Ray Charles

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Ray Charles

I've got a woman - Ray Charles live at Olympia

Ray Charles - Hit The Road Jack (Original)

Blues Brothers - Twist it (Shake Your Tail Feather)

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Albany, Georgia
Albany is a city in and the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area. The population was 76,939 at the 2000 census and had dropped to 75,616 according to a 2009 estimate.
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Baltic states
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Greenville, Florida
:
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; , Spanish for "The Angels") is the second most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of California and the western United States, with a population of 3.83 million within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Los Angeles extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of over 14.8 million and it is the 14th largest urban area in the world, affording it megacity status. The metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is home to nearly 12.9 million residents while the broader Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside combined statistical area (CSA) contains nearly 17.8 million people. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most multicultural counties in the United States. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos" ().
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Morehouse College
Morehouse College is a private, all-male, historically black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College, Morehouse is one of three remaining traditional men's colleges in the United States.
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Orlando, Florida
Orlando () is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan region. The Orlando metropolitan area has a population of 2,082,628 and it is the 27th largest metropolitan area in the United States. The city-proper population is 235,860 making Orlando the 80th largest city in the United States. It is Florida's fifth largest city by population. Orlando was incorporated on July 31, 1875, and became a city in 1885.
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Seattle
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Stockholm, Sweden
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Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee () is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 133rd largest city in the United States. Tallahassee is 18 miles exactly from the Gulf Coast. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2008, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 172,574, while the Tallahassee metropolitan area was estimated at 360,013 in 2009.
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Tampa
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WFOY
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Adam Clayton
Adam Charles Clayton (born 13 March 1960) is the bassist of the rock band U2. Clayton has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965. Clayton is well-known for his bass playing on songs such as "New Year's Day", "Bullet the Blue Sky", "With or Without You", "Mysterious Ways", "Get on Your Boots", and "Magnificent". His work on No Line on the Horizon has been cited as his best bass playing. He has worked on several solo projects throughout his career, such as his work with fellow band member Larry Mullen Jr. on the theme of 1996's . Clayton, as a part of U2, has won 22 Grammy awards.
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African-American
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Agnes de Mille
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Al Schmitt
Al Schmitt is a recording engineer and record producer.
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Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film. He won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors.
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Alexander Schneider
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Alexandra Danilova
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Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join the band with which she still performs, Alison Krauss and Union Station (AKUS), and later released her first album with them as a group in 1989.
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Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey, Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance. His company gained the nickname "Cultural Ambassador to the World" because of its extensive international touring. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is believed to be the best-known and most often seen modern dance performance.
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Alwin Nikolais
Alwin Nikolais (November 25, 1910 in Southington, Connecticut – May 8, 1993) was an American choreographer.
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Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse (born 14 September 1983) is an English singer-songwriter, known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including R&B;, soul, jazz. Winehouse is best known for her powerful contralto vocals.
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Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor (4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer.
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Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist commonly referred to as The Queen of Soul. Although renowned for her soul recordings, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B; and gospel music. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Franklin No. 1 on its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time.
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Arif Mardin
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Art Tatum
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Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include award-winning plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible.
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Ashford & Simpson
Nickolas Ashford (born May 4, 1942, in Fairfield County, South Carolina) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946 in The Bronx, New York) are a husband and wife songwriting/production team and recording artists. They met at Harlem's White Rock Baptist Church in 1963. After having recorded unsuccessfully as a duo, they joined aspiring solo artist and former member of the Ikettes, Josie Jo Armstead, at the Scepter/Wand label where their compositions were recorded by Ronnie Milsap ("Never Had It So Good"), Maxine Brown ("One Step At A Time"), as well as the Shirelles and Chuck Jackson. Another of the trio's songs "Let's Go Get Stoned" gave Ray Charles a number one U.S. R&B; hit in 1966. That same year Ashford & Simpson joined Motown where their best-known songs included "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "You're All I Need To Get By", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing", and "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". As performers, Ashford and Simpson's best-known song is "Solid" (1984 US and 1985 UK). The duo was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.
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B.B. King
Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter acclaimed for his expressive singing and guitar playing.
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Barry Bales
Barry Bales (born August 23, 1969 in Kingsport, Tennessee) is the bass player and harmony vocalist for Alison Krauss and Union Station.
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Benny Goodman
In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman (May 30, 1909 - June 13, 1986) led one of the most popular musical groups in America. His January 16, 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music."
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Bernie Grundman
Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer.
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Bette Davis
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Betty Carter
Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones, May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style. Her devotion to the jazz idiom was such that her fellow vocalist Carmen McRae once claimed that "there's really only one jazz singer - only one: Betty Carter."
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Beverly Sills
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Big Boi
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Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is the lead vocalist, chief songwriter, and lead guitarist for the American punk rock band Green Day. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for the rock band Pinhead Gunpowder and sings for garage rock band Foxboro Hot Tubs when not working with Green Day.
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Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.
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Bing Crosby
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Björk
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Bob Dylan
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Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer-songwriter, born in Burbank, California. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially accessible recordings in the 1990s including "Nick of Time", "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up on You", and the slow ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me". Raitt has received nine Grammy Awards in her career and is a lifelong political activist.
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Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), most commonly known by his stage name Bono ( ), is an Irish singer and musician, best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his future wife, Ali Hewson, and the future members of U2. Bono writes almost all U2 lyrics, often using political, social, and religious themes. During their early years, Bono's lyrics contributed to U2's rebellious and spiritual tone. As the band matured, his lyrics became inspired more by personal experiences shared with members of U2.
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Brian Gardner
Brian Gardner (nicknamed 'BigBassBrian') is a mastering engineer. He has worked on countless recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B;, hip hop, pop punk, and dance pop. He is perhaps best known for his work on hip hop albums and in particular in his collaborations with Dr. Dre.
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Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss", is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of Heartland rock infused with pop hooks, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
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Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican American rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not generally heard in rock music. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Rolling Stone named Santana number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003. He has won 10 Grammy Awards and 3 Latin Grammy Awards.
http://wn.com/Carlos_Santana
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English-American actor. With his distinctive yet not quite placeable Mid-Atlantic accent, he was noted as perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man: handsome, virile, charismatic, and charming.
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Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens; March 23, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the seventies as the front woman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career. Her signature hits, both with Rufus and solo, include "Tell Me Something Good", "Sweet Thing", "Ain't Nobody", "I'm Every Woman", "I Feel for You" and "Through the Fire".
http://wn.com/Chaka_Khan
Chester Thompson
Chester Cortez Thompson (born December 11, 1948 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American drummer and session musician.
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Chet Atkins
http://wn.com/Chet_Atkins
Chris Carmouche
http://wn.com/Chris_Carmouche
Chris Lord-Alge
Chris Lord-Alge is a mixer who has worked on various albums. He is the brother of Tom Lord-Alge, another audio engineer. Chris Lord-Alge is known for his extreme use of dynamic range compression in both hardware and software plug-in versions.
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Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and instrumentalist, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Coldplay. He is married to American actress Gwyneth Paltrow, with whom he has two children.
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Chris Thomas King
Chris Thomas King (born October 14, 1964) is a New Orleans, Louisiana-based blues musician and actor.
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Claudette Colbert
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Colin Powell
http://wn.com/Colin_Powell
Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Bailey Rae (born Corinne Jacqueline Bailey on 26 February 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist from Leeds, who released her debut album Corinne Bailey Rae in February 2006.
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Count Basie
William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'Clock Jump" and "April In Paris".
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Craig Street
Craig Street, born in Oakland, California, is a noted record producer.
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Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois (, Respell|lan-) (born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, and singer-songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, and Willie Nelson. Lanois is best known for producing, with Brian Eno, a number of albums for U2, including The Joshua Tree.
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Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (January 18, 1913 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian.
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Diana Krall
http://wn.com/Diana_Krall
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer.
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Dust Brothers
The Dust Brothers are the Los Angeles, California based, Grammy Award winning producers, E.Z. Mike (Michael Simpson) and King Gizmo (John King), famous for their sample-based music in the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically for their work on the albums ''Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys, Odelay by Beck, and the soundtrack to the film Fight Club''.
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Elia Kazan
http://wn.com/Elia_Kazan
Elliot Scheiner
Elliot Scheiner is a record producer and record engineer. Scheiner has received 23 Grammy Award nominations, 6 of which he won, and he has been awarded four Emmy nominations, one Emmy award for his work with the Eagles on their farewell tour broadcast, three TEC Awards nominations, a TEC Hall of Fame inductee, and recipient of the Surround Pioneer Award. Elliot holds an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music and is one of the only Americans to be awarded the Master of Sound honor from the Japan Audio Society.
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Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. He has worked with his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.
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Elvis Presley
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Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including Linda Ronstadt, Elvis Costello and Dolly Parton.
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Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grande Ufficiale OMRI (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor.
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Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy (November 18, 1899–March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.
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Flood (producer)
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Frank Sinatra
http://wn.com/Frank_Sinatra
Frederick Loewe
Frederick Loewe (June 10, 1901 February 14, 1988), was an Austrian-American composer. He collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner on the long running Broadway musicals My Fair Lady and Camelot, with book and lyrics by Lerner, both of which were made into films.
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Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer. A major exponent of 20th century filmed dance, Kelly was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks and the likeable characters that he played on screen.
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George Abbott
George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than eight decades.
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George Burns
George Burns (January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996), born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.
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George Jones
George Glenn Jones (born September 12, 1931) is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette.
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Gian Carlo Menotti
http://wn.com/Gian_Carlo_Menotti
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch (; born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms".
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Guy Berryman
Guy Rupert Berryman (12 April 1978, in Kirkcaldy, Scotland) is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist best known as the bassist for the group Coldplay.
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György Ligeti
http://wn.com/György_Ligeti
Hank Crawford
Bennie Ross "Hank" Crawford, Jr. (21 December 1934 – 29 January 2009) was an American R&B;, hard bop, jazz-funk, soul jazz alto saxophonist, arranger and songwriter. Crawford was musical director for Ray Charles before embarking on a solo career, during which he released many well-regarded albums for jazz record labels CTI Records and then Milestone Records.
http://wn.com/Hank_Crawford
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980. This total includes the number 1 hits "I'm Moving On", "The Golden Rocket", "I Don't Hurt Anymore", "Let Me Go, Lover!", "I've Been Everywhere", and "Hello Love" as well as other top ten hits. He is a member of both the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and the Music Hall of Fame.
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Harley Allen
Harley Lee Allen (born January 23, 1956) is a country singer and songwriter.
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Harold Arlen
http://wn.com/Harold_Arlen
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (originally Belafonete; born March 1, 1927) is an American musician, singer, actor, and social activist. One of the most successful pop singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso," a title which he was very reluctant to accept (according to the documentary Calypso Dreams) for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing the "Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O." Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes, and was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush Administration. He also worked as an actor.
http://wn.com/Harry_Belafonte
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock (born April 12, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet", Hancock helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section, and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesizers and funk. Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success among pop audiences. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz. In his jazz improvisation, he possesses a unique creative blend of jazz, blues, and modern classical music, with harmonic stylings much like the styles of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
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Hume Cronyn
http://wn.com/Hume_Cronyn
Isaac Stern
http://wn.com/Isaac_Stern
Jacknife Lee
Garret "Jacknife" Lee is an Irish Grammy Award winning music producer and mixer. He has worked with a variety of artists, including U2, R.E.M., Snow Patrol, Bloc Party, AFI, The Hives, Weezer, Vega4 and Editors.
http://wn.com/Jacknife_Lee
James Brown
http://wn.com/James_Brown
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) was an American film actor. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of roles, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.
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James Stewart
http://wn.com/James_Stewart
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Carrboro, North Carolina. He owns a house in the Berkshire County town of Washington, Massachusetts. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
http://wn.com/James_Taylor
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and singer. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a musical/comedy. He is also a Grammy Award winning musician, producing two albums which have charted highly on the Billboard 200: Unpredictable, which topped the chart, and Intuition.
http://wn.com/Jamie_Foxx
Jerry Douglas
http://wn.com/Jerry_Douglas
Jessica Tandy
Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was an English stage and film actress.
http://wn.com/Jessica_Tandy
John Hartford
John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was an American folk, country and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore. Hartford performed with a variety of ensembles throughout his career, and is perhaps best known for his solo performances where he would interchange the guitar, banjo, and fiddle from song to song. He also invented his own shuffle tap dance move, and clogged on an amplified piece of plywood while he played and sang.
http://wn.com/John_Hartford
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC, (born Roberta Joan Anderson; November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter.
http://wn.com/Joni_Mitchell
José Antonio Abreu
http://wn.com/José_Antonio_Abreu
K. C. Porter
KC Porter (born June 27, 1962 Karl Cameron Porter) is an American record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. For nearly three decades in the entertainment industry, Porter has earned numerous Grammy nominations and 3 Grammys and Latin Grammys. He is best known for his production work on Carlos Santana's Supernatural, (which sold over 27 million copies worldwide and won 9 Grammy Awards) and for producing and penning some of the most popular Spanish language singles for Ricky Martin to date.
http://wn.com/K_C_Porter
Katherine Dunham
http://wn.com/Katherine_Dunham
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945, in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American pianist/composer who has performed in both jazz and classical music.
http://wn.com/Keith_Jarrett
Kenny Ascher
http://wn.com/Kenny_Ascher
Larry Evans
For the football player of the same name, see Larry Evans (American football).
http://wn.com/Larry_Evans
Larry Klein
Larry Klein (born 1956) is a music producer, songwriter and bass guitar player, commonly known for being the frequent musical collaborator, and ex-husband, of Joni Mitchell.
http://wn.com/Larry_Klein
Larry Mullen, Jr.
Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Mullen, Jr. (born 31 October 1961) is the drummer for the rock band U2. He is the founder of U2, which he later described as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." He has worked on numerous side projects during his career, including a collaboration with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. to form Automatic Baby in 1993 and working with bandmate Adam Clayton on the re-recording of the theme to , in 1996. He and U2 have won many awards, including 22 Grammy awards.
http://wn.com/Larry_Mullen_Jr
Lena Horne
http://wn.com/Lena_Horne
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges (born April 2, 1942; Lawton, Oklahoma), known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and guitarist.
http://wn.com/Leon_Russell
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein (, ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim. He was probably best known to the public as the longtime music director of the New York Philharmonic, for conducting concerts by many of the world's leading orchestras, and for writing the music for West Side Story, Candide, Wonderful Town, and On the Town. Bernstein was the first classical music conductor to make numerous television appearances between 1954 and 1989. He had a formidable piano technique and as a composer also wrote symphonies and other concert music. According to The New York Times, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history."
http://wn.com/Leonard_Bernstein
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) is an American soprano. Born and raised in the segregated Deep South, she rose to international fame during a period of racial change in the 1950s and 60s, and was the first African-American to become a leading prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera.
http://wn.com/Leontyne_Price
Lillian Gish
http://wn.com/Lillian_Gish
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, bandleader and recording artist, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame web site entry on Penniman states that:
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Louis Armstrong
http://wn.com/Louis_Armstrong
Lucille Ball
http://wn.com/Lucille_Ball
Mark Ronson
Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is an English DJ, guitarist, music producer, artist and co-founder of Allido Records. He currently works with his band under the music alias of Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
http://wn.com/Mark_Ronson
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gaye, Jr. (April 2, 1939April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and instrumentalist with a three-octave vocal range. Starting as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late fifties, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960 signing with the Tamla subsidiary of Motown Records. After starting off as a session drummer, Gaye ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the sixties.
http://wn.com/Marvin_Gaye
Mary Martin
http://wn.com/Mary_Martin
Matt Serletic
Matt Serletic is a record producer who has worked with several popular bands and artists for Atlantic Records, including Collective Soul, Matchbox Twenty, Blessid Union of Souls, Edwin McCain, Stacie Orrico, Taylor Hicks, Rob Thomas, and singer/songwriter Angie Aparo. Serletic will be working with American Idol Season 7 Winner David Cook on his second studio album. He also preceded Jason Flom as chairman of Virgin Records. Most recently he has been working with Joe Cocker, writing as producing his latest album, Hard Knocks.
http://wn.com/Matt_Serletic
Merce Cunningham
http://wn.com/Merce_Cunningham
Mickey Gilley
Mickey Leroy Gilley (born March 9, 1936) is an American country music singer and musician. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as well. Among his biggest hits are "Room Full of Roses," "Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time," and the remake of the Soul hit "Stand by Me". He is also the cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl McVoy, Jim Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart.
http://wn.com/Mickey_Gilley
Mike Dirnt
Mike Dirnt (born May 4, 1972 as Michael Ryan Pritchard) is an American musician who is currently the bassist and backing vocalist for the American rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass." While pretending to pluck the strings, he made the noise, "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt," so his schoolmates started to call him "Mike Dirnt".
http://wn.com/Mike_Dirnt
Milt Jackson
Milton "Milt" Jackson (January 1, 1923 - October 9, 1999) was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his coolly swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his penchant for collaborating with several hard bop and post-bop players.
http://wn.com/Milt_Jackson
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). Her successful pairing with William Powell resulted in fourteen films together, including several subsequent Thin Man films.
http://wn.com/Myrna_Loy
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan (born Anne Frances Robbins on July 6, 1921) is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and served as an influential First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was born in New York; her parents divorced soon after her birth and she grew up in Maryland, living with an aunt and uncle while her mother pursued acting jobs. As Nancy Davis, she was an actress in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, starring in films such as ''Donovan's Brain, Night into Morning, and Hellcats of the Navy''. In 1952 she married Ronald Reagan, who was then president of the Screen Actors Guild, and they had two children. Nancy was the First Lady of California when her husband was Governor from 1967 to 1975. In that capacity, she began work with the Foster Grandparents Program.
http://wn.com/Nancy_Reagan
Nat Adderley
http://wn.com/Nat_Adderley
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole (born February 6, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and performer. She achieved success in her early career as an R&B; star, but smoothly changed her repertoire toward a more pop and jazz oriented musical style in the early 1990s. She has won nine Grammy Awards. Cole has been singing since she was 5 years old.
http://wn.com/Natalie_Cole
Nathan Milstein
Nathan Mironovich Milstein (January 13, 1904 (Old Style: December 31, 1903)December 21, 1992) was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist.
http://wn.com/Nathan_Milstein
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt ('''Count Nikolaus de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt''') (born 6 December 1929) is an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier.
http://wn.com/Nikolaus_Harnoncourt
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer. Often called the "King of Soul", he is renowned for an ability to convey strong emotion through his voice. According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989), Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." In addition, rock critic Jon Landau said in 1967, "Otis Redding is rock & roll". Redding died in a plane crash at the age of 26, one month before his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", was released.
http://wn.com/Otis_Redding
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Called the "Godmother of Punk", she integrated the beat poetry performance style with three-chord rock. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
http://wn.com/Patti_Smith
Paul McCartney
http://wn.com/Paul_McCartney
Percy Mayfield
http://wn.com/Percy_Mayfield
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. His combined success on television and popular recordings was not matched by any other artist of the time. A popular television performer and recording artist, Perry Como produced numerous hit records with record sales so high the label literally stopped counting at Como's behest. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world and his popularity seemingly had no geographical or language boundaries. Como's appeal spanned generations and he was widely respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all." Composer Ervin Drake said of him,"... [o]ccasionally someone like Perry comes along and won't 'go with the flow' and still prevails in spite of all the bankrupt others who surround him and importune him to yield to their values. Only occasionally."
http://wn.com/Perry_Como
Peter Gabriel
http://wn.com/Peter_Gabriel
Peter Kurland
Peter Franklin Kurland is a production sound mixer .
http://wn.com/Peter_Kurland
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez () (born March 26, 1925) is a French composer of contemporary classical music and a conductor.
http://wn.com/Pierre_Boulez
Quincy Jones
http://wn.com/Quincy_Jones
Ralph Stanley
Ralph Stanley (born February 25, 1927), also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley, is an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing.
http://wn.com/Ralph_Stanley
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (; born 7 April 1920), often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.
http://wn.com/Ravi_Shankar
Ray (film)
Ray is a 2004 biographical film focusing on 30 years of the life of rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles. The independently produced film was directed by Taylor Hackford and starred Jamie Foxx in the title role; Foxx received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.
http://wn.com/Ray_(film)
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930June 10, 2004), better known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. Ray was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm & blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company.
http://wn.com/Ray_Charles
Renée Fleming
http://wn.com/Renée_Fleming
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin (born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records.
http://wn.com/Rick_Rubin
Robert Blackwell
http://wn.com/Robert_Blackwell
Robert Moog
Dr. Robert Arthur Moog (, respell|), commonly called Bob Moog (May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.
http://wn.com/Robert_Moog
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE (born 20 August 1948), is an English rock singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career. In 2007, Plant released Raising Sand, an album produced by T-Bone Burnett with American bluegrass soprano Alison Krauss, which won the 2009 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
http://wn.com/Robert_Plant
Roger L. Stevens
http://wn.com/Roger_L_Stevens
Ron Block
Ronald Franklin "Ron" Block (born July 30, 1964 in Inglewood, California) is an American bluegrass musician mainly playing the banjo and the guitar, singing, and writing gospel music.
http://wn.com/Ron_Block
Ronald Reagan
http://wn.com/Ronald_Reagan
Rudolf Serkin
Rudolf Serkin (March 28, 1903 – May 8, 1991), was a Bohemian-born pianist.
http://wn.com/Rudolf_Serkin
S. Husky Höskulds
http://wn.com/S_Husky_Höskulds
Sam Bush
Sam Bush (born April 13, 1952 in Bowling Green, Kentucky) is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.
http://wn.com/Sam_Bush
Sammy Davis, Jr.
http://wn.com/Sammy_Davis_Jr
Sid Feller
Sidney "Sid" Feller (December 24, 1916 – February 16, 2006) was an American conductor and arranger, best known for his work with Ray Charles. He worked with Charles on hundreds of songs including Georgia on My Mind and worked as Charles' conductor while on tour. Ray Charles once said of him "if they call me a genius, then Sid Feller is Einstein." [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article346739.ece]
http://wn.com/Sid_Feller
Sinatra
http://wn.com/Sinatra
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B; and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy. Robinson's consistent commercial success and creative contributions to the label have earned him the title "King of Motown."
http://wn.com/Smokey_Robinson
Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, (, ) (born October 24, 1931) is a Russian composer of half Russian, half Tatar ethnicity.
http://wn.com/Sofia_Gubaidulina
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930 in New York City) is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas", "Oleo", "Doxy", and "Airegin", have become jazz standards.
http://wn.com/Sonny_Rollins
Steve Lillywhite
Steve Lillywhite (born 1955) is an English Grammy Award winning record producer. From his early work with Ultravox in 1976 through to the present day, Lillywhite has produced a variety of musicians including U2, Dave Matthews Band, Joan Armatrading, Darius Danesh, Big Country, The Pogues and The Smiths, through to Beady Eye and Evanescence in recent times.
http://wn.com/Steve_Lillywhite
Steve Reich
http://wn.com/Steve_Reich
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Judkins (born May 13, 1950), name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris, known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist. Blind from shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records' Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.
http://wn.com/Stevie_Wonder
Stuart Duncan
Stuart Duncan (born April 14, 1964) is a bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and banjo. Born in Quantico, Virginia and raised in Santa Paula, California, where he played in the school band, he has been a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band since 1985, and is a much-in-demand session musician who has worked with such stars as George Strait, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Barbra Streisand, to name a few.
http://wn.com/Stuart_Duncan
Stuart Gorrell
http://wn.com/Stuart_Gorrell
Sugar Ray Robinson
http://wn.com/Sugar_Ray_Robinson
Suzanne Cox
Suzanne Cox (born 19 March, 1972) is an English aerobic instructor. She was at one point a gladiator in the UK television show Gladiators. She went by the name Vogue.
http://wn.com/Suzanne_Cox
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett (born January 14, 1948), widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.
http://wn.com/T-Bone_Burnett
The Edge
David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961 in Barking, Essex, England), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is an Irish musician best known as the guitarist, keyboardist, and main backing vocalist of rock band U2. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named him at #24 on its list of "The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time".
http://wn.com/The_Edge
The Nanny
http://wn.com/The_Nanny
The Raelettes
The Raelettes were a girl group in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, formed, as their name suggests, to provide backing vocals for Ray Charles. Its membership originally consisted of Darlene McCrea, Margie Hendricks, Patricia Lyles, and Gwendolyn Berry. Later members included Mable John, Merry Clayton, Clydie King, Minnie Riperton and Susaye Greene. The 1980s' set of Raelettes included Avis Harrell, Madlyne Qubeck, Estella Yarbrough, Trudy Cohran, Pat Peterson and Alexandra 'Alex' Brown, who had a minor hit with the single "(Come On,) Shout", which was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
http://wn.com/The_Raelettes
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American director, writer, singer and actor.
http://wn.com/Tim_Blake_Nelson
Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have earned her the title '''The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll'''.
http://wn.com/Tina_Turner
Tom Elmhirst
http://wn.com/Tom_Elmhirst
Tom Lord-Alge
Tom Lord-Alge is a three-time Grammy-Award winning record producer and mixer widely known as a leader in music mixing. He is the youngest of Vivian Lord's five children, Mark Alge, Lisa Alge, Chris Lord-Alge, Jeff Lord-Alge and Tom Lord-Alge. His older brother, Chris Lord-Alge and the lesser known Jeff Lord-Alge are also audio engineers.
http://wn.com/Tom_Lord-Alge
Tre Cool
http://wn.com/Tre_Cool
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev (; ; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Valery Gergiev is the artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.
http://wn.com/Valery_Gergiev
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE (born George Ivan Morrison; 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album ''It's Too Late to Stop Now'', are widely viewed as among the greatest ever made.
http://wn.com/Van_Morrison
Virgil Thomson
http://wn.com/Virgil_Thomson
William Schuman
http://wn.com/William_Schuman
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 30, 1933) is an American country singer-songwriter, author, poet, actor and activist. He reached his greatest fame during the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, and remains iconic, especially in American popular culture.
http://wn.com/Willie_Nelson
Witold Lutosławski
http://wn.com/Witold_Lutosławski
Wyclef Jean
Nel Ust Wyclef Jean (, ; born October 17, 1969)[http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2012369,00.html Wyclef Dumped From Haiti's Presidential Ballot] - TIME, 21 Aug 2010. "Before he announced on August 5 that he was running for President of Haiti, Wyclef Jean was still listing his age as only 37 years old. But after declaring himself a presidential candidate, the Haitian-American hip-hop star also decided to come clean and confirm that he was really 40." is a Haitian musician, record producer and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country. He first received fame as a member of the acclaimed New Jersey hip hop group, the Fugees.
http://wn.com/Wyclef_Jean
Yehudi Menuhin
http://wn.com/Yehudi_Menuhin

Chiddy Bang - Ray Charles

Breakfast out now, download on iTunes glnk.it chiddybang.net Subscribe to Chiddy Bang on Y...

published: 06 Jan 2012

Author: ChiddyBangVEVO

Georgia on my Mind- Ray Charles

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published: 12 Dec 2005

Author: joep1

Hit the road Jack!

In memory of Jack Hagelin Sept. 04, '02 - Mar. 27, '07 * I posted this video June ...

published: 03 Jun 2006

Author: a3vino

Ray Charles - Mess Around

Best Quality on YouTube. LYRICS: Ah, you can talk about the pit, barbecue The band was jum...

published: 30 Oct 2009

Author: pianoman1237

I've got a woman - Ray Charles live at Olympia

"I've got a woman" by Ray Charles live at the Olympia of Paris. Recorded on ...

published: 10 Jul 2009

Author: 13bisrecords

Ray Charles - What'd I say

Ray Charles - What'd I say...

published: 15 Sep 2007

Author: mobbischer

RAY CHARLES "I Can't Stop Loving You"

RAY CHARLES Concert In Japan December 1982...

published: 23 Mar 2010

Author: VIDEONOSEIRI

Ray Charles - Hit The Road Jack (Original)

Videoclip de Ray Charles Hit the road Jack...

published: 19 Oct 2009

Author: bengoaunai

Ray Charles - Song For You (1994)

Ray Charles sings the Leon Russel tune A Song For You on The Lou Rawls Parade of Stars 199...

published: 05 Feb 2008

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Ray Charles - I Got A Woman

Ray Charles - I Got A Woman enjoy : )...

published: 12 May 2009

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Blues Brothers - Twist it (Shake Your Tail Feather)

Twist it, Shake it song.. Blues Brothers.. (Shake Your Tail Feather) Absolutely no copyrig...

published: 22 Jul 2008

Author: dheggo

RAY CHARLES "Hit The Road Jack"

RAY CHARLES Concert In Japan December 1982...

published: 23 Mar 2010

Author: VIDEONOSEIRI

Chiddy Bang - "Ray Charles" official song

New album "Breakfast" out now - download on iTunes glnk.it chiddybang.net http t...

published: 11 Nov 2011

Author: chiddybang

Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind (Live At Montreux 1997)

For more info - www.eagle-rock.com Ray Charles was one of the true pioneers of soul music....

published: 20 Jun 2008

Author: eaglerocktv

powers of ten :: charles and ray eames

published: 24 Mar 2008

Author: bacteriasleep

The Story of Eames Furniture: Marilyn Neuhart with John Neuhart - Interview

Gestalten.tv is proud to present an exclusive video interview with Marilyn Neuhart, author...

published: 16 Nov 2010

Author: Gestalten

"The 8mm Revolution" - SUPER 8 Movie Featurette

This piece off JJ Abrams' SUPER 8 Movie Blu-Ray highlights the magic of the beloved 8mm/Su...

published: 01 Feb 2012

Author: Cinelicious

TESSEL . Kinetic Sound Installation by David Letellier + Lab(au)

Tessel is a kinetic sound installation investigating the perception of sound and space. T...

published: 28 Dec 2010

Author: David Letellier

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US Coastguard / Petty Officer 3rd Class Angela Henderson.
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Photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar

School children - girls and boys playing on the school ground in the school - India

Now, get info on schools at the click of a mouse

The Times of India

15 Oct 2012

PUNE: Profiles of all secondary schools in the state will now be available at the click of a mouse. A project to this effect has been undertaken by the state Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, a...

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Photo: AP / Carolyn Kaster

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, pause as they participate in the second presidential debate, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

Elections and the Lesser, OR Greater, of Three Evils

WorldNews.com

17 Oct 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling On the very last day of the 1980 election, twelve percent of voters finally decided to vote for the Republican's presidential candidate Ronald Reagan....

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Photo: Creative Commons / Kansir

IBM revenue hurt by strong dollar, tight IT budgets

CNBC

17 Oct 2012

(Reuters) - IBM posted a quarterly revenue miss and barely beat analyst expectations for earnings per share as customers put off spending on big ticket items and a stronger dollar hit the company's...

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Photo: AP / Shakil Adil

Pakistani men hold pictures of 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, who was shot last Tuesday by the Taliban for speaking out in support of education for women, during a candlelight vigil in Karachi, Pakistan, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012.

Pakistan sends 14-year-old girl shot by Taliban to UK for care

Richmond Times Dispatch

15 Oct 2012

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan airlifted a 14-year-old activist who was shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban to the United Kingdom for treatment today, a move that will give her access to the...

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Photo: AP / Clemens Bilan

Eine Hand zeigt in Berlin fuer eine Fotoillustration auf einen Computer-Bildschirm mit der Startseite der Videotauschboerse "Youtube" (Foto vom 06.11.06).

Des dizaines de millions de personnes ont regardé le saut de Baumgartner

France24

15 Oct 2012

Des dizaines de millions de personnes ont regardé dimanche avec fascination et angoisse le saut spectaculaire du parachutiste autrichien Felix Baumgartner, qui a franchi pour la...

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How A Legal Fight Over Ray Charles' Song Rights Might Impact The Music Industry 16 Oct 2012

The Hollywood Reporter share Music producers watch closely as the Ray Charles Foundation tries to save its lawsuit against the singer's children by reversing itself -- the litigation explores key issues in song terminations. Express Newspapers/Getty Images...(size: 7.0Kb)

Ray Charles Foundation Awards $1 Million Grant to Educating Young Minds (EYM) 31 Jul 2012

San Francisco Chronicle The Ray Charles Foundation has awarded a $1 million grant to Educating Young Minds (EYM), a supplemental learning environment designed to address the comprehensive needs of underserved Los Angeles-area K-12 students. The non-profit learning center founded by Angeles Echols-Brown twenty-five years...(size: 4.2Kb)

Respect Ray Charles's Great Achievements 20 Jul 2012

Wall Street Journal I'm sad to see, via Eddie Dean's review of Anthony Heilbut's "The Fan Who Knew...(size: 0.5Kb)

Review: Ray Charles on their mind at the Bowl 13 Jul 2012

The Los Angeles Times There were two questions on the table Wednesday night at the Hollywood Bowl's "Genius + Soul = Jazz" tribute to the late, protean, one-of-a-kind Ray Charles. How can you do justice to the bewildering collection of idioms that Charles fused? And how can you do this without Ray? The Bowl found a way....(size: 28.9Kb)

Ray Charles Tribute - Hollywood Bowl - 7/11/12 12 Jul 2012

LA Weekly CP Masters Ray Charles: Genius + Soul = Jazz Hollywood Bowl 7-11-12 Better than... hanging out at the Ray Charles Post Office on Washington Boulevard. Last night, a parade of marquee-ready names hit the stage of the Hollywood Bowl in tribute to the "Genius of Soul," Ray Charles. Featuring Babyface,...(size: 2.4Kb)

Ray Charles grandson auditions for 'X Factor' USA 11 Jul 2012

IMDb One of Ray Charles's grandsons has auditioned for The X Factor USA. The...(size: 0.5Kb)

Ray Charles grandson auditions for 'The X Factor'; drug lyrics anger Demi Lovato 11 Jul 2012

The Examiner Related topics The X FactorRay CharlesDemi LovatoSimon CowellLA ReidBritney Spears Advertisement A grandson of the late music legend Ray Charles reportedly auditioned for "The X Factor" U.S. in Greensboro, North Carolina, on July 10, 2012. Meanwhile at the auditions, "X Factor" U.S. judge Demi...(size: 9.8Kb)

'X Factor': Ray Charles' Grandson Auditions in Greensboro 11 Jul 2012

The Hollywood Reporter share Among the 5,000 or so wide-eyed hopefuls who came out to Greensboro, North Carolina's Greensboro Coliseum Complex for X Factor auditions was one would-be contestant with a very famous pedigree. our editor recommends'X Factor' Contestant Butchers Britney Spears' 'Crazy';...(size: 3.4Kb)

Ray Charles: Genius to the end 01 Jul 2012

The Examiner Here's why this album should be in your music collection! Genius Loves Company was the final studio album by Ray Charles. That fact alone should be enough to entice any serious music collector. But a more compelling fact is that the album is simply outstanding. Charles’s duet partners include...(size: 6.4Kb)

Game night at Ray Charles Lounge every Wednesday night 20 Jun 2012

The Examiner Looking for something to do on Wednesday night to cure that "hump day" fever? Are you a card shark, domino or even a chess player? Well if you are then I have the perfect place for you to be every Wednesday night; Ray Charles Lounge. Xcaliber productions introduces game night every Wednesday night...(size: 5.5Kb)

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For the composer and conductor of the Ray Charles Singers, see Ray Charles (composer).

For the song by Chiddy Bang, see Ray Charles (song).

Ray Charles
Ray Charles in 1990
Background information
Birth name	Ray Charles
Born	(1930-09-23)September 23, 1930 Albany, Georgia, United States
Origin	Greenville, Florida, United States
Died	June 10, 2004(2004-06-10) (aged 73) Beverly Hills, California, United States
Genres	Rhythm and blues, soul, blues, soul blues, rock and roll, jazz, vocal jazz, country, pop, gospel
Occupations	Composer, musician, arranger, bandleader
Instruments	Vocals, piano, keyboards, alto saxophone, trombone
Years active	1947–2004
Labels	Atlantic, ABC, Warner Bros., Swing Time, Concord, Columbia, Flashback
Associated acts	The Raelettes, Quincy Jones, Betty Carter, Marvin Gaye, Billy Joel, James Brown, Little Richard
Website	Official website

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records.^[1]^[2]^[3] He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums.^[4]^[5]^[6] While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company.^[2] Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”

The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.

Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004,^[7] and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".^[8] In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"^[9]

1 Early life: 1930–1945
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 Death
5 Legacy
6 Discography
7 Filmography
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links

Early life: 1930–1945 [link]

Ray Charles Robinson was the son of Aretha Robinson, a sharecropper, and Bailey Robinson, a railroad repair man, mechanic and handyman.^[10] Aretha Robinson was a devout Christian and the family attended the New Shiloh Baptist Church.^[11] When Ray was an infant, his family moved from Albany, Georgia, where he was born, to the poor black community on the western side of Greenville, Florida. In his early years, Charles showed a curiosity for mechanical things and he often watched the neighborhood men working on their cars and farm machinery. His musical curiosity was sparked at Mr. Wiley Pit's Red Wing Cafe when Pit played boogie woogie on an old upright piano. Pit would care for George, Ray's brother, so as to take the burden off Williams. However, George drowned in the Williams' bath tub when he was four years old.^{[citation needed]} After witnessing the death of his brother, Ray would feel an overwhelming sense of guilt later on in life.

Charles started to lose his sight at the age of five. He went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently due to glaucoma.^[12]^[13] He attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine from 1937 to 1945,^[14] where he developed his musical talent.^[12] During this time he performed on WFOY radio in St. Augustine. His father died when he was 10 and his mother died five years after.

In school, Charles was taught only classical music, but he wanted to play the jazz and blues he heard on the family radio.^[14] While at school, he became the school's premier musician. On Fridays, the South Campus Literary Society held assemblies where Charles would play piano and sing popular songs. On Halloween and Washington's birthday, the Colored Department of the school had socials where Charles would play. It was here he established "RC Robinson and the Shop Boys" and sang his own arrangement of "Jingle Bell Boogie."^[15] He spent his first Christmas at the school, but later the staff pitched in so that Charles could return to Greenville, as he did each summer.

Henry and Alice Johnson, who owned a store not unlike Mr. Pit's store in Greenville, moved to the French town section of Tallahassee, just west of Greenville; and they, as well as Freddy and Margaret Bryant, took Charles in. He worked the register in the Bryants' store under the direction of Lucille Bryant, their daughter. It's said he loved Tallahassee and often used the drug store delivery boy's motorbike to run up and down hills using the exhaust sound of a friend's bike to guide him. Charles found Tallahassee musically exciting too and sat in with the Florida A&M University student band. He played with the Adderley brothers, Nat and Cannonball, and began playing gigs with Lawyer Smith and his Band in 1943 at the Red Bird Club and Deluxe Clubs in Frenchtown and roadhouse theaters around Tallahassee, as well as the Governor's Ball.^[16]

Career [link]

Early career: 1946–1952 [link]

After his mother died in 1946, Charles was 15 years old and didn't return to school. He lived in Jacksonville with a couple who were friends of his mother. For over a year, he played the piano for bands at the Ritz Theatre in LaVilla, earning $4 a night. Then he moved to Orlando, and later Tampa, where he played with a southern band called The Florida Playboys. This is where he began his habit of always wearing sunglasses, made by designer Billy Stickles.^[17]

Charles had always played for other people, but he wanted his own band. He decided to leave Florida for a large city, but Chicago and New York City were too big. After asking a friend to look in a map and note the city in the United States that was farthest from Florida, he moved to Seattle in 1947^[12] (where he first met and befriended, under the tutelage of Robert Blackwell, a 14-year-old Quincy Jones)^[18]^[19] and soon started recording, first for the Down Beat label as the Maxin Trio with guitarist G.D. McKee and bassist Milton Garrett, achieving his first hit with "Confession Blues" in 1949. The song soared to No. 2 on the R&B charts. He joined Swing Time Records and under his own name ("Ray Charles" to avoid being confused with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson)^[10] recorded two more R&B hits, "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (No. 5) in 1951 and "Kissa Me Baby" (No. 8) in 1952. The following year, Swing Time folded and Ahmet Ertegün signed him to Atlantic Records.^[12]

Atlantic Records: 1953–1958 [link]

Charles laid low from recording until early 1953 as Atlantic executives cleared out Charles' contract with Swingtime. Charles began recording jump blues and boogie-woogie style recordings as well as slower blues ballads where he continued to show the vocal influences of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown. "Mess Around" became Charles' first Atlantic hit in 1953 and he later had hits the following year with "It Should Have Been Me" and "Don't You Know". He also recorded the songs, "Midnight Hour" and "Sinner's Prayer". Some elements of his own vocal style showed up in "Sinner's Prayer", "Mess Around" and "Don't You Know".

Late in 1954, Charles recorded his own composition, "I Got a Woman" and the song became Charles' first number-one R&B hit in 1955 and brought him to national prominence.^[20] The elements of "I Got a Woman" included a mixture of gospel, jazz and blues elements that would later prove to be seminal in the development of rock 'n' roll and soul music. He repeated this pattern throughout 1955 continuing through 1958 with records such as "This Little Girl of Mine", "Drown in My Own Tears", "Lonely Avenue", "A Fool For You" and "The Night Time (Is the Right Time)".

However, Charles didn't stop his ambitions of jazz recording a couple of instrumental jazz albums with vibraphonist Milt Jackson while also promoting his R&B career. By 1958, Charles was not only headlining black venues such as The Apollo Theater and The Uptown Theater but also bigger venues such as The Newport Jazz Festival. It was at the Newport festival where he cut his first live album. In 1956, Charles recruited a young all-female singing group named the Cookies, and reshaped them as The Raelettes. Before then, Charles had used his wife and other musicians to back him up on recordings such as "This Little Girl of Mine" and "Drown In My Own Tears". The Raelettes' first recording session with Charles was on the bluesy-gospel inflected "Leave My Woman Alone".

Crossover success: 1959–1967 [link]

Charles in 1971. Photo: Heinrich Klaffs.

Charles reached the pinnacle of his success at Atlantic with the release of "What'd I Say", a complex song that combined gospel, jazz, blues and Latin music and a song that Charles would later say he composed spontaneously as he was performing in clubs and dances with his small band. Despite some radio stations banning the song because of its sexually suggestive lyrics, the song became a crossover top ten pop record, Charles' first record to do so.^[21] Later in 1959, Charles recorded and released his first country song, a cover of Hank Snow's "Movin' On", and had recorded three more albums for the label including a jazz record (later released in 1961 as The Genius After Hours), a blues record (released in 1961 as The Genius Sings the Blues) and a traditional pop/big band record (The Genius of Ray Charles). The Genius of Ray Charles provided his first top 40 album entry where it peaked at #17 and was later held as a landmark record in Charles' career but Charles saw a bigger opportunity following his Atlantic contract expiring in the fall of 1959 when several big labels offered him record deals.

Choosing not to renegotiate his contract with Atlantic, Ray Charles signed with ABC-Paramount Records in November 1959, obtaining a much more liberal contract than other artists had at the time.^[22] Following the success of "What'd I Say" and The Genius of Ray Charles, ABC offered Charles a $ 50,000 annual advance, higher royalties than previously offered and eventual ownership of his masters — a very valuable and lucrative deal at the time.^[23] During his Atlantic years, Charles was heralded for his own inventive compositions, however, by the time of the release of the instrumental jazz LP Genius + Soul = Jazz (1960) for ABC's subsidiary label Impulse!, Charles had virtually given up on writing original material and had begun to follow his eclectic impulses as an interpreter.^[21]

With his first hit single for ABC-Paramount, Charles received national acclaim and a Grammy Award for the Sid Feller-produced "Georgia on My Mind", originally written by composers Stuart Gorrell and Hoagy Carmichael, released as a single by Charles in 1960.^[21]^[24] The song served as Charles's first work with Feller, who arranged and conducted the recording. Charles also earned another Grammy for the follow-up "Hit the Road Jack", written by R&B singer Percy Mayfield.^[25] By late 1961, Charles had expanded his small road ensemble to a full-scale big band, partly as a response to increasing royalties and touring fees, becoming one of the few black artists to crossover into mainstream pop with such a level of creative control.^[21]^[26] This success, however, came to a momentary halt in November 1961, as a police search of Charles's hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana during a concert tour led to the discovery of heroin in his medicine cabinet. The case was eventually dropped, as the search lacked a proper warrant by the police, and Charles soon returned his focus on music and recording.^[26]

The 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and its sequel Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2, helped to bring country into the mainstream of music. His version of the Don Gibson song, I Can't Stop Loving You topped the Pop chart for five weeks and stayed at No. 1 R&B for ten weeks in 1962. It also gave him his only number one record in the UK. In 1962, he founded his own record label, Tangerine Records, which ABC-Paramount promoted and distributed.^[27]^[28] He also had major pop hits in 1963 with "Busted" (US No. 4) and Take These Chains From My Heart (US No. 8). With the rise of younger soul performers such as James Brown, Otis Redding and Motown singers such as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and its own blind artist, Stevie Wonder, Charles' successes on the pop and R&B charts peaked after 1964 though he remained a huge concert draw.

Later years: 1967-2004 [link]

1972 meeting of President Nixon and Ray Charles taken by Oliver F. Atkins

By 1967, Charles' commercial success had begun peaking on both pop and R&B charts though he would remain a concert draw both in the states and overseas. In 1965, Charles' career after being arrested for a third time for heroin halted after he agreed to go to rehab to avoid jail time. Charles kicked his habit at a clinic in Los Angeles. After spending a year on parole, Charles reemerged on the charts in 1966 with a series of hits composed with the fledgling team of Ashford & Simpson including the dance number, "I Don't Need No Doctor" (later covered in a hard rock style by British supergroup Humble Pie), "Let's Go Get Stoned", which became his first #1 R&B hit in several years, and "Crying Time", which reached #6 on the pop chart and later helped Charles win a Grammy Award the following March.

In 1967, he had a top twenty hit with another ballad, "Here We Go Again".^[29] Charles' renewed chart success, however, proved to be short lived and by the late 1960s his music was rarely played on radio stations partly due to the rise of psychedelic rock and harder forms of rock and R&B music and also due to Charles choosing to record pop standards and covers of then-modern day rock and soul hits as he had no desire to write due to him earning masters. Most of his recordings between 1966 and 1973 were either received well or poorly.^[12] Nonetheless, Charles continued to have an active recording career. Charles' 1972 album, Message from the People, included his unique gospel-influenced version of "America the Beautiful". In 1974, he left ABC Records and recorded several albums on his own Crossover Records label. His 1975 recording of Stevie Wonder's hit, "Living for the City" later helped Charles win another Grammy.

In 1977, he reunited with Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler and re-signed to Atlantic Records where he recorded the album, True to Life. However, the label had now begun focusing on rock acts and some of the label's prominent soul artists such as Aretha Franklin were starting to be neglected. Charles stayed with his old label until 1980. In November 1977 he appeared as the host of NBC's Saturday Night Live.^[30] In April of 1979, Charles' version of "Georgia On My Mind" was proclaimed the state song of Georgia. An emotional Charles performed the song on the floor of the state legislature.^[12] Though he notably supported the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1960s, Charles would be criticized for performing at South Africa's Sun City resort in 1981 during an international boycott of its apartheid policy.^[12] In 1983, Charles signed a contract with Columbia Records and recorded a string of country albums. Charles also began having a string of country hits often with duet singers such as George Jones, Chet Atkins, B.J. Thomas, Mickey Gilley, Hank Williams, Jr. and lifelong friend Willie Nelson, for which he recorded the #1 country duet, "Seven Spanish Angels". After 1987, his Columbia contract ended and Charles returned to recording pop music after signing with Warner Bros. Records. Prior to the release of his first Warner release, Would You Believe, Charles made a return on the R&B charts with a cover of The Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You", a duet with his lifelong buddy Quincy Jones and singer Chaka Khan. The song hit number-one on the R&B charts in 1990 and won Charles and Khan a Grammy for their dual work. Prior to this, Charles returned on the pop charts in another duet, with singer Billy Joel on the song, "Baby Grand" and in 1989, recorded a cover of the Southern All Stars' "Itoshi no Ellie", releasing it as "Ellie My Love" for a Japanese TV ad for Suntory releasing it in Japan where it reached #3 on its Oricon chart.^[31] Charles' 1993 album, My World became his first album in some time to reach the Billboard 200 and his cover of Leon Russell's "A Song for You" gave him a charted hit on the adult contemporary chart as well as his twelfth and final Grammy he would receive in his lifetime.

By the beginning of the 1980s, Charles would reach younger audiences by appearances in various films and TV shows. In 1980, he made a cameo on the film, The Blues Brothers. While he never appeared on the show, Charles' version of "Night Time is the Right Time" was played during the popular "Cosby Show" episode, "Happy Anniversary". In 1985, he appeared among a slew of other popular musicians in the USA for Africa charity recording, "We Are the World". Charles' popularity increased among younger audiences in 1991 after he appeared where he popularized the catchphrase "You Got the Right One, Baby" The catchphrase came from a song that was composed by Kenny Ascher, Joseph C. Caro and Helary Jay Lipsitz.^[32]

Charles with President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1984.

Charles also appeared at two Presidential inaugurations in his lifetime. In 1985, he performed for Ronald Reagan's second inauguration, and in 1993 for Bill Clinton's first.^[33] In the late 1980s/early 1990s, Charles made appearances on the Super Dave Osbourne TV show, where he performed and appeared in a few vignettes where he was somehow driving a car, often as Super Dave's chauffeur. During the sixth season of Designing Women, Charles sang "Georgia on My Mind", instead of the song being rendered instrumentally by other musicians as in the previous five seasons. He also appeared in 4 episodes of the popular TV comedy The Nanny in Seasons 4 & 5 (1997 & 1998) as 'Sammy', in one episode singing "My Yiddish Mamma" to December romance and later fiancee of character Gramma Yetta, played by veteran actress Ann Guilbert. From 2001-2002, Charles appeared in commercials for the New Jersey Lottery to promote its "For every dream, there's a jackpot" campaign.

In 2003, Ray Charles headlined the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C. where the President, First Lady, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice attended. He also presented one of his greatest admirers, Van Morrison, with his award upon being inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the two sang Morrison's song "Crazy Love". This performance appears on Morrison's 2007 album, The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3. In 2003 Charles performed "Georgia On My Mind" and "America the Beautiful" at a televised annual electronic media journalist banquet held in Washington, D.C. His final public appearance came on April 30, 2004, at the dedication of his music studio as a historic landmark in the city of Los Angeles.^[12]

Personal life [link]

Family [link]

Charles was married twice and had 12 children with nine different women.^[34]^[35] His first marriage to Eileen Williams was brief: July 31, 1951 to 1952. He had three children from his second marriage, to Della Beatrice Howard Robinson from April 5, 1955 to April 26, 1977. His long term girlfriend and partner at the time of his death was Norma Pinella. His first child, Evelyn, was born in 1950 to girlfriend Louise Mitchell. His three children with Della, Ray Charles, Jr., David and Robert, were born in 1955, 1958 and 1960 respectively. Another son, Charles Wayne, was born in 1959 during his six-year long affair with original Raelettes vocalist Margie Hendricks. In 1961, a daughter, Raenee, was born during an affair with Mae Mosely Lyles. Two years later, in 1963, Charles and Sandra Jean Betts welcomed daughter Sheila Raye Charles Robinson.^[36] In 1966, a daughter named Alicia was born by a woman who remains unidentified to this day, followed by another daughter, Alexandra, born to a woman named Chantal Bertrand. Charles' next child, Vincent, came from a relationship with Arlette Kotchounian following his divorce from Della Howard in 1977. A year later, daughter Robyn was born to a woman named Gloria Moffett. Charles' youngest child, son Ryan Corey, was born in 1987 to Mary Anne den Bok.

Charles gave 10 of his 12 children checks for one million USD in December 2002 at a family luncheon, while the other two could not make it.^[37]

Substance abuse and legal issues [link]

On November 14, 1961, Charles was arrested on a narcotics charge in an Indiana hotel room, where he waited to perform. The detectives seized heroin, marijuana, and other items. Charles, then 31, stated that he had been a drug addict since the age of 16. While the case was dismissed because of the manner in which the evidence was obtained,^[38] Charles's situation did not improve until a few years later. Individuals such as Quincy Jones and Reverend Henry Griffin felt that those around Charles were responsible for his drug use.

By 1964 Charles' drug addiction caught up with him and he was arrested for possession of marijuana and heroin. Following a self-imposed stay^[38] at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood, California, Charles received five years' probation. Charles responded to the saga of his drug use and reform with the songs "I Don't Need No Doctor", "Let's Go Get Stoned", and the release of his first album since having kicked his heroin addiction in 1966, Crying Time.^[39]^[40]

Other interests [link]

Charles played chess using a special board with holes for the pieces and raised squares.^[41] Charles referred to Willie Nelson as "my chess partner" in a 1991 concert.^[42] In 2002, he played and lost to American Grandmaster and former U.S. Champion Larry Evans.^[43]

Death [link]

Charles died on June 10, 2004 at 11:35 a.m. of liver disease at his home in Beverly Hills, California, surrounded by family and friends.^[44]^[45] He was 73 years old. His body was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery.

Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6777 Hollywood Blvd.

His final album, Genius Loves Company, released two months after his death, consists of duets with various admirers and contemporaries: B.B. King, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, and Johnny Mathis. The album won eight Grammy Awards, including five for Ray Charles for Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones, and Best Gospel Performance for "Heaven Help Us All" with Gladys Knight; he also received nods for his duets with Elton John and B.B. King. The album included a version of Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow", sung as a duet by Charles and Johnny Mathis; this record was played at his memorial service.^[46]

Two more posthumous albums, Genius & Friends (2005) and Ray Sings, Basie Swings (2006), were released. Genius & Friends consisted of duets recorded from 1997 to 2005 with his choice of artists. Ray Sings, Basie Swings consists of archived vocals of Ray Charles from live mid-1970s performances added to new instrumental tracks specially recorded by the contemporary Count Basie Orchestra and other musicians. Charles's vocals recorded from the concert mixing board were added to new accompaniments to create a "fantasy concert" recording.

Legacy [link]

File:RayCharlesStatue.jpg

Statue by Andy Davis in Ray Charles Plaza in Albany, Georgia

Charles possessed one of the most recognizable voices in American music. In the words of musicologist Henry Pleasants:

Sinatra, and Bing Crosby before him, had been masters of words. Ray Charles is a master of sounds. His records disclose an extraordinary assortment of slurs, glides, turns, shrieks, wails, breaks, shouts, screams and hollers, all wonderfully controlled, disciplined by inspired musicianship, and harnessed to ingenious subtleties of harmony, dynamics and rhythm... It is either the singing of a man whose vocabulary is inadequate to express what is in his heart and mind or of one whose feelings are too intense for satisfactory verbal or conventionally melodic articulation. He can’t tell it to you. He can’t even sing it to you. He has to cry out to you, or shout to you, in tones eloquent of despair — or exaltation. The voice alone, with little assistance from the text or the notated music, conveys the message.

Ray Charles is usually described as a baritone, and his speaking voice would suggest as much, as would the difficulty he experiences in reaching and sustaining the baritone's high E and F in a popular ballad. But the voice undergoes some sort of transfiguration under stress, and in music of gospel or blues character he can and does sing for measures on end in the high tenor range of A, B flat, B, C and ev in full voice, sometimes in an ecstatic head voice, sometimes in falsetto. In falsetto he continues up to E and F above high C. On one extraordinary record, "I’m Going Down to the River’ . . . he hits an incredible B flat . . . giving him an overall range, including the falsetto extension, of at least three octaves.^[47]

In 1979, Charles was one of the first of the Georgia State Music Hall of Fame to be recognized as a musician born in the state.^[48] Ray's version of "Georgia On My Mind" was made the official state song for Georgia.^[49] In 1981, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was one of the first inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony in 1986.^[50] He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986.^[51]

In 1987, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1991, he was inducted to the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.^[52] In 1998 he was awarded the Polar Music Prize together with Ravi Shankar in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2004 he was inducted to the Jazz Hall of Fame, and inducted to the National Black Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame.^[53] The Grammy Awards of 2005 were dedicated to Charles.

On December 7, 2007, Ray Charles Plaza was opened in Albany, Georgia, with a revolving, lighted bronze sculpture of Charles seated at a piano. Later that month, on December 26, 2007, Ray Charles was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. He was also presented with the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, during the 1991 UCLA Spring Sing.^[54]

In 2003, Charles was awarded an honorary degree by Dillard University. Upon his death, he endowed a professorship of African-American culinary history at the school, which is the first such chair in the nation.^[55] A $20 million performing arts center at Morehouse College was named after Charles and was dedicated in September 2010.^[56]

The biopic Ray, released in October 2004, portrays his life and career between 1930 and 1979 and stars Jamie Foxx as Charles. Foxx won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor for the role.

Discography [link]

Main article: Ray Charles discography

References [link]

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^ ^a ^b VH1 (2003), p. 210.
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^ Guide Profile: Ray Charles. About.com. Retrieved on 2008-12-12.
^ Soul Survivor Ray Charles. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2008-11-09.
^ Tyrangiel, Josh. Review: Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Time. Retrieved on 2009-07-21.
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^ "Chess News - GM Larry Melvyn Evans (1932 – 2010)". ChessBase.com. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6814. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
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^ "Inductees". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum. Archived from the original on November 23, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061123064050/http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=76. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
^ "List of Kennedy Center Honorees". Kennedy Center. 1986. http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/specialevents/honors/history/home.html. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
^ "Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts". Nea.gov. http://www.nea.gov/honors/medals/medalists_year.html#93. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
^ "Hall of Fame". National Black Sports & Entertainment. 2004. http://www.harlemdiscover.com/halloffame. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
^ "Calendar & Events: Spring Sing: Gershwin Award". UCLA. http://www.uclalumni.net/CalendarEvents/springsing/Gershwin/winners.cfm.
^ Read, Mimi (February 23, 2005). "A Gift to Black Cuisine, From Ray Charles". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E0D91F3AF930A15751C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
^ "Morehouse Cuts the Ribbon on the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center and Music Academic Building". Morehouse College. http://www.morehouse.edu/news/archives/002313.html. Retrieved 2010-10-11.

Bibliography [link]

Charles, Ray and Ritz, David (2004). Brother Ray: Ray Charles' Own Story (Third Da Capo Press ed.). Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81431-5.
VH1 (see list of contributors) (2003). 100 Greatest Albums. edited by Jacob Hoye. Simon & Schuster, USA. p. 210. ISBN 0-7434-4876-6.
Lydon, Michael (1998). Ray Charles: Man and Music. Riverhead Books. ISBN 1-57322-132-5.

External links [link]

	Book: Ray Charles
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ray Charles

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ray Charles

Official website
Article from the St. Augustine Record noting Charles' being on WFOY.
Ray Charles - Daily Telegraph obituary
Ray Charles discography at MusicBrainz
Ray Charles at RollingStone
Ray Charles at Songwriters Hall of Fame
Ray Charles at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Ray Charles at the Internet Movie Database
Ray Charles at Allmusic
Ray Charles discography at Discogs
Ray Charles autobiography: The Early Years 1930–1960
I Can't Stop Loving You: Ray Charles and Country Music - Past Exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Ray Charles's oral history video excerpts at the National Visionary Leadership Project
Ray Charles interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969).

v t e Ray Charles

Studio albums	Ray Charles (Hallelujah, I Love Her So) The Great Ray Charles Yes Indeed! Soul Brothers What'd I Say The Genius of Ray Charles Genius+Soul = Jazz The Genius Hits the Road Dedicated to You Ray Charles and Betty Carter The Genius Sings the Blues Soul Meeting The Genius After Hours Ray Charles Greatest Hits Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2 Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul Sweet & Sour Tears Have a Smile with Me Together Again / Country and Western Meets Rhythm and Blues Crying Time Ray's Moods Ray Charles Invites You to Listen A Portrait of Ray I'm All Yours Baby! Doing His Thing My Kind of Jazz Love Country Style Volcanic Action of My Soul A Message From the People Through the Eyes of Love Jazz Number II Come Live With Me Renaissance My Kind of Jazz Part 3 Porgy and Bess with Cleo Laine True to Life Love & Peace Ain't It So Brother Ray Is at It Again Wish You Were Here Tonight Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? Friendship The Spirit of Christmas From the Pages of My Mind Just Between Us Would You Believe? My World Strong Love Affair Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again Genius Loves Company

Posthumous studio creations	Genius & Friends Ray Sings, Basie Swings Rare Genius

Live albums	Ray Charles at Newport Ray Charles in Person Live in Concert Live in Japan (Ray Charles Live) Berlin, '62 Ray Charles Celebrates a Gospel Christmas with the Voices of Jubilation Live at the Olympia, 2000

Notable compilations	Do the Twist! with Ray Charles The Ray Charles Story, Vol 1~4 A Man and His Soul The Best of Ray Charles Anthology Seven Spanish Angels and Other Hits The Birth of Soul Genius and Soul The Complete Swing Time & Down Beat Recordings Ultimate Hits Collection Ray Charles in Concert Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 Singles	"What'd I Say " "Georgia on My Mind " "Hit the Road Jack" "One Mint Julep" "Unchain My Heart" "I Can't Stop Loving You " "You Don't Know Me" "You Are My Sunshine" "Busted" "Take These Chains from My Heart" "Crying Time"

Other Billboard Charts #1 singles	"I Got a Woman" "A Fool for You" "Mary Ann" "Drown in My Own Tears" "Together Again" "Let's Go Get Stoned" "Seven Spanish Angels" "I'll Be Good to You"

Grammy Awarded Works (not included above)	"Let The Good Times Roll" "Living for the City" "A Song for You" "Heaven Help Us All " "Here We Go Again"

See also	David "Fathead" Newman Fathead / Ray Charles Sextet Hank Crawford The Raelettes Ray Quincy Jones The Blues Brothers Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles

Discography Albums Songs Audio samples

v t e Laureates of the Polar Music Prize

1992–1999	Paul McCartney / the Baltic states (1992) Dizzy Gillespie / Witold Lutosławski (1993) Quincy Jones / Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1994) Elton John / Mstislav Rostropovich (1995) Joni Mitchell / Pierre Boulez (1996) Bruce Springsteen / Eric Ericson (1997) Ray Charles / Ravi Shankar (1998) Stevie Wonder / Iannis Xenakis (1999)

2000–2009	Bob Dylan / Isaac Stern (2000) Burt Bacharach / Robert Moog / Karlheinz Stockhausen (2001) Miriam Makeba / Sofia Gubaidulina (2002) Keith Jarrett (2003) B.B. King / György Ligeti (2004) Gilberto Gil / Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (2005) Led Zeppelin / Valery Gergiev (2006) Sonny Rollins / Steve Reich (2007) Pink Floyd / Renée Fleming (2008) Peter Gabriel / José Antonio Abreu / El Sistema (2009)

2010–present	Björk / Ennio Morricone (2010) Kronos Quartet / Patti Smith (2011)

v t e Kennedy Center Honorees (1980s)

1980	Leonard Bernstein James Cagney Agnes de Mille Lynn Fontanne Leontyne Price

1981	Count Basie Cary Grant Helen Hayes Jerome Robbins Rudolf Serkin

1982	George Abbott Lillian Gish Benny Goodman Gene Kelly Eugene Ormandy

1983	Katherine Dunham Elia Kazan Frank Sinatra James Stewart Virgil Thomson

1984	Lena Horne Danny Kaye Gian Carlo Menotti Arthur Miller Isaac Stern

1985	Merce Cunningham Irene Dunne Bob Hope Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe Beverly Sills

1986	Lucille Ball Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy Yehudi Menuhin Antony Tudor Ray Charles

1987	Perry Como Bette Davis Sammy Davis, Jr. Nathan Milstein Alwin Nikolais

1988	Alvin Ailey George Burns Myrna Loy Alexander Schneider Roger L. Stevens

1989	Harry Belafonte Claudette Colbert Alexandra Danilova Mary Martin William Schuman

complete list 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

Grammy Award for Record of the Year (2000s)

"Smooth"* by Santana (Rodney Holmes, Tony Lindsay, Karl Perazzo, Raul Rekow, Benny Rietveld, Carlos Santana, Chester Thompson) featuring Rob Thomas engineered/mixed by David Thoener, produced by Matt Serletic (2000)	"Beautiful Day"* by U2 (Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr.) engineered/mixed by Richard Rainey & Steve Lillywhite; produced by Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois (2001)
"Walk On" by U2 (Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr.) engineered/mixed by Richard Rainey & Steve Lillywhite; produced by Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois (2002)	"Don't Know Why"* by Norah Jones; engineered/mixed by Jay Newland; produced by Arif Mardin, Jay Newland & Norah Jones (2003)
"Clocks" by Coldplay (Guy Berryman, Jon Buckland, Will Champion, Phil Harvey, Chris Martin) engineered/mixed by Coldplay, Ken Nelson & Mark Phythian; produced by Coldplay & Ken Nelson (2004)	"Here We Go Again" by Ray Charles and Norah Jones engineered/mixed by Al Schmitt, Mark Fleming, & Terry Howard; produced by John R. Burk (2005)
"Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day (Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, Frank Edwin Wright III) engineered/mixed by Chris Lord-Alge & Doug McKean, produced by Green Day & Rob Cavallo (2006)	"Not Ready to Make Nice"* by Dixie Chicks (Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison) engineered/mixed by Chris Testa, Jim Scott & Richard Dodd; produced by Rick Rubin (2007)
"Rehab"* by Amy Winehouse engineered/mixed by Tom Elmhirst, Vaughan Merrick, Dom Morley, Mark Ronson & Gabriel Roth; produced by Mark Ronson (2008)	"Please Read the Letter" by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant engineered/mixed by Mike Piersante; produced by T-Bone Burnett (2009)

Grammy Award for Album of the Year (2000s)

Supernatural performed by Santana (Rodney Holmes, Tony Lindsay, Karl Perazzo, Raul Rekow, Benny Rietveld, Carlos Santana, Chester Thompson); engineered/mixed by Alvaro Villagra, Andy Grassi, Anton Pukshansky, Benny Faccone, Chris Theis, Commissioner Gordon, David Frazer, David Thoener, Glenn Kolotkin, Jeff Poe, Jim Gaines, Jim Scott, John Gamble, John Karpowich, John Seymour, Matty Spindel, Mike Couzzi, Steve Farrone, Steve Fontano, T-Ray, Tom Lord-Alge, Tony Prendatt & Warren Riker; produced by Alex Gonzales, Art Hodge, Charles Goodan, Clive Davis, Dante Ross, Dust Brothers, Fher Olvera, Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis, K. C. Porter, Lauryn Hill, Matt Serletic, Stephen M. Harris & Wyclef Jean (2000)	Two Against Nature performed by Steely Dan (Walter Becker, Donald Fagen); engineered/mixed by Dave Russell, Elliot Scheiner, Phil Burnett & Roger Nichols; produced by Donald Fagen & Walter Becker (2001)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack performed by Alison Krauss & Union Station (Barry Bales, Ron Block, Jerry Douglas, Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski), Chris Sharp, Chris Thomas King, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Harley Allen, John Hartford, Mike Compton, Norman Blake, Pat Enright, Peasall Sisters (Hannah Peasall, Leah Peasall, Sarah Peasall), Ralph Stanley, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, The Cox Family (Evelyn Cox, Sidney Cox, Suzanne Cox, Willard Cox), The Fairfield Four (Nathan Best, Isaac Freeman, Robert Hamlett, James Hill, Joseph Rice, Wilson Waters, Jr.), The Whites (Buck White, Cheryl White, Sharon White) & Tim Blake Nelson; engineered/mixed by Mike Piersante & Peter Kurland; master engineered by Gavin Lurssen; produced by T-Bone Burnett (2002)	Come Away with Me performed by Norah Jones; engineered/mixed by Jay Newland & S. Husky Höskulds; master engineered by Ted Jensen; produced by Arif Mardin, Craig Street, Jay Newland & Norah Jones (2003)
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below performed by OutKast (André 3000, Big Boi); engineered/mixed by Brian Paturalski, Chris Carmouche, Darrell Thorp, Dexter Simmons, John Frye, Kevin Davis, Matt Still, Moka Nagatani, Neal H. Pogue, Padraic Kernin, Pete Novak, Reggie Dozier, Robert Hannon, Terrence Cash & Vincent Alexander; master engineered by Bernie Grundman & Brian Gardner; produced by André 3000, Big Boi & Carl Mo (2004)	Genius Loves Company performed by Ray Charles and Various Artists; engineered/mixed by Al Schmitt, Ed Thacker, Joel W. Moss, John Harris, Mark Fleming, Pete Karam, Robert Fernandez, Seth Presant & Terry Howard; master engineered by Doug Sax & Robert Hadley; produced by Don Mizell, Herbert Waltl, John R. Burk, Phil Ramone & Terry Howard (2005)
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb performed by U2 (Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr.); engineered/mixed by Carl Glanville, Flood, Greg Collins, Jacknife Lee, Nellee Hooper, Simon Gogerly & Steve Lillywhite; master engineered by Arnie Acosta; produced by Brian Eno, Chris Thomas, Daniel Lanois, Flood, Jacknife Lee & Steve Lillywhite (2006)	Taking the Long Way performed by Dixie Chicks (Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison); engineered/mixed by Chris Testa, Jim Scott & Richard Dodd; master engineered by Richard Dodd; produced by Rick Rubin (2007)
River: The Joni Letters performed by Herbie Hancock; featuring Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell, Corinne Bailey Rae , Tina Turner ; produced by Herbie Hancock & Larry Klein; engineered/mixed by Helik Hadar; master engeineered by Bernie Grundman (2008)	Raising Sand performed by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss; produced by T-Bone Burnett; engineered/mixed by Mike Piersante; master engeineered by Gavin Lurssen (2009)

Persondata
Name	Charles, Ray
Alternative names	Robinson, Ray Charles
Short description	Vocalist, musician, songwriter, arranger, bandleader
Date of birth	September 23, 1930
Place of birth	Albany, Georgia, U.S.
Date of death	June 10, 2004
Place of death	Beverly Hills, California, U.S.

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Sir Elton John CBE
Elton John attending the premiere of The Union at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival
Background information
Birth name	Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Born	(1947-03-25) 25 March 1947 (age 65) Pinner, Middlesex, England
Genres	Rock, R&B, pop rock, glam rock, soft rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, composer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar
Years active	1964–68 (Bluesology) 1969–present (Solo)
Labels	DJM, Uni, MCA, Geffen, Rocket/Island, Universal, Interscope, Mercury, UMG
Associated acts	Bernie Taupin, Tim Rice, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Kiki Dee, Billy Joel, George Michael, Eminem, Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Neil Sedaka
Website	eltonjohn.com

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.

In his four-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time.^[1] His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in Billboard history.^[2] He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.^[3]

John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.^[4] Having been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, John received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998.^[5]

He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s.^[6] In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation and a year later began hosting the annual Academy Award Party, which has since become one of the most high-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over $200 million.^[7]

John entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish^[8] on 21 December 2005 and continues to be a champion for LGBT social movements. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him as the most successful male solo artist on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists" (third overall, behind only The Beatles and Madonna).^[9]

Life and career [link]

Early life [link]

John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947, the eldest child of Stanley and only child of Sheila Eileen Dwight (née Harris)^[10]^[11]^[12] and was raised in Pinner, Middlesex in a council house of his maternal grandparents. His parents did not marry until he was 6 years old, when the family moved to a nearby semi-detached house.^[13]^[14]^[15] He was educated at Pinner Wood Junior School, Reddiford School and Pinner County Grammar School, until age 17, when he left just prior to his A Level examinations to pursue a career in the music industry.^[16]^[17]^[18]

When John began to seriously consider a career in music, his father, who served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, tried to steer him toward a more conventional career, such as banking.^[16] John has stated that his wild stage costumes and performances were his way of letting go after such a restrictive childhood.^[18] Both of John's parents were musically inclined, his father having been a trumpet player with the Bob Millar Band, a semi-professional big band that played at military dances.^[18] The Dwights were keen record buyers, exposing John to the popular singers and musicians of the day, and John remembers being immediately hooked on rock and roll when his mother brought home records by Elvis Presley and Bill Haley & His Comets in 1956.^[16]^[17]

John started playing the piano at the age of 3, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out Winifred Atwell's "The Skater's Waltz" by ear.^[16]^[17] After performing at parties and family gatherings, at the age of 7 he took up formal piano lessons. He showed musical aptitude at school, including the ability to compose melodies, and gained some notoriety by playing like Jerry Lee Lewis at school functions. At the age of 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. According to one of his instructors, John promptly played back, like a "gramophone record", a four-page piece by Handel that he heard for the first time.^[17]

For the next five years he attended Saturday classes at the Academy in central London, and has stated that he enjoyed playing Chopin and Bach and singing in the choir during Saturday classes, but that he was not otherwise a diligent classical student.^[17] "I kind of resented going to the Academy", he says. "I was one of those children who could just about get away without practising and still pass, scrape through the grades."^[17] He even claims that he would sometimes skip classes and just ride around on the Tube.^[17] However, several instructors have testified that he was a "model student", and during the last few years he was taking lessons from a private tutor in addition to his classes at the Academy.^[17]

John's mother, though also strict with her son, was more vivacious than her husband, and something of a free spirit. With Stanley Dwight uninterested in his son and often physically absent, John was raised primarily by his mother and maternal grandmother. When his father was home, the Dwights would have terrible arguments that greatly distressed their son.^[17] When John was 14, they divorced.^[19] His mother then married a local painter, Fred Farebrother, a caring and supportive stepfather whom John affectionately referred to as "Derf", his first name in reverse.^[17] They moved into flat No. 1A in an eight-unit apartment building called Frome Court, not far from both previous homes. It was there that John would write the songs that would launch his career as a rock star; he would live there until he had four albums simultaneously in the American Top 40.^[20]

Pub pianist to staff songwriter (1962–1969)[link]

[edit] Debut album to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1969–1973)

When John transitioned to solo performance, he started wearing increasingly flamboyant clothing onstage, including this hat and domino mask

On the advice of music publisher Steve Brown, John and Taupin started writing more complex songs for John to record for DJM. The first was the single "I've Been Loving You" (1968), produced by Caleb Quaye, former Bluesology guitarist. In 1969, with Quaye, drummer Roger Pope, and bassist Tony Murray, John recorded another single, "Lady Samantha", and an album, Empty Sky.

For their follow-up album, Elton John, John and Taupin enlisted Gus Dudgeon as producer and Paul Buckmaster as musical arranger. Elton John was released in April 1970 on DJM Records/Pye Records in the UK and Uni Records in the USA, and established the formula for subsequent albums; gospel-chorded rockers and poignant ballads. The first single from the album, "Border Song", made into the US Top 100, peaking at Number 92. The second single "Your Song" made the US Top Ten, peaking at number eight and becoming John's first hit single as a singer. The album soon became his first hit album, reaching number four on the Billboard 200 album chart.^[31]

Backed by ex-Spencer Davis Group drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray, John's first American concert took place at The Troubadour in Los Angeles in August 1970, and was a success.^[32]

The concept album Tumbleweed Connection was released in October 1970, and reached the Top Ten on the Billboard 200. The live album 17-11-70 (11–17–70 in the US) was recorded at a live show aired from A&R Studios on WABC-FM in New York City. Sales of the live album were heavily hit in the US when an east coast bootlegger released the performance several weeks before the official album, including all 60 minutes of the aircast, not just the 40 minutes selected by Dick James Music.^[33]

Elton John at the Musikhalle, Hamburg in March 1972

John and Taupin then wrote the soundtrack to the obscure film Friends and then the album Madman Across the Water, the latter reaching the Top Ten and producing the hit "Levon", while the soundtrack album produced the hit "Friends". In 1972, Davey Johnstone joined the Elton John Band on guitar and backing vocals. The band released Honky Chateau, which became John's first American number 1 album, spending five weeks at the top of the charts and spawning the hit singles "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time)" (which is often compared to David Bowie's "Space Oddity") and "Honky Cat".^[34]

The pop album Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player came out at the start of 1973, and produced the hits "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel"; the former became his first US Billboard Hot 100 number one hit.^[35] Both the album and "Crocodile Rock" were the first album and single, respectively on the consolidated MCA Records label in the USA, replacing MCA's other labels including Uni.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road gained instant critical acclaim and topped the chart on both sides of the Atlantic, remaining at Number 1 for two months.^[36] It also temporarily established John as a glam rock star. It contained the number 1 hit "Bennie and the Jets", along with the popular and praised "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Candle in the Wind", "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting", "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" and "Grey Seal" (originally recorded and released in 1970 as the B-side to the UK-only single, "Rock and Roll Madonna"). There is also a VHS and DVD as part of the Classic Albums series, discussing the making, recording, and popularity of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" through concert and home video footage including interviews.

[edit] Rocket Records to 21 at 33 (1974–1979)

Elton John performing live in 1975

John formed his own MCA-distributed label Rocket Records and signed acts to it – notably Neil Sedaka ("Bad Blood", on which he sang background vocals) and Kiki Dee – in which he took a personal interest. Instead of releasing his own records on Rocket, he opted for $8 million offered by MCA. When the contract was signed in 1974, MCA reportedly took out a $25 million insurance policy on John's life.^[37]

In 1974 a collaboration with John Lennon took place, resulting in Elton John covering The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and Lennon's "One Day at a Time", and in return Elton John and band being featured on Lennon's "Whatever Gets You thru the Night". In what would be Lennon's last live performance, the pair performed these two number 1 hits along with the Beatles classic "I Saw Her Standing There" at Madison Square Garden. Lennon made the rare stage appearance to keep the promise he made that he would appear on stage with Elton if "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" became a number 1 single.^[38]

Caribou was released in 1974, and although it reached number 1, it was widely considered^[39] a lesser quality album. Reportedly recorded in a scant two weeks between live appearances, it featured "The Bitch Is Back"^[39] and the lushly orchestrated "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me".^[39]

John performing, 1975.

Pete Townshend of The Who asked John to play a character called the "Local Lad" in the film of the rock opera Tommy, and to perform the song "Pinball Wizard". Drawing on power chords, John's version was recorded and used for the movie release in 1975 and the single came out in 1976 (1975 in the US). The song charted at number 7 in England. Bally subsequently released a "Captain Fantastic" pinball machine featuring an illustration of John in his movie guise.

In the 1975 autobiographical album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, John revealed his previously ambiguous personality, with Taupin's lyrics describing their early days as struggling songwriters and musicians in London. The lyrics and accompanying photo booklet are infused with a specific sense of place and time that is otherwise rare in John's music. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was the hit single from this album and captured an early turning point in John's life.

The album's release signalled the end of the Elton John Band, as an unhappy and overworked John dismissed Olsson and Murray, two people who had contributed much of the band's signature sound and who had helped build his live following since the beginning.

According to Circus Magazine^[40] a spokesman for John Reid (Connie Papas) said the decision was reached mutually via phone while Elton was in Australia promoting Tommy. She said there was no way John Reid could have fired them "because the band are not employed by John Reid, they're employed by Elton John."^[40] She went on to say Nigel would be going back to his solo work and Dee would do session work "and possibly cut a solo album".^[40]

Davey Johnstone and Ray Cooper were retained, Quaye and Roger Pope returned, and the new bassist was Kenny Passarelli; this rhythm section provided a heavier-sounding backbeat. James Newton-Howard joined to arrange in the studio and to play keyboards. John introduced the line-up before a crowd of 75,000 in London's Wembley Stadium.

John in 1975.

The rock-oriented Rock of the Westies entered the US albums chart at number 1 like Captain Fantastic, a previously unattained feat. Elton John's stage wardrobe now included ostrich feathers, $5,000 spectacles that spelled his name in lights, and dressing up like the Statue of Liberty, Donald Duck, or Mozart, among others, at his concerts.^[41]^[42]

To celebrate five years since he first appeared at the venue, in 1975 John played a two-night, four-show stand at The Troubadour. With seating limited to under 500 per show, the chance to purchase tickets was determined by a postcard lottery, with each winner allowed two tickets. Everyone who attended the performances received a hardbound "yearbook" of the band's history. That year he also played piano on Kevin Ayers' Sweet Deceiver, and was among the first and few white artists to appear on the black music series Soul Train on American television.^[36] On 9 August 1975, John was named the outstanding rock personality of the year at the first annual Rock Music Awards at ceremonies held in Santa Monica, California.^[43]

In 1976, the live album Here and There was released in May, followed by the Blue Moves album in October, which contained the single "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word". His biggest success in 1976 was "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", a duet with Kiki Dee that topped both the American and British charts. Finally, in an interview with Rolling Stone that year entitled "Elton's Frank Talk", John stated that he was bisexual.^[44]

John playing in Mannheim, Germany in 1979.

Besides being the most commercially successful period, 1970–1976 is also held in the most regard critically. Within only a three year span, between 1972 and 1975 John saw seven consecutive albums reach Number 1 in the charts, which had not been accomplished before.^[36] Of the six Elton John albums to make the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in Rolling Stone'in 2003, all are from this period, with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ranked highest at number 91; similarly, the three Elton John albums given five stars by Allmusic (Tumbleweed Connection, Honky Château, and Captain Fantastic) are all from this period too.

During the same period, John made a guest appearance on the popular Morecambe and Wise Show on the BBC. The two comics spent the episode pointing him in the direction of everywhere except the stage in order to prevent him singing.^[45]

In November 1977 John announced he was retiring from performing; Taupin began collaborating with others. Now only producing one album a year, John issued A Single Man in 1978, employing a new lyricist, Gary Osborne; the album produced no singles that made the Top 20 in the US but the two singles from the album released in the UK, Part-Time Love and Song for Guy, both made the Top 20 in the UK with the latter reaching the Top 5. In 1979, accompanied by Ray Cooper, John became one of the first Western solo artists to tour the Soviet Union (as well as one of the first in Israel), then mounted a two-man comeback tour of the US in small halls. John returned to the singles chart with "Mama Can't Buy You Love" (number 9, 1979), a song originally rejected in 1977 by MCA before being released, recorded in 1977 with Philadelphia soul producer Thom Bell.^[46] Elton reported that Thom Bell was the first person to give him voice lessons; Bell encouraged John to sing in a lower register. A disco-influenced album, Victim of Love, was poorly received. In 1979, John and Taupin reunited, though they did not collaborate on a full album until 1983's Too Low For Zero. 21 at 33, released the following year, was a significant career boost, aided by his biggest hit in four years, "Little Jeannie" (number 3 US), although the lyrics were written by Gary Osborne.

[edit] The 80s: The Fox to Sleeping with the Past (1981–1989)

Elton performing in the 1980s.

His 1981 album, The Fox, was recorded in part during the same sessions as 21 at 33, and also included collaborations with Tom Robinson and Judie Tzuke. On 13 September 1980, John, with Olsson and Murray back in the Elton John Band, performed a free concert to an estimated 400,000 fans on The Great Lawn in Central Park in New York City. His 1982 hit "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)", came from his Jump Up! album, his second under a new US recording contract with Geffen Records.

He married his close friend and sound engineer, Renate Blauel on Valentine's Day 1984 – the marriage lasted three years.^[47] The Biography Channel Special detailed the loss of Elton's voice in 1986 while on tour in Australia. Shortly thereafter he underwent throat surgery, which permanently altered his voice. Several non-cancerous polyps were removed from his vocal cords, resulting in a change in his singing voice.^[48] In 1987 he won a libel case against The Sun which published allegations of sex with rent boys.^[49]

With original band members Johnstone, Murray and Olsson together again, John was able to return to the charts with the 1983 hit album Too Low for Zero, which included "I'm Still Standing" and "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues", the latter of which featured Stevie Wonder on harmonica and reached number 4 in the US, giving John his biggest hit there since "Little Jeannie". He placed hits in the US Top Ten throughout the 1980s – "Little Jeannie" (number 3, 1980), "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" (number 5, 1984), "Nikita" boosted by a mini-movie pop video directed by Ken Russell (number 7, 1986), a live orchestral version of "Candle in the Wind" (number 6, 1987), and "I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That" (number 2, 1988). His highest-charting single was a collaboration with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder on "That's What Friends Are For" (number 1, 1985); credited as Dionne and Friends, the song raised funds for AIDS research. His albums continued to sell, but of the six released in the latter half of the 1980s, only Reg Strikes Back (number 16, 1988) placed in the Top 20 in the United States.

In 1985, Elton John was one of the many performers at Live Aid held at Wembley Stadium.^[50] John played "Bennie and the Jets" and "Rocket Man"; then "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" with Kiki Dee for the first time in years; and introduced his friend George Michael, still then of Wham!, to sing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me".^[50] He enlisted Michael to sing backing vocals on his single "Wrap Her Up", and also recruited teen idol Nik Kershaw as an instrumentalist on "Nikita". John also recorded material with Millie Jackson in 1985. In 1986, he played the piano on two tracks on the heavy metal band Saxon's album Rock the Nations.

In 1988, he performed five sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden,^[51] giving him 26 for his career. Netting over $20 million, 2,000 items of John's memorabilia were auctioned off at Sotheby's in London.^[52]

[edit] The 90s: "Sacrifice" to Aida (1990–1999)

In 1990, John finally achieved his first UK number one hit on his own, with "Sacrifice" (coupled with "Healing Hands") from the previous year's album Sleeping with the Past; it would stay at the top spot for six weeks.^[53] The following year, John's "Basque" won the Grammy for Best Instrumental, and a guest concert appearance he had made on George Michael's cover of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was released as a single and topped the charts in both the US and UK.^[54] At the 1991 Brit Awards in London, Elton John won the award for Best British Male.^[55]

In 1992 he released the US number 8 album The One, featuring the hit song "The One".^[56]^[57] John and Taupin then signed a music publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music for an estimated $39 million over 12 years, giving them the largest cash advance in music publishing history.^[58] In April 1992, John appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, performing "The Show Must Go On" with the remaining members of Queen, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses and Queen.^[59] In September, John performed "The One" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, and also closed the ceremony performing "November Rain" with Guns N' Roses.^[60] The following year, he released Duets, a collaboration with 15 artists including Tammy Wynette and RuPaul. This also included a new collaboration with Kiki Dee, entitled "True Love", which reached the Top 10 of the UK charts.^[61]

Along with Tim Rice, Elton John wrote the songs for the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King, which became the 3rd highest-grossing animated feature of all time.^[62] At the 67th Academy Awards ceremony, The Lion King provided three of the five nominees for the Academy Award for Best Song, which John won with "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".^[63] Both that and "Circle of Life" became hit songs for John.^[64]^[65] "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" would also win Elton John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 37th Grammy Awards.^[63] After the release of the The Lion King soundtrack, the album remained at the top of Billboard's charts for nine weeks. On 10 November 1999, the RIAA certified The Lion King "Diamond" for selling 15 million copies.^[2]

In 1995 John released Made in England (number 3, 1995), which featured the single "Believe".^[66] John performed "Believe" at the 1995 Brit Awards, and picked up the prize for Outstanding Contribution to Music.^[67] A compilation called Love Songs was released in 1996.^[68]

Early in 1997 John held a 50th birthday party, costumed as Louis XIV, for 500 friends. John also performed with the surviving members of Queen in Paris at the opening night (17 January 1997) of Le Presbytère N'a Rien Perdu De Son Charme Ni Le Jardin De Son Éclat, a work by French ballet legend Maurice Béjart which draws upon AIDS and the deaths of Freddie Mercury and the company's principal dancer Jorge Donn. Later in 1997, two close friends died: designer Gianni Versace was murdered; Diana, Princess of Wales died in a Paris car crash on 31 August.^[69]

	"Candle in the Wind 1997" noicon Most of the lyrics of "Candle in the Wind 1997" were written to suit the circumstances of Diana, Princess of Wales' life and death
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In early September, John contacted his writing partner Bernie Taupin, asking him to revise the lyrics of his 1973 song "Candle in the Wind" to honour Diana, and Taupin rewrote the song accordingly.^[70] On 6 September 1997, John performed "Candle in the Wind 1997" at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in Westminster Abbey.^[71] The song became the fastest, and biggest-selling single of all time, eventually selling over 33 million copies worldwide.^[2]^[72]^[73] The best-selling single in UK Chart history, it sold 4.86 million copies in the UK.^[74] The best-selling single in Billboard history, and the only single ever certified Diamond in the United States, the single sold over 11 million copies in the U.S.^[75]^[76] The song proceeds of approximately £55 million were donated to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. It would win John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 40th Grammy Awards ceremony in 1998.^[73] John has publicly performed "Candle in the Wind 1997" only once, at Diana's funeral, vowing never to perform it again unless asked by Diana's sons.^[77]

In the musical theatre world, in addition to a 1998 adaptation of The Lion King for Broadway, John also composed music for a Disney production of Aida in 1999 with lyricist Tim Rice, for which they received the Tony Award for Best Original Score at the 54th Tony Awards,^[78] and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album at the 43rd Grammy Awards.^[79]^[80] The musical was given its world premiere in the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. It went on to Chicago and eventually Broadway. He also released a live compilation album called Elton John One Night Only – The Greatest Hits from the show he did at Madison Square Garden in New York City that same year.

2000 to present [link]

Elton John performs at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, July 2008

In 2000, John and Tim Rice teamed again to create songs for DreamWorks' animated film The Road to El Dorado. In August 2003, John scored his fifth UK number one single when "Are You Ready for Love" topped the UK Charts.^[81] Returning again to musical theatre, John composed music for a West End Theatre production of Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005 with playwright Lee Hall. John's only theatrical project with Bernie Taupin so far is Lestat: The Musical, based on the Anne Rice vampire novels. However it was slammed by the critics and closed in May 2006 after 39 performances.^[82]

John was named a Disney Legend for his numerous outstanding contributions to Disney's films and theatrical works on 9 October 2006, by The Walt Disney Company.^[83] In 2006 he told Rolling Stone magazine that he plans for his next record to be in the R&B/hip-hop genre. "I want to work with Pharrell {Williams}, Timbaland, Snoop {Dogg}, Kanye {West}, Eminem and just see what happens."^[84]

In March 2007 he performed at Madison Square Garden for a record breaking 60th time for his 60th birthday, the concert was broadcast live and a DVD recording was released as Elton 60 - Live at Madison Square Garden;^[85] a greatest-hits compilation CD, Rocket Man – Number Ones, was released in 17 different versions worldwide, including a CD/DVD combo; and his back catalogue – almost 500 songs from 32 albums – became available for legal download.^[86]

Elton John on stage at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium, London, 1 July 2007

On 1 July 2007, Elton John appeared at the Concert for Diana held at Wembley Stadium in London, in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales, on what would have been her 46th birthday.^[87] John opened the concert with "Your Song", and then closed the concert with his second performance, with "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting", "Tiny Dancer", and "Are You Ready For Love".^[87]

In a September 2008 interview with GQ magazine, John said: "I’m going on the road again with Billy Joel again next year," referring to "Face to Face," a series of concerts featuring both musicians. The tour began in March and will continue for at least two more years.^[88]

In October 2003, John announced that he had signed an exclusive agreement to perform 75 shows over three years at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. The show, entitled The Red Piano, was a multimedia concert featuring massive props and video montages created by David LaChapelle. Effectively, he and Celine Dion share performances at Caesars Palace throughout the year – while one performs, one rests. The first of these shows took place on 13 February 2004.^[89] On 21 June 2008, he performed his 200th show in Caesars Palace. A DVD/CD package of The Red Piano was released through Best Buy in November 2008. A two year global tour was sandwiched between commitments in Las Vegas, Nevada, some of the venues of which were new to John. The Red Piano Tour closed in Las Vegas in April 2009.

Elton John performed a piano duet with Lady Gaga at the 52nd Grammy Awards.^[90] On 6 June 2010, John performed at the fourth wedding of conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh for a reported US$1 million fee.^[91] Eleven days later, and 17 years to the day after his last previous performance in Israel, he performed at the Ramat Gan Stadium; this was significant because of other then-recent cancellations by other performers in the fallout surrounding an Israeli raid on Gaza Flotilla the month before. In his introduction to that concert, Elton John noted he and other musicians should not "cherry-pick our conscience", in reference to Elvis Costello, who was to have performed in Israel two weeks after Elton did, but cancelled in the wake of the aforementioned raid, citing his [Costello's] conscience.^[92]^[93]

John's latest studio album is entitled The Union and was released on 19 October 2010. John says his collaboration with American singer-songwriter and sideman Leon Russell marks a new chapter in his recording career, saying: "I don't have to make pop records any more."^[94]

Elton John began his new show "The Million Dollar Piano" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas on 28 September 2011.^[95] John will be performing the show at Caesars for the next three years. John performed his 3000th concert on Saturday 8 October 2011 at Caesars.^[96]^[97] In 2011, John performed vocals on Snowed in at Wheeler Street with Kate Bush for her 50 Words for Snow album.^[98]

It was announced in March 2012 that Elton had recently completed work on his thirty-first album entitled The Diving Board. The album was produced by T-Bone Burnett and is set for release in the fall of 2012.^[99]^[100] The album's release will be delayed until February 2013 for promotional reasons.^[101]

Artistry [link]

Songwriting [link]

Elton John with Bernie Taupin (left) in 1971.

John has written with his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin since 1967 when he answered an advertisement for talent placed in the popular UK music publication, New Musical Express, by Liberty records A&R man Ray Williams.^[102] The pair have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.^[103]

The 1991 film documentary Two Rooms described the writing style that John and Taupin use, which involves Taupin writing the lyrics on his own, and John then putting them to music, with the two never in the same room during the process. Taupin would write a set of lyrics, then mail them to John, wherever he was in the world, who would then lay down the music, arrange it, and record.^[104] John is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).^[105]

Music style [link]

John's voice was once classed as tenor; it is now baritone.^[17] His piano playing is influenced by classical and gospel music.^[106] He used Paul Buckmaster to arrange the music on his studio albums during the 1970s.^[107]

Personal life [link]

Family [link]

In the late 1960s, John was engaged to be married to his first lover, secretary Linda Woodrow, who is mentioned in the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight".^[108]^[109] He married German recording engineer Renate Blauel on 14 February 1984, in Darling Point, Sydney, with speculation that the marriage was a cover for his homosexuality. John had come out as bisexual in a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone,^[108]^[109] but after his divorce from Blauel in 1988 he told the magazine that he was "comfortable" being gay.^[110]

In 1993, John began a relationship with David Furnish, a former advertising executive and now filmmaker. John and Furnish entered a civil partnership on 21 December 2005. They held a low-key ceremony at the Windsor Guildhall, followed by a lavish party at their Berkshire mansion,^[111] thought to have cost £1 million.^[112] Their son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born to a surrogate mother on 25 December 2010 in California.^[113]^[114] John and Furnish chose Lady Gaga, magazine editor Ingrid Sischy, and Sichy's partner Sandy Brant as Zachary's godmothers.^[115]

In September 2009, John announced his intention to adopt a 14-month-old boy, Lev, from an AIDS orphanage in Ukraine, but he was denied due to his age and marital status.^[116] Furnish stated they would continue to financially support Lev and his brother and would campaign for a change in Ukrainian law.^[117] John has ten known godchildren, including Sean Lennon, David and Victoria Beckham's sons Brooklyn and Romeo, Elizabeth Hurley's son Damian Charles, and the daughter of Seymour Stein.^[118]^[119]^[120]

Wealth [link]

John on stage in July 2008

In April 2009, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated John's wealth to be £175 million (US$265 million), and ranked him as the 322nd richest person in Britain.^[121] John was estimated to have a fortune of £195 million in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2011, making him one of the 10 richest people in the British music industry.^[122] Aside from his main home "Woodside" in Old Windsor, Berkshire, John owns residences in Atlanta, Nice, London's Holland Park, and Venice. John is an art collector, and is believed to have one of the largest private photography collections in the world.^[123]

In 2000, John admitted to spending £30 million in just under two years—an average of £1.5 million a month. Between January 1996 and September 1997, he spent more than £9.6m on property and £293,000 on flowers.^[124] In June 2001 John sold 20 of his cars at Christie's, saying he didn't get the chance to drive them because he was out of the country so often.^[125] The sale, which included a 1993 Jaguar XJ220, the most expensive at £234,750, and several Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, and Bentleys, raised nearly £2 million.^[126] In 2003, John sold the contents of his Holland Park home—expected to fetch £800,000 at Sotheby's—in a bid to create more room for his collection of contemporary art which includes many works of art by Young British Artists such as Sam Taylor-Wood and Tracy Emin.^[127] Every year since 2004, John has opened a shop called "Elton's Closet" in which he sells his second-hand clothes.^[128]

Other [link]

Throughout his career, John has battled addictions to alcohol and cocaine. By 1975, the pressures of stardom had begun to take a serious toll on him. During "Elton Week" in Los Angeles that year, John suffered a drug overdose.^[129] He also battled the eating disorder bulimia. In a CNN interview with Larry King in 2002, King asked if John knew of Diana, Princess of Wales' eating disorder. John replied, "Yes, I did. We were both bulimic."^[130]

A longtime tennis enthusiast, John wrote the song "Philadelphia Freedom" in tribute to long-time friend Billie Jean King and her World Team Tennis franchise of the same name. John and King also co-host an annual pro-am event to benefit AIDS charities, most notably John's own Elton John AIDS Foundation, for which King is a chairwoman. John was coached by Donald Watt, who often toured with him during the 1980s & early 90's. Watt was a coach at David Lloyd Leisure and then operations director for it, then Next Generation Clubs^[131] (now merged with David Lloyd). Watt was also close friends with Tim Henman,^[132] and also David and John Lloyd. John, who maintains a part-time residence in Atlanta, Georgia, became a fan of the Atlanta Braves baseball team when he moved there in 1991.^[133]

Watford Football Club [link]

John became chairman and director of Watford Football Club in 1976, appointing Graham Taylor as manager and investing large sums of money as the club rose three divisions into the First Division.^[134] The pinnacle of the club's success was finishing runners up in the First Division in 1983 and reaching the FA Cup Final a year later. He sold the club to Jack Petchey in 1987, but remained their life-long president.^[135] In 1997 he re-purchased the club from Petchey and once again became chairman. He stepped down in 2002 when the club needed a full-time chairman although he continued as president of the club.^[135] Although no longer the majority shareholder, he still holds a significant financial interest. In June 2005 he held a concert at Watford's Vicarage Road ground, donating the funds to the club, and another concert in May 2010.^[135] For a time^[when?] he was also a part-owner of the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League.

AIDS Foundation [link]

Main article: Elton John AIDS Foundation

John has been associated with AIDS charities since the deaths of his friends Ryan White and Freddie Mercury, raising large amounts of money and using his public profile to raise awareness of the disease. For example, in 1986 he joined with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder to record the single "That's What Friends Are For", with all profits being donated to the American Foundation for AIDS Research. The song won John and the others the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (as well as Song of the Year for its writers, Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager). In April 1990, John performed "Skyline Pigeon" at the funeral of White, a teenage haemophiliac he had befriended.

John founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992 as a charity to fund programmes for HIV/AIDS prevention, for the elimination of prejudice and discrimination against HIV/AIDS-affected individuals, and for providing services to people living with or at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. This cause continues to be one of his personal passions. In early 2006, John donated the smaller of two bright-red Yamaha pianos from his Las Vegas, Nevada show to auction on eBay to raise public awareness and funds for the foundation.

To raise money for his AIDS charity, John hosts annually a glamorous White Tie & Tiara Ball, to which many famous celebrities are invited. On 28 June 2007, the 9th annual White Tie & Tiara Ball took place. The menu consisted of a truffle soufflé followed by Surf and Turf (filet mignon with Maine lobster tail) and a giant Knickerbocker glory ice cream. An auction followed the dinner held by Stephen Fry. A Rolls Royce ‘Phantom’ drophead coupe and a piece of Tracey Emin's artwork both raised £800,000 for the charity fund, with the total amount raised reaching £3.5 million.^[136] Later on in the event, John sang "Delilah" with Tom Jones and "Big Spender" with Shirley Bassey.^[137] Tickets for the Ball cost £1,000 a head. The event raised £4.6 million for his AIDS Foundation in 2006.^[138]

Activism [link]

On 1 April 2010, John joined Cyndi Lauper in the launch of her Give a Damn campaign to bring a wider awareness of discrimination of the LGBT community as part of her True Colors Fund.^[139] In the advertisement, John states: "Imagine walking down the street and wondering if this is the day you'll get beaten up, or even killed, simply because of who you are".^[139] The campaign is to bring straight people to stand up with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered community and stop the discrimination. Other names included in the campaign are Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Mraz, Judith Light, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Kardashian, Clay Aiken, Sharon Osbourne, Kelly Osbourne, and Anna Paquin.^[139]

He is an occasional columnist in The Guardian.^[140]

Honours and awards [link]

John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1994. He and Bernie Taupin had previously been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. John was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1995.^[141] For his charitable work, John was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on 24 February 1998. In October 1975, John became the 1,662nd person to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[142]

He became a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor in 2004, and a Disney Legends Award in 2006. In 2010, Elton John was awarded with the PRS for Music Heritage Award, which was erected, on The Namaste Lounge Pub in Watford, where Elton performed his first ever gig.^[143]

Music awards include the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from The Lion King (award shared with Tim Rice); the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1994 for "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from The Lion King (award shared with Tim Rice); and the Tony Award for Best Original Score in 2000 for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida (award shared with Tim Rice).

John has six Grammy Awards:

1987: Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "That's What Friends Are For", performed by Dionne Warwick & Friends (award shared with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder)
1991: Best Instrumental Composition for "Basque", performed by James Galway
1994: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Can You Feel The Love Tonight"
1997: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Candle In The Wind" 1997
1999: Grammy Legend Award
2001: Best Musical Show Album for Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida (award shared with Guy Babylon, Paul Bogaev & Chris Montan (producers), Tim Rice (lyricist) and the original Broadway cast with Heather Headley, Adam Pascal, and Sherie Rene Scott)

Elton John Band [link]

Elton John Band members

Since 1970, John's band, of which he is the pianist and lead singer, has been known as the Elton John Band.^[144]^[145] The band has had multiple line-up changes, but Nigel Olsson, Davey Johnstone, and Ray Cooper have been members (albeit non-consecutively) since 1970 (Olsson) and 1972 (Johnstone and Cooper). Ray Cooper is on and off with the Elton John Band because he works with other musicians as a session and road-tour percussionist. Furthermore, John has also used a number of session musicians in the time of his career.

Discography [link]

Main article: Elton John discography

Studio albums

Empty Sky (1969)
Elton John (1970)
Tumbleweed Connection (1970)
Madman Across the Water (1971)
Honky Château (1972)
Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973)
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Caribou (1974)
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
Rock of the Westies (1975)
Blue Moves (1976)
A Single Man (1978)
Victim of Love (1979)
21 at 33 (1980)
The Fox (1981)
Jump Up! (1982)
Too Low for Zero (1983)
Breaking Hearts (1984)
Ice on Fire (1985)
Leather Jackets (1986)
Reg Strikes Back (1988)
Sleeping with the Past (1989)
The One (1992)
Duets (1993)
Made in England (1995)
The Big Picture (1997)
Songs from the West Coast (2001)
Peachtree Road (2004)
The Captain & the Kid (2006)
The Union (with Leon Russell) (2010)
The Diving Board (2013)

Soundtracks, scores & theatre albums

Friends (1971)
The Lion King (1994)
Aida (1998)
The Muse (1999)
The Road to El Dorado (2000)
Billy Elliot (2005)
Lestat (2005)
Gnomeo & Juliet (2011)

Films

Elton John: Me, Myself & I (2007) autobiography as himself
The Country Bears, US (2002) as himself
Spice World, UK (1997) as himself
Tommy, UK (1975) as Pinball Wizard
Born to Boogie, US playing as himself with Marc Bolan and Ringo Starr

References [link]

^ "Elton John News on Yahoo! Music". Music.yahoo.com. http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/18137562. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ ^a ^b ^c "The American Recording Industry Announces its Artists of the Century". RIAA. http://www.riaa.com/newsitem.php?news_year_filter=1999&resultpage=2&id=3abf3ec8-ef5b-58f9-e949-3b57f5e313df. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
^ "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939214/the_immortals_the_first_fifty.
^ "Elton John: inducted in 1994 | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum". Rockhall.com. 25 March 1947. http://rockhall.com/inductees/elton-john. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
^ "About: All About Elton: Bio". Elton John. http://www.eltonjohn.com/about/bio.jsp. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
^ "Elton John AIDS Foundation". Ejaf.org. http://www.ejaf.org/. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
^ "Elton John on his idol, Leon Russell". Reuters. Retrieved 30 May 2012
^ Bachelor, Blane (18 February 2010). "Elton John and Partner David Furnish Fell in Love 'Very Quickly' – Couples, Elton John". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20345467,00.html. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
^ "Billboard Hot 100 Chart 50th Anniversary". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-artists-20.shtml. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
^ "'I Have So Much More To Do'". Parade. 21 February 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
^ "Elton John Rock's Captain Fantastic". 7 July 1975. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
^ "Sir Elton John's Hollywood Pad". omg! 21 December 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
^ "55 Pinner Hill Road – On This Very Spot". On This Very Spot. 25 March 1947. http://www.onthisveryspot.com/spot/Elton_John_Birthplace. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ Barratt, Nick (24 November 2006). "Family detective: Elton John – Telegraph". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/exclusions/familyhistory/fheltonjohn.xml. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ "111 Potter Street – On This Very Spot". On This Very Spot. 15 July 2007. http://www.onthisveryspot.com/spot/111_Potter_Street. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Elton John, Philip Norman, Fireside, 1991
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John, Elizabeth Rosenthal, Billboard Books, 2001
^ ^a ^b ^c Goodall, Nigel (1993). Elton John: The Visual Documentary. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-3078-3.
^ Sir Elton John: From football clubs and drug addiction to Princess Diana's funeral Daily Mail. Retrieved 25 August 2011
^ "Frome Court – On This Very Spot". On This Very Spot. 3 April 2007. http://www.onthisveryspot.com/spot/EJ_Frome_Court. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ Atlanta Magazine. Google Books. 2003-06. http://books.google.com/?id=qOECAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76&dq=%22Northwood+Hills+Hotel%22&cd=4#v=onepage&q=%22Northwood%20Hills%20Hotel%22. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
^ "Northwood Hills Pub – On This Very Spot". onthisveryspot.com. http://www.onthisveryspot.com/find/spot.php?spot_web_name=Northwood_Hills_Pub. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
^ ^a ^b "Elton John". Spectacle. episode 1. season 1. 2008. http://www.sundancechannel.com/films/500328605.
^ Claude Bernardin, Tom Stanton, Rocket man: Elton John from A-Z, page 70. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0-275-95698-9. 1996-01. ISBN 978-0-275-95698-1. http://books.google.com/?id=udJV_IQ86GgC&pg=PA70&dq=%22Northwood+Hills+Pub%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Northwood%20Hills%20Pub%22. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
^ "The Marquee Club: Long John Baldry – Biography". themarqueeclub.net. http://www.themarqueeclub.net/long-john-baldry. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
^ "King Crimson FAQ". Elephant Talk (archived page from elephant-talk.com). Archived from the original on 28 August 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20050828134638/www.elephant-talk.com/faq/et-faq.txt. Retrieved 20 September 2007.
^ ^a ^b Vinita (2005). Profiles in Popular Music. Sura Books. p. 79. ISBN 978-81-7478-638-8.
^ Joynson, Vernon (1995). The Tapestry of Delights. London: Borderline Books. See entry on "Argosy".
^ Roger Hodgson of Supertramp. CTV News. 11 June 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2010.
^ In his 1981 book "Thank U Very Much – Mike McCartney's Family Album" Scaffold singer Mike McGear (McCartney) describes a meeting with John during which John advises him he used to sing background vocals for the group.
^ Claude Bernardin, Tom Stanton (1996) Rocket man: Elton John from A-Z Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996
^ Rocket man: Elton John from A-Z. Google Books. 1996-01. ISBN 978-0-275-95698-1. http://books.google.com/?id=udJV_IQ86GgC&pg=PA152&dq=elton+john+first+American+concert+The+Troubadour&q=elton%20john%20first%20American%20concert%20The%20Troubadour. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
^ Heylin, Clinton (1996). Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 66. ISBN 0-312-14289-7.
^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Honky Chateau (Bonus Track) – Elton John All Music
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^ ^a ^b ^c Redbeard (2009). "Elton John –Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". In the Studio With Redbeard, Interviews With Famous Musicians. Barbarosa Ltd. Production. pp. Studio Interview with Elton John. http://www.inthestudio.net/. Retrieved 13 September 2009.
^ Elton John | Rolling Stone Music^{[dead link]} 2001 encyclopedia. Rolling Stone Magazine
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^ ^a ^b ^c Circus Magazine, No 115, August 1975. Vol 2, No 8. K48002 pp14–15
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^ Nigel Goodall (1993) Elton John: a visual documentary Omnibus Press, 1993
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^ Billboard 30 Jul 1994 Billboard Magazine Retrieved 28 December 2010
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^ Brit Awards 1995 Brits.co.uk. Retrieved 1 December 2011
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^ (26 August 2006). "6ABC.com article: "Elton John Wants to Make Hip-hop Album"". Abclocal.go.com. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=entertainment&id=4498224. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ "NME article on 60th birthday concert at Madison Square Gardens". NME. UK. 25 March 2007. http://www.nme.com/news/elton-john/27292. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ Elton John to Put Entire Music Catalog Online. 21 March 2007.
^ ^a ^b Diana concert a 'perfect tribute' BBC. Retrieved 28 December 2011
^ Sir Elton John's Weird Third Act GQ Magazine, 13 October 2008
^ EltonJohn.com^{[dead link]}
^ Anita Singh (1 Feb 2010) Grammy Awards 2010: Lady Gaga and Sir Elton John video The Telegraph Retrieved 28 December 2010
^ Love, etc: Rush Limbaugh marries for the fourth time Washington Post, 6 June 2010
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^ Up for Discussion Jump to Forums (14 September 2009). "Elton John Teams With Leon Russell For 'Mature' New Album". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/news/elton-john-teams-with-leon-russell-for-mature-1004102231.story#/news/elton-john-teams-with-leon-russell-for-mature-1004102231.story. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
^ Sir Elton John returning to Las Vegas BBC. Retrieved 18 November 2011
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^ "Elton John - Elton John Prepares The Diving Board". Contact Music. http://www.contactmusic.com/news/elton-john-prepares-the-diving-board_1303325. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
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^ ""The Diving Board" Release Rescheduled". BernieTaupin. 9 April 2012. http://www.berniejtaupin.com/articles.bt?n_id=459668. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
^ Billboard 4 Oct 1997, 30 Years of Music: Elton John with Bernie Taupin Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 28 December 2011
^ "Songwriters Hall of Fame – Bernie Taupin Biography". songwritershalloffame.org. http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/index.php/exhibits/bio/C181. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
^ Syd Field (2008). "The Definitive Guide To Screenwriting". p.351. Random House, 2008
^ "Fellows - The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors". BASCA. Retrieved 30 May 2012
^ Claude Bernardin, Tom Stanton (1996) Rocket man: Elton John from A-Z Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996
^ "allmusic (((Paul Buckmaster, Biography)))". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p60589. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
^ ^a ^b CLIFF JAHR Posted 7 October 1976 1:28 pm (7 October 1976). "Cover Story: Elton John: It's Lonely at the Top: David Bowie : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 24 July 2007. http://www.webcitation.org/5QZv8N38L. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ ^a ^b Paul Myers (6 September 2007). It Ain't Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues, page 133. Greystone Books, 2007, ISBN 1-55365-200-2. ISBN 978-1-55365-200-7. http://books.google.com/?id=l118517OoewC&pg=PA133&dq=Linda+Woodrow&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Linda%20Woodrow. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
^ Mary Rhiel, David Bruce Suchoff, The seductions of biography. Routledge. 1996. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-415-91090-3. http://books.google.com/?id=1o8YQZQhqGoC&pg=PA23&dq=Renate+Blauel&cd=7#v=onepage&q=Renate%20Blauel. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
^ "Elton's 'wedding' sealed with a kiss". Daily Mail (UK). 20 December 2000. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=372279&in_page_id=1773. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ Lampert, Nicole; Cook, Emily (20 December 2005). "Elton's £100,000 wedding warm-up". Daily Mail (UK). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=372165&in_page_id=1766. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ "Sir Elton John and David Furnish Welcome a New Baby!". US Weekly. 27 December 2010. http://www.usmagazine.com/momsbabies/news/sir-elton-john-and-david-furnish-welcome-a-new-baby–20102712. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
^ Levy, Glen Welcome, Tiny Dancer: Elton John Becomes a Dad TIME Retrieved 28 December 2010
^ "Sir Elton John chooses Lady Gaga to be godmother to his baby son Zachary". Daily Mail (London). 27 February 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1360931/Sir-Elton-John-chooses-Lady-Gaga-godmother-baby-son-Zachary.html?ito=feeds-newsxml.
^ Pidd, Helen (14 September 2009). "Elton John's wish to adopt faces rejection". The Guardian (London). Archived from the original on 15 September 2009. http://www.webcitation.org/5jo6aV2sW. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
^ "Elton will support Ukrainian boy he can't adopt". Kyiv Post. 8 December 2009. http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/54565/. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
^ Holly George-Warren The Rolling stone encyclopedia of rock & roll p.501. Fireside, 2001
^ Richard Simpson Sir Elton to become godfather to Liz's Damian Daily Mail Retrieved 28 December 2010
^ Brooklyn to get Elton's millions London Evening Standard Retrieved 28 December 2010
^ "Search the Sunday Times Rich List 2009". The Times (London). 26 April 2009. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/specials/rich_list/rich_list_2009/article6023877.ece. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
^ "The top 50 richest people in music". http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/celebrity/article.html?in_article_id=532417&in_page_id=181.
^ "Art or Porn? Elton John's Photos Seized". ABC News. http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3658634&page=1. Retrieved 3 March 2008.
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^ "Sir Elton to sell classic cars". BBC News. 18 April 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/1283409.stm. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
^ "Classics.com – Elton John's Cars to be auctioned at Christie's". classics.com. http://www.classics.com/eltjohn.html. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
^ Sir Elton to sell home's contents BBC News (Saturday, 13 September 2003)
^ York, New (12 April 2006). "Elton John turns rags to riches for charity – People – Entertainment". The Age (Melbourne). http://www.theage.com.au/news/people/elton-john-turns-rags-to-riches-for-charity/2006/04/11/1144521337887.html. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ "Elton John", Biography Channel, 2005
^ "Larry King Live: Interview With Elton John Aired 25 January 2002". Transcripts.cnn.com. 25 January 2002. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0201/25/lkl.00.html. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ "Certified Tennis Coach Natalie Diroma". http://www.usm-llc.com/Natalie_Diroma.htm. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
^ "Article about Marc Moresso, another acquaintance of Donald Watt and David Lloyd.". The Daily Telegraph. 6 July 2002. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/3029966/Swapping-net-cords-for-net-profits.html. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
^ "Elton John goes to bat with Braves". MLB.com. http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2007/m09/d05/c2191343.jsp. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
^ "They shaped the club". watfordfc.com. http://www.watfordfc.com/page/History/0,,10400~65917,00.html. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c Elton John gig boost for Watford BBC Sport Retrieved 28 December 2010
^ Alexander, Hilary (1 July 2007). "White tie and tiara ball – Telegraph". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/main.jhtml?xml=/fashion/2007/06/29/efwhite129.xml. Retrieved 25 February 2009. ^{[dead link]}
^ Chopard and Elton John – The White Tie and Tiara Ball 2007^{[dead link]}
^ "Fashion guru Trinny shows...what not to bare at Elton's White Tie and Tiara party". Daily Mail (UK). 29 June 2007. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=464885&in_page_id=1773&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=picbox&ct=5. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
^ ^a ^b ^c True Blood star Anna Paquin reveals she's bisexual Daily Mail Retrieved 28 December 2010
^ John, Elton (23 July 2008). "<img class="contributor-pic" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/11/3/1320345420185/Elton_John.jpg" alt="Picture of Elton John" title="Elton John" />". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/eltonjohn.
^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 54255. p. 9. 29 December 1995. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
^ Elton John receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1975, a Los Angeles Times photo from the UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library website
^ Ashton, Robert (24 May 2010). "Heritage Award for Elton John venue". Music Week. http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1041250&c=1. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
^ The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. p.501. Fireside, 2001
^ Mike Clifford, Pete Frame (1992). The Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock. p. 88. Harmony Books, 1992

Bibliography

Goodall, Nigel. Elton John: A Visual Documentary, Omnibus Press, 1993. ISBN 0-7119-3078-3
Rosenthal, Elizabeth. His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John, Billboard Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8230-8892-8

External links [link]

	Book: Elton John
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elton John

Quotations related to Elton John at Wikiquote

v t e Elton John

Elton John Bob Birch Kim Bullard Davey Johnstone John Mahon Nigel Olsson Dee Murray Ray Cooper James Newton Howard Roger Pope Kenny Passarelli Caleb Quaye Charlie Morgan Guy Babylon

Studio albums	Empty Sky Elton John Tumbleweed Connection Madman Across the Water Honky Château Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Caribou Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy Rock of the Westies Blue Moves A Single Man Victim of Love 21 at 33 The Fox Jump Up! Too Low for Zero Breaking Hearts Ice on Fire Leather Jackets Reg Strikes Back Sleeping with the Past The One Duets Made in England The Big Picture Songs from the West Coast Peachtree Road The Captain & the Kid The Union The Diving Board

Live albums	17-11-70 Here and There Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Elton John One Night Only - The Greatest Hits Elton 60 - Live at Madison Square Garden

Soundtracks	Friends The Lion King The Muse Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida The Road to El Dorado Gnomeo & Juliet

Compilations	Greatest Hits Greatest Hits Volume II The Thom Bell Sessions Lady Samantha Greatest Hits Vol. 3 The Complete Thom Bell Sessions To Be Continued The Very Best of Elton John Rare Masters Greatest Hits 1976-1986 Chartbusters Go Pop Classic Elton John Love Songs Prologue Greatest Hits 1970-2002 Elton John's Christmas Party Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits

Tours	1970 World Tour Jump Up Tour Too Low for Zero Tour European Express Tour Breaking Hearts Tour Ice on Fire Tour Tour De Force Reg Strikes Back Tour Sleeping with the Past Tour The One Tour Face to Face 1994 Face to Face 1995 Made in England Tour Big Picture Tour Face to Face 1998 An Evening with Elton John Medusa Tour Stately Home Tour Face to Face 2001 Songs from the West Coast Tour Face to Face 2002 A Journey Through Time 2003 Tour Face to Face 2003 2004 Tour Peachtree Road Tour 2006 European Tour The Captain and the Kid Tour Rocket Man: Greatest Hits Live Face to Face 2009 Face to Face 2010 2010 European Tour Greatest Hits Live

Residency shows	The Red Piano The Million Dollar Piano

Miscellaneous performances	List of Elton John and Ray Cooper concert tours The Union Tour

Video releases	Videography The Breaking Hearts Tour The Night Time Concert Night and Day Concert Live in Australia The Very Best of Elton John Live in Barcelona Love Songs One Night Only: The Greatest Hits Live at Madison Square Garden Dream Ticket Elton 60 - Live at Madison Square Garden

Tribute album	Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin

Musicals	The Lion King (film / musical) Billy Elliot the Musical Aida Lestat

Related articles	Discography Band Awards Bernie Taupin Gus Dudgeon Paul Buckmaster John Reid Dick James Renate Blauel David Furnish Kiki Dee Elton John AIDS Foundation Watford F.C. Bluesology Hookfoot

Book Category

Elton John honours

v t e Kennedy Center Honorees (2000s)

2000	Mikhail Baryshnikov Chuck Berry Plácido Domingo Clint Eastwood Angela Lansbury

2001	Julie Andrews Van Cliburn Quincy Jones Jack Nicholson Luciano Pavarotti

2002	James Earl Jones James Levine Chita Rivera Paul Simon Elizabeth Taylor

2003	James Brown Carol Burnett Loretta Lynn Mike Nichols Itzhak Perlman

2004	Warren Beatty Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee Elton John Joan Sutherland John Williams

2005	Tony Bennett Suzanne Farrell Julie Harris Robert Redford Tina Turner

2006	Zubin Mehta Dolly Parton Smokey Robinson Steven Spielberg Andrew Lloyd Webber

2007	Leon Fleisher Steve Martin Diana Ross Martin Scorsese Brian Wilson

2008	Morgan Freeman George Jones Barbra Streisand Twyla Tharp Pete Townshend & Roger Daltrey

2009	Mel Brooks Dave Brubeck Grace Bumbry Robert De Niro Bruce Springsteen

complete list 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

v t e Academy Award for Best Original Song (1991–2000)

"Beauty and the Beast" Music: Alan Menken Lyrics: Howard Ashman (1991) "A Whole New World" Music: Alan Menken Lyrics: Tim Rice (1992) "Streets of Philadelphia" Music and lyrics: Bruce Springsteen (1993) "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" Music: Elton John Lyrics: Tim Rice (1994) "Colors of the Wind" Music: Alan Menken Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz (1995) "You Must Love Me" Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber Lyrics: Tim Rice (1996) "My Heart Will Go On" Music: James Horner Lyrics: Will Jennings (1997) "When You Believe" Music and lyrics: Stephen Schwartz (1998) "You'll Be in My Heart" Music and lyrics: Phil Collins (1999) "Things Have Changed" Music and lyrics: Bob Dylan (2000)

Complete list (1934–1940) (1941–1950) (1951–1960) (1961–1970) (1971–1980) (1981–1990) (1991–2000) (2001–2010) (2011–2020)

v t e Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music (2001–2025)

David Yazbek (2001) Adam Guettel (2005) Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison (2006) Duncan Sheik (2007) Stew and Heidi Rodewald (2008) Elton John (2009) David Bryan (2010)

Complete list (1969–1975) (1976–2000) (2001–2025)

v t e Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song (1990s)

"Blaze of Glory" Music & Lyrics by Jon Bon Jovi (1990) "Beauty and the Beast" Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Music by Alan Menken (1991) "A Whole New World" Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Alan Menken (1992) "Streets of Philadelphia" Music & Lyrics by Bruce Springsteen (1993) "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Elton John (1994) "Colors of the Wind" Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, Music by Alan Menken (1995) "You Must Love Me" Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber (1996) "My Heart Will Go On" Lyrics by Wilbur Jennings, Music by James Horner (1997) "The Prayer" Music & Lyrics by David Foster, Tony Renis, Carole Bayer Sager, Alberto Testa (1998) "You'll Be in My Heart" Music & Lyrics by Phil Collins (1999)

Complete List (1960s) (1970s) (1980s) (1990s) (2000s) (2010s)

v t e Laureates of the Polar Music Prize

1992–1999	Paul McCartney / the Baltic states (1992) Dizzy Gillespie / Witold Lutosławski (1993) Quincy Jones / Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1994) Elton John / Mstislav Rostropovich (1995) Joni Mitchell / Pierre Boulez (1996) Bruce Springsteen / Eric Ericson (1997) Ray Charles / Ravi Shankar (1998) Stevie Wonder / Iannis Xenakis (1999)

2000–2009	Bob Dylan / Isaac Stern (2000) Burt Bacharach / Robert Moog / Karlheinz Stockhausen (2001) Miriam Makeba / Sofia Gubaidulina (2002) Keith Jarrett (2003) B.B. King / György Ligeti (2004) Gilberto Gil / Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (2005) Led Zeppelin / Valery Gergiev (2006) Sonny Rollins / Steve Reich (2007) Pink Floyd / Renée Fleming (2008) Peter Gabriel / José Antonio Abreu / El Sistema (2009)

2010–present	Björk / Ennio Morricone (2010) Kronos Quartet / Patti Smith (2011)

v t e Tony Award for Best Original Score (1976–2000)

A Chorus Line by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban (1976) Annie by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin (1977) On the Twentieth Century by Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green (1978) Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim (1979) Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice (1980) Woman of the Year by John Kander and Fred Ebb (1981) Nine by Maury Yeston (1982) Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber and T. S. Eliot (1983) La Cage aux Folles by Jerry Herman (1984) Big River by Roger Miller (1985) Drood by Rupert Holmes (1986) Les Misérables by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer (1987) Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim (1988) City of Angels by Cy Coleman and David Zippel (1990) The Will Rogers Follies by Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green (1991) Falsettos by William Finn (1992) Kiss of the Spider Woman by John Kander and Fred Ebb / The Who's Tommy by Pete Townshend (1993) Passion by Stephen Sondheim (1994) Sunset Boulevard by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, and Christopher Hampton (1995) Rent by Jonathan Larson (1996) Titanic by Maury Yeston (1997) Ragtime by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (1998) Parade by Jason Robert Brown (1999) Aida by Elton John and Tim Rice (2000)

Complete list (1947–1975) (1976–2000) (2001–2025)

v t e Billboard Year-End number one singles (1980–1999)

1980: "Call Me" – Blondie 1981: "Bette Davis Eyes" – Kim Carnes 1982: "Physical" – Olivia Newton-John 1983: "Every Breath You Take" – The Police 1984: "When Doves Cry" – Prince 1985: "Careless Whisper" – Wham! featuring George Michael 1986: "That's What Friends Are For" – Dionne & Friends 1987: "Walk Like an Egyptian" – The Bangles 1988: "Faith" – George Michael 1989: "Look Away" – Chicago 1990: "Hold On" – Wilson Phillips 1991: "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" – Bryan Adams 1992: "End of the Road" – Boyz II Men 1993: "I Will Always Love You" – Whitney Houston 1994: "The Sign" – Ace of Base 1995: "Gangsta's Paradise" – Coolio featuring L.V. 1996: "Macarena" (Bayside Boys Mix) – Los del Río 1997: "Candle in the Wind 1997"/"Something About the Way You Look Tonight" – Elton John 1998: "Too Close" – Next 1999: "Believe" – Cher

Complete list (1946–1959) (1960–1979) (1980–1999) (2000–2019)

v t e Billboard Year-End number one albums (1970–1989)

1970: Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel 1971: Jesus Christ Superstar – Soundtrack 1972: Harvest – Neil Young 1973: The World Is a Ghetto – War 1974: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John 1975: Elton John's Greatest Hits -Elton John 1976: Frampton Comes Alive! – Peter Frampton 1977: Rumours – Fleetwood Mac 1978: Saturday Night Fever – Soundtrack 1979: 52nd Street – Billy Joel 1980: The Wall – Pink Floyd 1981: Hi Infidelity – REO Speedwagon 1982: Asia – Asia 1983: Thriller – Michael Jackson 1984: Thriller – Michael Jackson 1985: Born in the U.S.A. – Bruce Springsteen 1986: Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston 1987: Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi 1988: Faith – George Michael 1989: Don't Be Cruel – Bobby Brown

Complete list (1956–1969) (1970–1989) (1990–2009) (2010–2029)

v t e UK best-selling singles (by year) (1990–2009)

1990: "Unchained Melody" - The Righteous Brothers · 1991: "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" - Bryan Adams · 1992: "I Will Always Love You" - Whitney Houston · 1993: "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" - Meat Loaf · 1994: "Love Is All Around" - Wet Wet Wet · 1995: "Unchained Melody" - Robson & Jerome · 1996: "Killing Me Softly" - Fugees · 1997: "Something About the Way You Look Tonight"/"Candle in the Wind 1997" - Elton John · 1998: "Believe" - Cher · 1999: "...Baby One More Time" - Britney Spears · 2000: "Can We Fix It?" - Bob the Builder · 2001: "It Wasn't Me" - Shaggy feat. Rikrok · 2002: "Anything Is Possible"/"Evergreen" - Will Young · 2003: "Where Is the Love?" - The Black Eyed Peas · 2004: "Do They Know It's Christmas?" - Band Aid 20 · 2005: "Is This the Way to Amarillo" - Tony Christie feat. Peter Kay · 2006: "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley · 2007: "Bleeding Love" - Leona Lewis · 2008: "Hallelujah" - Alexandra Burke · 2009: "Poker Face" - Lady Gaga

Complete list (1952–1969) (1970–1989) (1990–2009) (2010–2029)

v t e UK best-selling albums (by year) (1970–1989)

1970: Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel) 1971: Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel) 1972: 20 Dynamic Hits (Various Artists) 1973: Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (Elton John) 1974: The Singles: 1969–1973 (The Carpenters) 1975: The Best of The Stylistics (The Stylistics) 1976: Greatest Hits (ABBA) 1977: Arrival (ABBA) 1978: Saturday Night Fever (Original Soundtrack) 1979: Parallel Lines (Blondie) 1980: Super Trouper (ABBA) 1981: Kings of the Wild Frontier (Adam and the Ants) 1982: Love Songs (Barbra Streisand) 1983: Thriller (Michael Jackson) 1984: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie) 1985: Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits) 1986: True Blue (Madonna) 1987: Bad (Michael Jackson) 1988: Kylie (Kylie Minogue) 1989: Ten Good Reasons (Jason Donovan)

Complete list (1956–1969) (1970–1989) (1990–2009) (2010–2029)

v t e UK best-selling singles (by decade)

1950s: "Rock Around the Clock" - Bill Haley & His Comets · 1960s: "She Loves You" - The Beatles · 1970s: "Mull of Kintyre" - Wings · 1980s: "Do They Know It's Christmas?" - Band Aid · 1990s: "Candle in the Wind 1997" - Elton John · 2000s: "Anything Is Possible"/"Evergreen" - Will Young

Persondata
Name	John, Elton
Alternative names	Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Short description	English musician
Date of birth	25 March 1947
Place of birth	Pinner, Middlesex, UK
Date of death
Place of death

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Contents

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Contents

[edit] Debut album to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1969–1973)

[edit] Rocket Records to 21 at 33 (1974–1979)

[edit] The 80s: The Fox to Sleeping with the Past (1981–1989)

[edit] The 90s: "Sacrifice" to Aida (1990–1999)

Related pages: