Mountain High resort is a winter resort in the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County in California. Mountain High is the most-visited resort in Southern California. The resort is located along State Route 2 west of Wrightwood, California. The elevation of the resort is 6,600 feet (2,000 m) to 8,200 feet (2,500 m) for the Mountain High East Resort, 7,000 feet (2,100 m) to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) for the West Resort and 7,200 feet (2,200 m) to 7,800 ft (2,400 m) for the North Resort.

Coinciding with the population growth of Southern California in the 1920s, hikers and ski enthusiasts began using Big Pines, an area near the present day Mountain High resort. In 1929 the construction began on the world's largest ski jump of that time in an attempt to attract the 1932 Winter Olympics. In 1931 when it was completed, Alf Engen set the new world record by jumping 243 feet (74 m).^{[dubious – discuss]}

The Mountain High West Resort was originally known as Blue Ridge and is one of the oldest ski resorts in the country. Its first year of operation was 1937 with a rope tow, and it built the 2nd chairlift in California in 1947. In 1975, upon being sold by its original owners, it was renamed Mountain High.

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.

Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.

His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.

Thomasina Winifred Montgomery, known as Tammi Terrell (April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970) was an American recording artist and songwriter most notable for her association with Motown Records and her duets with Marvin Gaye. As a teenager she recorded for the Scepter–Wand, Try Me and Checker record labels. She signed with Motown in April 1965 and enjoyed modest success as a solo singer. Once she was paired with Gaye in 1967, her stardom grew, but on October 14 of that year she collapsed on stage into Gaye's arms during a performance. She was soon thereafter diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor which eventually led to her death at age 24.

Tammi Terrell was born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery in Philadelphia. Members of her family have said her parents figured their eldest child would be a son and had settled on "Thomas". After Terrell's birth, they added in "-ina". Terrell was called "Tommie" by family. Terrell has a younger sister, Ludie (born 1949). Terrell began singing in church at an early age. Terrell developed a rebellious, free-spirited streak and changed her name to "Tammy" after seeing the film Tammy and the Bachelor in the summer of 1957 and hearing its theme song "Tammy". Around this time, Terrell began complaining of migraines and headaches. Terrell's family said that this foreshadowed her later struggle with brain cancer but that at the time they did not regard it as a major issue.

Dick and Dee Dee is an American singer-songwriter duo that reached popularity in the early to mid-1960s. The group was originally founded by California classmates Mary Sperling and Richard Gosting. They eventually changed their names to Dee Dee Sperling (currently Dee Dee Phelps) and Dick St. John. They had their first hit in 1961 when "The Mountain's High" reached #2 on the Billboard 100. They toured with The Beach Boys and opened for the Rolling Stones during the Stones' 1964 tour of California. Regulars on the show Shindig!, the duo had multiple hit songs before St. John and Sperling disbanded in 1969. In the 1980s, St. John toured with his wife, Sandy. Dick St. John died on December 27, 2003. In 2007, Dee Dee Phelps released her memoir, Vinyl Highway, Singing as Dick and Dee Dee in the Sixties. She began performing with actor/singer Michael Dunn as Dick and Dee Dee in 2008, appearing in large doo wop and rock and roll shows throughout the United States.

Dick St. John and Dee Dee Sperling met while students at Paul Revere Junior High School in Los Angeles, California. They attended different high schools, only to re-encounter one another after graduation. At the time Sperling was attending college and working at a See's Candy store, and St. John was looking for a job. Both realized they were singer-songwriters, and together they began writing songs and singing the vocal parts. The duo were not romantically linked.

Dee Dee Ramone (born Douglas Glenn Colvin) (September 18, 1951 – 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.