Michael Best

Michael Best is an American operatic tenor and voice teacher. A native of North Carolina, he was a solo artist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing 297 performances in 17 seasons. He currently teaches voice at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts.

Life and career

Born in Durham, North Carolina, Best received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University in 1962 where he studied singing with John Hanks. He went on to earn a Masters degree in vocal performance from the Juilliard School of Music in New York where he studied for 6 years. He made his professional opera debut in 1972 at the New York City Opera as Don Attavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Best made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera on November 16, 1979 as Toby Higgins in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. He continued to perform at the Met for the next 16 years in mainly comprimario parts, portraying such roles as Borsa in Rigoletto, the Chaplain in Dialogues des Carmélites, the First Knight in Parsifal, Gastone in La traviata, the Japanese Envoy in The Nightingale, Jaquino in Fidelio, a Jew in Salome, the Lover in Il tabarro, the Major-domo in Der Rosenkavalier, Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Nathanael in The Tales of Hoffmann, the Novice in Billy Budd, the Post Rider in La Fanciulla del West, Reverend Horace Adams in Peter Grimes, and The Son in Les mamelles de Tirésias among others. In 1991 he created the role of the Bishop in the world premiere of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles. His last performance at the Met was on December 6, 1995 when he reprised the role of Toby Higgins.

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music and dance, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.

The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon 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" from his 1982 album Thriller, were credited with breaking down racial barriers and with transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped to bring the then-relatively-new television channel MTV to fame. His 1987 album Bad spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana", becoming the first album to have five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. With videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream", he continued to innovate the medium throughout the 1990s, as well as forging a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres.

George Michael

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (born 25 June 1963), better known by his stage name George Michael, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Michael rose to fame during the 1980s and 1990s with his style of post-disco dance-pop. He has also been characterised as a blue-eyed soul singer, although his material draws more from middle-of-the-road pop than soul music.

As one of the world's best-selling music artists, Michael has sold more than 80 million records worldwide. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, has on its own sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. 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.

Michael

Michael /ˈmaɪkəl/ is a male given name that comes from the Hebrew: מִיכָאֵל / מיכאל‎ (Mīkhāʼēl, pronounced [miχaˈʔel]), derived from the question מי כאל mī kāʼēl, meaning "Who is like God?" (literally, "Who is like El?). In English, it is sometimes shortened to Mike, Mikey, Mickey, or Mick.

Female forms of Michael include Michelle, Michele, Michaela, Mechelle, Micheline, and Michaelle, although Michael is occasionally seen as a female name; women named Michael include actresses Michael Learned and Michael Michele. Another form is Mychal, which can either be a male or female name.

Patronymic surnames that come from Michael include Michaels, Carmichael, MacMichael, McMichael, Micallef, Michaelson, Mikkelsen, DiMichele, Mikhaylov, Mykhaylenko, Mikeladze, Michels, and Mitchell.

Religion

The name first appears in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Numbers, 13:13 where Sethur the son of Michael is one of 12 spies sent into the Land of Canaan. The archangel Michael features in the Book of Daniel 12:1, and in the Qur'an as Mikhail.

Greatest hits album

A greatest hits album, sometimes called a "best of" album or a catalog album, is a compilation of songs by a particular artist or band. Most often the track list contains previously released recordings with a high degree of notability. However, to increase the appeal, especially to people who already own the original release, it is common to include remixes and/or alternate takes of popular songs; even new material (previously unreleased). At times a greatest hits compilation is the original release for songs that have themselves been released as a single and charted successfully.

Notable compilations

Madonna's The Immaculate Collection is the best selling greatest hits compilation by a solo artist; all of the songs on it are presented in different versions than the original hit versions. The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) is the best selling greatest hits compilation by a group and also one of the ten best selling albums in history. Greatest hits albums are typically produced after an artist has had enough successful songs to fill out an album release. Some artists, such as Mariah Carey, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Kenny Rogers, Aerosmith, Kiss, U2, Dolly Parton, Journey, Los Tigres del Norte, Queen, Kylie Minogue and Billy Joel, have released multiple greatest hits albums through their long careers. Some greatest hits albums are released only at the end of the artist or group's career. For example, My Chemical Romance released a greatest hits album after they disbanded. Other artists, like Eminem have released hits albums in the center of their success. He released Curtain Call: The Hits in 2005 and then Shady XV as a compilation album in 2014.