Break It to Me Gently

"Break It to Me Gently" is a pop song written by blues musician Joe Seneca with lyrics by Diane Lampert. Both Brenda Lee and Juice Newton met with considerable success with their versions of the song.

Brenda Lee recorded "Break It to Me Gently" on August 31, 1961 with Owen Bradley producing the session at his Bradley Film and Recording Studio in Nashville: after another track from the same session: "Fool #1", had become a Top Ten hit "Break It To Me Gently" was released as a single at the end of 1961 and reached #4 on the Hot 100 in Billboard in January 1962. In 2008, the Brenda Lee version of the song was featured at the closing of season 2, episode 7 of the AMC series Mad Men. Lee's "Break It to Me Gently" is on the tracklist of the CD Pan Am: Music From and Inspired By the Original Series set for release January 17, 2012.

Juice Newton

Judy Kay "Juice" Newton (born February 18, 1952) is an American pop and country singer, songwriter and guitarist. To date, Newton has received five Grammy Award nominations in the Pop and Country Best Female Vocalist categories (winning once in 1983), as well as an ACM Award for Top New Female Artist and two Billboard Female Album Artist of the Year awards (won consecutively).

Newton has several Gold and Platinum records to her credit, including Juice, Quiet Lies and her first Greatest Hits album. During the 1980s, she charted 14 Top-10 hits across the Billboard Country, AC, and Billboard Hot 100 charts, with many of the recordings achieving crossover success and six of the songs hitting the No. 1 position.

Early career

Newton was born in Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States, and graduated from First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In the early 1970s, Newton, Otha Young and Tom Kealey formed a band that would eventually be called Juice Newton and Silver Spur that was signed to RCA Records. The group released two RCA albums in 1975 and 1976, and scored only one charting country single with "Love Is a Word." The band signed with Capitol Records in 1977, but disbanded shortly after releasing one album.

To Me

"To Me" is a song written by Mike Reid and Mack David, and recorded by American country music artists Lee Greenwood and Barbara Mandrell as a duet. It was released in July 1984 as the first single from the album Meant for Each Other. The song reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.

Chart performance

References

External links

Angela Bofill

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Angela Tomasa Bofill (born May 3, 1954) is an American R&B and jazz singer and songwriter.

Early life and success

Angela Bofill was born to a Cuban father and an Afro Puerto Rican mother. Growing up, listening to latin music, she was also inspired by the African-American performers in those days. During her childhood, her weekends were taken up studying classical music and singing in a city chorus. It was as a teenager that her professional singing began. She performed with Ricardo Marrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus prior to being introduced to Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen (of the jazz label GRP Records) by her friend, the jazz flautist Dave Valentin. Grusin and Rosen signed Bofill and produced her first album, Angie, in 1978. Angie was well received both critically and commercially and included the chart single "This Time I'll Be Sweeter" (co-written by Gwen Guthrie), as well as Bofill's sprawling jazz composition, "Under the Moon and Over the Sky". Less than a year later, a second album, Angel of the Night was released and outperformed its predecessor. The album included the chart singles "What I Wouldn't Do (For the Love of You)" and the up tempo title track, as well as the self-written song "I Try" (covered by Will Downing in 1991). The reception of these albums positioned Bofill as one of the first Latina singers to find success in the R&B and jazz markets.

Quiet Lies

Quiet Lies is a 1982 album by American pop-country star Juice Newton. It reached #20 on the Billboard pop chart and includes three major hits, "Love's Been a Little Bit Hard on Me", "Break It to Me Gently" and "Heart of the Night". Quiet Lies sold more than 900,000 copies in the U.S. (earning Newton her fourth RIAA Gold certification) and was re-issued on CD in 1990 and 2006.

Hits

"Love's Been a Little Bit Hard on Me" was the first single released from the 1982 album, for which Newton received a "Best Female Vocalist - Pop" nomination. The video for this song received the "Video of the Year" award from the American Video Association. The song reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary pop charts and was a Top-40 country hit as well. The album's second single -- "Break It to Me Gently" -- won Juice Newton her first Grammy in 1983, in the category of "Best Female Vocalist - Country." The song hit number one on the adult contemporary chart, number two on the country chart and number 11 on the Hot 100. "Heart of the Night", written by John Bettis and Michael Clark, was the opening track for the album. It was released as the third and final single, reaching number four on the adult contemporary chart and 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1983.