Crooners & Songbirds's topics - tribe.net

Happy 115th Vaughn De Leath

kubbie — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:39:16 GMT

1927 Are You Lonesome Tonight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5TGHuvX68

1925 Banana Oil Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO1V78SMAAo&feature=related

Bye Bye Blackbird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuhJxemeFvc&feature=related

Ben Selvin - Vaughn De Leath - Honey 1927
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAXlyzysAQw&feature=related

1929 with the Paul Whiteman Orch Button Up Your OVercoat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2lYO7o6HBo&feature=related

Vaughn De Leath (September 26, 1894 - May 28, 1943) was a female singer who gained popularity in the 1920s, earning the sobriquets "The Original Radio Girl" and "First Lady of Radio." Although popular in the 1920s, De Leath is little known today.

De Leath was an early exponent of a style of vocalizing known as crooning. One of her hit songs, "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," recorded in 1927, achieved immortality when it became a hit for Elvis Presley in 1960.

She was born as Leonore Vonderlieth in the town of Mount Pulaski, Illinois in 1894. Her parents were George and Catherine Vonderlieth. At age 12, Leonore relocated to Los Angeles with her mother and sister, where she finished high school and studied music. While at Mills College, she began writing songs, but dropped out to pursue a singing career. She adopted the stage name "Vaughn De Leath." Her vocals ranged from soprano to deep contralto. De Leath adapted to the emerging, less restrictive jazz vocal style of the late 1910s - early 1920s.

In January 1920 inventor and radio pioneer Lee DeForest brought her to his studio in New York City's World Tower, where De Leath sang "Swanee River" in a cramped room. Most radio listeners at the time were only equipped with crystal radio, which limited audio fidelity. This performance is sometimes cited as the first live singing broadcast (although this is disputed by some historians). According to some historical accounts of this incident, having been advised that high notes sung in her natural soprano might shatter the fragile vacuum tubes of her carbon mic’s amplifier, De Leath switched to a deep contralto and in the process invented “crooning”, which became the dominant pop vocal styling for the next three decades.

By 1921, in the formative years of commercial radio, De Leath began singing at WJZ, in Newark, New Jersey (a station later known as WABC in New York City). She also performed on the New York stage in the early- to mid-1920s, but radio became her primary medium, and she made a name for herself as a radio entertainer.

Her recording career began in 1921. Over the next decade she recorded for a number of labels, including Edison, Columbia, Okeh, Gennett, Victor, and Brunswick. She occasionally recorded for major label subsidiaries under assumed names. De Leath had a highly versatile range of styles, and as material required could adapt as a serious balladeer, playful girl, vampish coquette, or vaudeville comedienne.

De Leath's recording accompanists included some of the top jazz talent of the 1920s, including cornetist Red Nichols, trombonist Miff Mole, guitarists Dick McDonough and Eddie Lang, and bandleader Paul Whiteman. She demonstrated a high level of instrumental ability on the ukulele, and occasionally accompanied herself on recordings.

In 1923, she became one of the first female executives to manage a radio station, WDT in New York City, on which she also performed. In 1928, she appeared on an experimental television broadcast and later became a special guest for the debut broadcast of Voice of Firestone Radio Hour. She also was one of the first American entertainers to broadcast to Europe via transatlantic radio transmission.

De Leath made her last recording in 1931 for Eli Oberstein's Crown label. She made her final nationwide network performances in the early 1930s. In her waning years, she made radio appearances on local New York stations, including WBEN in Buffalo.

De Leath was married twice, to Leon Geer (an artist whom she married in 1924, and from whom she was divorced in 1935), and then to Irwin Rosenbloom, a musician. Her obituary in the New York Times incorrectly stated her age at death as 42, but she was actually 48.

Prior to her death in Buffalo, New York she had had considerable financial difficulties, complicated by a drinking problem which contributed to her early death. Her ashes were buried in her childhood home of Mount Pulaski, Illinois.

In 1931, De Leath sued Kate Smith for using the "First Lady of the Radio" designation. Although Smith desisted for a time, she resumed the mantle after De Leath's death.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

RIP Chris Connor

kubbie — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:51:52 GMT

NY Times Obit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/arts/music/01connor.html?_r=2&hpw

Lullaby of Birdland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkiVkinGx8U&feature=related

All About Ronny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13T2SiP6qRA

Lush Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6IqaLF1jHI&feature=PlayList&p=7E2BBBF809834ACF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=49

All Or Nothing At All (Live at Sweet Basil)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wc1GjTGXkg&feature=related

Wiki Bio

Chris Connor (November 8, 1927 – August 29, 2009) was an American jazz singer.

She was born as Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Missouri to Clyde and Mabel Loutsenhizer. She studied and became proficient on the clarinet, having studied for 8 years throughout junior high and high school.Mabel Loutsenhizer died in 1940 and young Mary moved in with her older sister, who took over the responsibility of raising her. She first sang publicly in 1945, at the Jefferson City Junior College's graduation.

She performed the song "Amor" and it was well-received. After the positive response she received from the audience, she decided to pursue a singing career full-time. Initially, she stayed within the parameters of the Kansas City area, working during the day as a stenographer and singing on weekends. Her first professional job was with the University of Missouri-Columbia college band playing various functions in the Jefferson City area. She moved between local bands from 1946-1947 and in 1948, she moved to New York City with the intention of having a glamorous career. Unable to find a singing job, she became an office stenographer. She spent the next seven weeks trying to secure any kind singing job. She met a man acquainted with orchestra leader Claude Thornhill's road manager, Joe Green. Thornhill was seeking a new singer to round out his vocal group, the Snowflakes. She successfully auditioned and joined Thornhill's group, touring around the United States and recording harmonies in the studio. Of her time spent with the Snowflakes, there is only evidence of her vocal contribution on two recorded songs: "There's a Small Hotel" and "I Don't Know Why", both performed in 1949. She continued to tour with the Thornhill band sporadically until March 1952, when she joined Jerry Wald's big band and recorded five songs: "You're the Cream in My Coffee", "Cherokee", "Pennies from Heaven", "Raisins and Almonds", and "Terremoto". She also reunited with Claude Thornhill in October 1952 for a radio broadcast from the Statler Hotel in New York City. She sang four songs: "Wish You Were Here", Come Rain or Come Shine", "Sorta Kinda", and "Who Are We to Say".

When Connor was singing live on a radio broadcast from the Roosevelt Hotel in February 1953, June Christy (then vocalist for Stan Kenton's band), was listening and heard her sing. By 1952, Kenton had rotated several female singers as replacements. In late 1952, Christy returned to the Kenton band for some sporadic engagements. When she informed Kenton again of her impending departure to pursue a solo career, she remembered Chris Connor and recommended her to Kenton. Connor auditioned and began touring and recording for the Stan Kenton band in February 1953. On February 11, 1953, Connor recorded her first sides with the Stan Kenton band. Her first song, "And The Bull Walked Around, Ole", peaked at #30 on the Billboard music charts. Other songs recorded with the band were "Baia", "Jeepers Creepers", "If I Should Lose You", "I Get A Kick Out Of You", "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen" and the song that would forever be associated with the vocalist, "All About Ronnie". Additional songs Connor sang on the road (but never recorded with the band in studio) were "Taking A Chance On Love", "Don't Worry About Me", "I'll Remember April" and "There Will Never Be Another You".

By June 1953, Connor was finding the constant traveling and vocal demands of nightly performances with a big band exhausting. She abruptly left the Kenton band and by fall of 1953, she had relocated back to New York. Soon after, she hired Monte Kay to manage her impending solo career. He found work for her at Birdland. One night after a show, the owner of Bethlehem Records, Gus Wildi, offered her a recording contract on the spot.[citation needed] She signed with the label in 1953, and in 1954 released dual long play LPs, Chris Connor Sings Lullabys Of Birdland and Chris Connor Sings Lullabys For Lovers. She became a best-selling solo artist for Bethlehem Records aged 26 and the label rushed her into the studios to record additional songs. Bethlehem Records released the successful follow-up albums Chris and This Is Chris in 1955. When time came for Connor's contract to expire, she signed for an album deal with Atlantic Records (she recorded for Atlantic from 1956-1963). Connor was the first white female jazz singer to be signed by the label. Ahmet Ertegun and his brother Nesuhi Ertegun's Atlantic label was, at the time, primarily a rhythm and blues label, with artists such as Ruth Brown and Ray Charles.

Her Atlantic albums were always polished productions, and she was given free rein to choose her own songs as well as the opportunity to work with any musicians she wished. During her Atlantic period (1956-1962), Connor worked with some of the best producers, arrangers, and musicians in the jazz field.[citation needed] Well-known producers and musicians such as Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Kenny Burrell, Barry Galbraith, Peanuts Hucko, Herbie Mann, Lucky Thompson, Hank Jones, Oscar Pettiford, Zoot Sims, Ray Ellis, Al Cohn, Ralph Sharon, Jerry Wexler, and Doc Severinson were all involved in her successful series of albums for the label. She recorded the songs of George Gershwin, Kurt Weill, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Margo Guryan, Cole Porter, Bart Howard, and Peggy Lee, as well as Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein compositions.

When her last Atlantic album No Strings - An After Theatre Version was released in 1962, Connor decided not to renew her contract with Atlantic Records after being advised by Kay, who started his own record label and persuaded Connor to be the first artist signed. Her first album for FM, Chris Connor at the Village Gate (1963), although critically acclaimed, did not sell as well as her previous Bethlehem and Atlantic albums. Her second LP for FM, A Weekend in Paris (1964), was sent to DJ's but was never commercially released because FM Records declared bankruptcy in 1964.

Connor spent the remainder of the 1960s and 1970s recording for various labels: ABC/Paramount Records, Sings Gentle Bossa Nova was released in 1965 and Now! was released in 1966); an album for JVC, a Japanese label; Chris Connor Softly And Swinging was released in 1969. Further recordings were issued by Stanyan Records in 1971, Sony Japan in 1977, Progressive Records in 1978, and the Japanese Lobster Records in 1979. Connor continued to record in the early 2000s, when she recorded her last album, Everything I Love for Highnote Records in 2003. Connor most recently lived in Tom's River, New Jersey. She occasionally performed in New York and surrounding areas. She owned the rights to both of the ABC/Paramount Records albums and hoped to release both on CD in the future.

Chris Connor died on August 29, 2009 from cancer, aged 81. She is survived by a nephew and her longtime partner and manager Lori Muscarelle

Chris' official site
http://www.chrisconnorjazz.com

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

At 92, Vera Lynn back at top of the charts in UK

kubbie — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:36:21 GMT

Dame Vera Lynn is challenging the Arctic Monkeys for the number one spot in the album charts, at the age of 92.

The Forces' Sweetheart, who set a record on Sunday by becoming the oldest living artist to enter the top 20, last topped the chart in 1952.

Her greatest hits album, We'll Meet Again - The Very Best of Vera Lynn, is at number four in the mid-week chart, having debuted on Sunday at number 20. It has overtaken releases by Michael Jackson, Paolo Nutini and the Black Eyed Peas.

Only David Guetta, the French dance maestro, Kings of Leon, the US rock group, and current chart-toppers Arctic Monkeys are ahead in terms of sales.

Gennaro Castaldo of HMV said that the album was exceeding expectation, with the majority of sales on CD rather than via download. In Tesco stores, it is the biggest-selling release of the week.

The album features Dame Vera's wartime classics and was released to mark the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War. She declared herself "extremely excited and delighted to be back in the charts after all these years".

We’ll Meet Again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Drw4aZhdT8

Those Were The Days My Friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0iGz02dzA8

White Cliffs of Dover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUx3MU9iM6c

When The Lights Go On Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzlFaY0s_QI&feature=related

There Will Always Be An England
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ2FOBxshWY

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

RIP Blossom Dearie

kubbie — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:39:24 GMT

Somewhat lost in the flurry of Grammy activity was the news that Blossom Dearie, the jazz-cabaret singer with a voice as sweet and precious as her name, died of natural causes in her Greenwich Village apartment Saturday.

With a breezy, gentle vocal style that echoed a little girl's innocence, Dearie's appeal as a vocalist lies beyond genre classifications. In fact, many Pop&Hiss readers may have unknowingly first become familiar with Dearie as the voice for a few "Schoolhouse Rock" cartoons in the 1970s, including the gorgeous "Figure Eight" and "Unpack Your Adjectives."

I Wont Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMPpdbKf7Yo

Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk2XLfCTWKI&feature=related

Quiet Nights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T_yRQ_FouY

Figure 8 from School House Rock with Blossom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeq5a8bBh8c&eurl=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/02/blossom-dearie.html

Listen to Blossoms appearance/performance in this 2001 Marian McPartlands Piano Jazz from NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100436121

Blossom's Bio from Wiki

Blossom Dearie (April 28, 1926 – February 7, 2009) was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and known for her "distinctive, girlish voice".

EARLY CAREER

Dearie was born Marguerite Blossom Dearie in East Durham, New York.[4] As a child she studied Western classical piano but switched to jazz in her teens. After high school Dearie moved to New York City to pursue a music career and began to sing in groups such as the Blue Flames (with the Woody Herman Orchestra) and the Blue Reys (with Alvino Rey's band) before starting her solo career.

She moved to Paris, France, in 1952 and formed a vocal group, the Blue Stars. In 1954 the group had a hit in France with a French-language version of "Lullaby of Birdland". The Blue Stars would later evolve into the Swingle Singers. While in Paris she met her future husband, the Belgian flautist and saxophonist Bobby Jaspar. On her first solo album, released two years later, she plays the piano but does not sing.

One of her most famous songs from that period is "The Riviera", which was written and composed by Cy Coleman and Joseph McCarthy Jr. in 1956.

1950's and 1960's

After returning from France, Dearie made her first six American albums as a solo singer and pianist for Verve Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly in a small trio or quartet setting. Dave Garroway, host of The Today Show and an early fan of Dearie, featured her on several occasions, increasing her exposure with the popular audience. In 1962, she recorded a song for a radio commercial of Hires Root Beer. As it proved very popular, the LP Blossom Dearie Sings Rootin' Songs was released as a premium item that could be ordered for one dollar and a proof of purchase.

In 1964, she recorded the album May I Come In? (Capitol/EMI Records) It was recorded, atypically for her, with an orchestra. During this same period, Dearie performed frequently in New York supper clubs and in 1966 made her first appearance at Ronnie Scott's club in London. She recorded four albums in the United Kingdom during the 1960s which were released on the Fontana label.

1970's and Later

In 1974, Dearie established her own label, Daffodil Records, which allowed her to have full control of the recording and distribution of her albums. Dearie appeared on television throughout her career, most notably giving her voice to the children's educational series Schoolhouse Rock!. Some of her pieces in this series were written by her good friend Bob Dorough, the jazz singer and composer. Her voice can be heard on "Mother Necessity", "Figure Eight" and "Unpack Your Adjectives".

Her distinctive voice and songs have been featured on the soundtracks of several films, including Kissing Jessica Stein, My Life Without Me, The Squid and the Whale and The Adventures of Felix. She also recorded songs with other singers, including Lyle Lovett.

Dearie continued to perform in clubs until 2006.One of the last remaining supper-club performers, she performed regular engagements in London and New York City over many years.

Dearie died on February 7, 2009, at her apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City.

Discography
http://www2.odn.ne.jp/airstructures/review%20blossom%20dearie.html

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 2 replies

Happy 82nd Harry Belafonte

kubbie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:34:48 GMT

Harry & Nat King Cole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3vgaCNY-aI

Harry & Odetta “My Buckets Got A Hole In It”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlICWoBb5Ik

Harry and Nana Mouskouri September
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_YeoGlnDJ8&feature=related

Harry & the Muppets – Banana Boat Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpg-KIKD5gU

Matilda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkJrZ4BomR8

Island in The Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjObgrE9CT8&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 2 replies

12/3 Spotlight Connee Boswell

kubbie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:54:29 GMT

yes I know I have an obsession with her and her sisters. pllllzzzzztzzz

Look For The Silver Lining
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyu6WD0VJ2I

When I Take My Sugar To Tea with The Boswell Sisters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwHC0VLLeO8&feature=related

I Cant Give You Anything But Love Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8vzfHJ4s6k

Swing Me A Lullaby with The Bob Crosby Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZX16NQZSEI

Martha (M'appari)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0uH4B9ni8s

Constance Foore "Connee" Boswell (December 3, 1907 - October 11, 1976) was an American female vocalist born in Kansas City, Missouri but raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. With her sisters, Martha and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell, she performed in the 1930's as The Boswell Sisters and became a highly influential singing group during this period via recordings and radio. Connee herself is widely considered one of the greatest jazz female vocalists and was a major influence on Ella Fitzgerald.

In 1936, Connee's sisters retired and Connee continued on as a solo artist (having also recorded solos during her years with the group).

The Boswells came to be well known locally while still in their early teens, making appearances in New Orleans theaters and radio. They made their first recordings for Victor Records in 1925, which included "Cryin' Blues" where Connee is featured singing in the style of her early influence, the African American singer Mamie Smith. The Boswell Sisters became stage professionals that year when they were tapped to fill in for an act at New Orleans' Orpheum Theatre. They received an invitation to come to Chicago and perform in 1928 and honed their act on the Western Vaudeville Circuit. When their tour ended they traveled to San Francisco. The hotel that had been recommended had a less than savory reputation, and the man at the desk suggested that these three young ladies might be better off in another hotel. That man, Harry Leedy, would later become their manager on a handshake and become a permanent part of Connee's life.

The Boswell Sisters travelled to Los Angeles where they performed on local radio and "side-miked" for the soundies, including the 1930 production "Under Montana Skies." did not attain national attention, however, until they moved to New York City in 1930 and started making national radio broadcasts. After a few recordings with Okeh Records, they made numerous recordings for Brunswick Records from 1931-1935. In 1935, the sisters had a #1 hit with "The Object of My Affection", the biggest of twenty top 20 records they would enjoy.

In 1936, the group signed to Decca Records and after just three releases called it quits (the last recording was February 12, 1936). Connee Boswell continued to have a successful solo career as a singer for Decca. She had changed the spelling of her name from Connie to Connee, reputedly because it made it easier to sign autographs.

Connee Boswell was also an arranger (the legendary Boswell Sisters harmony arrangements are hers) and a composer.

Connee sang from a wheelchair - or seated position - during her entire career, due to either a childhood bout with polio or a childhood accident (sources differ). The general public was not aware of her condition although Boswell herself did not keep this secret. During World War II, she tried to get involved with the U.S.O. but was not given permission to travel overseas, the "powers that be" apparently thought it might not be a morale-booster to have a "cripple" perform for the troops.

Connee Boswell was a favorite duet partner of Bing Crosby and they frequently sang together on radio as well as recording several hit records as a duo in the 1930's and 1940's. Boswell, Crosby, and Eddie Cantor recorded a version of Alexander's Ragtime Band that was a #1 hit in 1938.In 1939, Crosby and Boswell had three hit duet records that each climbed into the top 12 on Billboard; "An Apple For The Teacher" climbed all the way to #2.

Connee Boswell also had several dozen solo hits, including "Moonlight Moon" in 1942. Boswell's career slackened in the 1950's but she still recorded occasionally and would be featured on a number of television broadcasts including a regular stint on the 1959 series "Pete Kelly's Blues".

Connee Boswell passed away at age 68 in 1976. A number of her recordings are now available on CD, both as a soloist and part of the Boswell Sisters.

BOZZIES.com Boswell Sisters site
http://bozzies.com/

Connee at SOLID The Encyclopedia of Big Band, Lounge and Classic Jazz
http://www.parabrisas.com/d_boswellc.php

Free downloads at Artist Direct
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,406668,00.html

Boswell Sisters at the Vocal Group Hall of Fame
http://www.vocalgroup.org/inductees/boswell_sisters.html

Connee at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0098333/

Connee Boswell Myspace Page
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=68154291

Connees page at a New Orleans Fan Site
http://thejukejoint.com/conbos19sig8.html

SONGS

Falling Star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQcTiUq5TlE

The Nearness of You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hi3wssNrP0

Washboard Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpZZig6ecEo

The Following are Boswell Sisters Clips

Heebie Jeebies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Afn3Z-BWI

Sleepy Time Down South
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwByDFAHB74&feature=related

Louisiana Waddle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EypsoaKMxDk&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

"Rock and Roll" The Boswell Sisters

kubbie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:53:17 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHxFqtuEDLc&feature=related
The Sisters come in about 1 minute into the clip

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

Silly Topic:Coffee

kubbie — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:41:07 GMT

The 40 Cups of Coffee vid in the Ella Mae Morse spotlight put The Java Jive in my head. So I tried to think of other Coffee themed songs. Here are a few.

Java Jive - The King Sisters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y38AGJoGkd0&feature=related

40 Cups of Coffee - Ella Mae Morse (sorry for the repeat)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMcdzc1TkO4

Black Coffee - Nana Mouskouri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOHAdZUjLd8

Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee - Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkoigJNfVAM

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 4 replies

RIP Eartha Kitt 1927-2008

kubbie — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 23:15:32 GMT

Link to the bbc news article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7799852.stm

American singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died at the age 81, a family friend has said.

Kitt was said to have been suffering from colon cancer.

She was one of the few artists to be nominated in the Tony, Grammy and Emmy award categories and was a stalwart of the Manhattan cabaret scene.

She famously played Catwoman in the 1960s Batman television series and was known for her distinctive, feline drawl.

Kitt was blacklisted in the US in the late 1960s after speaking out against the Vietnam War at a White House function.

However, she returned triumphantly to New York's Broadway in a 1974 production, Timbuktu!, and continued to perform regularly in theatre shows and concert halls.
She rose to the top of the entertainment world from humble origins.

Her mother worked on a cotton plantation and was just 14 when she gave birth.
Kitt was then given away at the age of eight and sent to live with an aunt in New York.

Wiki Bio

Eartha Mae Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American actress, singer, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her role as Catwoman in the 1960s TV series Batman, and for her 1953 Christmas song "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her "the most exciting woman in the world."

Early Life

Kitt was born Eartha Mae Keith on a cotton plantation in the tiny town of North, South Carolina. Though her ancestry is somewhat uncertain, she stated her mother was of African-American and Native American descent, and her father, German and Dutch descent. She claimed she was conceived of rape. Kitt was raised by Anna Mae Riley, a black woman whom she believed to be her mother, but after Riley's death, she was sent to live in New York City with Mamie Kitt, reportedly Riley's sister. Eartha Kitt believed that Mamie Kitt was her biological mother; she had no knowledge of her father's identity, except that his surname was Kitt and that he was the son of the owner of the plantation on which she had been born.Kitt suffered terrible abuse and neglect at the hands of a family to whom Anna Mae Riley entrusted her, or "given away for slavery" as Kitt described in many interviews.

Career

Kitt got her start as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film debut with them in Casbah (1948). A talented singer with a distinctive voice, her hits include "Let's Do It", "C'est si bon", "Just an Old Fashioned Girl", "Monotonous", "Je cherche un homme", "Love for Sale", "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch", "Uska Dara", "Mink, Schmink", "Under the Bridges of Paris", and her most recognizable hit, "Santa Baby." Kitt's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language during her years performing in Europe. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she demonstrates with finesse in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.

Film Debut

In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952 introducing "Monotonous" and "Bal, Petit Bal," two songs with which she continues to be identified. In 1954, 20th Century Fox filmed a version of the revue simply titled New Faces. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a torrid affair during her run in Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by Welles as "the most exciting woman in the world." In 1958, Kitt made her feature film debut opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and on nightclub stages. In the 1960s television series Batman, she played Catwoman after Julie Newmar left the role.

In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California.
In 1968, however, Kitt encountered substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. It was reported that she made First Lady Lady Bird Johnson cry. The public reaction to Kitt's statements was much more extreme, both for and against her statements. Professionally exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances.

Broadway

During that time, cultural references to her grew, including outside the United States, such as the well-known Monty Python sketch, "the cycling tour", where an amnesiac believes he is first Clodagh Rodgers, then Trotsky and finally Eartha Kitt (while performing to an enthusiastic crowd in Moscow). She returned to New York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a 'recipe' for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.

In 1984, she returned to hit music with a disco song, "Where Is My Man", the first certified Gold record of her career. "Where Is My Man" reached the Top 40 on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #36; the song also made the Top 10 on the US Billboard dance chart, where it reached #7. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the UK and the US, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat), and originally intended to be recorded by Divine, received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached #32 in the UK charts.

Recent Years

In the late 1990s she appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz. Kitt had a supporting role as Lady Eloise in the hit movie Boomerang (1992 film) co-starring Eddie Murphy. In 2000, Kitt again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Beginning in late 2000, she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the National tour of Cinderella alongside Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. She reprised her role of the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella which took place at Lincoln Center during the holiday season of 2004.

One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and returned to the role in the straight to video sequel Kronk's New Groove and the spin-off TV series The Emperor's New School, for which she has won an Emmy Award and two Annie Awards for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. She had a voiceover as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot.

In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York made her a fixture on the Manhattan cabaret scene. She would take the stage at venues such as The Ballroom and the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as Old Fashioned Millionaire), which emphasized a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less familiar repertoire, much of which she performed with an unexpected ferocity and bite that presented her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of resilience — her version of Here's to Life, frequently used as a closing number, was a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances was reflected in at least one of her recordings, Thinking Jazz, which preserved a series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s in Germany and which included both standards (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and numbers (such as Something May Go Wrong) that seemed more specifically tailored to her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce, angry Yesterdays and a live rendering "C'est Si Bon" that good-humoredly satirized her sex-kitten persona.
From October to early December, 2006, Kitt co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical Mimi le duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa L. Williams.

PERSONAL LIFE

After romances with the cosmetics magnate Charles Revson and banking heir John Barry Ryan III, she was married to Bill McDonald from June 6, 1960, to 1965. They had one child, a daughter, Kitt Shapiro (b. 1962). Eartha had two grandchildren, Jason and Rachel. Kitt lived in the Merryall section of New Milford, Connecticut for many years as well as Pound Ridge, New York, but had recently moved to Weston, Connecticut to be near her daughter's family. In 2007, she performed at the Hotel Carlyle in New York.
Kitt wrote three autobiographies – Thursday’s Child (1956), Alone with Me (1976), and I’m Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989).

Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. She re-recorded "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month.

Eartha Kitt died of colon cancer on December 25, 2008 at the age of 81

Official Site
http://www.earthakitt.com/

IBDB
http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=48248

IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0457755/

Eartha Kitt Tribe
http://earthakitt.tribe.net/

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

Christmas Songbirds: Dinah, Kay, Mitzi and Julie

kubbie — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:06:46 GMT

Kay Starr - Man With The Bag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrBvnvy_i24

Dinah Shore - You Meet The Nicest People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lsi15NfkfU

Julie Andrews - The Bells of Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVB9vPHjTfo

Julie Andrews – My Favorites Things
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwLrUgJlung

Mitzi Gaynor – We Need A Little Christmas (this clip is a hoot)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBBRJs6YCE4&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Crooners Christmas: Andy Williams

kubbie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:13:09 GMT

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of The Year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFtb3EtjEic

Winter Wonderland with the Williams Brothers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hkUpW9ZCBQ

Silent Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrZ5jzlkKhg&feature=related

Sleigh Ride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsYUdWMARwA&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

Songbird Christmas: Kate Smith

kubbie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:01:08 GMT

O Holy Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm9K7UK47FQ&feature=related

White Christmas from a TV special
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtBSXDix2J0

The Christmas Song from a TV special
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHrzCuzua5c&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Songbird Christmas: Doris Day

kubbie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:41:24 GMT

Christmas song Medley from On Moonlight Bay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnFuKWEf6so

Baby Its Cold Outside with Bing Crosby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25fUl3NpeBc&feature=related

Silver Bells
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvLgIzFLajo

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11RgZzfWfRk

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

Songbird Christmas: Eartha Kitt

kubbie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:51:32 GMT

Nothin For Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwFkoGzoYm8

Eartha Kitt – Santa Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzd6oCP3FKk

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Songbird Christmas: Nancy Wilson

kubbie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:33:23 GMT

What Are You Doing New Years Eve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1YbfCQmr4o

That’s What I Want For Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEU_Q2VYypM&feature=related

Let It Snow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFVig2zPZ64&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Crooners Christmas:Bing Crosby

kubbie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:04:56 GMT

White Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vPfOjAw5Z0&feature=related

The Christmas Song with Frank Sinatra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF8KhjDixis

Jingle Bells with Frank Sinatra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8U5ZSqPph0&feature=related

Silent Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-2Tnp9whDU

Deck The Halls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQNUeOOqMyU

Joy To The World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9XoCc8LMBI&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

RIP ODETTA 1930-2008

kubbie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:13:42 GMT

The Midnight Special (my favorite version of this song. voice is amazing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2dZvNCnONc

House of The Rising Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaya8jYZBO8&feature=related

What A Friend We Have In Jesus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-rp9hE8Dws&feature=related

LA TIMES OBIT (WIKI BIO AT THE END)

By Randy Lewis and Mike Boehm
December 3, 2008

Odetta, the classically trained folk, blues and gospel singer who used her powerfully rich and dusky voice to champion African American music and civil rights issues for more than half a century starting in the folk revival of the 1950s, has died. She was 77.

She was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City for a checkup in mid-November but went into kidney failure. She died there Tuesday of heart disease, her manager, Doug Yeager, told the Associated Press.

With a repertoire that included 19th century slave songs and spirituals as well as the topical ballads of such 20th century folk icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Odetta became one of the most beloved figures in folk music.

She was said to have influenced the emergence of artists as varied as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin and Tracy Chapman.

"The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta," Dylan once said. "From Odetta, I went to Harry Belafonte, the Kingston Trio, little by little uncovering more as I went along."
Her affinity for traditional African American folk songs was a hallmark of her long career, along with a voice that could easily sweep from dark, husky low notes to delicate yet goose bump-inducing high register tones.

"The first time I heard Odetta sing," Seeger once said, "she sang Leadbelly's ‘Take This Hammer’ and I went and told her how I wish Leadbelly was still alive so he could have heard her."

She was born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 31, 1930. Her father died when she was young and she moved to Los Angeles at age 6 with her mother, sister and stepfather. She took the surname of her stepfather Zadock Felious, but throughout her career she used just her given name.

And although Los Angeles wasn't as overtly racist as the Deep South, she suffered some of the same indignities that came with being black.

"We lived within walking distance of Marshall High School," Odetta told The Times some years ago, "but they didn't let colored people go there, so we had to get on the bus and go to Belmont High School."

She attended Los Angeles City College after high school and earned a degree in music.

Trained as a classical vocalist as a child, she won a spot with a group called the Madrigal Singers in junior high school. She also realized early that despite her classical training, her options in that area were going to be limited because of the racism at the time.

By 19, Odetta had turned her attention to other forms of music and landed a part in a production of "Finian's Rainbow" as a chorus member. When the musical went on the road to San Francisco, she went with it.

The trip marked an important crossroads in her emergence as a folk singer.

She met an old friend from school who had settled in the city's North Beach neighborhood, and during a visit Odetta was exposed to a late-night session of folk songs.

"That night I heard hours and hours of songs that really touched where I live," she told The Times. "I borrowed a guitar and learned three chords, and started to sing at parties."

The traditional prison songs that she learned in her early days hit home the hardest and helped her come to terms with what she called the deep-seated hate and fury in her.

"As I did those songs, I could work on my hate and fury without being antisocial," she recalled. "Through those songs, I learned things about the history of black people in this country that the historians in school had not been willing to tell us about or had lied about."

Odetta left the theater company in 1950 and took a job at a folk club in San Francisco. She soon began to tour and recorded her first album, "The Tin Angel," in 1954. She soon caught the attention of such folk-music icons as Guthrie, Seeger and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. She was a fixture on the folk music scene by the time the genre's commercial boom came in the late 1950s and early '60s.

She played at the Newport Folk Festival, the showcase event for folk music, four times between 1959 and 1965. She also had a recording contract with Vanguard Records, which at the height of the folk music craze was the genre's leading label.

Over the years, Odetta branched into acting, with dramatic and singing roles in film and television including "Cinerama Holiday," "Sanctuary" and "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman."

But traditional folk music remained her forte.

"The folk repertoire is our inheritance. Don't have to like it, but we need to hear it," she said. "I love getting to schools and telling kids there's something else out there. It's from their forebears, and its an alternative to what they hear on the radio. As long as I am performing, I will be pointing out that heritage that is ours."

In 1999, she was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. In 2004, she was a Kennedy Center honoree. A year later, the Library of Congress honored her with its Living Legend Award.

Information on survivors and funeral services was not immediately available.

THE WATER BOY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSDeROnTq64

Brief clip from Newport Festival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miXQ265dMZM&feature=related

Hit or Miss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyv1U6DSx20

WIKI BIO

Odetta Holmes, (December 31 1930 - December 2 2008), known as Odetta, was an African-American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement." Her musical repertoire consists largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and '60s, she was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Janis Joplin.

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, grew up in Los Angeles, California, and studied music at Los Angeles City College. Having operatic training from the age of 13, her first professional experience was in musical theater in 1944, as an ensemble member for four years with the Hollywood Turnabout Puppet Theatre, working alongside Elsa Lanchester; she later joined the national touring company of the musical Finian's Rainbow in 1949.

While on tour with Finian's Rainbow, Odetta "fell in with an enthusiastic group of young balladeers in San Francisco", and after 1950 concentrated on folksinging.

She made her name by playing around the United States: at the Blue Angel nightclub (New York City), the hungry i (San Francisco), and Tin Angel (San Francisco), where she and Larry Mohr recorded Odetta and Larry in 1954, for Fantasy Records.

A solo career followed, with Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues (1956) and At the Gate of Horn (1957). Odetta Sings Folk Songs was one of 1963's best-selling folk albums.

In 1961, Martin Luther King, Jr. anointed her "The Queen of American folk music".

Broadening her musical scope, Odetta used band arrangements on several albums rather than playing alone, and released music of a more "jazz" style music on albums like Odetta and The Blues (1962) and Odetta (1967).

Odetta also acted in several films during this period, including Cinerama Holiday (1955), the film of William Faulkner's Sanctuary (1961) and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974).

LATER CAREER

She toured extensively on the folk music circuit from the 1960s to the 1980s, performing with Pete Seeger, Tom Winslow, and many other artists.

Odetta only released two new albums in the 20-year period from 1977-1997: Movin' It On and Christmas Spirituals, both in 1987.

In 1976, Odetta performed in the Bicentennial opera "Be Glad Then America" by John LaMontayne, as the Muse for America; with the Penn State University Choir and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Beginning in 1998, she re-focused her energies on recording and touring and her career took on a major resurgence. The new CD To Ella (recorded live and dedicated to her old friend Ella Fitzgerald upon hearing of her passing before walking on stage), was released in 1998 on Silverwolf Records, followed by three new releases on M.C. Records, which cemented a partnership with pianist/arranger/producer Seth Farber and record producer Mark Carpentieri, including: Blues Everywhere I Go, a 2000 Grammy Nominated blues/jazz band tribute album to the great lady blues singers of the 1920s and 1930s; Looking for a Home, a 2002 W.C. Handy Award nominated band tribute to Lead Belly; and the 2007 Grammy Nominated Gonna Let It Shine, a live album of gospel and spiritual songs supported by Seth Farber and The Holmes Brothers. These new recordings and an active world touring schedule created the demand for her guest star appearance on fourteen new albums of other artists (between 1999 and 2006), and the re-release of forty-five old Odetta albums and compilation appearances.

On September 29, 1999, President Bill Clinton presented Odetta with the National Endowment for the Arts' National Medal of Arts. In 2004, Odetta was honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington with the "Visionary Award" along with a tribute performance by Tracy Chapman. In 2005, the Library of Congress in Washington honored her with its "Living Legend Award".

The 2005 documentary film No Direction Home, directed by Martin Scorsese, highlights her musical influence on Bob Dylan, the subject of the documentary. The film contains an archive clip of Odetta performing "Waterboy" on TV in 1959, and we also hear Odetta's songs "Muleskinner Blues" and "No More Auction Block for Me".

In 2006, Odetta opened shows for jazz vocalist Madeleine Peyroux, and in 2006 she toured the US, Canada, and Europe accompanied by her pianist, which included being presented by the US Embassy in Latvia as the keynote speaker at a Human Rights conference, and also in a concert in the capital city of Riga's historic 1,000 year old Maza Guild Hall. In December, 2006, the Winnipeg Folk Festival honored Odetta with their "Lifetime Achievement Award." In February, 2007, The International Folk Alliance awarded Odetta as "Traditional Folk Artist of the Year." On March 24, 2007 a tribute concert to Odetta was presented in Washington, D.C. at the Rachel Schlessinger Theatre by the World Folk Music Association with live performance and video tributes by Pete Seeger, Madeleine Peyroux, Harry Belafonte, Janis Ian, Sweet Honey In The Rock, Josh White, Jr., Peter, Paul & Mary, Oscar Brand, Tom Rush, Jesse Winchester, Eric Andersen, Wavy Gravy, David Amram, Roger McGuinn, Robert Sims, Carolyn Hester, Donal Leace, Marie Knight, Side By Side, and Laura McGhee (from Scotland).

In 2007, her album Gonna' Let It Shine was nominated for a Grammy, and she completed a major Fall Concert Tour in the "Songs of Spirit" show, which included artists from all over the world. She toured around North America in late 2006 and early 2007 to support this CD.

On January 21, 2008, Odetta was the Keynote Speaker at San Diego's Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration, followed by concert performances in San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, and Mill Valley, in addition to being the sole guest for the evening on PBS-TV's The Tavis Smiley Show.

In 2008, at the age of 77, she launched another national tour, with concerts in Albany, New York and other cities, singing strongly and confidently from a wheelchair. Her set in recent years includes "This Little Light of Mine (I'm Gonna Let It Shine)", Lead Belly's "The Bourgeois Blues",(Something Inside) So Strong", "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" and "House of the Rising Sun".

In November 2008, Odetta's health began to decline and she began receiving treatment at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. She was slated to perform at Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20, 2009.

On December 02, 2008, Odetta died from heart disease in New York City.

INFLUENCE

· Janis Joplin - "Janis spent much of her adolescence listening to Odetta, who was also the first person Janis imitated when she started singing".
·
· Bob Dylan, who said, "The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers [Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues] in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson. ... [That album was] just something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record. It was her first and the songs were- 'Mule Skinner', 'Waterboy', 'Jack of Diamonds', ''Buked and Scorned'."
In 1965, Odetta recorded an album of Dylan covers, Odetta Sings Dylan.
·
· Joan Baez said "Odetta was a goddess. Her passion moved me. I learned everything she sang."
·
· Poet Maya Angelou once said "If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Random Spotlight: Hadda Brooks

kubbie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:48:18 GMT

I Hadnt Anyone Till You - 1950
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS2xjZ4IhXs

Thats My Desire - 1947 (best version of this song in my opinion)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hRVoyNn3dM

Hadda Brooks (October 29, 1916 – November 21, 2002), was a noted American pianist, vocalist and composer. Her first single, "Swingin' The Boogie", which she composed, was issued in 1945. She was billed as "Queen Of The Boogie." Highlights of her life included singing at Hawaii's official statehood ceremony in 1959 and being asked for a private audience with Pope Pius XII. She also became the first African American Woman to host her own television show in 1957

She was born and raised in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, by her parents, who had migrated to California from the South. Her mother Goldie Wright was a doctor, her father John Hapgood a deputy sheriff. Her grandfather, Samuel Alexander Hopgood, moved to California from Atlanta, Georgia, and proved to be an enormous influence on Brooks. He introduced her to theater and the operatic voices of Amelita Galli-Curci and Enrico Caruso. In her youth she formally studied classical music with an Italian piano instructor, Florence Bruni, with whom she trained for twenty years. She attended the University of Chicago, and later, returned to Los Angeles. She came to love the subtle comedy of black theater and vaudeville entertainer and singer Bert Williams. Brooks began playing piano professionally in the early 1940s at a tap-dance studio owned by Hollywood choreographer and dancer Willie Covan. For ten dollars a week, she played the popular tunes of the day while Covan worked with such stars as Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Shirley Temple. Brooks was married briefly during this period to a Harlem Globetrotter named Earl "Shug" Morrison in 1941. She toured with the team when they traveled. Morrison developed pulmonary pneumonia, however, and died about a year after they were married. It was Brooks's only marriage.

Brooks actually preferred ballads to boogie-woogies, but worked up her style by listening to Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis records. Her first record, the pounding "Swingin' the Boogie," for Jules Bihari's Modern Records, was a sizable regional hit in 1945, and another R&B Top Ten with "Out of the Blue," her most famous song. It was Jules Bihari who gave her the recording name Hadda Brooks. Clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman recommended Brooks to a film director friend of his who placed her in the film "Out of the Blue" in 1947. Encouraged by orchestra leader Charlie Barnet, Ms. Brooks practiced singing "You Won't Let Me Go," and the song became her first vocal recording in 1947. She usually played the small part of a lounge piano player in films, and often sang the title song. "Out of the Blue" became a top hit for Brooks, "Boogie Woogie Blues" followed in 1948, and she appeared in "In a Lonely Place" (1950) starring Humphrey Bogart, and in "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) with Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas. Brooks became the first African-American woman to host her own television show in 1957. "The Hadda Brooks Show", a combination talk and musical entertainment show, aired on Los Angeles' KCOP-TV. The show opened with Brooks seated behind a grand piano, cigarette smoke curling about her, and featured "That's My Desire" as her theme song. She appeared in 26 half-hour episodes of the show. She commuted to Europe in the 1970's for performances in nightclubs and festivals, but performed rarely in the United States, but reemerged in the late 1980s playing nightclubs regularly in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, receiving rave reviews.

In 1993, Ms. Brooks was presented with the Prestigious Pioneer Award by Bonnie Raitt on behalf of the Smithsonian-based Rhythm and Blues Foundation, at the Hollywood Palace. Brooks was in Jack Nicholsons film "The Crossing Guard" (1995), directed by Sean Penn, a situation brought about by the fact she was a long-time favorite of both star and director. Three years later she made a film appearance in "The Thirteenth Floor" (1999), her last appearance in film was in "John John in the Sky" (2000)

Her 1996 album Time Was When, was with Al Viola (Guitar), Eugene Wright (Bass), Richard Dodd (Cello), she wrote three songs on the album "You Go Your Way and I'll Go Crazy" and "Mama's Blues." She began playing at hip night clubs like actor Johnny Depp's Viper Room, New York's Algonquin Room, and at Hollywood haunts like Goldfinger's and the Cinegrill. Her eightieth birthday party was held at the Depp's Viper Room, and included such guests as actors Uma Thurman, and Jack Nicholson.

In 2000, the Los Angeles Music Awards, the largest and longest running awards show and showcase series in the world for independent artists, honored Hadda Brooks with the "Lifetime Achievement Award."

Hadda Brooks died at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles, following open-heart surgery at age 86.

In 2007 a documentary "Queen of the Boogie", 72 mins, directed by Austin Young & Barry Pett was introduced to the Los Angeles Silver Lake Film Festival.

Her most famous songs include:

"Swingin' the Boogie"
"That's My Desire"
"Romance in the Dark"
"Don't Take Your Love From Me"
"Say It with a Kiss"
"Jump Back Honey, Jump Back"

A Hadda Brooks tribute site with audio
http://haddabrooks.tripod.com/

Haddas official page at Virgin Records
http://www.virginrecords.com/hadda/

Free Downloads at Rhapsody
http://www.rhapsody.com/hadda-brooks

Downloads at MOG
http://mog.com/music/Hadda_Brooks

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

3 new Al Bowlly Cds - Al in America

kubbie — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:09:45 GMT

From an Australia company called Crystal Stream. 2 of the cds are with Ray Noble.

http://www.crystream.com.au/cat151.htm

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

11/13 Matha Tilton

kubbie — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:16:00 GMT

Loch Lamond
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8pOyN3MFGc

A Jive Is Good For You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXxUHTtbeMg&feature=related

The Wedding Cake Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuPjgZqELS0

Who's Yehouti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwla4mQt9ws

Love Turns Winter To Spring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDositueJp8&feature=related

What The Country Needs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztKmRaA2QmQ

Guilty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOV4BDzBBqg

Martha Tilton (November 14, 1915, Corpus Christi, Texas -December 8, 2006, Brentwood, California) was an American popular singer, best-known for her 1939 recording of "And the Angels Sing" with Benny Goodman. She was sometimes introduced as The Liltin' Miss Tilton.

Tilton and her family lived in Texas and Kansas, relocating to Los Angeles when she was seven years old. While attending Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, she was singing on a small radio station when she was heard by an agent who signed her and began booking her with larger stations. She then dropped out of school in the 11th grade to join Hal Grayson's band.

After singing with the quartet, Three Hits and a Miss, she joined the chorus on Benny Goodman's radio show, Camel Caravan. Goodman hired Tilton as a vocalist with his band in 1937. She was with Goodman in 1938, when the band performed the first jazz performance at Carnegie Hall.

Tilton had a major success from 1942 to 1949 as one of the first artists to record for Capitol Records. Among her biggest hits as a solo artist were "I'll Walk Alone," a wartime ballad which rose to #4 on the charts in 1944; "I Should Care" and "A Stranger in Town," which both peaked at #10 in 1945; and three in 1947: "How Are Things in Glocca Morra" from Finian's Rainbow, which climbed to #8; "That's My Desire," which hit #10; and "I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder," which reached #9.

After she left Capitol, Tilton recorded for other labels, including Coral and Tops. Among her later albums was We Sing the Old Songs (1957, Tops), a mix of older songs and recent standards with baritone Curt Massey, who later became well-known as the composer (with Paul Henning) and singer of the theme song for the CBS-TV series Petticoat Junction.

Reviewing the two-CD set, The Liltin' Miss Tilton, (Capitol, 2000), critic Don Heckman wrote:
There are those who would say that Martha Tilton wasn't a jazz singer at all. But swing-era fans won't have any doubts, remembering her for a rocking version of "Loch Lomond" at Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert

RADIO

Massey and Tilton starred in Alka-Seltzer Time, a 15-minute radio series broadcast weekdays on both CBS and Mutual. Sponsored by Alka-Seltzer, this show began in 1949 as Curt Massey Time (sometimes advertised as Curt Massey Time with Martha Tilton) with a title change to highlight the sponsor's product by 1952. By 1953, the series was heard simultaneously on Mutual (at noon) and later that same day on CBS (at 5:45pm). Ads described the show as "informal song sessions" by vocalists Massey and Tilton, who was often billed as "The liltin' Martha Tilton." The two Texas-born singers performed with Country Washburne and His Orchestra, featuring Charles LaVere on piano. The series ended November 6, 1953. However, Massey and Tilton continued to appear together during the late 1950s on such shows as Guest Star and Stars for Defense. They also teamed to record an album, We Sing the Old Songs (1957). Tilton and Massey also co-hosted a daily half-hour TV show in Los Angeles for approximately seven years.

FILMS

Her movies include Sunny (1941), Swing Hostess (1944) and Crime, Inc. (1945). Her last film appearance was as the band vocalist in the TV movie Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975). Tilton's singing voice was used for other actresses including Barbara Stanwyck, Martha O'Driscoll and Anne Gwynne. She also appeared in several Soundies musical films of the 1940s.

Her sister, Liz Tilton, also seen in Soundies, sang with Ken Baker (mid-1930s), Buddy Rogers, Bob Crosby (1941) and Jan Garber (1942).

And The Angel Sings The Official Marhta Tilton Site
http://www.marthatilton.com/

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 2 replies

11/12 B-Day nod to Neil Young

kubbie — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:57:20 GMT

Not a crooner or songbird but Damn I love him. This is my favorite song.

After The Gold Rush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdvic9cRsFM

and to full fill my total guilty pleasure is the cover of this song by Emmylou Harris. Dolly Parton and Linda Rondstadt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ7j88DQYNg&feature=related

and a nice version by kd lang, this one really tugs at my goosebumps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5BOkYU5wcs&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

11/12 Jo Stafford

kubbie — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:41:43 GMT

You Belong To Me (BEST VERSION OF THIS SONG EVER!!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H1Imb6jm0U

Jo Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008[1]), born Jo Elizabeth Stafford, was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards whose career spanned the late 1930s through the early 1960s. Stafford is greatly admired for the purity of her voice and was
considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era. She was also viewed as a pioneer of modern musical parody, having won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1961 (with husband Paul Weston) for their album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris.

EARLY YEARS

Stafford was born in Coalinga, California to Grover Cleveland Stafford and Anna York Stafford, a distant cousin of Sergeant Alvin York. Originally, she wanted to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child. However, because of the economic Great Depression, she abandoned that idea and joined her sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group, "The Stafford Sisters", which performed on Los Angeles radio station KHJ. Jo Stafford was one of only a handful of musicians to have "perfect pitch", the ability to identify a note without having seen the piano key or other instrument play the note.

THE PIED PIPERS

When her sisters married, the group broke up and Stafford joined a new vocal group, The Pied Pipers. This group consisted of eight members: John Huddleston (who was Stafford's husband at the time), Hal Hooper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody Newbury, and Dick Whittinghill, besides Stafford. The group became very popular, working on local radio and movie soundtracks, and caught the attention of two of Tommy Dorsey's arrangers, Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston.

In 1938, Weston persuaded Dorsey to sign The Pied Pipers for his radio show, and they went to New York for a broadcast date. Dorsey liked them enough to sign them for ten weeks, but after the second broadcast the sponsor heard them and disliked them, firing the group. They stayed in New York for three months, but landed only a single job that paid them just $3.60 each, though they did record four sides for RCA Victor Records.

Half the members of the Pied Pipers returned to Los Angeles, but they had a difficult time trying to make a living until they got an offer from Dorsey to join his big band in 1939. This led to success for the whole group, but especially for Stafford, who was also featured in solo performances. The group also backed Frank Sinatra in some of his early recordings.

In 1942, the group had an argument with Dorsey and left, but in 1943 it became one of the first groups signed to Johnny Mercer's new label, Capitol Records. Capitol's music director was the same Paul Weston who had been instrumental in introducing Stafford to Dorsey. Weston and Stafford married in 1952. They went on to have two children, Tim and Amy.

SOLO CAREER

In 1944, Stafford left the Pied Pipers to go solo. Her tenure with the USO, in which she gave countless performances for soldiers stationed overseas, acquired her the nickname "GI Jo."

Beginning in 1944, she hosted the Tuesday and Thursday broadcasts of an NBC musical variety radio program — The Chesterfield Supper Club.

In 1948 Stafford and Gordon MacRae had a million-seller with their version of "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart" and in 1949 repeated their success with "My Happiness".

In 1950, she left Capitol for Columbia Records, then returning to Capitol in 1961. At Columbia, she was the first recording artist to sell twenty-five million records. During her second stint at Capitol, Stafford also recorded for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label. These albums were released between 1961 and 1964, and were mostly retrospective in nature. Stafford left the label when Sinatra sold it to Warner Bros.

In the 1950s, she had a string of popular hits with Frankie Laine, six of which charted; their duet of Hank Williams' "Hey Good Lookin'" making the top ten in 1951. It was also at this time that Stafford scored her best known hits with huge records like "Jambalaya," "Shrimp Boats," "Make Love to Me," and "You Belong to Me". The last song was Stafford's all-time biggest hit, topping the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom (the first song by a female singer to top the UK chart).

COMEDY CAREER

Stafford briefly experimented with comedy under the name "Cinderella G. Stump" with Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. She recorded a mock hillbilly version of Temptation, which she pronounced "Tim-tayshun." True success in the comedy genre, though, would come about almost accidentally.

Throughout the 1950s, Stafford and Paul Weston would entertain guests at parties by putting on a skit in which they assumed the identities Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, a bad lounge act. Stafford, as Darlene, would sing off-key in a high pitched voice; Weston, as Jonathan, played an untuned piano off key and with bizarre rhythms.

Finding that she had time left over following a 1957 recording session, Stafford, as a gag, recorded a track as Darlene Edwards. Those who heard bootlegs of the recording responded positively, and later that year, Stafford and Weston recorded an entire album of songs as Jonathan and Darlene, entitled Jo Stafford and Paul Weston Present: The Original Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards, Vocals by Darlene Edwards. As a publicity stunt, Stafford and Weston claimed that the Edwardses were a New Jersey lounge act that they had discovered, and denied any personal connection. The ruse triggered a national sensation as the public tried to identify the brazenly off-key singer and the piano player of dubious ability. (Some guessed Margaret and Harry Truman, Time magazine noted.) Much time would pass before people realized (and Stafford and Weston admitted) that they were in fact the Edwardses. The album was followed up with a "pop standards" album, on which the pair intentionally butchered popular music. The album was a commercial and critical success; it proved to be the first commercially successful musical parody album, laying the groundwork for the careers of later "full time" musical parodists such as Weird Al Yankovic.

The couple continued releasing Jonathan and Darlene albums, with their 1961 album, Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris winning that year's Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album (they "tied" with Bob Newhart, as the Grammys decided, in a rare move, to issue two comedy awards that year. Newhart was given an award for "Spoken Word Comedy.") It was the only major award that Stafford ever won.

The couple continued to release Jonathan and Darlene albums for several years, and in 1977 released a final, one-off single, a cover of The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" backed with "I Am Woman." The same year also saw a brief resurgence in the popularity of Jonathan and Darlene albums when their cover of "Carioca" was featured as the opening and closing theme to The Kentucky Fried Movie.

RETIREMENT

In 1966, Stafford went into semi-retirement, retiring completely from the music business in 1975. Except for the 1977 Jonathan and Darlene Edwards version of "Stayin' Alive," Stafford wouldn't perform again until 1990, at a ceremony honoring Frank Sinatra.

Stafford won a breach-of-contract lawsuit against her former record label in the early 1990s, which won her the rights to all of her old recordings, including the Jonathan and Darlene recordings. Following the lawsuit, Stafford, along with son Tim, reactivated the Corinthian Record label which began life as a religious label the deeply religious Paul Weston had started. With Paul Weston's help, she compiled a pair of Best of Jonathan and Darlene albums, which were released in 1993. In 1996, Paul Weston died of natural causes. Stafford continued to operate Corinthian Records. In 2006, she donated her library and her husband's to the University of Arizona.

She died in Century City, California of congestive heart failure on July 16, 2008 at the age of 90.

Jo at SOLID
www.parabrisas.com/d_staffordj.php

The Paul Weston and Jo Stafford Collection at the University of Arizona
web.cfa.arizona.edu/westonstafford/

Jo at IMDB
www.imdb.com/name/nm0821300/

Youtube clips

We Meet Again from her 1961 TV show opening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAxGxyljXZM&feature=related

Make Love To Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36sGTMgoeJE

Kissin Bug Boogie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmGH7y6Ooro

Jo with Rosemary Clooney, Mel Torme, and Jack Parnell Orchestra from the Jo Stafford Show (there is a brief goat in the clip Lisa)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkzJFyNAjhY&feature=related

A Sunday Kind of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GN0hpq2jAs&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

11/11 Belter Spotlight LaVern Baker

kubbie — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:06:23 GMT

LaVern Baker (November 11, 1929 – March 10, 1997) was an American rhythm and blues singer.

She was born Delores Baker in Chicago, Illinois. She is occasionally referred to as Delores Williams because of an early marriage to Eugene Williams. She was the niece of blues singer Merline Johnson and music legend Memphis Minnie.

She began singing in Chicago clubs around 1946, often billed as "Little Miss Sharecropper", and first recorded under that name in 1949. She changed her name briefly to "Bea Baker" when recording for Okeh Records in 1951, and then became LaVern Baker when singing with Todd Rhodes and his band in 1952.

In 1953 she signed for Atlantic Records as a solo artist, her first release being "Soul on Fire". Her first hit came in early 1955, with the Latin-tempo "Tweedlee Dee" reaching #4 on the R&B chart and #14 on the national US pop charts. Georgia Gibbs scored the bigger hit with her version of "Tweedle Dee", for which Baker unsuccessfully attempted to sue her. LaVern did manage to get in a jab, however. When LaVern was flying to Australia, she took out flight insurance at the airport and sent it to Gibbs with a note: "You need this more than I do because if anything happens to me, you're out of business."

Baker had a succession of hits on the R&B charts over the next couple of years with her backing group The Gliders, including "Bop-Ting-A-Ling" (#3 R&B), "Play It Fair" (#2 R&B), and "Still" (#4 R&B). At the end of 1956 she had another smash hit with "Jim Dandy" (#1 R&B, #17 pop). Further hits followed for Atlantic, including the follow-up "Jim Dandy Got Married" (#7 R&B), "I Cried A Tear" (#2 R&B, #6 pop in 1959), "I Waited Too Long" (#5 R&B, #3 pop, written by Neil Sedaka), "Saved" (#17 R&B, written by Leiber and Stoller), and "See See Rider" (#9 R&B in 1963).

In addition to singing, Baker also did some work with Ed Sullivan and Alan Freed on TV and in films, including Rock, Rock, Rock and Mr. Rock & Roll. In 1964, she recorded a Bessie Smith tribute album, before leaving Atlantic and joining Brunswick Records, where she recorded as a duo with Jackie Wilson.

In the late 1960s, she became seriously ill after a trip to Vietnam to entertain American soldiers. About that same time, a friend recommended that she stay on as the entertainment director at a Marine Corps night club at the Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines, and she remained there for 22 years.

In 1988 she returned to perform at Madison Square Garden for Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary. She then worked on the soundtrack to Dick Tracy and appeared in Black & Blue, a Broadway musical, and released a comeback disc that sold moderately well.

In 1991, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her song "Jim Dandy" was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was ranked #343 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

LaVern Baker died from coronary complications in 1997, and was interred in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, New York. She lies in an unmarked grave, but a fundraiser was scheduled by local historians to give LaVern a headstone in April 2008. This was accomplished on May 4, 2008

SONGS

I Cried A Tear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV5m9A388HA

Tweedle Dee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtx3Wd2DH48

Love Me Right In The Morning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDzfp8Nb7A0&feature=related

Substitute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMk30M3k5C8&feature=related

Voodoo Voodoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn1Adf4cfyE&feature=related

Jim Dandy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aASxYIk-rHw

Shake a Hand with Jackie Wilson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yArGSFFpiK4&feature=related

Humpty Dumpty Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DRboDSTnY8&feature=related

Jim Dandy Got Married
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf3Op7xl030&feature=related

LINKS

LaVern at The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame
http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/lavern-baker

LaVern at VH1
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/baker_lavern/bio.jhtml

Downloads at Artist direct
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,400165,00.html

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Happy 81st Patti Page

kubbie — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:50:50 GMT

1950 Tennesse Waltz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ek3eCbfqp0
1956 Conquest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dekiuwZhRIU&feature=related

How Much Is That Doggie In The Window
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AkLE4X-bbU&feature=related

Old Cape Cod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT2ao0rcxoA

Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (song to images of Charlotte)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5meacPcz14

Clara Ann Fowler (born November 8, 1927), known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music.

She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records to date. Page signed with Mercury Records in 1947, and became their first successful female artist, starting with 1948's "Confess." In 1950, she had her first million-selling single with "With My Eyes Wide Open, I'm Dreaming," and would eventually have 14 additional million-selling singles between 1950 and 1965. Page's signature song, "Tennessee Waltz," recorded in 1950, was one of the biggest-selling singles of the twentieth century, and is also one of the two official state songs of Tennessee. "Tennessee Waltz" spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard magazine's Best-Sellers List in 1950. Page had three additional #1 hit singles between 1950 and 1953, with "All My Love (Bolero)", "I Went to Your Wedding," and "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window."

Unlike most pop music singers, Page blended the styles of country music into many of her most popular songs. With this, many of Page's singles also made the Billboard Country Chart. Towards the '70s, Page shifted her career towards country music, and she began charting on the country charts, up until 1982. Page is one of the few vocalists who have made the country charts in five separate decades. Other singers who have done this include Eddy Arnold and George Jones, both of whom are traditional country music singers.

When Rock & Roll Music became popular in 1955, traditional pop music was becoming less popular. Page was one of the few traditional pop music singers who was able to sustain her success, continuing to have major hits into the mid-'60s with "Old Cape Cod," "Allegheny Moon," "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)," and "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte."

EARLY LIFE

Page was born Clara Ann Fowler on November 8, 1927 in Claremore, Oklahoma (although some sources give Muskogee, Oklahoma). She was born into a large and poor family. Her father worked on the MKT railroad, while her mother and older sisters picked cotton. As she related on television many years later, the family went without electricity, and therefore she could not read after dark. Fowler became a featured singer on a 15-minute radio program on radio station KTUL, Tulsa, Oklahoma at age 18. The program was sponsored by the "Page Milk Company." On the air, Fowler was dubbed "Patti Page," after the Page Milk Company. In 1946, Jack Rael, a saxophone player and band manager, came to Tulsa to do a one-night show. Rael heard Page on the radio and liked her voice. Rael asked her to join the band he managed, the "Jimmy Joy Band." Rael would later become Page's personal manager, after leaving the band.

Page toured with the "Jimmy Joy Band" throughout the country in the mid-1940s. The band eventually ended up in Chicago, Illinois in 1947. In Chicago, Page sang with a small group led by popular orchestra leader, Benny Goodman. This helped Page gain her first recording contract with Mercury Records the same year.Page became Mercury Records' "girl singer."

1948-1949

Page recorded her first single in 1947 titled "Confess." Page recorded the song at the time of a strike at her record label; therefore, background singers were not available to provide harmony vocals for the song. Instead, Page and the label decided to overdub her vocals on the song, which made it seem as if Page was harmonizing with herself. Mitch Miller, who produced for Mercury Records, was able to overdub Page's voice, due to his well-known use of technology. Thus, Page became the first pop artist to overdub her vocals on a song. This idea would later be used on Page's biggest hit singles in the 1950s. In 1948, "Confess" became a Top 15 hit on Billboard magazine, peaking at #12 on the "Best-Sellers" chart, thus becoming her first major hit on the pop chart. Page followed the single with four more between 1948 and 1949, only one of which was a Top 20 hit, "So in Love" (1949). Page also had a Top 15 hit on the Billboard magazine country chart in 1949 with "Money, Marbles, and Chalk."

In 1950, Page had her first million-selling single with "With My Eyes Wide Open, I'm Dreaming," another song where she overdubbed her vocals. Because she started to overdub her vocals, Page's name would be listed on the Pop charts as a group name. According to one early-'50s chart, Page was titled as "The Patti Page Quartet," among other. Towards the middle of 1950, Page's single, "All My Love (Bolero)" peaked at #1 on Billboard magazine, becoming her first #1 hit,[5] spending five weeks there. That same year, she also had her first Top 10 hit with "I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine," as well as the Top 25 single, "Back in Your Own Backyard."

Tennessee Waltz

Towards the end of 1950, Page's version of "Tennessee Waltz" became her second #1 hit, and her most-popular and biggest-selling single. "Tennessee Waltz" was originally recorded by country music band Pee Wee King & His Golden West Cowboys in 1947, becoming a minor hit on the country charts for them that year. It also became a minor country hit for country star Cowboy Copas around the same time. Page was presented the song by her record label, but it was recorded in a jazz version by jazz vocalist Erskine Hawkins. Page liked the song and she eventually recorded and released it as a single.The song spent 13 weeks at #1 between 1950 and 1951. "Tennessee Waltz" also became Page's second single to reach the country chart, becoming her biggest hit there, reaching #2. The song would later become one of the best-selling records of the time, selling seven million copies in the early '50s, which prompted various cover versions of the song to appear on the charts during the year. "Tennessee Waltz" has also represented the biggest commercial success for the overdubbing technique to date. Today, the song has come close to selling fifteen million copies. It also became the last song to sell one million copies of sheet music, due to the increasing popularity of recorded music.

1951-1965

In 1951, Page's released the follow-up single to "Tennessee Waltz" called "Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)," which was a Top 5 hit, and also sold a million copies. The next single, "Mockin' Bird Hill," (a cover of the version by Les Paul and Mary Ford was another major hit that year) was her fourth single that sold a million copies. Page had three additional Top 10 hits on Billboard magazine in 1951, starting with "Mister and Mississippi," which peaked at #8, "And So to Sleep Again", and "Detour," which had previously been recorded and made famous by Foy Willing and Elton Britt. Page's version became the most-popular and would become Page's seventh million-selling single.[13] She also released her first studio album in 1951 titled, Folk Song Favorites, covers of Page's favorite Folk songs. In 1952, Page had a third #1 hit with "I Went to Your Wedding," which spent two months at the top spot. Recorded in a country ballad style, the song was the flip-side of Page's other hit that year, "You Belong to Me." "I Went to Your Wedding" became more successful, and the single became Page's eighth million-selling single in the United States. She had continued success that year, with four additional songs in the Top 10 with "Come What May," "Once In a While," "Why Don't You Believe Me" (the most popular version was recorded by Joni James), and "You Belong to Me" (the most well-known version was recorded by Jo Stafford the same year).

In 1953, a novelty tune, "(How Much Is That) Doggie In the Window" became Page's fourth #1 hit, selling over a million copies, and staying on the best-sellers chart for five months. The song included a dog barking in the recording, which helped make the song popular and one of her best-known and signature songs. The song was written by novelty tune specialist, Bob Merrill. It was originally recorded by Page for a children's album that year. She had a series of Top 20 hits that year. A final single that year reached the Top 5 titled "Changing Partners," which peaked at #3 and stayed on the charts for five months. The song was also recorded in a country melody, like many of Page's hits at the time. Into 1954, Page had further hits, including "Cross Over the Bridge," which also over-dubbed Page's vocals and became a major hit, peaking at #2, nearly reaching the top spot. Other Top 10 hits by Page that year included, "Steam Heat," and "Let Me Go Lover." In 1955 Page had one charting single with "Croce di Oro," due to the increasing popularity of Rock & Roll music. Unlike most traditional pop music singers at the time, Page was able to maintain her success in the late-50s (although not as successful as the early-50s), having three major hits in 1956, including the #2 hit "Allegheny Moon." In 1957 she had other major hits with "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)" (recorded the same year by Patsy Cline) and the Top 5 hit, "Old Cape Cod."

During the 1950s, Page regularly appeared on a series of syndicated television shows and programs, including The Dean Martin Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Steve Allen Show. This eventually led to Page acquiring some television specials of her own during the 1950s. Page would later have her own show in 1955 titled The Patti Page Show. However, the show only lasted one season. Page also acted in fims during this time, given a role on the CBS show, Playhouse 90. Page made her film debut in the 60s, with the 1960 film, Elmer Gantry. Page also recorded the theme song for the film, Boys Night Out, in which Page also had a role, playing Joanne McIllenny.

In the early 1960s, Page's success began to decrease, having no major hits up until 1961's "You'll Answer to Me" and "Mom and Dad's Waltz." Page had her last major hit on the Billboard Pop Chart in 1965 with "Hush... Hush Sweet, Charlotte," from the film of the same name starring Bette Davis and Olivia De Havilland.

1966-1982

Before, releasing "Hush... Hush Sweet, Charlotte," Page signed with Columbia Records, where she stayed towards the end of the decade. She released a few studio albums for the Columbia label in the 60s. Up until 1970, her singles began to chart on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. Many of these singles became major hits, peaking in the Top 20, including cover versions of "You Can't Be True, Dear," "Gentle On My Mind" and "Little Green Apples" (the latter being her last pop chart entry). Page, who is a fan of country music has recorded cover versions of many country songs throughout the years. Some of these songs were recorded under Columbia and were released as Adult Contemporary singles, including David Houston's "Almost Persuaded" and Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man." Page left Columbia at the end of the 60s.

In 1970, Page returned to Mercury Records and shifted her career towards country music. In 1973, she returned to working with her former record producer, Shelby Singleton. Under Mercury, Columbia, and Epic in the 70s, Page recorded a series of country singles, beginning with 1970's "I Wish I Had a Mommy Like You," which became a Top 25 hit, followed by "Give Hime Love," with similar success. In 1971, she released a country music studio album, I'd Rather Be Sorry, for Mercury records. In the early 70s, she had additional charted hits; her most successful was in 1973, a duet with country singer Tom T. Hall titled, "Hello, We're Lonely" which was a Top 20 hit, reaching #14 on the Bilboard Country Chart.

Also, in 1973, Page moved back to Columbia Records, recording for Epic Records (a subsidiary). In 1974 and 1975, she released singles for Avoc records again, with country singles "I May Not Be Lovin' You" and "Less Than the Song," both of which were minor country hits. After a five-year hiatus, she recorded for Plantation Records in 1980. In the early 80s, she also performed with major symphony orchestras in Cincinnati, Ohio and Mexico City, Mexico. She had a Top 40 hit with the Plantation label in 1981 titled "No Acres," followed by a series of minor country hits, including her last-charting single, "My Man Friday," which reached #80.

1983-Present

In 1988, Page appeared in New York City to perform at the Ballroom, making it the first time she performed in New York in nearly twenty years. She received positive reviews from music critics. In the 1990s, Page founded her own record label, C.A.F. Records, which released various albums, including a 2003 children's album. In the early 90s, Page moved west to San Diego, California, and continued to perform live shows at venues across the country.

In 1998, Page recorded her first live album. It was performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and titled, Live at Carnegie Hall: The 50th Anniversary Concert. The album won Page a Grammy Award the following year for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, her first Grammy. In 2000, she released a new album, Brand New Tennessee Waltz, which consisted of new music. Harmony vocals were provided by popular country stars, including Suzy Bogguss, Alison Krauss, Kathy Mattea, and Trisha Yearwood. The album was promoted at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee in 2000. On October 4, 2000, the mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire declared the day "Patti Page Day" in the town. In 2005, she performed a series of engagements at a theatre in Branson, Missouri, starting on September 12.

Until recently, Page was a host of a weekly Sunday program on the "Music of Your Life" radio network. She and Jack White of The White Stripes were interviewed in January 2008, after the White Stripes covered Page's early 50s hit, "Conquest" on their 2007 studio album, Icky Thump. Page and White were put together on the phone during the interview, talking to each other about their views on "Conquest." In 2007, Page was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Now in her 80s, Page continues to tour, performing 50 select concerts a year across the United States and Canada.

STYLE

During the time of Page's greatest popularity (the late 40s and 50s), most of her traditional pop music counterparts included jazz melodies into their songs. Page also incorporated jazz into some of her songs; however on most of her recordings, Page added a country music arrangement.

During the 50s, Mercury Records was controlled by Mitch Miller, who produced most of Page's music. Miller found that the simple-structured melodies and storylines in country music songs could be adapted to the pop music market. Page, who was born in Oklahoma, felt comfortable using this idea. Many of Page's most successful hits featured a country music arrangement, including her signature song, "Tennessee Waltz," as well as "I Went to Your Wedding" and "Changing Partners." Some of these singles charted on the Billboard Country Chart during the 40s, 50s, and early 60s for this reason.

Many other artists were introduced to Page's style and incorporated the same country arrangement into many of their songs, including The Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby, who together had a #1 hit on the country charts in the late 40s with "Pistol Packin' Mama."

PERSONAL LIFE
Page has been married twice. She married her first husband, Charles O'Curran, a choreographer, in 1956. Together, Page and O'Curran adopted two children: a son, Danny and a daughter, Kathleen. They divorced in 1972. Page married her second husband, Jerry Filiciotto in 1990. Together they run a maple syrup business in New Hampshire. They live at their home in San Diego, California.

Official Patti Page site
http://www.misspattipage.com/

Patti at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656303/

Patti Page Products
http://pattipageproducts.com/

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 4 replies

RIP Yma Sumac 1922-2008

kubbie — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:17:51 GMT

Wimoweh with Martin Denny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LUSUel_kck&feature=related

Bo Mambo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhUBJZdL8BY&feature=related

Ataypura
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad_XL_mNNP8&feature=related

La pampa y la puna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8clnnqSs84&feature=related

Tumpa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-C7jZfAQ34

Wiki bio and links to her websites below

Obit from the UK Telegraph

Yma Sumac , who died on Saturday, probably aged 86, was a Peruvian

singer and a phenomenon in the 1950s whose varied, tempestuous career

started when her extraordinary voice, ranging over several octaves,

startled people on the album Voice of Xtabuy.

The album went straight into the bestseller lists and was followed by

Mambo!, arranged by Billy May, and Fuego del Ande (1959), perhaps her

best record. British radio audiences were intrigued and countless

requests flooded in to Children’s Choice, Two-Way Family Favourites and

Housewives’ Choice.

Broadway was fascinated by her appearance in Flahooley (which also

starred the young Barbara Cook) in the spring of 1951.

This strange musical satire starred Ernest Truex and concerned a genie

in a lamp carelessly left behind at a toy factory by an Arabian

princess.

The show gave the extraordinary range of Yma Sumac’s voice a chance to

range from low contralto to A above high C, but it also revealed that

the voice had not been trained.

Her part and the two songs it entailed had been hastily and badly

written.

Yma Sumac claimed to have been born on September 10 1927 (or 1925), at

Ichocán, a mountain town north of Lima, though her personal assistant,

who claimed to have seen her birth certificate, gave her date of birth

as September 13 1922. Her Spanish name was Zoila Augusta Emperatriz

Chavárri del Castillo; her Indian name, which meant “how beautiful”, was

Imma Sumack, which she later altered to Yma Sumac.

for the rest of the obit go here

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3374381/Yma-Sumac.html

Yma Sumac (September 13, 1922 - November 1, 2008) was a noted soprano of

Peruvian origin. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous proponents

of exotica music, and became an international success based on the

merits of her extreme vocal range, "well over three octaves", which was

commonly claimed to span four and even five octaves at its peak

Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo

Now known as Yma Sumac, Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo

was born on September 13, 1922 in Ichocán, Cajamarca, Peru. Other dates

mentioned in her various biographies range from 1921 to 1929. Some

sources claim that she was not born in Ichocán, but in a nearby village

or possibly in Lima, and that her family owned a ranch in Ichocán where

she spent most of her early life. Stories published in the 1950s claimed

that she was an Incan princess directly descended from Atahualpa. A

story claiming that she was actually born Amy Camus (Yma Sumac

backwards) in Brooklyn or Canada was fabricated while she was performing

in New York City in the early 1950s.

Imma Sumack

Del Castillo adopted the stage name of Imma Sumack (also spelled Ymma

Sumack and Ima Sumack) before she left South America to go to the U.S.

The stage name was based on her mother's name which was derived from Ima

Shumaq, Quechua for "how beautiful!" although in interviews she claimed

it meant "beautiful flower" or "beautiful girl".

Imma Sumack first appeared on radio in 1942, and married composer and

bandleader Moisés Vivanco on June 6 the same year. She recorded at least

20 tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Argentina in 1943. These early

recordings for the Odeon label featured Moisés Vivanco's group, Compañía

Peruana de Arte, a group of 46 Indian dancers, singers and musicians. In

1946, Sumack and Vivanco moved to New York City, where they performed as

the Inca Taky Trio, Sumack singing soprano, Vivanco on guitar and her

cousin Cholita Rivero singing contralto and dancing. Sumack bore a son,

Charles, in 1949, and was signed by Capitol Records in 1950, at which

time her stage name became Yma Sumac.

Yma SUmac

During the 1950s, Yma Sumac produced a series of legendary lounge music

recordings featuring Hollywood-style versions of Incan and South

American folk songs, working with the likes of Les Baxter and Billy May.

The combination of her extraordinary voice, exotic looks and stage

personality made her a hit with American audiences. Sumac even appeared

in a Broadway musical, Flahooley, in 1951, as a foreign princess who

brings Aladdin's lamp to an American toy factory to have it repaired.

The show's score was by Sammy Fain and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, but Sumac's

four numbers were the work of Vivanco. Capitol Records, Sumac's label,

recorded the show. Flahooley closed quickly but the recording continues

as a cult classic, in part because it also marked the Broadway debut of

Barbara Cook. During the height of Sumac's popularity, she appeared in

the films Secret of the Incas (1954) and Omar Khayyam (1957). She became

a U.S. citizen on July 22, 1955. In 1959, she popularized Jorge Bravo de

Rueda's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol" on her Fuego del Ande LP.

In 1957, Sumac and Vivanco divorced, their dispute making news in Los

Angeles. They remarried that same year before divorcing again in 1965.

Apparently due to financial difficulties, Yma Sumac and the original

Inca Taky Trio went on a world tour in 1961, which lasted for five

years. They performed in 40 cities in the Soviet Union, and afterwards

all over Europe, Asia and Latin America. Their performance in Bucharest,

Romania was recorded as the album Recital, her only 'live in concert'

record. Yma Sumac spent the rest of the 1960s performing sporadically.

In 1971, she released a rock album, called Miracles, and then returned

to live in Peru. She performed in concert from time to time during the

1970s in Peru and later in New York. In the 1980s, she had a number of

concerts both in the U.S. and abroad including at New York's The

Ballroom in 1987 and several San Francisco shows at the Theatre on the

Square among others. In 1987, she also recorded the song I Wonder from

the Disney film Sleeping Beauty for Stay Awake, an album of songs from

Disney movies, produced by Hal Willner. She sang Ataypura during a March

19, 1987 appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, appearing

alongside actor-comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Murray.

In 1989, she sang once again at The Ballroom in New York. In March 1990,

she played the role of Heidi in Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in Long

Beach, California, her first attempt at serious theater since Flahooley

in 1951. She also gave several concerts in the summer of 1996 in San

Francisco and Hollywood and two more in Montreal, Canada in July 1997 as

part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

In 1992, Günther Czernetsky directed a documentary titled Yma Sumac -

Hollywood's Inkaprinzessin (Yma Sumac - Hollywood's Inca Princess). With

the resurgence of lounge music in the late 1990s, Sumac's profile rose

again when the song Ataypura was featured in the Coen Brothers' film The

Big Lebowski. Her song Bo Mambo appeared in a commercial for Kahlua

liquor, and was sampled for the song Hands Up by the Black Eyed Peas.

The song Gopher Mambo was used in the films Ordinary Decent Criminal

Dead Husbands, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. The songs Goomba

Boomba and Malambo No. 1 appeared in Death to Smoochy.

On May 6, 2006, Sumac flew to Lima, where she was presented the Orden

del Sol award by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, and the Jorge

Basadre medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

Yma Sumac died on November 1, 2008 at the age of 86 (although there was

some doubt as to her actual year of birth) at an assisted-living home in

Los Angeles, California. She had been diagnosed with colon cancer in

February the same year.

Yma Sumac.com
http://www.yma-sumac.com/

Yma Sumac Official Site
http://www.sunvirgin.com/

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

The Bossa Nova Years

Jeff — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:05:18 GMT

While going through my collection I found a CD collection called The Bossa Nova Years by Stan Getz featuring Astrud Gilberto.
Gave it a spin as I'd never played it. Kinda pricey but Getz/Gilberto and others are available as single CDs for cheap.

In the 60s I thought Astrud along with Walter Wanderley were the greatest.

Further rummaging and up popped The Best of Sergio Mendes and Brasil '65!

The singer on Brasil 65 is Wanda de Sah and she is even better than Astrud!

If you want some primo bossa nova, The Best of Sergio Mendes and Brasil '65 is available on CD for a few bucks from Amazon on the Curb label.

DRG (Capitol) just released a two-fer CD of this album and Softly by Wanda de Sah. About $12 on Amazon.

Are Astrud and Wanda songbirds? Of course.

That's what the glitterati were listening to in the mid 60s.

I recall seeing Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto perform in a corny 1964 flick called Get Yourself a College Girl.

There is such a wealth of music available and due to the greatness of this Tribe....the recession can't touch it because we share...ideas and finds.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

I"ve Missed You Guys!

Jeff — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:06:50 GMT

It has been a long uphill battle since my stroke (7/07) so this old war horse is on medical retirement.
Fortunately I can walk, talk and don't need Depends..LOL
BUT it is boring sitting around. FINALLY got a new computer that doesn't crash like the stock market.

Hope my buddies Sean, Confetta, Paula and all you guys are still around.

So..what are you all spending your allowances on?

What is everyone listening to these days?

There have been so many new releases..esp of Patti Page 78s on CD from the Sepia and Acrobat labels!!!

I've gotten addicted to late 40s Japanese C&S. Gotta love Tokyo Boogie Woogie, Tokyo Shoeshine Boy and the like.
The music that poured forth from loud speakers during Post War Japan and the tunes used in the ancient Kurosawa flicks as background music in the nightclubs takes you right back to Tokyo circa 1947:)

Listening to C&S has kept me alive!

I sincerely hope you are all doing well and send you my love.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 10 replies

Random Spotlight - Ella Mae Morse

kubbie — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:22:45 GMT

The post in the last few days made me realize how long its been since I moderated here. Jeffs mention of Boogie Woogie brought to mind Ella Mae Morse who I enjoy listening to and is just plain fun.

Cow Cow Boogie with the Freddie Slack Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syVLIgzLfTw

Mr Five by Five
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nEOeWxlxT0

40 Cups of Coffee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMcdzc1TkO4

The Blacksmith Blues with Nelson Riddle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD_6bDfaSPw&feature=related

Mr Raven, Nevermore with Kirby Grant & The Meltones from the movie Ghost

Catchers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Rr76kfy9c

Okie Boogie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xutwl2vGQ_U&feature=related

Rock Me All Night Long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGuDWDIgrdQ&feature=related

Pig Foot Pete
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouJau7cBr48&feature=related

Ella Mae Morse (September 12, 1924 – October 16, 1999[1]), was an

American popular singer. One of the most talented and overlooked

vocalists of the 1940s, Morse blended jazz, country, pop, and R&B; at

times she came remarkably close to what would be known as rock and roll.

Morse was born in Mansfield, Texas. She was hired by Jimmy Dorsey when

she was 14 years old. Dorsey believed she was 19, and when he was

informed by the school board that he was now responsible for her care,

he fired her. In 1942, at the age of 17, she joined Freddie Slack's

band, with whom in the same year she recorded "Cow Cow Boogie," Capitol

Records' first gold single. "Mr. Five by Five" was also recorded by

Morse with Slack and they had a hit recording with the song in 1942

(Capitol 115). She also originated the wartime hit "Milkman, Keep Those

Bottles Quiet," which was later popularized by Nancy Walker in the film,

Broadway Rhythm.

In 1943, Morse began to record solo. She reached #1 in the R&B chart

with "Shoo-Shoo Baby" in the December for two weeks. In the same year

she had a cameo appearance in the film Reveille with Beverly. She sang

in a wide variety of styles, and she had hits on both the U.S. pop and

rhythm and blues charts. However, she never received the popularity of a

major star.

The song "Love Me or Leave Me" as recorded by Morse was released by

Capitol Records as catalog number 1922, with the flip side "Blacksmith

Blues".

In 1946, "House of Blue Lights" by Freddie Slack and Morse, saw them as

the first white artists to perform what is now seen as R&B. Her biggest

solo success was "Blacksmith Blues" (1952). The same year her version of

"Down the Road a Piece" appeared on Capitol with Slack again on piano

accompaniment. Morse also recorded a version of "Oakie Boogie" for

Capitol which reached #23 in 1952. Her version was one of the first

songs arranged by Nelson Riddle. Morse ceased recording in 1957 but

continued performing until 1987.

Morse had six children from two marriages.

Her music career was profiled in Nick Tosches' 1984 book, The Unsung

Heroes of Rock 'N' Roll: The Birth of Rock in the Wild Years Before

Elvis. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.

It is sometimes erroneously reported that Morse recorded with Bill Haley

& His Comets in the 1950s. This is not true, although she did record

versions of songs also recorded by Haley such as "Razzle-Dazzle" and

"Forty Cups of Coffee".

In 1999 Morse died of respiratory failure in Bullhead City, Arizona,

aged 75.

a Fanpage for Ella Mae Mores
http://www.prescottlink.com/morse/ella.html

Page at Fuller Up-The Dead Musicians Directory
http://elvispelvis.com/ellamaemorse.htm

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Happy birthday Dinah Washington

Mad — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:51:24 GMT

let's hear it. i've been playing her a lot all week, and am amazed at the breadth of her work. some of it is pretty schmaltzy, but most of it is deep deep deep, and she's certainly got a hell of a repetoire. i've particularly enjoyed stardust and blue skies.

i have a pretty funny cd too: it's a 2 disc set from when she got a stamp, so the cover is the very 29 cent stamp itself. this one has lots of her more novelty numbers, such as t.v. is the thing this year, and ends with her telling a long joke on stage about a talking dog.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

Monday Interview with Chris Cortez at KCSM Jazz 91!

floragreen — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:04:57 GMT

Hello Everyone!
I am very excited to report that on Monday, the 29th of September at 1:00pm I will be interviewed by Chris Cortez on KCSM Jazz 91.1! With me will be the fab guitarist John Nichols and we will be talking about the release of Vicki Burns Quartet "Live At Anna's Jazz Island!" Please tune in on your radio dial or live on the web at:

http://kcsm.org/jazz91/listen.php

In other exciting news, my new CD has had it's first review by John Gilbert of ejazz.com! He has wonderful things to say and if you go to the website soon you will catch it on the front page for awhile (scroll down). Here are some highlights!

From ejazz.com:

"Vicki Burns does indeed 'burn' on this recording. The stars were aligned
just right when she was blessed with a singing voice that was made for
the jazz idiom.

"Billies Bounce" This number gets off the ground and into orbit with
Burns and Adam Blankman scatting in unison. Burns, in scatting the
changes takes no prisoners. Everybody has a helping (as Pres would say)
on the four bar exchanges with Miss Burns leading the way with superb
ideation. This tune is the highlight of the album. The tempo is as fast
as a knife fight in a phone booth with Burns emerging as the winner.

"Honeysuckle Rose" / "Scrapple From The Apple" Now hear this, Burns is
in top form with her smokier than a speakeasy, leave no meat on the bone
interpretation of 'Honeysuckle Rose' followed by a hipper than hip
'Scrapple' that Bird himself would approve of."

John Gilbert gives Vicki Burns Quartet "live at Anna's Jazz Island" 5 stars!

http://www.ejazznews.com/

As I always I treasure your friendship and support!

With a song in my heart,
Vicki Burns

http://www.myspace.com/vickiburnsjazz

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

What Standards just send you

kubbie — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:07:54 GMT

The Great American Songbook of standards has been gone over with a fine tooth comb by everyone and their brother.

What songs from that book do you never tire of? A song thats just been covered and done by anyone who has held a microphone.

A few of mine

Its Only A Papermoon
Nice Work If You Can Get It
My Funny Valentine
Miss Otis Regrets
Heart and Soul

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 13 replies

August 15th Jazz Pianist Oscar Peterson

kubbie — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:11:55 GMT

Cubano Chant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rn6AEVXpeo

Noreens Nocturne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mJ8lHRVWY0&feature=related

Oscar with Ella Fitzgerald "'Round Midnight" and "Airmail Special" 1961
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixDPVp-5Ly8

From the Oscar Peterson TV Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHr6ZZxb3G4

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC, CQ, O.Ont. (15 August 1925 – 23 December 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist, vocalist and composer cultural icon. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends, and was a member of jazz royalty. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career. He is considered to have been one of the greatest pianists of all time, who played thousands of live concerts to audiences worldwide in a career lasting more than 65 years.

BIOGRAPHY

Peterson grew up in the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy, Montreal. It was in this predominantly black neighbourhood that he found himself surrounded by the jazz culture that flourished in the early 20th century. At the age of five, Peterson began honing his skills with the trumpet and piano. However, by the age of seven, after a bout of tuberculosis, he directed all his attention to the piano. His father, Daniel Peterson, an amateur trumpeter and pianist, was one of his first music teachers, and his sister, Daisy, taught young Oscar the classical piano. Young Oscar was persistent at practising scales and classical etudes daily, and thanks to such arduous practice he developed his astonishing virtuosity.

As a child, Peterson also studied with Hungarian-born pianist Paul de Marky, a student of Istvan Thomán who was himself a pupil of Franz Liszt, so his training was predominantly based on classical piano. Meanwhile he was captivated by the traditional jazz and learned several ragtimes and especially the boogie-woogie. At that time Peterson was called "the Brown Bomber of the Boogie-Woogie."

At age nine Peterson played piano with control that impressed professional musicians. For many years his piano studies included four to six hours of practice daily. Only in his later years did he decrease his daily practice to just one or two hours. In 1940, at age fourteen, Peterson won the national music competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After that victory, he dropped out of school and became a professional pianist working for a weekly radio show, and playing at hotels and music halls.

INFLUENCES

Some of the artists who influenced Peterson's musicianship during the early years were Teddy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, James P. Johnson and Art Tatum, to whom many have tried to compare Peterson in later years. One of his first exposures to Tatum's musical talents came early in his teen years when his father played Art Tatum's Tiger Rag for him, and Peterson was so intimidated by what he heard that he became disillusioned about his own playing. In his own words, "Tatum scared me to death" and Peterson was "never cocky again" about his mastery at the piano.Tatum was a model for Peterson's musicianship during the 1940s and 1950s. Tatum and Peterson eventually became good friends, although Peterson was always shy about being compared with Tatum and rarely played the piano in Tatum's presence.

Peterson has also credited his sister Daisy Sweeney — a noted piano teacher in Montreal who also taught several other noted Canadian jazz musicians — with being an important teacher and influence on his career. Under his sister's tutelage, Peterson expanded into classical piano training and broadened his range while mastering the core classical pianism from rigorous scales to such staples of every pianist's repertoire as preludes and fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Building on Art Tatum's pianism and aesthetics, Peterson also absorbed Tatum's musical influences, notably from piano concertos by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff's harmonizations, as well as direct quotations from his second piano concerto, are thrown here and there in many recordings by Peterson, including his work with the most familiar formulation of the Oscar Peterson Trio, with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis. During the 1960s and 1970s Peterson made numerous trio recordings highlighting his piano performances that reveal more of his eclectic style that absorbed influences from various genres of jazz, popular and classical music.

Oscar Peterson's influence among jazz musicians is profound. Musicians who name Oscar Peterson as a major influence are countless. Among them are Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander, Detroit pianist / vocalist Johnny O'Neal and Birmingham pianist / vocalist Ray Reach.

NORMAN GRANZ

An important step in his career was joining impresario Norman Granz's labels (especially Verve) and Granz's "Jazz at the Philharmonic" project. Granz discovered Peterson in a peculiar manner. As the impresario was being taken to the Montreal airport by cab, the radio was playing a live broadcast of Peterson at a local night club. Granz was so smitten by what he heard that he ordered the driver to take him to the club so that he could meet the pianist. In 1949, Granz introduced Peterson at a Carnegie Hall Jazz at the Philharmonic show in New York.

So was born a lasting relationship and Granz remained Peterson's manager for most of his career. One poignant illustration: in the last two years of his life, Peterson doted on a boxer dog that he named "Smedley," Peterson's nickname for Granz. On the day of Peterson's death, Smedley lay on the bed with him and would not leave.

This was more than a managerial relationship; Peterson praised Granz for standing up for him and other black jazz musicians in the segregationist south of the 1950s and 1960s. For example, in the Canadian Broadcasting Company's two-part documentary video Music in the Key of Oscar, Peterson tells how Granz stood up to a gun-toting southern policeman who wanted to stop the trio from using "white-only" taxis. The entire documentary is a fascinating account of Peterson's life from his Montreal childhood, to his career, to his family relations and includes interviews with Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones and Ella Fitzgerald. Its narrative ends in 1993, just before Peterson's debilitating stroke.

In the course of his career, Peterson developed a reputation as a technically brilliant and melodically inventive jazz pianist and became a regular on Canadian radio from the 1940s. His name was already recognized in the United States. However, his 1949 debut at Carnegie Hall, New York City, arranged by Norman Granz, was uncredited; owing to union restrictions, his appearance could not be billed.

Through Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic he was able to play with the major jazz artists of the time. Some of his musical associates included Ray Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Ed Thigpen, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Louis Armstrong, Stéphane Grappelli, Ella Fitzgerald, Clark Terry, Joe Pass, Anita O'Day, Fred Astaire, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, and Stan Getz.

DUETS

Peterson made numerous duo performances and recordings with bassists Ray Brown, Sam Jones, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, guitarists Joe Pass, Irving Ashby, Herb Ellis, and Barney Kessel, pianists Count Basie, Herbie Hancock, Bennie Green, and Keith Emerson, trumpeters Clark Terry and Louis Armstrong, and many other important jazz players. His 1950s duo recordings with bassist Ray Brown mark the formation of one of the longest lasting partnerships in the history of jazz. Peterson's 1970's duo with guitarist Joe Pass has been considered one of the highest standards in the genre.

According to pianist/educator Mark Eisenman, some of Peterson's best playing was as an understated accompanist to singer Ella Fitzgerald and trumpeter Roy Eldridge.

OSCAR PETERSON TRIO

Peterson redefined the jazz trio by bringing musicianship of all three members to the highest level. The definitive trio with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis was, in his own words "the most stimulating" and productive setting for public performances as well as in studio recordings. In the early 1950s, Peterson began performing with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as the Oscar Peterson Trio. Shortly afterward the drummer Smith was replaced by guitarist Irving Ashby, formerly of the Nat King Cole Trio. Ashby, who was a swing guitarist, was soon replaced by Barney Kessel.[16] Kessel tired of touring after a year, and was succeeded by Herb Ellis. As Ellis was white, Peterson's trios were racially integrated, a controversial move at the time that was fraught with difficulties with segregationist whites and blacks.

"Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival" is widely regarded as the landmark album in Peterson's career, and one of the most influential trios in jazz. Their last recording, "On The Town with the Oscar Peterson Trio", recorded live at the Town Tavern in Toronto, captured a remarkable degree of emotional as well as musical understanding between three players. All three musicians were equal contributors involved in a highly sophisticated improvisational interplay. When Herb Ellis left the group in 1958, Peterson and Brown believed they could not adequately replace Ellis. Ellis was replaced by drummer Ed Thigpen in 1959. Brown and Thigpen worked with Peterson on his famous albums Night Train and the successful Canadiana Suite. The two guys in 1965 left and were replaced by Sam Jones and Bobby Durham. The trio had performed together until 1970. The albums that they had done were a bunch of pop songs like The Beatles' Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby. In the fall of 1970, Peterson's trio were successful in their album Tristeza on Piano which was a eulogy of the recently deceased Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, the Monterey Pop Festival stars. This record was released on CD in 1999, went out of print, and then came back remastered in 2005 as an anniversary edition. Selections from this trio's work have been incidentally used for Japanese anime and other live action films. Jones and Durham left in 1970.

In the 1970s Peterson formed another landmark trio with virtuoso guitarist Joe Pass and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass. This trio emulated the success of the 1950's trio with Brown and Ellis, gave acclaimed performances at numerous festivals, and made best-selling recordings, most notably the 1978 double album recorded live in Paris. In 1974 Oscar added British drummer, Martin Drew, and this quartet toured and recorded extensively worldwide.

QUARTET

A quartet was a less permanent setting for Peterson, after the trio or duo, as it was hard to find equally powerful musicians available for a tightly knit arrangement with him. After the loss of Ellis his next trio eventually turned into a quartet after he added a drummer — first Gene Gammage for a brief time, then Ed Thigpen. In this group Peterson became the dominant soloist. Later members of the group were Louis Hayes, Bobby Durham, Ray Price, Sam Jones, George Mraz and Martin Drew.

Peterson often formed a quartet by adding a fourth player to his existing trios. He was open to experimental collaborations with jazz stars, such as saxophonist Ben Webster, trumpeter Clark Terry, and vibraphonist Milt Jackson among others. In 1961, the Peterson trio with Jackson recorded a highly praised album, Very Tall.

FURTHER CAREER COMPOSER AND TEACHER

From the late 1950s, when Peterson gained worldwide recognition as one of the leading pianists in jazz, he played in a variety of settings: solo, duo, trio, quartet, small bands, and big bands. However, his solo piano recitals, as well as his solo piano recordings were rare, until he chose to make a series of solo albums titled "Exclusively for my friends." These solo piano sessions, made for the Musik Produktion Schwarzwald (MPS) label, were Peterson's response to the emergence of such stars as Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner.

Some cognoscenti assert that Peterson's best recordings were made for MPS in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For some years subsequently he recorded for Granz's Pablo Records after the label was founded in 1973.[citation needed] In the 1990s and 2000s he recorded several albums accompanied by a combo for Telarc.

In the 1980s he played successfully in a duo with pianist Herbie Hancock. In the late 1980s and 1990s, after the stroke, Peterson made performances and recordings with his protégé Benny Green.

Peterson wrote pieces for piano, for trio, for quartet and for big band. He also wrote several songs, and made recordings as a singer. Probably his best-known compositions are "Canadiana Suite" and "Hymn to Freedom," the latter composed in the 1960s and inspired by the U.S. civil rights movement.

Peterson taught piano and improvisation in Canada, mainly in Toronto. With associates, he started and headed the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto for five years during the 1960s, but it closed because concert touring called him and his associates away, and it did not have government funding. Later, he mentored the York University jazz program and was the Chancellor of the entire university for several years in the early 1990s. He also published his original jazz piano etudes for practice. However, he asked his students to study the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the Well Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, and the The Art of Fugue, considering these piano pieces essential for every serious pianist. Pianists Benny Green and Oliver Jones were among his students.

STROKE AND LATER YEARS

Peterson had arthritis since his youth, and in later years could hardly button his shirt. Never slender, his weight increased to 125 kg (275 pounds), hindering his mobility. He had hip replacement surgery in the early 1990s.[20] Although the surgery was successful, his mobility still was not good. Somewhat later, in 1993, Peterson suffered a serious stroke that weakened his left side and sidelined him for two years. Also in 1993 incoming Prime Minister and longtime Peterson fan and friend Jean Chrétien offered Peterson the position of Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, but according to Chrétien he declined, citing the health problems from his recent stroke.

After the stroke, Peterson recuperated for about two years. He gradually regained mobility and some control of his left hand. However, his virtuosity was never restored to the original level, and his playing after his stroke relied principally on his right hand. In 1995 he returned to public performances on a limited basis, and also made several live and studio recordings for Telarc. In 1997 he received a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and an International Jazz Hall of Fame Award, another indication that Peterson continued to be regarded as one of the greatest jazz musicians ever to play. Canadian politician, friend, and amateur pianist Bob Rae contends that "a one-handed Oscar was better than just about anyone with two hands".

In 2003, Peterson recorded the DVD A Night in Vienna for Verve, with Niels Pedersen, Ulf Wakenius and Martin Drew. He continued to tour the U.S. and Europe, though maximally one month a year, with a couple of days' rest between concerts to recover his strength. His accompanists consisted of Ulf Wakenius (guitar), David Young (bass), and Alvin Queen (drums), all leaders of their own groups.

Peterson's health declined rapidly in 2007. He had to cancel his performance at the 2007 Toronto Jazz Festival and his attendance at a June 8, 2007 Carnegie Hall all-star performance in his honour, owing to illness. On 23 December 2007, Peterson died of renal failure at his home in Mississauga, Ontario.He left seven children, his fourth wife Kelly, and their daughter, Celine (born 1991).

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Begone Dull Care is an abstract film presentation of Oscar's music, released in 1949.

His work earned him seven Grammy awards over the years and he was elected to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1978. He also belongs to the Juno Awards Hall of Fame and the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame.

Peterson received the Roy Thomson Award (1987), a Toronto Arts Award for lifetime achievement (1991), the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (1992), the Glenn Gould Prize (1993), the award of the International Society for Performing Artists (1995), the Loyola Medal of Concordia University (1997), the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1997), the Praemium Imperiale World Art Award (1999), the UNESCO Music Prize (2000), and the Toronto Musicians' Association Musician of the Year award (2001).

In 1999, Concordia University in Montreal renamed their Loyola-campus concert hall Oscar Peterson Concert Hall in his honour.

In 2005, Peterson celebrated his 80th birthday at the HMV flagship store in Toronto, where a crowd of about 200 gathered to celebrate with him. Diana Krall sang happy birthday to him and also performed a vocal version of one of Peterson's songs "When Summer Comes". The lyrics for this version were written by Elvis Costello, Krall's husband. Canada Post unveiled a commemorative postage stamp in his honour. The event was covered by a live radio broadcast by Toronto jazz station, JAZZ.FM.

Peterson received the BBC-Radio Lifetime Achievement Award, London, England.

"Technique is something you use to make your ideas listenable," he once told jazz writer Len Lyons. "You learn to play the instrument so you have a musical vocabulary, and you practice to get your technique to the point you need to express yourself, depending on how heavy your ideas are."

"Some may criticize Peterson for not advancing, for finding his niche and staying with it for an entire career, but while he may not be the most revolutionary artist in jazz, [the documentary] Music in the Key of Oscar demonstrates that breaking down barriers can be accomplished in more ways than one." "He was a crystallizer, rather than an innovator."

""His hands could do things few piano players can do," said pianist Bill King who studied with Peterson at his music school. Because Peterson was a big man — six feet three inches — he could stretch his hands over a keyboard in a way few musicians can match.

Ray Charles, in Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues (2003), said "Oscar Peterson is a mother fucking piano player!"

"Miles Davis once commented, 'Nearly everything Peterson plays, he plays with the same degree of force. He leaves no holes for the rhythm section.' But this merely describes the difference between the two players; Davis did not have Peterson's powerful technique, and found a different kind of expression."

RECOGNITION IN CANADA

While Peterson was recognized as a great jazz pianist throughout the world, he was noted in Canada as also being a leading personage and public figure. This can be seen in the acclaim and awards he received, especially in the last twenty or so years of his life.

He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972, and promoted to Companion, its highest rank, in 1984. He was also a member of the Order of Ontario, a Chevalier of the National Order of Quebec and an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.

From 1991 to 1994, Peterson was chancellor of York University in Toronto. The chancellor is the titular head of the university. Weeks after his death, the Province of Ontario announced a C$4 million scholarship for the "Oscar Peterson Chair" for Jazz Performance at York University with an additional C$1 million to be awarded annually in music scholarships to underprivileged York students in tribute to Peterson.

Peterson's niece, television journalist Sylvia Sweeney, produced an award-winning documentary film, In the Key of Oscar, about Peterson in 1992.

Unlike almost any other jazz musician, Oscar Peterson was networked with Canadian elites in the later years of his life. For example, former Ontario premier Bob Rae recalled that in 2007, he, Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry, and former Ontario premier Bill Davis celebrated McMurtry's retirement with Peterson, his wife, and their wives.

Peterson received honorary doctorates from many Canadian universities: Carleton University, Queen's University, Concordia University, McMaster University, Mount Allison University, the University of Victoria, the University of Western Ontario, York University, the University of Toronto, and the Université Laval, as well as from Northwestern University in the United States.

In 2004, the City of Toronto named the courtyard of the Toronto-Dominion Centre "Oscar Peterson Square".

In 2005, the Peel District School Board in suburban Toronto opened the Oscar Peterson school in Mississauga, Ontario, two miles from his home. Peterson said, "This is a most unexpected and moving tribute."[30] He visited the school several times and donated electronic musical equipment to it. Soon after Peterson's death, the University of Toronto Mississauga opened a major student residence in March 2008 as "Oscar Peterson Hall".

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien wanted to appoint Peterson to the titular post of Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario in 1993, but Peterson felt that his health could not stand up to the many ceremonial duties that this position would require. "He was the most famous Canadian in the world," said Chrétien. Chrétien also said that Nelson Mandela glowed when meeting Peterson. "It was very emotional. They were both moved to meet each other. These were two men with humble beginnings who rose to very illustrious levels."

A major memorial concert, held on January 12, 2008, filled the 2500-seat Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. People had queued for more than three hours to get in. Canadian Governor General Michaëlle Jean reported at the concert that "thousands" more could not get in. Among the performers were Grégory Charles, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Phil Nimmons and singers Audrey Morris and Nancy Wilson. The "Oscar Peterson" quartet played key pieces; they are Monty Alexander, Jeff Hamilton, Ulf Wakenius and Dave Young. All toured with Peterson during his late "one-handed" period" except Alexander. Andrew Craig and the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, with opera soprano Measha Brueggergosman closed the show, singing an excerpt from Peterson's "Hymn to Freedom". The show was made available for download.

A movement was begun on Facebook to rename the Lionel-Groulx Metro station, a transfer station between Montreal's Green Line and Orange Line, in honour of Oscar Peterson. The Montreal Transit Corporation, however, has refused to end its moratorium on renaming Metro stations and the city's policy on landmark tributes are to await at least a year since a public figure's deatH.

LINKS

Oscar's Official Site
http://oscarpeterson.com/news/

Oscar at CBC Digital audio and visual
http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/music/topics/391/

Oscar on Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland, hour long
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17622315

Oscar at The Jazz Discography Project
http://www.jazzdisco.org/oscar-peterson/

Virtual Exhibition at The Library & Archives of Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/oscarpeterson/index-e.html

YOUTUBE Clips

1977 You Look Good To Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKKpoCy0a5Y&feature=related

Oscar and COunt Basie "Slow Blues"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3drqJ1bUmEA&feature=related

Oscar Nat and Coleman Hawkins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ayQq5AQxF0&feature=related

1958 A Girl in Gallico
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=337hbXJD9vk&feature=related

1961 live in Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wacjJiKqfjo&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

August 13th Spotlight Pianist George Shearing

kubbie — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:39:05 GMT

Swedish Pastry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxmIvXm6uIU

I'll Be Around
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny_YxhWMBIE&feature=related

Sir George Shearing OBE (b. August 13, 1919) is a British jazz pianist who, during the 1950s, "had one of the most popular jazz combos on the planet" who sold "tons of records for MGM and Capitol in his heyday." He has written over 300 compositions and has had multiple albums on the Billboard magazine charts throughout the '50s, '60s, '80s and '90s.

Shearing was born on August 13, 1919 in Battersea, South London, England and was the youngest of nine children. He was born blind to working class parents: his father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains in the evening. He started to learn piano at the age of three and began formal training at Linden Lodge School for the Blind, where he spent four years. Though offered several scholarships, Shearing opted to perform at local pub, the Mason's Arms in Lambeth, for "25 bob a week" playing piano and accordion. He even joined an all-blind band during that time and was influenced by the albums of Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller. He made his first BBC radio appearance during this time after befriending Leonard Feather, whom he started recording with in 1937. In 1940 , Shearing joined Harry Parry's popular band and contributed to the comeback of Stéphane Grappelli. Shearing also won seven consecutive Melody Maker polls during this time. Around that time he was also a member of George Evans' Saxes 'n' Sevens band.

In 1947, Shearing moved to the United States, where he began to play in a harmonically complex style that mixed swing, bop and modern classical influences. One of his first gigs in the States was at the Hickory House. He performed with the Oscar Pettiford Trio and led a quartet with Buddy DeFranco, which led to recording problems since Shearing was with MGM and DeFranco was with Capitol Records. In 1949, he formed the first "George Shearing Quintet", a band with Marjorie Hyams (vibraphone), Chuck Wayne (guitar), John Levy (bass) and Denzil Best (drums) and recorded for Discovery, Savoy and MGM, including the immensely popular single, September in the Rain (MGM), which sold over 900,000 copies. Shearing himself would write of this hit that it was "as accidental as it could be."

In 1956, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He continued to play with his quintet, with augmented players through the years, and recorded with Capitol until 1969. He created his own label, Sheba, that lasted a few years. Starting in 1970, Shearing began to "phase out his by-now-predictable quintet" and disbanded the group finally in 1978. One of his more notable albums during this period of time (1976) done in collaboration with bassist Andy Simpkins and drummer Rusty Jones (musician), is The Reunion, With George Shearing (Verve), which featured Stéphane Grappelli, the musician he had debuted with as a sideman many years before. Later, Shearing played with a trio, as a solo and increasingly in duo. Among his collaborations have been sets with the Montgomery Brothers, Marian McPartland, Brian Q. Torff, Jim Hall, Hank Jones and Kenny Davern. In 1979, Shearing signed with Concord Records, in particular working with Mel Tormé. This collaboration garnered Shearing and Tormé two Grammys, one in 1982 and then another in the following year.

Over the years, Shearing has also collaborated with singers including Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Ernestine Anderson, Dakota Staton, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson and, most notably, Mel Tormé, with whom he performed frequently in the late 80s and early 90s at festivals, on radio and for recordings.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Shearing performed and recorded extensively in a duo format with the extraordinary Canadian bassist Neil Swainson.

Recently, Shearing collaborated with the John Pizzarelli Trio to create the album The Rare Delight of You, which garnered extremely good reviews. The album cover, featuring Pizzarelli and Shearing posing in front of a solid blue background, was designed to resemble the cover of Nat King Cole Sings, George Shearing Plays, a legendary jazz recording with which it shares some similarities in style.

Shearing's interest in classical music resulted in some performances with concert orchestras in the 1950s and 1960s, and his solos frequently draw upon the music of Debussy and, particularly, Erik Satie for inspiration. Shearing also made a recording with the classical French horn player Barry Tuckwell.

He became known for a piano technique known as Shearing voicing, a type of double melody block chord, with an additional fifth part that doubles the melody an octave lower.

A performance of Shearing's at Birdland is vividly described in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road (part 2, chapter 4).

RECOGNITIONS

Performed for US Presidents
Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan

Performed at Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Mentioned in Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On the Road

In 1975, received honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In 1978, received the Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans.

Grammys:
1982 - An Evening With George Shearing And Mel Tormé
1983

In 1993, received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement.

In 1994, received honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Hamilton College in New York State.

In 1996, was included in the Queens Birthday Honours List and was invested by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his “service to music and Anglo-US relations."

In 1998, received the first American Music Award by the National Arts Club, New York, New York.

In 2003, received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" from BBC Jazz Awards.

In 2007, was knighted for services to Music.

LINKS

George Shearing.net
http://www.georgeshearing.net/

NPR Jazz Profile
http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/shearing.html

Shearing Downloads at Rhapsody
http://www.rhapsody.com/georgeshearing

George at Space Age Pop
http://www.spaceagepop.com/shearing.htm

YOUTUBE Clips

Conception
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KQCtE2t1kM&feature=related

Move
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4tG7929O3I&feature=related

Shadow of Your Smile
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzgtOQG_xHY&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

August 6th Spotlight Abbey Lincoln

kubbie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:55:25 GMT

Abbey Lincoln - Spread the Word from the movie The GIrl Cant Help It 1956

Max Roach featuring Abbey Lincoln 1960's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTGUkQQkttg&feature=related

Throw It Away (80's or 90's)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2OO3vuk3r4&feature=related

Abbey Lincoln (born Anna Marie Wooldridge on August 6, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois) is a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress, who is widely respected for her writing skills. She is one of many singers influenced by Billie Holiday. She has had a very long and productive career. She continues to perform and can often be found at the Blue Note in New York City.

With Ivan Dixon, she co-starred in Nothing But a Man (1964), an independent film written and directed by Michael Roemer. She also co-starred with Sidney Poitier and Beau Bridges in 1968's For Love of Ivy. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for For the Love of Ivy in 1969.

She sang on the famous We Insist! - Freedom Now Suite (1960) by jazz musician Max Roach and was married to him from 1962 to 1970.

Abbey Lincoln also appears in the 1956 film The Girl Can't Help It.

Discography

Abbey Lincoln's Affair: A Story of a Girl in Love - 1956 - Capitol
That's Him - 1957 - Riverside
It's Magic - 1958 - Riverside
Abbey Is Blue - 1959 - Riverside
Straight Ahead - 1961 - Candid
People in Me - 1973 - Polygram
Painted Lady - Blue Marge 1003 (1980)
Golden Lady - 1980 - Inner City
Talking to the Sun - 1983 - Enja
Abbey Sings Billie, Vol. 1 & 2 - 1987 - Enja
The World Is Falling Down - 1990 - Verve
You Gotta Pay the Band - 1991 - Verve
Devil's Got Your Tongue - 1992 - Verve
When There is Love - 1992 - Verve
A Turtle's Dream - 1994 - Verve
Painted Lady (with Archie Shepp) - 1995 - Itm [Tko Magnum]
Who Used to Dance - 1996 - Verve
Wholly Earth - 1999 - Emarcy
Over the Years - 2000 - Verve
It's Me - 2003 - Verve
Abbey Sings Abbey - 2007 - Verve

LINKS

More in depth bio at Verve Records
http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/abbeylincoln

NPR's Jazz Profile on Abbey
http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/lincoln.html

BBC Jazz Profile
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/profiles/abbey_lincoln.shtml

Abbey at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0511085/

YOUTUBE CLIPS

First Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D08cYFYr4E

And Its Supposed To Be Called Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aG6bGPsu3k&feature=related

And Its Supposed To Be Called Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aG6bGPsu3k&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Vicki Burns Sings in August and More News!

floragreen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:36:51 GMT

Hello Everyone!
I hope you are all having a delightful summer. I have
been really busy gearing up for my live recording
release in October and am really excited to finally
share it with all of you.

Special thanks to Lou Judson for his recording
artistry and to j from reapandsow who gave me the idea
of making this a digital release. I may do a limited
run of CDs sometime in the future, but really want to
encourage all of you to download everything! It just
makes more sense ecologically and economically these
days!

I also urge all of you to check out reapandsow's
fantastic website and see the incredible variety of
musicians and musical offerings there!!

http://www.reapandsow.com/

New CD in the works!

In other recording news, I have been busy in the
studio with the amazing Cesar Cancino on piano and
arranging, Fred Randolph on bass and Bob Blankenship
on drums. So far we have recorded three beautiful
songs, "The Very Thought of You", "Love Me or Leave
Me" and "Easy Living" This will be a very romantic
recording (with some sweet, kinky twists!) and I can't
wait until I can share it with you :) We are hoping
for a release date sometime early next year(2009).

Cesar has been amusing me with hilarious tales of
being on the road with Joan Baez...

Little Saigon!

I will be returning to this delightful gem of a venue
on* this Friday, August 8th. Please join me for the
finest Vietnamese cuisine and some sweet, hot jazz by
the Vicki Burns Duo with the John Nichols
on guitar!

The Music is from 5-9:00pm with no cover but believe
me you will want to make dinner reservations, the food
is simply fantastic! Here is a recent review:

http://www.judysbook.com/members/bellagreen/posts/2006/12/496132/

Jordan's at the Claremont Hotel!

I will be returning with my trio of excellent
musicians on Sunday, August 10th!

With me will be the fantastic line up of
David Udolf on piano, John Nichols on bass and Pete
Riso on drums!

Please join us for dinner and dancing from
6:00-10:00pm.

Reservations recommended!
The food and staff are absolutely superb!

For more info please visit their website:

http://www.bay-area-reservations.com/claremont/

**** Please Hold the Date, Friday October 10th at
Anna's
Jazz Island!****

Digital CD release party of "Vicki Burns Quartet Live
at Anna's Jazz Island!"

Please join me as I celebrate my live recording
project
with the same stellar trio that recorded with me in
February of 2007 and this past May!!: John
Nichols on guitar, Sam Bevan on bass and Smith Dobson
V on drums!!

Anna's is fast becoming one of the very best places to
hear live and local jazz in the Bay Area. She serves
up tasty food and cocktails at this intimate venue
that is devoted entirely to the wonderful musicians
that perform there and to you the audience!

Music starts at 8:00pm and there is a $10 cover.

http://www.annasjazzisland.com/calendar.html

Zingari Ristorante

I will be returning to this lovely lounge located in
the heart of Union Square. Join me for two
Fridays, August 15th and 29th with the legendary Bliss
Rodriguez on piano!

Zingari Ristorante has delicious Italian Cuisine
and a warm, charming atmosphere. Music is from
8:00pm-Midnight.

Hope to see you there!!

Zingari Ristorante is located inside the Donatello
Hotel located at the corner of Post and Mason.

Please call 415-885-8850 for reservations.

www.zingari.com

As always, I treasure your friendship and value your
support!

All The Best,
Vicki Burns

http://www.myspace.com/vickiburnsjazz

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

August 4th Spotlight Louis Armstrong, Timi Yuro

kubbie — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:12:01 GMT

"If you don't like Louis Armstrong, you don't know how to love"
-- Mahalia Jackson

(links and videos at the bottom)

Louis Armstrong (4 August 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo or Sachimo and Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.

Coming to prominence in the 20s as an innovative cornet and trumpet virtuoso, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers. With his distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or wordless vocalizing.

Renowned for his charismatic stage presence, Armstrong's influence extended well beyond jazz, and by the end of his career in the '60s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general: critic Steve Leggett describes Armstrong as "perhaps the most important American musician of the 20th century."

EARLY LIFE

Armstrong often stated in public interviews that he was born on July 4, 1900 (Independence Day in the USA), a date that has been noted in many biographies. Although he died in 1971, it wasn't until the mid-1980s that his true birth date of August 4, 1901 was discovered through the examination of baptismal records. He was recorded as an out of wedlock black child.

Armstrong was born into a very poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana, the grandson of slaves. He spent his youth in poverty in a rough neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, known as “Back of Town”, as his father, William Armstrong (1881–1922), abandoned the family when Louis was an infant, and took up with another woman. His mother, Mary Albert Armstrong (1886–1942), then left Louis and his younger sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903–1987) in the care of his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong and at times, his Uncle Isaac. At five, he moved back to live with his mother and her relatives, and saw his father only in parades. He attended the Fisk School for Boys where he likely had his first exposure to Creole music. He brought in a little money as a paperboy and also by finding discarded food and selling it to restaurants but it wasn’t enough to keep his mother from prostitution. He hung out in dance halls, particularly the “Funky Butt,” which was the closest to his home, where he observed everything from licentious dancing to the quadrille. He hauled coal to Storyville, the famed red-light district, and listened to the bands playing in the brothels and dance halls, especially Pete Lala’s where Joe "King" Oliver performed and other famous musicians would drop in to jam.

Armstrong grew up at the bottom of the social ladder, in a highly segregated city, but one which lived in a constant fervor of music, which was generally called “ragtime”, and not yet “jazz”. Despite the hard early days, Armstrong seldom looked back at his youth as the worst of times but instead drew inspiration from it, “Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine—I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans...It has given me something to live for.”

After dropping out of the Fisk School at eleven, Armstrong joined a quartet of boys in similar straits as he, and they sang in the streets for money. He also started to get into trouble. Cornet player Bunk Johnson said he taught Armstrong (then 11) to play by ear at Dago Tony's Tonk in New Orleans, although in his later years Armstrong gave the credit to Oliver. His first cornet was bought with money loaned to him by the Karnofskys, a Russian-Jewish immigrant family who had a junk hauling business and gave him odd jobs. To express gratitude towards the Karnofskys, who took him in as almost a family member, and fed and nurtured him, Armstrong wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life.

Armstrong seriously developed his cornet playing in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency, most notably for a long term after firing his stepfather's pistol into the air at a New Year's Eve celebration, as police records confirm. Professor Peter Davis (who frequently appeared at the Home at the request of its administrator, Captain Joseph Jones) instilled discipline in and provided musical training to the otherwise self-taught Armstrong. Eventually, Davis made Armstrong the band leader. The Home band played around New Orleans and the thirteen year old began to draw attention to his cornet playing, starting him on a musical career. At fourteen he was released from the Home, and living again with his father and new stepmother, and then back to his mother and also back to the streets and its temptations. Armstrong got his first dance hall job at Henry Ponce’s where Black Benny became his protector and guide. He hauled coal by day and played his cornet at night.

He also played in the city's frequent brass band parades and listened to older musicians every chance he got, learning from Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, Kid Ory, and above all, Joe "King" Oliver, who acted as a mentor and father figure to the young musician. Later, he played in the brass bands and riverboats of New Orleans, and first started traveling with the well-regarded band of Fate Marable which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River. He described his time with Marable as "going to the University," since it gave him a much wider experience working with written arrangements.

In 1919, Joe Oliver decided to go north and he resigned his position in Kid Ory's band, then regarded as the best hot jazz group in New Orleans. Armstrong replaced his mentor and played second cornet. Soon he was promoted to first cornet and he also became second trumpet for the Tuxedo Brass Band, a society band.

EARLY CAREER

On March 19, 1918, Louis married Daisy Parker from Gretna, Louisiana. They adopted a 3-year-old boy, Clarence Armstrong, whose mother, Louis's cousin Flora, died soon after giving birth. Clarence Armstrong was mentally disabled (result of a head injury at an early age) and Louis would spend the rest of his life taking care of him. Louis's marriage to Parker failed quickly and they separated. She died shortly after the divorce.

Through his riverboat experiences, Armstrong’s musicianship began to mature. At twenty, he could now read music and he started to be featured in extended trumpet solos, one of the first jazzmen to do this, injecting his own personality and style into his solo turns. He had learned how to create a unique sound, and also started using singing and patter in his performances. In 1922, Armstrong joined the exodus to Chicago, where he had been invited by his mentor, Joe "King" Oliver, to join his Creole Jazz Band, and where he could make a sufficient income so that he no longer need to supplement his music with day labor jobs. It was a boom time in Chicago and though race relations were poor, the “Windy City” was teeming with jobs for blacks, who were making good wages in factories and had plenty to spend on entertainment.

Oliver's band was the best and most influential hot jazz band in Chicago in the early 1920s, at a time when Chicago was the center of the jazz universe. Armstrong lived like a king in Chicago, in his own apartment with his own private bath (his first). Excited as he was to be in Chicago, he began his career-long pastime of writing nostalgic letters to friends in New Orleans. As Armstrong’s reputation grew, he was challenged to “cutting contests” by hornmen trying to displace the new phenom, who could blow two hundred high C’s in a row. Armstrong made his first recordings on the Gennett and Okeh labels (jazz records were starting to boom across the country), including taking some solos and breaks, while playing second cornet in Oliver's band in 1923. At this time, he met Hoagy Carmichael (with whom he would collaborate later) who was introduced by pal Bix Beiderbecke, who now had his own Chicago band.

Armstrong enjoyed working with Oliver, but Louis' second wife, pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, urged him to seek more prominent billing and develop his newer style away from the influence of Oliver. She had her husband play classical music in church concerts to broaden his skill and improve his solo play, and she prodded him into wearing more stylish attire to make him look sharp and to better offset his growing girth. Lil’s influence eventually undermined Armstrong’s relationship with his mentor, especially concerning his salary and additional moneys that Oliver held back from Armstrong and other band members. Armstrong and Oliver parted amicably in 1924 and Armstrong received an invitation to go to New York City to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, the top African–American band of the day. Armstrong switched to the trumpet to blend in better with the other musicians in his section. His influence upon Henderson's tenor sax soloist, Coleman Hawkins, can be judged by listening to the records made by the band during this period.

Armstrong quickly adapted to the more tightly controlled style of Henderson, playing trumpet and even experimenting with the trombone, and the other members quickly took up Armstrong’s emotional, expressive pulse. Soon his act included singing and telling tales of New Orleans characters, especially preachers.The Henderson Orchestra was playing in the best venues for white-only patrons, including the famed Roseland Ballroom, featuring the classy arrangements of Don Redman. Duke Ellington’s orchestra would go to Roseland to catch Armstrong’s performances and young hornmen around town tried in vain to outplay him, splitting their lips in their attempts.

During this time, Armstrong also made many recordings on the side, arranged by an old friend from New Orleans, pianist Clarence Williams; these included small jazz band sides with the Williams Blue Five (some of the best pairing Armstrong with one of Armstrong's few rivals in fiery technique and ideas, Sidney Bechet) and a series of accompaniments with Blues singers, including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter.

Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 due mostly to the urging of his wife, who wanted to pump up Armstrong’s career and income. He was content in New York but later would concede that she was right and that the Henderson Orchestra was limiting his artistic growth. In publicity, much to his chagrin, she billed him as “the World’s Greatest Trumpet Player”. At first he was actually a member of the Lil Hardin Armstrong Band and working for his wife.He began recording under his own name for Okeh with his famous Hot Five and Hot Seven groups, producing hits such as "Potato Head Blues", "Muggles" (a reference to marijuana, for which Armstrong had a lifelong fondness), and "West End Blues", the music of which set the standard and the agenda for jazz for many years to come.

The group included Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo), wife Lil on piano, and usually no drummer. Armstrong’s bandleading style was easygoing, as St. Cyr noted, "One felt so relaxed working with him and he was very broad-minded...always did his best to feature each individual". His recordings with pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines (most famously their 1928 Weatherbird duet) and Armstrong's trumpet introduction to "West End Blues" remain some of the most famous and influential improvisations in jazz history. Armstrong was now free to develop his personal style as he wished, which included a heavy dose of effervescent jive, such as "whip that thing, Miss Lil" and "Mr. Johnny Dodds, Aw, do that clarinet, boy!"

Armstrong also played with Erskine Tate’s Little Symphony, actually a quintet, which played mostly at the Vendome Theatre. They furnished music for silent movies and live shows, including jazz versions of classical music, such as “Madame Butterfly”, which gave Armstrong experience with longer forms of music and with hosting before a large audience. He began to scat sing (improvised vocal jazz using non-sensical words) and was among the first to record it, on Heebie Jeebies in 1926. So popular was the recording the group became the most famous jazz band in America even though they as yet had not performed live to any great degree. Young musicians across the country, black and white, were turned on by Armstrong’s new type of jazz.

After separating from Lil, Armstrong started to play at the Sunset Café for Al Capone associate Joe Glaser in the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra, with Earl Hines on piano, which was soon renamed Louis Armstrong and his Stompers, though Hines was the music director and Glaser managed the orchestra. Hines and Armstrong became fast friends as well as successful collaborators.

Armstrong returned to New York, in 1929, where he played in the pit orchestra of the successful musical Hot Chocolate, an all-black revue written by Andy Razaf and pianist/composer Fats Waller. He also made a cameo appearance as a vocalist, regularly stealing the show with his rendition of "Ain't Misbehavin'", his version of the song becoming his biggest selling record to date.

He started to work at Connie's Inn in Harlem, the second nightspot in fame to the Cotton Club, and a front for gangster Dutch Schultz. Armstrong also had considerable success with vocal recordings, including versions of famous songs composed by his old friend Hoagy Carmichael. His 1930s recordings took full advantage of the new RCA ribbon microphone, introduced in 1931, which imparted a characteristic warmth to vocals and immediately became an intrinsic part of the 'crooning' sound of artists like Bing Crosby. Armstrong's famous interpretation of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" became one of the most successful versions of this song ever recorded, showcasing Armstrong's unique vocal sound and style, and his innovative approach to singing songs that had already become standards.

Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's "Lazy River" (recorded in 1931) encapsulated many features of his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing. The song begins with a brief trumpet solo, then the main melody is stated by sobbing horns, which are memorably punctuated by Armstrong's growling interjections at the end of each bar: "Yeah! ..."Uh-huh" ..."Sure" ... "Way down, way down". In the first verse, he ignores the notated melody entirely, and sings as if playing a trumpet solo, pitching most of the first line on a single note and using strongly syncopated phrasing. In the second stanza he breaks into an almost fully improvised melody, which then evolves into a classic passage of Armstrong "scat singing."

As with his trumpet playing, Armstrong's vocal innovations served as a foundation stone for the art of jazz vocal interpretation. The uniquely gritty coloration of his voice became a musical archetype that was much imitated and endlessly impersonated. His scat singing style was enriched by his matchless experience as a trumpet soloist. His resonant, velvety lower-register tone and bubbling cadences on sides such as "Lazy River" exerted a huge influence on younger white singers such as Bing Crosby.

The Depression of the early Thirties was especially hard on the Jazz scene. The Cotton Club closed in 1936 after a long downward spiral and many musicians stopped playing altogether as club dates evaporated. Bix Beiderbecke died and Fletcher Henderson’s band broke up. King Olivier made a few records but otherwise struggled. Sidney Bechet became a tailor and Kid Ory returned to New Orleans and raised chickens. Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 seeking new opportunities. He played at the New Cotton Club in LA with Lionel Hampton on drums, and the band drew the Hollywood crowd which could still afford a lavish night life, and radio broadcasts from the club connected with younger audiences at home. Bing Crosby and many other celebrities were regulars at the club. In 1931, Armstrong appeared in his first movie, Ex-Flame. Armstrong was convicted of marijuana possession but received a suspended sentence. He returned to Chicago in late 1931, and played in bands more in the Guy Lombardo vein and he recorded more standards. When the mob insisted that he get out of town, Armstrong visited New Orleans and got a hero’s welcome, and saw old friends. He sponsored a local baseball team known as “Armstrong’s Secret Nine” and got a cigar named after himself. But soon he was on the road again and after a tour across the country shadowed by the mob, Armstrong decided to go to Europe to escape.

After returning to the States, he undertook several exhausting tours. His agent Johnny Collins’ erratic behavior and his own spending ways left Armstrong short of cash. Breach of contract violations plagued him. Finally, he hired Joe Glaser as his new manager, a tough mob-connected wheeler-dealer, who began to straighten out his legal mess, his mob troubles, and his debts. Armstrong also began to experience problems with his fingers and lips, which were aggravated by his unorthodox playing style. As a result he branched out, developing his vocal style and making his first theatrical appearances. He appeared in movies again. In 1937, Armstrong substituted for Rudy Vallee on the CBS radio network and became the first black to host a sponsored, national broadcast. He finally divorced Lil in 1938 and married longtime girlfriend Alpha.

After spending many years on the road, he settled permanently in Queens, New York in 1943 in contentment with his fourth wife, Lucille. Although subject to the vicissitudes of Tin Pan Alley and the gangster-ridden music business, as well as anti-black prejudice, he continued to develop his playing. He recorded Hoagy Carmichael's Rockin' Chair for Okeh Records.

During the subsequent thirty years, Armstrong played more than three hundred gigs a year. Bookings for big bands tapered off during the 1940s due to changes in public tastes: ballrooms closed, and there was competition from television and from other types of music becoming more popular than big band music. It became impossible under such circumstances to support and finance a 16-piece touring band.

THE ALL STARS

Following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden, Armstrong's manager Joe Glaser dissolved the Armstrong big band on August 13, 1947 and established a six-piece small group featuring Armstrong with (initially) Teagarden, Earl Hines and other top swing and dixieland musicians, most of them ex-big band leaders. The new group was announced at the opening of Billy Berg's Supper Club.

This group was called the All Stars, and included at various times Earl "Fatha" Hines, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole, Barrett Deems and the Filipino-American percussionist, Danny Barcelona. During this period, Armstrong made many recordings and appeared in over thirty films. He appeared on the cover of Time Magazine on February 21, 1949.

In 1964, he recorded his biggest-selling record, "Hello, Dolly!". The song went to #1 on the pop chart, making Armstrong (age 63) the oldest person to ever accomplish that feat. In the process, Armstrong dislodged The Beatles from the #1 position they had occupied for 14 consecutive weeks with three different songs.

Armstrong kept up his busy tour schedule until a few years before his death in 1971. In his later years he would sometimes play some of his numerous gigs by rote, but other times would enliven the most mundane gig with his vigorous playing, often to the astonishment of his band. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under sponsorship of the US State Department with great success, earning the nickname "Ambassador Satch." While failing health restricted his schedule in his last years, within those limitations he continued playing until the day he died.

PERSONALITY

The nickname Satchmo or Satch is short for Satchelmouth (describing his embouchure). In 1932, then Melody Maker magazine editor Percy Brooks greeted Armstrong in London with "Hello, Satchmo!" shortening Satchelmouth (some say unintentionally), and it stuck.

Early on he was also known as Dippermouth. This is a reference to the propensity he had for refreshing himself with the dipper (ladle) from a bucket of sugar water which was always present on stage with Joe Oliver's band in Chicago in the early nineteen-twenties.

The damage to his embouchure from his high pressure approach to playing is acutely visible in many pictures of Louis from the mid-twenties. It also led to his emphasizing his singing career because at certain periods, he was unable to play. However, after having set his trumpet aside for a while, he amended his playing style and continued his trumpet career. Friends and fellow musicians usually called him Pops, which is also how Armstrong usually addressed his friends and fellow musicians (except for Pops Foster, whom Armstrong always called "George").

He was also criticized for accepting the title of "King of The Zulus" -- in the New Orleans African-American community, an honored role as head of leading black Carnival Krewe, but bewildering or offensive to outsiders with their traditional costume of grass-skirts and blackface makeup satirizing southern white attitudes -- for Mardi Gras 1949.

Whatever the case, where some saw a gregarious and outgoing personality, others saw someone trying too hard to appeal to white audiences and essentially becoming a minstrel caricature. Some musicians criticized Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences, and for not taking a strong enough stand in the civil rights movement suggesting that he was an Uncle Tom. Billie Holiday countered, however, "Of course Pops toms, but he toms from the heart."

Armstrong, in fact, was a major financial supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists, but mostly preferred to work quietly behind the scenes, not mixing his politics with his work as an entertainer. The few exceptions made it more effective when he did speak out. Armstrong's criticism of President Eisenhower, calling him "two-faced" and "gutless" because of his inaction during the conflict over school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 made national news. As a protest, Armstrong canceled a planned tour of the Soviet Union on behalf of the State Department saying "The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell" and that he could not represent his government abroad when it was in conflict with its own people. The FBI kept a file on Armstrong, for his outspokenness about integration.

He was an extremely generous man, who was said to have given away as much money as he kept for himself. Armstrong was also greatly concerned with his health and bodily functions. He made frequent use of laxatives as a means of controlling his weight, a practice he advocated both to personal acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way. Armstrong's laxative of preference in his younger days was Pluto Water, but he then became an enthusiastic convert when he discovered the herbal remedy Swiss Kriss. He would extol its virtues to anyone who would listen and pass out packets to everyone he encountered, including members of the British Royal Family. (Armstrong also appeared in humorous, albeit risqué, advertisements for Swiss Kriss; the ads bore a picture of him sitting on a toilet — as viewed through a keyhole — with the slogan "Satch says, 'Leave it all behind ya!'")

The concern with his health and weight was balanced by his love of food, reflected in such songs as "Big Butter & Egg Man", "Cheesecake", "Cornet Chop Suey", and, especially, "Struttin’ with Some Barbecue".He kept a strong connection throughout his life to the cooking of New Orleans, always signing his letters, "Red beans and ricely yours,".

Although Armstrong is not known to have fathered any children, he loved children and would go out of his way to entertain the neighborhood kids in Corona, and to encourage young musicians.

Armstrong’s gregariousness extended to writing. On the road, he wrote constantly. Many of the favorite themes of his life he shared with correspondents around the world. He avidly typed or wrote on whatever stationery was at hand, instant takes on music, sex, food, childhood memories, his heavy “medicinal” marijuana use, and even his bowel movements, which were gleefully described. He had a fondness for lewd jokes and dirty limericks as well.

Armstrong was an avid audiophile. He had a large collection of recordings, including reel-to-reel tapes which he took on the road with him in a trunk during his later career. He enjoyed listening to his own recordings, and comparing his performances musically. In the den of his home, he had the latest audio equipment and would sometimes rehearse and record along with his older recordings or the radio.

DEATH

Armstrong died of a heart attack on July 6, 1971, at age 69, 11 months after playing a famous show at the Waldorf-Astoria's Empire Room. Shortly before his death he stated, "I think I had a beautiful life. I didn't wish for anything that I couldn't get and I got pretty near everything I wanted because I worked for it." He was residing in Corona, Queens, New York City, at the time of his passing. He was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, in Queens, New York City.

His honorary pallbearers included Governor Rockefeller, Mayor Lindsay, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Johnny Carson, David Frost, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett and Bobby Hackett. Peggy Lee, one of Armstrong's favorite vocalists, sang The Lord's Prayer at the services.

LITERATURE RADIO FILMS AND TV

Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, usually playing a band leader or musician. His most familiar role was as the bandleader cum narrator in the 1956 musical, High Society, in which he sang the title song and performed a duet with Bing Crosby on "Now You Has Jazz". In 1947, he played himself in the movie New Orleans opposite Billie Holiday, which chronicled the demise of the Storyville district and the ensuing exodus of musicians from New Orleans to Chicago. He was the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show in the 1930s.

He was heard on such radio programs as The Story of Swing (1937) and This Is Jazz (1947), and he also made countless television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Louis Armstrong has a record star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7601 Hollywood Boulevard.

Many of Armstrong's recordings remain popular. Almost four decades since his passing, a larger number of his recordings from all periods of his career are more widely available than at any time during his lifetime. His songs are broadcast and listened to every day throughout the world, and are honored in various movies, TV series, commercials, and even anime and computer games. "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" was included in the computer game Fallout 2, accompanying the intro cinematic (and the year after in the movie Sleepless in Seattle). His 1923 recordings, with Joe Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, continue to be listened to as documents of ensemble style New Orleans jazz, but more particularly as ripper jazz records in their own right. All too often, however, Armstrong recorded with stiff, standard orchestras leaving only his sublime trumpet playing as of interest. "Melancholy Blues," performed by Armstrong and his Hot Seven was included on the Voyager Golden Record sent into outer space to represent one of the greatest achievements of humanity. Most familiar to modern listeners is his ubiquitous rendition of "What a Wonderful World." In 2008, Armstrong's recording of Edith Piaf's famous "La Vie En Rose" was used in a scene of the popular Disney/Pixar film Wall-E.

Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, a self-described Armstrong admirer, asserted that a 1952 Louis Armstrong concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris played a significant role in inspiring him to create the fictional creatures called Cronopios that are the subject of a number of Cortázar's short stories. Cortázar once called Louis Armstrong himself "Grandísimo Cronopio" (Most Enormous Cronopio).

Armstrong also appears as a minor character in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series. When he and his band escape from a Nazi-like Confederacy, they enhance the insipid mainstream music of the North.

There is a pivotal scene in 1980's Stardust Memories in which Woody Allen is overwhelmed by a recording of Armstrong's Stardust and experiences a nostalgic epiphany. The combination of the music and the perfect moment is the catalyst for much of the film's action, prompting the protagonist to fall in love with an ill-advised woman .
Louis Armstrong is also referred to in The Trumpet of the Swan along with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Three siblings in the film are named Louis, Billie, and Ella. The main character, Louis, plays a trumpet, an obvious nod to Armstrong.

In the original EB White book, he is referred to by name by a child who hears Louis playing and comments "He sounds just like Louis Armstrong, the famous trumpet player".

LINKS

Louis Armstrong.net
http://www.louis-armstrong.net/

Louis at Red Hot Jazz (you can listen to and download several dozen songs from links at this page)
http://www.redhotjazz.com/louie.html

Louis Armstrong Official site for the LA House and Archive
http://www.satchmo.net/

Louis at French Creoles.com
http://www.frenchcreoles.com/MusicEvents/louis%20armstrong/louis%20armstrong.htm

Discography
http://www.michaelminn.net/armstrong/

Filmography
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001918/

YOUTUBE CLIPS

St James Infirmary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvr7nkd_IJM

A Kiss To Build A Dream On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y6EMMhDCGo

Mack The Knife live in Germany
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My9B4uQYJn4

1950 clip from the film The Strip/Louis with The All Stars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFylhp7tA1U&feature=related

Basin Street Blues 1954 with The All Stars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrXmUA14GBA

Paramount Picture Music Short 1932 Louis sings "(I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You," "Shine," and plays "Chinatown, My Chinatown." Louis shows up about 3 minutes into it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3CcAD_seww&feature=related

Ella and Louis – They Cant Take That Away From Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOpl-glNGiA&feature=related

Louis & Johnny Cash to Blue Yodel # 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqc209-rwNI&feature=related

When The Saints Go Marching In
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErUrPXt31vo&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 2 replies

August 3rd Spotlight Tony Bennett

kubbie — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:28:41 GMT

Tony Bennett (born Anthony Dominick Benedetto; August 3, 1926) is an American singer of popular music, standards and jazz. After having achieved artistic and commercial success in the 1950s and early 1960s, his career suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era. Bennett staged a comeback, however, in the late 1980s and 1990s, expanding his audience to a younger generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer in the 2000s.

Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter.

EARLY LIFE

Anthony Benedetto was born in Astoria, Queens, New York City, the son of Ann (née Suraci) and John Benedetto. His father was a grocer who had emigrated from Podàrgoni, a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria, and his mother was a seamstress. With two other children and a father who was ailing and unable to work, the family grew up in poverty. John Benedetto died when Anthony was 10 years old.

The young Benedetto grew up listening to Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby as well as jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden and Joe Venuti. An uncle was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him an early window into show business. By age 10 he was already singing and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge. Drawing and caricatures were also an early passion of his. He attended New York's High School of Industrial Art where he studied painting and music, but dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He then set his sights on a professional singing career, performing as a singing waiter in several Queens Italian restaurants.

WORLD WAR II AND AFTER

His singing career was interrupted when Benedetto was drafted into the United States Army in November 1944 during the final stages of World War II. He did basic training at Fort Dix and Fort Robinson, encountering bigotry due to his Italian heritage, and became an infantry rifleman. Processed through the huge Le Havre "repple depple" replacement depot, in January 1945 he was assigned as a replacement infantryman to 255th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division, a unit filling in for heavy losses after the Battle of the Buldge. He moved across France and into Germany, and as March 1945 began he joined the front line and what he would later describe as a "front-row seat in hell."

As the German Army was pushed back into their homeland, Benedetto and his company saw bitter fighting in cold winter conditions, often hunkering down in foxholes as German 88 mm guns fired on them. At the end of March they crossed the Rhine and engaged in dangerous house-to-house, town-to-town fighting to clean out German soldiers; during the first week of April they crossed the Kocher and by the end of the month reached the Danube. During his time in combat, Benedetto narrowly escaped death several times. The experience made him a patriot but also a pacifist; he would later write, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one." At the war's conclusion he was involved in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg, where some American prisoners of war from the 63rd Division were also freed.

Benedetto stayed in Germany as part of the occupying force, but was assigned to an informal Special Services band unit that would entertain nearby American forces.Later, his dining with a black friend from high school at a time when the Army was still segregated led to his being demoted and reassigned to Graves Registration duties.Subsequently, he sang with the Army military band under the stage name Joe Bari, and played with many musicians who would have post-war careers.

Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, he studied at the American Theater Wing on the GI Bill. He was taught the bel canto singing discipline, which would keep his voice in good shape for his entire career. He continued to perform wherever he could, including while waiting tables. He developed an unusual approach that involved imitating the style and phrasing of other musicians as he sang—such as that of Stan Getz's saxophone and Art Tatum's piano—helping him to improvise as he interpreted a song. He made a few recordings as Bari in 1949 for small Leslie Records, but they failed to sell.

In 1949, Pearl Bailey spotted his talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village. She had invited Bob Hope to the show. Hope decided to bring Bari on the road with him, but suggested he use his real name simplified to Tony Bennett. In 1950, Bennett cut a demo of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and was signed to the major Columbia Records label by Mitch Miller.

FIRST SUCCESS

Warned by Miller not to imitate Frank Sinatra (who was just then leaving Columbia), Bennett began his career as a crooner singing commercial pop tunes. His first big hit was "Because of You", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith. It started out gaining popularity on jukeboxes, then reached #1 on the pop charts in 1951 and stayed there for 10 weeks, selling over a million copies. This was followed to the top later that year by a similarly-styled rendition of Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart", which helped introduce Williams and country music in general to a wider, more national audience. The Miller and Faith tandem continued to work on all of Bennett's early hits. Bennett's recording of "Blue Velvet" was also very popular and attracted screaming teenage fans at concerts in the famed Paramount Theater in New York (Bennett did 7 shows a day, starting at 10:30 a.m.) and elsewhere.

On February 12, 1952, Bennett married Ohio art student and jazz fan Patricia Beech, whom he had met the previous year after a nightclub performance in Cleveland. Two thousand female fans dressed in black gathered outside the ceremony at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral in mock mourning. Bennett and Beech would have two sons, D'Andrea (Danny) and Daegal (Dae).

A third #1 came in 1953 with "Rags to Riches." Unlike Bennett's other early hits, this was an up-tempo big band number with a bold, brassy sound and a double tango in the instrumental break; it topped the charts for eight weeks. Later that year Bennett began singing show tunes to make up for a New York newspaper strike; "Stranger in Paradise" from the Broadway show Kismet reached the top, as well as being a #1 hit in the United Kingdom and starting Bennett's career as an international artist.

Once the rock and roll era began in 1955, the dynamic of the music industry changed and it became harder for existing pop singers to do as well commercially. Nevertheless Bennett continued to enjoy success, placing eight songs in the Billboard Top 40 during the latter part of the 1950s, with "In the Middle of an Island" reaching the highest at #9 in 1957.

In 1956, Bennett hosted the television variety show The Tony Bennett Show as a summer replacement for The Perry Como Show.

In 1954, the guitarist Chuck Wayne became Bennett's musical director. In 1955, Bennett released his first long-playing album, Cloud 7, which showed Bennett's jazz leanings and was billed as featuring Wayne. In 1957, Ralph Sharon became Bennett's pianist and musical director, replacing Wayne. Sharon told Bennett that a career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" wouldn't last long, and encouraged Bennett to focus even more on his jazz inclinations.

The result was the 1957 album The Beat of My Heart. It used well-known jazz musicians such as Herbie Mann and Nat Adderley, with a strong emphasis on percussion from the likes of Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Latin star Candido, and Chico Hamilton. The album was both popular and critically praised. Bennett followed this by working with the Count Basie Orchestra, becoming the first male pop vocalist to sing with Basie's band. The albums Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (1958) and In Person! (1959) were the well-regarded fruits of this collaboration, with "Chicago" being one of the standout songs.

Bennett also built up the quality and reputation of his nightclub act; in this he was following the path of Sinatra and other top jazz and standards singers of this era.[5] Bennett also appeared on television; he sang on the first night of both the Johnny Carson The Tonight Show and The Merv Griffin Show. In June 1962, Bennett staged a highly-promoted concert performance at Carnegie Hall, using a stellar lineup of musicians including Al Cohn, Kenny Burrell, and Candido, as well as the Ralph Sharon Trio. The concert featured 44 songs, including favorites like "I've Got the World on a String" and "The Best Is Yet To Come." It was a big success, and further cemented Bennett's reputation as a star both at home and abroad.

Also in 1962, Bennett released the song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Although this only reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100, it spent close to a year on various other charts and increased Bennett's exposure. The album of the same title was a top 5 hit and both the single and album achieved gold record status. The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance, and over the years would become known as Bennett's signature song. In 2001, it was ranked 23rd on an RIAA/NEA list of the most historically significant Songs of the 20th Century.

Bennett's following album, I Wanna Be Around (1963) was also a top 5 success, with the title track and "The Good Life" each reaching the top 20 of the pop singles chart and the top 10 of the Adult Contemporary chart.

The next year brought The Beatles and the British Invasion, and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over the next couple of years Bennett had minor hits with several albums and singles based on show tunes – his last top 40 single was the #34 "If I Ruled the World" from Pickwick in 1965 – but his commercial fortunes were clearly starting to decline. An attempt to break into acting with a role in the 1966 film The Oscar was not well received.

A firm believer in the American Civil Rights movement, Bennett participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. Years later he would continue this commitment by refusing to perform in apartheid South Africa.

Sharon and Bennett parted ways in 1965. There was great pressure on singers such as Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand to record "contemporary" rock songs, and in this vein Columbia Records' Clive Davis suggested that Bennett do the same. Bennett was very reluctant, and when he tried, the results pleased no one. This was exemplified by Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! (1969), which featured misguided attempts at Beatles and other current songs and a ludicrous psychedelic art cover.

Years later Bennett would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when his mother was forced to produce a cheap dress. By 1972, he had departed Columbia for MGM Records, but found no more success there, and in a couple more years he was without a recording contract.

Bennett and his wife Patricia had been separated since 1965, their marriage a victim of too much time on the road, among other factors. In 1971, their divorce became official. Bennett had been involved with aspiring actress Sandra Grant since filming The Oscar, and on December 29, 1971 they married. They would have two daughters, Joanna and Antonia.

Taking matters into his own hands, Bennett started his own record company, Improv. He cut some songs that would later become favorites, such as "What is This Thing Called Love?", and made two well-regarded albums with jazz pianist Bill Evans, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1976), but by 1977 Improv was out of business. A stint living in England, like other American jazz expatriates, did not change his fortunes.

As the decade neared its end, Bennett had no recording contract, no manager, and was not performing any concerts outside of Las Vegas. His second marriage was failing (they would completely separate in 1979, but not officially divorce until 2007). He had (like many musicians) developed a drug addiction, was living beyond his means, and had the Internal Revenue Service trying to seize his Los Angeles home. He had hit bottom.

TURNAROUND

After a near-fatal cocaine overdose in 1979, Bennett called his sons Danny and Dae for help. "Look, I'm lost here," he told them. "It seems like people don't want to hear the music I make."

Danny Bennett, an aspiring musician himself, also came to a realization. The band Danny and his brother had started, Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends, had foundered and Danny's musical abilities were limited. However he had discovered during this time, that he did have a head for business. His father, on the other hand, had tremendous musical talent but was having trouble sustaining a career from it. Danny signed on as his father's manager.

Danny got his father's expenses under control, moved him back to New York, and began booking him in colleges and small theatres to get him away from a "Vegas" image. Tony Bennett had also reunited with Ralph Sharon as his pianist and musical director. By 1986, Tony Bennett was re-signed to Columbia Records, this time with creative control, and released The Art of Excellence. This became his first album to reach the charts since 1972.

A NEW AUDIENCE

By the mid-1980s, the excesses of the disco, punk rock, and new wave eras had given many artists and listeners a greater appreciation for the classic American song. Rock stars such as Linda Ronstadt began recording albums of standards, and such songs began showing up more frequently in movie soundtracks and on television commercials.

Danny Bennett felt strongly that younger audiences, although completely unfamiliar with Tony Bennett, would respond to his music if only given a chance to see and hear it. More crucially, no changes to Tony's appearance (tuxedo), singing style (his own), musical accompaniment (The Ralph Sharon Trio or an orchestra), or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable.

Accordingly, Danny began to book his father on shows with younger audiences, such as David Letterman's talk shows, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Simpsons, and various MTV programs. The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, "I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin – they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out."

During this time, Bennett continued to record, first putting out the acclaimed look back Astoria: Portrait of the Artist (1990), then emphasizing themed albums such as the Sinatra homage Perfectly Frank (1992) and the Fred Astaire tribute Steppin' Out (1993). The latter two both achieved gold status and won Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (Bennett's first Grammys since 1962) and further established Bennett as the inheritor of the mantle of a classic American great.

As Bennett was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side by side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as his "Steppin' Out With My Baby" video received MTV airplay, it was clear that, as The New York Times said, "Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises."

The new audience reached its height with Bennett's appearance in 1994 on MTV Unplugged. Featuring guest appearances by rock and country stars Elvis Costello and k.d. lang (both of whom had a profound respect for the standards genre), the show attracted a considerable audience and much media attention. The resulting MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year. At age 68, Tony Bennett had come all the way back.

NO RETIREMENT

Since then Bennett has continued to record and tour steadily, doing up to 200 shows a year. In concert Bennett often makes a point of singing one song (usually "Fly Me to the Moon") without any microphone or amplification, demonstrating to younger audience members the lost art of vocal projection. One show, Tony Bennett's Wonderful World: Live From San Francisco, was made into a PBS special. Bennett also created the idea behind, and starred in the first, of the A&E Network's Live By Request series, for which he won an Emmy Award. In addition to numerous television guest performances, Bennett has had cameo appearances as himself in films such as The Scout, Analyze This, and Bruce Almighty. Bennett also published The Good Life: The Autobiography of Tony Bennett in 1998.

A series of albums, often based on themes (Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, blues, duets) have met with good acceptance; Bennett has won seven more Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance or Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammys in the subsequent years, most recently for the year 2006. According to his official biography, Bennett has now sold over 50 million records worldwide during his career.

Tony Bennett's career as a painter has also flourished. He followed up his childhood interest with serious training, work, and museum visits throughout his life. He sketches or paints every day, even of views out of hotel windows when he is on tour. Painting under his real name of Benedetto, he has exhibited his work in numerous galleries and has been commissioned by the Kentucky Derby and the United Nations. His painting "Homage to Hockney" (for his friend David Hockney) is on permanent display at the highly regarded Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio as is his "Boy on Sailboat, Sydney Bay" at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park in New York. His paintings have been featured in ARTnews and other magazines, and sell for as much as $40,000. Many of his works were published in the art book Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen in 1996. In 2007, another book involving his paintings, Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art & Music, became a best-seller among art books

Accolades came to Bennett. For his contribution to the recording industry, Tony Bennett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street. Bennett was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002. In 2002, Q magazine named Tony Bennett in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die." On December 4, 2005, Bennett was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor. Later, a theatrical musical revue of his songs, called I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett was created and featured some of his best-known songs such as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Because of You", and "Wonderful." The following year, Bennett was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

Bennett frequently donates his time to charitable causes, to the extent that he is sometimes nicknamed "Tony Benefit." In April 2002, he joined Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and former President Bill Clinton in a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at New York's Apollo Theater. He has also recorded public service announcements for Civitan International. In the late 1980s, Bennett entered into a long-term romantic relationship with Susan Crow (born c. 1960), a former New York City schoolteacher. Together they founded Exploring the Arts, a charitable organization dedicated to creating, promoting, and supporting arts education. At the same time they founded (and named after Bennett's friend) the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, a public high school dedicated to teaching the performing arts, which opened in 2001 and would have a very high graduation rate. It was a tribute in return, for in a 1965 Life magazine interview Sinatra had said that:

"For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more."

Danny Bennett continues to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett is a recording engineer who has worked on a number of Tony's projects and who has opened Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer.

In August 2006, Bennett turned eighty years old. The birthday itself was an occasion for publicity, which then extended through the rest of the following year, as his album Duets: An American Classic was released, reached his highest placement ever on the albums chart, and garnered two Grammy Awards; concerts were given, including a high-profile one for New York radio station WLTW-FM; a performance made with Christina Aguilera and a comedy sketch made with Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live; a Thanksgiving-time, Rob Marshall-directed television special Tony Bennett: An American Classic on NBC, which would win multiple Emmy Awards; receipt of the Billboard Century Award; and guest-mentoring on American Idol season 6 and performing during its finale. He received the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Humanitarian Award. Bennett was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts - Jazz Masters Award in 2006, (the highest honors that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians).

On June 21, 2007, Bennett married long-time partner Susan Crow in a civil ceremony in New York.

Bennett made two surprise appearances at Shea Stadium on July 16th & 18th, 2008 - appearing with his good friend Billy Joel to sing "New York State of Mind" during Joel's sell out "Last Play at Shea Stadium " concerts appearing in front of nearly 120,000 over the two nights .

LINKS

Tony’s Official Music site
http://www.tonybennett.net/

Tony’s Official Art site
http://www.benedettoarts.com/

Tony at Legacy Records
http://www.legacyrecordings.com/Tony-Bennett.aspx

YOUTUBE CLIPS

For One In My Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LId47zizlP0

I Left My Heart In San Francisco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-85ozWLFY-Q&feature=related

Steppin Out With My Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF-VAOtf7Q0

Because of You with kd Lang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9sesopGFqA

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

August 2nd Spotlight Torch Singer Helen Morgan

kubbie — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:25:44 GMT

1929 "What Wouldn't I Do for That Man"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2FRg5cBNaY

It Cant Go On Like This
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9gz0EfmS4Q

The Little Things You Used To Do 1935 (Al Jolson in Clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0XLE7_sItQ

many more film clips after the bio and links

Helen Morgan (August 2, 1900 – October 9, 1941) was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s. She starred as Julie LaVerne in the original Broadway production of Hammerstein and Kern's musical Show Boat in 1927, and appeared in its two subsequent film adaptations, in 1929 (prologue only) and in 1936, becoming firmly associated with the role. She suffered from bouts of alcoholism, and despite her notable success in the title role of another Hammerstein and Hart's Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline (1929), her stage carreer was relatively short. Helen Morgan died from of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 41. She was portrayed by Ann Blyth in the 1957 biopic The Helen Morgan Story.

BIOGRAPHY

Helen was born 'Helen Riggins' on August 2, 1900 in rural Danville, Illinois. Her father was a farmer and a schoolteacher. After her mother remarried, she changed the last name to 'Morgan'. Her mother's second marriage ended in divorce, and she moved to Chicago with her daughter. Helen never finished school beyond the eighth grade, and worked a variety of jobs just to get by. In 1923 she entered the Miss Montreal contest, even going to New York to meet Miss America Katherine Campbell, but when she returned, her American citizenship was discovered and she was disqualified. She also worked as an extra in films. By the age of twenty Morgan had taken voice lessons and started singing in speakeasies in Chicago.

Helen Morgan's high, thin, and somewhat wobbly voice was not fashionable during the 1920s for the kind of songs that she specialized in, but nevertheless she became a wildly popular torch singer. Her heart bled about hard living and heartbreak onto her accompanist's piano. This draped-over-the-piano look became her signature look while performing at Billy Rose's Backstage Club in 1925. In spite of the National Prohibition Act of 1919 outlawing alcohol in the United States, Morgan became a heavy drinker and was often reportedly drunk during these performances. During this period several Chicago gangsters tried to help fund her various attempts to open her own nightclub. However, Prohibition agents kept too strict an eye on her and these attempts failed.

In 1927 Helen Morgan appeared as Julie LaVerne in the original cast of Show Boat, her best-known role. She sang "Bill" (lyrics by P.G. Wodehouse and Oscar Hammerstein) and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" in two stage runs and two film productions of the famous musical over a span of 11 years. (In the first film version of Show Boat, made in 1929, Morgan appeared only in the song prologue; Alma Rubens played Julie in the film proper, which was mostly silent. However, Morgan did play the role in the 1936 film version of the musical.)

After appearing in the 1929 film version of Show Boat, Morgan went on to star in Kern and Hammerstein's Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline. The title was a pun on the famous barbershop quartet song. In the musical, Morgan introduced the songs Why Was I Born and Don't Ever Leave Me. Oddly enough, when Sweet Adeline was filmed in 1934, Morgan's role went to her future Show Boat co-star, Irene Dunne, who possessed a lovely soprano, but was certainly not a torch singer.

Morgan was noticed by Florenz Ziegfeld while dancing in the chorus of his production of Sally in 1923 and she went on to perform with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1931, the Follies' last active year. During this period she studied music at the Metropolitan Opera in her free time.

In the late 1930s Morgan was signed up for a show at Chicago's Loop Theater. She also spent time at her farm in High Point, New York. Alcoholism plagued her and she was hospitalized in late 1940. Her career underwent something of a comeback in 1941, thanks to the help of manager Lloyd Johnson. However, the years of alcohol abuse had taken their toll. She collapsed onstage during a performance of George White's Scandals of 1942 and died in Chicago of cirrhosis of the liver on October 8, 1941.

Morgan was married three times, to a fan Lowell Army, whom she met at a stage door while she was performing in Sally, to Maurice "Buddy" Maschke (they married on May 15, 1933 and divorced several years later), and to Lloyd Johnson, whom she married on July 27, 1941.

Morgan was portrayed by Polly Bergen in a 1957 Playhouse 90 drama, directed by George Roy Hill, and won an Emmy Award for her performance. That same year, the feature film The Helen Morgan Story starred Ann Blyth as Morgan.

FILMOGRAPHY

· Six-Cylinder Love, 1923
· The Heart Raider, 1923
· Scandals, 1925
· Show Boat, 1929 (in the prologue only, she appeared as Julie La Verne and sang "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and "Bill")
· Applause, 1929 (sang "What Wouldn't I Do For that Man" and "Give Your Little Baby Lots of Lovin'")
· Glorifying the American Girl, 1930 (sang "What Wouldn't I Do For that Man")
· Roadhouse Nights, 1930 (sang "It Can't Go On Like This")
· The Gigolo Racket, 1931 (sang "Nobody Breaks My Heart" and "I Know He's Mine")
· Manhattan Lullaby, 1933 (sang "The Stork Song")
· The Doctor, 1934 (sang "One Little Smile")
· Frankie and Johnnie, 1934 (sang "Give Me a Heart to Sing To" and "If You Want My Heart")
· You Belong to Me, 1934 (sang "When He Comes Home to Me")
· Marie Galante, 1934 (sang "Song of a Dreamer" and "Serves Me Right for Treating You Wrong")
· Sweet Music, 1935 (sang "I See Two Lovers")
· Go Into Your Dance, 1935 (sang "The Little Things You Used to Do")
· Show Boat, 1936 (as Julie La Verne she sang "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and "Bill")
· The Coo Coo Nut Grove, 1936 (Warner Brothers cartoon, caricature singing "The Little Things You Used to Do" )

STAGE ROLES

· Sally, 1923 (chorus)
· Scandals,1925-1926 (first principal role)
· Americana, 1926
· American Grand Guignol, 1927 (sang "Nobody Wants Me")
· Show Boat, 1927-1929 (as Julie La Verne she sang "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and "Bill")
· Sweet Adeline, 1929-1931 (starring role singing "T'was Not So Long Ago", "Here am I", "Why Was I Born?", "The Sun About to Rise" and "Don't Ever Leave Me!")
· Ziegfeld Follies, 1931 (sang "Half-Caste Woman", lyrics by Noel Coward)
· Show Boat, 1932-1933
· Memory, 1934 (starring role singing "A Fool There Was")
· A Night at the Moulin Rouge, 1939
· Show Boat, 1940 (as Julie La Verne she sang Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man and Bill)

LINKS

Helen at IBDB
http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=53685

Helen’s Myspace Page
http://www.myspace.com/theoriginaltorchsinger

Helen at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0604709/

Helen at Rhapsody
http://www.rhapsody.com/helenmorgan

YOUTUBE CLIPS

Cant Help Loving That Man Of Mine 1936 (Paul Robson, Hattie McDaniel and Irene Dunne in clip too)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJkEphbWKhE

When He Comes Homes To Me 1934
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wolIxWHN_4

Serves Me Right For Treating You Wrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USI5sKktWeE

Give Me A Heart To Sing To 1934
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEHs81oN0pc

Bill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HeasqkO1Ko

Song of a Dreamer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU9W0uLA7j4

You Remind Me Of a Naughty Sprintime Cuckoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXPPyTPUY8

I See Two Lovers (sound is low need to turn up volume)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xT4KJyoe2U

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 30th Spotlight Paul Anka

kubbie — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:30:57 GMT

My Way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIOGTuTOcAg

Paul Albert Anka, OC (born 30 July 1941, in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor of Lebanese origin. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1990.

Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hits songs like Diana, Lonely Boy, and Put Your Head on My Shoulder. He went on to write such well known music as the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Tom Jones' biggest hit She's A Lady, and the English lyrics for Frank Sinatra's signature song My Way.

Anka's parents, who owned a restaurant, were of Lebanese Christian (Maronite) descent. He sang with the St Elijah Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Church choir under the direction of Frederick Karam with whom he studied music theory. He also studied piano with Winnifred Rees.

EARLY SUCCESS

Anka recorded his first single I Confess at age 14. In 1957 he went to New York City where he auditioned for Don Costa at ABC, singing what was widely believed to be a lovestruck verse he had written to a former babysitter. In an interview with NPR's Terry Gross in 2005, he stated that it was to a girl at his church whom he hardly knew. The song, "Diana", brought Anka instant stardom as it rocketed to number one on the charts. Diana is one of the best selling 45s in music history. He followed up with four songs that made it into the Top 20 in 1958, making him, at 17, one of the biggest teen idols of the time. He toured Britain and then, with Buddy Holly, he toured Australia.

His talent went beyond singing.the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (reworked in 1962 from a song Anka wrote earlier called Toot Sweet which had been rewritten with lyrics and recorded by Annette Funicello in 1959 as It's Really Love); Tom Jones' biggest hit record "She's a Lady"; and the English lyrics to "My Way", Frank Sinatra's signature song sung by many well known artists.

In the 1960s Anka began acting in motion pictures as well as writing songs for them, most notably the theme for the hit movie The Longest Day. From his movie work, he wrote and recorded one of his greatest hits, "Lonely Boy". He then went on to become one of the first pop singers to perform at the Las Vegas casinos. Anka returns to Canada several times a year, regularly playing to sold out crowds at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

COMEBACK

In 1960 Anka signed with RCA Records, but like most North American recording artists, saw his career stalled by the British Invasion. In the early seventies he signed with Buddah. After more than ten years without a hit record, he signed with United Artists, and in 1974, he teamed up with Odia Coates to record the number 1 hit, (You're) Having My Baby. They would record two more duets that both made it into the Top 10. These were "I Don't Like to Sleep Alone" (#8) and "One Man Woman/One Woman Man" (#7). In 1975, he recorded a jingle for Kodak called 'The Times of Your Life'. The jingle, written by Bill Lane and Roger Nichols, became so popular, that Anka recorded it as a full song, and it became a hit a year later, peaking at #7 in the U.S. pop charts.

By the 1970s, Anka's career centered around adult contemporary and big-band standards, played regularly in Las Vegas. On September 6, 1990, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 2005, his album Rock Swings, comprising big-band arrangements of contemporary standards, provided a mainstream comeback of sorts and saw Anka awarded a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.

In 1999, he visited Lebanon for sell-out performances at the Forum de Beyrouth (The Beirut Forum).

RECOGNITION

Paul Anka was elected to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1980. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. at 6840 Hollywood Blvd. Anka has also received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame,. in 2005. In 1991, the Government of France honored him with the title 'Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters'. He was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada in 2005.

Anka was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993.

In December 2007, Paul Anka was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

In October of 1995, he appeared in Treehouse of Horror VI on The Simpsons.

On the CW show Gilmore Girls, Lorelai named her new dog Paul Anka. He also made a guest appearance as himself in the episode 'The Real Paul Anka', which aired April 11, 2006.

He became infamous among musicians, and more recently, Internet users for a mid-1970s after-show tirade which was secretly recorded by a 'snake we later fired' (Anka: Fresh Air interview). The diatribe, in which Anka berates his crew and band members, has spawned a number of in-joke references and quotations, the main ones being: 'The guys get shirts', 'Don't make a maniac out of me', and 'Slice like a hammer.'

PERSONAL LIFE

He was married to Anne De Zogheb, the daughter of Lebanese diplomat Count Charles de Zogheb, from February 16, 1963 to September 28, 2000[citation needed]. Anka met De Zogheb in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1962. Of English, Lebanese, French, Dutch and Greek descent, she was a fashion model on assignment and under contract to the Eileen Ford Agency. The couple married the following year in a ceremony at Orly Airport in Paris. De Zogheb quit modelling after their second child, Amanda, was born. They have five daughters: Amelia, Anthea, Alicia, Amanda (wife of actor Jason Bateman) and Alexandra.

Anka has a son, Ethan (born 2005), with girlfriend Anna Yeager.

He is the grandfather of Francesca Nora Bateman, born October 2006.

Strained relations with Ottawa

Paul Anka has had an on-again/off-again relationship with his hometown of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. After a 1981 performance for which he received a negative review, he swore off performing in Ottawa. He returned for a performance in April 2002 at a fund-raiser gala at the Ottawa Congress Centre.

In 1981, Ottawa City Council named August 26, 1981 'Paul Anka Day' to celebrate his 25th anniversary in show-business. A street in Ottawa is named 'Paul Anka Drive' in his honour.
In 1991, he signed an investment agreement with the new Ottawa Senators NHL franchise. The agreement ended up being dissolved in an out-of-court settlement in 1993.

LINKS

Anka’s Official Site
http://www.paulanka.com/

Anka at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001912/

Anka at Songwriters Hall of Fame
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C146?exhibitId=146

YOUTUBE CLIPS

Diana 1957
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuTbB-d12A0

Lonely Boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKcCaCgMLBE

Time To Cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UftZY-aX3po&feature=related

VERBOTEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwnWGl9OgJs&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

New DVDs/Books on Ella, Alice and Doris

kubbie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:07:59 GMT

First set of DVD's features Alice Faye set for release in August of this year.

This is the 2nd Volume of movies featuring this musical star. The movies are Rose of Washington Square / Hollywood Cavalcade / The Great American Broadcast / Hello, Frisco, Hello / Four Jills in a Jeep.

Link to it at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Collection-Washington-Hollywood-Cavalcade-Broadcast/dp/B0018RKEQ4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1217313337&sr=8-1

Here is link to the first Volume featuring That Night in Rio / Lillian Russell / On the Avenue / The Gang's All Here
http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Collection-Lillian-Russell-Avenue/dp/B000K7VHMS/ref=pd_sbs_d_4

A third set seems to be in the works considering Alexanders Ragtime Band with Faye , Don Ameche, Tyrone Power and Ethel Merman hasnt been included yet.

On CD featuring Alice Faye is The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show:Money Beauty & Brains. 20 episodes of their old radio show was just released in June
http://www.amazon.com/Phil-Harris-Alice-Faye-Show-Beauty/dp/1570198594/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217313844&sr=1-2

and if you are obsessed, as I am there is the

Alice Faye Paper Doll
http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Paper-Dolls-David-Wolfe/dp/0979505305/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217313844&sr=1-5

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

July 28th Spotlight Rudy Vallee The Vagabond Lover

kubbie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:13:50 GMT

The Vagabond Lover 1929
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb36JID2jRA

a few more clips below with the links

Rudy Vallée (July 28, 1901 - July 3, 1986) was a popular American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer. Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée. Both of his parents were born and raised in Vermont, but their parents were immigrants; the Vallées being of French Canadian origin, while the Lynches were from Ireland. Rudy grew up in Westbrook, Maine. In high school, he took up the saxophone and acquired the nickname "Rudy" after then famous saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft.

Having played drums in his high school band, Vallee played clarinet and saxophone in various bands around New England in his youth. In 1917, he decided to enlist for World War I, but was discharged when the Navy authorities found out that he was only 15. He enlisted in Portland, Maine on March 29, 1917, under the false birthdate of July 28, 1899. He was discharged at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, on May 17, 1917 with 41 days of active service. From 1924 through 1925, he played with the "Savoy Havana Band" in London. He then returned to the States to obtain a degree in Philosophy from Yale and to form his own band, "Rudy Vallee and the Connecticut Yankees." With this band, which featured two violins, two saxophones, a piano, a banjo and drums, he started taking vocals (supposedly reluctantly at first). He had a rather thin, wavering tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than attempting vocals on jazz numbers. However, his singing, together with his suave manner and handsome boyish looks, attracted great attention, especially from young women. Vallee was given a recording contract and in 1928, he started performing on the radio.

Vallee became the most prominent and, arguably, the first of a new style of popular singer, the crooner. Previously, popular singers needed strong projecting voices to fill theaters in the days before the electric microphone. Crooners had soft voices that were well suited to the intimacy of the new medium of radio. Vallee's trombone-like vocal phrasing on "Deep Night" would inspire later crooners such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como to model their voice on jazz instruments.

Vallee also became what was perhaps the first complete example of the 20th century mass media pop star. Flappers, mobbed him wherever he went. His live appearances were usually sold out, and even if his singing could hardly be heard in those venues not yet equipped with the new electronic microphones, his screaming female fans went home happy if they had caught sight of his lips through the opening of the trademark megaphone he sang through.

In 1929, Vallee made his first feature film, The Vagabond Lover (RKO Radio). His first films were made to cash in on his singing popularity. Despite Vallee's rather wooden initial performances, his acting greatly improved in the late 1930s and 1940s. Also in 1929, Vallee began hosting The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour.

Vallee's recording career began in 1928 recording for Columbia Records' cheap labels (Harmony, Velvet Tone, and Diva). He signed to Victor in February 1929 and remained through late 1931, leaving after a heated dispute with company executives over title selections. He then recorded for the short-lived, but extremely popular "Hit of the Week" label (which sold records laminated onto cardboard). In August 1932, he signed with Columbia and stayed with them through 1933; he returned to Victor in June 1933. His records were issued on Victor's new budget label, Bluebird, until November 1933 when he was moved up the full-priced Victor label. He stayed with Victor until signing with ARC in 1936, who released his records on their Perfect, Melotone, Conqueror and Romeo labels until 1937 when he returned to Victor.

Vallee continued hosting popular radio variety shows through the 1930s and 1940s. The Royal Gelatin Hour featured various film performers of the era, such as Fay Wray and Richard Cromwell in dramatic skits.

Along with his group, The Connecticut Yankees, Vallee's best known popular recordings included: "The Stein Song" (aka University of Maine fighting song) in the early part of the decade and "Vieni, Vieni" in the latter '30s. Remarkably for an American, Vallee sang fluently in three Mediterranean languages, and always varied the keys[citation needed], thus paving the way for later pop crooners such as Dean Martin, Andy Williams and Vic Damone. Another memorable rendition of his is "Life Is Just A Bowl of Cherries", in which he imitates Willie Howard's voice in the final chorus. One of his record hits was "The Drunkard Song," popularly known as "There Is a Tavern in the Town." Vallee couldn't stop laughing during the first take, and managed a second take reasonably well. The "laughing" version was so infectious, however, that Victor released both takes.

Vallee's last significant hit song was the 1943 reissue of the melancholy ballad "As Time Goes By", popularized in the feature film Casablanca in 1943 (Due to the mid-1940s recording ban, Victor reissued the version he had recorded 15 years earlier.) During World War II, Vallee performed with the Coast Guard Band, entertaining U.S. troops with this 40-piece orchestra until 1944.

When Vallee took his contractual vacations from his national radio show in 1937, he insisted his sponsor hire Louis Armstrong as his substitute [2] (this was the first instance of an African-American fronting a national radio program). Vallee also wrote the introduction for Armstrong's 1936 book "Swing That Music".

In 1937 Vallee attended Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Vallee acted in a number of Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. Displaying his comedic abilities, one of his best acting roles[citation needed] is as the millionaire playboy on whom Claudette Colbert relies on in the 1942 screwball comedy directed by Preston Sturges, The Palm Beach Story. Other films in which he appeared include I Remember Mama, Unfaithfully Yours and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.

In 1955, Vallee was featured in Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, co-starring Jane Russell, Alan Young, and Jeanne Crain. The production was filmed on location in Paris. The film was based on the Anita Loos novel that was a sequel to her acclaimed Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was popular throughout Europe at the time and was released in France as A Paris Pour les Quatre ("Paris for the Four"), and in Belgium as Tevieren Te Parijs.

In middle age, Vallee's voice matured into a robust baritone. (In his later years he told a collector of his early records that "Everything I did before 1950 you can shit on.") He performed on Broadway in the show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and appeared in the film of the same name. He appeared in the campy 1960s Batman television show as the character "Lord Marmaduke Fogg". He toured with a one-man theater show into the 1980s. He occasionally opened for The Village People.

Vallee was married briefly to the younger actress Jane Greer, but that ended in divorce in 1944. His previous marriage to Leonie Cuachois was annulled and the one to Fay Webb ended in divorce. After divorcing Jane Greer, he married Eleanor Norris in 1946, who wrote a memoir, My Vagabond Lover. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1986.

Rudy Vallee died on July 3, 1986 at the age of 84, and he was interred in St. Hyacinth's Cemetery, Westbrook, Maine, from which his headstone has been falsely rumored to have been stolen. However, it remains in place, and reads "Rudy Vallee, July 28, 1901-July 3, 1986, Loving Husband of Eleanor, Music, Radio, Films," and includes the U.S. Coast Guard Emblem.

LINKS

The Offical Vallee Site
http://www.rudyvallee.com/

Rudy at Solid (is an online encyclopedia of big band music and classic jazz)
http://www.parabrisas.com/d_valleer.php

Rudy at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0884964/

Rudy at Classic Movies
http://www.classicmovies.org/articles/aa072201a.htm

"My Dinner with Rudy" a writers article on an evening with Vallee
http://www.sealander.com/Dinner_at_Rudys.html

YOUTUBE CLIPS

It Had To Be You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYKWXL-FnyM&feature=related

You're Driving Me Crazy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLJl5gsX56I&feature=related

Lost In A Fog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vafiwW7H4s&feature=related

Orchids In the Moonlight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsGDKJJvik8&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 26th Spotlight 60's Soulbird Darlene Love

kubbie — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:02:16 GMT

Not a songbird in the vein we are used to here. But the last few days has been slow in birthdays and I know there are some fans of the Girl Group sounds and Phil Spectors Wall of Sound in our ranks. Also she is one of my Music Higher Powers. So shes in the spotlight.

Darlene Love (née Wright; born July 26, 1941) is an American popular

music singer.

As occurs with many women in show business, there is some dispute as to

the exact year of Darlene Love's birth. The Internet Movie database

(www.imdb.com) lists the year as 1938, which means she turns 70 this

year (2008).

Love began her singing with her local church choir. While still in high

school (1959) she was invited to join a little-known "girl group" called

The Blossoms, who in 1963 began working with producer Phil Spector. With

her powerful voice she was soon a highly sought-after vocalist, and

managed to work with many of the legends of 1950s and 1960s rock and

soul, including Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, The Beach Boys, Elvis

Presley, and Sonny and Cher; Darlene and the Blossoms sang back-up

vocals on Shelley Fabares's hit, "Johnny Angel" as well as John

Phillips' solo album John, Wolfking of L.A. recorded in 1969.

It's important to note that The Blossoms recorded singles - usually with

little success throughout; Capitol 1957-58 (pre-Darlene Love), Challenge

1961-62, OKeh 1963, Reprise 1966-67, Ode 1967, MGM 1968, Bell 1969-70,

Lion 1972.

With The Blossoms she also sang backing vocals on many of the biggest

hits of the 1960s, including Spector's own "Da Doo Ron Ron" (allegedly

recorded with her lead, which was later erased by Spector and

re-recorded using Crystals' lead Dolores "LaLa" Brooks). Though credited

by Spector as singles recorded by The Crystals, "He's A Rebel" and "He's

Sure The Boy I Love" actually featured Love singing lead, backed by The

Blossoms. "Today I Met The Boy I'm Gonna Marry" was released as a single

by Spector, and featured Love's name as the artist. She was also part of

a trio called Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, who recorded a song in

1962, with their rendition of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from the Walt Disney

film, Song of the South, which got into the top ten in 1963. The

Blossoms landed a weekly part on Shindig!, one of the top music shows of

the era. They were part of the highly acclaimed Elvis Presley's '68

Comeback Special, which aired on NBC.

Into the 1970s Love continued to work as a back-up singer, before taking

a break in order to raise a family. In 1973, she recorded vocals as a

cheerleader along with Michelle Phillips, for the Cheech & Chong single

"Basketball Jones", which peaked at No.15 on the Billboard Hot 100

singles chart.

Love returned to music in the early 1980s and to an appreciative

audience she thought may have long since forgotten her. In addition to

singing the songs that made her famous, she has re-explored her gospel

roots on several recordings. In the mid-1980s she portrayed herself in

the Tony Award-nominated jukebox musical Leader of the Pack, which

featured the iconic rock and roll songs written by Ellie Greenwich, many

of them for the young Love. The showstopping number of that show, "River

Deep - Mountain High" had been recorded for Phil Spector by Ike & Tina

Turner and had been less than the success they had expected. Leader of

the Pack commenced as a review at the Greenwich Village nightclub the

Bottom Line, as did the later show about Love's life, Portrait of a

Singer, which never made the move uptown. Portrait included covers of

"The Change Is Going to Come" and "Don't Make Me Over" as well as "River

Deep, Mountain High" and original music written by some of the

instrumental writers of early rock and roll, including Barry Mann and

Cynthia Weil.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Love also began an acting career, playing

Danny Glover's wife in the four Lethal Weapon movies, and appeared on

Broadway in Grease and in the short-lived musical adaptation of Stephen

King's Carrie.

In 1990, Cher invited Love and her sister Edna Wright as her background

vocalist for the Heart of Stone Tour.

Annual Christmas traditions

She continues to do a Christmas show every year in New York City, which

is always capped by "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." She originally

recorded the song in 1963 for the album A Christmas Gift for You from

Phil Spector. Love also performs the song every year, without fail, on

the final new episode of the Late Show with David Letterman before

Christmas. The song is always performed with Paul Shaffer and the CBS

Orchestra, with the band being augmented by additional strings and other

instruments, as well as a full choir. Love first performed the song on

Late Night with David Letterman in 1986. Letterman has stated that the

annual performance is his favorite part of Christmas. Due to the 2007

Writers Guild of America strike, Love was unable to perform on the

Letterman show in 2007;instead a repeat of her 2006 performance was

shown.

On Monday, December 17, 2007 Love performed her annual "Love for the

Holidays" concert in the Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall - The

Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th Street in New York

City.

Other Work

Love sang "All Alone on Christmas" in 1992 backed by the majority of the

E-Street Band, which was featured in the films Home Alone 2: Lost In New

York and Love Actually. She was a special guest on the December 17,

2005, broadcast of Saturday Night Live, singing "White Christmas" with

the SNL band and providing the vocals for a Robert Smigel cartoon,

"Christmastime for the Jews."

Love starred as Motormouth Maybelle in Broadway's Hairspray until April,

2008. She was the musical guest on Late Show with David Letterman on May

7, 2007, performing "River Deep-Mountain High". Love released the

holiday collection "It's Christmas, Of Course", featuring her versions

of classic yuletide tunes from the '70s and '80s, on October 2, 2007.

Youtube clips

Today I Met The Boy I'm Gonna Marry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXdxObOjbgw

A Fine Fine Boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctukPdU6Cl4&feature=related

Darlene's Christmas Classic "Christmas (Baby Come Home)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXVcrWO5FCg&feature=related

When The Tears Start
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltOtb4UgYis&feature=related
flash foward many years to the same song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NeZswfJwfI&feature=related

Yes Inded with Joe Tex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnfxxqiGfBQ

Saved
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTsMMPVMLLc&feature=related

Goodbye So Long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMy1G1R-MCc&feature=related

River Deep 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W3C_xOPT9M

Too Late To Say Your Sorry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sldYB3ieDj4&feature=related

Wait Til My Bobby Gets Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfhsH4CSPiM

LINKS

Darlene at History of R n R
http://www.history-of-rock.com/darlene_love.htm

Darlene at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0522306/

Darlene on MYspace
http://www.myspace.com/officialdarlenelove

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 25th saxophonist Johnny Hodges

kubbie — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:05:30 GMT

(thank you Mad Dog for the CD)

You Need To Rock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up1_plLFV8Y

JEEP'S BLUES
SMOKE RINGS
and
HARMONY IN HARLEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWZbM2crw6M&feature=related

John Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (25 July 1906 in Cambridge, Massachusetts – 11 May 1970) was an American alto saxophonist and lead player of Duke Ellington's saxophone section.[1] He spent 38 years with Ellington, leaving to lead his own band from 1951 to 1955, returning to the fold shortly before Ellington's triumphant return to prominence via the orchestra's performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. Hodges started playing with Lloyd Scott, Sidney Bechet, Lucky Roberts and Chick Webb. When Ellington wanted to expand his band in 1928, Ellington's clarinet player Barney Bigard recommended Hodges, who was featured on both alto and soprano sax. His playing became the identifying voice of the Ellington orchestra.

BIOGRAPHY

Hodges was mostly self-taught, although he did take lessons on soprano sax with Bechet. Johnny Hodges was one of the prominent Ellington Band members who featured in Benny Goodman's legendary 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. Benny Goodman claimed Hodges was "the greatest man on alto sax I ever heard." Charlie Parker called him "the Lily Pons of his instrument."

Ellington's practice of writing tunes specifically for members of his orchestra resulted in the Hodges specialties, "Confab with Rab", "Jeep's Blues", and "Hodge Podge". Other songs recorded by the Ellington Orchestra which prominently feature Hodges' smooth alto-saxophone are "Magenta Haze", "Prelude to a Kiss", "Haupe" (from Anatomy of a Murder), "The Star-Crossed Lovers" from Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder suite, "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)", "Blood Count" and "Passion Flower".

Generations of saxophonists turn to 1963 recording The Great Paris Concert, in which Hodges' lyrical poise is captured well, particularly on "On the Sunny Side of the Street".

He had a pure tone and economy of melody on both the blues and ballads that won him admiration from musicians of all eras and styles, from Ben Webster to John Coltrane, both of whom played with him when he had his own orchestra in the 1950s, to Lawrence Welk, who featured him in an album of standards. His highly individualistic playing style, which featured the use of a wide vibrato and much sliding between slurred notes, was frequently imitated. He earned the nicknames Rabbit (for his enjoyment of lettuce sandwiches) and Jeep (for his apparent speed as a runner).

Daydream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuVrfOhCP1k&feature=related

Hodges led the Ellington saxophone section. A small highly precise man, his last performances were at the Imperial Room in Toronto, less than a week before his death from a sudden heart attack. His last recordings are featured on The New Orleans Suite, incomplete on his death.

In Ellington's eulogy of Hodges he said: "Never the world's most highly animated showman or greatest stage personality, but a tone so beautiful it sometimes brought tears to the eyes - this was Johnny Hodges. This is Johnny Hodges."

A Flower is a Lovesome Thing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNKXFTsP2Zk&feature=related

1958 Ellington introducing Johnny to the crowd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-up5SrhmA8&feature=related

LINKS

The BBC's Jazz Profile on Johnny
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/profiles/johnny_hodges.shtml

List of albums Johnny appeared on at Downbeat.com
http://www.downbeat.com/artists/window.asp?action=new&aid=339&aname=Johnny+Hodges

Free Downloads at Rhapsody
http://www.rhapsody.com/johnnyhodges

JOhnny at AllAboutJazz.com
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7665

Johnny's page at Verve Records
http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist/default.aspx?aid=2805

Johnny at AllMusic.com
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=JOHNNY|HODGES&samples=1&sql=11:diftxqt5ldde~T1

Johnny at Artist Direct
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,444615,00.html

Johnny at Biography.com
http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9340825

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

RIP Jo Stafford

kubbie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:29:15 GMT

You Belong To Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H1Imb6jm0U&feature=related

AP OBIT

LOS ANGELES - Jo Stafford, the honey-voiced band singer who starred in radio and television and sold more than 25 million records with her ballads and folks songs, has died. She was 90.

Stafford died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at her Century City home, her son, Tim Weston of Topanga, said Friday. She had been in declining health since October, he said.

Stafford had 26 charted singles and nearly a dozen top 10 hits, her son said. She won a Grammy for her humor.

Stafford's records of "I'll Walk Alone," "I'll Be Seeing You," "I Don't Want to Walk Without You" and other sentimental songs struck the hearts of servicemen far from home in both World War II and the Korean War. They awarded her the title of "GI Jo."

In 1939, she was working with a group of male singers called the Pied Pipers. The group was invited to join the Tommy Dorsey band, a big attraction in the swing era. Soon the Pied Pipers were singing in major hotels and ballrooms and on radio.

A year later, 24-year-old Frank Sinatra joined Dorsey after a brief stint with Harry James, and he and the Pied Pipers melded ideally. Their languorous "I'll Never Smile Again" became the No. 1 hit for 12 weeks and sold 2 million copies. A half-century later, Sinatra remarked about Stafford, "It was a joy to sit on the bandstand and listen to her."

Dorsey gave Stafford her first solo, "Little Man With a Candy Cigar," and it became a hit record. One night in 1944 in Portland, Ore., the temperamental Dorsey got into an argument with one of the Pied Pipers and fired the group.

The Pied Pipers signed with the fledgling Capitol Records, but Stafford left the group to join Johnny Mercer, one of the Capitol founders. Mercer guided her new career with hits such as "Candy," "Serenade of the Bells" and "That's for Me." In demand for personal appearances, she accepted a date at New York's Club Martinique. A shy person, she never played a nightclub again.

"I'm basically a singer, period," she said in a 1996 interview, "and I think I'm really lousy up in front of an audience_ it's just not me."

She was a "reluctant star," her son said. "She loved making records and really didn't crave the attention of personal appearances."

At Capitol, Stafford, who had been married to Pied Piper John Huddleston from 1941 to 1943, became reacquainted with Paul Weston, who had been an arranger for Dorsey. They married in 1952, and he acted as her arranger and conductor for the rest of her career. They had two children, Tim and Amy, and four grandchildren.

Despite her shyness, Stafford appeared before studio audiences in radio and television during the 1940s and 1950s. She alternated with Perry Como on a nightly 15-minute radio show in 1944, guest starred on many TV variety shows and had her own series, "The Jo Stafford Show," in 1955-56.

She recorded more than 800 songs during a versatile career that included ballads, folk, Scottish, country and novelty. She even tried comedy. She and Weston recorded an album of numbers on which she sang painfully off-key and he played miserable piano. They were billed as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, but their identity was soon discovered. A second album won them a Grammy in 1960 for best comedy album.

Jo Elizabeth Stafford was born Nov. 12, 1917, in Coalinga, Calif., where her Tennessee father had come to work in the oil fields. When a new field was discovered in Long Beach, he moved his wife and four daughters south. Young Jo studied classical music for more than three years and was cast in a high school production of "Robert." But the 1933 Long Beach earthquake destroyed the school, and she joined her two older sisters singing pop songs on radio as the Stafford Sisters.

The Staffords sang background music at film studios — where Jo met the Pied Pipers.

Stafford made her last recording in 1970 although her songs continue to be used in movie soundtracks, her son said.

She retired voluntarily, he said.

"It really was to raise my sister and I. She walked away from it," he said. "People would sort of ask her, `How come you stopped singing?' She said: `For the same reason that Lana Turner doesn't pose in bathing suits anymore.'"

In addition to her son, Stafford is survived by a daughter, Amy Wells of Calabasas, and four grandchildren.

Paul Weston died in 1996.

Jo’s wikipedia bio, links and youtube clips at bottom

Jo Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008[1]), born Jo Elizabeth Stafford, was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards whose career spanned the late 1930s through the early 1960s. Stafford is greatly admired for the purity of her voice and was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era. She was also viewed as a pioneer of modern musical parody, having won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1961 (with husband Paul Weston) for their album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris.

EARLY YEARS

Stafford was born in Coalinga, California to Grover Cleveland Stafford and Anna York Stafford, a distant cousin of Sergeant Alvin York. Originally, she wanted to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child. However, because of the economic Great Depression, she abandoned that idea and joined her sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group, "The Stafford Sisters", which performed on Los Angeles radio station KHJ. Jo Stafford was one of only a handful of musicians to have "perfect pitch", the ability to identify a note without having seen the piano key or other instrument play the note.

THE PIED PIPERS

When her sisters married, the group broke up and Stafford joined a new vocal group, The Pied Pipers. This group consisted of eight members: John Huddleston (who was Stafford's husband at the time), Hal Hooper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody Newbury, and Dick Whittinghill, besides Stafford. The group became very popular, working on local radio and movie soundtracks, and caught the attention of two of Tommy Dorsey's arrangers, Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston.

In 1938, Weston persuaded Dorsey to sign The Pied Pipers for his radio show, and they went to New York for a broadcast date. Dorsey liked them enough to sign them for ten weeks, but after the second broadcast the sponsor heard them and disliked them, firing the group. They stayed in New York for three months, but landed only a single job that paid them just $3.60 each, though they did record four sides for RCA Victor Records.

Half the members of the Pied Pipers returned to Los Angeles, but they had a difficult time trying to make a living until they got an offer from Dorsey to join his big band in 1939. This led to success for the whole group, but especially for Stafford, who was also featured in solo performances. The group also backed Frank Sinatra in some of his early recordings.

In 1942, the group had an argument with Dorsey and left, but in 1943 it became one of the first groups signed to Johnny Mercer's new label, Capitol Records. Capitol's music director was the same Paul Weston who had been instrumental in introducing Stafford to Dorsey. Weston and Stafford married in 1952. They went on to have two children, Tim and Amy.

SOLO CAREER

In 1944, Stafford left the Pied Pipers to go solo. Her tenure with the USO, in which she gave countless performances for soldiers stationed overseas, acquired her the nickname "GI Jo."

Beginning in 1944, she hosted the Tuesday and Thursday broadcasts of an NBC musical variety radio program — The Chesterfield Supper Club.

In 1948 Stafford and Gordon MacRae had a million-seller with their version of "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart" and in 1949 repeated their success with "My Happiness".

In 1950, she left Capitol for Columbia Records, then returning to Capitol in 1961. At Columbia, she was the first recording artist to sell twenty-five million records. During her second stint at Capitol, Stafford also recorded for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label. These albums were released between 1961 and 1964, and were mostly retrospective in nature. Stafford left the label when Sinatra sold it to Warner Bros.

In the 1950s, she had a string of popular hits with Frankie Laine, six of which charted; their duet of Hank Williams' "Hey Good Lookin'" making the top ten in 1951. It was also at this time that Stafford scored her best known hits with huge records like "Jambalaya," "Shrimp Boats," "Make Love to Me," and "You Belong to Me". The last song was Stafford's all-time biggest hit, topping the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom (the first song by a female singer to top the UK chart).

COMEDY CAREER

Stafford briefly experimented with comedy under the name "Cinderella G. Stump" with Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. She recorded a mock hillbilly version of Temptation, which she pronounced "Tim-tayshun." True success in the comedy genre, though, would come about almost accidentally.

Throughout the 1950s, Stafford and Paul Weston would entertain guests at parties by putting on a skit in which they assumed the identities Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, a bad lounge act. Stafford, as Darlene, would sing off-key in a high pitched voice; Weston, as Jonathan, played an untuned piano off key and with bizarre rhythms.

Finding that she had time left over following a 1957 recording session, Stafford, as a gag, recorded a track as Darlene Edwards. Those who heard bootlegs of the recording responded positively, and later that year, Stafford and Weston recorded an entire album of songs as Jonathan and Darlene, entitled Jo Stafford and Paul Weston Present: The Original Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards, Vocals by Darlene Edwards. As a publicity stunt, Stafford and Weston claimed that the Edwardses were a New Jersey lounge act that they had discovered, and denied any personal connection. The ruse triggered a national sensation as the public tried to identify the brazenly off-key singer and the piano player of dubious ability. (Some guessed Margaret and Harry Truman, Time magazine noted.) Much time would pass before people realized (and Stafford and Weston admitted) that they were in fact the Edwardses. The album was followed up with a "pop standards" album, on which the pair intentionally butchered popular music. The album was a commercial and critical success; it proved to be the first commercially successful musical parody album, laying the groundwork for the careers of later "full time" musical parodists such as Weird Al Yankovic.

The couple continued releasing Jonathan and Darlene albums, with their 1961 album, Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris winning that year's Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album (they "tied" with Bob Newhart, as the Grammys decided, in a rare move, to issue two comedy awards that year. Newhart was given an award for "Spoken Word Comedy.") It was the only major award that Stafford ever won.

The couple continued to release Jonathan and Darlene albums for several years, and in 1977 released a final, one-off single, a cover of The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" backed with "I Am Woman." The same year also saw a brief resurgence in the popularity of Jonathan and Darlene albums when their cover of "Carioca" was featured as the opening and closing theme to The Kentucky Fried Movie.

RETIREMENT

In 1966, Stafford went into semi-retirement, retiring completely from the music business in 1975. Except for the 1977 Jonathan and Darlene Edwards version of "Stayin' Alive," Stafford wouldn't perform again until 1990, at a ceremony honoring Frank Sinatra.

Stafford won a breach-of-contract lawsuit against her former record label in the early 1990s, which won her the rights to all of her old recordings, including the Jonathan and Darlene recordings. Following the lawsuit, Stafford, along with son Tim, reactivated the Corinthian Record label which began life as a religious label the deeply religious Paul Weston had started. With Paul Weston's help, she compiled a pair of Best of Jonathan and Darlene albums, which were released in 1993. In 1996, Paul Weston died of natural causes. Stafford continued to operate Corinthian Records. In 2006, she donated her library and her husband's to the University of Arizona.

She died in Century City, California of congestive heart failure on July 16, 2008 at the age of 90.

Jo at SOLID
http://www.parabrisas.com/d_staffordj.php

The Paul Weston and Jo Stafford Collection at the University of Arizona
http://web.cfa.arizona.edu/westonstafford/

Jo at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0821300/

Youtube clips

Autumn Leaves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-QXhJPLmAk

I’ll Walk Alone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsvBzhtwMbY&feature=related

Love Song Duets with Ella Fitzgerard 1961
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZvABSFzClk&feature=related

Begin the Beguine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqO5YyCsIkk

Wind In The Willow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe4VFSVEvZI&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 2 replies

Welcome to new member

kubbie — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:15:52 GMT

Mugg

Thanks for stopping in.

Have any favorite crooners/songbirds that just send you?

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

Not to spam you guys, but MY Show!

ukeapocalypse — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:52:32 GMT

Hi folks,
This just seems up the C and S group's alley since it's ukulele and Golden Age Radio, both! It's the most complicated piece we've ever attemtped. It's Theatre, with some music and a recreation of an Old-Time Sci-Fi Radio Show. Hope some of you can make it.

The skinny...

Kelly McCubbin's Golden Hour of Radio

What year is this?
Local cult performer, Kelly McCubbin, seems unsure as he and his group of drunks, misfits, and malcontents struggle to put on a live Science Fiction Radio Show.

From the creator of Uke-y Stardust and Purple Rain - When Ukes Cry comes this loving and hysterical tribute to Golden Age Radio, but with a modern edge.
Chaos, comedy, music, and a brand-new science fiction radio drama will overtake the Exit Theatre August 1, 2, 8 and 9 at 8 P.M..

Beware the Cognizance Reaction!!!

Tickets - $15. $10 for students, seniors, and TBA members.
For tickets call Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006 or CLICK FOR ONLINE TICKETS http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/36181

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 2 replies

July 21st Spotlight Kay Starr

kubbie — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:16:49 GMT

The Wheel of Fortune (scopitone)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzEFAfh6WdU

Moma Goes were Papa Goes (1950 film clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAKGOG7fiLE&feature=related

The Lonesomest Gal In Town (1949 film clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWx1DriReHc&feature=related

Kay Starr (born July 21, 1922) is an American jazz and popular singer.

She was born Katherine Laverne Starks on a reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma. Her father, Harry, was a full-blooded Iroquois Indian; her mother, Annie, was of mixed Irish and American Indian heritage. When her father got a job installing water sprinkler systems for the Automatical Sprinkler Company, the family moved to Dallas, Texas. There, her mother raised chickens, whom Kay used to serenade in the coop. Kay's aunt Nora was impressed by her 7-year-old niece's singing and arranged for her to sing on a Dallas radio station, WRR. First she took a talent competition by storm, finishing 3rd one week and placing first every week thereafter. Eventually she had her own 15-minute show. She sang pop and "hillbilly" songs with a piano accompaniment. By age 10 she was making $3 a night, which was quite a salary in the Depression days.

When Kay's father changed jobs, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued performing on the radio. She sang "Western swing music," still mostly a mix of country and pop. During this time at Memphis radio station WMPS,misspellings in her fan mail inspired her and her parents to change her name to "Kay Starr."

At 15, she was chosen to sing with the Joe Venuti orchestra. Venuti had a contract to play in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis which called for his band to feature a girl singer, which he did not have. Venuti's road manager heard Kay Starr on the radio and suggested her to Venuti. She was still in junior high school and her parents insisted on a midnight curfew.

Although she had brief stints in 1939 with Bob Crosby and Glenn Miller (who hired her in July of that year when his regular singer, Marion Hutton, was sick), she spent most of her next few years with Venuti, until he dissolved his band in 1942. It was, however, with Miller that she cut her first record: "Baby Me"/"Love with a Capital You." It was not a great success, in part because the band played in a key more appropriate for Marion Hutton that, unfortunately, did not suit Kay's vocal range.

After finishing high school, she moved to Los Angeles and signed with Wingy Manone's band; then from 1943 to 1945 she sang with Charlie Barnet's band. She then retired for a year because she developed pneumonia and later developed nodes on her vocal cords, and lost her voice as a result of fatigue and overwork.

In 1946 she became a soloist, and in 1947 signed a solo contract with Capitol Records. Capitol had a number of other female singers signed up (such as Peggy Lee, Ella Mae Morse, Jo Stafford, and Margaret Whiting), so it was hard to find her a niche. In 1948 when the American Federation of Musicians was threatening a strike, Capitol wanted to have all its singers record a lot of songs for future release. Since she was junior to all these other artists, every song she wanted to sing got offered to all the others, leaving her a list of old songs from earlier in the century, which nobody else wanted to record.

Around 1950 Starr made a trip back home to Dougherty and heard a fiddle recording of Pee Wee King's song, "Bonaparte's Retreat". She liked it so much that she wanted to record it, and contacted Roy Acuff's publishing house in Nashville, Tennessee, and spoke to Acuff directly. He was happy to let her record it, but it took a while for her to make clear that she was a singer, not a fiddler, and therefore needed to have some lyrics written. Eventually Acuff came up with a new lyric, and "Bonaparte's Retreat" became her biggest hit up to that point, with close to a million sales.

In 1955, she signed with RCA Victor Records. However, at this time, traditional pop music was being superseded by rock and roll, and Kay had only one hit, which is sometimes considered her attempt to sing rock and roll and sometimes as a song making fun of it, "The Rock And Roll Waltz". She stayed at RCA Victor until 1959, then returned to Capitol.

Most of her songs have jazz influences, and, like Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray, are sung in a style that sound decidedly close to the rock and roll songs that follow. These include her smash hits "Wheel of Fortune" (her biggest hit, number one for 10 weeks), "Side by Side", "The Man Upstairs", and "Rock and Roll Waltz". One of her biggest hits was her cover version of "The Man with the Bag", a Christmas song, which can be heard non-stop every holiday season in stores, restaurants, and on the radio. Her career declined in the late 1950s but she continued to work.

In 2006 a remix by Stuhr of Starr's vocal of the classic "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" was used in a commercial for Telus.

As of 2007 she resides in Bel Air, California; married six times, she has a daughter and a grandchild.

Kay Starr net
http://www.kaystarr.net/

Kay Starr website
http://members.tripod.com/~Kay_Starr/main.html

Music Downloads at Artist Direct
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,496859,00.html

Kay Starr’s music at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0823545/

More Clips

The Rock and Roll Waltz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMb1K0nctIk

Good For Nothing Joe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZId5zYhbao

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 22nd Spotlight Margaret Whiting , Mireille Mathieu

kubbie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:55:19 GMT

Margaret Whiting (born July 22, 1924, Detroit, Michigan) is a singer of American popular music who first made her reputation during the 1940s and 1950s.

Margaret's musical talent may have been inherited; her father Richard Whiting, was a famous composer of popular songs. She also had an aunt, Margaret Young, who was also a singer and popular recording artist in the 1920s. In her childhood her singing ability had already been noticed, and at the age of only seven she sang for singer-lyricist Johnny Mercer, with whom her father had collaborated on some popular songs. In 1942, Mercer started Capitol Records and signed Margaret to one of Capitol's first recording contracts.

Her first recordings were as featured singer with various orchestras:

· "That Old Black Magic", with Freddie Slack And His Orchestra (1942)
· "Moonlight In Vermont", with Billy Butterfield's Orchestra (1943)
· "It Might As Well Be Spring", with Paul Weston And His Orchestra (1943)
·
In 1945 she began to record under her own name, making such recordings as:

· "All Through The Day" (1945, becoming a bestseller in the spring of 1946)
· "In Love In Vain" (1945)
(these two from the movie "Centennial Summer")
· "Guilty" (1946)
· "Oh, But I Do" (1946)
· "A Tree In The Meadow" (a number 1 hit in the summer of 1948)
· "Slipping Around", a duet with country music star Jimmy Wakely (a number 1 hit in 1949)
· "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (1949)
· "Blind Date", a novelty record with Bob Hope (1950)
· "Faraway Places (With Strange Sounding Names)"
·
Until the mid-1950s, Whiting continued to record for Capitol, but as she ceased to record songs that charted as hits, switched to Dot Records in 1958 and to Verve Records in 1960. She came back to Capitol in the mid-1960s but went with London Records in 1966. On London, Whiting landed one last major hit single in 1966, "The Wheel of Hurt", which hit #1 on the Easy Listening singles chart.

She continued to sing into the 1990s.

During the 1950s Whiting was married to record executive Lou Busch, who also recorded semi-anonymously as ragtime pianist Joe "Fingers" Carr. They had one daughter. Her late-life marriage to young porn star Jack Wrangler raised many eyebrows. When the couple first began dating, Wrangler protested, "But I'm gay!" to which Whiting replied, "Only around the edges, dear."

Musical Biography
http://home.earthlink.net/~v1tiger/megwhiting.html

My Foolish Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypFC8Q5f1C0

The Folks Who Live On The Hill w George Shearing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dum0tyusk9w

Moonligh in Vermont
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlEx_YWY7Y0

playing piano Chopsticks with Nat King Cole and The Merry Macs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RofaC0Qk-s

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 14th Spotlight Woody Guthrie

kubbie — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:59:05 GMT

So Long Its Been Good TO KNow YOu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqiblXFlZuk

Talking Dust Bowl Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU9tKdr3g20&feature=related

This Land Is Your Land
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IRuS2aE&feature=related

more clips at the bottom

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American songwriter and folk musician. Guthrie's musical legacy consists of hundreds of songs, ballads and improvised works covering topics from political themes to traditional songs to children's songs. Guthrie performed continually throughout his life with his guitar frequently displaying the slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists". Guthrie is perhaps best known for his song "This Land Is Your Land" which is regularly sung in American schools. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress.

Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. His songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression and he is known as the "Dust Bowl Troubadour." Guthrie was associated with, but never a member of, Communist groups in the United States throughout his life.

Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children, including American folk musician Arlo Guthrie. He is the grandfather of musician Sarah Lee Guthrie. Guthrie died from complications of the degenerative neurologic affliction known as Huntington's Disease. In spite of his illness, during his later years Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.

EARLY LIFE 1912-1930

Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma to Nora Belle Sherman and Charles Edward Guthrie. His parents named him after Woodrow Wilson, who was elected president the year Guthrie was born. Charles Guthrie, known as Charley, was an industrious businessman, owning at one time up to 30 plots of land in Okfuskee county. Charley was also actively involved in Oklahoma politics and was a Democratic candidate for office in the county. The young Guthrie would often accompany his father when Charley made stump speeches in the area.

Guthrie's early family life included several tragic fires which caused the loss of their home in Okemah. His sister Clara died in an accidental coal oil fire when Guthrie was seven, and Guthrie's father was severely burned in a later coal oil fire. The circumstances of these fires, especially Charley's accident, remain unclear. It is not known whether they were in fact accidents or the result of actions by Guthrie's mother who, unknown to the Guthries at the time, was suffering from a degenerative neurological disease. Nora Guthrie was eventually committed to the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane, where she died in 1930. It is believed she was a victim of Huntington's Disease, which would later be the cause of her son's death. It is also suspected that Guthrie's maternal grandfather, George Sherman, suffered from the disease, due to circumstances surrounding his drowning death.

With Nora Guthrie institutionalized and Charley Guthrie living in Pampa, Texas working to repay his debts from unsuccessful real estate deals, Woody Guthrie and his siblings were on their own in Oklahoma and relied on their eldest brother, Roy Guthrie, for support. The fourteen year old Guthrie worked odd jobs around Okemah, bumming meals, and sometimes sleeping at the homes of family friends. According to one story, Guthrie made friends with an African-American blues harmonica player named "George", whom he would watch play at the man's shoe shine booth. Before long Guthrie bought his own harmonica and began playing along. He seemed to have a natural affinity for music and easily learned to "play by ear". He began to use his musical skills around town, playing a song for a sandwich or coins. Guthrie easily learned old Irish ballads and traditional songs from the parents of friends. Although Guthrie did not excel as a student—he dropped out of high school in his fourth year and did not graduate—his teachers described him as bright. He was also an avid reader and read books on a wide range of topics. Friends remember him reading constantly.

Eventually, Guthrie's father sent for his son to come to Texas where little would change for the now-aspiring musician. Guthrie, 18 years old, was reluctant to attend high school classes in Pampa and spent a lot of time learning songs by busking on the streets and reading at the library. He was growing as a musician, gaining practice by regularly playing at dances for his cousin Jeff Guthrie, a fiddle player. In addition, Guthrie spent much time at the library in Pampa's city hall and wrote a manuscript summarizing everything he had read on the basics of psychology. A librarian in Pampa shelved this manuscript under Guthrie's name, but it was later lost in a library reorganization.

1930'S TRAVELING YEARS

At age 19 Guthrie met and married his first wife, Mary Jennings, with whom he had three children. With the advent of the Dust Bowl era, Guthrie left Texas, leaving Mary behind, and joined the thousands of Okies who were migrating to California looking for work. Many of his songs are concerned with the conditions faced by these working class people.

CALIFORNIA

In the late 1930s, Guthrie achieved fame in Los Angeles, California, with radio partner Maxine "Lefty Lou" Crissman as a broadcast performer of commercial "hillbilly" music and traditional folk music. Guthrie was making enough money to send for his family still living in Texas. While appearing on radio station KFVD, a commercial radio station owned by a populist-minded New Deal Democrat Frank Burke, Guthrie began to write and perform some of the protest songs that would eventually end up on Dust Bowl Ballads. It was at KFVD that Guthrie met newscaster Ed Robbin. Robbin was impressed with a song Guthrie wrote about Thomas Mooney, a wrongly convicted man who was, at the time, a leftist cause célèbre. Robbin, who became Guthrie's political mentor, introduced Guthrie to Socialists and Communists in Southern California, including Will Geer, who would remain Guthrie's lifelong friend, and helped Guthrie book benefit performances in the Communist circles in Southern California. Despite Guthrie's later claim that, "the best thing that I did in 1936 was to sign up with the Communist Party" he was never a member of the Party. He was, however, noted as a fellow traveler, or an outsider who agrees with the platform of the party without being subject to party discipline. Though not a party member, Guthrie requested to write a column for the Communist newspaper The Daily Worker. The column, titled "Woody Sez", appeared a total of 174 times from May 1939 to January 1940. The columns were not explicitly political, but rather were about current events that Guthrie observed and experienced. The columns were written in an exaggerated hillbilly dialect and usually included a small comic. The columns were later published as a collection after Guthrie's death. Steve Earle said of Woody, "I don't think of Woody Guthrie as a political writer. He was a writer who lived in very political times".

With the outbreak of war and the nonaggression pact the Soviet Union had signed with Germany in 1939 KFVD radio owners did not want its staff "spinning apologia" for the Soviet Union; both Robbin and Guthrie left the station. Without the daily radio show, prospects for employment diminished and Guthrie and his family returned to Pampa, Texas. Although Mary Guthrie was happy to return to Texas, the wanderlusting Guthrie soon after accepted Will Geer's invitation to come to New York City and headed east.

1940'S BUILDING A LEGACY

NEW YORK CITY

Arriving in New York, Guthrie, known as the Oklahoma cowboy, was embraced by its leftist folk music community and slept on a couch in Will Geer's apartment. Guthrie also made what were his first real recordings—several hours of conversation and songs that were recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress—as well as an album, Dust Bowl Ballads, for Victor Records in Camden, New Jersey.

Guthrie was tired of the radio overplaying Kate Smith's "God Bless America." He thought the song was unrealistic and complacent. Partly inspired by his experiences during a cross-country trip and his distaste for God Bless America, he penned his most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land" in February 1940. It was titled "God Blessed America." The melody is based on the gospel song "Oh My Loving Brother", best known as "Little Darling, Pal of Mine", sung by the country group The Carter Family. Guthrie signed the manuscript with the comment "All you can write is what you see, Woody G., N.Y., N.Y., N.Y.". He protested class inequality in the final verses:

"In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?
As I went walking, I saw a sign there,
And on the sign there, It said "no trespassing." [In another version, the sign reads "Private Property"]
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing!
That side was made for you and me. "

These verses were often omitted in subsequent recordings, sometimes by Guthrie. Though the song was written in 1940, it would be four years before it was recorded by Moses Asch in April 1944, and even longer until sheet music was produced and given to schools by Howie Richmond.

In March 1940, Guthrie was invited to play at a benefit hosted by The Steinbeck Committee to Aid Farm Workers to raise money for Migrant Workers. John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath was quite popular. It was at this concert Guthrie met Pete Seeger and the two men became good friends. Later Seeger accompanied Guthrie back to Texas to meet other members of the Guthrie family and has recalled an awkward conversation with Mary Guthrie's mother in which she asked Seeger's help in persuading Guthrie to treat her daughter better.

Guthrie had some success in New York at this time as a guest on CBS's radio program Back Where I Come From and used his influence to get a spot on the show for his friend Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter. Ledbetter's Tenth Street apartment was a gathering spot for the left wing musician circle in New York at the time and Guthrie and Ledbetter were good friends after having busked together at bars in Harlem.

In September 1940 Guthrie was invited by the Model Tobacco company to host their radio program "Pipe Smoking Time". Guthrie was paid $180 a week, an impressive salary in 1940. He was finally making enough money to send regular payments back to Mary and eventually brought Mary and the children to New York, where the family lived in an apartment on Central Park West. The reunion represented Woody's desire to be a better father and husband. He said "I have to set real hard to think of being a dad". Unfortunately for the newly relocated family, Guthrie quit after the seventh broadcast, claiming he had begun to feel the show was too restricting when he was told what to sing. Disgruntled with New York, Guthrie packed up Mary and his children in a new car and headed west to California.

Pacific Northwest

In May 1941, after a brief stay in Los Angeles, Guthrie moved the family to Washington in the Pacific northwest on the promise of a job. A documentary, directed by Gunther von Fritsch, was being created in support of the Bonneville Power Administration's building of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River and needed a narrator. Supported by a recommendation from Alan Lomax, the original idea was to have Guthrie narrate the film and sing songs onscreen. The original project was projected to take one year to complete but when filmmakers became worried about the implications of casting such a political figure, Guthrie's role was minimized. He was hired instead for one month only by the Department of the Interior to write songs about the Columbia River and the building of the federal dams for the documentary's soundtrack. Although the film was never released in anything but a limited form, some good did come of the project. When Guthrie and a driver toured the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest, Guthrie said he "couldn't believe it, it's a paradise", and was creatively inspired. In one month Guthrie wrote 26 songs including three of his most famous: "Roll On Columbia", "Pastures of Plenty", and "Grand Coulee Dam". The surviving songs were eventually released as Columbia River Songs.

At the conclusion of the month in Washington, Guthrie wanted to return to New York. Tired of the continual uprooting, Mary Guthrie told him to go without her and the children. Although Guthrie would see Mary again, once on a tour through Los Angeles with the Almanac Singers, it was essentially the end of their marriage. Divorce was difficult with Mary being a member of the Catholic Church, but she reluctantly agreed in December 1943.

ALMANAC SINGERS

Following the conclusion of his work in Washington State, Guthrie corresponded with Pete Seeger about Seeger's newly formed folk-protest group, the Almanac Singers. Guthrie returned to New York with plans to tour the country as a member of the group. The singers originally worked out of a loft in New York City hosting regular concerts called hootenannys, a word Pete and Woody had picked up in their cross-country travels. The singers eventually outgrew the space and moved into the cooperative Almanac House in Greenwich Village.

Initially Guthrie helped write and sing what the Almanacs Singers termed "peace" songs. After America's entry into World War II the topics of their songs became more specifically anti-fascist. The members of the Almanac Singers and residents of the Almanac House were a loosely defined group of musicians, though the 'core' members included Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Millard Lampell and Lee Hays. In keeping with common socialist ideals, meals, chores and rent at the Almanac House were shared. The Sunday hootenannys were good opportunities to collect donation money for rent. Songs written in the Almanac House had shared songwriting credits between all the members, although in the case of "Union Maid", members would later state that Guthrie wrote the song, ensuring that his children would receive residuals.

In the Almanac House Guthrie added an air of authenticity to their work since Guthrie was a "real" working class Oklahoman. "There was the heart of America personified in Woody....And for a New York Left that was primarily Jewish, first or second generation American, and was desperately trying to get Americanized, I think a figure like Woody was of great, great importance", a friend of the group, Irwin Silber, would say. Woody would routinely emphasize his working class image, reject songs he felt were not in the country blues vein he was familiar with, and would rarely contribute to household chores. House member Agnes "Sis" Cunningham, another Okie, would later recall that Woody, "loved people to think of him as a real working class person and not an intellectual". Guthrie contributed songwriting and authenticity in much the same capacity for Pete Seeger's post-Almanac Singers project People's Songs, a newsletter and booking organization for labor singers, founded in 1945.

BOUND FOR GLORY

Guthrie was a prolific writer, penning thousands of pages of unpublished poems and prose, including many written while living in New York City. After a recording session with Alan Lomax, Lomax suggested Guthrie write an autobiography; in Lomax's opinion, Guthrie's descriptions of growing up were some of the best accounts of American childhood that he had read. It was during this time that Guthrie met a dancer in New York who would become his second wife, Marjorie Mazia. Mazia was an instructor at the prestigious Martha Graham Dance School where she was assisting Sophie Maslow with her piece Folksay. Based on the folklore and poetry collected by Carl Sandburg, it included the adaptation of some of Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads for the dance studio. He continued writing songs and, as Lomax had suggested, began work on his autobiography. The end product, Bound For Glory was completed in no small part due to the patient editing assistance of Mazia and was first published by E.P. Dutton in 1943. It is a vivid tale told in the artist's own down-home dialect, with the flair and imagery of a true storyteller. Library Journal complained about the "Too careful reproduction of illiterate speech." But Clifton Fadiman, reviewing the book in the New York Times, paid the author a fine tribute: "Some day people are going to wake up to the fact that Woody Guthrie and the ten thousand songs that leap and tumble off the strings of his music box are a national possession like Yellowstone and Yosemite, and part of the best stuff this country has to show the world." A film adaptation of Bound for Glory was released in 1976.

ASCH RECORDINGS

In 1944, Guthrie met Moses "Moe" Asch of Folkways Records, for whom he first recorded "This Land Is Your Land", and over the next few years recorded "Worried Man Blues", along with hundreds of other songs. These recordings would later be released by Folkways and Stinson Records who had joint distribution rights to the recordings.[46] The Folkways recordings are still available today with the most complete series of these sessions, culled from dates with Asch, simply titled The Asch Recordings.

WORLD WAR II

Guthrie believed performing his anti-fascist songs and poems at home were the best use of his talents; Guthrie lobbied the United States Army to accept him as a USO performer instead of in the draft. When Guthrie's attempts failed, his friend Cisco Houston, pressured Guthrie along with Jim Longhi to join the U.S. Merchant Marine. Guthrie served as a mess man and dish washer, and he frequently sang for the crew and troops to buoy the spirits on transatlantic voyages. Guthrie made attempts to write about his experience in the Merchant Marine but was never satisfied with the results. Longhi later wrote about these experiences in his book Woody, Cisco and Me. The book offers a rare first-hand account of Guthrie during his military service. In 1945, Guthrie's association with Communism made him ineligible for further service in the Merchant Marine and he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

While he was on furlough from the Army Guthrie and Marjorie were married. After his discharge, they moved into a house on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island and over time had four children. One of their children, Cathy, died as a result of a fire at age four, sending Guthrie into a serious depression. Their other children were named Joady, Nora and Arlo. Arlo followed in his father's footsteps as a singer-songwriter. During this period, Guthrie wrote and recorded, Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child, a collection of children's music, which includes the song "Goodnight Little Arlo (Goodnight Little Darlin')", written when Arlo was about nine years old.

The 1948 crash of a plane carrying 28 Mexican farm workers from Oakland, California, on their way to be deported back to Mexico inspired Woody to write "Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)".

MERMAID AVENUE

The years living on Mermaid Avenue were among Guthrie's most productive periods as a writer. His extensive writings from this time were archived and maintained by Marjorie and later his estate, mostly handled by Guthrie's daughter Nora. Several of the manuscripts contain scribblings by a young Arlo and the other Guthrie offspring.

During this time Ramblin' Jack Elliott studied extensively under Guthrie, visiting his home and observing how he wrote and performed. Elliott, like Bob Dylan later, idolized Guthrie and was inspired by his idiomatic performance style and repertoire. Due to Guthrie's illness, Dylan and Guthrie's son Arlo would later claim that they learned much of Guthrie's performance style from Elliott. When asked about Arlo's claim, Elliott said, "I was flattered. Dylan learned from me the same way I learned from Woody. Woody didn't teach me. He just said, If you want to learn something, just steal it — that's the way I learned from Lead Belly."

1950'S & 60'S FAILING HEALTH

By the late 1940s, Guthrie's health was worsening and his behavior becoming extremely erratic. He received various diagnoses (including alcoholism and schizophrenia), but in 1952 was finally diagnosed to be suffering from Huntington's Disease, the genetic disorder believed to have caused the death of his mother. Believing him to be a danger to their children, Marjorie suggested he return to California without her and they eventually divorced.

Upon his return to California, Guthrie lived in a compound owned by Will Geer with blacklisted singers and actors waiting out the political climate. As his health worsened he met and married his third wife, Anneke Van Kirk, and they had a child, Lorina Lynn. The couple moved to Florida briefly, living in a bus on land owned by a friend. Guthrie's arm was hurt in a campfire accident when gasoline used to start the campfire exploded. Although in time he regained movement in the arm he was not able to play the guitar again. In 1954 the couple returned to New York. Shortly after that, Anneke filed for divorce, a result of the strain of caring for Guthrie. Anneke left New York, allowing friends to adopt Lorina Lynn. After the divorce, Guthrie's second wife Marjorie reentered his life. Marjorie cared for him and assisted him until his death.

Guthrie, increasingly unable to control his muscle movements, was hospitalized at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital from 1956 to 1961, at Brooklyn State Hospital until 1966, and finally at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center until his death. Marjorie and the children visited Guthrie at Greystone every Sunday. They answered fan mail and played on the hospital grounds. Eventually a longtime fan of Guthrie invited the family to his nearby home for these Sunday visits lasting until Guthrie was moved to the Brooklyn State Hospital, which was closer to where Marjorie lived. Guthrie's illness was essentially untreated due to a lack of information about the disease at the time. However, his death helped raise awareness of the disease and led Marjorie to help found the Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease, which became the Huntington's Disease Society of America. None of Guthrie's three remaining children with Marjorie have developed symptoms of Huntington's, but two of Mary Guthrie's children (Gwendolyn and Sue) were diagnosed with the disease. Both died at 41 years of age.

FOLK REVIVAL AND DEATH

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a new generation of young people were inspired by folk singers including Guthrie. These "folk revivalists" became more politically aware in their music. The American Folk Revival was beginning to take place, focused on the issues of the day, such as the civil rights movement and free speech movement. Pockets of folk singers were forming around the country in places like Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Many of these musicians had heard of Guthrie, but one of the first to visit him in the Brooklyn State Hospital was Bob Dylan. Dylan idolized Guthrie, calling him his hero. Soon after learning of Guthrie's whereabouts, these new, young folk singers regularly visited him during the final years of his life, playing his own songs for him as well as their originals. Guthrie died of complications of Huntington's disease in 1967. By the time of his death, his work had been discovered by a new audience, introduced to them in part through Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, his ex-wife Marjorie and other new members of the folk revival, and his son Arlo. Since his death, artists have paid tribute to Guthrie by covering his songs or by dedicating songs to him. One of the first artists to do so was Scottish folk artist Donovan, who covered Guthrie's "Car, Car (Riding in My Car)" on his 1965 debut album What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid.

LINKS

Woody Guthrie Official Site
http://www.woodyguthrie.org/

Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
http://www.woodyguthrie.com/

Page of info at the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wwghtml/

Woody at R n R Hall of Fame
http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/woody-guthrie

Woody at PBS' American Masters
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/guthrie_w.html

CLIPS

1946 actual clip of Woody - John Henry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD-GHye9ohA

1945 Clip of Woody - Rangers Command
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5NJKx8ObDY&feature=related

House of The Rising Son
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POQJUv_ebZo&feature=related

Blowin Down This Road Feeling Sad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovawR2Y4ixs&feature=related

Jesus CHrist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDS00Pnhkqk&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

July 20th Births and Events

kubbie — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:43:53 GMT

hmm last few days have been crooner/songbird lite. sorry for the filler so to speak

BIRTHS

Born on this day

1918 Cindy Walker songwriter (Dream Baby – Roy Orbison, In The Misty Moonlight – Dean Martin, Sugar Moon – Bob Willis) b.1918 – d.2006
In The Misty Moonlight by Dean Martin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOIsFBvvbfA
Dream Baby by Roy Orbison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGFM1pY2dcw
Walkers wiki bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Walker

1942 TG Sheppard country singer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._G._Sheppard

1945 Kim Carnes singer/songwriter (New Christy Minstrels)
More Love on The Midnight Special
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4zCBrITY1k&feature=related
Bette Davis Eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-RdAzkKlXY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Carnes

1945 John Lodge musician (The Moody Blues)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lodge_%28musician%29

1947 Carlos Santana guitarist/songwriter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Santana

1955 Jem Finer musician (The Pogues)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem_Finer

1956 Paul Cook drummer (The Sex Pistols)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cook

EVENTS ON THIS DAY

1872 - Mahlon Loomis patents wireless radio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahlon_Loomis

1940 Billboard magazine published it's first best selling singles list 1940.

1979 - Electric Light Orchestra takes out advertisements dedicating the release of "Don't Bring Me Down" to Skylab.

1965 - Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" was released.

1965 - Lovin' Spoonful's first record, "Do You Believe in Magic," was released.

1968 - Iron Butterfly's "In-a-gadda-da-vida" becomes 1st heavy metal song to hit charts, it comes in at #117

1982 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: "Eye of the Tiger," Survivor. The song is the theme from the film "Rocky III."

1986 - "Sid and Nancy," a film biography of the Sex Pistols, premiered in London.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 19th Births and Events

kubbie — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:00:36 GMT

Born on this day

1925 Sue Thompson country/pop singer
Sue Thompson – Paper Tiger on Hullabaloo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi1uLhcBhgU&feature=related
Wiki bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Thompson

1937 George Hamilton IV country/pop singer
film clip performing Abilene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0aRodXicss&feature=related
wiki bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hamilton_IV

1941 Vikki Carr vocalist
Performing There Goes My Heart & a duet of If I Had a Hammer on Hullabaloo w Trini Lopez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMNlzrftxwQ&feature=related
It Must Be Him 1967
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzG4ewJ9_kk
Wiki bio on Vikki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikki_Carr

1944 George Frayne aka Commander Cody musician

1947 Bernie Leadon musician (The Eagles, Flying Burrito Brothers)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Leadon

1947 Brian May CBE musician & physicist (QUEEN)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May

1948 Keith Godchaux musician (The Grateful Dead) b.1948-d.1980
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Godchaux

1952 Allen Collins musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd) b.1952-d.1990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Collins

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 18th in music history

kubbie — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:16:43 GMT

Born on this day

1909 Harriet Hilliard Nelson Big Band Singer and Actress (1909-1994)

1917 Henri Salvador French Singer (1917-2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Salvador
Juanita Banana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gl-7fbIrpQ

1929 Screaming Jay Hawkins (1929-2000)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamin%27_Jay_Hawkins
I Put A Spell On You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR81PGlBeqE

1939 Dion (Dion Francis DiMucci) singer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dion_DiMucci

1941 Lonnie Mack blues guitarist singer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Mack

1941 Martha Reeves Motown R & B/Soul singer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Reeves

1954 Ricky Skaggs bluegrass/country singer and musician
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Skaggs

Today In History

1960 "I'm Sorry" by Brenda Lee topped the charts and stayed there for 3 weeks.

1964 "Rag Doll" by the Four Seasons topped the charts and stayed there for 2 weeks.

2003 - Barry White dies

1995 - The oldest known musical instrument in the world is found in the Indrijca River Valley in Slovenia. The 45,000 year-old relic, a crude wind instrument, is a bear bone with four artificial holes along its length.

1977 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: "Looks Like We Made It," Barry Manilow.

1953 - Elvis Presley recorded "My Happiness" as a gift for his mother. It was his first recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unoX2CUaEXM

1964 - The Beatles album "A Hard Days Night" was released.

1960 - Hank Ballard and the Midnighters released "The Twist." The song didn't become a hit until later in the year when Chubby Checker covered it.
The Twist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh1zSwk7tcg

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 18th Spotlight Harriet Hilliard, Dion, Martha Reeves

kubbie — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:02:11 GMT

Teenager In Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNYdcwunG7g

Dion Francis DiMucci (born July 18, 1939), better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter, now widely recognized as one of the top singers of his era, blending the best elements of doo-wop, pop, and R&B styles.

EARLY YEARS

Dion was born to an Italian-American family in the Bronx. As a child, he used to accompany his father, a vaudeville entertainer, on tour, and developed a love of country music – particularly Hank Williams – and the blues and doo-wop stars he heard in local bars and on the radio. His singing abilities were honed on the street corners of Crotona Avenue, where he rounded up other local singers inventing a cappella licks, and in local clubs.

In early 1957 he auditioned for Bob and Gene Schwartz, who had just formed Mohawk Records. They recorded him with a vocal group, The Timberlanes, and released a single "The Chosen Few", arranged by Hugo Montenegro, which became a minor regional hit.

DION AND THE BELMONTS

Schwartz also signed up Dion's friends, The Belmonts, named after nearby Belmont Avenue. Their breakthrough together came in early 1958, when "I Wonder Why" made #22 on the national US charts, followed up with "No One Knows" and "Don’t Pity Me" which were also chart hits.

This success won Dion and the Belmonts a place on the "Winter Dance Party" tour with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. On February 2, 1959, after playing in Clear Lake, Iowa, Dion decided that he could not afford the $36 cost of a flight to the next venue. The plane crashed, and Holly and the other stars were killed.

In March 1959, Dion and the Belmonts’ next single, "A Teenager in Love", was released, making #5 in the US pop charts and #28 in the UK. Their biggest hit, "Where or When", was released in November 1959, and reached #3 on the US charts. However, in early 1960, Dion checked in to hospital for heroin addiction, a problem he had had since his mid-teens. Further single releases for the group that year were less successful. There were musical and financial differences between Dion and members of the Belmonts, and in October of 1960, Dion decided to quit for a solo career.

SOLO CAREER

By the end of 1960, Dion had recorded and released his first solo album, Alone With Dion, and the single "Lonely Teenager", which rose to # 12 in the US charts. The performer name on his solo releases was denoted simply as "Dion" without the last name. Follow-ups "Havin’ Fun" and "Kissin’ Game" had less success, and the signs were that Dion would drift onto the cabaret circuit. However, he then recorded, with new vocal group the Del-Satins, an up-tempo number co-written with Ernie Maresca. The record, "Runaround Sue", stormed up the charts, reaching # 1 in the US charts in September 1961, and # 11 in the UK, where he also toured.

For the next single, the record company promoted the A-side, "The Majestic", but it was the B-side, Maresca’s song "The Wanderer", which received the radio plays and again rose swiftly up the charts, reaching # 2 in the US charts in December 1961 and # 10 in the UK. As a classic oldie, it made the UK top twenty again in 1976.

By the end of 1961, Dion was a major star, with a worldwide touring schedule, and he followed up with a string of hit singles – "Lovers Who Wander" (# 3), "Little Diane" (# 8), "Love Came To Me" (# 10) - all making the top ten in 1962. Several of these were written or co-written by Dion. He also had successful albums with Runaround Sue and Lovers Who Wander.
At the end of 1962, Dion moved from Laurie to Columbia Records, the first rock and roll artist ever signed to that label. Although the first single, Leiber and Stoller’s "Ruby Baby", was a big hit, reaching # 2, several follow-ups were less so, although "Donna the Prima Donna" and "Drip Drop" both reached # 6 in the charts in late 1963. Nevertheless, problems with his addiction and changing public tastes did cause him to enter a period of commercial decline.

1964-1968

Following a European tour, Dion returned to the USA and was introduced to classic blues music by Columbia’s John Hammond. To the consternation of his management, he began recording more blues-oriented material, including Willie Dixon’s "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Spoonful", but these releases – some produced by Tom Wilson, with Al Kooper on keyboards - were not commercially successful.

In 1966, Dion briefly reunited with the Belmonts for the album Together Again on ABC Records. Again, this bombed, despite one classic self-penned song, "My Girl The Month Of May". Although by this stage Dion’s career appeared to be nearing an end, he retained enough credibility to be, along with Bob Dylan, one of the only two pop artists featured on the album cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.

In April 1968, Dion experienced what he identified as a powerful religious experience. After getting clean from drug use, he approached Laurie Records for a new contract, and they agreed on condition that he record the song "Abraham, Martin and John", written by Dick Holler (also the writer of The Royal Guardsmen’s "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron") in response to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and those of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy during the summer of 1968. The success of this song – later recorded by many others including Marvin Gaye – which reached # 4 in the US charts, resuscitated Dion’s career.

1968-1986

For the next few years, Dion’s music became radically different, moving to more contemplative and mature material. He released several albums essentially as a singer-songwriter, to critical acclaim but moderate sales, moving to the Warner Brothers label in 1969.

There followed a one-off live reunion show with the Belmonts at Madison Square Garden in 1972, released on album. This was followed in 1975 by the album Born To Be With You, produced by Phil Spector. The album was a commercial failure, but has been subsequently praised by such artists as Jason Pierce of Spiritualized and Pete Townshend of The Who.

In 1978 Dion released an album drawing on many of his teenage influences, Return of the Wanderer, another critical success and commercial failure. In December 1979 he experienced a life-changing religious experience. Thereafter, his recordings for several years were in a contemporary Christian vein, in which he released a number of albums on the Dayspring label reflecting his religious convictions.

RECENT YEARS

In 1987 Dion agreed to do a concert of his old hits at Radio City Music Hall in New York. This helped free him to celebrate both his past and his future, and led to a series of special appearances, including a fundraiser for homeless medical relief. There he shared the stage with fans such as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Lou Reed, all of whom cited Dion as one of their prime influences.

In 1988 Dion's autobiography (co-authored by Davin Seay) titled The Wanderer: Dion's Story was published. In the following year, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the induction speech being given by Lou Reed.

In 1989 he returned to secular rock music with the album Yo Frankie, and since then has released several albums with contemporary rock artists. His Déjà Nu album in 2000 found him covering Bruce Springsteen, a major follower over the years. Dion joined Springsteen onstage in Miami in 2002 for a performance of "If I Should Fall Behind" from Deja Nu.

He joined Scott Kempner of the Del-Lords and Mike Mesaros of The Smithereens in a short-lived band called Little Kings. A live album was later released, but not widely circulated or promoted.

In January 2006, he released Bronx in Blue, an album of blues and country standards, which was critically acclaimed and nominated for a Grammy. In November 2007 he issued a follow-up in similar vein, Son of Skip James.

As a practicing Catholic, Dion pursues prison ministry and reaches out to men going through addiction recovery. He now lives in Boca Raton, Florida

Official Dion Site
http://www.diondimucci.com/

Rolling Stone Profile on Dion
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/dion/biography

CLIPS

The Wanderer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84hmiaHHwuo&feature=related

Runaround Sue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m6z1Q2MkVk&feature=related

I Wonder Why with photos from 1959 tour (the tour with Holly, Valens and The Bopper)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUYyRfN9BNE

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 2 replies

July 16th Music History

kubbie — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:59:29 GMT

July 16th Day in History

1944 - James Wayne “Jim” Stafford singer, songwriter, and guitarist born Eloise, Florida.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Stafford
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUIycfWjW-k&feature=related

1946 - Ruby Falls 1946~1986, singer, songwriter, recording artist born in Jackson, Tennessee. Ruby was one of the most successful black female country singers in the genre’s history. She traveled as a part of Justin Tubb’s road show, and was a huge success in Las Vegas. Although she was never able to obtain a major label recording contract, Ruby placed 9 country singles on the Billboard country charts between 1975~1979. All of her hits were on the 50 States label.

1976 - ABC-TV aired their musical variety show “Donny & Marie” for the first time.

1972 - Smokey Robinson plays his final date with the Miracles in Washington, D.C.

1952 - Stewart Copeland of the Police is born in Alexandria, Egypt.

1981 - Harry Chapin dies in an auto accident in Jericho, N.Y.,

2003 - Celia Cruz dies of a brain tumor at the age of 77.

1966 - In London, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker formed the band Cream.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 17th Spotlight Vince Guaraldi , Red Sovine

kubbie — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:39:08 GMT

Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 17, 1918 — April 4, 1980) was a country music singer. He was associated with truck driving songs, particularly those recited as narratives, but set to music. The most famous example of this is his 1978 number one hit "Teddy Bear".

Born in 1917 in Charleston, West Virginia, he was taught how to play guitar by his mother. His first venture into music was with his childhood friend Johnnie Bailes, with whom he performed as "Smiley and Red, the Singing Sailors" in the country music revue Jim Pike's Carolina Tar Heels on WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia. Faced with limited success, Bailes left to perform as part of The Bailes Brothers. Sovine got married, and continued to sing on Charleston radio, while holding down a job as a supervisor of a hosiery factory. With the encouragement of Bailes, Sovine formed The Echo Valley Boys.

After a year of performing in West Virginia, Sovine moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where the Bailes Brothers were performing on KWKH. Sovine's own early morning show wasn't very popular, but he gained greater exposure performing on the famed KWKH radio program, "The Louisiana Hayride". One of his co-stars was Hank Williams, who steered Sovine toward a better time slot at WFSA in Montgomery, Alabama, and toward a contract with MGM Records in 1949. In that same year, Red replaced Williams on Louisiana Hayride when Williams jumped to the Grand Ole Opry. Over the next four years he recorded 28 singles, mostly following in Williams' honky tonk footsteps, that didn't make much of a dent on the charts but did establish him as a solid performer.

FAME

Another "Louisiana Hayride" co-star that helped Sovine along was country music legend Webb Pierce. Pierce convinced Sovine to lead his Wondering Boys band and helped him along toward a contract with Decca in 1954. The following year Sovine cut a duet with Goldie Hill, "Are You Mine?", which peaked in the Top 15, and in 1956 he had his first number one hit when he duetted with Pierce on a cover of George Jones' "Why Baby Why". Sovine had two other Top Five singles that year and joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry. After recording close to 50 sides with Decca by 1959, Sovine signed to Starday Records and began touring the club circuit as a solo act.

1960’S

In 1963, Sovine passed on the helping hand given him by older performers when he heard the singing of African-American minor league baseball player Charley Pride and suggested that he move to Nashville, Tennessee . Sovine opened doors for Pride at Pierce's Cedarwood Publishing, but his own career had stalled-- "Dream House for Sale", which reached number 22 in 1964, came nearly eight years after his last hit.

TRUCKER & SENTIMENTAL YEARS

In 1965, however, Sovine at last found his niche when he recorded "Giddy-Up Go", which, like most of his other trucker hits, was co-written by himself with Tommy Hill. It is spoken, rather than sung, as the words of an older long-distance truck driver who rediscovers his long-lost son driving another truck on the same highway. The song spent six weeks atop the country charts and even crossed over to the pop charts. Other truck-driving hits followed, including:

· "Phantom 309", a tale of a hitchhiker who hops a ride from a trucker who turns out to be the ghost of a man who died years ago giving his life to save a school bus full of kids from a horrible collision with his rig. This particular story was later adapted by singer/songwriter Tom Waits who performed "Big Joe and Phantom 309" during his Nighthawks At The Diner recordings. Musician Steve Flett named a recording project after the song.
·
· "Teddy Bear", the tale of a crippled little boy who lost his truck driver father in a highway accident and keeps his CB radio base as his only companion.
·
· "Little Joe", a tale of a trucker and his devoted canine friend which became his last big hit.

Sovine was also remembered for his Christmas tear-jerkers, which included "Here it is Christmas" (a divorcee's holiday lament), "Faith in Santa" (a dialog between a poor, runaway boy and a sidewalk Santa), and "What Does Christmas Look Like?" (a little blind girl asks daddy to describe the Christmas that she cannot see). He scored another sentimental hit with "Little Rosa" in which a Mexican-American railroad employee tells a stranger, in broken English, about getting a bouquet to place on the grave of his small daughter who was killed by a train while he was away.

Teddy Bear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY4BV14OZzQ

DEATH

On 4 April, 1980, Red Sovine suffered a heart attack while driving his Dodge van in the city of Nashville, Tennessee which caused him to crash. The injuries sustained from the wreck and Sovine's heart attack were fatal. For many years after his death, his Greatest Hits collection ("The Best Of Red Sovine") was advertised on television; exposing his music to a new generation of fans who would not have otherwise heard of him. In 2007, many of his songs were played in Washington, DC and Richmond, Virginia on the "Elliot in the Morning" Show, exposing Sovine's music to a generation that may have never heard of him without Elliot's help.

Red’s Official Site
http://www.redsovine.com/

Red at All Music Guide
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kifqxql5ldfe~T1

Red at CMT.com
http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/sovine_red/bio.jhtml

Red at Virtual Truck Route
http://www.virtualtruckroute.com/music_sovine.html

Youtubes

Hold Everything on the Grand Ole Opery Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdCYhLVs1jI

Phantom 309
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4HhFY3ljZc

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 17th Music History

kubbie — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:36:42 GMT

July 17th Day in History

1972 - Bellevue Street a.k.a. Hwy 51 South in Memphis was re-named Elvis Presley Boulevard.

1968 - Beatle's animated film "Yellow Submarine" premieres in London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdeHYlfnd_g

1954 - The first Newport Jazz Festival was held at the Newport Casino, in Newport, RI.

1939 Spencer Davis was born in England (The Spencer Davis Group)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Davis

1958 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: "Hard Headed Woman," Elvis Presley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRkdZE77Pks

1959 - Jazz singer Billie Holiday dies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

1942 Gale Garnett was born in New Zealand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPi-MC1uQiw

1967 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for The Monkees at The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York.

1946 The multi-talented Petula Clark made her U.K. television debut in , appearing on the Cabaret TV series at the age of 13.

1948 Ron Asheton was born in Ann Arbor Michigan (Iggy Pop and The Stooges)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Asheton

1952 Nicolette Larson was born in Montana (1952-1997)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolette_Larson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU3u5UDjYeY

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 15th Spotlight Dorothy Fields Tin Pan Alley Lyricist

kubbie — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:48:06 GMT

Dorothy Fields (July 15, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American librettist and lyricist.

She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Along with Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, and Kay Swift, she was one of the first successful Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley female songwriters.

The Way You Look Tonight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPUAHTWQ6Ps&feature=related

Fields was born in Allenhurst, New Jersey and grew up in New York City. Her father, Lew Fields, an immigrant from Poland, was a well-known vaudeville comedian and later became a Broadway producer. Her career as a professional songwriter took off in 1928, when Jimmy McHugh, who had seen some of her early work, invited her to provide some lyrics for him. Fields and McHugh teamed up until 1935. Songs from this period include "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street."

On The Sunny Side of The Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehI8gIHZwM

In the mid-1930s, Fields started to write lyrics for films and collaborated with other composers, including Jerome Kern. With Kern, she worked on the movie version of Roberta, and also on their greatest success, Swing Time. The song "The Way You Look Tonight" earned the Fields/Kern team an Academy Award for Best Song in 1961.

Hey Big Spender
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG3VfKlfDEk

Fields returned to New York and worked again on Broadway shows, but now as a librettist, first with Arthur Schwartz on Stars In Your Eyes. (They reteamed in 1951 for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.) In the 1940s, she teamed up with her brother Herbert Fields, with whom she wrote the books for three Cole Porter shows, Let's Face It!, Something for the Boys, and Mexican Hayride. Together, they wrote the book for Annie Get Your Gun, a musical inspired by the life of Annie Oakley. They had intended for Jerome Kern to write the music, but when he died, Irving Berlin was brought in. The show, which included the songs "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "They Say It's Wonderful", was a success and ran for 1,147 performances.

I Cant Give You Anything BUt Love, Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UG0FbOkSRI&feature=related

In the 1950s, her biggest success was the show Redhead (1959), which won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. When she started collaborating with Cy Coleman in the 1960s, her career took a new turn. Their first work together was Sweet Charity. Her last hit was from their second collaboration in 1973, Seesaw. Its title was "It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish."

There's No Business Like SHow Business
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZPs9KFRkAY&feature=related

Fields was the sister of writers Herbert and Joseph. She died of a stroke in New York City at the age of 68.

Links

Dorothy Fields website
http://www.dorothyfields.co.uk/

Songwriters Hall of Fame
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C65

List of her songs (first of 3 pages)
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/songs/C65

Fields at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276227/

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 15th music history

kubbie — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:46:37 GMT

1946 Linda Ronstadt is born
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt
I've A Crush On You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DZ0jG_p0Cg&feature=related

1948 Alicia Bridges is born "I Love The Nightlife"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I70WN8DzSmQ

1956 Marky Ramone is born
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marky_Ramone

1952 Hank Williams wrote "Your Cheatin Heart"

1992 Johnny Cash inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

1989 Simply Red's "If You DOnt Know Me By Now" was number one

1795 - "Marseillaise" becomes French national anthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPHrEx4m0mo

1980 - Linda Ronstadt makes her theater debut in ``Pirates of Penzance'' in New York.

1952 Gladys Knight had her first taste of success when she won $2000 on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour, a U.S. television show. She was 8 years old and sang a tune titled, “Too Young.” Knight would make her first record only 5 years later.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Lotte Lenya Tribe

kubbie — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:06:06 GMT

a fellow Triber has started a little group to celebrate the German Diva

Surabaya Johhny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJKkqC8JVXk

September Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdc4oBnu_fw

Mack The Knife
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swa8jEnp5e8&feature=related

here is the link to that tribe http://tribes.tribe.net/lottelenya

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Thank you COnfetta

kubbie — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:48:09 GMT

Confetta has been spending more and more time away from Tribe and has handed me C & S since I still continue to play here. So I will babysit till her return (I can wish).

A little song for Confetta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_QqaqXTirg

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 14th music history

kubbie — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:09:06 GMT

1960 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: ``I'm Sorry,'' Brenda Lee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT-b5zPBTJ8

1950 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: ``Mona Lisa,'' Nat King Cole. It is number one for 8 weeks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxEmnxiUz8w

1973 - An estimated one Billion people tuned in as Elvis’ TV special “Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii,” was broadcast live.

1973 The Everly Brothers split up during an onstage fight at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California,

1992 Olivia Newton-John discloses she has breast cancer

1992 Aretha Franklin sings the U.S. national anthem at the Democratic national convention

1937 - Billie Jo Spears born Beaumont, Texas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O4BJSZn4og

1986 - Reba McEntire joined the Grand Ole Opry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K6Y-YGZUec

1962 Today the song "Roses Are Red (My Love)" by Bobby Vinton topped the charts and stayed there for 4 weeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6_9WVvbWQM

1979 Today the song "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer topped the charts and stayed there for 5 weeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zoXsHdUyE&feature=related

1967 - The Who, opening for Herman's Hermits begin a US tour

1986 - Motley Crue's Vince Neil begins 30 day sentence for vehicular homicide

1987 - "U Got The Look" by Prince (with Sheena Easton) was released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ag-lqSQuPc&feature=related

1977 Elvis Costello played the first gig with his new band, The Attractions, less than a week after quitting his day job at Elizabeth Arden.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 9th Spotlight Ed Ames

kubbie — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:27:33 GMT

Try To Remember 2007 – still strong voice at 80 years old, love him doing this song, a personal tear jerker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG44tOPuPDE

Ed Ames (born Edmund Dantes Urick on July 9, 1927) is an American popular singer and actor. He is best known for his Pop and Adult Contemporary hits of the 1960s like "When the Snow is on the Roses" and the perennial "My Cup Runneth Over." He also was originally part of a popular singing group of 1950s called The Ames Brothers.

Early Life

Ames was born in Malden, Massachusetts to Russian Jewish immigrant parents.[1] He was one of nine children, five boys and four girls. Ames grew up in a poor household, but was educated in Classical and Opera music, as well as in Literature, such as Shakespeare. Ames was very athletic as a child and teenager, but he always knew that music would one day become his future destiny, as well as for his brothers; Gene, Mac, Vic and Joe. Together, while still in high school, the brothers formed a quartet and often won competitions around the Boston area in Massachusetts. Three of the brothers later formed the Amory Brothers quartet and went to New York, where they were hired by bandleader Art Mooney. Abe Burrows, a playwright entertainer at the time who helped the brothers along the way, had suggested the brothers change their names to the Ames Brothers.

Early Career

They were first signed on with Decca Records in 1948. However, because of the Musician Union's ban, their records from Decca were never released. Instead, they signed on with another label, Coral Records, a subsidiary of Decca. They had their first major hit in the 1950s with the double-sided "Ragg Mopp" and "Sentimental Me". Following this, the Brothers continued to have success throughout the 50s with many hits like "It Only Hurts For a Little While", "Man With a Banjo" and "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane". The brothers also made appearances regularly on variety shows, and even for a short period of time had their very own 15 minute variety show in 1955.

Acting Career

In 1960, The Ames Brothers decided to split up and go in different directions. Ed decided that he wanted to pursue a career in acting, so he went to acting school at the Herbert Berghoff School. His first starring role was in an Off-Broadway production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, going on to starring performances in The Fantasticks and Carnival!, which was on Broadway. He was also in the national touring company of Carnival.

Although Ames was Jewish, his dark complexion led to his being cast regularly as an American Indian. His greatest success as a stage actor came when he played Chief Bromden in the Broadway production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, opposite Kirk Douglas. Talent scouts at 20th Century Fox saw Ed in the production and invited him to play the Native American Mingo on the television show Daniel Boone.

While playing Mingo on television, Ames developed some skill in throwing a tomahawk. This led to one of the most memorable moments of his career, when he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on April 29, 1965. During the course of the show, Ames and Johnny Carson were discussing Ames' tomahawk throwing abilities. When Ames claimed that he could hit a target from across the room, Carson asked Ames if he could demonstrate this skill. Ames agreed, and a wood panel with a chalk outline of a cowboy was brought on to the stage. Ames proceeded to throw the tomahawk, which hit the "cowboy" in the tip of the crotch. This led to a very long burst of laughter from the audience and Carson's famous ad-libs; "I didn't even know you were Jewish!" and "Welcome to Frontier Bris."

Singing Career

During the 1960s, Ed returned to singing, this time however as a solo artist. He released his first single, "Try to Remember", in 1965. The song barely made the charts. However, a bigger success came in 1967 with "My Cup Runneth Over". The song was both a Pop hit and an Adult Contemporary hit. He had less success on the Pop charts soon after, and only had Adult Contemporary hits. The hits were "When the Snow Is On the Roses", "Time Time" and "Timeless Love". He did make the Pop Top Twenty one last time in his singing career with the song "Who Will Answer" in 1968.

Personal Life

While maintaining his career, he attended UCLA, receiving his degree in theater and cinema arts, with highest honors, in 1975. He continues to be actively involved in plays like South Pacific, Camelot and Fiddler on the Roof. He also continues to make many more TV show appearances and concert appearances. Today, he lives in Santa Ynez, California. He often visits his Daniel Boone partner, Fess Parker, who lives only 15 minutes away from him.

Albums
· Try to Remember, RCA Victor 2781, 1964
· More I Cannot Wish You, RCA Victor 3636, 1966
· My Cup Runneth Over, RCA Victor 3774, 1967
· Time, Time, RCA Victor 3834, 1967
· Christmas with Ed Ames, RCA Victor 3838, 1967
· When the Snow Is on the Roses, RCA Victor 3913, 1968
· Who Will Answer?, RCA Victor 3961, 1968
· Apologize, RCA Victor 4028, 1968
· The Hits of Broadway and Hollywood, RCA Victor 4079, 1968
· A Time For Living, A Time For Hope, RCA Victor 4128, 1969
· Love of the Common People, RCA Victor 4249, 1969
· Sing Away The World, RCA Victor 4381, 1970
· Sings the Songs of Bacharach and David, RCA Victor 4453, 1971
· Ed Ames Remembers Jim Reeves, RCA Victor 4683, 1972
· Lost Horizon, RCA Victor 4808, 1972

Ed at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0024695/

Ed at Solid.com
http://www.parabrisas.com/d_amese.php

YOUTUBES

My Cup Runneth Over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVmlTplPi2E

They Call The Wind Mariah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWxOj52F9o4

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 8th Jerry Vale, Steve Lawrence

kubbie — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:56:26 GMT

Jerry Vale (born Gennaro Luigi Vitaliano, 8 July 1932, The Bronx, New York) is an American singer.

In high school, in order to make some money, he took a job shining shoes in a barbershop in New York City. He sang while he shined shoes, and his boss liked the sound so well that he paid for music lessons for the boy. Enjoying the lessons, Vale started singing in high school musicals and at a local club. This led to additional club dates, including one that lasted for three years at a club in the suburb of Yonkers, New York, just north of the city. When Paul Insetta, (who was a road manager for Guy Mitchell and a hit songwriter) heard him there, he signed him to a management contract, changed his name, and further coached him. He then arranged for Vale to record some demonstration records of songs he'd written, and brought the demos to Columbia Records. Vale then signed a recording contract with Columbia Records, and Insetta managed him for many years.

His version of the National Anthem, recorded in the late 1960s, was a fixture at sporting events for many years.

Vale and Rita, his wife of over forty years, reside in Palm Desert, California. His autobiography, A Singer's Life, was published in 2000 by Celebrity Profiles, Long Island, New York.

Hit records
· "You Can Never Give Me Back My Heart"
· "Innamorata"
· "You Don't Know Me"
· "Two Purple Shadows"
· "Have You Looked Into Your Heart?"
· "Pretend You Don't See Her"
· "Arrivederci Roma"
· "Eternally"

The Quintessential Jerry Vale
http://home.comcast.net/~sfrogers/jerry_vale/index.htm

Jerry at Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/jerryvale12345

Jerry at VH1
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/vale_jerry/bio.jhtml

YOUTUBES

Innamorata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYulwpRCYSw&feature=related

Al Di La
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnPbTefZMGE&feature=related

You Pretend You Don’t See Her
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa0fjNoPE0g

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 8th Billy Eckstine

kubbie — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:39:53 GMT

I Apologize (his voice in this makes me melt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A95vD5fhQ8

Prisoner of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWuGF-Xh-RM&feature=related

Billy Eckstine (8 July 1914–8 March 1993), born William Clarence Eckstein in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a ballad singer and bandleader of the Swing Era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular music.

An influence looming large in the cultural development of soul and R&B singers from Sam Cooke to Prince, Eckstine was able to play it straight on his pop hits "Prisoner of Love," "My Foolish Heart" and "I Apologize." Raised in Washington, D.C., Eckstine began singing at the age of seven and entered many amateur talent shows. He had also planned on a football career, though after breaking his collar bone he made music his focus. After working his way west to Chicago, Eckstine joined Earl Hines' Grand Terrace Orchestra in 1939, staying with the band as vocalist and, occasionally, trumpeter, until 1943. By that time, he had begun to make a name for himself through the Hines band's radio shows and such juke box hits as "Stormy Monday Blues" and his own "Jelly Jelly."

In 1944, Eckstine formed his own big band and made it a fountainhead for young musicians who would reshape jazz by the end of the decade, including Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, and Fats Navarro. Tadd Dameron and Gil Fuller were among the band's arrangers and Sarah Vaughan gave the vocals a contemporary air. The Billy Eckstine Orchestra was the first bop big-band, and its leader reflected bop innovations by stretching his vocal harmonics into his normal ballads. Despite the group's modernist slant, Eckstine hit the charts often during the mid-'40s, with Top Ten entries including "A Cottage for Sale" and "Prisoner of Love." On the group's frequent European and American tours, Eckstine, popularly known as Mr. B., also played trumpet, valve trombone and guitar.

After a few years of touring with road hardened be-boppers, Eckstine became a solo performer in 1947, and seamlessly made the transition to string-filled balladry. He recorded more than a dozen hits during the late '40s, including "My Foolish Heart" and "I Apologize." He was one of the first artists to sign with the newly established MGM Records and had immediate hits with revivals of "Everything I Have Is Yours" (1947), Richard Rodgers’ and Lorenz Hart’s "Blue Moon" (1948), and Duke Ellington’s, Irving Mills and Juan Tizol’s "Caravan" (1949). He had further success in 1950 with Victor Young’s theme song to "My Foolish Heart" and a revival of the 1931 Bing Crosby hit, "I Apologize." However, unlike Nat "King" Cole who followed him into the pop charts, Eckstine’s singing, especially his exaggerated vibrato, sounded increasingly mannered and he was unable to sustain his recording success throughout the decade. While enjoying success in the middle-of-the-road and pop fields, Eckstine occasionally returned to his jazz roots, recording with Vaughan, Count Basie, and Quincy Jones for separate LPs, and he regularly topped the Metronome and Downbeat Polls in the Top Male Vocalist category.

Among Eckstine's best records of the fifties was a 1957 duet with Sarah Vaughan, "Passing Strangers," a minor hit in 1957, but a perennial hit in the UK. Even before folding his band, Eckstine had recorded solo to support it, scoring two million-sellers in 1945 with "Cottage for Sale" and a revival of "Prisoner of Love." Far more successful than his band recordings, though more mannered and pompously sung, these prefigured Eckstine’s future career. Where before black bands had played ballads, jazz and dance music, in the immediate post-war years they had to choose.

The classic 1960 live in Las Vegas LP No Cover, No Minimum featured Eckstine taking a few trumpet solos as well. He recorded several albums for Mercury and Roulette during the early '60s, and he appeared on Motown for a few standards albums during the mid-'60s. After recording very sparingly during the '70s, for Al Bell's, Stax/Enterprise imprint, Eckstine although still performing to adoring audiences throughout the world, made his last recording, the Grammy nominated Billy Eckstine Sings with Benny Carter in 1986.

Eckstine also made numerous appearances on television variety shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Nat King Cole Show, The Tonite Show with Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson, The Merv Griffin Show, The Art Linkletter Show, The Joey Bishop Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Flip Wilson Show, and Playboy After Dark. He also performed as an actor in the TV sitcom, Sanford and Son, and in such films Skirts Ahoy, Let's Do It Again, and Jo Jo Dancer.

Eckstine was a style leader and noted sharp dresser. He designed and patented a high roll collar that formed a B over a Windsor-knotted tie, which became known as a Mr. B. Collar. In addition to looking cool, the collar expanded and contracted without popping open, which allowed his neck to swell while playing his horns. The collars were worn by many a hipster in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Legend has it his refined appearance also had an effect on trumpeter Miles Davis. Once when Eckstine came across a dishevelled Davis in the depths of heroin excess, his remark "Looking sharp, Miles" served as a wake-up call for Davis who promptly returned to his father's farm in the winter of 1953 and finally kicked the habit.

In 1984, Eckstine recorded his final album, I Am A Singer, featuring beautiful ballads arranged and conducted by Angelo DiPippo.

He died on March 8, 1993, aged 78.

LINKS

Billy at The African American Registry
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/996/Billy_Eckstine_a_voice_of_distinction

Billy’s page at Verve Records
http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/billyeckstine

Billy at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0248751/

YOUTUBES

Passing Strangers with Sarah Vaughn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk9NVZMNyiM&feature=related

You Better Believe It
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJjCaURqmEg&feature=related

Lonesome Lover Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq1SgZubGLc&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 8th Louis Jordan

kubbie — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:38:41 GMT

1946 Caldonia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZvbOBG-y-0&feature=related

Buzz Me Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCWUvI7yKtQ&feature=related

more clips at the bottom

Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

OVERVIEW

Louis Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful black bandleader of his day. But in contrast to almost all of his colleagues of all races, he was a major personality in his own right, an all-round entertainer of enormous and diverse accomplishments.

Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality, appearing in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips), making numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starring in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who specialized in the alto saxophone but played all forms of the instrument, as well as piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, many of the songs he wrote or co-wrote became influential classics of 20th-century popular music.

Although Jordan began his career in big band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of "jump blues", a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan's band also pioneered the use of electronic organ.

With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock'n'roll genres with a series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the 1950s and 1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including "Rock Around The Clock".

EARLY LIFE AND MUSICAL THEATER

Louis Thomas Jordan was born in Brinkley, Arkansas, where his father, James Aaron Jordan, was a local music teacher and bandleader for the Brinkley Brass Band and for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. His mother, Adell, died when Louis was young.

Jordan studied music under his father, and started out on clarinet. In his youth he played in his father’s bands instead of doing farm work when school closed. He also played piano professionally early in his career, but alto saxophone became his main instrument. However, he became even better known as a songwriter, entertainer and vocalist.

Jordan briefly attended Baptist College in Arkansas and majored in music. After a period with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and with local bands including Bob Alexander’s Harmony Kings, he went north to Philadelphia and then New York. In 1932, Jordan began performing with the band of Clarence Williams, and when in Philadelphia played clarinet in the Charlie Gaines band.

In late 1936 he was invited to join the influential Savoy Ballroom orchestra led by drummer Chick Webb. Based at New York's Savoy Ballroom, Webb's orchestra was renowned as one of the very best big bands of its day and they regularly beat all comers at the Savoy's legendary "cutting contests". Jordan worked with Webb until 1938, and it proved a vital stepping stone in his career -- Webb (who was physically disabled) was a fine musician but not a great showman. The ebullient Jordan often introduced songs as he began singing lead; he later recalled that many in the audience took him to be the band's leader, which undoubtedly boosted his confidence further. This was the same period when the young Ella Fitzgerald was coming to prominence as the Webb band's lead female vocalist; she and Jordan often duetted on stage and they would later reprise the partnership on several records, by which time both artists were major stars.

In 1938, Jordan was fired by Webb for trying to convince Fitzgerald and others to join his new band. By this time Webb was already seriously ill with tuberculosis of the spine. Webb died after a spinal operation on June 16, 1939, aged only 30; following his death, Ella Fitzgerald took over the band.

EARLY SOLOS CAREER

Jordan's first band, drawn mainly from members of the Jesse Stone band, was originally a nine-piece, but he soon scaled it down to a sextet after landing a residency at the Elks Rendezvous club at 464 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The original lineup of the sextet was Jordan (saxes, vocals), Courtney Williams (trumpet), Lem Johnson (tenor sax), Clarence Johnson (piano), Charlie Drayton (bass) and Walter Martin (drums).

The new band's first recording date for Decca Records (on December 20, 1938) produced three sides on which they backed an obscure vocalist called Rodney Sturgess, and two novelty sides of their own, "Honey in the Bee Ball" and "Barnacle Bill The Sailor". Though these were credited to "The Elks Rendezvous Band", Jordan subsequently changed the name to the "Tympany Five" due to the fact that Martin often used tympany drums in performance. (The word "tympany" is also an old-fashioned colloquial term meaning "swollen, inflated, puffed-up", etymologically related to "timpani", or "kettle drum," but historically separate.)

The various lineups of the Tympany Five (which often featured two or three extra players) included Bill Jennings and Carl Hogan on guitar, renowned pianist-arrangers Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett, "Shadow" Wilson and Chris Columbus on drums and Dallas Bartley on bass. Jordan played alto, tenor and baritone saxophone and sang the lead vocal on most numbers.

Their next recording date in March 1939 produced five sides including "Keep A-Knockin'" (originally recorded in the 1920s and later covered famously by Little Richard), "Sam Jones Done Snagged His Britches" and "Doug the Jitterbug". Lem Johnson subsequently left the group, and was replaced by Stafford Simon. Sessions in December 1939 and January 1940 produced two more early Jordan classics, "You're My Meat" and "You Run Your Mouth and I'll Run My Business". Other members who passed through the band during 1940 and 1941 included tenorist Kenneth Hollon (who recorded with Billie Holiday); trumpeter Freddie Webster (from Earl Hines' band) was part of the nascent bebop scene at Minton's Playhouse and he influenced Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis.

In 1941 Jordan signed with the General Artists Corporation agency, who appointed Berle Adams as Jordan's agent. Adams secured an engagement at Chicago's Capitol Lounge, supporting The Mills Brothers, and this proved to be an important breakthrough for Jordan and the band.

The Capitol Lounge residency also provides a remarkable yardstick of the scale of Jordan's success. During this engagement, the group was paid the standard union scale of US$70 per week -- $35 per week for Jordan and $35 split between the rest of the band. Just seven years later, when Jordan played his record-breaking season at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco during 1948, he reportedly grossed over US$70,000 in just two weeks.

During this period bassist Henry Turner was sacked and replaced by Dallas Bartley. This was followed by another important engagement at the Fox Head Tavern in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Working in the looser environment of Cedar Rapids, away from the main centers, the band was able to develop the novelty aspect of their repertoire and performance. Jordan later identified his stint at the Fox Head Tavern as the turning point in his career, and it was also while there that he found several songs that became early hits including "If It's Love You Want, Baby", "Ration Blues" and "Inflation Blues".

In April 1941 Decca launched the Sepia Series, a 35-cent line that featured artists who were considered to have the "crossover potential" to sell in both the black and white markets, and Jordan's band was transferred from Decca's "race" label to the Sepia Series, alongside The Delta Rhythm Boys, the Nat King Cole Trio, Buddy Johnson and the Jay McShann Band.

By the time the group returned to New York in late 1941, the lineup had changed to Jordan, Bartley, Martin, trumpeter Eddie Roane and pianist Arnold Thomas. Recording dates in November 1941 produced another early Jordan classic, "Knock Me A Kiss", which became a significant jukebox seller, although it did not make the charts. However Roy Eldridge subsequently recorded a version, backed by the Gene Krupa band, which became a hit in June 1942, almost a year after the Jordan recording came out; it was also covered by Jimmie Lunceford.

These sessions also produced Jordan's first big-selling record, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", originally recorded by Casey Bill Weldon in 1936, although again it did not make the charts. It too was covered by Lunceford, in 1942, whose version reached #12 on the pop charts, and it was also covered by Big Bill Broonzy and Jimmy Rushing.

Sessions in July 1942 produced nine prime sides, allowing Decca to stockpile Jordan's recordings as a hedge against the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban. Declared the same month, the ban led to Jordan's enforced absence from the studio for the next year, and it also prevented many seminal bebop performers from recording during one of the most crucial years of the genre's history. It had been imposed in order to secure royalty payments for union musicians for each record sold.

"I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town" was an "answer record" to Jordan's earlier "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", but it became Jordan's first major chart hit, reaching #2 on Billboard's Harlem Hit Parade. His next side, "What's The Use of Gettin' Sober (When You're Gonna Get Drunk Again)", became Jordan's first #1 hit, reaching the top of the Harlem Hit Parade in December 1942. A subsequent side, "The Chicks I Pick Are Slender, Tender and Fine", reached #10 in January 1943.

Their next major side, the comical call-and response number "Five Guys Named Moe", was one of the first recordings to solidify the fast-paced, swinging R&B style that became the Jordan trademark and it struck a chord with audiences, reaching #3 on the race charts in September 1943. The song was later taken as the title of a long-running stage show that paid tribute to Jordan and his music. The more conventional "That'll Just About Knock Me Out" also fared well, reaching #8 on the race charts and giving Jordan his fifth hit from the December 1942 sessions.

In late 1942, Jordan and his band relocated to Los Angeles, working at major venues there and in San Diego. While in L.A., Jordan began making "soundies", the earliest precursors of the modern music video genre, and he also appeared on many Jubilee radio shows and a series of programs made for the Armed Forces Radio for distribution to American troops overseas.

Decca was one of the first labels to reach an agreement with the Musicians' Union and Jordan returned to recording in October 1943. At this session Jordan and his band recorded "Ration Blues", which dated from their Fox Head Tavern days but had a new timeliness with the imposition of wartime rationing. It became Jordan's first crossover hit, charting on both the white and black pop charts. It was also a huge hit on the Harlem Hit Parade, where it spent six weeks at #1 and stayed in the Top Ten for a remarkable 21 weeks, and it reached #11 in the general "best-sellers" chart.

THE FORTIES

In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs, including the swinging "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (one of the earliest and most powerful contenders for the title of "First rock and roll record"), "Blue Light Boogie", the comic classic "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Buzz Me," "Ain't That Just Like a Woman", and the multi-million seller "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie".

One of his biggest hits was "Caldonia", with its energetic screaming punchline, banged out by the whole band, "Caldonia! Caldonia! What makes your big head so hard?" After Jordan's success with it, the song was also recorded by Woody Herman in a famous modern arrangement, including a unison chorus by five trumpets. Muddy Waters also cut a version. However, many of Jordan's biggest R&B hits were inimitable enough that there were no hit cover versions, a rarity in an era when poppish "black" records were rerecorded by white artists, and many popular songs were released in multiple competing versions.

Jordan's raucous recordings were also notable for their use of fantastical narrative. This is perhaps best exemplified on the freewheeling party adventure "Saturday Night Fish Fry", the two-part 1950 hit that was split across both sides of a 78. It is arguably one of the earliest American recordings to include all the basic elements of the classic rock'n'roll genre (obviously exerting a direct influence on the subsequent work of Bill Haley) and it is certainly one of the first widely popular songs to use the word "rocking" in the chorus and to prominently feature a distorted electric guitar.

Its distinctive comical adventure narrative is strikingly similar to the style later used by Bob Dylan in his classic "story" songs like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" and "Tombstone Blues". "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is also notable for the fact that it dispenses with the customary instrumental chorus introduction, but its most prominent feature is Jordan's rapid-fire, semi-spoken vocal. His delivery, clearly influenced by his experience as a saxophone soloist, de-emphasizes the vocal melody in favor of highly syncopated phrasing and the percussive effects of alliteration and assonance, and it is arguably one of the earliest examples in American popular music of the vocal stylings that eventually evolved into rap.

Jordan's original songs joyously celebrated the ups and downs of African-American urban life and were infused with cheeky good humor and a driving musical energy that had a massive influence on the development of rock and roll. His music was popular with both blacks and whites, but lyrically, most of his songs were emphatically and uncompromisingly "black" in their content and delivery.

Loaded with wry social commentary and coded references, they are also a treasury of 1930s/40s black hipster slang, and through his records Jordan was probably one of the main popularizers of the slang term "chick" (woman). Sexual themes often featured strongly and some sides -- notably the saucy double entendre of "Show Me How To Milk The Cow" -- were so risqué that it seems remarkable that they were issued at all.

KING OF THE JUKEBOX

The prime of Louis Jordan's recording career, 1942-1950, was a period of segregation on the radio. Despite this he was able to score the crossover #1 single "G.I. Jive"/"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in 1944, thanks in large part to his performance in the Universal film Follow the Boys. Two years later, MGM had its cartoon cat Tom sing "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in the 1946 Tom and Jerry cartoon short Solid Serenade

During this period Jordan again placed more than a dozen songs on the national charts. However, Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five dominated the 1940s R&B charts, or as they were known at the time, the "race" charts. In this period Jordan scored a staggering eighteen #1 singles and fifty-four Top Ten placings. To this day Louis Jordan still ranks as the top black recording artist of all time in terms of the total number of weeks at #1 -- his records scored an incredible total of 113 weeks in the #1 position (the runner-up being Stevie Wonder with 70 weeks). From July 1946 through May 1947, Jordan scored five consecutive #1 songs, holding the top slot for 44 consecutive weeks.

Jordan's popularity was boosted not only by his hit Decca sides, but also by his prolific recordings for Armed Forces Radio and the V-Disc transcription program, which helped to make him as popular with whites as with blacks. He also starred in filmed a series of short musicals, as well as making numerous "soundies" for his hit songs[5]. The ancestor of the modern music video, "soundies" were short film clips designed for use in audio-visual jukeboxes. Jordan also had a cameo role in the Hollywood wartime musical Follow the Boys.

Decline of popularity

In 1951, Jordan put together a short-lived big band, at a time when big bands were on their way out; this is considered the beginning of his commercial decline, even though he reverted to the Tympany Five format within a year. By the mid 1950s, Jordan's records were not selling as well as they used to and he began switching labels. At Mercury Records, Jordan managed to update his sound to full rock and roll with such non-charting songs as "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Salt Pork, West Virginia". After this, however, Jordan's popularity waned and he recorded only for a small following of enthusiasts. He seldom recorded at all after the early 1960s. Jordan died in Los Angeles, California, from a heart attack on February 4, 1975. He is buried at Mt. Olive Cemetery in his wife Martha's hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.

During an interview late in life, Jordan made the controversial remark that rock and roll music was simply rhythm and blues music played by white performers, a statement contradicted by the likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard, both black artists playing what they considered to be rock and roll.

Although Jordan wrote (or co-wrote) a large proportion of the songs he performed, he did not benefit financially from many of them. Many of his self-penned biggest hits, including "Caldonia", were credited to Jordan's then wife Fleecie Moore as a means of avoiding an existing publishing arrangement. The marriage was acrimonious and short-lived - on two occasions, Moore stabbed Jordan after domestic disputes, almost killing him the second time - and after their divorce Fleecie retained ownership of the songs. However, Jordan was also apparently not above taking credit for songs written by others - Jordan is credited as the co-writer of "Saturday Night Fish Fry", but Tympany Five pianist Bill Doggett later claimed that in fact he had written the song.

Marriages

Jordan is believed to have been married five times. His first wife was named Julia or Julie, but by 1932 he was married to Texas singer and dancer Ida Fields. He and Fields divorced, and in 1942 he married childhood sweetheart Fleecie Moore. After their divorce, he married dancer Vicky Hayes in 1951, and separated from her in 1960. Finally, he married singer and dancer Martha Weaver in 1966

LINKS

Louis Jordon Official Site
http://www.louisjordan.com/

Jordan’s page at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame
http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/louis-jordan

PBS’s Jazz Bio on Jordan
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_jordan_louis.htm

Jordan at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0430081/

YOUTUBE CLIPS

Beware
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owqLjzTu3SA

Jumping at the Jubilee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XC1uF6xNG8&feature=related

Aint That Just Like A Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwabxJdUkn4&feature=related

Don’t Worry About The Mule
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T78iyYrLAEk&feature=related

You Gotta Have A Beat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrsfdccS_Lo&feature=related

Saturday Night Fish Fry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWDOMJZkaz8&feature=related

Choo Choo Ch'Boogie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90kM0sXl8ug

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

July 4th at a glance:Withers, Murphy, Miller

kubbie — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:26:33 GMT

Bill Withers

Aint No Sunshine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo

Bill Withers (born July 4, 1938 in Slab Fork, West Virginia) is an American singer-songwriter who performed and recorded from the late 1960s until the mid 1980s. Some of his best-known songs are "Ain't No Sunshine," "Use Me," "Lovely Day," "Lean on Me", "Grandma's Hands" and "Just the Two of Us".

EARLY LIFE

Bill Withers was born the youngest of nine children in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. Raised in nearby Beckley, West Virginia, he was thirteen when his father died. He joined the United States Navy at seventeen and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing. He began writing songs to fill a need for lyrics that expressed what he felt. Following his discharge from the Navy in 1965, he moved to Los Angeles in 1967 to pursue a career in music.

Withers worked assembling toilets for Boeing 747's, while recording demo tapes he shopped around and performing in the juke joints during the night. When he debuted on the music scene with "Ain't No Sunshine" he refused to give up his job because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry and that he was still a novice compared to other working acts like The Temptations or Sammy Davis, Jr.

SUSSEX RECORDS

In early 1970, Withers' demo tape was received favorably by Clarence Avant of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' debut album. Four three-hour studio sessions were planned to record the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Just As I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks "Harlem" and "Ain't No Sunshine" as singles.

The album was a hit and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band: drummer James Gadson, guitarist Bernoce Blackmon, keyboardist Ray Jackson, and bassist Melvin Dunlap. During a break in touring, Withers recorded his second album, Still Bill. The single "Lean on Me" went to number one the week of July 8, 1972.

A 1973 performance was recorded for the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall. It was followed by the 1974 album +'Justments.

After +'Justments, Withers became involved in a legal dispute with the Sussex label and was unable to record. During this time, he wrote and produced two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips record I Feel A Song and performed in concert as part of the historic Ali/Foreman fight in Zaire. Footage of his performance appeared in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings and the accompanying soundtrack.

COLUMBIA RECORDS

Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975. His first release with the label was Making Music, Making Friends, which had the single She's Lonely and was featured in the movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar. The next three years saw an album released each year with Naked & Warm (1976), Menagerie (1977) and Bout Love (1978).

Due to problems with Columbia, he focused on joint projects for several years, including the multiple Grammy-nominated Just the Two of Us, which he performed with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., Soul Shadows with The Crusaders, and In The Name Of Love with Ralph MacDonald, which was nominated for a vocal performance Grammy.

His final new release was 1985's Watching You, Watching Me, which featured the Top 40 R&B single "Oh Yeah". He hired a lawyer and got out of his contract with Columbia and retired from recording after that album, although he continued performing live for some time. In 1988, a remixed version of "Lovely Day", titled "Lovely Day (Sunshine Mix)" and remixed by Ben Liebrand, reached the Top 10 in the UK, prompting Withers to perform on the long running Top of the Pops that year.

After retiring, Withers focused on parenting with his wife Marcia, who handles the day-to-day running of his publishing company. In 1987, he received his ninth Grammy nomination and third Grammy as a songwriter for the re-recording of Lean On Me by Club Nouveau.

Following the reissues of Still Bill in 2003 and Just As I am in 2005, there was speculation of previously unreleased material being issued as a new album.[4] Tapes of his unreleased material were delivered from Sony to Withers in 2006.

Awards
1972: NAACP Image Award for Male Singer of The Year
NAACP Image Award for Single Record of the Year
1972: Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, "Ain't No Sunshine"
1982: Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, "Just the Two of Us" (with songwriters Ralph MacDonald and William Salter)
1988: Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, "Lean on Me" performed by Club Nouveau
2005: Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee
2006: ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Heritage award
2007: Inducted into West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

oFFICIAL SITE
http://www.billwithers.com/

WITHERS AT SOULTRACKS.COM
http://www.soultracks.com/bill_withers.htm

Youtube clips

Lovely Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DnUxLISFcA

Lean On Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kTrkpPXYsM

Use Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hBYTkI-sE

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

July 6th at a glance

kubbie — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:24:15 GMT

Della Reese

1959 Dont You Know
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKO5PleuvGA

And Now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGyiDhrWq0g&feature=related

Della Reese (born Delloreese Patricia Early on July 6, 1931), is an American actor and singer. She started her career in the late 1950s as a jazz singer, best known for her 1959 hit single "Don't You Know". She subsequently became an actress, best known as playing Tess on the television show Touched by an Angel. Today, she is also an ordained New Thought minister in the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church in Los Angeles, California. She is of half African-American and half Cherokee descent.

Early Life

Della was born in the summer of 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. At only six years old, she began singing in church. From this experience, she became an avid Gospel singer. At the age of thirteen, she was hired to sing with Mahalia Jackson's Gospel group. Afterwards, she formed her own gospel group called the Meditation Singers. However, due in part to the death of her mother, and her father's serious illness, Della had to interrupt her schooling at Wayne State University to help support her family.

Successful Singing Career

Della was discovered by the Gospel great Mahalia Jackson. Della's big break finally came when she won a contest, which gave her a week to sing at Detroit's well-known and talked-about Flame Show bar. They liked Della so much at the bar, she remained there for eight weeks. Although her roots were always in Gospel music, she was now being exposed to and influenced by such great jazz artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Billie Holiday. In 1953, she got an even bigger break when she signed a recording contract with Jubilee Records. Later that same year, she also joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Her first recordings for Jubilee were songs such as "In the Still of the Night", "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and "Time After Time". These songs only hinted at the potential that lurked inside of Reese to make it big in the music business, and all three of the songs failed to gain any chart success.

In 1957, Della released a single called "And That Reminds Me". After years of trying, Della finally had gained chart success with the song. The song became a Top Twenty Pop hit for Reese that year and the record became a million-seller. In 1957, Reese was also voted by Billboard, Cashbox, and various other magazines as The Most Promising Singer.

In 1959, Della had moved on to another record company, this time with RCA Records. She released her first single from the record company called "Don't You Know", which was taken from Puccini's La Bohème. However, Della turned the song into her own and it became her biggest hit ever, reaching the #2 spot on the Pop charts, even going as far as topping the R&B charts that year (which was then called the "Black Singles Chart"). Today, the song is probably known as her signature song.

Her success in the recording business didn't end there. In 1960, she released a successful follow-up single called "Not One Minute More." However, after that, Della's recording career took second place to her other activities. Due to the success of her previous big hits, Della went on to perform in Las Vegas for nine years, as well as touring across the country. However, she didn't stop recording regularly throughout the 1960s, still releasing singles and several albums, two of the first most significant of which were The Classic Della (1962) and Waltz with Me, Della (1963), which were instrumental in her finding a major following abroad, and as a jazz singer on such albums as Della Reese Live (1966), On Strings of Blue(1967), and One of a Kind (1978).

In 1987, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for one of her acclaimed gospel albums.

Life Today

Della Reese announced on Larry King Live in 2002, that she suffers from Type-2 diabetes. She is a spokeswoman for the American Diabetes Association, traveling around the United States to raise awareness about the disorder.

In 1983, she married Franklin Thomas Lett, Jr., a concert producer and writer. Between them they have four adult children: Dr. James Barger, Deloreese Owens, Franklin Lett III, and Dominique Lett-Wirtschafter.

Besides being a singer and actress, Reese is an ordained minister in the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church in Los Angeles, California. She is godmother to the child of Touched by an Angel co-star, Roma Downey who played a leading role in Touched by an Angel, alongside Reese. In 2005, Reese was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her Legends Ball ceremony along with 25 other African-American women.

Official Site
http://www.dellareese.com/

Della at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005343/

Youtube

If I Never Get To Heaven (great clip to watch for cheesie dancers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_PecTNNwI&feature=related

Not One Minute More 1959
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5i_WpDh3VQ&feature=related

And That Reminds Me 1957
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4g64mvBsJ0&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

July 3rd Cohan , Bass, Branigan

kubbie — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:22:58 GMT

eclectic mix today

George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878 – November 5, 1942) was a United States entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, director, and producer of Irish descent. Known as "the man who owned Broadway" in the decade before World War I, he is considered the father of American musical comedy.

EARLY CAREER

Cohan was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Irish Catholic parents. A baptismal certificate (which gave the wrong first name for his mother) indicated that he was born on July 3, but the Cohan family always insisted that George had been "born on the Fourth of July!" George's parents were traveling Vaudeville performers, and he joined them on stage while still an infant, at first as a prop, later learning to dance and sing soon after he could walk and talk.

He completed a family act called The Four Cohans, which included his father Jeremiah "Jere" Cohan (1848–1917), mother Helen "Nellie" Costigan Cohan (1854–1928), and sister Josephine "Josie" Cohan Niblo (1874–1916). Josie, who died of heart disease at a young age, was married to Fred Niblo Sr. (1874–1948), an important director of silent films, including Ben Hur (1925), and a founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their son, Fred Niblo Jr. (1903–1973) was an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter.

By his teens, Cohan became well-known as one of the stage's best male dancers, and he also started writing original skits and songs for the family act in both vaudeville and minstrel shows. Soon he was writing professionally, selling his first songs to a national publisher in 1893. Cohan had his first big Broadway hit in 1904 with the show Little Johnny Jones, which introduced his tunes "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "The Yankee Doodle Boy".

Cohan became one of the leading Tin Pan Alley songwriters, publishing upwards of 1500 original songs, noted for their catchy melodies and clever lyrics. His other major hit songs included "You're a Grand Old Flag", "The Warmest Baby In The Bunch", "Life's A Funny Proposition After All", "I Want to Hear a Yankee Doodle Tune", "You Won't Do Any Business If You Haven't Got A Band", "Mary's a Grand Old Name", "The Small Town Gal", "I'm Mighty Glad I'm Living, That's All", "That Haunting Melody", and the popular war song, "Over There".

From 1906 to 1926, Cohan and Sam Harris also produced over three dozen shows on Broadway, including the successful Going Up in 1917, which became a smash hit in London the following year.

In 1925, Cohan published his autobiography, Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There.

LATER CAREER

In 1932, Cohan starred in a dual role (as a cold, corrupt politician and his charming, idealistic campaign double) in the Hollywood musical The Phantom President, co-starring Claudette Colbert and Jimmy Durante, with songs by Rodgers and Hart.

He earned acclaim as a serious actor in Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (1933), and in the role of a song-and dance President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Rodgers and Hart's musical, I'd Rather Be Right (1937).

His final play, The Return of the Vagabond (1940) featured Celeste Holm in the cast; she was either 21 or 23 years old at the time.

In 1940, Judy Garland played the title role in a film version of his 1922 musical, Little Nellie Kelly. Cohan's mystery play, Seven Keys to Baldpate, was first filmed in 1916 and has been remade seven times, most recently as House of Long Shadows (1983), starring Vincent Price.

In 1942, a musical biopic of Cohan, Yankee Doodle Dandy, was released, and James Cagney's performance in the title role earned the Best Actor Academy Award. The film was privately screened for Cohan as he battled the last stages of abdominal cancer.

His 1920 play The Meanest Man in the World was filmed with Jack Benny in 1943.

He died of cancer at the age of 64 on November 5, 1942, at his New York City home, 993 Fifth Avenue, directly across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After a large funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York on Fifth Avenue, Cohan was interred at the Bronx's Woodlawn Cemetery, in a private family mausoleum he had erected a quarter-century earlier for his sister and parents.

FAMILY LIFE

From 1899 to 1907 Cohan was married to Ethel Levey (1881–1955), a musical comedy actress who bore him a daughter, Georgette Cohan Souther Rowse (1900–1988).
He married again in 1907 to Agnes Mary Nolan (1883–1972), who had been a dancer in his early shows; they remained married until his death. They had two daughters (Mary and Helen) and a son (George, Jr.).
Mary Cohan Ronkin (1909–1983) had a brief career as a cabaret singer in the 1930s, and later composed a score for her father's non-musical play The Tavern, and in 1968 supervised musical and lyric revisions for the Broadway play George M!.
Helen Cohan Carola (1910–1996) made several movies, including Lightnin' (1930) starring Will Rogers, and was one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1934.
George M. Cohan, Jr. (1914–2000) graduated from Georgetown University and served in the entertainment corps during World War II.
In the 1950s, George Jr. reinterpreted his father's songs on recordings, in a nightclub act, and in television appearances on the Ed Sullivan and Milton Berle shows. George Jr.'s only child, Michaela Marie Cohan (1943–1999), was the last descendant named Cohan. She graduated with a theater degree from Marywood College, Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1965.
From 1966 to 1968, she served in a civilian Special Services unit in Vietnam and Korea. In 1996, she stood in for her ailing father at the ceremony marking her grandfather's induction into the Musical Theatre Hall of Fame, at New York University.

Cohan at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0169125/

Cohan at IBDB
http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=5829

Cohan only sound movie appearance (with Jimmy Durante) Cohan sings and dances in black face then comes out later without it. ( 9 minute clip )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1iWNdS1Kfg

Cagney as Cohan – Yankee Doodle Dandy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDYRjuzE1vI

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 2 replies

June 30th Spotlight Lena Horne

kubbie — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:35:56 GMT

1943 – Stormy Weather
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCG3kJtQBKo

The Man I Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO3u8o-PdZI&feature=related

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917), is an iconic American singer and actress. She has recorded and performed extensively, independently and with other jazz notables, including Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Barnet. She currently lives in New York City and no longer makes public appearances.

EARLY LIFE

Lena Horne was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in an upper middle class black community. Her father, Edwin "Teddy" Horne, who worked in the gambling trade, left the family when she was three. Her mother, Edna Scottron, was the daughter of inventor Samuel R. Scottron; she was an actress with an African American theater troupe and traveled extensively. Horne was mainly raised by her grandparents, Cora Calhoun and Edwin Horne. Her uncle, Frank S. Horne, was an adviser to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.She is a reported descendant of the John C. Calhoun family.

CAREER

In the fall of 1933, Lena Horne joined the chorus line of the Cotton Club in New York City. In the spring of 1934, she had a featured role in the Cotton Club Parade. A few years later she joined Noble Sissle's Orchestra and toured with this orchestra. After she separated from her first husband, Lena Horne toured with bandleader Charlie Barnet in 1940-41, but disliked the travel and left the band to work at the Cafe Society in New York. She replaced Dinah Shore as the featured vocalist on NBC's popular jazz series The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. The show's resident maestros, Henry Levine and Paul Laval, recorded with Horne in June of 1941 for RCA Victor. Horne left the show after only six months to headline a nightclub revue on the west coast; she was replaced by Linda Keene.

Lena Horne already had two low-budget movies to her credit: a 1938 musical feature called The Duke is Tops (later reissued with Horne's name above the title as The Bronze Venus); and a 1941 two-reel short subject, Boogie Woogie Dream, featuring pianists Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons. Horne's songs from Boogie Woogie Dream were later released individually as Soundies. Horne was primarily a nightclub performer during this period, and it was during a 1942 club engagement in Hollywood that talent scouts approached Horne to work in pictures. She chose Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the most prestigious studio in the world, and became the first African American performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio.

She made her debut with MGM in 1942's Panama Hattie and became famous in 1943 for her rendition of "Stormy Weather" in the movie of the same name (which she made at 20th Century Fox, on loan from MGM). She appeared in a number of MGM musicals, most notably Cabin in the Sky (also 1943), but was never featured in a leading role due to her race and the fact that films featuring her had to be reedited for showing in southern states where theaters could not show films with African American performers. As a result, most of Horne's film appearances were stand-alone sequences that had no bearing on the rest of the film, so editing caused no disruption to the storyline; a notable exception was the all-black musical Cabin in the Sky, though even then one of her numbers had to be cut because it was considered too suggestive by the censors. In Ziegfeld Follies (1946) she performs "Love" by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.

She was originally considered for the role of Julie LaVerne in MGM's 1951 version of Show Boat (having already played the role when a segment of Show Boat was performed in Till the Clouds Roll By) but Ava Gardner was given the role instead (the production code office had banned interracial relationships in films). In the documentary That's Entertainment! III Horne stated that MGM executives required Gardner to practice her singing using recordings of Horne performing the songs, which offended both actresses (ultimately, Gardner ended up having her singing voice overdubbed by another actress (Annette Warren (Smith)) for the theatrical release, though her own voice was heard on the soundtrack album).

1946 Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtQgxZHul08&feature=related

CHANGES OF DIRECTION

By the mid-1950s, Horne was disenchanted with Hollywood and increasingly focused on her nightclub career. She only made two major appearances in MGM films during the decade, 1950's Duchess of Idaho (which was also Eleanor Powell's film swan song), and the 1956 musical Meet Me in Las Vegas. She was blacklisted during the 1950s for her political views.[4] She returned to the screen three more times, playing chanteuse Claire Quintana in the 1969 film Death of a Gunfighter, Glinda in The Wiz (1978), and co-hosting the 1994 MGM retrospective That's Entertainment! III, in which she was candid about her treatment by the studio. In her later years, Horne also made occasional television appearances - generally as herself - on such programs as The Muppet Show (where she sang with Kermit the Frog) and Sanford and Son in the 1970s, as well as a 1985 performance on The Cosby Show and a 1993 appearance on A Different World.

She appeared in Broadway musicals several times and in 1958 was nominated for the Tony Award for "Best Actress in a Musical" (for her part in the "Calypso" musical Jamaica) In 1981 she received a Special Tony Award for her one-woman show, Lena Horne: "The Lady and Her Music". Despite the show's considerable success (Horne still holds the record for the longest-running solo performance in Broadway history), she was not inclined to capitalize on the renewed interest in her career by undertaking many new musical projects. A proposed 1983 joint recording project between Horne and Frank Sinatra (to be produced by Quincy Jones) was ultimately abandoned, and her sole studio recording of the decade was 1988's The Men In My Life, featuring duets with Sammy Davis, Jr. and Joe Williams. In 1989, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 1990s found Horne considerably more active in the recording studio - all the more remarkable considering she was approaching her 80th year. Following her 1993 performance at a tribute to the musical legacy of her good friend Billy Strayhorn (Duke Ellington's longtime pianist and arranger), she decided to record an album largely comprised of Strayhorn's and Ellington's songs the following year, We'll Be Together Again. To coincide with the release of the album, Horne made what would be her final concert performances at New York's Supper Club and Carnegie Hall. That same year, Horne also lent her vocals to a recording of "Embraceable You" on Sinatra's "Duets II" album. Though the album was largely derided by critics, the Sinatra-Horne pairing was generally regarded as its highlight. In 1995, a "live" album capturing her Supper Club performance was released (subsequently winning a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album). In 1998, at the age of 81, Horne released another studio album, entitled Being Myself. Thereafter, Horne essentially retired from performing and largely retreated from public view, though she did return to the recording studio in 2000 to contribute vocal tracks on Simon Rattle's Classic Ellington album.

1957 I’d Do Anything
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgwKWT8_Ur8&feature=related

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISM

Horne also is noteworthy for her contributions to the Civil Rights movement. In 1941, she sang at Cafe Society and worked with Paul Robeson, a singer who also combated American racial discrimination. During World War II, when entertaining the troops for the USO, she refused to perform "for segregated audiences or to groups in which German POWs were seated in front of African American servicemen" , according to her Kennedy Center biography. She was at an NAACP rally with Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi the weekend before Evers was assassinated. She was at the March on Washington and spoke and performed in behalf of the NAACP, SNCC and the National Council for Negro Women. She also worked with Eleanor Roosevelt to pass anti-lynching laws.

TRIBUTES AND RELEASES

In 2003, ABC announced that Janet Jackson would star as Horne in a television biopic (after it was rumored for years that Whitney Houston would take the job). In the weeks following Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" debacle during the 2004 Super Bowl, however, Variety reported that Horne demanded Jackson be dropped from the project. "ABC executives resisted Horne's demand," according to the Associated Press report, "but Jackson representatives told the trade newspaper that she left willingly after Horne and her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, asked that she not take part." Oprah Winfrey stated to Alicia Keys during a 2005 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she might possibly consider producing the biopic herself, casting Keys as Horne.

In January 2005, Blue Note Records, her label for more than a decade, announced that "the finishing touches have been put on a collection of rare and unreleased recordings by the legendary Horne made during her time on Blue Note. Remixed by her longtime producer Rodney Jones, the recordings featured Horne in remarkably secure voice for a woman of her years, and include versions of such signature songs as 'Something To Live For', 'Chelsea Bridge' and 'Stormy Weather'." The album, originally titled Soul but renamed Seasons of a Life, was released on January 24, 2006.

In 2007, Horne was portrayed by Leslie Uggams in the stage musical, "Stormy Weather," which will play at the Pasadena Playhouse in California in January and February of 2009.

Cant Help Loving That Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXHSK3DoTrY&feature=related

PERSONAL LIFE

Horne married Louis Jordan Jones in January 1937 and they lived in Pittsburgh. In December 1937 they had a daughter, Gail and in February 1940, a son, Edwin. Horne and Jones separated in 1940 and they divorced in 1944.

Lena Horne's second marriage was to Lennie Hayton, a Jewish American, from December 1947 until his death in 1971. Hayton was one of the premier musical conductors and arrangers at MGM. In her as-told-to autobiography Lena by Richard Schickel, Horne recounts the enormous pressures she and her husband faced as an interracial married couple. However, she later admitted (Ebony, May 1980) that she really married Hayton to advance her career and cross the "color-line" in show business.

Horne is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Lena at SOLID
http://www.parabrisas.com/d_hornel.php

Lena at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0395043/

Lena at PBS’ American Masters
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/horne_l.html

Lena at Classic Movie Musicals
http://www.classicmoviemusicals.com/horne.htm

Lena’s page at the Kennedy Center Honors
http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showIndividual&entitY_id=3743&source_type=A

Youtube clips

1965 Moon River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCvqTRHGIrg

From This Moment On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9IGeeD30Kw&feature=related

1963 Horne/Garland medley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkiZ94Af-mA&feature=related

My Heart Belongs To Daddy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0La15_Ziwo

Ring A Bell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr6YpD-TF60&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

Oooh, new Connee Boswell film clip "Stormy Weather"

kubbie — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:28:32 GMT

I havent seen this before

Connee Boswell - Stormy Weather
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JukhaTUsdQ&feature=related

Here is one of her singing "Martha" in her Manhattan apartment with her dog Rebel (I have seen clips of this one but not the whole thing)
Martha (M'appari)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgV1Pc_PCNM&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Bea Wain clips

kubbie — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:26:29 GMT

Not very well known but I dig her and wish more people knew of her

Heart and Soul - Bea Wain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3Feg25Fa8&feature=related

Get Happy - Larry Clinton Orchestra with Bea wain and Ford Leary (sadly she is just in the beginning)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf-HmXc-pXw&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Summertime Singin' is Fun! (San Francisco)

floragreen — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:49:01 GMT

Express yourself through song this summer! Learn
healthy singing technique and amazing tips to make any
song your own. I teach a technique adapted from Bel
Canto (good basic technique from the Classical
tradition) that can be applied to any style: rock,
pop, jazz, blues, folk, country and more!

Currently I am teaching classes and private students
at Blue Bear School of Music and have a few spots open
for private students in my summer schedule. I teach on
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Please call the
front desk at 415-673-3600 and ask for lessons with
Vicki! If you want to know what I sound like check out
the new clips from Anna's Jazz Island on my myspace
page!

http://www.myspace.com/vickiburnsjazz

Vicki Burns is a professional jazz vocalist with a BA
in Classical Performance and a Master's Degree in
Improvised Music. She has studied privately with Mark
Murphy, Barry Harris, Roberta Davis, Kitty Margolis
and Roy Rogasin (Johnny Mathis' vocal coach and
arranger)

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

May 23rd Helen O'Connell

kubbie — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:52:12 GMT

Helen O'Connell (b. May 23, 1920 in Lima, Ohio – September 9, 1993 in San Diego, California) was a singer, actress, and dancer.

Helen O'Connell joined the Jimmy Dorsey band in 1939 and achieved her best selling records in the early forties with "Green Eyes", "Amapola," "Yours," and "Tangerine." In each of these Latin-influenced numbers, Bob Eberly crooned the song which Helen then reprised in an up-tempo arrangement. Helen won the 1940 Metronome magazine poll for best female vocalist and was selected by Down Beat readers as best female singer in 1940 and 1941. She was one of the first "girls" on NBC's The Today Show, and at one point had her own television show.

Helen retired from show business upon her first marriage in 1943. Helen had four daughters, and eight grandchildren. When the first marriage failed, she embarked on a solo career in 1951, achieving some chart success and becoming a regular television performer. Helen was married a total of four times.

She co-hosted the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants with Bob Barker from 1972 to 1980.

For a while she toured with Kay Starr, Rosemary Clooney and Martha Raye as Four Girls

In her last marriage, she was married to arranger/conductor/composer Frank De Vol when she died in San Diego, California from a battle with hepatitis C resulting in primary liver cancer (hepatoma).

Helen sang The Star-Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XV.

Helen at Solid The Page for Big Band
http://www.parabrisas.com/d_oconnellh.php

Helen at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0640076/

Helen at Artist Direct downloads
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,474861,00.html

Man Thats Groovy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6j9gzILItM&feature=related

Rubber Dolly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvPLf3GMnnU

Green Eyes with Dorsey and Bob Eberly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2n2aaghnM0

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 5 replies

Rosemary Clooney Highway Petition

kubbie — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:18:26 GMT

I was contacted by someone via my Rosemary Clooney Tribe regarding a petition. Its to have part of the highway leading into Rosemary Clooneys hometown renamed after her. I said I would help spread the word. Here is the petition message and two different links to sign if you so wish. There goal is 1000 signatures, as it stands right now its just over 40. So there is a bit to go.

The purpose of this petition is to ask Governor Beshear and the Kentucky Department of Transportation to name a highway after one of Kentucky's first movie stars, pop singers and humanitarians, Rosemary Clooney.

Rosemary forged a trail for women in the world of popular music in the late 1940's. She and her sister, Betty, became popular first on the street corners of Maysville, Kentucky, where they sang to attract a crowd for their grandfather, who was a politician. From there, they traveled to Cincinnati, sixty miles each way, to sing on WLW radio. Eventually, Rosemary went on the road with the Tony Pastor band, and became nationally and internationally popular with songs such as, "Hey There," "This Ol' House," and "Come On a' My House." She starred in a number of movies, most notably, "White Christmas," with Bing Crosby. Rosemary's career spanned over half a century, and when she passed away on June 22, 2002, her physical voice was silenced, however her spirit and music live on.

Let's celebrate and honor Rosemary by asking the Commonwealth to dedicate a highway in her name. We, the undersigned, believe that due to her status as an internationally recognized star of television, radio, movies and most of all, as a recording artist, Rosemary Clooney should be honored with a highway named after her in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and we respectfully ask Governor Steven Beshear and the Kentucky Department of Transportation to re-name the highway between Mt. Sterling and Maysville, currently known as the AA Highway, as the Rosemary Clooney Highway.

First link to the Facebook petition

http://apps.facebook.com/petitions/view?pid=639886551

Second link to the Thepetitionsite.com page for it
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/639886551

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

The Many Lives of a song Are You Lonesome Tonight

kubbie — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:27:18 GMT

"Are You Lonesome Tonight?" is a popular song with music by Lou Handman and lyrics by Roy Turk. It was first published in 1926.

1920's

A number of artists recorded "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" in 1927. Composer Lou Handman himself played piano while his sister Edith provided the vocals for a recording released on the Gennett label. Vaughn DeLeath (also known as "The Original Radio Girl") recorded the song twice, first on June 13, as solo and later on September 21, as vocalist for The Colonial Club Orchestra. Around August 1927, another version was released by famed tenor Henry Burr.

1950s and 1960s

The first charting version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" was recorded by Blue Barron for MGM Records as catalog number 10628. The record first reached the Billboard pop chart on April 7, 1950 and lasted eight weeks there, peaking at number nineteen. Only a few weeks after Barron's recording, Al Jolson recorded a version of the song on April 28, 1950; it was released by Decca Records as catalog number 27043.

In 1959 American songstress Jaye P. Morgan had a Billboard #65 hit with it on the MGM label, backed by "Miss You". Elvis Presley must have heard it while he was in the army in Europe, as he also heard and was inspired by other songs like "O Sole Mio" and "Return To Sorrento", which he made into hits on his return in 1960.

This led to the best-known recording, by Elvis Presley, recorded on April 4, 1960, and engineered by Nashville sound pioneer Bill Porter. Colonel Parker (it was one of his wife's favorite songs) persuaded Elvis to record his own rendition of this song. Elvis' version was based on the Blue Barron Orchestra in 1950 and the spoken part of the song (like Al Jolson's) was loosely based on Shakespeare's As You Like it using Jaques' speech on Act II Scene VII: "All the world's a stage, and all men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts." It went on to be one of the biggest-selling singles of 1960.

Elvis, occasionally during live performances, would randomly change lyrics to give them humorous connotations. One popular instance was recorded at the International Hotel in Vegas on August 26, 1969. During the performance, instead of singing: "Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there", he sings "Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair". Moments later, he saw a bald man in the audience (as legend has it), and burst into laughter which continued into the next lines. The audience was treated to additional laughter during the spoken verse singing: "You know someone said that the world's a stage, and each must play a part." Seeing the irony of his own lyrics, Elvis was again overtaken by laughter and barely recovered. The audience enjoyed the sincerity of the moment while Elvis regained his composure. Meanwhile the band and backup singers continued to keep the song going. It is speculated that much of Elvis' mirth derived from the solo backing singer whose falsetto remained resolute throughout. To this, Elvis comes back just in time for the line: "And I had no cause to doubt you" followed by more laughter. So overtaken, Elvis encourages the backup singer to "sing it, baby" drawing even more laughter which nearly brings the house down. In the end, the song is finished to a round of applause. The version is considered to be a popular underground classic, and was a UK Top 30 hit in 1983 after first being commercially released by RCA in the 1980 box set Elvis Aron Presley.

According to Dr. Demento, who plays the version on his show, there is nothing on the label of the recording to indicate that it is anything other than an ordinary recording of the song--"People must have been surprised when they took it home and played it."

Elvis said at the end, "That's it, man, fourteen years right down the drain...boy, I'll tell ya."

The Lettermen recorded the song as a track on their 1964 album She Cried.

Doris Day recorded the song on June 6, 1967, in a version included on The Love Album.

Mr. Saks & The Blue Strings aka Tommy & The Tom Toms recorded the song as an instrumental single in 1960 for noted producer Major Bill Smith.

Other versions
Merle Haggard
John Schneider with Jill Michaels
Mr. Saks & The Blue Strings aka Tommy & The Tom Toms
Chas. Harrison UK
Al Martino
Frank Sinatra
Bryan Ferry
Norah Jones
California Dreamlike Orchestra
Barry Manilow
Carter Family
Mike Moran (answer song)
Mavericks
U2 ("live")
Jerry Lee Lewis ("live")
Joe Wilbur
Suede ("live")
Connie Francis

this clip has Burr's Morgans and Presleys version in a row
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShmGaX4zKug

this clip has Vaughn Deleath , Blue Baron Orchestra and Al Jolsons version in a row
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA27fVPjHTo

The Carter Family version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZcCcIf--Js

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

May 26th Peggy Lee

kubbie — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:34:02 GMT

Peggy Lee patron saint of SF's favorite emcee Mad Dog

From This Moment On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfBbUZbWZq4&feature=related

I Only Have Eyes FOr You 1950
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0yYud187MY

Fever (not best sound but she is great to watch in this)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYW2wOhr7-w

He Needs Me/Sugar from Pete Kellys Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot4yKGOlKgo&feature=related

I'm A Woman Duet with Petula Clark (this is FUN)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK0gHciQPd0&feature=related

more youtubes at the bottom

Peggy Lee (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002) was an American jazz and popular music singer and songwriter and Academy Award-nominated actress. She was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota. Widely recognized as one of the most important musical influences of the 20th century, Lee has been cited as a mentor to such diverse artists as Bobby Darin, Paul McCartney, Bette Midler, Madonna, k.d. lang, Elvis Costello, Dusty Springfield, Dr. John, and numerous others. As a songwriter, she collaborated with her late husband Dave Barbour, Sonny Burke, Victor Young, Francis Lai, Dave Grusin, John Chiodini, and Duke Ellington who stated, "If I'm the Duke, then Peggy's the Queen." As an actress, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Pete Kelly's Blues.

Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong all cited Lee as one of their favorite singers.

EARLY LIFE

The youngest child of seven, Lee found music to provide an escape from the abusive rampages of her cruel stepmother, Min, who tormented and beat young Norma. She first sang professionally with KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She soon landed her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her "salary" in food. Both during and after her high school years, she took whatever jobs she could find, waitressing and singing for paltry sums on other local stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy (actual name: Ken Sydness), of WDAY in Fargo (the most widely listened to station in North Dakota) changed her name from Norma to Peggy Lee. Tired of the abuse from her stepmother, she left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17.

She returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy and eventually made her way to Chicago for a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel West in Chicago, where she drew the attention of Benny Goodman, the jazz clarinetist and band leader. According to Lee, "Benny's then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into the Buttery, and she was very impressed. So the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for replacement for Helen Forrest. "And although I didn't know, I was it. He was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking. I thought that he didn't like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing." She joined his band in 1941 and stayed for two years.

RECORDING CAREER

In early 1942, Lee had her first # 1 hit, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place," followed by 1943's "Why Don't You Do Right?" (originally sung by Lil Green), which sold over a million copies and made her famous. She sang with Goodman in two 1943 films, Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl.

In March 1943, Lee married Dave Barbour, the guitarist in Goodman's band. Peggy said, "David joined Benny's band and there was a ruling that no one should fraternize with the girl singer. But I fell in love with David the first time I heard him play, and so I married him. Benny then fired David, so I quit, too. Benny and I made up, although David didn't play with him anymore. Benny stuck to his rule. I think that's not too bad a rule, but you can't help falling in love with somebody."

When Lee and Barbour left the band, the idea was that he would work in the studios and she would keep house and raise their daughter, Nicki. But she drifted back towards songwriting and occasional recording sessions for the fledgling Capitol Records in 1944, for whom she produced a long string of hits, many of them with lyrics and music by Lee and Barbour, including "I Don't Know Enough About You" and "It's a Good Day" (1946). With the release of the smash-hit #1-selling record of 1948, "Mañana," her "retirement" was over.

In 1948, she joined Perry Como and Jo Stafford as one of the rotating hosts of the NBC musical radio program Chesterfield Supper Club. She was also a regular on NBC's Jimmy Durante Show during the 1947-48 season.

She left Capitol for a few years in the early 1950s, but returned in 1957. She is most famous for her cover version of the Little Willie John hit "Fever", to which she added her own, uncopyrighted lyrics ("Romeo loved Juliet," "Captain Smith and Pocahontas") and her rendition of Leiber and Stoller's "Is That All There Is?" Her relationship with the Capitol label spanned almost three decades, aside from her brief but artistically rich detour (1952-1956) at Decca Records, where she recorded one of her most acclaimed albums Black Coffee (1956). While recording for Decca, Lee had hit singles with the songs "Lover" and "Mr. Wonderful."

SONG WRITING

She was also known as a songwriter with such hits as the songs from the Disney movie Lady and the Tramp, for which she also supplied the singing and speaking voices of four characters. Her many songwriting collaborators, in addition to Barbour, included Laurindo Almeida, Harold Arlen, Sonny Burke, Cy Coleman, Gene DiNovi, Duke Ellington, Dave Grusin, Dick Hazard, Quincy Jones, Francis Lai, Jack Marshall, Johnny Mandel, Marian McPartland, Willard Robison, Lalo Schifrin, Hubie Wheeler, guitarist Johnny Pisano and Victor Young.

She wrote the lyrics for "I Don't Know Enough About You", "It's A Good Day", "I'm Gonna Go Fishin'", "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter", "Fever", "The Shining Sea", "He's A Tramp", "The Siamese Cat Song", "There Will Be Another Spring", "Johnny Guitar", "Sans Souci", ""What's New?", "Things Are Swinging", "Don't Smoke in Bed", "I Love Being Here With You", "So What's New" and numerous others.

During a time when youths began turning to rock'n'roll, she was one of the mainstays of Capitol recordings. She was the first of the "old guard" to recognize this new genre, as is evident in her recordings of the Beatles, Randy Newman, Carole King, James Taylor and other up-and-coming songwriters. From 1957 until her final disc for the company in 1972, she routinely produced a steady stream of two or three albums per year which usually included standards (often arranged in a style quite different from the original), her own compositions, and material from young artists.

ACTING CAREER

Lee also acted in several films. In 1952, she played opposite Danny Thomas in a remake of the early Al Jolson film, The Jazz Singer. In 1955, she played a despondent, alcoholic blues singer in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), for which she was nominated for an Oscar.

Lee was nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, winning Best Contemporary Vocal Performance for her 1969 hit "Is That All There Is?" In 1995 she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In the early 1990s, she retained famed entertainment attorney Neil Papiano, who, on her behalf, successfully sued Disney for royalties on Lady and the Tramp. Lee's lawsuit claimed that she was due royalties for video tapes, a technology that did not exist when she agreed to write and perform for Disney.

Never afraid to fight for what she believed in, Lee was passionate that musicians be equitably compensated for their work. Although she realized litigation had taken a toll on her health, Lee often quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson ("God's will will not be made manifest by cowards.")

She also successfully sued MCA/Decca with the assistance of noted entertainment attorney, Cy Godfrey.

RETIREMENT AND DEATH

She continued to perform into the 1990s, sometimes in a wheelchair, and still mesmerized audiences and critics alike. After years of poor health, Lee died of complications from diabetes and heart attack at the age of 81. She is survived by Nicki Lee Foster, her daughter with Barbour. She is buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.

ACADEMY MEMORIAL OMISSION

She was not featured in Memoriam Tribute during the Academy Awards ceremony. When her family requested she be featured in the following year's ceremony, the Academy stated they did not honor requests and Lee was omitted because her contribution to film and her legacy were not deemed significant enough. The Lee family pointed out that, although she had been omitted, R&B singer/actress Aaliyah, who died a few months earlier, was included though having been in only one moderately successful film, Romeo Must Die (Queen of the Damned had yet to be released). The Academy provided no comment on the oversight.

AWARDS

Lee is a recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award; the Pied Piper Award from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); the Presidents Award, from the Songwriters Guild of America; the Ella Award for Lifetime Achievement, from the Society of Singers; and the Living Legacy Award, from the Women's International Center. In 1999 she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

CARNEGY HALL TRIBUTE

In 2003, "There'll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee" was held at Carnegie Hall. Produced by recording artist Richard Barone, the sold-out event included performances by Cy Coleman, Debbie Harry, Nancy Sinatra, Rita Moreno, Marian McPartland, Chris Connor, Petula Clark and many others. In 2004, Barone brought the event to the Hollywood Bowl and Chicago's Ravinia Festival, with expanded casts including Maureen McGovern and Bea Arthur. The Carnegie Hall concert was broadcast as on NPR's "Jazz Set."

Autobiography
Peggy Lee, Miss Peggy Lee: An Autobiography, 2002, Bloomsbury

Other authors
Peter Richmond, Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee, 2006, Henry Holt and Company
Robert Strom, Miss Peggy Lee: A Career Chronicle, 2005, McFarland Publishing

Peggy Lee.com
http://www.peggylee.com/

Discography
http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Lee/index.html

Peggy at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0498007/

Peggy at Songwriters Hall of Fame
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C166?exhibitId=166

Youtubes

I'm Gonna Go Fishin - great clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXZsUhBn7j4&feature=related

WHy Dont You Do Right with Benny Goodman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6XF4Yf6qNI

Duet with Dinah SHore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEBIf0poxHw&feature=related

See See Rider
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kyk4hj_RUc&feature=related

My Heart Stood Still
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgqH2yeKPgg&feature=related

Just One Of THose Things
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ll1ROtHAM&feature=related

The FOlks Who Live On The Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN2W-EWESCE&feature=related

Medley With Steve Allen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joVgZPD4bI4&feature=related

Fly Me To THe MOon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP7OFCCrWJo&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

May 23rd Rosemary Clooney

kubbie — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:31:09 GMT

Blues In The Night with The Hi-Los(GREAT CLIP)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmAAlzGA2nI

Hey There
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZld1My2YM

A Foggy Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCv0gai14Ok&feature=related

Come Rain or Come Shine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBZNZ_A7QZk&feature=related

Judy Canova and Rosie sing In a Little Red Barn (On a Farm Down in Indiana)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5qqQWkzl-E&feature=related

12 more film clips at the bottom

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was a popular American singer and actress. She was most popular singing traditional pop music in the 1940s and 1950s with songs like "Come On-a My House". She was the mother of actor Miguel Ferrer, aunt of actor George Clooney, and the sister to former television personality Nick Clooney.

EARLY LIFE

Clooney was born in Maysville, Kentucky, to Andrew Joseph Clooney and Frances Marie Guilfoyle, both of whom were Roman Catholics of Irish ancestry. Her father was an alcoholic and she and her brother and sister were constantly moving back and forth between her parents. When Rosemary was fifteen, her mother and brother, Nick, moved to California. She and her sister, Betty, remained with their father. Clooney suffered from bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic-depression.

CAREER

Rosemary, Betty, and brother, Nick, all became entertainers. In the next generation, some of her own children, including Miguel and Rafael, and also her nephew, George Clooney (Nick's son), also became respected entertainers. In 1945, the Clooney sisters won a spot on Cincinnati's radio station WLW as singers. Her sister Betty sang in a duo with Rosemary for much of her early career.

Clooney's first recordings, in May 1946, were for Columbia Records as a singer with the big band of Tony Pastor. She continued working with the Pastor band until 1949, making her last recording with the band in May of that year and her first as a solo artist a month later, still for Columbia. In 1951, her record of "Come On-a My House" became a hit, her first of many singles to hit the charts — despite the fact that Clooney hated the song passionately. She had been told by Columbia to record the song, and that she would be in violation of her contract if she did not record it.

Around 1952, Rosemary recorded several duets with Marlene Dietrich.

In 1954, she, along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen, starred in the movie White Christmas. In later years, Clooney would often appear with Crosby on television, such as in the 1957 special The Edsel Show, and the two friends made a concert tour of Ireland together. Crosby opined that Clooney was "the best in the business." In 1960 she and Crosby co-starred in a 20-minute CBS radio show that went to air before the midday news every weekday.

In 1956, she starred in a half hour syndicated television musical variety show The Rosemary Clooney Show. The show featured The Hi-Lo's singing group and Nelson Riddle's orchestra. The following year, the show moved to NBC prime time as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney but only lasted one season. The new show featured the The Modernaires singing group and Frank DeVol's orchestra.

In 1958, Clooney left Columbia, doing a number of recordings for MGM Records and then some for Coral Records. Finally, toward the end of 1958, she signed with RCA Victor Records, where she stayed until 1963. In 1964 she went to Reprise Records, and in 1965 to Dot Records. In 1966 she went to United Artists Records. In 1986 she sang a duet with Wild Man Fischer on "It's a Hard Business".

Beginning in 1977, she recorded an album a year for Concord Records, which continued until her death. This made her something of an anomaly, because most of her generation of singers had long since stopped recording regularly by then.

In the late-1970s and early-1980s, Clooney was also a pitch-person for Coronet paper towels, for which she sang a memorable jingle that goes, "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Coro-net." Jim Belushi later parodied Clooney and the commercial while as a cast member for NBC's Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s.

In 1994, Clooney guest starred in the NBC medical drama ER, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award.

In 1999, Clooney founded the Rosemary Clooney Music Festival, held annually in her hometown of Maysville, Kentucky. She performed at the festival every year until her death. Proceeds benefit the restoration of the Russell Theater in Maysville, where Clooney's first film, The Stars are Singing, premiered in 1953.

Clooney received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

PERSONAL LIFE

In 1968, Clooney was present at the assassination of her close friend Robert F. Kennedy. The event traumatized her for years afterward. She had a nervous breakdown onstage in Reno, Nevada, caused in part by serious drug problems.

Clooney was married three times, twice to José Ferrer (from 1953 until 1961 and again from 1964 to 1967). They had five children:

Miguel Ferrer (b. 1955),
Maria (b. 1956),
Gabriel Ferrer (b. 1957), who married Debby Boone,
Monsita (b. 1958), and
Rafael Ferrer, (b. 1960).

She married Dante DiPaolo in 1997.

In 1980, she purchased a second home at 106 Riverside Drive in Augusta, Kentucky, near her childhood hometown of Maysville. Today, it houses collections of her personal items and memorabilia from many of her films and singing performances.

George Clooney, her nephew, appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (January 2, 2007) and discussed, among other things, how Rosemary Clooney had sheltered both Leno and himself early in their careers.

Her version of There's No Business Like Show Business was used at the conclusion of a film that George Clooney directed, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

A longtime smoker, Rosemary was diagnosed with lung cancer at the end of 2001. Around this time, she gave her last concert. It was in Hawaii, backed by the Honolulu Symphony Pops; her last song was God Bless America. Despite surgery, she died six months later on June 29, 2002, at her home in Beverly Hills, California. George Clooney served as a pall bearer at her funeral, which was attended by numerous stars including Al Pacino. Clooney is buried at Saint Patricks Cemetery, Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky.

LINKS

Rosie at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0167041/

Rosemary Clooney:The Girl Singer Tribe
http://tribes.tribe.net/rosemaryclooney

RosemaryClooney.com
http://www.rosemaryclooney.com/

Rosie at All Music Guide
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifixqw5ld6e

Clooney's Discography
http://www.rosemaryclooney.com/discography.html#lps

Youtube clips

We're In The MOney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_KqMjZVgJY&feature=related

Great two song clip of "If You Love Me Half as Much" and "Botcha Me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dFQk_sn7yU&feature=related

Red Garters music number from Red Garters 1954
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBkOvaIc6w&feature=related

Imagination
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Zhb9OoBSg&feature=related

Rosie and Jo Stafford - Autumn Songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-QXhJPLmAk&feature=related

Our Love Is Here To Stay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y37UoB7VY5Y

Rosie and Bing do a Western Music Medley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SAQ8zS3UJQ&feature=related

Mambo Italiano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzUfmh3G9AE

Keep It Gay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK2-4pGj16I&feature=related

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off with Gene Puerling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Oudvin35c&feature=related

I Cant Escape From You w Boris Karloff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMS7nLoWJ88&feature=related

If I Forget You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdZpDFEcZFQ&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

"King Of Jazz" VHS conversion help....anyone?

Robowan — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:40:31 GMT

Howdy, and apologies ahead of time, as I may cross-post this. I have a good VHS copy of the fabulous 1930 film, "King Of Jazz" featuring Paul Whiteman and his cronies. Since there are no plans afoot to properly release this on DVD by anyone (that I know of), I'd like to convert my VHS tape to DVD format. Does anyone in this tribe have the capability to do this, and would you be interested in dubbing this for me? I have money, I can pay, but ideally I'd love someone to do this as a trade...and I'd even make copies for anyone interested for postage costs of shipping said DVD. I'm just tired of dragging my closeted VCR out every time I want to watch this film.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

May 14th Bobby Darin

kubbie — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:40:29 GMT

Mack The KNife
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qrjtr_uFac&feature=related

Beyond The Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQvQm-K5cT8

Bobby and The Supremes singing Falling In Love With Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tzmkfjmwfE&feature=related

I'm On My Way (traditional spiritual)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUx8S4Ut1uA&feature=related

more videos below the bio and links

Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert "Bobby" Cassotto, May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Darin is widely respected for being a multitalented, versatile performer who conquered many music genres, including pop, jazz, folk and country.

He was also an award-winning actor, songwriter and music business entrepreneur. His wish for a legacy was "to be remembered as a human being and as a great performer." Among his many other contributions, he became a goodwill ambassador for the American Heart Association.

EARLY YEARS
___________

Darin was born to a poor, working-class Italian-American family in the Bronx, New York. His father disappeared a few months before he was born. It was the height of the Great Depression, and he once remarked that his crib was a cardboard box, later a dresser drawer. As a result, his mother had to accept Home Relief to take care of her infant son. It was not until he was an adult that he learned that the woman he thought to be his sister Nina, 14 years his senior, was in fact his mother, and the woman he thought to be his mother was his grandmother. He never knew the identity of his birth father.

Darin was frail as an infant and beginning at the age of 8, was stricken with multiple bouts of rheumatic fever. The illness left him with a seriously diseased heart. Overhearing a doctor tell his mother that he would be lucky to reach the age of 16, he lived with the constant knowledge that his life might be a short one. He was driven by his poverty and illness to make something of his life and, with his innate talent for music, by the time he was a teenager, he could play several instruments, including piano, drum and guitar. He later added harmonica and xylophone.

An outstanding student, with a genius-level IQ, Darin graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science and then went on to attend Hunter College on a scholarship. Wanting a career in the New York theater, he left college to play small nightclubs around the city with a musical combo. In the resort area of the Catskill Mountains, he was both a busboy and an entertainer.

As was common with ethnic minorities at the time, he changed his Italian name to one that sounded more "American". He chose the name "Bobby" because he had generally been called that as a child. He allegedly chose Darin because he had seen a malfunctioning electrical sign at a Chinese restaurant reading "DARIN DUCK" rather than "MANDARIN DUCK," and he thought the Darin looked good. Later, he said that the name was randomly picked out of the telephone book. Neither story has been verified.

MUSIC CAREER
____________

In 1956, his agent negotiated a contract for him with Decca Records, where Bill Haley & His Comets had risen to fame. However, this was a time when rock and roll was still in its infancy and the number of capable record producers and arrangers in the field was extremely limited.

A member of the now famous Brill Building gang of once struggling songwriters who later found success, Darin was introduced to then up-and-coming singer Connie Francis. Bobby's manager arranged for Darin to help write several songs for Connie in order to help jump-start her singing career. Initially the two artists couldn't see eye to eye on potential material, but after several weeks Bobby and Connie developed a romantic interest in one another. Unfortunately Connie had a very strict Italian father who would separate the couple whenever possible. When Connie's father learned that Bobby had suggested the two lovers elope after one of Connie's shows, he ran Darin out of the building while waving a gun telling Bobby to never see his daughter again.

Bobby saw Connie only two more times after this happened, once when the two were scheduled to sing together for a television show and again later when Connie was spotlighted on the tv series This Is Your Life. To date, Connie has said that not marrying Bobby was the biggest mistake of her life.

Darin left Decca to sign with Atlantic Records (ATCO), where he wrote and arranged music for himself and others. There, after three mediocre recordings, his career took off in 1958 when he wrote and recorded "Splish Splash"; it became an instant hit, selling more than a million copies. "Splish Splash" was written with radio DJ Murray Murray the K Kaufman, who bet that Darin could not write a song that started out with the words "Splish Splash, I was takin' a bath", as suggested by Murray's mother. On a snow bound night in early 1958, Darin went in the studio alone and recorded a demo of "Splish Splash". They eventually shared writing credits with her. This was followed by more hits recorded in the same successful style.

In 1959, Bobby Darin recorded "Dream Lover," a ballad that became a multi-million seller. With financial success came the ability to demand more so-called creative control. His next record, "Mack the Knife," was the classic standard from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. Darin gave the tune a vamping jazz-pop interpretation, which he consciously modeled on the style of Frankie Laine. The song went to No. 1 on the charts for nine weeks, sold over a million copies, and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1960. Darin was also voted the Grammy Award for Best New Artist that year. "Mack The Knife" has since been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. He followed "Mack" with "Beyond the Sea," a jazzy English-language version of Charles Trenet's French hit song "La Mer."

The tracks were produced by Atlantic founders, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun with staff producer Jerry Wexler and featured brilliant arrangements by Richard Wess. Propelled by the success of "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea," Darin became a hot commodity. He set all-time attendance records at the famed Copacabana nightclub in NYC, where it was not unusual for fans to line up all the way around the block to get tickets when Darin was playing there. The Copacabana sold so many seats to Darin's shows that they had to fill the dance floor, normally part of the performance area, with extra seating. Darin also headlined at the major casinos in Las Vegas.

Sammy Davis Jr., an exceptionally multi-talented and dynamic performer himself, was quoted as saying that Bobby Darin was "the only person I never wanted to follow" after seeing him in Las Vegas.

Darin was instrumental in bringing up new talent. Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson, and Wayne Newton opened his nightclub performances when they were virtually unknown. Early on, at the Copacabana, he insisted that black comic Nipsey Russell be his opening act. His request was grudgingly granted by Jules Podell, the manager of the Copacabana.

In the 1960s, Darin also owned and operated a highly successful music publishing and production company (TM Music/Trio) and signed Wayne Newton to TM, giving him a song that was originally sent to Darin to record. That record went on to become Newton's breakout hit, "Danke Schoen." He also was a mentor to Roger McGuinn, who worked for Darin at TM Music before going off to form The Byrds. Darin also produced football great Rosey Grier's 1964 LP, Soul City, and "Made in the Shade" for Jimmy Boyd.

In 1962, Darin also began to write and sing country music, with hit songs including "Things" (1962), "You're the Reason," and "18 Yellow Roses." The latter two were on Capitol Records, which he joined in 1962, before returning to Atlantic four years later.

ACTING CAREER
_____________

In addition to music, Darin became a motion picture actor. In 1960, he was the only actor ever to be contractually signed to five major Hollywood film studios. He wrote music for several films and acted in them as well. In his first major film, Come September, a romantic comedy designed to capitalize on his popularity with the teenage and young adult audience, he met and co-starred with 18-year-old actress Sandra Dee. They fell in love and were married in 1960. They had one son, Dodd Mitchell Darin, in 1961, and divorced in 1967.

Asking to be taken seriously, he took on more meaningful movie roles, and in 1962, he won the Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Male Newcomer" for his role in Pressure Point.

In 1963 he was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role as a shell-shocked soldier in Captain Newman, M.D.. At the Cannes Film Festival, where his records—in particular "Beyond the Sea"—brought him a wide following, he won the French Film Critics Award for best actor.

LATER YEARS
___________

Darin's musical output became more "folky" as the 1960s progressed and he became more politically aware and active. In 1966, he had another big hit record, but this time it was with folksinger Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter," adding another style to his vast repertoire. The song secured Darin's return to the Top 10 after a four-year absence. Jim McGuinn, the future leader of the Byrds, was part of his performing band. He traveled with Robert Kennedy on the latter's presidential campaign and was with Kennedy the night before Kennedy traveled to Los Angeles in 1968 and was assassinated. Darin was devastated with this news. Coming back, in 1969, he started another record company, Direction Records, putting out folk and protest music. He wrote the very popular "Simple Song of Freedom" in 1969. He said of his first Direction Records album, "The purpose of Direction Records is to seek out statement-makers. The album is solely [composed] of compositions designed to reflect my thoughts on the turbulent aspects of modern society." During this time, he was billed under the name "Bob Darin," grew a mustache, and stopped wearing a hairpiece. Within two years, however, all of these changes were discontinued.

At the beginning of the 1970s, he continued to act and to record, including several albums with Motown Records and a couple of films. In January 1971 he underwent his first heart surgery in an attempt to correct some of the heart damage he had lived with since childhood.

In 1972 he starred in his own TV variety show on NBC, The Bobby Darin Amusement Company, which ran until his untimely death in 1973. Darin married Andrea Yeager in June of 1973. He made TV guest appearances and also remained a top draw at Las Vegas, where, owing to his poor health, he was often administered oxygen after his performances.

DEATH
_____

In 1973, Darin's ill health took a turn for the worse. After failing to take medication prescribed after a dental visit, he developed blood poisoning, weakening his body and clotting one of his heart valves. On December 11, 1973, Darin entered Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles to repair two artificial heart valves received in a previous operation. Despite this, Bobby Darin died on December 20, 1973 after eight hours on the operating table. No funeral was held for Darin, and his body was donated to UCLA for medical research.

Many people say that Walden Robert Cassotto died, but Bobby Darin didn't, as his legacy lives on in his performance and recordings.

Shortly before his death, he divorced his second wife, Andrea. Those close to him have said that this was an attempt to distance her from the pain of his death. His first wife, Sandra Dee, never re-married.

LEGACY
______

In 1990, singer Paul Anka made the speech for Darin's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Righteous Brothers refer to Darin in their song Rock and Roll Heaven, a tribute to late musicians, which was released months after Darin's passing. The duo also make a reference to Mack the Knife.

In 2000, actor Kevin Spacey, a lifelong fan of Darin, acquired the film rights to his story. Spacey directed and produced the film, and played Bobby Darin; as well as co-writing the script. The film is named after one of Darin's top hits, Beyond The Sea. With the consent of the Darin estate, Steve Blauner, and archivist Jimmy Scalia, the movie's opening was at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. Despite strong studio promotion, critical reaction was poor , and box office results were disappointing. However, the movie spurred a renewed interest in Darin, which has resulted in the release of "never heard before" material. His pianist, Roger Kellaway, has recorded two albums of Darin's music as well. Spacey was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor for the movie. He also occasionally did concert tours, performing many of Darin's hits as a tribute to the singer.

In a 2003 episode of the NBC television series American Dreams, Duncan Sheik portrays Darin and performs Beyond the Sea on American Bandstand. Brittany Snow's character, Meg Pryor, is assigned as Darin's liaision during the show.

On Monday, May 14, 2007, Bobby Darin was awarded a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. This tribute honors Darin for his contribution to making Las Vegas the "Entertainment Capital of the World" and acknowledges his reputation as one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century. The sponsorship fee for this star was raised entirely by fan donations.

In December 2007, Bobby Darin was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Bobby at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0201239/

BobbyDarin.com
http://www.bobbydarin.com/

Bobby at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
http://www.history-of-rock.com/bobby_darin.htm

At The History of R N R . com
http://www.history-of-rock.com/bobby_darin.htm

Discography
http://darinland.com/Bobby-Darin-Discography.html

Song/Clips
__________
Once Upon A Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ8mVtBnawA&feature=related

Come Rain or Come Shine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRuvIvuPOME

Raining
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5hSyd4Cohk&feature=related

That Funny Feeling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvBtE_Rheho&feature=related

Michael Row Your Boat Ashore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M58eoKaI2g0&feature=related

Simple Song of Freedom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvY99BJzN-M

If I Were A Carpenter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjFRLOktHXo

Lonesome Whistle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2yhwh5rtVw&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

May 11th Irving Berlin

kubbie — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:22:30 GMT

not a crooner but he sure did put alot of words into crooners mouths

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born naturalized American composer and lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriters in history. Berlin was one of the few Tin Pan Alley/Broadway songwriters who wrote both lyrics and music for his songs. Although he never learned to read music beyond a rudimentary level, with the help of various uncredited musical assistants or collaborators, he eventually composed over 3,000 songs, many of which (e.g. "God Bless America", "White Christmas", "Anything You Can Do", "There's No Business Like Show Business") left an indelible mark on American music and culture. He composed seventeen film scores and twenty-one Broadway scores.

EARLY LIFE

Berlin was born Israel Isidore Beilin to an Ashkenazi-Jewish family in Mogilev, now Belarus (according to other sources possibly in Tyumen, Russia). His family immigrated to the United States in 1893. His parents were Leah (Lena) Yarchin and Moses Beilin; his father was a cantor who obtained work certifying kosher meat.

Following the death of his father in 1896, Irving found himself having to work to survive. He did various street jobs, including selling newspapers and busking. The harsh economic reality of having to work or starve was to have a lasting effect on the way Berlin treated money. While working as a singing waiter at Pelham's Cafe in Chinatown, Berlin was asked by the proprietor to write an original song for the cafe because a rival tavern had had their own song published. "Marie from Sunny Italy," with music by Nick Nicholson, the cafe's pianist, was the result, and it was soon published. Although it only earned him 37 cents, it gave him a new career, and a new name: Israel Beilin was misprinted as "I. Berlin" on the sheet music. * It has also been suggested that his name was changed at Ellis Island in error by immigration officials when his family immigrated to the US and the official refused to change it, so Irving Berlin became his name.

Berlin first worked solely as a lyricist and only began to attempt to compose music when a misunderstanding arose concerning his lyric "Dorando." He tried to sell the lyric to someone who assumed he had music to go with it. Although at the time he could play no instrument at all, he endeavored to come up with something with the help of an arranger. Throughout his career Berlin relied on musical assistants or collaborators. Cliff Hess worked for Berlin in this way from approximately 1912 to 1917 and was succeeded by Arthur Johnston and then Helmy Kresa. None of these musicians were ever credited as co-composers.

Berlin was a self-taught pianist and one who reputedly restricted himself mainly to the black keys of the piano. Eventually he bought a special piano with a lever under the keyboard, enabling him to transpose his music mechanically. He once explained his compositional method thus: "I get an idea, either a title or a phrase or a melody, and hum it out to something definite. When I have completed a song and memorized it, I dictate it to an arranger."

Many of his earliest songs, among them "Sadie Salome (Go Home)," "That Mesmerizing Mendelssohn Tune," and "Oh How That German Could Love," enjoyed modest success in sheet music form, as recordings, on the vaudeville stage, or as interpolations into stage shows, but it was "Alexander's Ragtime Band," written in 1911 with the help of Alfred Doyle, that launched his career as one of Tin Pan Alley's brightest stars. Richard Corliss, in a Time magazine profile of Berlin in 2001, wrote:

Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911). It was a march, not a rag, and its savviest musicality comprised quotes from a bugle call and Swanee River. But the tune, which revived the ragtime fervor that Scott Joplin had stoked a decade earlier, made Berlin a songwriting star. On its first release, four versions of the tune charted at # 1, # 2, # 3 and # 4. Bessie Smith, in 1927, and Louis Armstrong, in 1937, made the top 20 with their interpretations. In 1938 the song was # 1 again, in a duet by Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell; another Crosby duet, this time with Al Jolson, hit the top 20 in 1947. Johnny Mercer charted a swing version in 1945, and Nellie Lutcher put it on the R&B charts (# 13) in 1948. Add Ray Charles' brilliant big-band take in 1959, and "Alexander" had a dozen hit versions in a bit under a half century.

WORK FOR MUSICAL STAGE

After the success of "Alexander", Berlin was rumored to be writing a "ragtime opera," but instead he produced his first full-length work for the musical stage, Watch Your Step (1914), starring Vernon and Irene Castle, the first musical comedy to make pervasive use of syncopated rhythms. A similar show entitled Stop! Look! Listen! followed in 1915.

In 1917, during World War I, he entered the United States Army and staged a musical revue, Yip Yip Yaphank, while at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York. Billed as "a military mess cooked up by the boys of Camp Upton," the cast of the show consisted of 350 members of the armed forces. The revue was a patriotic tribute to the United States Army, and Berlin composed a song entitled "God Bless America" for the show, but decided against using it. When it was released years later, "God Bless America" proved so popular that suggestions were made that it should become the National Anthem. It remains to this day one of his most successful songs and one of the most widely-known in the United States. A particularly famous rendition occurred after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when members of the United States Congress stood together on the steps of the United States Capitol and sang Berlin's song. Some songs from the Yaphank revue were later included in the 1943 movie This Is the Army featuring other Berlin songs, including the famous title piece, as well as a rendition of "God Bless America" by Kate Smith. Berlin himself sang "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning". His natural singing voice was so soft that the recording volume had to be increased significantly in order to record acceptably.

After the war, Berlin built his own theater, the Music Box, as a showplace for annual revues featuring his latest songs; the first of these was "The Music Box Revue of 1921". The theater is still in use, incidentally. Though most of his works for the Broadway stage took the form of revues — collections of songs with no unifying plot — he did write a number of book shows. The Cocoanuts (1925) was a light comedy, with a cast featuring, among others, the Marx Brothers. Face the Music (1932) was a political satire with a book by Moss Hart, and Louisiana Purchase (1940) was a satire of a Southern politician, obviously based on the exploits of Huey Long. As Thousands Cheer (1933) was a revue, also with book by Moss Hart, with a theme: each number was presented as an item in a newspaper, some of them touching on issues of the day. The show yielded a succession of hit songs, including "Easter Parade", "Heat Wave" (presented as the weather forecast), "Harlem on My Mind", and "Supper Time", a song about racial bigotry that was sung by Ethel Waters.

During World War II, after receiving permission from General George Marshall, Berlin organized an all-soldier revue in the spirit of Yip Yip Yaphank. This Is the Army opened on July 4, 1942, with a cast of over 300 servicemen, and ran for three years, first on Broadway, then on tour in the United States, and then abroad. The US Army Soldier Show still exists today.

Berlin's most successful Broadway musical was Annie Get Your Gun (1946), produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Loosely based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, the music and lyrics were written by Berlin, with a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. Berlin had taken on the job after the original choice, Jerome Kern, died suddenly. At first he refused to take on the job, claiming that he knew nothing about "hillbilly music", but the show ran for 1,147 performances. It is said that the showstopper song, "There's No Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show altogether because Berlin wrongly got the impression that Rodgers and Hammerstein did not like it. Annie Get Your Gun is considered to be Berlin's best musical theatre score not only because of the number of hits it contains, but because its songs successfully combine character and plot development.

Berlin's next show, Miss Liberty (1949), was a relative flop. Call Me Madam (1950), with Ethel Merman portraying the famous Washington hostess Perle Mesta, fared better, giving him his second greatest success, but his last show, Mr. President (1962), received unfavorable reviews and was a commercial failure. At this point, Berlin essentially retired from the public eye.

BERLIN IN HOLLYWOOD

In 1927, one of Berlin's songs, "Blue Skies," a hit from 1926, was featured in the first feature-length talkie (motion picture with sound) (previous talkies were shorts only), The Jazz Singer, in which it was sung by Al Jolson. Top Hat (1935) was the first of a series of distinctive film musicals pioneered by Berlin that featured popular and attractive performers (such as Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, and Ginger Rogers), light romantic plots, and a seemingly endless string of his new and old songs. Other films of this sort included On the Avenue (1937), Holiday Inn (1942), Blue Skies (1946), and Easter Parade (1948). The film version of This Is the Army (1943), which featured Berlin himself singing "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," was a success, but film versions of several of his stage musicals, including Annie Get Your Gun (1950) and Call Me Madam (1953), were somewhat less successful than his written-for-Hollywood shows.

WHITE CHRISTMAS

The 1942 film, Holiday Inn, introduced "White Christmas," one of the most-recorded songs in history. First sung in the film by Bing Crosby, it sold over 30 million copies when released as a record. The song was re-used as the title theme of the 1954 musical film, White Christmas, which starred Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Crosby's single of "White Christmas" was recognized as the best-selling single in any music category for more than fifty years. Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has sold additional millions of copies as part of numerous compilation albums, including his best-selling
album Merry Christmas, which was first released as an LP in 1949.

The most familiar version of "White Christmas" is not the one Crosby originally recorded for Holiday Inn. Crosby was called back to the Decca studios on March 19, 1947, to re-record "White Christmas" as a result of damage to the 1942 master due to its frequent use. Every effort was made to reproduce the original Decca recording session, once again including the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers. The resulting re-issue is the one that has become most familiar to the public.

"White Christmas" won Berlin the Academy Award for Best Music in an Original Song, one of seven Oscar nominations he received over the course of his career. He is the only winner in the history of the award to find his own name in the envelope on Oscar night.

His friend and fellow songwriter Jule Styne said of him, "It's easy to be clever. But the really clever thing is to be simple." Asked to define Berlin's place in American music, Jerome Kern said he had none: "Irving Berlin is American music."

PERSONAL LIFE

Berlin was married twice. His first wife, singer Dorothy Goetz, sister of songwriter E. Ray Goetz, contracted pneumonia and typhoid fever on their honeymoon to Cuba, and died five months after their wedding in 1912 at the age of twenty. Her death inspired Berlin's song "When I Lost You", which became one of his earliest hits. Curiously, a year before Dorothy Berlin's death, Irving Berlin, E. Ray Goetz, and Ted Snyder co-wrote a song called "There's a Girl in Havana".

His second wife was Ellin Mackay, a devout Irish-American Catholic and heiress to the Comstock Lode mining fortune, as well as an avant-garde writer who had been published in The New Yorker. They were married in 1926, against the wishes of both his family, who objected to religious intermarriage, and her father, Clarence Mackay, a prominent Roman Catholic layman, who disinherited her. Without a dispensation from the Church, the two were joined in a civil ceremony on January 4, 1926, and were immediately snubbed by society: Ellin was immediately disinvited from the wedding of her friend Consuelo Vanderbilt, although Vanderbilt was not a Catholic. Finances were not a problem, however: Berlin assigned her the rights to his song "Always" which yielded her a huge and steady income.

The couple had three daughters—Mary Ellin Barrett, Linda Emmett, and Elizabeth Peters — and a son, Irving Berlin, Jr., who died as an infant on Christmas Day.

Berlin's patriotism was real, and deep. Too old for military service when his country entered World War II in 1941, he devoted his time and energy to writing new patriotic songs, such as "Any Bonds Today?", donating the proceeds from This Is the Army to the army itself, and entertaining the troops with a road company of that show, in which he was a member of the cast. After performances in the United States, the show played in London in 1943, at a time when the city was still under air attack from Germany. After a tour of the British Isles, the show went on to North Africa and then Italy, playing in Rome only weeks after that city was liberated. Next came the Middle East and the Pacific, where performances often took place in close proximity to battle zones. In recognition of this important and courageous contribution to troop morale, at war's end Berlin was awarded the Medal of Merit by President Truman.

A political conservative, Berlin supported the presidential candidacy of General Dwight Eisenhower, and his song "I Like Ike" featured prominently in the Eisenhower campaign. In his later years he became conservative in his views on music, as well; he had no use for the new styles sweeping through American popular music in the 1950s and 1960s, such as rock 'n' roll, and he virtually gave up songwriting after the failure of Mr. President in 1962. In 1968, Berlin was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Becoming a virtual recluse in his last years, Berlin did not attend the 100th birthday party held in his honor. However, he did attend the centennial celebrations for the Statue of Liberty in 1986.

Berlin died of a heart attack in New York City at the age of 101 and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.

IRVINGBERLIN.COM
http://www.irvingberlin.com/

IRVING AT PBS' GREAT PERFORMANCES
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/songbook/multimedia/bio_berlin.html

IRVING AT PARLOR SONGS
http://www.parlorsongs.com/bios/berlin/iberlin.asp

CLIPS

IRVING SINGING "OH HOW I HATE TO GET UP IN THE MORNING" FROM THE 1943 MOVIE IN THE ARMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71smG5d29to

CHEEK TO CHEEK FROM LOVES LABOURS LOST
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0uFRYpceHg&feature=related

BERLIN TRIBUTE FROM A CAROL BURNETT SPECIAL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qr-zlASwgw

1982 OSCAR TRIBUTE TO IRVING BERLIN PART 1 AND 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7KZ1CW_N7Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH5tSDBH5gs

WHITE CHRISTMAS BY IRVING BY BING CROSBY AND MARJORIE REYNOLDS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1GPxcxrBkI

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

May 3rd Bing

kubbie — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:26:48 GMT

Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death in 1977.

One of the first multimedia stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby held a nearly unrivaled command of record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses. He is cited among the most popular musical acts in history and is currently the most electronically recorded human voice in history. Crosby is also credited as being the major inspiration for most of the male singers of the era that followed him, including Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also during 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music. Clarinetist Artie Shaw described Crosby as "the first hip white person born in the United States."

Crosby exerted an important influence on the development of the postwar recording industry. In 1947, he invested US$50,000 in the Ampex company, which developed the world's first commercial reel-to-reel tape recorder, and Crosby became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings on magnetic tape. He gave one of the first Ampex Model 200 recorders to his friend, musician Les Paul, which led directly to Paul's invention of multitrack recording. Along with Frank Sinatra, he was one of the principal backers behind the famous United Western Recorders studio complex in Los Angeles.

In 1962, Crosby was the first person to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

EARLY LIFE

Harry Lillis Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington, on May 3, 1903, in a house his father built (1112 North J Street). His family moved to Spokane, Washington in 1906 to find work.

He was the fourth of seven children: five boys, Larry (1895–1975), Everett (1896–1966), Ted (1900–1973), Harry 'Bing' (1903–1977), and Bob (1913–1993); and two girls, Catherine (1905–1988) and Mary Rose (1907–1990). His parents were English-American Harry Lincoln Crosby (1870–1950), a bookkeeper, and Irish-American Catherine Helen (affectionately known as Kate) Harrigan (1873–1964), a daughter of a builder from County Mayo in Ireland. His paternal ancestors, Thomas Prence and Patience Brewster, were born in England and immigrated to the U.S. in the 17th century; Brewster's family came over on the Mayflower.

In 1910, Crosby was forever renamed. The six-year-old Harry Lillis discovered a full-page feature in the Sunday edition of the Spokesman-Review, "The Bingville Bugle." The "Bugle," written by humorist Newton Newkirk, was a parody of a hillbilly newsletter complete with gossipy tidbits, minstrel quips, creative spelling, and mock ads. A neighbor, 15-year-old Valentine Hobart, shared Crosby's enthusiasm for "The Bugle," and noting Crosby's laugh, took a liking to him and called him "Bingo from Bingville." The last vowel was dropped and the name shortened to "Bing," which stuck.

In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's "Auditorium," where he witnessed some of the finest acts of the day, including Al Jolson, who held Crosby spellbound with his ad-libbing and spoofs of Hawaiian songs. Crosby would later say, "To me, he was the greatest entertainer who ever lived."

In the fall of 1920, Bing enrolled in the Jesuit-run Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, with the intention of becoming a lawyer. He maintained a B+ average. Bing was a prankster. School lore says he once pushed a piano off the top of a dormitory, a story that is apocryphal, since he left school the year before the dormitory was built.

While at Gonzaga, he sent away for a set of mail-order drums. After much practice, he soon became good enough and was invited to join a local band made up of mostly local high school kids called the "Musicaladers," managed by Al Rinker. He made so much money doing this that he decided to drop out of school during his final year to pursue a career in show business.

POPULAR SUCCESS
Music

In 1926, while singing at Los Angeles Metropolitan Theatre, Crosby and his vocal duo partner Al Rinker caught the eye of Paul Whiteman, arguably the most famous bandleader at the time. Hired for $150 a week, they made their debut on December 6, 1926 at the Tivoli Theatre (Chicago). Their first recording, "I've Got The Girl," with Don Clark's Orchestra, was issued by Columbia and did them no vocal favors, as it sounded like they were singing in a key much too high for them. It was later revealed that the 78rpm was recorded at a speed slower than it should have been, which increased the pitch when played at 78rpm.

As popular as the Crosby and Rinker duo was, Whiteman added another member to the group, pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris. Whiteman dubbed them The Rhythm Boys, and they joined the Whiteman vocal team, working and recording with musicians Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, and Eddie Lang and singers Mildred Bailey and Hoagy Carmichael.

Crosby soon became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys, not to mention Whiteman's band, and in 1928 had his first number one hit, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Ol' Man River." However, his repeated youthful peccadilloes and growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman forced him, along with the Rhythm Boys, to leave the band and join the Gus Arnheim Orchestra. After signing with Brunswick Records and recording under Jack Kapp, the Rhythm Boys were increasingly pushed to the background as the vocal emphasis focused on Bing. Fellow member of The Rhythm Boys Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby’s subsequent hits including "At Your Command," "I Surrender, Dear," and "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams"; however, shortly after this, the members of the band had a falling out and split, setting the stage for Crosby's solo career.

As the 1930s unfolded, it became clear that Bing was the number one man, vocally speaking. Ten of the top 50 songs for 1931 either featured Bing solo or with others. Apart from the short-lived "Battle of the Baritones" with Russ Columbo, "Bing Was King," signing long-term deals with Jack Kapp's new record company Decca and starring in his first full-length features, 1932's The Big Broadcast, the first of 55 such films in which he received top billing. He appeared in a total of 79 pictures.

Around this time, Bing made his solo debut on radio, co-starring with The Carl Fenton Orchestra on a popular CBS radio show and by 1936, replacing his former boss, Paul Whiteman, as the host of NBC's Kraft Music Hall, a weekly radio program where he would remain for the next ten years.

He was thus able to take popular singing beyond the kind of "belting" associated with a performer like Ali Schuette, who had to reach the back seats in New York theatres without the aid of the microphone. With Crosby, as Henry Pleasants noted in The Great American Popular Singers, something new had entered American music, something that might be called "singing in American," with conversational ease. The oddity of this new sound led to the epithet "crooner."

Crosby gave great emphasis to live appearances before American troops fighting in the European Theater. He also learned how to pronounce German from written scripts and would read them in propaganda broadcasts intended for the German forces. The nickname "der Bingle" for him was understood to have become current among German listeners, and came to be used by his English-speaking fans. In a poll of U.S. troops at the close of WWII, Crosby topped the list as the person who did the most for G.I. morale, beating out President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and Bob Hope.

Crosby's biggest musical hit was his recording of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," which he introduced through a 1942 Christmas-season radio broadcast and the movie Holiday Inn. Bing's recording hit the charts on 3 October 1942, and rose to #1 on 31 October, where it stayed for 11 weeks. In the following years, Bing's recording hit the Top 30 pop charts another 16 times, even topping the charts again in 1945 and January 1947. The song remains Bing's best-selling recording, and the best-selling single and best-selling song of all time. In 1998, after a long absence, his 1947 version hit the charts in Britain, and as of 2006 remains the North American holiday-season standard. According to Guinness World Records, Bing Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has "sold over 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles."

MOTION PICTURES

According to ticket sales, Bing Crosby is, at 1,077,900,000 tickets sold, the third most popular actor of all-time behind Clark Gable and John Wayne. Crosby is also, according to Quigley Publishing Company's International Motion Picture Almanac, tied for second on the "All Time Number One Stars List" with three other actors: Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, and Burt Reynolds. Crosby's most popular film, White Christmas, grossed $30 million in 1954, which, when adjusted for inflation, equals $233 million in 2004 dollars. Crosby also won an Academy Award as Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944 and was critically acclaimed for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl. He also partnered with Bob Hope in seven popular Road to comedies between 1940 and 1962.

By the late 1950s, Crosby's popularity had peaked, and the adolescence of the baby boom generation began to affect record sales to younger customers. In 1960, Crosby starred in High Time, a collegiate comedy with Fabian and Tuesday Weld that foretold the emerging gap between older Crosby fans and a new generation of films and music.

Style

Bing Crosby perfected an idea that Al Jolson had hinted at, namely that the popular performer didn't have to limit himself to a mere series of shticks but could be a genuine artist — in this case, a musician. Before Crosby, art was art and pop was pop; opera singers worried about staying in tune and reaching the upper balcony, vaudevillians concerned themselves with their costumes and facial expressions.

Crosby rendered the difference between the two irrelevant. Where earlier recording artists had displayed strictly one-dimensional attitudes, Crosby not only perfected the fully rounded persona, but brought with it the technical ability of a true concert artist. Crosby projected with a majestic sense of intonation that afforded Tin Pan Alley the musical stature of European classics and a jazz influenced time that made him both the dominant voice of both the Jazz age and the Swing era.

Crosby also elaborated on a further idea of Al Jolson's, one that Frank Sinatra would ultimately extend further: phrasing, or more specifically, the art of making a song's lyric ring true. "I used to tell (Sinatra) over and over," said Tommy Dorsey, "there's only one singer you ought to listen to and his name is Crosby. All that matters to him is the words, and that's the only thing that ought to for you, too."

The greatest trick of Crosby’s virtuosity was covering it up. It is often said that Crosby made his singing and acting "look easy," or as if it were no work at all: he simply was the character he portrayed, and his singing, being a direct extension of conversation, came just as naturally to him as talking, or even breathing. Journalist Donald Freeman said of Crosby, "There is only one Bing Crosby and — the time has come now to face the issue squarely — he happens to be that unique, awesome creature, an artist."

CAREER STATISTICS

Bing Crosby's sales and chart statistics place him among the most popular and successful musical acts of the 20th century. Although the Billboard charts operated under a different methodology for the bulk of Crosby's career, his numbers remain astonishing: 1,700 recordings, 383 of those in the top 30, and of those, 41 hit #1. Crosby had separate charting singles in every calendar year between 1931 and 1954; the annual re-release of White Christmas extended that streak to 1957. He had 24 separate popular singles in 1939 alone. Billboard's statistician Joel Whitburn determined Crosby to be America's most successful act of the 1930s, and again in the 1940s.

For 15 years (1934, 1937, 1940, 1943-1954), Crosby was among the top 10 in box office draw, and for five of those years (1944-49) he was the largest in the world. He sang four Academy Award-winning songs — "Sweet Leilani" (1937), "White Christmas" (1942), "Swinging on a Star" (1944), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (1951) — and won an acting Oscar for Going My Way (1944).

He also collected 23 gold and platinum records in his career, according to Joseph Murrells, author of the book, "Million Selling Records." It should be noted that the Recording Industry Association of America did not institute its gold record certification program until 1958, by which point Crosby's record sales were barely a blip, so gold records prior to that year were awarded by an artist's record company. Universal Music, current owner of Crosby's Decca catalog, has never requested RIAA certification for any of his hit singles.

In 1962, Crosby became the first recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been inducted into the respective halls of fame for both radio and popular music. His overall music sales are estimated at between 500,000,000 (five hundred million) to 900,000,000 (nine hundred million). Bing is a member of that exclusive club of the biggest record sellers that include Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and The Beatles.

for info on his Entrepreneurship click here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_Crosby#Entrepreneurship

for his messy personalife
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_Crosby#Personal_life

LINKS
Bing at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001078/

Bing at TCM
http://www.tcmdb.com/participant/participant.jsp?participantId=41424

BingCrosby.com
http://www.bingcrosby.com/

International Club Crosby Fan Club
http://www.crosby-circle.org.uk/

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 6 replies

MAY 10TH Fred Astaire

kubbie — Sun, 11 May 2008 01:25:05 GMT

Crooner and Dance man

FRED AND GINGER IN FLYING DOWN TO RIO
http://www.doctormacro1.info/Film%20Clips/F/Flying%20Down%20to%20Rio_01.wmv

Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska, was an Academy Award-winning American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of seventy-six years, during which he made thirty-one musical films. He is particularly associated with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made ten films.

LISTEN TO FRED SING 31 DIFFERENT SONGS HERE
http://www.doctormacro.info/Movie%20Star%20Pages/Astaire,%20Fred2.htm

George Balanchine and Rudolph Nureyev rated him the greatest dancer of the twentieth century, and he is generally acknowledged to have been the most influential dancer in the history of film and television musicals. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.

1899-1917 EARLY LIFE AND VAUDEVILLE

His father, Frederic "Fritz" Austerlitz, was an immigrant from Linz, Austria (a brewer by trade) and a Catholic; his mother Johanna "Ann" Geilus was born in the United States to Lutheran German parents; Astaire became an Episcopalian in 1912.

After arriving in New York City, Frederic moved to Omaha, Nebraska hoping to find work in his trade and he landed a job with the Storz Brewing Company. Shortly there after he met and married Ann.

Adele was their first born and she quickly revealed herself to be an instinctive dancer and singer. Early on, Ann dreamed of escaping Omaha by virtue of her children's talents. She envisioned a "brother-and-sister act", which was fairly common to vaudeville at the time. Although he refused dance lessons at first, Fred Jr. easily mimicked his sister's steps. Soon he took up the piano, the accordion, and the clarinet.

When their father became suddenly unemployed, the family moved to New York City to launch the show business career of the children. Adele and Fred Jr. had a teasing rivalry but fortunately they quickly acknowledged their individual strengths — his being durability and hers greater overall talent.

Astaire was a name taken by him and his sister in 1905, when they were taking instruction in dance, speaking, and singing in preparation for developing an act. Family legend attributes it to an uncle surnamed "L'Astaire".

Finally, their first act took shape and was called Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty. In it, Fred wore a top hat and tails in the first half and a lobster outfit in the second. The goofy act debuted in Keyport, New Jersey in a "tryout theater", and the local paper wrote, "the Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville."

After a short time, as a result of their father's salesmanship, Fred and Adele landed a major contract and they played the famed Orpheum circuit throughout the United States, including Omaha. Soon Adele grew to at least three inches taller than Fred and the pair began to look incongruous. The family decided to take a two-year break from show business, also to avoid trouble from the Gerry Society and the child labor laws of the time.

Their career resumed with mixed fortunes, though with increasing skill and polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their routines. From Aurelia Coccia, they learned the tango, waltz, and other ballroom dances popularized by Vernon and Irene Castle.

Some sources state that the Astaire siblings appeared in a 1915 film entitled Fanchon, the Cricket, starring Mary Pickford, but the Astaires have consistently denied this.

While on the hunt for new music and dance ideas, Fred Astaire first met George Gershwin, who was working as a song plugger in Jerome H. Remick's, in 1916. Their chance meeting was to have profound consequences for the subsequent careers of both artists.

Astaire was always on the lookout for new steps he spotted on the circuit and was starting to demonstrate his ceaseless quest for novelty and perfection. Finally, they broke into Broadway with Over The Top (1917), a patriotic revue.

THE SCENE "TRIPLETTS WAH" FROM BAND WAGON WITH NANETTE FABRAY AND Jack Buchanan
http://www.doctormacro1.info/Film%20Clips/B/Band%20Wagon,%20The_01.wmv

1917-1933 STAGE CAREER BROADWAY AND LONDON

They followed up with several more shows and of their work in The Passing Show of 1918, Heywood Broun wrote "In an evening in which there was an abundance of good dancing, Fred Astaire stood out...He and his partner, Adele Astaire, made the show pause early in the evening with a beautiful loose-limbed dance."

By this time, Astaire's dancing skill was beginning to outshine his sister's, though she still set the tone of their act and her sparkle and humor drew much of the attention, due in part to Fred's careful preparation and strong supporting choreography.

During the 1920s, Fred and Adele appeared on Broadway and on the London stage in shows such as George and Ira Gershwin's Lady Be Good (1924) and Funny Face (1927), and later in The Band Wagon (1931), winning popular acclaim with the theater crowd on both sides of the Atlantic.

After the close of Funny Face, the Astaires went to Hollywood for a screen test (now lost) at Paramount studios but were not considered suitable for films.

They split in 1932, when Adele married her first husband, Lord Charles Cavendish, a son of the Duke of Devonshire. Fred Astaire went on to achieve success on his own on Broadway and in London with Gay Divorce, while considering offers from Hollywood. The end of the partnership was traumatic for Astaire but stimulated him to expand his range. Free of the brother-sister constraints of the former pairing, and with a new partner Claire Luce, he created a romantic partnered dance to Cole Porter's "Night and Day", which had been written for Gay Divorce. This number was credited with the success of the stage play and, when recreated in the film version of the play The Gay Divorcee (1934), ushered in a new era in filmed dance. Recently, film footage taken by Fred Stone, of Astaire performing in Gay Divorce with Luce's successor Dorothy Stone in New York in 1933 was uncovered by dancer and historian Betsy Baytos, and now represents the earliest extant performance footage of Astaire.

WITH CYD CHARISSE FROM BAND WAGON DANCING IN CENTRAL PARK
http://www.doctormacro1.info/Film%20Clips/B/Band%20Wagon,%20The_02.wmv

1933-1939 ASTAIRE AND ROGERS RKO

According to Hollywood folklore, a screen test report on Astaire for RKO Pictures, now lost along with the test, is supposed to have read: "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little." The producer of the Astaire-Rogers pictures Pandro S. Berman claimed he had never heard the story in the 1930s and that it only emerged years later.:7 Astaire, in a 1980 interview on ABC's 20/20 with Barbara Walters, insisted that the report had actually read: "Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances". In any case, the test was clearly disappointing, and David O. Selznick, who had signed Astaire to RKO and commissioned the test, described it as "wretched" in a 1933 studio memo.:7 However, this did not affect RKO's plans for Astaire, first lending him for a few days to MGM in 1933 for his Hollywood debut, where he appeared as himself dancing with Joan Crawford in the successful musical film Dancing Lady.

On his return to RKO Pictures, he got fifth billing alongside Ginger Rogers in the 1933 Dolores Del Rio vehicle Flying Down to Rio. In a review, Variety magazine attributed its massive success to Astaire's presence: "The main point of Flying Down to Rio is the screen promise of Fred Astaire ... He's assuredly a bet after this one, for he's distinctly likable on the screen, the mike is kind to his voice and as a dancer he remains in a class by himself. The latter observation will be no news to the profession, which has long admitted that Astaire starts dancing where the others stop hoofing."

Although Astaire was initially very reluctant to become part of another dance team, he was persuaded by the obvious public appeal of the Astaire-Rogers pairing. That partnership, and the choreography of Astaire and Hermes Pan, helped make dancing an important element of the Hollywood film musical. Astaire and Rogers made ten films together, including The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), and Carefree (1938). Six out of the nine musicals he created became the biggest moneymakers for RKO; all of the films brought a certain prestige and artistry that all studios coveted at the time. Their partnership elevated them both to stardom; as Katharine Hepburn reportedly said, "He gives her class and she gives him sex."

Astaire easily received the benefits of a percentage of the film's profits, something extremely rare in actors' contracts at that time; and complete autonomy over how the dances would be presented, allowing him to revolutionize dance on film.

Astaire is credited with two important innovations in early film musicals. First, he insisted that the (almost stationary) camera film a dance routine in a single shot, if possible, while holding the dancers in full view at all times. Astaire famously quipped: "Either the camera will dance, or I will." Astaire maintained this policy from The Gay Divorcee (1934) onwards, until overruled by Francis Ford Coppola, who directed Finian's Rainbow (1968), his first film musical. Astaire's style of dance sequences thus contrasted with the Busby Berkeley musicals, which were known for dance sequences filled with extravagant aerial shots, quick takes, and zooms on certain areas of the body, such as the arms or legs. Second, Astaire was adamant that all song and dance routines be seamlessly integrated into the plotlines of the film. Instead of using dance as spectacle as Busby Berkeley did, Astaire used it to move the plot along. Typically, an Astaire picture would include a solo performance by Astaire — which he termed his "sock solo" — a partnered comedy dance routine, and a partnered romantic dance routine.

Dance commentators Arlene Croce , Hannah Hyam and John Mueller consider Rogers to have been Astaire's greatest dance partner, while recognizing that some of his later partners displayed superior technical dance skills, a view shared by Hermes Pan and Stanley Donen. Film critic Pauline Kael adopts a more neutral stance, while Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel writes "The nostalgia surrounding Rogers-Astaire tends to bleach out other partners."

Mueller sums up Rogers' abilities as follows: "Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began ... the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable." According to Astaire, "Ginger had never danced with a partner before. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong."

However, Astaire was still unwilling to have his career tied exclusively to any partnership, having already been linked to his sister Adele on stage. He even negotiated with RKO to strike out on his own with A Damsel in Distress in 1937, unsuccessfully as it turned out. He returned to make two more films with Rogers, Carefree (1938) and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). When both lost money, Astaire left RKO, while Rogers remained and went on to become the studio's hottest property in the early forties. They were reunited in 1949 for their final outing, The Barkleys of Broadway.

1940-1947 DRIFTING TO EARLY RETIREMENT

In 1939, Astaire left RKO to freelance and pursue new film opportunities, with mixed though generally successful outcomes. Throughout this period, Astaire continued to value the input of choreographic collaborators and, unlike the 1930s when he worked almost exclusively with Hermes Pan, he tapped the talents of other choreographers in an effort to continually innovate. His first post-Ginger dance partner was the redoubtable Eleanor Powell - considered the finest female tap-dancer of her generation - in Broadway Melody of 1940 where they performed a celebrated extended dance routine to Cole Porter's Begin the Beguine. He played alongside Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn (1942) and later Blue Skies (1946) but in spite of the enormous financial success of both, was reportedly dissatisfied with roles where he lost the girl to Crosby. The former film is particularly remembered for his virtuoso solo dance to "Let's Say it with Firecrackers" while the latter film featured an innovative song and dance routine to a song indelibly associated with him: "Puttin on the Ritz". Other partners during this period included Paulette Goddard in Second Chorus (1940), in which he dance-conducted the Artie Shaw orchestra.

He made two pictures with Rita Hayworth: the first You'll Never Get Rich (1941) catapulted Hayworth to stardom and provided Astaire with his first opportunity to integrate Latin-American dance idioms into his style, taking advantage of Hayworth's professional Latin dance pedigree. His second film with Hayworth, You Were Never Lovelier (1942) was equally successful, and featured a duet to Kern's "I'm Old Fashioned" which became the centerpiece of Jerome Robbins' 1983 New York City Ballet tribute to Astaire. He next appeared opposite the seventeen-year-old Joan Leslie in the wartime drama The Sky's the Limit (1943) where he introduced Arlen and Mercer's "One for My Baby" while dancing on a bar counter in a dark and troubled routine. This film which was choreographed by Astaire alone and achieved modest box office success, represented an important departure for Astaire from his usual charming happy-go-lucky screen persona and confused contemporary critics.

His next partner, Lucille Bremer, featured in two lavish vehicles, both directed by Vincente Minnelli: the fantasy Yolanda and the Thief which featured an avant-garde surrealistic ballet, and the musical revue Ziegfeld Follies (1946) which featured a memorable teaming of Astaire with Gene Kelly to "The Babbit and the Bromide", a Gershwin song Astaire had introduced with his sister Adele back in 1927. While Follies was a hit, Yolanda bombed at the box office and Astaire, ever insecure and believing his career was beginning to falter surprised his audiences by announcing his retirement during the production of Blue Skies (1946), nominating "Puttin on the Ritz" as his farewell dance.

After announcing his retirement in 1946, Astaire concentrated on his horse-racing interests and went on to found the Fred Astaire Dance Studios in 1947 — which he subsequently sold in 1966.

1948-1957 PRODUCTIVE MGM YEARS AND SECOND RETIREMENT

However, he soon returned to the big screen to replace the injured Gene Kelly in Easter Parade opposite Judy Garland and Ann Miller, and for a final reunion with Rogers in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949). He then went on to make more musicals throughout the 1950s: Let's Dance (1950) with Betty Hutton, Royal Wedding (1951) with Jane Powell, Three Little Words (1950) and The Belle of New York (1952) with Vera-Ellen, The Band Wagon (1953) and Silk Stockings (1957) with Cyd Charisse, Daddy Long Legs (1955) with Leslie Caron, and Funny Face (1957) with Audrey Hepburn. His legacy at this point was thirty musical films in twenty-five years. Afterwards, Astaire announced that he was retiring from dancing in film to concentrate on dramatic acting, scoring rave reviews for the nuclear war drama On the Beach (1959).

1958-1981 TELEVISED DANCING AND STRAIGHT ACTING

Astaire did not retire from dancing completely. He made a series of four highly rated, Emmy-winning musical specials for television in 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1968, each featuring Barrie Chase, with whom Astaire enjoyed an Indian summer of dance creativity. The first of these programs, 1958's An Evening with Fred Astaire, won nine Emmy Awards,[25] including "Best Single Performance by an Actor" and "Most Outstanding Single Program of the Year." It was also noteworthy for being the first major broadcast to be prerecorded on color videotape, and has recently been restored.

Astaire's last major musical film was Finian's Rainbow (1968), in which he shed his white tie and tails to play an Irish rogue who believes if he buries a crock of gold in the shadows of Fort Knox it will multiply. His dance partner was Petula Clark, who portrayed his skeptical daughter. He admitted to being as nervous about singing with her as she confessed to being apprehensive about dancing with him. But unfortunately for him, the film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, was a box-office failure.

Astaire continued to act into the 1970s, appearing on television as the father of Robert Wagner's character of Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief and in films such as The Towering Inferno (1974), for which he received his only Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actor. He voiced the mailman narrator in 1970's classic animated film, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. He appeared in the first two That's Entertainment! documentaries in the mid-1970s. In the second, aged seventy-six, he performed a number of song-and-dance routines with Gene Kelly -- which marked his last dance performances in a musical film. In the Summer of 1975, he made three albums in London, Attitude Dancing, They Can't Take These Away From Me, and A Couple of Song and Dance Men, the last an album of duets with Bing Crosby. In 1976, he played a supporting role as a dog owner in the cult movie The Amazing Dobermans, co-starring Barbara Eden and James Franciscus. In 1978, Fred Astaire co-starred with Helen Hayes in a well-received television film, A Family Upside Down, in which they play an elderly couple coping with failing health. Astaire won an Emmy Award for his performance. He made a well-publicized guest appearance on the science fiction TV series Battlestar Galactica in 1979, as Chameleon, the maybe-father of Starbuck, in the installment "The Man With Nine Lives", a role written for him by Donald P. Bellisario after Astaire asked his agent to obtain a role for him in that series program. His final film role was the 1981 adaptation of Peter Straub's novel Ghost Story. This horror film was also the last for two of his most prominent castmates, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

WORKING METHOD AND INFLUENCE

Astaire was a virtuoso dancer, able to convey lighthearted adventuresomeness or deep emotion when called for. His technical control and sense of rhythm were astonishing. Long after the photography for the solo dance number "I Want To Be A Dancin' Man" was completed for the 1952 feature "The Belle Of New York", it was decided that Astaire's humble costume and the threadbare stage set were inadequate and the entire sequence was re-shot. The 1994 documentary "That's Entertainment! Part III" shows the two performances side-by-side in splitscreen. Frame for frame, the two performances are absolutely identical, down to the subtlest gesture.

Astaire's execution of a dance routine was prized for its elegance, grace, originality and precision. He drew from a variety of influences, including tap and other African-American rhythms, classical dance and the elevated style of Vernon and Irene Castle, to create a uniquely recognizable dance style which greatly influenced the American Smooth style of ballroom dance, and set standards against which subsequent film dance musicals would be judged. He choreographed all his own routines, usually with the assistance of other choreographers, primarily Hermes Pan.

His perfectionism was legendary, as was his modesty and consideration towards his fellow artists; however, his relentless insistence on rehearsals and retakes was a burden to some. Although he viewed himself as an entertainer first and foremost, his consummate artistry won him the adulation of such twentieth century dance legends as George Balanchine, the Nicholas Brothers, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Bob Fosse, Gregory Hines, Gene Kelly, Rudolph Nureyev, Michael Jackson and Bill Robinson.

PERSONAL LIFE

Always immaculately turned out, Astaire remained something of a male fashion icon even into his later years, eschewing his trademark top hat, white tie and tails (which he always despised) in favor of a breezy casual style of tailored sports jackets, colored shirts, cravates and slacks — the latter usually held up by the idiosyncratic use of an old tie in place of a belt. Astaire was also inspired by Bill "Bojangles" Robinson to do tap dancing as well.

Astaire married for the first time in 1933, to the 25-year-old Phyllis Potter (née Phyllis Livingston Baker, 1908-1954), a Boston-born New York socialite and former wife of Eliphalet Nott Potter III (1906-1981), after pursuing her ardently for roughly two years. Potter's death from lung cancer, at the age of 46, would end 21 years of a blissful marriage and leave Astaire devastated. At the time he would attempt to quit Daddy Long Legs, his current project, making an unprecedented offer to the studio to pay all production costs to date out of pocket — but he ultimately decided to continue with the picture as a means of distracting from his grief (and also because Potter had wanted him to make it). Henceforth, he remained as busy as possible.

In addition to Potter's son, Eliphalet IV, known as Peter, the Astaires had two children, Fred, Jr. (born 1936, he appeared with his father in the movie Midas Run, but became a charter pilot and rancher instead of an actor) and Ava (born 1942, she remains actively involved in promoting her late father's heritage).

Described by his friend David Niven as "a pixie — timid, always warm-hearted, with a penchant for schoolboy jokes", Astaire was a lifelong golf and horse-racing enthusiast, whose horse Triplicate won the 1946 Hollywood Gold Cup. He remained physically active well into his eighties and remarried in 1980, to Robyn Smith, an actress turned champion jockey almost 45 years his junior. Smith was a jockey for Alfred G. Vanderbilt II.

Astaire died on June 22, 1987, from pneumonia at the age of 88 and was interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. One last request of his was to thank his fans for their years of support.

Astaire has never been portrayed on film. He always refused permission for such portrayals, saying, "However much they offer me - and offers come in all the time - I shall not sell. Astaire's will included a clause requesting that no such portrayal ever take place; he commented, "It is there because I have no particular desire to have my life misinterpreted, which it would be."

Musical films
Dancing Lady (1933)
Flying Down to Rio (1933) (*)
The Gay Divorcee (1934) (*)
Roberta (1935) (*)
Top Hat (1935) (*)
Follow the Fleet (1936) (*)
Swing Time (1936) (*)
Shall We Dance (1937) (*)
A Damsel in Distress (1937)
Carefree (1938) (*)
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) (*)
Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
Second Chorus (1940)
You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
Holiday Inn (1942)
You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
(*) w/ Ginger Rogers
The Sky's the Limit (1943)
Yolanda and the Thief (1945)
Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
Blue Skies (1946)
Easter Parade (1948)
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) (*)
Three Little Words (1950)
Let's Dance (1950)
Royal Wedding (1951)
The Belle of New York (1952)
The Band Wagon (1953)
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
Funny Face (1957)
Silk Stockings (1957)
Finian's Rainbow (1968)
That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) (narrator and performer)

Fred at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000001/

Fred at TCM
http://www.tcmdb.com/participant/participant.jsp?participantId=6516

Fred at IBDB
http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=30283

Fred at Reel Classics
http://www.reelclassics.com/Actors/Astaire/astaire.htm

Fred Astaire Dance On Air tribute site
http://themave.com/Astaire/

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Pop-Tart Spotlight May 2nd Lesley Gore

kubbie — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:46:34 GMT

I know she isnt a songbird but know there are a few appreciative listeners here

California Nights (love this song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OgV6o8NjcU

You Dont Own Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmOrWG2FTbg

2005 single Better Angels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBGDtNJeBPA

Lesley Gore (born May 2, 1946 in New York City as Lesley Sue Goldstein) is an American singer-songwriter of the "girl group era". She is perhaps best known for her 1963 pop hit, "It's My Party," which she recorded at the age of 16. Following the hit, she became one of the most recognized teen pop singers of 1963-1967.

Career: 1960s and 1970s

Gore was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey in a Jewish family. She was a junior at the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood when "It's My Party" became a #1 hit.

Her first hit was followed by many others, including "Judy's Turn to Cry" (the sequel to "It's My Party"), "She's a Fool", the proto-feminist "You Don't Own Me", "That's The Way Boys Are", "Maybe I Know", "The Look Of Love" and "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows". Her record producer was Quincy Jones, who would later become one of the most famous producers in American music.

Instead of accepting the television and movie contracts that came her way, Gore chose to attend Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. This limited her public career to weekends and summer vacations, and undoubtedly hurt her career. Nevertheless, throughout the mid-1960s, Gore continued to be one of the most popular female singers in the United States and Canada.

Gore was given first shot at recording "A Groovy Kind of Love", but her then-producer Shelby Singleton refused to let her record a song with the word "groovy" in it; The Mindbenders went on to record the song, and it went to #2 on the Billboard charts.[3] Gore also released "Wedding Bell Blues" as a single in 1969, but her version flopped, while the Fifth Dimension's spent three weeks at #1.

By the late 1960s, her popularity had decreased with the advent of harder-edged psychedelic music. Her last major hit was the Bob Crewe-produced "California Nights", which she performed on the January 19, 1967, episode of the Batman TV series, in which she guest-starred as Pink Pussycat, one of Catwoman's minions, lip-synching to "Maybe Now" and "California Nights"[3] Afterwards, she maintained a lower profile in the music industry, performing at concerts and in cabarets. She also kept busy writing songs, including composing songs for the soundtrack of the 1980 film, Fame, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here on My Own," written with her brother Michael.The song was a Top 20 hit for Irene Cara.

Return to recording in 2005

Gore played concerts and appeared on television throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 2005, she recorded her first album of new material since 1976 (Love Me By Name) — Ever Since — with producer/songwriter Blake Morgan for Engine Company Records (a small independent label). In addition to extensive national radio coverage and critical acclaim from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine, and other national press, three songs from Ever Since have been used in television shows and a film: "Better Angels", in CSI: Miami's fourth season premiere episode, "Words We Don't Say", in an episode of The L Word, and "It's Gone", in the Jeff Lipsky-directed film Flannel Pajamas.

Sexual orientation

Gore announced in 2005 that she is a lesbian. She stated further that she did not know her own orientation until she was in her twenties, and after she discovered that she was a lesbian, she never gave much thought to exposing it publicly, but at the same time she took no great lengths to hide it.

Some commentators consider the lyric content of some albums, notably Someplace Else Now, to contain implicit references to Gore's sexuality. Her altering of known song lyrics was also thought to have implied her orientation as in her album The Canvas Can Do Miracles. On that album she covered the Grease song "You're the One That I Want", altering the line "cause I need a man" to "cause I need a friend".

Gore provided musical aid for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart, which featured a character (played by Bridget Fonda) whose struggles over her sexual orientation were similar to Gore's. Beginning in 2004, Gore could be seen hosting the PBS television series, In the Life, which focused on LGBT issues. Gore currently lives with her partner of over 23 years.

International Fansite
http://www.patswayne.com/lesley/lgore.htm

Youtube Clips

Lesley Gore - It's My Party / It's Judy's Turn To Cry on the Tami Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQf5SkUyn5k

All Of My Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e-yRc73J7A

1963 Its My Party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYJyVEUaC4&feature=related

Sunshine Lollipops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_v468ptuXw

You Dont Own me in French
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbp-7VqDFrU&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

May 1st Kate Smith

kubbie — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:03:23 GMT

Whistle and Blow Your Blues Away - She is so animated and energetic, lots of fun to watch her here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-D4IFC4u5o

more at the bottom

Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a long career in show business, with a radio, TV and recording career that spanned five decades, reaching its most-remembered zenith in the 1940s.

Her musical career began in earnest when she was discovered in 1930 by Columbia Records vice president Ted Collins, who became her longtime partner and manager and who put her on the radio in 1931. She sang the controversial top twenty song of 1931, "That's Why Darkies Were Born". She starred in the 1932 movie Hello Everybody!, with co-stars Randolph Scott and Sally Blane, and in 1943 she sang "God Bless America" in the wartime picture This is the Army. Irving Berlin had written the song in 1918, and it is considered "the second National Anthem" of the United States. Its popularity and constant airplay led Woody Guthrie to pen the original version of "This Land Is Your Land" in protest at the Berlin tune's unquestioning complacency.

Kate began making records in 1926; among her biggest hits were "River, Stay 'Way From My Door" (1931), "The Woodpecker Song" (1940), "The White Cliffs of Dover" (1941), "Rose O'Day" (1941), "I Don't Want to Walk Without You" (1942), "There Goes That Song Again" (1944), "Seems Like Old Times" (1946), and "Now Is the Hour" (1947). Her theme song was "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain", the lyrics of which she helped write. She greeted audiences with "Hello, everybody!" and signed off with "Thanks for listenin'." She made advertising endorsements for Esquire in 1951.

Radio

Her oversized figure made her an occasional object of derision from fellow performers and managers; however, in her later career, some Philadelphia Flyers hockey fans (see Kate Smith statue below) lovingly said about her performances before games, "it ain't BEGUN 'til the fat lady sings!" Smith, who weighed 235 pounds at the age of 30[1] was unfazed, and titled her 1938 autobiography Living in a Great Big Way. She credited Ted Collins, who also gave her the break into the radio business, with helping her overcome her self-consciousness, writing, "Ted Collins was the first man who regarded me as a singer, and didn't even seem to notice that I was a big girl,"[2] She noted, "I'm big, and I sing, and boy, when I sing, I sing all over!"[3]

Smith was a major star of radio, usually backed by Jack Miller's Orchestra. She began in 1931 with her twice-a-week NBC series, Kate Smith Sings (which quickly expanded to six shows a week), followed by a series of shows for CBS: Kate Smith and Her Swanee Music (1931-33), sponsored by La Palina Cigars; The Kate Smith Matinee (1934–35); The Kate Smith New Star Revue (1934–35); Kate Smith's Coffee Time (1935–36), sponsored by A&P; and The Kate Smith A&P Bandwagon (1936–37).

For eight years (1937–45), The Kate Smith Hour was a leading radio variety show, offering comedy, music and drama with appearances by top personalities of films and theater. The nationwide audience was introduced to comedy by the show's resident comics, Abbott and Costello and Henny Youngman, while a series of sketches led to The Aldrich Family as a spin-off in 1940. She continued into the 1950s on the Mutual Broadcasting System, CBS, ABC, and NBC, doing both music and talk shows.

Kate Smith Statue

An unusual part of her career began on December 11, 1969, when the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team played her rendition of "God Bless America" before the game. Philadelphia beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-3. The team would begin to play the song before home games every once in a while, and the perception developed that the team was more successful on these occasions, so the tradition grew.

On October 11, 1973, she made a surprise appearance at the Flyers' home opener to perform the song in person prior to another game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and received a tremendous reception. The Flyers won that game by a 2-0 score.

She again performed the song at the Spectrum in front of a capacity crowd of 17,007 excited fans before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals on May 19, 1974, at which the Flyers clinched their first of two back-to-back Stanley Cups, winning that playoff series against the Boston Bruins 4 games to 2, with Bernie Parent shutting the Bruins out 1-0 in that game.

Smith also performed live at these Flyers home games: May 13, 1975, where the Flyers beat the New York Islanders by a score of 4-1 to win Game 7 of the Stanley Cup semi-finals, and on May 16, 1976, before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals where the Flyers lost to the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 5-3 and were swept by the Canadiens in that series.

The Flyers' record when "God Bless America" is played or sung in person stands at a remarkable 74 wins, 19 losses, and 4 ties.[4] Ms. Smith and her song remain a special part of Flyers' history. In 1987, the team erected a statue of Smith outside their arena at the time, the Spectrum, in her memory. The Flyers will still show a video of her singing "God Bless America" in lieu of "The Star Spangled Banner" for good luck before important games, most recently before their playoff victory over the Montreal Canadiens on April 30, 2008. Often, the video of her performance is accompanied by Lauren Hart, daughter of the late Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster, Gene Hart, longtime voice of the Flyers.

In 1982, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.

Her rendition of "God Bless America" is also played during the 7th inning stretch of most New York Yankees home games.

Proceeds or money from her performances of "God Bless America" are donated to the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts.

Death

Kate Smith, who never married, died of diabetes in 1986 at age 79 in Raleigh, North Carolina, several years after converting to Roman Catholicism. She is interred in a private mausoleum at Saint Agnes Cemetery in Lake Placid, Essex County, New York. In 1999, she was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

LINKS

Kate Smith Commemorative Society
http://www.katesmith.org/

Kate at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0808889/

Kates page at the Philadelphia Flyers History site
http://www.flyershistory.net/cgi-bin/kate.cgi

Youtube videos

It Was So Beautiful 1932
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Ip4Z2ESq4&feature=related

We're Just In Love with Tennessee Ernie Ford
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7upam47CcY

You'll Never Know Sweetheart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAmsPeHt80&feature=related

When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLtDfiPKmq4&feature=related

God Bless America song to images
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USMGOy6ygDg

Medley with Dean Martin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ybyQyoi7I&feature=related

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

Satchmo tune...

Robowan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:47:21 GMT

I was watching my Betty Boop cartoons last night and the one with Louis Armstrong came on. It made me realize I don't have that old version of 'I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal, You" . I have lots of Armstrong's work, even a four CD boxed set, yet I don't have that song on any of them. Can anyone tell me where I can find that song on CD??

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 6 replies

Brainstorming:Place/Setting 1907 & you're in a Brothel

kubbie — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:27:09 GMT

What type of music is playing? Whether certain composer/writers or songs themselves. So far all I can come up with is maybe some Scott Joplin.

Any thoughts or suggestion would be appreciated.

I am trying to pull together some music to play during a evening where everyone attending will be portraying famous madames and ladies or ill repute from the 1890's to the early teens.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 4 replies

April 12th Spotlight Tiny Tim, Helen Forrest, Ann Miller and Lilly Pons

kubbie — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:13:13 GMT

Lily Pons (April 12, 1898 – February 13, 1976) was a French-American coloratura soprano.

Born Alice Joséphine Pons in Draguignan near Cannes, Pons first studied piano at the Paris Conservatory, winning the First Prize at the age of 15. During World War I, she played piano and sang for soldiers in Paris hospitals. She also sang at receptions in Cannes. In 1925, encouraged by soprano Dyna Beumer, she started taking singing lessons from Alberti de Gorostiaga in Paris.

She successfully made her operatic debut in the title role of Léo Delibes' Lakmé at Mulhouse in 1928 and went on to sing several coloratura roles in French provincial opera houses.

for complete bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Pons

The Bell Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P7ufSXXk68

Helen Forrest (April 12, 1917–July 11, 1999) was one of the most popular female jazz vocalists during America's Big Band era. She was born Helen Fogel to a Jewish family in Atlantic City, New Jersey on April 12, 1917. She first sang with her brother's band at the age of 10, and later began her career singing on CBS radio under the name Bonnie Blue.

Forrest achieved fame when bandleader Artie Shaw hired her in 1939. Shaw was looking for new talent, since vocalist Billie Holiday had left the band the previous year. Forrest recorded 38 singles with Shaw's band. Two of her biggest hits with Shaw were the songs "They Say" and "All the Things You Are."

In late 1939, Forrest left Shaw and joined Benny Goodman, with whom she recorded a number of celebrated songs, including the hit song, "The Man I Love." She recorded with Nat King Cole and Lionel Hampton in 1940. In 1941, Forrest was hired by Harry James. It was with the Harry James Orchestra that she recorded what are arguably her most popular numbers, including "I Had the Craziest Dream" and "I Don't Want to Walk Without You." Forrest also dated James, until he met the woman he would later marry, Betty Grable.

Because of her involvement with most of the popular bands of the big band era, Forrest was known as "the voice of the name bands."

Forrest left Harry James in late 1943 in pursuit of a solo career. In the late 1940s, she sang on Dick Haymes' radio show. It was with Haymes that she recorded the song, "Some sunday morning." After a dip in recording in the 1950s, Forrest sang with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra, led by Sam Donahue in the early 1960s. She continued to sing in supper clubs in the 1970s and 1980s. Her final album was released in 1983.

She kept singing until the early 1990s, when arthritis forced her into retirement. Over the course of her career, she recorded more than 500 songs. Forrest also acted in several musical films, including Bathing Beauty and Two Girls and a Sailor, which both came out in 1944. She was a civil rights activist, as well.

Helen Forrest - Suppertime 1939
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY8aWJOysZ4

Helen Forrest - Thanks for ev'rything
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUc10xzVo2o

Ann Miller (April 12, 1923[1] – January 22, 2004) was an American dancer, singer and actress.

Early life

Miller was born Johnnie Lucille Ann Collier in Chireno in Nacogdoches County in eastern Texas, the daughter of Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and John Alfred Collier, a criminal lawyer who represented Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, and Baby Face Nelson, among others.[2][3] Miller's maternal grandmother was Cherokee.[2] Miller's father insisted on the name Johnnie because he had wanted a boy, but she was often called Annie.[2] She took up dancing to exercise her legs to help her rickets. She was considered a child dance prodigy. In an interview featured in a "behind the scenes" documentary on the making of the compilation That's Entertainment III, she said that Eleanor Powell was an early inspiration.

Miller was given a contract with RKO at the age of thirteen (she had told them she was eighteen), and remained there until 1940. The following year, Miller was offered a contract at Columbia Pictures, where she bumped friend Lucille Ball from the throne as "Queen of the B-Movies". She finally hit her mark (starting in the late 1940s) in her roles in MGM musicals such as Kiss Me, Kate, Easter Parade, and On the Town.

Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing; she claimed to be able to tap 500 times per minute. She was known as well, especially later in her career, for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamor: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a slash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. Her film career effectively ended in 1956 as the studio system lost steam to television, but she remained active in the theatre and on television. In 1979 she astounded audiences in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, which toured the United States extensively after its Broadway run. In 1983 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.

She appeared in a special 1982 episode of The Love Boat, joined by fellow showbiz legends Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Della Reese, Van Johnson, and Cab Calloway in a storyline that cast them as older relatives of the show's regular characters. In 2001 she took her last role, playing Coco in auteur director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive. Her last stage performance was a 1998 production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in which she played the hardboiled survivor Carlotta Campion and received rave reviews for her rendition of the anthemic "I'm Still Here".

Miller also performed a guest appearance on Home Improvement as a dance instructor to Tim and Jill. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ann Miller has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Blvd.

She died at the age of 80 from cancer which had metastasized to her lungs, and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Ann Miller at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587900/

Ann at TCM
http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=161273&mainArticleId=161272

Too Darn Hot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrucjnR2F4c&feature=related

Shakin The Blues Away from Easter Parade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yS1e9zksJ8&feature=related

Small Town Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjmpI8gktOY

Herbert Khaury (April 12, 1932 – 30 November 1996), better known by the stage name Tiny Tim, was an American singer, ukulele player, and musical archivist. He was most famous for his rendition of “Tiptoe Through The Tulips” sung in his distinctive high falsetto / vibrato voice. He was generally thought of as a novelty act, though his records display a wide knowledge of American songs. He had no official middle name, but often used Buckingham.

for rest of bio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Tim_%28musician%29

Tiny Tim & Eleanor Barooshian - I Got You Babe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8028uf_Z-M

Do You Think I'm Sexy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N_jlF-sRqk&feature=related

Tiptoe Through The Tulips With Me 1968
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYnjASLYKdA

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

April 8th Spotlight Carmen McRae, Jacques Brel

kubbie — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:31:15 GMT

Carmen McRae "I Wish I Were In Love Again"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j0sE8s2TkI&feature=related

Carmen McRae "Body and Soul"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ktgyt3OTo&feature=related

Carmen McRae "Trouble is a Man"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zhboeJkNGg&feature=related

Carmen McRae "I'm Glad There Is You"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJaD09M5Iko&feature=related

Carmen McRae "I'm Going To Lock My Heart and Throw Away The Key"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BATy7nFQbJw

Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th Century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable.[1] McRae drew inspiration from Billie Holiday, but established her own distinctive voice. She went on to record over 60 albums during her career, and enjoying a rich musical career, performing and recording in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

CAREER

McRae was born in Harlem, New York City on April 8, 1920, to West Indian (Jamaican) parents, Osmond and Evadne McRae. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. She met singer Billie Holiday when she was just 17 years old. As a teenager McRae came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings Wilson. One of McRae's early songs, "Dream of Life" through their influence, was recorded in 1939 by Wilson’s longtime collaborator Billie Holiday.[2] McRae considered Holiday to be her primary influence. In her late teens and early twenties, McRae played piano at a New York club called Minton's Playhouse, Harlem's most famous jazz club, sang as a chorus girl, and worked as a secretary. It was at Milton's where she met trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Kenny Clarke. Had her first important job as a pianist with the Benny Carter's big band (1944), worked with Count Basie (1944) and made first recording as pianist with Mercer Ellington Band (1946-1947). But it was while working in Brooklyn that she came to the attention of Decca’s Milt Gabler. Her five year association with Decca yielded 12 LPs.

In 1948 she moved to Chicago with comedian George Kirby. She played piano steadily for almost four years before returning to New York. Those years in Chicago, McRae told Jazz Forum, "gave me whatever it is that I have now. That's the most prominent schooling I ever had." Back in New York in the early 1950s, McRae got the record contract that launched her career. In 1954, she was voted best new female vocalist by Down Beat magazine.

Among her most interesting recording projects were Mad About The Man (1957) with Sammy Davis, Jr., participating in Dave Brubeck's the Real Ambassadors (1961) with Louis Armstrong, a tribute album You're Lookin' at Me (A Collection of Nat King Cole Songs) (1983), cutting an album of live duets with Betty Carter, The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets (1987), being accompanied by Dave Brubeck and George Shearing, and closing her career with brilliant tributes to Thelonious Monk, Carmen Sings Monk (1990), and Sarah Vaughan, Sarah: Dedicated to You (1991). As a result of her early friendship with Billie Holiday, she never performed without singing at least one song associated with Lady Day, and recorded an album in 1983 in her honor entitled For Lady Day, which was released in 1995. Some songs included are; "Good Morning Heartache", "Them There Eyes", "Lover Man", "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", just to name a few. McRae also recorded with the world best jazz musicians, Take Five Live (1961) with Dave Brubeck, Heat Wave (1982) with Cal Tjader, and Two for the Road (1989) with George Shearing.

Carmen McRae sang in jazz clubs throughout the United States—and across the world—for over fifty years. McRae was a popular performer at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival (1961-1963, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1982). Performing with Duke Ellington's at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1980, singing "Dont Get Around Much Any More", and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1989

Carmen McRae, who refused to quit smoking, was forced to retire in 1991 due to emphysema. McRae passed away November 10, 1994 in Beverly Hills, California from a stroke, following complications from respiratory illness.

Carmen at AllMusic.com
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:diftxqwgldse

Complete Discography
http://wonderboynyc.com/Carmen/

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

April 7th Spotlight BILLIE HOLIDAY

kubbie — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:00:21 GMT

The Blues are Brewin - Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWtUzdI5hlE

Fine and Mellow 1957

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tNSp7MaADM

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter.

Nicknamed Lady Day by her sometime collaborator Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz, and pop singers' critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." Her vocal style — strongly inspired by instrumentalists — pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing.

She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child," "Don't Explain," and "Lady Sings the Blues."

Billie Holiday had a difficult childhood, which greatly affected her life and career. Much of her childhood is clouded by conjecture and legend, some of it propagated by her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, published in 1956. This account is known to contain many inaccuracies.

Her professional pseudonym was taken from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Holiday, her probable father. At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name "Halliday," presumably to distance herself from her neglectful father, but eventually changed it back to "Holiday."

There is some controversy regarding Holiday's paternity, stemming from a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives that lists the father as a "Frank DeViese". Some historians consider this an anomaly, probably inserted by a hospital or government worker.

Thrown out of her parents' home in Baltimore, Billie's mother, Sadie Fagan, moved to Philadelphia where Billie was born. Mother and child eventually settled in a poor section of Baltimore. Her parents married when she was three, but they soon divorced, leaving her to be raised largely by her mother and other relatives. At the age of 10, she reported that she had been raped.[5] That claim, combined with her frequent truancy, resulted in her being sent to The House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic reform school, in 1925. It was only through the assistance of a family friend that she was released two years later.[6] Scarred by these experiences, Holiday moved to New York City with her mother in 1928. In 1929 Holiday's mother discovered a neighbor, Wilbert Rich, in the act of raping her daughter; Rich was sentenced to three months in jail.

Early singing career

According to Billie Holiday's own account, she was recruited by a brothel, worked as a prostitute in 1930, and was eventually imprisoned for a short time for solicitation. It was in Harlem in the early 1930s that she started singing for tips in various night clubs. According to legend, penniless and facing eviction, she sang "Travelin All Alone" in a local club and reduced the audience to tears. She later worked at various clubs for tips, ultimately landing at Pod's and Jerry's, a well known Harlem jazz club. Her early work history is hard to verify, though accounts say she was working at a club named Monette's in 1933 when she was discovered by talent scout John Hammond.

Hammond arranged for Holiday to make her recording debut on a 1933 Benny Goodman date, and Goodman was also on hand in 1935, when she continued her recording career with a group led by pianist Teddy Wilson. Their first collaboration included "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Miss Brown To You", which helped to establish Billie Holiday as a major vocalist. She began recording under her own name a year later, producing a series of extraordinary performances with groups comprising the Swing Era's finest musicians.

Wilson was signed to Brunswick by John Hammond for the purpose of recording current pop tunes in the new Swing style for the growing jukebox trade. They were given free rein to improvise the material. Holiday's amazing method of improvising the melody line to fit the emotion was revolutionary (Wilson and Holiday took pedestrian pop tunes like "Twenty Four Hours A Day" or "Yankee Doodle Never Went To Town" and turn them into jazz classics with their arrangements). With few exceptions, the recordings she made with Wilson or under her own name during the 1930's and early 1940's are regarded as important parts of the jazz vocal library.

Among the musicians who accompanied her frequently was tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who had been a boarder at her mother's house in 1934 and with whom she had a special rapport. "Well, I think you can hear that on some of the old records, you know. Some time I'd sit down and listen to 'em myself, and it sound like two of the same voices, if you don't be careful, you know, or the same mind, or something like that."[8] Young nicknamed her "Lady Day" and she, in turn, dubbed him "Prez." In the late 1930s, she also had brief stints as a big band vocalist with Count Basie (1937) and Artie Shaw (1938). The latter association placed her among the first black women to work with a white orchestra, an arrangement that went against the temper of the times.

The Commodore Years and "Strange Fruit"

Strange Fruit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to "Strange Fruit," a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings. It was eventually heard by Barney Josephson, proprietor of Café Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday. She performed it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, fearing possible retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death, and that this played a role in her persistence to perform it. In a 1958 interview, she also bemoaned the fact that many people did not grasp the song's message: "They'll ask me to 'sing that sexy song about the people swinging'," she said.

When her producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive, Commodore Records' Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his label. That was done in April, 1939 and "Strange Fruit" remained in her repertoire for twenty years. She later recorded it again for Verve. While the Commodore release did not get airplay, the controversial song sold well, but Gabler attributes that mostly to the record's other side, "Fine and Mellow," which was a juke box hit.

Decca Records and "Lover Man"

In addition to owning Commodore Records, Milt Gabler was an A&R man for Decca Records, and he signed Holiday to the label in 1944. Her first recording for Decca, "Lover Man," was a song written especially for her by Jimmy Davis, Roger "Ram" Ramirez, and Jimmy Sherman. Although its lyrics describe a woman who has never known love ("I long to try something I never had"), its theme—a woman longing for a missing lover—and its refrain, "Lover man, oh, where can you be?", struck a chord in wartime America and the record became one of her biggest hits.

Holiday continued to record for Decca until 1950, including sessions with the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras, and two duets with Louis Armstrong. Holiday's Decca recordings featured big bands and, sometimes, strings, contrasting her intimate small group Columbia accompaniments. Some of the songs from her Decca repertoire became signatures, including "Don't Explain" and "Good Morning Heartache".

Film

Holiday made one major film appearance, opposite Louis Armstrong in New Orleans (1947). The musical drama featured Holiday singing with Armstrong and his band and was directed by Arthur Lubin.

Later life
Her personal life was as turbulent as the songs she sang. Holiday stated that she began using hard drugs in the early 1940s. She married trombonist Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. While still married to Monroe, she took up with trumpeter Joe Guy, her drug dealer, as his common law wife. She finally divorced Monroe in 1947, and also split with Guy. In 1947 she was jailed on drug charges and served eight months at the Alderson Federal Correctional Institution for Women in West Virginia. Her New York City Cabaret Card was subsequently revoked, which kept her from working in clubs there for the remaining 12 years of her life, except when she played at the Ebony Club in 1948, where she opened under the permission of John Levy.

By the 1950s, Holiday's drug abuse, drinking, and relations with abusive men led to deteriorating health. As evidenced by her later recordings, Holiday's voice coarsened and did not project the vibrance it once had.However, she had retained — and, perhaps, strengthened — the emotional impact of her delivery.

On March 28, 1952, Holiday married Louis McKay, a mafia enforcer. McKay, like most of the men in her life, was abusive, but he did try to get her off drugs. They were separated at the time of her death, but McKay had plans to start a chain of Billie Holiday vocal studios, a la the Arthur Murray dance schools. Holiday also had a relationship with Orson Welles.

Her late recordings on Verve constitute about a third of her commercial recorded legacy and are as well remembered as her earlier work for the Columbia, Commodore and Decca labels. In later years her voice became more fragile, but it never lost the edge that had always made it so distinctive. On November 10, 1956, she performed before a packed audience at Carnegie Hall, a major accomplishment for any artist, especially a black artist of the segregated period of American history. Her performance of "Fine And Mellow" on CBS's The Sound of Jazz program is memorable for her interplay with her long-time friend Lester Young; both were less than two years from death.

Holiday first toured Europe in 1954, as part of a Leonard Feather package that also included Buddy DeFranco and Red Norvo. When she returned, almost five years later, she made one of her last television appearances for Granada's "Chelsea at Nine," in London. Her final studio recordings were made for MGM in 1959, with lush backing from Ray Ellis and his Orchestra, who had also accompanied her on Columbia's Lady in Satin album the previous year — see below). The MGM sessions were released posthumously on a self-titled album, later re-titled and re-released as Last Recordings. Her final public appearance, a benefit concert at the Phoenix Theater in New York's Greenwich Village, took place on May 25, 1959. According to the evening's masters of ceremony, jazz critic Leonard Feather and TV host Steve Allen, she was only able to make it through two songs, one of which was "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do."

On May 31, 1959, she was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York suffering from liver and heart disease. On July 12, she was placed under house arrest at the hospital for possession, despite evidence suggesting the drugs may have been planted on her. Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died from cirrhosis of the liver on July 17 1959 at the age of 44. In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with only $0.70 in the bank and $750 (a tabloid fee) on her person.

Billie Holiday is interred in Saint Raymond's Cemetery, The Bronx, New York.

Songs composed by Holiday

"Billie's Blues" (1936)
"Don't Explain" (1944)
"Everything Happens For The Best" (1939)
"Fine and Mellow" (1939)
"God Bless the Child" (1941)
"Lady Sings the Blues" (1956)
"Long Gone Blues" (1939)
" Now or Never"(1949)
"Our Love Is Different" (1939)
"Stormy Blues" (1954)

The Official Lady Day Site
http://www.cmgww.com/music/holiday/

BMG Billie Holiday site
http://www.billie-holiday.net/

Billie at the African American Registry
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/134/Billie_Holiday_One_of_a_kind_jazzblues_singer

Two more songs of Billie on film

My Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQlehVpcAes

God Bless The Child with Count Basie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IYTx60s07A

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

April 3rd Spotlight:Doris Day

kubbie — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 09:53:00 GMT

Someone I think is an underated actress ( You should see Julie, Love Me Or Leave me and she is very good in The Man Who Knew Too Much) and also underated as a singer. Her stuff with Les Brown really swung.

“Lost Horizon” Doris with Les Brown and The Band of Renown 1940’s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnKLCgDto5I

Doris Day - Les Brown - Good Blues Tonight 1946
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx-ozCeVDPw

Doris Day - Sentimental Journey 1971
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIGFQnQbYU8

“I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.” - Oscar Levant

Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff (born April 3, 1924 is an American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate known as Doris Day. A vivacious blonde with a wholesome image, Day was one of the most prolific actresses of the 1950s and 1960s. Able to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she became one of the biggest box-office stars in Hollywood. She has almost 40 films to her credit and has recorded approximately 45 albums.

Biography

Doris Day was born in Evanston, a neighborhood within the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia Welz and William/Wilhelm Kappelhoff; three of her grandparents were German immigrants, at least one of them was Dutch.[2] The youngest of three, she had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older. She was named after silent movie actress Doris Kenyon, whom her mother admired.[citation needed] Her family was Roman Catholic and her parents were known to have divorced. She later embraced Christian Science. Growing up in the 1930s Day developed an interest in dance, and by mid 1930s formed a dance duo that performed locally in Cincinnati until a car accident damaged her legs and curtailed her prospects as a professional dancer. However, while recovering Day took up singing. Soon she began to take lessons and at age 17 began performing locally. It was while working for local bandleader Barney Rapp that she adopted the stage name "Day" as an alternative to "Kappelhoff", at his suggestion as he felt her last name was too long. After working with Rapp, Day worked with a number of other bandleaders including Bob Crosby and Les Brown. It was while working with Brown that Day scored her first hit recording Sentimental Journey, which was released in early 1945 and soon became anthematic of the desire of demobilizing troops to return home. To some extent this song is still associated with Day, and was notably re-recorded by her on several occasions, as well as being included in her 1971 television special

Shaking The Blues Away from Love Me Or Leave Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWwpxwyNyDw

Movie career

During her time with Les Brown, and a brief stint with Bob Hope, Day toured extensively across the United States. Her popularity as a radio performer and vocalist, including a second hit record My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time, led directly to a career in films. After her separation from second husband George Weidler in 1948, Day was set to leave Los Angeles and return to her mother's home in Cincinnati, when her agent, Al Levy, convinced her to attend a party at the home of composer Jule Styne. Her personal circumstances at the time and her reluctance to perform contributed to an emotive performance of Embraceable You which greatly impressed Styne and his partner, Sammy Cahn. They then recommended her for a role in Romance on the High Seas (which they were working on for Warner Bros.). The withdrawal of Betty Hutton due to pregnancy left the main role to be re-cast. Thus, Day began her film career, in 1948, in a "peppy" Hutton-esque role. (The film was digitally remastered and released on DVD in May 2007.)

The success of this film established her as a popular movie personality, and provided her within another hit recording It's Magic. In 1950, US servicemen in Korea voted her their favorite star. Early publicity saddled her with such unflattering nicknames as "The Tomboy with a Voice" and "The Golden Tonsil." She continued to make minor and frequently nostalgic period musicals such as Starlift, On Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Tea For Two for Warner Bros., but 1953 found Day as pistol-packin' Calamity Jane in what has become one of Hollywood's most enduring musicals, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Secret Love" (her recording of which became her fourth U.S. No. 1 recording).

After filming Young At Heart with Frank Sinatra, Day chose not to renew her contract with Warner Bros. and instead freelanced under the management of her third husband, Martin Melcher. Her range of roles broadened to include more dramatic roles. In 1955, she received some of the best notices of her career for her portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me, co-starring James Cagney. Doris would later call it, in her autobiography, her best film. She continued to be paired with some of Hollywood's top stars, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Cary Grant, David Niven and Clark Gable.

In Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, she sang "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)", which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. According to Jay Livingston (who wrote the song with Ray Evans), Day preferred another song used briefly in the film, "We'll Love Again", and skipped the recording for Que Sera, Sera. When the studio pushed her, she relented, but after recording the number in one take, she reportedly told a friend of Livingston's, "That's the last time you'll ever hear that song." The song was used again in her 1960 film, Please Don't Eat the Daisies and was reprised as a brief duet with Arthur Godfrey in The Glass Bottom Boat; it also became the theme song for her television show. This was her only film for Hitchcock and, as she admitted in her memoirs, she was initially concerned at his lack of direction. She finally asked if anything was wrong and Hitchcock said everything was fine; if she wasn't doing what he wanted he would have said something.

After the critical and popular success of Teacher's Pet, Day's popularity at the box office seemed to wane and some critical attention focused on perceived elements of "blandness" in her on-screen persona, although in some foreign markets (Germany, Britain and the Commonwealth), she remained a top box office draw. A dynamic performance in The Pajama Game received warm critical notices, but box office returns were disappointing. In the case of The Tunnel of Love and It Happened to Jane, both the critical and popular response was uneven. As a result, during the period 1957 to 1959, she was no longer regarded a "Top Ten Box Office Draw" by U.S. film exhibitors. This development may have been linked to a marked decline in popularity of musical films during the late 1950s, as well as to some poor choices in material made by Melcher on his wife's behalf. In addition, Day's popularity as a recording artist was diminished due to the growing popular taste for rock and roll. "Que Sera, Sera," for instance, was never a No. 1 hit, being kept from the top by Elvis Presley's recording of "Hound Dog."

Que Sera Sera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7jG91sPvf0

Secret Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Ar9Q0Eru4

Box office queen

In 1959, Day entered her most successful phase as a film actress with a series of romantic comedies, starting with the hugely popular Pillow Talk, co-starring Rock Hudson, who became a lifelong friend. The film received positive reviews and was a box office favorite. It also brought a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Doris and Rock made two more films together, and she also made two with James Garner, starting with 1963's The Thrill of It All. Many of her 1960s films ignored her singing abilities and painted her as a good-hearted woman with a hint of naïveté and the purest virtue. Algonquin Round Table wit Oscar Levant, who had known Day earlier in her career, summed up the paradox of Day's late-blooming ingenue phase when he famously said, "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin." But the public loved Day's light, frothy comedies of this period, buying enough tickets to make her by far the top female movie star in America during the first half of the 1960s.

By the late '60s, the sexual revolution and promiscuity of the maturing baby boomer generation had refocused public attitudes about sex. Times changed, but Day's films did not. Critics and comics dubbed Day "the world's oldest virgin" and audiences began to shy away from her repetitive roles. As a result, she slipped from the list of top box-office stars, last appearing in the Top 10 in 1966 with The Glass Bottom Boat her final substantial hit. Day herself found many of her late films to be of very poor quality - her least favorite was Caprice, co-starring Richard Harris) - and did them only at the insistence of Melcher. One of the roles he supposedly turned down was that of middle-aged adulteress Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (a role that went to Anne Bancroft). In her published memoirs (co-authored by A.E. Hotchner), Day said that she had rejected the part on moral grounds. Her final feature film, With Six You Get Eggroll, was released in 1968.

The impact of changing public tastes could be seen in the waning popularity of Day as a recording artist. Albums like Duet and Latin for Lovers garnered critical praise, but little commercial success in the U.S., although sales remained strong in some overseas markets like Britain. Day's last major hit single came in the UK in 1964 with "Move Over, Darling", co-written by her son specifically for her. The recording was a notable departure for Day, with its distinctly contemporary-sounding arrangement and, especially, her breathy and suggestive delivery of the lyrics. It was perhaps for this reason that it was banned by the BBC, and was labelled "distasteful" by senior management. In 1967, Day recorded her last album, The Love Album, essentially concluding her recording career, though this album was not released until 1994.

Bankruptcy and television career

Melcher died in 1968. After nearly two decades as a top star, Day was shocked to discover that her husband of 17 years and his business partner Jerry Rosenthal had squandered her earnings, leaving her deeply in debt. Day sued Rosenthal and won the largest civil judgment up until that time in California, over $20 million. How much Day actually collected is not certain. Terry Melcher later commented that it was only his stepfather's unexpected death that saved Day from financial ruin. It still remains unresolved - even to Day herself - whether Melcher worked in collusion with Rosenthal to pillage her vast earnings, or was himself duped.

According to Day's autobiography, as told to A.E. Hotchner, the usually athletic and healthy Melcher had an enlarged heart. Another factor may be that he converted to the Christian Science religion during his relationship with Day, and his newfound religious beliefs led him to put off going to the doctor for some time. Most of interviews on the subject provided to Hotchner (and included in Day's autobiography) provided a very unflattering portrait of Melcher.

Upon her husband's death, Day learned that he had committed her to a TV series, which became The Doris Day Show. "It was awful," Day told OK! Magazine in 1996. "I was really, really not very well when Marty passed away, and the thought of going into TV was overpowering. But he'd signed me up for a series. And then my son Terry took me walking in Beverly Hills and explained that it wasn't nearly the end of it. I had also been signed up for a bunch of TV specials, all without anyone ever asking me."

Day hated the idea of doing television, but felt obligated. "There was a contract. I didn't know about it. I never wanted to do TV, but I gave it 100 percent anyway. That's the only way I know how to do it." Melcher died on April 20, 1968, and the first episode of the TV show was aired on September 24, 1968.

From 1968 to 1973, The Doris Day Show aired with "Que Sera, Sera" as its theme song. Day grudgingly continued but only as long as she needed the work to help pay off her debts and only after CBS had ceded creative control to Day and her son. Fortunately for her, the show was successful, and functioned as a lead-in to the equally successful Carol Burnett Show. Despite its successful run, today Day's show is chiefly remembered for its dramatic changes in casting and premise from season to season. It has not been as widely syndicated as many of its contemporaries, and has been little seen in markets outside the U.S. and Britain.

In addition to her series, in 1971 and 1974 Day completed two TV specials. She also appeared in one of John Denver's TV specials (1974) parodying her (and his) sunny public image to good effect. By the end of the TV series in 1973, Day was nearing 50, and public tastes had changed to such a degree that her firmly established wholesome persona was now completely out of fashion. She essentially retired from acting when The Doris Day Show ended, but the popularity of Doris Day is still widespread to this day.

Animal welfare activism

Although the press had occasionally noted Day's interest in animal welfare, it was not until the early 1970s that her interest in animal rights was widely publicized. In 1971, she co-founded Actors and Others for Animals and appeared in a series of newspaper advertisements denouncing the wearing of fur, alongside Mary Tyler Moore, Angie Dickinson, and Jayne Meadows.[citation needed] Day's friend, Cleveland Amory, wrote about these events in Man Kind? Our Incredible War on Wildlife (1974). Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Day actively promoted the annual Spay Day USA, and on a number of occasions, actively lobbied Congress - and, it has been suggested, Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton - in support of legislation designed to safeguard animal rights. The Doris Day Animal League www.ddal.org is a group she funds. For many decades, she has stopped her car on LA freeways when she saw an abandoned, stray or hit animal. She is reportedly a vegetarian.

In 2006, The Humane Society of the United States merged with the Doris Day Animal League.[4] Staff members of the Doris Day League took positions within The HSUS, and Day recorded some public service announcements for The HSUS,
which is now managing Spay Day USA, the one-day spay neuter event she originated some years before.

Private life

In 1975, Day released her autobiography, Doris Day: Her Own Story it revealed to the general public many of the painful events in her private life that belied her sunny public image. In particular, the book detailed Day's first three difficult marriages:

To Al Jorden, a trombonist whom she had met when he was in Barney Rapp's Band, from March 1941 to 1943. She was not yet 17 when she married Jorden, and her only child, Terry Melcher (a boy), was born from this marriage. Jorden committed suicide after their divorce.

To George Weidler (a saxophonist), from March 30, 1946 to May 31, 1949. Weidler and Day met again several years later and during a brief reconciliation, he helped her become involved in Christian Science.

To Martin Melcher, whom she married on her 27th birthday, April 3, 1951. This looked like a happy marriage, and lasted much longer than her first two. Melcher adopted Terry (thus renaming the boy Terry Melcher), and also produced many of Day's movies. Day also later revealed that Melcher had physically abused Terry. His profligate spending caused money difficulties for Day that continued for a number of years after his death.

After her autobiography was published, Day was married one more time, also ending in divorce.

Her fourth unsuccessful marriage was to Barry Comden, from April 14, 1976 to 1981. Comden was her first husband outside show business. Comden was the maitre d' at one of Doris's favorite restaurants. Knowing of her great love of dogs, Comden began the practice of giving Doris a bag of meat scraps and bones on her way out. This is how he got to meet and endear himself to her. This marriage unraveled, and Comden complained that Day cared more for her "animal friends" than she did for him.

The revelations contained in the book about Day's private life, and the testimony of many of her friends about aspects of her life and career (most were scathing with regard to husband number three Marty Melcher) helped to make the book a bestseller. In promoting the book, Day caused a stir by rejecting the "girl next door" and "virgin" labels so often attached to her. As she remarked in her book, "The succession of cheerful, period musicals I made, plus Oscar Levant's widely publicized remark about my virginity ('I knew Doris Day before she became a virgin') contributed to what has been called my 'image,' which is a word that baffles me. There never was any intent on my part either in my acting or in my private life to create any such thing as an image." In an interview with Barbara Walters, she commented, "I don't know where that label came from. Maybe it's the way I look. Do I look like a virgin?" In later interviews, Day went on to say she believed people should live together prior to marriage, something that she herself would do if the opportunity arose. Her candor won her admiration among reviewers and possibly contributed to the book's success. At the conclusion of this book tour, Day seemed content to focus on her charity and pet work and her business interests. (In 1985, she became part-owner of the Cypress Inn in Carmel, California.)

The mid-1980s saw a renewed period of activity. In May 1983, she became a grandmother, and in 1985 briefly hosted her own talk show, Doris Day's Best Friends. The show generated unexpected press when her old friend Rock Hudson appeared in the first episode. Day was taken aback by Hudson's emaciated frame, as he had always been in top physical condition. Soon after, she and the world learned that he was dying of AIDS. Day and Hudson were good friends off-screen, but she would later claim she never knew he was gay. Despite the world-wide publicity the show received, it was cancelled after 26 episodes.

After a brief attempt to become a surf music singing star, her son Terry became a staff producer for Columbia Records in the 1960s, and was famous for producing most of the hit recordings by the pioneering folk rock band, The Byrds. In November 2004, after a long period of illness, he died from complications of melanoma (skin cancer), aged 62.

On the April 3, 2008 episode of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, host Tony Kornheiser claimed Day was his first wife. Co-host Mike Wilbon also expressed his love for Day and suggested the two go visit her at her house in Carmel.

Renewal of Interest

During the 1990s, interest in Day grew. The release of a greatest hits CD in 1992 garnered her another entry onto the British charts, while the inclusion of the song "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" in the soundtrack of the Australian film Strictly Ballroom gained her new fans. (The song was also covered by the alternative rock outfit, Cake in the same period.[6]) During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the progressive release of her films and TV series and specials on DVD fed into this renewal of interest in her work, a fact underlined by the development of new websites devoted to Day and a growing number of academic texts analyzing various aspects of her career.[7] In 2006, Day recorded a commentary for the DVD release of the fifth (and final) season of her TV show. Day in recent years also participated in telephone interviews with a radio station that celebrates her birthday with an annual Doris Day music marathon. These interviews have been podcast and are currently downloadable.

In 2004, Doris Day was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom but declined to attend the ceremony because of a fear of flying. She turned down a tribute offer from the American Film Institute, but did receive, and went to LA to accept, the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in 1989. The actress did not accept an invitation to be a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor for undisclosed reasons. Liz Smith, a long-time entertainment gossip columnist, and Rex Reed (movie critic) have mounted vigorous campaigns attempting to drum up support for an honorary Academy Award for Doris Day to herald her spectacular film career and her status as the top female box-office star of all time.[8]

Day was honored with a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in Music in February 2008.

A new biography, "DORIS DAY: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door" by David Kaufman, is scheduled to be published by Virgin Books USA in hardback on June 10, 2008 and is reputed to tell Day’s "incredible, previously untold story." This book, like a recent one by a former employee, is already proving controversial among Day's fans because of expected revelations

POP CULTURE REFERENCES

In the 1995 movie adaptation of the comic book, Tank Girl by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett, Doris Day is not only mentioned but is also featured in a wooden bust carved into her likeness.

In the Beatles' song "Dig It" from the Let It Be sessions, John Lennon states "Like the FBI...and the CIA...and the BBC...BB King...and Doris Day...Matt Busby...Dig it..."

In 1982, a Dutch band called Doe Maar made a national breakthrough, by scoring a huge hit in the low countries Belgium & The Netherlands. The title of this song was "Doris Day". Lyric excerpt: "Hey, er is geen bal op de t.v., alleen een film met Doris Day." Translation: "Hey, there is nothing on T.V., only a Doris Day movie."

The song "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! contains the line "you make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day."

The Future Bible Heroes have a song called "Doris Daytheearthstoodstill" on their 2002 album Eternal Youth.

In the 2002 and 2007 musical adaptation of John Waters' 1988 motion picture "Hairspray", the song "Without Love" makes a passing reference to Doris Day. The song contains the line "Without love, life is Doris Day at the Apollo."

In 2003, Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger starred in the film Down With Love, which was touted as a throwback to the old "Rock Hudson and Doris Day" romantic comedies. In many ways, the film is almost a remake of Day's film Pillow Talk, and in fact utilises some stock footage of various New York streetscapes originally featured in That Touch of Mink. The song "Here's To Love", sung by McGregor and Zellweger at the end of the movie, includes the line "I'll be your Rock, if you'll be my Doris".

In the song "Mirror Door" from The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire, Pete Townshend's lyrics mention a number of music icons, all of whom, with the exception of Doris Day, are dead. Only after the song was recorded and the album mass produced did Townshend discover that Day was still alive. When questioned about it, he suggested asking her to appear in a possible music video for the song.

In the first episode of the final season of Will & Grace entitled Alive and Schticking the Will Truman character admits to having an adolescent fixation on Doris Day.

In Grease, the song Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee makes a reference to Doris Day.

A reference is made to Doris Day in Billy Joel's song We Didn't Start the Fire.

Quotes

If it's true that men are such beasts, this must account for the fact that most women are animal lovers.

Wrinkles are hereditary. Parents get them from their children.

Listen to 31 songs by Doris at Doctor Macro's World
http://www.doctormacro.info/Movie%20Star%20Pages/Day,%20Doris-Annex2.htm

Day at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000013/

Doris at Solid a database of Big Bands and their singers
http://www.parabrisas.com/d_dayd.php

Day TCM
http://www.tcmdb.com/participant/participant.jsp?participantId=45686

Doris Day Animal Foundation
http://www.ddaf.org/

Pillow Talk:DOris Day Fan Forum
http://dorisdaytribute.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi

Films of DOris Day at DOris Day.net
http://www.dorisday.net/

www.dorisday.com

At Classic Movies
http://www.classicmovies.org/articles/aa040702a.htm

At Reel Classics
http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Day/day.htm

A clip with Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson from "It's A Great Feeling"
http://www.doctormacro1.info/Film%20Clips/I/It's%20a%20Great%20Feeling_01.wmv

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

2/2

kubbie — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:15:35 GMT

Happy Birthdays to Kurt Weill and Lou Reed

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

MISS LEE MORSE IN MARCH...

confetta — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:22:44 GMT

SONGS
LEE MORSE
RECORDED/RELEASED
IN MARCH...

A Miss In Mississippi
(Lee Morse)
3-24-1925
New York, New York

Alone At Last
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1SkqK
(Gus Kahn / Ted Fiorito)
10-7-1924
New York, New York

Careless Love
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1SkqK
3-2-1938
New York, New York

Don't Try To Cry Your Way Back To Me
3-24-1925
New York, New York

I'd Love To Be In Love
(Lee Morse)
3-16-1927
New York, New York

My Idea Of Heaven
(Is To Be In Love With You)
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1UkqK
(Johnson / Sherman / Tobias)
3-16-1927
New York, New York

Shadows On The Wall
(Lee Morse)
3-24-1925
New York, New York

Shadows On The Wall
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1VkqK
(Lee Morse)
3-2-1938
New York, New York

Side By Side
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1WkqK
(Harry Woods)
3-16-1927
New York, New York

Sing Me A Song Of Texas
(Lee Morse)
3-2-1938
New York, New York

Thanks For The Buggy Ride
(Jules Buffano)
3-1926
New York, New York

When I Lost You
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1XkqK
(Irving Berlin)
3-2-1938
New York, New York

Lee Morse and her Bluegrass Boys

By My Side
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/bymyside.ram
(Link / Gray / Lown / Dick)
3-27-1931
New York, New York

Cooking Breakfast For The One I Love
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1ZkqK
Talkie Hit from United Artists Production "Be Yourself!"
(Billy Rose / Henry Tobias)
3-27-1930
New York, New York

I'll Make You Fall In Love With Me
(Lee Morse)
3-1926
New York, New York

June Brought Roses
(Stanley / Openshaw)
3-31-1925
New York, New York

Sing You Sinners
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1akqK
(Talkie Hit from Paramount Picture's Lasky Production "Honey")
(Sam Coslow / Franke E. Harling)
3-27-1930
New York, New York

The Tune That Never Grows Old
(Lee Morse)
3-27-1931
New York, New York

Where The Wild, Wild Flowers Grow
3-16-1927
New York, New York

Lee Morse and her Southern Serenaders

Ain't He Sweet?
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1bkqK
(Jack Yellen / Milton Ager)
3-17-1927
New York, New York

I Hate To Say Goodbye
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1ckqK
(Lee Morse)
3-17-1927
New York, New York

Mollie Make Up Your Mind
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1dkqK
(Lee Morse)
3-17-1927
New York, New York

(What Do I Care What)
Somebody Said?
http://links.imeem.com/23A-1ekqK
(Clare / Wood)
3-17-1927
New York, New York

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

LEE IN FEBRUARY

confetta — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:14:51 GMT

SONGS LEE MORSE
RECORDED/RELEASED
IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY

LEE MORSE

In Old Madrid
2-13-1925
New York, New York

Juanita
2-13-1925
New York, New York

Me Neenyah (My Little One)
(Brown / Spencer)
2-1925
New York, New York
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/MeNeenyah.ram

LEE MORSE & HER BLUEGRASS BOYS

I'm Following You
Talkie Hit from Motion Picture "It's A Great Life"
(Dreyer / Macdonald)
2-27-1930
New York, New York
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/imfollowingyou.ram

I've Got Five Dollars
(Rodgers / Hart) 2-20-1931
New York, New York
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/ivegotfivedollars.ram

Poor Papa (He's Got Nothing At All)
(Billy Rose / Harry Woods)
2-16-1926
New York, New York
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/poorpapa.ram

'Tain't No Sin (To Take Off Your Skin, and Dance Around In Your Bones)
(Donaldson / Leslie)
2-27-1930
New York, New York
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/taintnosintodance.ram

Tentin' Down To Tennessee
(Howard / Woods)
2-16-1926
New York, New York
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/tentingdownto.ram

Walkin' My Baby Back Home
(Fred Ahert / Roy Turk)
2-20-1931
New York, New York
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/walkingmybabybackhome.ram

Lee Morse and her Southern Serenaders

In Old Madrid
2-13-1925
New York, New York

Juanita
2-13-1925
New York, New York

Me Neenyah (My Little One)
(Brown / Spencer)
2-1925
New York, New York
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/morse/MeNeenyah.ram

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

SPOTLIGHT FOR FEBRUARY 10TH!! James "Jimmy" Durante

confetta — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:21:13 GMT

BIRTHDAYS

1914
Larry Adler, Harmonica
b. Baltimore, MD, USA.
d. Aug. 6, 2001.
A self-taught harmonica player, he began to play professionally at the age of 14 and later gained worldwide recognition as the musician who brought the instrument to the 'serious music' stage. He is well known for playing with many of the world's top symphony orchestras. Between 1943 and 1945 he joined the U.S.O. tours with Jack Benny. During his career he wrote several film scores, including "Genevieve" (1953), for which he received an Academy Award Nomination.

1900
Lou Breese, trumpet
d. Jan. 1969

1905
Bob Carroll, Tenor Sax
b. Louisville, KY, USA. d. 1952

1893
James "Jimmy" Durante
piano/leader/singer/actor
b. New York, NY, USA.
d. Jan. 29, 1980, Santa Monica, CA, USA.
né: James Francis Durante. Nickname: The Schnoz. In addition to his "Inka Dinka Do", he also composed "Umbriago", "I Ups to Him and He Ups to Me","I'm Jimmy That Well-Dressed Man", "I Know Darn Well I Can Do Without Broadway", "Any State In the Forty-Eight", "Daddy Your Mamma Is Lonesome For You", "Chidabee Chidabee Chidabee", and "I'm Jimmy's Girl". Jimmy began his career as a Coney Island pianist, and in 1916, organized his own five-piece Jazz band. With partners Eddie Jackson and Lou Clayton, he opened the Club Durant, and they later formed a vaudeville comedy trio. Jimmy appeared in many Broadway musicals, and appeared at London's Palladium in 1936. Jimmy was a featured headliner in night clubs, and later had his own radio and television shows.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/jdurante.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Durante

1932
"Sir" Roland P. Hanna, Piano
b. Detroit, MI, USA
d: Nov. 13, 2002, Harris, NY, USA.
né: Roland Pembroke Hanna.
As a youngster, he first studied music with his father. From the age of eleven, he studied classical piano, and also played alto saxophone in high school. In the 1950s lively Detroit Jazz scene, Hanna was deeply influenced by pianists like Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones, together with Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, and the classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein. In 1951- '52, Hanna served in the U.S.Army, then played with trumpeter Thad Jones at Detroit's Bluebird Inn in 1952. In 1953-'54, he studied music at the famed Eastman School, and in 1955, at New York's Juilliard School, where he completed his Masters degree in 1960, having taking time off to tour with Benny Goodman in 1958. During the late 1950s, he worked with Hawkins and Mingus, and with singers Sarah Vaughan and Al Hibbler in the early 1960s, and led his own trio in New York. From 1966 to 1974, he was part of The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band while continuing to play both with his own trio and a band he formed in 1967 under the name The New York Jazz Sextet.

In 1971, he reformed the latter band as the New York Jazz Quartet with flutist Hubert Laws, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Billy Cobham in the original line-up. In 1974, the band became a cooperative, with Frank Wess taking over from Laws and Ben Riley replacing Cobham (George Mraz later took over from Carter on bass). An occasional member of Mingus Dynasty, the Mingus tribute band, he performed in the 1989 historic 'Mingus Epitaph' in New York city, which was put together by Gunther Schuller. His playing was also heard in Clint Eastwood's 1988 'Bird' bio-pic, as one of the musicians who recorded new accompaniments to Charlie Parker's solos. In the 1990s, he toured with New York's 'Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra', continued to play both in his trio and as a solo pianist (including taking part in a tribute to Errol Garner at Carnegie Hall in 1993), and also taught at Queens College in New York. Hanna was a prolific composer in both Jazz and Classical idioms, publishing over 200 pieces, including chamber music, orchestral works, and a jazz ballet. In 1993, his "Oasis", a large work for piano and orchestra, was performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

1906
Leroy Kirkland
guitar/arranger/conductor
d. Apr. 6, 1988

1896
Claude Lampley, banjo
b. Bon Aqua, TN, USA.
Member: "Fruit Jar Drinkers"

1909 Bert Niosi, Clarinet
b. London, ONT, Canada, 1987

1924 Joseph Servello, Trombone
b: Roxbury, MA, USA. d. April 19, 2003.
Joe learned to play trombone in elementary school at St. Patrick's in Roxbury. Before entering high school, he played with the Rudy Wallace Orchestra at the Lake Winnepesaukee Ballroom. After graduating from high school, a musician friend got him a 'gig' with the Gray Gordon Tic Toc Rhythmn Orchestra at the Flagler Gardens in Miami Florida. While in Florida, Joe heard a live broadcast of the Ina Ray Orchestra on the radio from the nearby 'Frolic Club'. Joe liked what he heard, contacted her manager, and two weeks later was in the band, performing at Omaha, Nebraska.After Ina disbanded, Joe went on to play with Horace Heidt, Sam Donahue, Boyd Raeburn , Charlie Barnett, Stan Kenton, among others. Servello also composed and arranged for most of these bands.

1916 Oscar "TV Slim" Wills, vocals/guitar
b. Houston, TX, USA, d. 1969, (near) Kingman, AZ, USA
Oscar's brief bid for fame came in 1957 when he recorded a comic tale called "Flat Foot Sam" (Cliff Records). Early in his career, "T.V. Slim" was influenced by DeFord Bailey and both Sonny Boy Williamsons on mouth harp and Guitar Slim. He soon set up his own record label which became the source for the great majority of his output over the next dozen years.

1907 Walter "Foots" Thomas, Reeds
b. Muskogee, OK, USA. d. August 26, 1981

1910 Willie Trice, vocals/guitar
b. Hillsborough, NC, USA
d. Dec. 10, 1976, Durham, NC, USA.

1909
Chick Webb, Drums/Leader
b. Baltimore, MD, USA
d. June 16, 1939.
né: William Henry Webb.
One of Chick's sidemen (Bardu Ali) discovered a young Ella Fitzgerald in an Amateur Contest at the Harlem Opera House. He introduced her to Chick who at first did not accept her. Later, Chick and his wife adopted young Ella.

1919 Vernon L. Welsh, Guitar
b. Irvington, MD, USA
d. Aug. 8, 2002, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
With the late Benny Kearse, he co-founded The Left Bank Jazz Society that showcased both 'local' and 'legendary' Jazz artists such as Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, Maynard Ferguson, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Julian "Cannonball" Adderly and Duke Ellington, --recording about 800 performances.

Notable Events
occurring this date include:

1942.
Ted Fio Ritos orchestra recorded "Rio Rita" (Decca).
Bob Carroll did the vocal, and the song became the band's theme song.

1956.
Elvis Presley recorded his 'million-seller' "Heartbreak Hotel" (RCA). The 'flip' side was "I Was the One". The record received two gold records, one for each side. (TRIVIA: In 1919, orchestra leader Ben Selvin recorded the first known million-seller, and it was also a two sided hit, featuring "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" and "Darandella".

1961.
Andy Gibson, trumpet/arranger
died in Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Age: 47

1966.
Billy Rose, songwriter/showman
died in Montego Bay, Jamica.
Age: 66

1969.
Paul Barbarin, drums
died in New Orleans, LA, USA.
Age: 69

1986.
Arthur Edward Satherley, a pioneer of Country music record production, died. "Uncle" Art was one of the most important people in the history of Country music. (b. October 17, 1889, Bristol, England, February 10, 1986)

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

1/23 Spotlight: Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt

kubbie — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:11:54 GMT

I know he isnt a crooner or songbird but I think he fits in perfectly here.

Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt (January 23, 1910 – May 16, 1953) was a Belgian Sinto Gypsy jazz guitarist. He was one of the first prominent jazz musicians to be born in Europe, and one of the most renowned jazz guitarists of all time. His most renowned works include "My Sweet", "Minor Swing", "Tears", "Belleville", "Djangology" and "Nuages" (French, meaning "Clouds").

Biography

Born in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium, Reinhardt spent most of his youth in gypsy encampments close to Paris, playing banjo, guitar and violin from an early age professionally at Bal-musette halls in Paris. He started first on the violin and eventually moved on to a banjo-guitar that had been given to him and his first known recordings (in 1928) were of him playing the banjo (a banjo guitar has six strings tuned in standard guitar tuning).

At the age of 18 Reinhardt was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Bella, his first wife. They were very poor, and to supplement their income Bella made imitation flowers out of celluloid and paper. Consequently, their home was full of this highly flammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Django apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbors were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralyzed and the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand were badly burnt. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again and intended to amputate the leg. Reinhardt refused to have the surgery and left the hospital after a short time; he was able to walk within a year with the aid of a cane.

His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist himself, bought Django a new guitar. With painful rehabilitation and practice Django relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralyzed. Hence, he used to play solos with only two fingers, and managed to use the two injured ones for some chords.

Career

In 1934, Louis Vola formed the "Quintette du Hot Club de France" with Reinhardt, violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt's brother Joseph and Roger Chaput on guitar, and himself on bass. Occasionally Chaput was replaced by Pierre "Baro" Ferret. The vocalist Freddie Taylor participated in a few songs, such as "Georgia On My Mind" and "Nagasaki". The concept of "lead guitar" (Django) and backing "rhythm guitar" (Joseph Reinhardt/Roger Chaput or Pierre Ferret) was born with that band. They also used their guitars for percussive sounds, as they had no true percussion section. The Quintet du Hot Club de France was one of the few well-known jazz bands to have no drums or percussion section.

Reinhardt later formed bands with more conventional instrumentations as with clarinet or saxophone, piano, bass and drums. He produced numerous recordings at this time with the quintet. But he played and recorded also with many American Jazz legends such as Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Rex Stewart (who later stayed in Paris), and a jam-session with jazz legend Louis Armstrong. Reinhardt could neither read nor write music, and was barely literate. Stéphane took the band's downtime to teach him.

WWII

As World War II was declared, the original quintet was on tour in the United Kingdom. Reinhardt returned to Paris at once, leaving his wife behind. Grappelli remained in the United Kingdom for the duration of the war and Reinhardt reformed the quintet in Paris with Hubert Rostaing on clarinet in place of Grappelli's violin.

Reinhardt survived World War II unscathed, unlike many other Gypsies who perished in the concentration death camps of the Nazis. It was especially hard for Django's people because jazz itself was not allowed under Hitler's regime. He had the help of a Luftwaffe official named Dietrich Schulz-Köhn, also known as "Doktor Jazz", who deeply admired his music. In 1943 Django married Sophie Ziegler in Salbris, with whom he had a son, Babik Reinhardt, who went on to become a respected guitarist in his own right.

Post war

After the war, Reinhardt rejoined Grappelli in the UK, and went on to tour the United States, opening for Duke Ellington, and playing at Carnegie Hall, with many notable musicians and composers such as Maury Deutsch. Despite Reinhardt's great pride in touring with Ellington (one of his two letters to Grappelli relates this excitement), he wasn't really integrated into the band, playing only a few tunes at the end of the show, with no special arrangements written personally for him. He was used to his brother, Joseph, carrying around his guitar for him and tuning it. Allegedly, Reinhardt was given an untuned guitar to play with (discovered after strumming a chord) and it took him five whole minutes to tune it. Also, he was used to playing a Selmer Modèle Jazz, the guitar he made famous, but he was required to play a new amplified model. After "going electric", the results were not as much liked by fans. He returned to France with broken dreams, but continued to play and make many recordings.

Django Reinhardt was among the first people in France to appreciate and understand the music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie whom he sought after when he arrived in New York. Unfortunately they were all on tour.

After returning to France, Django spent the remainder of his days re-immersed in gypsy life, having found it difficult to adjust to the modern world. He would sometimes show up for concerts without a guitar or amp, or wander off to the park or beach, and on a few occasions he refused even to get out of bed. Reinhardt was known by his band, fans, and managers to be extremely unpredictable. He would often skip sold-out concerts to simply "walk to the beach" or "smell the dew". However, he did continue to compose and is regarded as among the most advanced guitar players of jazz music.

In 1948, Reinhardt recruited a few Italian jazz players (on bass, piano, and snare drum) and recorded one of his most acclaimed contributions, "Djangology", once again with Stephane Grappelli on violin. However, his experience in the U.S. made him a different person than what Grappelli had known, influenced greatly by American jazz. But on this recording, Reinhardt switched back to his old roots, once again playing the Acoustic Selmer-Maccaferri. This recording was recently discovered by jazz enthusiasts and is now available in the U.S. and Europe. Reinhardt and other guitarists of the Quintette du Hot Club de France used Selmer acoustic guitars.

In 1951, he retired to Samois-sur-Seine, France, near Fontainebleau. He lived there for two years until May 16, 1953, when, while returning from the Avon train station, he collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage. It took a full day for a doctor to arrive and Django was declared dead on arrival at the hospital in Fontainebleau.

Django at Red Hot Jazz
http://www.redhotjazz.com/django.html

The Django Reinhardt Swing Page
http://www.hotclub.co.uk/

Django at PBS Jazz
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_reinhardt_django.htm

Influence on others

Many musicians have expressed admiration for Reinhardt, including guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, classical guitarist Julian Bream; country artist Chet Atkins, who placed Reinhardt #1 on a list of the ten most influential guitarists of the 20th century (he placed himself fifth); Latin rocker Carlos Santana; blues legend B.B. King; the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia; Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi; Jimi Hendrix; Shawn Lane; Stevie Ray Vaughan; Derek Trucks; Mark Knopfler; Les Paul; Joe Pass; Peter Frampton; Denny Laine; Jeff Beck; Jon Larsen; Steve Howe; Charlie Christian; George Benson; Wes Montgomery; Martin Taylor; Tchavolo Schmitt; Stochelo Rosenberg; Biréli Lagrène; John Jorgenson; Michael Angelo Batio; Richard Thompson; Robert Fripp; and Jeff Martin. Willie Nelson wore a Django Reinhardt T-shirt on tour in Europe in 2002, stating in an interview that he admired Django's music and ability. The British guitarist Diz Disley plays in a style based on Reinhardt's technique and he collaborated on numerous projects with Stéphane Grappelli.

Django Reinhardt also had an influence on other styles and musical genres, including Western Swing, notably in the work of Bob Wills.

Musicians have paid tribute to Reinhardt in many other ways, such as by invoking his name in their own work or personal life. Jimi Hendrix is said to have named one of his bands the Band of Gypsys because of Django's music. A number of musicians named their sons Django in reference to Reinhardt, including David Crosby, former Slade singer Noddy Holder, Jerry Jeff Walker, Richard Durrant, and also actors Nana Visitor and Raphael Sbarge. Jazz musician Django Bates and singer-songwriter Django Haskins were named after him.

Songs written in Reinhardt's honor include "Django," composed by John Lewis, which has become a jazz standard performed by musicians such as Miles Davis. The Modern Jazz Quartet titled one of their albums Django in honor of him. The Allman Brothers Band song Jessica was written by Dickey Betts in tribute to Reinhardt — he wanted to write a song that could be played using only two fingers. This aspect of the artist's work also motivated Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who was inspired by Reinhardt to keep playing guitar after a factory accident that cost him two fingertips. Composer Jon Larsen has composed several crossover concerts featuring Django inspired music together with symphonic arrangements, most famous is "White Night Stories" (2002) and "Vertavo" (1996).

In 2005, Django Reinhardt ended on the 66th place in the election of The Greatest Belgian (De Grootste Belg) in Flanders and on the 76th place in the Walloon version of the same competition Le plus grand Belge.

Django at Classic Jazz Guitar
http://www.classicjazzguitar.com/artists/artists_page.jsp?artist=26

Django at NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4209098

The Django Birdland Festival
http://www.djangobirdland.com/

Reinhardt in popular culture
· The 2007 video game BioShock uses a selection of his songs in the soundtrack.
· Reinhardt is the idol of the fictional 1930s guitarist Emmet Ray (played by Sean Penn) in the Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown(1999). In the film, it is related how Ray passed out upon meeting Django.
· Reinhardt is portrayed in the opening sequence of the 2003 animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville. The third and fourth fingers of the cartoon Reinhardt are considerably smaller than the fingers used to play the guitar.
· He is portrayed by guitarist John Jorgenson in the movie Head in the Clouds.
· The song Johnny Depp plays in the river party scene in Lasse Hallström's Chocolat was Django and Grappelli's hit, "Minor Swing".
· Reinhardt's music has been used in the soundtrack of many films, including the oracle scene in The Matrix; Rhythm Futur (95 minute mark) and I Can't Give You Anything But Love (41 minute mark) in The Aviator; Nuages in Gattaca; the score for Louis Malle's 1974 movie, Lacombe Lucien;the background for the Steve Martin movie L.A. Story; the background for a number of Woody Allen movies, including Stardust Memories, where Woody's character plays a Django record; Honeysuckle Rose in the background of the Central Park carriage ride scene in Kate and Leopold; during the Juilliard audition in the movie Daltry Calhoun; Minor Swing and Blues Clair in Metroland for which Mark Knopfler wrote the score; his rendition of Brazil can be heard on the "Something's Gotta Give" soundtrack; and Minor Swing in the scene in the painter's house in the Italian film "I Cento Passi". Reinhardt's work also figures heavily into B. Monkey and The Pallbearer.
· Reinhardt is the idol of the character Arvid in the movie Swing Kids. The character's left hand is smashed by a member of the Hitler Jugend (HJ), but is inspired to continue by Reinhardt's example.
· An extended discussion of Reinhardt takes place among several characters in the novel From Here to Eternity by James Jones.
· The character Andre Custine has a double bass that had been played by Reinhardt in the novel Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds.
· The 2002 video game Mafia used many of his songs on the soundtrack.
· Sealab 2021 paid tribute to Django in the episode "All That Jazz". In it, Captain Murphy comments on a drink dispensed from the Bebop Cola machine: "Ahh, Mango Reinhardt! The thinking man's pop!"
· Harlan Ellison's short story "Django" is a fantasia about a guitarist, with similarities to Reinhardt.
· The Django web framework, a Python web framework, was named after Reinhardt.
· Author William Kotzwinkle's 1989 collection, The Hot Jazz Trio stars Reinhardt in a surrealistic fantasy also featuring Pablo Picasso.
· In the classic Italian western Django, the titular hero is presumably named after Reinhardt. In the climax of the movies, his hands are smashed by his enemies and he is forced to fire a gun with his wounded hands,
· The song Django from the 1973 Lindsey Buckingham / Stevie Nicks self-titled debut album is a version of the John Lewis standard.
· The song "Muskrat Love" by America (band) makes a comment about Django, though spelled "Jango" in the lyrics.
· The lyrics of the Norwegian song Tanta til Beate by Lillebjørn Nilsen mentions Django several times.
· Brian Dennehy plays a rat named Django in the film Ratatouille, in obvious reference to the musician.
· The song "Feel So Numb" by Rob Zombie on the album "The Sinister Urge" refers to Django.
· Reinhardt is menioned in the short play Sure Thing

Trivia
· Django's only acoustic guitar was given to Les Paul. Les Paul keeps Django's acoustic guitar in his garage and it is his most prized possession. Django's guitar can be seen in the DVD documentary, Les Paul: Chasing Sound.

Discography
· 1945 Paris 1945
· 1947 Ellingtonia - with the Rex Stewart Band - Dial 215
· 1949 "Djangology '49
· 1951 Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club Quintet
· 1951 At Club St. Germain
· 1953 Django Reinhardt et Ses Rythmes
· 1954 The Great Artistry of Django Reinhardt
· 1955 Django's Guitar
· 1959 Django Reinhardt and His Rhythm
· 1980 Routes to Django Reinhardt
· 1996 Imagine
· 2001 All Star Sessions
· 2001 Jazz in Paris: Swing 39
· 2002 Djangology (remastered) (recorded in 1948, discovered, remastered and released by Bluebird Records)
· 2003 Jazz in Paris: Nuages
· 2003 Jazz in Paris: Nuits de Saint-Germain des-Prés
· 2004 Le Génie Vagabond

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 3 replies

What Did You Do With This Weeks Allowance?

kubbie — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:27:16 GMT

I picked up 3 cd's and a book this week

The book I am really excited about. Its called "Shout Sister Shout:The Untold Story of a Rock N Roll Trailblazer" about Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

The cds are a cool addition to my way too big cd collection. The first one here is the best by far.

Rosemary Clooney - Jazz Singer great songs here the best being her take on "Blues In The Night" it rocks
1. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
2. I'll Be Around
3. How About You
4. Blues In The Night
5. Memories Of You
6. I'm Checkin' Out, Goombye
7. What Is There To Say
8. Lady Is A Tramp, The
9. Bad News
10. Hey Baby
11. It's Bad For Me
12. Touch Of The Blues, A
13. Together
14. Learnin' The Blues
15. Doncha Go 'Way Mad
16. Sophisticated Lady
17. Come Rain Or Come Shine
18. Goodbye

Sarah Vaughan - Swing Easy
1. Shulie A Bop
2. Lover Man
3. I Cried For You
4. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
5. All Of Me
6. Words Can't Describe
7. Prelude To A Kiss
8. You Hit The Spot
9. Pennies From Heaven
10. If I Knew Then (What I Know Now)
11. Body And Soul
12. They Can't Take That Away From Me
13. Linger Awhile - (bonus track)

June Christy - Junes Got Rhythm
1. Rock Me To Sleep
2. Gypsy In My Soul, The
3. I'm Glad There Is You
4. They Can't Take That Away From Me
5. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
6. My One And Only Love
7. When Lights Are Low
8. I Can Make You Love Me (If You Let Me)
9. Easy Living
10. Blue Moon
11. All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
12. Baubles, Bangles, And Beads - (previously unreleased, Bonus Track)
13. Aren't You Glad You're You - (previously unreleased, Bonus Track)
14. Looking For A Boy - (previously unreleased, Bonus Track)
15. Small Fry - (previously unreleased, Bonus Track)

So what have you gotten lately?

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 5 replies

1/26 SPOTLIGHT

kubbie — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 08:05:23 GMT

Everyone please bask in the glory that is Our Mistress of Ceremonies CONFETTA!!!!!!!!!!!

and wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 4 replies

1/17 Spotlight Eartha Kitt

kubbie — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:17:45 GMT

Eartha Kitt - C'est Si Bon (Live Kaskad 1962)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5WVkl_f7_E

1962 “I Want To Be Evil”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ5VaBgXzuM

“Just an Old Fashioned Girl” 1962
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IfGBQ-T_GY

Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith on January 17, 1927)[1] is an American actress, singer, and cabaret star. She is best known for her role as Catwoman in the 1960s TV series Batman, and for her 1953 Christmas song "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her "the most exciting woman in the world."

In 1960, Kitt was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has also received three Tony nominations, two Grammy nominations, and an Emmy win. She was profiled on the December 31, 2007 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition.

Early life

Kitt's mother was Black Indian with Cherokee ancestry, and her father was European-American. She was born out of wedlock (as would necessarily have been the case given the laws regarding miscegenation at the time) in tiny North, South Carolina, but jokes about the fact that many audiences assume her to be from somewhere more exotic. Kitt now only slightly recalls her mother, who abandoned her to relatives, and she never met her father. She had a very difficult childhood.

Career

Kitt got her start as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film debut with them in Casbah (1948). A talented singer with a distinctive voice, her hits include "Let's Do It", "C'est si bon", "Just an Old Fashioned Girl", "Monotonous", "Love for Sale", "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch", "Uska Dara", "Mink, Schmink", "Under the Bridges of Paris", and her most recognizable hit, "Santa Baby." Kitt's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in French during her years performing in Europe. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she demonstrates with finesse in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.

In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952 introducing "Monotonous", "C'est si bon" and "Santa Baby", three songs with which she continues to be identified. In 1954, 20th Century-Fox filmed a version of the revue simply titled New Faces. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a torrid affair during her run in Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by Welles as "the most exciting woman in the world." In 1958, Kitt made her feature film debut opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and on nightclub stages. In the late 1960s, television series Batman, she played Catwoman in succession to Julie Newmar.

In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California.

In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. It was falsely reported that she made First Lady Lady Bird Johnson cry uncontrollably when in fact, the First Lady replied very diplomatically. The public reaction to Kitt's statements were much more extreme, both for and against her statements. Professionally exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances.

During that time cultural references to her grew, including outside the United States, such as the well-known Monty Python sketch ("the cycling tour") where an amnesiac believes he is first Clodagh Rogers, then Trotsky and finally Eartha Kitt (while performing to an enthusiastic crowd in Moscow). She returned to New York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a 'recipe' for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.

In 1984, she returned to hit music with a disco song, Where Is My Man (UK # 34); the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat) received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached #32 in the UK charts.

In the late 1990s she appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz. In 2000, Kitt again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Begininng in late 2000, she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the National tour of Cinderella alongside Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. She reprised her role of the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella which took place at Madison Square Gardens during the holiday season of 2004.

One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and returned to the role in the straight to video sequel Kronk's New Groove and the spin-off TV series The Emperor's New School, for which she won a 2006 Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. She is currently doing other voiceover work such as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot.

In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York have made her a fixture of the Manhattan cabaret scene. She takes the stage at venues such as The Ballroom and, more recently, the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as Old Fashioned Millionaire), which emphasize a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less familiar repertoire, much of which she performs with an unexpected ferocity and bite that present her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of resilience — her version of Here's to Life, frequently used as a closing number, is a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances is reflected in at least one of her recordings, Thinking Jazz, which preserves a series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s in Germany and which includes both standards (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and numbers (such as Something May Go Wrong) that seem more specifically tailored to her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce, angry Yesterdays and a live take of C'est Si Bon that good-humoredly satirizes her sex-kitten persona.

From October to early December, 2006, Kitt co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical Mimi Le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa L. Williams.

Personal life

She was married to Bill McDonald from 1960 to 1965 and had one child, a daughter, Kitt Shapiro. Eartha has two grandchildren, Jason and Rachel. She lived for many years in Pound Ridge, NY, but recently moved to Connecticut to be near her daughter's family. In 2007 she performed at the Hotel Carlyle in New York.

Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. She re-recorded Smoke Gets In Your Eyes for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month.

She was a great friend of the actor James Dean and makes appearances in films about the late actor.

Uska Dara from 1952 New Faces Movie (sound is funky) Belly Dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frJBvPC99i8

“Love For Sale” live at benefit concert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNvGVVqRJEs

Filmography
· Casbah (1948)
· New Faces (1954)
· The Mark of the Hawk (1958)
· St. Louis Blues (film)|St. Louis Blues]] (1958)
· Anna Lucasta (1959)
· Saint of Devil's Island (1961)
· Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965) (voice only)
· Synanon (1965)
· All About People (1967) (short subject) (narrator)
· Up the Chastity Belt (1971)
· Friday Foster (1975)
· All By Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story (1983) (documentary)
· The Serpent Warriors (1985)
· The Pink Chiquitas (1987)
· Dragonard (1987)
· Master of Dragonard Hill (1989)
· Erik the Viking (1989)
· Living Doll (1990)
· Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
· Boomerang (1992)
· Fatal Instinct (1993)
· Unzipped (1995) (documentary)
· Harriet the Spy (1996)
· Ill Gotten Gains (1997)
· I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998)
· The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998) (voice)
· The Emperor's New Groove (2000) (voice)
· The Making and Meaning of We Are Family (2002) (documentary)
· The Sweatbox (2002) (documentary)
· Anything But Love (2002)
· Holes (2003)
· On the One (2005)
· Preaching to the Choir (2005)
· The Emperor's New Groove 2: Kronk's New Groove (2005) (voice)
· And Then Came Love (2007)

“An Englishman Needs Time” 1962
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcCoO6yjFVw

Television work
· The Nat King Cole Show (guest star in 1956)
I Spy (Tv series) 1967 (guest star)
· Batman (guest star in 1967 and 1968)
· Mission: Impossible (guest star in "The Traitor," 1967, season 1)
· Lieutenant Schuster's Wife (1972)
· To Kill a Cop (1978)
· Miami Vice (as Priestess Chata, 1985)
· Desperately Seeking Roger (1991)
· Living Single (1995)
· The Nanny (guest star in 1996)
· The Wild Thornberrys (guest star in 1998) (voice)
· Feast of All Saints (2001) (miniseries)
· Santa Baby! (2001) (voice)
· My Life as a Teenage Robot (guest star in 2003) (voice)
· The Emperor's New School (2006-present) (voice)

Official Website
http://www.earthakitt.com/

The Eartha Kitt Tribe
http://earthakitt.tribe.net/

Kitt at Internet Broadway Database
http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=48248

Kitt at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0457755/

Kitt Fanclub
http://www.earthakittfanclub.com/

“Santa Baby” from New Faces movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMmSbxB_Sg&feature=related

“Cha Cha Heels” with Bronski Beat 1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vGAa4Fdww8

“I’m Still Here” from the 1987 Follies Revival London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWbN4Ie3eTI
(trivia, Sodheim wrote this song for the Follies for Yvonne De Carlo)

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 0 replies

Happy Eartha Kitt's birthday to...

Mad — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:12:33 GMT

sean! i know you're a fan.

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply

SPOTLIGHT FOR JANUARY 14TH: HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY RUSS COLUMBO!!

confetta — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:09:44 GMT

SPOTLIGHT FOR
JANUARY 14TH

BIRTHDAYS

1900
Charles Bocage
Banjo/Guitar/vocals
b. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
d. Nov. 4, 1963.
One of the "musical families" of old New Orleans. His brother Peter Bocage played the Cornet, and another brother Henry Bocage played the Tuba, and the double Bass.

1908
Russ Columbo
Actor/vocalist
b. Philadelphia, PA, USA.
d. 4 Sept 1934, Los Angeles, CA. (accidental shooting).
né: Ruggerio Eugenio di Rudolpho Colombo.
Composed one song also, "Hello Sister" (1930). "The Romeo Of The Radio" started as a violinist playing background music on Silent Movie sets. Joined Gus Arnheim orchestra in 1928 and made his movie debut with Arnheim's band same year; first record under his own name in 1931; last record ("I See Two Lovers") two days before his death. Sept 2 1934. Russ' mother was never told of his death. She was gravely ill, and it was thought best not to tell her of her son's demise. For the next ten years, she lived believing that he was alive, while her husband wrote her letters - as Russ - telling her fake details of his life and movie stardom. At the time of his death, Hollywood rumor had Russ and glamorous Carole Lombard romantically linked. Carole later became Mrs. Clark Gable, and lost her life in an aircraft accident during WW2.

BIO #2:
Ruggiero Eugenio di Rodolpho Colombo,
(January 14, 1908–September 1, 1934), better known by the name Russ Columbo, was an American singer, violinist and actor, most famous for his signature tune, "Some Call It Madness, But I Call It Love," and the legend surrounding his early death.

Columbo was born in Camden, New Jersey, the twelfth child of Italian immigrant parents. He started playing the violin while still very young, and debuted professionally at the age of 13. He left high school at 17 to travel with various bands around the country. He sang and played violin in numerous nightclubs.

By 1928, at the age of 20, Columbo began to participate in motion pictures. In several of his early films, his voice and violin were overdubbed to create the illusion that various popular entertainers were musical. Eventually, he did obtain some feature work in front of the camera, but he slowed down his activities in cinema to pursue other interests.

Columbo tried to run a nightclub for a while, but the venture was unsuccessful. In 1931, he traveled to New York with his manager, songwriter Con Conrad. Conrad secured a late-night radio slot with NBC. This led to numerous engagments, a recording contract with Victor records, and tremendous popularity with legions of mostly female fans. The type of singing that was popularized by the likes of Columbo, Rudy Vallee, and Bing Crosby is called crooning. Columbo disliked the label, but it caught on with the general public. It gained popular credence, despite its initial use as a term of derision for the singers employing their low, soothing voices in romantic songs.

On September 1, 1934, Columbo was shot under peculiar circumstances by his longtime friend, photographer Lansing Brown. Columbo's death was ruled an accident, and Brown exonerated from blame.

**RUSS COLUMBO LINKS**
RUSS on SQUIDOO:
http://www.squidoo.com/RussColumbo
RUSS COLUMBO TRIBE BIO:
http://crooners.tribe.net/thread/6b005d95-5645-4e5b-8905-a978b1a8fd2a
Hollywoods Tragic Crooner:
http://www.classicimages.com/1999/ap...mbo.html
IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0173375/

1916
Maxwell Davis
Tenor Saxophone/arranger/producer
b. Independence, MO, USA.
d: Sept, 18, 1970, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Over his long career, Davis played with such bands and stars as Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, Percy Mayfield, Louis Jordan, Amos Milburn, Helen Humes, B.B. King, "T-Bone" Walker, Charles Brown, Floyd Dixon, and Lowell Fulson.

1896
Seymour Simons, composer
b. Detroit, MI, USA
d. Feb. 12, 1949, Detroit, MI, USA.
Simons had hits from teens to late 1930s.

1922
Al Terry Country/rockabilly vocals
b. Kaplan, LA, USA.
né: Allison Joseph Theroit.

1881
"Princess White Deere, vocals
b. Philadelphia, PA, USA.
d. 1992.
Born Esther Deer, a full-blooded Mohawk woman, she is now called the first American Indian to gain fame as a dancer and vocalist. Originally, she toured around the world as part of 'Texas Jack’s Wild West Show', but later broke away, and with her own family, formed 'The Deer Family Troupe' western show, usually billed as "The Famous Deer Brothers Champion Indian Trick Riders of the World," which performed across Europe and America in the early 1900's. However, Esther Deer only gained national fame when she left the show, and became a solo act working in the "Florenz Ziefeld Follies", where she sang and danced, - crossing over from "Wild West" to straight ahead vaudeville.

1912
David A. Young, Tenor Sax
b. Nashville, TN, USA.
d. Dec. 25, 1992.
~Biography
by Chris Kelsey
David A. Young was a tenor saxophonist with Horace Henderson, Fletcher Henderson ,Roy Eldridge, Lucky Millinder, and Sammy Price, among others. Young grew up in Chicago where he first studied music. Beginning his career in 1932; he also served in he Navy during World War II. After the service, Young led his own band in Chicago. In 1947, the group recorded several sides for the Aristocrat label featuring the singers Andrew Tibbs and Clarence Samuels; they also recorded with the singer Dinah Washington, then played an engagement with her at the Ritz Lounge. A short time later, Young left music to begin writing full-time for the Chicago Defender newspaper.

Notable Events
on this date include:

1949.
George Baquet, cornet
died in Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Age: 66

1964.
For the first time, a "hootenanny" was held at the White House, as the New Christy Minstrels entertained President and Lady Bird Johnson, as well as Italy's President.

1966.
David Jones changed his last name to Bowie to avoid confusion with Monkees member Davy.

1973.
An estimated one billion viewers in 40 countries watched Elvis Presley's TV special "Elvis - Aloha From Hawaii" which was beamed via satellite.

Songs Recorded/Released
on this date include:

1925 “St. Louis Blues”
(W.C. Handy)
- Bessie Smith
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/misc/stlouisblues.ram

1925 “You've Been A Good Old Wagon”
(Smith / Balcom)
-Bessie Smith
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/bessie/youvebeenagoodole.ram

1926 “I'd Rather Be Alone (Just Thinking Of You)”
(Jack Yellen / Milton Ager)
- Original Indiana Five
http://www.redhotjazz.com/Songs/oi5/idratherbealone.ram

1928 “Henry's Made A Lady Out Of Lizzie”
(Tom Stacks vocal)
- Harry Reser and his Orchestra
http://www.redhotjazz.com/Songs/reser/henrylizzie6jj.ram

1928 “I Scream - You Scream - We All Scream For Ice Cream”
(Tom Stacks vocal)
- Harry Reser and his Orchestra
http://www.redhotjazz.com/Songs/reser/screamicecream6jj.ram

1931 “I Ain't Got Nobody”
(Roger Graham / Spencer Williams)
-Dave Nelson and the King's Men
http://www.redhotjazz.com/Songs/misc/iaintgotnobody.ram

1931 “Some Of These Days”
(Shelton Brooks)
- Dave Nelson and the King's Men
http://www.redhotjazz.com/Songs/misc/someofthesedays.ram

1931 “When Day Is Done”
(Buddy DeSylva / Dr. Robert Katscher)
http://www.redhotjazz.com/Songs/misc/whendayisdone.ram

1943 Why Don't You Fall In Love With Me, - Johnny Long

1949 Galaway Bay, - Bing Crosby

1949 Red Roses For A Blue Lady, - Vaughn Monroe

------------------------------------------------------------------------
LYRICS:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Day is Done
Lyrics ~B.G. DeSylva
Music by: Dr. Robert Katscher

Since you've gone away, one thing is clear to me,
You were dearer than dear to me
From the moment you came.
Evenings by your side, I learned to love the night,
But the loveliness of the night
Is no longer the same.
Chorus:
When day is done and shadows fall,
I dream of you.
When day is done, I think of all the joys we knew
That yearning returning to hold you in my arms,
Won't go, love, I know, love,
Without you night has lost its charms!
When day is done and grass is wet with twilight's dew,
My lonely heart is sinking with the sun.
Although I miss your tender kiss the whole day through,
I miss you most of all when day is done.

Vesper bells are ringing, somewhere far away,
There's a silvery star away
At the edge of the sky.
Work is done, and life is like a song to me,
For some treasures belong to me
That no money can buy.
Chorus:
When day is done and shadows fall,
I dream of you.
When day is done, I think of all the joys we knew
That yearning returning to hold you in my arms,
Won't go, love, I know, love,
Without you night has lost its charms!
When day is done and grass is wet with twilight's dew,
My lonely heart is sinking with the sun.
Although I miss your tender kiss the whole day through,
I miss you most of all when day is done.

Prisoner Of Love
~First recorded by writer Columbo in 1932
~Words by Leo Robin and Music by Russ Columbo and Clarence Gaskill

Alone from night to night you'll find me
Too weak to break the chains that bind me
I need no shackles to remind me
I'm just a prisoner of love

For one command I stand and wait now
From one who's master of my fate now
I can't escape for it's too late now
I'm just a prisoner of love

What's the good of my caring if someone is sharing those arms with me
Although she has another, I can't have another for I'm not free

She's in my dreams awake or sleeping
Upon my knees to her I'm creeping
My very life is in her keeping
I'm just a prisoner of love

What's the good of my caring if someone is sharing those arms with me
Although she has another, I can't have another for I'm not free

She's in my dreams awake or sleeping
Upon my knees to her I'm creeping
My very life is in her keeping
I'm just a prisoner of love

posted in Crooners & Songbirds - 1 reply