Roy Orbison

Known by the nickname ‘The Big O’ and remembered for his distinctive, powerful baritone voice the American singer, guitarist, and songwriter Roy Orbison was Born April 23, 1936 Roy Kelton Orbison, he grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country and western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis. His greatest success came with Monument Records between 1960 and 1964, when 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top Forty, including “Only the Lonely”, “Crying”, and “Oh, Pretty Woman”. Sadly His career stagnated through the 1970s, but several covers of his songs and the use of “In Dreams” in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet revived his career in the 1980s. In 1988, he joined the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne and also released a new solo album. Sadly though He died of a heart attack in December that year, at the zenith of his resurgence.

His life was marred by tragedy, including the death of his first wife and his two eldest sons in separate accidents. Orbison was a natural baritone, but music scholars have suggested that he had a three- or four-octave range. The combination of Orbison’s powerful, impassioned voice and complex musical arrangements led many critics to refer to his music as operatic, giving him the sobriquet “the Caruso of Rock”. Elvis Presley and Bono have stated his voice was, respectively, the greatest and most distinctive they had ever heard While most men in rock and roll in the 1950s and 1960s portrayed a defiant masculinity, many of Orbison’s songs instead conveyed a quiet, desperate vulnerability. He was known for performing dark emotional ballads while standing still and solitary, wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses which lent an air of mystery to his persona.

Roy Orbison – Black & White Night Live http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HWCBwaNvHbE

Roy Orbison sadly died on 6TH December 1988 however he was initiated into the second class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 by longtime admirer Bruce Springsteen. The same year he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989. Rolling Stone placed Orbison at number 37 on their list of The Greatest Artists of All Time, and number 13 on their list of The hundred Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists.

Glen Campbell

American singer, songwriter, musician, television host, and actor Glen Campbell was born April 22, 1936 in Billstown, near Delight in Pike County, Arkansas. He started playing guitar as a youth and he credited his uncle Boo for teaching him. In 1954, Campbell moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to join his uncle’s band, known as Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys. He also appeared there on his uncle’s radio show and on K Circle B Time, the local children’s program on KOB television. In 1958, Campbell formed his own band, the Western Wranglers.

In 1960, Campbell moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician and joined the Champs. Campbell had worked at publishing company American Music, writing songs and recording demos. Because of these demos Campbell was soon working as a session musician and became part of a group of studio musicians later known as the Wrecking Crew. Campbell played on recordings by Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, the Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Jan and Dean, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ronnie Dove, and Phil Spector. In 1961, he left the Champs and sgned with Crest Records, a subsidiary of American Music and released The song, “Turn Around, Look at Me”. Campbell also formed the Gee Cees with former bandmembers from the Champs, performing at the Crossbow Inn in Van Nuys. They released the instrumental “Buzz Saw”. In 1962, Campbell released the songs “Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry” and “Kentucky Means Paradise”. In 1964 Campbell began to appear on television as a regular on Star Route, hosted by Rod Cameron, ABC’s Shindig!, and Hollywood Jamboree. he was a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson, playing bass guitar and singing falsetto harmonies. In 1965, he released the song “Universal Soldier” and played guitar on the Beach Boys’ 1966 album Pet Sounds, among other recordings. He also played bass for Ricky Nelson on a Far East tour.

Between 1966 and 1967, he collaborated with producer Al de Lort on the songs “Burning Bridges”, “Gentle on My Mind”, By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “I Wanna Live” and “Wichita Lineman”. Campbell also won four Grammy Awards for his performances on “Gentle on My Mind” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”. In 1967, Campbell was also the uncredited lead vocalist on “My World Fell Down” by Sagittarius. He also sung the 1969 song “True Grit” by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, and co-starred in the movie True Grit, receiving nominations for the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song and a nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. His biggest hits in the late 1960s were: “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman”, “Galveston”, and “Where’s the Playground Susie”. After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for television’s The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour variety show, Campbell hosted his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, from 1969 to 1972. Where he hosted major names in music on his show, including The Beatles (on film), David Gates, Bread, The Monkees, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, and Mel Tillis. At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, The Glen Campbell Story, was published. An album of mainly Webb-penned compositions, Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb, was also released in 1974.

in 1974 Campbell co-starred in a made-for-television movie, Strange Homecoming (1974), with Robert Culp and up-and-coming teen idol, Leif Garrett. He hosted a number of television specials, including 1976’s Down Home, Down Under with Olivia Newton-John. He co-hosted the American Music Awards from 1976–78 and headlined the 1979 NBC special Glen Campbell: Back to Basics with guest-stars Seals and Crofts and Brenda Lee. He was a guest on many network talk and variety shows, including: Donny & Marie, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Cher, the Redd Foxx Comedy Hour, The Merv Griffin Show, The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack, DINAH!, Evening at Pops with Arthur Fiedler and The Mike Douglas Show. In the mid-1970s, he had more hits with “Rhinestone Cowboy”, “Southern Nights”, “Sunflower” and “Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)”. Rhinestone Cowboy” continues to be used in TV shows and films, including Desperate Housewives, Daddy Day Care, and High School High. It was the inspiration for the 1984 Dolly Parton/Sylvester Stallone movie Rhinestone. From 1971 to 1983, Campbell was the celebrity host of the Los Angeles Open, an annual professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour.

From 1982 to 1983, he hosted The Glen Campbell Music Show and also made a cameo appearance in the 1980 Clint Eastwood movie Any Which Way You Can, for which he recorded the title song. In 1991, he provided the voice of the Elvis Presley sound-alike rooster Chanticleer in the Don Bluth film Rock-a-Doodle. In 1999, Campbell was featured on VH-1’s Behind the Music, A&E Network’s Biography in 2001. Campbell ranked 29th on CMT’s 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003. Campbell also made a techno/pop version of Rhinestone Cowboy in 2002 with UK artists Rikki & Daz and went to the top 10 in the UK with the dance version and related music video. In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. in 2008 Campbell released his new album, Meet Glen Campbell Which covered tracks by artists such as Travis, U2, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne, Foo Fighters and a cover of Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). Musicians from Cheap Trick and Jellyfish also contributed to the album. In 2011 Campbell released the album Ghost on the Canvas with contributions from Paul Westerberg (writer of the title track), The Wallflowers singer Jakob Dylan, Chris Isaak, Rick Nielsen and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.

Sadly in 2011 Glen Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s so he embarked on a final “Goodbye Tour”, with three of his children joining him in his backup band. His final show was in 2012 in Napa, California. After the end of the tour, Campbell entered the studio in his home town Nashville to record what would be his final album, Adiós, Campbell recorded, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”, which is featured in the 2014 documentary, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, In 2015 Campbell and fellow songwriter Julian Raymond were nominated for Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards. In 2016, during the 10th Annual ACM Honors, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and others performed a medley of Glen Campbell’s songs in tribute to him. His wife Kim Campbell accepted the Career Achievement Award on his behalf. In April 2017, Campbell’s final album, Adiós, was announced, featuring twelve songs from his final 2012–13 sessions. The album was released on June 9, 2017 Glen Campbell sadly passed shortly afterwards on August 8, 2017.

During his 50 years in show business, Campbell released more than 70 albums. He sold 45 million records and accumulated 12 RIAA gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album. He placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Campbell made history in 1967 by winning four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For “Gentle on My Mind”, he received two awards in country and western, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and received two awards in PoP. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA’s top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Wichita Lineman” (1968) was also selected as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century by Mojo magazine in 1997 and by Blender in 2001.

Iggy Pop

American singer-songwriter, musician, producer and actor Iggy Pop ( James Newell Osterberg, Jr.) was born April 21, 1947 in Muskegon, Michigan, Osterberg was raised in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He began his music career as a drummer in various high school bands in Ann Arbor, Michigan, including the Iguanas, who cut several records such as Bo Diddley’s “Mona” in 1965.His later stage name, Iggy, is derived from the Iguanas. After exploring local blues-style bands such as the Prime Movers he dropped out of the University of Michigan and moved to Chicago to learn more about blues. While in Chicago, he played drums in blues clubs, helped by Sam Lay (the Paul Butterfield Blues Band), Inspired by Chicago blues as well as bands like The Sonics, MC5 and The Doors, he formed the Psychedelic Stooges and began calling himself Iggy. The band was composed of Iggy on vocals, Ron Asheton on guitar, Asheton’s brother Scott on drums, and Dave Alexander on bass. Their first show was played at a Halloween party at a house in Detroit, Michigan.

Pop saw The Doors perform in 1967 at the University of Michigan and was amazed by the stage antics and antagonism displayed by singer Jim Morrison. Morrison’s extreme behavior, while performing in a popular band, inspired the young Pop to push the boundaries of stage performance. Other influences on Pop’s vocals and persona were Mick Jagger and James Brown. Pop was the first performer to do a stage-dive, which he started at a concert in Detroit.Pop, who traditionally performs bare-chested, also performed such stage theatrics as rolling around in broken glass, exposing himself to the crowd, and vomiting on stage. He was the vocalist of influential proto-punk band The Stooges. In 1968, one year after their live debut the band signed with Elektra Records, following the footsteps of The Doors, The Stooges’ first album The Stooges, (on which Pop was credited as “Iggy Stooge”), was produced by John Cale in New York in 1969. Both it and the follow-up, Fun House produced by Don Gallucci in Los Angeles in 1970, sold poorly. Though the release of Fun House did not receive the recognition it expected, it was later ranked #191 in Rolling Stone’s ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’ in 2003.Shortly after the new members joined, the group disbanded due to Pop’s worsening heroin addiction.

In 1971, without a record deal, The Stooges kept performing in small clubs with a 5-piece line-up that included both Ron Asheton and James Williamson on guitars and Jimmy Recca on bass, Dave Alexander having been sacked by Pop the previous year when he turned up for a gig unable to play because of his chronic alcoholism (he died in 1975). That year Pop and David Bowie met at Max’s Kansas City, a nightclub and restaurant in New York City. Pop’s career received a boost from his relationship with Bowie when Bowie decided in 1972 to produce an album with Pop. With James Williamson as guitarist. However, since neither Pop nor Williamson were satisfied with any players in England, they decided to re-unite The Stooges. Ron Asheton grudgingly moved from guitar to bass. The recording sessions produced the rock landmark Raw Power. After its release Scott Thurston joined the band on keyboards/electric piano and Bowie continued his support, but Pop’s drug problem persisted. The Stooges’ last show in 1974 ended in a fight between the band and a group of bikers, and Drug abuse stalled his career again for several years.

After the second breakup of The Stooges, Pop made some recordings with James Williamson, as Kill City, credited jointly to Pop and Williamson. Unable to control his drug use Pop checked himself into a mental institution, UCLA’s neuropsychiatric institute, to try to clean up. Bowie was one of his few visitors there, and he continued to support his friend and collaborator. In 1976, Bowie took him along as his companion on the Station to Station tour. This was Pop’s first exposure to large-scale professional touring and he was impressed, particularly with Bowie’s work ethic. On March 21, 1976, Bowie and Pop were arrested together for marijuana possession in Rochester, New York, although charges were later dropped.

Bowie and Pop relocated to West Berlin to wean themselves off their respective drug addictions. In 1977, Pop signed with RCA Records and Bowie helped write and produce The Idiot and Lust for Life, Pop’s two most acclaimed albums as a solo artist, the latter featuring one of Pop’s best-known songs “The Passenger”. Lust for Life also featured another team of brothers, Hunt and Tony Fox Sales, sons of comedian Soupy Sales. Among the songs Bowie and Pop wrote together were “China Girl”, “Tonight”, and “Sister Midnight”, all of which Bowie performed on his own albums later on (the last being recorded with different lyrics as “Red Money” on the album Lodger). Bowie also played keyboards in Pop’s live performances, some of which are featured on the album TV Eye Live in 1978. In return, Pop contributed backing vocals on Bowie’s Low. Following the album TV Eye Live then released New Values in 1979. Produced by James Williamson with Stooge Scott Thurston playing guitar and keyboards. the album’s style harkened back to the guitar sound of the Stooges. He then released the albums Soldier. Bowie appeared on the song “Play it Safe”, performing backing vocals with the group Simple Minds. Soldier was followed by the album Party.

In 1980, Pop published his autobiography I Need More, co-written with Anne Wehner. In 1982 he released the album Zombie Birdhouse. Pop’s fortunes changed when David Bowie recorded a cover of the song “China Girl” a major hit on Let’s Dance. Bowie recorded five more of their co-written songs including Lust for Life and New Values. Pop also contributed the title song to the 1984 film Repo Man (with Steve Jones, previously of the Sex Pistols, on guitar, and Nigel Harrison and Clem Burke, both of Blondie on bass and drums) and recorded the instrumental “Repo Man Theme”. In 1986 Pop released the new wave-influenced Blah-Blah-Blah, featuring the single “Real Wild Child”, a cover of “The Wild One”, originally written and recorded by Australian rock ‘n’ roll musician Johnny O’Keefe in 1958. Iggy Pop and Lou Reed contributed their singing voices to the animated film Rock & Rule. Pop performed the song “Pain & Suffering”. In 1987, Pop appeared (along with Bootsy Collins) on the album, Neo Geo, by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Pop’s follow-up to Blah Blah Blah, Instinct (1988), featured stripped-back, guitar-based sound and sounded more like the Stooges than his previous solo albums. Pop wrote the song “Living on the Edge of the Night” for the Ridley Scott thriller Black Rain; and “Love Transfusion”, a song originally written by Alice Cooper (who does backing vocals) and Desmond Child, for Wes Craven’s Shocker.

In 1990, Pop recorded Brick by Brick, produced by Don Was, with members of Guns N’ Roses and The B-52’s as guests, as well as backup vocals by many local Hollywood groups, the song “Candy”, was a duet with B-52’s singer Kate Pierson. Pop also starred in the controversial opera The Manson Family where he sang the role of prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. he also contributed to the Red Hot Organization’s AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue project, singing a version of “Well Did You Evah!” in a duet with Deborah Harry. Pop appeared on the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete. He played James Mecklenberg, Nona Mecklenberg’s father. In 1991, Pop and Whitey Kirst contributed the song “Why Was I Born (Freddy’s Dead)” to the soundtrack of the film Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. In 1992, he collaborated with Goran Bregović on the soundtrack for the movie Arizona Dream by Emir Kusturica. Pop sang four of the songs: In the Deathcar, TV Screen, Get the Money, and This is a Film. He also collaborated with the New York City band White Zombie recording spoken word vocals on the intro and outro of the song “Black Sunshine” as well as playing the character of a writer in the video shot for the song. In 1993, Pop released American Caesar, including two successful singles, “Wild America” and “Beside You” and in 1994 Pop contributed to Buckethead’s album Giant Robot, including the songs “Buckethead’s Toy Store” and “Post Office Buddy”. He appears also on the Les Rita Mitsouko album Système D singing “My Love is Bad” with Catherine Ringer. In 1996, Pop’s 1977 song “Lust for Life” was featured in the film Trainspotting.

In 1996, Pop released The album Naughty Little Doggie, with Whitey Kirst on guitar, and the single “I Wanna Live”. In 1997, he remixed Raw Power to give it a rougher, more hard-edged sound and co-produced his 1999 album Avenue B with Don Was, releasing the single “Corruption”. In 1997, Pop wrote the soundtrack to the film The Brave And made a guest appearance on The science fiction series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine portraying a Vorta in an episode based upon the film The Magnificent Seven, titled “The Magnificent Ferengi”. Pop also contributed the theme song for “Space Goofs”. Pop supplied vocals for the 1999 Death in Vegas UK Top-10 single Aisha and appeared on Hashisheen, The End Of Law, a collaborative effort by Bill Laswell, reading on the tracks The Western Lands and A Quick Trip to Alamut. He also sang on the tracks “Rolodex Propaganda” and “Enfilade” by At the Drive-In in 2000. During New Year’s Eve 1997, Pop was the headliner for the annual Australian three-day concert the Falls Festival. Pop produced the 2001 albums Beat ‘Em Up, which gave birth to The Trolls, releasing the single “Football” featuring Trolls alumni Whitey Kirst and brother Alex. Pop’s 2003 album Skull Ring featured collaborators Sum 41, Green Day, Peaches, and The Trolls, as well as Ron and Scott Asheton, reuniting the three surviving founding members of The Stooges for the first time since 1974. Pop made a guest appearance on Peaches’s song Kick It as well as the video. in 2003, his first full-length biography was published. Gimme Danger – The Story of Iggy Pop by Joe Ambrose. Pop reformed The Stooges with bassist Mike Watt (formerly of the Minutemen) filling in for the late Dave Alexander, and Fun House saxophonist Steve Mackay rejoining the lineup. Pop opened Madonna’s Reinvention World Tour in Dublin and Iggy and The Stooges played the Glastonbury Festival in June 2007 Playing classics such as “No Fun and “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

In 2008 Pop appeared at Madonna’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Together with The Stooges he sang raucous versions of two Madonna hits, “Burning Up” and “Ray of Light.” Pop also sang on the “No Fun” cover by Asian Dub Foundation on their 2008 album Punkara. Sadly On January 6, 2009, original Stooges guitarist and Pop’s self-described best friend Ron Asheton was found dead from an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old In 2009 James Williamson rejoined the band after 29 years. In 2009 it was finally announced that The Stooges would be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2005, Pop appeared, along with Madonna, Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, and The Roots’ Questlove, in an American TV commercial and in 2006 Iggy and the Stooges played in Australia and New Zealand for the Big Day Out. Iggy Pop released his next album The Weirdness, in 2007. In 2006 Iggy and the Stooges performed at the Lowlands pop festival in the Netherlands, Hodokvas in Slovakia and in the Sziget Festival in Budapest. Author Paul Trynka completed a biography of Pop (with his blessing) called Open Up and Bleed, published 2007. Iggy and the Stooges played at Bam Margera’s wedding and Pop appeared on the single “Punkrocker” with the Teddybears in a Cadillac television commercial. Pop was also the voice of Lil’ Rummy on the Comedy Central cartoon Lil’ Bush and voiced characters on American Dad! The conputer game Grand Theft Auto IV, also includes The Stooges song “I Wanna Be Your Dog”. In 2008 Pop guested on Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness), the new album by the Bill Laswell-helmed group Praxis. Pop collaborated with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse on the album “Dark Night of the Soul”, singing the track “Pain.” In 2009 Pop released his fifteenth solo album, Préliminaires, Inspired by a novel by French author Michel Houellebecq called La Possibilité d’une île (The Possibility of an Island).

Pop was approached to provide the soundtrack for a film on Houellebcq. He describes this new release as a “quieter album with some jazz overtones”, the first single off the album, “King of the Dogs”, bearing a sound strongly influenced by New Orleans jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. Pop said that the song was his response to being “sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music”. The album is available on legal download sites, CD, and a Deluxe Boxset is available at only 6000 units worldwide. This box set contains the Préliminaires album, a collector “Les Feuilles Mortes” b/w “King Of The Dogs” 7 inch, the cover of which is Pop’s portrait by Marjane Satrapi, and a 38-page booklet of drawings also by Marjane Satrapi. Pop also sings on “We’re All Gonna Die” on Slash’s first solo album Slash, and also appears as a character in the video game Lego Rock Band to sing his song “The Passenger”.

Following a stage diving accident in 2010 Pop claimed he would no longer stage dive. However, he did so at a concert in Madrid, Spain at the Hammersmith Apollo and Zottegem, Belgium. In 2010. Pop appeared at Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto with the reformed Stooges on the NXNE main stage and also teamed up with The Lilies, a collaboration between Sergio Dias of Os Mutantes and French group Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family, to record the single “Why?” In 2011, Pop performed “Real Wild Child” on the tenth season of American Idol; the Los Angeles Times music blog “Pop & Hiss” He is also featured on Kesha’s song “Dirty Love” on her second album Warrior. In 2013, Iggy and the Stooges co-headlined RiotFest 2013 along with The Replacements. In 2014, Pop gave the fourth annual BBC Music John Peel Lecture in Salford, on the topic of “Free Music in a Capitalist Society”. Pop contributed the theme song to Alex Cox’s latest film, Bill, the Galactic Hero and collaborated with New Order on the song “Stray Dog” of their album Music Complete and also with Tomoyasu Hotei on the songs “How The Cookie Crumbles” and “Walking Through The Night” from the album Strangers. In 2016, Pop released a double live album with Josh Homme titled Post Pop Depression: Live At The Royal Albert Hall and in 2017, Iggy Pop performed the song “T.V. Eye” with Metallica on their Hardwired Tour in Mexico City, Mexico.

Prince

American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson) Tragically died from a fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park recording studio and home in Chanhassen, Minnesota, on April 21, 2016, at the age of 57. He was born June 7, 1958. During his long running career Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings. In addition, Prince has been a “talent promoter” for the careers of Sheila E., Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6, and his songs have been recorded by these artists and others (including Chaka Khan, The Bangles, Sinéad O’Connor, and even Kim Basinger). He also has several hundred unreleased songs in his “vault”. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota,

Prince developed an interest in music at an early age, writing his first song at age seven. After recording songs with his cousin’s band 94 East, seventeen-year-old Prince recorded several unsuccessful demo tapes before releasing his debut album, For You, in 1978. His 1979 album, Prince, went platinum due to the success of the singles “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover”. His next three records, Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), and 1999 (1982) continued his success, showcasing Prince’s trademark of prominently sexual lyrics and incorporation of elements of funk, dance and rock music. In 1984, he began referring to his backup band as The Revolution and released the album Purple Rain, which served as the soundtrack to his film debut of the same name.

After releasing the albums Around the World in a Day (1985), and Parade (1986), The Revolution disbanded and he released the critically acclaimed double album Sign o’ the Times (1987) as a solo artist. He released three more solo albums before debuting the band The New Power Generation in 1991, which saw Prince changing his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol known as “The Love Symbol”. In 1994, he began releasing new albums at a faster pace to extract himself from contractual obligations to Warner Bros, releasing five records in a span of two years before signing to Arista Records in 1998. In 2000, he began referring to himself as Prince once again. He released thirteen new albums in the 21st century, including 20Ten, Art Offical Age, Plectrum Electrum, Hit’n’Run phase 1 and Hit’n’Run phase 2. The Prince estate and Legacy Recordings has also announced the release of a new album entitled “Welcome 2 America.” Containing tracks which Prince wrote and recorded before a 2010 tour. The title track “Welcome 2 America” is already streaming on several platforms including Spotify and Apple Music. The album is being released on 30 July 2021.

Prince has sold an estimated 80 million records worldwide he also has a wide vocal range and is known for his flamboyant stage presence and costumes. His releases have sold over 80 million copies worldwide. He has won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Rolling Stone has ranked Prince No. 27 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.Prince’s music has been influenced by rock, R&B, soul, funk, rap, blues, New Wave, electronica, disco,psychedelia, folk, jazz, and pop. His artistic influences include Sly & the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye, the Isley Brothers, Duke Ellington, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder. Prince pioneered the “Minneapolis sound”, a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave.

Avicii

Swedish musician, DJ, remixer and record producer Avicii (Tim Bergling) tragically died 20 April 2018 near Muscat, Oman, at the age of 28.He was born 8 September 1989 in Stockholm, In May 2007, Avicii signed on with the Dejfitts Plays label. Bergling was a member of the Laidback Luke Forums, where he refined his craft and, at times, demonstrated his distinct deep house style. Between 2009 and 2010, Bergling was a prolific producer and was releasing music incredibly quickly. His remixes during this period were “Sound of Now”, “Muja”, “Ryu” and “Even”. Bergling explained that the name Avicii means “the lowest level of Buddhist hell” (Avīci) and he chose the moniker because his real name was already used upon creating his Myspace page. Then, in 2010, Bergling released the hit song “Seek Bromance”, He also remixed Nadia Ali’s classic single “Rapture” for her album Queen of Clubs Trilogy: Onyx Edition. In 2010, Bergling signed with the European A&R team with EMI Music Publishing

In 2011. Bergling began working with his manager and executive producer Ash Pournouri to start House for Hunger which is dedicated to alleviating global hunger. The pair wanted to showcase the giving spirit fostered by the house music community. AVICII also released his breakthrough single “Levels”. In 2012, his collaboration track “Sunshine” with David Guetta was nominated for a Grammy award under the category for Best Dance Recording and His track “Fade into Darkness” was sampled by Leona Lewis on her single “Collide”. In 2012, Bergling released the single “Last Dance”. At Ultra Music Festival 2012 in Miami, he premiered two tracks, “Girl Gone Wild” (Avicii’s UMF Remix) with Madonna and “Superlove” with Lenny Kravitz. Bergling also released the songs “Two Million” and “Silhouettes” featuring vocals from Salem Al Fakir.

In 2012 AVICII performed at Lollapalooza festival in Chicago’s Grant Park and released “Dancing in My Head” (Avicii’s ‘Been Cursed’ Mix) Featuring vocals from Eric Turner. A radio edit of the track, titled “Dancing in My Head” (Tom Hangs Mix) was also released plus an EP featuring remixes from Charlie Bernardo and Michael Woods. AVICII also headlined the world-famous Radio City Music Hall in New York City. supported by Matt Goldman and Cazzette playing his new track “Stay with You”.

His debut studio album, True was released in 2013 and featured electronic music blended with elements of several music genres and received generally positive reviews from music critics. The song was produced by Bergling and contains a vocal sample from the 1962 gospel-inspired “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” by Etta James. The same vocal sample was used first by Pretty Lights in his 2006 song “Finally Moving. This sample was also used by Drum and Bass producer Logistics on “Call Me Back” and by Flo Rida in his single “Good Feeling”, which was produced by DJ Prak and Cirkut.

His repertoire also includes the singles I’ll Be Gone” and “Let It Go”. The instrumental of “Let It Go” was mixed with the a capella of “Addicted to You” to become “Addicted to You (Avicii by Avicii), “I Could Be the One” with Nicky Romero, “You Make Me”, “X You”, “Hey Brother”, “The Days”, “The Nights”, “Waiting for Love”, “Without You” and “Lonely Together”. Bergling was nominated for Grammy Awards for his work on “Sunshine” with David Guetta in 2012 and the track “Levels”. in 2013 Bergling launched the Avicii X You project, a partnership with Ericsson, designed to create the world’s first “crowdsourced” hit song. The project enabled fans to send in basslines, effects, melodies, rhythms and vocals to Bergling as sound files over the Internet. The song features sequences from Kian Sang (melody), Naxsy (bassline), Martin Kupilas (beat), Ваня Хакси (break), Jonathan Madray, Mateusz Kolata, and Christian Westphalen (effects). Bergling acted as executive producer and created the finished song officially titled X You. AVICII also released “Three Million” featuring Negin. Bergling was nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance Recording with “Levels” at the 2013 Grammy Awards. He was nominated alongside Calvin Harris and Ne-Yo, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia and John Martin, and Al Walser. AVICII toured Australia as one of the headline acts in the Future Music Festival alongside The Prodigy and The Stone Roses and also toured South America performing in Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Chile.

In 2013, AVICII released the album True which included the new bluegrass-tinged song “Wake Me Up”. Plus his new album promo mix on SoundCloud. containing songs from True, some non-album singlesPlus some of his ID’s such as “Black and Blue” and “Enough is Enough (Don’t Give Up On Us)”. AVICII also composed the anthem for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 along with ex-ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. AVICII ‘s next single, “Wake Me Up”, featuring Aloe Blacc was released 2013 which become the UK’s fastest selling single of 2013 after overtaking Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”, having sold 267,000 copies in its first week on sale. In 2013, AVICII was ranked no.3 in the DJ Mag’s 2013 Top 100 DJs List he also released the single “Hey Brother” featuring Dan Tyminski. In 2013 AVICII won the award “Best Electronic” at the MTV EMA’s And the American Music Award for favorite Electronic Dance Music Artist and released thefourth single off the album True, “Addicted to You”featuring Audra Mae, who also sings on “Shame on Me” Dreaming of Me”,and “Long Road to Hell”. AVICII also released the single “Lay Me Down”, featuring vocals from Adam Lambert and guitar from Nile Rodgers. In 2014, French radio station NRJ released a web radio station called “NRJ AVICII”.

In 2014, AVICII released a remixed edition of his album True titled True: Avicii By Avicii containing remixes by himself of all the tracks, excluding “Heart Upon My Sleeve”. AVICII Also collaborated with Carlos Santana, Wyclef Jean and Alexandre Pires for the official FIFA World Cup Anthem titled “Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)”. He was due to perform at the 2014 Ultra Music Festival, but was hospitalised on March, 2014 and was unable to playHe also released his single “Lay Me Down” and produced and collaborated with Chris Martin from Coldplay, co-writing and co-producing the track “A Sky Full of Stars” from the 2014 album Ghost Stories. AVICII also co-produced Lovers on the Sun” with David Guetta and collaborated with Wyclef Jean on a single titled “Divine Sorrow” from the album Clefication

AVICII worked on 70 songs foR the album Stories, which would include collaborations with Jon Bon Jovi, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Chris Martin, Wyclef Jean and Matisyahu. During his tour for True, he also performed the single “No Pleasing a Woman” with vocals from Billie Joe Armstrong of American rock band Green Day. AVICII performed No Pleasing a Woman”. “In Love with Your Ghost” with Daniel “Danne” Adams-Ray, “Love to Fall” with Tom Odell and “Million Miles” with LP, which is the demo version of “Trouble”, a song from Stories with vocals from Wayne Hector. He released Lose Myself”, in collaboration with Chinese singer Wang Leehom.

On 8 September 2014, his 25th birthday, Bergling decided to cancel all of his remaining performances of 2014 due to health concerns. He also released “The Days” In collaboration with Robbie Williams, He also released a brand new track called “The Nights” on FIFA 15. That November Wyclef Jean released a track titled “Divine Sorrow” featuring Avicii. On 2 March 2015, Bergling performed the song “Heaven” live at Australia’s Future Music Festival , featuring Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, However, the vocals were later resung by singer Simon Aldred from Cherry Ghost; although Chris Martin received writing credits. Much of AVICII ‘s UMF set 2015 was released on the Internet including “Heaven”, “Waiting For Love,” and some of his ID’s “For A Better Day”, “City Lights”, “Can’t Catch Me”, “True Believer”, “What Would I Change It To”, “Can’t Love You Again” and “Attack”.

AVICII also previewed his bootleg of Kings of Tomorrow’s song “Finally” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” with ASH, he also released his rework of Nina Simone’s version of “Feeling Good”, and previewed the song “I’ll Be Gone”. He previewed the song Waiting for Love” featuring vocals from Simon Aldred of Cherry Ghost and co-produced by fellow DJ and producer Martin Garrix. He also previewed “Tracks of My Tears”, “Sorry Mr. Atari” and “Time to Get lll”. AVICII previewed two tracks from his album Stories on episode 37 of his LE7ELS podcast: “Broken Arrows” featuring Zac Brown Band and “Can’t Catch Me” featuring Wyclef Jean and Matisyahu. AVICII then released “For a Better Day” featuring American singer Alex Ebert and “Pure Grinding” featuring vocals from Kristoffer Fogelmark and Earl St. Clair. His next album Stories was released in 2015 alongside 3 promotional singles: “Broken Arrows” with Zac Brown, “Ten More Days” with Zak Abel and “Gonna Love Ya” with Sandro Cavazzi. Avicii was also mentioned in the song “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” by American singer and songwriter Mike Posner.

In 2016, Bergling released his remix of Morten’s “Beautiful Heartbeat” and partnered with Coca-Cola For the global campaign anthem “Taste the Feeling” featuring Conrad Sewell. AVICII teamed up again with Coldplay to co-produce the band’s single “Hymn for the Weekend” from their album A Head Full of Dreams. HE also performed live at Ultra Music Festival and premiered new IDs such as “Without You (feat. Sandro Cavazza)”, “We Burn (Faster Than Light)”, and a collaboration with Australian pop star Sia (which he first played in Dubai). He also released his collaboration with Otto Knows titled “Back Where I Belong” and a remix of his own song, “Feeling Good” entitled “Feeling Good (Avicii by Avicii) On 28 August 2016, Bergling performed his final live performance in Ibiza, before retiring from touring citing health concerns. Avicii also parted ways with long-time manager Ash Pournouri and At Night Management along with Ash’s record label PRMD and signed with Universal Music Sweden.

In 2017, British singer Rita Ora debuted a semi-acoustic version of “Lonely Together” at a private event at Annabel’s in London and Bergling released the six-track EP Avīci (01) in August 2017. Avicii made a documentary entitled Avicii: True Stories chronicling his retirement from tour, and featuring interviews from his colleagues David Guetta, Tiësto, Wyclef Jean, Nile Rodgers and Chris Martin of Coldplay. Sadly In 2016, Bergling’s health deteriorated, and he was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis caused by excessive alcohol use. He subsequently stopped performing live.

Luther Vandross

Late great American singer, songwriter, and record producer Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. Was born April 20, 1951 in the Kipps Bay neighbourhood of Manhatten, New York. Sadly Vandross’ father died of diabetes when Vandross was eight years old. His family moved to the Bronx when he was nine. His sisters, Patricia “Pat” and Ann, began taking Vandross to the Apollo Theater ad to a theater in Brooklyn to see Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin.Patricia sang with the vocal group The Crests and was featured on the songs “My Juanita” and “Sweetest One”

While in high school, Vandross founded the first Patti LaBelle fan club, of which he was president. He also performed in a group, Shades of Jade, that once played at the Apollo Theater. During his early years in show business, he appeared several times at the Apollo’s famous amateur night. While he was a member of a theater workshop, Listen My Brother, he was involved in the singles “Only Love Can Make a Better World” and “Listen My Brother”. He appeared with the group in several episodes of the first season of Sesame Street during 1969–1970.Vandross graduated from William Howard Taft High School in the Bronx in 1969, and attended Western Michigan University for a year before dropping out to continue pursuing a career in music.

Throughout his career, Vandross was an in-demand background vocalist for several different artists including Todd Rundgren, Judy Collins, Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Ben E. King, and Donna Summer. He later became a lead singer of the group Change, which released its gold-certified debut album, The Glow of Love, in 1980 on Warner/RFC Records. 

After Vandross left the group, he was signed to Epic Recordsas a solo artist and released his debut solo album, Never Too Much, in 1981. His hit songs include “Never Too Much”, “Here and Now”, “Any Love”, “Power of Love/Love Power”, “I Can Make It Better” and “For You to Love”. Many of his songs were covers of original music by other artists such as “If This World Were Mine” (duet with Cheryl Lynn), “Since I Lost My Baby”, “Superstar”, “I (Who Have Nothing)” and “Always and Forever”. Duets such as “The Closer I Get to You” with Beyoncé, “Endless Love” with Mariah Carey and “The Best Things in Life Are Free” with Janet Jackson were all hit songs in his career. In 2003, Vandross wrote the song “Dance with My Father” and dedicated it to him; the title was based on his childhood memories and his mother’s recollections of the family singing and dancing in the house.

Luther Vandross sadly died July 1, 2005. During his career, he was very successful, selling over 35 million records worldwide, and receiving eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four different times. He won a total of four Grammy Awards in 2004 including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for a song recorded not long before his death, “Dance with My Father”.

Dusty Springfield

Dubbed The White Queen of Soul, British pop singer Dusty Springfield was born on 16 April in 1939 in West London to an Irish Catholic family that enjoyed music, and learned to sing at home. She joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, in 1958, then formed the pop-folk vocal trio The Springfields in 1960 with her brother Dion. Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, “I Only Want to Be with You”. Among the hits that followed were “Wishin’ and Hopin’”, “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself”, “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, and “Son of a Preacher Man”. She was A fan of American pop music and was the first public figure to bring little-known soul singers to a wider British audience, when she created and hosted the first British performances of the top-selling Motown artists in 1965. By 1966, she was the best-selling female singer in the world, and topped a number of popularity polls, including Melody Maker’s Best International Vocalist. She was the first British singer to top the New Musical Express readers’ poll for Female Singer.

Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties. The marked changes in pop music in the mid-1960s left many female pop singers out of fashion. To boost her credibility as a soul artist, Springfield went to Memphis, Tennessee, to record an album of pop and soul music with the Atlantic Records main production team. Released in 1969, Dusty in Memphis has been ranked among the greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone and VH1 artists, New Musical Express readers, and the Channel 4 viewers polls. The album was also awarded a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame. After this, however, Springfield experienced a career slump for eighteen years. She returned to the Top 20 of the British and American charts in collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys on the songs “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”, “Nothing Has Been Proved”, and “In Private” adInterest in Springfield’s early output was as revived in 1994 due to the inclusion of “Son of a Preacher Man” on the soundtrack of the movie Pulp Fiction a

With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important white soul singer, and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. She is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. International polls have named Springfield Sadly Passed away on March 2nd 1999 but was among the best female rock artists of all time and has left a wonderful legacy in the form of some great songs.

Henry Mancini

Best remembered for his film and television scores, the Grammy Award Winning American composer, conductor and arranger, Nicola “Henry” Mancini was born April 16, 1924 in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland. He was raised near Pittsburgh, in the steel town of West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. His parents emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy. Mancini’s father, Quinto was a steelworker, who made his only child begin piccolo lessons at the age of eight. When Mancini was 12 years old, he began piano lessons. Quinto and Henry played flute together in the Aliquippa Italian immigrant band, “Sons of Italy”. After graduating from Aliquippa High School in 1942, Mancini attended the renowned Juilliard School of Music in New York. In 1943, after roughly one year at Juilliard, his studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the United States Army. In 1945, he participated in the liberation of a concentration camp in southern Germany. After being discharged, Mancini entered the music industry. Entering 1946, he became a pianist and arranger for the newly re-formed Glenn Miller Orchestra, led by ‘Everyman’ Tex Beneke. After World War II, Mancini broadened his skills in composition, counterpoint, harmony and orchestration during studies opening with the composers Ernst Krenek and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

In 1952, Mancini joined the Universal Pictures music department. During the next six years, he contributed music to over 100 movies, most notably The Creature from the Black Lagoon, It Came from Outer Space, Tarantula, This Island Earth, The Glenn Miller Story (for which he received his first Academy Award nomination), The Benny Goodman Story and Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil. During this time, he also wrote some popular songs. His first hit was a single by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians titled I Won’t Let You Out of My Heart. Mancini left Universal-International to work as an independent composer/ arranger in 1958. Soon afterward, he scored the television series Peter Gunn for writer/producer Blake Edwards. This was the genesis of a relationship in which Edwards and Mancini collaborated on 30 films over 35 years. Along with Alex North, Elmer Bernstein, Leith Stevens and Johnny Mandel, Henry Mancini was a pioneer of the inclusion of jazz elements in the late romantic orchestral film and TV scoring prevalent at the time.

Mancini’s scores for Blake Edwards included Breakfast at Tiffany’s (with the standard “Moon River”) and Days of Wine and Roses (with the title song, “Days of Wine and Roses”), as well as Experiment in Terror, The Pink Panther (and all of its sequels), The Great Race, The Party, and Victor Victoria. Another director with whom Mancini had a longstanding partnership was Stanley Donen (Charade, Arabesque, Two for the Road). Mancini also composed for Howard Hawks (Man’s Favorite Sport?, Hatari! – which included the well-known “Baby Elephant Walk”), Martin Ritt (The Molly Maguires), Vittorio de Sica (Sunflower), Norman Jewison (Gaily, Gaily), Paul Newman (Sometimes a Great Notion, The Glass Menagerie), Stanley Kramer (Oklahoma Crude), George Roy Hill (The Great Waldo Pepper), Arthur Hiller (Silver Streak), Ted Kotcheff (Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?), and others. Mancini’s score for the Alfred Hitchcock film Frenzy (1972) in Bachian organ andante, for organ and an orchestra of strings was rejected and replaced by Ron Goodwin’s work.

Mancini scored many TV movies, including The Thorn Birds and The Shadow Box. He wrote many television themes, including Mr. Lucky (starring John Vivyan and Ross Martin), NBC Mystery Movie, What’s Happening!!, Tic Tac Dough (1990 version) and Once Is Not Enough. In the 1984–85 television season, four series featured original Mancini themes: Newhart, Hotel, Remington Steele, and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Mancini also composed the “Viewer Mail” theme for Late Night with David Letterman. Mancini composed the theme for NBC Nightly News used beginning in 1975, and a different theme by him, titled Salute to the President was used by NBC News for its election coverage (including primaries and conventions) from 1976 to 1992. Salute to the President was only published in a school-band arrangement, although Mancini performed it frequently with symphony orchestras on his concert tours.

Songs with music by Mancini were staples of the easy listening genre from the 1960s to the 1980s. Some of the artists who have recorded Mancini songs include Andy Williams, Paul Anka, Pat Boone, Anita Bryant, Jack Jones, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Connie Francis, Eydie Gorme, Steve Lawrence, Trini Lopez, George Maharis, Johnny Mathis, Jerry Vale, Ray Conniff, The Lennon Sisters, The Lettermen, Herb Alpert, Eddie Cano, Frank Chacksfield, Warren Covington, Percy Faith, Ferrante & Teicher, Horst Jankowski, Andre Kostelanetz, Peter Nero, Liberace, Mantovani, Tony Bennett, Julie London, Wayne Newton, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra, Peggy Lee, and Matt Monro. The Anita Kerr Quartet won a Grammy award (1965) for their album “We Dig Mancini”, a cover of his songs. Lawrence Welk held Mancini in very high regard, and frequently featured Mancini’s music on The Lawrence Welk Show (Mancini made at least one guest appearance on the show).

Mancini recorded over 90 albums, in styles ranging from big band to light classical to pop. Eight of these albums were certified gold by The Recording Industry Association of America. He had a 20-year contract with RCA Records, resulting in 60 commercial record albums that made him a household name among artists of easy-listening music. Mancini’s earliest recordings in the 1950s and early 1960s were of the jazz idiom; with the success of Peter Gunn, Mr. Lucky, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Mancini shifted to primarily recording his own music in record albums and film soundtracks. (Relatively little of his music was written for recordings compared to the amount that was written for film and television.) Beginning with his 1969 hit arrangement of Nino Rota’s A Time for Us (as his only Hot 100 top 10 entry, the #1 hit “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet”) and its accompanying album A Warm Shade of Ivory, Mancini began to function more as a piano soloist and easy-listening artist primarily recording music written by other people. In this period, for two of his best-selling albums he was joined by trumpet virtuoso and The Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen. Among Mancini’s orchestral scores are (Lifeforce, The Great Mouse Detective, Sunflower, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Molly Maguires, The Hawaiians), and darker themes (Experiment in Terror, The White Dawn, Wait Until Dark, The Night Visitor).

Mancini was also a concert performer, conducting over fifty engagements per year, resulting in over 600 symphony performances during his lifetime. He conducted nearly all of the leading symphonies of the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. One of his favorites was the Minnesota Orchestra, where he debuted the Thorn Birds Suite in June 1983. He appeared in 1966, 1980 and 1984 in command performances for the British Royal Family. He also toured several times with Johnny Mathis and also with Andy Williams, who had each sung many of Mancini’s songs; Mathis and Mancini collaborated on the 1986 album The Hollywood Musicals.

Mancini also made many cameo appearances on Television; Shortly before his death in 1994, he made a one-off cameo appearance in the first season of Frasier, as a call-in patient to Dr. Frasier Crane’s radio show. Mancini voiced the character Al, who speaks with a melancholy drawl and hates the sound of his own voice, in the episode “Guess Who’s Coming to Breakfast?” Moments after Mancini’s cameo ends, Frasier’s radio broadcast plays “Moon River” to underscore a particularly heartfelt apology. Mancini also had an uncredited performance as a pianist in the 1967 movie Gunn, the movie version of the series Peter Gunn, the score of which was originally composed by Mancini himself. In the 1966 Pink Panther cartoon Pink, Plunk, Plink, the panther commandeered an orchestra and proceeded to conduct Mancini’s theme for the series. At the end, the shot switched to rare live action, and Mancini was seen alone applauding in the audience.

Sadly Mancini died of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles on June 14, 1994, Shortly before his death He was working at the time on the Broadway stage version of Victor/Victoria. Mancini was survived by his wife of 43 years, singer Virginia “Ginny” O’Connor, with whom he had three children. They had met while both were members of the Tex Beneke orchestra, just after World War II. In 1948, Mrs. Mancini was one of the founders of the Society of Singers, a non-profit organization which benefits the health and welfare of professional singers worldwide. Additionally the Society awards scholarships to students pursuing an education in the vocal arts. One of Mancini’s twin daughters, Monica Mancini, is a professional singer; her sister Felice runs The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation (MHOF). His son Christopher is a music publisher and promoter in Los Angeles.

In 1996, the Henry Mancini Institute, an academy for young music professionals, was founded by Jack Elliott in Mancini’s honor, and was later under the direction of composer-conductor Patrick Williams. By the mid 2000s, however, the institute could not sustain itself and closed its doors on December 30, 2006. However, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Foundation “Henry Mancini Music Scholarship” has been awarded annually since 2001. While still alive, Henry created a scholarship at UCLA and the bulk of his library and works are archived in the music library at UCLA.

In 2005, the Henry Mancini Arts Academy was opened as a division of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center. The Center is located in Midland, Pennsylvania, minutes away from Mancini’s hometown of Aliquippa. The Henry Mancini Arts Academy is an evening-and-weekend performing arts program for children from pre-K to grade 12, with some classes also available for adults. The program includes dance, voice, musical theater, and instrumental lessons. The American Film Institute ranked Mancini’s songs Moon River in the No. 4 and Days of Wine and Roses in No. 39 on their list of the greatest songs and his score for The Pink Panther No. 20 on their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Charade (1963), Hatari! (1962), Touch of Evil (1958) and Wait Until Dark (1967) were also nominated for the list.

Mancini was nominated for an unprecedented 72 Grammys, winning 20 and was nominated for 18 Academy Awards, winning four. He also won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for two Emmys. and was awarded a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. He was first nominated for an Academy Award in 1955 for his original score of The Glenn Miller Story, on which he collaborated with Joseph Gershenson. He lost out to Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. In 1962, he was nominated in the Best Music, Original Song category for “Bachelor in Paradise” from the film of the same name, in collaboration with lyricist Mack David. That song did not win. However, Mancini did receive two Oscars that year: one in the same category, for the song “Moon River” (shared with lyricist Johnny Mercer), and one for “Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture” for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The following year, he and Mercer took another Best Original Song award for “Days of Wine and Roses”. He finally garnered one last statuette working with lyricist Leslie Bricusse on the score for Victor Victoria, which won the Academy Award for “Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score”. All three of the films for which he won were directed by Blake Edwards. His score for Victor/Victoria was adapted for the 1995 Broadway musical of the same name.

Joey Ramone

The late great American vocalist and songwriter Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman) sadly died 15 April 2001. He was born 19th May 1951 in Queens, New York to a Jewish family. His parents are Charlotte (née Mandell) and Noel Hyman. The family lived in Forest Hills, Queens New York where Hyman and his future Ramones bandmates attended Forest Hills High School. Though happy, Hyman was something of an outcast, diagnosed at 18 with obsessive–compulsive disorder. He grew up with his brother Mickey Leigh. His mother, Charlotte Lesher, divorced her first husband, Noel Hyman. She married a second time but was widowed by a car accident while she was on vacation. Hyman was a fan of the Beatles, the Who, David Bowie, and the Stooges among other bands, particularly oldies and the Phil Spector-produced “girl groups”. His idol was Pete Townshend of the Who, with whom he shared a birthday. Hyman took up the drums at 13, and played them throughout his teen years before picking up an acoustic guitar at age 17.

In 1972 Hyman joined the glam punk band Sniper. Sniper played at the Mercer Arts Center, Max’s Kansas City and the Coventry, alongside the New York Dolls, Suicide, and Queen Elizabeth III. Hyman played with Sniper under the name Jeff Starship until early 1974, when he was replaced by Alan Turner, whereupon he co-founded the punk rock band the Ramones with friends John Cummings and Douglas Colvin. Colvin was already using the pseudonym “Dee Dee Ramone” and the others also adopted stage names using “Ramone” as their surname: Cummings became Johnny Ramone and Hyman became Joey Ramone. The name “Ramone” stems from Paul McCartney, who briefly used the stage name “Paul Ramon” during 1960/1961, when the Beatles, still an unknown five-piece band called the Silver Beetles, did a tour of Scotland and all took up pseudonyms; and again on a 1969 Steve Miller album where he played the drums on one song using that name. Joey initially served as the group’s drummer while Dee Dee Ramone was the original vocalist. However, when Dee Dee’s vocal cords proved unable to sustain the demands of consistent live performances, Ramones manager Thomas Erdelyi suggested Joey switch to vocals. After a series of unsuccessful auditions in search of a new drummer, Erdelyi took over on drums, assuming the name Tommy Ramone.

The Ramones were a major influence on the punk rock movement in the United States, though they achieved only minor commercial success. Their only record with enough U.S. sales to be certified gold was the compilation album Ramones Mania. Recognition of the band’s importance built over the years, and they are now regularly represented in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as the Rolling Stone lists of the 50 Greatest Artists of All Time and 25 Greatest Live Albums of All Time, VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, and Mojo’s 100 Greatest Albums. In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in Spin, trailing only the Beatles. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played their final show and then disbanded.

Sadly Little more than eight years after the breakup, the band’s three founding members—lead singer Joey Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone—had died. Their only record with enough U.S. sales to be certified gold was the compilation album Ramones Mania. However, recognition of the band’s importance built over the years, and they are now cited in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as the Rolling Stone list of the 50 Greatest Artists of All Time and VH1′s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by Spin magazine, trailing only The Beatles. On March 18, 2002, the Ramones—including the three founders and drummers Tommy and Marky Ramone—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bob Marley: One Love

Bob Marley One Love is released on Amazon Prime on 15 April 2024. Reggae Legend Bob Marley was born 6 February 1945 in Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish. He attended Stepney Primary and Junior High School which serves the catchment area of Saint Ann.In 1955, when Bob Marley was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack at the age of 70. He achieved international fame through a series of crossover reggae albums .Starting out in 1963 with the group the Wailers, he forged a distinctive songwriting and vocal style The Wailers would go on to release some of the earliest reggae records with producer Lee Scratch Perry.

Marley and Neville Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer) had been childhood friends in Nine Mile and started to play music together while at Stepney Primary and Junior High School.Marley left Nine Mile with his mother when he was 12 and moved to Trenchtown, Kingston. Now that Marley and Livingston were living together in the same house in Trenchtown, their musical explorations deepened to include the latest R&B from American radio stations whose broadcasts reached Jamaica, and the new Ska music. In Trenchtown Marley soon found himself in a vocal group with Bunny Livingston, Peter Tosh, Beverley Kelso and Junior Braithwaite. Joe Higgs, who was part of the successful vocal act Higgs & Wilson, resided on 3rd St., and his singing partner Roy Wilson had been raised by the grandmother of Junior Braithwaite.

Higgs and Wilson rehearsed at the back of the houses between 2nd and 3rd Streets, and it wasn’t long before Marley, Junior Braithwaite and the others were congregating around this successful duo. Marley and the others didn’t play any instruments at this time, and were more interested in being a vocal harmony group. Higgs helped them develop their vocal harmonies, and taught Marley how to play guitar.

In February 1962, Marley recorded four songs, “Judge Not”, “One Cup of Coffee”, “Do You Still Love Me?” and “Terror”, at Federal Studio for local music producer Leslie Kong. Three of the songs were released on Beverley’s with “One Cup of Coffee” being released under the pseudonym Bobby Martell. In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith were called The Teenagers. They later changed the name to The Wailing Rudeboys, then to The Wailing Wailers, and were discovered by record producer Coxsone Dodd, and finally to The Wailers. Their single “Simmer Down” for the Coxsone label became a Jamaican #1 in February 1964 selling an estimated 70,000 copies.The Wailers, now regularly recording for Studio One, found themselves working with established Jamaican musicians such as Ernest Ranglin (arranger “It Hurts To Be Alone”),the keyboardist Jackie Mittoo and saxophonist Roland Alphonso. By 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the core trio of Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh. In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware in the United States for a short time, during which he worked as a DuPont lab assistant and on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant, under the alias Donald Marley. Though raised as a Catholic, Marley became interested in Rastafarian beliefs in the 1960s, when away from his mother’ influence. After returning to Jamaica Marley formally converted to Rastafari and began to grow dreadlocks. The Rastafarian proscription against cutting hair is based on the biblical Samson who as a Nazarite was expected to make certain religious vows. After a financial disagreement with Dodd, Marley and his band teamed up with Lee “Scratch” Perry and his studio band, The Upsetters. and they recorded what many consider The Wailers’ finest work. Marley and Perry split after a dispute regarding the assignment of recording rights, but they would remain friends and work together again.

Between 1968 and 1972, Bob and Rita Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer re-cut some old tracks in an attempt to commercialise The Wailers’ sound. In 1968, Bob and Rita visited songwriter Jimmy Norman at his apartment in the Bronx. Norman had written the extended lyrics for Kai Winding’s “Time Is on My Side” (covered by the Rolling Stones) and had also written for Johnny Nash and Jimi Hendrix.A three-day jam session with Norman and others, including Norman’s co-writer Al Pyfrom, resulted in a 24-minute tape of Marley performing several of his own and Norman-Pyfrom’s compositions. Marley experimented on the tape with different sounds, adopting a doo-wop style on “Stay With Me” and “the slow love song style of 1960′s artists” on “Splish for My Splash”.Marley lived in Ridgmount Gardens,Bloomsbury, during 1972.

In 1972, Bob Marley embarked on a UK tour with American soul singer Johnny Nash. Following this The Wailers returned to Jamaica to record at Harry J’s in Kingston which resulted in the album Catch a Fire which was released worldwide in April 1973, packaged like a rock record with a uniqueZippo lighter lift-top. Initially selling 14,000 units, it didn’t make Marley a star, but received a positive critical reception. 

It was followed later that year by the album Burnin’ which included the song “I Shot the Sheriff”. Eric Clapton was given the album by his guitarist George Terry in the hope that he would enjoy it. Clapton was suitably impressed and chose to record a cover version of “I Shot the Sheriff” which became his first US hit since “Layla” two years earlier and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 14 September 1974. Marley acquired 56 Hope Road (then known as Island House) the property became not only Marley’s office, and Studio but also his home. The Wailers were scheduled to open seventeen shows in the US for Sly and the Family Stone. After four shows, the band was fired because they were more popular than the acts they were opening for. the Wailers broke up in 1974 with each of the three main members pursuing solo careers.

After the Wailers disbanded in 1974, Marley, who was a committed Rastafarian who infused his music with a profound sense of spirituality, pursued a solo career. In 1975, Marley had his international debut with his first hit outside Jamaica, “No Woman, No Cry”, from the Natty Dread album. this was followed by his breakthrough album in the United States, Rastaman Vibration (1976), which reached the Top 50 of the Billboard Soul Charts. Sadly On 3 December 1976, two days before “Smile Jamaica”, a free concert organised by the Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley . Unfortunately Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley’s home Bob Marley received minor wounds in the chest and arm. Nonetheless, the concert proceeded two days later and an injured Marley performed as scheduled, The members of the group Zap Pow played as Bob Marley’s backup band before a festival crowd of 80,000. Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976, and after a month-long “recovery and writing” sojourn at the site of Chris Blackwell’s Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, arrived in England, where he spent two years in self-imposed exile. This culminated in the release of the album Exodus in 1977 which established his worldwide reputation. In 1984 Junior Braithwaite returned to Jamaica in 1984 to work with Bunny Wailer on a Wailers’ reunion project. However following his murder in the home of a fellow musician in Kingston and the assassination of Peter Tosh in September 1987, plans for world tours with a reunited Wailers never materialized.