Look up twist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Twist may refer to:

• Twist (cocktail garnish), a decorative piece of citrus zest
• Twist (comic), a comic by John Cook
• Twist (screw theory), in applied mathematics and physics
• Twist (magazine), an American teen magazine
• Twist (poker), a special round in some variants of stud poker
• Twist (ride), a popular amusement ride, often seen on travelling funfairs
• Twist (software), a test automation solution by ThoughtWorks Studios
• Twist (sweets), a Norwegian bag of sweets, now produced in Sweden
• Twist ending, an unexpected conclusion or climax to a work of fiction
• Ellipse Twist, a French hang glider
• French twist (hairstyle), a hair styling technique
• Transaction Workflow Innovation Standards Team (TWIST), a non-profit financial industry standards group
• Twist fungus (Dilophospora alopecuri)
• Twist lifts, a type of lift in pairs figure skating
• Twist tobacco, a type of chewing tobacco
• Twist transcription factor
• Twisting properties in statistics
• Operation Twist, an effort (in 1961, and again in 2011) by the U.S. Federal Reserve to lower long-term interest rates

Fictional characters[link]

• Jack Twist, a character from the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain
• Alexander "Chimp" Twist, a minor character from P. G. Wodehouse
• Oliver Twist, the leading character in the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens
• Twist Morgan, a character in the Channel Four series Spaced

Music[link]

• Twist (album), a 1994 album by New Zealand singer-songwriter Dave Dobbyn
• The Twist (album), a 1984 album by Danish indiepop band Gangway
• "The Twist" (song), a 1960s hit single made famous by Chubby Checker
  • Twist (dance), a rock and roll dance named after the song
• "The Twist", a song from the album Grow Up and Blow Away by Metric
• "The Twist", a song from the album Coming Back Hard Again by hip hop band Fat Boys
• "Twist" (song), from the 2000 album Farmhouse by Phish
• "Twist" (Goldfrapp song), a single from the 2003 album Black Cherry by Goldfrapp
• Twist (Chris and Cosey album), an album by Chris & Cosey
• "Twist (KoRn song)", from the 1996 album Life Is Peachy by metal band Korn
• "Twisting", a song from the album Flood by They Might Be Giants
• Twist (band), a rock band from Birmingham, UK

Film and stage[link]

• Twist (film), a 2003 independent film loosely based on Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist
• Twist (stage play), a stage thriller by Miles Tredinnick
• Twist (1995 film), a Hong Kong film

People[link]

• Barry McGee (born 1966), also known as Twist, painter and graffiti artist
• Sean Twist, Canadian author and freelance newspaper columnist
• Tony Twist, Canadian hockey player
• Leroy Twist Casey, a disk jockey

Places[link]

• Twist, Arkansas, a city in the United States
• Twist, Devon, a hamlet in southwest England
• Twist, Germany, a municipality in Lower Saxony

See also[link]

• Twisted (disambiguation)
• Twister (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker in 2005
Background information
Birth name	Ernest Evans
Born	(1941-10-03) October 3, 1941 (age 70) Spring Gulley, South Carolina
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Genres	Rock and roll
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1959–present
Labels	Parkway, MCA
Website	ChubbyChecker.com

Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans, October 3, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He is widely known for popularizing the twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit "The Twist". In September 2008 "The Twist" topped Billboard's list of the most popular singles to have appeared in the Hot 100 since its debut in 1958.^[1]

Early life[link]

Ernest Evans was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina. He was raised in the projects of South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he lived with his parents and two brothers.^[2] By age eight Evans formed a street-corner harmony group, and by the time he entered high school, learned to play the piano. He would entertain his classmates by performing vocal impressions of popular entertainers of the day, such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Fats Domino.^[3] One of his classmates and friends at South Philadelphia High School was Fabiano Forte, who would become a popular performer of the late 1950s and early 1960s as Fabian.^[2]

After school Evans would entertain customers at his various jobs, including Fresh Farm Poultry on Ninth Street and at the Produce Market with songs and jokes. It was his boss at the Produce Market, Tony A., who gave Evans the nickname "Chubby". The store owner of Fresh Farm Poultry, Henry Colt, was so impressed by Ernest's performances for the customers that he, along with his colleague and friend Karl Mann, who worked as a song-writer for Cameo-Parkway Records,^[4] arranged for young Chubby to do a private recording for American Bandstand host Dick Clark. It was at this recording session that Evans got his stage name from Clark's wife, who asked Evans what his name was. "Well", he replied, "my friends call me 'Chubby'". As he had just completed a Fats Domino impression, she smiled and said, "As in Checker?" That little play on words ('chubby' meaning 'fat', and 'checkers', like 'dominoes', being a game) got an instant laugh and stuck, and from then on, Evans would use the name "Chubby Checker".^[5]

Career[link]

Checker privately recorded a novelty single for Clark in which the singer portrayed a school teacher with an unruly classroom of musical performers. The premise allowed Checker to imitate such acts as Fats Domino, The Coasters, Elvis Presley, Cozy Cole, and Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian as The Chipmunks, each singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Clark sent the song out as his Christmas greeting, and it received such good response that Cameo-Parkway signed Checker to a recording contract. Titled "The Class", the single became Checker's first release, charting at #38 in the spring of 1959.

Checker introduced his version of "The Twist" at the age of 18 in July 1960 in Wildwood, New Jersey at the Rainbow Club, "The Twist" went on to become the only single to top the Billboard Hot 100 twice, in two separate chart runs. (Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" had done so on Billboard's earlier chart.)

"The Twist" had previously peaked at #16 on the Billboard rhythm and blues chart, in the 1959 version recorded by its author, Hank Ballard, whose band The Midnighters first performed the dance on stage. Checker's "Twist", however, was a nationwide smash, aided by his many appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, the Top 10 American Bandstand ranking of the song, and the teenagers on the show who enjoyed dancing the Twist. The song was so ubiquitous that Checker felt that his critics thought that he could only succeed with dance records typecasting him as a dance artist. Checker later lamented:

"...in a way, "The Twist" really ruined my life. I was on my way to becoming a big nightclub performer, and "The Twist" just wiped it out.. It got so out of proportion. No one ever believes I have talent."

—Chubby Checker

Chubby Checker during a TV interview in 2008

Despite Checker's initial disapproval, he found follow-up success with a succession of up-tempo dance tracks and produced a series of successful dance-related singles, including "The Hucklebuck" (#14), "The Fly" (#7), "Dance the Mess Around" (#24), and "Pony Time", which became his second #1 single. Checker's follow-up "twist" single, "Let's Twist Again", won the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Rock and Roll Solo Vocal Performance. A 1962 duet with Dee Dee Sharp, "Slow Twistin'", reached #3 on the national charts. "Limbo Rock" reached #2 in the fall of 1962, becoming Checker's last Top Ten hit.

Checker is the only recording artist to place five albums in the Top 12 all at once. The performer has often claimed to have personally changed the way we dance to the beat of music, as when he told Billboard, "Anyplace on the planet, when someone has a song that has a beat, they're on the floor dancing apart to the beat. And before Chubby Checker, it wasn't here." Clay Cole agreed: "Chubby Checker has never been properly acknowledged for one major contribution to pop culture—Chubby and the Twist got adults out and onto the dance floor for the very first time. Before the Twist dance phenomenon, grownups did not dance to teenage music."

In 1964, he married the Dutch model Catharina Lodders, who was Miss World in 1962. Checker continued to have Top 40 singles until 1965, but changes in public taste ended his hit-making career. He spent much of the rest of the 1960s touring and recording in Europe. The 1970s saw him become a staple on the oldies circuit, including a temporary stint as a disco artist. In 1983, he fathered a daughter, Mistie, with Pam Bass. Mistie Mims is currently a professional women's basketball player in the WNBA.^[6]

Later years[link]

His material during his 1960s heyday was recorded for Cameo-Parkway Records and along with the label's other material, became unavailable after the early 1970s because of the company's internal legal disputes. For decades, almost all compilations of Checker's hits consisted of re-recordings. A dance-floor cover version of The Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." was released in 1969 on Buddah Records, but only charted at #82. It was Checker's last chart appearance until 1982 when he hit #92 with "Running".

He also recorded a psychedelic album in the early '70s that was initially only released in Europe. Originally the album was named Chequered!, but was renamed New Revelation in later releases. To this day, Checker dislikes talking about the album.

Despite his mixed feelings towards his biggest hit single, Checker has always been able to capitalize on its enduring popularity. In 1987, he recorded a new version of "The Twist" with rap trio The Fat Boys. The lyrics to this new version implied he was pleased with his association with it. Checker also sang the song in a commercial for Oreo cookies in the early 1990s. In 2008, he performed "The Twist" in venues ranging from the Daytona 500 to The Opie and Anthony Show.

In 2002, Chubby Checker protested to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that his hit "The Twist" was receiving lack of airplay, claiming that "Peppermint Twist receives more airplay". Seymour Stein, president of the Rock Hall's New York chapter and member of the nomination committee, claimed "I think that Chubby is someone who will be considered. He has in certain years."^[7]

In 2008 Chubby Checker's "The Twist" was named the biggest chart hit of all time by Billboard magazine. Billboard looked at all singles that made the charts between 1958 and 2008.

Checker had a single at #1 on Billboard's dance chart in July 2008 with "Knock Down the Walls". The single also made the top 30 on the Adult Contemporary chart. He continues to perform on a regular basis.

In 2009, Checker recorded a public service announcement (PSA) for the Social Security Administration to help launch a new campaign to promote recent changes in Medicare law. In the PSA, Checker encourages Americans on Medicare to apply for Extra Help, "A new 'twist' in the law makes it easier than ever to save on your prescription drug plan costs."^[8][9]

Film and musical depictions[link]

Chubby appears as himself in the 1989 Quantum Leap episode entitled "Good Morning, Peoria" where he walks into a radio station in 1959 hoping to have his demo record played on the air. The show's main character, Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) convinces the station owner to play the song "The Twist".

In 2001 he again guest-starred as himself singing "The Twist" in season 4 of Ally McBeal.

Hit songs[link]

Chubby Checker

1959:

• "The Class" (#38).

1960:

• "The Twist" (#1)
• "The Hucklebuck" (#14)

1961:

• "Pony Time" (#1)
• "Dance the Mess Around" (#24)
• "Twistin' U.S.A." (#68)
• "Let's Twist Again" (#8)
• "The Fly" (#8)
• "The Twist" (recharted at #1 in January 1962)
• "Jingle Bell Rock" (with Bobby Rydell) (#21)

1962:

• "Slow Twisting'" (with Dee Dee Sharp) (#3)
• "Dancin' Party" (#12)
• "Limbo Rock" (#2)
• "Popeye The Hitchhiker" (#10)

1963:

• "Twenty Miles" (#15)
• "Let's Limbo Some More" (#20)
• "Birdland" (#12)
• "Twist It Up" (#25)
• "Loddy Lo" (#12)
• "Hooka Tooka" (#17)

1964:

• "Hey, Bobba Needle" (#23)
• "Lazy Elsie Molly" (#40)

1965:

• "Let's Do the Freddie" (#40)
• "Baby Baby Balla Balla" (with Dutch band ZZ & the Maskers)
• "Stopping is Las Vegas" (with Dutch band ZZ & the Maskers)

1982:

• "Running" (#92)

1988:

• "The Twist (Yo, Twist!)" (with the Fat Boys) (#16)

2008:

• "Knock Down the Walls" (#1 Dance, #29 Adult Contemporary)

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990, Record Research Inc., P.O. Box 200, Menomonee Falls WI, 1991 (ISBN 0-89820-089-X)
• Joel Whitburn's Top R&B Singles 1942–1988, Record Research Inc., P.O. Box 200, Menomonee Falls WI, 1988 (ISBN 0-89820-069-5)

External links[link]

• Official website
• Chubby Checker – King Of The Twist – by Dr. Frank Hoffmann
• Chubby Checker says "There’s a New ‘Twist’ in the Law!" (Social Security Public Service Announcements)
• Interviewed March 22, 2010 on WNYC SoundCheck with John Schaefer; Discusses this wikipedia entry and career
• Join The Movement To Induct Chubby Checker Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

Thom Yorke
Yorke at the Latitude Festival, Suffolk, 2009.
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Edward Yorke
Also known as	Tchock,[1] Tchocky,[2][3] Dr. Tchock,[4][5] Thom E. Yorke,[6] Zachariah Wildwood[citation needed]
Born	(1968-10-07) 7 October 1968 (age 43) Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England
Genres	Alternative rock, electronic music
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards
Years active	1985—present
Labels	XL
Associated acts	Radiohead, Atoms for Peace

Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the Kid A and Amnesiac sessions). In July 2006, he released his debut solo album, The Eraser.

Yorke has been cited among the most influential figures in the music industry; in 2002, Q Magazine named Yorke the 6th most powerful figure in music,^[7] and Radiohead were ranked #73 in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2005. Yorke has also been cited among the greatest singers in popular music; in 2005, a poll organised by Blender and MTV2 saw Yorke voted the 18th greatest singer of all time,^[8] and in 2008, he was ranked 66th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" list.^[9]

Early life[link]

Yorke was born on 7 October 1968, in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. At birth, his left eye was fixed shut; the doctors determined that the eye was paralyzed and that the condition was permanent. Yorke's parents took him to an eye specialist, who suggested a muscle graft. Yorke underwent five eye operations before he was six years old.^[10] Yorke's father, a chemical equipment salesman, was hired by a firm in Scotland shortly after his son's birth and the family lived there until Yorke was seven. During this time Yorke had to wear a patch over his eye.^[11] He has stated that the last surgery was "botched", giving him a drooping eyelid.^[12]

Yorke's family moved frequently; Yorke would move from school to school, where classmates teased him because of his eye.^[13] The family finally settled in Oxfordshire in 1978.^[13] Yorke received his first guitar when he was seven, inspired by guitarist Brian May in a live performance with his band Queen.^[12] By 11, he had joined his first band and written his first song.^[14] He attended the all boys public school Abingdon where he met future band members Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Colin Greenwood and Colin's younger brother, Jonny Greenwood.^[15] Yorke and his friends formed a band named On A Friday, as Friday was the only day on which the members were allowed to rehearse.^[12] Yorke, in this early line up, played guitar and provided vocals, and was already developing his songwriting and lyrical skills. Yorke, speaking about music's influence on him as a schoolboy, said, "School was bearable for me because the music department was separate from the rest of the school. It had pianos in tiny booths, and I used to spend a lot of time hanging around there after school."^[16]

After leaving school, Yorke postponed going to university for a year. During that time he worked in a few jobs and was involved in a car accident that made him wary of any kind of mechanized transport.^[17] Yorke left Oxford to study at the University of Exeter in late 1988, which as a result put On a Friday on hiatus aside from holiday break rehearsals.^[18] While at Exeter, Yorke worked as a DJ at Guild nights in the Lemon Grove and played briefly with the band Headless Chickens.^[19] Yorke also met Rachel Owen, whom he began dating.^[20]

Career[link]

Radiohead[link]

On A Friday resumed activity in 1991 as the members were finishing their degree courses. Now relocated to Oxford, they signed to Parlophone and changed their name to Radiohead. Around this time, Yorke said he "hit the self-destruct button pretty quickly"; he would drink heavily, which resulted in him randomly cutting his hair off and being too drunk to perform onstage.^[21]

Radiohead first gained notice with the worldwide hit single "Creep", which later appeared on the band's 1993 debut album Pablo Honey. Yorke admitted later that the success had enlarged his ego; he tried to project himself as a rock star, which included bleaching his hair and wearing extensions. He said, "When I got back to Oxford I was unbearable . . . [A]s soon as you get any success you disappear up your own arse and lost it forever."^[22]

By the time of their second album, The Bends (1995), the band, through frequent touring and greater attention to detail in the recording studio, had picked up a large cult fan base and had begun to receive wider critical acclaim. After the album's release, the American group R.E.M. picked Radiohead as its opening act for the European leg of their tour.^[23] Whilst on tour Yorke and R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe became close friends; in particular, Stipe gave him advice on how to deal with the demands of being in a rock band.^[24] During the production of the band's third album, OK Computer (1997), all five members had differing opinions and equal production roles, with Yorke having "the loudest voice", according to guitarist Ed O'Brien.^[25] After the album was finished, Yorke and Jonny Greenwood contributed to the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack along with other musicians under the moniker Venus in Furs.^[26] Upon release, OK Computer was heralded as a landmark album by nearly every publication that reviewed it, establishing Radiohead as one of the leading alternative rock acts of the 1990s. But Yorke was ambivalent about this success. Some of these concerns were voiced in the documentary film Meeting People Is Easy, which focused on the period. Yorke has explained in various interviews that he dislikes the "mythology" within the rock genre, and hates the media's obsession with celebrities.^[27]

Yorke and the band adopted a more radical approach on 2000's Kid A and 2001's Amnesiac, processing vocals, obscuring lyrics, and departing from rock for a more varied musical landscape including electronic, jazz and avant-garde classical influences. Expanding Radiohead's sales whilst earning acclaim for experimentation, the albums also divided fans and critics. In 2003, Radiohead released their sixth album, Hail to the Thief, a blend of rock and electronica that Yorke described as a reaction to the events of the early 2000s and newfound fears for his children's future, though he denied political intent. The band has continued to tour, and in 2005 they undertook recording sessions for a seventh album, In Rainbows, released as a digital DRM-free download in October 2007. In 2011, The King of Limbs, the 8th studio album by Radiohead, was released.

Solo work[link]

Yorke released his solo album The Eraser in 2006. Produced by Nigel Godrich and featuring cover art by Stanley Donwood, it was released on the independent label XL Recordings. Yorke described the album as "more beats and electronics" and denied that it meant he was leaving Radiohead, saying, "I want no crap about me being a traitor or whatever splitting up blah blah... this was all done with their blessing."^[28] The Eraser reached number 3 in the UK in its first week and number 2 in the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as number 9 on the Irish charts. The album was on the prestigious Mercury Prize shortlist and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.

Yorke rarely plays as a solo act, having never embarked on a solo tour. He has sometimes played short acoustic sets of Radiohead songs in the band's webcasts and television appearances, and occasionally on his own at rallies. In 2006, he performed stripped-down versions of several songs from The Eraser ("Analyse", "The Clock", "Skip Divided" and "Cymbal Rush") on radio and TV programmes, and since then he has played and sung "Cymbal Rush" as an encore at some Radiohead concerts. In July 2009, Yorke played a rare solo performance at the Latitude Festival in England.^[29]

On September 21, 2009, Yorke released a new double-A side single, "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses / The Hollow Earth".^[30] It was later announced that he has established an unnamed band with Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joey Waronker of R.E.M., Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark and producer Nigel Godrich.^[31] They played two sold out shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on October 4 and 5, 2009.^[32] Two days before, Yorke also played a "warm-up" show at the Echoplex in Los Angeles.^[33] On February 25, 2010, Yorke officially gave the band the name Atoms for Peace^[34]

Collaborations[link]

Apart from his own solo work, Yorke has collaborated with several artists. He sang backing vocals on PJ Harvey's Mercury Prize-winning 2000 album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and duetted with Harvey on one of its songs, "This Mess We're In". In the same year, he also appeared on Björk's soundtrack album Selmasongs, singing "I've Seen It All" with her. The Oscar-nominated song was written for Dancer in the Dark, a film starring Björk, and Yorke's part is sung in the film by an actor; due to time constraints Björk performed it alone at the 2001 Oscars. The two worked together again in 2008 on a charity single named "Náttúra".

Yorke also sang covers of the Roxy Music songs "2HB", "Ladytron" and "Bitter-Sweet" for the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, as part of Venus in Furs. The band existed solely for the film's soundtrack and also consisted of Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Suede's Bernard Butler, and Roxy Music's Andy Mackay. Yorke was duplicating the original vocals of Bryan Ferry. Two other cover songs were performed by Venus in Furs, with vocals by an actor in the film. Yorke never appeared on screen.

Yorke's other collaborations include the 1998 single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", which he sang and co-wrote with DJ Shadow and which closes Psyence Fiction, the debut album by the group UNKLE; "El President", a 1998 duet with Isabel Monteiro of the band Drugstore, which was also released as a single, and vocals on the 2010 track "...And The World Laughs with You" by experimental musician and producer Flying Lotus of Warp Records. Thom paired up with his brother Andy in 2009 to record the track "All for the Best" for inclusion on the 2009 compilation CD Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy. He has also collaborated on several tracks with the electronic music group Modeselektor, providing vocals on the 2007 track "The White Flash" from the album Happy Birthday, as well as 2011 tracks "Shipwreck" and "This" from the album Monkeytown, in addition to production contributions on the album's b-side "Dull Hull". Yorke has also contributed music and remix/production skills in collaboration with various electronic artists including Burial, Four Tet, as well as hip-hop artists such as MF DOOM.

Yorke has also collaborated with Stanley Donwood on a picture book titled Dead Children Playing.

Atoms for Peace[link]

On February 25, 2010 Yorke revealed the name of his new band: "Atoms for Peace", and announced a series of U.S. tour dates. Yorke first introduced the band late in 2009, with a series of concerts in Los Angeles. It includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass, Beck, R.E.M., all-round session drummer Joey Waronker, percussionist Mauro Refosco of the musical collective Forro in the Dark and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on keyboards and treatments. When the band officially debuted in Los Angeles last October, it was billed with question marks due to it being unnamed. In a note on Radiohead's web site, Yorke wrote; "It has been decided that we call ourselves Atoms For Peace. hope you like the name. it seemed bleedin' obvious." Atoms for Peace is a track on Yorke's 2006 solo album, The Eraser, its title taken in turn by the Eisenhower speech of the same name. The band toured briefly, playing eight dates across the USA including the three-day Coachella music festival in Indio, California on April 18, 2010.^[35] Thom Yorke has also confirmed rumours that the band were recording material together, and has announced that an album is nearing completion, tentatively scheduled for release in 2012.

Personal life[link]

Yorke currently lives in Oxford with his girlfriend, Rachel Owen. They have two children, son Noah, born in 2001, and daughter Agnes, born 2004. Owen studied fine art printmaking at Exeter and painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence. She completed a PhD at the University of London researching the illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy.^[36]

His only brother, Andy, is ex-vocalist of the band Unbelievable Truth.

Yorke is very active in creating public awareness for cultural and political issues. In 2005, Yorke became a spokesman for Friends of the Earth and their campaign to reduce carbon emissions, The Big Ask. He often pays tribute to his children whilst performing live; during songs at the 2003 Glastonbury Festival, he played with a photo of Noah resting on the top of the piano and at the 2006 Bonnaroo Music Festival, he used guitar picks that were marked with Agnes' fingerprints.

Musical approach[link]

Vocal characteristics[link]

Thom Yorke in 2006

As a singer, Yorke is recognisable by his distinctive tenor voice, vibrato, frequent use of falsetto and ability to reach, and sustain notes over a wide vocal range. In 1994, the band watched Jeff Buckley in concert; Yorke later said the concert had a direct effect on his vocal delivery on "Fake Plastic Trees".^[37] However, Yorke has said, "It annoys me how pretty my voice is... how polite it can sound when perhaps what I'm singing is deeply acidic."^[38] He has often adopted other styles of singing, such as an aggressive shouting style in the middle section of "Paranoid Android" and a semi-spoken style for 2003's "Myxomatosis" and "A Wolf at the Door".

Musicianship[link]

Aside from vocal duties and writing lyrics, Yorke's musical contributions to Radiohead include guitar, both acoustic and electric (usually rhythm parts, with band member Jonny Greenwood handling lead), and piano (including Rhodes piano, especially on Kid A). He also plays bass guitar on occasion (the bass line for "The National Anthem" was recorded by him) as well as drums; during the 2006 and 2008 tours he performed percussion on stage in tandem with drummer Phil Selway on the track "Bangers + Mash".

Yorke, unlike the other members of Radiohead, has never learned how to read music.^[39] He said, "If someone lays the notes on a page in front of me, it's meaningless... because to me you can't express the rhythms properly like that. It's a very ineffective way of doing it, so I've never really bothered picking it up."^[38]

Since Kid A, Radiohead, and in particular Yorke, have incorporated many elements of electronic music into their work. As a result, Yorke has taken an increased role in programming beats and samples and has been credited with playing "laptop" on recent albums. On a radio show in 2003 to publicise the release of Hail to the Thief, Yorke remarked that he would rather make a record just with a computer than with only an acoustic guitar.^[40] His solo effort The Eraser featured piano, bass and guitar, but was built primarily around electronics.

In interviews Yorke has cited a variety of personal musical heroes and influences, including jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus, Neil Young, Miracle Legion, singer Scott Walker, electronic acts Aphex Twin and Autechre, and Krautrock band Can. Talking Heads, Queen, Joy Division, Magazine, Elvis Costello, The Smiths and Sonic Youth were early influences on Radiohead and Yorke. In 2004, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Yorke mentioned to the crowd, "When I was in college, the Pixies and R.E.M. changed my life",^[41] and he has often mentioned both bands as influential examples.

Activism[link]

Yorke has been outspoken on various contemporary political and social issues. Radiohead had read No Logo by Naomi Klein during the Kid A sessions ("No Logo" was also briefly considered as the album title) and all the members were reportedly heavily influenced by it, though Yorke said it "didn't teach him anything he didn't already know".^[42] Yorke's activism in support of fair trade practices, with an anti-WTO and anti-globalisation stance, garnered significant attention in the early 2000s.^[43] Yorke had previously referenced maquiladoras in the title of a Radiohead B-side in 1995, and decried the International Monetary Fund in 1997's "Electioneering". Yorke is also a professed fan of Noam Chomsky's political writings,^[44] and is a vegan.^[45]

Yorke is also notable as a political activist on behalf of other causes, including human rights and anti-war movements such as Jubilee 2000, Amnesty International and CND, and Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign.^[46] Radiohead played at the Free Tibet concert in both 1998 and 1999, and at an Amnesty International concert in 1998.^[47] In 2005, Yorke performed at an all-night vigil for the Trade Justice Movement.^[48] In 2006, Jonny Greenwood and Yorke performed a special benefit concert for Friends of the Earth. Yorke made headlines the same year for refusing Prime Minister Tony Blair's request to meet with him to discuss climate change, declaring Blair had "no environmental credentials".^[49] Yorke has subsequently been critical of his own energy use. He has said the music industry's use of air transport is dangerous and unsustainable, and that he would consider not touring if new carbon emissions standards do not force the situation to improve.^[50] Radiohead commissioned a study by the group Best Foot Forward which the band claims helped them choose venues and transport methods that will greatly reduce the carbon expended on their 2008 tour. The band also made use of a new low-energy LED lighting system and encouraged festivals to offer reusable plastics.^[51]

In December 2009, Yorke gained access to the COP 15 climate change talks in Copenhagen, posing as a member of the media.^[52] In the same year he lent his support to the 10:10 project, a movement encouraging people to take positive action on climate change by reducing their carbon emissions.^[53]

Relationship with celebrities and the media[link]

Yorke has had an uneasy relationship with other celebrities and the media. Following Radiohead's 1993 Pablo Honey tour of America, Yorke became disenchanted at being "right at the sharp end of the sexy, sassy, MTV eye-candy lifestyle" he felt he was helping to sell to the world.^[54] The 1998 documentary film Meeting People is Easy portrays Yorke's disaffection with the music industry and press during the 1997-8 "Against Demons" world tour.^[55]

A number of celebrities have been upset by Yorke's alleged rudeness. In 2001, Kelly Jones, the lead singer of the Welsh band Stereophonics, referred to Thom Yorke as a "miserable twat"^[56] (a comment he later retracted).^[57] In 2002, Jack Black claimed to have approached Yorke to congratulate him on his solo show at the Bridge School benefit concert in San Francisco, only for Yorke to ignore him and walk away. Referring to the incident, Black stated in an interview: "I heard later that he's famously cold, and it wasn't just me that he despises, but the whole world."^[58] After completing a trek of Kilimanjaro in 2009, Ronan Keating was asked by an interviewer which celebrity he would most like to throw off a mountain. Keating named Yorke, and referred to him as a "muppet", stating that Yorke was once rude to him.^[59] In the same year, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West also complained about Yorke's alleged rudeness.^[60] In 2010, it was reported that Yorke would be covering Peter Gabriel's song "Wallflower", from Gabriel's fourth solo album Peter Gabriel 4 (Security), with Gabriel claiming, "Thom wanted to do a version of Wallflower, which I'm very curious to hear. I think that was an important track for him when he was 14."^[61] However, it was subsequently reported that Yorke had withdrawn from the project and hadn't informed Gabriel why.^[62]

Discography[link]

• The Eraser (2006)

References[link]

• Randall, Mac. Exit Music: The Radiohead Story. Delta, 2000. ISBN 0-385-33393-5

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Media related to Thom Yorke at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related to Thom Yorke at Wikiquote
• The Eraser: Official website for Yorke's solo album release
• Thom Yorke, Going Solo: Interview with Yorke, from NPR's "Fresh Air" radio program—July 2006

Dee Dee Sharp (born Dione LaRue, September 9, 1945, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States^[1]) is an American R&B singer, who began her career recording as a backing vocalist in 1961.

Career[link]

This section requires expansion.

In 1962 she began a string of successful Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits: "Slow Twistin'" (with Chubby Checker) (#3), "Mashed Potato Time" (#2), "Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)" (#9), "Ride" (#5) and "Do the Bird" (#10).^[1] Both "Mashed Potato Time" and "Ride" each sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs.^[2] "Do the Bird" provided her only entry in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #46 in April 1963.^[3] In 1967, she married record producer Kenny Gamble and has since recorded under the name Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble.^[1]

She had a brief career resurgence during the disco era: as a member of the Philadelphia International All Stars (which also included Lou Rawls, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass, The O'Jays and Archie Bell) she had a minor hit with "Let's Clean Up the Ghetto."

In 1981 she spent four weeks at number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart with "Breaking and Entering" / "Easy Money," from her album Dee Dee.

More recent appearances included a performance at Pontins in the UK for the Northern Soul Show, and at the 2008 Detroit Jazz Festival. In May 2009, she appeared in Belgium at the Salle De L'Hotel de Ville.

Sharp and her husband Bill Witherspoon have been residents of Medford, New Jersey.^[4]

Discography[link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Studio albums[link]

• 1962: Biggest Hits
• 1962: It's Mashed Potato Time
• 1962: Songs Of Faith
• 1962: Down To Earth with Chubby Checker
• 1963: Do The Bird
• 1963: Down Memory Lane
• 1975: Happy Bout The Whole Thing
• 1977: What Color Is Love
• 1980: Dee Dee

Compilations[link]

• 1963: 18 Golden Hits
• 1963: All The Hits
• 1963: Biggest Hits
• 2005: Best Of Dee Dee Sharp 1962-1966

See also[link]

• List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
• List of disco artists (A-E)
• List of people from Philadelphia
• List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand

Philadelphia portal

References[link]

External links[link]

• The story of "Mashed Potato Time"
• Dee Dee Sharp photo gallery
• The Official Web Site

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2010)

Dee Dee Ramone
Background information
Birth name	Douglas Glenn Colvin
Also known as	Dee Dee King
Born	(1951-09-18)September 18, 1951 Fort Lee, Virginia, USA
Died	June 5, 2002(2002-06-05) (aged 50) Los Angeles, California, USA
Genres	Punk rock, hip hop
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Bass guitar, vocals, guitar
Years active	1966–2002
Labels	Sire, Wanker, World Service, Other People's Music, Corazong
Associated acts	Ramones, GG Allin, Nina Hagen, Furious George, Paul Kostabi, Christian Martucci, Stefan Adika
Website	www.deedeeking.net
Notable instruments
Fender Precision Bass

Dee Dee Ramone (born Douglas Glenn Colvin) (September 18, 1951^[1] – June 5, 2002) was an American songwriter and musician, best known as founding member, songwriter, and bassist for punk rock band the Ramones.

Though nearly all of the Ramones' songs were credited equally to all the band members, Dee Dee was the band's most prolific lyricist and songwriter, writing many of the band's most well-known songs, such as "53rd & 3rd", "Commando", "Rockaway Beach", and "Poison Heart". He was initially the band's lead vocalist, though his (then) inability to sing and play bass at the same time resulted in original drummer Joey Ramone taking over the lead vocalist duties. Dee Dee would serve as the band's bassist and songwriter from 1974 through 1989, when he left to pursue a short-lived career in hip hop music under the name Dee Dee King. He soon returned to his punk roots and released three solo albums featuring brand new songs, many of which were later recorded by the Ramones. He toured the world playing his new songs, Ramones songs and some old favorites in small clubs, and continued to write songs for the Ramones until 1996, when the band officially retired.

Dee Dee struggled with drug addiction for much of his life, particularly heroin. He began using drugs as a teenager, and continued to use for the majority of his adult life. He appeared to clean up his act in the early 1990s but began using heroin again some time later. He died from a heroin overdose in 2002.^[2]

Biography[link]

Childhood[link]

Born Douglas Colvin in Fort Lee, Virginia, he was the son of an American soldier and a German woman. As an infant, his family relocated to Berlin, Germany, due to his father's military service. His father's military career also required the family to relocate frequently. These frequent moves caused Dee Dee to have a lonely childhood with few real friends. His parents separated during his early teens, and he remained in Berlin until the age of 15, when he, along with his mother and sister Beverley, moved to the Forest Hills section of New York City's borough of Queens, in order to escape Dee Dee's alcoholic father.^[3] There he met John Cummings and Thomas Erdelyi (later dubbed Johnny and Tommy "Ramone"), then playing in a band called The Tangerine Puppets, named after a Donovan song.

Marriage[link]

In 1978, he married Vera Boldis.^[4] According to Vera, Dee Dee's struggles with mental illness and drug abuse put a strain on the couple's relationship.^[5] They separated in 1990 before finalizing their divorce in 1995.^[6][7]

Ramones[link]

Dee Dee Ramone, July 1, 1977 Kelly's Pub, St. Paul, Minnesota

Colvin, later Dee Dee, and Cummings, later Johnny, quickly became friends, as they were both social outcasts in their heavily middle class neighborhood. After an unsuccessful guitar audition for Television, Johnny convinced Dee Dee to form their own band with then-drummer Jeffry Hyman, later Joey Ramone, in 1974. Joey took over vocal duties after Dee Dee decided that he could not sing lead vocals for longer than a few songs as his voice shredded. Dee Dee would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his signature rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!"

It was Dee Dee who first suggested naming the band the Ramones, after reading that Paul McCartney often signed into hotels under the alias "Paul Ramon". He added an 'e' to the end of that surname and the band members all agreed to adopt the surname "Ramone" as a means of conveying their unity.

Dee Dee wrote or co-wrote much of the Ramones' repertoire, such as "53rd and 3rd" (a song about male prostitution at 53rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, allegedly based on personal experience), "Glad to See You Go" (written about his then-girlfriend, a stripper and fellow drug user with a volatile personality), "It's a Long Way Back to Germany", "Chinese Rock" (originally recorded by Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers, as guitarist Johnny Ramone was not enthusiastic about the Ramones doing songs about drugs) and "Wart Hog" (a song Dee Dee wrote in rehab). After he quit the Ramones, Dee Dee continued to write songs for them, contributing at least three songs to each of their albums.

According to Mondo Bizarro's liner notes, for example, the Ramones once bailed Dee Dee out of jail in exchange for the rights to his songs "Main Man", "Strength to Endure" and "Poison Heart", which would become a minor hit for the band. The band's final studio album, 1995's Adios Amigos, consists of several of Dee Dee's solo songs, such as "I'm Makin' Monsters for My Friends" and "It's Not for Me to Know" from his album I Hate Freaks Like You.

Later projects[link]

In 1989, before leaving the Ramones, Dee Dee embarked on a brief hip hop career as rapper "Dee Dee King" with the album Standing in the Spotlight. Dee Dee had recorded "Funky Man" as Dee Dee King in 1987, while still a member of the Ramones. Music critic Matt Carlson wrote that the album "will go down in the annals of pop culture as one of the worst recordings of all time.^[8] After the album failed, he returned to punk rock with various short-lived projects such as Sprokkett (which also featured Richard 'The Atomic Elf' Bacchus) of D Generation and later, The Spikey Tops.

In 1991, Dee Dee was briefly involved with transgressive punk rock singer-songwriter GG Allin, playing guitar with Allin's backup band The Murder Junkies. His involvement lasted approximately one week, enough for him to be briefly interviewed during the filming of Todd Phillips' Allin documentary Hated: GG Allin And The Murder Junkies. In the film, Dee Dee reveals that he was unaware of the band's name, even after joining. Rehearsal recordings of him with Allin and The Murder Junkies appears on the Hated soundtrack, as well as on the posthumous live Allin compilation Res-Erected. Video footage of the rehearsals is available on DVD through Allin's estate's website.^[9] Dee Dee never actually played a live gig with the band.^[10]