published: 23 Apr 2012
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Atlanta
Atlanta (
/ətˈlæntə/, stressed /ætˈlæntə/, locally /ætˈlænə/) is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia with a 2010 population of 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest in the U.S. It is a major component of a growing southeastern megalopolis known as the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion. Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County.
Atlanta began as a settlement located at the terminus of a railroad line, and it was incorporated in 1845. Today, the city is a major business city and the primary transportation hub of the Southeastern United States (via highway, railroad, and air), with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being the world's busiest airport since 1998. The World Cities Study Group at Loughborough University rated Atlanta as an "alpha(-) world city." With a gross domestic product of US$270 billion, Atlanta's economy ranks 15th among world cities and sixth in the nation. The city is a center for services, finance, information technology, government, and higher education. Metro Atlanta contains the country's third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, and is the world headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company, Turner Broadcasting, The Home Depot, AT&T Mobility, UPS, and Delta Air Lines. As of 2010, Atlanta is the seventh most visited city in the United States, with over 35 million visitors per year.
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Austin
Austin (/ˈɒstɨn/ or /ˈɔːstɨn/) is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in the nation from 2000 to 2006. Austin has a population of 790,390 (2010 U.S. Census). The city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metropolitan area, which had an estimated population 1,783,519 (2011 U.S. Census), making it the 34th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States.
In the 1830s, pioneers began to the settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River. After Republic of Texas Vice President Mirabeau B. Lamar visited the area during a buffalo-hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838, he proposed that the republic's capital then located in Houston, Texas, be relocated to the area situated on the north bank of the Colorado River near the present-day Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge. In 1839, the site was officially chosen as the republic's new capital (the republic's seventh and final location) and was incorporated under the name, Waterloo. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas" and the republic's first secretary of state.
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Baltic states
The term Baltic states (also Baltics, Baltic nations or Baltic countries) refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (from north to south); Finland also fell within the scope of the term from the 1920s to 1939.Estonia is only considered Baltic geographically, not linguistically or culturally, as Estonians and Finns are descendants of the Baltic Finns.
The term in the indigenous languages of the Baltic states is:
The term "Baltic" stems from the name of the Baltic Sea – a hydronym dating back to the 11th century (Adam of Bremen mentioned Latin: Mare Balticum) and earlier.
The Latvian and Lithuanian term Baltija most likely originates from the Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. In modern Baltic languages, namely, Lithuanian language, baltas literally means white, and in Latvian language balts means white also.
Beginning in the Middle Ages and through the present day, the Baltic Sea appears on the maps subscribed in Germanic languages as German: Ostsee, Danish: Østersøen, Dutch: Oostzee, Swedish: Östersjön, etc. In English "Ost" is "East", and in fact, the Baltic Sea mostly lies to the east for Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Clearly, part of the Baltic Sea lies to the east of Germany and Sweden, and due north of parts of Germany.
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Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is surrounded by the City of Los Angeles.
Beverly Hills is noted for its luxurious culture and its famous residents, which include executives, foreign and domestic dignitaries, artists, and TV or film celebrities, as well as a large apartment renter population. It is also home to the famous upscale shopping district Rodeo Drive.
With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census. Beverly Hills residents include CEOs, heirs and heiresses, foreign and domestic dignitaries, authors, artists, professionals, and TV or film celebrities as well as other entertainment personalities, executives, and media creatives. As of the 2010 census, the proportion of children under 5 years old out of the total population of Beverly Hills is about half the average for California as a whole, while the proportion of seniors over the age of 65 is almost twice the state average.
Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles. To be specific, Beverly Hills is bordered on the northwest by the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air and the Santa Monica Mountains, on the east by West Hollywood, the Carthay neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, and on the south by the Beverlywood. The area's "Platinum Triangle" of affluent neighborhoods is formed by the city of Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel Air and Holmby Hills.
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Bottom Line
Coordinates: 40°43′44″N 73°59′43″W / 40.729007°N 73.995162°W / 40.729007; -73.995162
The Bottom Line was a music venue at 15 West Fourth Street between Mercer Street and Greene Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. During 1970s and 1980s the club was a major space for small-scale popular music performances.
Owned by Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky, the Bottom Line opened on February 12, 1974 and enjoyed a successful three-decade run, presenting major musical acts and premiering new talent. Bruce Springsteen played showcase gigs at the club and Lou Reed recorded the album Live: Take No Prisoners there. Harry Chapin held his 2000th concert at the Bottom Line in January 1981.
The Bottom Line hosted an extremely wide variety of music and musicians. Among the thousands who performed on its stage were Asım Can Gündüz, Linda Ronstadt, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Loudon Wainwright III, The New York Dolls, Lyle Lovett, The Electric Flag, Pat Martino, Todd Rundgren, Graham Parker, Horslips, Dire Straits, Chris Hillman, Dolly Parton, Tracy Nelson, Emmylou Harris, The Pointer Sisters, Betty Carter, Ravi Shankar, Prince, Ramones, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Mose Allison, Muddy Waters, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Ray Barretto, Peter Gabriel, Al Kooper, Tom Waits, Melvin van Peebles, Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka, Billy Joel, Patti Smith, Flo and Eddie, Hall & Oates, Toots and the Maytals, Cheech and Chong, Tower of Power, Tim Hardin, Roger McGuinn, JJ Cale, The Meters, Greg Kihn Band, Ry Cooder, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Sam and Dave and The Ronettes.
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Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha? is a club in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City that has been home to various musicians and comedians. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool and the Gang, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan Rivers, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and many others all began their careers at the Wha?, according to the official Cafe Wha? web page. Although Cafe Wha? was sold by its owner, Manny Roth, in 1988, the club remains at its original location, 115 Macdougal Street, between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets. Roth is the uncle of David Lee Roth.
The exterior is shown in the 1967 movie The President's Analyst.
Coordinates: 40°43′49″N 74°00′02″W / 40.730207°N 74.000677°W / 40.730207; -74.000677
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Cleveland
Cleveland ( /ˈkliːvlənd/) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of the Pennsylvania border. It was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, and became a manufacturing center owing to its location on the lake shore, as well as being connected to numerous canals and railroad lines. Cleveland's economy has diversified sectors that include manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and biomedical. Cleveland is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As of the 2010 Census, the city proper had a total population of 396,815 and was the 45th largest city in the United States, and the second largest city in Ohio. It is the center of Greater Cleveland, the largest metropolitan area in Ohio. The Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2011 ranked as the 28th largest in the United States with 2,068,283 people. Cleveland is part of the larger Cleveland-Akron-Elyria Combined Statistical Area, which in 2011 had a population of 2,871,084, and ranked as the country's 15th largest.
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Festhalle Frankfurt
The Festhalle Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany, built from 1907 to 1909, is a multi-purpose hall at the Frankfurt Exhibition Centre. The interior of about 40 metres high dome provides an area of 5,646 square metres up to 4,880 seats. Together with the two tiers up to 9,843 people will in the banquet hall space, unseated at the interior than 13,500.
At the end of the 19th century, the Frankfurt fair was held in various facilities. Frequently it was housed in the Hippodrome in the Sachsenhausen, while at other times it was held in single-use pavilions. After a time many felt the city needed a dedicated exhibition hall. A competition was advertised, and the plans of the Marburg architect Friedrich von Thiersch made the short list of finalists. After several amendments, von Theirsch's concept was widely accepted. Construction began on 11 June 1907. On 19 May 1909, it was officially opened by Kaiser Wilhelm II. At the time of its opening, the Festhalle was the largest dome in Europe.
The German Gymnastics Festival and the International Air Show, were the first events in the new building. In 1914, then broke out of the First World War, was the banquet hall turned into a camp for soldiers. After the war the hall was used again for its original purpose.
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Freehold High School
Freehold High School (sometimes called Freehold Boro or Freehold Borough High School to distinguish it from Freehold Township High School) is a four-year public high school located within Freehold Borough, New Jersey, operating as part of the Freehold Regional High School District. The school serves students from all of Freehold Borough and from portions of Freehold Township. Freehold High School is the home of the Medical Sciences Learning Center, the Computer Science Academy and the Culinary Arts/Hospitality Management Academy. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1928.
As of the 2009-10 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,494 students and 90 classroom teachers (on a FTE basis, for a student–teacher ratio of 16.60.
In Newsweek's May 22, 2007, issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Freehold High School was listed in 1338th place, the 47th-highest ranked school in New Jersey.
The school was the 132nd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 322 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2010 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 129th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 95th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 112th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 34 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (86.9%) and language arts literacy (95.1%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).
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Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.
The festival organiser Michael Eavis, a farmer in a Somerset valley stated that he decided to host the first festival, then called Pilton Festival, after seeing an open air Led Zeppelin concert at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music 1970. Fourteen people, including John Hoare, invested everything they had to build the stage.
The first festivals in the 1970s were influenced by hippie ethics and the free festival movement. The festival retains vestiges of this tradition such as the Green Fields area which includes the Green Futures and Healing Field. After the 1970s the festival took place almost every year and grew in size, with the number of attendees sometimes being swollen by gate-crashers.
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Ivory Coast
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire
i/ˌkoʊt dɨˈvwɑr/ (French: [kot d‿ivwaʁ]) or Ivory Coast i/ˌaɪvəri ˈkoʊst/ is a country in West Africa. It has an area of 322,462 square kilometres (124,503 sq mi), and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be 20,617,068 in 2009. Côte d'Ivoire's first national census in 1975 counted 6.7 million inhabitants.
Prior to its colonization by Europeans, Côte d'Ivoire was home to several states, including Gyaaman, the Kong Empire, and Baoulé. There were two Anyi kingdoms, Indénié and Sanwi, which attempted to retain their separate identity through the French colonial period and after Côte d'Ivoire's independence. An 1843–1844 treaty made Côte d'Ivoire a protectorate of France and in 1893, it became a French colony as part of the European scramble for Africa.
Côte d'Ivoire became independent on 7 August 1960. From 1960 to 1993, the country was led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny. It maintained close political and economic association with its West African neighbours, while at the same time maintaining close ties to the West, especially to France. Since the end of Houphouët-Boigny's rule, Côte d'Ivoire has experienced one coup d’état, in 1999, and a civil war, which broke out in 2002. A political agreement between the government and the rebels brought a return to peace. Côte d'Ivoire is a republic with a strong executive power invested in the President. Its de jure capital is Yamoussoukro and the biggest city is the port city of Abidjan. The country is divided into 19 regions and 81 departments. It is a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, African Union, La Francophonie, Latin Union, Economic Community of West African States and South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone.
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Jersey Shore
The Jersey Shore is a term used to refer to both the Atlantic coast of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the adjacent resort and residential communities. The New Jersey State Department of Tourism considers the Shore Region, Greater Atlantic City, and the Southern Shore to be distinct, each having a different character. The other three tourism marketing areas are the Gateway, the Delaware Valley, and the Skylands.
Geographically, the term encompasses about 217 miles of the New Jersey coastal area from Sandy Hook in the north to Cape May in the south. The Jersey Shore area includes the easternmost portions of Monmouth, Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean counties. While there is no defined border between North Jersey and South Jersey, the Manasquan River or Interstate 195 are often mentioned as the border.
The coast is lined with over 40 communities, including Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Belmar, Spring Lake, Manasquan, Point Pleasant Beach, Seaside Heights, Long Beach Island, Brigantine, Atlantic City, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, Chadwick Beach Island, Cape May, and Stone Harbor. Long Branch and Cape May both claim to be the country's original seashore resort; Ocean Grove and Cape May are world-renowned for their collections of Victorian residential architecture.
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Naples
Coordinates: 40°50′42″N 14°15′30″E / 40.845°N 14.25833°E / 40.845; 14.25833
Naples (Italian: Napoli [ˈnaːpoli] (
listen), Neapolitan: Napule; Latin: Neapolis; Ancient Greek: Νεάπολις, meaning "new city") is the capital of Campania and the third-largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. As of 2012[update], around 960,000 people live within the city's administrative limits. The wider Naples urban area, covering 777 km2 (300 sq mi), has a population of over 3 million, and is the 10th-most populous urban area in the European Union. Between 4.1 and 4.4 million people live in the overall Naples metropolitan area, one of the largest European cities on the Mediterranean Sea.
Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Greek settlements were established on the island of Megaride in the Gulf of Naples as early as the 9th century BC. A larger mainland colony – initially known as Parthenope (Παρθενόπη) – developed around the 7th century BC, and was refounded as Neápolis (Νεάπολις) in the 5th century BC. Naples became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia and played a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society, eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. During the Neapolitan War of 1815, Naples strongly promoted Italian unification.
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New Jersey
New Jersey (
i/nuː ˈdʒɜrzi/) is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the U.S. state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, and on the southwest by Delaware. New Jersey is the 4th least extensive, but the 11th most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies mostly within the sprawling metropolitan areas of New York City and Philadelphia. It is also the third wealthiest by 2009–2010 median household income.
The area was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, with historical tribes such as the Lenape along the coast. In the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. The British later seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey. It was granted as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. At this time, it was named after the largest of the British Channel Islands, Jersey, Carteret's birthplace. New Jersey was the site of several decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War.
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Ocean County College
Ocean County College is an accredited, coeducational, two-year, public, community college located in Ocean County, New Jersey. Its main campus is in Toms River. Other locations include the Southern Education Center in Manahawkin and over twenty off-campus sites throughout Ocean County.
The Toms River campus also houses the Fine Arts Center and the Robert J. Novins Planetarium. Both offer programming for the local community.
The current President is John H. Larson, who entered office in 2000. Previously, he was president of Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke, PA. He holds a BA degree from Norwich University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
Ocean County College received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to develop an online education model to address shortages of RNs in the hospital setting, and to create New Jersey’s first online Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) Program.[citation needed] Although there are many online RN to BSN and MSN programs, there are very few online programs at the ADN level. The program allows those currently employed in the health care field to complete an RN program by attending class only one day per week (primarily on-site in host health care institutions) supplemented by online instruction. In November 2006 the OCC One Day per Week Nursing Program received a President's Award from the New Jersey Public Health Association honoring this online nursing program for helping to reduce the nursing shortage in New Jersey.[citation needed]
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Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( /ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,526,006 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Philadelphia is also the commercial, cultural, and educational center of the Delaware Valley, home to 6 million people and the country's fifth-largest metropolitan area. The Philadelphia metropolitan division consists of five counties in Pennsylvania and has a population of 4,008,994. Popular nicknames for Philadelphia are Philly and The City of Brotherly Love, the latter of which comes from the literal meaning of the city's name in Greek (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια ([pʰilaˈdelpʰeːa], Modern Greek: [filaˈðelfia]) "brotherly love", compounded from philos (φίλος) "loving", and adelphos (ἀδελφός) "brother").
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Pinkpop Festival
Pinkpop Festival, or Pinkpop for short, is a festival held at Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is held annually on the Pentecost weekend (Pinksteren in Dutch, hence the name). In 1970, the first festival took place in Geleen, now part of municipality Sittard-Geleen and was held on the Monday following that weekend.
Today, Pinkpop is a 3 day festival, from Saturday to Monday, and visited by approximately 60,000 people a day with performances on 3 separate stages. In 35 years, 1.5 million people have attended Pinkpop. More than 500 musical acts have played at the festival.
In 1994 (the 25th edition), it was decided to sell only 60,000 tickets, to prevent overcrowding due to the popularity of the festival. In 1995, it was made into a 2-day festival. Two years later, in 1997, this was further expanded to three days.
2007 saw a spin-off, later in the year, on 11 August, called Pinkpop Classic, for an older rock audience, with bands that previously performed there in past decades.
In 2008 Pinkpop was for the first time in its history, not held on Pentecost weekend which fell too early that year for the convenience of fans and performers alike.
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Rumson, New Jersey
Rumson is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,122.
Rumson was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 15, 1907, from portions of Shrewsbury Township, based on the results of a referendum held on June 18, 1907.
Rumson is located at 40°22′11″N 74°00′06″W / 40.369644°N 74.001667°W / 40.369644; -74.001667 (40.369644, -74.001667).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 7.2 square miles (19 km2), of which 5.2 square miles (13 km2) is land and 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2), or 27.76%, is water.
Public parks include Meadowridge Park, Piping Rock Park, Riverside Park, Rogers Park, Victory Park and West Park.
As of the census of 2000, there were 7,137 people, 2,452 households, and 1,988 families residing in the borough. The population density was 1,366.0 people per square mile (527.9/km2). There were 2,610 housing units at an average density of 499.5 per square mile (193.1/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 97.77% White, 0.24% African American, 0.06% Native American, 1.06% Asian, 0.36% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.39% of the population.
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The Point Theatre
The Point Theatre (often referred to as the Point Depot or simply as the Point) was a concert and events venue in Ireland, that ran from 1988–2007, enjoyed by in excess of 2 million people. It was located on the North Wall Quay of the River Liffey, amongst the Dublin Docklands. The Point was closed in the summer of 2007 for a major redevelopment and underwent a rebranding as the O2 in July 2008. Prior to the redevelopment the seated capacity was 8,500; it is set to rise to a 13,000 standing capacity in its new existence.
The Point was noted for its flexible seating configurations - over the years it had not only served as a venue for many different varieties of music concerts, but had also been turned into an ice rink, a boxing arena, a conference hall, an exhibition centre, a wrestling ring, a theatre, an opera house and a three ring circus. It hosted the Eurovision Song Contest on three separate occasions in the 1990s and the 1999 MTV European Music Awards.
The Point was often criticised for its poor quality of general atmosphere encompassing sound control and sightlines. There were also notably lengthy queues for the building's bars and restrooms, particularly for female attendees.
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The Stone Pony
The Stone Pony, located in Asbury Park, New Jersey, is one of the world's best known music venues. It is known as a starting point for many musicians, first and foremost for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, who were the house-band for much of the mid-seventies, but also for New Jersey natives Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Jon Bon Jovi, and Bam Bam Bigelow (who worked there as a bouncer before his days as a professional wrestler), and Massachusetts native actor/musician "Miami" Steve Van Zandt who was the first guitarist, producer and manager of the Asbury Jukes. According to the vice president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Robert Santelli, "the club has already earned its place in history as one of rock 'n' roll's great venues. Most rock critics and historians that I come in contact with on a regular basis feel that The Stone Pony is one of the greatest rock clubs of all time."
Prior to becoming a music venue, the building housed a restaurant named Mrs. Jay's, next to which was Mrs. Jay's Beer Garden that was frequented by a polyglot community of tourists, high school and college students and bikers.[citation needed] During the mid 1960s, Mrs. Jay's management began to allow bands to perform. After the restaurant and beer garden went out of business in 1968, allegedly over a waitress wearing a see-through blouse, Mrs. Jay's moved two doors south and reopened a short time thereafter. The second incarnation of Mrs. Jays became a notorious biker hangout in its later days before being demolished in the late '80s. Harley-Davidsons lined entire blocks after cruising the circuit.[citation needed] The building that originally housed Mrs. Jay's remained dark until 1974 when it reopened under the Stone Pony banner.
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Vico Equense
Vico Equense is a coastal town and comune in the province of Naples, in the Campania region of southern Italy.
Vico Equense is part of the greater Bay of Naples metropolitan area and is a popular destination for tourists. Located on a tuff cliff, it is relatively close to the ferry to the island of Capri, the volcano Vesuvius, the Monte Faito and the ancient town of Pompeii.
The town is bordered by Castellammare di Stabia, Meta, Piano di Sorrento, Pimonte and Positano.
A 7th century, pre-Roman necropolis has been found in the area. Later, when it was called Latin: Aequana) Roman patricians chose it for their villas. After a long decline, the center started to flourish again in the late 13th century, when it became independent from the Duchy of Sorrento and King Charles II of Naples repeatedly sojourned in the town, where he also built a castle (1301). To this period also date the Cathedral, the only example of Gothic Cathedral in the Sorrentine Peninsula.
Media related to Vico Equense at Wikimedia Commons
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Wellington, Florida
Wellington is a village in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. As of 2006, the village had a population of 55,584 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Wellington is part of the South Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Wellington was originally the world's largest strawberry patch, the Flying Cow Ranch. C. Oliver Wellington bought 18,000 acres (73 km2) of swampland in the 1950s in central Palm Beach County that eventually would be called the Village of Wellington. Wellington began as a planned unit development approved by Palm Beach County in 1972. For many years it functioned as a bedroom community with few shopping centers or restaurants until it was incorporated in December 1995. Wellington holds the largest and longest running horse show in the world from January to March (3 months).
Wellington is located at 26°39′18″N 80°15′15″W / 26.655°N 80.25417°W / 26.655; -80.25417 (26.655135, −80.254136). According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 31.4 square miles (81 km2), of which 31.0 square miles (80 km2) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km2) of it is water (0.99%).
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West Palm Beach
West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2010 the city had an estimated population of 99,919. The city is one of the principal cities in the South Florida metropolitan area, which has a population of 5,564,635.
As of 2000, there were 34,769 households out of which 22.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.3% were married couples living together, 13.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.5% were non-families. 37.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 3.02.
In the city, in 2000, 21.3% of the population is under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 21.4% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 97.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.8 males.
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Adam Clayton
Adam Charles Clayton (born 13 March 1960) is a musician, best known as the bassist of the Irish rock band U2. Clayton has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965. Clayton is well known for his bass playing on songs such as "New Year's Day", "Bullet the Blue Sky", "With or Without You", "Mysterious Ways", "Get on Your Boots", and "Magnificent". His work on No Line on the Horizon has been cited as his best bass playing. He has worked on several solo projects throughout his career, such as his work with fellow band member Larry Mullen Jr. on the theme of 1996's Mission: Impossible. Clayton, as a part of U2, has won 22 Grammy awards.
Clayton is the elder child of Brian and Jo Clayton, born on 13 March 1960 in Chinnor, Oxfordshire, England. When Clayton was five years old, his family moved from Oxfordshire to Malahide, County Dublin, where Clayton's brother Sebastian was born. The Clayton family became friends with the Evans family, with their sons Dik and Dave (more commonly known as The Edge), who were both in the original group, Feedback, that spawned U2.
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Adele (singer)
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988), better known simply as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Adele was offered a recording contract from XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on MySpace in 2006. The next year she received the Brit Awards "Critics' Choice" award and won the BBC Sound of 2008. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to much commercial and critical success. The album is certified four times platinum in the UK, and double platinum in the US. Her career in the US was boosted by a Saturday Night Live appearance in late 2008. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Adele received the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Adele released her second album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut.21 helped Adele earn six Grammy Awards in 2012 including Album of the Year, equalling the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night. The album has also helped her receive numerous other awards, including two Brit Awards and three American Music Awards. The album has been certified 16 times platinum in the UK; in the US the album has held the top position longer than any other album since 1985.
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Alan Menken
Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949) is a pianist and composer of American musical theatre and film.
Menken is best known for his scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards. He also composed the scores for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, The Shaggy Dog, Enchanted, and most recently, Tangled. Menken has collaborated on several occasions with lyricists including Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Glenn Slater, and Stephen Schwartz. With nineteen nominations and eight wins, Menken has won the third most Oscars of any person, after Walt Disney (twenty-two wins) and Alfred Newman (nine wins).
Menken was born in New York, NY to a Jewish family, the son of Judith and Norman Menken, a dentist. He developed an interest in music at an early age, studying piano and violin. He went to New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York. He attended college as a pre-med student, but later changed his focus to music at NYU Steinhardt. After college, he attended the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. He performed frequently in local clubs and worked as a composer of jingles and songs and as an accompanist.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber Kt. (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre.
Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.
Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals, notably "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" and "You Must Love Me" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "Memory" from Cats.
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Annie Lennox
Ann "Annie" Lennox, OBE (born 25 December 1954), is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s as part of the New Wave band The Tourists, she and fellow musician David A. Stewart went on to achieve major international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. Lennox is the most recognized female artist at the Brit Awards, winning a total of eight awards. She has also been named the "Brits Champion of Champions".
Lennox embarked on a solo career in the 1990s with her debut album, Diva (1992), which produced several hit singles including "Why" and "Walking on Broken Glass". To date, she has released five solo studio albums and a compilation album, The Annie Lennox Collection (2009). She is the recipient of eight Brit Awards, four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2002, Lennox received a Billboard Century Award; the highest accolade from Billboard Magazine. In 2004, she won both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Into the West", written for the soundtrack to the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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B.B. King
Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American songwriter, vocalist, and famed blues guitarist.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 6 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. and No. 17 in in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. According to Edward M. Komara, King "introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed." King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
King was born in a small cabin on a cotton plantation outside of Berclair, Mississippi, to Albert King and Nora Ella Farr on September 16, 1925.
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Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (i/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
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Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand (/ˈstraɪsænd/; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, writer, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.
She is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre. Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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Ben Harper
Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents. His albums have been commercially successful in North America, Europe and Oceania. Harper is a two-time Grammy Award winner as well, winning awards for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album, in 2005.
Harper was born in Claremont, in California's Inland Empire. His father, Leonard, was of African-American and Cherokee ancestry, and his mother, Ellen Chase-Verdries, is Jewish. His maternal great-grandmother was a Russian-Lithuanian Jew. His parents divorced when he was age five, and he grew up with his mother's family. Harper has two brothers, Joel and Peter.
Harper began playing guitar as a child. His maternal grandparents' music store The Folk Music Center and Museum laid a foundation of folk and blues for the artist, complemented by regular patrons Leonard Cohen, Taj Mahal and David Lindley and quotes of William Shakespeare and Robert Frost made often by his grandfather. At the age of 12, Harper played his first gig. During the '80s, in his teen years, Harper began to play the slide guitar, mimicking the style of Robert Johnson. Next, Harper refined his style, taking up the Weissenborn slide guitar. Harper broke out of the Inland Empire after being offered an invitation by Taj Mahal to tour with the artist. They recorded Taj Mahal's album Follow the Drinking Gourd, released in November 1990, and toured Hawaii.
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Bernie Taupin
Bernard John "Bernie" Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English lyricist, poet, and singer, best known for his long-term collaboration with Elton John, writing the lyrics for the majority of the star's songs, making his lyrics some of the best known in pop-rock's history.
In 1967, Taupin answered an advertisement in the UK's music paper New Musical Express that was seeking new songwriters. Around the same time Elton John submitted samples of his work to the paper, and the pair were brought together, collaborating on many projects since.
Much of Taupin's childhood is reflected in his lyrics and poetry. He was born at Flatters Farmhouse which is located between the village of Anwick and the town of Sleaford in the southern part of Lincolnshire, England. Of French ancestry, his father was educated in Dijon and was employed as a stockman by a large farm estate near the town of Market Rasen and his mother worked as a nanny, having previously lived in Switzerland. The family later relocated to Rowston Manor, a significant step up from Flatters Farmhouse which had no electricity.
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Bill Pascrell
William J. "Bill" Pascrell, Jr. (born January 25, 1937) is the U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 8th congressional district, serving since 1997. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is based in Paterson and includes most of Passaic County and suburban Essex County.
The grandson of Italian immigrants, Pascrell was born in Paterson, New Jersey and attended St. George’s Elementary School, and in 1955 graduated from St. John the Baptist High School, during which he was elected Student Council President. Pascrell later went on to attend Fordham University in New York where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a Master’s degree in Philosophy.
Pascrell spent 12 years as a high school teacher in Paramus, New Jersey, during which he taught several courses including Psychology, before being hired as a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Previously, Pascrell was appointed to Paterson Board of Education, where he served as President of the Board. He also served as Board of Trustees of Passaic County Community College.
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Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.
Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006), and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame (2009). In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, with Billy Joel positioned at No. 23. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah," Joel stopped recording pop/rock material after 1993's River of Dreams, but he continued to tour extensively until 2010.
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Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( /ˈbjɜrk/; [ˈpjœr̥k ˈkvʏðmʏntsˌtoʊhtɪr] ( listen); born 21 November 1965), known as Björk, is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her musical style is eclectic and she has achieved recognition in rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical, and folk.
Björk's 1990s singles "It's Oh So Quiet", "Army of Me" and "Hyperballad" charted in the UK Top 10.[citation needed] Her record label, One Little Indian, reported that by 2003 she had sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. She has acquired a high level of critical acclaim. She has won four BRIT Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, one MOJO Award, three UK Music Video Awards, and, in 2010, the Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, in recognition for her "deeply personal music and lyrics, her precise arrangements and her unique voice".
Björk has also been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards, one Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. She won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Dancer in the Dark. She was ranked thirty-sixth in VH1's "The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll", eighth in MTV's "22 Greatest Voices in Music", and sixtieth in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
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Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (
/ˈdɪlən/), born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music in 1965. However, his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.
Dylan's lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie,Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, as well as the music and performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.
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Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger (born May 6, 1945) is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.
As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s. By the early 1970s, he had dropped the "System" from his recordings, and he continued to strive for broader success with other various bands. In 1973, he put together The Silver Bullet Band, an evolving group of Detroit-area musicians, with whom he became most successful. In 1976, he achieved a national breakout with the album Night Moves. On his studio albums, he also worked extensively with the Alabama-based Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which appeared on several of Seger's best-selling singles and albums.
A roots rocker with a classic raspy, shouting voice, Seger wrote and recorded songs that dealt with blue-collar themes and was an exemplar of heartland rock. Seger has recorded many hits, including "Night Moves", "Turn the Page", "We've Got Tonight", "Against the Wind", and "Like a Rock", and also co-wrote the Eagles' number-one hit "Heartache Tonight". His iconic recording of "Old Time Rock and Roll" was named one of the Songs of the Century in 2001.
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Bobby Brown
Robert Barisford "Bobby" Brown (born February 5, 1969) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and dancer.
Brown started his career as one of the frontmen of the pop group New Edition, from its inception as The Bricks in 1978 until his forced exit from the group in 1986 following a period of misbehavior on his part. Starting a solo career, he became a hit success with his second album, Don't Be Cruel, which spawned a number of hit singles including the co-self penned "My Prerogative", which became his signature hit. Brown had a string of top ten hits on various Billboard charts between 1986 and 1992, and is a recipient of a Grammy Award. Brown is noted as a pioneer of New Jack Swing music, a fusion of hip-hop and R&B.
Brown was most noted in recent years as the ex-husband of pop singer Whitney Houston. Brown and Houston later gained notoriety co-starring in the reality show, Being Bobby Brown.
Brown was born in Boston as one of eight children to Herbert "Pops" and Carole Brown. Herbert was a construction worker and Carole was a schoolteacher. Brown and his family grew up in Roxbury's Orchard Park Projects. As a child, Brown got involved in petty theft including robbery later saying "I didn't wanna ask my mother or my father because they didn't have a lot of money", stating that whenever he saw something he wanted, "I'd just go to the store and take it." Brown also grew up around gangs. At ten, he was shot in the knee during a fight with a rival gang while attending a block party. Brown said his life reached a turning point at eleven after seeing one of his friends dead from multiple stab wounds at another party. Brown's brother Tommy would later say after that moment, Brown took "his career, schooling, his whole life more seriously." Brown's first taste of being onstage occurred at the age of three when one of his childhood idols, James Brown, performed in Boston.
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Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), most commonly known by his stage name Bono (/ˈbɒnoʊ/ BON-oh), is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his future wife, Alison Stewart, and the future members of U2. Bono writes almost all U2 lyrics, often using political, social, and religious themes. During their early years, Bono's lyrics contributed to U2's rebellious and spiritual tone. As the band matured, his lyrics became inspired more by personal experiences shared with members of U2.
Outside the band, he has collaborated and recorded with numerous artists, is managing director and a managing partner of Elevation Partners, and has refurbished and owns The Clarence Hotel in Dublin with The Edge. Bono is also widely known for his activism concerning Africa, for which he co-founded DATA, EDUN, the ONE Campaign and Product Red. He has organised and played in several benefit concerts and has met with influential politicians. Bono has been praised and criticised for his activism and involvement with U2. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, and was named as a Person of the Year by Time, among other awards and nominations.
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Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission: Impossible.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, De Palma worked repeatedly with actors Jennifer Salt, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen (his wife from 1979 to 1983), Gary Sinise, John Lithgow, William Finley, Charles Durning, Gerrit Graham, cinematographers Stephen H. Burum and Vilmos Zsigmond (see List of noted film director and cinematographer collaborations), set designer Jack Fisk, and composers Bernard Herrmann, John Williams and Pino Donaggio. De Palma is credited[by whom?] with fostering the careers of or outright discovering Robert De Niro, Jill Clayburgh, John C. Reilly, John Leguizamo, Andy Garcia and Margot Kidder.
De Palma, whose background is Italian Roman Catholic, was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Vivienne (née Muti) and Anthony Federico De Palma, an orthopedic surgeon. He was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire in various Protestant and Quaker schools, eventually graduating from Friends' Central School. He won a regional science-fair prize for a project titled "An Analog Computer to Solve Differential Equations".
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Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. On stage, Wilson provided many of the lead vocals, and often harmonized with the group in falsetto. Early during his on-stage career, Wilson primarily played bass on stage, but gradually transitioned to primarily playing piano/keyboards. Besides being the primary composer in The Beach Boys, he also functioned as the band's main producer and arranger. After signing with Capitol Records in mid-1962, Wilson wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits including "Surfin' Safari", "Surfin' USA", "Shut Down", "Little Deuce Coupe", "Be True to Your School", "In My Room", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "I Get Around", "Dance Dance Dance", "Help Me Rhonda", "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations". These songs and their accompanying albums were internationally popular, making The Beach Boys one of the biggest acts of their time.
In the mid-60s Wilson used his increasingly creative ambitions to compose and produce Pet Sounds, considered one of the greatest albums of all time. At this point his music was considered to rival that of Lennon–McCartney. The intended follow up to Pet Sounds, Smile, was cancelled for various reasons, including Wilson's deteriorating mental health. Wilson's contributions to The Beach Boys diminished as the years went by, and his erratic behavior led to tensions with the band. After years of treatment and recuperation, he began a solo career in 1988 with Brian Wilson, the same year that he and The Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since then he has toured for the first time in decades with a new band and released acclaimed albums such as a reworked version of Smile in 2004, for which Wilson won a Grammy Award for "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (Fire)" as Best Rock Instrumental, That Lucky Old Sun, and Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin.
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Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter-performer who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 21 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time.
Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver, although he was frequently unemployed; his surname is Dutch for jump stone. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry. His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.
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Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut. After successful appearances on The Garry Moore Show, Burnett moved to Los Angeles and began an eleven-year run on The Carol Burnett Show which was aired on CBS television from 1967 to 1978. With roots in vaudeville, The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show which combined comedy sketches, song, and dance. The comedy sketches included film parodies and character pieces. Burnett created many characters during the show's television run.
Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Ina Louise (née Creighton), a publicity writer for movie studios, and Joseph Thomas Burnett, a movie theater manager. Both of her parents suffered from alcoholism, and at a young age she was left with her grandmother, Mabel Eudora White. Her parents divorced in the late 1930s, and Burnett and her grandmother moved to an apartment near her mother’s in an impoverished area of Hollywood. There, they stayed in a boarding house with her younger half-sister Chrissy.
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Charles Giordano
Charles Giordano (born 1954 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American keyboardist and accordionist. Giordano is known primarily as the newest adjunct member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing keyboards and organ following the serious illness and subsequent death of longtime E Street organist Danny Federici in 2008. He is also known for playing keyboards with Pat Benatar in the 1980s, for playing keyboards and accordion with Springsteen's Sessions Band on the 2006 album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions and subsequent Sessions Band Tour,.
With Benatar he was usually billed as Charlie Giordano and played for five albums, beginning in 1983; his role in the band was praised by Billboard magazine. With Benatar he was identifiable by his glasses and distinctive array of berets, blazers and 1980s-style ties. Giordano also was a member of The David Johansen Group and went on to perform with Buster Poindexter and The Banshees of Blue.
As a session musician Giordano's playing has included Madeleine Peyroux's 1996 album Dreamland and Bucky Pizzarelli's 2000 album Italian Intermezzo; the latter's mix of opera, Italian folk, and swing presaged his appearance in the similarly genre-mashing Sessions Band Tour with Springsteen. Giordano also participated in a 2002 revival of garage rock icons ? and the Mysterians. In 2008, he accompanied British singer Barb Jungr for a short stand in a New York City cabaret.
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Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera (born January 23, 1933) is an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theater. She is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award (December 2002). She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
Rivera (birth name: Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero) was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Katherine, a government clerk, and Pedro Julio Figueroa del Rivero, a clarinetist and saxophonist for the United States Navy Band. Her father was Puerto Rican and her mother was of Scottish and Italian descent. Rivera was seven years old when her mother was widowed and went to work for The Pentagon.
In 1944, Rivera's mother enrolled her in the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet (now the Jones Haywood School of Dance). Later, when she was 15, a teacher from George Balanchine's School of American Ballet visited their studio and Rivera was one of two students picked to audition in New York City; she was accompanied to the audition by Doris Jones, one of the people who ran the Jones-Haywood School. Rivera's audition was successful and she was accepted into the school and given a scholarship
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Chris Vaughn
Chris Vaughn is an American songwriter, recording artist, filmmaker/producer/director from Neptune, New Jersey. He is best known for his original song "Fallen Angel", was featured in the film Stiletto; and as a filmmaker for his documentary film Jerseyboy Hero, which he wrote, produced, directed, scored and starred in himself. Vaughn was born and raised in New Jersey. He went to high school at Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch, New Jersey and currently resides in Brick, New Jersey with his wife, Shannon and their two sons.
Chris Vaughn debut's as a film director, producer and star in his first film entitled, "Jerseyboy Hero". Jerseyboy Hero is a documentary film which features Chris Vaughn as an aspiring musician. which was inspired by New Jersey Native Musicians, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. It follows the filmmaker/songwriter as he records and promotes his own music in hopes of reaching either one of these two local legends from the Garden State. The film's first rough cut screening was premiered at the 2010 Garden State Film Festival, but the film was not screened in its final form until April 7, 2011 at Clearview Cinemas in Red Bank, New Jersey. The film is scored completely by Chris Vaughn and features all his own original music. Vaughn's finally does capture his Hometown Hero, Bruce Springsteen for the film finale.
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Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.
Born into a middle class family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he served a prison sentence for armed robbery between 1944 and 1947. On his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of blues player T-Bone Walker, he was performing in the evenings with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955, and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. With Chess he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star with several hit records and film appearances to his name as well as a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis-based nightclub, called Berry's Club Bandstand. But in January 1962, Berry was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines.
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Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone.
He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a Friend of Mine", a duet with Jackson Browne. As a guest musician he also featured on Aretha Franklin's classic "Freeway of Love" and on Twisted Sister's "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" as well as performing in concert with The Grateful Dead and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. As an actor Clemons featured in several films, including New York, New York and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
He also made cameo appearances in several TV series, including Diff'rent Strokes, Nash Bridges, The Simpsons and The Wire. Together with his television writer friend Don Reo he published his semi-fictional autobiography told in third person, Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales, in 2009. Clemons suffered a stroke on June 12, 2011, and died of complications from it on June 18.
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Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide (1959–1965). He rose to fame for playing the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) during the late 1960s, and as Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool) throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made him an enduring cultural icon of masculinity.
For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and Producer of the Best Picture, as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others including Play Misty for Me (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008), have all received commercial success and critical acclaim. Eastwood's only comedies have been Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980), which are his two most commercially successful films after adjustment for inflation.
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Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream, and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination. Cox has also starred in Dirt produced by Coquette Productions, a production company created by herself and husband at the time David Arquette.
Courteney Cox was raised in Mountain Brook, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, the daughter of businessman Richard Lewis Cox (January 28, 1931 – September 3, 2001) and his wife Courteney (née Bass, later Copeland). She has two older sisters, Virginia and Dottie, and an older brother, Richard, Jr. Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother then married businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to music promoter and business manager Ian Copeland). After graduating from Mountain Brook High School, Cox left for Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., but did not complete her architecture course, opting instead to pursue a career in modeling and acting.
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Dale Maharidge
Dale Maharidge (born 24 October 1956) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist best known for his collaborations with photographer Michael Williamson.
Maharidge and Williamson's book And Their Children After Them won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1990. It was conceived as a revisiting of the places and people depicted in Walker Evans's and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Also with Williamson, Maharidge wrote Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, which singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen has credited as an influence for songs such as "Youngstown" and "The New Timer".
Reared in Ohio, Maharidge was a staff writer for The Plain Dealer and the Sacramento Bee. It was while at the Bee that he formed his partnership with Williamson, who was a news photographer for the paper. The pair have traveled and lived among the rural poor as they documented the underside of American prosperity. Maharidge has also contributed to publications ranging from Rolling Stone to the New York Times.
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Danny Federici
Daniel Paul "Danny" Federici (January 23, 1950 – April 17, 2008) was an American musician, best known as the longtime organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
Federici started to play accordion when he was seven years old, which he learned from watching The Lawrence Welk Show. When he mastered classical music and polka, his mother booked him at parties, clubs and on radio. While he continued his studies in classical accordion, he gained an interest in jazz and blues, after he heard a professor at the Neupauer Conservatory of Music in Philadelphia play those styles on accordion.
During in-concert band intros, Springsteen often referred to him as "Phantom", sometimes said to be because of an incident in Asbury Park in the 1960s where Federici evaded a police crackdown that resulted in the arrest of numerous others. Federici attended high school at Hunterdon Central High School in New Jersey. When he, along with Vini Lopez, started the band Child at the end of the 1960s, their choice for a singer fell on Bruce Springsteen; Federici also joined Springsteen in other early efforts such as Steel Mill.
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Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck (born December 6, 1920) is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills. His music is known for employing unusual time signatures, and superimposing contrasting rhythms, meters, and tonalities.
His long-time musical partner, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, wrote the Dave Brubeck Quartet's best remembered piece, "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time and has endured as a jazz classic on the top-selling jazz album, Time Out. Brubeck experimented with time signatures throughout his career, recording "Pick Up Sticks" in 6/4, "Unsquare Dance" in 7/4, and "Blue Rondo à la Turk" in 9/8. He is also a respected composer of orchestral and sacred music, and wrote soundtracks for television such as Mr. Broadway and the animated mini-series This Is America, Charlie Brown.
Brubeck was born in Concord, California and grew up in Ione. He is of English (maternal), Swiss and possibly Native American Modoc Tribe multi-ethnic (paternal) ancestry His father, Howard "Pete" Brubeck, was a cattle rancher, and his mother, Elizabeth (née Ivey), who had studied piano in England under Myra Hess and intended to become a concert pianist, taught piano for extra money. Brubeck originally did not intend to become a musician (his two older brothers, Henry and Howard, were already on that track), but took lessons from his mother. He could not read sheet music during these early lessons, attributing this difficulty to poor eyesight, but "faked" his way through, well enough that this deficiency went mostly unnoticed.
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Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter, who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter and founder of the Foo Fighters, prior to which he was the drummer in the grunge band Nirvana. He is also the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures. Grohl has additionally written all the music and performed all the instruments for his short-lived side projects Late! and Probot, as well as being involved with Queens of the Stone Age numerous times throughout the past decade. He has performed session work (as a drummer) for a variety of musicians, including Garbage, Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Slash, Juliette Lewis, Tenacious D, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Lemmy Kilmister.
As a child, Grohl's family relocated from Warren, Ohio, to Springfield, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Three years later, when Grohl was six, his parents divorced, and Grohl grew up living with his mother.
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Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh (born March 1, 1950, Detroit, Michigan) is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on rock music.
Marsh briefly attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
In 1979, Marsh wrote a now-famous review in Rolling Stone of the album Jazz by Queen, in which he wrote, "Queen may be the first truly fascist rock band." (Rolling Stone, Feb. 8th 1979). Previously, he had described lead singer Freddie Mercury as possessing a merely "passable pop voice."
In his 1980 review on Bob Seger's album Against the Wind, Marsh stated, "I'd like to say that this is not only the worst record Bob Seger has ever made, but an absolutely cowardly one as well."
In the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide on Journey, Marsh wrote, "Journey was a dead end for San Francisco area rock." He awarded all of the band's albums the minimum possible score of 1/5 stars.
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David A. Stewart
David Allan Stewart (born 9 September 1952), often known as Dave Stewart, is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics. He is usually credited as David A. Stewart, to avoid confusion with other musicians named "Dave Stewart".
Stewart was born in Sunderland, England. In 1971, whilst still in his teens, Dave Stewart secured a record deal as part of folk-rock band Longdancer, but they did not achieve commercial success. Stewart then spent several years living in squats in London. In late 1976, he was introduced to Annie Lennox by a mutual friend. Soon, Stewart and Lennox became lovers. By 1977, the pair had teamed up with Sunderland musician Peet Coombes, releasing a single on Logo Records as The Catch. The band then developed into The Tourists who enjoyed modest success, including a hit in 1979 with a cover of the Dusty Springfield hit "I Only Want to Be with You".
The Tourists (and Stewart & Lennox's romantic liaison) ended in 1980, though the pair continued to work together. They formed a new musical project named Eurythmics, and went on to be one of the most successful pop-rock duos of all time. After a string of hit singles and albums, the duo split in 1990, but reunited in 1999 for the album Peace and another world tour. Lennox and Stewart worked together again in 2005, recording two new tracks for the greatest hits package Ultimate Collection, released to coincide with Eurythmics' 25th anniversary.
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David Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC (born November 1, 1949), is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Céline Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Toni Braxton, Madonna, Air Supply and Michael Jackson. Foster has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. David Foster is the current Chairman of Verve Music Group.
Throughout his career, he has produced recordings for a wide range of musical artists, including Bryan Adams, Tamia, Christina Aguilera, The Bee Gees, Andrea Bocelli, Boz Scaggs, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Chicago, Destiny's Child, Neil Diamond, Céline Dion, Earth Wind and Fire, Gloria Estefan, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, Beyonce Knowles, Kenny Loggins, Madonna, Olivia Newton-John, Nsync, All-4-One, Plus One, Charice Pempengco, Prince, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Rogers, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Shania Twain, Hall & Oates, Tim Feehan, The Tubes, and Jackie Evancho.
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David Fricke
David Fricke is a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where he writes predominantly on rock music. In the 1990s, he was managing editor before stepping down.
David Fricke is a graduate of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Before joining Rolling Stone, where he is now senior editor, he wrote for Circus and Good Times.
Fricke's interviews with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love for Rolling Stone, prior to Cobain's death, were widely cited. In one, Love spoke of an unreleased song that Cobain wrote prior to his death titled "Me and My IV", which was recorded to "Do, Re, Mi".
Fricke has appeared on the Classic Albums documentaries on the making of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, Cream's Disraeli Gears, Def Leppard's Hysteria, Nirvana's Nevermind, Metallica's Black Album, Frank Zappa's Apostrophe and Over-Nite Sensation as well as Rush's Moving Pictures and 2112 albums. Fricke has also appeared on a number of Lou Reed documentaries and in the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
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David Sancious
David Sancious (born November 30, 1953 in Asbury Park, New Jersey) is an American musician. He was an early member of Bruce Springsteen's backing group, the E Street Band, and contributed to the first three Springsteen albums, and again on the 1992 album Human Touch. Sancious is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known as a keyboard player and guitarist. He left the E Street Band in 1974 to form his own band, Tone, and released several albums. He subsequently became a popular session and touring musician, most notably for Stanley Clarke, Narada Michael Walden, Zucchero Fornaciari, Peter Gabriel, and Sting among many others.
Sancious began to learn classical piano at seven and by eleven he had taught himself guitar. He was only in his teens when he first became involved in the Asbury Park music scene. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he played in various bands that included Springsteen and future members of The E Street Band, as well as Southside Johnny and Bill Chinnock. These bands included Glory Road, Dr.Zoom & The Sonic Boom, The Bruce Springsteen Band and The Sundance Blues Band.
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Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, record producer, and actress.
Diana Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that has included successful ventures into film and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), for which she won a Golden Globe award. She has won seven American Music Awards, was honored with a 2012 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and won a Tony Award for her one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross, in 1977.
In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 18 number one records in the United States. Diana Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
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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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Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. As a songwriter, she has composed over 3,000 songs, the best known of which include "I Will Always Love You" (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper for Parton, as well an international pop hit for Whitney Houston), "Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors", "9 to 5" and "My Tennessee Mountain Home". As an actress, she starred in the movies 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias, Straight Talk, Unlikely Angel and Joyful Noise. She is one of the most successful female country artists of all time; with an estimated 100 million in album sales, Dolly Parton is also one of the best selling artists of all time. She is known as "The Queen of Country Music".
She was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children of Avie Lee Parton (née Owens; October 5, 1923 – December 5, 2003) and Robert Lee Parton (March 22, 1921 – November 12, 2000), a tobacco farmer. Her siblings are: Willadeene Parton (born March 24, 1940), David Wilburn Parton (born March 30, 1942), Coy Denver "Denver" Parton (born August 16, 1943), Bobby Lee Parton (born February 18, 1948), Stella Mae Parton (born May 4, 1949), Cassie Nan Parton (February 12, 1951), Randel Huston "Randy" Parton (born December 15, 1953), Larry Gerald Parton (born and died July 6, 1955), Floyd and Frieda Estelle Parton (born June 1, 1957), and Rachel Ann Parton (born August 31, 1959). Her family was, as she has described them, "dirt poor". She outlined her family's lack of money in a number of her early songs, notably "Coat of Many Colors" and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)". They lived in a rustic, dilapidated one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, a hamlet just north of the Greenbrier Valley, in the Locust Ridge area of the Great Smoky Mountains in Sevier County, a predominantly Pentecostal area.
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Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s. She had a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and was a five-time Grammy Award winner. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the United States Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period.
Born into a devoutly Christian lower middle class African American family in Boston, Massachusetts, Summer first became involved with singing through church choir groups before joining a number of bands influenced by the Motown Sound. Influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, she became the front singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City. Joining a touring version of the musical Hair, she spent several years living in West Germany, where she married Helmut Sommer, whose surname she adopted as her stage name.
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Dutch American
A Dutch American is an American of Dutch descent.
Following the exploration of the American East Coast by Henry Hudson on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in 1609, Dutch settlement in the Americas started in 1613. From then on a number of villages, including New Amsterdam on the East Coast, which would become the future world metropolis of New York City, were established by Dutch immigrants. According to the 2000 United States Census, more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch heritage Today the majority of the Dutch Americans live in Michigan, California, Montana, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Idaho, Utah, Iowa, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Because of huge losses of trade ships on their long routes circumnavigating the African Cape, the so-called "spice trade" with the Dutch East Indies was very dangerous and of high risk for sailors, and for investors providing resources to commission and equip a vessel, and provide trade goods. The individual traders that had bid against each other for over a century thus realised that greater profit and a better distribution of the risk could be attained by joining forces, which led to the world's first corporate, publicly traded multinational firm, the VOC, founded in 1602. This took away the biggest financial risk, but the long and dangerous voyage remained. To reduce this risk as well, many explorers sought a northern passage, not knowing of its then-impossibility due to ice blockage. Returning, however, from another failed expedition to find a northern route to the Pacific Ocean, the first Dutch vessel arrived at what is now New York Harbor.
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Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Known for his powerful vocals, he is widely considered an icon of alternative rock.
He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums by other artists. In 2007, Vedder released his first solo album as a soundtrack for the film Into the Wild (2007). His second album, Ukulele Songs, along with a live DVD titled Water on the Road, was released on 31 May 2011.
Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, son of Karen Lee Vedder and Edward Louis Severson, Jr. His parents divorced in 1965, when Vedder was one year old. His mother soon remarried a man named Peter Mueller, an attorney, and Vedder was raised believing that Mueller was his biological father. His adopted name became Edward Mueller. While living in Evanston, Vedder's family fostered seven younger children in a group home.
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Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. As one of the world's most famous film stars, Taylor was recognized for her acting ability and for her glamorous lifestyle, beauty and distinctive violet eyes.
National Velvet (1944) was Taylor's first success, and she starred in Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for BUtterfield 8 (1960), played the title role in Cleopatra (1963), and married her co-star Richard Burton. They appeared together in 11 films, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which Taylor won a second Academy Award. From the mid-1970s, she appeared less frequently in film, and made occasional appearances in television and theatre.
Her much publicized personal life included eight marriages and several life-threatening illnesses. From the mid-1980s, Taylor championed HIV and AIDS programs; she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1993. She received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the Legion of Honour, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and a Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, who named her seventh on their list of the "Greatest American Screen Legends". Taylor died of congestive heart failure in March 2011 at the age of 79, having suffered many years of ill health.
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Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.
In his four-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in Billboard history. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.
John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Having been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, John received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998.
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Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus, 25 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a "pop encyclopaedia", able to "reinvent the past in his own image".
Costello has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male. In 2003, Elvis Costello & the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus in St Mary's Hospital, London, the son of Lilian Alda (née Ablett, b. 1927, Liverpool) and Ross MacManus (1927–2011), a musician and bandleader. He is of Irish heritage. Costello lived in Twickenham, attending Hounslow Secondary Modern School, which is now St Mark's Catholic Secondary School, in neighbouring Hounslow. With a musically inclined father (who was a jazz trumpeter and sang with The Joe Loss Orchestra), Costello's first broadcast recording was alongside his dad in a television commercial for R. White's Lemonade (I'm a Secret Lemonade Drinker). His father wrote and sang the song; Costello provided backing vocals. The advertisement won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.
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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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Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, Italian pronunciation: [ˈɛnnjo morriˈkoːne], (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor, who has written music for more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces. Morricone is most famous for his work in the Spaghetti Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone, including A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) but his career includes a wide range of composition genres making him one of the film world's most versatile artists. He is considered as one of the most influential film music composers of the 20th century.
Born in Rome, Italy, Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony programme. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and started working professionally, composing the music to "Il Mattino" ("The Morning"). Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.
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Eric Alterman
Eric Alterman (b. January 14, 1960) is an American English teacher, historian, journalist, author, media critic, blogger, and educator. His political weblog named Altercation was hosted by MSNBC.com from 2002 until 2006, moved to Media Matters for America until December 2008, and is now hosted by The Nation.
He earned a B.A. in History and Government from Cornell University, an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Stanford University.
Alterman began his journalism career in 1983, freelancing originally for The Nation, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Harper's, Le Monde diplomatique, and later, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly, among others, while working as a senior fellow for the World Policy Institute in New York City and Washington, DC. He published his first book, Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy, which won the 1992 George Orwell Award, while studying for his doctorate in US history in Stanford in 1992. Shortly after that he became the Washington Correspondent for Mother Jones, and soon thereafter Rolling Stone, before returning to The Nation as a columnist in 1995. Alterman has also been a contributing editor to ELLE, and a regular columnist for Worth and the London Sunday Express.[citation needed]
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Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.
In the mid 1960s, Clapton departed from the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In his one-year stay with Mayall, Clapton gained the nickname "Slowhand". Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed Cream, a power trio with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop." For most of the 1970s, Clapton's output bore the influence of the mellow style of J.J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded by Derek and the Dominos, another band he formed and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded by Cream. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE for services to music. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.
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Fran Walsh
Frances "Fran" Walsh, Lady Jackson, MNZM (born January 10, 1959) is a screenwriter, film producer and occasional musician. She is the wife of filmmaker Peter Jackson. They have two children: Billy and Katie.
Fran Walsh has contributed to all of Jackson's films apart from his first feature Bad Taste. She won three Academy Awards in 2003, for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture, and Best Original Song, all for the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. She has received a total of eight Oscar nominations.
Walsh was born into a family of Irish descent in Wellington, New Zealand, and attended Wellington Girls' College intent on becoming a fashion designer, but eventually became interested in music instead. Occasionally taking time off to perform in a punk band named The Wallsockets, she attended Victoria University of Wellington majoring in English literature and graduated in 1981. Walsh got her screen break writing material for Kiwi producer Grahame McLean on 1983 television film A Woman of Good Character/It's Lizzie to those Close. Later she wrote scripts for his TV show Worzel Gummidge Down Under.
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Garry Tallent
Garry Wayne Tallent (born October 27, 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, USA), sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the longtime bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
Growing up around the Jersey shore, Tallent took up first the tuba and then the bass. He was influenced by James Jamerson, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Paul McCartney. He started playing with Springsteen in 1971 in two earlier bands and then was an original member of the E Street Band. Both visually and musically he stays in the background; his most notable bass parts may be on the song "Fire" and the last verse of "Incident on 57th Street". During the E Street Band's early years, he occasionally played the tuba on some of Springsteen's quirkier early songs, both in concert and on record (most notably "Wild Billy's Circus Story").
In addition to his work with Springsteen, Tallent has recorded with numerous other artists. In 1987 Tallent produced the song "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" for Marshall Crenshaw on La Bamba soundtrack. During the long time the E Street Band was inactive in the 1990s, Tallent moved to Nashville, having an affinity for country and western and rockabilly music. There he opened the MoonDog recording studio and helped start the D'Ville Record Group label. Tallent has produced such artists as Jim Lauderdale and Steve Forbert.
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Gary Graff
Gary Graff (born 1960) is an American music journalist and author.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Graff attended Taylor Allderdice High School where he wrote for school newspaper The Taylor Allderdice Foreword. He received his Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri. He wrote for the Detroit Free Press from 1982 until 1995 when there was a strike at the Detroit Free Press. Graff refused to cross the picket line and subsequently lost his job. Graff has contributed to publications including The New York Times, Billboard, The Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle. In 2005, Graff published The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. One reviewer said that the book "comes close to being the definitive study" on Bruce Springsteen. He is also the founding editor of the MusicHound Essential Album Guide series. He now lives in Detroit, Michigan.
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Gary U.S. Bonds
Gary U.S. Bonds (born Gary Levone Anderson, June 6, 1939, Jacksonville, Florida) is an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer. He is also a prolific songwriter.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida Bonds was living in Norfolk, Virginia, in the 1950s when he began singing publicly in church, and with a group called The Turks. He joined record producer Frank Guida's small Legrand Records label, and Guida changed Anderson's name to U.S. Bonds in hope that it would be confused with a Public Service Announcement advertising the sale of government bonds and thus get more radio airplay. His first three singles and first album Dance 'Til Quarter to Three were released under the "U.S. Bonds" name, but people mistook it for the name of a group, so to avoid the confusion subsequent releases, including his second album Twist Up Calypso, were released under the name Gary (U.S.) Bonds; the parentheses were discarded in the 1980s.
Bonds's first hit was the song "New Orleans" (reached #6), which was followed by "Not Me", a flop for Bonds but later a hit for The Orlons, and then by his only number one hit, "Quarter to Three" in June 1961. "Quarter To Three" sold one million records, earning a gold disc. Subsequent hits, under his modified name, included "School Is Out" (#5), "Dear Lady Twist" (#9), "School Is In" (#28) and "Twist, Twist, Señora" (#10) in the early 1960s. In a 1963 tour of Europe, he headlined above The Beatles. His hits often featured solos by the saxophonist Gene Barge.
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George Gershwin
George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, as well as the opera Porgy and Bess.
Born in Brooklyn to a Ukrainian father of Jewish descent and a Russian mother, Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark and Henry Cowell. He began his career as a song plugger, but soon thereafter started composing Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin and Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris in an attempt to study with Nadia Boulanger, where he began to compose An American in Paris. After returning to New York City, he wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and author DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, Porgy and Bess is now considered one of the most important American operas of the Twentieth Century. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores until his death in 1937 from a brain tumor.
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George Jones
George Glenn Jones (born September 12, 1931) is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette.
Over the past 20 years, Jones has frequently been referred to as the greatest living country singer. Country music scholar Bill C. Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved."
Throughout his long career, Jones made headlines often as much for tales of his drinking, stormy relationships with women, and violent rages as for his prolific career of making records and touring. His wild lifestyle led to Jones missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones." With the help of his fourth wife, Nancy, he has been sober for over 10 years. Jones has had more than 150 hits during his career, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists. The shape of his nose and facial features have given Jones the nickname "The Possum." Jones said in an interview that he has chosen to tour only about 60 dates a year.
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George Michael
George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Greek: Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου); 25 June 1963) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Michael rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley. His first solo single, "Careless Whisper", was released when he was still in the duo and sold about six million copies worldwide.
As one of the world's best-selling music artists, Michael has sold more than 100 million records worldwide as of 2010. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and made several records and achievements in the United States. Michael has garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked Michael the 40th most successful artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists list.
Michael has won numerous music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.
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Grace Bumbry
Grace Bumbry (born January 4, 1937), an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years. She was a member of a pioneering generation of singers who followed Marian Anderson (including Leontyne Price, Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett and Reri Grist) in the world of classical music and paved the way for future African American opera and classical singers. Bumbry's voice was rich and sizable, possessing a wide range, and was capable of producing a very distinctive plangent tone. In her prime, she also possessed good agility and bel canto technique (see for example her renditions of the 'Veil Song' from Verdi's Don Carlo in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as her Ernani from the Chicago Lyric Opera in 1984). She was particularly noted for her fiery temperament and dramatic intensity on stage. More recently, she has also become known as a recitalist and interpreter of lieder, and as a teacher. From the late 1980s on, she seemed to concentrate her career in Europe, rather than in the US. A long time resident of Switzerland, she now makes her home in Salzburg, Austria.
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Gustavo Santaolalla
Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla (born 19 August 1951) is an Argentine musician, film composer and producer. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score in two consecutive years, for Brokeback Mountain in 2005 and Babel in 2006.
Santaolalla was born in El Palomar, Argentina. His professional music career began in 1967, when he co-founded the group Arco Iris, an Argentine band that pioneered the fusion of rock and Latin American folk as part of 'rock nacional'. The band adopted the lifestyle of a yogic commune guided by former model Danais Wynnycka (known as Dana) and her partner, musician Ara Tokatlian. The band had a few hits, such as Mañanas Campestres ("Country Mornings"), and made inroads into different forms of expression (notably a ballet piece for Oscar Aráiz), but Santaolalla felt constricted by the strict requirements of Dana's teachings, which prohibited meat, alcohol and drugs. He left the group in 1975.
A year later, he assembled Soluna, in which he played alongside teenage pianist and singer Alejandro Lerner and his then-girlfriend Monica Campins. Together they recorded just one album (Energía Natural, 1977). Santaolalla left for Los Angeles, where he adopted a rock and roll sound and made the rounds with his band Wet Picnic, together with ex-Crucis member Anibal Kerpel. He briefly returned to Argentina in 1981, to produce Leon Gieco's Pensar en Nada and record his first solo album.
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György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti (Hungarian: Ligeti György Sándor, [ˈliɡɛti ˈɟørɟ ˈʃaːndor]; May 28, 1923 – June 12, 2006) was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he lived in Hungary before emigrating and becoming an Austrian citizen.
Ligeti was born in Dicsőszentmárton, which was renamed Târnăveni in 1945, in Transylvania to a Hungarian Jewish family. Ligeti recalls that his first exposure to languages other than Hungarian came one day while listening to a conversation among the Romanian-speaking town police. Before that he hadn't known that other languages existed. He moved to Kolozsvár (Cluj) with his family when he was 6, and he was not to return to the town of his birth until the 1990s.
Ligeti received his initial musical training in the conservatory at Kolozsvár (Cluj), and during the summers privately with Pál Kadosa in Budapest.
In 1940, Northern Transylvania was occupied by Hungary following the Second Vienna Award. In 1944, Ligeti's education was interrupted when he was sent to a forced labor brigade by the Horthy regime. His brother, age 16, was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp, and both of his parents were sent to Auschwitz. His mother was the only other survivor of his immediate family.
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Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman (May 17, 1950 – March 14, 1991) was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College (with a stop at Tufts University's Summer Theater) and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974. He collaborated with Alan Menken on several films, notably animated features for Disney, Ashman writing the lyrics and Menken composing the music.
Ashman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Shirley Thelma (née Glass) and Raymond Albert Ashman, an ice cream cone manufacturer. He was the artistic director of the WPA Theater in New York. His first two plays, Cause Maggie's Afraid of the Dark and Dreamstuff, were met with mixed reviews. His play The Confirmation was produced in 1979 at Princeton's McCarter Theater and starred Herschel Bernardi. He first worked with Alan Menken on a 1979 musical adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. They also collaborated on Little Shop of Horrors with Ashman as director, lyricist, and librettist, winning the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics.
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Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg, having scored all but one of his films since 1979.
He has also composed a few concert works including one opera, The Fly, based on the plot (though not his score) of Cronenberg's 1986 film premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 2 July 2008., a short piece Fanfare for the Wanamaker Organ and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and a short overture for the Swiss 21st Century Symphony Orchestra.
Shore is a three-time winner of the Academy Award, and has also won three Golden Globe Awards and four Grammy Awards. He is the uncle of film composer Ryan Shore. Shore serves on the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Berklee College of Music.
Shore was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the son of Bernice (née Ash) and Mac Shore. He studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston after graduating from Forest Hill Collegiate Institute. From 1969 to 1972, he performed with the group Lighthouse. In 1970 he was the music director of Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz's short-lived TV program The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour. Shore wrote the music for Canadian magician Doug Henning's magical/musical Spellbound in 1974, and he was the musical director for Lorne Michaels' hugely influential late-night NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980, appearing in many musical sketches, including Howard Shore and His All-Nurse Band, and dressed as a beekeeper for a John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd performance of the Slim Harpo classic I'm a King Bee. Shore also suggested the name for The Blues Brothers to Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
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Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010) was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States. He wrote extensively about the civil rights and anti-war movements, as well as of the labor history of the United States. His memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, was also the title of a 2004 documentary about Zinn's life and work.
Zinn was born to a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn. His father, Eddie Zinn, born in Austria-Hungary, emigrated to the U.S. with his brother Samuel before the outbreak of World War I. Howard's mother Jenny Zinn emigrated from the Eastern Siberian city of Irkutsk.
Both parents were factory workers with limited education when they met and married, and there were no books or magazines in the series of apartments where they raised their children. Zinn's parents introduced him to literature by sending 10 cents plus a coupon to the New York Post for each of the 20 volumes of Charles Dickens' collected works. He also studied creative writing at Thomas Jefferson High School in a special program established by poet Elias Lieberman.
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Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Roughly another 3.5 million (or about another 1.2% of Americans) identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry. The Irish diaspora population in the United States is roughly 6 times the modern population of Ireland.
The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans is German Americans. The Irish are widely dispersed in terms of geography, and demographics. Irish American political leaders have played a major role in local and national politics since before the American Revolutionary War: eight Irish Americans signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and 22 American Presidents, from Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama, have been at least partly of Irish ancestry. (See "American Presidents with Irish ancestry" below.)
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Irving Gordon
Irving Gordon (February 14, 1915 – December 1, 1996) was an American songwriter.
Irving Gordon was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, he studied violin, and after attending public schools in New York City, went to work in the Catskill Mountains at some of the resort hotels in the area. While working in the hotels, he took to writing parody lyrics to some of the popular songs of the day. In the 1930s, he took a job with the music publishing firm headed by talent agent Irving Mills, at first writing only lyrics but subsequently writing music as well.
After Gordon was introduced to Duke Ellington in 1937, Ellington sometimes invited Gordon to put words to his compositions. Working with Ellington was probably the most difficult commission there was, because most of the Ellington songs were really instrumental pieces whose singable potential only emerged after they had been played and recorded by one or another of the soloists in the Ellington orchestra.
After writing "Mister and Mississippi", Gordon decided he enjoyed puns on state names, and some years later wrote "Delaware." He is perhaps best known for his song, "Allentown Jail", which was played by numerous other musicians, and told the story of a man who stole a diamond for his girlfriend and ended up in the Allentown jail, unable to make bail. Late in his life he won a Grammy for Song of the Year when Natalie Cole re-recorded her father's (Nat "king" Cole) earlier hit of "Unforgettable".
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Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern (Ukrainian: Исаак Стерн, Russian: Айзек Стерн; July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was a Ukrainian-born violinist and conductor. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.
Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco. He received his first music lessons from his mother, then in 1928 enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied until 1931 before going on to study privately with Louis Persinger. He returned to the San Francisco Conservatory to study for five years with Naoum Blinder, to whom he said he owed the most. At his public début on February 18, 1936, aged 15, he played Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Pierre Monteux. Reflecting on his background, Stern once memorably quipped that cultural exchanges between the US and Soviet Russia were simple affairs: "They send us their Jews from Odessa, and we send them our Jews from Odessa."
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Italian American
An Italian American (Italian: Italoamericano singular, Italian: Italoamericani plural), is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States (not including American ethnicity, an ethnonym used by many in the United States; overall, Italian Americans rank seventh, behind German, Irish, African American, English, American and Mexican).
About 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the U.S. from 1820 to 2004. The greatest surge of immigration, which occurred in the period between 1880 and 1920, alone brought more than 4 million Italians to America. About 80% of the Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy, especially from Sicily, Campania, Abruzzo and Calabria. This was a largely agricultural and overpopulated region, where much of the populace had been impoverished by centuries of foreign misrule, and the economic measures imposed on the South after Italian unification in 1861 . After unification the Italian government initially encouraged emigration of landless peasants to relieve economic pressures in the South. In the U.S., most Italians began their new lives as unskilled, manual workers in Eastern cities, mining camps and in agriculture. Italian Americans gradually moved from the lower rungs of the economic scale in 1890-1910 to a level comparable to the national average by 1970. By 1990, more than 65% of Italian Americans were managerial, professional, or white-collar workers. The Italian-American communities have often been characterized by strong ties with family, the Catholic Church, fraternal organizations and political parties. Today, over 17.8 million Americans claim Italian ancestry.
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Jack Nicholson
Not to be confused with Nicholas Jackson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. His twelve Oscar nominations make him the second most nominated actor of all time, behind only Meryl Streep, and tied with Katharine Hepburn.
Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and for As Good as It Gets. He also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1983 film Terms of Endearment. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three). Nicholson is well known for playing villainous roles such as Jack Torrance in The Shining, Frank Costello in The Departed, and the Joker in 1989's Batman, among many other roles.
Nicholson is one of only two actors who have been nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s; the other is Michael Caine. He has won seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. Notable films in which he has starred include Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Passenger, The Shining, Reds, Terms of Endearment, Batman, A Few Good Men, As Good as It Gets, About Schmidt, The Departed and Anger Management .
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Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone.
Coming to prominence in the 1970s, Browne has written and recorded several notable songs throughout his career including "These Days", "The Pretender", "Running On Empty", "Lawyers in Love", "Doctor My Eyes", "Take It Easy", "For a Rocker", and "Somebody's Baby". In 2004, he was both inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and bestowed an Honorary Doctorate of Music by Occidental College in Los Angeles, California.
Browne was born in Heidelberg, Germany, where his father, an American serviceman, was stationed. Browne's mother, Beatrice Amanda (née Dahl), was a Minnesota native of Norwegian ancestry. Browne has three siblings: Roberta "Berbie" Browne who was born in 1946 in Nuernberg, Germany (Nuremberg) and Edward Severin Browne who was born in 1949 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His younger sister, Gracie Browne, was born a number of years later. Browne moved to the Highland Park district of Los Angeles, California, at the age of 3 and in his teens began singing folk music in local venues like the Ash Grove and The Troubador Club. He attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California, graduating in 1966.
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James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of funk music and is a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance.
In a career that spanned decades, Brown profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music making. Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the Chitlin' Circuit, and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.
For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. Since his Broadway debut in 1957, Jones has spent more than five decades as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile actors" and has been termed "one of the greatest actors in American history." On November 12, 2011, Jones received an Honorary Academy Award.
He is well known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership.
James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, son of Robert Earl Jones (1910–2006), an actor, boxer, butler, and chauffeur who left the family shortly after James Earl's birth, and his wife Ruth (Connolly) Jones, a teacher and maid. Jones and his father reconciled many years later. Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents, farmers John Henry and Maggie Connolly. He is multiracial, with African, Irish, and Native American ancestry.
Jones describes his grandmother, Maggie, as "the most racist person I have ever known", thus forcing him to develop his own independent thinking. His grandmother was of Cherokee, Choctaw, and black ancestry.
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James Horner
James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer, orchestrator, and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements. His score to the 1997 film Titanic remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time.
In addition, Horner has scored over 100 films, frequently collaborating with acclaimed directors such as James Cameron and Ron Howard. Some of his most noteworthy works include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Cocoon (1985), An American Tail (1986), Aliens (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), Willow (1988), Glory (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Braveheart (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Troy (2004), and Avatar (2009).
Horner has won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, and has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards. His body of work is also notable for including the scores to the two highest-grossing films of all time; Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), both of which were directed by James Cameron.
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James Levine
James Lawrence Levine ( /lɨˈvaɪn/; born June 23, 1943) is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently on hiatus from his work as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, a situation necessitated by health problems and not due to end before the fall of 2013; the hiatus began in May 2011.
Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and, as of June 2011, he had conducted 2,442 Met performances, a record. The conductor has held music director positions with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. In 1997, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a musical family: his maternal grandfather was a cantor in a synagogue, his father was a violinist who led a dance band, and his mother was an actress. He began to play the piano as a small child. At the age of 10, he made his concert debut as soloist in Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2 at a youth concert of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
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Jay Weinberg
Jay Weinberg (born September 8, 1990) is an American drummer and the son of drummer Max Weinberg. He has played with the punk band The Reveling and toured in 2009 as a drummer with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, substituting for his father. During 2010, he was briefly the drummer for Madball. Since 2011, Weinberg has been playing with Against Me!.
Weinberg is the son of drummer Max Weinberg, who joined the E Street Band in 1974; his mother Becky is a former teacher. He grew up in Middletown Township, New Jersey. As a child, he played travel team ice hockey as a goaltender. At age 9 he first saw the E Street Band on their 1999–2000 Reunion Tour, and saw shows on this and subsequent tours, especially in Europe. Around the same time his father took him to Ozzfest to see Slipknot, which gave him a strong affinity for heavy metal and other intense music genres; his father also exposed him to a wide variety of other music. He began playing guitar at age 9, bass at age 12 or 13. He then started playing drums at age 14, mostly self-taught and without much instruction from his father but using his father's old gear. By the next year he had performed a guest appearance on stage with band The Used and subsequently with punk rockers The Bouncing Souls. He played in the New Jersey metal band Chaosis. He attended Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School where he played on the hockey team for a time, played in a band called Sadie Mae, and graduated in 2008.
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Jennifer Nettles
Jennifer Nettles (born September 12, 1974 in Douglas, Georgia) is an American country music artist. She is known primarily for her role as lead vocalist of the duo Sugarland alongside Kristian Bush. Before Sugarland's inception, she also fronted Atlanta, Georgia-based bands called Soul Miner's Daughter and Jennifer Nettles Band. She also charted as a duet partner on the country version of rock band Bon Jovi's 2006 single "Who Says You Can't Go Home", a Number One hit on the Billboard country charts.
Nettles is a judge on American Broadcast Company's Duets which premiered on May 24, 2012.
Nettles began performing at school assemblies, her Southern Baptist church, and in community theater. She was also a member of Georgia 4-H's Clovers & Company performing arts group from 1986 to 1993.
Nettles studied Sociology and Anthropology at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia and graduated in 1997. While a student there, Nettles and Cory Jones (who at the time was studying classical guitar at the University of Georgia) formed the group Soul Miner’s Daughter. Performing as both an acoustic duo and with a band, they released two albums: The Sacred and Profane in 1996 and Hallelujah in 1998, both of which were composed of songs written collaboratively by Jones and Nettles. Soul Miner's Daughter was invited to perform at the Atlanta installment of Lilith Fair in 1999.
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Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr and Renée Zellweger. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe. The film released in North American theaters on December 13, 1996, distributed by Gracie Films and TriStar Pictures.
The film received mostly positive reviews and, on a $50 million budget, was a financial success, bringing in more than $270 million worldwide.
Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a glossy 35-year-old sports agent working for Sports Management International (SMI). After suffering a nervous breakdown as a result of stress and a guilty conscience, he writes a mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and how he believes that it should be operated. He distributes copies of it, entitled "The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business". His co-workers are touched by his honesty and greet him with applause, but the management sends Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), Maguire's protégé, to fire him. Jerry and Sugar call all of Jerry's clients to try to convince them not to hire the services of the other. Jerry speaks to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), one of his clients who is disgruntled with his contract. Rod tests Jerry's resolve through a very long telephone conversation, which culminates in the famed "Show Me the Money!" scene. Meanwhile, Sugar secures most of Jerry's previous clients. Frank "Cush" Cushman (Jerry O'Connell), a superstar football prospect from Southern Methodist University expected to be #1 in the NFL Draft, also stays with Jerry after he makes a visit to the Cushman home. Leaving the office, Jerry announces he will start his own agency and asks if anyone is willing to join him, to which only 26-year-old single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger) agrees. The two had previously bumped into each other in the airport and Boyd had told Maguire personally how inspiring she found his "memo".
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Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.
One of the most remarkable female opera singers of the 20th century, she was dubbed La Stupenda by a La Fenice audience in 1960 after a performance of the title role in Handel's Alcina. She possessed a voice of beauty and power, combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, "supremely" pinpoint staccatos, a splendid trill and a tremendous upper register, although music critics often complained about the imprecision of her diction. Her friend Luciano Pavarotti once called Sutherland the "Voice of the Century"; Montserrat Caballé described the Australian's voice as being like "heaven".
Joan Sutherland was born to Scottish parents in Sydney, and attended St Catherine's School in the suburb of Waverley, New South Wales. As a child, she listened to and imitated her mother's singing exercises. Her mother, a mezzo-soprano, had taken voice lessons but never considered making a career as a professional singer. Sutherland was 18 years old when she began seriously studying voice with John and Aida Dickens. She made her concert debut in Sydney, as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, in 1947. In 1951, she made her stage debut in Eugene Goossens's Judith. In 1951, after winning Australia's most important competition, the Sun Aria, now known as the Sydney Eisteddfod McDonald's Operatic Aria in 1949. She then went to London to further her studies at the Opera School of the Royal College of Music with Clive Carey. She was engaged by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as a utility soprano, and made her debut there on 28 October 1952, as the First Lady in The Magic Flute, followed in November by a few performances as Clotilde in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, with Maria Callas as Norma.
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John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II (December 15, 1910 – July 10, 1987) was an American record producer, Civil Rights activist, non-musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music.
Hammond was instrumental in sparking or furthering numerous musical careers, including those of Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Big Joe Turner, Pete Seeger, Babatunde Olatunji, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Bob Dylan, Freddie Green, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Arthur Russell, Asha Puthli and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He is also largely responsible for the revival of delta blues artist Robert Johnson's music.
He also strived for racial integration, not only in the musical frontier but in the United States in general.
Hammond was christened John Henry Hammond, Jr., although both his father and grandfather shared the same name. He was the youngest child and only son of John Henry Hammond. His father attended Yale, graduating with a law degree from Columbia. His grandfather was Civil War General John Henry Hammond, who married Sophia Vernon Wolfe. His father was a brother of Ogden H. Hammond, ambassador to Spain, and uncle to politician Millicent Fenwick. Despite the family fortune from his mother's side of the family, his father worked to provide for his family and maintain the family fortune. He worked in various jobs "as a banker, lawyer, and railroad executive".Hammond's mother was the former Emily Vanderbilt Sloane, one of three daughters of William Douglas Sloane and Emily Thorn Vanderbilt. John H. Hammond, Sr. and Emily Sloane were wed on April 5, 1899. They also had four daughters: Emily, Adele, Rachel, and Alice, who married musician Benny Goodman in 1942.
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John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior United States Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to then President George W. Bush.
The son of an Army Air Corps serviceman, Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado. He attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and went on to graduate from Yale University class of 1966, where he majored in political science. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966 and, during 1968-1969, served a four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service he was awarded several combat medals that include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesperson and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war. During that period, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of "war crimes".
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John Leventhal
John Leventhal (born December 18, 1952) is a Grammy Award-winning musician, producer, songwriter, and recording engineer who has produced albums for Michelle Branch, Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin, Rodney Crowell, Jim Lauderdale, Joan Osborne, Loudon Wainwright, The Wreckers and many others. As a musician he has worked with all of the above as well as artists such as Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Bruce Hornsby, Elvis Costello, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Charlie Haden, David Crosby, Levon Helm, Edie Brickell, Paul Simon, Patty Larkin, Susan Tedeschi, Steve Forbert, Kelly Willis and Johnny Cash. As a songwriter he has had over 100 songs recorded by various artists. In 1998 he won a Grammy Award for Record and Song of the year for producing and co-writing the song "Sunny Came Home" (a 1997 hit for Colvin). Albums he has produced have been nominated for a total of 11 Grammy Awards. In 2005 he composed the score for the film Winter Solstice.
Leventhal lives with his wife Rosanne Cash and their children in New York City.
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John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter and author.
Sayles was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary (née Rausch), a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. He was raised Catholic and took to labeling himself "a Catholic atheist".[citation needed] Both of Sayles's parents were of half-Irish descent.
Like Martin Scorsese and James Cameron, among others, Sayles began his film career working with Roger Corman. Sayles went on to fund his first film, Return of the Secaucus 7, with $30,000 he had in the bank from writing scripts for Corman.[citation needed] He set the film in a large house so that he did not have to travel to or get permits for different locations, set it over a three-day weekend to limit costume changes, and wrote about people his age so that he could have his friends act in it. In November 1997, the National Film Preservation Board announced that Return of the Secaucus 7 would be one of the 25 films selected that year for preservation in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.
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John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). He was an author of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories; Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was of German and Irish descent. Johann Adolf Großsteinbeck, Steinbeck's paternal grandfather, had shortened the family name to Steinbeck when he immigrated to the United States. The family farm in Heiligenhaus, Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is still today named "Großsteinbeck."
His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, served as Monterey County treasurer. John's mother, Olive Hamilton, a former school teacher, shared Steinbeck's passion of reading and writing. The Steinbecks were members of the Episcopal Church. Steinbeck lived in a small rural town that was essentially a frontier settlement, set amid some of the world's most fertile land. He spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrant workers on Spreckels ranch. He became aware of the harsher aspects of migrant life and the darker side of human nature, which supplied him with material expressed in such works as Of Mice and Men. He also explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields, and farms.
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John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, War Horse, Home Alone and the first three Harry Potter films. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but two (Duel and The Color Purple) of Spielberg's major feature films.
Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the NBC Nightly News, the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, and the television series Lost in Space. Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.
Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 47 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most nominated person, after Walt Disney. John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
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Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi (born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr., March 2, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the founder, occasional rhythm guitarist, and lead singer of rock band Bon Jovi, which was named after him. During his career, he has released two solo albums and eleven studio albums with his band, which to date have sold over 130 million albums worldwide. Тhe band was declared the second richest band for 2011, behind U2, earning an approximate $125 million income. In addition, Jon Bon Jovi is one of the majority-owners of the Philadelphia Soul, a team playing in the Arena Football League. In 2010, President Barack Obama named Jon Bon Jovi to the White House Council for Community Solutions.
As a solo artist, Bon Jovi has received numerous awards for his work, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for his solo hit, "Blaze of Glory". He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Monmouth University in 2001. He campaigned for Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential election, John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election, and Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election.
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Jon Landau
Jon Landau (born 1947) is an American music critic, manager and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen.
He is currently the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As a critic, Landau wrote for Rolling Stone from its first issue and for other publications. In vol. 1, number 1 of RS, 1967.11.09, Landau compared Jimi Hendrix and his debut album, Are You Experienced, to Eric Clapton and Cream's debut album, Fresh Cream (both released months before, and both Jimi and Cream having made huge American splashes as live performers that summer). The next few issues saw Landau staking out more traditional R&B and soul territory with profiles of Aretha Franklin, and Sam and Dave, plus a posthumous Otis Redding appreciation.
Landau's prophetic 1974 article in The Real Paper, wherein he famously claimed "I saw rock and roll's future and its name is Bruce Springsteen", is credited by Nick Hornby and others with fostering Springsteen's popularity. Landau was then hired by Springsteen, and is cited as co-producer on Springsteen studio records from 1975's Born to Run, through 1992's Human Touch and Lucky Town. He is considered to have influenced Springsteen artistically as well as professionally.
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Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate editor at Rolling Stone and the music editor at The Village Voice. He started contributing to the Times in 1982. He currently reviews popular music in the arts section of the New York Times.
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Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian. He is widely known as host of The Daily Show, a satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central.
Stewart started as a stand-up comedian, but branched into television as host of Short Attention Span Theater for Comedy Central. He went on to host his own show on MTV, called The Jon Stewart Show, and then hosted another show on MTV called You Wrote It, You Watch It. He has also had several film roles as an actor. Stewart became the host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central in early 1999. He is also a writer and co-executive-producer of the show. After Stewart joined, The Daily Show steadily gained popularity and critical acclaim, resulting in his sixteen Emmy Awards.
Stewart has gained acclaim as an acerbic, satirical critic of personality-driven media shows, in particular those of the US media networks such as CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. Critics say Stewart benefits from a double standard: he critiques other news shows from the safe, removed position of his "fake news" desk. Stewart agrees, saying that neither his show nor his channel purports to be anything other than satire and comedy. In spite of its self-professed entertainment mandate, The Daily Show has been nominated for news and journalism awards. Stewart hosted the 78th and 80th Academy Awards. He is the co-author of America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, which was one of the best-selling books in the U.S. in 2004 and Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race released in 2010.
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Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson; November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto. In 1965 she moved to the United States and, touring constantly, began to be recognized when her original songs ("Urge for Going," "Chelsea Morning," "Both Sides, Now," "The Circle Game") were covered by notable folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her own debut album in 1968. Settling in Southern California, Mitchell and her popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock" helped define an era and a generation. Her more starkly personal 1971 recording Blue has been called one of the best albums ever made. Musically restless, Mitchell switched labels and began moving toward jazz rhythms by way of lush pop textures on 1974's Court and Spark, her best-selling LP, featuring her radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris."
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José Antonio Abreu
José Antonio Abreu (born May 7, 1939 in Valera) is a Venezuelan pianist, economist, educator, activist, and politician.
Born in the city of Valera in 1939, Abreu graduated ¨Summa Cum Laude¨ as an Economist at Universidad Católica Andres Bello and he was awarded a PhD degree in Petroleum Economics from the same university in 1961. Abreu also did some graduate work at the University of Michigan. He served as a Deputy at the Chamber of Deputies in the Congress of Venezuela. After his political career, he also worked as a professor of economics and law at Universidad Simón Bolívar and his Alma Mater. He would return to politics briefly in 1983 to serve as Minister of Culture.
Abreu began to study music with Doralisa Jiménez de Medina in Barquisimeto. Later, he attended the Caracas Musical Declamation Academy in 1957, where he studied piano with Moisés Moleiro, organ and harpsichord with Evencio Castellanos, and composition with Vicente Emilio Sojo. In 1967, he received the Symphonic Music National Prize for his musical ability. It was in 1975 that he founded El Sistema, formally known as the Foundation for the National Network of Youth and Children Orchestras of Venezuela.
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Julianne Phillips
Julianne Phillips (born May 6, 1960) is an American model and actress. She is the ex-wife of Bruce Springsteen.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Phillips was raised in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego, Oregon, the daughter of insurance broker, William Phillips, and wife, Ann Phillips. She was the youngest of six children in a Roman Catholic family. Phillips is a graduate of Lake Oswego High School and Brooks College. She was a cheerleader and the Christmas Princess in 9th grade.
She began work as a model in Manhattan in the early 1980s. By 1982 she was represented by the Elite Modeling Agency, which characterized her as a "perfect ten package", earning as much as $2,000 a day. She then moved to Los Angeles, where she appeared in a .38 Special music video. This led to her first notable acting roles, in 1984's made-for-TV movies Summer Fantasy and the Robert Urich vehicle His Mistress. She also appears at the end of the Bruce Springsteen music video "Glory Days".
Although 11 years younger, Phillips ultimately became best known for being the girlfriend, and later the first wife, of musician, Bruce Springsteen. Phillips met him in October 1984, and they were married in Lake Oswego on May 13, 1985, surrounded by intense media attention.
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Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE (née Wells; born 1 October 1935) is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honours.
Andrews is a former child actress and singer who made her Broadway debut in a 1954 production of The Boy Friend, and rose to prominence starring in musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, both of which earned her Tony Award nominations. In 1957, she made her television debut with the title role in Cinderella, which was seen by over 100 million viewers.
Andrews made her feature film debut in Mary Poppins (1964), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received her second Academy Award nomination for The Sound of Music (1965). Adjusted for inflation, these two films are the 25th and 3rd highest grossing films of all time, respectively. From 1964 to 1967, Andrews was the biggest film star in the world, with the additional box office successes of her films The Americanization of Emily, Hawaii, Torn Curtain, and Thoroughly Modern Millie.
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Julie Gold
Julie Gold (born February 3, 1956 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a New York singer-songwriter. She is best known for Bette Midler's version of her song "From a Distance" which won the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1991.
That song has since received close to four million airplays. It has been recited into the Congressional Record (by Senator Barbara Boxer). It has been recorded internationally and translated into many languages. It has been illustrated as a children’s book and mass-produced in music boxes. It has been quoted in books, calendars, and greeting cards. It was used as the wake-up call for astronauts in the Mir space station the first time Americans worked with Russians in space. A wide range of recording artists has covered it, including Jewel, Elaine Paige, Cliff Richard, the African Children's Choir, Judy Collins, the Byrds, Fairport Convention and Donna Summer.
Nanci Griffith, the first to record "From a Distance", has also recorded Gold's songs "Heaven", "Southbound Train", "Good Night New York", and "Mountain of Sorrow". Other artists who have covered Julie Gold songs include Patti LaBelle, Patti LuPone, Lea Salonga, and Andrea Marcovicci. Her song "Thanks to You" was featured in the 1993 film Andre, and her song "Dream Loud" was featured in the 2002 film Unfaithful.
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Julie Harris
Julia Ann "Julie" Harris (born December 2, 1925) is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. She also received the 2002 Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.
Harris's screen debut was in 1952, repeating her Broadway success as the monumentally lonely teenage girl Frankie in Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. That film also preserves the original Broadway cast performances of Ethel Waters and Brandon DeWilde. That same year, she won her first Best Actress Tony for originating the role of insouciant Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera, the stage version of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin (later musicalized as Cabaret on Broadway in 1966 and, in the 1972 film, with Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles.) Harris repeated her stage role in the 1955 film version of I Am a Camera. She also appeared in such films as East of Eden (1955), with James Dean (with whom she became close friends), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), with Paul Newman in the private-detective film Harper in 1966, and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967).
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Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945, in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.
Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as a group leader and a solo performer. His improvisations draw not only from the traditions of jazz, but from other genres as well, especially Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.
In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize, the first (and to this day only) recipient not to share the prize with a co-recipient, and in 2004 he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.
In 2008, he was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll.
Jarrett grew up in suburban Allentown, Pennsylvania, with significant early exposure to music. He possessed absolute pitch, and he displayed prodigious musical talents as a young child. He began piano lessons just before his third birthday, and at age five he appeared on a TV talent program hosted by the swing bandleader Paul Whiteman. The young Jarrett gave his first formal piano recital at the age of seven, playing works by composers including Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns, and ending with two of his own compositions. Encouraged especially by his mother, Jarrett took intensive classical piano lessons with a series of teachers, including Eleanor Sokoloff of the Curtis Institute.
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Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob. Although primarily known for the View Askew film series, Smith also wrote, directed and produced films such as the buddy cop action comedy Cop Out, as well as the horror film Red State. His first several films were mostly set in his home state of New Jersey, and while not strictly sequential, they frequently feature crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon in what is known by fans as the "View Askewniverse", named after his production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.
Smith is also the owner of Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash comic book and novelty store in Red Bank, New Jersey. He co-hosts several weekly podcasts that are recorded at various locations around the world and released on SModcast Internet Radio. Smith is well known for participating in long, humorous Q&A sessions that are often filmed for DVD release, beginning with An Evening with Kevin Smith.
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Larry Henley
Larry Henley is an American singer and songwriter, born June 30, 1941 in Arp, Texas. He is perhaps best known for co-writing (with Jeff Silbar) the 1989 hit record, "Wind Beneath My Wings". The single was a U.S. number one hit for Bette Midler, and has since totaled around six million radio airplays.
The song earned Henley and Silbar the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for 1989, and Bette Midler the Record of the Year award.
He was also the lead singer of pop group The Newbeats in the mid-1960s. The group two hits that charted in the top 20 of Billboard magazine, one. "Bread and Butter," reaching No. 2 on the Billboard charts and selling over a million copies.
Henley has also composed a number of soundtracks in movies.
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Larry Mullen, Jr.
Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Mullen, Jr. (born 31 October 1961) is an Irish musician best known as the drummer for the Irish rock band U2. He is the founder of U2, which he later described as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." He has worked on numerous side projects during his career, including a collaboration with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. to form Automatic Baby in 1993 and working with bandmate Adam Clayton on the re-recording of the theme to Mission: Impossible, in 1996. He and U2 have won many awards, including 22 Grammy awards.
Mullen, the middle child and only son of Larry and Maureen Mullen, was born 31 October 1961 in Artane, Dublin, Ireland. Mullen began drumming in 1970, at the age of 9, under the instruction of Irish drummer Joe Bonnie and, later, Bonnie's daughter Monica. His mother died in a car accident in November 1978, two years after U2 was founded.
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Leon Fleisher
Leon Fleisher (born July 23, 1928) is an American pianist and conductor.
Fleisher was born in San Francisco, where he started studying the piano at age four. He made his public debut at age eight and played with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Monteux at 16; Monteux famously called him "the pianistic find of the century." He became one of the few child prodigies to be accepted for study with Artur Schnabel and also studied with Maria Curcio. Fleisher was linked via Schnabel to a tradition that descended directly from Beethoven himself, handed down through Carl Czerny and Theodor Leschetizky.
In the 1950s, Fleisher signed an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Masterworks. He is particularly well known for his interpretations of the piano concerti of Brahms and Beethoven, which he recorded with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. They also recorded Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25, the Grieg and Schumann piano concertos, Franck's Symphonic Variations, and Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
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Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 13, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, author, and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and was known for his leading influence in rock music criticism.
Bangs was born in Escondido, California, the son of Norma Belle (née Clifton) and Conway Leslie Bangs, a truck driver. His parents were both from Texas, his father from Enlow and his mother from Pecos County. His mother was a devout Jehovah's Witness; his father died in a fire when Bangs was young. In 1969, Bangs began writing freelance after reading an ad in Rolling Stone soliciting readers' reviews. His first piece was a negative review of the MC5 album, Kick Out The Jams, which he sent to Rolling Stone with a note requesting that if the magazine were to pass on publishing the review, that he receive a reason for their decision; however, no reply was forthcoming as the magazine did indeed publish the review.
Bangs wrote about Janis Joplin's death by drug overdose, "It's not just that this kind of early death has become a fact of life that has become disturbing, but that it's been accepted as a given so quickly". In 1973, Jann Wenner fired Bangs from Rolling Stone, a negative review of Canned Heat being the final event. He moved to Detroit to edit and write for Creem. After leaving Creem, he wrote for The Village Voice, Penthouse, Playboy, New Musical Express, and many other publications.
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Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (12 October 1935 – 6 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor, who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, and established himself as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century. He was one of The Three Tenors and became well known for his televised concerts and media appearances. Pavarotti was also noted for his charity work on behalf of refugees and the Red Cross, amongst others.
Pavarotti began his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy. That same year, he made his first international appearance in La traviata in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He sang in opera houses in addition to Italy, in the Netherlands, Vienna, London, Ankara, Budapest and Barcelona. The young tenor earned valuable experience and recognition while touring Australia at the invitation of soprano Joan Sutherland in 1965. He made his United States debut in Miami soon afterwards, also on Sutherland's recommendation. His position as a leading lyric tenor was consolidated in the years between 1966 and 1972, during which time he first appeared at Milan's La Scala and other major European houses. In 1968, he debuted at New York City's Metropolitan Opera as Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème. At the Met in 1972, in the role of Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment he earned the title "King of the high Cs" when he sang the aria "Ah mes amis ... pour mon âme". He gained worldwide fame for the brilliance and beauty of his tone, especially into the upper register. He was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-Aida Verdi roles and Puccini works such as La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. The late 1970s and 1980s saw Pavarotti continue to make significant appearances in the world's foremost opera houses.
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Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( /skɔrˈsɛsɛ/; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation. He is a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema, and has won Academy Award, Palme d'Or, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and DGA Awards.
Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption,machismo, modern crime, and violence. Scorsese is hailed as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers of all time, directing landmark films such as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and Goodfellas (1990) – all of which he collaborated on with actor and close friend Robert De Niro. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), having been nominated a previous five times.
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Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg (born April 13, 1951) is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey and began drumming at an early age. He attended college planning to be a lawyer but got his big break in music in 1974 when he won an audition to become the drummer for Springsteen. His powerful but controlled playing on albums such as Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. stabilized the E Street Band sound and Weinberg became a mainstay of Springsteen's long concert performances. Springsteen dissolved the band in 1989 and Weinberg spent several years considering a law career and trying the business end of the music industry before deciding he wanted to continue with drumming.
In 1993, Weinberg got the role as bandleader of The Max Weinberg 7 for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Weinberg's drums-driven jump blues sound and his role as a comic foil prospered along with the show, giving him a second career. In 1999, Springsteen reformed the E Street Band for a series of tours and albums; Weinberg worked out an arrangement that allowed him to play with both O'Brien and Springsteen. In 2009, Weinberg moved to the short-lived Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien as leader of Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band. After that ended, he formed and toured with a new ensemble, the Max Weinberg Big Band, and in 2010 chose not to follow O'Brien to the new Conan show.
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Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947), better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor. He is noted for the Bat Out of Hell album trilogy consisting of Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. Bat Out of Hell has sold more than 43 million copies. After more than 30 years, it still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually and stayed on the charts for over nine years, making it one of the best selling albums of all time.
Although he enjoyed success with Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and earned a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo for the song "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" on the latter album, Meat Loaf experienced some initial difficulty establishing a steady career within his native US. However, he has retained iconic status and popularity in Europe, especially the UK, where he ranks 23rd for the number of weeks overall spent on the charts. He ranked 96th on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".
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Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows. He became well known as part of the comedy duo with Carl Reiner, The 2000 Year Old Man. In middle age he became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top ten money makers of the year that they were released. His most well known films include The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, History of the World, Part I and Spaceballs. More recently he has had a smash hit on Broadway with the musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers. He was married to the actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005.
Brooks is a member of the short list of entertainers with the distinction of having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. Three of his films ranked in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of all-time: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13.
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Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American rock singer-songwriter and activist.
Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals. She has also been an iconic gay and lesbian activist since her public coming out in January 1993.
Born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the younger of two girls, to John Etheridge, a psychology teacher at Leavenworth High School, and Elizabeth Williamson, a computer consultant. She attended David Brewer School, which is still located at 17th and Osage Streets. She graduated in 1979 from Leavenworth High School (LHS), 10th Avenue and Halderman. Etheridge was a member of the first "Power and Life" musical/dance group at LHS which is still active today. Her childhood home was at 1902 Miami Street.
Etheridge's interest in music began early; she picked up her first guitar at 8. She began to play in all-men country music groups throughout her teenage years, until she moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music.
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Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.
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Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and a founder member of The Rolling Stones.
Jagger's career has spanned over fifty years. Allmusic has described Jagger as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll". His distinctive voice and performance, along with Keith Richards' guitar style, have been the trademark of The Rolling Stones throughout the career of the band. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Rolling Stones.
Jagger gained much press notoriety for admitted drug use and romantic involvements, and was often portrayed as a counterculture figure. In the late 1960s Jagger began acting in films (starting with Performance and Ned Kelly), to mixed reception. In 1985, Jagger released his first solo album, She's the Boss, and was knighted in 2003. In early 2009, he joined the eclectic supergroup SuperHeavy.
Jagger was born into a middle class family at Livingstone Hospital, in Dartford, Kent, England. His father, Basil Fanshawe ("Joe") Jagger (13 April 1913 – 11 November 2006), and his grandfather David Ernest Jagger were both teachers. His mother, Eva Ensley Mary (née Scutts; 6 April 1913 – 18 May 2000), born in New South Wales, Australia, was a hairdresser and an active member of the Conservative Party. Jagger is the elder of two sons (his brother Chris Jagger was born on 19 December 1947) and was raised to follow in his father's career path.
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Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. (born September 16, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films.
During the 1980s, Rourke starred in Diner, Rumble Fish, and the erotic drama 9½ Weeks, and received critical praise for his work in Barfly and Angel Heart. In 1991, Rourke, who had trained as a boxer in his early years, left acting and became a professional boxer for a period. He had supporting roles in several later films, including The Rainmaker, Buffalo '66, The Pledge, Get Carter, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Man on Fire.
In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in Sin City, for which he won awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Irish Film and Television Awards and the Online Film Critics Society. In the 2008 film The Wrestler, Rourke portrayed a past-his-prime wrestler, and received a 2009 Golden Globe award, a BAFTA award, and a nomination for an Academy Award.
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Mike Appel
Mike Appel (born October 27, 1942) is an American music industry manager and record producer, best known for his role in both capacities in the early career of Bruce Springsteen.
Appel was born in Flushing in Queens, New York, of three-quarters Irish and one-quarter Jewish heritage and was raised Roman Catholic. His father was a successful real estate broker on Long Island. Appel began playing the guitar at age fourteen.
Appel was a guitarist and songwriter for several obscure groups during the 1950s and 1960s. He was a member of The Balloon Farm, and co-wrote their 1967 hit A Question of Temperature. He also was a producer and songwriter for the early metal band Sir Lord Baltimore.
In 1971, Carl 'Tinker' West, the manager of some of Springsteen's early bands - Child, Steel Mill and The Bruce Springsteen Band - referred Springsteen to Appel. Springsteen auditioned for Appel in 1971; Appel told him to come back when he had written more songs. When Springsteen returned in 1972, Appel signed Springsteen to a production contract, and got Springsteen the audition with CBS Records' John H. Hammond that led to CBS's signing Springsteen. He produced Springsteen's first two albums, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, both released in 1973. He also co-produced Springsteen's third and breakthrough album, Born to Run.
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Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931) is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate. His other noteworthy films include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Carnal Knowledge, Working Girl, Closer and the TV mini-series Angels in America. He also staged the original theatrical productions of Barefoot in the Park, Luv, The Odd Couple and Spamalot.
Nichols is one of a small group of people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. His other honors include the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010.
Mike Nichols was born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany, the son of Brigitte (née Landauer) and Paul Peschkowsky, a physician. His father was born in Vienna, Austria, to a Russian Jewish immigrant family that had been wealthy and lived in Siberia, leaving after the Russian Revolution and settling in Germany around 1920. His mother's family were German Jews. His maternal grandparents were anarchist Gustav Landauer and author Hedwig Lachmann. Nichols is a third cousin twice removed of scientist Albert Einstein, through Nichols' mother. He moved to the United States to flee the Nazis on April 28, 1939. His father, who had changed his name to Paul Nichols, had successfully set up a medical practice in Manhattan and the family lived near Central Park. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1944 and attended public elementary school in Manhattan (PS 87). After graduating from Walden High School, Nichols briefly attended New York University before dropping out. In 1950, he enrolled in the pre-med program at the University of Chicago.
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Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov (Russian: Михаи́л Никола́евич Бары́шников, Latvian: Mihails Barišņikovs) (born January 27, 1948), nicknamed "Misha", is a Russian American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers in history. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in western dance. After freelancing with many companies, he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer to learn George Balanchine's style of movement. He then danced with the American Ballet Theatre, where he later became artistic director.
Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary ballet dancer. In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his work as "Yuri Kopeikine" in the film The Turning Point.
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Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby. He has also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Freeman has appeared in many other box office hits, including Unforgiven, Glory, Seven, Deep Impact, The Sum of All Fears, Bruce Almighty, Batman Begins, March of the Penguins, The Bucket List, Wanted, The Dark Knight, and RED.
Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Mayme Edna (née Revere), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber who died April 27, 1961, from cirrhosis. He has three older siblings. Freeman was sent as an infant to his paternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi. His family moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; and finally Chicago, Illinois. Freeman made his acting debut at age 9, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, later named Threadgill Elementary School, in Mississippi. At age 12, he won a statewide drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1955, he graduated from Broad Street, but turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, opting instead to work as a mechanic in the United States Air Force.
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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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Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Count Nikolaus de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt) (born 6 December 1929) is an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement. Around 1970, Harnoncourt started to conduct opera and concert performances, soon leading renowned international symphony orchestras, and appearing at leading concert halls, operatic venues and festivals. His repertoire has since widened to include composers of the 19th and 20th century. In 2001 and 2003, he conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert. Harnoncourt is also the author of several books, mostly on questions of performance history and musical aesthetics.
Harnoncourt was born in Berlin, Germany. He was raised in Graz, Austria and studied music in Vienna. His mother, Ladislaja Gräfin von Meran, Freiin von Brandhoven, was the granddaughter of the Habsburg Archduke Johann, the 13th child of the Emperor Leopold II. He is thus descended from various Holy Roman Emperors and other European royalty. His father, Eberhard de la Fontaine Graf d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt, was an engineer working in Berlin who had two children from a previous marriage. Two years after Nikolaus's birth, his brother Philipp was born. The family eventually moved to Graz, where Eberhard had obtained a post in the state-government (Landesregierung) of Styria.
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Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis (born Raiford Chatman Davis, December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an Emmy Award winning and Grammy nominated, African- American film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author, and social activist.
Davis was born Raiford Chatman Davis in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia, a son of Kince Charles Davis, a railway construction engineer, and his wife Laura (née Cooper). The name Ossie came from a county clerk who misheard his mother's pronunciation of his initials "R.C." when he was born. So he inadvertently became "Ossie" when his mother told the courthouse clerk in Clinch River, Ga., who was filing his birth certificate that his name was R.C. Davis. Davis experienced racism from an early age as the KKK threatened to shoot his father, whose job they felt was too advanced for a black man to have. Following the wishes of his parents, he attended Howard University but dropped out in 1939 to fulfill his acting career in New York; he later attended Columbia University School of General Studies. His acting career, which spanned seven decades, began in 1939 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem. He made his film debut in 1950 in the Sidney Poitier film No Way Out. He voiced Anansi the spider on the PBS children's television series Sesame Street in its animation segments.
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Pamela Springsteen
Pamela Colleen Springsteen (born February 8, 1962) is an American actress and photographer. She had a short acting career, and is best known for playing the role of serial killer Angela Baker in Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland. She is now a successful photographer. Pam is the younger sister of Bruce Springsteen.
Pam was born in Freehold Township, New Jersey to Adele Ann (née Zerilli), a legal secretary of Italian ancestry, and Douglas Frederick "Dutch" Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry, and worked as a bus driver. In addition to her older brother, who Pam sometimes went on tour with, she has a sister, Virginia Springsteen Shave.
Pam took up acting, and was cast in her first role as a young cheerleader in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She also appeared as a cheerleader in the 1984 film Reckless. She also appeared in Modern Girls, and Scenes from the Goldmine. Pam's first ever lead role came in 1988 when she accepted the role as psychotic serial killer "Angela Baker" in the low budget cult horror Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, and in 1989, Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland, which has earned her a cult following among horror fans. Her final film appearance to date was in 1990's The Gumshoe Kid.
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Patti Scialfa
Vivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa ("SCIAL-fah") (born July 29, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.
Scialfa was born in Deal, New Jersey. She was the middle child of Joseph Scialfa and Vivienne (née Morris) Scialfa. Her father was of Sicilian ancestry and her mother is of Scots-Irish ancestry. She also has half-siblings from her father's second marriage. Her father was a successful local entrepreneur, who started with a single television store and became a real estate developer.
Scialfa graduated from Asbury Park High School in 1971.
Scialfa was writing songs from an early age and first worked professionally as a back-up singer for New Jersey bar bands after she completed high school. In 1994, she stated in a Lear's Magazine interview that she had little talent for anything but music and that she attended college as a way to further her ambitions as a performer while also satisfying parental expectations. She has a music degree from New York University, earned after she transferred from the University of Miami's highly-respected jazz conservatory at the Frost School of Music.
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Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.
Called the "Godmother of Punk", her work was a fusion of rock and poetry. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids. She is also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.
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Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.
According to the BBC, his Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, "Mull of Kintyre", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness. As a songwriter or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States.
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Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is a grammy award winning American singer-songwriter, poet and guitarist.
Simon's international fame and success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, launched in 1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". The duo split up in 1970 at the height of their popularity, and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three highly acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music. Simon also wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony in 1980 and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman in 1998.
Simon has earned 12 Grammys for his solo and collaborative work, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine. Among many other honors, Simon was the first recipient of the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007. In 1986 Simon was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees.
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Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger (born May 3, 1919) is an American folk singer and an iconic figure in the mid-20th-century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of The Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, and environmental causes.
As a song writer, he is best known as the author or co-author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)", (composed with Lee Hays of The Weavers), and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962); Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962); and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s, as did Judy Collins in 1964, and The Seekers in 1966. Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists) that became the acknowledged anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement, soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. In the PBS "American Masters" episode Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, Seeger states it was he who changed the lyric from the traditional "We will overcome" to the more singable "We shall overcome".
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Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend (born 19 May 1945) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career. His career with The Who spans more than 40 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the 1960s and 1970s, and, according to Eddie Vedder, "possibly the greatest live band ever."
Townshend is the primary songwriter for The Who, having written well over 100 songs for the band's 11 studio albums, including concept albums and the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, plus popular rock and roll radio staples like Who's Next, and dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilations like Odds & Sods. He has also written over 100 songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs. Although known primarily as a guitarist, he also plays other instruments such as keyboards, banjo, accordion, synthesiser, bass guitar and drums, on his own solo albums, several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to a wide array of other artists' recordings. Townshend has never had formal lessons in any of the instruments he plays.
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Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. His 1986 album, So, is his most commercially successful, and the album's biggest hit, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and the song is the most played music video in the history of the station.
More recently, Gabriel has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. Gabriel has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1987, six Grammy Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2007 he was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his “influence on generations of music makers.” Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.
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Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist.
Collins sang the lead vocals on several chart hits in the United Kingdom and the United States between 1975 and 2010, either as a solo artist or with Genesis. His singles, sometimes dealing with lost love, ranged from the drum-heavy "In the Air Tonight", dance pop of "Sussudio", piano-driven "Against All Odds", to the political statements of "Another Day in Paradise".
Collins's professional music career began as a drummer, originally in a band called The Real Thing with Andrea Bertorelli, who later became his first wife. Collins played drums and shared lead vocals (with Brian Chatton) in Flaming Youth which recorded one album, (Ark II). In 1970, he took over drums for Genesis, which had already recorded two albums. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs: "For Absent Friends" from 1971's Nursery Cryme album and "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973. Following Gabriel's departure in 1975, Collins became the group's lead singer.
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Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ bu.lɛːz]) (born 26 March 1925) is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.
Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics. He pursued the latter at Lyon before pursuing music at the Paris Conservatoire under Olivier Messiaen and the wife of Arthur Honegger, Andrée Vaurabourg.
Through Messiaen, Boulez discovered twelve-tone technique — which he would later study privately with René Leibowitz — and went on to write atonal music in a post-Webernian serial style. Boulez was initially part of a cadre of early supporters of Leibowitz, but due to an altercation with Leibowitz, their relations turned divisive, as Boulez spent much of his career promoting the music of Messiaen instead.
The first fruits of this were his cantatas Le visage nuptial and Le soleil des eaux for female voices and orchestra, both composed in the late 1940s and revised several times since, as well as the Second Piano Sonata of 1948, a well-received 32-minute work that Boulez composed at the age of 23. Thereafter, Boulez was influenced by Messiaen's research to extend twelve-tone technique beyond the realm of pitch organization, serialising durations, dynamics, mode of attack, and so on. This technique became known as integral serialism.
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Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈplaθiðo ðoˈmiŋɡo]; born 21 January 1941), born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range. In March 2008, he debuted in his 128th opera role, and as of July 2011, his 136 roles give Domingo more roles than any other tenor.
One of The Three Tenors, he has also taken on conducting opera and concert performances, and he is the General Director of the Los Angeles Opera in California.
Plácido Domingo was born on January 21, 1941, in the distrito de Retiro section of Madrid, Spain, and in 1949 moved to Mexico with his family, who ran a zarzuela company. He studied piano at first privately and later at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City.
In 1957, Domingo made his first professional appearance, performing with his mother in a concert at Mérida, Yucatán. He made his opera debut performing in Manuel Fernández Caballero's zarzuela, Gigantes y cabezudos, singing a baritone role. At that time, he was working with his parents' zarzuela company, taking baritone roles and as an accompanist for other singers. Among his first performances was a minor role in the first Mexican production of My Fair Lady where he was also the assistant conductor and assistant coach. The company gave 185 performances, which included a production of Lehár's The Merry Widow in which he performed alternately as either Camille or Danilo.
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Prince (musician)
Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson; June 7, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings. In addition, Prince has been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E., Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6, and his songs have been recorded by these artists and others (including Chaka Khan, The Bangles, Sinéad O'Connor, and even Kim Basinger). He also has several hundred unreleased songs in his "vault".
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince developed an interest in music at an early age, writing his first song at age seven. After recording songs with his cousin's band 94 East, seventeen-year-old Prince recorded several unsuccessful demo tapes before releasing his debut album, For You, in 1978. His 1979 album, Prince, went platinum due to the success of the singles "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover". His next three records, Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), and 1999 (1982) continued his success, showcasing Prince's trademark of prominently sexual lyrics and incorporation of elements of funk, dance and rock music. In 1984, he began referring to his backup band as The Revolution and released the album Purple Rain, which served as the soundtrack to his film debut of the same name.
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Quincy Jones
Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, conductor, arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is particularly recognized as the producer of the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson, which has sold more than 110 million copies worldwide, and as the producer and conductor of the charity song “We Are the World”.
In 1968, Jones and his songwriting partner Bob Russell became the first African Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song "The Eyes of Love" from the Universal Pictures film Banning. That same year, he became the first African American to be nominated twice within the same year when he was nominated for Best Original Score for his work on the music of the 1967 film In Cold Blood. In 1971, Jones would receive the honor of becoming the first African American to be named musical director/conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony. He was the first African American to win the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1995. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African American, each of them having seven nominations. At the 2008 BET Awards, Quincy Jones was presented with the Humanitarian Award. He was played by Larenz Tate in the 2004 biopic about Ray Charles, Ray.
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Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (Bengali: রবি শংকর; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury on 7 April 1920), often referred to with the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the most known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.
Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.
In 1956, he began to tour Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards. He continues to perform in the 2000s, often with his daughter Anoushka.
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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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Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice. Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also speaks fluent German and French, along with limited Italian. Her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka, the title role in Massenet's Manon, the title role in Massenet's Thaïs, the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, and the title role in Arabella.
A Richard Tucker Award winner, she regularly performs in opera houses and concert halls worldwide. In 2008 she was awarded the Swedish Polar Music Prize for her services in music.
Conductor Sir Georg Solti said of Fleming, "In my long life, I have met maybe two sopranos with this quality of singing; the other was Renata Tebaldi."
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Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, (born Jaime Royal Robertson, July 5, 1943)OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.The Band has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. As a songwriter Robertson is responsible for such classics as "The Weight", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Up On Cripple Creek", "Broken Arrow" and "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", and has been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Robertson was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to a Jewish father and a Mohawk mother. He had his earliest exposure to music at Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, where he spent summers with his mother's family.
By 1958, Robertson was performing in various groups around Toronto, including Little Caesar and the Consuls, Robbie and the Robots, and Thumper and the Trambones. By 1959 he had met singer Ronnie Hawkins, who led a band called The Hawks. In 1960 Hawkins recorded two early Robertson songs, "Hey Boba Lu" and "Someone Like You" on his Mr. Dynamo LP. Robertson then took over lead guitar with The Hawks and toured often, before splitting from Hawkins in 1963. Robertson's skill on his instrument continued to increase, leading Howard Sounes to write, "By twenty-two, he was a guitar virtuoso."
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Robert Moog
Robert Arthur "Bob" Moog (/ˈmoʊɡ/ MOHG; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005), founder of Moog Music, was an American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.
Bob Moog's innovative electronic design is employed in numerous synthesizers including the Minimoog Model D, Minimoog Voyager, Little Phatty, Moog Taurus Bass Pedals, Moog Minitaur, and the Moogerfooger line of effects pedals.
A native of New York City, Moog attended the Bronx High School of Science in New York, graduating in 1952. Moog earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Queens College, New York in 1957, another in electrical engineering from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell University. Moog's awards include honorary doctorates from Polytechnic Institute of New York University (New York City) and Lycoming College (Williamsport, Pennsylvania).
During his lifetime, Moog founded two companies for manufacturing electronic musical instruments. He also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research at Kurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988, helping to develop the Kurzweil K2000. He spent the early 1990s as a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
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Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. (born August 18, 1936), better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime Achievement in 2002. In 2010 he was awarded French Knighthood in the Legion d'Honneur. At the height of his fame in the 1970s and 1980s, he was often described as one of the world's most attractive men and remains one of the most popular movie stars. His popular films include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Downhill Racer (1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Candidate (1972), The Sting (1973), The Way We Were (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), All the President's Men (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985), Sneakers (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993),The Last Castle and Spy Game (2001). As a filmmaker, his notable films include Ordinary People (1980), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), A River Runs Through It (1992), Quiz Show (1994), The Horse Whisperer (1998) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000).
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Roger Daltrey
Roger Harry Daltrey, CBE (born 1 March 1944), is an English singer, musician, songwriter and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also producing films. In 2008 he was ranked number 61 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.
Roger Harry Daltrey was born in the Hammersmith area of London, but was brought up in Acton, the same working class suburban district that produced fellow Who members Pete Townshend and John Entwistle. He was one of three children born to parents Irene and Harry Daltrey, and grew up with two sisters, Gillian and Carol. Harry Daltrey worked for a water closet manufacturer, and Irene Daltrey was told she would be unable to have children because of losing a kidney in 1937. Nevertheless, she went into labour during a World War II air raid and gave birth to her son at the nearby Hammersmith Hospital, West London. At the age of three, the young Roger swallowed a rusty nail which had to be surgically removed, leaving a visible scar. At the age of five, the rust from the nail caused an ulcer in his stomach which required him to be hospitalised.
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Ronnie Spector
Ronnie Spector (born Veronica Yvette Bennett, August 10, 1943) is an American rock and roll and popular music vocalist, and was the lead singer of the 1960s hit-making girl group, The Ronettes, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. She is known as the "original bad girl of rock and roll."
She was born Veronica Yvette Bennett in New York City on August 10, 1943. From an early age, Ronnie took to singing, encouraged by her large, close family. The other members of the Ronettes, her sister, Estelle Bennett (1941–2009), and cousin, Nedra Talley, were also encouraged to sing by their family. The Ronettes were a multiracial group. The Bennetts' mother was African-American and Cherokee, and their father was Irish; their cousin, Nedra Talley, is African-American and Puerto Rican.
Bennett was married to Phil Spector from 1968 to 1974, and took his name professionally; they adopted three children, including a set of twins, whom Phil adopted as a single parent after Ronnie and the youngest child left.
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Roy Bittan
Roy J. Bittan (born July 2, 1949) is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974. Bittan, nicknamed The Professor, plays the piano, organ, accordion and synthesizers.
Aside from his membership in Bruce Springsteen's band, Bittan has played on several dozen albums as a session musician primarily for notable singer-songwriters, and rock and pop artists. Some of the prominent musicians with whom he has recorded include Jon Bon Jovi, David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Tracy Chapman, Chicago, Catie Curtis, Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel, Ian Hunter, Meat Loaf, Stevie Nicks, Bob Seger, Celine Dion, Patty Smyth, Jim Steinman, and Bonnie Tyler.[citation needed]
Bittan was born in Belle Harbor, Queens, New York City. He is a long-time member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, and has performed on the majority of Springsteen's albums, beginning with Born to Run in 1975. In Springsteen's band introductions, Bittan's "Professor" moniker was given, (albeit falsely) to his being the only group member with a high school diploma. Bittan provided background vocals for most of the songs on Born to Run, along with Steven Van Zandt. His voice is also featured slightly on the vocal weaving in "Out in the Street". However, from the Born in the U.S.A. Tour on, his voice was no longer used. When Springsteen decided to break his connection with the E Street Band in 1989, Roy Bittan was the one member he retained, both in studio and on the "Other Band" Tour.
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Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee (born October 27, 1924) is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist. She is perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and the film American Gangster (2007) for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has won a Grammy, Emmy, Obie, Drama Desk, Screen Actors Guild Award, Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors, among scores of others awards.
Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Gladys Hightower and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace, a cook, waiter, and porter. After her mother left the family, Dee's father married Emma Amelia Benson, a schoolteacher. Dee grew up in Harlem, New York. She attended Hunter College High School and went on to graduate from Hunter College with degrees in French and Spanish in 1944. Dee is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Dee made several appearances on Broadway before receiving national recognition for her role in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story. Her career in acting has crossed all major forms of media over a span of eight decades, including the films A Raisin in the Sun, in which she recreated her stage role as a suffering housewife in the projects, and Edge of the City. She played both roles opposite Sidney Poitier. During the 1960s, Dee appeared in such politically charged films as Gone Are the Days and The Incident, which is recognized as helping pave the way for young African-American actors and filmmakers.
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Ryan Bingham
Ryan Bingham (born March 31, 1981) is an Americana singer-songwriter currently based in Los Angeles, California.
After garnering critical acclaim for his first two studio releases on Lost Highway Records, 2007's Mescalito and 2009's Roadhouse Sun, Ryan Bingham went on to collaborate with Grammy-winning producer T Bone Burnett on the soundtrack for the 2009 acclaimed film Crazy Heart, including notably co-penning & performing the film’s award-winning theme song "The Weary Kind". The title track earned Bingham an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Critics' Choice Award for “Best Song” in 2010, as well as a Grammy Award for "Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media" in 2011. As a result of his monumental year, the Americana Music Association honored Bingham with the organization's top award in 2010: “Artist of the Year”.
Ryan Bingham joined back up with his band The Dead Horses to release their third studio album Junky Star on August 31, 2010. The album debuted in the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 Chart & in the Top 10 on the Billboard Rock Album Chart, making Junky Star Bingham’s highest charting & most successful release to date.
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Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel (born 19 February 1963 in Paddington, London, England), popularly known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award. Seal is known for his numerous international hits; the best known being "Kiss from a Rose", which appeared in the soundtrack to the 1995 film Batman Forever. He has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. He is a coach on The Voice Australia.
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel was born on 19 February 1963 in Paddington, London, England. He is the son of Adebisi and Francis Samuel. His mother is Nigerian, while his father is Brazilian. Seal's name, Olusegun, means "God is victorious" in the Yoruba language. He was raised in a district of the City of Westminster in inner London by his foster family. He received a two-year diploma, or associate's degree, in architecture and worked in various jobs in the London area. Although there have long been rumours as to the cause of the scars on his face, they are in fact the result of a type of Lupus called Discoid lupus erythematosus – a condition that specifically affects the skin above the neck.
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Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his left-wing political and social activism (including humanitarian work). He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River (2003) and Milk (2008), as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.
Penn began his acting career in television with a brief appearance in a 1974 episode of Little House on the Prairie, directed by his father Leo Penn. Following his film debut in 1981's Taps and a diverse range of film roles in the 1980s, Penn emerged as a prominent leading actor with the 1995 drama film Dead Man Walking, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination and the Best Actor Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Penn received another two Oscar nominations for Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and I Am Sam (2001), before winning his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 for Mystic River and a second one in 2008 for Milk. He has also won a Best Actor Award of the Cannes Film Festival for She's So Lovely (1997), and two Best Actor Awards at the Venice Film Festival for Hurlyburly (1998) and 21 Grams (2003).
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Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin (b. January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician.
Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota and spent her youth in London, Ontario and Carbondale, Illinois. She learned to play guitar at the age of 10 and grew listening to her father's collection of music, which included artists such as Peter Seeger and the Kingston Trio.
Colvin moved to Austin, Texas and joined a Western swing band called the Dixie Diesels. She then entered the the folk circuit in Illinois and San Francisco, California before forming the Shawn Colvin Band. She "strained her voice" singing rock songs took a sabbatical from singing at the age of 24.
Colvin later moved to New York City and with a renewed voice became involved in the Fast Folk cooperative of Greenwich Village. Over time she became progressively more popular on the new folk circuit and while appearing in the off-Broadway shows, Diamond Studs, Pump Boys and Dinettes, and Lie of the Mind. She was featured in Fast Folk magazine, and in 1987 sang backup vocals on the song Luka by Suzanne Vega.
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Simon & Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were an American music duo consisting of singer-songwriters Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. They formed the group Tom & Jerry in 1957 and had their first success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl". As Simon & Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965, largely on the strength of the hit single "The Sound of Silence". Their music was featured in the landmark film The Graduate (1967), propelling them further into the public consciousness.
They are well known for their vocal close harmonies and were among the most popular recording artists of the 1960s. Their biggest hits – including "The Sound of Silence" (1964), "I Am a Rock" (1965), "Homeward Bound" (1965), "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (1966), "A Hazy Shade of Winter" (1966), "Mrs. Robinson" (1968), "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1969), "The Boxer" (1969), and "Cecilia" (1969) – peaked at number one in several charts. They have received several Grammys and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
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Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is most notable for being the founder and front man of the popular Motown vocal group, The Miracles, for which he also served as the group's chief songwriter and producer. Robinson led the group from its 1955 origins as The Five Chimes until 1972 when he announced a retirement from the stage to focus on his role as Motown's vice president.
However, Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year, later having solo hits such as "Baby That's Backatcha", "Quiet Storm", "The Agony and the Ecstasy", "Cruisin'", "Being With You" and "Just to See Her". Following the sale of Motown Records in 1988, Robinson left Motown in 1990. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Robinson was born in Detroit and raised in the city's North End section. At one point, he and Diana Ross were next-door neighbors; he said he has known Ross since she was eight. Robinson later told reporters when he was a child, his uncle christened him "Smokey Joe", which Robinson assumed was a "cowboy name for me" until he was later told that smokey was a pejorative term for dark-skinned Blacks. Robinson, who is mainly of African American descent and is light-skinned, remembers his uncle saying to him, "I'm doing this so you won't ever forget that you're black." Robinson grew up as a fan of Western films.
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Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, (Russian: Софи́я Асгатовна Губайду́лина, Tatar Cyrillic: София Әсгать кызы Гобәйдуллина, Latin: Sofia Äsğät qızı Ğöbäydullina) (born October 24, 1931) is a Russian composer of half Russian, half Tatar ethnicity.
Gubaidulina's music is marked by the use of unusual instrumental combinations. In Erwartung combines percussion (bongos, güiros, temple blocks, cymbals and tam-tams among others), bayan and saxophone quartet.
Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol, in the Tatar ASSR. She studied composition and piano at the Kazan Conservatory, graduating in 1954. In Moscow she undertook further studies at the Conservatory with Nikolay Peyko until 1959, and then with Shebalin until 1963. She was awarded with Stalin-fellowship. Her music was deemed "irresponsible" during her studies in Soviet Russia, due to its exploration of alternative tunings. She was supported, however, by Dmitri Shostakovich, who in evaluating her final examination encouraged her to continue down her "mistaken path". However, she was allowed to express her modernism in various scores she composed for documentary films, including the 1968 production, On Submarine Scooters, a 70mm film shot in the unique Kinopanorama widescreen format.
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Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930 in New York City) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas", "Oleo", "Doxy", and "Airegin", have become jazz standards.
Although Rollins was born in New York City, his parents were born in the United States Virgin Islands. Rollins received his first saxophone at age 13. He attended Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. He said that a concert by Frank Sinatra there, accompanied by a plea for racial harmony, changed his life.
Rollins started as a pianist, changed to alto saxophone, and finally switched to tenor in 1946. During his high-school years, he played in a band with other future jazz legends Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew and Art Taylor. He was first recorded in 1949 with Babs Gonzales ( J. J. Johnson was the arranger of the group). In his recordings through 1954, he played with performers such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk.
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Soozie Tyrell
Soozie Tyrell, (born May 4, 1957), formerly known as Soozie Kirschner, is an American violinist and vocalist, most known for her work with Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band.
Tyrell was born in Pisa, Italy and as the daughter of a military serviceman travelled extensively. Eventually her family settled in Florida and she briefly took music theory classes at the University of South Florida. She then relocated to New York City where she became a street musician for many years. Together with Patti Scialfa and Lisa Lowell, she formed a street group known as Trickster.
Tyrell began appearing on records with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes' Love is a Sacrifice in 1980. She then led her own country and western band, Soozie & High in the Saddle. Beginning in mid-1980s Tyrell worked with David Johansen and his Buster Poindexter alter-ego for fifteen years, appearing on six albums and a number of tours as well as collaborating on the musical Poet's Café. Tyrell, Scialfa and Lowell performed on David Johansen's stage named eponymous first Buster Poindexter album released in 1987 on RCA Records featuring the popular dance hall single, "Hot-Hot-Hot"; their friendship and mutual recording industry projects continue to the present.
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Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant (born 24 November 1974) is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the co-host of The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audiobook and television-show forms. The Ricky Gervais Show in radio form has won a bronze Sony Award.
Merchant appeared in the BBC TV series Life's Too Short in which he co-wrote and co-directs. He also voiced the character Wheatley in the popular 2011 video game Portal 2, co-developed Sky TV travel series An Idiot Abroad, and performs as a stand-up comedian. He has won three BAFTA Awards, four British Comedy Awards, and an Emmy.
Merchant was born in Bristol, England, the son of Jane Elaine (née Hibbs), a nursery nurse, and Ronald John Merchant, an insurance representative. He attended Hanham High School. As he has described in Xfm London shows and podcasts, Merchant was a very shy child, tending to focus more on school work as opposed to sport. His school yearbook predicted that he would enjoy success.
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Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, author, playwright, producer, musician and composer. Martin came to public notice as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.
Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, Martin has become a successful actor in both comedic and dramatic roles, as well as an author, playwright, pianist, and banjo player, eventually earning Emmy, Grammy, and American Comedy awards, among other honors.
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Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich ( /ˈraɪʃ/; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer who is one of the pioneering composers of minimal music along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass.
His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns (examples are his early compositions, "It's Gonna Rain" and "Come Out"), and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts (for instance, "Pendulum Music" and "Four Organs"). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially in the US. Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage, notably the Grammy Award-winning Different Trains.
Reich's style of composition influenced many other composers and musical groups. Reich has been described, in The Guardian by music critic Andrew Clements, as one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history", and the critic Kyle Gann has said Reich "may...be considered, by general acclamation, America's greatest living composer."
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Steve Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin, and as an actor in the television drama The Sopranos (1999–2007), in which he played the character Silvio Dante. Van Zandt also had his own solo band called "Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul" in the 1980s.
Van Zandt was born as Steven Lento in Winthrop, Massachusetts, of Italian descent. His mother, Mary Lento, remarried when he was young and Steven took the last name of his stepfather, William Van Zandt. The family moved from Massachusetts to Middletown Township, New Jersey when he was seven.
Actor/playwright/producer Billy Van Zandt is Steven's half brother.
Van Zandt grew up in the Jersey Shore music scene, and was an early friend and pre-E Street bandmate of Springsteen. In the early seventies, he was a journeyman guitarist (working as a sideman for The Dovells) as well as a founding member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and several of Bruce Springsteen's early bands.
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Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. He is considered one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks movie studio.
Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg's films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg's wealth at $3.0 billion.
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Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin, and as an actor in the television drama The Sopranos (1999–2007), in which he played the character Silvio Dante. Van Zandt also had his own solo band called "Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul" in the 1980s.
Van Zandt was born as Steven Lento in Winthrop, Massachusetts, of Italian descent. His mother, Mary Lento, remarried when he was young and Steven took the last name of his stepfather, William Van Zandt. The family moved from Massachusetts to Middletown Township, New Jersey when he was seven.
Actor/playwright/producer Billy Van Zandt is Steven's half brother.
Van Zandt grew up in the Jersey Shore music scene, and was an early friend and pre-E Street bandmate of Springsteen. In the early seventies, he was a journeyman guitarist (working as a sideman for The Dovells) as well as a founding member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and several of Bruce Springsteen's early bands.
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Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.
Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.
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Sting (musician)
Gordon Matthew Thomas SumnerCBE (born October 2, 1951), known by his stage name Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor and philanthropist, born on 2 October 1951. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist of the New Wave band The Police.
Sting has varied his musical style throughout his career, incorporating distinct elements of jazz, reggae, classical, New Age, and worldbeat into his music. As a solo musician and member of The Police, Sting has received sixteen Grammy Awards for his work, receiving his first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1981, three Brit Awards — winning Best British Male in 1994, a Golden Globe, an Emmy Award, and several Oscar nominations for Best Original Song. He is a member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Sting was born in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the eldest of four children born to Audrey (née Cowell), a hairdresser, and Ernest Matthew Sumner, a milkman and engineer. His siblings were Philip, Angela and Anita. Young Gordon would often assist his father with the early-morning milk-delivery rounds, and by age 10 he became obsessed with an old Spanish guitar that had been left behind by an emigrating friend of his father.
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Suzanne Farrell
Suzanne Farrell (born August 16, 1945) is an eminent 20th century ballerina (often referred to as the greatest American lyric ballerina) and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
She was born as Roberta Sue Ficker in Cincinnati, and received her early training at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. In 1960 she was selected to study at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet with a Ford Foundation scholarship; she started there in 1960, and joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in 1961.
Initially part of the corps de ballet at NYCB, Farrell soon moved on to dancing featured roles. The first ballet choreographed for her was Passage, now Arcade, by John Taras in 1963. Balanchine first paired her with Jacques d' Amboise to choreograph his Meditation, which debuted in Winter 1963. One of her most notable roles was Dulcinea in Balanchine's Don Quixote, which premiered in May 1965. Balanchine performed in the of Don Quixote on opening night. She re-scaled many ballets and expanded them to a new level of technique. In 1965 she was promoted to principal dancer. Her first role in her new title was Agon with Arthur Mitchell at the Paris Opera. George Balanchine quickly fell in love with his "alabaster princess", and created many roles for her. Farrell described learning choreography from Balanchine as a collaborative process, saying, "When Mr. B was working on a ballet, something would just spill out of his body; he could rarely duplicate it, so I tried to see precisely what he wanted the first time." In 1965 he created Don Quixote, thought to be a valentine to his newest "muse." In 1968 he cast her as the lead in the "Diamonds" section of his three-act plotless ballet "Jewels".
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Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (/stəˈloʊn/; born July 6, 1946), commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed are boxer Rocky Balboa and soldier John Rambo. The Rocky and Rambo franchises, along with several other films, strengthened his reputation as an actor and his box office earnings.
Stallone's film Rocky was inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film props placed in the Smithsonian Museum. Stallone's use of the front entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Rocky series led the area to be nicknamed the Rocky Steps. Philadelphia has a statue of his Rocky character placed permanently near the museum, on the right side before the steps. It was announced on December 7, 2010 that Stallone was voted into boxing's Hall of Fame.
Sylvester Stallone was born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone in New York City, the elder son of Frank Stallone, Sr., a hairdresser, and Jackie Stallone (born Jacqueline Labofish), an astrologer, former dancer, and promoter of women's wrestling. His younger brother is actor and musician Frank Stallone. Stallone's father was born in Gioia del Colle, Apulia, Italy, and emigrated to the United States as a child. Stallone's mother is of half Russian Jewish and half French descent.
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T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett (born January 14, 1948), widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.
He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue. After that tour ended, Burnett and two other members of the backing band formed The Alpha Band, followed by his first solo album in 1980.
Burnett has produced artists such as Roy Orbison, Lisa Marie Presley, John Mellencamp, Los Lobos, Counting Crows, Elton John & Leon Russell, Natalie Merchant and The Wallflowers as well as Tony Bennett and k.d. lang on the A Wonderful World album. Burnett won Grammy Awards for the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and for his work with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his songwriting contribution to the film Cold Mountain, and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart.
He founded the record label DMZ, an imprint of Columbia, and was involved with Mark Heard and Tonio K in the short-lived What? Records. He also oversaw the music for the films Walk the Line and The Big Lebowski.
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The Edge
David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music.
The Edge was born in England to a Welsh family, but was raised in Ireland after moving there as an infant. In 1976, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he formed U2 with his fellow students and his older brother Dik. Inspired by the ethos of punk rock and its basic arrangements, the group began to write its own material. They eventually became one of the most popular acts in popular music, with successful albums such as 1987's The Joshua Tree and 1991's Achtung Baby. Over the years, The Edge has experimented with various guitar effects and introduced influences from several genres of music into his own style, including American roots music, industrial music, and alternative rock. With U2, The Edge has also played keyboards, co-produced their 1993 record Zooropa, and occasionally contributed lyrics. The Edge met his second and current wife, Morleigh Steinberg, through her collaborations with the band.
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Tim Russert
Timothy John "Tim" Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's Meet the Press. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Washington bureau chief and also hosted an eponymous CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview program. He was a frequent correspondent and guest on NBC's The Today Show and Hardball. Russert covered several presidential elections, and he presented the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey on the NBC Nightly News during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Time magazine included Russert in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008. Russert was posthumously revealed as a 30-year source for syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
Russert was born in Buffalo, New York to Irish American Catholic parents Elizabeth (Betty), a homemaker, and Timothy Joseph "Big Russ" Russert (November 29, 1923 – September 24, 2009), a sanitation worker. Elizabeth and Joseph were married for 30 years before separating in 1976. He was the second of four children; his sisters are Betty Ann (B.A.), Kathleen (Kathy) and Patricia (Trish). He received a Jesuit education from Canisius High School in Buffalo.
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Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards. Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Success followed with a string of hits including "River Deep, Mountain High" and the 1971 hit "Proud Mary". With the publication of her autobiography I, Tina (1986), Turner revealed severe instances of spousal abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. After virtually disappearing from the music scene for several years following her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career, launching a string of hits beginning in 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" and the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer.
Her musical career led to film roles, beginning with a prominent role as The Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy, and an appearance in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She starred opposite Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and her version of the film's theme, "We Don't Need Another Hero", was a hit single. She appeared in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.
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Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty (born October 20, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. and Muddy Wilbury.
He has recorded a number of hit singles with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist, many of which remain heavily played on adult contemporary and classic rock radio. His music, and notably his hits, have become popular among younger generations as he continues to host sold-out shows. Throughout his career, Petty and his collaborators have sold 60 million albums.
Tom Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, and attended Gainesville High School. His interest in rock and roll music began at age 10 when he met Elvis Presley. In the summer of 1961, his uncle was working on the set of Presley's film Follow That Dream in nearby Ocala, Florida and invited Petty to come down and watch the shoot. He instantly became an Elvis Presley fan and soon traded his Wham-O slingshot for a box of Elvis 45s. In a 2006 interview on the National Public Radio program Fresh Air, Petty said that he knew he wanted to be in a band the moment he saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. One of his first guitar teachers was Don Felder, a fellow Gainesville resident, who would later join the Eagles. As a young man, Petty worked briefly on the grounds crew for the University of Florida, but never attended as a student. An Ogeechee lime tree that he planted while employed at the University is now called the Tom Petty tree.
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Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and has acted in supporting roles in films including Paradise Alley and Bram Stoker's Dracula; he also starred in the 1986 film Down by Law. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart.
Lyrically, Waits' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places—although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. He has a cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters despite having little radio or music video support. His songs are best-known through cover versions by more commercial artists: "Jersey Girl", performed by Bruce Springsteen, "Ol' '55", performed by the Eagles, and "Downtown Train", performed by Rod Stewart. Although Waits' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries. He has been nominated for a number of major music awards and has won Grammy Awards for two albums, Bone Machine and Mule Variations. In 2011, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Tommy Sims
Tommy Sims is a bassist, songwriter, record producer and bandleader.
From 1987 to 1989 he was the bassist of the popular Christian rock band White Heart which he left to become a studio musician and producer. During 1992-1993, he played bass on the Bruce Springsteen and the "Other Band" Tour. He is also a songwriter, who wrote Eric Clapton's "Change the World" which won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1997. Other songs of his have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi, Garth Brooks, Cher, BlackStreet, Toni Braxton and BabyFace among others. Tommy has also worked with Michael Bolton, Amy Grant, Kelly Clarkson, CeCe Winans, Israel, The Neville Brothers, Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child, and others.
In addition to writing and producing, Sims also released a solo album in August 2000 entitled Peace and Love. A song from this release, "It Don't Matter to the Sun", was featured on the soundtrack of the hit television drama Grey's Anatomy. Sims' film contributions include Bruce Springsteen's recording "Streets of Philadelphia" which appeared in the Tom Hanks film Philadelphia, widely regarded as the first major film to deal openly with subject of AIDS and gay rights. The film and the song also went on to be heavy recognized at the following year's Academy Awards garnering several "Oscars" including the Best Song trophy. Sims' "Change The World was also featured in John Travolta's film Phenomenon and while winning the Grammy Award for Song Of The Year was rendered ineligible for nomination at that year's Academy Awards because of its prior release by Wynonna Judd. Sims has gone on to have his songs featured in several other blockbuster films including Kevin Costner's For Love Of The Game and Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd's Where The Heart Is.
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Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett (born August 3, 1926), is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter, having created works — under the name Benedetto — that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York City.
Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as an infantryman with the U.S. Army in the European Theatre. Afterwards, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records, and had his first number one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several top hits such as "Rags to Riches" followed in the early 1950s. Bennett then further refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and his personal life then suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era.
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Tony Kanal
Tony Kanal (born Tony Ashwin Kanal; August 27, 1970) is a British-born American musician, record producer and songwriter. Kanal is the bassist for the American rock band No Doubt. His musical work outside of the band includes producing and songwriting with artists such as reggae singer Elan Atias and No Doubt bandmate Gwen Stefani, among others.
Kanal's father Gulab and his mother Lajju are from India. His parents emigrated from India to London, England, where Kanal was born. While most of his early years were spent in London, Kanal and his family also spent brief periods living in Toronto, Canada, and Indiana, U.S.A., before eventually returning to London. At age eleven, he was taken by his family once again to the United States, where the Kanal family settled in Anaheim, California. There, his parents opened a store named "Kanal's Gifts and Fashion".
Kanal's father suggested that Kanal learn to play the saxophone since it was the former's favorite instrument, so he bought one for Kanal. Kanal later learned how to play the bass from his schoolmate Dave Carpenter. After seeing one of third wave ska band No Doubt's early shows, he joined the band as its bassist. Kanal stated that his parents were ultimately supportive of his decision to pursue a career in music; however, they had wanted him "to go into a safe profession" and often reprimanded him for devoting so much time to music, sometimes at the expense of school.
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Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp (born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.
Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.
When Tharp was a young child she spent a few months each year living with her Quaker grandparents on their farm in Indiana. In 1950 Tharp's family—younger sister Twanette, twin brothers Stanley and Stanford, mother Lecile and father William—moved to Rialto, California. Her parents opened a drive-in movie theater, where Tharp worked from the time she was 8 years old. The drive-in was on the corner of Acacia and Foothill, the major east–west artery in Rialto and the path of Route 66. She attended Pacific High School in San Bernardino and studied at the Vera Lynn School of Dance. Tharp, a "devoted bookworm," admits that this schedule left little time for a social life. Tharp attended Pomona College in California but later transferred to Barnard College in New York City, where she graduated with a degree in Art History in 1963. It was in New York that she studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. In 1963 Tharp joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
wn.com/Twyla_Tharp -
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev PAR (Russian: Валерий Абисалович Гергиев, Ossetic: Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери/Gergity Abisaly Fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.
Gergiev, born in Moscow, is the son of Tamara Tatarkanovna and Abisal Zaurbekovich. He and his siblings were raised in Vladikavkaz in their native North Ossetia in the Caucasus. He began piano at secondary school, before going on to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Leningrad from 1972 to 1977. His principal conducting teacher was Prof. Ilya Musin (Илья Мусин), one of the greatest conductor-makers in Russian musical history. His sister, Larissa Gergieva, is a pianist and director of the Mariinsky's singers' academy.
In 1978, he became assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera, now the Mariinsky Opera, under Yuri Temirkanov, where he made his debut conducting Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace. He was chief conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1981 until 1985 – the year he made his debut in the United Kingdom, along with pianist Evgeny Kissin, and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin, at The Lichfield Festival.
wn.com/Valery_Gergiev -
Van Cliburn
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn, Jr. (born July 12, 1934), is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at the age of twenty-three, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War.
Van Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and began taking piano lessons at the age of three from his mother, the former Rildia Bee O'Bryan, who herself had been instructed by Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt. At six years old, Cliburn moved with his family to Kilgore, Texas, and at twelve he won a statewide piano competition which enabled him to debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He entered the Juilliard School at the age of seventeen, and studied under Rosina Lhévinne, who trained him in the tradition of the great Russian romantics. At twenty, Cliburn won the Leventritt Award, and made his Carnegie Hall debut.
It was his recognition in Moscow that propelled Cliburn to international fame. The first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 was an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the Cold War, on the heels of their technological victory with the Sputnik launch in October 1957. Cliburn's performance at the competition finale of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 earned him a standing ovation lasting eight minutes. When it was time to announce a winner, the judges were obliged to ask permission of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to give first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked. "Then give him the prize!" Cliburn returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time the honor has been accorded a classical musician. His cover story in Time proclaimed him "The Texan Who Conquered Russia."
wn.com/Van_Cliburn -
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE (born George Ivan Morrison; 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely viewed as among the greatest ever made.
Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands covering the popular hits of the day. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks in 1968. Even though this album would gradually garner high praise, it was initially poorly received; however, the next one, Moondance, established Morrison as a major artist, and throughout the 1970s he built on his reputation with a series of critically acclaimed albums and live performances. Morrison continues to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell well and are generally warmly received, sometimes collaborating with other artists, such as Georgie Fame and The Chieftains. In 2008 he performed Astral Weeks live for the first time since 1968.
wn.com/Van_Morrison -
Vini Lopez
Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez (born in 1949) is an American drummer. Between 1968 and 1974 Lopez backed Bruce Springsteen in several bands, including Steel Mill and the E Street Band. He also played on Springsteen’s first two albums, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. After leaving the E Street Band, Lopez went onto playing drums with numerous Jersey Shore bands, including The Lord Gunner Group. Since 2004 he has led his own band, Steel Mill Retro, which has performed and recorded original Springsteen songs from the Steel Mill era. As of August 2008 Lopez lives in Jackson Township, New Jersey with his daughter, Liz, who is an accountant. His wife, Laurel, died in 2004. When not playing in various bands, Lopez has worked as a golf caddy.
Lopez grew up in Neptune Township, New Jersey where he attended Neptune High School with both Garry Tallent and Southside Johnny. From 1956 to 1962 he played the soprano valve bugle in a Drum and Bugle Corps. Then as a teenager he taught himself the drums and began playing with Buzzy Lubinsky, a drummer/DJ based in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Lubinsky's father was Herman Lubinsky, owner of Savoy Records in Newark. Lubinsky would subsequently act as a mentor for the young Lopez. From 1964, with encouragement from Lubinsky, he began to try out for local bands. After a failed audition for The Storytellers, a band which included Bill Chinnock and Danny Federici, he successfully auditioned for The Blazers led by Sonny Kenn. They subsequently became Sonny & The Sounds and then Sonny & The Starfires. After graduating from high school in 1967. he continued to play with several local bands. These included the Downtown Tangiers Band, with Federici, Chinnock and Garry Tallent and Moment of Truth with Tallent, Tom Worieo, and Ricky DeSarno (guitars). DeSarno and Lopez would become regular collaborators after Lopez left the E Street Band. In 1970 Lopez worked at Carvers boatyard in Point Pleasant, New Jersey
wn.com/Vini_Lopez -
Vinnie Roslin
Vinnie Roslin (1947-2012) was an American bass guitarist who was an original member of Steel Mill, an early Bruce Springsteen band. Other members of band included three future members the E Street Band - Vini Lopez, Danny Federici and Steve Van Zandt.
Roslin grew up in and around the Howell Township and the Freehold Borough areas of Monmouth County, New Jersey. In late 1964, then aged 17, together with George Theiss (rhythm guitar, vocals), Bart Haynes (drums, vocals) and Mike DeLuise (lead guitar), he formed a band called The Sierras. They spent most of their short life in rehearsal and in early 1965 Roslin quit this band to join The Motifs with Walter Cichon (lead vocals) and Murray Bauer. Theiss and Haynes would later go on to form The Castiles and in June 1965 they were joined in that band by Bruce Springsteen. The Motifs were managed by Norman Seldin, a local musician–entrepreneur whose own band, The Joyful Noyze, included Clarence Clemons. Under the management of Seldin, The Motifs released at least two singles which became local hits. "Molly" and "If I Gave You Love" were both released by Seldin's own label, Selsom Records. In 2008 both songs were reissued on an anthology, Asbury Park - Then And Now, put together by Seldin. The Motifs also opened for bands such as The Young Rascals and The Duprees. Roslin would continue to play with The Motifs until he was 21. They split up when Walter Cichon was conscripted. Cichon, together with Bart Haynes, one of Roslin's earlier bandmates, were both killed while serving in Vietnam.
wn.com/Vinnie_Roslin -
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (born January 5, 1928) is an American Democratic Party politician who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States (1977–1981) under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator from Minnesota (1964–1976). He was the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in the United States presidential election of 1984.
Mondale was born in Ceylon, Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1951. He then served in the US Army in the Korean War before earning a law degree in 1956. He married Joan Adams in 1955. Working as a lawyer in Minneapolis, Mondale was elected to the position of attorney general in 1960. He was appointed US Senator in late 1964 as a member of the Democratic Party upon the resignation of Hubert Humphrey, and held that post until 1976. In the Senate, he supported fair housing, tax reform and the desegregation of schools.[not verified in body] He opposed United States involvement in the Vietnam War.[not verified in body]
wn.com/Walter_Mondale -
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty ( /ˈbeɪti/ BAY-tee; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has been nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including winning the Best Director Award and its highest honor, the Irving G. Thalberg Award. He has been nominated for 16 Golden Globe Awards and won six, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which he received in 2007. Only Beatty and Orson Welles have been nominated for producer, director, writer and actor in the same film. Welles did it once (for Citizen Kane), Beatty did it twice (for Heaven Can Wait and Reds).
Beatty was born Henry Warren Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. His mother, Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean), was a Nova Scotia-born teacher, and his father, Ira Owens Beaty, was a Ph.D. of educational psychology, a public school administrator, and dealt in real estate. Beatty's grandparents were also educators. The family was Baptist. In 1945, the family moved from Richmond to Arlington, Virginia. Beatty's sister is the multi-award winning actress and writer Shirley MacLaine.
wn.com/Warren_Beatty -
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon /ˈziːvɒn/ (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.
Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known musicians, including Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. His best-known compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money", "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and "Johnny Strikes Up The Band," all of which are featured on his third album, Excitable Boy (1978). Other well-known songs written by Zevon have been recorded by other artists, including "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" (a top 40 hit by Linda Ronstadt), "Accidentally Like a Martyr," "Mohammed's Radio", "Carmelita", and "Hasten Down the Wind".
Along with his own compositions, Zevon recorded or performed occasional covers, including Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan". He was a frequent guest on Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show with David Letterman. Letterman later performed guest vocals on "Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)" with Paul Shaffer and members of the CBS Orchestra on Warren Zevon's "My Ride Is Here" album.
wn.com/Warren_Zevon -
Wayne Kirkpatrick
Wayne Kirkpatrick is an American singer/songwriter and musician born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana but now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from Baton Rouge Magnet High School in 1979.
Kirkpatrick has spent most of his career in the background, often providing background vocals, playing guitar, playing keyboards or writing songs for other artists. His songs have been recorded by Little Big Town, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, Babyface, Amy Grant, Joe Cocker, Kathy Mattea, Martina McBride, Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood, Bonnie Raitt, Susan Ashton, Michael W. Smith, Jill Phillips, Michael Crawford, Peter Frampton, Casting Crowns and Eric Clapton, whose version of Kirkpatrick's "Change the World" won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
At the 24th GMA Dove Awards, Kirkpatrick received the award for Producer of the Year.
In 2005, Kirkpatrick started to produce Little Big Town alongside the group starting with their second album The Road to Here and also the next 2 A Place to Land (Little Big Town album) & The Reason Why. He also co-wrote most of the songs on all 3 albums with the group.
wn.com/Wayne_Kirkpatrick -
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time. Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African American female artists to follow in her footsteps.
Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboard magazine year-end charts. Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
wn.com/Whitney_Houston -
Will Jennings
Wilbur H. "Will" Jennings (born June 27, 1944, in Kilgore, Texas) is an American songwriter who is popularly known for writing the lyrics for My Heart Will Go On, the theme for the film Titanic. He has been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and has won several awards including a Grammy, two Golden Globe awards, and two Academy Awards.
Jennings attended school just outside Tyler, Texas, in the nearby Chapel Hill Independent School District. In 1967, Jennings earned his B.A. from Stephen F. Austin State University, located in Nacogdoches, Texas. He then taught at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire for three years and eventually attended the same institution in 1982.
Throughout his career, Jennings has written for a wide variety of artists including Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Joe Sample, Rodney Crowell, Mariah Carey, Jimmy Buffett, Barry Manilow and Roy Orbison.
With Steve Winwood, Jennings wrote a series albums including While You See A Chance, Arc of a Diver and Back in the High Life, an album which contained the hits Higher Love, The Finer Things, and Back in the High Life Again. Winwood won the Record Of The Year and Outstanding Male Vocal Performance. Both Jennings and Winwood were nominated for the Song of the Year award for "Higher Love."
wn.com/Will_Jennings -
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe (born July 22, 1955) is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group. He has had roles in a wide range of films, including Platoon, Affliction, Off Limits, Streets of Fire, To Live and Die in L.A., Born on the Fourth of July, The English Patient, The Last Temptation of Christ, Mississippi Burning, "The Life Aquatic" The Boondock Saints, Spider-Man, and The Aviator, and voice roles in Fantastic Mr. Fox and Finding Nemo.
Dafoe has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice. The first was for his role in Platoon in 1986 and the second time for his performance in Shadow of the Vampire in 2000.
Dafoe was born William J. Dafoe in Appleton, Wisconsin. One of seven children of Muriel Isabel (née Sprissler) and Dr. William Alfred Dafoe, he recalled in 2009, "My five sisters raised me because my father was a surgeon, my mother was a nurse and they worked together, so I didn't see either of them much." In high school, he acquired the nickname Willem. His ancestry includes Irish, Scottish, German, and Canadian.
wn.com/Willem_Dafoe -
Witold Lutosławski
Witold Lutosławski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈvitɔld lutɔsˈwafski]; January 25, 1913 – February 7, 1994) was one of the major European composers of the 20th century, and one of the preeminent Polish musicians during his last three decades. He earned many international awards and prizes, including the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour.
During his youth, Lutosławski studied piano and composition in Warsaw. His early works were influenced by Polish folk music. His style demonstrates a wide range of rich atmospheric textures. He began to develop his own characteristic composition techniques in the late 1950s. His music from this period onwards incorporates his own methods of building harmonies from small groups of musical intervals. It also uses aleatoric processes, in which the rhythmic coordination of parts is subject to an element of chance. His compositions (of which he was a notable conductor) include four symphonies, a Concerto for Orchestra, a string quartet, several instrumental concertos and orchestral song cycles.
wn.com/Witold_Lutosławski -
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar. His best-known song is "This Land Is Your Land." Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Such songwriters as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg and Tom Paxton have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence.
Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression, earning him the nickname the "Dust Bowl Troubadour." Throughout his life Guthrie was associated with United States communist groups, though he was seemingly not a member of any.
wn.com/Woody_Guthrie -
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta (ज़ुबिन मेहता); pronounced [ˈzuːbɪn ˈmeːɦt̪aː] (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Zubin Mehta was born into a Parsi family in Bombay, British India, the son of Mehli and Tehmina Mehta. His father Mehli Mehta was a violinist and founding conductor of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. Mehta is an alumnus of St. Mary's School, Mumbai, and St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Mehta initially intended to study medicine, but eventually became a music student in Vienna at the age of 18, under Hans Swarowsky. Also at the same academy along with Mehta were conductor Claudio Abbado and conductor–pianist Daniel Barenboim.
Mehta's first marriage was to Canadian soprano Carmen Lasky in 1958. They have a son, Mervon and a daughter, Zarina. In 1964, they divorced. Two years after the divorce, Carmen married Zubin's brother, Zarin Mehta, now the Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic. In July 1969, Mehta married Nancy Kovack, a former American film and television actress. Mehta is a permanent resident of the United States, but retains his Indian citizenship.
wn.com/Zubin_Mehta
karaoke
To this day when I hear that song
I see you standin' there on that lawn
Discount shades, store bought tan,
Flip flops and cut off jeans
Somwhere between that setting sun
I'm on fire and born to run
You looked at me and I was done
Well, we're just getting started
I was singin' to you, you were singin' to me
I was so alive, never been more free
Fired up my daddy's lighter and sang Oh-h-h-h-h-h
Stayed there 'til they forced us out
Took the long way to your house
I canstill hear the sound of you saying don't go
When I think about you, I think about 17,
I think about my old jeep
I think about the stars in the sky
Funny how a melody sounds like a memory
Like a soundtrack to a July Saturday night
Springsteen.
I bumped into you by happenstance
You probably wouldn't even know who I am
But if I, whispered your name
I bet there'd still be a spark
Back when I was gasoline
And this old tattoo had brand new ink
And we didn't care what your momma'd think
About your name on my arm
Baby is it spring or is it summer
The guitar sounds or the beat of the drummer
You hear sometimes late at night
On your radio
Even though you're a million miles away
When you hear Born in the USA
You relive those glory days
So long ago
When you think about me, do you think about 17
Do you think about my old jeep,
Think about the stars in the sky
Funny how a melody, sounds like a memory
Like a soundtrack to a July Saturday night
Springsteen
Springsteen
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Woah-oh-oh-oh, Woah-oh-oh-oh, Oh-h-h-h (x2)
Funny how a melody sounds like a memory,
LIke soundtrack to a July Saturday night,
Springsteen
Springsteen
Oh, Springsteen.
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Eric Church - Springsteen
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:52
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
Music video by Eric Church performing Springsteen. (P) (C) 2012 EMI Records Nashville. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is a violation of applicable laws. Manufactured by Capitol Records Nashville, 3322 West End Avenue, 11th Floor, Nashville, TN 37203
http://wn.com/Eric_Church_Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:34
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
Music video by Bruce Springsteen performing Born To Run. (C) 1982 Bruce Springsteen
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Born_To_Run
US Election 2012: Bruce Springsteen joins Barack Obama on final day of campaigning
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:14
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen sings to Brack Obama supporters in Wisconsin on the final day of campaigning in the US Election The rock legend capped his appearance by playing the anthem "Land of Hope and Dreams." Springsteen says that after Obama ran with an optimistic message of change in 2008, he now faces "a world that challenges your hopefulness." Springsteen was traveling with the president on Air Force One and opening rallies for him in Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa. Springsteen's appearance came a day after Stevie Wonder energised a Cincinnati rally for Obama, prompting the president to do a brief shimmy on the stage to "Signed, Sealed and Delivered." Read more: www.telegraph.co.uk Watch the final day live: www.telegraph.co.uk Get the latest headlines www.telegraph.co.uk Subscribe to The Telegraph www.youtube.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Follow us on Twitter twitter.com Follow us on Google+ plus.google.com Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Daily Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.
http://wn.com/US_Election_2012_Bruce_Springsteen_joins_Barack_Obama_on_final_day_of_campaigning
Bruce Springsteen - Drive All Night
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:19
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform "Drive All Night" in Gothenburg
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Drive_All_Night
We Take Care Of Our Own - Bruce Springsteen
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:53
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Get WRECKING BALL now at www.smarturl.it
http://wn.com/We_Take_Care_Of_Our_Own_Bruce_Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen at Charlottesville Obama For America Rally
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 37:04
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Filmed Oct. 23, 2012 in Charlottesville, VA. Video courtesy of Obama For America.
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_at_Charlottesville_Obama_For_America_Rally
Bruce Springsteen - Monster Mash - Rochester, NY 10-31-12
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:26
- Updated: 09 Nov 2012
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Monster_Mash_Rochester,_NY_10-31-12
"Bruce Springsteen" Hurricane Sandy Coming Together
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:38
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
A benefit concert to aid victims of the storm that devastated the Northeast of the United States.
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Hurricane_Sandy_Coming_Together
Springsteen - Land Of Hope And Dreams From Hurricane Sandy Benefit.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:11
- Updated: 12 Nov 2012
2012-11-02 NBC Networks, Benefit for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Land Of Hope And Dreams.
http://wn.com/Springsteen_Land_Of_Hope_And_Dreams_From_Hurricane_Sandy_Benefit
Exclusive! Taylor Swift's Springsteen Story
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:03
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
Check out the whole story Taylor told about meeting Bruce Springsteen backstage at her concert!
http://wn.com/Exclusive!_Taylor_Swift's_Springsteen_Story
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:59
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
Music video by Bruce Springsteen performing Dancing In The Dark. (C) 1984 Bruce Springsteen
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Dancing_In_The_Dark
Bruce Springsteen - Death To My Hometown
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:46
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Music video by Bruce Springsteen performing Death To My Hometown. (C) 2012 Bruce Springsteen
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Death_To_My_Hometown
Bruce Springsteen - Prove It All Night 9/3/12 Philadelphia Pa Citizens Bank Park Whole Live HD Show
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:54
- Updated: 11 Nov 2012
Catch the boss in action firing up philly on this labor day with a setlist of rarer songs that will drag emotion out of you. long one too 3 plus hours..... check out this awesome show. email me at bigbossrivertunes@gmail.com for more info... setlist: Factory (Bruce Solo Acoustic) Adam Raised a Cain Streets of Fire Prove It All Night (1978 Intro) Something in the Night We Take Care of Our Own Wrecking Ball Death to My Hometown My City of Ruins Spirit in the Night Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City Frankie (Sign Request) Jack of All Trades Atlantic City Darlington County Shackled and Drawn Waitin' on a Sunny Day The River (Sign Request) Lonesome Day Badlands Thunder Road Encore: We Are Alive Born to Run Dancing in the Dark Jungleland Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out American Land
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Prove_It_All_Night_9_3_12_Philadelphia_Pa_Citizens_Bank_Park_Whole_Live_HD_Show
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:58
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
Music video by Bruce Springsteen performing Streets Of Philadelphia. (C) 1993 Bruce Springsteen
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Streets_Of_Philadelphia
Jungleland w/speech - Bruce Springsteen - Gothenburg 2nd Night - 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 12:57
- Updated: 11 Nov 2012
This is the version with the speech before the song and after the song. First time performed since the death of Clarence. RIP Clarence Clemons! Long live Jake Clemons! Tour premiere specially for us Swedes Not the best video/sound but for my forum friends! Enjoy!
http://wn.com/Jungleland_w_speech_Bruce_Springsteen_Gothenburg_2nd_Night_2012
Bruce Springsteen - Working For The Boss
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:42
- Updated: 05 Nov 2012
Garry Mallaber on working with Bruce Springsteen.
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Working_For_The_Boss
Bruce Springsteen - Glory Days
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:42
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
Music video by Bruce Springsteen performing Glory Days. (C) 1985 Bruce Springsteen
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Glory_Days
Bruce Springsteen BOSTON CONCERT Full Show
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 210:13
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
LOOK BELOW AT SETLIST WITH THE RUNTIME SO YOU CAN SKIP TO A CERTAIN TRACK vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv This Is The Full Show. The audio quality is EXCELLENT! I got this recording from springsteenbootlegs.blogspot.it and it clearly said FOR SHARING ONLY. So NO COPYRIGHT ISSUES. Thanks, Enjoy. SETLIST Intro (Take Me Out To The Ball Game) 0:00 1. Thunder Road (Bruce and Roy Bittan On Piano) 1:45 2. Hungry Heart 8:15 3. Sherry Darling 12:45 4. Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran cover) 18:15 5. Girls in Their Summer Clothes 21:20 6. We Take Care of Our Own 26:40 7. Two Hearts 31:10 8. Wrecking Ball 35:25 9. Death to My Hometown 42:05 10. My City of Ruins (Johnny Pesky tribute) 47:05 11. Knock on Wood (Eddie Floyd cover) (Sign Request) 1:04:40 12. Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? (Sign Request) 1:09:45 13. Thundercrack (Sign Request) 1:15:30 14. Frankie (Sign Request) 1:28:30 15. Prove It All Night (With '78 intro as per sign request) 1:36:55 16. Darkness on the Edge of Town 1:45:55 17. Working on the Highway (Has Bit Of A Fans Hot Dog and Chugs Beer) 1:50:25 18. Shackled and Drawn 1:57:00 19. Waitin' on a Sunny Day 2:04:40 20. Backstreets (With Dream Baby Dream Snippet) 2:12:55 21. Badlands 2:23:35 22. Land of Hope and Dreams 2:30:10 Encore: 23. Who'll Stop The Rain (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover) (Bruce Solo Acoustic) 2:39:10 24. Rocky Ground 2:41:20 25. Born to Run 2:47:15 26. Detroit Medley 2:53:15 27. Dancing in the Dark 2:58:00 28 ...
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_BOSTON_CONCERT_Full_Show
Bruce Springsteen - Rocky Ground
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:44
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Music video by Bruce Springsteen performing Rocky Ground. (C) 2012 Bruce Springsteen
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Rocky_Ground
Bruce Springsteen & Little Steven - We Shall Overcome (Memorial Concert 22.7.12 - Oslo, Norway)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:26
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven performing «We Shall Overcome» In Oslo, Norway, in memory of the 77 people who got killed the 22nd of July 2011. Share this beautiful music with your friends and family! Content from: www.vgtv.no
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Little_Steven_We_Shall_Overcome_Memorial_Concert_22712_Oslo,_Norway
Bruce Springsteen multicam DVD "When I Leave Berlin" 30.05.2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:39
- Updated: 02 Nov 2012
Bruce in my hometown ? Of course I couldn't resist the requests for a DVD of this show. With tremendous support from the folks at stonepony.de and many others who shared their videos on youtube I was able to "built" a DVD of the complete show in Berlin's ancient Olympic Stadium out of more than 180 single video clips. Thanks to the great technical equipment of many tapers I was able to use only HD material (many original files and the rest taken from youtube)--although the quality still varies notable. Unfortunately I was not able to find suitable recordings for the end of "We Take Care Of Our Own" and the beginning of "Wrecking Ball", so I used a photo slideshow for this part and for some breaks between other songs. As I said before: the quality of the HD recordings stills varies a lot. Some are crystal clear, some are very shaky, at some times you see more hands and heads than Bruce himself. But - if you have seen one of my previous DVDs - you know, that my first intention is to reflect the atmosphere of the show rather than keeping the focus only on Bruce. No question about the audio this time: I used the "vortex242" recording, which sounds pretty nice as a DVD audio and adds more atmosphere than the other recording available. A blu-ray version is planned -- but I have to figure out some technical things first. My next project is Frankfurt 2012. I already have collected enough very good recordings and I'm going to make a similar freeware DVD like this one. I hope you ...
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_multicam_DVD_When_I_Leave_Berlin_30052012
When i leave berlin ( 2012 pro shot ) bruce springsteen
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:24
- Updated: 10 Nov 2012
when i leave berlin - bruce springsteen pro shot 2012
http://wn.com/When_i_leave_berlin_2012_pro_shot_bruce_springsteen
Bruce Springsteen in Ohio Campaign for President Barack Obama Part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:27
- Updated: 10 Nov 2012
Bill Clinton Bruce Springsteen in Ohio Campaign for President Barack Obama Bruce Springsteen, Bill Clinton Campaign For Obama WASHINGTON -- The presidential campaign, heavy on finger-pointing and recrimination, is taking a brief but abrupt detour so President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney can play politics for laughs. The rivals are quieting the bickering to address the venerable Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a white-tie gala Thursday evening at New York City's Waldorf Astoria Hotel that has been a required stop for politicians since the end of World War II. In keeping with tradition, both candidates have prepared lighthearted fare for the fundraising event organized by the Catholic Archdiocese of New York for the benefit of needy children. That was the case almost precisely four years ago when Obama and GOP nominee John McCain poked fun at themselves and each other just a day after an intense presidential debate at Hofstra University on Long Island. As in 2008, this year's dinner comes in the wake of a confrontational debate, also at Hofstra, lending an air of drama to the pivot from acrimony to humor. What's more, the dinner's host is Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has clashed with the Obama administration over contraception provisions in the new health care law. Dolan has said he received "stacks of mail" protesting the dinner invitation to Obama. But Dolan has sought to avoid playing political ...
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_in_Ohio_Campaign_for_President_Barack_Obama_Part_1
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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND - live @ glastonbury 2009
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 84:25
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
Badlands Prove It All Night Outlaw Pete Out In The Street Working On A Dream Waitin' On A Sunny Day Promised Land The River Born To Run Thunder Road American Land Glory Days Dancing In The Dark
http://wn.com/BRUCE_SPRINGSTEEN_THE_E_STREET_BAND_live_@_glastonbury_2009
Bruce Springsteen - Live in London - Part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:59
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen and the E street band live in London The Full Track List: 1. London Calling 2. Badlands 3. Night 4. She's The One 5. Outlaw Pete 6. Out In The Street 7. Working On A Dream 8. Seeds 9. Johnny 99 10. Youngstown 11. Good Lovin' 12. Bobby Jean 13. Trapped 14. No Surrender 15. Waiting On A Sunny Day 16. Promised Land 17. Racing In The Street 18. Radio Nowhere 19. Lonesome Day 20. The Rising 21. Born To Run 22. Hard Times (Come Again No More) 23. Jungleland 24. American Land 25. Glory Days 26. Dancing In The Dark
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Live_in_London_Part_1
Bruce Springsteen - The River Live @ Glastonbury
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:13
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
"THE RIVER" AT GLASTONBURY July 4 On Saturday, June 27, Bruce and the Band played to their largest audience since East Berlin in 1988. A total of 135000 people at the Glastonbury Festival watched a remarkable and emotion packed set. Here is the full version of one of many highlights, The River. The flags you see waving were held high by fans from the beginning of the show to the end. The mist you see behind Bruce is the steam on stage bouncing off of his back. For everyone there it is was a night to remember always.
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_The_River_Live_@_Glastonbury
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Born To Run (PROSHOT)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:36
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
Filmed at Hard Rock Calling 2009, Hyde Park, London, UK. 28-6-2009
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_The_E_Street_Band_Born_To_Run_PROSHOT
Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland (Live in New York 2001)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:54
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
Unforgettable performance from Live in New York City. Possibly one of the greatest performances of all time. Includes poetic lyrics, guitar, keyboard solos and the epic saxophone solo by the Big Man. --- As soon as the views hit 300 000 or I get 50 subscribers, I will repost an HD version of this video
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Jungleland_Live_in_New_York_2001
![Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen [DVD Live in Barcelona 2002] ( Subtitles & lyrics )](http://web.archive.org./web/20121120082357im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-I579UTHm-o/default.jpg "Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen [DVD Live in Barcelona 2002] ( Subtitles & lyrics )")
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen [DVD Live in Barcelona 2002] ( Subtitles & lyrics )
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:23
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
Thunder Road - from the DVD Live in Barcelona. October 16, 2002. With subtitles.
http://wn.com/Thunder_Road_Bruce_Springsteen_DVD_Live_in_Barcelona_2002_Subtitles_lyrics_
Bruce Springsteen - Live 1978 AMAZING FULL CONCERT VIDEO Part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 118:45
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
All rights owned by Bruce Springsteen. Landover Maryland (15th August 1978) Part 2 of this show is at www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Live_1978_AMAZING_FULL_CONCERT_VIDEO_Part_1
Badlands (Bruce Springsteen Live in Barcelona)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:38
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
The Boss at his best!
http://wn.com/Badlands_Bruce_Springsteen_Live_in_Barcelona
Bruce Springsteen -- Live -- The River -- New York
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:25
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
In my opinion: This is the Best live The River performance EVER.. I saw that it has been removed so I thought I upload it again,, just so share this wonderful thing! So I don't own any rights of this video!
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_-_Live_-_The_River_-_New_York
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising - Live
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:24
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
From the dvd Live in Barcelona. In memory of Clarence Clemons. Personal message from Youtube: "Your video, Bruce Springsteen - The Rising - Live , may include content that is owned or administered by these entities: Entity: UMPG Publishing Content Type: Musical Composition" So video may disappear some day.
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_The_Rising_Live
Land of Hope And Dreams - Bruce Springsteen - Live in NY City - Legendado
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:51
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
Land of Hope And Dreams, Bruce Springsteen, Live in New York City
http://wn.com/Land_of_Hope_And_Dreams_Bruce_Springsteen_Live_in_NY_City_Legendado
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA Live
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:38
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA Live
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Born_In_The_USA_Live
Bruce Springsteen - Live at Amnesty International 1988
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 46:48
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen performs at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the last night of the Amnesty International Human Rights Now tour (October 15 1988).
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Live_at_Amnesty_International_1988
Bruce Springsteen - Fire
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:14
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
A very hot song from Bruce. It's not "I'm on fire" ... it's FIRE! And live of course! Lyrics: Im driving in my car, I turn on the radio Im pulling you close, you just say no You say you dont like it, but girl I know youre a liar `cause when we kiss, fire Late at night Im takin you home I say I wanna stay, you say you wanna be alone You say you dont love me, girl you cant hide your desire `cause when we kiss, fire You had a hold on me, right from the start A grip so tight I couldnt tear it apart My nerves all jumpin actin like a fool Well your kisses they burn but your heart stays cool Romeo and juliet, samson and delilah Baby you can bet their love they didnt deny Your words say split but your words they lie `cause when we kiss, fire
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Fire
Bruce Springsteen - Backstreets (Live)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:36
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
One soft infested summer me and Terry became friends Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in Catching rides to the outskirts tying faith between our teeth Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house getting wasted in the heat And hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets With a love so hard and filled with defeat Running for our lives at night on them backstreets Slow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton's Wing Where desperate lovers park we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings Huddled in our cars waiting for the bells that ring In the deep heart of the night to set us loose from everything to go running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets We swore we'd live forever on the backstreets we take it together Endless juke joints and Valentino drag where dancers scraped the tears Up off the street dressed down in rags running into the darkness Some hurt bad some really dying at night sometimes it seemed You could hear the whole damn city crying blame it on the lies that killed us Blame it on the truth that ran us down you can blame it all on me Terry It don't matter to me now when the breakdown hit at midnight There was nothing left to say but I hated him and I hated you when you went away Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be And after all this time ...
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Backstreets_Live
Thunder Road 1976 Bruce Springsteen
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:12
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
Springsteen & the E Street Band Live 1976
http://wn.com/Thunder_Road_1976_Bruce_Springsteen
Dancing in the dark ( 88 live ) bruce springsteen
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:47
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
dancing in the dark - bruce springsteen & the e street band live 88
http://wn.com/Dancing_in_the_dark_88_live_bruce_springsteen
Bruce Springsteen - Live Glastonbury 2009 Full Concert ( Show Completo )
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 84:19
- Updated: 15 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live Glastonbury 2009
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Live_Glastonbury_2009_Full_Concert_Show_Completo_
(Official Video) Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Wrecking Ball (Live At Giants Stadium)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:23
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
http://wn.com/Official_Video_Bruce_Springsteen_and_the_E_Street_Band_Wrecking_Ball_Live_At_Giants_Stadium
Bruce Springsteen - Badlands - Live In New York City
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:41
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen - Badlands - Live In New York City Lights out tonight trouble in the heartland Got a head-on collision smashin' in my guts, man I'm caught in a cross fire that I don't understand But there's one thing I know for sure girl I don't give a damn For the same old played out scenes I don't give a damn For just the in betweens Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul I want control right now talk about a dream Try to make it real you wake up in the night With a fear so real Spend your life waiting for a moment that just don't come Well, don't waste your time waiting CHORUS Badlands, you gotta live it everyday Let the broken hearts stand As the price you've gotta pay We'll keep pushin' till it's understood and these badlands start treating us good Workin' in the fields till you get your back burned Workin' 'neath the wheel till you get your facts learned Baby I got my facts learned real good right now You better get it straight darling Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king And a king ain't satisfied till he rules everything I wanna go out tonight, I wanna find out what I got Well I believe in the love that you gave me I believe in the love that you gave me I believe in the faith that could save me I believe in the hope and I pray that some day It may raise me above these CHORUS mmmmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive I wanna find one face that ain't looking through me I ...
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Badlands_Live_In_New_York_City
![My city of ruins - Bruce Springsteen [DVD Live in Barcelona 2002] ( Subtitles & lyrics )](http://web.archive.org./web/20121120082357im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1v1esiP0w6c/default.jpg "My city of ruins - Bruce Springsteen [DVD Live in Barcelona 2002] ( Subtitles & lyrics )")
My city of ruins - Bruce Springsteen [DVD Live in Barcelona 2002] ( Subtitles & lyrics )
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:17
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
My city of ruins - from the DVD Live in Barcelona. October 16, 2002. With subtitles.
http://wn.com/My_city_of_ruins_Bruce_Springsteen_DVD_Live_in_Barcelona_2002_Subtitles_lyrics_
Hungry Heart - Bruce Springsteen - Paris 85
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:10
- Updated: 03 Nov 2012
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Proshot Hungry Heart - 29th June 1985, Parc De La Courneuve, Paris, France
http://wn.com/Hungry_Heart_Bruce_Springsteen_Paris_85
![Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere (Live) [HQ TV version]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121120082357im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/h8Xb8Cq9NrI/default.jpg "Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere (Live) [HQ TV version]")
Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere (Live) [HQ TV version]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:14
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
HQ version here: es.youtube.com Live on Today Show Rockefeller Plaza Center 28/Sept/2007 NYC
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen_Radio_Nowhere_Live_HQ_TV_version_
84:25
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND - live @ glastonbury 2009
Badlands Prove It All Night Outlaw Pete Out In The Street Working On A Dream Waitin' On A ...
published: 21 Feb 2012
author: MultiJokerchannel
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND - live @ glastonbury 2009
Badlands Prove It All Night Outlaw Pete Out In The Street Working On A Dream Waitin' On A Sunny Day Promised Land The River Born To Run Thunder Road American Land Glory Days Dancing In The Dark
published: 21 Feb 2012
views: 310473
author:
MultiJokerchannel
14:59
Bruce Springsteen - Live in London - Part 1
Bruce Springsteen and the E street band live in London The Full Track List: 1. London Call...
published: 25 Jun 2011
author: stockyy1994
Bruce Springsteen - Live in London - Part 1
Bruce Springsteen and the E street band live in London The Full Track List: 1. London Calling 2. Badlands 3. Night 4. She's The One 5. Outlaw Pete 6. Out In The Street 7. Working On A Dream 8. Seeds 9. Johnny 99 10. Youngstown 11. Good Lovin' 12. Bobby Jean 13. Trapped 14. No Surrender 15. Waiting On A Sunny Day 16. Promised Land 17. Racing In The Street 18. Radio Nowhere 19. Lonesome Day 20. The Rising 21. Born To Run 22. Hard Times (Come Again No More) 23. Jungleland 24. American Land 25. Glory Days 26. Dancing In The Dark
published: 25 Jun 2011
views: 252350
author:
stockyy1994
6:13
Bruce Springsteen - The River Live @ Glastonbury
"THE RIVER" AT GLASTONBURY July 4 On Saturday, June 27, Bruce and the Band played to their...
published: 25 Aug 2009
author: HeatTeo
Bruce Springsteen - The River Live @ Glastonbury
"THE RIVER" AT GLASTONBURY July 4 On Saturday, June 27, Bruce and the Band played to their largest audience since East Berlin in 1988. A total of 135000 people at the Glastonbury Festival watched a remarkable and emotion packed set. Here is the full version of one of many highlights, The River. The flags you see waving were held high by fans from the beginning of the show to the end. The mist you see behind Bruce is the steam on stage bouncing off of his back. For everyone there it is was a night to remember always.
published: 25 Aug 2009
views: 686479
author:
HeatTeo
6:36
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Born To Run (PROSHOT)
Filmed at Hard Rock Calling 2009, Hyde Park, London, UK. 28-6-2009...
published: 18 Aug 2009
author: bruchee
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Born To Run (PROSHOT)
Filmed at Hard Rock Calling 2009, Hyde Park, London, UK. 28-6-2009
published: 18 Aug 2009
views: 580427
author:
bruchee
10:54
Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland (Live in New York 2001)
Unforgettable performance from Live in New York City. Possibly one of the greatest perform...
published: 22 Mar 2008
author: Quy3771
Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland (Live in New York 2001)
Unforgettable performance from Live in New York City. Possibly one of the greatest performances of all time. Includes poetic lyrics, guitar, keyboard solos and the epic saxophone solo by the Big Man. --- As soon as the views hit 300 000 or I get 50 subscribers, I will repost an HD version of this video
published: 22 Mar 2008
views: 789931
author:
Quy3771
7:23
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen [DVD Live in Barcelona 2002] ( Subtitles & lyrics )
Thunder Road - from the DVD Live in Barcelona. October 16, 2002. With subtitles....
published: 19 Mar 2010
author: TheBossInBarcelonaHD
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen [DVD Live in Barcelona 2002] ( Subtitles & lyrics )
Thunder Road - from the DVD Live in Barcelona. October 16, 2002. With subtitles.
published: 19 Mar 2010
views: 556237
author:
TheBossInBarcelonaHD
118:45
Bruce Springsteen - Live 1978 AMAZING FULL CONCERT VIDEO Part 1
All rights owned by Bruce Springsteen. Landover Maryland (15th August 1978) Part 2 of this...
published: 10 Mar 2012
author: chillgreg
Bruce Springsteen - Live 1978 AMAZING FULL CONCERT VIDEO Part 1
All rights owned by Bruce Springsteen. Landover Maryland (15th August 1978) Part 2 of this show is at www.youtube.com
published: 10 Mar 2012
views: 174295
author:
chillgreg
6:38
Badlands (Bruce Springsteen Live in Barcelona)
The Boss at his best!...
published: 15 Nov 2008
author: TheMajestyOfRock2
Badlands (Bruce Springsteen Live in Barcelona)
9:25
Bruce Springsteen -- Live -- The River -- New York
In my opinion: This is the Best live The River performance EVER.. I saw that it has been r...
published: 09 Feb 2011
author: marloesjhee
Bruce Springsteen -- Live -- The River -- New York
In my opinion: This is the Best live The River performance EVER.. I saw that it has been removed so I thought I upload it again,, just so share this wonderful thing! So I don't own any rights of this video!
published: 09 Feb 2011
views: 81247
author:
marloesjhee
6:24
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising - Live
From the dvd Live in Barcelona. In memory of Clarence Clemons. Personal message from Youtu...
published: 08 Sep 2011
author: Kenjh71
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising - Live
From the dvd Live in Barcelona. In memory of Clarence Clemons. Personal message from Youtube: "Your video, Bruce Springsteen - The Rising - Live , may include content that is owned or administered by these entities: Entity: UMPG Publishing Content Type: Musical Composition" So video may disappear some day.
published: 08 Sep 2011
views: 45560
author:
Kenjh71
9:51
Land of Hope And Dreams - Bruce Springsteen - Live in NY City - Legendado
Land of Hope And Dreams, Bruce Springsteen, Live in New York City...
published: 26 Jan 2010
author: Erivelto Henrique
Land of Hope And Dreams - Bruce Springsteen - Live in NY City - Legendado
Land of Hope And Dreams, Bruce Springsteen, Live in New York City
published: 26 Jan 2010
views: 210388
author:
Erivelto Henrique
46:48
Bruce Springsteen - Live at Amnesty International 1988
Bruce Springsteen performs at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the la...
published: 25 Dec 2010
author: TomKNJ
Bruce Springsteen - Live at Amnesty International 1988
Bruce Springsteen performs at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the last night of the Amnesty International Human Rights Now tour (October 15 1988).
published: 25 Dec 2010
views: 42332
author:
TomKNJ
5:14
Bruce Springsteen - Fire
A very hot song from Bruce. It's not "I'm on fire" ... it's FIRE! And live of course! Lyri...
published: 23 Aug 2006
author: imotka
Bruce Springsteen - Fire
A very hot song from Bruce. It's not "I'm on fire" ... it's FIRE! And live of course! Lyrics: Im driving in my car, I turn on the radio Im pulling you close, you just say no You say you dont like it, but girl I know youre a liar `cause when we kiss, fire Late at night Im takin you home I say I wanna stay, you say you wanna be alone You say you dont love me, girl you cant hide your desire `cause when we kiss, fire You had a hold on me, right from the start A grip so tight I couldnt tear it apart My nerves all jumpin actin like a fool Well your kisses they burn but your heart stays cool Romeo and juliet, samson and delilah Baby you can bet their love they didnt deny Your words say split but your words they lie `cause when we kiss, fire
published: 23 Aug 2006
views: 9631453
author:
imotka
Vimeo results:
12:13
100 Riffs (A Brief History of Rock N' Roll)
Alex Chadwick plays 100 famous guitar riffs in one take giving you a chronological history...
published: 04 Jun 2012
author: Chicago Music Exchange
100 Riffs (A Brief History of Rock N' Roll)
Alex Chadwick plays 100 famous guitar riffs in one take giving you a chronological history of rock n' roll.
See the full detailed list of all the artists, keys, and year of each song played in the 100 riffs: http://www.chicagomusicexchange.com/100riffs
Alex plays a 1958 Fender Strat: http://goo.gl/g37oT
1 Mr. Sandman - Chet Atkins
2 Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
3 Words of Love - Buddy Holly
4 Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
5 Rumble - Link Wray
6 Summertime Blues - Eddie Cochran
7 Pipeline - The Chantays
8 Miserlou - Dick Dale
9 Wipeout - Surfaris
10 Daytripper - The Beatles
11 Can't Explain - The Who
12 Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
13 Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix
14 Black Magic Woman - Santana
15 Helter Skelter - The Beatles
16 Oh Well - Fleetwood Mac
17 Crossroads - Cream
18 Communication Breakdown - Led Zeppelin
19 Paranoid - Black Sabbath
20 Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival
21 Funk 49 - James Gang
22 Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin
23 Bitch - Rolling Stones
24 Layla - Derek and the Dominos
25 School's Out - Alice Cooper
26 Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
27 Money - Pink Floyd
28 Jessica - Allman Brothers
29 La Grange - ZZ Top
30 20th Century Boy - T. Rex
31 Scarlet Begonias - Grateful Dead
32 Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
33 Walk This Way - Aerosmith
34 Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
35 Stranglehold - Ted Nugent
36 Boys Are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
37 Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
38 Carry on My Wayward Son - Kansas
39 Blitzkreig Bop - The Ramones
40 Barracuda - Heart
41 Runnin' with the Devil - Van Halen
42 Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
43 Message in a Bottle - The Police
44 Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) - Neil Young
45 Back in Black - AC/DC
46 Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
47 Spirit of Radio - Rush
48 Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan
49 Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
50 Holy Diver - Dio
51 Beat It - Michael Jackson
52 Hot For Teacher - Van Halen
53 What Difference Does It Make - The Smiths
54 Glory Days - Bruce Springsteen
55 Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
56 You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi
57 The One I Love - REM
58 Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
59 Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N' Roses
60 Sweet Child 'O Mine - Guns N' Roses
61 Girls, Girls, Girls - Motley Crue
62 Cult of Personality -Living Colour
63 Kickstart My Heart - Motley Crue
64 Running Down a Dream - Tom Petty
65 Pictures of Matchstick Men - Camper Van Beethoven
66 Thunderstruck - AC/DC
67 Twice as Hard - Black Crowes
68 Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson
69 Enter Sandman - Metallica
70 Man in the Box - Alice in Chains
71 Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
72 Give it Away - Red Hot Chili Peppers
73 Even Flow - Pearl Jam
74 Outshined - Soundgarden
75 Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine
76 Sex Type Thing - Stone Temple Pilots
77 Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz
78 Welcome to Paradise - Green Day
79 Possum Kingdom - Toadies
80 Say it Ain't So - Weezer
81 Zero - Smashing Pumpkins
82 Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
83 Sex and Candy - Marcy Playground
84 Smooth - Santana
85 Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers
86 Short Skirt, Long Jacket - Cake
87 Turn a Square - The Shins
88 Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
89 Hysteria - Muse
90 I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
91 Blood and Thunder - Mastodon
92 Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
93 Reptilia - The Strokes
94 Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
95 Float On - Modest Mouse
96 Blue Orchid - White Stripes
97 Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
98 Steady As She Goes - The Raconteurs
99 I Got Mine - Black Keys
100 Cruel - St. Vincent
*Shot on a Nikon
3:22
Bruce Springsteen - "The Promise: The Making of 'Darkness on the Edge of Town'" Sneak Peek
A look at the 90-minute documentary, "The Promise: The Making of 'Darkness on the Edge of ...
published: 26 Aug 2010
author: Columbia Records
Bruce Springsteen - "The Promise: The Making of 'Darkness on the Edge of Town'" Sneak Peek
A look at the 90-minute documentary, "The Promise: The Making of 'Darkness on the Edge of Town,'" from the upcoming Bruce Springsteen release, 'The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story.' For the first time, fans will have access to 21 previously unreleased songs from the "Darkness" recording sessions on November 16. For more information, visit brucespringsteen.net. Pre-sale available now at http://bit.ly/brucethepromise
5:28
Bruce Springsteen London Calling Trailer
Bruce talks about London Calling Live In Hyde Park DVD and Blu-ray....
published: 11 Jun 2010
author: Columbia Records
Bruce Springsteen London Calling Trailer
Bruce talks about London Calling Live In Hyde Park DVD and Blu-ray.
5:58
Bruce Springsteen Keynote Address Excerpt (SXSW 2012)
Watch the full speech at http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/03/15/148693171/bruce-spr...
published: 15 Mar 2012
author: Columbia Records
Bruce Springsteen Keynote Address Excerpt (SXSW 2012)
Watch the full speech at http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/03/15/148693171/bruce-springsteen-on-the-meaning-of-music
Youtube results:
7:36
Bruce Springsteen - Backstreets (Live)
One soft infested summer me and Terry became friends Trying in vain to breathe the fire we...
published: 13 Aug 2009
author: RenaiSpirits
Bruce Springsteen - Backstreets (Live)
One soft infested summer me and Terry became friends Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in Catching rides to the outskirts tying faith between our teeth Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house getting wasted in the heat And hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets With a love so hard and filled with defeat Running for our lives at night on them backstreets Slow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton's Wing Where desperate lovers park we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings Huddled in our cars waiting for the bells that ring In the deep heart of the night to set us loose from everything to go running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets We swore we'd live forever on the backstreets we take it together Endless juke joints and Valentino drag where dancers scraped the tears Up off the street dressed down in rags running into the darkness Some hurt bad some really dying at night sometimes it seemed You could hear the whole damn city crying blame it on the lies that killed us Blame it on the truth that ran us down you can blame it all on me Terry It don't matter to me now when the breakdown hit at midnight There was nothing left to say but I hated him and I hated you when you went away Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be And after all this time ...
published: 13 Aug 2009
views: 125868
author:
RenaiSpirits
6:47
Dancing in the dark ( 88 live ) bruce springsteen
dancing in the dark - bruce springsteen & the e street band live 88...
published: 11 Jul 2011
author: runawaydream
Dancing in the dark ( 88 live ) bruce springsteen
dancing in the dark - bruce springsteen & the e street band live 88
published: 11 Jul 2011
views: 1510122
author:
runawaydream
84:19
Bruce Springsteen - Live Glastonbury 2009 Full Concert ( Show Completo )
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live Glastonbury 2009...
published: 19 Jul 2012
author: ShowsCompletos1
Bruce Springsteen - Live Glastonbury 2009 Full Concert ( Show Completo )
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live Glastonbury 2009
published: 19 Jul 2012
views: 7691
author:
ShowsCompletos1
Photo: AP / Hatem Moussa
18 Nov 2012
Israeli air strikes killed 16 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, prompting the Arab League to announce a visit to the battered enclave and a review of its Middle East peace policy. Egypt’s President...
Photo: AP / Hatem Moussa
19 Nov 2012
Gaza/Jerusalem - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that...
Photo: AP / Eyad Baba
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Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak more than doubled his call-up of army reservists last night (Friday night) as its cabinet and military chiefs convened to discuss a ground invasion of Gaza. With...
Photo: EC / EC
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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,...
Chicago Sun-Times
Updated: November 19, 2012 10:09PM I gave up on tradition in sports a long time ago. I’d suggest you do the same to save yourself from tearing up at embarrassing moments. If you’re the sentimental type, walking through the golf section at Sports Authority can make you think of the late, great...(size: 2.8Kb)
Chicago Sun-Times
Updated: November 19, 2012 9:46PM I gave up on tradition in sports a long time ago. I’d suggest you do the same to save yourself from tearing up at embarrassing moments. If you’re the sentimental type, walking through the golf section at Sports Authority can make you think of the late, great Western...(size: 2.8Kb)
After Obama, Christie Woos a Wary G.O.P.
20 Nov 2012
The New York Times
A few days after Hurricane Sandy shattered the shores of New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie picked up the phone to take on a different kind of recovery work: taming the Republican Party fury over his effusive embrace of President Obama. Related An Unlikely Political Pair, United by a Disaster (November...(size: 10.1Kb)
The Daily Telegraph Australia
THE X Factor Top 3 is getting the jitters as they play a waiting game in the lead-up to tonights Grand Final. The three talent show contestants - Samantha Jade, Jason Owen and The Collective - are deep in rehearsals for the winner-take-all finale. Voting lines closed at 12 noon today. One...(size: 2.4Kb)
Bloomberg
Five years ago, there were 20,000 of us at London’s O2 for a Led Zeppelin concert billed as “the band reunion of the century.” Most had won seats in a worldwide lottery on a website that had 25 million hits from those seeking tickets. On Dec. 10, 2007, the opening notes of “Good Times Bad Times”...(size: 5.3Kb)
Marco Rubio: A hip-hop fan unsure of Earth's age
19 Nov 2012
Daily Press
Looking for a sign that the Republican Party might have some leaders who can appeal to younger voters? Mitt Romney cited the Beach Boys, Garth Brooks and the Eagles among his favorite musicians, but Sen. Marco Rubio raised some eyebrows Monday with hat tips to N.W.A and Public Enemy. Rubio, 42, who...(size: 5.5Kb)
Torn jeans give way to more refined looks
19 Nov 2012
The Washington Times
This season’s clothes aren’t taking their cues from club children, college students or teen rebels. There’s something grown-up about some of the most popular looks: They’re a little refined and very wearable, but they’ve avoided being stodgy or, worse, just plain old....(size: 7.3Kb)
Starpulse
Alicia Keys is set to pay tribute to volunteers aiding the recovery effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy by performing a special concert for them in New York. The Empire State of Mind hit-maker's native...(size: 1.4Kb)
LA Daily News
By Sandra Barrera, Staff Writerdailynews.com Posted: 11/19/2012 12:36:22 PM PST November 19, 2012 8:46 PM GMTUpdated: 11/19/2012 12:46:58 PM PST "360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story" includes artifacts, rare photographs and personal items from the label's roster of artists. (Rebecca...(size: 2.4Kb)
Asbury Park Press
WOODLAND PARK â Southside...(size: 0.2Kb)
A Rare but Enduring Concept: Pink Cars
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The New York Times
I recently had a test drive in a pink Chevrolet Spark. The Korean-built Spark is Chevy’s smallest car, and the designers say that its color was inspired by the color of personal electronics, like mobile phones, favored by young people in Asia. But the color sold so well outside the United States...(size: 9.4Kb)
Seattle Post
WOODLAND PARK, N.J. (AP) — Southside Johnny Lyon is expecting a call from Bruce Springsteen soon, rallying the troops for charitable causes as the Shore tries to recover and rebuild from Superstorm Sandy. The fellow New Jersey rocker knows that for a couple of years, his touring schedule will...(size: 3.9Kb)
Voa News
Ke$ha Memoir Goes On Sale On November 20, Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone imprint will publish Ke$ha’s memoir, “My Crazy Beautiful Life.” “In less than three years I’ve gone from being the worst waitress in L.A. to living out my childhood dreams of singing...(size: 13.5Kb)
"Springsteen" redirects here. For other uses, see Springsteen (disambiguation).
| Bruce Springsteen | |
|---|---|
 Springsteen in 2009; Working on a Dream Tour in Valladolid, Spain |
|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Boss, Bad Scooter |
| Born | (1949-09-23) September 23, 1949 (age 62) Long Branch, New Jersey, United States |
| Genres | Rock, folk rock, heartland rock, hard rock, roots rock |
| Occupations | Musician, Songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, harmonica, bass guitar, piano, percussion, banjo, drums, keyboards |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Labels | Columbia |
| Associated acts | The E Street Band, Steel Mill, Miami Horns, The Sessions Band |
| Website | www.brucespringsteen.net |
| Notable instruments | |
| Fender Telecaster Takamine Guitars Gibson J-45 Hohner Marine Band Harmonica Gibson J-200 Gibson ES-335 Gibson Hummingbird |
|
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter-performer who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.[1]
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million worldwide[2] and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 21 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver, although he was frequently unemployed; his surname is Dutch for jump stone.[3] His mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry.[4] His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.
Raised a Roman Catholic,[5] Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold Borough, where he was at odds with the nuns and rejected the strictures imposed upon him, even though some of his later music reflects a Catholic ethos and included a few rock-influenced, traditional Irish-Catholic hymns.[6] Recently in Paris (2012) before the launch of his latest album, Wrecking Ball, he explained that it was his Catholic upbringing rather than political ideology that most influenced his music. He noted in the interview that his faith had given him a "very active spiritual life," although he joked that this "made it very difficult sexually." He added: "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic."[7]
In ninth grade, he transferred to the public Freehold Regional High School, but did not fit in there, either. Old teachers have said he was a "loner, who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar." He completed high school, but felt so uncomfortable that he skipped his own graduation ceremony.[8] He briefly attended Ocean County College, but dropped out.[6]
Career history[link]
1962–1972: Early years[link]
Springsteen had been inspired to take up music at the age of seven after seeing Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show. At 13, his mother bought him his first guitar for $18; later, she took out a loan to buy the 16-year-old Springsteen a $60 Kent guitar, as he later memorialized in his song "The Wish".
In 1965, he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town. They helped him become the lead guitarist and subsequently the lead singer of The Castiles. The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township and played a variety of venues, including Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. Marion Vinyard said that she believed the young Springsteen when he promised he would make it big.[9]
Called for induction when he was 18, Springsteen failed his physical examination and did not serve in Vietnam. In an interview in Rolling Stone magazine in 1984, he said, "When I got on the bus to go take my physical, I thought one thing: I ain't goin'." He had suffered a concussion in a motorcycle accident when he was 17, and this together with his "crazy" behaviour at induction and not taking the tests, was enough to get him a 4F.[10]
In the late 1960s, Springsteen performed briefly in a power trio known as Earth, playing in clubs in New Jersey. Springsteen acquired the nickname "The Boss" during this period as when he played club gigs with a band he took on the task of collecting the band's nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates.[11] Springsteen is not fond of this nickname, due to his dislike of bosses,[12] but seems to have since given it a tacit acceptance. Previously he had the nickname "Doctor".[13] From 1969 through early 1971, Springsteen performed with Steel Mill, which also featured Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin and later Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson. They went on to play the mid-Atlantic college circuit, and also briefly in California. In January 1970 well-known San Francisco Examiner music critic Philip Elwood gave Springsteen credibility in his glowing assessment of Steel Mill: "I have never been so overwhelmed by totally unknown talent." Elwood went on to praise their "cohesive musicality" and, in particular, singled out Springsteen as "a most impressive composer." During this time Springsteen also performed regularly at small clubs in Canton, Massachusetts, Richmond, Virginia, Asbury Park and along the Jersey Shore, quickly gathering a cult following. Other acts followed over the next two years, as Springsteen sought to shape a unique and genuine musical and lyrical style: Dr. Zoom & the Sonic Boom (early–mid 1971), Sundance Blues Band (mid 1971), and The Bruce Springsteen Band (mid 1971–mid 1972). With the addition of pianist David Sancious, the core of what would later become the E Street Band was formed, with occasional temporary additions such as horn sections, "The Zoomettes" (a group of female backing vocalists for "Dr. Zoom") and Southside Johnny Lyon on harmonica. Musical genres explored included blues, R&B, jazz, church music, early rock 'n' roll, and soul. His prolific songwriting ability, with "More words in some individual songs than other artists had in whole albums", as his future record label would describe it in early publicity campaigns, brought his skill to the attention of several people who were about to change his life: new managers Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, and legendary Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond, who, under Appel's pressure, auditioned Springsteen in May 1972.
Even after Springsteen gained international acclaim, his New Jersey roots showed through in his music, and he often praised "the great state of New Jersey" in his live shows. Drawing on his extensive local appeal, he routinely sold out consecutive nights in major New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York venues. He also made many surprise appearances at The Stone Pony and other shore nightclubs over the years, becoming the foremost exponent of the Jersey Shore sound.
1972–1974: Initial struggle for success[link]
Springsteen signed a record deal with Columbia Records in 1972, with the help of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Springsteen brought many of his New Jersey–based colleagues into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band (although it would not be formally named as such for several more years). His debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite,[14] though sales were slow. Because of Springsteen's lyrical poeticism and folk rock–rooted music exemplified on tracks like "Blinded by the Light", (which would later be a hit for Manfred Mann and go to No. 1, making it the only time Springsteen had a No. 1 single as a songwriter), and "For You", as well as the Columbia and Hammond connections, critics initially compared Springsteen to Bob Dylan. "He sings with a freshness and urgency I haven't heard since I was rocked by 'Like a Rolling Stone,'" wrote Crawdaddy magazine editor Peter Knobler in Springsteen's first interview/profile, in March 1973. Crawdaddy discovered Springsteen in the rock press and was his earliest champion.[15] (Springsteen and the E Street Band acknowledged by giving a private performance at the Crawdaddy 10th Anniversary Party in New York City in June 1976.)[16] Music critic Lester Bangs wrote in Creem in 1975 that when Springsteen's first album was released "... many of us dismissed it: he wrote like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, sang like Van Morrison and Robbie Robertson, and led a band that sounded like Van Morrison's."[17] The track "Spirit in the Night" especially showed Morrison's influence, while "Lost in the Flood" was the first of many portraits of Vietnam veterans and "Growin' Up", his first take on the recurring theme of adolescence.
In September 1973 his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was released, again to critical acclaim but no commercial success. Springsteen's songs became grander in form and scope, with the E Street Band providing a less folky, more R&B vibe and the lyrics often romanticized teenage street life. "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" and "Incident on 57th Street" would become fan favorites, and the long, rousing "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" continues to rank among Springsteen's most beloved concert numbers.
In the May 22, 1974, issue of Boston's The Real Paper, music critic Jon Landau wrote after seeing a performance at the Harvard Square Theater, "I saw rock and roll's future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time."[18] Landau subsequently became Springsteen's manager and producer, helping to finish the epic new album, Born to Run. Given an enormous budget in a last-ditch effort at a commercially viable record, Springsteen became bogged down in the recording process while striving for a wall of sound production. But, fed by the release of an early mix of "Born to Run" to progressive rock radio, anticipation built toward the album's release. All in all the album took more than 14 months to record, with six months alone spent on the song "Born To Run". During this time Springsteen battled with anger and frustration over the album, saying he heard "sounds in [his] head" that he could not explain to the others in the studio. It was during these recording sessions that "Miami" Steve Van Zandt would stumble into the studio just in time to help Springsteen organize the horn section on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (it is his only written contribution to the album), and eventually led to his joining the E Street Band.[citation needed] Van Zandt had been a long-time friend of Springsteen, as well as a collaborator on earlier musical projects, and understood where he was coming from, which helped him to translate some of the sounds Springsteen was hearing. Still, by the end of the grueling recording sessions, Springsteen was not satisfied, and, upon first hearing the finished album, threw the record into the alley and told Jon Landau he would rather just cut the album live at The Bottom Line, a place he often played.[19]
1975–1983: Breakthrough[link]
On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club. The engagement attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.[20]) With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen finally found success. The album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and while there were no hit singles, "Born to Run" (Billboard No. 23), "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (Billboard No. 83), and "Jungleland" all received massive album-oriented rock airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations. The songwriting and recording was more disciplined than before, while still maintaining an epic feel. With its panoramic imagery, thundering production and desperate optimism, Born to Run is considered by some fans to be among the best rock and roll albums of all time and Springsteen's finest work. It established him as a sincere and dynamic rock and roll personality who spoke for and in the voice of a large part of the rock audience. To cap off the triumph, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week, on October 27 of that year. So great did the wave of publicity become that Springsteen eventually rebelled against it during his first venture overseas, tearing down promotional posters before a concert appearance in London.
A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for nearly a year, during which time he kept the E Street Band together through extensive touring across the U.S. Despite the optimistic fervor with which he often performed, his new songs had taken a more somber tone than much of his previous work. Reaching settlement with Appel in 1977, Springsteen returned to the studio, and the subsequent sessions produced Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). Musically, this album was a turning point in Springsteen's career. Gone were the raw, rapid-fire lyrics, outsized characters and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first two albums; now the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. The cross-country 1978 tour to promote the album would become legendary for the intensity and length of its shows.[citation needed]
By the late 1970s, Springsteen had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann's Earth Band had achieved a U.S. No. 1 pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached No. 13 with her take on Springsteen's unreleased "Because the Night" (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit No. 2 in 1979 with Springsteen's also unreleased "Fire".
In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer's No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen's fabled live act, as well as Springsteen's first tentative dip into political involvement.
Springsteen continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the 20-song double album The River in 1980, which included an intentionally paradoxical range of material from good-time party rockers to emotionally intense ballads, and finally yielded his first hit Top Ten single as a performer, "Hungry Heart". This album marked a shift in Springsteen's music toward a pop-rock sound that was all but missing from any of his earlier work.[citation needed]This is apparent in the stylistic adoption of certain eighties pop-rock hallmarks like the reverberating-tenor drums, very basic percussion/guitar and repetitive lyrics apparent in many of the tracks. The title song pointed to Springsteen's intellectual direction, while a couple of the lesser-known tracks presaged his musical direction. The album sold well, becoming his first topper on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and a long tour in 1980 and 1981 followed, featuring Springsteen's first extended playing of Europe and ending with a series of multi-night arena stands in major cities in the U.S.
The River was followed in 1982 by the stark solo acoustic Nebraska. Recording sessions had been held to expand on a demo tape Springsteen had made at his home on a simple, low-tech four-track tape deck. However during the recording process Springsteen and producer Landau realized the songs worked better as solo acoustic numbers than full band renditions and the original demo tape was released as the album. Although the recordings of the E Street Band were shelved, other songs from these sessions would later be released, including "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days". According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was in a depressed state when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. While Nebraska did not sell as well as Springsteen's two previous albums, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine's critics) and influenced later significant works by other major artists, including U2's album The Joshua Tree. It helped inspire the musical genre known as lo-fi music, becoming a cult favorite among indie-rockers. Springsteen did not tour in conjunction with Nebraska's release.
1984–1991: Commercial and popular phenomenon[link]
Springsteen probably is best known for his album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S. and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, with seven singles hitting the Top 10, and the massively successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Springsteen's friends and bandmates. The lyrics in the verses were entirely unambiguous when listened to, but the anthemic music and the title of the song made it hard for many, from politicians to the common person, to get the lyrics—except those in the chorus, which could be read many ways.[21] The song was widely misinterpreted as jingoistic, and in connection with the 1984 presidential campaign became the subject of considerable folklore. Springsteen also turned down several million dollars offered by the Chrysler Corporation to use the song in a car commercial. (In later years, to eliminate the bombast and make the song's original meaning more explicitly clear, Springsteen performed the song accompanied only by acoustic guitar. An acoustic version also appeared on Tracks, a later album.) "Dancing in the Dark" was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard music charts. The music video for the song featured a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, an appearance which helped kickstart the actress's career. The song "Cover Me" was written by Springsteen for Donna Summer, but his record company persuaded him to keep it for the new album. A big fan of Summer's work, Springsteen wrote another song for her, "Protection". Videos for the album were made by noted film directors Brian De Palma and John Sayles. Springsteen was featured on the "We Are the World" song and album in 1985. His live single "Trapped" from that album received moderate airplay on U.S. Top 40 stations as well as reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart.[22]
During the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Springsteen met actress Julianne Phillips, whom he would marry in 1985.
The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience demographic he would ever reach (aided by the release of Arthur Baker's dance mixes of three of the singles). Live/1975–85, a five-record box set (also on three cassettes or three CDs), was released near the end of 1986 and became the first box set to debut at No. 1 on the U.S. album charts. It is one of the most commercially successful live albums of all time, ultimately selling 13 million units in the U.S. Live/1975–85 summed up Springsteen's career to that point and displayed some of the elements that made his shows so powerful to his fans: the switching from mournful dirges to party rockers and back; the communal sense of purpose between artist and audience; the long, intense spoken passages before songs, including those describing Springsteen's difficult relationship with his father; and the instrumental prowess of the E Street Band, such as in the long coda to "Racing in the Street". Despite its popularity, some fans and critics felt the album's song selection could have been better. Springsteen concerts are the subjects of frequent bootleg recording and trading among fans.
During the 1980s, several Springsteen fanzines were launched, including Backstreets magazine, which started in Seattle and continues today as a glossy publication, now in communication with Springsteen's management and official website.
After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love album (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered, which only selectively used the E Street Band. It presaged the breakup of his marriage to Julianne Phillips and described some of his unhappinesses in the relationship. Reflecting the challenges of love in "Brilliant Disguise", Springsteen sang:
| “ | I heard somebody call your name, from underneath our willow. I saw something tucked in shame, underneath your pillow. Well I've tried so hard baby, but I just can't see. What a woman like you is doing with me. | ” |
The subsequent Tunnel of Love Express tour shook up fans with changes to the stage layout, favorites dropped from the set list, and horn-based arrangements. During the European leg in 1988, Springsteen's relationship with backup singer Patti Scialfa became public and Phillips and Springsteen filed for divorce in 1988.[23] Later in 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. In late 1989 he dissolved the E Street Band, and he and Scialfa relocated to California, marrying in 1991.
1992–2001: Artistic and commercial ups and downs[link]
In 1992, after risking fan accusations of "going Hollywood" by moving to Los Angeles (a radical move for someone so linked to the blue-collar life of the Jersey Shore) and working with session musicians, Springsteen released two albums at once. Human Touch and Lucky Town were even more introspective than any of his previous work and displayed a newly revealed confidence. As opposed to his first two albums, which dreamed of happiness, and his next four, which showed him growing to fear it, at points during the Lucky Town album, Springsteen actually claims happiness for himself.
An electric band appearance on the acoustic MTV Unplugged television program (later released as In Concert/MTV Plugged) was poorly received and further cemented fan dissatisfaction. Springsteen seemed to realize this a few years hence when he spoke humorously of his late father during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech:
| “ | I've gotta thank him because – what would I conceivably have written about without him? I mean, you can imagine that if everything had gone great between us, we would have had disaster. I would have written just happy songs – and I tried it in the early '90s and it didn't work; the public didn't like it.[24] | ” |
A multiple Grammy Award winner, Springsteen also won an Academy Award in 1994 for his song "Streets of Philadelphia", which appeared the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia. The song, along with the film, was applauded by many for its sympathetic portrayal of a gay man dying of AIDS.[citation needed] The music video for the song shows Springsteen's actual vocal performance, recorded using a hidden microphone, to a prerecorded instrumental track.[citation needed] This technique was developed on the "Brilliant Disguise" video.
In 1995, after temporarily re-organizing the E Street Band for a few new songs recorded for his first Greatest Hits album (a recording session that was chronicled in the documentary Blood Brothers), he released his second (mostly) solo guitar album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, inspired by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and by Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, a book by Pulitzer Prize-winners author Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson. This was generally less well-received than the similar Nebraska, due to the minimal melody, twangy vocals, and political nature of most of the songs, although some praised it for giving voice to immigrants and others who rarely have one in American culture. The lengthy, worldwide, small-venue solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour that followed successfully featured many of his older songs in drastically reshaped acoustic form, although Springsteen had to explicitly remind his audiences to be quiet and not to clap during the performances.
Following the tour, Springsteen moved back to New Jersey with his family.[25] In 1998, Springsteen released the sprawling, four-disc box set of out-takes, Tracks. Subsequently, Springsteen would acknowledge that the 1990s were a "lost period" for him: "I didn't do a lot of work. Some people would say I didn't do my best work."[26]
Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 by Bono of U2, a favor he returned in 2005.
In 1999, Springsteen and the E Street Band officially came together again and went on the extensive Reunion Tour, lasting over a year. Highlights included a record sold-out, 15-show run at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey and a ten-night, sold-out engagement at New York City's Madison Square Garden which ended the tour. The final two shows were recorded for an HBO Concert, with corresponding DVD and album releases as Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live in New York City. A new song, "American Skin (41 Shots)", about the police shooting of Amadou Diallo which was played at these shows proved controversial.
In November 2000, Springsteen filed legal action against Jeff Burgar which accused him of registering the domain brucespringsteen.com (along with several other celebrity domains) in bad faith to funnel web users to his Celebrity 1000 portal site. Once the legal complaint was filed, Burgar pointed the domain to a Springsteen biography and message board. In February 2001, Springsteen lost his dispute with Burgar. A WIPO panel ruled 2 to 1 in favor of Burgar.[27][28]
On Labor Day 2001 Springsteen played at Donovan's Reef in Sea Bright, NJ, surprising a local cover band named Brian Kirk and the Jerks and performed "Rosalita" with them showing his support and love.
2002–2007: Return to success[link]
File:RisingTourGiantsStadiumLot.jpg
The scene outside the Giants Stadium parking lot for banner-marked, record-setting, 10-night stand of The Rising Tour during July 2003.
In 2002, Springsteen released his first studio effort with the full band in 18 years, The Rising, produced by Brendan O'Brien. The album, mostly a reflection on the September 11 attacks, was a critical and popular success. (Many of the songs were influenced by phone conversations Springsteen had with family members of victims of the attacks who in their obituaries had mentioned how his music touched their lives.) The title track gained airplay in several radio formats, and the record became Springsteen's best-selling album of new material in 15 years. Kicked off by an early-morning Asbury Park appearance on The Today Show, The Rising Tour commenced, barnstorming through a series of single-night arena stands in the U.S. and Europe to promote the album in 2002, then returning for large-scale, multiple-night stadium shows in 2003. While Springsteen had maintained a loyal hardcore fan base everywhere (and particularly in Europe), his general popularity had dipped over the years in some southern and midwestern regions of the U.S. But it was still strong in Europe and along the U.S. coasts, and he played an unprecedented 10 nights in Giants Stadium in New Jersey, a ticket-selling feat to which no other musical act has come close.[29] During these shows Springsteen thanked those fans who were attending multiple shows and those who were coming from long distances or another country; the advent of robust Bruce-oriented online communities had made such practices more common. The Rising Tour came to a final conclusion with three nights in Shea Stadium, highlighted by renewed controversy over "American Skin" and a guest appearance by Bob Dylan.
During the early 2000s, Springsteen became a visible advocate for the revitalization of Asbury Park, and played an annual series of winter holiday concerts there to benefit various local businesses, organizations, and causes. These shows were explicitly intended for the devoted fans, featuring numbers such as the E Street Shuffle outtake "Thundercrack", a rollicking group-participation song that would mystify casual Springsteen fans. He also frequently rehearses for tours in Asbury Park; some of his most devoted followers even go so far as to stand outside the building to hear what fragments they can of the upcoming shows. The song "My City of Ruins" was originally written about Asbury Park, in honor of the attempts to revitalize the city. Looking for an appropriate song for a post-Sept. 11 benefit concert honoring New York City, he selected "My City of Ruins", which was immediately recognized as an emotional highlight of the concert, with its gospel themes and its heartfelt exhortations to "Rise up!" The song became associated with post-9/11 New York, and he chose it to close The Rising album and as an encore on the subsequent tour.
At the Grammy Awards of 2003, Springsteen performed The Clash's "London Calling" along with Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt and No Doubt's bassist, Tony Kanal, in tribute to Joe Strummer; Springsteen and the Clash had once been considered multiple-album-dueling rivals at the time of the double The River and the triple Sandinista!. In 2004, Springsteen and the E Street Band participated in the "Vote for Change" tour, along with John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Bright Eyes, the Dave Matthews Band, Jackson Browne, and other musicians. All concerts were to be held in swing states, to benefit the liberalism political organization group America Coming Together and to encourage people to register and vote. A finale was held in Washington, D.C., bringing many of the artists together. Several days later, Springsteen held one more such concert in New Jersey, when polls showed that state surprisingly close. While in past years Springsteen had played benefits for causes in which he believed – against nuclear energy, for Vietnam veterans, Amnesty International, and the Christic Institute – he had always refrained from explicitly endorsing candidates for political office (indeed he had rejected the efforts of Walter Mondale to attract an endorsement during the 1984 Reagan "Born in the U.S.A." flap). This new stance led to criticism and praise from the expected partisan sources. Springsteen's "No Surrender" became the main campaign theme song for John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign; in the last days of the campaign, he performed acoustic versions of the song and some of his other old songs at Kerry rallies.
Devils & Dust was released on April 26, 2005, and was recorded without the E Street Band. It is a low-key, mostly acoustic album, in the same vein as Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad although with a little more instrumentation. Some of the material was written almost 10 years earlier during, or shortly after, the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, a couple of them being performed then but never released.[30] The title track concerns an ordinary soldier's feelings and fears during the Iraq War. Starbucks rejected a co-branding deal for the album, due in part to some sexually explicit content but also because of Springsteen's anti-corporate politics. The album entered the album charts at No. 1 in 10 countries (United States, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland). Springsteen began the solo Devils & Dust Tour at the same time as the album's release, playing both small and large venues. Attendance was disappointing in a few regions, and everywhere (other than in Europe) tickets were easier to get than in the past. Unlike his mid-1990s solo tour, he performed on piano, electric piano, pump organ, autoharp, ukulele, banjo, electric guitar, and stomping board, as well as acoustic guitar and harmonica, adding variety to the solo sound. (Offstage synthesizer, guitar, and percussion were also used for some songs.) Unearthly renditions of "Reason to Believe", "The Promised Land", and Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" jolted audiences to attention, while rarities, frequent set list changes, and a willingness to keep trying even through audible piano mistakes kept most of his loyal audiences happy.
In November 2005, Sirius Satellite Radio started a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week radio station on Channel 10 called E Street Radio. This channel featured commercial-free Bruce Springsteen music, including rare tracks, interviews, and daily concerts of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band recorded throughout their career.
In April 2006, Springsteen released We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, an American roots music project focused around a big folk sound treatment of 15 songs popularized by the radical musical activism of Pete Seeger. It was recorded with a large ensemble of musicians including only Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and The Miami Horns from past efforts. In contrast to previous albums, this was recorded in only three one-day sessions, and frequently one can hear Springsteen calling out key changes live as the band explores its way through the tracks. The Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour began the same month, featuring the 18-strong ensemble of musicians dubbed The Seeger Sessions Band (and later shortened to The Sessions Band). Seeger Sessions material was heavily featured, as well as a handful of (usually drastically rearranged) Springsteen numbers. The tour proved very popular in Europe, selling out everywhere and receiving some excellent reviews,[31] but newspapers reported that a number of U.S. shows suffered from sparse attendance.[32][33][34] By the end of 2006, the Seeger Sessions tour toured Europe twice and toured America for only a short span. Bruce Springsteen with The Sessions Band: Live in Dublin, containing selections from three nights of November 2006 shows at The Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, was released the following June.
Springsteen's next album, titled Magic, was released on October 2, 2007. Recorded with the E Street Band, it featured 10 new Springsteen songs plus "Long Walk Home", performed once with the Sessions band, and a hidden track (the first included on a Springsteen studio release), "Terry's Song", a tribute to Springsteen's long-time assistant Terry Magovern, who died on July 30, 2007.[35] The first single, "Radio Nowhere", was made available for a free download on August 28. On October 7, Magic debuted at No. 1 in Ireland and the UK. Greatest Hits reentered the Irish charts at No. 57, and Live in Dublin almost cracked the top 20 in Norway again. Sirius Satellite Radio also restarted E Street Radio on Channel 10 on September 27, 2007, in anticipation of Magic.[36] Radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications was alleged to have sent an edict to its classic rock stations to not play any songs from the new album, while continuing to play older Springsteen material. However, Clear Channel Adult Alternative (or "AAA") station KBCO did play tracks from the album, undermining the allegations of a corporate blackout.[37] The Springsteen and E Street Band Magic Tour began at the Hartford Civic Center with the album's release and continued through North America and Europe. Springsteen and the band performed live[38] on NBC's Today Show in advance of the opener. Longtime E Street Band organist Danny Federici left the tour in November 2007 to pursue treatment for melanoma[39] from which he would die in 2008.[40]
2008–present: Recent activities[link]
Springsteen at a rally for the presidential candidate Barack Obama
Cleveland, Ohio on November 2, 2008
Springsteen supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, announcing his endorsement in April 2008[41] and going on to appear at several Obama rallies as well as performing several solo acoustic performances in support of Obama's campaign throughout 2008,[42] culminating with a November 2 rally where he debuted "Working On A Dream" in a duet with Scialfa.[43] At an Ohio rally, Springsteen discussed the importance of "truth, transparency and integrity in government, the right of every American to have a job, a living wage, to be educated in a decent school, and a life filled with the dignity of work, the promise and the sanctity of home...But today those freedoms have been damaged and curtailed by eight years of a thoughtless, reckless and morally-adrift administration."[44]
Following Obama's electoral victory on November 4, Springsteen's song "The Rising" was the first song played over the loudspeakers after Obama's victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park. Springsteen was the musical opener for the Obama Inaugural Celebration on January 18, 2009 which was attended by over 400,000.[45] He performed "The Rising" with an all-female choir. Later he performed Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" with Pete Seeger.
On June 18, 2008, Springsteen appeared live from Europe at the Tim Russert tribute at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to play one of Russert's favorite songs, "Thunder Road". Springsteen dedicated the song to Russert, who was "one of Springsteen's biggest fans."[citation needed]
On January 11, 2009, Springsteen won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song for "The Wrestler", from the Mickey Rourke film by the same name.[46] After receiving a heartfelt letter from Mickey Rourke, Springsteen supplied the song for the film for free.[47]
Springsteen performed at the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009,[48] agreeing to do it after many previous offers.[49] A few days before the game, Springsteen gave a rare press conference, where he promised a "twelve-minute party."[50][51] His 12:45 set, with the E Street Band and the Miami Horns, included abbreviated renditions of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"", "Born to Run", "Working on a Dream", and "Glory Days", the latter complete with football references. The set of appearances and promotional activities led Springsteen to say, "This has probably been the busiest month of my life."[52]
Springsteen's Working on a Dream album was released in late January 2009[53] and the supporting Working on a Dream Tour ran from April 2009 until November 2009. The tour featured few songs from the new album, with instead set lists dominated by classics and selections reflecting the ongoing late-2000s recession.[54] The tour also featured Springsteen playing songs requested by audience members holding up signs as on the final stages of the Magic Tour.[54] Drummer Max Weinberg was replaced for some shows by his 18-year-old son Jay Weinberg, so that the former could serve his role as bandleader on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.[54] During this tour, Springsteen and the band made their first real foray in the world of music festivals, headlining nights at the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands, Festival des Vieilles Charrues in France, the Bonnaroo Music Festival in the United States and the Glastonbury Festival in the UK[55] and Hard Rock Calling in the UK.[56] Several shows on the tour featured full album presentations of Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, or Born in the U.S.A.[57] The band performed a stretch of five final shows at his homestate Giants Stadium, opening with a new song highlighting the historic stadium, and his Jersey roots, named "Wrecking Ball".[58] The tour ended as scheduled in Buffalo, NY in November 2009 amid speculation that it was the last performance ever by the E Street Band, but during the show Springsteen said it was goodbye “for a little while.”[59] A DVD from the Working on a Dream Tour entitled London Calling: Live in Hyde Park was released in 2010.
In addition to his own touring, Springsteen made a number of appearances at tribute and benefit concerts during 2009, including The Clearwater Concert, a celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary benefit concert,[60] a benefit for the advocacy group Autism Speaks at Carnegie Hall.[61] On January 22, 2010, he joined many well-known artists to perform on Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief,[62] organized by George Clooney to raise money to help the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
File:American Land ESB Fireworks Giants 100309.jpg
Fireworks go off at the conclusion of the "E! Street! Band!" exhortation during the final shows at Giants Stadium.
In 2009, Springsteen performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and 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.[63]
Springsteen was among the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual award to figures from the world of arts for their contribution to American culture, in December 2009.[64] President Obama gave a speech in which he talked about how Springsteen has incorporated the life of regular Americans in his expansive pallette of songs and how his concerts are beyond the typical rock-and-roll concerts, how, apart from being high-energy concerts, they are "communions". He ended the remark "while I am the president, he is The Boss". Tributes were paid by several well-known celebrities including Jon Stewart (who described Springsteen's "unprecedented combination of lyrical eloquence, musical mastery and sheer unbridled, unadulterated joy"). A musical tribute featured John Mellencamp, Ben Harper, and Jennifer Nettles, Melissa Etheridge, Eddie Vedder, and Sting.
The 2000s ended with Springsteen being named one of eight Artists of the Decade by Rolling Stone magazine[65] and with Springsteen's tours ranking him fourth among artists in total concert grosses for the decade.[66]
In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album Darkness on The Edge of Town was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, was included in a box set reissue of the album, entitled The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story, released in November 2010. Also airing on HBO, the documentary explored Springsteen's making of the acclaimed album, and his role in the production and development of the tracks.
Springsteen has finished his next studio album with Ron Aniello,[67] who also co-produced the 2007 album Play It As It Lays, by Springsteen's wife, Patti Scialfa. Ron Aniello also produced "Children's Song" early in 2011, a duet with Springsteen and Scialfa, which was done for a charity project.
Clarence Clemons, the E Street Band's saxophonist since 1972, died on June 18, 2011, of complications from a stroke. “Clarence lived a wonderful life,” Springsteen said in a statement. “He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage.”[68]
Springsteen's 17th studio album, Wrecking Ball, was released on March 6, 2012. On January 13, 2012, Hollywood Reporter released an article describing the sound of the new album. According to the article, the album is Springsteen at his angriest yet and addresses economic justice quite a bit. The article describes the album musically as being very rock-and-roll with unexpected textures, loops, electronic percussion and a variety of influences.[69] The album consists of eleven tracks plus two bonus tracks. Three songs previously only available as live versions, "Wrecking Ball", "Land of Hope and Dreams," and "American Land," appear on the album.[70] The album's first single, "We Take Care of Our Own", was released on January 19, 2012.
On January 24, 2012, Springsteen's official web site announced that the E Street Band will commence a world tour called the Wrecking Ball Tour on March 18, 2012, in Atlanta. The tour will run through at least July 31, 2012, and will consist of at least two legs featuring 51 dates, although the headline "First US Leg of 2012 World Tour" may imply that the tour will continue into autumn 2012 or beyond.[71] As tickets for the first U.S. dates went on sale, many fans were unable to obtain tickets, much like for the 2009 Working on a Dream Tour, allegedly due to a heavy volume of ticket scalpers. Shows sold out within minutes and many tickets appeared, at much higher prices, on resale websites such as StubHub less than an hour after the onsale time. Ticketmaster said web traffic was 2.5 times the highest level of the past year during the online sales and suggested that scalpers played a big role. U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell has called for stronger government oversight of online box offices. Pascrell introduced the BOSS ACT in 2009 to increase transparency in the ticket industry. Pascrell said he would reintroduce the bill to Congress.[72][73]
"Rocky Ground" has been announced as the second single from Wrecking Ball and will be released exclusively as part of Record Store Day on April 21, 2012.
Wrecking Ball became Springsteen's tenth No. 1 album in the United States tying him with Elvis Presley for third most No. 1 albums of all-time. Only The Beatles (19) and Jay-Z (12) have more No. 1 albums. Wrecking Ball knocked out Adele's Grammy winning album, 21 after 23 nonconsecutive weeks at #1.[74]
On March 15, 2012, Springsteen was the keynote speaker at the annual SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas.
Musical style[link]
Bruce Springsteen draws on many musical influences from the reservoir of traditional American popular music, folk, blues and country. From the beginning, rock and roll has been the dominant influence. On his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey, the folk-influence is clear. An example of the influence of this music genre to Springsteen's music is his song "This Hard Land" which demonstrates a clear influence of the style of Woody Guthrie.[citation needed]
He expanded the range of his musical compositions on his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.[citation needed] Elements of Latin American music, jazz, soul, and funk influences can be heard; the song "New York City Serenade" is even reminiscent of the music of George Gershwin. These two records prominently featured pianist David Sancious, who left the band shortly into the recording of Springsteen's third album, Born To Run. This album, however, also emphasized the piano, the responsibility now of Roy Bittan.
Earlier in his career, Springsteen has focused more on the rock elements of his music. He initially compressed the sound and developed Darkness On The Edge Of Town just as straightforward as concise musical idiom, for the simple riffs, hard rock guitar solos and clearly recognizable song structures are dominant. He also drew upon a few influences from punk rock on the album, as can be heard on the heavy rhythm following the bridge solo on 'Candy's Room'.[citation needed] His music has been categorized as heartland rock, a style typified by Springsteen, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp. This music has a lyrical reference to the U.S. everyday and the music is kept rather simple and straightforward. This development culminated with Springsteen's hit album Born in the U.S.A., the title song of which has a constantly repeating, fanfare-like keyboard riff and a pounding drum beat. These sounds fit with Springsteen's voice: it cries to the listener the unsentimental story of a disenchanted angry figure. Even songs that can be argued to be album tracks proved to be singles that enjoyed some chart success, such as "My Hometown" and "I'm on Fire", in which the drum line is formed from subtle hi-hat and rim-clicks-shock (shock at the edge of the snare drum) accompanied by synthesizer and Springsteen's soft guitar line. The album, along with some previous records such as "Cadillac Ranch" showed clear rockabilly influences as is evident from his guitar solos, in-fills and vocal styles on these. Another clear influence of early rock n roll on Springsteen's music is evident on the song "Light of Day".
In recent years, Springsteen has changed his music further.[citation needed] There are more folk elements up to the gospel to be heard. His last solo album, Devils and Dust, drew rave reviews not only for Springsteen's complex songwriting, but also for his expressive and sensitive singing.
On the album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions Springsteen performs folk classics with a folk band, rather than his usual E Street Band. On his ensuing tour he also interpreted some of his own rock songs in a folk style.[citation needed]
The 2007 album Magic was a reflection on the old stadium rock attitude and with its lush arrangements was almost designed to be performed at large stadiums, which also succeeded on the corresponding tour.[citation needed]
Lyrical themes[link]
| "I spent most of my life as a musician measuring the distance between the American dream and American reality" |
| —Bruce Springsteen[75][C] |
Often described as cinematographic in their scope, Springsteen's lyrics frequently explore highly personal themes such as individual commitment, dissatisfaction and dismay with life in a context of every day situations.[76]
It has been recognized that there was a shift in his lyrical approach starting with the album Darkness on the Edge of Town, in which he focused on the emotional struggles of working class life.[77][78]
Politics and activism[link]
Springsteen's music has often contained political themes reflecting his responses to the events occurring around him. A number of these songs contributed to Springsteen’s stardom; many songs cannot be explained without including Springsteen’s political views. The following are a chronological order of the political and activist causes Springsteen has publicly campaigned for:
September 19–23, 1979: Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden.
August 20, 1981: A Night For The Vietnam Veterans for the Vietnam Veterans’ Association as an appeal to help “heal the physical and psychological wounds inflicted on the soldiers who fought the nation’s most unpopular war”.[79][80]
1984: Turned down several million dollars offered by the Chrysler Corporation to use the song "Born in the U.S.A." in a car commercial.
1985: Featured on the "We Are the World" song and album
1988: Headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International.
2004: "No Surrender" became the main campaign theme song for John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign; in the last days of the campaign, he performed acoustic versions of the song and some of his other old songs at Kerry rallies.
April 2008: Springsteen announced his endorsement supporting Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.[81] Throughout the year, he showed his support by attending several rallies and performing in support of Obama’s campaign.
2009: Springsteen contributed to the soundtrack of The People Speak by playing guitar and harmonica.
January 2009: Springsteen was the musical opener for the Obama Inaugural Celebration.
May 3, 2009: Springsteen made an appearance at The Clearwater Concert.
October 29 & 30, 2009: Springsteen made an appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary benefit concert.[82]
January 22, 2010: Springsteen made an appearance at Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief.[83]
Springsteen has additionally been associated with various local food banks, particularly with the New Jersey Food bank for many years. During concerts, he usually breaks the routine to announce his support and later matches the total collection during the concert with his own money. During his Charlotte, North Carolina concert on November 3, 2009, he started with a $10,000 donation for the local food bank to start the collections process – which he again matched later.
He has made substantial financial contributions to various workers' unions both in America and in Europe.
Springsteen is a strong supporter of gay rights, particularly marriage equality. In 2009, he urged lawmakers to legalize gay marriage, later posting on his website "I've long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same-sex couples".[84]
Personal life[link]
Springsteen and Julianne Phillips (born May 6, 1960) were married from May 13, 1985 to May 1988, when they separated.[85] The two were opposites in background and his traveling took its toll on their relationship. The final blow came when Springsteen began an affair with Patti Scialfa (born July 29, 1953), whom he had dated briefly in 1984 shortly after she joined the band. Phillips and Springsteen separated in the spring of 1988 without making an announcement to the press, and on August 30, 1988, Julianne filed for divorce. The Springsteen/Phillips divorce was finalized on March 1, 1989.
After the separation in 1988, Springsteen began living with Scialfa. Springsteen received press criticism for the hastiness in which he and Scialfa took up their relationship. In a 1995 interview with The Advocate, Springsteen spoke about the negative publicity the couple subsequently received. "It's a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn't. But the truth is, I basically ignored the entire thing as much as I could. I said, 'Well, all I know is, this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going here in some fashion, but that's life.'" He also noted that, "I went through a divorce, and it was really difficult and painful and I was very frightened about getting married again. So part of me said, 'Hey, what does it matter?' But it does matter. It's very different than just living together. First of all, stepping up publicly- which is what you do: You get your license, you do all the social rituals- is a part of your place in society and in some way part of society's acceptance of you...Patti and I both found that it did mean something."[86]
On July 25, 1990 Scialfa gave birth to the couple's first child, Evan James Springsteen. On June 8, 1991 Springsteen and Scialfa married at their Beverly Hills home. Their second child, Jessica Rae Springsteen, was born on December 30, 1991; and their third child, Samuel Ryan Springsteen, was born on January 5, 1994.[87] The family owns and lives on a horse farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey. They also own homes in Wellington, Florida, a wealthy horse community near West Palm Beach, Los Angeles and Rumson, New Jersey. Their eldest son, Evan, attends Boston College. Their daughter Jessica is a nationally ranked champion equestrian,[88] and attends Duke University.
Since 1991, Springsteen has led a relatively quiet life for a well-known popular performer and artist.[89] He moved from Los Angeles to New Jersey in the early 1990s specifically to raise a family in a non-paparazzi environment.[89] It has been reported that the press conference regarding the 2009 Super Bowl XLIII half-time show was his first press conference for more than 25 years.[90] However, he has appeared in a few radio interviews, most notably on NPR and BBC.[citation needed] 60 Minutes aired his last extensive interview on TV[91] before his tour to support his album, Magic.
Bands[link]
Bruce Springsteen has been a member of, or has been backed by, several bands during his career, most notably The E Street Band.
His earliest known band is The Castiles.
Prior to signing his first record deal in 1972, Springsteen was a member of several bands including Steel Mill. In October 1972 he formed a new band for the recording of his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., which became known as The E Street Band, although the name was not officially introduced until September 1974.[92][93] The E Street Band performed on all of Springsteen's recorded works from his debut until 1982's Nebraska, a solo album on which Springsteen himself played all the instruments.[citation needed] The full band returned for the next album Born in the USA, but there then followed a period from 1988 to 1999 in which albums were recorded with session musicians. The E Street Band were briefly reunited in 1995 for new contributions to the Greatest Hits compilation, and on a more permanent basis from 1999, since which time they have recorded 3 albums together (The Rising, Magic and Working on a Dream) and performed a number of high profile tours.
The 2005 album Devils & Dust was largely a solo recording, with some contribution from session musicians and the 2006 folk rock We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions album was recorded and toured with another band, known as The Sessions Band. In the summer of 2012, Raymond Bernero will join Bruce on the stage at Wrigely Field in Chicago.
Earlier Bands:[94] The Castiles, Earth, Child, Steel Mill, Sundance Blues Band, Dr Zoom and the Sonic Boom, Bruce Springsteen Band.
E Street Band[link]
Main article: E Street Band
Current members:
- Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, harmonica, piano
- Patti Scialfa – backing and duet vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion
- Garry Tallent – bass guitar, tuba
- Roy Bittan – piano, keyboards
- Max Weinberg – drums, percussion
- Steven Van Zandt – lead and rhythm guitar,[95][96] backing vocals, mandolin
- Nils Lofgren – lead and rhythm guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals
With:
- Soozie Tyrell – violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, backing vocals [A]
- Charles Giordano – organ, accordion, glockenspiel[B]
Former members:
- 1973–2011 Clarence Clemons (deceased) – tenor, baritone and soprano saxophones, backing vocals, percussion
- 1973–2008 Danny Federici (deceased) – organ, accordion, backing vocals
Film[link]
Music used in films[link]
Springsteen's music has been used in many films and he has also written and performed several works specifically for films, examples include Philadelphia, Dead Man Walking, Jerry Maguire, and The Wrestler.
| Film | Year of film release | Song(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dead End Street | 1982 | "Point Blank", "Hungry Heart" and "Jungleland" | First use of Springsteen's music in film |
| Risky Business | 1983 | Hungry Heart | |
| Baby, It's You | 1983 | "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", "The E Street Shuffle", "She's The One" and "Adam Raised A Cain" | Film directed by John Sayles who later directed music videos for songs from Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love. |
| Ruthless People | 1986 | "Stand on It" (Tracks version) | |
| Light of Day | 1987 | "(Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day" | Song written for the film. |
| In Country | 1989 | "I'm On Fire" | Film also contained many Springsteen references. |
| Thunderheart | 1992 | "Badlands" (instrumental version) | |
| Honeymoon in Vegas | 1992 | "Viva Las Vegas" | A 1964 song originally recorded by Elvis Presley. |
| Philadelphia | 1993 | "Streets of Philadelphia" | Song written for film. Won an Oscar.[97] |
| Dead Man Walking | 1995 | "Dead Man Walkin'" | Song written for film. Nominated for an Oscar.[98] |
| The Crossing Guard | 1995 | "Missing" | Song was later released in 2003 on The Essential Bruce Springsteen. |
| Jerry Maguire | 1996 | "Secret Garden" | |
| Cop Land | 1997 | "Drive All Night" and "Stolen Car" | Sylvester Stallone's character plays the songs on his turntable. |
| Fierce Creatures | 1997 | "Hungry Heart" | |
| The Wedding Singer | 1998 | "Hungry Heart" | |
| A Night at the Roxbury | 1998 | "Secret Garden" | |
| Big Daddy | 1999 | "Growin' Up" | Played over a montage near the end of the film. |
| Limbo | 1999 | "Lift Me Up" | Another John Sayles film. |
| High Fidelity | 2000 | "The River" and Blues Guitar Riff | Blues riff played by Springsteen, on-screen during his cameo appearance. "Nebraska" played from vinyl on turntable. |
| The Perfect Storm | 2000 | "Hungry Heart" | |
| 25th Hour | 2002 | "The Fuse" | |
| Grand Theft Parsons | 2003 | "Blood Brothers" | |
| Jersey Girl | 2004 | "Jersey Girl" | Cover of the Tom Waits version |
| Reign Over Me | 2007 | "Drive All Night" and "Out In The Street" | The album The River was also well mentioned in the movie. |
| In the Land of Women | 2007 | "Iceman" | [99] |
| The Heartbreak Kid | 2007 | "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" | |
| Lucky You | 2007 | "Lucky Town" | |
| The Wrestler | 2008 | "The Wrestler" | Written for the film. The song was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and nominated for the MTV Movie Award as "Best Song From a Movie". |
| Food, Inc. | 2009 | "This Land Is Your Land" | Live version, Bruce Springsteen's performance of the Woody Guthrie song. |
| The Hunter | 2011 | "I'm On Fire" | Willem Dafoe's character sets up a stereo in a tree and uses the song to wake someone sleeping inside the house. |
Films inspired by music[link]
In turn, films have been inspired by his music, including The Indian Runner, written and directed by Sean Penn, which Penn has specifically noted as being inspired by Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman".[100]
In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album Darkness on The Edge of Town was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.[101]
Kevin Smith is an admitted "big fan" of fellow New Jersey native Springsteen and named his film Jersey Girl after the Tom Waits song which Springsteen made famous. The song was also used on the soundtrack.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have cited Springsteen's "Thunder Road" as having been a heavy influence on their 2010 film Cemetery Junction, employing the song's themes of escape and optimism into their story of 1970s England.
In 2011, Springsteen appears in an independent film made by a local musician Chris Vaughn from New Jersey entitled Jerseyboy Hero where the songwriter/filmmaker documents his journey to get his music out to the world by attempting to reach one of his two local New Jersey legends, Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi.[102][103]
Acting[link]
Springsteen made his first on-screen appearance in a brief cameo as himself in High Fidelity in 2000 and it was voted "Best Cameo in a Movie" at the MTV Movie Awards.[104][105]
Discography[link]
Main article: Bruce Springsteen discography
Major studio albums (along with their chart positions in the U.S. Billboard 200 at the time of release):
- 1973: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (No. 60)
- 1973: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (No. 59)
- 1975: Born to Run (No. 3)
- 1978: Darkness on the Edge of Town (No. 5)
- 1980: The River (No. 1)
- 1982: Nebraska (No. 3)
- 1984: Born in the U.S.A. (No. 1)
- 1987: Tunnel of Love (No. 1)
- 1992: Human Touch (No. 2)
- 1992: Lucky Town (No. 3)
- 1995: The Ghost of Tom Joad (No. 11)
- 2002: The Rising (No. 1)
- 2005: Devils & Dust (No. 1)
- 2006: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (No. 3)
- 2007: Magic (No. 1)
- 2009: Working on a Dream (No. 1)
- 2012: Wrecking Ball (No. 1)
Awards and recognition[link]
Grammy Awards[link]
- Springsteen has won 21 Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year the award was given for, not the year in which the ceremony was held):
- Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1984, "Dancing in the Dark"
- Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1987, "Tunnel of Love"
- Song of the Year, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
- Best Rock Song, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
- Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
- Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
- Best Contemporary Folk Album, 1996, The Ghost of Tom Joad
- Best Rock Album, 2002, The Rising
- Best Rock Song, 2002, "The Rising"
- Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 2002, "The Rising"
- Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, 2003, "Disorder in the House" (with Warren Zevon)
- Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2004, "Code of Silence"
- Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2005, "Devils & Dust"
- Best Traditional Folk Album, 2006, The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome
- Best Long Form Music Video, 2006, Wings For Wheels: The Making Of Born to Run
- Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"
- Best Rock Song, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"
- Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 2007, "Once Upon a Time in the West"
- Best Rock Song, 2008, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"
- Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2009, "Working on a Dream"
- Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, 2011, The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story
Golden Globe Awards[link]
- Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "Streets of Philadelphia" in 1994.[46]
- Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "The Wrestler" in 2009.[46]
Academy Awards[link]
- Academy Award for Best Original Song, 1993, "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia.[106]
Emmy Awards[link]
- The Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City HBO special won two technical Emmy Awards in 2001.[107]
Other recognition[link]
- October 27, 1975: Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of Newsweek and Time
- Polar Music Prize in 1997.[108]
- Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1999.[109]
- Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1999.[110]
- Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, 2007.[111]
- "Born to Run" named "The unofficial youth anthem of New Jersey" by the New Jersey state legislature; something Springsteen always found to be ironic, considering that the song "is about leaving New Jersey".[112]
- The minor planet 23990, discovered September 4, 1999, by I. P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand, was officially named in his honor.[113]
- Ranked No. 23 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[114]
- Ranked No. 36 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time.
- Made Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People Of The Year 2008 list.[115]
- Won Critic's Choice Award for Best Song with "The Wrestler" in 2009.[116]
- Performed at the Super Bowl XLIII half time show.
- Kennedy Center Honors, 2009.
- Rolling Stone magazine also ranked 8 out of 16 Springsteen's studio albums in their 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.
- Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Born to Run" and "Thunder Road" in its 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list, in 21st and 86th, respectively.
- Forbes ranked him 6th in The Celebrity 100 in 2009[117]
- John Steinbeck Award
See also[link]
 |
Book: Bruce Springsteen |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
- List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
- List of best selling music artists
Notes[link]
- ^ It is not clear if Tyrell is as full-fledged a band member as the others: some credits and press releases list her as "With" or "Special Guest", while some omit her; on the other hand, Springsteen has stated in interviews that "Soozie is with us."
- ^ Also not clear if Giordano is as full-fledged a band member as the others.
- ^ This quote is an extract from Springsteen's speech from the stage at a rally for presidential candidate Barack Obama on November 2, 2008
References[link]
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- ^ "Top Selling Artists". riaa.com. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTopArt. Retrieved September 4, 2008.
- ^ "spring would literally mean 'jump'; but idiomatically jumping stone is the correct translation.
- ^ NIAF. "Italian American Contributions". http://www.niaf.org/research/contribution.asp/. Retrieved March 5, 2010. [dead link]
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen – Biography". imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0819803/bio. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
- ^ a b Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s. Dave Marsh, 1987, pg. 88–89.
- ^ Editors, "Boss Talk," THE TABLET, February 25, 2012.
- ^ Springsteen. Robert Hilburn, 1985, p. 28.
- ^ "Musicians' best friends to be honored in Freehold". April 17, 2002. http://newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2002/0417/Front_page/003.html.
- ^ Loder, Kurt (December 6, 1984). "The Rolling Stone Interview: Bruce Springsteen". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090421085029/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/5933449. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
- ^ Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader, Penguin, 2004.
- ^ Brett, Oliver (January 15, 2009). "'What's in a nickame?'". London: BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7829013.stm. Retrieved January 21, 2009.
- ^ "Backstage With Bruce: Springsteen On His Early Work". National Public Radio. November 15, 2005. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100038036. Retrieved February 2, 2009.
- ^ Lester Bangs (July 5, 1973). "Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ". Rolling Stone. http://web.archive.org/web/20071224125845rn_1/www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/107193/greetings_from_asbury_park_nj. Retrieved March 21, 2010. [dead link]
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- ^ Rockwell, John (May 9, 1976). "Crawdaddy Party Mirrors Magazine". NY Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40C15F93C5B167493CBA9178DD85F428785F9&scp=1&sq=springsteen%20crawdaddy&st=cse. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
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- ^ Cf. Marsh, David, (2003), pp.14, 203, & various.
- ^ "The Moments". Rolling Stone. June 24, 2004. Archived from the original on December 4, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071204181514/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6085455/the_moments/.
- ^ Guterman, Jimmy. Runaway American Dream. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2005. 153. Print.
- ^ Billboard. Google Books. May 11, 1985. http://books.google.com/books?id=1CQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT52&dq=billboard+1985&hl=en&ei=MQlaTcPLA4nUgAeQg8HdDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=billboard%201985&f=false. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
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- ^ Fricke, David (February 5, 2009). "Bringing It All Back Home" (PDF). Rolling Stone. http://www.shorefire.com/media/R1071Bruce_20090123_113016.pdf. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
- ^ WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center Administrative Panel Decision, Bruce Springsteen -v- Jeff Burgar and Bruce Springsteen Club
- ^ Smith, Andrew "Bruce Springsteen loses cybersquatting dispute", The Register, February 9, 2001.
- ^ Jon Wiederhorn (September 16, 2003). "Springsteen Is Box-Office Boss With Projected $120M Gross". http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1478248/20030916/story.jhtml.
- ^ ABC News: ABC News[dead link]
- ^ Manzoor, Sarfraz (May 14, 2006). "A runaway American dream". The Guardian (London). http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1774131,00.html. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band – PopMatters Concert Review". Popmatters.com. http://www.popmatters.com/music/concerts/s/springsteen-bruce-060531.shtml. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ JS Online: Born to strum[dead link]
- ^ "Chicago Tribune". Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-springsteen-review-story,1,5443206.story?coll=chi-homepagenews-utl. Retrieved August 27, 2010. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011.
- ^ "Terry Magovern, Rest in Peace", Backstreets.com, August 1, 2007. Retrieved August 28, 2007.
- ^ "'E Street Radio' Channel, dedicated to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, returns exclusively to SIRIUS Satellite Radio". http://investor.sirius.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=264991. Retrieved January 21, 2008.
- ^ Friedman, Roger (October 30, 2007). "D-Day for Britney Spears: New CD 'Blackout' Drops : D-Day for Britney/Bruce: No Radio Play/Denise Rich Raises $5M for Cancer/Rotten Meets Cruise". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,306164,00.html. Retrieved March 22, 2008.
- ^ "Today Show: The Boss rocks the plaza!". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20995086/. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ "Springsteen Bandmate on Hiatus for Health Reasons". Reuters. November 22, 2007. http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN2122708620071123. Retrieved March 22, 2008.
- ^ Sean Piccoli (April 17, 2008). "Springsteen concert postponed over bandmate's death". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-418brucespingsteen,0,3217057.story. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
- ^ "Springsteen endorses Obama for president". Associated Press for USA Today. April 16, 2008. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-04-16-springsteen_N.htm?csp=34. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ "Pitchfork: News". Pitchforkmedia.com. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/146179-bruce-springsteen-adds-acoustic-obama-shows. Retrieved August 27, 2010. Archived from the original on December 17, 2008.
- ^ "Springsteen plays new 'Working on a Dream' tune at Obama rally in Cleveland". The Plain Dealer. November 2, 2008. http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2008/11/springsteen_plays_new_working.html.
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen News – Recording Artists' Eleventh Hour Campaigns – Mostly for Obama". idiomag. November 3, 2008. http://www.idiomag.com/peek/47658/bruce_springsteen. Retrieved November 3, 2008.
- ^ Steve Hendrix and Jonathan Mummolo (January 18, 2009). "Jamming on the Mall for Obama". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/18/AR2009011800917.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009011802825&s_pos=.
- ^ a b c "Springsteen, Rahman Snag Musical Golden Globes". Billboard. September 14, 2009. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/springsteen-rahman-snag-musical-golden-globes-1003929219.story. Retrieved August 27, 2010. Archived from the original on January 5, 2011.
- ^ Bardsley, Garth (January 12, 2009). "How Mickey Rourke Got Bruce Springsteen's 'Wrestler' Song – For Free – MTV Movie News". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1602516/how-mickey-rourke-got-bruce-springsteens-wrestler-song-free.jhtml. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
- ^ "Report: "The Boss" to play Super Bowl halftime show". Seattle Post Intelligencer. August 11, 2008. http://www.seattlepi.com/scorecard/nflnews.asp?articleID=237980. [dead link].
- ^ Pareles, Jon (February 1, 2009). "The Rock Laureate". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/arts/music/01pare.html. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
- ^ Shore Fire Media. Retrieved December 2, 2008.
- ^ Lapointe, Joe (January 30, 2009). "Springsteen Promises ‘12-Minute Party' at Halftime". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/sports/football/30springsteen.html. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
- ^ Wallace, Lindsay (February 10, 2009). "Bruce Springsteen Exclusive: 'I Didn't Even Know I Was Up For A Grammy!'". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604738/20090210/springsteen_bruce.jhtml. Retrieved March 7, 2009.
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- ^ a b c Mervis, Scott (May 17, 2009). "Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band break tradition by improvising set list". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09137/970254-388.stm?cmpid=newspanel0. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
- ^ Youngs, Ian (June 28, 2009). "Glastonbury bows down to The Boss". BBC News (London). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8122365.stm. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen covers The Clash at London Hyde Park". NME. UK. June 29, 2009. http://www.nme.com/news/bruce-springsteen/45713. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
- ^ Lustig, Jay (October 10, 2009). "Bruce Springsteen rocks Giants Stadium for the last time". The Star-Ledger. http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2009/10/bruce_springsteen_rocks_giants.html. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
- ^ Pareles, Jon (October 11, 2009). "For Springsteen and Giants Stadium, a Last Dance". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/arts/music/12bruce.html. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
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- ^ "The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts". Rockhall25.com. http://www.rockhall25.com/. Retrieved August 27, 2010. Archived from the original on March 9, 2010.
- ^ "Jerry Seinfeld and Bruce Springsteen Headline the Fifth Concert for Autism Speaks at Carnegie Hall on November 17". Autismspeaks.org. September 10, 2009. http://www.autismspeaks.org/press/seinfeld_springsteen_concert.php. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
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- ^ Jaffer, Nancy (October 9, 2009). "Jessica Springsteen finishes second at Talent Search Finals East, deciding whether to pursue equitation". The Star-Ledger. http://www.nj.com/sports/njsports/index.ssf/2009/10/jessica_springsteen_finishes_s.html.
- ^ a b Andrew Anthony (April 20, 2008). ""The Boss picks his voice of America" ''The Observer'' April 20, 2008". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/apr/20/uselections2008.springsteen?INTCMP=SRCH. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
- ^ Carpenter, Les (January 29, 2009). "www.washingtonpost.com". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012904283.html. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
- ^ "Springsteen: Silence Is Unpatriotic – 60 Minutes". CBS News. July 27, 2008. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/04/60minutes/main3330463.shtml. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ Fricke, David (January 21, 2009). "The Band on Bruce: Their Springsteen". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/25556603/the_band_on_bruce_their_springsteen/print. Retrieved February 7, 2009. [dead link]
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen Bands: from Rogues to E Street Band, passing from Castiles and Steel Mill". http://www.brucespringsteen.it/e_streetx.htm.
- ^ Greetings from E Street (Book), R Santelli
- ^ Little Steven speaks salon.com. Retrieved January 2, 2008.
- ^ Top Musicians Are Composing Own Curricula washingtonpost.com. Retrieved January 2, 2008.
- ^ IMDB – Philadelphia
- ^ IMDB – Dead Man Walking
- ^ Bruce Springsteen – IMDb
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (October 11, 1991). "Blood Brothers". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,315772,00.html. Retrieved November 18, 2008.
- ^ Friedman, Roger (September 15, 2010). "Springsteen’s Big Night in Toronto Has Lots of "Promise"". Showbiz 411. http://www.showbiz411.com/2010/09/15/springsteens-big-night-in-toronto-has-lots-of-promise. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
- ^ Asbury Park Press. [1], Asbury Park Press: Vaughn snags Springsteen for documentary., March 9, 2008.
- ^ Jerseyboy Hero (2011) – Full cast and crew
- ^ Article on cameo in High Fidelity Entertainment Weekly
- ^ Best cameo MTV award
- ^ "Academy Award for Best Original Song 1994". Songwritershalloffame.org. http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/songs/awards/C179. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ Live in NYC Emmy Awards
- ^ "Polar Music Prize". Polar Music Prize. August 16, 2010. http://www.polarmusicprize.org/newSite/1997.shtml. Retrieved August 27, 2010. [dead link]
- ^ "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". Rockhall.com. http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/bruce-springsteen. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ "Songwriter's Hall of Fame". Songwritershalloffame.org. http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C179. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ Daniel Kreps. "NJ Hall of Fame". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080622053126/http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/05/06/bruce-springsteen-inducted-into-new-jersey-hall-of-fame/. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ "A Brunch O' Bruce". http://www.eonline.com/Features/Features/Bruce/index2.html.
- ^ (23990) Springsteen, IAU Minor Planet Center
- ^ "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 22, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080822035047/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5940039/the_immortals__the_greatest_artists_of_all_time_23_bruce_springsteen.
- ^ Penn, Sean (April 30, 2009). "Time Magazine". Time. http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733752_1735322,00.html. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen wins Critics Choice Award for 'The Wrestler' song". NME. UK. January 9, 2009. http://www.nme.com/news/bruce-springsteen/41980. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ "The Celebrity 100". Forbes. June 3, 2009. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/53/celebrity-09_The-Celebrity-100_Rank.html.
Sources[link]
- Alterman, Eric. It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive : The Promise of Bruce Springsteen. Little Brown, 1999. ISBN 0-316-03885-7.
- Coles, Robert. Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing. Random House, 2005. ISBN 0-375-50559-8.
- Cross, Charles R. Backstreets: Springsteen – the man and his music Harmony Books, New York 1989/1992. ISBN 0-517-58929-X. Contains 15+ interviews and a complete list of all Springsteen songs including unreleased compositions. Complete lising of all concerts 1965–1990 – most of them with tracklists. Hundreds of previously unreleased high quality color pictures.
- Cullen, Jim. Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition. 1997; Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. New edition of 1997 study book places Springsteen's work in the broader context of American history and culture. ISBN 0-8195-6761-2
- Eliot, Marc with Appel, Mike. Down Thunder Road. Simon & Schuster, 1992. ISBN 0-671-86898-5.
- Graff, Gary. The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink, 2005. ISBN 1-57859-151-1.
- Guterman, Jimmy. Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo, 2005. ISBN 0-306-81397-1.
- Hilburn, Robert. Springsteen. Rolling Stone Press, 1985. ISBN 0-684-18456-7.
- Knobler, Peter with special assistance from Greg Mitchell. "Who Is Bruce Springsteen and Why Are We Saying All These Wonderful Things About Him?", Crawdaddy, March 1973.
- Marsh, Dave. Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts : The Definitive Biography, 1972–2003. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-96928-X. (Consolidation of two previous Marsh biographies, Born to Run (1981) and Glory Days (1987).)
- Wolff, Daniel. July 4, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land. Bloomsbury, 2005. ISBN 1-58234-509-0.
Further reading[link]
- Greetings from E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Chronicle Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8118-5348-9.
- Days of Hope and Dreams: An Intimate Portrait of Bruce Springsteen. Billboard Books, 2003. ISBN 0-8230-8387-X.
- Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader. Penguin, 2004. ISBN 0-14-200354-9.
- Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-306-81397-1.
- The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink Press, 2005. ISBN 1-57859-157-0.
- Bruce Springsteen: "Talking". Omnibus Press, 2004. ISBN 1-84449-403-9.
- For You: Original Stories and Photographs by Bruce Springsteen's Legendary Fans. LKC Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9784156-0-0.
- Bruce Springsteen on Tour: 1968–2005. by Dave Marsh Bloomsbury USA, 2006. ISBN 978-1-59691-282-3.
- The Gospel according to Bruce Springsteen: Rock and Redemption from Asbury Park to Magic. by Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz. Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-664-23169-9.
- Magic in the Night: The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen by Rob Kirkpatrick. St. Martin's Griffin, 2009. ISBN 0-312-53380-2.
- Land of Hope and Dreams: Celebrating 25 Years of Bruce Springsteen In Ireland by Greg Lewis and Moira Sharkey. Magic Rat Books. ISBN 978-0-9562722-0-1
- The Light in Darkness. A history of the Darkness on The Edge of Town album and tour. Lawrence Kirsch Communications. 2009 ISBN 978-0-9784156-1-7
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bruce Springsteen |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bruce Springsteen |
- Official website
- E Street Radio
- Bruce Springsteen at Idiomag 21 12 10
- Bruce Springsteen on National Public Radio in 2005
- Highlights of Springsteen at Glastonbury 2009.
- Bruce Springsteen at NPR Music
- "Library of Hope and Dreams":bibliography of published Springsteen scholarship in English.
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Springsteen, Bruce |
| Alternative names | Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen |
| Short description | An American singer-songwriter |
| Date of birth | September 24, 1949 |
| Place of birth | Long Branch, New Jersey, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen
Related pages:
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http://ru.wn.com/Спрингстин, Брюс
http://nl.wn.com/Bruce Springsteen
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http://hi.wn.com/ब्रूस स्प्रिंगस्टीन
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen
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.
| Eric Church | |
|---|---|
 Eric Church |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kenneth Eric Church |
| Born | (1977-05-03) May 3, 1977 (age 35) |
| Origin | Granite Falls, North Carolina, United States |
| Genres | Country, Southern rock |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Nashville |
| Associated acts | Terri Clark, Jay Joyce |
| Website | www.ericchurch.com |
Kenneth Eric Church (born May 3, 1977) is an American country music singer-songwriter. Signed to Capitol Records in 2006, his debut album Sinners Like Me produced four singles on the Billboard country chart, including the Top 20 hits "How 'Bout You", "Two Pink Lines", and "Guys Like Me". His second album, 2009's Carolina, produced three more singles: "Smoke a Little Smoke" and his first Top 10 hits, "Love Your Love the Most" and "Hell on the Heart". 2011's Chief, his first #1 album, includes the singles "Homeboy" and "Drink in My Hand", which became his first #1 single in January 2012.
Contents |
Biography[link]
Early life[link]
Eric Church was born and raised in Granite Falls, North Carolina. At thirteen, he bought a guitar and began writing songs of his own. By his senior year of high school, he had found a gig at a local bar, which occupied most of his time. He played many Jimmy Buffett cover songs and a few of his own original songs in some dive bars. Some of these places were so rough that he got into a few altercations from the stage. For a few years, the band played often in bars and restaurants throughout North Carolina.[1] The band "Mountain Boys" consisted of his college roommate (Mark Snow), brother, and a fellow guitarist.[2]
Before moving to Nashville, Eric Church graduated from South Caldwell High School and then Appalachian State University with a degree in marketing. Upon graduation, Church became engaged. The future bride's father attempted to persuade Eric into a corporate career, which he rejected as an aspiring musician. He broke the engagment and headed to Nashville with his father's financial backing. His father also provided the opportunity to make contacts, and more importantly, time to focus on developing his songwriting ability .[1]
Music career[link]
[edit] 2006-2007: Sinners Like Me
Arthur Buenahora Jr. signed him to a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Tree Music Publishing. Terri Clark took "The World Needs a Drink", which he co-wrote with Casey Beathard, into the country Top 30.[2]
He started recording with different producers. Capitol Nashville showed an interest and watched him perform but they were yet to be convinced enough to offer a recording contract.[3] Autumn House-Tallant told HitQuarters that they didn't think the music was interesting enough.[3] The record company's attitude changed after he started working with producer Jay Joyce. The strong sound and direction the two forged together finally convinced Capitol Nashville that he was ready.[3] His first single, "How 'Bout You" peaked at #14 on Hot Country Songs and led off his debut album Sinners Like Me. In April 2006, he performed on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time.[4]
The album's other two singles, "Two Pink Lines" and "Guys Like Me", both reached the Top 20 as well.[2] The fourth single, the title track, peaked at #51. An additional track from the album, "Lightning", was made into a music video despite not being released as a single. Church wrote the song shortly after moving to Nashville, inspired by the movie The Green Mile.[4] Following the album's success, Church toured with Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts.[4]
[edit] 2008-2010: Carolina
In 2008, Eric Church released a fifth single, "His Kind of Money (My Kind of Love)" to country radio. It debuted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at #55 in early 2008, and reached its peak of #46 in August. Originally slated as the lead single to an upcoming second album, "His Kind of Money" was instead included as a bonus track on albums sold at Best Buy.
Following this song was "Love Your Love the Most", which debuted in late 2008 and was the first single from his second album Carolina, released on March 24, 2009.[2] As with his debut album, Carolina was produced by Jay Joyce, and is entirely composed of songs that he co-wrote. "Love Your Love the Most" brought Church to the top 10 for the first time, peaking at #10 in September 2009. The album's second single, "Hell on the Heart", debuted in October 2009 and would also hit the top 10 in May 2010. The third single from "Carolina" was "Smoke A Little Smoke".
In June 2010 he moved to Capitol Nashville's new imprint EMI Records Nashville, becoming their second artist. On January 14, 2011, he released a four song EP entitled "Caldwell County".
[edit] 2011-2012: Chief
Eric Church released "Homeboy" to country radio in early 2011. The album Chief was released July 26, 2011, debuting at #1 on both Top Country Albums and the Billboard 200.[5] The album sold 145,000 copies in its first week.[5] On November 30, 2011, Chief was announced as a nominee for the 2012 Grammy Awards for Best Country Album. In January 2012 "Drink in My Hand" became his first #1 single. In February 2012, "Springsteen" was released as the third single from Chief, and has since become a Top 10 country hit, as well as his first Top 20 single on the Billboard Hot 100.
Personal life[link]
On January 8, 2008, Church married music publisher Katherine Blasingame in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. On October 3, 2011, they welcomed son Boone McCoy Church.[6][7] Their home (along with Eric's "mancave"), located in Nashville, was featured in an episode of CMT "Cribs".[8]
Tour[link]
- Me & My Gang Tour 2006 with Rascal Flatts & Gary Allan (Eric was kicked off for playing too long & Taylor Swift took his spot)
- Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars with Miranda Lambert (Select Dates)
- CMT Revolution Tour 2010 with Miranda Lambert & Josh Kelley
- My Kinda Party Tour 2011 with Jason Aldean & The JaneDear Girls (Spring Leg)
- Locked & Loaded Tour 2011 with Toby Keith
- Blood, Sweat and Beers Tour 2012 with Brantley Gilbert (First Headlining Tour)
Discography[link]
Studio albums[link]
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country [9] |
US [10] |
CAN [11] |
|||
| Sinners Like Me |
|
7 | 29 | — | |
| Carolina |
|
4 | 17 | — | |
| Chief |
|
1 | 1 | 7 |
|
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||
Extended plays[link]
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| US Country [14] |
US [14] |
||
| Caldwell County |
|
13 | 67 |
Singles[link]
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country [15] |
US [16] |
CAN [17] |
||||
| 2006 | "How 'Bout You" | 14 | 85 | — | Sinners Like Me | |
| "Two Pink Lines" | 19 | — | — | |||
| 2007 | "Guys Like Me" | 17 | 99 | — | ||
| "Sinners Like Me" | 51 | — | — | |||
| 2008 | "His Kind of Money (My Kind of Love)" | 46 | — | — | Non-album song | |
| 2009 | "Love Your Love the Most" | 10 | 63 | — |
|
Carolina |
| "Hell on the Heart" | 10 | 67 | — | |||
| 2010 | "Smoke a Little Smoke" | 16 | 78 | — |
|
|
| 2011 | "Homeboy" | 13 | 53 | — |
|
Chief |
| "Drink in My Hand" | 1 | 40 | 52 |
|
||
| 2012 | "Springsteen"[A] | 3 | 19 | 28 |
|
|
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||
Music videos[link]
| Year | Video | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "How 'Bout You" | Scott Speer |
| "Two Pink Lines" | Peter Zavadil | |
| 2007 | "Guys Like Me" | Scott Speer |
| "Lightning" | David McClister | |
| 2009 | "Love Your Love the Most" | Adam Hall |
| 2010 | "Hell on the Heart" | |
| "Ain't Killed Me Yet" | ||
| "Smoke a Little Smoke" | Peter Zavadil | |
| 2011 | "Homeboy" | |
| "Drink in My Hand" | ||
| 2012 | "Springsteen" |
Awards and nominations[link]
| Year | Association | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Top New Solo Vocalist | Won |
| Top New Artist | Nominated |
Notes[link]
- A^ Current single
References[link]
- ^ a b "Eric Church: Recession-era country star (interview; CD: 'Carolina').". http://proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mah&AN=MAH0001798342&site=ehost-live. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
- ^ a b c d Ruhlmann, William. "Eric Church biography". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p816669/biography. Retrieved 2008-12-27.
- ^ a b c "Interview with Autumn House-Tallant". HitQuarters. 3 Oct 2011. http://www.hitquarters.com/index.php3?page=intrview/opar/intrview_AutumnH.html. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
- ^ a b c Morris, Edward (2006-08-02). "Church Turns Heads With Sinners Like Me". CMT. http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1537741/eric-church-turns-heads-with-sinners-like-me.jhtml. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
- ^ a b "Eric Church Lands First No. 1 Album, Amy Winehouse Climbs Into Top 5". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/news/eric-church-lands-first-no-1-album-amy-winehouse-1005301602.story. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
- ^ http://celebritybabies.people.com/2011/10/06/eric-church-welcomes-son-boone-mccoy/
- ^ TheBoot.com: Eric Church and wife expecting a baby
- ^ "Eric Church Marries in North Carolina". CMT News. January 15, 2008. http://www.cmt.com/news/news-in-brief/1579702/eric-church-marries-in-north-carolina.jhtml. Retrieved February 27, 2010.
- ^ "Eric Church Album & Song Chart History - Country Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/eric-church/chart-history/765794?f=320&g=Albums. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ^ "Eric Church Album & Song Chart History - Billboard 200". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/eric-church/chart-history/765794?f=305&g=Albums. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ^ "Eric Church Album & Song Chart History - Canadian Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/eric-church/chart-history/765794?f=309&g=Albums. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
- ^ "American album certifications – Eric Church – Carolina". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Carolina%22. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
- ^ "American album certifications – Eric Church – Chief". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Chief%22. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
- ^ a b "Eric Church : Allmusic : Billboard Albums". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/eric-church-p816669/charts-awards. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ^ "Eric Church Album & Song Chart History - Country Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/eric-church/chart-history/765794?f=357&g=Singles. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ^ "Eric Church Album & Song Chart History - Hot 100". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/eric-church/chart-history/765794. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ^ "Eric Church Album & Song Chart History - Canadian Hot 100". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/eric-church/chart-history/765794?f=793&g=Singles. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ "American single certifications – Eric Church – Love Your Love the Most". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Love+Your+Love+the+Most%22. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH
- ^ "American single certifications – Eric Church – Smoke a Little Smoke". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Smoke+a+Little+Smoke%22. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH
- ^ "American single certifications – Eric Church – Homeboy". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Homeboy%22. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH
- ^ "American single certifications – Eric Church – Drink in My Hand". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Drink+in+My+Hand%22. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH
- ^ "American single certifications – Eric Church – Springsteen". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Springsteen%22. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH
External links[link]
|
|||||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Church, Eric |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | May 3, 1977 |
| Place of birth | Granite Falls, NC |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Eric_Church
Related pages:
http://ru.wn.com/Eric Church
http://fr.wn.com/Eric Church
http://pt.wn.com/Eric Church
http://de.wn.com/Eric Church
http://es.wn.com/Eric Church
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Church
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.
"Barack" and "Obama" redirect here. For other uses, see Barak (disambiguation) and Obama (disambiguation). For President Obama's father, the Kenyan economist, see Barack Obama, Sr.
| Barack Obama | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 44th President of the United States | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2009 |
|
| Vice President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | George W. Bush |
| United States Senator from Illinois |
|
| In office January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008 |
|
| Preceded by | Peter Fitzgerald |
| Succeeded by | Roland Burris |
| Member of the Illinois Senate from the 13th District |
|
| In office January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004 |
|
| Preceded by | Alice Palmer |
| Succeeded by | Kwame Raoul |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Barack Hussein Obama II (1961-08-04) August 4, 1961 (age 50)[1] Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.[2] |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Michelle Robinson (1992–present) |
| Children | Malia (born 1998) Sasha (born 2001) |
| Residence | White House (Official) Chicago, Illinois (Private) |
| Alma mater | Occidental College Columbia University (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
| Profession | Community organizer Lawyer Constitutional law professor Author |
| Religion | Christianity[3] |
| Awards | Nobel Peace Prize |
| Signature |  |
| Website | barackobama.com |
 |
This article is part of a series on Barack Obama |
|---|---|
Barack Hussein Obama II (i/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and the Budget Control Act of 2011. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U.S. president to openly support legalizing same-sex marriage. In foreign policy, he ended the war in Iraq, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. involvement in the 2011 Libya military intervention, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
Contents |
Early life and career[link]
Main article: Early life and career of Barack Obama
Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2][4][5] and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii.[6] His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was of mostly English ancestry,[7] along with Scottish, Irish, German, and Swiss.[8][9][10][11][12] His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.[13][14] The couple married on February 2, 1961,[15] separated when Obama Sr. went to Harvard University on scholarship, and divorced in 1964.[13] Obama Sr. remarried and returned to Kenya, visiting Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971. He died in an automobile accident in 1982.[16]
After her divorce, Dunham married Indonesian Lolo Soetoro, who was attending college in Hawaii. When Suharto, a military leader in Soetoro's home country, came to power in 1967, all Indonesian students studying abroad were recalled, and the family moved to the Menteng neighborhood of Jakarta.[4][17] From ages six to ten, Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, including Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School.[18]
File:Ann Dunham with father and children.jpg
Barack Obama with his half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, mother Ann Dunham and grandfather Stanley Dunham, in Hawaii
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Armour Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979.[19] Obama's mother returned to Hawaii in 1972, remaining there until 1977 when she went back to Indonesia to work as an anthropological field worker. She finally returned to Hawaii in 1994 and lived there for one year before dying of ovarian cancer.[15][20]
Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind."[14] He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[21] Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."[22] Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."[23] At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama described his high-school drug use as a great moral failure.[24]
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College. In February 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to divest from South Africa in response to its policy of apartheid.[25] In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and sister Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks.[25] Later in 1981, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations[26] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation,[27] then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.[28][29]
Chicago community organizer and Harvard Law School[link]
Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago's South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.[29][30] He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.[31] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[32] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.[33] He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.[34]
In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[35] and president of the journal in his second year.[31][36] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[37] After graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude[38] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[35] Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention[31][36] and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,[39] which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[39]
University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney[link]
In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.[39][40] He then taught at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional law.[41]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.[42] In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license became inactive in 2002.[43]
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project; and of the Joyce Foundation.[29] He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[29]
Legislative career: 1997–2008[link]
State Senator: 1997–2004[link]
Main article: Illinois Senate career of Barack Obama
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park – Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn.[44] Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.[45] He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.[46] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.[47]
Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was reelected again in 2002.[48] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.[49]
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority.[50] He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.[46][51] During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.[52] Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[53]
U.S. Senate campaign[link]
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race; he created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.[54]
Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq.[55] On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[56] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally,[57] and spoke out against the war.[58] He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that "it's not too late" to stop the war.[59]
Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates.[60] In the March 2004 primary election, Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father.[61] In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention,[62] seen by 9.1 million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party.[63]
Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[64] Six weeks later, Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan.[65] In the November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent of the vote.[66]
U.S. Senator: 2005–2008[link]
Main article: United States Senate career of Barack Obama
Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005,[67] becoming the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.[68] CQ Weekly characterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007. Obama announced on November 13, 2008, that he would resign his Senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period for the presidency.[69]
Legislation[link]
Obama cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.[70] He introduced two initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons;[71] and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending.[72] On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain—introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.[73]
Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee.[74] Regarding tort reform, Obama voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.[75]
In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.[77] In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007.[78] Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections,[79] and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007,[80] neither of which was signed into law.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges.[81] This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008.[82] He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee; and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.[83] Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.[84]
Committees[link]
Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.[85] In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.[86] He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs.[87] As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became President of the Palestinian National Authority, and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the Kenyan government.[88]
Presidential campaigns[link]
2008 presidential campaign[link]
Main articles: United States presidential election, 2008, Barack Obama presidential primary campaign, 2008, and Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008
On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois.[89][90] The choice of the announcement site was viewed as symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic "House Divided" speech in 1858.[89][91] Obama emphasized issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care,[92] in a campaign that projected themes of "hope" and "change".[93]
A large number of candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to a duel between Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining close throughout the primary process but with Obama gaining a steady lead in pledged delegates due to better long-range planning, superior fundraising, dominant organizing in caucus states, and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules.[94] On June 7, 2008, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[95]
On August 23, Obama announced his selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[96] Biden was selected from a field speculated to include former Indiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.[97] At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in his support.[98] Obama delivered his acceptance speech, not at the center where the Democratic National Convention was held, but at Invesco Field at Mile High to a crowd of over 75,000; the speech was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide.[99][100]
During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations.[101] On June 19, 2008, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.[102]
McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate and the two engaged in three presidential debates in September and October 2008.[103] On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain.[104] Obama won 52.9 percent of the popular vote to McCain's 45.7 percent.[105] He became the first African American to be elected president.[106] Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park.[107]
2012 presidential campaign[link]
Main articles: United States presidential election, 2012 and Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2012
On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission.[108][109][110] As the incumbent president he ran almost unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential primaries,[111] and on April 3, 2012, Obama had secured the 2778 convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.[112]
Presidency[link]
Main article: Presidency of Barack Obama
See also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet and List of presidential trips made by Barack Obama
First days[link]
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President, and Joe Biden as Vice President, took place on January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.[113] He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[114] but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds.[115][116][117] Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records,[118] and changed procedures to promote disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.[119] He also reversed George W. Bush's ban on federal funding to foreign establishments that allow abortions.[120]
Domestic policy[link]
The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits.[121] Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children.[122] In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.[123]
Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his Presidency. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, was confirmed on August 6, 2009,[124] becoming the first Hispanic to be a Supreme Court Justice.[125] Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three, for the first time in American history.[126]
On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming.[127][128]
On October 8, 2009, Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.[129][130]
On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, a reconciliation bill which ends the process of the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally insured loans, increases the Pell Grant scholarship award, and makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[131][132]
In a major space policy speech in April 2010, Obama announced a planned change in direction at NASA, the U.S. space agency. He ended plans for a return of human spaceflight to the moon and development of the Ares I rocket, Ares V rocket and Constellation program, in favor of funding Earth science projects, a new rocket type, and research and development for an eventual manned mission to Mars, and ongoing missions to the International Space Station.[133]
On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, fulfilling a key promise made in the 2008 presidential campaign[134][135] to end the Don't ask, don't tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces.[136]
President Obama's 2011 State of the Union Address focused on themes of education and innovation, stressing the importance of innovation economics to make the United States more competitive globally. He spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending, eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for wealthy Americans, banning congressional earmarks, and reducing healthcare costs. He promised that the United States would have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and would be 80% reliant on "clean" electricity.[137][138]
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate Obama had said in 1996 that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage;[139] but by the time of his run for the U.S. senate in 2004, he said that while he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex partners, for strategic reasons he opposed same-sex marriages.[140] On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for re-election as president, Obama said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so.[141][142]
Economic policy[link]
Main article: Economic policy of Barack Obama
On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession.[143] The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals,[144] which is being distributed over the course of several years.
In March, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to $2 trillion in depreciated real estate assets.[145] Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry[146] in March 2009, renewing loans for General Motors and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat[147] and a reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60 percent equity stake in the company, with the Canadian government shouldering a 12 percent stake.[148] In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment.[149] He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", that temporarily boosted the economy.[150][151][152]
Although spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations totaled about $11.5 trillion, only $3 trillion had been spent by the end of November 2009.[153] However, Obama and the Congressional Budget Office predicted that the 2010 budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion or 10.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion or 9.9 percent of GDP.[154][155] For 2011, the administration predicted the deficit will slightly shrink to $1.34 trillion, while the 10-year deficit will increase to $8.53 trillion or 90 percent of GDP.[156] The most recent increase in the U.S. debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion was signed into law on January 26, 2012.[157] On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforces limits on discretionary spending until 2021, establishes a procedure to increase the debt limit, creates a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and establishes automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee does not achieve such savings.[158] By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent an unprecedented U.S. government default on its obligations.[159]
The unemployment rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.1 percent and averaging 10.0 percent in the fourth quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate fell to 9.6 percent in the second quarter, where it remained for the rest of the year.[162] Between February and December 2010, employment rose by 0.8 percent, which was less than the average of 1.9 percent experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment recoveries.[163] GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6 percent, followed by a 5.0 percent increase in the fourth quarter.[164] Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7 percent in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year.[164] In July 2010, the Federal Reserve expressed that although economic activity continued to increase, its pace had slowed, and Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain."[165] Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9 percent in 2010.[166]
The Congressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth.[167][168] The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million,[168][169][170][171] while conceding that "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package."[167] Although an April 2010 survey of members of the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years, 73 percent of 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment.[172]
Within a month of the 2010 midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for estate taxes.[173] The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858 billion Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.[174]
Health care reform[link]
Main article: Health care reform in the United States
Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal.[175] He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, to cap premium increases, and to allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900 billion over 10 years and include a government insurance plan, also known as the public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions, and require every American carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.[176][177]
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009.[175] After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the proposals.[178] In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on stem cell research.[179]
File:PPACA Premium Chart.jpg
Maximum Out-of-Pocket Premium as Percentage of Family Income and federal poverty level, under Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014. (Source: CRS)
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House.[180][181] On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39.[182] On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212.[183] Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.[184]
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes health-related provisions to take effect over four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014,[185] subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400 percent of the FPL ($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket" payment for annual premiums will be from 2 to 9.5 percent of income,[186][187] providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical research. According to White House and Congressional Budget Office figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level.[186][188]
The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[189] there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons.[190] In March, 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the net effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.[191]
In March 2012, the Supreme Court heard arguments by a coalition of 26 states maintaining that it is unconstitutional to force individuals to buy health insurance.[192]
Gulf of Mexico oil spill[link]
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained oil leak. The well's operator, BP, initiated a containment and cleanup plan, and began drilling two relief wells intended to stop the flow. Obama visited the Gulf on May 2 among visits by members of his cabinet, and again on May 28 and June 4. On May 22, he announced a federal investigation and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings. On May 27, he announced a 6-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review.[193] As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government.[194]
Foreign policy[link]
Main articles: Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration and Barack Obama foreign policy
In February and March, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms "break" and "reset" to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration.[195] Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV network, Al Arabiya.[196]
On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of Iran.[197] This attempt at outreach was rebuffed by the Iranian leadership.[198] In April, Obama gave a speech in Ankara, Turkey, which was well received by many Arab governments.[199] On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for "a new beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.[200]
On June 26, 2009, in response to the Iranian government's actions towards protesters following Iran's 2009 presidential election, Obama said: "The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn it."[201] On July 7, while in Moscow, he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East."[202]
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.[203]
In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.[204][205] During the same month, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third.[206] The New START treaty was signed by Obama and Medvedev in April 2010, and was ratified by the U.S. Senate in December 2010.[207]
On December 6, 2011, he instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[208]
Iraq War[link]
On February 27, 2009, Obama declared that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months. His remarks were made to a group of Marines preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. Obama said, "Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."[209] The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troops levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of 35,000 to 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011. On August 19, 2010, the last United States combat brigade exited Iraq. The plan is to transition the mission of the remaining troops from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces.[210][211] On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over.[212] On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be, "home for the holidays".[213]
War in Afghanistan[link]
Main article: War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan.[214] He announced an increase to U.S. troop levels of 17,000 in February 2009 to "stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan", an area he said had not received the "strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires".[215] He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General David D. McKiernan, with former Special Forces commander Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war.[216] On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan.[217] He also proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date.[218][219] McChrystal was replaced by David Petraeus in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article.[220]
Israel[link]
During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel, including a record number of U.S. troops participating in military exercises in the country, increased military aid, the re-establishment of the U.S.-Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both countries, including Ehud Barak and Admiral Mike Mullen.[221]
In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so.[222] Obama supports the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.[223]
War in Libya[link]
Main article: 2011 military intervention in Libya
In March 2011, as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe, the Arab League, and a resolution[224] passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.[225] In response to the unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, Gaddafi who had previously vowed to "show no mercy" to the citizens of Benghazi[226]—announced an immediate cessation of military activities,[227] yet reports came in that his forces continued shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama's orders, the U.S. military took a lead role in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air defense capabilities in order to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone,[228] including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets.[229][230][231] Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all of its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed Operation Unified Protector.[232] Some Representatives[233] questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.[234][235]
Osama bin Laden[link]
Main article: Death of Osama bin Laden
See also: The Situation Room (photograph)
Starting with information received in July 2010, intelligence developed by the CIA over the next several months determined what they believed to be the location of Osama bin Laden in a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles from Islamabad.[236] CIA head Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011.[236] Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next six weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a "surgical raid" to be conducted by United States Navy SEALs.[236] The operation took place on May 1, 2011, resulting in the death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers and computer drives and disks from the compound.[237][238] Bin Laden's body was identified through DNA testing,[239] and buried at sea several hours later.[240] Within minutes of the President's announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at New York City's Ground Zero and Times Square.[237][241] Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines, including from former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,[242] and from many countries around the world.[243]
2010 midterm election[link]
Obama called the November 2, 2010 election, where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats in, and control of, the House of Representatives,[244] "humbling" and a "shellacking".[245] He said that the results came because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic recovery.[246]
Cultural and political image[link]
Main article: Public image of Barack Obama
Obama's family history, upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement.[248] Obama is also not a descendant of American slaves.[249] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong".[250] Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."[251]
Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[252] During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses.[253]
According to the Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68 percent approval rating[254] before gradually declining for the rest of the year, and eventually bottoming out at 41 percent in August 2010,[255] a trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office.[256] He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden, which lasted until around June 2011, when his approval numbers dropped back to where they were prior to the operation.[257][258][259] Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries,[260] and before being elected President he has met with prominent foreign figures including then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair,[261] Italy's Democratic Party leader and then Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni,[262] and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[263]
In a February 2009 poll conducted by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most powerful.[264] In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic downturn.[265][266]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[267] His concession speech after the New Hampshire primary was set to music by independent artists as the music video "Yes We Can", which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in its first month[268] and received a Daytime Emmy Award.[269] In December 2008, Time magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[270]
On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[271] Obama accepted this award in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2009, with "deep gratitude and great humility."[272] The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures.[273][274] Obama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office.
Family and personal life[link]
Main article: Family of Barack Obama
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."[275] Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised, Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family – six of them living.[276] Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[277] until her death on November 2, 2008,[278] two days before his election to the Presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011.[279] In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.[280]
Obama was known as "Barry" in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.[281] Besides his native English, Obama speaks Indonesian at the conversational level, having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta.[282] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team.[283]
Obama is a well known supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[284] In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[285] He is also primarily a Chicago Bears fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and recently rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after Obama took office as President.[286] In 2011, Obama invited the 1985 Bears to the White House; in 1986, the team did not attend due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[287]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[288] Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[289] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[290] The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[291] followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[292] The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.[293] The Obamas have a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.[294]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[295] The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[296]
In December 2007, Money magazine estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.[297] Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[298][299] On his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14 percent to non-profit organizations, including $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans' families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments.[300][301]
As per the latest financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.[302]
Obama tried to quit smoking several times, sometimes using nicotine replacement therapy, and, in early 2010, Michelle Obama said that he had successfully quit smoking.[303][304]
Religious views[link]
Obama is a Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he "was not raised in a religious household". He described his mother, raised by non-religious parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as "non-practicing Methodists and Baptists"), to be detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known". He described his father as "raised a Muslim", but a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful". Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change".[305]
In an interview with the evangelical periodical Christianity Today, Obama stated: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life."[306]
On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying "I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters' keeper, treating others as they would treat me."[307][308]
Obama was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ, a black liberation church, in 1988, and was an active member there for two decades.[309] Obama resigned from Trinity during the Presidential campaign after controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright became public.[310] After a prolonged effort to find a church to attend regularly in Washington, Obama announced in June 2009 that his primary place of worship would be the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David.[311]
Notes[link]
- ^ "President Barack Obama". Washington, D.C.: The White House. 2008. http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
- ^ a b "Certificate of Live Birth: Barack Hussein Obama II, August 4, 1961, 7:24 pm, Honolulu". Department of Health, State of Hawaii. The White House. April 27, 2011. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/birth-certificate-long-form.pdf. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
- ^ "American President: Barack Obama". Charlottesville, VA: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. 2009. http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/obama. Retrieved January 23, 2009. "Religion: Christian"
- "The Truth about Barack's Faith". Obama for America. http://www.fightthesmears.com/file_download/2/baracksfaith.pdf. Retrieved April 8, 2011.
- Miller, Lisa (July 18, 2008). "Finding his faith". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/145971. Retrieved February 4, 2010. "He is now a Christian, having been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago."
- Barakat, Matthew (November 17, 2008). "Obama's church choice likely to be scrutinized; D.C. churches have started extending invitations to Obama and his family". Associated Press. MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27775757. Retrieved January 20, 2009. "The United Church of Christ, the denomination from which Obama resigned when he left Wright's church, issued a written invitation to join a UCC denomination in Washington and resume his connections to the church." .
- "Barack Obama, long time UCC member, inaugurated forty-fourth U.S. President". News. United Church of Christ. January 20, 2009. http://www.ucc.org/news/obama-inauguration.html. Retrieved January 21, 2009. "Barack Obama, who spent more than 20 years as a UCC member, is the forty-fourth President of the United States."
- Sullivan, Amy (June 29, 2009). "The Obama's find a church home—away from home". Time. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1907610,00.html. Retrieved February 5, 2010. "instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow in George W. Bush's footsteps and make his primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David." .
- Kornblut, Anne E. (February 4, 2010). "Obama's spirituality is largely private, but it's influential, advisers say". The Washington Post: p. A6. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020303619.html. Retrieved February 5, 2010. "Obama prays privately ... And when he takes his family to Camp David on the weekends, a Navy chaplain ministers to them, with the daughters attending a form of Sunday school there."
- ^ a b Maraniss, David (August 24, 2008). "Though Obama had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise possible". The Washington Post: p. A22. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/23/AR2008082301620.html. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
- ^ Nakaso, Dan (December 22, 2008). "Twin sisters, Obama on parallel paths for years". The Honolulu Advertiser: p. B1. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Dec/22/ln/hawaii812220320.html. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
- ^ Rudin, Ken (December 23, 2009). "Today's Junkie segment On TOTN: a political review Of 2009". Talk of the Nation (Political Junkie blog). NPR. http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2009/12/todays_junkie_segment_on_totn_5.html. Retrieved April 18, 2010. "We began with the historic inauguration on January 20—yes, the first president ever born in Hawaii"
- ^ for Stanley Ann's first name, see Obama (1995, 2004), p. 19.
- ^ Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Nicholas Watt (May 20, 2011). "Obama looks forward to rediscovering his Irish roots on European tour". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/20/obama-irish-roots-european-tour. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
- ^ Mason, Jeff (May 23, 2011). "Obama visits family roots in Ireland". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/us-obama-ireland-idUSTRE74M09F20110523. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
- ^ "Obama urged to create own tartan". BBC News. January 20, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7838208.stm. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
- ^ "Researchers: Obama has German roots". USA Today. June 4, 2009. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-04-obama-roots_N.htm. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
- ^ "Honorary citizenship papers sent to Obama". Swissinfo.ch. July 14, 2010. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Honorary_citizenship_papers_sent_to_Obama.html?cid=17963746. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
- ^ a b Jones, Tim (March 27, 2007). "Barack Obama: Mother not just a girl from Kansas; Stanley Ann Dunham shaped a future senator". Chicago Tribune: p. 1 (Tempo). Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-0703270151mar27-archive,0,5853572,full.story. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ a b Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 9–10.
- ^ a b Ripley, Amanda (April 9, 2008). "The story of Barack Obama's mother". Time. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729524,00.html. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
- ^ Ochieng, Philip (November 1, 2004). "From home squared to the US Senate: how Barack Obama was lost and found". The EastAfrican. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070927223905/http://www.nationmedia.com/EastAfrican/01112004/Features/PA2-11.html. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
- Merida, Kevin (December 14, 2007). "The ghost of a father". The Washington Post: p. A12. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/13/ST2007121301893.html. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
- ^ Karana, Kinanti Pinta (December 9, 2009). "Statue of a young Obama to watch over Indonesian capital". Jakarta Globe. http://thejakartaglobe.com/home/statue-of-us-president-barack-obama-to-be-unveiled-in-jakarta-park/346178. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
- Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 44–45.
- ^ Pickler, Nedra (January 24, 2007). "Obama debunks claim about Islamic school". The Washington Post. Associated Press. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012400371_pf.html. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
- "Statue of boy Obama erected in Jakarta". Xinhua News Agency. December 10, 2009. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/10/content_12624443.htm. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
- ^ Serafin, Peter (March 21, 2004). "Punahou grad stirs up Illinois politics". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. http://archives.starbulletin.com/2004/03/21/news/story4.html. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
- Scott, Janny (March 14, 2008). "A free-spirited wanderer who set Obama's path". The New York Times: p. A1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/us/politics/14obama.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
- Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 3 and 4.
- ^ Suryakusuma, Julia (November 29, 2006). "Obama for President... of Indonesia". The Jakarta Post. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/11/29/obama-president-indonesia.html. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
- ^ Serrano, Richard A. (March 11, 2007). "Obama's peers didn't see his angst". Los Angeles Times: p. A20. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obamahawaii11-2007mar11,0,199085,full.story. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
- Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 4 and 5.
- ^ Reyes, B.J. (February 8, 2007). "Punahou left lasting impression on Obama". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. http://archives.starbulletin.com/2007/02/08/news/story02.html. Retrieved February 10, 2007. "As a teenager, Obama went to parties and sometimes sought out gatherings on military bases or at the University of Hawaii that were mostly attended by blacks."
- ^ Elliott, Philip (November 21, 2007). "Obama gets blunt with N.H. students". The Boston Globe. Associated Press: p. 8A. http://articles.boston.com/2007-11-21/news/29233371_1_barack-obama-education-plan-campaign-trail. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 93–94.
- for analysis of the political impact of the quote and Obama's more recent admission that he smoked marijuana as a teenager ("When I was a kid, I inhaled"), see:
- Seelye, Katharine Q. (October 24, 2006). "Obama offers more variations from the norm". The New York Times: p. A21. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E2DB173FF937A15753C1A9609C8B63. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- Romano, Lois (January 3, 2007). "Effect of Obama's candor remains to be seen". The Washington Post: p. A1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010201359.html. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
- ^ Hornick, Ed (August 17, 2008). "Obama, McCain talk issues at pastor's forum". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/16/warren.forum/. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ a b Gordon, Larry (January 29, 2007). "Occidental recalls 'Barry' Obama". Los Angeles Times: p. B1. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/29/local/me-oxy29. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Possley, Maurice (March 30, 2007). "Activism blossomed in college". Chicago Tribune: p. 20. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703291042mar30-archive,0,1533921.story. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Kovaleski, Serge F. (February 9, 2008). "Old friends say drugs played bit part in Obama's young life". The New York Times: p. A1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/us/politics/09obama.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Rohter, Larry (April 10, 2008). "Obama says real-life experience trumps rivals' foreign policy credits". The New York Times: p. A18. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/us/politics/10obama.html. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Goldman, Adam; Tanner, Robert (May 15, 2008). "Old friends recall Obama's years in LA, NYC". USA Today. Associated Press. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-05-15-3144401415_x.htm. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Helman, Scott (August 25, 2008). "Small college awakened future senator to service". The Boston Globe: p. 1A. http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/08/25/small_college_awakened_future_senator_to_service/?page=full. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Jackson, Brooks (June 5, 2009). "More 'birther' nonsense: Obama's 1981 Pakistan trip". FactCheck.org. http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/more-birther-nonsense-obamas-1981-pakistan-trip. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- Remnick, David (2010). The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 98–112. ISBN 978-1-4000-4360-6.
- Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 92–112.
- Mendell (2007), pp. 55–62.
- ^ Boss-Bicak, Shira (January 2005). "Barack Obama '83". Columbia College Today. ISSN 0572-7820. http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/jan05/cover.php. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
- ^ Obama, Barack (1998). "Curriculum vitae". The University of Chicago Law School. Archived from the original on May 9, 2001. http://web.archive.org/web/20010509024017/http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/obama/cv.html. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
- Issenberg, Sasha (August 6, 2008). "Obama shows hints of his year in global finance; Tied markets to social aid". The Boston Globe: p. 1A. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/06/obama_shows_hints_of_his_year_in_global_finance/?page=1. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
- ^ Scott, Janny (July 30, 2007). "Obama's account of New York often differs from what others say". The New York Times: p. B1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/us/politics/30obama.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved July 31, 2007.
- Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 133–140.
- Mendell (2007), pp. 62–63.
- ^ a b c d Chassie, Karen, ed. (2007). Who's Who in America, 2008. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who. p. 3468. ISBN 978-0-8379-7011-0.
- ^ Lizza, Ryan (March 19, 2007). "The agitator: Barack Obama's unlikely political education". The New Republic 236 (12): 22–26, 28–29. ISSN 0028-6583. http://www.tnr.com/article/the-agitator-barack-obamas-unlikely-political-education. Retrieved August 21, 2007.
- Secter, Bob; McCormick, John (March 30, 2007). "Portrait of a pragmatist". Chicago Tribune: p. 1. Archived from the original on December 14, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20091214172131/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703300121mar30-archive,0,2491692,full.story. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 140–295.
- Mendell (2007), pp. 63–83.
- ^ a b c Matchan, Linda (February 15, 1990). "A Law Review breakthrough". The Boston Globe: p. 29. http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/1990/02/15/a_law_review_breakthrough. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
- Corr, John (February 27, 1990). "From mean streets to hallowed halls" (paid archive). The Philadelphia Inquirer: p. C01. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_multi=PI%7CDN%7C&p_product=PHNP&p_theme=phnp&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_trackval=PHNP&s_dispstring=Author%28John%20Corr%29%20AND%20date%2802/27/1990%20to%2002/27/1990%29%20AND%20date%28all%29&p_field_advanced-0=Author&p_text_advanced-0=%28John%20Corr%29&p_bool_advanced-1=AND&p_params_advanced-1=date:B,E&p_field_advanced-1=YMD_date&p_text_advanced-1=%2802/27/1990%20to%2002/27/1990%29&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no. Retrieved June 6, 2008.
- ^ Obama, Barack (August–September 1988). "Why organize? Problems and promise in the inner city". Illinois Issues 14 (8–9): 40–42. ISSN 0738-9663. reprinted in:
Knoepfle, Peg, ed. (1990). After Alinsky: community organizing in Illinois. Springfield, IL: Sangamon State University. pp. 35–40. ISBN 0-9620873-3-5. "He has also been a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, an organizing institute working throughout the Midwest." - ^ Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 299–437.
- ^ Gnecchi, Nico (February 27, 2006). "Obama receives hero's welcome at his family's ancestral village in Kenya". Voice of America. Archived from the original on March 21, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080321161040/http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-08/2006-08-27-voa17.cfm. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
- ^ a b Levenson, Michael; Saltzman, Jonathan (January 28, 2007). "At Harvard Law, a unifying voice". The Boston Globe: p. 1A. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/28/at_harvard_law_a_unifying_voice/?page=full. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
- Kantor, Jodi (January 28, 2007). "In law school, Obama found political voice". The New York Times: p. A1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/us/politics/28obama.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
- Mundy, Liza (August 12, 2007). "A series of fortunate events". The Washington Post: p. W10. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/08/AR2007080802038_pf.html. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
- Mendell (2007), pp. 80–92.
- ^ a b Butterfield, Fox (February 6, 1990). "First black elected to head Harvard's Law Review". The New York Times: p. A20. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/06/us/first-black-elected-to-head-harvard-s-law-review.html. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
- Ybarra, Michael J (February 7, 1990). "Activist in Chicago now heads Harvard Law Review". Chicago Tribune: p. 3. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-02-07/news/9001110408_1_ann-dunham-chicago-housing-authority-barack-obama. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
- Drummond, Tammerlin (March 12, 1990). "Barack Obama's law; Harvard Law Review's first black president plans a life of public service" (paid archive). Los Angeles Times: p. E1. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/60017156.html?dids=60017156:60017156&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
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- ^ Smolenyak, Megan (May 9, 2011). "Tracing Barack Obama's Roots to Moneygall". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/megan-smolenyak-smolenyak/tracing-barack-obamas-roo_b_859151.html.
- ^ Obama (1995, 2004), p. 13. For reports on Obama's maternal genealogy, including slave owners, Irish connections, and common ancestors with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Harry Truman, see:Nitkin, David; Harry Merritt (March 2, 2007). "A New Twist to an Intriguing Family History". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070930033339/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/politics/bal-te.obama02mar02,0,3453027.story. Retrieved June 24, 2008. Jordan, Mary (May 13, 2007). "Tiny Irish Village Is Latest Place to Claim Obama as Its Own". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201551.html. Retrieved June 24, 2008. "Obama's Family Tree Has a Few Surprises". CBS 2 (Chicago). Associated Press. September 8, 2007. Archived from the original on June 2, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080602215833/http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Barack.Obama.family.2.339709.html. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
- ^ "When Barry Became Barack". Newsweek. March 31, 2008. http://www.newsweek.com/id/128633. Retrieved November 6, 2008.
- ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (2009). "Obama's Indonesian Redux". Language Log. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1025. Retrieved March 12, 2009.
- ^ Kantor, Jodi (June 1, 2007). "One Place Where Obama Goes Elbow to Elbow". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/politics/01hoops.html. Retrieved April 28, 2008. See also: "The Love of the Game" (video). Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO). April 15, 2008. http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel/episodes#/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel/episodes/0/133-april-15-2008/index.html. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
- ^ "Barack Obama: White Sox 'serious' ball". The Swamp. August 25, 2008. http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/08/barack_obama_white_sox_serious.html. Retrieved December 6, 2009.
- ^ "Barack Obama Explains White Sox Jacket, Talks Nats in All-Star Booth Visit". MLB Fanhouse. July 14, 2009. http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2009/07/14/barack-obama-explains-white-sox-jacket-talks-nats-in-all-star-b/. Retrieved December 6, 2009.
- ^ Branigin, William (January 30, 2009). "Steelers Win Obama's Approval". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012903196.html. "But other than the Bears, the Steelers are probably the team that's closest to my heart."
- ^ "1985 Bears honored by President Obama". Chicagobears.com. 2011-10-07. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=8232. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
- ^ Obama (2006), pp. 327–332. See also:Brown, Sarah (December 7, 2005). "Obama '85 masters balancing act". The Daily Princetonian. http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2005/12/07/14049. Retrieved February 9, 2009.
- ^ Obama (2006), p. 329.
- ^ Fornek, Scott (October 3, 2007). "Michelle Obama: 'He Swept Me Off My Feet'". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on January 18, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5msGZDbMO. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
- ^ Martin, Jonathan (July 4, 2008). "Born on the 4th of July". Politico. http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0708/Born_on_the_4th_of_July.html. Retrieved July 10, 2008.
- ^ Obama (1995, 2004), p. 440, and Obama (2006), pp. 339–340. See also:"Election 2008 Information Center: Barack Obama". Gannett News Service. http://www.gannettnewsservice.com/?cat=153. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
- ^ "Obamas choose private Sidwell Friends School", International Herald Tribune, November 22, 2008
- ^ Cooper, Helene (April 13, 2009). "One Obama Search Ends With a Puppy Named Bo". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/us/politics/13obama.html. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
- ^ Zeleny, Jeff (December 24, 2005). "The first time around: Sen. Obama's freshman year". Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-051224obama,0,1779783,full.story. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
- ^ Slevin, Peter (December 17, 2006). "Obama says he regrets land deal with fundraiser". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600729.html. Retrieved June 10, 2008.
- Robinson, Mike (June 4, 2008). "Rezko found guilty in corruption case". Associated Press. MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24973282/. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
- ^ Harris, Marlys (December 7, 2007). "Obama's Money". CNNMoney.com. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0712/gallery.candidates.moneymag/5.html. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
See also:Goldfarb, Zachary A (March 24, 2007). "Measuring Wealth of the '08 Candidates". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400305.html. Retrieved April 28, 2008. - ^ Zeleny, Jeff (April 17, 2008). "Book Sales Lifted Obamas' Income in 2007 to a Total of $4.2 Million". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/us/politics/17obama.html. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
- ^ Shear, Michael D.; Hilzenrath, David S. (April 16, 2010). "Obamas report $5.5 million in income on 2009 tax return". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/15/AR2010041504485.html. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
- ^ Solman, Paul (April 18, 2011). "How Much Did President Obama Make in 2010?". PBS NewsHour. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2011/04/how-much-did-president-obama-m.html. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
- ^ Solman, Paul (April 27, 2011). "The Obamas Gave $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation in 2010; What Is It?". PBS NewsHour. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/04/the-obamas-gave-131000-to-the-fisher-house-foundation-last-year-what-is-it.html. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
- ^ Jackson, David (May 15, 2012). "Obama worth as much as $10 million". USA Today. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
- ^ Elsner, Alan (December 7, 2008). Obama says he won't be smoking in White House". Reuters. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
- ^ Zengerle, Patricia (February 8, 2011). "Yes, he did: first lady says Obama quit smoking". Reuters. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
- ^ Obama (2006), pp. 202–208. Portions excerpted in:Obama, Barack (October 16, 2006). "My Spiritual Journey". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1546579,00.html. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
- Obama, Barack (June 28, 2006). "'Call to Renewal' Keynote Address". Barack Obama: U.S. Senator for Illinois. Archived from the original on January 4, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090104231501/http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/. Retrieved June 16, 2008.
- ^ Christianity Today: "Q&A: Barack Obama" Interview by Sarah Pulliam and Ted Olsen, January 23, 2008
- ^ Obama 'Christian By Choice': President Responds To Questioner by Charles Babington and Darlene Superville, Associated Press, September 28, 2010
- ^ Video – President Obama: "I am a Christian By Choice" by ABC News, September 29, 2010.
- ^ Kantor, Jodi (April 30, 2007). "Barack Obama's search for faith". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/world/americas/30iht-30obama.5501905.html. Retrieved April 30, 2007.
- ^ "Obama's church choice likely to be scrutinized". Associated Press. MSNBC. November 17, 2008. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
- ^ Sullivan, Amy (June 29, 2009.) "The Obamas Find a Church Home—Away from Home". Time. Retrieved December 14, 2009.
References[link]
- Mendell, David (2007). Obama: From Promise to Power. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-085820-6.
- Obama, Barack (1995, 2004). Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 1-4000-8277-3.
- Obama, Barack (2006). The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-307-23769-9.
Further reading[link]
- Graff, Garrett. "The Legend of Barack Obama", Washingtonian, November 1, 2006. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
- Koltun, Dave (2005) "The 2004 Illinois Senate Race: Obama Wins Open Seat and Becomes National Political "Star"" in "The Road to Congress 2004" Editors: Sunil Ahuja (Youngstown State University) and Robert Dewhirst (Truman State University), Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, New York, 2005, ISBN 1-59454-360-7
- Lizza, Ryan. "Above the Fray", GQ, September 2007. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
- MacFarquhar, Larissa. "The Conciliator: Where is Barack Obama Coming From?", New Yorker, May 7, 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
- McClelland, Edward, Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President, Bloomsbury Press, 2010.
- Zutter, Hank De. "What Makes Obama Run?", Chicago Reader, December 8, 1995. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
External links[link]
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Obama, Barack |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American politician, 44th President of the United States |
| Date of birth | August 4, 1961 |
| Place of birth | Honolulu, Hawaii, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is about the musician. For her self-titled debut album, see Taylor Swift (album).
| Taylor Swift | |
|---|---|
 Swift performing during the Australian leg of her Speak Now Tour in 2012 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Taylor Alison Swift |
| Born | (1989-12-13) December 13, 1989 (age 22) Reading, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Genres | Country-pop, pop, country, alternative rock |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, actress |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, banjo, ukulele, piano |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | Big Machine |
| Website | TaylorSwift.com |
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest sole writer and singer of a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.
Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in late 2008. Buoyed by the chart success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless attracted a crossover audience and became the top-selling album of 2009. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. In 2010, Swift released her third album, Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. She then embarked on the 111-date Speak Now World Tour, which was attended by over 1.6 million fans and has become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Swift is currently recording her fourth studio album, due for release in the fall of 2012.
Swift's work has earned her numerous accolades, including six Grammy Awards, ten AMAs, seven CMAs, six ACMs and 13 BMI Awards. She has sold over 22 million albums and 50 million song downloads worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Swift has endorsement deals with Target, CoverGirl, Sony, Elizabeth Arden, Walmart and American Greetings. As a philanthropist, Swift has placed particular emphasis on arts education, children's literacy and natural disaster relief funds. In addition to her music career, Swift has appeared as an actress in the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2009), the romantic comedy Valentine's Day (2010) and the animated film The Lorax (2012).
Contents |
Early life[link]
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania.[1] She is the daughter of Scott Swift, a Merrill Lynch financial adviser,[2][3] and Andrea (née Gardner), a homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive.[1][4] Swift was named after singer James Taylor; her mother believed a gender-neutral name would help her forge a successful business career.[5][6] She has a younger brother, Austin, who attends Vanderbilt University.[7] She spent the early years of her life on an eleven-acre Christmas tree farm in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and was educated at the fee-paying Wyndcroft School.[8] When Swift was nine years old, the family moved to Wyomissing, Pennsylvania,[9][10] where she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.[11] Swift spent her summers at her parent's vacation home in Stone Harbor, New Jersey[12] and has described it as the place "where most of my childhood memories were formed".[10]
Swift's first hobby was English horse riding. Her mother Andrea put her in a saddle when Swift was nine months old and she later competed in horse shows.[13][14] Her family owned several Quarter horses and a Shetland pony.[14] At the age of nine, Swift turned her attention to musical theatre and performed in Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions of Grease, Annie, Bye Bye Birdie and The Sound of Music.[15][8] She travelled regularly to Broadway, New York for vocal and acting lessons. However, "after a few years of auditioning in New York and not getting anything”, Swift became interested in country music.[16] She was inspired by LeAnn Rimes's Blue[17] and her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, an opera singer.[8] When she was in fourth grade, Swift won a national poetry contest with a three-page poem, "Monster in My Closet".[18] At the age of eleven, after many attempts,[19] Swift won a local talent competition by singing a rendition of LeAnn Rimes’s “Big Deal”, and was given the opportunity to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels at a Strausstown amphitheater.[15] She spent her weekends performing at local festivals, fairs, coffeehouses, karaoke contests, garden clubs and Boy Scout meetings.[20][4] This interest in country music isolated Swift from her middle school peers.[21][22]
After watching a Behind the Music episode about Faith Hill,[23] Swift recorded a demo of karaoke covers, and travelled with her mother to Nashville, Tennessee for spring break to leave a copy of the demo with record labels along Music Row. She received label rejections and realized that "everyone in that town wanted to do what I wanted to do. So, I kept thinking to myself, I need to figure out a way to be different".[23] Swift began performing the "The Star Spangled Banner" at many sporting events, hoping she would be offered a recording contract. On one occasion, an eleven-year-old Swift high-fived Jay-Z after singing the national anthem at a 76ers game in Philadelphia.[24] At the age of twelve, Swift was shown by a computer repairman how to play three chords on a guitar, inspiring her to write her first song, "Lucky You".[25][26] She then recorded a second demo of original songs.[15] In 2003, Swift and her parents began working with music manager Dan Dymtrow, after he spotted her singing at the US Open.[27] Swift's second demo then caught the attention of RCA Records, who offered the eight-grader an artist development deal. In 2004, Swift modelled for Abercrombie and Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign and had an original song included in a Maybelline Cosmetics compilation CD.[28]
When Swift was fourteen, her father transferred to the Nashville office of Merrill Lynch and the family relocated to a lake-shore house in Hendersonville, Tennessee.[1] Swift has said her parents "presented it as a move to a nice community" rather than as her chance to become a star.[29] Her mother has said, "We've always told her that this is not about putting food on our table or making our dreams come true."[30] In Tennessee, Swift attended Hendersonville High School for her freshman and sophomore years.[31] Later, to accommodate her touring schedule, Swift transferred to the Aaron Academy, a private Christian school which offered homeschooling services, and earned her high school diploma in 2008.[32]
Music career[link]
[edit] 2004–08: Nashville songwriting sessions and Taylor Swift release
Swift moved to Nashville at the age of fourteen, having secured an artist development deal with RCA Records. Her musical influences included the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Faith Hill,[29] Tom Petty,[33] Sheryl Crow,[34] Melissa Etheridge, Pat Benatar,[35] Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks,[36] Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette.[37] Swift had writing sessions with experienced songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally and the Warren Brothers,[38][39] but eventually formed a lasting working relationship with Liz Rose.[40] Swift saw Rose performing at an RCA songwriter event and suggested that they write together.[41] They began meeting for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school.[42] Rose has said that the sessions were "some of the easiest I've ever done. Basically, I was just her editor. She'd write about what happened in school that day. She had such a clear vision of what she was trying to say. And she'd come in with the most incredible hooks".[43][42] Swift also began recording demos with producer Nathan Chapman.[41] After performing at a BMI Songwriter's Circle showcase at The Bitter End, New York,[39] Swift became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.[44]
Swift left RCA Records when she was fifteeen; the company wanted her to record the work of other songwriters and wait until she was eighteen to release an album, but she felt ready to launch her career with her own material.[45][19] She also parted ways with manager Dan Dymtrow, who later took legal action against Swift and her parents.[28] At an industry showcase at Nashville's The Bluebird Café in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a Dreamworks Records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label, Big Machine Records.[40] Swift was one of the new label's first signings.[40] As an introduction to the country music business, Borchetta arranged for Swift to intern at the CMA Music Festival; she acted as the artist escort for Darryl Worley.[46][47]
Swift began working on her self-titled debut album shortly after signing her record deal. After experimenting with veteran Nashville producers, Swift persuaded Big Machine to hire her demo producer Nathan Chapman.[19] It was his first time to record a studio album but Swift felt they had the right "chemistry".[19] In the end, Chapman produced all but one of the tracks on Taylor Swift.[19] She has described the album as the "diary" of her early teens[48] and most songs were written during her freshman year of high school.[19] As a result, the songs describe coming of age experiences such as insecurity, young love, and teenage angst.[19] She has said that, although "it sounds like I've had 500 boyfriends", a lot of the songs are observational.[19] Swift wrote three of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining eight with writers such as Liz Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall and Angelo Petraglia.[49] Musically, the album has been described as "a mix of trad-country instruments and spry rock guitars".[50]
Taylor Swift was released in October 2006 and received generally positive reviews from music critics.[51] PopMatters hoped Swift would be "able to find an accomodation between the country tradition and her very obvious pop sensibilities, because Taylor Swift suggests she has much to offer".[52] The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones described Swift as a "prodigy". She noted that "Our Song" "stop[ed] me in my tracks" and praised the lyrics: “He’s got a one-hand feel on the steering wheel, the other on my heart".[53] Country Weekly felt Swift demonstrated "an honesty, intelligence and idealism with which listeners of any age will be able to connect" and noted that "the more thoughtful material suggests a talent poised to last well past high school".[54] AllMusic stated that, while listening to the album, it was "never in doubt" that "Swift is a talent to be reckoned with".[55] Rolling Stone described Swift as "bright-eyed but remarkably seasoned", and admired "Our Song"'s "insanely hooky sing-song melody that's as Britney as it is Patsy".[50]
Big Machine Records was still in its infancy upon the release of the lead single "Tim McGraw" in June 2006, and Swift and her mother helped "stuff the CD singles into envelopes to send to radio".[30] She spent much of 2006 promoting Taylor Swift in a radio tour and later commented, "Radio tours for most artists last six weeks. Mine lasted six months."[19] Swift painted canvases (inspired by Jackson Pollock) to gift to radio station managers who played her music.[56] She took part in "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music-video series designed to introduce her to country music fans.[57][58] She also made television appearances on Good Morning America,[59] The Megan Mullally Show,[59] America's Got Talent,[60] and TRL.[61] Swift, a self-described "kid of the internet",[62] used MySpace to build a fanbase. She wrote her own blog posts, left comments on her fans' accounts and personally respond to the messages that were sent to her.[63] This was, at the time, "revolutionary in country music".[64][57] Borchetta has said that his decision to sign a sixteen year old singer-songwriter initially raised eyebrows among his record industry peers[57] but Swift tapped into a previously unknown market: teenage girls who listen to country music.[1][57]
Following "Tim McGraw", four further singles were released throughout 2007 and 2008: "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song", "Picture to Burn" and "Should've Said No". All were highly successful on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, with "Our Song" and "Should've Said No" both reaching number one. "Our Song" made Swift the youngest sole writer and singer of a number one country song.[65] "Teardrops on My Guitar" became a minor pop hit; it reached number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100.[66][67] The album sold 39,000 copies during its first week[68] and, as of March 2011, has sold over 5.5 million copies worldwide.[69] Swift also released a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, in October 2007 and an EP, Beautiful Eyes, in July 2008.[70][71]
Swift toured extensively in support of Taylor Swift. In addition to festival and theater dates, Swift performed as an opening act for several country artists' concert tours. She opened for Rascal Flatts on several dates in late 2006.[59][72] In 2007, she served as the opening act on twenty dates for George Strait's 2007 United States tour,[73] several dates on Kenny Chesney's tour[74] and selected dates on Brad Paisley's Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour.[75][76] Also in 2007, Swift appeared as the opening act on several dates for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's joint Soul2Soul II Tour.[77] Swift again opened for Flatts for their Still Feels Good Tour in 2008.[78] In addition to performing her own material, Swift played covers of songs by Beyoncé and Rihanna.[79] She conducted meet-and-greet sessions with fans before and after her concerts; these lasted for up to four hours.[80][81]
In 2007, Swift and Alan Jackson were jointly named the Nashville Songwriters Association's "Songwriter/Artists of the Year". Swift was the youngest person ever to be honored with the title.[82] She also won the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award for Best New Artist.[83] In 2008, she won Top New Female Vocalist at the Academy of Country Music Awards[84] and Favorite Country Female Artist at the American Music Awards.[85] She won seven BMI Awards for songs featured on Taylor Swift.[86] Swift was also nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse.[87]
[edit] 2008–10: Fearless release, MTV VMA incident and media backlash
Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released in November 2008.[88] She wrote seven of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining six with songwriters Liz Rose, John Rich, Colbie Caillat and Hillary Lindsey.[49] While Swift wrote many of the songs on tour, she made a conscious effort not to include "road songs": "As a 16-year-old girl, I could never relate to those songs about playing a different city every night. I want to write about feelings and love and the lack of love".[89] She has said that the album title "means you’re afraid of a lot of things, but you jump anyway".[90] She co-produced the album with Nathan Chapman.[49] Musically, the record is characterized by "loud, lean guitars and rousing choruses", with the occasional "bit of fiddle and banjo tucked into the mix".[91]
Fearless received generally positive reviews from music critics.[92] The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".[93] The Village Voice felt she displayed "preternatural wisdom and inclusiveness", "masterfully avoiding the typical diarist's pitfalls of trite banality and pseudo-profound bullshit".[94] Rolling Stone described her as "a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture" whose "squirmingly intimate and true" songs seemed to be "literally ripped from a suburban girl's diary".[95] USA Today found it "a pleasure to hear a gifted teenager who sounds like a gifted teenager, rather than a mouthpiece for a bunch of older pros' collective notion of adolescent yearning."[96] The New Yorker described it as an album "without a bad track", adding that "the album’s finest effort, "Fifteen", will feature in yearbook quotes for years".[97] Entertainment Weekly noted that the album would appeal mainly to young girls – "she sounds like a real teen, not some manufactured vixen-Lolita" – but predicted it would be "exciting to watch her precocious talent grow".[98] Music critic Robert Christgau described Swift as "an uncommonly-to-impossibly strong and gifted teenage girl".[99]
Swift promoted Fearless heavily upon its release. An episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show was dedicated to the album launch[57] and Swift appeared on many other chat shows.[100] She communicated with fans using social media platforms such as twitter and personal video blogs.[57] In October 2008, she appeared at the CMT Giants: Alan Jackson event, performing a cover of Jackson's "Drive (For Daddy Gene)".[101] In November 2008, Swift took part in a joint, televised concert with rock band Def Leppard in Nashville.[102][103] She performed her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards in February 2009.[104] In April 2009, she performed a cover of George Strait's "Run" at a televised ACM event honoring Strait as Artist of the Decade.[105] Swift hosted and appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live in November 2009.[106] The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released in September 2008 and became the second best-selling country single of all time, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[67][107] Four more singles were released throughout 2008 and 2009: "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless". "You Belong with Me" was the album's highest-charting single, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.[108] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart with sales of 592,304 and has since sold over 8.6 million copies worldwide.[109][110] It was the top-selling album of 2009 and brought Swift much crossover success.[111]
Swift carried out her first headlining tour from April 2009 to June 2010. As part of the 105-date Fearless Tour, Swift played 90 dates in North America, six dates in Europe, eight dates in Australia and one date in Asia.[112] The stage show included multiple costume changes, dancers and a fairy-tale castle set.[113] She sang a cover of Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around... Comes Around" nightly, intertwined with her own "You're Not Sorry".[114] Swift invited John Mayer, Faith Hill and Katy Perry to perform one-off duets with her at various dates during the North American tour.[115][116][117] Justin Bieber, Kelly Pickler and Gloriana were the support acts.[118] The tour was attended by more than 1.1 million fans and has grossed over $63 million.[119] Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless, a concert film, was aired on television and later released on DVD and Blu-ray.[120] Also in 2009, Swift performed as a supporting act for Keith Urban.[121]
File:Kanye-West-grabs-the-mic-2009-vma.jpg
Kanye West taking the microphone from Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009
In September 2009, Swift became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award when "You Belong with Me" was named Best Female Video.[122] Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West, who had been involved in a number of other award show incidents.[123] West declared Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated in the same category, to be "one of the best videos of all time." Many audience members booed West,[124][125] prompting him to flip off the crowd.[126][124] He then handed the microphone back to a speechless Swift.[124][127] Backstage, Swift was seen "hysterically crying".[124] According to Rolling Stone, when Swift's mother confronted West, he gave "a half-hearted apology in which he added he still thought Beyoncé's video was superior".[128] West was removed from the event.[124][126][129] When Beyoncé later won the award for Video of the Year, she invited Swift onstage to finish her speech.[124][130] In the event's press room, Swift, who in 2008 had expressed a desire to sing a hook on a Kanye West rap song,[131] was asked if she had "any hard feelings" towards West: "I don’t know him, and I’ve never met him, so... I don’t want to start anything because I had a great night tonight."[128][132]
The incident received much media attention and inspired many Internet memes.[133] President Barack Obama, in an "off the record" comment, called West a "jackass".[134] Former US President Jimmy Carter said West's interruption was "completely uncalled for".[135] West's behavior was criticized by celebrities, including Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Lady Gaga.[126][136][137][128] The following day, West apologized for his verbal outburst both in a blog entry and during an appearance on The Jay Leno Show.[124][125] He maintained that, while Swift was "very talented", "Beyoncé's video was the best of this decade!!!! ... I gave my awards to Outkast when they deserved it over me ... I'm not crazy y'all, I'm just real."[138] Two days after the VMAs, Swift told an interviewer that West had not spoken to her since the ceremony.[139] West then contacted her to offer a personal apology, which Swift accepted: "Kanye did call me, and he was very sincere in his apology."[122][139] It has been said that the incident and subsequent media attention turned Swift into "a bona-fide mainstream celebrity".[140]
Swift released a cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl", exclusively through Rhapsody in June 2009[141] and continues to make her stage entrance to Petty's recording of the song.[142] Swift contributed backing vocals to John Mayer's "Half of My Heart", featured on his fourth album, in November 2009.[143] Mayer wrote the song as a tribute to Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac: "I thought, 'Well, if this is going to be my love letter to that style of music, who's going to be the Stevie Nicks in this equation?' And I thought, 'This Taylor Swift girl is going to be around for a long time."[144] The song received positive reviews from music critics.[145][146][147] Swift and Mayer performed the song live at Madison Square Garden, New York in December 2009.[148] It was released as the album's third single in June 2010 and peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.[149] Swift collaborated with a number of other artists in 2008 and 2009. She co-wrote and recorded "Best Days of Your Life" with Kelly Pickler.[150] She co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack – "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier" – with Martin Johnson and Robert Ellis Orrall, respectively.[151] Swift also provided vocals for Boys Like Girls's "Two Is Better Than One", written by Martin Johnson.[152][153][154][155] In January 2010, Swift contributed two songs – including "Today Was a Fairytale" – to the Valentine's Day soundtrack[156] and recorded a cover of Better Than Ezra's "Breathless" for the Hope for Haiti Now album.[157]
In November 2009, Swift became the youngest ever artist, and one of only six women, to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.[158] Fearless also won the Association's Album of the Year award.[158] The album won many other accolades and has become the most awarded album in country music history.[159] Swift was the youngest ever artist to win the Academy of Country Music's Album of the Year honor.[160] The American Music Awards honored Swift with Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album plaudits.[161] She was awarded the Hal David Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame[162] and was named Songwriter/Artists of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association.[163] She won four BMI Awards.[164] Billboard named her 2009's Artist of the Year.[165] Swift was included in Time's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2010.[166]
In January 2010, Swift won four Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Country Album, Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, from a total of eight nominations.[167][168] She was the youngest ever artist to win Album of the Year.[169] During the ceremony, Swift sang "Rhiannon" and "You Belong with Me" with Stevie Nicks. Her vocal performance received negative reviews and sparked a widespread media backlash.[140][170] Her vocals were described variously as "badly off-key", "strikingly bad" and "incredibly wretched".[171][172] While The New York Times found it "refreshing to see someone so gifted make the occasional flub" and described Swift as "the most important new pop star of the past few years",[169] music critic Bob Lefsetz predicted that her career would end "overnight".[173][174] In April 2010, Stevie Nicks, writing in Time, defended the singer: "Taylor reminds me of myself in her determination and her childlike nature. It's an innocence that's so special and so rare. This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John ... The female rock-'n'-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business."[166]
[edit] 2010–12: Speak Now release, 13-month world tour and collaborations
Swift released her third studio album, Speak Now, in October 2010.[175] She wrote all twelve songs alone: "I'd get my best ideas at 3 a.m. in Arkansas and I didn't have a co-writer around."[176] Album recording sessions took place in California, Tennessee and Kentucky over a two year period.[177][178] Swift, who co-produced the record with longtime collaborator Nathan Chapman,[179] has described it as "a collection of confessions—things I wish I had said when I was in the moment".[180] She originally intended to call the album Enchanted but Scott Borchetta, her record label's CEO, felt the title did not reflect the album's more adult themes: "She had played me a bunch of the new songs. I looked at her and I'm like, 'Taylor, this record isn't about fairy tales and high school anymore. That's not where you're at'".[181] Musically, it has been said that the album "expands beyond country-pop to border both alternative rock and dirty bubblegum pop".[182]
Speak Now received generally positive reviews from music critics.[183] USA Today felt that Swift's songwriting skills would remind listeners "what all the fuss was about in the first place", with the album capturing "the sweet ache of becoming an adult".[184] The Los Angeles Times praised her ability as a songwriter to "hit on common experiences that feel unique".[182] The New York Times described the album as savage, musically diverse and "excellent too, possibly her best".[179] The Village Voice found that the album demanded "a true appreciation of Swift's talent, which is not confessional, but dramatic: Like a procession of country songwriters before her, she creates characters and situations—some from life—and finds potent ways to describe them."[185] Entertainment Weekly noted that while love may confound her, "the art of expert songcraft clearly doesn't".[186] Music critic John Christgau found the album's songs "overlong and overworked" but remarked that "they evince an effort that bears a remarkable resemblance to care—that is, to caring in the best, broadest, and most emotional sense".[99] Rolling Stone described Swift as one of the best songwriters in "pop, rock or country": "Swift might be a clever Nashville pro who knows all the hitmaking tricks, but she's also a high-strung, hyper-romantic gal with a melodramatic streak the size of the Atchafalaya Swamp".[187]
Swift carried out an extensive promotional campaign prior to Speak Now's release.[188] She appeared on various talk shows and morning shows, and gave free mini-concerts in unusual locations, including an open-decker bus on Hollywood Boulevard and a departure lounge at JFK airport.[189][190] She took part in a "guitar pull" alongside Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill and Lionel Ritchie at LA's Club Nokia; the musicians shared the stage and took turns introducing and playing acoutic versions of their songs to raise money for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.[191][192] The album's lead single, "Mine", was released in August 2010 and five further singles were released throughout 2010 and 2011: "Back to December", "Mean", "The Story of Us", "Sparks Fly" and "Ours".[193] Speak Now was a major commercial success, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Its sales of 1,047,000 copies made it the sixteenth album in United States history to sell one million copies in a single week.[194] As of February 2012, Speak Now has sold over four million copies in the US[195] and over 5.7 million copies worldwide.[196][197] In her career, as of May 2012, Swift has sold over 22 million albums[198] and 50 million digital tracks worldwide.[199]
In September 2010, Kanye West's 2009 VMA interruption once again became newsworthy when West used his twitter account to apologize to Swift, referring to her as "just a lil girl with dreams like the rest of us": ""I wrote a song for Taylor Swift that's so beautiful and I want her to have it. If she won't take it then I'll perform it for her." Later that month, both artists performed at the 2010 VMAs. Swift sang "Innocent", a song widely believed to be about West, which The Washington Post has described as "a small masterpiece of passive aggressiveness, a vivisection dressed up as a peace offering".[200] Music critics found Swift's performance overly serious and "petty".[201][202] Speaking in November 2010, West said he failed to see what was "so arrogant about that moment" and described his actions as "selfless". He added that "if it was the other way around" and Swift were an established artist who had "made the video of her career, do you think she would have lost to a brand new artist? Hell no!"[203][204] Also that month, he claimed that, "If I wasn't drunk, I would have been on stage longer ... Taylor never came to my defense at any interview. And rode the waves and rode it and rode it".[205][206] At the Costume Institute Gala in May 2011, Swift and West came face-to-face on the red carpet. West was observed to hold "a hand out, and the two exchanged a studiedly casual, “down low” high five".[1]
Swift toured throughout 2011 and early 2012 in support of Speak Now. As part of the thirteen-month, 111-date world tour, Swift played seven shows in Asia, twelve shows in Europe, 80 shows in North America and twelve shows in Australasia.[207] Three dates on the US tour were rescheduled after Swift fell ill with bronchitis.[208] The stage show was inspired by Broadway musical theatre, with choreographed routines, elaborate set-pieces, pyrotechnics and numerous costume changes.[209][210] Swift invited many musicians to join her for one-off duets during the North American tour. Appearances were made by James Taylor, Jason Mraz, Shawn Colvin, Johnny Rzeznik, Andy Grammer, Tal Bachman, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Nicki Minaj, Nelly, B.o.B., Usher, Flo Rida, T.I., Jon Foreman, Jim Adkins, Hayley Williams, Hot Chelle Rae, Ronnie Dunn, Darius Rucker, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney.[211][212] The tour was attended by over 1.6 million fans and has grossed over $123 million, becoming one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time.[207] Swift's first live album, Speak Now World Tour: Live, featuring all seventeen performances from the North American leg of the tour, was released in November 2011.[213]
During the North American and Australasian tour legs, Swift wrote different song lyrics on her left arm for each performance. She has said that the lyrics should be viewed as a nightly "mood ring"[214] and The New Yorker has cited the practice as an example of Swift's "keen understanding of what fuels fan obsession in the first place: a desire for intimacy between singer and listener".[1] Artists quoted include Tom Petty, Carole King, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Ryan Adams, Patty Griffin, Band of Horses, Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab For Cutie, Alanis Morrissette, Rachael Yamagata, Erin McCarley, Mindy Smith and Martina McBride.[215][216] Swift also performed many acoustic cover versions during her North American tour. In each city, she paid tribute to a homegrown artist.[217] She has said the cover versions allowed her to be "spontaneous" in an otherwise well-rehearsed show: "You'll have a lot of people who will come to more than one show, and I want them to get a different experience every time."[218] Artists covered include Justin Timberlake, Tori Amos, TLC, Pink, Fall Out Boy, Dave Matthews Band, Michelle Branch, Jordin Sparks, Maroon 5, Train, John Mellencamp, Kim Carnes, Avril Lavigne, The Jackson 5, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Gwen Stefani, All American Rejects, Britney Spears and Eminem.[219]
At the 54th Grammy Awards in February 2012, Swift's song "Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance.[220] She also performed "Mean" during the ceremony. The song is believed to be a rebuttal to Bob Lefsetz, one of the most vocal critics of her 2010 Grammy performance.[174] Lefsetz had previously been a supporter of the singer's career,[221] and Swift and Lefsetz had corresponded occasionally by email and telephone.[174] Time felt she "delivered her comeback on-key and with a vengeance"[222] while USA Today remarked that the criticism in 2010 seemed to have "made her a better songwriter and live performer".[223]
Swift was named Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association in both 2010 and 2011. During the 2011 ceremony, she played an acoustic version of "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" in honor of Alan Jackson, a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee,[224] who later thanked Swift in his speech for "the prettiest version I've ever heard".[225] Swift won various other awards for Speak Now. She was named Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in both 2011 and 2012[226] and was named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association in 2011.[227] Swift was the American Music Awards's Artist of the Year in 2011, and Speak Now was named Favorite Country Album.[228] She was also the recipient of two BMI Awards.[229] Billboard named Swift 2011's Woman of the Year.[230] Also that year, Billboard ranked her at number 15 in a list of the Top 20 Hot 100 Songwriters 2000–2011; she was the second highest ranking woman.[231] Swift was ranked second on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 16 "Queen Of Pops" of the decade.[232]
Swift contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack album in March 2012. "Safe & Sound" was co-written and recorded with The Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett.[233] John Paul White has said working with Swift was "a revelation. She had some great ideas. We had complete freedom. It truly was a collaboration. We brought the melancholy and the darker angle. Taylor was bringing the melody and the chords."[234] Rolling Stone described the song as "Swift's prettiest ballad" and wondered whether the alt-country folk song was "a one-off novelty, a trial balloon cred-move, or the stirrings of a "grown-up" style".[235] Swift and The Civil Wars debuted a live version of the song at the Ryman Auditorium, Nashville in January 2012.[236] It was released as the album's lead single and, as of April 2012, has sold 970,000 copies in the United States.[237] Swift's second contribution to the album, "Eyes Open", was written solely by the singer and produced by Nathan Chapman.[238] In May 2012, Swift contributed vocals to "Both of Us", a Dr. Luke-produced song on B.o.B's second album Strange Clouds.[239][240][241][242]
2012–present: Untitled fourth studio album[link]
Swift is currently working on her fourth album with producer Nathan Chapman.[243][244] It is scheduled for release in the fall of 2012.[245] Swift intends to keep writing and recording throughout 2012 "because I'm having so much fun".[246] After writing her third album alone, Swift is now collaborating with people "from all different places in music",[246] including songwriters Lori McKenna,[247][248] Butch Walker,[249][250] Ed Sheeran,[251] and Dan Wilson.[252] The album will detail "the rise and fall of a relationship",[253] as well as the resulting "absolute crash-and-burn heartbreak".[254] She has described the album's mood as "sad, if I'm being honest."[255]
Artistry[link]
Songwriting style[link]
Swift has said she writes songs as an "open letter".[256] She has said songwriting is "is a way of verbalizing those things that I feel that I can’t say".[47] Swift has said she is "very interested in any writing from a child's perspective" and has cited To Kill a Mockingbird as one of her favorite books.[257] Neil Young has described Swift as "a great writer" and follows her career.[258][259] Kris Kristofferson has said that "she blows me away. It's amazing to me that someone so young is writing such great songs. She's got a great career ahead of her".[260][261] Dolly Parton has said her songs are "great" and that she has "the qualities that could last a long time".[262] Stevie Nicks has said Swift writes "songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John".[166]
Vocal abilities[link]
In studio recordings, the Los Angeles Times identifies Swift's "defining" vocal gesture as "the line that slides down like a contented sigh or up like a raised eyebrow, giving her beloved girl-time hits their air of easy intimacy".[182] In a review of Speak Now, The Village Voice noted that her phrasing was previously "bland and muddled, but that's changed. She can still sound strained and thin, and often strays into a pitch that drives some people crazy; but she's learned how to make words sound like what they mean".[185] Slate, reviewing Speak Now, described Swift as "a technically poor singer": "Though she does vary her phrasing in ways that attempt to mask her limited voice (the way she sneers, "She looks at me like I'm a trend/And she's so over it," on "Better Than Revenge" is especially effective), Swift is still noticeably off-pitch at least once on every song on the album".[263]
In an interview with The New Yorker, Swift characterized herself primarily as a songwriter: “I write songs, and my voice is just a way to get those lyrics across”.[1] "I'm not trying to go out there and do vocal acrobatics. I'm just trying to write good songs".[264] However, her vocal presence is something that concerns her and she has "put a lot of work" into improving it.[265] She has said that she only feels nervous performing "if I'm not sure what the audience thinks of me, like at award shows".[266]
Public image[link]
Swift has been described as "America's sweetheart" and "a role model".[267][268] The singer considers it her "responsibility" to be conscious of her influence on young fans.[269] However, she insists that "I don't live by all these rigid, weird rules that make me feel all fenced in. I just like the way that I feel like, and that makes me feel very free".[270] Swift does not drink alcohol because she worries that "I might come off in a way that I can't control. Maybe I should just lighten up!" "It's not like I judge people who [drink] or that I don't hang out with people who drink".[270] She refuses to take part in overly sexualised photo-shoots.[9] The lyrical content of her songs is regarded as appropriate for young audiences. A New Yorker journalist who attended a Swift concert recounted watching "sixteen-year-old girls holding hands and swaying, and a girl in a hijab sobbing as she sang the words. It was hard not to be a little moved, and not to feel relieved that the words being sung were, more or less, safe ... One can attend a concert by Katy Perry and listen to a stadium full of thirteen-year-olds chant along with the song “Peacock” which goes, “I want to see your peacock-cock-cock! Your peacock-cock!"[1]
A Rolling Stone journalist who profiled Swift in 2009 remarked upon her polite manners: "If this is Swift's game face, it must be tattooed on because it never drops".[271] A 2012 Vogue cover story described Swift as "clever and funny and occasionally downright bawdy" in person, but noted that she "asks if her cursing can be off the record".[272] Grantland.com describes Swift as "talkative and openly neurotic in a way you'd never see from a blonde country princess like Faith Hill or Carrie Underwood. She is more like Diane Keaton in Annie Hall: overly gracious and eager to please but full of a nonstop, nervous, fluttering energy".[273]
There has been much media commentary about Swift's reactions when she is recognized at award ceremonies.[274] In 2011, The Hollywood Reporter remarked that she "seems to be consistently shocked and wonderstruck by each awards win, despite racking up an ever-growing collection of Grammys, CMAs, MTV Moonmen and AMAs".[275] Kristen Wiig parodied Swift's surprised facial expressions during a Saturday Night Live sketch in February 2012.[276] Swift later said she had seen the sketch: “I was laughing the entire time and then I realized that, as I was watching it, I was making the face she was making”.[277] At the Academy of Country Music Awards in April 2012, the ceremony's host Blake Shelton joked in his opening monologue that Swift should release a perfume called "I can't believe I smell this good". When Swift later presented Shelton with the Academy's Best Male Vocalist award, "the two faced off, showing each other their ultra-surprised looks".[278][279]
Feminist discussion[link]
The merits of Swift as a feminist have been widely discussed.[280] She has been described by Jezebel as "a feminist's nightmare": "Her image of being good and pure plays right into how much the patriarchy fetishizes virginity, loves purity, and celebrates women who know their place as delicate flowers".[281] However, a Village Voice music critic dismissed this criticism as "shallow and gross, in that special way that things get gross when you cram shaded and living work through an ideological sieve like you're mechanically separating chicken".[282] He continued: "Criticisms include: She's a conformist stooge of the patriarchy (she's now had two hits about defying fathers); she idolizes chastity (she's coy about sex, but only the willful could miss the fucking in the new "Sparks Fly," which includes the line "Gimme something that'll haunt me when you're not around"); and she sells girls corrupt and shallow fairy-tale notions of romance (one of the two fairy-tale songs on Fearless mocked a guy for trying to white-knight her, and the only mention of such things on Speak Now is "I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you"—note the tense)."[282]
The song Fifteen has been the subject of particular scrutiny. It has been said that the song contains a "feminist message" in the lyrics "Back then I swore I was gonna marry him some day, but I realized some bigger dreams of mine” and "In your life you'll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team".[283] Feminist critics claim the use of the word "everything" in the lyric "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy, who changed his mind, and we both cried" is a reference to virginity: "Songs like "Fifteen" dig up the ancient Puritan ideal that girls can only access power by confidently and heterosexually denying access to their pants."[284] However, others interpret "everything" as trust: "Abigail trusted and opened up to a boy for the first time, only to be let down. Maybe that includes sex, maybe it doesn’t."[283]
When asked by The New York Times in 2010 whether she considered herself a feminist, Swift replied, "I have never really thought about that".[285] In December 2011, Billboard's Tom Roland asked Swift whether the marginalization of women in country music, prevalent in the 1950s, was still an issue: "I was fortunate enough to come about in a time when I didn't feel that kind of energy at all, and it was always my theory that if you want to play in the same ballgame as the boys, you've got to work as hard as them. I was always playing just as many shows as they were and playing on the same shows as they were. I was willing to pay my dues as an opening act, playing in clubs and bars and playing in tiny venues. The new male artists were doing the same thing, so I never saw an issue there."[286]
Philanthropy[link]
Arts education[link]
In September 2010, Swift donated $75,000 to Nashville's Hendersonville High School to help refurbish the school auditorium's sound and lighting systems.[287] In May 2012, she pledged $4 million to fund a new education center at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. The two-storey, 7,500-square foot space will have its own exterior entrance and museum officials have decided to name it The Taylor Swift Education Center.[288] It will feature three classrooms and a children's exhibit gallery, and will house interactive activities such as a musical petting zoo and a “wet” classroom space to make concert posters and other art projects. New programs and workshops for teenagers and senior citizens will also be accommodated within the space. The Center is scheduled to open in early 2014 and Swift will be involved in an advisory capacity.[289]
Children's literacy[link]
In December 2009, Swift donated $250,000 to various schools around the country that she had either attended or had other associations with. The money was used to buy books, fund educational programs and pay teachers' salaries.[290] In October 2010, she took part in a live webcast, Read Now! with Taylor Swift, broadcast exclusively in US schools to celebrate Scholastic's Read Every Day campaign.[291][292] In October 2011, Swift donated 6,000 Scholastic books to Reading Public Library, Pennsylvania[293] and, in February 2012, she donated 14,000 books to Nashville Public Library, Tennessee.[294] Most of the books were placed in circulation; the rest were gifted to children from low-income families, preschools and daycare centers.[294] In March 2012, she co-chaired the National Education Association's Read Across America campaign and recorded a PSA encouraging children to read.[295][296]
Natural disaster funds[link]
In June 2008, Swift donated all the proceeds from her merchandise sales at the 2008 Country Music Festival to the Red Cross's disaster relief fund.[297] Swift donated $100,000 to the Red Cross in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to help the victims of the Iowa flood of 2008.[298] Swift lent her support to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal by joining the lineup at Sydney's Sound Relief concert,[299] reportedly making the biggest contribution of any artist playing at Sound Relief to the Australian Red Cross.[300]
In response to the May 2010 Tennessee floods, Swift donated $500,000 during a flood relief telethon hosted by WSMV, a Nashville television station.[301] In August 2010, she donated $100,000 to help rebuild a playground in Hendersonville, Tennessee, which was damaged by floodwater.[302] In May 2011, Swift transformed what was to have been the final dress rehearsal for the North American leg of her Speak Now tour into a benefit concert for victims of recent tornadoes in the United States southeast region, raising more than $750,000 from proceeds from ticket sales, merchandise and other facets of the show.[303] The benefit concert for tornado relief was subsequently honored at the 2011 Do Something Awards.[304] In July 2011, Swift further aided the cause by donating $250,000 to Alabama football coach Nick Saban's charity Nick's Kids to aid in the tornado relief efforts of West Alabama.[305] In April 2012, Swift donated $1,500 to a fund to help a man left permanently paralyzed by the tornado to make his house wheelchair-accessible.[306]
Other charitable endeavors[link]
In September 2007, Swift helped launch a campaign to protect children from online predators, in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police.[307] In January 2008, Swift donated a pink Chevy pick-up truck given to her by her record label to the Victory Junction Gang Camp.[308] Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters to make listeners aware of listening "responsibly".[309] Swift supports @15, a teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens opportunities to direct the company's philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund.[310] She appeared in a Got Milk campaign in July 2010.[311]
Swift donated her prom dress, which raised $1,200 for charity, to DonateMyDress.org.[312] In November 2009, after a live performance on BBC's Children in Need night, she donated $20,000 to the cause.[313] Swift donated a pair of her shoes to the Wish Upon a Hero Foundation's Hero in Heels fundraiser for auction to raise money to benefit women with cancer. In June 2011, as the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year, Swift donated $25,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Tennessee. This figure was matched by the Academy.[314]
Other work[link]
Acting[link]
Swift made her acting debut in a 2009 episode of CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a rebellious teenager.[315] The New York Times noted that the character allowed Swift to be "a little bit naughty, and credibly so".[316] Rolling Stone felt she "held her own" and "does a good job with the script"[317] while the Chicago Tribune said she "acquits herself well".[318] Later that year, Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest for an episode of Saturday Night Live.[319] Entertainment Weekly described her as "this season’s best Saturday Night Live host so far", noting that she "was always up for the challenge, seemed to be having fun, and helped the rest of the cast nail the punchlines". Proving "admirably resilient in a wide variety of sketch roles", "Swift inspired more of a female, girly-in-the-best-sense sensibility in SNL than it’s shown since the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler days".[320]
In 2010, Swift made her feature film acting debut in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day and won the Teen Choice Award for Movie Female Breakout.[321] In 2012, she voiced the character of Audrey in the animated film The Lorax.[322] Swift is in talks to star as Joni Mitchell in the film adaptation of Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us, which follows the careers of Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King.[323]
Product endorsements[link]
Jakks Pacific released a celebrity doll of Swift in late 2008.[324] Swift was the face of L.E.I. jeans in 2008.[325] In 2007, Swift launched a line of sundresses at Wal-Mart.[326][327] In 2009, Swift became the National Hockey League's newest celebrity spokesperson and appears in commercials for the Nashville Predators.[328] In 2011, Swift partnered with Elizabeth Arden to launch a fragrance, "Wonderstruck".[329] Swift works with American Greetings, Inc.[330] She also has endorsement deals with companies including Target, CoverGirl and Sony.[331]
In May 2009, Swift filed a lawsuit (kept sealed until August 2010) against numerous sellers of unauthorized counterfeit merchandise bearing her name, likeness, and trademarks, where she demanded a trial by jury, sought a judgement for compensatory damages, punitive damages, three times the actual damages sustained, and statutory damages, and sought for recovery of her attorney's fees and prejudgement interest.[332] Nashville's U.S. District Court granted an injunction and judgment against the sellers, who had been identified at Swift's concerts in several states. The court ordered merchandise seized from the defendants to be destroyed.[333][334][335]
Personal life[link]
Swift's main residence is a duplex penthouse in Midtown Nashville, Tennessee.[336][1] She also owns a house in Beverly Hills, California.[337][338] According to Forbes, Swift earned $18 million in 2009,[339] $45 million in 2010,[340] $45 million in 2011[341] and $57 million so far in 2012.[342]
Relationships[link]
Swift writes autobiographical songs and has said that, "I've never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record".[343] Listening to music as a child, Swift felt confused "when I knew something was going on in someone’s personal life and they didn’t address it in their music".[344]
Swift dated singer Joe Jonas from July to October 2008.[345][346] She dated actor Taylor Lautner from October to December 2009.[347][348] She was romantically linked to musician John Mayer from late 2009 until June 2010.[349][350] They first met in 2008 and recorded a duet, "Half of My Heart", in late 2009.[351][352] Swift dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal from October 2010 to December 2010.[353][354][355][356][357] On December 9, 2011, Gyllenhaal called the LAPD for assistance, after a large number of photographers followed the couple's car in Los Angeles.[358] Following their break-up, they were seen together in January and February 2011.[359][360]
Politics[link]
On her eighteenth birthday, "the first thing" Swift did was register to vote.[361][362] After casting her vote in the 2008 US presidential election, Swift declined to inform journalists which candidate she had supported.[363] However, following Barack Obama's inauguration, she told Rolling Stone: "I've never seen this country so happy about a political decision in my entire time of being alive. I'm so glad this was my first election."[364] In 2009, after Swift's MTV VMA acceptance speech was interrupted by Kanye West, President Obama described West's behaviour as "really inappropriate. The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She’s getting her award. What is he doing up there? He’s a jackass."[365] Former US President Jimmy Carter said West's interruption was "completely uncalled for".[366]
In 2010, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush attended the taping of a Swift television special in Kennebunkport, Maine,[367] and later described Swift as "unspoiled" and "very nice".[368] In 2012, Swift was presented with a Kids' Choice Award in recognition of her charitable work by Michelle Obama, who praised her as someone who "has rocketed to the top of the music industry but still keeps her feet on the ground, someone who has shattered every expectation of what a 22-year old can accomplish".[369] Swift later described the First Lady as "a role model".[370]
Swift is an admirer of the Kennedy family and has spent time with Rory, Caroline and, particularly, Ethel Kennedy.[371] When asked about her friendship with Swift, Ethel replied, "Oh, she is amazing! Such good company."[372] Rory has said, "There is a mutual admiration society between my mother and Taylor Swift and I just love it! I think it says so much about Taylor – she has that ability to connect and cross generations ... She's terrific and such a great role model for young girls, as well as for all women, really. ... She's just so curious and interested".[372] In January 2012, Swift travelled to Utah to attend the Sundance premiere of the HBO documentary Ethel.[373]
In a 2012 interview, Swift remarked that she was "very cautious" about using her public profile to address political issues, adding that she hoped to "gradually" become more outspoken: "I don't feel that I am in a place to sing about politics or anything like that. I don't know enough at this point".[374]
Filmography[link]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience | Herself | Cameo |
| 2009 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Haley Jones | Episode: "Turn, Turn, Turn" |
| 2009 | Hannah Montana: The Movie | Herself | Cameo |
| 2009 | Saturday Night Live | Host | Also appeared as the Musical Guest |
| 2010 | Valentine's Day | Felicia | Movie acting debut |
| 2012 | Lorax, TheThe Lorax | Audrey | Voice only |
Discography[link]
Main article: Taylor Swift discography
- Taylor Swift (2006)
- Fearless (2008)
- Speak Now (2010)
- Untitled Fourth Studio Album (Fall 2012)
Tours[link]
- Fearless Tour (2009–10)
- Speak Now World Tour (2011–12)
Awards and nominations[link]
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Taylor Swift
Swift has won 109 awards from a total of 162 nominations. She has been the recipient of ten American Music Awards, six Grammy Awards, seven Country Music Association Awards, six Academy of Country Music Awards and 13 BMI Awards.
References[link]
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- ^ Hughes, Donna (August 27, 2010). "Taylor Swift Gives $100,000 to Help Hometown Kids". Theboot.com. http://www.theboot.com/2010/08/27/taylor-swift-hendersonville-playground-donation/. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ Lewis, Randy (May 23, 2011). "Taylor Swift benefit concert raises more than $750,000 for tornado victims". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/05/taylor-swift-benefit-tornado-nashville.html. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
- ^ "Taylor Swift's Rehearsal Concert Wins Award". CMT. August 19, 2011. http://www.cmt.com/news/news-in-brief/1669376/taylor-swifts-rehearsal-concert-wins-award.jhtml. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
- ^ Gould, Izzy; Bureau, Tuscaloosa (July 21, 2011). "Taylor Swift donates $250,000 to Nick's Kids for Alabama tornado relief". Alabama Local News (Alabama). http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/07/taylor_swift_alabama_tornado_donation.html. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
- ^ Weaver, Teresa. "The silver lining". Habitat.org. http://www.habitat.org/stories_multimedia/need_for_decent_housing/Other_affils_Silver.aspx?print=true. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Warns Kids About Internet Crime". Starpulse.com. 2007-09-21. http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/09/21/taylor_swift_warns_kids_about_internet_c. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
- ^ Saunders (January 10, 2008). "Musicians Start The Year With Generosity". Looktothestars.org. http://www.looktothestars.org/news/500-musicians-start-the-year-with-generosity. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ "Sound Matters: Celebrity Profile-Taylor Swift". http://www.soundmatters.org/taylorswift.php. Retrieved 2009-02-08.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Lends Support to @15". Business Wire (Minneapolis: Bloomberg.com). February 9, 2009. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=BBY:US&sid=aRLs7Adz0oc0. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
- ^ "Join Taylor Swift As A Got Milk Model". Looktothestars.org. July 2, 2010. http://www.looktothestars.org/news/4685-join-taylor-swift-as-a-got-milk-model. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Donates Prom Dress". Look to the Stars. April 14, 2009. http://www.looktothestars.org/news/2353-taylor-swift-donates-prom-dress. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
- ^ Charlotte Spratt (November 20, 2009). "Children In Need: Taylor Swift donates £13,000, JLS perform and fans get Doctor Who sneak peek". Daily Mail (UK). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1229635/Children-In-Need-Taylor-Swift-donates-13-000-JLS-perform-fans-Doctor-Who-sneak-peek.html. Retrieved 2009-12-30.
- ^ Tennessean Music Team (June 13, 2011). "Taylor Swift and ACM Lifting Lives present $50,000 donation to St. Jude". Tennessean.com. http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2011/06/13/taylor-swift-and-acm-lifting-lives-present-50000-to-st-jude/. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ Joal Ryan (March 6, 2009). "Wild Card American Idol Holds Off Taylor Swift CSI". E! Online. http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b103119_wild_card_american_idol_holds_off.html.
- ^ Caramanica, Jon (2009-03-06). "OMG! Taylor Swift Does 'CSI'! - NYTimes.com". Artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/omg-taylor-swift-does-csi/. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ^ By Daniel Kreps (2009-03-06). "Taylor Swift Hits the Small Screen as Murdered Teen on CSI | Music News". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/taylor-swift-hits-the-small-screen-as-murdered-teen-on-csi-20090306. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ^ "Taylor Swift appears in an engrossing 'CSI' investigation – The Watcher". Featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com. 2009-03-04. http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/03/csi-taylor-swift.html. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
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- ^ Barrett, Annie (2009-11-08). "Taylor Swift hosted the best 'Saturday Night Live' of the season so far... really!?! | Ken Tucker's TV | EW.com". Watching-tv.ew.com. http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/11/08/taylor-swift-saturday-night-live/. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ^ "Winners of ‘Teen Choice 2010‘ Awards Announced; Teens Cast More Than 85 Million Votes". http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/08/08/winners-of-teen-choice-2010-awards-announced-teens-cast-more-than-85-million-votes/59453?utm_campaign=WP-TWITTER&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter.
- ^ Labrecque, Jeff (March 17, 2011). "Taylor Swift joins Universal's 'The Lorax'". Entertainment Weekly (Time Inc). http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/03/17/taylor-swift-lorax/. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
- ^ Sneider, Jeff (2012-04-20). "Taylor Swift in tune with Joni Mitchell role – Entertainment News, EXCLUSIVE, Media". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118052905. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ^ Serpe, Gina (October 29, 2008). "Taylor Swift Gets All Dolled Up". E! Online. http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b66141_taylor_swift_gets_all_dolled_up.html. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
- ^ "L.e.i". Leijeans.com. http://www.leijeans.com/. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
- ^ "Taylor Swift heads to CBS Early Show Saturday, announces deal with clothing line". Countrystandardtime.com. October 23, 2007. http://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=1708. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
- ^ "Taylor Swift’s New Gig: Designer!". Celebtv.com. January 30, 2009. http://www.celebtv.com/taylor-swifts-gig-designer. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
- ^ RSS feed (February 3, 2009). "Taylor Swift: NHL's New Spokesperson". NHL FanHouse. http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2009/02/03/taylor-swift-is-the-newest-nhl-celebrity-spokesperson/. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
- ^ "Taylor Launches Wonderstruck". TaylorSwift.com. http://www.taylorswift.com/news/o1287965052241?month=july&year=2011#57124. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
- ^ "Taylor Swift: Cards & Ecards Featuring Taylor Swift's Music". American Greetings. http://www.americangreetings.com/taylorswift. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
- ^ Jackson, Gunner (January 30, 2012). "Taylor Swift Listed on Billboard Power 100 List As One of The Most Powerful". 929thebull.com. http://929thebull.com/taylor-swift-listed-on-billboard-power-100-list-as-one-of-the-most-powerful/. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
- ^ "For the middle district of Tennessee in Nashville". Business.nashvillepost.com. May 18, 2009. http://business.nashvillepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Swift_v_Matthews-USDC-18May2009-cplt.pdf. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ Wood, E. Thomas (October 6, 2010). "Secret Taylor Swift lawsuit made public". NashvillePost.com. http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2010/10/6/secret_taylor_swift_lawsuit_made_public. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
- ^ Wood, E. Thomas (October 27, 2010). "Case closed for Taylor Swift". NashvillePost.com. http://business.nashvillepost.com/2010/10/27/case-closed-for-taylor-swift. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
- ^ "nashvillepost.com". Business.nashvillepost.com. July 8, 2011. http://business.nashvillepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Swift_v_Matthews-USDC-27Sep2010-def_jdgmt.pdf. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
- ^ "A glimpse inside Taylor Swift’s swanky new Nashville penthouse". Shine.yahoo.com. 2010-02-05. http://shine.yahoo.com/haven/a-glimpse-inside-taylor-swifta-s-swanky-new-nashville-penthouse-581156.html. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Buys Beverly Hills Home (PHOTOS) | REALTOR.com® Blogs". Realtor.com. http://www.realtor.com/blogs/2011/04/25/taylor-swift-buys-beverly-hills-home-photos/. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
- ^ Beale, Lauren (May 27, 2011). "Taylor Swift buys a Beverly Hills-area estate". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/27/home/la-hm-hotprop-taylor-swift-20110527.
- ^ "#69 Taylor Swift – The 2009 Celebrity 100". Forbes.com. June 3, 2009. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/53/celebrity-09_Taylor-Swift_2OIN.html. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- ^ "The World's Most Powerful Celebrities". Forbes. June 28, 2010. http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/22/lady-gaga-oprah-winfrey-business-entertainment-celeb-100-10_land.html.
- ^ "Celebrity 100 2011". Forbes. May 16, 2011. http://www.forbes.com/wealth/celebrities/list.html. [dead link]
- ^ "Taylor Swift". Forbes. 2012-04-18. http://www.forbes.com/profile/taylor-swift/. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
- ^ Farley, Christopher John (October 22, 2010). "Taylor Swift's Solo Act". The Wall Street Journal (Nashville, Tenn). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562401576663866.html. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
- ^ Caramanica, Jon (November 7, 2008). "My Music, MySpace, My Life". The New York Times (Chattanooga, Tennessee). http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/arts/music/09cara.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
- ^ Caplan, David (September 8, 2008). "Scoop". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20230694,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ Rizzo, Monica (November 24, 2008). "Scoop – Couples, Camilla Belle, Joe Jonas". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20245498,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ "Taylor & Taylor Romance Was Overblown, Says Source". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20333466,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ "Exclusive: Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner Split!". US Magazine. http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/news/taylor-swift-taylor-lautner-split-20092912. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Sings Along with Keith Urban and John Mayer – in the Audience!". People. January 27, 2010. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20339714,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ Anderson, Danielle (September 8, 2010). "Round Up". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20408604,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ "Taylor Swift on Her 'Stalker' Moment with John Mayer". People. May 8, 2008. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20198607,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ Vena, Jocelyn (November 6, 2009). "John Mayer Talks Taylor Swift Collaboration 'Half Of My Heart'". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1625724/john-mayer-talks-taylor-swift-collaboration-half-my-heart.jhtml. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ Hammel, Sara (October 25, 2010). "Taylor Swift & Jake Gyllenhaal Share a 'Friendly' Brunch in Brooklyn". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20436748,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ "Taylor Swift, Jake Gyllenhaal Go Apple Picking". UsMagazine.com. October 26, 2010. http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/taylor-swift-jake-gyllenhaal-go-apple-picking-20102610. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
- ^ "Scoop – Jake Gyllenhaal, Taylor Swift". People. November 15, 2010. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20441738,00.html. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
- ^ Bartolomeo, Joey (November 27, 2010). "Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal Dating". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20445496,00.html. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
- ^ Hammel, Sara (January 4, 2011). "Taylor Swift & Jake Gyllenhaal Break Up: Source". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20454920,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ "Gwyneth Paltrow Hosted Jake Gyllenhaal And Taylor Swift For Dinner: Report". Huffingtonpost.com. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/10/gwyneth-paltrow-hosted-jake-gyllenhaal-taylor-swift-dinner_n_795226.html. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ^ West, Kay (January 20, 2011). "Taylor Swift & Jake Gyllenhaal: Back Together Again?". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20459183,00.html. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ Hammel, Sara (February 28, 2011). "Taylor Swift, Jake Gyllenhaal's Oscar Run-In". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20469689,00.html. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
- ^ Orloff, Brian (October 14, 2005). "Taylor Swift Ready to Vote for the Very First Time – Taylor Swift". People.com. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20232932,00.html. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Casts a Vote & Gives to Charity". Great American Country. June 2, 2008. http://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_headlines/article/0,,GAC_26063_5877810,00.html. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ Finan, Eileen (2008-10-31). "Taylor Swift Votes for First Time 'With My Gut' – 2008 Presidential Elections, Taylor Swift". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20237141,00.html. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ Grigoriadis, Vanessa (March 5, 2009). "The Very Pink, Very Perfect Life of Taylor Swift | Music News". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-very-pink-very-perfect-life-of-taylor-swift-20090305. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
- ^ Ravitz, Justin (2012-04-12). "President Obama Calls Kanye West a "Jackass" Again". UsMagazine.com. http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/president-obama-calls-kanye-west-a-jackass-again-2012124. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ "Jimmy Carter weighs in on Kanye West's VMA stunt". Atlanta, Georgia: CNN. September 17, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/17/carter.kanye.west/index.html. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
- ^ A.J. Jacobs (August 28, 2010). "Taylor Swift premieres new song Mine and has an unlikely fan... former U.S. President George H.W. Bush | Mail Online". Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1306922/Taylor-Swift-premieres-new-song-Mine-unlikely-fan--U-S-President-George-H-W-Bush.html. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
- ^ "George H.W. Bush Jimmy Carter Quotes – George Bush on Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush". Esquire. 2010-12-15. http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/meaning-of-life-2011/george-hw-bush-quotes-0111-2. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ Moss, Hilary. "Michelle Obama Honors Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift ‘So Honored’ – The Cut". New York Magazine. http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2012/04/michelle-obama-honors-taylor-swift.html. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ Pacella, Megan (April 15, 2012). "Taylor Swift Reflects on Meeting First Lady Michelle Obama". Taste of Country. http://tasteofcountry.com/taylor-swift-michelle-obama/. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ Van Meter, Jonathan (January 14, 2012). "Taylor Swift: The Single Life – Magazine". Vogue. p. 6. http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/taylor-swift-the-single-life/#6. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
- ^ a b CELEBScom (January 31, 2012). "Ethel & Rory Kennedy talk Taylor Swift and "Ethel" at the Celebs.com Studio at Sundance". YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dmmm5vkS18. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Wrote a Song About the Kennedys – ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. January 23, 2012. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/01/taylor-swift-wrote-a-song-about-the-kennedys/. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
- ^ Harper's Bazaar Australia, April 2012
External links[link]
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Taylor Swift |
- Wikipedia books: Taylor Swift
- Official website
- Taylor Swift on Twitter
- Taylor Swift at the Internet Movie Database
- Taylor Swift on Facebook
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Carrie Underwood |
Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance 2010 |
Succeeded by Miranda Lambert |
| Preceded by N/A |
Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance 2012 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
| Preceded by Miranda Lambert |
Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Female Vocalist 2008 |
Succeeded by Julianne Hough |
| Preceded by Carrie Underwood |
Academy of Country Music Award for Entertainer of the Year 2011–2012 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
| Preceded by Carrie Underwood |
Country Music Association Award for Horizon Award 2007 |
Succeeded by N/A |
| Preceded by Carrie Underwood |
Country Music Association Award for Female Vocalist of the Year 2009 |
Succeeded by Miranda Lambert |
| Preceded by Kenny Chesney |
Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the Year 2009 |
Succeeded by Brad Paisley |
| Preceded by Brad Paisley |
Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the Year 2011 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
| Preceded by Rihanna |
American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist 2009 |
Succeeded by Lady GaGa |
| Preceded by Carrie Underwood |
American Music Award for Favorite Country Female Artist 2008–2011 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
| Preceded by Chris Brown |
American Music Award for Artist of the Year 2009 |
Succeeded by Justin Bieber |
| Preceded by Justin Bieber |
American Music Award for Artist of the Year 2011 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Swift, Taylor |
| Alternative names | Swift, Taylor Alison |
| Short description | Singer and songwriter |
| Date of birth | December 13, 1989 |
| Place of birth | Reading, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Taylor_Swift
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http://es.wn.com/Taylor Swift
http://ru.wn.com/Свифт, Тейлор
http://nl.wn.com/Taylor Swift
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http://pt.wn.com/Taylor Swift
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift
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.
| Steven Van Zandt | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Steven Lento |
| Also known as | Little Steven and Miami Steve |
| Born | (1950-11-22) November 22, 1950 (age 61) |
| Origin | Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Genres | Rock, heartland rock |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician, producer, actor, disc jockey |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano, mandolin |
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Labels | Columbia, Epic, BMG |
| Associated acts | Bruce Springsteen, E Street Band, Steel Mill, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, The Miami Horns, Bon Jovi, Artists United Against Apartheid |
| Website | www.undergroundgarage.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Fender Stratocaster Vox Mark III Rickenbacker 660/12 Guild X-79 |
|
Steven Van Zandt (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin, and as an actor in the television drama The Sopranos (1999–2007), in which he played the character Silvio Dante. Van Zandt also had his own solo band called "Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul" in the 1980s.
Contents |
Early years[link]
Van Zandt[1] was born as Steven Lento in Winthrop, Massachusetts, of Italian descent. His mother, Mary Lento, remarried when he was young and Steven took the last name of his stepfather, William Van Zandt. The family moved from Massachusetts to Middletown Township, New Jersey when he was seven.[2]
Actor/playwright/producer Billy Van Zandt is Steven's half brother.[3]
Career[link]
Band member[link]
Van Zandt grew up in the Jersey Shore music scene, and was an early friend and pre-E Street bandmate of Springsteen. In the early seventies, he was a journeyman guitarist (working as a sideman for The Dovells) as well as a founding member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and several of Bruce Springsteen's early bands.
In 1975, during the recording sessions for Born to Run, Springsteen - at a loss (according to author Dave Marsh in the Springsteen biography Born To Run) for ideas on how to arrange the horn part for "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" - called on Van Zandt and his encyclopedic knowledge of soul music for help with the arrangement. In the Wings for Wheels Documentary, Springsteen revealed that Van Zandt was partially responsible for the signature guitar line in Born to Run; "Arguably Steve's greatest contribution to my music." Van Zandt then joined the E Street Band in the midst of their Born to Run tours.
In those early years, Van Zandt supplied a great deal of the lead guitar work for the band in concert, as can be seen on the 1975 concert DVD within Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition (later released as the CD Hammersmith Odeon London '75).
Van Zandt cites the Dave Clark Five as an early influence. Along with Paul Shaffer of the David Letterman Show he organized a benefit for Mike Smith (the Dave Clark Five's lead singer), who had suffered a paralyzing fall at his home in Spain.
Songwriter, arranger, producer[link]
Van Zandt subsequently became a songwriter and producer for fellow Jersey shore act Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes in the mid- to late-1970s, penning their signature song "I Don't Wanna Go Home", co-writing other songs for them with Springsteen, and producing their most-acclaimed record, Hearts of Stone. As such, Van Zandt became a key contributor to the Jersey Shore sound. Van Zandt then went on to share production credits on the classic Springsteen albums Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, and Born in the U.S.A.. In 1989, Jackson Browne covered the 1983 Van Zandt composition "I Am A Patriot" for Browne's World in Motion album. The song has also been covered by other artists including Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.
Van Zandt has produced a number of other records, including an uncredited effort on the Iron City Houserockers' Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive). Less successful was his work on Lone Justice's second album Shelter, which was a career-ending flop for the Los Angeles cowpunk band.
In 1993, Van Zandt wrote and produced "All Alone on Christmas" for the soundtrack of the Chris Columbus film Home Alone, which yielded singer Darlene Love her first hit since "A Fine, Fine Boy" from 1963, thirty-one years earlier.
In 1994, Van Zandt produced the eponymous debut album of the punk rock band Demolition 23 which featured ex-Hanoi Rocks members Michael Monroe and Sami Yaffa. Van Zandt also co-wrote six songs for the album with Monroe and Jude Wilder.
In 1995, Van Zandt aided Meat Loaf with the song "Amnesty Is Granted" off of his "Welcome to the Neighborhood" album.
In 2004, he contributed the song "Baby Please Don't Go" to Nancy Sinatra's self-titled album.
Solo artist[link]
Van Zandt officially left the E Street Band in 1984 (Springsteen's song "Bobby Jean" is said to be inspired by the split, and Bruce asked him to perform his mandolin solo in the "Glory Days" video anyway) and has been involved in numerous solo musical projects and collaborations since then, ranging from soul music to hard rock to world music. In particular, he released four albums in the 1980s and one in 1999, sometimes fronting an on-and-off group known as Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. Van Zandt has written that these albums are each elements in a five-part concept cycle. The first of them, 1982's Men Without Women, earned the most critical praise (Jay Cocks of TIME magazine dubbed it one of the ten best albums of the year), while its follow-up, 1984's Voice of America, did the best on the U.S. albums chart, although none of them were much of a commercial success. With Voice of America, his music became explicitly political, with the central theme being opposition to Ronald Reagan-era American foreign policy.
Continuing his involvement in issues of the day, in 1985 he created the music-industry activist group Artists United Against Apartheid as an action against the Sun City resort in South Africa. Forty-nine top recording artists, including Springsteen, U2, Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, and Run DMC, collaborated on a song called "Sun City" in which they pledged they would never perform at the resort. The effort was modestly successful. In 1987, he released the album Freedom - No Compromise, which continued the political messaging in an even more strident fashion. Some U.S. appearances in that year as opening act for U2's arena-and-stadium Joshua Tree Tour continued in the same vein – Oliver North was labeled a "criminal motherfucker" – but were not well-received by audiences, who found the sound overbearing and the performances lacking musicality. Both the record and his concerts were more popular in Europe, however. Little Steven's fourth album, 1989's Revolution, attracted little attention. His next album, entitled Born Again Savage was released in 1999. Since then, Van Zandt has recorded another album, Nobody Loves and Leaves Alive with his garage band the Lost Boys. Although the album remains unreleased, three tracks from it were contributed to the Sopranos television show including; 'Nobody Love and Leaves Alive', 'Affection', and 'Come for Me'.
Band member again[link]
Van Zandt returned to the E Street Band when it was reformed (briefly in 1995, and on an ongoing basis since 1999) and remains with it. By now, his guitar playing had mostly been reduced to a background rhythm role, due to Nils Lofgren's position in the band and his capability as a lead guitarist. In addition, Springsteen had begun taking many more of the solos during Van Zandt's absence. Notwithstanding this, among E Street Band members he often had the second-most amount of "face time" in concert after Clarence Clemons, frequently mugging and posing for the audience and sometimes delivering his unpolished, nasal backing vocals while sharing a microphone with Springsteen. His playing or singing is most prominently featured on the songs "Glory Days", "Two Hearts", "Long Walk Home" (when featured a Van Zandt outro vocal solo) "Land of Hope and Dreams", "Badlands", "Ramrod", and "Murder Incorporated", among others like the live versions of "Rosalita". He often trades vocals with Springsteen in live versions of "Prove it All Night". He features prominently in the video for "Glory Days", sharing the spotlight with Springsteen during the choruses, while swapping lines with him during the (non)fade, and in live versions he does the same. During the E Street Band's performance at the Super Bowl in 2009, Van Zandt was the most prominently featured member of the band, playing a guitar solo on the final number of the set, "Glory Days" (although the solo could not be heard in the mix), as well as sharing lead vocals and exchanging humorous banter with Springsteen.
Actor[link]
In 1999, Van Zandt took one of the core roles in The Sopranos, playing level-headed but deadly mob consigliere and strip club owner Silvio Dante. Van Zandt had no acting experience, and the unusual casting choice was made by series creator David Chase. As a guest on the Opie and Anthony Show, Van Zandt related the story of his casting on The Sopranos. Van Zandt was picked to induct The Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. The original members of The Rascals had been feuding for a number of years and Van Zandt was concerned that the induction and subsequent band performance would result in a very public fiasco on live television. Wanting to defuse any confrontation, Van Zandt donned a Little Lord Fauntleroy-type costume for the event and delivered a humorous induction instead of the more traditional speech delivered for other inductees. The Rascals had worn this type of outfit when they debuted on the national scene in 1965. Chase saw this performance on VH1's broadcast of the event and thought that Van Zandt was very funny and contacted him a few days later. Then Chase discovered that Van Zandt had no acting experience. Van Zandt was reluctant to audition for Chase but eventually relented.
Van Zandt gained acclaim for his performance as Silvio, but has contended that he has no interest in acting beyond The Sopranos. However, in 2011, he starred in, co-wrote and acted as executive producer on an English and Norwegian language series entitled "Lilyhammer," a Netflix Internet movie site original program. On the show, Van Zandt portrays a Soprano-like role of an ex-mafioso who flees to Norway to escape a colleague he testified against.
He also found time to record the narration to a Hives biography on their concert DVD Tussles in Brussels.
His role on The Sopranos resumed in importance in later seasons, with sixth season plot developments especially giving him prime focus. His real-life wife Maureen Van Zandt is an actress who made occasional appearances on The Sopranos playing Silvio's wife Gabriella Dante.
Van Zandt maintains a certain look, always wearing gypsy clothes and a bandana on stage, while donning a noticeable pompadour toupee on The Sopranos. Both are to cover permanent loss of hair from a car accident in which he hit a windshield with his head.[4][5]
In 2010, Van Zandt appeared as himself in the Norwegian soap opera Hotel Cæsar, broadcast on Norway's biggest commercial channel TV2 Norway.[6] He also appeared on Scandinavia's largest talkshow Skavlan.
Radio host and entrepreneur[link]
Since 2002, Van Zandt has hosted Little Steven's Underground Garage, a weekly syndicated radio show that celebrates garage rock and similar rock sub-genres from the 1950s to the present day. As of December 2006, the show is heard on over 200 US radio stations and in some international markets. For example, in Finland, Radio Helsinki started beaming Underground Garage in August 2008 and in Spain is beamed through Rock & Gol since 2007 and later on Rock Rock Radio.
On October 20, 2011, the program recorded its 500th show in front of a sold out crowd at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York's Times Square. The guests included the band Green Day, Steve Buscemi, star of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire, Vincent Pastore, aka "Big Pussy" from the The Sopranos, actor and director Tim Robbins, and singer Debbie Harry of the group "Blondie."
Steven is also the program director for two radio channels for the Sirius Satellite Radio network. The channels are heard continuously on satellite radio in the USA and worldwide on Sirius Internet Radio. One channel is named Underground Garage, which has the same philosophy and musical mandate as his own radio show. On-air hosts on the channel include original Rolling Stones manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham, singer/guitarist Joan Jett, former record executive Kid Leo, punk rock singer Handsome Dick Manitoba, and rock entrepreneur Kim Fowley. The second of Van Zandt's radio channels presented on Sirius is named the Outlaw Country channel. It presents the edgier side of country music – both roots and contemporary. On-air hosts for this channel include pop-culture satirist Mojo Nixon.
Van Zandt is not to be confused with similarly named radio personality Steve Van Zandt,[7] who was co-host of the "Steve and Jackie in the Morning" show formerly airing on WROW in Albany, New York.[8]
In December 2006, Little Steven launched his own record label, Wicked Cool Records.[9] The first set of records released by Wicked Cool were new albums from Underground Garage favorites the Charms, the Chesterfield Kings and the Cocktail Slippers; and ‘Fuzz For The Holidays,’ by Davie Allan and the Arrows and ‘CBGB Forever,’ a tribute to the famous, now-defunct venue. The label continues to release new albums from the next generation of garage rockers including the Cocktail Slippers as well as volumes of ‘Little Steven's Underground Garage presents The Coolest Songs in the World,’ a compilation of selected songs from the Underground Garage radio show's popular feature, the Coolest Song in the World This Week. In 2007 the label signed The Launderettes.[10] 2008 marked the release of the labels first Halloween and Christmas themed compilations.
Lost Cathedral is a subsidiary label of Wicked Cool Records and home to the band Crown of Thorns.[11]
In 2007, Van Zandt launched his Rock And Roll Forever Foundation. The first incentive of the foundation is Rock And Roll High School, a chronological anthology tracing the history of Rock and Roll from its roots to present day, highlighting the cultural impact and significance of each era of the genre as it relates to the events and changes that took place in the history of the country and of the world. The program, endorsed by MENC: The National Association For Music Education and Scholastic, is being written and hopes to launch in the fall of 2010.[12]
Musical director[link]
In September 2006, Van Zandt assembled and directed an all-star band to back Hank Williams Jr. on a new version of "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" for the season premiere (and formal ESPN debut) of Monday Night Football. The all-star lineup included Little Richard, Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Questlove (The Roots), Charlie Daniels, Bootsy Collins, Chris Burney (Bowling for Soup), and Bernie Worrell. Steve is now the director of a music selection committee for the video game Rock Band; he is in charge of selecting new music for the game.
Personal life[link]
Van Zandt is married to actress Maureen Van Zandt (formerly Maureen Santoro) who portrayed his wife Gabriella Dante in the TV series The Sopranos. They married in New York City on December 31, 1982.[13] Bruce Springsteen was the best man at the ceremony, which was presided over by Reverend Richard Penniman (Little Richard). Singer Percy Sledge sang his classic "When a Man Loves a Woman" at the reception.[14]
Discography[link]
- Little Steven
- Men Without Women (1982) US #118
- Voice of America (1984) US # 55
- Freedom - No Compromise (1987) US #80
- Revolution (1989)
- Born Again Savage (1999)
- Greatest Hits (1999)
- Bruce Springsteen
- Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. (1973) - sound effects
- Born to Run (1975)
- Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
- The River (1980)
- Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
- Live/1975-85 (1986)
- Greatest Hits (1995)
- Blood Brothers (1996)
- Tracks (1998)
- 18 Tracks (1999)
- Live in New York City (2001)
- The Rising (2002)
- The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
- Hammersmith Odeon London '75 (2006)
- Magic (2007)
- Magic Tour Highlights (2008)
- Working on a Dream (2009)
- Wrecking Ball (2012)
- Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
- I Don't Want To Go Home (1976)
- Live At The Bottom Line (1976)
- This Time It's for Real (1977)
- Hearts of Stone (1978)
- Havin' a Party (1979)
- Better Days (1991)
- Jukebox (2007)
- Ronnie Spector & The E Street Band
- "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" / "Baby Please Don't Go" (1977)
- Gary U.S. Bonds
- Dedication (1981)
- On the Line (1982)
- Standing In the Line of Fire (1984)
References[link]
- ^ "The Garage Crusade". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939195/the_garage_crusade. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ^ DeMasters, Karen. "POP MUSIC; Rocking the Foundations Of American Life", The New York Times, November 7, 1999. Accessed June 13, 2011."Mr. Van Zandt, who grew up in Middletown and now lives in Manhattan, was born into a Catholic family but grew up as a Baptist. He says he now accepts a mixture of many religions."
- ^ Billy Van Zandt - Biography
- ^ "Daily Celebrations ~ Steven Van Zandt, A Wonderful Life ~ May 2 ~ Ideas to motivate, educate, and inspire". Dailycelebrations.com. http://www.dailycelebrations.com/050201.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ^ Manzoor, Sarfraz (2005-12-04). "Interview ~ Sunday 4 December 2005 ~ The third act of Steven Van Zandt". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/dec/04/popandrock. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ^ "Her sjekker "Sopranos"-Silvio inn på "Hotel Cæsar" - kjendis - Dagbladet.no". Kjendis.no. http://www.kjendis.no/2010/02/12/kjendis/hotel_cesar/tv2/tv_og_medier/10362623/. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ^ "Corporate Comedian, Stand up comedian, Impressionist, and Voice Talent". Steve Van Zandt. http://www.stevevanzandt.com/. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "Little Steven starts own record label". Usatoday.Com. 2006-12-07. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-12-07-van-zandt-label_x.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ^ "Bands-The Launderettes". http://wickedcoolrecords.com/shop/bands/the-launderettes. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
- ^ Andy Greene (2009-03-03). "Van Zandt on Springsteen Tour, Super Bowl Rumors and How Garage Bands Can Blow Up | Music News". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/03/03/van-zandt-on-springsteen-tour-super-bowl-rumors-and-how-garage-bands-can-blow-up/. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ^ Beth, Mary (2007-11-13). "Van Zandt rolls out plan for rock in schools". Usatoday.Com. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-11-11-van-zandt_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ^ voiture neuve occasion location assurance at ahandicapvan.com
- ^ "It happened this week… → Toxic Web". Toxic-web.co.uk. 2006-12-29. http://www.toxic-web.co.uk/blog/2006/12/29/it-happened-this-week/. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
External links[link]
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| Name | Van Zandt, Steven |
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| Date of birth | November 22, 1950 |
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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.
