A single parent usually refers to a parent who has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, which would categorize them as the dominant caregiver who is not living with a spouse or partner, or those who are not married. The dominant caregiver is the parent in which the children have residency with the majority of the time; if the parents are separated or divorced children live with their custodial parent and have visitation with their noncustodial parent. In western society in general, following separation, a child will end up with the primary caregiver, usually the mother, and a secondary caregiver, usually the father.

Historically death of a partner was a major cause of single parenting. Single parenting can result from separation or divorce of a couple with children. Custody battles, awarded by the court or rationalized in other terms, determine who the child will spend majority of their time with, this affects children in many ways and there are many suggestions to counsel them. A mother is typically the primary caregiver in a single parent family structure as a result of divorce, unplanned pregnancy. Fathers have been less commonly primary caregiver in the past, presumably due to assumptions that a child from two separate parents is better off with the mother than the father, but this scenario has shifted in recent years. Single parent adoption is sometimes an option for adults who want children but do not have a partner.

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.

The Les Humphries Singers was a 1970s musical group formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1969 by the English born Les Humphries (born John Lesley Humphreys, 10 August 1940, in Croydon, Surrey, England - died 26 December 2007, in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England), who had been inspired to do his own version of the Edwin Hawkins Singers.

The Les Humphries Singers dissolved at the end of the 1970s, after Humphries had left due to tax liabilities to his English homeland, Alton, Hampshire.

In his later years, Humphries led a quiet life in London. In March 2008, the German newspaper Bild reported his death on 26 December 2007 in a London hospital from a heart attack after a severe bout of pneumonia.

The group consisted of a large number of singers of diverse ethnic origin, some of whom such as John Lawton also performed with other groups. Another member was Jürgen Drews, who later started a long-running solo career, starting with his 1976 hit in Germany, "Ein Bett im Kornfeld", a cover version of "Let Your Love Flow" by the Bellamy Brothers. Linda Thompson (born 21 September 1948 as Linda Übelherr), who had previously been a member of the Cornely Singers and Love Generation, was a member from 1973 to 1974, and later joined Silver Convention, and had a solo career as Linda G. Thompson, sang as a duo with Jerry Rix, and later joined The Hornettes. Henner Hoier (born 19 April 1945), who was a member from 1970 to 1971, had been a member of the Rivets from 1964 to 1968 and of the Rattles from 1968 to 1970. From 1972 onwards, he had a solo career, and from 1988 to 1993 he was a member of the Rattles and from 1994 of the Rivets. He has also composed and produced music, and appeared in the musical Only You.

Liz Mitchell (born Elizabeth Rebecca Mitchell, 12 July 1952, Clarendon, Jamaica) is a singer, best known as the former lead singer of the 1970s disco/pop band, Boney M.

At the age of eleven, Mitchell and her family emigrated to London, England, in 1963. By the end of the decade, she auditioned for Hair and eventually moved to Berlin to join the German cast where she replaced Donna Summer. After Hair, Mitchell joined the Les Humphries Singers for a few years where she had a relationship with Malcolm Magaron. The two left the group to form Malcolm Locks who released the album Caribbean Rocks in 1974 to minimal success. Mitchell, finding her career coming to a standstill, returned to her parents in England.

A phone call from fellow Jamaican Marcia Barrett in 1975 persuaded Mitchell to return to Germany to join a new group being assembled by record producer Frank Farian which would become known as Boney M. Though the group's initial purpose was to simply lip-synch for TV and discothèque performances of Farian's song "Baby Do You Wanna Bump", Boney M. soon became a legitimate recording group with Mitchell, Barrett, and producer Farian as the vocal core. Mitchell became widely regarded as Boney M.'s lead vocalist. Farian later stated that "All members (of Boney M.) could be replaced, except Liz". The departure of Bobby Farrell in late 1981 proved this was not entirely true.

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.