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Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner. It is most notable as being the venue in the 1960s for innovative recording techniques adopted by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Hollies, Badfinger, and others.
Towards the end of 2009, the studio came under threat of sale to property developers, however the British Government protected the site, granting it English Heritage Grade II listed status in 2010, thereby preventing the building from subjection to major alterations.
Originally a nine-bedroom Georgian townhouse built in the 1830s on the footpath leading to Kilburn Abbey, the building was later converted to apartments where the most flamboyant resident was Maundy Gregory. The premises were acquired by the Gramophone Company in 1931 and converted into studios. Pathé filmed the opening of the studios, when Sir Edward Elgar conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in recording sessions of his music. The neighbouring house is also owned by the studio and used to house musicians. During the mid-1900s the studio was extensively used by leading British conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, whose house was just around the corner from the studio building.
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Jamaica
Coordinates: 18°10′57″N 77°19′18″W / 18.1823878°N 77.3217773°W / 18.1823878; -77.3217773
Jamaica (
i/dʒəˈmeɪkə/), officially the Commonwealth of Jamaica, is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 234 kilometres (145 mi) in length, up to 80 kilometres (50 mi) in width, and 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno name for the island was Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water" or the "Land of Springs".
Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it became an English colony in 1655 under the name "Jamaica". It achieved full independence from Britain on August 6, 1962. With 2.8 million people, it is the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. It remains a Commonwealth realm in concert with the Monarchy of Jamaica holding ultimate executive power, where Queen Elizabeth II is the current head of state and Queen of Jamaica.Kingston is the country's largest city and the capital.
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles (i/lɒs ˈændʒələs/ loss-AN-jə-ləs; Spanish: [los ˈaŋxeles], which is written Los Ángeles; British pronounciation /lɒs ˈændʒəliːz/ loss-AN-jə-leez) with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in the state of California, and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km2), and is located in Southern California. Often known by its initials L.A., the city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation's largest cities. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos".
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Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel in New York City is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel with a height of 250 ft (76 m) and length of 400 ft (120 m) that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza. It is owned by El-Ad Properties and managed and operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts of Canada.
The hotel's main entrance faces the southern portion of Grand Army Plaza, commemorating the Union Army in the Civil War. Grand Army Plaza is in two sections, bisected by Central Park South. The section in front of the Plaza Hotel is centered by the Pulitzer Fountain, of Abundance by Karl Bitter, funded by the will of the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer: the statue in the fountain is specifically Pomona, Roman goddess of orchards. The statue was posed for by Doris Doscher, also famous for posing for the Standing Liberty Quarter. The north side of Grand Army Plaza, a corner cut out from Central Park, has Augustus Saint-Gaudens' part-gilded bronze equestrian statue of PIKLAS GENERAL. Scholars Gate, behind Grand Army Plaza, provided one of the two original main entrances to the carriage drives of Central Park, the other being Merchants Gate at the Grand Circle, now Columbus Circle.
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Ritz Hotel
The Ritz London is a luxury 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly and overlooking Green Park in London.
Swiss hotelier César Ritz, the dismissed former manager of the Savoy Hotel, opened the hotel on 24 May 1906. The building is neoclassical in the Louis XVI manner, built during the Belle Époque to resemble a stylish Parisian block of flats, over arcades that consciously evoked the Rue de Rivoli. Its architects were Charles Mewès, who had previously designed Ritz's Hôtel Ritz Paris, and Arthur Davis, with engineering collaboration by the Swedish engineer Sven Bylander. It was the first substantial steel-frame structure in London.
Ritz personally managed much of the hotel's operation for many years. He hired world-famous chef Auguste Escoffier to provide cuisine to match the opulence of the hotel's decorations; he placed a special bell in the entryway by which the doorman could notify the staff of the impending arrival of royalty. The high standards to which he held his staff and the ultimate luxury which he provided his guests had been entirely foreign to Victorian Londoners, and the sensation he caused in the hotel industry precipitated a dramatic shift in that industry's focus.
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Spanish Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which the remnants of a once-large Italian community remain. However, since the 1950s it has been dominated by residents of Puerto Rican descent, sometimes called Nuyoricans, as well as large populations of other Latin Americans and African-Americans.
The neighborhood boundaries are Harlem River to the north, the East River to the east, East 96th Street to the south, and Fifth Avenue to the west. The neighborhood is part of Manhattan Community Board 11. East 116th Street from 5th Avenue east to its termination at the FDR Drive is the most notable business hub of East Harlem along with a minor business hub along Third Avenue between E 103rd Street and E 110th Streets. The area is patrolled by both the 23rd Precinct located at 162 East 102nd Street and the 25th Precinct located at 120 East 119th Street.[1]
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Times Square
Coordinates: 40°45′28″N 73°59′09″W / 40.75773°N 73.985708°W / 40.75773; -73.985708
"The Crossroads of the World"
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. Times Square, iconified as "The Crossroads of the World" and the "The Great White Way", is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway theater district, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, and a major center of the world's entertainment industry. According to Travel + Leisure magazine's October 2011 survey, Times Square is the world's most visited tourist attraction, bringing in over 39 million visitors annually.
Formerly named Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building, which is now called One Times Square and is the site of the annual ball drop on New Year's Eve.
The northern triangle of Times Square is technically Duffy Square, dedicated in 1937 to Chaplain Francis P. Duffy of New York City's "Fighting 69th" Infantry Regiment; a memorial to Duffy is located there, along with a statue of George M. Cohan, and the TKTS discount theatre tickets booth. The stepped red roof of the TKTS booth also provides seating for various events. The Duffy Statue and the square were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
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Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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Woodstock festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair (informally, Woodstock or The Woodstock Festival) was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre (2.4 km²; 240 ha, 0.94 mi²) dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County.
During the sometimes rainy weekend, thirty-two acts performed outdoors in front of 500,000 concert-goers. It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history. Rolling Stone called it one of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.
The event was captured in the 1970 documentary movie Woodstock, an accompanying soundtrack album, and Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock" which commemorated the event and became a major hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Woodstock was initiated through the efforts of Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld. It was Roberts and Rosenman who had the finances. Lang had experience as a promoter and had already organized the largest festival on the East Coast at the time, the Miami Pop Festival, which had an estimated 100,000 people attend the two day event. Roberts and Rosenman placed the following advertisement in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal under the name of Challenge International, Ltd.: "Young men with unlimited capital looking for interesting, legitimate investment opportunities and business propositions".
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"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (pronunciation: /ˈjæŋkəvɪk/; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. Since his first-aired comedy song in 1976, he has sold more than 12 million albums (as of 2007), recorded more than 150 parody and original songs, and has performed more than 1,000 live shows. His works have earned him three Grammy Awards among nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the United States. Yankovic's first top ten Billboard album (Straight Outta Lynwood) and single ("White & Nerdy") were both released in 2006, nearly three decades into his career.
Yankovic's success comes in part from his effective use of music video to further parody popular culture, the song's original artist, and the original music videos themselves, scene-for-scene in some cases. He directed later videos himself and went on to direct for other artists including Ben Folds, Hanson, Black Crowes, and The Presidents of the United States of America. In addition to recording his albums, Yankovic wrote and starred in the film, UHF, and television show, The Weird Al Show. He has also made guest appearances on many television shows, in addition to starring in Al TV specials on MTV.
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Al Bell
Al Bell (born Alvertis Isbell on March 15, 1940 in Brinkley, Arkansas, USA ) is an American record producer, songwriter, and record executive. Bell is best known as one of the key figures behind and a co-owner of Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records during the later half of the label's nineteen-year existence. A former disc jockey in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, Bell was vital to the careers of Stax's soul stars such as The Staples Singers and Isaac Hayes, The Emotions, The Dramatics, and Mel and Tim. Bell's promotional efforts drove the “Memphis Sound” internationally, and made Stax the second-largest African American-owned business in the 1970s. In 2009, the BBC profiled Bell as "one of the icons of soul music" and "the driving force behind Stax Records"
Following his career at Stax, Bell became President of Motown Records Group during its restructuring for sale to MCA and Boston Ventures Group, and later started his own label, Bellmark, whose releases included Tag Team's single “Whoomp! (There It Is)” (1993). Today, Bell works in the independent music scene in Memphis, as well as maintaining an online music website and radio show at AlBellPresents.com
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Al Hibbler
Albert George "Al" Hibbler (August 16, 1915 – April 24, 2001) was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music. According to one authority, "Hibbler cannot be regarded as a jazz singer but as an exceptionally good interpreter of twentieth-century popular songs who happened to work with some of the best jazz musicians of the time."
Hibbler was born in Tyro, Mississippi, United States, and was blind from birth. At the age of 12 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas where he attended Arkansas School for the Blind, joining the school choir. Later he began working as a blues singer in local bands, failing his first audition for Duke Ellington in 1935. However, after winning an amateur talent contest in Memphis, Tennessee, he joined a band led by Jay McShann in 1942, and the following year joined Ellington's orchestra, replacing Herb Jeffries.
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American Masters
American Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City. The show debuted on PBS in 1986.
Groups or organizations featured include: Actor's Studio, Algonquin Round Table, Group Theatre, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Women of Tin Pan Alley, Negro Ensemble Company, Juilliard School, the Beat Generation, The Singer-songwriters of the 1970s, Sun Records, Vaudeville, and Warner Bros. Pictures.
American Masters, a series "devoted to America's 'greatest native-born and adopted' artists," was originally scheduled to premier in September 1985; for "logistical scheduling reasons" the premiere was delayed until summer 1986, though on October 16, 1985, an American Masters "special" called Aaron Copland: A Self-Portrait was aired.
The first of the 15 first-season episodes was Private Conversations, a "cinema-verite documentary by Christian Blackwood done in that trickiest of cinematic forms: a film about a film, in this instance the television version of Death of a Salesman, directed by Volker Schlöndorff". It aired on June 23, 1986, as one of two episodes not specifically commissioned for the show's first season.
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Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and pianist. In a recording career that has spanned over half a century, Franklin's repertoire has included gospel, jazz, blues, R&B, pop, rock and funk. Franklin is known as one of the most important popularizers of the soul music genre and is referred to as the Queen of Soul, a title she was given early in her career. Franklin, the daughter of prominent Baptist minister and activist C. L. Franklin, began her singing career singing in her father's church at the age of ten and started recording four years later. After several years in the gospel circuit and with her father's blessing, she formed a secular pop music career at the age of eighteen, signing with Columbia Records, where she was branded by its CEO John Hammond as his most important act since Billie Holiday. Franklin's Columbia period wasn't as successful as hoped and in late 1966, Franklin switched over to Atlantic Records, where she began recording a string of popular hits including "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Think", "Chain of Fools" and what later became her signature song, "Respect".
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Ben E. King
Benjamin Earl King (born September 28, 1938), better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me," a U.S. Top 10 hit in both 1961 and 1986 and a #1 hit in the UK in 1987, and as one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group The Drifters.
King was born Benjamin Earl Nelson on September 28, 1938 in Henderson, North Carolina, and moved to Harlem, New York, at age 9.
In 1958, King (still using his birth name) joined a doo wop group called The Five Crowns. Later in 1958, The Drifters' manager George Treadwell fired the members of the original Drifters, and replaced them with The Five Crowns. King had a string of R&B hits with the group on Atlantic Records. He co-wrote and sang lead on the first Atlantic hit by the new version of the Drifters, "There Goes My Baby" (1959). He also sang lead on a succession of hits by the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, including "Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment," and "I Count the Tears." King only recorded thirteen songs with The Drifters—ten lead vocal performances and three backing other lead singers—including a non-single called "Temptation" (later redone by Drifters vocalist Johnny Moore).
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Bert Berns
Bertrand Russell Berns (8 November 1929 – 30 December 1967), most commonly known as Bert Berns as well as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. A pioneer of sixties rock and soul, Berns made several notable contributions to popular music, including "Here Comes the Night", "Piece of My Heart", "Hang on Sloopy", and "Twist and Shout". He died of heart failure at age 38.
Born in the Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Berns contracted rheumatic fever as a child, an illness that would mark the rest of his life. Turning to music, he found consonance in the sounds of his African American and Latino neighbors. As a young man, Berns danced in mambo nightclubs, and made his way to Havana before the Cuban Revolution.
Shortly after his return from Cuba, Berns began a seven-year run from an obscure Brill Building songwriter to the chief of his own record labels. His first hit record was "A Little Bit of Soap", performed by The Jarmels in 1961. One year later, the Isley Brothers recorded "Twist and Shout", written by Berns and Phil Medley. During these years, Berns wrote and produced records for a wide range of labels, including Wand, United Artists, Capitol, Laurie, MGM, Big Top, Old Town, Roulette, and Atlantic Records. In 1963, Berns would replace Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as the staff producer at Atlantic, where he produced such acts as Solomon Burke ("Cry to Me" and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"), The Drifters ("Under the Boardwalk" and "Saturday Night at the Movies"), Barbara Lewis ("Baby I'm Yours" and "Make Me Your Baby"), Little Esther Phillips ("Hello Walls"), Wilson Pickett and LaVern Baker. Berns was also one of the few American record producers to travel across the Atlantic to London, where he produced a number of British Decca artists such as Them ("Here Comes the Night", "Baby Please Don't Go" and Lulu.
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Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner (born Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", Turner's career as a performer stretched from the 1920s into the 1980s. Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Known variously as The Boss of the Blues, and Big Joe Turner (due to his 6'2", 300+ lbs stature), Turner was born in Kansas City and first discovered his love of music through involvement in the church. Turner's father was killed in a train accident when Joe was only four years old. He began singing on street corners for money, leaving school at age fourteen to begin working in Kansas City's nightclub scene, first as a cook, and later as a singing bartender. He eventually became known as The Singing Barman, and worked in such venues as The Kingfish Club and The Sunset, where he and his piano playing partner Pete Johnson became resident performers. The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown. It featured "separate but equal" facilities for white patrons. Turner wrote "Piney Brown Blues" in his honor and sang it throughout his entire career.
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Billy Eckstine
William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular music. Eckstine's recording of "I Apologize," MGM Pop Single, (1948) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.
Eckstine's grandparents were William F. Eckstein and Nannie Eckstein, a mixed-race, lawfully married couple who lived in Washington D.C.; both were born in the year 1863. William F. was born in Prussia and Nannie in Virginia. His parents were William Eckstein, a chauffeur and Charlotte Eckstein. He was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania a State Historical Marker is placed at 5913 Bryant St, Highland Park, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to mark the house where he grew up. Later moving to Washington, D.C., Eckstine began singing at the age of seven and entered many amateur talent shows. He attended Armstrong High School, St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, and Howard University. He left Howard in 1933, after winning first place in an amateur talent contest. He married his first wife, June, in 1942; she too was a vocalist. After their divorce he married actress and model Carolle Drake in 1953, and remained married until his death. He was the father of five children and two step children, including Ed Eckstine, who was a president of Mercury Records, Guy Eckstine, who was a Columbia and Verve Records A&R executive and record producer, and singer Gina Eckstine.
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Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and since 1994, he was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Taylor was a Jazz activist. He sat on the Honorary Founders Board of The Jazz Foundation of America. In 1989, Billy Taylor, Ann Ruckert, Herb Storfer and Phoebe Jacobs started The Jazz Foundation to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, later including musicians that survived Hurricane Katrina.
Billy Taylor was also one of the foremost jazz educators. He lectured in colleges, served on panels and travelled worldwide as a jazz ambassador. Critic Leonard Feather once said, "It is almost indisputable that Dr. Billy Taylor is the world's foremost spokesman for jazz."
Taylor was born in Greenville, North Carolina but moved to Washington, D.C. when he was five. He grew up in a musical family and learned to play different instruments as a child, including guitar, drums and saxophone. But he was most successful at the piano and took classical piano lessons with Henry Grant, the same teacher that had educated Duke Ellington a generation earlier. He made his first professional appearance playing keyboard at the age of 13 and the compensation was one dollar. Taylor attended Dunbar High School, America's first high school for African American students. He went to Virginia State College and majored in sociology. Pianist Dr. Undine Smith Moore noticed young Taylor's talent in piano and he changed his major to music, graduating with a degree in music in 1942.
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Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer who performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk, and country.
He started as a songwriter for Connie Francis, and recorded his own first million-seller "Splish Splash" in 1958. This was followed by "Dream Lover", "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea", which brought him world fame. In 1962, he won a Golden Globe for his first film Come September, co-starring his wife Sandra Dee.
Through the 1960s he became more political, and worked on Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign, being present on the night of his assassination. This affected him and sent him into a period of seclusion.
Although he made a successful television comeback, his health was starting to fail, as he had always expected, following bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood. This knowledge had always spurred him on to exploit his musical talent while still young. He died at 37, following a heart operation in Los Angeles.
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Bobby Nunn
Ulysses B. "Bobby" Nunn (September 20, 1925–November 5, 1986) was an American singer with the musical groups The Robins and The Coasters. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S., and died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nunn was a welterweight boxing champion in the U.S. Air Force. After his discharge in 1947 he moved to Watts, California. He became a member of the A-Sharp Trio with Billy Richards, Roy Richards, and Ty Terrell, and they eventually became The Robins. Nunn would record some duets with Little Esther as well as some solo recordings in the early 1950s. In 1952 he recorded for Sage & Sand Records with Bobby Byrd and Ty Terrell. Bobby Byrd is better known as Bobby Day of "Rockin' Robin" fame.
In 1955, Nunn and Carl Gardner split from The Robins to become The Coasters with Leon Hughes and Billy Guy. After leaving The Coasters, he teamed with another former Coaster Leon Hughes to record as The Dukes in 1959. Two singles were released "Looking For You" b/w "Groceries, Sir" (Flip #343), and "I Love You" b/w "Leap Year Cha Cha" (Flip #344).
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Brook Benton
Brook Benton (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988) was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.
He made a comeback in 1970 with the ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia." Benton scored over 50 Billboard chart hits as an artist, and also wrote hits for other performers.
Benjamin Franklin Peay was born on September 19, 1931 in Lugoff, South Carolina. When Peay was young he enjoyed gospel music, wrote songs, and sang in a Methodist church choir in nearby Camden, where his father, Willie Peay, was choir master. So in 1948 he went to New York to pursue his music career. He went in and out of gospel groups such as The Langfordaires, The Jerusalem Stars, and The Golden Gate Quartet. Returning to his home state, he joined a R&B singing group, The Sandmen, and went back to New York to get a big break with his group. The Sandmen had limited success, and their label, Okeh Records, decided to push Peay as a solo artist, changing his name to Brook Benton, apparently at the suggestion of label executive Marv Halsman.
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Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown ("Brownie") McGhee (November 30, 1915 - February 16, 1996) was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.
Brownie McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. As a child he had polio, which incapacitated his leg. His brother Granville "Sticks" or "Stick" McGhee was nicknamed for pushing young Brownie around in a cart. His father, George McGhee, was a factory worker known around University Avenue for playing guitar and singing. Brownie's uncle made him a guitar from a tin marshmallow box and a piece of board. McGhee spent much of his youth immersed in music, singing with local harmony group the Golden Voices Gospel Quartet and teaching himself to play guitar. A March of Dimes-funded leg operation enabled McGhee to walk.
At age 22, Brownie McGhee became a traveling musician, working in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and befriending Blind Boy Fuller, whose guitar playing influenced him greatly. After Fuller's death in 1941, J. B. Long of Columbia Records had McGhee adopt his mentor's name, branding him "Blind Boy Fuller No. 2." By that time, McGhee was recording for Columbia's subsidiary Okeh Records in Chicago, but his real success came after he moved to New York in 1942, when he teamed up with Sonny Terry, whom he had known since 1939 when Sonny was Blind Boy Fuller's harmonica player. The pairing was an overnight success; as well as recording, they toured together until around 1980. As a duo, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee did most of their work from 1958 until 1980, spending 11 months of each year touring, and recording dozens of albums.
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Carla Thomas
Carla Thomas (born December 21, 1942, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.
Carla Thomas was born on December 21, 1942, in the Foote Homes Housing Project in Memphis, Tennessee. Her parents, Rufus and Lorene Thomas, brought three musically gifted children into this world: Carla, Marvell and Vaneese. Despite growing up in the projects, the Thomas family lived in close proximity to the locally celebrated Palace Theater on world-famous Beale Street, as Rufus was the theater’s emcee for their amateur shows. This access not only gave Thomas her first taste of the music world but it also provided a springboard for her transformation into the Queen of the Memphis Sound.
In Memphis, the African American centered WDIA radio station sponsored a rotating musical group of high school students called the Teen Town Singers; notable alumni include Anita Louis and Isaac Hayes. Although the requirements to join the Teen Town Singers stated that the person should be of high school age, Thomas became a member in 1952 at the age of 10. She was able to sneak into their ranks thanks to the fact that her father Rufus was an on-air personality for the radio station. This opportunity with the Teen Town Singers did not come without its drawbacks though. As a 10 year old student, Thomas was responsible for not only attending classes and completing her schoolwork, but she also had to attend rehearsals on Wednesdays and Fridays after school and then perform at the station on Saturday. However, despite this grueling schedule, Thomas thoroughly enjoyed the experience. According to her, “It was a lot of fun, it really was.” She remained with the Teen Town Singers up until the end of her senior year.
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Carole King
Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, her Tapestry album topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971, and remained on the charts for more than six years.
She was most successful as a performer in the first half of the 1970s, although she was a successful songwriter long before and long after. She had her first number 1 hit as a songwriter in 1961 at age 18, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", which she wrote with Goffin. In 1997, she co-wrote "The Reason" for Aerosmith, but instead it was sung by Celine Dion.
In 2000, Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher, named her the most successful female songwriter of 1955–99, because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent non-compilation album is Live at the Troubadour, a collaboration with James Taylor, which reached number 4 on the charts in its first week, and has sold over 600,000 copies.
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Cass Elliott
Cass Elliot (September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974), born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. In 1998, Elliot, John Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Michelle Phillips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their work as The Mamas & the Papas.
Ellen Cohen was born to Philip and Bess Cohen in Baltimore, Maryland, where she grew up. The family then moved to Alexandria, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, D.C.). She adopted the name "Cass" in high school—possibly, as Denny Doherty tells it, borrowing it from the actress Peggy Cass—but in any case, it was "Cass", not "Cassandra." She assumed the surname Elliot sometime later, in memory of a friend who had died.
While still attending George Washington High School, she became interested in acting and was cast in a school production of the play The Boy Friend. She left high school shortly before graduation and relocated to New York City to further her acting career, and toured in the musical The Music Man, but lost the part of Miss Marmelstein in I Can Get It for You Wholesale to Barbra Streisand in 1962.
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Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.
Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music. Yet Mingus avoided categorization, forging his own brand of music that fused tradition with unique and unexplored realms of jazz.
Mingus focused on collective improvisation, similar to the old New Orleans jazz parades, paying particular attention to how each band member interacted with the group as a whole. In creating his bands, Mingus looked not only at the skills of the available musicians, but also their personalities. Many musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. He recruited talented and sometimes little-known artists whom he assembled into unconventional and revealing configurations. As a performer, Mingus was a pioneer in double bass technique, widely recognized as one of the instrument's most proficient players.
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Charles Trenet
Charles Trenet (born Louis Charles Auguste Claude Trenet, 18 May 1913, Narbonne, France – 19 February 2001, Créteil, France) was a French singer and songwriter, most famous for his recordings from the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, though his career continued through the 1990s. In an era in which it was exceptional for a singer to write his or her own material, Trenet wrote prolifically and declined to record any but his own songs.
His best known songs include "Boum !", "La Mer", "Y'a d'la joie", "Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?", "Ménilmontant" and "Douce France". His catalogue of songs is enormous, numbering close to a thousand. While many of his songs mined relatively conventional topics such as love, Paris, and nostalgia for his younger days, what set Trenet's songs apart were their personal, poetic, sometimes quite eccentric qualities, often infused with a warm wit. Some of his songs had unconventional subject matter, with whimsical imagery bordering on the surreal. "Y'a d'la joie" evokes 'joy' through a series of disconnected images, including that of a subway car shooting out of its tunnel into the air, the Eiffel Tower crossing the street and a baker making excellent bread. The lovers engaged in a minuet in "Polka du Roi" reveal themselves at length to be 'no longer human': they are made of wax and trapped in the Musée Grévin. Many of his hits from the 1930s and 1940s effectively combine the melodic and verbal nuances of French song with American swing rhythms.
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Chips Moman
Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman (born, June 12, 1937 La Grange, Georgia, United States) is an American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter. As a record producer, Moman is known for recording Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Carla Thomas, and Merrilee Rush, as well as guiding the career of the Box Tops in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1960s. As a songwriter, he is responsible for standards associated with Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Waylon Jennings, and B. J. Thomas. He has been a session guitarist for Franklin and other musicians.
After moving to Memphis, Tennessee as a teenager, Moman played in the road bands of Johnny Burnette and Gene Vincent. Settling in Los Angeles, California, he played guitar on sessions recorded at the Gold Star Studios. Back in Memphis, he began an association with Satellite Records (later Stax Records), producing their first hit single, Carla Thomas's 1960 "Gee Whiz." He also produced the first single for the Stax subsidiary label Volt, "Burnt Biscuits" b/w "Raw Dough," by the Triumphs, whose members included future Al Green and drummer Howard Grimes. Leaving Stax in 1964 after a monetary dispute with label founder Jim Stewart, he began operating his own Memphis recording studio, American Sound Studio.
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Chuck Willis
Harold "Chuck" Willis (January 31, 1928 – April 10, 1958) was an American blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll singer and songwriter. His biggest hits, "C. C. Rider" (1957) and "What Am I Living For" (1958), both reached no. 1 in the Billboard R&B chart. He was known as The King of the Stroll for his performance of the 1950s dance The Stroll.
Willis was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Willis was spotted at a talent contest by Atlanta radio disc jockey Zenas Sears, who became his manager and helped him to sign with Columbia Records in 1951. After one single, Willis began recording on a Columbia subsidiary, Okeh. During his stay at Okeh, he established himself as a popular R&B singer and songwriter. In 1956, he moved to Atlantic Records where he had immediate success with "It's Too Late (She's Gone)", "Juanita" and "Love Me Cherry". His most successful recording was "C.C. Rider", which topped the US Billboard R&B chart in 1957 and also crossed over and sold well in the pop market. "C.C. Rider" was a remake of a twelve-bar blues, performed by Ma Rainey in Atlanta before Willis was born. Its relaxed beat, combined with a mellow vibraphone backing and chorus, inspired the emergence of the popular dance, The Stroll. Willis's follow-up was "Betty and Dupree", another "stroll" song, which also did well. Willis' single "Going to the River", a song by Fats Domino, was a prototype for his "stroll" sound, reaching #4 on the R&B chart.
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Connie Kay
Connie Kay (born Conrad Henry Kirnon; 27 April 1927 – 30 November 1994) was an American jazz drummer.
Kay was a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet from 1955 (replacing original drummer Kenny Clarke) until the group's dissolution in 1974. He was self-taught, and prior to the MJQ he had played in the Lester Young quintet from 1949 to 1955, and also with Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and others. He also played drums on Van Morrison's seminal LPs Astral Weeks, "Saint Dominic's Preview" and on three tracks on Tupelo Honey.
With Paul Desmond
With Bill Evans & Bob Brookmeyer
With Cannonball Adderley
With Milt Jackson
With Bobby Timmons
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Craig Kallman
Craig Kallman (born 1966) is Chairman and CEO of Atlantic Records.
He joined the company in 1991, when Atlantic acquired Kallman's independent Big Beat Records label. He advanced from Vice President to Executive Vice President in charge of Atlantic's entire A&R operation. In January 2002, he was named Atlantic Co-President. With the merger of Atlantic and Elektra Records in March 2004, Kallman was promoted to Co-Chairman/COO of the newly formed Atlantic Records Group. In August 2005, he was appointed Chairman and CEO.
Under Kallman's leadership, Atlantic's market share rose steadily, with 2008 proving to be a landmark year. Not only did the iconic label celebrate its 60th Anniversary, but it marked the occasion as the #1 label of the year—earning the biggest overall market share in the industry by a wide margin. Atlantic made further history in 2008, becoming the first label to earn more than half of its total music sales in the U.S. from digital releases. In 2009, Atlantic repeated the feat, ranking as the #1 label for the second year in a row. Commenting on the label's success, Kallman noted that "It represents the validation of the strategy we adopted back in 2004: to reduce and diversify our roster, while shifting our mission from being a traditional record label to a progressive, A&R-driven, artist-centric content company."
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David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash (who are sometimes joined by Neil Young), and CPR. Crosby has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: once for his work in The Byrds and once for his work with CSN.
David Crosby was born in Los Angeles, California. His parents were Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead and Floyd Crosby, an Academy Award winning cinematographer. He is also the younger brother of musician Ethan Crosby. Growing up in California, he attended several schools, including the University Elementary School in Los Angeles, the Crane Country Day School in Montecito, and Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara for the rest of his elementary school and junior high. At Crane, he starred in HMS Pinafore and other musicals but was asked not to return due to lack of academic progress. He graduated from the Cate School in Carpinteria, completing his studies by correspondence. In 1960, his parents divorced, and his father was remarried to Betty Christie Crosby.
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Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci (born July 18, 1939), better known mononymously as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles to straight blues in his recent work.
One of the most popular American rock and roll performers of the pre-British Invasion era, Dion had over a dozen Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 60s. He is best remembered for the 1961 singles "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer".
Due to changing public tastes and personal problems, Dion faltered in the mid-1960s; he regained popularity later in the decade and into the early 1970s with more mature, contemplative material such as "Abraham, Martin & John". He has continued making music to the present, earning reappraisals from critics who earlier dismissed him as a teen idol.
Dion was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
Dion was born to an Italian-American family in the Bronx, New York. As a child, he used to accompany his father, a vaudeville entertainer, on tour, and developed a love of country music – particularly Hank Williams – as well as a fondness for the blues and doo-wop stars he heard in local bars and on the radio. His singing was honed on the street corners and local clubs of the Bronx, where he and other neighborhood singers created a cappella licks.
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Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (
/ɡɨˈlɛspi/; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer and, occasionally, singer.
Allmusic's Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated . . . Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time."
Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop.
In the 1940s Gillespie, together with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Jon Faddis and Chuck Mangione.
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Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt (French pronunciation: [dʒɑ̃ɡo ʁenɑʁt]; 23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953) was a pioneering virtuoso Belgian jazz guitarist and composer.
Often regarded as the first important European jazz musician who made major contributions to the development of the idiom, he is also revered by guitarists worldwide as among the foremost exponents of the instrument. Reinhardt invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, he co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France, described by critic Thom Jurek as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz." Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become jazz standards, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages".
Jean "Django" Reinhardt was born 23 January 1910 in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium, into a family of Manouche gypsies. Reinhardt's nickname "Django" is Romani for "I awake." Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani (Gypsy) encampments close to Paris, playing banjo, guitar and violin from an early age. His family made cane furniture for a living, but included several keen amateur musicians.
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Don Covay
Don Covay (born Donald Randolph, 24 March 1938, Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States) is an American R&B/rock and roll/soul music singer and songwriter most active in the 1950s and 1960s, who received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994. Covay was the son of a Baptist preacher who died when Don was eight.
Covay resettled in Washington D.C. during the early 1950s and initially sang in the Cherry Keys, his family's gospel quartet. He crossed over to secular music with the Rainbows, a formative group which also included Marvin Gaye and Billy Stewart. Covay's solo career began in 1957 as part of the Little Richard Revue.
A single "Bip Bop Bip" was released on Atlantic and produced by Little Richard, on which Covay was billed as "Pretty Boy". It also featured his backing band the Upsetters. Over the next few years Covay drifted from label to label, but a further dance-oriented track called "Popeye Waddle" was a hit in 1962. He also wrote and recorded "Pony Time" which later became a US #1 single for Chubby Checker. Covay meanwhile honed his songwriting skills by penning a hit for Solomon Burke, "I'm Hanging Up My Heart for You", while Gladys Knight & The Pips reached the US Top 20 with "Letter Full of Tears".
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Doris Troy
Doris Troy (January 6, 1937 – February 16, 2004) was an American R&B singer, known to her many fans as "Mama Soul".
She was born as Doris Elaine Higginsen, in The Bronx, the daughter of a Barbadian Pentecostal minister. She later took her grandmother's name and grew up as Doris Payne. Her parents disapproved of "subversive" forms of music like rhythm & blues, so she cut her teeth singing in her father's choir. She was working as an usherette at the Apollo where she was discovered by James Brown.
Troy worked with Solomon Burke, The Drifters, Cissy Houston, and Dionne Warwick, before she co-wrote and recorded "Just One Look", which hit #10 in the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. The song has been covered by The Hollies, Linda Ronstadt, Bryan Ferry, Anne Murray, Klaus Nomi, and Harry Nilsson. Her only foray into the UK Singles Chart, "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", peaked at #37 in December 1964.
As her solo career peaked, she sang back-up for the Rolling Stones, Humble Pie, Kevin Ayers, Pink Floyd (on their album The Dark Side of the Moon),George Harrison, Johnny Hallyday, Dusty Springfield,Nick Drake, Junior Campbell and Carly Simon.
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Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienOBE (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important white soul singer, and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. She is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time.
Born in West London to an Irish Catholic family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. She joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, in 1958, then formed the pop-folk vocal trio The Springfields in 1960 with her brother Dion.
Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, "I Only Want to Be with You" (1963). Among the hits that followed were "Wishin' and Hopin'" (1964), "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (1964), "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (1966), and "Son of a Preacher Man" (1968). A fan of American pop music, she was the first public figure to bring little-known soul singers to a wider British audience, when she created and hosted the first British performances of the top-selling Motown artists in 1965. By 1966, she was the best-selling female singer in the world, and topped a number of popularity polls, including Melody Maker's Best International Vocalist. She was the first British singer to top the New Musical Express readers' poll for Female Singer. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.
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Earl Hines
Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983) was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one major source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".
Earl Hines was born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania 12 miles from Pittsburgh city center. His father played cornet and was leader of Pittsburgh's Eureka Brass Band, his stepmother a church organist. Hines intended to follow his father on cornet but "blowing" hurt him behind the ears - while the piano didn't. The young Hines took classical piano lessons - at eleven he was playing organ in his local Baptist church - but he also had a "good ear and a good memory" and could re-play songs and numbers he heard in theaters and park 'concerts': "I'd be playing songs from these shows months before the song copies came out. That astonished a lot of people and they'd ask where I heard these numbers and I'd tell them at the theatre where my parents had taken me." Later Hines was to say that he was playing piano around Pittsburgh "before the word 'jazz' was even invented".
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Eddie Condon
Albert Edwin Condon (16 November 1905 – 4 August 1973), better known as Eddie Condon, was a jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in the so-called "Chicago school" of early Dixieland, he also played piano and sang on occasion.
Condon was born in Goodland, Indiana, the son of John and Margaret (née McGraw) Condon. He grew up in Momence, Illinois and Chicago Heights, Illinois, where he attended St. Agnes and Bloom High School. After some time playing ukulele, he switched to banjo and was a professional musician by 1921. He was based in Chicago for most of the 1920s, and played with such jazz notables as Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden and Frank Teschemacher.
In 1928 Condon moved to New York City. He frequently arranged jazz sessions for various record labels, sometimes playing with the artists he brought to the recording studios, including Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller. He organised racially-integrated recording sessions - when these were still rare - with Waller, Armstrong and Henry 'Red' Allen. He played with the band of Red Nichols for a time. Later, from 1938 he had a long association with Milt Gabler's Commodore Records.
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Eddie Floyd
Eddie Lee Floyd (born June 25, 1937) is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".
Floyd was born in Montgomery, Alabama, but grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He founded The Falcons, which also featured Mack Rice. They were forerunners to future Detroit vocal groups such as The Temptations and The Four Tops. Their most successful songs included "You're So Fine" and later, when Wilson Pickett was recruited into the group as the lead singer, "I Found a Love". Pickett then embarked on a solo career, and The Falcons disbanded.
Floyd signed on with the Memphis based Stax Records as a songwriter in 1965. He wrote a hit song, "Comfort Me" recorded by Carla Thomas. He then teamed with Stax's guitarist Steve Cropper to write songs for Wilson Pickett, now signed to Atlantic Records. Atlantic distributed Stax and Jerry Wexler brought Pickett down from New York to work with Booker T. & the MGs. The Pickett sessions were successful, yielding several pop and R&B hits, including the Floyd co-written "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)" and "634-5789 (Soulsville USA)".
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Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
Edgar Miles Bronfman, Jr. (born May 16, 1955), is an American businessman who served as CEO of Warner Music Group 2004 to 2011 and as Chairman from 2011 to 2012. In May, 2011, the sale of WMG was announced; Bronfman would continued as CEO in the transaction. In August 2011, he became Chairman of the company as Stephen Cooper became CEO. Bronfman previously served as CEO of Seagram and vice-chairman of Vivendi Universal. He is the son of Edgar Miles Bronfman and the grandson of Samuel Bronfman, patriarch of one of the wealthiest and most influential Jewish families in Canada.
The Bronfman family gained its fortunes through the Seagram Company, an alcohol distilling company, but Edgar Jr. ("Efer" to friends) has gained his reputation by expanding and later divesting ownership of the Seagram Company, as well as for pursuing more creative activities as a Broadway and film producer and songwriter.
His controversial decision to sell his family stake in DuPont Chemical in order to create the Vivendi Universal entertainment company which turned out to be short-lived, was a source of widespread astonishment in the business community.[citation needed]
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Edward Lewis (Decca)
Sir Edward Roberts Lewis (19 April 1900 – 29 January 1980) was an English businessman, best known for leading the Decca recording and technology group for five decades from 1929. He built the company up from nothing to one of the major record labels of the world.
A financier by profession, Lewis was professionally engaged by the fledgling Decca company. Having failed to persuade its directors to diversify from making record-players to making records, he raised the capital to take the company over, and ran it until his death. Among the ground-breaking achievements of Decca under Lewis were the "Decca Navigation System" (a forerunner of radar), the Decca "ffrr" recording technology, and the first release on record of Wagner's Ring cycle.
Lewis was born in Derby, the only boy of four children of Sir Alfred Edward Lewis (1868–1940) and his wife, May née Roberts. Alfred Lewis was a senior official, and later head, of the National Provincial Bank. Lewis was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge.
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Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.
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Erroll Garner
Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1923 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard. Scott Yanow at Allmusic.com calls him "one of the most distinctive of all pianists" and a "brilliant virtuoso".
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to an African American family in 1923, Erroll began playing piano at the age of three. He attended George Westinghouse High School, as did fellow pianists Billy Strayhorn and Ahmad Jamal. Garner was self-taught and remained an "ear player" all his life – he never learned to read music. At the age of seven, Garner began appearing on the radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh with a group called the Candy Kids. By the age of 11, he was playing on the Allegheny riverboats. At 14 in 1937, he joined local saxophonist Leroy Brown.
He played locally in the shadow of his older pianist brother Linton Garner and moved to New York in 1944. He briefly worked with the bassist Slam Stewart, and though not a bebop musician per se, in 1947 played with Charlie Parker on the famous "Cool Blues" session. Although his admission to the Pittsburgh music union was initially refused because of his inability to read music, they eventually relented in 1956 and made him an honorary member. Garner is credited with having a superb memory of music. After attending a concert by the Russian classical pianist Emil Gilels, Garner returned to his apartment and was able to play a large portion of the performed music by recall.
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Fred Neil
Fred Neil (March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer, and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularly "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson after being used for the film Midnight Cowboy. Though highly regarded by contemporary folk singers, he was reluctant to tour (something he shared with Nilsson), and mainly spent the last 30 years of his life assisting with the preservation of dolphins.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Neil was exposed to music at an early age, travelling around the US with his father who was a representative for Wurlitzer jukeboxes. Neil was one of the singer-songwriters who worked out of New York City's Brill Building, a center for music industry offices. While composing at the Brill Building for other artists, Neil also recorded six mostly rockabilly-pop oriented singles for different labels as a solo artist. He wrote songs that were taken by early rock and roll artists such as Buddy Holly ("Come Back Baby" 1958) and Roy Orbison ("Candy Man" 1961).
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Freddy Bienstock
Freddy Bienstock (April 24, 1923 - September 20, 2009) was an American music publisher who built his career in music by being the person responsible for soliciting and selecting songs for Elvis Presley's early albums and films.
Bienstock was born to a Jewish family in Switzerland on April 24, 1923, and relocated to Vienna with his family when he was three-years old. After the Anschluss, He immigrated to the United States in 1938, just before the outbreak of World War II, with his brother Johnny Bienstock, who later founded Big Top Records. The family ended up settling in New York after his parents came to the U.S. in 1940.
After visiting a cousin, Jean Aberbach, who worked as an executive with Chappell Music at New York City's Brill Building, Bienstock found employment in the stock room there. He worked his way up to song plugger, offering sheet music for new songs to their prospective performers. He was hired in the 1950s by Hill & Range, a music publishing firm owned by his cousins Jean and Julian Aberbach that had long specialized in country music. There, Bienstock was given the task of finding songs for the company's most promising performer, Elvis Presley, supplying him with such songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as "Don't" and "Jailhouse Rock", two of the King's earliest hit songs.
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G. C. Cameron
George Curtis "G.C." Cameron (born September 21, 1945 in Jackson, Mississippi) is an American soul and R&B singer. G.C. is credited with having "six different voices."
After serving in the Vietnam War with the Marines, Cameron joined Motown act The Spinners as lead singer. He sang both lead parts on their first big hit, 1970's It's a Shame, co-written and produced by Stevie Wonder, and remained with Motown as a solo artist when The Spinners left Motown in 1971. He was known for his ability to sound like other artists, such as Smokey Robinson on his song "(Don't Wanna) Play Pajama Games", Curtis Mayfield on "No Matter Where" and The Isley Brothers on his duet with Willie Hutch "Come Get This Thang'. Although Cameron was not a major-seller for the label, he did have a hit with "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday", the theme song of the 1975 film Cooley High, which was later covered by Boyz II Men.
Cameron left Motown after the 1970s, and toured as an independent artist. He recorded a critically acclaimed album for Malaco Records in 1983 and his career was revived in 1989 by recordings for British record companies Ardent (owned at the time by Paul Mooney) and Motorcity (owned by Ian Levine). He returned to The Spinners from 2000 to 2002, and also recorded another solo album.
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Garland Green
Garland Green (born Garfield Green Jr., June 14, 1942, Dunleith, Mississippi) is an American soul singer and pianist.
Green was the tenth child of eleven born in his family, and lived in Mississippi until 1958 when he moved to Chicago. While working and attending Englewood High, he sang on weekends, and one day while singing in a pool room, he was overheard by Argia B. Collins, a local owner of a bar-b-que chain. Collins agreed to bankroll Green's attendance at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, where Green studied voice and piano, and played in local bars and clubs.
In 1967, Green won a local talent show at a club called the Trocadero. His prize was a concert opening for Lou Rawls and Earl Hines at the Sutherland Lounge. In the audience was Mel Collins, and his wife Joshie Jo Armstead, who was a songwriter who had written tunes with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson prior to the couple joining Motown. The couple arranged for Green to do a recording session in Detroit and released the result as a single on their label, Gamma Records, a song called "Girl I Love You." It sold well locally and was picked up by MCA subsidiary, Revue Records for national distribution. Revue released three further singles from Green who then moved to MCA's main label, Uni Records.
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George Harrison
George Harrison,MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, and introduced it to the other Beatles, as well as their Western audience. Following the band's break-up he was a successful solo artist, and later a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys. Harrison was also a session musician and a film and record producer. He is listed at number 11 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Although most of The Beatles' songs were written by Lennon and McCartney, Beatle albums generally included one or two of Harrison's own songs, from With The Beatles onwards. His later compositions with The Beatles include "Here Comes the Sun", "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". By the time of the band's break-up, Harrison had accumulated a backlog of material, which he then released as the triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970, from which two hit singles originated: a double A-side single, "My Sweet Lord" backed with "Isn't It a Pity", and "What Is Life". In addition to his solo work, Harrison co-wrote two hits for former Beatle Ringo Starr, as well as songs for the Traveling Wilburys—the supergroup he formed in 1988 with Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison.
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George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE (born 3 January 1926) is an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he has described as "nonsense"—in reference to his extensive involvement on each of The Beatles' original albums. He is considered one of the greatest record producers of all time, with 30 number one hit singles in the UK and 23 number one hits in the USA.
Influenced by a range of musical styles, encompassing Cole Porter and Johnny Dankworth, he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1947 to 1950, studying piano and oboe. Following his graduation, he worked for the BBC's classical music department, then joined EMI in 1950. Martin produced comedy and novelty records in the early 1950s, working with the likes of Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan.
In a career spanning over six decades, Martin has worked in music, film, television and live performance. He has also held a number of senior executive roles at media companies and contributes to a wide range of charitable causes, including his work for the Prince's Trust and the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
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Georgia Gibbs
Georgia Gibbs (August 17, 1919 – December 9, 2006) was an American popular singer and vocal entertainer rooted in jazz. Already singing publicly in her early teens, Gibbs first achieved acclaim (and notoriety) in the mid-1950s interpreting songs originating with the black rhythm and blues community and later as a featured vocalist on a long list of radio and television variety and comedy programs. Her key attribute was tremendous versatility and an uncommon stylistic range from melancholy ballad to uptempo swinging jazz and rock and roll.
Gibbs was born Frieda Lipschitz, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the youngest of four children of Russian Jewish descent. Her father died when she was six months old, and she and her three siblings spent the next seven years in a local Jewish orphanage.
Revealing a natural talent for singing at a young age, she was given the lead in the orphanage's yearly variety show. A reunion with her mother(who had visited her once every other month) occurred when the latter found employment as a midwife. However, mother's job often forced her to leave her daughter alone for weeks at a time with only a Philco radio for company.
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Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE (born 2 February 1942) is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor voice and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock super group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer. Nash was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1997 and as a member of The Hollies in 2010.
Nash was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to music and to charity.
Nash holds three honorary doctorates, the latest in Music from the University of Salford (England) in 2011.
Nash was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, in 1942, his mother having been evacuated there from the Nash's hometown of Salford, Lancashire because of the Second World War. The family subsequently returned to Salford, where Graham grew up. In the early 1960s he was co-founder with schoolfriend Allan Clarke of The Hollies. Nash was a leading 'group figurehead' member of The Hollies, one of the UK's most successful pop and "British Invasion" groups. Credited on the first album as 'Group Leader' and recognised as a key member of the group, plus their public spokesman, he occasionally took a lead vocal. Nash was featured vocally on 'Just One Look' in 1964, and sang his first lead vocal on the original Hollies song "To You My Love" on the band's second album In The Hollies Style (1964). He then progressed to often singing featured 'bridge vocals' on Hollies recordings; 'So Lonely', 'I've Been Wrong' 1965, 'Pay You Back With Interest' 1966 etc., also by 1966 Nash was providing a few solo lead vocals on Hollies albums & then from 1967 'B' sides to singles.
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Henry Fambrough
Henry Fambrough (born 10 May 1938) is an original vocalist and current member of the R&B quintet The Spinners (a.k.a. The Detroit Spinners,i.e. the Motown group, not the folk group). He is (along with Bobbie Smith) one of two active (and surviving) original members of the Spinners. While still a member of the group, Pervis Jackson died on 18 August 2008.
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Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinets (including bass clarinet), but Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute and was perhaps jazz music's preeminent flutist during the 1960s. His most popular single was "Hijack," which was a Billboard number-one dance hit for three weeks in 1975.
Mann emphasized the groove approach in his music. Mann felt that from his repertoire, the "epitome of a groove record" was Memphis Underground or Push Push, because the "rhythm section locked all in one perception."
Herbie Mann was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents of Romanian and Russian descent. He attended Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach. His first professional performance was playing the Catskills resorts at age 15. In the 1950s Mann was primarily a bop flutist, playing in combos with artists such as Phil Woods, occasionally playing bass clarinet, tenor saxophone and solo flute.
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Howard McGhee
Howard McGhee (March 6, 1918, Tulsa, Oklahoma – July 17, 1987, New York City) was one of the first bebop jazz trumpeters, together with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for his fast fingers and very high notes. What is generally not known is the influence that he had on younger hard bop trumpeters, together with Fats Navarro.
Howard McGhee was raised in Detroit, Michigan. During his career, he played in bands led by Lionel Hampton, Andy Kirk, Count Basie and Charlie Barnet. He was in a club listening to the radio when he first heard Parker and was one of the early adopters of the new style, a fact that was disapproved by older musicians like Kid Ory.
In 1946-47, some record sessions for the new label Dial were organized at Hollywood with Charlie Parker and the Howard McGhee combo. The first was held on July 29, 1946. The musicians were Charlie Parker (as), Howard McGhee (tp), Jimmy Bunn (p), Bob Kesterson (b), Roy Porter (d), and William "Bill" Jones (v). The titles played were "Max is Making Wax", "Lover Man", "The Gypsy" and "Be-bop".
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Hubert Laws
Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is an American flutist and saxophonist with a career spanning over 40 years in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Alongside Herbie Mann, Laws is probably the most recognized and respected jazz flutist. Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm-and-blues genres, moving effortlessly from one repertory to another.
Hubert Laws, Jr. was born November 10, 1939, in the Studewood section of Houston, Texas, the second of eight children to Hubert Laws, Sr. and Miola Luverta Donahue. Many of his siblings also entered the music industry, including saxophonist Ronnie and vocalists Eloise, Debra and Johnnie Laws. He began playing flute in high school after volunteering to substitute for the school orchestra's regular flutist. He became adept at jazz improvisation by playing in the Houston-area jazz group the Swingsters, which eventually evolved into the Modern Jazz Sextet, the Night Hawks, and The Crusaders. At age 15, was a member of the early Jazz Crusaders while in Texas (1954–1960), and he also played classical music during those years.
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Hy Weiss
Hy Weiss (February 12, 1923 – March 20, 2007) was an American record producer.
Born Hyman Y. Weiss in Romania, he was an immigrant to the United States when young and was brought up in the Bronx, New York. He started in the music industry in 1949, setting up Parody Records with his brother Sam.
His record label, Old Town Records, was active from 1953 for over a decade. Weiss was primarily a producer of doo wop groups. Old Town had its first hit with the 1958 single, "We Belong Together," by Robert & Johnny. Reissues of records by Arthur Prysock extended the life of the label.
Subsequently Weiss worked for Stax Records. Weiss had a co-writer credit for the song "Foggy Notion" by the Velvet Underground, along with all of the members of the band.
Weiss was a resident of Rockleigh, New Jersey.
He died in Englewood, New Jersey in March 2007, at the age of 84.
His son, Barry Weiss is the current Chairman & CEO of Island Def Jam/Universal Motown Republic.
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Jac Holzman
Jac Holzman (born September 15, 1931) was the founder, chief executive officer and head of both Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records.
He founded Elektra Records in his St. John's College dorm room in 1950 and Nonesuch Records in 1964. He signed such acts as The Doors, Queen (US only), Love, Carly Simon, The Stooges, Harry Chapin, and Bread to Elektra and discovered[citation needed] folk singer Judy Collins. In 1970 he merged his music interests with Warner Communications (WCI) and continued his association with the labels he created for three additional years. While a part of the Warner Music Group, Holzman helped to establish both the WEA Distributing Corp(Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Distributing Corp) and WEA International.[citation needed]
In 1973, Holzman was appointed senior vice president and chief technologist for WCI. Holzman guided the company into home video and the first interactive cable television system, QUBE. Until 1972, he was a director of Pioneer Electronics Japan, helping that company, and Warner, adopt the compact disc and Laserdisc. Holzman was a member of the board of Atari, one of the first videogame companies, which was acquired by WCI in 1976.
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James Blunt
James Hillier Blount (born 22 February 1974), better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter and former army officer, whose debut album, Back to Bedlam and single releases, including "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover", brought him to fame in 2005. His repertoire can be best described as a mix of acoustic-tinged pop, rock and folk. After recording on the independent American label Custard Records, Blunt won two Brit Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards, and by 2006 was nominated for five Grammy Awards. The following year, he released his second album All the Lost Souls (2007). Blunt's third studio album, Some Kind of Trouble, was released in November 2010. Worldwide, Blunt has sold over 18 million albums, and his debut album, Back to Bedlam, is the best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK.
Blunt was an officer in the Life Guards, a cavalry regiment of the British Army, and served under NATO in Kosovo during the conflict there in 1999. While posted to Kosovo, Blunt was introduced to the work of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or "Doctors Without Borders"). Since then, Blunt has supported MSF by holding meet-and-greet auctions at many of his concerts.
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James Petrillo
James Caesar Petrillo (March 16, 1892 – October 23, 1984) was the prominent leader of the American Federation of Musicians, a trade union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada.
Petrillo was born in Chicago, Illinois. Though in his youth Petrillo played the trumpet, he finally made a career out of organizing musicians into the union starting in 1919.
Petrillo became president of the Chicago Local 10 of the musician's union in 1922, and was president of the American Federation of Musicians from 1940 to 1958. He continued being the prime force in the Union for another decade; in the 1960s he was head of the Union's "Civil Rights Division", which saw to the desegregation of the local unions and the venues where musicians played.
Petrillo dominated the union with absolute authority. His most famous actions were banning all commercial recordings by union members from 1942–1944 and again in 1948 to pressure record companies to give better royalty deals to musicians; these were called the Petrillo Bans.
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Jean Knight
Jean Knight (born Jean Caliste, June 26, 1943, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an African-American soul/R&B/funk singer, best known for her 1971 Stax Records hit single, "Mr. Big Stuff".
After graduating from high school, Caliste began singing at her cousin's bar 'Laura's Place' and caught the attention of many different bands who were willing to accompany her. In 1965, she recorded a demo of a cover version of Jackie Wilson's song "Stop Doggin' Me Around."[citation needed] Her demo attracted record producer Huey Meaux, who signed her to a recording contract at the Jet Star/Tribe record labels. Shortly thereafter, Caliste adopted the professional name of "Jean Knight," because she felt that her surname was too hard to pronounce. She recorded four singles, making a name for herself locally, but was not able to attract any national attention. By the late 1960s, it was obvious that her career was not living up to her high expectations, so she went to work as a baker in the cafeteria of Loyola University in New Orleans.
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Jerry Leiber
Jerome "Jerry" Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. Stoller was the composer and Leiber the lyricist. Their most famous songs include "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Don't," "Kansas City," "Stand By Me" (with Ben E. King), and "On Broadway" (with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil).
Leiber and Stoller's initial successes were as the writers of such crossover hit songs as "Hound Dog" and "Kansas City." Later in the 1950s, particularly through their work with The Coasters, they created a string of ground-breaking hits that are some of the most entertaining in rock and roll, by using the humorous vernacular of the teenagers sung in a style that was openly theatrical rather than personal, songs that include "Young Blood," "Searchin'," and "Yakety Yak." They were the first to surround black music with elaborate production values, enhancing its emotional power with The Drifters in "There Goes My Baby" and influencing Phil Spector who worked with them on recordings of the Drifters and Ben E. King. Leiber and Stoller went into the record business and, focusing on the "girl group" sound, released some of the greatest classics of the Brill Building period.
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Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s. He coined the term "rhythm and blues", and was integral in signing and/or producing many of the biggest acts of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers, Chris Connor, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Wilson Pickett, Dire Straits, Dusty Springfield and Bob Dylan. Wexler was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Jerry Wexler was one of the most highly-regarded A&R men in popular music history, a status bolstered by his accomplishments with Aretha Franklin.
Wexler was born in The Bronx, New York City, into a Jewish family, and grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan. He graduated from George Washington High School (New York City) in Washington Heights at age 15 and dropped out after two semesters at City College of New York. In 1935, Wexler enrolled at what is now Kansas State University and dropped out several times. Following his service in the army, Wexler became a serious student, and he graduated from Kansas State, with a degree in journalism in 1946.
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Jesse Lee (singer)
Jesse Lee is an American country music singer. Signed to Atlantic Nashville in 2007, she released her debut single "It's a Girl Thing" in 2009, which debuted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated for June 6, 2009. A second single, "Like My Mother Does," was released in 2010, which failed to chart.
Jesse Lee was born in 1986 and raised in Los Altos, California. Inspired by country music at an early age, she began performing in state festivals by age eleven before her family moved to Florida, eventually serving as an opening act for Ronnie Milsap, Willie Nelson and Clay Walker. By age 14, she had made her first trip to Nashville, Tennessee to collaborate with hit songwriters, as well as record demos. She attended Belmont University's music business program after graduating from high school, meanwhile performing at local songwriters' clubs. She co-wrote and sang the duet "Me Again" on Uncle Kracker's album Happy Hour and wrote the title track to Kristy Lee Cook's debut album Why Wait.
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Jesse Stone
Jesse Stone (November 16, 1901 – April 1, 1999) was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres. He also used the pseudonyms Charles Calhoun and Chuck Calhoun.
Ahmet Ertegün once stated that "Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock 'n' roll sound than anybody else."
Born in Atchison, Kansas, United States, Stone grew up in Kansas where he was influenced by a wide array of styles. He came from a musical family who put on minstrel shows, and performed with a trained dog act at the age of 4. By 1926 he had formed a group, the Blue Serenaders, and cut his first record, "Starvation Blues", for Okeh Records in 1927. For the next few years he worked as a pianist and arranger in Kansas City, recording with Julia Lee among others, and then in the 1930s organised a larger orchestra.
Duke Ellington got Stone's orchestra booked at the Cotton Club in 1936, and Ellington put Stone up free of charge in his apartment for four months. Over the next few years Stone worked as a bandleader at the Apollo Theatre, and more widely in Harlem as a songwriter and arranger, with Chick Webb's band (which included Louis Jordan), Jimmie Lunceford, and many others. He made some recordings under his own name in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Jim Stewart (music)
Jim Stewart (born July 29, 1930) is a former record company executive and producer who co-founded Stax Records.
Raised on a farm in Middleton, Tennessee, Stewart moved to Memphis in 1948, after graduating from high school. He worked at Sears, at First National Bank, and then was drafted into the United States Army. After serving for two years, Stewart returned to his job as a bank clerk in Memphis in 1953.
Stewart was a part-time fiddle player and joined a local country music group called the Canyon Cowboys. He worked days as a banker at Union Planters Bank. In 1957, Stewart launched his own record label, then called Satellite Records, which issued country music records. His sister, Estelle Axton, mortgaged her home to invest in her brother's venture by buying an Ampex 300 tape recorder. In 1959, the label moved into the former Capitol Theatre in Memphis. The auditorium was converted to studio space and the stage converted to a control room. To save money, Stewart did not level the floor. This created unique acoustics, which showed up in the recordings made there. After Stax went bankrupt in 1976, Stewart kept a low profile and intensely protected his privacy. When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, he sent his two granddaughters to the induction ceremony to accept the award on his behalf.
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Jimmy Iovine
James "Jimmy" Iovine (last name pronounced Eye-o-Veen; born March 11, 1953) is an American music producer, entrepreneur and chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.
Born in Brooklyn, Iovine began his career as a recording engineer in the mid-1970s, working with Raspberries, John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. He went on to produce albums for U2 (Rattle & Hum), Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Stevie Nicks, Golden Earring, Simple Minds, Dire Straits, Flame (featuring Marge Raymond, Jimmy Crespo, Bob Leone, and others), and Patti Smith. Iovine established Interscope Records in 1991 with the release of Gerardo's Mo' Ritmo. It went on to become Interscope-Geffen-A&M following Universal's acquisition of PolyGram when Iovine was named co-chairman; in 2001, he became chairman.
He is credited with having given Eminem's demo tape to Dr. Dre, who signed him to his Aftermath label. In 2002, Iovine co-produced the hit Eminem movie 8 Mile and in 2004, he and Paul Rosenberg signed a first look deal with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films for their Interscope/Shady/Aftermath banner. Iovine co-produced the first film under the deal, Get Rich or Die Tryin', starring 50 Cent. In 2003, he was co-executive producer of Enrique Iglesias's album Seven. In January 2008, Iovine, Dr. Dre and Monster Cable released Beats by Dr. Dre high-performance headphones. Iovine is also an executive producer with LeBron James and Maverick Carter of the documentary More Than A Game, which was released in the fall of 2009.
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Joe Tex
Joseph Arrington, Jr. (August 8, 1933 – August 13, 1982), better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s. His style of speaking over music, which he called 'rap', made him a predecessor of the modern style of music.
Born in Baytown, Texas, Tex was subsequently raised in the Central Texas town of Rogers. His professional career as a singer began onstage at the Apollo. He won first place in a 1954 talent contest and duly secured a record deal.
His early releases on King Records, Ace and Anna Records were considered by some to be derivative and were generally disappointing in terms of sales. Tex released thirty singles in the first ten years of his recording career, never once hitting the Hot 100. However, after James Brown's cover version of Tex's "Baby You're Right" became a US number 2 hit in 1962, Tex was signed to Dial Records by Nashville, Tennessee-based record producer Buddy Killen, and his career turned around.
Tex prospered under Killen's guidance. Tex's first hit recording was 1965's "Hold What You've Got", recorded at the FAME studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and distributed by Atlantic on Killen's Dial record label. "Hold What You've Got" spent 11 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #5, and sold a million copies by 1966.
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Joel Dorn
Joel Dorn (April 7, 1942 – December 17, 2007) was an American jazz and R&B music producer and record label entrepreneur. He worked at Atlantic Records, and later founded the 32 Jazz, Label M, and Hyena Records labels. He called himself "The Masked Announcer".
From an early age, Joel Dorn knew he wanted to be in the music business, and not just anywhere in the business; Dorn knew he wanted to work specifically for Atlantic Records. At 14-years old, he began correspondence with the label's co-founder Nesuhi Ertegun. "I'd send letters telling Nesuhi that I thought Ray Charles should do a duet. What talent they were missing out on, all sorts of critiques and suggestions," remembered Dorn.
In 1961, he officially began his career as a disc jockey at the pioneering Philadelphia jazz radio station WHAT-FM. He called himself "The Masked Announcer". "The DJ gig was a great way to get to know all the record companies, and get involved in the business, but I had my heart set on producing the entire time," remembered Dorn. Nesuhi Ertegun, who'd now been corresponding with Dorn for six years, finally began to take those opinions seriously. "My show had become popular in the Philly market, and I think Atlantic realized that I was becoming instrumental in breaking records for them on a regional level,” figured Dorn. "Before long the letters turned into telephone calls and I eventually met Nesuhi."
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John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.
As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane, and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."
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John Dall
John Dall (May 26, 1918[citation needed] – January 15, 1971) was an American actor.
Primarily a stage actor, he is best remembered today for two film roles; the cool-minded intellectual killer in Alfred Hitchcock's film Rope, and the trigger-happy lead in the 1950 noir Gun Crazy. He also had a substantial role in Stanley Kubrick's film Spartacus.
He first came to fame as the young prodigy who comes alive under the tutelage of Bette Davis in The Corn Is Green, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Dall was born John Jenner Thompson in New York City, New York, the second son of Charles Jenner Thompson, a civil engineer, and his wife Henry (née Worthington). Dall died in Hollywood, California. Sources indicate he died of a heart attack.
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John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founder members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Together with Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze; his first band, The Quarrymen, evolved into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to raising his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release.
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Johnny Gill
Johnny Gill (born May 22, 1966) is an American R&B singer-songwriter. He is the sixth and final member of the R&B supergroup New Edition, and was also a member of another supergroup called LSG; with Gerald Levert and Keith Sweat. His signature song "My, My, My" has been included on numerous romantic compilations.
Gill was born on May 22, 1966 in Washington, D.C, the son of a minister. He started singing at the age of five in a family gospel group called "Wings Faith" which included his brothers Bobby, Jeff, and Randy Gill (himself a solo recording artist and member of the group II D Extreme). His recording career began in 1983 when his childhood friend, singer Stacy Lattisaw, convinced him to record a demo. This demo fell into the hands of the president of Atlantic Records, and his self-titled debut album was released shortly thereafter, featuring the minor hit, "Super Love". On this album, Gill played guitar, bass, bongos, and drums in addition to performing lead and background vocals. Gill then teamed up with Stacy for a duet album, which featured their first hit together, "Perfect Combination". A second album on Atlantic Records yielded the song "Half Crazy", which is still a fan favorite.
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Johnny Hodges
John Keith "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1906 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist, best known for his solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years, except the period between 1932–1946 when Otto Hardwick generally played first chair. Hodges was also featured on soprano saxophone, but refused to play soprano after 1946, when he was given the lead chair. He is considered one of the definitive alto saxophones players of the Big Band Era (alongside Benny Carter).
Hodges started playing with Lloyd Scott, Sidney Bechet, Lucky Roberts and Chick Webb. When Ellington wanted to expand his band in 1928, Ellington's clarinet player Barney Bigard recommended Hodges, who was featured on both alto and soprano sax. His playing became one of the identifying voices of the Ellington orchestra. Hodges left the Duke to lead his own band (1951–1955), but returned to the large ensemble shortly before Ellington's triumphant return to prominence – the orchestra's performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival.
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Johnny Jenkins
Johnny Edward Jenkins (March 5, 1939 – June 26, 2006) was an American left-handed blues guitarist, who helped launch the career of Otis Redding. His flamboyant style of guitar playing also influenced Jimi Hendrix, who would later use some of Jenkins's tricks in his stage show.[citation needed]
In the 1960s Jenkins was the leader of the Pinetoppers, who employed a young Otis Redding as singer. As Jenkins did not possess a driver's license of his own, the young Redding also served as his personal driver. During a recording session in 1962 organized by the band's manager Phil Walden, Jenkins left forty minutes of studio time unused. Redding used this time to record a ballad entitled "These Arms of Mine" on which Jenkins played guitar. In 1964 Jenkins released an instrumental single called "Spunky." (Volt V-122)
With Phil Walden concentrating on Redding's flourishing career, Jenkins was sidelined and it was not until after Redding's death in 1967 that Walden again concentrated on Jenkins's career. In 1970 Jenkins released the album Ton-Ton Macoute!. The opening track, a cover of Dr. John's "I Walk on Gilded Splinters", has been sampled by numerous musicians, including Beck and Oasis. Several tracks on Ton-Ton Macoute! feature Duane Allman on guitar and Dobro.
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Kevin Liles
Kevin Liles (born February 26, 1968 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA) is an American record executive. Liles was president of Def Jam Recordings and executive vice president of The Island Def Jam Music Group from 1999 to 2004. He served as executive vice president for Warner Music Group, working under his former Island Def Jam associate Lyor Cohen before stepping down as executive vice president of Warner Music Group to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors in September 2009.
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King Curtis
Curtis Ousley (February 7, 1934 – August 13, 1971), who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone virtuoso known for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk and soul jazz. He was adopted, alongside with his adopted sister, Josephine Ousley Allen. They both grew up in Texas, together. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer. Adept at tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, he was best known for his distinctive riffs and solos such as on "Yakety Yak", which later became the inspiration for Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax" and his own "Memphis Soul Stew".
King Curtis started playing saxophone at the age of twelve in the Fort Worth area. Josephine, took interest in him, knowing that she was also into music and singing as well. He took interest in many musical genres including jazz, rhythm and blues, and popular music. As a student pursuing music he turned down college scholarships in order to join the Lionel Hampton Band. During his time with Lionel Hampton he was able to write and arrange music and learn guitar. In 1952 Curtis decided to move to New York and became a session musician, recording for such labels as Prestige, Enjoy, Capitol, and Atco. He recorded with Nat Adderley and Wynton Kelly,Buddy Holly and Andy Williams.
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Leadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter (January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an iconic American folk and blues musician, and multi-instrumentalist, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced.
He is best known as Lead Belly. Though many releases list him as "Leadbelly", he himself spelled it "Lead Belly". This is also the usage on his tombstone, as well as of the Lead Belly Foundation. In 1994 the Lead Belly Foundation contacted an authority on the history of popular music, Colin Larkin, editor of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, to ask if the name "Leadbelly" could be altered to "Lead Belly" in the hope that other authors would follow suit and use the artist's correct appellation.
Although Lead Belly most commonly played the twelve-string, he could also play the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, and accordion. In some of his recordings, such as in one of his versions of the folk ballad "John Hardy", he performs on the accordion instead of the guitar. In other recordings he just sings while clapping his hands or stomping his foot.
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Lee Hazlewood
Lee Hazlewood (July 9, 1929 – August 4, 2007), born Barton Lee Hazlewood was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s.
Hazlewood had a distinctive baritone voice that added an ominous resonance to his music. Hazlewood's collaborations with Nancy Sinatra as well as his solo output in the late 1960s and early 1970s have been praised as an essential contribution to a sound often described as "Cowboy Psychedelia" or "Saccharine Underground".
The son of an oil man, Hazlewood was born in Mannford, Oklahoma and spent most of his youth living between Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Louisiana. He grew up listening to pop and bluegrass music. Hazlewood spent his teenage years in Port Neches, Texas where he was exposed to a rich Gulf Coast music tradition. Hazlewood studied for a medical degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He served with the United States Army during the Korean War.
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Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz (born October 13, 1927) is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.
Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings. Konitz was one of the few altoists to retain a distinctive sound in the 40s, when Charlie Parker exercised a tremendous influence on other players.
Konitz, like other students of pianist and theoretician Lennie Tristano, was noted for improvising long, melodic lines with the rhythmic interest coming from odd accents, or odd note groupings suggestive of the imposition of one time signature over another. Paul Desmond and, especially, Art Pepper were strongly influenced by Konitz.
Konitz's association with the Cool Jazz movement of the 1940s and 50s, includes participation in Miles Davis' epochal Birth of the Cool sessions, and his work with Lennie Tristano came from the same period. During his long career, Konitz has played with musicians from a wide variety of jazz styles.
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Lennie Tristano
Leonard Joseph Tristano (19 March 1919 – 18 November 1978) was a jazz pianist, composer and teacher of jazz improvisation. He performed in the cool jazz, bebop, post bop and avant-garde jazz genres. He remains a somewhat overlooked figure in jazz history, but his enormous originality and dazzling work as an improviser have long been appreciated by knowledgeable jazz fans. In addition, his work as a jazz educator meant that he has exerted a substantial influence on jazz through figures such as Lee Konitz and Bill Evans.
Tristano was born in Chicago into an Italian immigrant family from Aversa. He was blind from infancy and studied piano and music theory from pre-teen years, graduating with a bachelor's degree from his home town's American Conservatory of Music in 1943.
Tristano's interest in jazz inspired a move to New York City in 1946. His advanced grasp of harmony pushed his music beyond even the complexities of the contemporary bebop movement, though Tristano was always explicit about acknowledging his enormous debt to Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. Other key ingredients in his style were Nat King Cole and Art Tatum, influences most audible in his early drummerless trio recordings. Though he and his followers remained at something of a slant to mainstream bebop, Tristano did on occasion play and record with bebop's preeminent figures such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and Tristano was a pallbearer at Parker's funeral. Often the "Tristano school" has been contrasted with bebop, however, by being labelled "cool jazz", though this risks lumping his music in with unrelated styles like the West Coast cool jazz of the 1950s.
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Les McCann
Les McCann (born September 23, 1935, Lexington, Kentucky) is an American soul jazz piano player and vocalist whose biggest successes came as a crossover artist into R&B and soul.
Les McCann's main career began in the early 1960s when he recorded with his trio for Pacific Jazz Records.
In 1969, Atlantic Records released Swiss Movement, a recording of McCann with regular collaborator and saxophonist Eddie Harris and guest trumpeter Benny Bailey at that year's Montreux Jazz Festival. The album contained the song "Compared To What," and both the album and the single were huge Billboard pop chart successes. "Compared To What" featured political criticism of the Vietnam War. The song was not actually written by McCann; fellow Atlantic composer/artist Eugene McDaniels (A Hundred Pounds of Clay) wrote it years earlier. "Compared To What" was initially recorded and released by soul vocalist Roberta Flack. Her version appeared as the opening track on her debut recording, First Take (1969).
After the success of Swiss Movement, McCann — primarily a piano player — began to emphasize his rough-hewn vocals more. He became an innovator in the soul jazz style, merging jazz with funk, soul and world rhythms; much of his early 1970s music prefigures the great Stevie Wonder albums of the decade. He was among the first jazz musicians to include electric piano, clavinet, and synthesizer in his music.
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Lester Sill
Lester Sill (January 13, 1918 – October 31, 1994) was an American record label executive, best remembered as Phil Spector's partner in Philles Records (the name came from the first parts of their names, Phil and Les), and also as the head of both Colpix Records and the later Colgems Records. His three sons are music supervisors in the film and TV businesses: Joel Sill, Greg Sill and Lonnie Sill. His stepson Chuck Kaye is a longtime music publishing executive.
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Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson (born November 1, 1926) is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.
His first recordings were with the Charlie Singleton Orchestra in 1950 and then with bop emissaries Milt Jackson and Thelonious Monk in 1952, and he participated in several small groups with other jazz luminaries such as trumpeter Blue Mitchell, pianist Horace Silver, and drummer Art Blakey.
In 1953, he also recorded sessions with the trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown, and Philly Joe Jones. He was a member of Art Blakey's Quintet and appeared on some of their best regarded albums, including the two albums recorded at Birdland in February 1954 Night at Birdland.
He has recorded in the bop, hard bop, and soul jazz genres. For many years his pianist was Herman Foster.
With Clifford Brown
With Milt Jackson
With Thelonious Monk
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Lyor Cohen
Lyor Cohen (Hebrew: ליאור כהן; born October 3, 1959) is the North American Chairman and CEO of Recorded Music for Warner Music Group (WMG). He has been a pioneer in the development of hip hop music and influential in the development of hip hop music acts, including Beastie Boys, Foxy Brown, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Nas, Run-D.M.C. and others.[citation needed]
In addition, he has done various promotional work on behalf of rock musician Jon Bon Jovi and the heavy metal band Slayer, pop music singer Mariah Carey and hip hop artists Sean Combs and Jay-Z.
Cohen joined the company shortly after Time Warner's sale of WMG to an investor group led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr.. Prior to his current role with Warner Music, he worked with The Island Def Jam Music Group, where he led the growth of its roster of artists and record labels, including Def Jam Recordings, Island Records, Roc-A-Fella Records, and Lost Highway Records. At WMG, in 2007, his division brought the company its highest U.S. album share in a decade and was credited with delivering the "most improved performance of a major music company" by the New York Post. As head of WMG's recorded music division, Cohen has helped to transform the company's talent relationships by expanding the number of services it offers the artists on its roster and establishing a standardized, company-wide "360 deal."
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Mabel Mercer
Mabel Mercer (3 February 1900 – 20 April 1984) was an English-born cabaret singer who performed in the United States, Britain, and Europe with the greats in jazz and cabaret. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, owned by the hostess Bricktop, and performed in such clubs as Le Ruban Bleu, Tony's, the RSVP, the Carlyle, the St. Regis Hotel, and eventually her own room, the Byline Club. Among those who frequently attended Mercer's shows was Frank Sinatra, who made no secret of his emulating her phrasing and story-telling techniques.
Mercer was born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. Her mother was a young, white English music hall performer, and her father was a black American jazz musician whom Mabel never knew. At age fourteen, she left her convent school in Manchester, and toured Britain and Europe with her aunt in vaudeville and music hall engagements.
In 1928, she was an unknown member of the black chorus in the London production of Show Boat, but she had become the toast of Paris by the 1930s, with admirers who included Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Cole Porter.
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Mal Waldron
Malcolm Earl Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz and world music pianist and composer, born in New York City.
Like his contemporaries, Waldron's roots lie chiefly in the hard bop and post-bop genres of the New York club scene of the 1950s; but with time, he gravitated more towards free jazz and composition. He is known for his dissonant chord voicings and distinctive playing style, which was originally inspired by Thelonious Monk.
After obtaining a B.A. in music from Queen's College, New York, he worked in New York City in the early 1950s with Ike Quebec, "Big Nick" Nicholas, and rhythm and blues groups. He worked frequently with Charles Mingus from 1954 to 1956 and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from 1957 until her death in 1959. He also supervised recording sessions for Prestige Records, for which he provided arrangements and compositions of which arguably his most famous, "Soul Eyes", became a widely recorded jazz standard. After Holiday's death he chiefly led his own groups.
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Margie Hendricks
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, Susaye Greene, Beverly LeSure, and Rita Graham who recorded the album 'Rita Graham Vibrations' produced by Ray Charles on his Tangerine label, the only major recording production Ray Charles produced on a single female artist on the Tangerine label. 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.
Although they never gained fame for their singles, they had a number of pop and R&B hits and several have gone on to promising solo careers. Before becoming the Raelettes, the group were known as The Cookies. The group's name was on occasions also spelled as The Raelets or Raeletts.
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Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams (May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Williams wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for such bandleaders as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others.
Born as Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, she grew up in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of eleven children. As a very young child she taught herself to play the piano (her first public performance was at the age of six). She became a professional musician in her teens. She cited Lovie Austin as her greatest influence. At age six, Williams was already helping to support her ten half-brothers and sisters by playing for parties. She began performing publicly at the age of seven, when she became known admiringly in Pittsburgh as "the little piano girl of East Liberty".
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Mike Caren
Mike Caren (Born May 5, 1977) is an American record producer, songwriter, and music executive. As of 2009, he was the executive vice president of A&R for Atlantic Records, and the co-president of Elektra Records.
After completing jobs with SRC/Loud Records and Ruthless Records, Caren started his career at Atlantic in 1995 at the age of seventeen as Manager of Rap Marketing for the label's Big Beat imprint. He has since been responsible for signing numerous artists that have earned gold and platinum-selling records. His signings include: Trey Songz, T.I., Flo-Rida, Cody Simpson, Trick Daddy, Twista, Trina, Wiz Khalifa, Juvenile, Prince Royce, and Brianna.
As a record producer and songwriter, he contributed to the production of T.I.'s Grammy Award-winning "Swagga Like Us", and produced Asher Roth's "I Love College" (platinum), Trick Daddy's "Sugar (Gimme Some)" (gold), Cobra Starship's Hot Mess (gold), Flo Rida's "Jump" (gold), Bruno Mars' "The Other Side", Kanye West's "Hell of a Life", B.o.B's "New York, New York", and Jennifer Lopez's "Everybody's Girl", among others. He is also credited with co-writing Flo Rida's hit single, "Sugar", and David Guetta's "Where Them Girls At".
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Mike Leander
Michael George Farr (30 June 1941 – 18 April 1996) professionally known as Mike Leander was an English arranger, songwriter and record producer.
Born as Michael George Farr in Walthamstow, East London on 30 June 1941 he won a scholarship to Bancroft's School in Woodford Green, Essex where he was educated from 1952, until 1959.
Leander started his career as an arranger with Decca Records in 1963 and Bell Records in 1972 and worked with such artists as Marianne Faithfull, Billy Fury, Marc Bolan, Joe Cocker, The Small Faces, Van Morrison, Alan Price, Peter Frampton, Keith Richards, Shirley Bassey, Lulu, Jimmy Page, Roy Orbison, Brian Jones and Gene Pitney. He is perhaps best known as co-writer and producer for Gary Glitter throughout the 1970s.
Leander also worked as a producer/arranger with Ben E. King and The Drifters on the Atlantic record label and was the arranger on The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home" from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album (the only time The Beatles recruited someone other than their producer, George Martin, to provide orchestration.)
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Mike Stoller
Jerome "Jerry" Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. Stoller was the composer and Leiber the lyricist. Their most famous songs include "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Don't," "Kansas City," "Stand By Me" (with Ben E. King), and "On Broadway" (with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil).
Leiber and Stoller's initial successes were as the writers of such crossover hit songs as "Hound Dog" and "Kansas City." Later in the 1950s, particularly through their work with The Coasters, they created a string of ground-breaking hits that are some of the most entertaining in rock and roll, by using the humorous vernacular of the teenagers sung in a style that was openly theatrical rather than personal, songs that include "Young Blood," "Searchin'," and "Yakety Yak." They were the first to surround black music with elaborate production values, enhancing its emotional power with The Drifters in "There Goes My Baby" and influencing Phil Spector who worked with them on recordings of the Drifters and Ben E. King. Leiber and Stoller went into the record business and, focusing on the "girl group" sound, released some of the greatest classics of the Brill Building period.
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Mo Ostin
Mo Ostin (born March 27, 1927) is a record executive who has worked for several companies, including Verve, Reprise Records, Warner Bros. Records, and DreamWorks. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 by Paul Simon, Neil Young, and Lorne Michaels. He is known among his colleagues as the most artist-friendly executive in the music business.
He was hired as president of Reprise by Frank Sinatra from Verve where he had been the Administrative Executive and Controller. At Reprise he was involved with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and the Kinks.
In 1967, after a trip to the Monterey Pop Festival, he signed Jimi Hendrix.
Eventually he became the president of Reprise's parent company, Warner Bros. Records, where he signed numerous acts, including The Beach Boys, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, the Fugs, Paul Simon, Van Halen, Prince and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Ostin's work made Warners the biggest record company in the world and a model for the artist-friendly late 20th-century record company, creating an image of Warner Bros. as a haven for top musicians. The Warner creative execs included Joe Smith, Lenny Waronker, Stan Cornyn, Ted Templeman, and David Berman. In late 1994, when Ostin's contract came up for renewal, he came into conflict with then Warner Music Group chairman Robert J. Morgado, whose controversial tenure led to the departure of several key Warner group executives. After over two decades heading WBR, Ostin decided not to renew his contract and he officially left the Warner Music Group in December 1994.
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Munir Ertegun
Mehmet Münir Ertegün (1883 – 11 November 1944) was a Turkish legal counsel in international law to the "Sublime Porte" of the late Ottoman Empire and a diplomat of the Turkish Republic during its early years. Ertegün married Emine Hayrünnisa Rüstem in 1917 and the couple had three children, two of whom were Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün, the brothers who founded Atlantic Records and who became iconic figures in the American music industry.
Born in Istanbul to a civil servant father, Mehmet Cemil Bey, and a mother Ayşe Hamide Hanım, who was a daughter of Sufi shaykh İbrahim Edhem Efendi, he studied law at Istanbul University and graduated in 1908. He was a close figure and aide to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk during the Turkish Independence War and the chief legal counsel of the Turkish delegation to the Treaty of Lausanne.
After the Western powers recognized the newly-founded Republic of Turkey in 1923, he was sent to Geneva to the League of Nations as an observer for the Turkish Republic. During this assignment he frequently went to Paris for the Ottoman Public Debt negotiations. Following this posting to the League of Nations he was appointed ambassador to Switzerland (1925–1930), France (1930–1932), the United Kingdom (1932–1934) and the United States (1934–1944). He held this last post until he died in Washington, D.C. in 1944. In 1946, a year after World War II had ended, his body was carried back to Istanbul by the USS Missouri and buried in the garden of Sufi tekke, Özbekler Tekkesi in Sultantepe, Üsküdar near his shaykh grandfather İbrahim Edhem Efendi, who was once the head of the Tekke.
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Mylon LeFevre
Mylon R. LeFevre (born October 6, 1944) is an American Christian music singer, who was the leader of the Grammy Award-winning band Mylon and Broken Heart. He is a member of the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame. He currently travels around the United States, ministering, teaching and singing. He sometimes can be seen on television networks, such as TBN and Daystar.
Born (in Gulfport, Mississippi) into the pioneering Southern gospel family, The LeFevres, Mylon was the youngest son of Eva Mae and Urias LeFevre. When he was old enough, he began to sing and play guitar with the group.
As a teen, Mylon was expelled from a private religious high school when his father took him out to be with the family while they performed at a local concert. At 17 years old, while in the Army where he was paid $84 per month, he wrote his first song, "Without Him." While stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, the LeFevres were performing at a gospel convention in Memphis. That weekend, Mylon hitchhiked over 600 miles to get there. Onstage, singing “Without Him,” he did not know that Elvis Presley was there. After the concert, Elvis asked to meet Mylon. Shortly thereafter, Elvis recorded the song for his album, How Great Thou Art, and within the next year, over a hundred artists would record his song. According to Mylon, writing the song took about twenty minutes and produced an initial royalty check of approximately $90,000. With that money he purchased his first car, a Corvette, one of many sports cars he would own.
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Neal McCoy
Hubert Neal McGaughey, Jr. (born July 30, 1958) is an American country music singer of mixed Irish and Filipino descent. Known professionally as Neal McCoy, he has released ten studio albums on various labels, and has released 34 singles to country radio. Although he first charted on Billboard Hot Country Songs in 1988, he did not reach Top 40 for the first time until 1992's "Where Forever Begins", which peaked at #40. McCoy broke through a year later with the back-to-back Number One hits "No Doubt About It" and "Wink" from his platinum-certified album No Doubt About It. Although he hasn't topped the country charts since, his commercial success continued into the late 1990s with two more platinum albums and a gold album, as well as six more Top Ten hits. A seventh Top Ten hit, the #10 "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", came in 2005 from his self-released That's Life, also his most recent studio album.
He was born on July 30, 1958, in Jacksonville, Texas, to a Filipina American mother and Irish-American father. Inspired by the variety of music that his parents listened to, which included country, rock, disco and R&B, McGaughey first sang in his church choir before founding an R&B band. He later switched his focus to country music, performing in various bars and clubs in Texas. McGaughey, after attending junior college near his hometown, found work selling shoes at a shopping mall. In the early 1980s, he met his wife, Melinda, at the store.
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Neil Young
Neil Percival Young,OC,OM (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation.
Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He forged a successful and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his career has since spanned over 40 years and 34 studio albums, with a continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website describes Young as "one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers". He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice: first as a solo artist in 1995, and second as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997.
Young's work is characterized by his distinctive guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature alto or high tenor singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments, including piano and harmonica, his idiosyncratic electric and clawhammer acoustic guitar playing are the defining characteristics of a varyingly ragged and melodic sound. While Young has experimented with differing music styles, including swing and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into two primary styles: acoustic (folk and country rock) and electric (amplified hard rock, very often in collaboration with the band Crazy Horse). Young has also adopted elements from newer styles such as alternative rock and grunge. His influence on the latter caused some to dub him the "Godfather of Grunge".
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Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician who was known for his sombre guitar-based songs. He failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime but his work has gradually achieved wider notice and recognition. Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded two more albums—Bryter Layter and Pink Moon. Neither sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release. Drake's reluctance to perform live, or be interviewed, contributed to his lack of commercial success.
Drake suffered from depression and insomnia throughout his life and these topics were often reflected in his lyrics. On completion of his third album, 1972's Pink Moon, he withdrew from both live performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. There is no known footage of the adult Drake; he was only ever captured in still photographs and in home footage from his childhood. On 25 November 1974, Drake died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a prescribed antidepressant; he was 26 years old.
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Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman (born March 19, 1930) is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s.
Coleman's timbre is easily recognized: his keening, crying sound draws heavily on blues music. His album Sound Grammar received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for music.
Coleman was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where he began performing R&B and bebop initially on tenor saxophone. Seeking a way to work his way out of his home town, he took a job in 1949 with a Silas Green from New Orleans traveling show and then with touring rhythm and blues shows. After a show in Baton Rouge, he was assaulted and his saxophone was destroyed.
He switched to alto, which has remained his primary instrument, first playing it in New Orleans after the Baton Rouge incident. He then joined the band of Pee Wee Crayton and travelled with them to Los Angeles. He worked at various jobs, including as an elevator operator, while still pursuing his musical career.
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Otis Clay
Otis Clay (born February 11, 1942, Waxhaw, Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States) is an American R&B and soul singer, who started in gospel music.
Clay was born in rural Bolivar County, Mississippi to a musical family, who moved in 1953 to Muncie, Indiana. After singing with local gospel group, the Voices of Hope, he returned to Mississippi to sing with the Christian Travelers, before settling in Chicago in 1957. There, he joined a series of gospel vocal groups including the Golden Jubilaires, the Famous Blue Jay Singers, the Holy Wonders, and the Pilgrim Harmonizers, before making his first solo secular recordings in 1962. They were unissued, and Clay joined the Gospel Songbirds, who recorded in Nashville in 1964 and who also included Maurice Dollison who sang R&B under the name Cash McCall, and then the Sensational Nightingales.
In 1965 Clay signed with One-derful! Records in Chicago, to make secular recordings. After releasing a series of gospel-tinged soul records, his first hit came in 1967 with "That's How It Is (When You're In Love)", which reached # 34 on the R&B chart, followed by "A Lasting Love" (# 48 R&B). In 1968 the record company folded and his contract was bought by Atlantic Records, who launched their subsidiary Cotillion label with Clay's version of the Sir Douglas Quintet hit, "She's About A Mover", produced at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. The record became Clay's biggest pop hit, reaching # 97 on the Hot 100 (# 47 R&B). However, follow-ups on Cotillion, including "Hard Working Woman" produced by Syl Johnson, and "Is It Over?" produced by Willie Mitchell in Memphis, were less successful.
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Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul music and rhythm and blues (R&B), and one of the greatest singers in popular music. His open-throated singing was an influence on other soul singers of the 1960s, and he helped to craft the lean and powerful style of R&B that formed the basis of the Stax Sound. After appearing at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, he wrote and recorded "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", which became a number-one record on both the pop and R&B charts after his death in a plane crash.
Redding was born and raised in the American state of Georgia. At age 15, he left school to support his family by working with Little Richard's backing band, The Upsetters, and by playing talent shows for prize money. In 1958, he joined Johnny Jenkins's band, The Pinetoppers, and toured the Southern United States while serving as driver and musician. An unscheduled appearance on a session led to a turning point in his career. He signed a contract with Stax Records and released his debut album, Pain in My Heart, in 1964. This album produced his first Stax single, "These Arms of Mine".
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Pee Wee Russell
Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell, (27 March 1906 – 15 February 1969) was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but eventually focused solely on clarinet.
With a highly individualistic and spontaneous clarinet style that "defied classification," Russell began his career playing Dixieland jazz, but throughout his career incorporated elements of newer developments such as swing, be-bop and free jazz. In the words of Philip Larkin, "No one familiar with the characteristic excitement of his solos, their lurid, snuffling, asthmatic voicelessness, notes leant on till they split, and sudden passionate intensities, could deny the uniqueness of his contribution to jazz.'
Pee Wee Russell was born in Maplewood, Missouri and grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma. As a child, he first studied violin, but 'couldn't get along with it', then piano, disliking the scales and chord exercises, and then drums – including all the associated special effects. Then his father sneaked young Ellsworth into a dance at the local Elks Club to a four- or five-piece band led by New Orleans jazz clarinetist Alcide "Yellow" Nunez. Russell was amazed by Nunez's improvisations: "[He] played the melody, then got hot and played jazz. That was something. How did he know where he was or where he was going?" Pee Wee now decided that his primary instrument would be the clarinet, and the type of music he would play would be jazz. He approached the clarinettist in the pit band at the local theatre for lessons, and bought an Albert-system instrument. His teacher was named Charlie Merrill, and used to pop out for shots of corn whiskey during lessons.
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Pervis Jackson
Pervis Jackson (May 17, 1938 – August 18, 2008) was an American R&B singer, noted as the bass singer for The Spinners, and was one of the group's original members.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Jackson was perhaps best known for his line of "12:45" from the group's Billboard chart, Top 10 hit, "They Just Can't Stop It (Games People Play)". Jackson was still a part of The Spinners up to his death from cancer at the age of 70, in Detroit, Michigan, on August 18, 2008.
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Pete Rugolo
Pietro "Pete" Rugolo (December 25, 1915 – October 16, 2011) was an Italian-born jazz composer and arranger.
Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily, Italy. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California. He began his career in music playing the baritone horn, like his father, but he quickly branched out into other instruments, notably the French horn and the piano. He received a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State College, and then went on to study composition with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland, California and earn his master's degree.
After he graduated, he was hired as an arranger and composer by guitarist and bandleader Johnny Richards. He spent World War II playing with altoist Paul Desmond in an army band.
After WWII, Rugolo worked for Stan Kenton, who headed one of the most musically 'progressive' big bands of the era. Rugolo provided arrangements and original compositions that drew on his knowledge of 20th century music, sometimes blurring the boundaries between jazz and classical music.
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Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector (born Harvey Phillip Spector on December 26, 1939) is an American record producer and songwriter.
The originator of the "Wall of Sound" production technique, Spector was a pioneer of the 1960s girl-group sound and produced over 25 Top 40 hits in 1960–1965. Some of his famous girl groups are The Ronettes and The Crystals. After this initial success, Spector later worked with artists including Ike and Tina Turner, John Lennon, George Harrison, and the Ramones with similar acclaim. He produced The Beatles' Academy Award winning album Let It Be, and the Grammy Award–winning Concert for Bangladesh by former Beatle George Harrison. In 1989, Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. The 1965 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced and co-written by Spector for The Righteous Brothers, is listed by BMI as the song with the most U.S. airplay in the 20th century.
In 2009 Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, California home. He is serving a prison sentence of 19 years to life.
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Philippé Wynne
Philippé Wynne (April 3, 1941 – July 14, 1984), born Phillip Walker, was an American R&B singer. Best known for his role as the lead singer of The Spinners (a role he shared with fellow group member Bobby Smith), Wynne scored notable hits such as "How Could I Let You Get Away", "The Rubberband Man", and "One of a Kind (Love Affair)". After leaving The Spinners, Wynne never regained the same success, although he featured in hits by other artists such as "(Not Just) Knee Deep" by Funkadelic. Wynne died of a heart attack while performing at a nightclub.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wynne began his musical career as a gospel singer. He soon switched to R&B and attained some measure of success, singing with Bootsy Collins's Pacemakers in 1968 and with James Brown's J.B.'s shortly thereafter. Wynne then spent time in Germany as the lead singer of the Afro Kings, a band from Liberia, before he replaced his cousin, G. C. Cameron, as one of the lead vocalists for The Spinners. He sang with the group until 1977, during which they achieved several successful albums and singles.
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Rappin' 4-Tay
Anthony Forté (born March 2, 1968), better known by his stage name Rappin' 4-Tay, is an American rapper from the Fillmore District of San Francisco, California.
4-Tay made his debut on the Too Short album Life Is...Too Short, right after high school. Later he was convicted on drug charges and served ten months in prison. Upon his release from prison he released his debut album Rappin' 4-Tay Is Back in 1991, and followed up in 1994 with Don't Fight the Feelin', which included the hits "Playaz Club" (which sampled the song "Private Number" by William Bell and Judy Clay and hit #36 on the Billboard Hot 100), the "Dank Season" featuring Seff Tha Gaffla and "I'll Be Around" (which hit #39 on the Billboard Hot 100).
In 1995, two Rappin' 4-Tay songs - "Problems" and "A Message For Your Mind" - were featured on the Dangerous Minds soundtrack. "A Message For Your Mind" sampled I Want You Back by The Jackson 5.
Rappin' 4-Tay's mainstream success has been scarce since then, but he was featured in 2Pac's All Eyez on Me album on the track "Only God Can Judge Me" in 1996 and Master P's West Coast Bad Boyz II compilation in 1997. 4-Tay was also an original member of Bay Area supergroup T.W.D.Y. in 1999.
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Ray Charles
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. 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.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, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"
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Ray Peterson
Ray Peterson (April 23, 1939 – January 25, 2005) was an American pop music singer who was best remembered for singing "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Corrine, Corrina" in the 1960s.
Ray T. Peterson was born in Denton, Texas. As a boy he had to overcome polio. Blessed with a four-octave singing voice, Peterson moved to Los Angeles, California, where he was signed to a recording contract by RCA Victor Records in 1958. He recorded several songs that were minor hits until "The Wonder of You" made it into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 15, 1959. The song would later be recorded by Elvis Presley, with whom Peterson became friends. Peterson scored a Top 10 hit with the teenage tragedy song, "Tell Laura I Love Her",.
In 1960, Peterson created his own record label with his manager Stan Shulman, called Dunes Records, and enlisted the help of record producer Phil Spector. with "Corrine, Corrina". Peterson's dramatic ballad, "I Could Have Loved You So Well", written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and produced by Spector, only reached #57 on the U.S. chart. He then tried another death disc, "Give Us Your Blessing", but this time the record only made #70 in the Hot-100.
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Richie Furay
Richie Furay (born Paul Richard Furay, May 9, 1944, Yellow Springs, Ohio) is an American singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member who is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin, and Poco with Jim Messina, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner. His best known song (originally written during his tenure in Buffalo Springfield, but eventually performed by Poco, as well) was "Kind Woman", which he wrote for his wife, Nancy.
Before Buffalo Springfield, Furay performed with Stills in the nine-member group, the Au Go Go Singers (Roy Michaels, Rick Geiger, Jean Gurney, Michael Scott, Kathy King, Nels Gustafson, Bob Harmelink, and Furay & Stills), the house band for the famous Cafe Au Go Go in New York.
In the late 1960s he formed the country-rock band Poco with Jim Messina and Rusty Young. This band, while influential to many future country-rock acts, experienced uneven commercial success. Furay's best known songs, "Pickin' Up The Pieces" and "Good Feelin' To Know", however, have reached classic status and appear on many country rock compilations. Furay left Poco in 1974 to form the Souther Hillman Furay Band. It was during this time that Al Perkins, the band's pedal steel guitar player, introduced Furay to Christianity. His newfound faith helped him rebuild his troubled marriage.
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Rick Wakeman
Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes. He is also known for his solo albums, contributing to the BBC comedy series Grumpy Old Men and for Rick's Place, his former radio show on Planet Rock that aired until December 2010.
Wakeman was born in West London. He purchased his first electronic keyboard at 12 years of age. In 1968, he studied the piano, clarinet, orchestration and modern music at the Royal College of Music before leaving after a year in favour of session music work. He went on to feature on songs by artists including Black Sabbath,David Bowie, T. Rex, Elton John and Cat Stevens. Wakeman joined the folk group Strawbs in 1969 and played on three of their albums. He first joined Yes in 1971 to replace Tony Kaye, and left the group in 1974 to work on his solo career. He returned in 1976 before leaving with lead vocalist Jon Anderson in 1980. Wakeman was part of the side project Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, a group of ex-Yes members formed in 1989, and the eight-member Yes line-up that followed until his third departure in 1992. He returned for two years in 1995 and once more in 2002, where he was part of the band's 35th anniversary tour until its end in 2004.
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Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas, Jr. (March 27, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian from Memphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the 1950s and on Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the father of soul singer Carla Thomas and keyboard player Marvell Thomas. A third child, Vaneese, a former French teacher, has a recording studio in upstate New York and sings for television commercials.
Born a sharecropper's son in the rural community of Cayce, Mississippi, Thomas moved to Memphis with his family at age 2. His mother was “a church woman.” Thomas made his artistic debut at the age of 6 playing a frog in a school theatrical production. Much later in life, he would impersonate all kinds of animals: screeching cats, funky chickens and penguins, and mournful dogs. By age 10, he was a tap dancer, performing in amateur productions at Memphis' Booker T. Washington High School.
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Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown (January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress also known as "Queen of R&B" noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean". For these contributions, Atlantic became known as "The house that Ruth built" (alluding to the popular nickname for Old Yankee Stadium).
Following a resurgence that began in the mid-1970s and peaked in the 1980s, Brown used her influence to press for musicians' rights regarding royalties and contracts, which led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Her performances in the Broadway musical, Black and Blue, earned Brown a Tony Award, and the original cast recording won a Grammy Award.
Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, she attended I. C. Norcom High School, a historically black high school. Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. She was inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra.
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Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003), better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s. He was a producer, label owner, and talent scout throughout the '40s and '50s. He most notably founded Sun Studios and Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Through Sun, Phillips discovered such recording talent as Howlin' Wolf, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. The height of his success culminated in his launching of Elvis Presley's career in 1954. He is also associated with several other noteworthy rhythm and blues and rock and roll stars of the period. Phillips sold Sun in 1969. He was an early investor in the Holiday Inn chain of hotels.
Phillips was the youngest of eight children, born on a farm near Florence, Alabama to poor tenant farmers. As a child he picked cotton in the fields with his parents alongside black laborers. The experience of the workers singing in the fields left a big impression on the young Phillips. Travelling through Memphis with his family in 1939 on the way to see a preacher in Dallas, he slipped off to look at Beale Street, at the time the heart of the city's music scene. "I just fell totally in love," he later recalled.
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Sean Paul
Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques (born January 9, 1973), who performs under stage name Sean Paul, is a Jamaican dancehall and reggae artist.
Sean Paul was born in Kingston and spent his early years in Upper Andrew Parish, a few miles north of Kingston. His parents, Garth and Frances, were both talented athletes, and his mother is a well-known painter. His paternal grandfather was a Sephardic Jew whose family emigrated from Portugal, and his paternal grandmother was Afro-Caribbean; his mother is of English and Chinese Jamaican descent. Sean Paul was raised as a Catholic. Many members of his family are swimmers. His grandfather was on the first Jamaican men's national water polo team. His father also played water polo for the team in the 1960s, and competed in long-distance swimming, while Sean Paul's mother was a backstroke swimmer. Sean Paul played for the national water polo team from the age of thirteen to twenty-one, when he gave up the sport in order to launch his musical career. He attended the Wolmers High School for Boys, Belair School, Hillel Academy High School, and the College of Arts, Science, and Technology, now known as the University of Technology, where he was trained in commerce with a view to pursuing an occupation in hotel management.
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Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein (born 1942 in Brooklyn, New York) is an entrepreneur in the music industry who has been a part of the business since getting his first job as a clerk for Billboard magazine in 1958. Stein is a vice president of Warner Bros. Records and a co-founder of Sire Records.
In 1966 Stein and record producer Richard Gottehrer founded Sire Productions, which led to the formation of Sire Records, the label under which he signed pioneer artists such as the Ramones and Talking Heads in 1975, the Pretenders in 1980 and Madonna in 1982. Other acts signed by Sire include Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Ice-T, The Undertones and Echo & the Bunnymen.
Such was Stein's influence in signing and promoting the "New Wave" genre of music that he is sometimes credited with coming up with the name as an alternative to the term "punk", which he found derogative. The term had previously been used to refer to the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s.
To date, Stein remains the President of Sire Records and is also Vice President of Warner Bros. Records with which he has had a marketing and distribution deal from 1976 to 1994 and again since April 2003. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14, 2005, under the lifetime-achievement category.
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Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne (June 11, 1920 – September 26, 1984), born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing to the musical background of hundreds of Hollywood films and television programs.
Manne's father and uncles were drummers. In his youth he admired many of the leading swing drummers of the day, especially Jo Jones and Dave Tough.Billy Gladstone, a colleague of Manne's father and the most admired percussionist on the New York theatrical scene, offered the teenage Shelly tips and encouragement. From that time, Manne rapidly developed his style in the clubs of 52nd Street in New York in the late 1930s and 1940s. His first professional job with a known big band was with the Bobby Byrne Orchestra in 1940. In those years, as he became known, he recorded with jazz stars like Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Shavers, and Don Byas. He also worked with a number of musicians mainly associated with Duke Ellington, like Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Lawrence Brown, and Rex Stewart.
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Shorty Rogers
Milton “Shorty” Rogers (April 14, 1924 – November 7, 1994), born Milton Rajonsky in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played both the trumpet and flugelhorn, and was in demand for his skills as an arranger. Rogers worked first as a professional musician with Will Bradley and Red Norvo. From 1947 to 1949, he worked extensively with Woody Herman and in 1950 and 1951 he played with Stan Kenton.
Rogers appeared on the 1954 Shelly Manne album The Three and the Two along with Jimmy Giuffre. Much of the music he recorded with Giuffre showed his experimental side, resulting in an early form of avant-garde jazz. He also made notable recordings with Art Pepper and Andre Previn, among others.
From 1953 through 1962 Rogers recorded a series of RCA Victor albums (later reissued under the Bluebird label) and Atlantic albums with his own group, Shorty Rogers and His Giants, including Shorty Courts the Count (1954), The Swinging Mr. Rogers (1955), and Martians Come Back (1955), the album title alluding to the tune "Martians Go Home" which Rogers had composed and performed on The Swinging Mr. Rogers earlier the same year. These albums incorporated some of his more avant-garde music. To some extent they could be classified as "cool" jazz; but they also looked back to the "hot" style of Count Basie, whom Rogers always credited as a major inspiration.
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Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.
He was one of the first important soloists in jazz (beating cornetist and trumpeter Louis Armstrong to the recording studio by several months and later playing duets with Armstrong), and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist. Forceful delivery, well-constructed improvisations, and a distinctive, wide vibrato characterized Bechet's playing.
Bechet's erratic temperament hampered his career, however, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim.
Bechet was born in New Orleans to a middle-class Creole of color family. Sidney's older brother Leonard Bechet (1877–1952) was a part-time trombonist and bandleader. Sidney Bechet quickly learned to play several musical instruments kept around the house, mostly by teaching himself; he soon decided to focus on clarinet. At the age of six, Sidney started playing along with his brother's band at a family birthday party, debuting his talents to acclaim. Later in his youth, Bechet studied with such renowned Creole clarinetists as Lorenzo Tio, "Big Eye" Louis Nelson Delisle, and George Baquet. Soon after, Bechet would be found playing in many New Orleans ensembles, improvising with what was "acceptable" for jazz at that time (obbligatos, with scales and arpeggios, and "variating" the melody). These ensembles included parade work with Henry Allen's celebrated Brass Band, the Olympia Orchestra, and John Robichaux's "genteel" dance orchestra. In 1911-1912, he performed with Bunk Johnson in the Eagle Band of New Orleans, and in 1913-1914, with King Oliver in the Olympia Band.
wn.com/Sidney_Bechet -
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry (24 October 1911 - 11 March 1986) was a blind American Piedmont blues musician. He was widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.
Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia. His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes and lost his sight by the time he was 16, which prevented him from doing farm work himself. In order to earn a living Terry was forced to play music. He began playing in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died he began playing in the trio of Piedmont blues-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died in 1941, he established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and the pair recorded numerous songs together. The duo became well-known among white audiences, as they joined the growing folk movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This included collaborations with Styve Homnick, Woody Guthrie and Moses Asch, producing Folkways Records (now Smithsonian/Folkways) classic recordings.
wn.com/Sonny_Terry -
Stacy Lattisaw
Stacy Lattisaw (born November 25, 1966) is an American R&B, dance, and gospel singer. Since the 1990s, she has exclusively sung gospel music, as a callback to her Christian roots.
When she was a teenager in the early 1980s, Lattisaw had a string of Top 40 R&B hits, with several songs — "Let Me Be Your Angel", "Jump to the Beat", "Love on a Two-Way Street", and "Miracles" — crossing over to the pop mainstream. Lattisaw recorded her first album for Cotillion Records at the age of 12 in 1979, under the direction of record producer Van McCoy. However it was not until she affiliated with Narada Michael Walden, a former drummer with the Mahavishnu Orchestra who was just beginning a career as a producer, that she became a star. Under Walden's direction, she had five hit albums between 1981 and 1986. She also opened for the Jacksons Triumph Tour in 1981. From Lattisaw's 1982 album "Sneakin' Out", Mariah Carey used a sample of the song "Attack Of The Name Game" (R&B #14) for her 1999 track "Heartbreaker".
wn.com/Stacy_Lattisaw -
Steve Cropper
Steve Cropper (born Steven Lee Cropper, October 21, 1941, Dora, Missouri), also known as Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and has backed artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla, Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor, also acting as producer on many of these records. He later gained fame as a member of the Blues Brothers band.Rolling Stone lists him 36th on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Mojo ranks Cropper as the second-best guitarist ever.
When he was nine years old, Cropper moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee. At the age of ten, he strummed his brother-in-law's Gibson guitar for the first time[citation needed]. Cropper received his first guitar by mail order at 14 and started playing with local musicians. His guitar heroes at the time included Lowman Pauling of the "5" Royales, as well as Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Tal Farlow, Jimmy Reed, and the guitarist of the Bill Doggett band, Billy Butler.
wn.com/Steve_Cropper -
Stevie Woods
Stephen "Stevie" Woods (born 23 February 1970 in Glasgow) is a Scottish former goalkeeper who currently works as a Goalkeeping Coach for Celtic. He was appointed to this role at the end of June 2007. In June 2009 he was promoted to the he role of first team Goalkeeping Coach.
During his playing career Woods played for Hibernian, Clydebank, Preston North End, Motherwell, St. Mirren and Livingston. Before he joined Celtic, Woods was the goalkeeping coach for Dunfermline Athletic.
He is making a trek to Mount Kilimanjaro in June 2009 to raise money for The Anthony Nolan Trust which is a charity focusing on leukaemia and bone marrow transplant. He is a long supporter of the trust and first got involved when he met another cancer sufferer (Johanna MacVicar) while working at Motherwell FC in 2005. He does this as "I can help spread the message and encourage others to support the charity's work" and since the death of Tommy Burns, it has given him an extra incentive to complete this trek.
wn.com/Stevie_Woods -
Sylvia Syms
Sylvia M. L. SymsOBE (born 6 January 1934) is an English actress. She is probably best known for her roles in the films Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), No Trees in the Street (1959), Victim (1961) and The Tamarind Seed (1974). She remains active in films, television and theatre.
Syms was born in Woolwich, London, England, the daughter of Daisy (née Hale) and Edwin Syms, a trade unionist and civil servant. She was educated at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, on whose council she later served. Her daughter Beatie Edney is also an actress. She is the aunt of musicians Nick Webb (musician) (1954-98) and Alex Webb (1961 - ).
Syms started her career as a starlet. In her second film, My Teenage Daughter (1954), she played Anna Neagle's "problem" daughter. In 1958, she appeared in the film Ice Cold in Alex (alongside John Mills, Anthony Quayle and Harry Andrews) which, in recent years, has become something of a cult film following its use in a beer commercial. A love scene between Mills and Syms was dropped from the film because it was considered too strong.
wn.com/Sylvia_Syms -
The Clovers
The Clovers are an American rhythm & blues group.
The group formed in 1946 at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C., with members Harold Lucas, Billy Shelton, and Thomas Woods. John "Buddy" Bailey was added soon after, and they began calling themselves the "Four Clovers", with Bailey on lead. In perfecting their sound, the group pushed Shelton and Woods out in 1948, and brought in Matthew McQuarter and Harold Winley. Their break came in 1950, when they were introduced to Lou Krefetz, who became their manager. They signed to New York's Rainbow Records and released one single, "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" backed with "When You Come Back To Me". Soon after, Krefetz brought them to Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegün, and they were signed to Atlantic in 1951. At this point, Bill Harris was added as their guitarist. Their first appearance came in February of that year at the Apollo Theater.
Their very first Atlantic session produced their first big hit, "Don't You Know I Love You", which hit #1 on the national charts in June 1951. "One Mint Julep" (written by Rudy Toombs) and "Fool, Fool, Fool" also went #1 in September. Bailey was drafted in 1952, and John Phillip was brought in to replace him. He stayed for just a few months, before leaving and being replaced by Charlie White, who had been in the Dominoes and the Checkers.
wn.com/The_Clovers -
The Impressions
The Impressions are an American music group from Chicago, originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes doo-wop, gospel, soul, and R&B.
The group was founded as The Roosters by Chattanooga, Tennessee natives Sam Gooden, Richard Brooks, and Arthur Brooks, who moved to Chicago and added Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield to their line-up to become Jerry Butler & the Impressions. By 1962, Butler and the Brookses had departed, and after switching to ABC-Paramount Records, Mayfield, Gooden, and new Impression Fred Cash collectively became a top-selling soul act. Mayfield left the group for a solo career in 1970; Leroy Hutson, Ralph Johnson, Reggie Torian, Sammy Fender, and Nate Evans were among the replacements who joined Gooden and Cash. Inductees into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, The Impressions are best known for their 1960s string of hits, many of which were heavily influenced by gospel music and served as inspirational anthems for the Civil Rights Movement.They are also 1998 Grammy Hall of Fame Inductees for their hit, People Get Ready, and are winners of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award (in 2000) .
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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, Susaye Greene, Beverly LeSure, and Rita Graham who recorded the album 'Rita Graham Vibrations' produced by Ray Charles on his Tangerine label, the only major recording production Ray Charles produced on a single female artist on the Tangerine label. 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.
Although they never gained fame for their singles, they had a number of pop and R&B hits and several have gone on to promising solo careers. Before becoming the Raelettes, the group were known as The Cookies. The group's name was on occasions also spelled as The Raelets or Raeletts.
wn.com/The_Raelettes -
Tiny Grimes
Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes (July 7, 1916 – March 4, 1989) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He was a member of the Art Tatum Trio from 1943 to 1944, was a backing musician on recording sessions, and later led his own bands, including a recording session with Charlie Parker. He is notable for playing the tenor guitar, a four-stringed electric instrument.
Grimes was born in Newport News, Virginia, United States, and began his musical career playing drums and one-fingered piano. In 1938 he took up the electric 4-string tenor guitar. In 1940 he joined Cats and a Fiddle as guitarist and singer. In 1943 he joined the Art Tatum Trio as guitarist and made a number of recordings with Tatum. The early Tatum Trio recordings contain some of the more interesting early examples of Tiny Grimes’ guitar work.
After leaving Tatum, Grimes recorded with his own groups in New York and with a long list of leading musicians, including vocalist Billie Holiday. He made four recordings with his own group augmented with Charlie Parker that are considered excellent examples of early bebop jazz: "Tiny’s Tempo", "Red Cross", "Romance Without Finance", and "I’ll Always Love You Just The Same", the latter two featuring Grimes' singing. He was one of the 52d street regulars.
wn.com/Tiny_Grimes -
Tom Dowd
Tom Dowd (October 20, 1925 – October 27, 2002) was an American recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Records. He was credited with innovating the multi-track recording method. Dowd worked on a virtual "who's who" of recordings that encompassed blues, jazz, pop, rock and soul records.
Born in Manhattan, Dowd grew up playing piano, tuba, violin, and string bass. His mother was an opera singer and his father was a concertmaster.
Dowd graduated from Stuyvesant High School in June, 1942 at the age of 16. He continued his musical education at City College of New York. Dowd also played in a band at New York's Columbia University, where he became a conductor. He was also employed at the physics laboratory of Columbia University.
At age 18, Dowd was drafted into the military with the rank of sergeant. He continued his work in physics at Columbia University. He worked on the Manhattan Project contributing to the atomic bomb. The purpose of the work was unclear until 1945. Dowd planned to obtain a degree in nuclear physics when he completed his work on the Manhattan Project. However because his work was top secret the university did not recognize it, and Dowd decided not to continue, since the university's curriculum would not have been able to further his physics education. His research for the military was more advanced than the academia of the times.
wn.com/Tom_Dowd -
Tracy Lawrence
Tracy Lawrence (born January 27, 1968) is an American country music artist. He started at a country music restaurant called "Live At Libby's" where owner Libby Knight would help local talent find their way into country music. Lawerence signed to Atlantic Records in 1991, Lawrence debuted that year with the album Sticks and Stones, which produced his first chart single and first Number One hit in its title track. Five more studio albums, as well as a live album and a compilation album, followed throughout the 1990s and into 2000 on Atlantic before the label's country division was closed in 2001. Afterward, he recorded for Warner Bros. Records, DreamWorks Records, Mercury Records Nashville and his own label, Rocky Comfort Records.
Lawrence has released nine studio albums, three compilations, a live album, and a Christmas album. His studio albums have accounted for more than thirty singles on the Billboard country music charts. Of these, eight have reached number one: "Sticks and Stones" (1991), "Alibis", "Can't Break It to My Heart", "My Second Home"(all 1993), "If the Good Die Young" (1994), "Texas Tornado" (1995), "Time Marches On" (1996) and "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" (2006).
wn.com/Tracy_Lawrence -
Vernon Duke
Vernon Duke (10 October [O.S. 27 September] 1903 – January 16, 1969) was a Russian-American composer/songwriter, who also wrote under his original name Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love" with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche, "I Can't Get Started" with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, "April in Paris" with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip") Harburg (1932), and "What Is There To Say" for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, also with Harburg. He wrote the words and music for "Autumn in New York" (1934). Vernon collaborated with lyricists such as Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, Ogden Nash and Sammy Cahn and his works have been performed and recorded by Count Basie, Bunny Berigan, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, the Modern Jazz Quartet, André Previn, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, and many others.
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky (Russian: Владимир Александрович Дукельский) was born in 1903 into a noble family of mixed Georgian-Austrian-Spanish-Russian descent, in Parafianovo, Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. The 1954 Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians referred to "one of his grandparents" (Princess Tumanishvili) as having been "directly descended from the kings of Georgia". His birthplace, however, was a small railroad station in Minsk Governorate. At that time his mother "happened to be traveling by train". The Dukelskys resided in Kiev, and Vladimir's only visit to Saint Petersburg and Moscow occurred in the summer of 1915. The impressions of that remarkable summer were later echoed in Dukelsky's most daring classical composition, the Russian oratorio The End of St. Petersburg (1931–1937).
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Walter Benton (poet)
Walter Benton (1907–1976) was an American poet and writer. Benton was born to Russian immigrant parents living in Austria. The family left Europe in 1913 to relocate to the United States during World War I. During the Great Depression, Benton worked various odd jobs enabling him to attend Ohio University, where he graduated in 1934. Afterwards, he was employed as a social investigator by New York City and then served in the United States Army during World War II. After the war he returned to his job in New York City while pursuing a career as a writer. His work was published in Yale Review, Saturday Review of Literature, Esquire, The New Republic and several other publications.
His two books of poetry are his best known works. This is My Beloved was published in 1943 and has become one of the best selling books of poetry. This volume was followed by another book of love poems entitled Never a Greater Need that was published in 1948.
Benton suffered a massive stroke c. 1965 and was cared for by his niece Jeannette until he had to be placed in a nursing home, where he died in 1976.
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Willie Tee
Willie Tee (February 6, 1944 - September 11, 2007) was an American keyboardist, songwriter, singer, producer and notable early architect of New Orleans funk and soul, who helped shape the sound of New Orleans for more than four decades.
Born as Wilson Turbinton, Willie Tee arranged, co-wrote and led the band on the Wild Magnolias' self-titled 1974 debut album. The popularity of that recording, and the subsequent They Call Us Wild introduced the Mardi Gras Indians' street-beat funk to the world.[citation needed]
Wilson Turbinton and his older brother, modern jazz saxophonist, Earl Turbinton, grew up in the Calliope public housing complex alongside the Neville brothers. His earliest influences ranged from the rhythm and blues of Professor Longhair to the jazz of John Coltrane.
He made his first recordings for the local AFO Records in 1962 while still a teenager. Three years later, he cut "Teasin' You", a soulful, mid-tempo composition for Atlantic Records. His "Walking Up a One-Way Street" and "Thank You John" were also popular hits.
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Willis Conover
Willis Clark Conover, Jr. (October 18, 1920 – May 17, 1996) was a jazz producer and broadcaster on the Voice of America for over forty years. He produced jazz concerts at the White House, the Newport Jazz Festival, and for movies and television. By arranging concerts where people of all races were welcome, he is credited with desegregating Washington DC nightclubs. Conover is credited with keeping interest in jazz alive in the countries of Eastern Europe through his nightly broadcasts during the cold war.
As a young man Conover was interested in science fiction, and published a science fiction fanzine, Science Fantasy Correspondent. This brought him into contact with horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. The correspondence between Lovecraft, who was at the end of his life, and the young Conover, has been published as Lovecraft at Last (Carrolton-Clark, 1975; reprint 2004).
Conover's father had intended for him to attend The Citadel and follow his family's tradition of military service. Instead, he attended the Maryland State Teacher's College at Salisbury, Maryland, and became a radio announcer for WTBO in Cumberland, Maryland.
wn.com/Willis_Conover
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Lupe Fiasco speaks out against Atlantic
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:02
- Updated: 06 Oct 2012
Lupe Fiasco speaking on Hip Hop and Label corruption. Sorry I'm so far away
http://wn.com/Lupe_Fiasco_speaks_out_against_Atlantic
Atlantic Records Sam Crespo Drops Game
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:25
- Updated: 04 Nov 2012
An Original web series that takes a deep look into the Music Industry. With Interviews,Videos and performances. Hear the In's and Out's of the HipHop game right from the Executives and Popular Artist. This Edition we feature Atlantic Executive Sam Crespo
http://wn.com/Atlantic_Records_Sam_Crespo_Drops_Game
- Music - Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records, 2012 - TWiMusic #46
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 34:24
- Updated: 12 Sep 2012
Subscribe to This Week In to get the latest episodes! Ian Rogers (@iancr) interviews Craig Kallman, dance DJ and CEO of Atlantic Records, at the Electronic Dance Music Biz conference 2012. Craig discusses his early days as a DJ in NYC, starting his own record label, and discovering the latests artists Atlantic. Listen to Ian's favorite tracks exclusively on MOG at bit.ly 00:00 - Intro. Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic records 00:35 - How Craig got into music - Early days as a DJ 02:40 - Starting Big Beat Records 04:10 - Favorite music before Big Beat 05:10 - Why he focused on House music with Big Beat - Selling to Atlantic 08:00 - Sonos... with DeadMau5! Thank you Sonos for supporting TWiMusic. Follow Sonos @sonos on Twitter 11:50 - What working at Atlantic Records means to him 14:40 - Who discovers talent first, Atlantic or fans? 17:00 - Defining success in 2012 (as opposed to 1999) 21:10 - Rebooting Big Beat Records. Why now? (Finding Skrillex, Martin Solveig and DJ Chuckie) 23:45 - Thanks MOG for sponsoring TWiMusic! Follow @mogdotcom and @twimusik and tweet at us your playlist. Let us know you like the show! 26:00 - Craig's thoughts on the dance music explosion and going from DJ to music executive 30:00 - Branding artists 31:45 - What's really changed in music?
http://wn.com/_Music_Craig_Kallman,_CEO_of_Atlantic_Records,_2012_TWiMusic_46
MdL: Inside Atlantic Records (pt.1)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:10
- Updated: 16 Oct 2012
As I continue to grow and work with new musicians, I wanted to make sure to bring you along! Here's a clip from my Paramount studio session with writers Micah, Kevin McCall, and Diesel.
http://wn.com/MdL_Inside_Atlantic_Records_pt1
MdL: Inside Atlantic Records (pt.2)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:18
- Updated: 26 Oct 2012
Here's another clip inside Atlantic Records' recording studio in Hollywood. Tonight I'm working with Dylan Lloyd, previously featured in another of my videos (see sidebar). Also, big updates on the mobile setup: I needed more power and better connectivity, and you'll see I always keep several synced hard drives containing the gold. If I could give you any advice, I would stress the importance of being as digitally sturdy as possible. By this I mean that although another backup hard drive might be expensive, it will cost you way less (in many ways) than losing your best work and starting over! www.mdltakesover.com
http://wn.com/MdL_Inside_Atlantic_Records_pt2
ATLANTIC RECORDS: HOLIDAY LIP DUB GREETING 2010
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:29
- Updated: 02 Nov 2012
Here's to celebrating another great year! Happy Holidays from your friends at Atlantic Records!
http://wn.com/ATLANTIC_RECORDS_HOLIDAY_LIP_DUB_GREETING_2010
Tank Performs 'Compliments' (Live From Atlantic Records)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:28
- Updated: 05 Nov 2012
© 2011 WMG Tank performs a piano rendition of his single "Compliments" in the lobby of the Atlantic Records offices in NYC!
http://wn.com/Tank_Performs_'Compliments'_Live_From_Atlantic_Records
Moxberg meets with Atlantic Records. PT.2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:40
- Updated: 02 Oct 2012
Kraze takes moxberg to Atlantic records. For His second label meeting.
http://wn.com/Moxberg_meets_with_Atlantic_Records_PT2
Behind the Scenes: Diggy "4 Letter Word" Video Shoot
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:44
- Updated: 04 Nov 2012
© 2012 WMG. Watch the "4 Letter Word" video: youtu.be Download "4 Letter Word" on iTunes: bit.ly New album UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL in stores & online now! www.diggyworld.com http www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/Behind_the_Scenes_Diggy_4_Letter_Word_Video_Shoot
Egypt Central - "White Rabbit" (Acoustic in Atlantic Records Studios)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:11
- Updated: 02 Nov 2012
http://wn.com/Egypt_Central_White_Rabbit_Acoustic_in_Atlantic_Records_Studios
Aretha Sings Mumbles & Atlantic Records Discography
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:02
- Updated: 30 Sep 2012
Here is a short video displaying all of Aretha's albums released on the Atlantic label. In the background you will hear a cut from the 1977 album entitled "Mumbles" that she co-wrote with Clark Terry. Enjoy and feel free to comment on this production. Long live the Queen!
http://wn.com/Aretha_Sings_Mumbles_Atlantic_Records_Discography
Day26 Interview at Atlantic Records
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:56
- Updated: 23 Oct 2012
MusicXclusives' correspondent, Vanessa Denis, interviews Day26 during their NYC promo stint for their latest single, "Made Love Lately," at the Atlantic Records offices. The guys discuss having more writing input on this album, working solely with Atlantic without the backing of Bad Boy, and more. A New Day, coming soon! @Day26 @MusicXclusives Facebook.com/MusicXclusives Facebook.com/MusicXclusivesLLC www.MusicXclusives.com Check out this link: www.tvcmatrix.com (it can change your life)
http://wn.com/Day26_Interview_at_Atlantic_Records
Led Zeppelin - Misty Montain Hop - Atlantic Records 88
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:58
- Updated: 23 Oct 2012
Led Zeppelin - Misty Montain Hop - Atlantic Records 88
http://wn.com/Led_Zeppelin_Misty_Montain_Hop_Atlantic_Records_88
Saigon Released From Atlantic Records
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:10
- Updated: 12 Jul 2012
"I own the masters... It was worth the wait." Speaking from a hotel lobby in Central London, Saigon reveals to SoulCulture.TV that after battling them since 2006, he has now officially been released from Atlantic Records. Calling it "a good release, a fair release", the rapper comments, "Moving forward, I'm not gonna position myself to where I'm just somebody's artist and they can have me just sitting around not able to put out music... I'm gonna play the game by my rules. When I was talking about quitting it was moreso saying that: I'm quitting playing it their way, I'm doing it my way from now on." He goes on to talk about better record deals, the business backbone of successful artists and the benefit of having a strong team. Now that he owns the masters to The Greatest Story Never Told, we may actually be hearing it soon...! www.soulculture.co.uk
http://wn.com/Saigon_Released_From_Atlantic_Records
Titus Turner - Hungry Man (Atlantic 1127)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:43
- Updated: 22 May 2012
Flip: A-Knocking At My Baby's Door Issued on Atlantic Records in 1959
http://wn.com/Titus_Turner_Hungry_Man_Atlantic_1127
Lupe Fiasco's Speech at Atlantic Records Rally
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:24
- Updated: 16 Oct 2012
Lupe speaks to the Fiasco Friday crowd gathered outside of Atlantic Records in NYC. lupefiasco-lupend.blogspot.com www.the-ultrasound.com
http://wn.com/Lupe_Fiasco's_Speech_at_Atlantic_Records_Rally
![Audiovent - The Energy (Official Video) [CC]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121118104910im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2UagQIC3ags/default.jpg "Audiovent - The Energy (Official Video) [CC]")
Audiovent - The Energy (Official Video) [CC]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:17
- Updated: 04 Nov 2012
© 2005 WMG Atlantic Records Jason Boyd Benjamin Einziger Paul Fried Jamin Wilcox Audiovent - The Energy From the Dirty Sexy Knights In Paris (2002) TAGS: Audiovent Dirty Sexy Knights In Paris 2002 Atlantic Records Jason Boyd Benjamin Einziger Paul Fried Jamin Wilcox The Energy Incubus Brandon Mike Michael Brother Agent Sparks Reel Big Fish Under the Influence of Giants Vent Madden Soundtrack Lyrics Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure
http://wn.com/Audiovent_The_Energy_Official_Video_CC_
Ray Charles - Atlantic Records 78 - Leave My Woman Alone
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:48
- Updated: 01 Nov 2012
From Rich Hynes' collection
http://wn.com/Ray_Charles_Atlantic_Records_78_Leave_My_Woman_Alone
Ray Charles - From Atlantic Records to ABC-Paramount
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:56
- Updated: 20 Jan 2012
tinyurl.com to purchase Ray Charles - Singular Genius: The ABC-Paramount Singles. In this video podcast, Billy Vera traces Ray's career from his small group sessions at Atlantic Records, to new musical horizons on ABC-Paramount Records. A Bret Primack film.
http://wn.com/Ray_Charles_From_Atlantic_Records_to_ABC-Paramount
Joe Turner - Atlantic Records 78 - Shake Rattle And Roll
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:04
- Updated: 17 Oct 2012
From Rich Hynes' collection.
http://wn.com/Joe_Turner_Atlantic_Records_78_Shake_Rattle_And_Roll
![Youth Of The Nation - POD [HQ]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121118104910im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1Vq_WDf6NT0/default.jpg "Youth Of The Nation - POD [HQ]")
Youth Of The Nation - POD [HQ]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:05
- Updated: 05 Nov 2012
© Atlantic Records - Payable On Death Recommended Channels: www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Youth_Of_The_Nation_POD_HQ_
![Wiz Khalifa - It's Nothin ft. 2 Chainz [Official Video]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121118104910im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gmpuPDYeL8A/default.jpg "Wiz Khalifa - It's Nothin ft. 2 Chainz [Official Video]")
Wiz Khalifa - It's Nothin ft. 2 Chainz [Official Video]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:55
- Updated: 05 Nov 2012
© 2012 WMG. New album ONIFC available on December 4th. Pre-order ONIFC on iTunes: bit.ly Pre-order exclusive bundles at store.wizkhalifa.com www.wizKhalifa.com https www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/Wiz_Khalifa_It's_Nothin_ft_2_Chainz_Official_Video_
Shinedown - Second Chance (Video)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:44
- Updated: 05 Nov 2012
Artist: Shinedown Label: Atlantic Records
http://wn.com/Shinedown_Second_Chance_Video
Photo: UN / UN
17 Nov 2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's new offensive against the Gaza Strip has turned into a political bonanza for the territory's Hamas rulers, while sidelining Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,...
Photo: AP / Na Son Nguyen
15 Nov 2012
As President Barak Obama resettles in the Oval Office and casts his gaze again beyond US politics, he may well be reminded that few eyes were on the ball when the Arab uprisings appeared to erupt...
Photo: AP / Eyad Baba
17 Nov 2012
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| Atlantic Records | |
|---|---|
| 75px | |
| Parent company | Warner Music Group |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Founder | Ahmet Ertegün Herb Abramson |
| Distributor(s) | Atlantic Records Group (In the US) Warner Music International (Outside of the US) |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Official Website | www.atlanticrecords.com |
Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz.[1] Over its first 20 years of operation Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American independent recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American artists, a position greatly enhanced by its distribution deal with Stax Records.
In 1967 Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music, signing Cream, Led Zeppelin, Yes and Foreigner. In 2004 Atlantic Records and its sister label Elektra Records merged into Atlantic Records Group.[2] Craig Kallman is currently Chairman of Atlantic Records. Label co-founder Ahmet Ertegün served as Founding Chairman until his death on December 14, 2006 at age 83.[3] The label also has a number of deals with previously independent labels such as Must Destroy (which brought Goldie Lookin Chain and The Darkness into the label)[4] and VP Records in Jamaica, home to reggae artists such as Sean Paul.[5]
Early years[link]
In 1944 brothers Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun elected to remain in the USA when their mother and sister returned to Turkey, following the death of their father Munir Ertegun, who had been the first Turkish Ambassador to the United States. The brothers had become ardent fans of jazz and rhythm & blues music, amassing a collection of over 15,000 78rpm records.[6] Ahmet ostensibly stayed on in Washington to undertake post-graduate music studies at Georgetown University but immersed himself in the Washington music scene and decided to enter the record business, then enjoying a resurgence after wartime restrictions on the shellac used in manufacture.[7] He convinced the family dentist, Dr Vahdi Sabit, to invest $10,000 and recruited Herb Abramson, a dentistry student, who had worked as a part-time A&R manager/producer for the jazz label National Records, signing Big Joe Turner and Billy Eckstine, and then founded Jubilee Records but had no interest in its most successful artists and now sold his share, investing $2500 in the new label.
Atlantic Records was incorporated in October 1947 and was run by Abramson (the company president) and Ertegun (vice-president in charge of A&R, production and promotion) while Abramson's wife Miriam ran the label's publishing company, Progressive Music, and did most office duties until 1949 when Atlantic hired its first employee, book-keeper Francine Wakschal, who remained with the label for the next 49 years.[8] Miriam quickly gained a reputation for toughness: staff engineer Tom Dowd later recalled; "Tokyo Rose was the kindest name some people had for her"[9] and Doc Pomus described her as "an extraordinarily vitriolic woman".[10] When interviewed in 2009 she attributed her reputation to the company's chronic cash-flow shortage: " ... most of the problems we had with artists were that they wanted advances, and that was very difficult for us ... we were undercapitalized for a long time."[11] The label's original office in the Ritz Hotel, Manhattan proved too expensive so they relocated to an $85 per month room in the Hotel Jefferson.[12][13][14] In the early fifties Atlantic moved from the Hotel Jefferson to offices at 301 West 54th St and then to its best-known home at 356 West 56th St.
Atlantic's first batch of recordings were issued in late January 1948, and included Tiny Grimes' "That Old Black Magic" and "The Spider" by Joe Morris.[15] In its early years Atlantic focused principally on modern jazz[13][16] although it released some country and western and spoken word recordings. Abramson also produced "Magic Records" which were children's records with four different sets of grooves so each side had four different stories of which the story which got played was determined by where the stylus landed on the groove.[17]
Soon after its formation, Atlantic faced a serious challenge - in late 1947 James Petrillo, head of the American Federation of Musicians, announced an indefinite ban on all recording activities by union musicians, and this came into force on 1 January 1948. The union action forced Atlantic to use almost all its capital to cut and stockpile enough recordings to last through the ban, which was initially expected to continue for at least a year.[16]
Ertegun and Abramson spent much of the late 1940s and early 1950s scouring nightclubs in search of talent. Ertegun composed many songs under the alias "A. Nugetre", including Big Joe Turner's hit "Chains of Love", working them out in his head and then recording them in 25c recording booths in Times Square and giving the recording to an arranger or straight to the session musicians.[18] Early releases featured Joe Morris, Frank Culley, Art Pepper, Shelly Manne, Pete Rugolo, Tiny Grimes, The Delta Rhythm Boys, The Clovers, The Cardinals, Big Joe Turner, Erroll Garner, Mal Waldron, Howard McGhee, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Jackie & Roy, Sarah Vaughan, Leadbelly, Sonny Terry, Professor Longhair, Mabel Mercer, Sylvia Syms, Billy Taylor, Mary Lou Williams, Sidney Bechet, Django Reinhardt, Earl Hines, Barney Bigard, Pee Wee Russell, Al Hibbler, Meade Lux Lewis, Jimmy Yancey, Johnny Hodges and Bobby Short.[6]
The hits begin[link]
In early 1949 a New Orleans distributor phoned Ertegun trying to obtain Stick McGhee's "Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee", which was unavailable due to the closure of McGhee's previous label. Ertegun knew Stick's younger brother Brownie McGhee, with whom Stick happened to be staying, so he contacted the McGhee brothers and cut a re-recording; when released in February 1949,[6] became Atlantic's first hit, selling 400,000 copies and reaching #3 in the Billboard R&B chart - although McGhee himself earned just $10 for the session.[19] From this point Atlantic's fortunes rose rapidly: they recorded 187 songs in 1949 (more than three times the output of the previous two years) and received overtures of a manufacturing and distribution deal with CBS Records, who would pay Atlantic a 3% royalty on every copy sold. Ertegun asked about artists' royalties, which he paid, which surprised CBS executives, who did not, which scuttled the deal.[20]
On the recommendation of broadcaster Willis Conover, Ertegun and Abramson went to see Ruth Brown at the Crystal Caverns club in Washington and invited her to audition for Atlantic. She was badly injured in a car accident en route to New York but Atlantic supported her for nine months and then signed her. Her first release for the label "So Long", cut at her second Atlantic session on 25 May 1949 with the Eddie Condon band, was[21] a major hit, reaching #6 on the R&B chart. Brown went on to record more than eighty songs for the label, becoming the most prolific and best-selling Atlantic artist of the period. So significant was Brown's success to Atlantic's fortunes that the label became known colloquially as "The House That Ruth Built".[22]
Joe Morris, one of the label's earliest signings, scored a major hit with his October 1950 release "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere", the first Atlantic record issued in 45rpm format, which the company began pressing in January 1951. The Clovers' "Don't You Know I Love You" (composed by Ertegun) became the label's first R&B #1 in September 1951 and a few weeks later Ruth Brown's "Teardrops from my Eyes" became its first million-selling record.[23] She hit #1 again in March–April 1952 with "5-10-15 Hours".[6][21] "Daddy Daddy" reached #3 in September 1952, and "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (which featured the MJQ's Connie Kay on drums) reached #1 in February–March 1953, becoming a solid seller for years afterwards,[21] as did the late 1954 "Oh What A Dream", her last hit with Atlantic. She left the label in 1961 and her fortunes declined rapidly - within a few years was reduced to working as a cleaner and bus-driver to support her children. In the 1980s she sued her former label for unpaid royalties; although Atlantic, which had prided itself on treating artists fairly, had stopped paying royalties to some artists, Ahmet Ertegun denied this was intentional. Brown eventually received a voluntary payment of $20,000 and founded a charity, the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, in 1988, established with a donation of $1.5 million from Ertegun.[23]
In 1952 Atlantic signed Ray Charles, who scored a string of hugely influential hits including "I Got A Woman", "What'd I Say" and "Hallelujah I Love Her So". Later that year The Clovers' "One Mint Julep" reached #2. In 1953, after learning that singer Clyde McPhatter had been fired from Billy Ward and His Dominoes and was forming his own group (The Drifters), Ahmet Ertegun tracked McPhetter down and signed the new group immediately. Their single "Money Honey" became the biggest R&B hit of the year.[24] Their subsequent records created some controversy: the suggestive "Such A Night" was banned by radio station WXYZ in Detroit and the follow-up "Honey Love" was banned in Memphis[25] though both records reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart.[21]
Although not a major success in chart terms, female vocal trio The Cookies became an important part of the Atlantic 'family'. The original group, put together by Atlantic producer Jesse Stone in 1954, comprised Darlene (Ethel) McCrea, Dorothy Jones and Dorothy's cousin Beulah Robertson, who was replaced in 1956 by Marjorie "Margie" Hendricks. They recorded "In Paradise", a minor R&B hit in early 1956, but after another unsuccessful release the trio became the regular backing singers for Atlantic recording sessions. They performed on many hits in this period including Joe Turner's "Corinna, Corinna" and "Lipstick, Powder and Paint", Chuck Willis' "It's Too Late (She's Gone)", and Ray Charles' "Lonely Avenue", "Drown In My Own Tears" and "Night Time is the Right Time" (which features Margie Hendricks prominently), before being taken on by Ray Charles and renamed The Raelettes.
Tom Dowd[link]
Recording engineer and producer Tom Dowd played a crucial role in Atlantic's success. He initially worked for Atlantic on a freelance basis, but within a few years he had been hired as the label's full-time staff engineer. His recordings for Atlantic and Stax exerted a major influence on the history of popular music and he scored more hits than George Martin and Phil Spector combined.[26][27] As Atlantic's studio engineer Tom Dowd oversaw many advances in production.
Atlantic was one of the first independent labels to make recordings in stereo: Dowd used a portable stereo recorder which ran simultaneously with the studio's existing mono recorder. In 1953 (according to Billboard) Atantic was the first label to issue commercial LPs recorded in the early, experimental stereo system called binaural recording.[28] In this system, recordings were made using two microphones, spaced at approximately the distance between the human ears, and the left and right channels were cut as two separate, parallel grooves, although playing them back required a player with a special tone-arm fitted with dual needles; it was not until around 1958 that the single stylus microgroove system (in which the two stereo channels were cut into either side of a single groove) became the industry standard.[29] By the late 1950s stereo LPs and record players were being introduced into the marketplace. Atlantic's early stereo recordings included "Lover's Question" by Clyde McPhatter, "What Am I Living For" by Chuck Willis, "I Cried a Tear" by LaVern Baker, "Splish Splash" by Bobby Darin, "Yakety Yak" by the Coasters and "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles. Although these were primarily 45rpm mono singles for much of the 1950s Dowd stockpiled his "parallel" stereo takes for future release. In 1968 the label issued History of Rhythm and Blues, Volume 4 (Atlantic SD-8164) in stereo and the stereo versions of Ray Charles "What'd I Say" and "Night Time is the Right Time" were also included on the Atlantic anthology The Birth Of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Rhythm & Blues Recordings, 1952-1959.[30]
Atlantic's New York studio was also the first in America to install multitrack recording machines, developed by the Ampex company. Bobby Darin's "Splish, Splash" was the first song to be recorded on 8-track recorder whereas it was not until the mid-1960s that multitrackers became the norm in recording studios and EMI's Abbey Road Studios did not install 8-track facilities until 1968.[31]
The label entered the new LP market very early: its first was a 10" album of poetry by Walter Benton, This Is My Beloved (March 1949), narrated by John Dall, with music by Vernon Duke[32] In 1951, Atlantic was one of the first independents to press records in the new 45rpm single format, and by 1956 the "45" had overtaken the "78" as the main sales format for singles. In April that year, Miriam (Abramson) Bienstock reported to Billboard that Atlantic was now selling 75% of its singles as 45s whereas only one year earlier 78s had been outselling 45s by two to one.[33]
Jerry Wexler[link]
Herb Abramson was drafted into the US Army in February 1953 and left for Germany where he served in the US Army Dental Corps,[33] although he retained his post as President of Atlantic on full pay.[6] Ertegun recruited Billboard reporter Jerry Wexler in June 1953:[33] who is credited with coining the term "rhythm & blues" to replace the earlier "race music".[34] He was appointed vice-president and purchased 13% of the company's stock for $2,063.25.[6] Wexler and Ertegun soon formed a close partnership which, in collaboration with Tom Dowd, produced thirty R&B hits.
Ertegun and Wexler realised many R&B recordings by black artists were being covered by white performers, often with greater chart success:[35] Atlantic's LaVern Baker had a #4 R&B hit with "Tweedlee Dee" but a rival version by Georgia Gibbs went to #2 on the pop charts, Big Joe Turner's April 1954 release "Shake, Rattle and Roll" was a #1 R&B hit but only made #22 on the pop chart while Bill Haley & His Comets's version reached #7, sold over 1 million copies and was Decca Records' biggest-selling song of the year. In July 1954, as rock'n'roll gathered momentum, Wexler and Ertegun wrote a prescient article for Cash Box, headlined "The Latest Trend: R&B Disks Are Going Pop", devoted to what they called "cat music"; the same month, Atlantic scored its first major "crossover" hit on the Billboard pop chart when the "Sh-Boom" by The Clovers reached #5[33] (although The Crew-Cuts' version went to #1). Atlantic missed an important signing in 1955 when Sun Records' owner Sam Phillips sold Elvis Presley's recording contract in a bidding war between labels. Atlantic offered $25,000 which, Ertegun later noted, "was all the money we had then."[36] but they were outbid by RCA Records's offer of $45,000. In 1990 Ertegun remarked:
- "The president of RCA at the time had been extensively quoted in Variety damning R&B music as immoral. He soon stopped when RCA signed Elvis Presley."[36]
Nesuhi Ertegun[link]
See also: Atlantic Records discography
Ahmet's older brother Nesuhi was recruited to the label in January 1955.[28] He had been living in Los Angeles for several years and had only irregular contact with his younger brother, but when Ahmet learned that Nesuhi had been offered a partnership in Atlantic's rival Imperial Records, he and Wexler convinced Nesuhi to join Atlantic instead.[37] Nesuhi headed the label's jazz division and built a strong roster, signing West Coast jazzers Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, Herbie Mann and Les McCann, as well as [6] Charles Mingus, John Coltrane[38] and the Modern Jazz Quartet, who became a mainstay of the label, releasing twenty albums; by 1958 Atlantic was America's second-largest independent jazz label.[39] Nesuhi was also in charge of LP album production, a market that was beginning to take off, and he was credited with greatly improving the packaging, production and originality of Atlantic's LP line.[39] He soon deleted the old '100' and '400' series of 10" albums and the earlier 12" albums in Atlantic's catalog, launching the new '1200' series, which sold for $4.98, with Shorty Rogers' The Swingin' Mr Rogers (Atlantic 1212).[40] In 1956 he started the '8000' popular series (selling for $3.98) for the label's few R&B albums, reserving the 1200 series for jazz.[6] Joel Dorn became Nesuhi's assistant following his successful production of Hubert Laws' The Laws of Jazz.[41][42]
Herb Abramson departs[link]
Herb Abramson's return from military service in 1955 created problems: Ertegun and Wexler had scored a run of hits, including Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop and Fly" and Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman", and when Abramson returned, he realised that that he had been effectively replaced by Wexler as Ahmet's partner. There were also personal conflicts: Abramson did not get on well with either Wexler or Nesuhi Ertegun, and he had returned from his military service with a German girlfriend, which precipitated his divorce from Miriam, a minor stockholder and Atlantic's business and publishing manager.
By 1958 relations between Abramson and his partners had broken down completely, so in December 1958 a $300,000 buy-out was arranged; his stock was split between Nesuhi Ertegun and Abramson's ex-wife Miriam, who had in the meantime re-married to music publisher Freddy Bienstock (later the owner of the Carlin Music / Chappell Music publishing empire). Abramson's departure opened the way for Ahmet Ertegun to take over as president of the label.[43]
Expansion[link]
Atlantic played a major role in popularising the new genre that Jerry Wexler dubbed rhythm & blues and it profited handsomely from this. The market for these records exploded during late 1953 and early 1954, as more and more R&B hits crossed over to the mainstream (i.e. white) audience. In its tenth anniversary feature on Atlantic, Billboard noted that previously, "... a very big r&b record might achieve 250,000 sales, but from this point on (1953-54), the industry began to see million sellers, one after the other, in the r&b field".[28] It observed that the label's "fresh sound" and the quality of its recordings, arrangements and musicians was a great advance on what was the standard for R&B records at the time, and that for the past five years Atlantic had "dominated the rhythm and blues chart with its roster of powerhouse artists".[28]
From 1954 onwards Atlantic created or acquired several important subsidiary labels, the first being the short-lived but significant Cat Records. By the mid-1950s Atlantic had an informal agreement with Eddie Barclay's French label Barclay Records and the two companies regularly exchanged titles, usually jazz recordings. Atlanticalso began to get recordings distributed in the United Kingdom; initially this was done through EMI on a 'one-off' basis, but in September 1955 Miriam Abramson went to the UK and signed a formal distribution deal with Decca Records, who were soon releasing every new Atlantic title.[44] Miriam later recalled:
- "I was the one who came to England at the beginning to negotiate all those deals (in the fall of 1955). I would deal with people there who were not really comfortable with women in business, so ... we would do business very quickly and get it over with. But they were charming. Sir Edward Lewis was wonderful, we became great friends. We kept in touch after I left Atlantic."[45]
A new subsidiary label, Atco Records, was established in 1955 as an effort to keep Abramson involved. East West was founded in September 1957; it initially concentrated on singles and featured an "across the board" roster of pop, rock & roll, rhythm & blues and rockabilly artists[46] and its first releases were by Jay Holliday, Johnny Houston and The Glowtones. After a slow start, Atco had considerable success with The Coasters and Bobby Darin. Darin's early releases had not been successful and Abramson planned to drop him, but Ertegun offered him another chance, and the session he produced yielded "Splish Splash", which Darin had written in 12 minutes and which sold 100,000 copies in the first month and became a million-seller. During 1958-59 Darin's "Queen of the Hop" made the Top 10 on both the US pop and R&B charts and also charted in the UK, "Dream Lover", a multi-million seller, reached #2 in the USA and became a UK #1, and "Mack the Knife" (August 1959) went to #1 in both the US and the UK, sold over 2 million copies and won the 1960 Grammy Award for 'Record of the Year'. "Beyond the Sea", an English-language version of the Charles Trenet hit "La Mer", became his fourth consecutive US/UK Top 10 hit. Darin later signed with Capitol Records and left for Hollywood to begin a movie career although Atco continued to score hits into 1962 with tracks already in the can, including "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" and "Things". Darin returned to Atlantic in 1965.[47]
By 1958 the label had expanded considerably - in 1956 Atlantic's head office moved to 157 West 57th St, while retaining two floors in the earlier premises at 234 West 56th St. New staff hired between 1956 and 1958 included Gary Kramer (director of publicity and advertising), Lester Lees (national sales manager), Victor Selsman (DJ promotions), Lester Sill (West Coast promotions) and Bob Bushnell (recording engineer).
During the 1960s Atlantic distributed selected titles recorded by many small regional independent labels including Dial (Joe Tex), Karen (The Capitols' "Cool Jerk"), Rosemart (Don Covay's "Mercy, Mercy"), Nola (Willie Tee's "Teasin' You"), Vault, Class, Shirley, Tomorrow, Instant, Dade ("Mashed Potatoes" by Nat Kendrick & The Swans), Moonglow, Correct-Tone Records, Lu-Pine, Keetch, Royo, T-Neck, Heidi, Sims and others, using those labels' imprints and separate catalog numbers.
Leiber, Stoller and Spector[link]
In October 1955 Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller scored a West Coast hit with Los Angeles-based vocal group The Robins, who released version of the Leiber-Stoller song "Smokey Joe's Cafe" on the duo's own Spark Records label. Seeking a national outlet, they leased the master to Atco and in November Atlantic purchased Spark and its catalog; Leiber and Stoller moved back to New York and signed a landmark deal with Atlantic that made them America's first independent record producers. In 1956 two members of The Robins, Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn, formed The Coasters who finally provided Atlantic with the crossover success it had been striving for. Their first (March 1956) Atco release (recorded in Hollywood) was "Down in Mexico", a Top 10 R&B hit: the double-sided "Young Blood"/"Searchin'" (also recorded in Hollywood) followed, with both sides entering the pop Top 10 after radio exposure and both charting for over 20 weeks - "Young Blood" reached #3 and "Young Blood" #8. Relocating to New York, The Coasters' then cut "Yakety Yak" (June 1958), featuring the saxophone of King Curtis, and this became Atlantic's first pop #1; "Charlie Brown" made #2 on both the pop and R&B charts in February 1959, "Along Came Jones" also reached the pop Top 10 as did "Poison Ivy" (#7, Aug. 1959). "Shopping for Clothes" (1960) was their only single that failed to make the pop chart. "Little Egypt" (1961) was their last hit, reaching #21 in the pop chart.
Leiber and Stoller also wrote and produced the classic "Ruby Baby" for The Drifters, a 1956 #13 R&B hit that featured Johnny Moore as lead vocalist (replacing Clyde McPhatter, who had been drafted); it became a pop standard and reached #2 in 1962 when re-recorded by Dion. By 1958 The Drifters had undergone many lineup changes and their former popularity was waning. That May, after one of the members got into a fight with the manager of the Apollo Theater, group manager George Treadwell sacked the entire lineup and recruited the members of The Five Crowns to become the 'new' Drifters. Leiber and Stoller produced "There Goes My Baby" with this second incarnation, featuring a lead vocal by Ben E. King, who also co-wrote the song. It was the first R&B song to feature a string arrangement, but Ertegun disliked it and Jerry Wexler was appalled, reportedly telling the producers; "Get that out of here. I hate it. It's out of tune and it's phony and it's shit and get it out of here".[48] They refused to release it for several months, but when they finally relented and released it as a single in April 1959 the song shot to #1.[30]
Phil Spector had learned the basics of record production working for Lester Sill and Lee Hazlewood's Trey Records label (which was distributed by Atlantic) in California in the late 1950s. At Sill's recommendation he returned to New York to work for Leiber and Stoller in early 1960. Leiber and Stoller assigned him to produce Ray Peterson's "Corrine, Corrina" and Curtis Lee's "Pretty Little Angle Eyes" (released on Petersen's Dunes Records label), both of which became hits. As a result, Atlantic signed him as a staff producer, though his difficult personality was already evident, and Ahmet Ertegun was reportedly the only Atlantic executive who liked him. Leiber later remarked, "He wasn't likeable. He was funny, he was amusing - but he wasn't nice." Wexler reportedly had no time for him and Miriam Bienstock, in her typically blunt fashion, described Spector's erratic behaviour "insane" and considered him "a pain in the neck".[49] When Ertegun took Spector to meet Bobby Darin, he openly criticized Darin's songwriting, with the result that Darin had him thrown out of the house.[50]
Despite these issues, Spector contributed to the production of several notable Atlantic singles by The Coasters, Ben E. King and the Drifters, although the extent of his contributions was later disputed by Leiber and Stoller. He also produced The Top Notes' original version of "Twist and Shout," but it flopped. Bert Berns, the song's writer, was incensed by Spector's arrangement, which he believed had ruined the song, so Berns re-recorded it the way he thought it should sound with The Isley Brothers, and it became a huge hit. Spector also produced Jean DuShon, Billy Storm, LaVern Baker and Ruth Brown during his short stay at Atlantic, with only moderate success. He left Atlantic in 1961 and returned to Los Angeles, where he founded Philles Records with Lester Sill and soon established himself as the preeminent American pop producer of the mid-1960s[51]
In early 1960 the 'new' Drifters debuted with "Dance With Me", which reached #15 on the pop chart and #2 R&B. "This Magic Moment" reached #16 on the pop chart, and their classic rendition of Doc Pomus' poignant "Save The Last Dance For Me" became a major international pop hit, reaching #1 in the USA and #2 in the UK. However, in May 1960, after only one year and just 10 recordings with the Drifters, lead singer Benjamin Nelson left the group due to a dispute with manager George Treadwell. Assuming the stage name Ben E. King, he launched a successful solo career, although the Drifters went on to score several more big hits.
King's first solo single, "Spanish Harlem (co-written by Leiber and Spector), became a Top 10 pop hit in early 1961. It was followed by "Stand By Me", a re-interpretation of the gospel standard "Lord, Stand By Me", with new lyrics by King and orchestration by Stan Applebaum. Reaching #4 on the pop chart, the song quickly became a standard covered by many artists including John Lennon. It has since been included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll listing and in 2001 it was voted #25 in the 'Songs of the Century' poll conducted by the Recording Industry Association of America. In late 1962 The Drifters returned to the charts, fronted by new lead vocalist Rudy Lewis, performing hits recorded with Ben E. King on stage and TV. "Up On The Roof", co-written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, was another major crossover hit making the Top 5 on both the pop and R&B charts and Mann and Weill's "On Broadway", made the Top 10 on both charts. It has since been covered by many artists. The Drifters' last hit, "Under The Boardwalk" (1964) was produced by Bert Berns and orchestrated by British arranger-producer-composer Mike Leander. Lead singer Rudy Lewis was found dead on the morning of the recording session (21 May 1964) and former lead singer Johnny Moore was brought in to replace him: despite this tragedy, the song became a big hit, reaching #4 on the pop chart and #1 on the R&B chart, and went on to be covered by many other acts, notably by The Rolling Stones.
The Leiber & Stoller/Atlantic partnership was enormously successful, but by 1962 the relationship was deteriorating. The duo reportedly resented the credit accorded to Spector, but their own artistic and financial demands alienated the Atlantic executives. From the beginning, Miriam Bienstock "couldn't see why it was necessary to use them" and they infuriated Jerry Wexler by asking for producers' credits on record labels and sleeves, although this was grudgingly granted. The breaking point came when duo asked for a producer's royalty, which was also granted informally, but their accountant insisted on a written contract and also requested an audit of Atlantic's accounts. When this was carried out (over Jerry Wexler's strenuous objections) it was found that Leiber and Stoller had been underpaid by $18,000. Although Leiber considered dropping the matter, Stoller insisted on pressing Atlantic for payment, but when they presented their request, Wexler exploded, telling them it would mean the end of their relationship with Atlantic. Leiber and Stoller backed down but the showdown ended the partnership anyway: Ertegun and Wexler told them they would not be involved in The Drifters next recording, giving the assignment to Phil Spector.[52] Atlantic quickly filled the gap left by Leiber and Stoller's departure with the hiring of producer and songwriter Bert Berns, who had recently scored a major hit with his remake of "Twist and Shout" for The Isley Brothers.
The ramifications of the split continued after Leiber and Stoller left Atlantic: in 1963 they set up Red Bird Records with George Goldner. Although they scored major hits (including The Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love" and The Shangri-Las "Leader of the Pack") the label's business position was precarious, so in late 1964 they approached Jerry Wexler, proposing a merger with Atlantic. When interviewed in 1990 for Ertegun's biography, Wexler declined to discuss the matter, but Ertegun himself claimed that these negotiations soon developed into a plan to buy him out. At this time (September 1964) the Ertegun brothers and Wexler were in the process of buying out the company's other two shareholders, Dr Sabit and Miriam Bienstock[53] and it was proposed (presumably by Wexler) that Leiber and Stoller would buy Sabit's shares. Leiber, Stoller, Goldner and Wexler pitched their plan to Ertegun at a fateful lunch meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Though Leiber and Stoller were adamant it was not their intention to buy Ertegun out, Ahmet was aggravated by Goldner's high-handed attitude and became convinced that Wexler was conspiring with them. Wexler then told Ertegun that if he refused, Wexler would do the deal without him, but this was impossible since the Ertegun brothers still held the majority share, while Wexler only controlled about 20%. Ertegun nursed a lifelong grudge against Leiber and Stoller and the affair drove an irreparable wedge between Ertegun and Wexler.[54]
Stax[link]
Atlantic was doing so well in early 1959 that some scheduled releases were held back and the company enjoyed two successive months of gross sales of over $1 million that summer, thanks to hits by The Coasters, The Drifters, LaVern Baker, Ray Charles, Bobby Darin and Clyde McPhatter[55] However, only months later the company was reeling from the successive loss of its two biggest artists, Bobby Darin and Ray Charles, who together accounted for one third of sales. Darin, who moved to the Los Angeles area, signed with Capitol Records. Charles signed a deal with ABC-Paramount Records in November 1959 that reportedly included increased royalties, a production deal, profit-sharing and eventual ownership of his master tapes. Wexler later commented; "It was very grim. I thought we were going to die" and Ertegun in 1990 disputed whether Charles had received the promised benefits. It led to a permanent rift between Charles and his former colleagues, although Ertegun remained good friends with Darin who returned to Atlantic in 1966.[56] Charles returned to Atlantic in 1977.[57]
Through 1961-62 Leiber and Stoller's successes maintained the label's fortunes, and these were further enhanced by a licensing deal with a small Memphis-based independent label Stax Records, which would soon prove to be of enormous value. In 1960, Atlantic's Memphis distributor Buster Williams contacted Wexler and told him he was pressing large quantities of "Cause I Love You", a duet between Memphis-based singers Carla Thomas and her father Rufus Thomas, which was released on a small local label called Satellite (which was soon renamed Stax Records, from the names of the owners, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, in 1961). Wexler contacted the co-owner of Satellite, Jim Stewart, who agreed to lease the record to Atlantic for $1000 plus a small royalty (the first money the label had ever made).[58] The deal included a $5000 payment against a five-year option on all other records. When Carla Thomas' first solo single, "Gee Whiz (Look at his Eyes)" began to attract national attention in 1961 New York producer Hy Weiss, went to Memphis to try to acquire the rights, but after examining the contract he told Wexler it gave Atlantic options on all Satellite recordings for the next five years. Wexler subsequently claimed he had been unaware of this: "The lawyers did it and I didn't read every contract."[59] Wexler and Stewart and discussed the deal and according to Wexler's account, "... there was no acrimony. Everything was fine and we picked up the record. Then we really rolled with Stax."[59]
The Atlantic deal marked the start of a hugely successful eight-year association between the two labels, giving Stax access to Atlantic's promotions and distribution, and it meant easy money for Atlantic, as Wexler later conceded:
- "...it was certainly biased on our favor. We didn't pay for the masters ... Jim paid for the masters and then he would send us a finished tape and we would put it out. Our costs began at the production level - the pressing, and distribution, and promotion, and advertising."[60]
Atlantic began pressing and distributing Stax records and Wexler soon sent Tom Dowd to upgrade Stax's recording equipment and facilities. Wexler was impressed by the easy-going, cooperative atmosphere at the Stax studios and by the distinctive sound of the label's racially-integrated group of 'house' musicians (which he described as "an unthinkably great band")[61] and he was soon bringing Atlantic artists to Memphis to record.[30] Shortly afterwards Stewart and Wexler hired Al Bell, then working as a DJ at a Washington DC radio station, to take over national promotion of Stax releases, the first African-American partner in the label.[60]
In 1962 the Stax deal began to reap major rewards for both labels. An after-hours jam by members of the Stax house band resulted in the classic instrumental "Green Onions". In conversation with BBC Radio 2 DJ Johnnie Walker on 7 September 2008, guitarist Steve Cropper revealed that the record became an instant success when DJ Reuben Washington played it four times in succession on Memphis radio station WLOK, before either the tune or the band had an agreed-upon name. The single was issued nationally in August 1962, by which time the band had been dubbed Booker T & the MGs; "Green Onions" became the biggest instrumental hit of the year, reaching #1 on the R&B chart and #3 on the pop chart, where it stayed for 16 weeks, and it sold over one million copies, earning a gold record award.
1962 also saw the Stax debut of Otis Redding, who had been Johnny Jenkins' driver and was allowed to record several songs at the end of one of Jenkins' sessions, among them his own "These Arms of Mine", which was released on Stax's Volt subsidiary and became a minor hit in the south. Over the next five years Redding would become one of Stax's most important artists. During 1965 Redding broke through into the national charts; "Mr. Pitiful" reached #10 on the soul chart and just missed out on the pop Top 40, followed by "I've Been Loving You Too Long", which made #2 on the soul chart and peaked at #21. "Respect" also performed strongly, reaching #4 on the soul chart and #35 on the pop chart.[62]
Over the next five years Stax and its subsidiary Volt provided Atlantic with a tremendous run of success, and many Atlantic artists were taken to Memphis to record. Among the many hits recorded by (or at) Stax between 1963 and 1967 were Rufus Thomas' "Walking The Dog", Otis Redding's "Respect", his classic version of "Try A Little Tenderness" and "Tramp", his hit duet with Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd's "Knock On Wood" and The Bar-Kays' "Soul Finger". Sam & Dave were signed to Atlantic but recorded at Stax at Jerry Wexler's suggestion; with the Stax band and the writing team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, the duo scored eight consecutive R&B Top 20 hits including "You Don't Know Like I Know", "Hold On, I'm Coming", "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby", "Soul Man" and "I Thank You; Wilson Pickett scored hits with "In The Midnight Hour", "634-5789", "Land of 1000 Dances", "Mustang Sally", "Funky Broadway" and "I'm In Love".
Some of Pickett's earlier hits were recorded at Stax, but in early 1966 Jim Stewart banned all non-Stax productions from the studio, so Atlantic began using other southern studios, notably Rick Hall's FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the American Group Productions studio in Memphis, run by former Stax producer Chips Moman.
The soul years, 1962–1967[link]
In late 1961 singer Solomon Burke arrived at Jerry Wexler's office unannounced. Wexler was a fan of Burke's and had long wanted to sign him so when Burke told Wexler his contract with his former label had expired Wexler replied: "You're home. I'm signing you today". The first song Wexler produced with Burke was "Just Out of Reach", which became a big hit in September 1961. Burke's the soul/country & western crossover predated Ray Charles' similar venture by more than 6 months. Burke became a consistent big seller through the mid-1960s and scored hits on Atlantic into 1968. In 1962 folk music was booming and the label came very close to signing Peter, Paul & Mary; although Wexler and Ertegun pursued them vigorously the deal fell through at the last minute and they later discovered music publisher Artie Mogull had introduced their manager Albert Grossman to Warner Bros. Records executive Herman Starr, who had made the trio an irresistible offer that gave them complete creative control over the recording and packaging of their music.[63]
Doris Troy signed with Atlantic in early 1963 and in June scored a major hit with "Just One Look", which she co-wrote and which reached #3 on the R&B chart and #10 on the pop chart. She scored another UK hit with "What'cha Gonna Do About It" and went on to a long and a successful career as a backing vocalist on many Dusty Springfield hits and with other famous acts including Pink Floyd, George Harrison and Nick Drake. "Just One Look" has been covered by many other artists including The Hollies, whose version became a major hit in the UK and gave the group its first US chart placing in 1964.
1967-68 was a peak period for Atlantic, as the string of hits coming from the Stax roster was augmented by the tremendous success of Aretha Franklin. Wexler had signed her in 1966 after the expiry of her contract with Columbia Records, who had unsuccessfully tried to market her as a jazz singer. In November that year a Columbia executive asked Jerry Wexler what he was going to do with Franklin, to which he replied "we're gonna put her back in church".[62] Wexler was determined to return Franklin to her gospel roots and personally took over her production at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, crucially allowing her to establish the "feel" of the songs by singing while accompanying herself on piano. Although the session was fraught with tension (mainly due to the fractious presence of Aretha's then husband and manager, Ted White), it yielded a double-sided hit which initiated a run of seven consecutive singles that made both the US pop and soul Top 10, and of which five were million-sellers; "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" (b/w "Do Right Woman") (#1 soul, #9 pop), "Respect" (#1 pop and soul), "Baby, I Love You" (soul #1, pop #4), "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" (#2 pop and soul), "Chain of Fools" (soul #1, pop #2), "Since You've Been Gone" (1968, soul #1, pop #5) and "Think" (1968, soul #1, pop #7).
The mid-1960s British Invasion led Atlantic to change its British distributor, since Decca did not give Atlantic access to its British recording artists, who mainly appeared in the U.S. via their U.S. subsidiary London Records. In 1966 Atlantic signed a new reciprocal licensing deal with Polydor Records which, thanks to Polydor's recent distribution deal with Robert Stigwood's Reaction label, included newly-formed British "supergroup" Cream, whose debut album was released on Atco in late 1966. In May 1967 the group came to Atlantic's New York studio to record their US breakthrough LP Disraeli Gears with Tom Dowd; it became a Top 5 LP in both the US and the UK, with the single "Sunshine of Your Love" reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Although Jerry Wexler was dismissive of the new developments in popular music—derisively dubbing the new generation of (predominantly white) musicians as "the rockoids"[64] -- Cream's American success marked the beginning of Atlantic's hugely successful diversification into the exploding rock music market, which would reap enormous rewards in the 1970s with signings such as Led Zeppelin, Yes and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
In late 1966 rising Los Angeles group Buffalo Springfield were signed to the Atco label, and in early 1967 they scored a major US hit with their second single, "For What It's Worth", which made the natioanl Top 10, sold over 1 million copies and earned a gold record award. Despite this early breakthrough and Ahmet Ertegun's high hopes for the band, internal tensions and the drug-related deportation of Canadian-born bassist Bruce Palmer led to the band splitting up in May 1968 without achieving any further hits. However former members Stephen Stills and Neil Young would go on to play a major role in Atlantic's rock success as members of 70s supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Acquisition by Warner Bros.[link]
File:Atlantic Records fan logo.svg
Atlantic Records Logo from 1966 to 2005 (US). Still used outside North America
Despite the huge success Atlantic was enjoying with its own artists and through its deal with Stax, by 1967 Jerry Wexler was seriously concerned about the disintegration of the old order of independent record companies and, fearing for the label's future, he began agitating for it to be sold to a larger company. Label president Ahmet Ertgeun still had no desire to sell, but the balance of power had changed since the abortive takeover attempt of 1962; Atlantic's original investor Dr Vahdi Sabit and minority stockholder Miriam Bienstock had both been bought out in September 1964[53] and the other remaining partner, Nesuhi Ertgeun, was eventually convinced to side with Wexler. Since they jointly held more stock, Ahmet was obliged to agree to the sale.
In October 1967 Atlantic was sold to Warner Bros.-Seven Arts for US$17.5 million, although all the partners later agreed that it was a poor deal which greatly undervalued Atlantic's true worth. Initially, Atlantic and Atco operated entirely separately from WB-SA's other labels, Warner Bros. and Reprise Records, and WB-SA's management did not interfere with the music division, since the ailing movie division was losing money, while the Warner recording division was booming - by mid-1968 Warner's recording and publishing interests were generating 74% of the group's total profits.[65][66][67]
The sale of Atlantic Records activated a clause in the distribution agreement with Stax Records calling for renegotiation of the distribution deal and at this point the Stax partners discovered that the deal gave Atlantic ownership of all the Stax recordings Atlantic distributed. The new Warner owners refused to relinquish ownership of the Stax masters, so the distribution deal ended on May 1968.[68] Atlantic continues to hold the rights to Stax recordings they distributed in the 1960s.
In the wake of the takeover, Jerry Wexler's influence in the company rapidly diminished; by his own admission, he and Ertegun had run Atlantic as "utmost despots" but in the new corporate structure, he found himself unwilling to accept the delegation of responsibility that his executive role dictated. He was also alienated from the "rockoid" white acts that were quickly becoming the label's most profitable commodities, and dispirited by the rapidly waning fortunes of the black acts he had championed, such as Ben E. King and Solomon Burke. Wexler ultimately decided to leave New York and move to Florida. Following his departure, Ertegun—who had previously taken little interest in Atlantic's business affairs—took decisive control of the label[69] and quickly became a major force in the expanding Warner music group.
During 1968 Atlantic established a new subsidiary label, Cotillion Records. It The label was originally formed as an outlet for blues and deep Southern soul; its first single, Otis Clay's version of "She's About A Mover", was an R&B hit. Cotillion's catalog quickly expanded to include progressive rock, folk-rock, gospel, jazz and comedy. In 1976, the label started focusing on disco and R&B. Among its acts were the post-Curtis Mayfield Impressions, Slave, Brook Benton, Jean Knight, Mass Production, Sister Sledge, The Velvet Underground, Stacy Lattisaw, Lou Donaldson, Mylon LeFevre, Stevie Woods, Johnny Gill, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Garland Green, The Dynamics, The Fabulous Counts, and The Fatback Band. Cotillion was also responsible for launching the career of Luther Vandross, who recorded for the label as part of the trio Luther. Cotillion also released the triple-albums soundtrack of the Woodstock festival film in 1970. From 1970 it also distributed Embryo Records, founded by jazz flautist Herbie Mann after his earlier Atlantic contract had expired.
In 1969 Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was taken over by the Kinney National Company, and in the early 1970s the group was rebadged as Warner Communications. After buying Elektra Records and its sister label Nonesuch Records in 1970, Kinney combined the operations of all of its record labels under a new holding company, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, or WEA for short, and also known as Warner Music Group. WEA was also used as a label for distributing the company's artists outside North America. In January 1970, Ahmet Ertegun was successful in his executive battle against Warner Bros. Records president Mike Maitland to keep Atlantic Records autonomous and as a result Maitland was fired by Kinney president Steve Ross. Ertegun recommended Mo Ostin to succeed Maitland as Warner Bros. Records president.[70] With Ertegun's power at Warners now secure, Atlantic was able to successfully maintain autonomy through the parent company reorganizations and continue to do their own marketing, while WEA handled distribution.
The rock era[link]
In late October 1968 music manager Peter Grant flew to New York with tapes of the debut album by new British rock band Led Zeppelin and met with Ertegun and Wexler. A deal was quickly drawn up and on November 23 Atlantic issused a press release announcing the signing of the band to an exclusive five-year contract, one of the "most substantial" in the label's history; although not disclosed at the time, this included an advance of $US200,000.[71] The band recorded directly for Atlantic Records from 1968 to 1973 and after that contract expired, they founded their own "vanity" label, Swan Song Records and signed a distribution deal with Atlantic (after being turned down by other labels). The arrival of Led Zeppelin proved timely for Atlantic's future as a rock label - one month after the Zeppelin signing, Atlantic's flagship rock act Cream played their farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London (supported, coincidentally, by another up-and-coming new band, Yes, who were themselves signed to Atlantic early the next year).
Following his departure from The Hollies, singer-songwriter Graham Nash met Stephen Stills (ex Buffalo Springfield) and David Crosby (ex The Byrds) at a party at the Los Angeles home of Cass Elliott in March 1968. When Nash sang with them their unique vocal chemistry was instantly apparent and this quickly led to them forming Crosby, Stills & Nash. After failing an audition for Apple Records, they went to Atlantic, who eagerly snapped them up and gave them virtually complete freedom to record their debut album. The signing was initially complicated by the fact that Nash was still nominally under contract to Epic Records (The Hollies' US distributor), but Ahmet Ertegun overcame this by arranging a 'swap' - he released former Buffalo Spingfield member Richie Furay from his Atlantic contract, allowing his new group Poco to sign to Epic, in exchange for Nash being allowed to move to Atlantic. The deal proved highly advantageous to Atlantic - Poco only achieved moderate success for Epic, while Crosby, Stills & Nash's self-titled debut album (released in May 1969) was major hit; it reached #6 on the Billboard album chart, spawned two US Top 40 singles, became a multi-platinum seller and eventually earned a place in the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and this led to a new incarnation of the band, which became even more successful.
Their commercial breakthrough prompted the CSN trio to recruit extra members to allow them to tour (since Stephen Stills had played almost all the instruments on their first album). They added session player Dallas Taylor as their permanent drummer and bassist Greg Reeves, finally recruiting Stills' former Buffalo Spingfield bandmate Neil Young. The new lineup reportedly spent several hundred hours in the studio recording their next album, Déjà Vu, which was released in March 1970 and became a huge hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard album chart (also reaching #1 in Australia and #5 in the UK) and generating three hit singles. It was soon followed by the protest single "Ohio" which was rush-released in May 1970 and became a Top 20 hit. All four members released their own albums over the next few months: Stills, Crosby and Nash released their debut solo albums on Atlantic during 1970-71, each featuring stellar supporting casts of backing musicians alongside the other members of CSNY. (Young's After The Goldrush came out on Atlantic's sister label Reprise Records, to which Young had already signed as a solo artist). Stills' album was a major hit, reaching #3 (with the single "Love The One You're With" making #14 on the US singles chart); Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name reached #14 (and has remained in print ever since) and Nash's Songs for Beginners reached #15, with the single "Chicago", reaching #35. In the meantime, Atlantic had released CSNY's second album, the 2LP live set 4 Way Street, which also went to #1 and earned a gold record award, but by the time it had reached the stores the group had already split. Despite this, Atlantic enjoyed continued success with the various members - Stills' next two LPs both made the US Top 10, as did Crosby and Nash's 1972 duo album. The group briefly reformed in 1974 for a hugely successful stadium tour, and although plans for a new album were scuppered by the band's legendary infighting, the hastily-compiled anthology So Far still managed to top the US album chart.
Concurrently, Led Zeppelin were becoming one of the biggest groups in the world, earning millions for Atlantic. Despite some early negative critical reactions, their 1969 debut album took off rapidly, going Top 10 in the US and the UK, where it remained on the charts for 73 weeks and 79 weeks respectively, and it was also a Top 10 album in both Spain and Australia. It has remained a consistently huge seller ever since, earning 8 platinum awards (8 million copies) for sales in the USA alone. Their second LP was even more successful, going to #1 in the USA, Canada, Britain, Australia and Spain and earning a Grammy nomination for Best Album. It too became a massive and enduring success, selling over 12 million copies in the USA.
Alongside the huge success of CSNY and Led Zeppelin, British band Yes established themselves as one of the most significant acts in the burgeoning progressive rock genre, and their success played a significant part in establishing the primacy of the long-playing album as the major sales format for rock music in the 1970s. After several lineup changes during 1969-70, the band settled into its "classic" '70s incarnation with guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman during 1971. Although the extended length of much of their material made it somewhat difficult to promote the band with single releases, their albums were hugely successful - their third LP The Yes Album (1971), which featured the debut of new guitarist Steve Howe, became their first big hit, reaching #4 in the UK and just scraping onto the chart in the US at #40. From this point, and notwithstanding the impact of the punk/New Wave movement in the late 1970s, the band enjoyed an extraordinary run of success—beginning with Fragile each of the eleven albums they released between 1971 and 1991 (including the lavishly-packaged live triple-album Yessongs) made the Top 20 in both the USA and the UK, and the double-LP Tales of Topographic Oceans (1973) and Going For The One (1977) both reached #1 in the UK.
Atlantic (and the world) suffered an irreparable loss in February 1978 when a fire destroyed most of its tape archive, which had been stored in a non-air-conditioned warehouse in Long Branch, New Jersey. Although (fortunately) the master tapes of the material in Atlantic's released back-catalog survived because they were stored in New York, the fire destroyed or damaged an estimated 5000-6000 reels of tape, including virtually all of the company's unreleased master tapes, alternate takes, rehearsal tapes and session multi-tracks recorded between 1948 and 1969. Atlantic was one of the first labels to record in stereo, and many of the tapes that were lost were stereo 'alternates' recorded in the late 1940s and 1950s (which Atlantic routinely taped simultaneously with the mono versions until the 1960s) as well almost all of the 8-track multitrack masters recorded by Tom Dowd in the 1950s and 1960s. According to Billboard journalist Bill Holland, news of the fire was kept quiet, and one Atlantic staffer who spoke to Holland reported that he did not find out about it until a year later. Fortunately, reissue producers and archivists subsequently located some tapes that were at first presumed 'lost', but which had survived because they had evidently been removed from the New Jersey archive years earlier and not returned. During the compilation of the Rhino-Atlantic John Coltrane boxed set, producer Joel Dorn located supposedly destroyed outtakes from Coltrane's seminal 1959 album Giant Steps, plus other treasures including Bobby Darin's original Atco demo of "Dream Lover" (with Fred Neil playing guitar); Atlantic archivists have since rediscovered other 'lost' material including unreleased masters, alternate takes and rehearsal tapes by Ray Charles, Van "Piano Man" Walls, Ornette Coleman, Lennie Tristano and Lee Konitz.[72]
In May 1988, the label held a 40th Anniversary concert, broadcast on HBO. This concert, which was almost 13 hours in length, featured performances by a large number of their artists and included reunions of some rock legends like Led Zeppelin and Crosby, Stills, and Nash (being David Crosby's first full band performance since being released from prison).[73]
"You're Pitiful" dispute[link]
In 2006, the label denied "Weird Al" Yankovic permission to release "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", despite Blunt's own approval of the song. Atlantic said that it was too early in Blunt's career, and that they did not want Blunt to become a one-hit wonder.[74] Although Yankovic could have legally gone ahead with the parody anyway, his record label, Volcano Entertainment, thought that it was best not to "go to war" with Atlantic.[75] The parody was released onto the Internet as a free download. Later he recorded two more parodies, "White & Nerdy", and "Do I Creep You Out", to replace "You're Pitiful". Yankovic, afterward, began wearing T-shirts reading "Atlantic Records sucks" while performing live. In addition, the music video for "White & Nerdy" depicts Yankovic vandalizing the Wikipedia article for Atlantic Records, replacing the whole page with "YOU SUCK!" in excessively large type (which spawned copycat vandalism of the article).[76]
Recent developments[link]
Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. (owners of the aforementioned HBO) in 1990, forming Time Warner. That same year, Jimmy Iovine founded Interscope Records, which Atlantic owned a 50% stake in. Interscope released notable gangsta rap titles — many in conjunction with Death Row Records. Pressure from activist groups opposed to gangsta rap, however, later led to parent company Time Warner's decision to sell Atlantic's stake in the label to MCA in 1995.[77]
A country music division, which was founded in the 1980s, was closed in 2001.[78] This branch included acts such as Neal McCoy, Tracy Lawrence and John Michael Montgomery, all of whom were transferred to Warner Bros. Records' Nashville division. The Atlantic Nashville division was revived in 2008 with Zac Brown Band and Jesse Lee being signed to it.
Time Warner sold Warner Music Group to a group of investors for $2.6 billion in late 2003. The deal closed in early 2004, consolidating Elektra Records and Atlantic into one label operated in the eastern United States.[2]
In 2007, the label celebrated its 60th anniversary with the May 2 PBS broadcast of the American Masters documentary Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built and the simultaneous Starbucks CD release of Atlantic 60th Anniversary: R&B Classics Chosen By Ahmet Ertegun.[79]
That year also saw Atlantic reach a milestone for major record labels: "More than half of its music sales in the United States are now from digital products, like downloads on iTunes and ring tones for cellphones", doing so "without seeing as steep of a decline in Compact Disc sales as the rest of the industry."[80]
Notable sublabels[link]
- Big Beat Records
- Big Tree Records
- Cotillion Records
- Eardrum Records
- Finnadar Records[81]
- First Priority Music
- Grand Hustle Records
- LaSalle Records
- Stone Flower Records
- TAG Recordings
- Vortex Records
See also[link]
- List of current Atlantic Records artists
- List of former Atlantic Records artists
- Atlantic Records Group
- List of Atlantic Records artists
- List of record labels: 0-9
- Atlantic Records discography
References[link]
- ^ Atlantic Records :: Our History
- ^ a b Veiga, Alex. Warner group's new chief gets right to work. Associated Press: March 3, 2004
- ^ Cohen, Jonathan (2006-12-14). "Industry Icon Ahmet Ertegun Dies At 83". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003522075.
- ^ "The Darkness :: Discography". Thedarknessrock.com. http://www.thedarknessrock.com/discography/. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Atlantic Records :: Sean Paul[dead link]
- ^ a b c d e f g h "David Edwards & Mike Callahan, ''The Atlantic Records Story''". Bsnpubs.com. http://www.bsnpubs.com/atlantic/atlanticstory.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Dorothy Wade & Justine Picardie, Music Man: Ahmet Ertegen, Atlantic Records and the Triumph of Rock & Roll, (W. W. Norton, New York, 1990, ISBN 0-393-02635-3), pp.31-32
- ^ John Broven, Record makers and breakers: voices of the independent rock 'n' roll pioneers' (University of Illinois Press, 2009), p.65
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, p. 36
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, p. 37
- ^ Broven, 2009, p.65
- ^ Wade & Picardie, pp.32-33
- ^ a b "Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun dies". MSNBC. 2006-12-14. p. 1. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16212086/. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
- ^ Sullivan, James (2006-12-14). "Rock & Roll Founding Father Ahmet Ertegun Dies at 83". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/12811234/rock__roll_founding_father_ahmet_ertegun_dies_at_83. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
- ^ Gary Kramer, "Atlantic and R&B Trend Developed Side by Side", Billboard, 13 January 1958, p.35
- ^ a b Gary Kramer, "Atlantic and R&B Trend Developed Side by Side", Billboard, 13 January 1958, p.24
- ^ Billboard - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1949-10-22. http://books.google.com/books?id=Lg4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT16&lpg=PT16&dq=%22magic+record%22+%2B+%22atlantic+records%22&source=bl&ots=YNScY2SRDz&sig=KG6Y13aldtfYzSVLdcTwBZM_b2U&hl=en&ei=SMssTsiYFoymsAKKnryNCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22magic%20record%22%20%20%20%22atlantic%20records%22&f=false. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Wade & Picardie, p.34
- ^ Wade & Picardie, p.35
- ^ Wade & Picardie, pp.35-36
- ^ a b c d Peter Grendysa and Robert Pruter, Atlantic Rhythm and Blues 1947-1974 booklet notes (CD edition), Atlantic Records, 1991
- ^ Wade & Picardie, pp.37-38
- ^ a b Dougherty, Steve (1989-03-06). "Steve Dougherty and Victoria Balfour, "Knowing All There Is to Know of Rhythm and Blues, Ruth Brown Makes Her Comeback on Broadway", ''People'', 6 March 1989". People.com. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20119724,00.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Wade & Picardie, pp.38-39
- ^ Wade & Picardie, p.39
- ^ "Tom Dowd obituary, ''The Independent'', 2 November 2002". Independent.co.uk. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/tom-dowd-603058.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Dan Daley. "Dan Dailey, "The Engineers Who Changed Recording", ''Sound on Sound'', October 2004". Soundonsound.com. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/articles/rocketscience.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ a b c d Kramer (Billboard), 1958, p.38
- ^ "David Edwards, René Wu, Patrice Eyries, and Mike Callahan, ''Atlantic Album Discography, Part 2, 1200 Jazz Series (1949-1966)'' (October 6, 2005)". Bsnpubs.com. 2005-10-06. http://www.bsnpubs.com/atlantic/atlantic12001463.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ a b c "David Edwards and Mike Callahan, ''The Atlantic Records Story'' (Feb. 1990)". Bsnpubs.com. http://www.bsnpubs.com/atlantic/atlanticstory.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ UK (1962-06-06). "Abbey Road Studios - History - 1960s". Abbeyroad.com. http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit/history-of-abbey-road/1960s/. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ "David Edwards, René Wu, Patrice Eyries, Mike Callahan, and Randy Watts, ''Atlantic Album Discography, Part 1 100 & 400 Series (1949-1954)'' (Aug. 2010)". Bsnpubs.com. 2010-08-29. http://www.bsnpubs.com/atlantic/atlantic100400.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ a b c d Brover, 2009, p.66
- ^ Sacks, Leo (1993-08-29). "The Soul of Jerry Wexler". The New York Times. p. 1. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D7163BF93AA1575BC0A965958260. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
- ^ Wade & Picardie, p.43-44
- ^ a b Wade & Picardie, 1990, p.99
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, p.46
- ^ Jones, Steve (2006-12-15). "Atlantic Records founder Ertegun dead at 83". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-12-14-ahmet-ertugun_x.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
- ^ a b Kramer/Billboard, 1958, p.38
- ^ Jazz Discography Project. "Atlantic Records catalog: 1200 series". Jazzdisco.org. http://www.jazzdisco.org/atlantic-records/catalog-1200-series/. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Bailey, C. Michael (September 1999). "32 Jazz: Anthropology New and Old". All About Jazz. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/articles/a0999_01.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
- ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Joel Dorn - Biography". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p71779/biography. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
- ^ Wade & Picardie, pp.44-51
- ^ Paul Ackerman, "Rhythm & Blues Notes", Billboard, 12 November 1955, p.122
- ^ Brover, 2007, p.67
- ^ Billboard, 30 Sept. 1957, p.16
- ^ Billboard - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1965-07-17. http://books.google.com/books?id=2CgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA4&dq=%22bobby+darin%22+%2B+atlantic+%2B+1965&hl=en&ei=pZxITvPmGMeEsAKYzIzWBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22bobby%20darin%22%20%2B%20atlantic%20%2B%201965&f=false. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, p.102
- ^ Wade and Picardie, 1990, p.101
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, p.103
- ^ "David Edwards and Mike Callahan, 'The Atlantic Records Story' (February 1990)". Bsnpubs.com. http://www.bsnpubs.com/atlantic/atlanticstory.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, pp. 104-106
- ^ a b Brover, 2007, p.71
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, pp 111-116
- ^ Brover, 2007, p.68
- ^ Wade and Picardie, 1990, pp.98-99
- ^ http://raycharles.com/ray-charles-albums-1970s/
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, p. 129
- ^ a b Wade & Picardie, 1990, p. 130
- ^ a b Wade & Picardie, 1990, p.131
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, p.132
- ^ a b Grendysa & Pruta, 1997
- ^ Goodman, 1997, pp.88-90
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, p.167
- ^ "Atlantic Records Story". Bsnpubs.com. http://bsnpubs.com/atlantic/atlanticstory.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, pp.144-147
- ^ Billboard - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1968-07-13. http://books.google.com/books?id=xgoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=Maitland+to+head++record+music+wing&hl=en&ei=asgdTrGzLoqosQLpo5CtCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Maitland%20to%20head%20%20record%20music%20wing&f=false. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=pwoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=%22separate+tables%22%2B+atlantic+%2B&hl=en&ei=DoWcTvuAKImvsQLfrvzJBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22separate%20tables%22%2B%20atlantic%20%2B&f=false
- ^ Wade & Picardie, 1990, pp.165-169
- ^ Hotel California: The True-Life ... - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2007-04-23. http://books.google.com/books?id=7n38EhI2JaoC&pg=PA129&dq=maitland+%2B+ertegun&hl=en&ei=fhwfTofWL4GFsgKlj9S_Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=maitland%20%2B%20ertegun&f=false. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ "Led Zeppelin official website - Atlantic press release, Nov. 1968". Ledzeppelin.com. 1968-11-23. http://www.ledzeppelin.com/event/november-23-1968. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ "Bill Holland: "Labels Strive To Rectify Past Archival Problems" (originally published in ''Billboard'' magazine, 12 July 1997)" (PDF). http://www.billholland.net/words/Labels%20Strive%20to%20Rectify%20Past%20Archival%20Problems.pdf. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Perry, Shawn (1999). "The Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Bash". VintageRock.com. Vanilla Fudge. http://www.vintagerock.com/atlantic.html. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
- ^ Skaggs, Austin (2006-09-19). "Weird Al Yankovic Dishes on James Blunt, Discusses His Role as the Whitest, Nerdiest Rock Star Ever" (in English). Rolling Stone Rock and Roll Daily. Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2006/09/19/weird-al-yankovic-dishes-on-james-blunt-discusses-his-role-as-the-whitest-nerdiest-rock-star-ever/. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
- ^ "Free 'Weird Al' Yankovic!" (in English). http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5482774. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
- ^ Adams, Cameron. "Weird Al Yankovic." Herald Sun, October 5, 2006.
- ^ "Interscope Records". Discogs.com. http://www.discogs.com/label/Interscope+Records. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ "Atlantic Records to close Nashville offices". Wichita Eagle. 2001-05-01. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WE&s_site=kansas&p_multi=WE&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EBC6FE65EEC8ABB&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
- ^ "Atlantic Kicks Off 60th Anniversary Year with 2 Major Events". Atlantic Records. 2007-05-01. http://www.atlanticrecords.com/news/article/?id=8a0af8121234e3b9011249cdb7ff0d3a. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
- ^ Atlantic Records hits milestone on digital music sales, a November 25, 2008 from the International Herald Tribune
- ^ [1]
External links[link]
- Official website
- Warner Music Group page about the Atlantic Records Group
- Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built television documentary in PBS American Masters series
- Atlantic Records's channel on YouTube
- Atlantic US/UK A&R team contact list
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Records
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Lupe Fiasco | |
|---|---|
 Lupe Fiasco at WGCI Radio, Chicago, Illinois. |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Wasalu Muhammad Jaco |
| Born | (1982-02-16) February 16, 1982 (age 30) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupations | Rapper, producer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, keyboard |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | Atlantic |
| Associated acts | Child Rebel Soldier, Japanese Cartoon, Matthew Santos, B.o.B, Kanye West, All City Chess Club, Sway DaSafo, Pharrell |
| Website | www.lupefiasco.com |
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( /ˈluːpeɪ/ LOO-pay), is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the frontman of rock band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. As an entrepreneur, Fiasco is the chief executive officer of 1st and 15th Entertainment.
Raised in Chicago, Fiasco developed an interest in hip hop after initially disliking the genre for its use of vulgarity. After adopting the name Lupe Fiasco and recording songs in his father's basement, 19-year-old Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak. The group disbanded shortly after its inception, and Fiasco soon met rapper Jay-Z who helped him sign a record deal with Atlantic Records. In 2006, Fiasco released his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor on the label, which received three Grammy nominations. He released his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, in December 2007. The lead single "Superstar" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. He released Lasers on March 8, 2011 after a two-year delay. The album's lead single "The Show Goes On" peaked at number 9 on the chart, thus becoming his most successful single since "Superstar".
In addition to music, Fiasco has pursued other business ventures, including fashion. He runs two clothing lines, Righteous Kung-Fu and Trilly & Truly; he has designed sneakers for Reebok. He has been involved with charitable activities, including the Summit on the Summit expedition, and in 2010 he recorded a benefit single for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Fiasco is also noted for his anti-establishment views, which he has expressed in both interviews and his music.
Contents |
Life and career[link]
1982–98: Early life[link]
I grew up in the hood around prostitutes, drug dealers, killers, and gangbangers, but I also grew up juxtaposed: On the doorknob outside of our apartment, there was blood from some guy who got shot; but inside, there was National Geographic magazines and encyclopedias and a little library bookshelf situation. And we didn't have cable, so we didn't have the luxury of having our brains washed by MTV. We watched public television – cooking shows and stuff like that.
“
”
– Fiasco, on his childhood.[1]
Fiasco was born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco on February 16, 1982 in Chicago, Illinois.[2][3] Born of West African descent,[4] he was one of nine children of Shirley, a gourmet chef, and Gregory, an engineer.[1][3] His father, a member of the Black Panther Party, was a prolific African drummer, karate teacher, operating plant engineer, and owner of karate schools and army surplus stores.[5][6][7] Fiasco was raised Muslim on the West Side of Chicago on Madison Terrace housing project.[6][8] At the age of three, Fiasco began taking martial arts classes.[1] His parents divorced when he was five, and he went on to live with his mother, but his father still remained an important part of his life. He described his father's influence over the family by saying, "After school, my father would come and get us and take us out into the world—one day, we're listening to N.W.A, the next day we're listening to Ravi Shankar, the next day, he's teaching us how to shoot an AK-47, the next day, we're at karate class, the next day, we're in Chinatown...".[6]
In sixth grade, he went to live with his father full-time in Harvey, Illinois.[9] His father lived next door to a crack house and taught Fiasco to use guns to defend himself from drug dealers.[1] Despite his unstable upbringing, Fiasco states that he was well-educated as a child, asserting that his parents exposed him to a diverse array of subjects and that reading was highly encouraged in his household.[1] As a teenager, Fiasco participated in Academic Decathlon competitions.[3] His mother described him by saying, "He was a great spirited child. Smart, a bit complex; he kind of was a loner; he didn't hang with a lot of people...He always had the glasses. Always had a book bag over his shoulder and some type of a writing tablet."[3] Fiasco initially disliked hip hop music for its use of vulgarity, and preferred to listen to jazz; he idolized clarinet player Benny Goodman.[1][8] His struggle to learn to play an instrument led him to create poetry instead, which led to his interest in the lyrical aspects of music.[10]
He began rapping his poems in the eighth grade, and upon hearing Nas' 1996 album, It Was Written, began to pursue hip hop.[7] While attending Thornton Township High School, Fiasco met gang member Bishop G. The two became friends due to their shared interest in music.[3] Fiasco's father allowed him and Bishop to make mixtapes in his basement, and the two gained notoriety at the school for their music. However, they were kicked off stage during their first performance because their eclectic musical style was not embraced by the hip hop community.[3] Early in his career, he went by stage names Little Lu and Lu tha Underdog.[11] Growing up, Fiasco was given the nickname "Lu", the last part of his first name, by his mother. "Lupe" is an extension of this nickname, which he borrowed from a friend from high school. "Fiasco" is a reference to The Firm song "Firm Fiasco"; the rapper "liked the way it looked on paper."[12] He also said of his name, "You know how rappers always have names like MC Terrorist—like they're 'terrorizing' other rappers? I knew fiasco meant a great disaster or something like that, but I didn't realize that the person named Fiasco would be the disaster, and that you should be calling other MCs fiascos—not yourself...it kind of humbled me in a sense. It taught me like, 'Yo, stop rushing, or you're going to have some fiascos.'"[11]
1999–2005: Career beginnings[link]
When Fiasco was 17, he began creating music as a solo artist in his father's basement, even though his parents were not keen on having their son be a rapper. He scoured flea markets and secondhand stores, where he was able to find an old mixing board and a record player, stacks of vinyl records, and mic stands.[11] At age 19, Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak, which was influenced by other California gangsta rappers such as Spice 1 and Ice Cube. Da Pak signed to Epic Records and released one single before splitting up.[2] Fiasco later described the experience, saying "We had a song out about cocaine, guns, and women, and I would go to a record store and look at it and think, 'What are you doing?' I felt like a hypocrite. I was acting like this rapper who would never be judged, and I had to destroy that guy. Because what Lupe Fiasco says on this microphone is going to come back to Wasalu Jaco. When the music cuts off, you have to go home and live with what you say."[13]
After turning away from gangsta rap, he developed a greater appreciation of the lyricism of Jay-Z and Nas. His mother also gave him a record of the influential group The Watts Prophets, one of the first bands to use spoken words with music.[14] Although he was without a group for the first time, Fiasco continued to record music. One of these first self-recorded tracks was "Could Have Been", which described the career options he could have pursued had he not begun rapping.[15] He viewed the song as a turning point in his career that marked a drastic change in the subject matter of his music.[15] "Could Have Been" was released as a demo tape and discovered by MTV despite the fact that no video was created for the song.[15]
Fiasco later signed a solo deal with Arista Records, but was dropped when president and CEO L.A. Reid was fired.[2] During his short tenure at Arista, he met Jay-Z, who was the president of Def Jam Recordings at the time. Jay-Z referred to him as a "breath of fresh air", saying that he reminded him of a younger version of himself.[14] Jay-Z later helped him get a record deal at Atlantic Records.[14] While Fiasco was working on his debut solo album, he released his mixtape series Fahrenheit 1/15 over the internet, which gained notoriety by word-of-mouth. At this time, Fiasco's remix of Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" entitled "Muhammad Walks", became very popular in the Muslim community.[16]
He remixed another one of West's songs, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", and renamed it as "Conflict Diamonds". With this remix, Fiasco wished to raise awareness of the conflict diamond business.[17] This caught West's attention, and he asked Fiasco to perform on his song "Touch the Sky" off his album Late Registration. The song, which sampled Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up", became a hit in the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number forty-two.[18] After this success his first single "Kick, Push" was released earlier than expected. The song was a love story about two people sharing a passion for skateboarding, a topic generally not discussed in hip hop.[19] Fiasco explained, "[Skateboarding culture is] just as deep as hip-hop. I'm not the greatest skateboarder, but I'm a damn good rapper, so I made a damn good skateboarding song."[19] The single, and its accompanying music video, helped Fiasco get attention in the hip-hop community and was later nominated for two 2007 Grammy Awards.[10][20] During this time, he had guest appearances on singles on Tha' Rayne's "Kiss Me" and "Didn't You Know" and also K Foxx's 2004 "This Life".
[edit] 2006–08: Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor and The Cool
Jay-Z assisted him in the production of what would become his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor.[21] The title of the album is a reference to 'Food and Liquor' stores common in Chicago. He explains, "The store is where everything is at...Food to me represents growth and progression. You eat food and you get strength. You need it to live. Liquor is not a necessity; it is a want. It destroys you. It breaks you down. I can see why it's prohibited in Islam...I've always felt like liquor represents the bad, the food represents the good, and everyone is made up of a little of both."[22] Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor was officially released on September 19, 2006. The album featured production from Jay-Z, Kanye West, Mike Shinoda, The Neptunes, Prolyfic, among others. The record spawned the singles "Kick, Push," "I Gotcha" and "Daydreamin'" featuring Jill Scott. The critically lauded album was later nominated for three Grammy Awards including Best Rap Album.[3] Fiasco won "Best Urban/Alternative Performance" for "Daydreamin'".[23] In the same year, he was voted by GQ magazine as the "Breakout Man of the Year."[15] He also received four BET Hip Hop Award nominations, and it made it to number eight on Billboard 200 and number two on Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[24]
"It was a lot of tragedy coming into this album. In the midst of a lot of success, I was so busy I didn't have time to properly mourn. Talking to yourself, having some therapy with yourself – it was the hardest record to write because of the emotions."
“
”
-Lupe Fiasco, on Lupe Fiasco's The Cool[25]
In 2007, Fiasco announced his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, a concept album that expands on the story of the track of the same name on his first album. While recording this album, Fiasco's father died of type II diabetes and his business partner, Charles "Chilly" Patton, was convicted of attempting to supply heroin to a drug ring and was eventually sentenced to 44 years in a correctional facility.[5][26] These events greatly affected Fiasco and the subsequent themes discussed on the record.[25] The disc was released in December 2007 in United States while the first single and video from the album, "Superstar" featuring Matthew Santos was released the first week of November 2007. Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, a concept album that expanded upon recurring themes in Food & Liquor, is about "a hustler who dies and comes back to life, only to get robbed by two little kids with the same gun that killed him."[27] For the record, Fiasco decided not to work with well-known producers as he considered it to be "too expensive", noting the commercial failure of his Pharrell collaboration, "I Gotcha".[27]
Lupe Fiasco's The Cool was very well received by critics and was referred to as "one of the year’s best hip-hop albums" by The New York Times.[28] "Superstar", a semi-autobiographical account of his rise to fame, was released as the first single from the album, and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.[15][29] Baseball's Hanley Ramirez, Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman, Gerald Laird and Ryan Braun have used "Superstar" as their at-bat song.[30] The album's second single (released in the UK in April 2008) was "Paris, Tokyo" – a song based around Fiasco's experiences of touring the world between his first and second albums.[15] Moreover, in 2007 it was revealed that Fiasco, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams had formed a group called Child Rebel Soldier.[31][32] CRS initially released one single, entitled "US Placers" and featuring a Thom Yorke sample. In an interview with The Village Voice, Fiasco revealed that he was writing a novel about a window washer, aptly titled Reflections of a Window Washer.[33] In 2008, Fiasco and his band 1500 or Nothin joined Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour which also featured Rihanna and N.E.R.D. The tour stopped in several cities, including his hometown of Chicago. In 2008, MTV named Fiasco the 7th Hottest MC in the Game[34] and announced that he was remixing The Cool with French electro house act Justice.[35]
[edit] 2009–present: Lasers and Food & Liquor 2
At a performance in New Zealand in February 2010, Fiasco performed new material from the then-titled We Are Lasers for the first time.[36] He claimed that the album was complete and waiting for a release date from his label, Atlantic Records.[36] However, Atlantic feared that the record lacked commercial singles, and presented Fiasco with songs the label wanted him to record.[37] Fiasco declined, as he was told he would not have any ownership of the songs.[37] He explained, "I don't think the label cares about an album...People just want their number-one record."[37] For six months, the cause of the album's delay remained unclear to the public. In response, Fiasco's fans created an online petition demanding that Atlantic Records release Lasers. The petition garnered considerable attention on hip hop blog sites as well as over 16,000 signatures.[37] Fiasco stated that the petition "brought [him] to tears", and in response to the petition, Fiasco released a song titled "B.M.F-Building Minds Faster" to thank his fans.[37]
While waiting for Lasers to be released, Fiasco completed another album, titled Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album.[38] He is unsure if the Food and Liquor II will ever be released, though he released the song "Go To Sleep" from the record "out of desperation" to put out new music.[38] He also pursued numerous side projects in the midst of the delay. In April 2010, Fiasco formed the hip hop collective All City Chess Club along with Pharrell, Asher Roth, B.o.B., The Cool Kids, Charles Hamilton, Blu, Diggy Simmons, Wale, J. Cole, & Dosage.[39] The group has so far made one song, a remix of Fiasco's "I'm Beamin".[40] Additionally, On July 16, 2010, Fiasco released his rock side-project Japanese Cartoon's debut EP In The Jaws Of The Lords Of Death. Japanese Cartoon was influenced by a variety of musical genres, with Fiasco saying, "I’ve always been a fan of all music...Hip hop is just something I actually know how to do but I always had aspirations to participate in other forms of music. Once I got to create some hip hop, it was like, 'Okay, what am I going to do now?' So my artistic side was like, 'Yo, let's do some rock music.'"[38]
More than two and a half years after the album's completion, Lasers was released on March 8, 2011. The first single off of the record was "The Show Goes On", which samples "Float On" by Modest Mouse. "The Show Goes On" debuted at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100.[41] The lead single peaked at number 9 since then. The producers involved on the album include Alex Da Kidd, King David "The Future" and Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis, while featured artists include Skylar Grey, Trey Songz, and John Legend.[15] Upon the album's release, Lasers debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 204,000 copies.[42][43] Despite the album's commercial success, Lasers received mixed reviews from most music critics.[44] Writing for Allmusic, editor Andy Kellman gave the record three out of five stars and criticized its "lumbering, overwrought choruses", writing that "If there is one MC whose rhymes should not be dulled for the sake of chasing pop trends, it’s Lupe Fiasco".[45] Lasers, however, was nominated Best Rap Album, with "The Show Goes On" nominated for Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song at the 54th Grammy Awards. Lupe Fiasco later involved himself at the Occupy Wall Street movement where he donated tents and released a poem in support of the protesters. He also released his "Friend of the People" mixtape on Thanksgiving Day. Fiasco has since announced the completion of his Food & Liquor 2 album, as well as work being put into a joint album with fellow Child Rebel Soldier & All City Chess Club member Pharrell.[46]
Lyrical style[link]
Fiasco, along with rappers Common, Rhymefest, and Talib Kweli, has been credited as a pioneer of the conscious hip hop movement, which focuses on social issues.[47] Subjects touched upon on Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor include absent parents, terrorism, Islam and religion, war, and prostitution.[47] Fiasco attributes his interest in social issues to his highly cultured upbringing, as he describes his mother as "very intellectual" and his father as a "Renaissance man".[47] He rejects the misogyny common in hip hop, which he discusses in the song "Hurt Me Soul".[48] Despite this, Fiasco is strongly opposed to censorship in music: "If we're going to [censor things] that are offensive, then we are going to have to blind and deafen everyone. Come on, man. Let's focus on education and literacy and poverty."[49]
Fiasco employs various lyrical techniques in his songwriting. The rapper views hip-hop as a medium conducive to storytelling, a primary element of his lyrics due to his background in theater.[47] He wrote plays as a child, which had a strong effect on his songwriting approaches.[47] Fiasco utilizes both metaphors and literal statements in his work, which he describes as "getting from point A to point B in as few words as possible".[47] His use of metaphors is exemplified by the song "Gotta Eat" from Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, which is told from the perspective of a cheeseburger and addresses the poor nutrition in black communities in the United States.[26]
Philanthropy and business ventures[link]
In 2001, Fiasco co-founded 1st & 15th Entertainment with Charles "Chilly" Patton. 1st & 15th is a vanity record label under Atlantic named after the traditional twice-monthly paycheck dates.[14] Although Fiasco was initially to serve as vice-president, he became CEO after Patton was convicted on drug charges.[50][51] Fiasco and singer Matthew Santos were two of the most recognizable signed artists. In November 2009, Fiasco announced he would discontinue the 1st & 15th label: "It was just such a 'this isn't right for you right now. This isn't gonna work for you right now. You need to be focused on you. Do you really want that, do you really have the capacity to do it?'"[52]
In 2005, he founded Righteous Kung-Fu, a company that designs fashions, sneakers, toys, video games, comic books, and graphics for album covers and skateboard decks. Fiasco also runs a fashion line out of Righteous Kung-Fu called Trilly & Truly.[53] He has sponsored a skateboard team and has endorsements from DGK Skateboards.[54] In January 2006, Fiasco signed with major footwear and apparel corporation Reebok, becoming part of the "O.G" marketing campaign where rap artists such as Lil Wayne and Mike Jones designed their own personal colorway of the Reebok "O.G" model.[53]
In 2009, Fiasco performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that employs musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.[55] On January 7, 2010, Fiasco joined musician Kenna, actress Jessica Biel, and other celebrities and activists for an expedition to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro called Summit on the Summit to raise awareness of the billions of people worldwide who lack access to sanitary drinking water.[56] On January 20, 2010, Fiasco released a track called "Resurrection" with Kenna in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The song, part of a compilation released through the charity Music for Relief, aimed to encourage donations for immediate relief and long-term recovery following the disaster.[57]
Political views[link]
Fiasco is noted for his anti-establishment views. In an interview with Stephen Colbert on the satirical news show The Colbert Report, Fiasco stated his credo on political philosophy: "You should criticize power even if you agree with it."[58] In another interview in June 2011 on the CBS program What's Trending, Fiasco discussed the political content of his music, stating, "My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States of America. I'm trying to fight the terrorism that's actually causing the other forms of terrorism. You know, the root cause of terrorism is the stuff the U.S. government allows to happen. The foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists."[59] He additionally criticized Obama for his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[60] Despite his strong political opinions, Fiasco does not vote in U.S. elections nor does he involve himself in U.S. politics as he believes they are "meaningless."[58]
Discography[link]
Main article: Lupe Fiasco discography
- Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor (2006)
- Lupe Fiasco's The Cool (2007)
- Lasers (2011)
- Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Part 1 (2012)[38][61]
- Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Part 2 (TBA)[61]
- TBA (with Pharrell Williams) (2012)
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ a b c d e f Watson, Margeaux (January 17, 2008). "Lupe Fiasco: The Art of Being Cool". Entertainment Weekly. Time Warner. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20170520,00.html. Retrieved December 27, 2010.
- ^ a b c Kellman, Andy. "Lupe Fiasco - Biography". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. http://allmusic.com/artist/lupe-fiasco-p741971/biography. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g Smith, Bryan (August 2, 2007). "Lupe Fiasco, Word Star". Chicago. Tribune Company. http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2007/Word-Star/. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ Lee, Chris (October 1, 2006). "Kick, push, coast, rap". The Seattle Times (The Seattle Times Company). http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2003279913_skaterap01.html. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
- ^ a b Collins, Hattie (April 12, 2008). "Lupe dreams". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/apr/12/urbanmusic.culture. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
- ^ a b c "Biography Today", p.58
- ^ a b Blackman, Guy (January 8, 2007). "Sheep in wolf's clothing?". The Age (Fairfax Media). http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/sheep-in-wolfs-clothing/2007/01/04/1167777216586.html. Retrieved September 2, 2007.
- ^ a b "Lupe Fiasco: rapping outside the box". FindArticles (CBS Corporation). 2006-12. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_2_62/ai_n27094633/. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
- ^ "Biography Today", pp. 59–61
- ^ a b Capobianco, Ken (November 13, 2006). "Lupe Fiasco accepts the outsider label as a positive rap". The Boston Globe. The New York Times Company.
- ^ a b c "Biography Today", p.61
- ^ Fruchter, Alexander (May 11, 2006). "Hip To Be Square". Soundslam.com. http://www.soundslam.com/articles/interviews/interviews.php?interviews=in060511lupefi. Retrieved September 2, 2007.
- ^ "Biography Today", pp.61–62
- ^ a b c d "Biography Today", p.62
- ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Pete (March 3, 2008). "Lupe Fiasco: 'Paris, Tokyo'". Blues & Soul. Blues & Soul Publications, Inc.. http://www.bluesandsoul.com/feature/646/return_of_the_cool/. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ "Biography Today", pp.62–63
- ^ Batey, Angus (January 20, 2007). "The death of bling". The Times (News Corporation).
- ^ "Touch the Sky – Lupe Fiasco - Chart History". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/song/kanye-west/touch-the-sky/7303516. Retrieved June 13, 2009.
- ^ a b Hardimon, Zharmer (June 18, 2006). "The revolution will not be televised. And you won't hear it on the radio, either". Houston Chronicle (Hearst Corporation).
- ^ "Biography Today", p.63
- ^ Watson, Margeaux (January 11, 2008). "Meet rapper Lupe Fiasco – Lupe Fiasco's The Cool". Entertainment Weekly. Time Warner. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20170758,00.html. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
- ^ "Biography Today", p.64
- ^ Kaufman, Gil (February 10, 2008). "Grammy Awards Get Rolling As Amy Winehouse, Alicia Keys, Kanye West Win Early Honors". MTV News. Viacom. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1581288/20080210/winehouse_amy.jhtml. Retrieved October 6, 2008.
- ^ "Biography Today", p.65
- ^ a b Louie, Rebecca (January 8, 2008). "Cerebral rapper Lupe Fiasco thinks big with new Grammy bid". The New York Times. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2008/01/09/2008-01-09_cerebral_rapper_lupe_fiasco_thinks_big_w.html. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
- ^ a b Westhoff, Ben (January 9, 2008). "Lupe Fiasco hints at music retirement". SF Weekly. http://www.sfweekly.com/2008-01-09/music/lupe-fiasco-hints-at-music-retirement/. Retrieved December 27, 2010.
- ^ a b Crosley, Hillary (November 27, 2007). "The Unclassifiable Lupe Fiasco". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/news/the-unclassifiable-lupe-fiasco-1003678102.story#/news/the-unclassifiable-lupe-fiasco-1003678102.story. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ Pareles, Jon (December 17, 2007). "New CDs". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/arts/music/17choi.html?ref=music. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
- ^ ""Superstar" Chart History". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. February 21, 2008. http://www.billboard.com/#/song/lupe-fiasco/superstar/10790314.
- ^ "OnMilwaukee.com Recommends: July 31". OnMilwaukee. Andy Tarnoff. July 31, 2007. http://onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/omcrecs073108.html. Retrieved September 29, 2008.
- ^ "Lupe and Kanye teamed with Radiohead". MTV UK (Viacom). May 30, 2007. http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/lupe-fiasco/news/40268-lupe-and-kanye-teamed-with-radiohead. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
- ^ Gudmundson, Darryl (May 29, 2007). "Kanye, Lupe & Pharrell Form Supergroup???". HipHopDX.com. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.5291/title.kanye-lupe-pharrell-form-supergroup. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
- ^ Dodero, Camille (December 10, 2007). "Interview: Lupe Fiasco". The Village Voice. Michael Cohen. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2007/12/interview_lupe.php. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
- ^ Reid, Shaheem (May 16, 2008). "Lupe Fiasco Rises From Nowhere On Last Year's List To This Year's #7 'Hottest MC In The Game'". MTV News. Viacom. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1587662/20080516/fiasco__lupe.jhtml. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
- ^ "Justice Remix Lupe Fiasco". MTV News UK. Viacom. April 17, 2008. http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/lupe-fiasco/news/41537-justice-remix-lupe-fiasco. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
- ^ a b Reid, Shaheem (February 24, 2010). "Lupe Fiasco To Preview New LP On Forthcoming Tour". MTV News. Viacom. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1632523/lupe-fiasco-preview-new-lp-on-forthcoming-tour.jhtml. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Reid, Shaheem (July 28, 2010). "Lupe Fiasco Talks Fan Petition, Lasers Being In Limbo". MTV News. Viacom. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1644559/20100727/fiasco__lupe.jhtml. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
- ^ a b c d Ahmed, Insanul (November 8, 2010). "Interview: Lupe Fiasco Talks "Lasers" Delay, Japanese Cartoon, and "Food & Liquor II"". Complex. Complex Media. http://www.complex.com/blogs/2010/09/08/interview-lupe-fiasco-talks-lasers-delay-japanese-cartoon-and-food-liquor-ii/. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
- ^ Rodriguez, Jayson (May 18, 2010). "B.o.B Says All City Chess Club Side Project Is 'Fun And Creative'". MTV News. Viacom. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1639510/bob-all-city-chess-club-side-project-fun-creative.jhtml. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
- ^ Hughes, Krysten (April 4, 2010). "Lupe Fiasco Introduces All City Chess Club; Supergroup Or Remix Collab?". Hip Hop DX. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.10969/title.lupe-fiasco-introduces-all-city-chess-club-supergroup-or-remix-collab. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
- ^ "Billboard Hot 100: Week of November 27, 2010". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100?chartDate=2010-11-27?tag=relcharts&order=gainer#/charts/hot-100?chartDate=2010-11-27?tag=relcharts&order=gainer. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
- ^ Caulfield, Keith (March 16, 2011). "Lupe Fiasco's 'Lasers' Lands at No. 1 on Billboard 200". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/news/lupe-fiasco-s-lasers-lands-at-no-1-on-billboard-1005075422.story. Retrieved March 20, 2011.
- ^ Rabin, Nathan. "Lupe Fiasco's long-delayed Lasers debuts at number one | Music | Newswire". The Onion, Inc.. http://www.avclub.com/articles/lupe-fiascos-longdelayed-lasers-debuts-at-number-o,53268/. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
- ^ Lasers Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More. Metacritic. Retrieved on March 20, 2011
- ^ Kellman, Andy. "Lasers - Lupe Fiasco". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. http://www.allmusic.com/album/lasers-r2124241/review. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
- ^ "Facebook". Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/LupeFiasco/posts/10150542982607282. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
- ^ a b c d e f Neems, Jeff (December 16, 2006). "Plenty to say". Waikato Times (Fairfax Media).
- ^ Weiss, Jeff (January 16, 2008). "Fiasco moves them to the brink of euphoria". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/16/entertainment/et-fiasco16. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
- ^ Ahmed, Azam (August 7, 2007). "'Day of Outrage' targets offensive lyrics in hip-hop". The Chicago Tribune (Tribune Company). http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/day-of-outrage-targets-offensive-lyrics-in-hip-hop/. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
- ^ "Lupe Fiasco's Record Label Partner Sentenced To 44 Years, Denies Involvement In Drug Ring". Hip Hop Rx. June 4, 2007. http://www.hiphoprx.com/2007/06/04/lupe-fiascos-record-label-partner-sentenced-to-44-years-denies-involvement-in-drug-ring/. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
- ^ "Lupe Fiasco’s Business Partner Sentenced to 44 Years in Drug Case". XXL. Harris Publications. June 4, 2007. http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=10554. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
- ^ RTC, DJ (November 9, 2009). "Lupe Fiasco: Don't Forget'em". Ruby Hornet. http://www.rubyhornet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5728:lupe-fiasco&catid=21:interviews&Itemid=49. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
- ^ a b Coachman, Dale (December 24, 2006). "Lupe Fiasco Interview". Format Magazine. http://www.formatmag.com/features/lupe-fiasco/. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
- ^ "Biography Today", pp.68–69
- ^ Scoggin, Andrew (November 12, 2009). "Lupe Fiasco and guests let "The People Speak"". The Daily Northwestern. Students Publishing Company. http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/lupe-fiasco-and-guests-let-the-people-speak-1.2063380. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
- ^ Montgomery, James (March 10, 2010). "Lupe Fiasco Used 'Karate Magic' To Climb Mount Kilimanjaro". MTV News. Viacom. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1633660/lupe-fiasco-used-karate-magic-climb-mount-kilimanjaro.jhtml. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
- ^ Reid, Shaheem (January 19, 2010). "Linkin Park Lead Music For Relief Project To Benefit Haiti". MTV News. Viacom. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1629979/linkin-park-lead-music-relief-project-benefit-haiti.jhtml. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
- ^ a b Bailey Johnson (June 7, 2011). "Obama a terrorist? Lupe Fiasco on politics and music". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504943_162-20069803-10391715.html. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
- ^ "Lupe Fiasco Calls Obama a "Terrorist"". NBC. June 8, 2011. http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/123467904.html. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
- ^ Batey, Angus (March 3, 2011). "Lupe Fiasco: 'I have the right to speak out'". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/03/lupe-fiasco-lasers-atlantic. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ^ a b "Lupe Fiasco Speaks on New LP, American Culture, & More". Alexander Fruchter. rubyhornet.com. 21 May 2012. http://www.rubyhornet.com/lupe-fiasco-speaks-on-new-album-american-culture-and-more/. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
Bibliography[link]
- Biography Today - Lupe Fiasco (2009). Omnigraphics. Detroit, Michigan. ISBN-978-0-7808-1052-5.
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lupe Fiasco |
- Official website
- Lupe Fiasco on Twitter
- Lupe Fiasco at the Internet Movie Database
- The People Speak at the Internet Movie Database
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lupe Fiasco |
| Alternative names | Wasalu Muhammad Jaco |
| Short description | Rapper |
| Date of birth | February 16, 1982 |
| Place of birth | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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Craig Kallman (born 1966) is Chairman and CEO of Atlantic Records.[1]
He joined the company in 1991, when Atlantic acquired Kallman's independent Big Beat Records label. He advanced from Vice President to Executive Vice President in charge of Atlantic's entire A&R operation. In January 2002, he was named Atlantic Co-President. With the merger of Atlantic and Elektra Records in March 2004, Kallman was promoted to Co-Chairman/COO of the newly formed Atlantic Records Group. In August 2005, he was appointed Chairman and CEO.
Under Kallman's leadership, Atlantic's market share rose steadily, with 2008 proving to be a landmark year. Not only did the iconic label celebrate its 60th Anniversary, but it marked the occasion as the #1 label of the year—earning the biggest overall market share in the industry by a wide margin. Atlantic made further history in 2008, becoming the first label to earn more than half of its total music sales in the U.S. from digital releases. In 2009, Atlantic repeated the feat, ranking as the #1 label for the second year in a row. Commenting on the label's success, Kallman noted that "It represents the validation of the strategy we adopted back in 2004: to reduce and diversify our roster, while shifting our mission from being a traditional record label to a progressive, A&R-driven, artist-centric content company."
Over the past two years, Atlantic has continued to cement its reputation as an industry pioneer and innovator, meeting the challenges of the music industry with game-changing strategies. As a tangible reflection of its success, the Atlantic Records Group has been enjoying landmark success on the two most important Billboard charts – The Billboard 200 album chart and the Hot 100 singles chart. On the album side, the company has its best chart record of the past quarter century, which is as far back as Billboard’s current album database extends. On the singles front, it is by far Atlantic’s hottest streak in two decades, since the beginning of the SoundScan era in 1991. As a case in point, from 2008 through 2010, Atlantic landed a remarkable 10 #1 albums on the Billboard 200. And across the pond in the UK, the company scored five #1 singles in 2010 alone.
Kallman’s focus on A&R has produced an enviable track record in breaking and developing new artists. This was dramatically reflected in the 2011 Grammy Awards nominations, where Atlantic garnered 26 nods, nearly all of which were earned by artists virtually unknown just a few years ago – including 2010 Grammy winners Bruno Mars (six nominations – including Record, Song & Album of the Year), Cee Lo Green (four nominations), and Zac Brown; breakthrough dance/electronica artist Skrillex (five nominations); rappers Lupe Fiasco and Wiz Khalifa; and alternative rockers Death Cab For Cutie.
A passionate music fan from an early age, Kallman began his music industry career while still a teenager, DJ-ing at the Cat Club in New York, while working in Columbia Records' dance department. At Brown University, he was the CBS Records college representative, promoting such artists as the Beastie Boys, Sinéad O'Connor, the Bangles, LL Cool J, and Billy Idol. He was also program director of the urban and rock specialty shows on WBRU-FM. After graduating in 1987 with a B.A. in English, Kallman promoted New Order and Joy Division for Factory Records. He worked in the chart department at Billboard Magazine, while continuing to DJ at such classic nightspots as Danceteria, Area, The Palladium, The Tunnel, and Mars.
Happening upon a house music demo in a record shop, Kallman started up his independent Big Beat label and production career with the 1987 single, "Join Hands" by Taravhonty. His second release, "The Party" by Kraze, was an international club and pop smash, selling over 300,000 copies, and prompting calls for Kallman's remixes from such major artists as Soul II Soul. Through the 1990s, Big Beat remained a major imprint in the dance and rap underground, as well as in the crossover pop and R&B fields, with a multi-genre string of international hits by Robin S., Jomanda, Tara Kemp, Bucketheads, The Artifacts, Double XX Posse, Dawn Penn, Inner Circle, Changing Faces, and Quad City DJ's.
When Big Beat was acquired by Atlantic in 1991, Kallman joined the company as Vice President/Assistant to then Co-Chairman Doug Morris. Later, as Executive Vice President, Kallman began to oversee Atlantic's entire A&R operation. His roster of trailblazing artists grew to include Aaliyah, whose One in a Million album introduced producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott to the pop top 10; singer and actress Brandy, whose duet with Monica, "The Boy Is Mine," was the biggest U.S. single of 1998; and Notorious B.I.G.'s rap clan Junior M.A.F.I.A., featuring the iconic Lil' Kim; and multi-platinum hard rock band P.O.D.
Kallman was named Co-President of Atlantic Records in January 2002. In the fall of that year, he forged a worldwide alliance with the pioneering dancehall reggae label, VP Records. The first album released via VP/Atlantic, Sean Paul's groundbreaking Dutty Rock, sold six million copies worldwide, and garnered Sean three Grammy nominations – including Best New Artist, and a win in the Best Reggae Album category. The album yielded a string of hit singles, including the #1 pop smash, "Get Busy," the most successful U.S. crossover record in Jamaican recording history. In 2002, Kallman also inked Florida-based hard rockers Shinedown, who have gone on to RIAA platinum success.
In 2003, Kallman personally signed T.I. to Atlantic, launching the Atlanta-based rapper on an explosive career path that seen him emerge as a Grammy-winning hip-hop icon with an unbroken string of RIAA platinum albums. Early 2004 saw another landmark in Kallman's career, when the first Atlantic album in nearly seven years from Chicago-based rap legend Twista, Kamikaze, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Over the past seven years, Kallman has spearheaded the single biggest transformation in Atlantic's six-decade history. With the new independence of its parent company, Warner Music Group - in the wake of its sale by Time Warner - Atlantic was faced with the challenge of recreating the company for a new era, including the merger of two of the music industry's most legendary labels - Atlantic and Elektra. Kallman's entrepreneurial roots have made him ideally suited to lead Atlantic at a time of enormous change in the music industry. He has returned the company to its legendary roots in A&R and artist development, while simultaneously pursuing an industry-leading digital strategy and the reinvention of the label as first and foremost a content-driven company.
Since 2004, Kallman has overseen the signings of a rich diversity of high-profile artists, including Death Cab for Cutie, Lupe Fiasco, Shinedown, Paramore, Flo Rida, Trey Songz, B.o.B, Janelle Monáe, Paolo Nutini, Wiz Khalifa, Skillet, Switchfoot, Halestorm, 3OH!3, Jaheim, Tank, 3OH!3, and Rumer. In 2006, Kallman spearheaded the breakthrough of British singer/songwriter James Blunt in the U.S., where his debut album, Back To Bedlam, was certified double platinum by the RIAA and earned five Grammy nominations. At the same time, Atlantic remains home to such established stars as Phil Collins, Kid Rock, Matchbox Twenty and its lead singer Rob Thomas, Missy Elliott, Rush, Staind, Musiq Soulchild, and Jason Mraz—whose single, "I'm Yours," in August 2009 broke the record for the longest-running song ever in the 51-year history of the Billboard "Hot 100" chart.
Kallman's independent-bred sensibility has also made Atlantic a highly desirable destination and partner for indie labels looking to take their artists to the next level of their careers - including Downtown Records (Gnarls Barkley), Fueled By Ramen (Paramore, Panic! At The Disco, Gym Class Heroes, Cobra Starship), and Canvasback (Fanfarlo, Grouplove, The Joy Formidable). John Legend chose Atlantic as the home for Grammy-winning British soul sensation Estelle, the first signing to Legend's Homeschool label; and Jay-Z picked Atlantic to release his Roc Nation solo album, "The Blueprint 3." Atlantic partnered with Sean "Diddy" Combs and his pioneering Bad Boy label (Notorious B.I.G., Yung Joc, Danity Kane, Day26). Atlantic is also the U.S. home for the iconic hard rock/metal label Roadrunner.
Kallman’s out-of-the-box approach led to his signing of Straight No Chaser, a ten-member a cappella group that hadn’t sung together since their college days a decade earlier. In December 2007, Kallman came across the group’s 1998 version of “The 12 Days Of Christmas” (interpolating Toto’s “Africa”) on YouTube, where it had become the hottest viral video of the season. “I saw this brilliant, fresh, and totally compelling performance, and I had something of an epiphany,” say Kallman. So on New Year’s Day 2008, he emailed one of the group’s members, and the result was a deal with Atlantic which had led to an improbable string of successful releases and the birth of a true musical phenomenon.
In 2009, as an expansion of Kallman’s mission to continually enrich Atlantic’s A&R resources, the iconic Elektra label was relaunched under the direction of Fueled By Ramen founder/President John Janick and Kallman A&R protégé Mike Caren. In just two short years, the label has become a prominent launching pad for an eclectic roster of new artists, among them Grammy winners Bruno Mars and Cee Lo Green, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Justice, while also releasing Grammy-nominated soundtracks for HBO’s acclaimed True Blood and Boardwalk Empire series.
In 2008, Kallman returned Atlantic Records to the country music world for the first time in nearly a decade. His decision was inspired by a new generation of artists, including the Grammy-winning Zac Brown Band—who have earned RIAA platinum for their two Atlantic albums to date. Most recently, he signed acclaimed 19-year country wunderkind Hunter Hayes, a vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/producer who has been performing since the age of 4.
In 2011, with the dance/electronica scene enjoying an explosive renaissance, Kallman turned his attention to his own music industry roots and relaunched his Big Beat label. The label quickly returned to club prominence with such artists as Wynter Gordon, Martin Solveig, Chromeo, and most notably the breakthrough success of Skrillex, who earned an impressive five Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist.
As the number of senior music executives with authentic record-making experience continues to dwindle, Kallman remains a hands-on creative collaborator with his artists. A prime example is the Grammy Award-winning "Daydreamin'" by Lupe Fiasco featuring Jill Scott, a song produced and co-written by Kallman.
Kallman's life-long obsession with music has led him to become one of the top record collectors in the world, with a vinyl collection now numbering some 400,000 albums encompassing virtually every genre of contemporary music. He is a noted sonic devotee as well, a serious audiophile who has been profiled in Stereophile Magazine.
Over the years, Kallman has also spearheaded Atlantic's release of a number of film soundtracks and original cast albums, including Space Jam (featuring R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly"), "Dr. Dolittle," "High School High," "Anastasia," "Great Expectations," "Jekyll & Hyde," "Step Up 2: The Streets," and the top-charting "Twilight" series.
Quote: "It is a challenging time for the entire entertainment industry. Even so, our compass is still set by Atlantic's deep heritage in American roots music of every kind. It is a privilege and an honor for our artist, producers, songwriters, and staff to live up to that tradition, and to make our generation's contribution to it."
Notes[link]
- ^ "Atlantic Records Says Digital Sales Surpass CDs". New York Times. November 26, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/business/media/26music.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin.
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Kallman, Craig |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1966 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Craig_Kallman
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Kallman
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Titus Turner | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1933-05-01)May 1, 1933 Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Died | September 13, 1984(1984-09-13) (aged 51) Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Genres | R&B, East Coast blues, jump blues, soul blues[1] |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1951–1969 |
| Labels | Various, including Okeh, Jamie, King |
Titus Turner (May 1, 1933 – September 13, 1984) was an American R&B and East Coast blues singer and songwriter.[1] His best remembered recordings were "We Told You Not To Marry" and "Sound-Off," plus he wrote "Leave My Kitten Alone," and "Tell Me Why."[2]
Contents |
Biography[link]
Born in Atlanta, Georgia,[2] Turner's debut single release in 1950 was "Where Are You" on Aladdin Records, billed as Mr. T and his Band. In 1951 his follow-up "Stop Trying to Make a Fool Of Me" appeared on Regal Records.[3] He followed this a year later on Okeh, issuing eight tracks including "Got So Much Trouble." He had a spell with Mercury Records's imprint, Wing, but was not commercially successful until 1955, when Little Willie John recorded Turner's "All Around the World". The track, re-titled "Grits Ain't Groceries," was covered by Little Milton.[1]
Turner and John then co-wrote "Leave My Kitten Alone", later covered by Johnny Preston, The Beatles and Elvis Costello. In 1959 the King label issued Turner's first hit single, "The Return of Stagolee," an answer song to Lloyd Price's "Stagger Lee". He repeated the trick with his next release, "We Told You Not To Marry," an antidote to Price's "I'm Gonna Get Married." In 1960, Ray Charles recorded the Turner song, "Sticks and Stones", which has also seen many cover versions over the years. By 1961 Turner had his biggest solo success with "Sound-Off," which came from the only album he ever released.[1] The track was described by Joel Whitburn in Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 as a "popular US Army marching drill chant," which was originally a #3 hit for Vaughn Monroe in 1951.[4]
Later singles failed to find a market, and Turner recorded for a plethora of labels throughout the 1960s without further tangible success.[1] These included "Eye to Eye" (Okeh, 1966).[5] In 1969 his self-penned track "His Funeral, My Trial" was his final release.[1]
Turner died in Atlanta in 1984.[1]
Notable songwriting credits[link]
- "All Around the World" - also known as "Grits Ain't Groceries" (Turner)
- "Big John" (Turner)
- "Get on the Right Track Baby" (Turner)
- "Hey Doll Baby" (Traditional/Turner)
- "Hold Your Loving" (Bernice Snelson, Turner)
- "If It's Good" (Julia Lee/Turner)
- "Leave My Kitten Alone" (Little Willie John/James McDougal/Turner)
- "Little Girl Lost" (Luther Dixon/Lou Harrison/Turner)
- "Living in Misery" (Turner)
- "Lotus Blossom" (Julia Lee/Turner)
- "People Sure Act Funny" (Bobby Robinson/Turner)
- "Soulville" (Henry Glover/Morris Levy/Dinah Washington/Turner)
- "Sticks and Stones" (Turner)
- "Tell It Like It Is" (Turner)
- "Tell Me Why" (Turner)[6]
Discography[link]
Albums[link]
Compilation albums[link]
- Soulville: Golden Classics (1990) - Collectables Records
- Sound Off: The Jamie Masters (1994) - Bear Family
- Titans of R&B (1998) - Red Lightnin' (UK)
- 1949-1954 (2005) - Classics R&B[8]
Chart singles[link]
- "Return of Stagolee" (King 5186) (April 1959) - US R&B #29
- "We Told You Not To Marry" (Glover 201) (December 1959) - US Pop #83
- "Sound-Off" (Jamie 1174) (March 1961) - US Pop #77[4]
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ a b c d e f g Ankeny, Jason. "Titus Turner". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p5715/biography. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
- ^ a b Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed February 2010
- ^ Kobi.mbnet.fi - accessed February 2010
- ^ a b Whitburn, Joel. Top Pop Singles 1955-2002. Billboard. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
- ^ Georgwa.demon.co.uk - accessed February 2010
- ^ "Allmusic ((( Titus Turner > Songs > Songs Composed By )))". http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p5715.
- ^ "Allmusic ((( Titus Turner > Discography > Main Albums )))". http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p5715.
- ^ "Allmusic ((( Titus Turner > Discography > Compilations )))". http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p123900.
External links[link]
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Turner, Titus |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American R&B and East Coast blues singer and songwriter |
| Date of birth | May 1, 1933 |
| Place of birth | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Date of death | September 13, 1984 |
| Place of death | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
http://wn.com/Titus_Turner
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Turner
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
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 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) 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]
Contents |
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 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]
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 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.
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
Filmography[link]
- Swingin' Along (1961)
- Ballad in Blue (1964)
- The Big T.N.T. Show (1966) (documentary)
- The Blues Brothers (1980)
- Who's The Boss (himself) 1987
- Limit Up (1989)
- Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones (1990) (documentary)
- Love Affair (1994)
- Spy Hard (1996)
- The Nanny (1999) as Sammy
- The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave (2000)
- Blue's Big Musical Movie (2000)
- Ray (2004)
References[link]
- ^ Unterberger, Richie. Biography: Ray Charles. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2009-11-26.
- ^ a b VH1 (2003), p. 210.
- ^ "Show 15 - The Soul Reformation: More on the evolution of rhythm and blues. [Part 1] : UNT Digital Library". Digital.library.unt.edu. 1969-05-11. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19764/m1/. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "100 Greatest Artists of All Time. #10: Ray Charles". Van Morrison. Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231/ray-charles-19691231. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
- ^ "100 Greatest Singers of All Time. #2: Ray Charles". Billy Joel. rollingstone.com. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/6027/32782/32797. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
- ^ "A Tribute to Ray Charles", Rolling Stoners issue 952/953, July 8–22, 2004.
- ^ a b "Ray Charles Biography". SwingMusic.Net. http://www.swingmusic.net/Ray_Charles_Biography.html. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ Lydon, Michael, Ray Charles: Man and Music, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-97043-1, Routledge Publishing, January 22, 2004.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Bohème Magazine Obituary: Ray Charles (1930 – 2004).
- ^ "The Genius of Ray Charles", an article about an 1986 segment on Charles from 60 Minutes.
- ^ a b Lydon, Michael: Ray Charles, pp. 29–38.
- ^ Lydon, Michael, p. 19
- ^ Lydon, Michael, p. 20
- ^ "Blacknetwork.com". Blacknetwork.com. http://www.black-network.com/charlesbio.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ Quincy Jones at www.pbs.org/... Accessed 2010 May 9.
- ^ Quincy Jones at www.achievement.org/... Accessed 2010 May 9.
- ^ Dahl, Bill (1954-11-18). "profile". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/song/t2562634. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ a b c d Ray Charles, Bluesy Essence of Soul. The New York Times Company. Retrieved on 2008-12-12.
- ^ breath of life » RAY CHARLES / “I Can’t Stop Loving You”. Kalamu. Retrieved on 2008-08-13.
- ^ RS Biography - Ray Charles 1930-2004. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2008-08-14.
- ^ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: 44) Georgia on My Mind. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2008-08-14.
- ^ Hit The Road Jack by Ray Charles Songfacts. Songfacts. Retrieved on 2008-08-14.
- ^ a b Cooper (1998), pp. 20&n dash;22.
- ^ Charles & Ritz 2004, p. 248.
- ^ Lydon 1998, pp. 213–16.
- ^ "Ray Charles Biography". PianoFiles. http://www.pianofiles.com/browse/artist/ray+charles.
- ^ "SNL Transcripts: Ray Charles: 11/12/77". Snltranscripts.jt.org. 1977-11-12. http://snltranscripts.jt.org/77/77e.phtml. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ List of best-selling international singles in Japan of 1989, Extract from the Year-End chart posted by oricon.
- ^ ASCAP Work ID: 570066694
- ^ "Internet Movie Database Bio on Ray Charles". Imdb.com. http://imdb.com/name/nm0153124/bio. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ "Marriages of Ray Charles". About.com. http://marriage.about.com/od/entertainmen1/p/charlesray.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ "The Genius Of Ray Charles". CBS News. October 14, 2004. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/14/60minutes/main649346.shtml.
- ^ "Ray Charles' daughter, Sheila Raye Charles, on The Overnighter with Ewing Stevens". RadioLIVE.co.nz. http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Ray-Charles-daughter-Sheila-Raye-Charles-on-The-Overnighter-with-Ewing-Stevens/tabid/506/articleID/13773/Default.aspx. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ^ Ray Charles' Children Discuss Father's Unknown Generosity. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ a b "Show 16 - The Soul Reformation: More on the evolution of rhythm and blues. [Part 2] : UNT Digital Library". Digital.library.unt.edu. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19765/m1/. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
- ^ "Answers.com". Answers.com. http://www.answers.com/Ray%20Charles. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ "PBS.org". PBS.org. 2006-05-17. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/ray-charles/about-ray-charles/554/. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ The chess games of Ray Charles. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ Charles, Ray (2005) (in English). Genius & Friends (CD). Burbank, CA: Atlantic Records. Event occurs at Track 13 2:22.
- ^ "Chess News - GM Larry Melvyn Evans (1932 – 2010)". ChessBase.com. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6814. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
- ^ D'angelo, Joe "Ray Charles Dead at 73" "MTV", Retrieved on 01 January 2012.
- ^ Evans, Mike "Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul", Retrieved 01 January 2012.
- ^ "Many Pay Respects to Ray Charles". CBS News. June 10, 2004. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/10/entertainment/main622401.shtml. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
- ^ Pleasants, H. (1974). The Great American Popular Singers. Simon and Schuster
- ^ "List of Inductees". Georgia Music Hall of Fame. 1979–2007. Archived from the original on 2006-10-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20061015013823/http://www.gamusichall.com/inducteelist.html. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
- ^ "State Song". Georgia Secretary of State. 1979. http://sos.georgia.gov/archives/state_symbols/state_song.html.
- ^ "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. | |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ray Charles |
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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).
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| 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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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
