easy vocal memories adult standards MOR Middle of the Road

Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are curious about your New Year’s Eve plans.

2011-12-31T00:42:00.000-08:00

She plays ukulele and he plays guitar in the two-minute video of the 1947 jazz song.

Deschanel calls her “(500) Days of Summer” co-star “simply the best” in a note accompanying the video.

The two actors don’t reveal their New Year’s Eve plans in the clip, but they will be celebrating together in 2012. Both are nominated for Golden Globe Awards: she for actress in a TV comedy for “New Girl,” and he for his lead role in the film “50/50.

Easy Vocal CHRISTMAS Memories

2011-12-18T06:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas vocals from seasons past.

Tune in now through Christmas Day for seasonal favorites. Our tune in link is at the top right...

Andy Williams born December 3, 1927, American singer

2011-12-03T01:17:00.000-08:00

Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams has recorded 18 Gold and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri, named after the song "Moon River", with which he is closely identified. On Friday, November 4, 2011, it was reported in the press that Williams has been diagnosed with bladder cancer. He is undergoing chemotherapy treatments in Houston and will then move with his wife to a rented home in Malibu, California to be closer to cancer specialists in the Los Angeles area.

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"My Heart" ~ New album from Doris Day

2011-11-28T14:14:00.000-08:00

My Heart is the 29th studio album by Doris Day, released on September 5, 2011. On September 11, 2011 the album entered the UK chart at number nine, making Doris Day the oldest artist to score a UK Top 10 with an album featuring new material. Eight of the songs are new releases, with three of them written by Day's son Terry Melcher, and Bruce Johnston. Many of the songs on this collection were recorded in the mid-eighties for her Doris Day's Best Friends television show. The songs were meant to be used as background music for segments featuring Doris and the animals. When the original recordings were recently retrieved, it seemed only right that her fans should hear these songs, newly remixed for superior sound quality. "My One and Only Love" was previously issued on Day's 1962 album with André Previn, Duet, "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" was previously issued on The Love Album (1994), "My Buddy" was previously issued on I'll See You in My Dreams (1951) and "Ohio" was issued first on 1960's Show Time.

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Florin Street

2011-11-24T02:23:00.000-08:00

From Florin Street A new Christmas song out December 5th 2011. Please support this independently produced Christmas song which is also the theme to ITV's Text Santa appeal. The nine Text Santa charities and Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, will share all profits from UK downloads of the song this Christmas. Please share this video with your friends and help us make the Christmas charts by downloading the song from iTunes or Amazon from December 5th 2011. This Victorian-themed Christmas song and video was produced without record company backing. After trying to gain record company support, British composer, Leigh Haggerwood, decided to make it happen himself so he gathered together his musician friends and wrote, produced and sung this Christmas songs. The video features the skills of top director Nick Bartleet and Cinematographer John Perez (known for his work on Coldplay's Viva La Vida, Beyoncé and many other productions). You can help spread some Christmas magic so please visit our website and join us on Facebook. Thanks for your support and best wishes for Christmas 2011!

Jo Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008 ) American singer.

2011-11-12T03:30:00.000-08:00

Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008) was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. Stafford was 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. She was also the first woman to have a No 1 on the UK Singles Chart. Stafford's work in radio, television and music is recognized by three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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November 11

2011-11-11T01:32:00.003-08:00

On this day in 1938, radio star Kate Smith sang God Bless America for the very first time. It would later become her signature song. Irving Berlin penned the tune in 1917 but never released it until Miss Smith sang it for the first time on her popular radio show.

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November 11

2011-11-11T01:32:00.001-08:00

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November 11

2011-11-11T01:31:00.000-08:00

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Jane Froman (November 10, 1907 – April 22, 1980) was an American singer. and actress.

2011-11-10T00:57:00.000-08:00

Jane Froman (November 10, 1907 – April 22, 1980) was an American singer and actress. During her thirty-year career, Froman performed on stage, radio and television despite chronic injuries that she sustained from a 1943 plane crash. The 1952 film, With a Song in My Heart, is based on her life.

VIDEOS

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November 8 birthday Patti Page, American singer of traditional pop music.

2011-11-08T01:45:00.000-08:00

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. Her nickname is The Singin' Rage (a phrase commonly followed by "Miss Patti Page").

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Al Martino birthday October 7

2011-10-07T01:24:00.000-07:00

Al Martino (born Jasper Cini, October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid 1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop crooners", and also became well known as an actor, particularly for his role as singer Johnny Fontane in The Godfather.

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Johnny Mathis birthday September 30

2011-09-30T01:21:00.000-07:00

John Royce "Johnny" Mathis ( born September 30, 1935)is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts. According to Guinness Book of World Records writer and charts music historian Paul Gambaccini, Johnny Mathis has sold 350 million records worldwide.

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Julie London birthday September 26

2011-09-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

Julie London (September 26, 1926 – October 18, 2000) was an American singer and actress. She was best known for her smoky, sensual voice. London was at her singing career's peak in the 1950s. Her acting career lasted more than 35 years. It concluded with the female lead role of nurse Dixie McCall on the television series Emergency! (1972–1979), co-starring her best friend Robert Fuller and her real-life husband Bobby Troup, and produced by her ex-husband Jack Webb.

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Bobby Short birthday September 15, 1924

2011-09-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Robert Waltrip "Bobby" Short (September 15, 1924 – March 21, 2005) was an American cabaret singer and pianist, best known for his interpretations of songs by popular composers of the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Noel Coward and George and Ira Gershwin.

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September 13, 1925 Birthday of Mel Tormé

2011-09-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books. He composed the music for the classic holiday song "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire") and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells.

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Dick Haymes birthday September 13

2011-09-13T01:22:00.000-07:00

Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes (September 13, 1918 – March 28, 1980) was an Argentine actor and one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, who was an actor, television host, and songwriter. Song That's All composed by Dick.

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Conductor Ray Charles birthday September 13

2011-09-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Ray Charles (born Charles Raymond Offenberg, September 13, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, vocal arranger and conductor who is best- known as organizer and leader of The Ray Charles Singers. The Ray Charles Singers were featured on Perry Como's records, radio shows and television shows for 35 years. The Ray Charles Singers are also known for a series of 30 choral record albums produced in the 1950s and 1960s for Essex, MGM, Decca and Command labels.
As a vocalist, Charles, along with Julia Rinker Miller, is known for singing the theme song to the television series Three's Company ("Come and Knock on Our Door"). As a songwriter, Charles is best known for the choral anthem "Fifty Nifty United States," in which he set the names of the states to music in alphabetical order. It was originally written for The Perry Como Show.He is also known for "Letters, We Get Letters," also originally written for The Perry Como Show and later used on Late Show with David Letterman.
At the age of 89 years, he continued to serve as a musical consultant to television programs, most notably for the last 24 years on the Kennedy Center Honors. Charles is acknowledged as an authority on American popular music.

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Maurice Chevalier birthday September 12

2011-09-12T01:35:00.000-07:00

Maurice Auguste Chevalier (September 12, 1888 – January 1, 1972) was a French actor, singer, and popular vaudeville entertainer. He is noted as a Sprechgesang performer. Chevalier's signature songs included "Louise", "Mimi", "Valentine", and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls". His trademark was a boater hat, which he always wore on stage with a tuxedo.

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Michael Feinstein birthday September 7, 1956

2011-09-07T01:34:00.000-07:00

Michael Jay Feinstein (born September 7, 1956) is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs. Feinstein is also a multi-platinum-selling, five-time Grammy-nominated recording artist.

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Glenn Osser birthday August 28

2011-08-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

He was born in Munising, Michigan, the child of Russian-Jewish immigrants. In high school he played piano, violin, saxophone and clarinet and went afterwards to study music at the University of Michigan, beginning in music education and switching to music theory, graduating in 1935. He moved to New York and got involved in the local Jazz Scene, soon getting to record with Les Brown and Benny Goodman. He also got hired by radio broadcasting station NBC, to work as a staff arranger. During WWII, he started to arrange with Paul Whiteman and being still in broadcasting industry with ABC Network and NBC Blue Network. Later in his career, he backed famous musicians like Patti Page and Doris Day. He can be found a huge amount of records, always having a role in leading the orchestras.

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Four Freshmen founder

2011-08-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

Bob Flanigan (August 22, 1926 – May 15, 2011), was an American tenor vocalist and founding member of The Four Freshmen, a jazz vocal group.
Flanigan, who was born in Greencastle, Indiana, was a respected trombonist, and also played bass guitar with the outfit for several decades, beginning on September 20, 1948, and sang the top part.
After retiring from performing in 1992, Flanigan maintained the band's name and was responsible for the group's changing cast of performers.
Flanigan died of congestive heart failure at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 15, 2011.[1][2] He was 84.

Eydie Gormé born August 16, 1928

2011-08-16T01:19:00.000-07:00

American singer, specializing, with her husband, Steve Lawrence, in traditional pop music, in the form of ballads and breezy swing. She has earned numerous awards, including the Grammy and the Emmy. She retired as of 2009; husband and musical partner Steve Lawrence continues to perform as a solo act. Gormé enjoyed hit singles of her own, none selling bigger than 1963's "Blame It on the Bossa Nova", which was also her final foray into the Top 40 pop charts. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. In the UK, "Yes, My Darling Daughter" reached #10. She won a Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance in 1967, for her version of "If He Walked Into My Life", from the hit musical Mame. The latter made #5 on the Billboard magazine Easy Listening chart in 1966, despite failing to make the Billboard Hot 100. Indeed, most of Gormé's singles chart success from 1963 onward were on the Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary charts, where she placed 27 singles (both solo and with her husband) from 1963 to 1979 (of which "If He Walked Into My Life" was the most successful). As a soloist, her other biggest hits during that period included "What Did I Have That I Don't Have?" from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (#17 Easy Listening, 1966) and "Tonight I'll Say a Prayer" (#45 Pop and #8 Easy Listening, 1969, also her last Hot 100 entry as a solo artist).

Wikipedia | Official Site | Search Amazon.com for Eydie Gorme

Buddy Greco (born Armando Greco, August 14, 1926, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American singer and pianist.

2011-08-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Greco began playing piano at the age of four. His first professional work was playing with Benny Goodman's band. Most of Greco's work has been in the jazz and pop genres. He has recorded songs such as "Oh Look A-There, Ain't She Pretty", "The Lady is a Tramp", and "Around the World", and has released about 65 albums and 100 singles. He has had an active concert career playing in symphony halls, theatres, nightclubs, and Las Vegas showrooms. In the 1960s he made appearances with the Rat Pack. Greco played the nightclub singer Lucky in the 1969 film The Girl Who Knew Too Much. Greco has recorded albums for the Columbia/Epic and Reprise record labels, and other minor labels. His most popular albums were On Stage and Buddy's Back in Town, both with Columbia. His most successful single was "The Lady is a Tramp", which sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.

EDDIE FISHER Birthday August 10

2011-08-10T01:56:00.001-07:00

Edwin John Fisher (August 10, 1928 – September 22, 2010), better known as Eddie Fisher, was an American singer and entertainer, who was one of the world's most famous and successful singers in the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show. His divorce from his first wife, Debbie Reynolds, to marry his best friend's widow, Elizabeth Taylor, garnered scandalously unwelcome publicity at the time. He was also married to Connie Stevens.
He was the father of actresses Carrie Fisher and Joely Fisher.

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Pop - Jazz Singer Jeri Southern birthday August 5

2011-08-05T01:37:00.000-07:00

Genevieve Lillian Hering, known by her stage name Jeri Southern, (August 5, 1926 - August 4, 1991) was an American jazz pianist and singer. She signed with Decca Records in 1951 and became known both for pop and jazz. The 1950s saw her at the height of her career. In 1955 her recording of "An Occasional Man", reached #89 in the Billboard pop chart. In that decade she sang in a few films and in 1957 she had a Top 30 hit with "Fire Down Below." The track peaked at #22 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1957. After her switch to Capitol Records she had success doing interpretations of Cole Porter with Billy May arranging some of the more humorous examples.

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Tony Bennett Birthday August 3

2011-08-02T21:17:00.002-07:00

Tony Bennett (born Anthony Dominick Benedetto; August 3, 1926) is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz.
Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as an infantryman with the U.S. Army in the European Theatre. Afterwards, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records, and had his first number one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several top hits such as "Rags to Riches" followed in the early 1950s. Bennett then further refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and his personal life then suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era.
Bennett staged a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding his audience to the MTV Generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer in the 2000s. Bennett has won fifteen Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, been named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree. He has sold over 50 million records worldwide. Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter, creating works under the name Benedetto that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is also the founder of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens.
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HELEN MORGAN Birthday August 2

2011-08-02T00:32:00.000-07:00

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 as well as in the 1932 Broadway revival of the musical, and appeared in two film adaptations, a part-talkie made in 1929 (prologue only) and a full-sound version made 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 Kern's Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline (1929), her stage career was relatively short. Helen Morgan died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 41. She was portrayed by Polly Bergen in the Playhouse 90 drama The Helen Morgan Story and by Ann Blyth in the 1957 biopic based on the television drama.

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Buddy Clark birthday July 26

2011-07-26T01:58:00.000-07:00

Buddy Clark (July 26, 1911 - October 1, 1949) was a popular American singer in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1946 he signed with Columbia Records and scored his biggest hit with the song "Linda" recorded in November of that year, but hitting its peak in the following spring. ( Linda was the daughter of a friend, later in life becoming a prominent spokeswoman for vegetarianism and animal rights, and broke a generation of teenage girls' hearts when she married Beatle Paul McCartney.)
On October 1, 1949, just as the 38 year old was reaching new heights of popularity (and was scheduled for his weekly appearance on The Carnation Contented Hour the following evening), Clark and five other friends rented a small plane to attend a Stanford vs. Michigan college football game. On the way back to Los Angeles after the game, the plane ran out of fuel, lost altitude and crashed on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. Clark didn't survive the crash.

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Kay Starr birthday July 21

2011-07-21T00:53:00.000-07:00

Kay Starr (born July 21, 1922) is an American pop and jazz singer who enjoyed considerable success in the 1950s. She is best remembered for introducing two songs that became #1 hits in the 1950s, "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Rock And Roll Waltz".

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Vikki Carr birthday July 19

2011-07-19T05:51:00.000-07:00

Vikki Carr (born Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona, July 19, 1941) is an American singer of Mexican ancestry from El Paso, Texas. She has performed in a variety of music genres, including jazz, pop and country, but has enjoyed her greatest success singing in Spanish.

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Diahann Carroll birthday July 17, 1935

2011-07-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

Diahann Carroll, American actress and singer...

Having appeared in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts such as Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess, she starred in 1968's Julia, one of the first series on American television to star a black woman in a non-stereotypical role. Later she created the role of Dominique Deveraux on the popular prime time soap opera, Dynasty She starred in the Broadway musical, House of Flowers. In 1959, she played Clara in the film version of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, but her character's singing parts were dubbed by opera singer Loulie Jean Norman. In 1962 she won the Tony Award for best actress (a first for a black woman) for the role of Barbara Woodruff in the Samuel A. Taylor and Richard Rodgers musical No Strings. In 1974, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Claudine.
She is the recipient of numerous stage and screen awards and nominations. Carroll has been married four times and became the mother of a daughter in 1960. She is a breast cancer survivor and activist.

www.diahanncarroll.net

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Linda Ronstadt

2011-07-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

Linda Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned ten Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations.
A singer and record producer, she is recognized as a definitive interpreter of songs. Being one of music's most versatile and commercially successful female singers in U.S. history, she is recognized for her many public stages of self-reinvention and incarnations. Ronstadt has collaborated with artists from a diverse spectrum of genres – including Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, The Chieftains, Gram Parsons, Dolly Parton and has lent her voice to over 120 albums around the world.

Wikipedia |

Ted Koeler, Song Writer composed "Stormy Weather" with H Arlen

2011-07-14T02:28:00.000-07:00

Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. Koehler was born in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver but was attracted to the music business, where he started out as a theater pianist for silent films. He moved on to write for vaudeville shows and Broadway, and he also produced nightclub shows. His most famous collaboration was with the composer Harold Arlen, with whom he wrote many famous songs from the 1920s through the 1940s. The two wrote for Broadway, for productions at the Cotton Club, and for Hollywood films. Koehler also worked with other composers, including Rube Bloom and Sammy Fain.
Koehler died in Santa Monica, California. (Wikipedia)

Stormy Weather [VHS]

ADULT STANDARDS RADIO

2011-07-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ed Ames

2011-07-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

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 was part of a popular 1950s singing group called The Ames Brothers.
The Ames Brothers were first signed on with Decca Records in 1948, but because of the Musician Union's ban, their records from Decca were never released. 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." The Brothers joined RCA Victor records and continued to have success throughout the 50s with many hits like "It Only Hurts For a Little While," "You, You, You" and "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane." The brothers made appearances regularly on variety shows, and for a short period of time had their own 15 minute variety show in 1955. Ames recorded under the name "Eddie Ames" while still with the Ames Brothers, releasing the single "Bean Song (Which Way To Boston?)" in 1957. During the 1960s, Ames returned to singing, this time as a solo artist. He released his first RCA Victor chart single, "Try to Remember," in 1965. The song barely made the charts. 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 with "When the Snow Is On the Roses," "Time Time", "Pete Raids", 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. Ames's distinctive baritone is a regular radio presence during Christmas season, too, thanks to his version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" Written originally in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the song received its best-selling treatment from Bing Crosby in 1962, but Ames' version, recorded a few years later, is in frequent holiday rotation.

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Steve Lawrence

2011-07-08T02:35:00.000-07:00

Steve Lawrence (born July 8, 1935) is an American singer and actor, perhaps best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as Steve and Eydie. The two have appeared together since appearing regularly on Steve Allen's The Tonight Show in the mid-1950s. Between 1953 and the 1970s, Lawrence first recorded for King Records then signed to Coral, then ABC-Paramount, then United Artists, then Columbia and finally MGM, never staying with a label for a long period of time. He and Gormé appeared together in the Broadway musical Golden Rainbow, which ran from February 1968 until January 1969. Although the show was not a huge success (a summary of this experience is chronicled in unflattering detail in William Goldman's 1968 book The Season), the show contained the memorable song "I've Gotta Be Me". This song was originally sung by Lawrence at the end of the first act of the musical; Sammy Davis, Jr. would later record a version of the song that became a Top 40 hit in 1969.

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Billy Eckstine

2011-07-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

William Clarence “Billy” Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American singer of ballads 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.

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Happy Fourth of July Julie London

2011-07-02T23:15:00.000-07:00

Calendar Girl was an LP album by Julie London, released by Liberty Records under catalog number SL-9002 in 1956. In keeping with the title, each of the first twelve tracks had a month in its title, completing the album with a song entitled "Thirteenth Month." Two of the songs were composed especially for this album by London's husband, Bobby Troup, who also produced the album, as he did many of her albums.

wiki/Calendar_Girl_(Julie_London_album)

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LENA HORNE

2011-06-30T02:58:00.000-07:00

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the films Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. Due to the Red Scare and her left-leaning political views, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood.
Returning to her roots as a nightclub performer, Horne took part in the March on Washington in August 1963, and continued to work as a performer, both in nightclubs and on television, while releasing well-received record albums. She announced her retirement in March 1980, but the next year starred in a one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, which ran for more than three hundred performances on Broadway and earned her numerous awards and accolades. She continued recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, disappearing from the public eye in 2000.

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ANNE MURRAY

2011-06-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS (born June 20, 1945) is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies.
Murray was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach #1 on the U.S. charts, and also the first to earn a Gold record for one of her signature songs, "Snowbird" (1970). She is often cited as the woman who paved the way for other Canadian international success stories such as Céline Dion, Sarah McLachlan and Shania Twain. She is also the first woman and the first Canadian to win "Album of the Year" at the Country Music Association Awards for her 1984 album A Little Good News.
Murray has received four Grammy Awards, 24 Juno Awards (she holds the record for the most Junos awarded to an artist), three American Music Awards, three Country Music Association Awards and three Canadian Country Music Association Awards. She has been inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, the Juno Hall of Fame, The Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. She is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame Walkway of Stars in Nashville, and has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles and on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.

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Paul McCartney

2011-06-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

McCartney set out in the Guinness Book of World Records as the musician and the most commercially successful composer of contemporary music, with sixty gold discs and sales of about 100 million copies. 1 His song " Yesterday "( Lennon / McCartney ) Versioning is the theme in the story, with about 3,700 versions, and has been broadcast more than 7 million times on American television and radio.The simplest of Wings ' Mull of Kintyre "was the first single to sell over two million copies in the UK and remains the single non-beneficial to more sales.
McCartney's company, MPL Communications , owns the copyright of more than three thousand songs, including music catalog Buddy Holly .Besides music, McCartney has also developed a career as a painter and a strong work as an activist for the rights of animals , of vegetarianism and debt relief to Third World , against the land mines and sealing , and promoter of numerous charitable initiatives in support of school music education as LIPA.
He was named along with the other Beatles, Member of the British Empire on October 16, 1965 by Elizabeth II and Knight (Sir) on March 11, 1997.In his coat of arms, this represented his musical career and his fellow Beatles.

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VIC DAMONE

2011-06-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

Vic Damone (born June 12, 1928) is an American singer and entertainer. Damone entered the talent search on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts and won in April 1947. This led to his becoming a regular on Godfrey's show. He met Milton Berle at the studio and Berle got him work at two night clubs. By mid 1947, Damone had signed a contract with Mercury Records.
His first release, "I Have But One Heart", reached #7 on the Billboard chart. "You Do" (released November 1) reached the same peak. These were followed by a number of other hits. In 1948 he got his own weekly radio show, Saturday Night Serenade.
In 1951, Damone appeared in two movies: The Strip and Rich, Young and Pretty. From 1951 to 1953 he served in the United States Army, but before going into the service he recorded a number of songs which were released during that time. He served with future Northwest Indiana radio personality Al Evans, and also country music star Johnny Cash. After leaving the service, he married the Italian actress Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli), and in 1954 made two more movies: Deep in My Heart and Athena. He also made some guest appearances on Milton Berle's television show in 1954.
In 1955, Damone had only one song on the charts, "Por Favor," which did not make it above #73. However, he did have major roles in two movie musicals, Hit the Deck and Kismet. In early 1956, he moved from Mercury to Columbia Records and had some success on that label with hits like "On the Street Where You Live" (from My Fair Lady, his final pop top ten) and "An Affair to Remember" (from the movie of the same name). His six original, long-playing albums on Columbia between 1957 and 1961 were That Towering Feeling, Angela Mia, Closer Than a Kiss, This Game of Love, On the Swingin' Side and Young and Lively.
In 1961, he was released by Columbia, moving over to Capitol Records, where he filled in the gap left by Frank Sinatra's leaving to help found Reprise Records. He lasted at Capitol only until 1965; however, he recorded some of his most highly-regarded albums there, including two which made the Billboard chart, Linger Awhile with Vic Damone and The Lively Ones, the latter with arrangements by Billy May, who also arranged another of Damone's Capitol albums, Strange Enchantment. Other original Capitol albums included My Baby Loves to Swing, The Liveliest, and On the Street Where You Live.

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JUDY GARLAND

2011-06-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a juvenile Academy Award, won a Golden Globe Award, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in A Star is Born and for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film, Judgement at Nuremberg.
At 40 years of age, she was the youngest recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.
After appearing in vaudeville with her sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, Garland was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a return to acting beginning with critically acclaimed performances.

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PEGGY LEE

2011-05-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

(May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002) was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and performer. She wrote music for films, acted, and created conceptual record albums—encompassing poetry, jazz, chamber pop, and art songs.

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ROSEMARY CLOONEY

2011-05-23T00:55:00.000-07:00

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian (David Seville), which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" (a cover version of the Italian song Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina by Alberto Rabagliati), "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There" and "This Ole House", though she would go on to success as a jazz vocalist.
Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1974, when her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. She continued recording until her death in 2002. She is the aunt of Academy Award winning actor George Clooney.

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PERRY COMO

2011-05-17T04:57:00.000-07:00

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. His combined success on television and popular recordings was not matched by any other artist of the time. A popular television performer and recording artist, Perry Como produced numerous hit records with record sales so high the label literally stopped counting at Como's behest. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world and his popularity seemingly had no geographical or language boundaries. Como's appeal spanned generations and he was widely respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life.

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GORDON JENKINS

2011-05-11T02:02:00.000-07:00

Gordon Hill Jenkins (May 12, 1910 – May 1, 1984) was an American arranger, composer and pianist who was an influential figure in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, renowned for his lush string arrangements. Jenkins worked with the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Cash, The Weavers, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, among other singers.

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IRVING BERLIN

2011-05-10T09:31:00.000-07:00

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest American songwriters in history.
His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous. The song sparked an international dance craze in places as far away as Berlin's native Russia, which also "flung itself into the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on mania." Over the years he was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular: uncomplicated, simple and direct, with his aim being to "reach the heart of the average American" whom he saw as the "real soul of the country."
He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which made him "a legend" before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films.

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Jay Livingston

2011-04-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

Jay Livingston (March 28, 1915 – October 17, 2001) was an American composer and singer best known as half of a songwriting duo with Ray Evans that specialized in songs composed for films. Livingston wrote the music and Evans the lyrics.
Livingston was born Jacob Harold Levison in McDonald, Pennsylvania; he was Jewish. Livingston studied piano with Harry Archer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and worked as a musician at local clubs while still in high school. He attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he organized a dance band and met Evans, a fellow student in the band. Their professional collaboration began in 1937. Livingston and Evans won the Academy Award for Best Original Song three times, in 1948 for the song Buttons and Bows, written for the movie The Paleface; in 1950 for the song Mona Lisa, written for the movie Captain Carey, U.S.A.; and in 1956 for the song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," featured in the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much. Livingston and Evans wrote popular TV themes for shows including Bonanza and Mr. Ed. They also wrote the Christmas song Silver Bells in 1951 for the film The Lemon Drop Kid as well as "Never Let Me Go" for the 1956 film The Scarlet Hour.

Wikipedia |

Bonanza Theme From the Television Production - Sheet Music

Ella Jane Fitzgerald

2011-04-25T01:54:00.000-07:00

(April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (Db3 to Db6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. She is considered to be a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over a recording career that lasted 59 years, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Art by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.

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BETTY CLOONEY

2011-04-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

Betty Clooney was born April 12, 1931 in Maysville, Kentucky. She and her older sister Rosemary, loved to sing as kids and became an important part of their grandfather's political campaigns for mayor of their hometown. The Clooney family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where the girls continued to vocalize. MORE
The Clooney Sisters went on the road as featured vocalists with band-leader Tony Pastor and his orchestra. When Rosemary was offered a solo record deal with Columbia, Betty conceded to break up the act. Still just a teenager, Betty went back to her hometown in Cincinnati where she became a television pioneer on the city's first station, WLWT. Not only was she a featured singer on the stations main program (called The 50-50 simulcast on radio), she also hosted her own shows called Teen Canteen and Boy Meets Girl. She was the first Pop artist signed to local legendary R&B label, King Records, releasing several singles. After a move to New York and the start of a nightclub career, she appeared on countless variety shows in the 1950's where she sang, danced and acted in skits. Then, subbing for her sister on "Songs For Sale" with Steve Allen, and then the "Morning Show" with Jack Paar for CBS. Betty Clooney performed at the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in the earky fifties and had a regular spot on the Garry Moore television show for CBS. She met and later married Pupi Campo, bandleader on CBS television in the early fifties. MORE Betty Clooney passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in July of 1976. She was only 45 years old. In her memory Rosemary and Nick Clooney established the Betty Clooney Foundation in 1983 and the Betty Clooney Center in Long Beach, California, which opened in 1988. Both are dedicated to treatment for traumatic brain injuries. MORE

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GORDON MACREA

2011-04-12T01:12:00.000-07:00

Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956) and movies with Doris Day.

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KEELY SMITH

2011-04-09T03:24:00.000-07:00

Keely Smith (born Dorothy Jacqueline Keely, March 9, 1932) is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among others, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.

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Edgar Yipsel Harburg

2011-04-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

Edgar Yipsel Harburg (April 8, 1896 – March 5, 1981), known as E.Y. Harburg or Yip Harburg, was an American popular song lyricist who worked with many well-known composers. He wrote the lyrics to the standards, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", "April in Paris", and "It's Only a Paper Moon", as well as all of the songs in The Wizard of Oz, including "Over the Rainbow".

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Paula Kelly

2011-04-06T03:57:00.000-07:00

Paula Kelly (April 6, 1919 - April 2, 1992) was an American big band singer.
Born in Grove City, Pennsylvania, in her early career, she sang with orchestras led by Dick Stabile, Artie Shaw, and Al Donahue. In early 1941 she joined Glenn Miller's orchestra, replacing Dorothy Claire and Marion Hutton. Kelly originally performed solo, but also soon became the female lead of The Modernaires, originally a male trio, then a quartet, resulting in the group becoming a quintet of four male singers and herself. In 1942, Glenn Miller went into World War II military service and his band broke up. The Modernaires continued with Kelly as lead singer until 1978.

Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Paula Kelly and Modernaires

Frances Langford

2011-04-04T03:29:00.000-07:00

Julia Frances Langford (April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005) was an American singer and entertainer who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and also made film appearances over two decades.

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DORIS DAY

2011-04-03T01:59:00.000-07:00

Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff , better known as Doris Day ( Evanston , Ohio , April 3 of 1924 ) is an actress singer and advocate for animal rights, U.S. . It was one of the most prolific actresses in the years 50 and 60 . Able to sing, dance, and play roles in both comedy and dramatic, was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood during the mid- twentieth century.

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ART LUND

2011-04-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

Art Lund (April 1, 1915, Salt Lake City, Utah – May 31, 1990, Holladay, Utah was an American baritone singer, initially with bandleaders Benny Goodman and Harry James, and was also a television and stage actor.

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SHIRLEY JONES

2011-03-31T05:12:00.000-07:00

Shirley Mae Jones (born March 31, 1934) is an American singer and actress of stage, film and television. In her six decades of television, she starred as wholesome characters in a number of well-known musical films, such as Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), and The Music Man (1962). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a prostitute in Elmer Gantry (1960). She is probably best known as Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children in the situation-comedy television series The Partridge Family (1970–1974), co-starring her real-life stepson David Cassidy, son of Jack Cassidy.

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FRANKIE LAINE

2011-03-30T03:08:00.000-07:00

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio (Chicago, March 30, 1913 – San Diego, February 6, 2007), was a successful American singer, songwriter and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005.

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JERRY LIVINGSTON

2011-03-29T02:44:00.000-07:00

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SARAH VAUGHAN

2011-03-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer. She had a contralto vocal range. Nicknamed "Sailor" (for her salty speech), "Sassy" and "The Divine One", Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its "highest honor in jazz", the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989.

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Vera Lynn

2011-03-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

Dame Vera Lynn, DBE (born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917) is an English singer and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II. During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops. She was called "The Forces' Sweetheart"; the songs most associated with her are "We'll Meet Again" and "The White Cliffs of Dover". She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the UK and the United States and recording such hits as "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" and "My Son, My Son". In 2009 she became the oldest living artist to make it to No. 1 on the British album chart, at the age of 92. She has devoted much time and energy to charity work connected with ex-servicemen, disabled children and breast cancer. She is still held in great affection by veterans of the Second World War and in 2000 was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the twentieth century.

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NAT KING COLE

2011-03-17T03:26:00.000-07:00

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black Americans to host a television variety show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death.

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The Song "Fascination"...Jane Morgan Hit

2011-03-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Story of composer Maurice Ravel's interest is debunked. HERE | Marchetti, composer
Hitsong by Jane Morgan
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ERNIE FORD

2011-03-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres.

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Carole Bayer Sager

2011-03-08T05:38:00.000-08:00

Carole Bayer Sager (born March 8, 1947, New York, United States) is an American lyricist, songwriter and singer and painter. Nobody Does It Better, Don't Cry Out Loud, That's What Friends Are For, Come in from the rain, Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do). Many of Sager's early songs were co-written with her former husband, composer Bacharach. She has also collaborated with Neil Diamond, Marvin Hamlisch, Michael Masser, Peter Allen, Melissa Manchester, Sheena Easton, Bruce Roberts, Neil Sedaka, David Foster, Albert Hammond, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Michael McDonald, James Ingram, Donald Fagen, Babyface and Clint Eastwood (for the film True Crime).

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ELLA LOGAN

2011-03-06T06:40:00.000-08:00

1913 Ella Logan (March 6, 1913 - May 1, 1969) was a Scottish-born actress and singer, who appeared on Broadway (Finian's Rainbow), recorded and had a nightclub career in the United States and internationally.

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NATALIE COLE

2011-03-06T04:33:00.000-08:00

1950 Natalie Maria Cole (born February 6, 1950), better known as Natalie Cole is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)", "Inseparable" and "Our Love". After a period of failing sales and performances due to a heavy drug addiction, Cole reemerged as a pop artist with the 1987 album, Everlasting, and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac". In the 1990s, she re-recorded standards by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... with Love, which sold over seven million copies and also won Cole numerous Grammy Awards.

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Bronislaw Kaper

2011-03-05T02:56:00.000-08:00

BARBARA McNAIR

2011-03-04T01:34:00.000-08:00

1934 Barbara McNair (March 4, 1934 – February 4, 2007) was an African-American singer and actress. Born Barbara Joan McNair in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, McNair studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Her big break came with a win on Arthur Godfrey's TV show Talent Scouts, which led to bookings at The Purple Onion and the Cocoanut Grove.

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RAY EVANS

2011-03-04T01:32:00.000-08:00

1915 Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter. He was a partner in a composing and songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, known for the songs they composed for films. Evans wrote the lyrics and Livingston the music for the songs. Livingston and Evans, both members of ASCAP, won three Academy Awards, in 1948 for the song "Buttons and Bows", written for the movie The Paleface; in 1950 for the song "Mona Lisa", written for the movie Captain Carey, U.S.A.; and in 1956 for the song "Que Sera Sera", featured in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much and sung by Doris Day. Another popular song that he and Livingston wrote for a film was the song "Tammy", written for the 1957 movie Tammy and the Bachelor. The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. Livingston and Evans also wrote popular TV themes for shows including Bonanza and Mr. Ed. Their Christmas song Silver Bells intended for the 1951 Bob Hope film The Lemon Drop Kid, has become a Christmas standard. In 1958, the songwriting team was nominated for a Tony Award for the musical Oh, Captain! Evans also collaborated separately with Henry Mancini, Max Steiner, and Victor Young. The song "Dear Heart" from the 1964 film of the same name was written by Livingston and Evans with Henry Mancini; it was nominated for an Oscar and for the Song of the Year Grammy Award, and was recorded multiple times, charting for Andy Williams, Jack Jones, and Henry Mancini. [Wikipedia]

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ENZO STUARTI

2011-03-03T05:17:00.001-08:00

Enzo Stuarti (born Lorenzo Scapone; March 3, 1919 - December 16, 2005) was an Italian American tenor and musical theater performer. After a performing on Broadway under the stage names Larry Laurence and Larry Stuart, he changed his name again and began a recording career in which he released several successful albums. He made regular stage and television appearances, and was featured in commercials for Ragú spaghetti sauce.

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KAREN CARPENTER

2011-03-02T06:14:00.000-08:00

Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters. She was a drummer of exceptional skill, but she is best remembered for her vocal performances. She suffered from anorexia nervosa, a little known eating disorder at the time, and died at the age of 32 from heart failure, later attributed to complications related to her illness. In April 1969 A&M Records signed the Carpenters to a recording contract. Karen Carpenter sang most of the songs on the band's first album, Offering (later retitled Ticket to Ride). The issued single (later the title track), which was a cover of a Beatles song, became their first single: it reached #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Their next album, 1970's Close to You, featured two massive hit singles: "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun." They peaked at #1 and #2, respectively, on the Hot 100.

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BETTY HUTTON

2011-02-26T02:33:00.001-08:00

Betty Hutton (February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007) was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedienne and singer. In 1944, she signed a recording contract with Capitol Records (she was one of the earliest artists to do so). Later she became disillusioned with Capitol's management and moved to RCA Victor.

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Joanie Sommers

2011-02-24T05:26:00.000-08:00

Joanie Sommers (born Joan Drost, Buffalo, New York, February 24, 1941), is an American singer and actress.

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BOBBY GOLDSBORO

2011-02-18T02:41:00.000-08:00

Bobby Goldsboro is an American country and pop singer-songwriter. Born 18 January 1940 (or '41?) He had a string of hits from 1962 to 1982, including five releases that achieved sales of over one million copies. His biggest hit was 1968's "Honey", a maudlin tear-jerker about the death of a man's young wife. The song, written by Bobby Russell, was recorded in one take. It topped the U.S. chart for four weeks, reached Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart on two separate occasions (1968 and 1975), and was a #1 single in Australia. The single sold in excess of one million copies. "Summer (The First Time)", a 1973 reminiscence about losing one's virginity to an older woman, was a Top 20 hit in the U.S. and Britain. Using a powerful repeating piano riff, 12-string guitar, some organ playing, and a dramatic orchestral string arrangement, the song was suggestive enough to spark some controversy.

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FLORENCE HENDERSON

2011-02-14T07:49:00.001-08:00

Florence Agnes Henderson (born February 14, 1934) is an American actress and singer, best known for playing the role of Carol Brady in the television program The Brady Bunch, which ran from 1969 to 1974. As of 2010, she hosts the American TV talk show The Florence Henderson Show. Henderson started her career on the stage, performing in musicals, such as the touring production of Oklahoma! and South Pacific at Lincoln Center. She debuted on Broadway in the musical Wish You Were Here in 1952 and later starred on Broadway in the long-running 1954 musical, Fanny (888 performances) in which she originated the title role. Henderson also appeared on Broadway in The Girl Who Came to Supper (1963). In 1962, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago Theatre, and the same year became the first woman to guest host NBC-TV's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She also joined the ranks of what was then called "The Today Girl" on NBC's long running TV morning show, doing weather and light news.

Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Florence Henderson

Ray Bolger

2011-02-10T01:48:00.000-08:00

1904 Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hunk in the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. Also recognized as an actor and dancer he is also associated with introducing two popular songs of the 20th century. Bolger's Broadway credits included Life Begins at 8:40, On Your Toes, By Jupiter, All American, and Where's Charley?, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and in which he introduced "Once in Love with Amy", the song often connected with him. He repeated his stage role in the 1952 Technicolor film version of the musical. "Once Upon a Time" is a song with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams from the 1962 musical All American. In the musical, the song was performed by Ray Bolger and Eileen Herlie, and their version appears on the Broadway Cast recording. In his later years, he danced in a Dr Pepper television commercial. He had a recurring role as the father of Shirley Partridge (played by Shirley Jones) on The Partridge Family.

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Remembering the late "Born Free" composer John Barry

2011-01-31T15:36:00.001-08:00

Just added to our playlist- several selections from soundtracks composed by the late John Barry. He was one of the most celebrated film composers of modern times, winning five Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards, with scores for, among others, The Lion in Winter, Midnight Cowboy, Born Free, and Somewhere in Time. Barry was often cited as having had a distinct style which concentrated on lush strings and extensive use of brass. However he was also an innovator, being one of the first to employ synthesizers in a film score (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and to make wide use of pop artists and songs in Midnight Cowboy. Because Barry provided not just the main title theme but the complete soundtrack score, his music often enhanced the critical reception of a film, notably in Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, and Dances with Wolves.

Official Site

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Denise Van Outen and Andy Williams

2011-01-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

Denise van Outen (born Denise Kathleen Outen, 27 May 1974) is an English actress, singer and television presenter. Her most notable roles to date are as a presenter on The Big Breakfast, and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago on both the West End and on Broadway.

Wikipedia | Can't Take My Eyes Off You Cd Single (W/ Rare Single Version)

Michael Crawford

2011-01-19T01:29:00.000-08:00

Michael Crawford OBE (born 19 January 1942) is an English actor and singer. He has garnered great critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his career, which covers radio, television, film, and stagework on both London's West End and on Broadway in New York City.
With a career that spans over four decades, he is known both in and out of Britain for originating the title role in The Phantom of the Opera, as well as playing the hapless Frank Spencer in the popular 1970s British sitcom, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, which successfully earned him a place as a household name and made him famous to millions around the world.

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JOHN RAITT

2011-01-19T01:20:00.000-08:00

John Emmett Raitt (January 19, 1917 – February 20, 2005) was an American actor and singer best known for his performances in musical theater. He is best known for his stage roles in the musicals Carousel, Oklahoma!, The Pajama Game, Carnival in Flanders, Three Wishes for Jamie, and A Joyful Noise, in which he set the standard for virile, handsome, strong-voiced leading men during the golden age of the Broadway musical. His only leading film role was in the 1957 movie version of The Pajama Game opposite Doris Day.

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Alicia Keys

2011-01-18T02:59:00.000-08:00

Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American recording artist, musician and actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began to play classical music on the piano. She attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as valedictorian. She later attended Columbia University before dropping out to pursue her music career. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.

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Sade

2011-01-16T01:54:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia Bio | Search Amazon.com for Sade

ETHEL MERMAN

2011-01-16T01:41:00.000-08:00

Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "It's De-Lovely", "Friendship", "You're the Top", "Anything Goes", and "There's No Business Like Show Business", which later became her theme song.

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JACK JONES

2011-01-14T01:01:00.001-08:00

John Allan "Jack" Jones (born January 14, 1938) is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s. Jones's biggest pop hit was "Wives and Lovers" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Today, the lyrics may seem chauvinistic to some, but this song was a kind of anthem for the urban male of the Kennedy era, hauntingly, since it was climbing the national charts. In the Kapp years, Jones recorded almost twenty albums. Jones moved from Kapp (in the UK, London Records) to RCA Records in 1967. His first album in the new company was called Without Her. The following releases, If You Ever Leave Me, L.A. Break Down, and Where is Love were in roughly the same style of the classic Kapp records, but with slightly more contemporary vocal stylings. After A Jack Jones Christmas, he decided to more significantly revamp his musical direction and image, changing his appearance from the smooth club entertainer of the 1960s Las Vegas scene to the long-haired singer of the early seventies. A Time For Us (1970) was one of the albums which marked his transition towards a middle of the road sound.

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CATERINA VALENTE

2011-01-14T00:41:00.000-08:00

Caterina Valente (born 14 January 1931, Paris) is a singer, dancer, and actress. She was born into an Italian artist family; her father Giuseppe was a well-known accordion player, her mother, Maria Valente, a musical clown. She had three siblings, of whom Silvio Francesco was also active in show business. In 1952 she married the juggler Erik van Aro (Gerd Eric Horst Scholz). He recognized her talent and accompanied her in her initial years of worldwide success, although they later divorced. Their son is the singer Eric van Aro, Jr. In 1953, she made her first recordings with Kurt Edelhagen. Soon afterwards she achieved great success with songs such as "Malagueña", "The Breeze and I", and "Dreh dich nicht um" with the Werner Müller orchestra. In 1955 she was featured on the "Colgate Comedy Hour" with Gordon MacRae. In the mid 1960s, Valente worked with Claus Ogerman and recorded material in both Italian and English that he arranged/conducted and/or composed on the Decca and London labels. Between 1966 and 1972 she was a frequent guest on the Dean Martin Show. In 1972, she married the British pianist Roy Budd; they had a son, Alexander, but they divorced in 1979. In Germany she was a major performer of Schlager music. There she recorded Cole Porter's I Love Paris under the German title Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe, which sold more than 500,000 copies in 1954. Over the years, she has recorded or performed with many international stars, including Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Claus Ogerman, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Sy Oliver, Buddy Rich and Edmundo Ros. In 1959 she was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Valente was a principal, along with Carol Burnett and Bob Newhart, on the short-lived CBS variety series The Entertainers (1964–65). A briglia sciolta, the Italian jazz CD recorded in 1989 and re-released in later years under the titles Fantastica and Platinum deluxe, is Valente’s best selling CD worldwide. In 2001, she released a new album, Girltalk, with harpist Catherine Michel.

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