations[link]

In February 2008, director Martin Scorsese announced his intention to produce a documentary movie on Marley. The film was set to be released on 6 February 2010, on what would have been Marley's 65th birthday.^[58] However, Scorsese dropped out due to scheduling problems. He was replaced by Jonathan Demme,^[59] who dropped out due to creative differences with producer Steve Bing during the beginning of editing. Kevin Macdonald replaced Demme^[60] and the film, Marley, was released on 20 April 2012.

In March 2008, The Weinstein Company announced its plans to produce a biopic of Bob Marley, based on the book No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley by Rita Marley. Rudy Langlais will produce the script by Lizzie Borden and Rita Marley will be executive producer.^[61]

Ex-girlfriend and filmmaker Esther Anderson, along with Gian Godoy, made the documentary Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2011.^[62]

Discography[link]

• The Wailing Wailers (1965)
• The Best of The Wailers (1970)
• Soul Rebels (1970)
• Soul Revolution (1971)
• Catch a Fire (1973)
• Burnin' (1973)
• Natty Dread (1974)
• Rastaman Vibration (1976)
• Exodus (1977)
• Kaya (1978)
• Survival (1979)
• Uprising (1980)
• Confrontation (1983)

Awards and honors[link]

Marley's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

• 1976: Band of the Year (Rolling Stone).
• June 1978: Awarded the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations.^[54]
• February 1981: Awarded Jamaica's third highest honour, the Jamaican Order of Merit.
• March 1994: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1999: Album of the Century for Exodus by Time Magazine.
• February 2001: A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• February 2001: Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
• 2004: Rolling Stone ranked him No.11 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[63]
• "One Love" named song of the millennium by BBC.
• Voted as one of the greatest lyricists of all time by a BBC poll.^[64]
• 2006: A blue plaque was unveiled at his first UK residence in Ridgmount Gardens, London, dedicated to him by Nubian Jak community trust and supported by Her Majesty's Foreign Office.^[65]
• 2010: "Catch a Fire" inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (Reggae Album).^[66]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bob Marley

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bob Marley

• Official website
• Bob Marley at the Internet Movie Database
• The Bob Marley Foundation
• Online Home of the Marleys
• Bob Marley at Rolling Stone
• Marley Elected one of the Greatest Songwriters BBC News, 23 May 2001
• Showcase: Bob Marley by James Estrin, The New York Times, 18 May 2009
• Interview with Heather Marley in Bob Marley Magazine
• Extensive discography

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Boy George
Boy George in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2007
Background information
Birth name	George Alan O'Dowd
Born	(1961-06-14) 14 June 1961 (age 51) Bexley, Kent, England
Genres	New Wave, soul, pop, soft rock, disco
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, Disc Jockey (DJ), Fashion Designer, Performer, Photographer, Producer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Virgin Records, Epic Records, Plan A Records
Associated acts	Culture Club, Jesus Loves You, Mark Ronson, Bow Wow Wow
Website	http://www.boygeorgeuk.com/

Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd on 14 June 1961) is an English singer-songwriter, who was part of the English New Romanticism movement which emerged in the early 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. His 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. He also founded and was lead singer of Jesus Loves You during the period 1989–1992. Being involved in many activities (among them songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and photography), he has released fewer music recordings in the last decade.

Career[link]

Early life and career[link]

Boy George was born George Alan O'Dowd at Barnehurst Hospital in Bexley, Kent on 14 June 1961, to Jeremiah and Dinah O'Dowd (née Glynn), who were originally from Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. He attended Eltham Green School in Eltham.^[1] He is one of six children. His siblings are Richard, Kevin, David, Gerald, and Siobhan.

He was a follower of the New Romantic movement which was popular in Britain in the early 1980s. George frequently lived at the infamous Warren Street Squat in Central London. George and his friend Marilyn were regulars at The Blitz,^[2] a trendy London nightclub run by Steve Strange of the group Visage.^[1] George and Marilyn also worked at the nightclub as cloakroom attendants.^{[citation needed]}

Culture Club[link]

Boy George's androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of music executive Malcolm McLaren (previously the manager of the Sex Pistols), who arranged for George to perform with the group Bow Wow Wow, featuring Annabella Lwin. Boy George's (then going by the name "Lieutenant Lush") tenure with Bow Wow Wow was a disaster and he was booed off the stage at a live performance and subsequently dropped from the group. He then started his own group with bassist Mikey Craig. Next came Jon Moss (who had drumming stints with The Damned and Adam and the Ants), and then Roy Hay. The group called themselves In Praise of Lemmings, but the name was later abandoned, as was their next name, Sex Gang Children. Realizing they had a transvestite Irish singer (George), a black-Briton (Craig), a Jewish drummer (Moss), and an Anglo-Saxon Englishman (Hay), they settled on the name Culture Club, referring to the various ethnic backgrounds of the members.

The band recorded demos that were paid for by EMI Records but the label declined to sign them. Virgin Records, however, expressed interest in signing the group in the UK for European releases, while Epic Records handled the US and North American distribution. They recorded their debut album Kissing to Be Clever (UK#5, US#14,) and it was released in 1982. The single "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?", became an international hit, reaching #1 in a dozen countries around the world, plus top ten in several more countries (US #2). This was followed by the Top 5 hit "Time (Clock of the Heart)" in the US and UK, and "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" which reached US #9. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since the Beatles to have three Top 10 hits in the US from a debut album.

Their next album, Colour By Numbers was an enormous success, topping the UK charts and hit #2 in the US. The single "Church of the Poison Mind" became a Top 10 hit, and "Karma Chameleon" became an international hit, peaking at #1 in sixteen countries, and the top ten in additional countries. It hit #1 in the US where it stayed for three weeks. It was the best-selling single of the year in the United Kingdom, where it spent six weeks at #1. "Miss Me Blind" and "It's a Miracle" were Top 5 and Top 20 hits respectively in the US. "Victims" was another Top 5 UK hit.

George and Roy Hay co-wrote the group's contributions to the movie soundtrack Electric Dreams with the songs "Love is Love" and "The Dream". The P. P. Arnold song "Electric Dreams" was written by George and Phil Pickett.

The band's third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK#2, US#26) featured the hit single "The War Song" and a modest hit in "Mistake No. 3". George then provided a lead vocal role on the Band Aid international hit single "Do They Know It's Christmas." He was not featured on the cover sleeve of the single. Proceeds from the single were donated to feed famine victims in Africa, particularly Ethiopia. In 1986, George guest-starred on an episode of the television action-drama series The A-Team, in which he played himself. The episode was entitled "Cowboy George".

George had been occasionally using drugs for several years, and by 1985, he had developed a heroin addiction. His relationship with Jon Moss had also completely soured, and the two could hardly be around each other at that point. The group released its fourth album, From Luxury To Heartache (UK#10, US#32), and it featured one hit single, "Move Away". However, word shortly began circulating in tabloids that George was addicted to drugs. He was arrested in Britain for possession of cannabis. Shortly thereafter, keyboardist Michael Rudetsky, who co-wrote the song "Sexuality" on Culture Club's From Luxury to Heartache album, was found dead of a heroin overdose in George's London home. George had expressed interest in working with the keyboardist on a solo album George was planning. Rudetsky's parents filed a wrongful death suit in Britain against George, seeking financial damages for their son's death. With George's drug addiction, the underwhelming performance of their latest album, a soured romance between band members shrouded in secrecy, and a wrongful death lawsuit, the group ultimately disbanded. George would win the court case against the Rudetskys, and would not be required to pay any monetary damages. He would agree to seek treatment for his addiction. Following next would be the death of his friend Mark Vaultier, who overdosed on methadone and Valium at a party. George had been arrested en-route to the party on suspicion of carrying drugs.

Solo career: late 1980s[link]

Boy George, now a solo artist and now signed to Virgin Records in the US and internationally, entered treatment for his addiction. He was prescribed narcotics to treat his heroin addiction. In kicking his heroin addiction, he then became addicted to those prescription narcotics that were used during his treatment. In 1987, he released his first solo album, Sold, and enjoyed its success in Europe. It spawned the UK singles "Everything I Own" (UK #1), "Keep Me In Mind" (UK #29), "To be Reborn" (UK #13), and the title song, "Sold" (UK #24). The singles were hits in various other European countries as well. The album's success, however, was not duplicated in the US. This may be due in part to the fact that George was prohibited by US authorities from travelling to America for several years because of his British drug charges. He did score his first solo Top 40 hit with the single "Live My Life" (US #40) from the Hiding Out soundtrack. Tense Nervous Headache (1988), and Boyfriend (1989) would be his next two internationally released albums; however, these two albums would not be distributed in the US. Instead, Virgin Records selected several songs from each of these two albums for a North American-only release called High Hat (1989). This album scored a US Top 5 R&B hit in "Don't Take My Mind On A Trip", produced by Teddy Riley. George's following single in the UK was a protest song against the UK Conservative Party's legal restriction that anyone working for a local authority be barred from "promoting" homosexuality. The song, 'No Clause 28 (Emilio Pasquez Space Face Full Remix)' was an underground acid house hit.

In 1989, George formed his own record label, More Protein, and began recording under the name Jesus Loves You, (writing under the pseudonym Angela Dust, a word play off angel dust). He released several underground hits; "After The Love", "Generations Of Love", and "Bow Down Mister", the latter giving him a UK Top 30 hit in 1991. Inspired by his involvement in the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON),^[3] George had written the song during a trip to India. Another single, "One On One", featured a remix by Massive Attack.

	Bow Down Mister (A Small Portion 2 B Polite Mix) excerpt noicon An excerpt from Bow Down Mister (A Small Portion 2 B Polite Mix)
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Solo career: 1990s[link]

From March 1990 to April 1991, George presented a weekly chat and music show on the Power Station satellite channel called Blue Radio. In 1992, George had a major US and UK hit with the song "The Crying Game", from the movie soundtrack of the same name. The movie became a surprise hit and the single reached the #11 in the US. Although he had had several solo hits in Europe, this would be Boy George's biggest US hit since Culture Club's "Move Away" reached the US Top 20.

He has also enjoyed a second career as a notable music DJ. His first gig as a DJ was at Phillip Sallon's new nightclub, Planet's, located in Pickadilly. In the 1990s he came to the attention of legendary rave/house promoters Fantazia who asked him to mix 1 of the discs on the 2 volume in their new compilation series Fantazia The House Collection 2. This compilation was a success in the UK, going gold. The album was also sold to Sony for European-wide release. London nightclub Ministry of Sound hired him to compile one of their first CDs, and it promptly sold 100,000 copies. He then completed some compilations for them, five of them being the Annual I to V.

George made many recordings between 1990 and 1994, but none were issued. In 1992 a pop and world music-oriented album was scheduled for release by a group George was fronting called Jesus Loves You. The album, to be named "Popularity Breeds Contempt", was never released. An EP entitled "Sweet Toxic Love" released in 1990 reached #65 on the UK Chart. The phrase "popularity breeds contempt" was used as the opening line on the beginning of the 1993 greatest hits album At Worst: The Best of Boy George and Culture Club. In 1993, George was featured on the P.M. Dawn single "More Than Likely" which became a moderate US and UK hit.

George showed an interest in releasing a rock album. He released the rock-driven album Cheapness and Beauty in 1995, but the album was not successful, although the single "Same Thing in Reverse" became a minor US hit. The Unrecoupable One Man Bandit Volume One was the next album release, first being sold on the internet only. It was then distributed by independent labels. Another project from the time was a new group that would include Boy George and two long-time musicians, John Themis and Ritchie Stevens. Initially named "Shallow", it was later re-named "Dubversive". The project took place in 1997 and was to include trip-hop, dub and reggae. The project was not picked up by any major labels but some of the songs were later included on the 2002 Culture Club Box Set, and some others appeared on eBay in 2004.

On some other labels, several dance-oriented songs were released in various countries. For example, "Love is Leaving" went Top 3 in Italy and "When Will You Learn" reached the top positions in the Swiss charts. "When Will You Learn" was also nominated for the Best Dance Recording, at the Grammy Awards. In 1999, Boy George collaborated on songs with dance-oriented acts. For example, "Why Go", a slow-paced track with Faithless, from their Sunday 8 PM LP, was later released in a remixed form in some European countries and Australia. A track was done with Groove Armada, named "Innocence Is Lost", but was only released on a promo 12" in 1999.

Solo career: 2000s[link]

Boy George remained a figure in the public eye, starring in the London musical Taboo, based on his life (George did not play himself, opting instead to take on the persona of Australian-born performance artist Leigh Bowery). Boy George was nominated for a Tony Award for the "Best Musical Score" and Taboo was a great success in London's West End, though a heavily-altered Rosie O'Donnell-produced run in New York City was short-lived (100 performances, versus the two-year run in London).

In 2002, Boy George released U Can Never B2 Straight, an "unplugged" collection of rare and lesser known acoustic works. It contained unreleased tracks from previous years as well as some ballads from Cheapness And Beauty and the Culture Club album Don't Mind if I Do. It received the best reviews of Boy George's solo career, many of them highlighting his strong song writing abilities. The record was only released in the UK and Japan, and received almost no promotion from Virgin Records, only rising to #147 on the UK album charts.

From 2002 to 2004, under the pseudonym "The Twin", Boy George experimented in electronica, releasing limited edition 7" singles and promo records. Performed in small venues such as the Nag Nag Club, the material was considered innovative, but not commercially marketable.^{[citation needed]} This period, however, was a very creative and liberating one for George; for "The Twin", could sing whatever he wanted. The limited releases included four 500 to 520 copies 7", one limited 12" (for Sanitized) and a promo CD, 1000 copies 13-track album Yum Yum. Two years later, it was released via digital outlets like iTunes. An album recorded in the Spring of 2003 was also shelved. A collaboration with electronic combo T-Total, the album was a collection of covers of songs by Jefferson Airplane, David Bowie, John Lennon, Dusty Springfield, T. Rex, and Eurythmics among others. It is suggested that Boy George's numerous abandoned projects are due to his broad interest and need to explore other creative mediums such as photography, writing, and fashion.

During 2003, he presented a weekly show on London radio station LBC 97.3 for six months. He wrote the foreword for a feng shui book called Practical Feng Shui by Simon G. Brown (published in 1998). He also appeared as a guest on the British comedy-talk show The Kumars at No. 42. In March 2005 he was the guest host for an episode of The Friday Night Project, for Channel 4 television.

On his "More Protein" website, George did announce another unreleased album, named Straight, for mid-2005. It was to include tracks such as "Panic" and "Talking Love". Four tracks were released as a sampler with the book of the same name in 2005. A reggaeton oriented EP was also planned for August 2006 but was never released. Some recent tracks were shared by George himself in late 2006 and early 2007 on his YouTube account, his three Myspace pages and sometimes on his official site. In January 2007, Boy George released "Time Machine" on Plan A Records. "Time Machine" was co-written by double Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter Amanda Ghost who also co-wrote "You're Beautiful" with James Blunt.^[4]

On 20 October 2006, it was announced that he would be writing some tracks for Kylie Minogue (News.com.au story) with Amanda Ghost; however, the songs were not included on her 2007 album. It was not the first time that George wrote songs for other artists; in the past, he shared songwriting credits with the Beach Boys, Caron Wheeler, Charlotte Church, Mica Paris and many others. He also wrote many of the tracks for the artists on his own dance oriented music label, More Protein, such as Eve Gallagher, Zee Asha, Lippy Lou, and E-Zee Posse.

Boy George has run his own fashion line for some years, called "B-Rude". B-Rude has shown at fashion shows in London, New York and Moscow. On 24 December 2006, George appeared on a one-off BBC TV programme Duet Impossible in which he performed with himself from the 1980s and joked about his street cleaning.

Later in 2007, two electronica/dance collaborations were released in limited editions. In the spring, the track "You're Not The One" was remixed from an old demo and released with the dance combo "Loverush UK" reaching the top 20 in the UK dance chart. It was a digital-only release, available in many digital retailers like iTunes. Also on iTunes, a new collaboration with trip-hop/electro band Dark Globe, called "Atoms", was released on 19 November. The single contains eight versions, from the slow original to electro remixes by Ariya and Henrik Schwarz. Also in late 2007, an EP titled "Disco Abomination" appeared on the internet, available for download on several underground outlets. It included new remixes of tracks like "Turn 2 Dust", "Love Your Brother", and covers of "Don't Wanna See Myself" and "Go Your Own Way". Most of the versions are remixes done by German producer Kinky Roland.

On 25 February 2007, George was special guest DJ at LGBT nightspot, The Court Hotel in Perth, Western Australia. On 4 March 2007, George performed as a DJ at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney for the Mardi Gras Festival. On 11 May 2007, George performed as a DJ at the launch party for the Palazzo Versace in Dubai, UAE. George cancelled his planned 2007 October tour via an announcement on his official website. In 2007: George toured as a DJ, visiting Florence, Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Toulouse, Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Dubai, Skopje, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Toronto, Cagliari, Blackpool, Coventry, Munich, Naples, Mantova, Lyon, Follonica, Paris, Kristiansand, Noli, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Amsterdam, Beirut, Budapest, Skanderborg, Baia, London, Mykonos, Geneva, Lausanne, Stockholm, Manchester, Brussels, Bologna, Hong Kong, Letterkenny, Aix-en-Provence, Reims, Moscow and Genova.

Upon his return from prison Boy George resumed his successful DJ career embarking on a worldwide tour of clubs. George has played a special residency at the Shaw Theatre in London (in which all shows were sold out) from 23 January 2008, followed by a full UK tour.^[5] In April 2008, The Biography Channel featured a documentary on the life of Boy George. The American tour which was planned for July/August 2008 had to be cancelled because he had been denied a United States visa due to a London court case scheduled for November 2008. On 2 July, 6 concert dates in South America were announced. Boy George participated in RETROFEST held in Scotland in August 2008,^[6] and a 30-date UK tour took place in October/November 2008.

In 2009 he signed a new record deal subsequently releasing the album Ordinary Alien – The Kinky Roland Files in the autumn of 2010. The album consisted of previously recorded tracks mixed by longtime dance partner Kinky Roland. He took part in Night of the Proms, which is a series of concerts held yearly in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Regularly there are also shows in France, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Scandinavian countries. The concerts consist of a combination of pop music and popular classical music (often combined) and various well-known musicians and groups usually participate.

On 11 May 2009, Boy George was released from prison at HMP Edmunds Hill in Newmarket, Suffolk, four months into a fifteen-month sentence for the assault and false imprisonment of a male escort, in his East London flat. He was tagged and placed on a curfew for the remainder of the sentence.^[7]

In December 2009, Boy George had a successful run of concerts at the Leicester Square Theatre in London's West End.

Solo career: 2010s[link]

26 November 2010 saw the release of British DJ and musician Mark Ronson’s third single from his album Record Collection. "Somebody to Love Me" featured Boy George and was met with critical acclaim from critics and also meant a return to BBC Radio 1’s play list after being banned for many years.^{[citation needed]}

Reunions[link]

In July 1998, a reunited Culture Club performed three dates in Monte Carlo and then joined the Human League and Howard Jones in a "Big Rewind" tour of the US. The following month, the band appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and made an appearance in Britain, their first in 14 years. Later that year, the band had a Top 5 hit in the UK with "I Just Wanna Be Loved" and later a top 30 hit with "Your Kisses are Charity". In 2006, the band decided to again reunite and tour; however, George declined to join them for this tour. As a result, two members of Culture Club replaced George with vocalist Sam Butcher. George has expressed his displeasure at the turn of events.^[8] Finally, after one showcase and one live show, that project was shelved.

Boy George announced in 27 January 2011 to the BBC that there will be a 30th anniversary Culture Club reunion tour sometime later in the year and that they would be releasing a new album in 2012.^[9] Although the 2011 tour never took place, Culture Club did play two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a new year's eve concert. In interviews given shortly before the concerts, the group confirmed that they were indeed recording new material.

Legal problems[link]

By the late 1980s, George had been struggling with his severe heroin addiction for many years.^[10] He attempted to perform concerts while under its influence. Addictions to other drugs soon followed. Determined to save George's life, his younger brother David made an appearance on UK national television and discussed George's drug habit, which George had been publicly denying at that time. In 1986, Boy George was arrested for heroin possession as part of 'Operation Culture.'.^[11]

In 1995, Kirk Brandon sued George for libel claiming that George mentioned a love affair between them in George's autobiography, Take It Like a Man. George won the court case and Brandon was ordered to pay £200,000 to Virgin Records, EMI Virgin Music and the book publisher in costs. Brandon declared himself bankrupt, which resulted in Boy George paying over £60,000 in legal fees.^[12]

On 7 October 2005, George was arrested in Manhattan on suspicion of cocaine possession and falsely reporting a burglary. George denied that the drug was his.^[13] In court on 1 February 2006, the cocaine possession charge was dropped and George pleaded guilty to falsely reporting a burglary. He was sentenced to five days of community service, fined US$1,000 and ordered to attend a drug rehabilitation program.^[14]

On 17 June 2006, a Manhattan judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Boy George after he failed to appear in court for a hearing on why George wanted to change his sentence for the false burglary report. George's attorney informed the court that he had advised George not to appear at that hearing.^[15]

On 14 August 2006, George reported to the New York Department of Sanitation for his court-ordered community service. As a result of the swarming media coverage, he was allowed to finish his community service inside the Sanitation Department grounds.^[16]

In a February 2007 interview, the performer explained: “People have this idea of Boy George now, particularly the media: that I’m tragic, fucked up. I mean, I’m all those things, but I’m also lots of other things. Yes, I’ve had my dark periods, but that isn’t all I am.”^[17]

On 5 December 2008, George was convicted in Snaresbrook Crown Court, London, of the assault and false imprisonment of Audun Carlsen.^[18] On 16 January 2009, he was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for these offences.^[19] George stated that Carlsen was viewing his private information without George's consent. Initially sent to HMP Pentonville in London, George was later transferred to HMP Edmunds Hill in Newmarket, Suffolk (a category C prison).^[20]

On 11 May 2009, George was released after serving four months of his 15 month custodial sentence at HMP Edmunds Hill. He was released on home detention curfew and was required to wear an ankle monitor for 90 days.^[21]

On 23 December 2009, George had his request to appear on the final series of Celebrity Big Brother (to be broadcast on Channel 4) turned down by the Probation Service. Richard Clayton QC, representing the Probation Service, said George's participation would pose "a high level of risk" to the service's reputation. Clayton argued that if he used the show to promote his status as a celebrity and earn "a lucrative sum of money" it could undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.^[22]

In January 2011, George agreed to return to the Church of Cyprus an 18th-century icon of Christ that he had bought without knowing its origin. The icon, which had adorned his home for 26 years, had been looted from the church of St Charalampus from the village of New Chorio, near Kythrea. George had originally purchased the icon from a London art dealer eleven years after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. He returned the icon at the Saints Anargyroi Church, Highgate, north London.^[23][24]

Memoirs[link]

Harper Collins published his first autobiography, Take It Like a Man, in 1995, written with Spencer Bright. The book was released to coincide with the timing of George's solo album, Cheapness and Beauty, actually released at the same time, dealing with the same themes, and also including a number of photographs as in the book. Take It Like a Man was a bestseller in the UK.

In 2005, Century published Straight, his second autobiographical book, this time written with author Paul Gorman. It stayed in The Sunday Times bestseller list for six weeks. This latter autobiography starts off there where the former had stopped, though the two works are different in style, due to their different co-authors, and all of the chapters have a title in the 2005 book, while the 1995 autobiography only featured numbered sections.

Gorman has also ghost-written Cry Salty Tears, the memoirs of George's mother Dinah O'Dowd, which was published by Arrow Books, in January 2007. The same year also saw the publication of Straight in paperback. It was originally supposed to be updated, but Boy George declined to do so since he felt the book was too bitter and negative about other people, and he regretted writing it.^{[citation needed]}

Sexual orientation[link]

When Boy George was with Culture Club, much was made of his androgynous appearance, and there was speculation about his sexuality. When asked in interviews, George gave various answers. He gave a famous, oft-quoted response to an interviewer that he preferred "a nice cup of tea" to sex.^[25]

In Take It Like a Man, George told his side of his secret relationships with punk rock singer Kirk Brandon and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. He stated many of the songs he wrote for Culture Club were directed at Moss. However, one of Culture Club's biggest hits "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" was about Brandon. Moss acknowledged that he had a sexual and romantic relationship with George, but Brandon denies he ever had a relationship with George.

In 2006, in an episodic documentary directed by Simon George titled The Madness of Boy George, George declared on camera he was "militantly gay".^[26] In a 2008 documentary Living with Boy George, he talks about his first realisation he was gay, and when he first told his parents. He discloses that he understands why men fall in love with one another as well as with women.^[27]

References in popular culture[link]

In 1984, during the height of the popularity of Culture Club, country singers Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley recorded a parody called "Where's the Dress". In the song, they see Boy George on television and decide they can be more successful if they dressed like him.^{[citation needed]} The intro to the song is identical to "Karma Chameleon" before it goes into a traditional country feel, which in turn caused problems due to copyright infringement.^{[citation needed]} However, the song reached #8 on the country charts.^[28]

In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word", one-year-old Bart Simpson watches an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Johnny remarked: "No, this is true. The Coast Guard arrested Boy George for scraping the barnacles on his dinghy." Ed McMahon chuckles with his trademark "Hiyo!" laugh, and Bart laughs "Hiyo!" as well.^{[citation needed]}

Boy George was portrayed on film by Douglas Booth in the BBC2 drama documentary Worried About the Boy. The TV film was aired in May 2010.^[29]

Discography[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

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• Official website
• Boy George on Myspace
• Boy George at the Internet Movie Database
• Boy George at the Internet Broadway Database
• Boy George Website