They Wrote The Songs.
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- Music Department
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A.P. Carter was born on 15 December 1891 in Maces Springs, Scott County, Virginia, USA. He is known for 2012 (2009), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Pitch Perfect (2012). He was married to Sara Dougherty. He died on 7 November 1960 in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA.Alvin Pleasant Delaney "A.P." Carter (December 15, 1891 – November 7, 1960)
The Carter Family (1927-1944)
Songs:- The Storms Are on the Ocean (1927)
- Engine One-Forty-Three (1927)
- Hello Stranger (1928)
- Single Girl, Married Girl (1928)
- Wildwood Flower (1928)
- Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone (1928)
- I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes (1929)
- Cannonball Blues (1930)
- Worried Man Blues (1930)
- When I'm Gone (1931)
- Gold Watch and Chain (1933)
- Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By) (1935)
- No Depression in Heaven (1936)
- I Never Will Marry (1937)
Charts:- I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes (1929) #10US
- Worried Man Blues (1930) #14US
- My Dixie Darling (1957) Lonnie Donegan #10UK
- Welcome to the Cheap Seats (1992) The Wonder Stuff #8UK
- Cups (Pitch Perfect's When I'm Gone) (2013) Anna Kendrick #6US #71UK
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Leadbelly was born on 29 January 1885 in Louisiana, USA. He was a composer, known for The Losers (2010), Spenser Confidential (2020) and The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017). He was married to Martha Promise and Aletha Henderson. He died on 6 December 1949 in New York City, New York, USA.Huddie William Ledbetter (January 20, 1889 – December 6, 1949)
Solo (1925-1949)
Songs:- Please Pardon Me (1925)
- Goodnight Irene (1933)
- Death Letter Blues (1934)
- Pick A Bale Of Cotton (1935)
- Blind Lemon (My Friend Blind Lemon) (1935)
- Packin’ Trunk Blues (1935)
- The Bourgeois Blues (1938)
- Yallow Women's Door Bells (1939)
- Black Betty (1939)
- Cotton Fields (1940)
- Alberta (blues) (1940)
- On a Monday (1941)
- Gallispole (1941)
- Good Morning Blues (1941)
- Leaving Blues (1941)
- Hitler Song (1942)
- Pigmeat (1946)
- Out on the Western Plains (1946)
- Grasshoppers in My Pillow (1947)
- Rock Island Line (1948)
- Cotton Song (1953)
- Silver City Bound (1954)
Charts:- Goodnight Irene (1950) Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra & the Weavers #1US
- Goodnight Irene (1950) Frank Sinatra #5US
- Goodnight Irene (1950) Ernest Tubb & Red Foley #10US #1C&W
- Goodnight Irene (1950) Dennis Day #17US
- Goodnight Irene (1950) Jo Stafford #9US
- Goodnight Irene (1950) The Alexander Brothers #26US
- I Need You So (1950) Don Cornell #25US
- Rock Island Line (1956) Lonnie Donegan #8US #8UK
- Rock Island Line (1956) Don Cornell #59US
- Bring a Little Water Sylvie (1956) Lonnie Donegan #7UK
- Goodnight Irene (1959) Billy Williams #75US
- Have a Drink on Me (1961) Lonnie Donegan #8UK
- Cotton Fields (1961) The Highwaymen #13US
- Goodnight Irene (1962) Jerry Reed & The Hully Girlies #79US
- Pick a Bale of Cotton (1962) Lonnie Donegan #11UK
- Cottonfields (1963) Ace Cannon #67US
- Black Girl (1964) The Four Pennies #20UK
- Rock Island Line (1970) Johnny Cash #93US
- Cotton Fields (1970) The Beach Boys #5UK
- Black Betty (1977) Ram Jam #18US #7UK
- Black Betty (2003) Tom Jones #50UK
- Dangerous (2006) Ying Yang Twins #85US
- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Jimmie Rodgers considered by many to be the father of Country Music began his career with the railroad at the age of fourteen following in his father, Aaron's footsteps. In 1911, he went to work as a brakeman but had to cut his railroading career short because of contracting consumption in 1924. The following year he entered show business as a black face singer & banjo player. He began his recording career with Victor Talking Machine Company in Bristol, Tennessee in 1927. Earlier that year he had been appearing on radio station WWNG in Asheville, North Carolina. In five short years he rose from an unknown Tennessee hillbilly singer to one of the greatest entertainers & recording artists of the twentieth century. He made millions & he spent the millions as fast as he made them. In 1933, needing to replenish his funds, he travelled to New York city to make some recordings. He was so weak from the ravages of consumption that a cot had to be placed in the recording studio allowing him to rest in between takes. One week into his recording session Jimmie Rodgers finally lost the battle with his only enemy, consumption. He had recorded twelve songs during that session. In 1961 Jimmie Rodgers became the first member in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.James Charles "Jimmie" Rodgers (September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933)
Solo (1927-1933)
Songs:- Blue Yodel No.1 ("T" for Texas) (1928)
- Brakeman's Blues (1928)
- In the Jailhouse Now (1928)
- Dear Old Sunny South by the Sea (1928)
- Daddy and Home (1929)
- Waiting for a Train (1929)
- Blue Yodel No. 4 (1929)
- Desert Blues (1929)
- My Caroline Sunshine Girl (1929)
- You and My Old Guitar (1929)
- My Rough and Rowdy Ways (1930)
- Any Old Time (1930)
- Blue Yodel No. 8 (1931)
- Blue Yodel No. 9 (1931)
- Nobody Knows but Me (1931)
- T.B. Blues (1931)
- Travelin' Blues (1931)
- Mother, the Queen of My Heart (1932)
- Hobo's Meditation (1932)
- Gambling Bar Room Blues (1933)
- Mississippi Delta Blues (1933)
- Peach Picking Time Down in Georgia (1933)
- Dreaming With Tears in My Eyes (1938)
Charts:- The Soldier's Sweetheart (1927) #9US
- Blue Yodel (1928) #2US
- Blue Yodel No.3 (1928) #10US
- In the Jail House Now (1928) #14US
- The Brakeman's Blues (1928) #7US
- Waiting for a Train (1929) #14US
- Anniversary Yodel (Blue Yodel No. 7) (1930) #19US
- Mule Skinner Blues (1960) The Fendermen #5US #32UK
- Mule Skinner Blues (1960) Rusty Draper #39UK
- Gamblin' Bar Room Blues (1975) Alex Harvey Band #38UK
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in Mississippi, Walter "Furry" Lewis was one of the original Delta Bluesmen. A contemporary of Robert Johnson, Lewis specialized in slide guitar. He has multiple recordings that can be easily be found. Furry lost his leg while trying to jump a freight train.Walter E. "Furry" Lewis (March 6, 1893 – September 14, 1981)
Solo (1927-1970s)
Songs:- Mr. Furry's Blues (1927)
- Falling Down Blues (1927)
- Kassie Jones (1928)
- Turn Your Money Green (1928)
- Judge Harsh Blues (Good Morning Judge) (1928)
- East St. Louis Blues (1960)
- Judge Boushay Blues (1960)
- Pearlee Blues (1960)
- White Lightnin' (1961)
- A Dog Named Blue (1961)
- Goin' to Kansas City (1961)
- Going to Brownsville (1975)
- Blues legend Blind Lemon Jefferson has been called the most influential bluesman in the history of blues singers. While his recording career was prolific but short--almost 100 titles from 1926-29--he became arguably the most popular blues singer in black America.
Born in Couchman, TX, in 1897, he was one of seven children. Blind from birth, he learned how to play the guitar in order to scrape together money to make a living. In 1917 he moved from his rural East Texas home to Dallas, where he played on street corners in the Deep Ellum section of the city for spare change. His lyrical skills, offbeat and intricate guitar style and showmanship attracted regular customers, and he was eventually able to earn enough money to support a wife and child. In addition to the blues, he also played spirituals, work songs and folk tunes, He traveled around the South, played in the Mississippi Delta, and in 1925 a record-store owner in Dallas recommended him to a contact at Paramount Records. Executives there liked his style and invited him to Chicago to record. He recorded some songs under the name Deacon L.J. Bates, and his recordings were critical and financial successes. He also recorded many of his own compositions, such as "Match Box Blues", "See That My Grave is Kept Clean" and "That Black Snake Moan".
He died in 1929, although there was no official certificate of death. There are various stories about how he died--one is that he froze to death in a Chicago snowstorm, another is that a sudden heart attack killed him. In 1980 he was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame.Lemon Henry Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929)
Solo (1910s-1929)
Songs:- Jack o' Diamonds (1926)
- Black Horse Blues (1926)
- Dry Southern Blues (1926)
- Long Lonesome Blues (1926)
- Got the Blues (1926)
- Match Box Blues (1927)
- Bad Luck Blues (1927)
- Rambler Blues (1927)
- Booger Rooger Blues (1927)
- Broke and Hungry (1927)
- One Dime Blues (1927)
- Stocking Feet Blues (1927)
- That Black Snake Moan (1927)
- Wartime Blues (1927)
- One Kind Favor (1928)
- See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (1928)
- Balky Mule Blues 1928)
- Blind Lemon's Penitentiary Blues (1928)
- Hangman's Blues (1928)
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Fred Rose was born on 24 August 1897 in Evansville, Indiana, USA. He was a composer, known for Zombieland (2009), The Last Picture Show (1971) and Another 48 Hrs. (1990). He died on 1 December 1954 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.Fred Rose (August 24, 1897[1] or 1898[2] – December 1, 1954)
Songwriter (1920-1954)
Songs:- Deed I Do (1926) by Johnny Marvin.
- Be Honest With Me (1941) by Gene Autry.
- Tears on My Pillow (1941) by Gene Autry.
- The End of the World (1942) by Jimmie Davis.
- Fire Ball Mail (1942) by Roy Acuff.
- Yesterday's Roses (1942) by Gene Autry.
- Pins and Needles (In My Heart) (1942) by Bob Atcher & Bonnie Blue Eyes.
- I Hang My Head and Cry (1942) by Gene Autry.
- Home in San Antone (1943) by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys.
- Hang Your Head in Shame (1944) by Foy Willing.
- We Live in Two Different Worlds (1944) by Tex Ritter.
- You Don't Care What Happens to Me (1945) by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys.
- Wait for the Light to Shine (1945) by Roy Acuff.
- Foggy River (1946) by Jimmie Lawson.
- No One Will Ever Know (1946) Roy Acuff.
- Roly Poly (1946) by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys.
- It's a Sin (1947) by Eddy Arnold.
- Waltz of the Wind (1947) by Roy Acuff.
- Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (1947) by Roy Acuff.
- Deep Water (1948) by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys.
- Mansion on the Hill (1949) by Hank Williams.
- Crazy Heart (1951) by Hank Williams.
- Settin' the Woods on Fire (1952) by Hank Williams.
- I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (1952) Hank Williams.
- Kaw-Liga (1953) by Hank Williams.
- Take These Chains from My Heart (1953) Hank Williams.
Charts:- Deed I Do (1927) Ruth Etting
- Deed I Do (1927) Johnny Marvin
- Be Honest with Me (1941) Bing Crosby
- Tweedle-O-Twill (1944) Gene Autry
- I Hang My Head and Cry (1944) Gene Autry
- A Pair of Broken Hearts (1945) Spade Cooley
- At Mail Call Today (1945) Lawrence Welk and His Orchestra
- Hang Your Head in Shame (1945) Red Foley
- I've Taken All I'm Gonna Take from You (1945) Spade Cooley
- A Little White Cross on the Hill(1946) Roy Rogers
- You're Not My Darlin' Anymore (1947) Gene Autry
- It's a Sin (1947) Eddy Arnold
- The Waltz of the Wind (1948) Roy Acuff
- Texarkana Baby (1948) Eddy Arnold
- Foggy River (1948) Kate Smith
- Before You Call (1949) Dave Landers
- It's a Sin (1950) Ivory Joe Hunter
- Crazy Heart (1951) Hank Williams
- I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (1952) Hank Williams
- Settin' the Woods on Fire (1952) Hank Williams
- Crazy Heart (1952) Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians
- Settin' the Woods on Fire (1952) Jo Stafford and Frankie Laine
- Kaw-Liga (1953) Hank Williams
- Take These Chains from My Heart (1953) Hank Williams
- Candy Lips (1953) Doris Day and Johnnie Ray
- Tears on My Pillow (1961) The McGuire Sisters
- No One Will Ever Know (1962) Jimmie Rodgers
- Take These Chains from My Heart (1963) Ray Charles
- No One Will Ever Know (1966) Frank Ifield
- Deep Water (1967) Carl Smith
- It's a Sin (1969) Marty Robbins
- Kaw-Liga (1969) Charley Pride
- Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (1975) Willie Nelson
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Gospel/blues singer and musician Blind Willie Johnson was born--as far as is known, since not much information is available about his early life--in 1902 in Marlin, TX. Supposedly, he was blinded when he was about three years old when his stepmother threw lye at his father during an argument, missed and it hit Willie in the face. He earned a living later on by singing on street corners. In 1927 he became a Baptist preacher, married and moved to Dallas, TX, where he eventually recorded a gospel album for Columbia Records. Many of the cuts on that album later became classics in the gospel genre. He stopped recording in 1930, but continued to perform up until the 1940s.
In 1947 he died in Beaumont, TX. Reportedly, the house he was living in burned down, and after spending the night sleeping in its remains, he caught pneumonia and died soon afterwards.Blind Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945)
Solo (1924-1940s)
Songs:- You Better Get Somebody on Your Bond (1924)
- Dark Was the Night - Cold Was the Ground (1928)
- If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down (1928)
- It's Nobody's Fault But Mine (1928)
- Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed (1928)
- Mother's Children Have a Hard Time (Motherless Children) (1928)
- Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning (1929)
- Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying (1929)
- God Don't Never Change (1930)
- You'll Need Somebody on Your Bond (1930)
- God Moves on the Water (1930)
- John the Revelator (1930)
- Let Your Light Shine on Me (1930)
- The Rain Don't Fall on Me (1930)
- The Soul of a Man (1931)
- Music Department
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Robert Johnson was born on 8 May 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, USA. He was a writer, known for The Skeleton Key (2005), Chocolat (2000) and Holes (2003). He was married to Calleta "Callie" Craft and Virginia Travis. He died on 13 August 1938 in Greenwood, Mississippi, USA.Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938)
Solo (1936-1939,1961,1970)
Songs:- Kind Hearted Woman Blues (1937)
- Terraplane Blues (1937)
- Last Fair Deal Gone Down (1937)
- I Believe I'll Dust My Broom (1937)
- Cross Road Blues (1937)
- Ramblin' on My Mind (1937)
- Come On in My Kitchen (1937)
- Hell Hound on My Trail (1937)
- They're Red Hot (1937)
- Sweet Home Chicago (1937)
- Milkcow's Calf Blues (1937)
- I'm a Steady Rollin' Man (1937)
- Honeymoon Blues (1938)
- Stop Breakin' Down Blues (1938)
- Me and the Devil Blues (1938)
- Love in Vain Blues (1939)
- Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped the Devil) (1939)
- When You Got a Good Friend (1961)
- Travelling Riverside Blues (1961)
- Drunken Hearted Man (1970)
- Music Department
- Actress
- Composer
Malvina Reynolds was born on 23 August 1900 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress and composer, known for Weeds (2005), The Boxtrolls (2014) and Dogfight (1991). She was married to William 'Bud' Reynolds. She died on 17 March 1978 in Berkeley, California, USA.Malvina Reynolds (August 23, 1900 – March 17, 1978)
Solo (1960-1975)
Songs:- Don't Bother Me (1959) by Guy Carawan.
- Turn Around (1959) by Harry Belafonte.
- Sing Along (1960)
- We Hate to See Them Go (1960)
- Morningtown Ride (1962) by The Limeliters.
- What Have They Done to the Rain (1962) by Joan Baez.
- Little Boxes (1963) by Pete Seeger.
- From Way Up Here (1964) by Pete Seeger.
- God Bless the Grass (1967)
- Quiet (1967)
- Bitter Rain (1967)
- No Hole in My Head (1971)
- If You Love Me (1975)
Charts:- Sally Don't You Grieve (1958) Lonnie Donegan #11UK
- Turn Around (1963) Dick and Dee Dee #27US
- Little Boxes (1964) Pete Seeger #70US
- Little Boxes (1964) The Womenfolk #83US
- What Have They Done to the Rain (1964) The Searchers #29US #13UK
- Morningtown Ride (1966) The Seekers #44US #2UK
- Little Boxes (2012) Sniffy Dog #68UK
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Sonny Boy Williamson was born on 5 December 1899 in Glendora, Mississippi, USA. He is known for Mulholland Drive (2001), Almost Famous (2000) and The Departed (2006). He died on 25 May 1965 in Helena, Arkansas, USA.Aleck Miller (December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965)
Solo (1930s-1965)
Songs:- Crazy About You Baby (1951)
- Eyesight to the Blind (1951)
- Pontiac Blues (1951)
- Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues (1951)
- Mr. Down Child (1952)
- Nine Below Zero (1953)
- All My Love in Vain (1955)
- Don't Start Me Talkin' (1955)
- Keep It to Yourself (1956)
- I Don't Know (1957)
- Your Funeral & My Trial (1958)
- It's Sad to Be Alone (1960)
- Trust My Baby (1960)
- The Goat (1960)
- Bye Bye Bird (1963)
- Checkin' Up on My Baby (1965)
- Too Young to Die (1965)
- She's My Baby (1966)
- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
Blues legend Willie Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1915. His mother was a devoutly religious person who spent much of her time writing religious poems, which gave the young Willie exposure to rhyming and meter. At a young age he sang with a gospel group called the Union Jubilee Singers, who had a show on radio station WQBC in Vicksburg. He briefly gave up singing for a career as a boxer, but soon returned to his first love, music.
He left Mississippi in 1936 for Chicago, which had a vibrant music scene, but he also kept his hand in boxing; in 1937 he became the Illinois Golden Gloves Boxing Champion. He turned pro (and even sparred with heavyweight champion Joe Louis), but after just four professional fights he got into a brawl with his manager in the Illinois Boxing Commissioner's office over money he believed he was being cheated out of, and his boxing career--for all practical purposes--was over. Going back to his musical roots, he took up bass playing, and in 1939 he and guitarist Leonard Caston started a group called The Five Breezes. The group played in Chicago-area clubs and even made a few records, but in 1941 it broke up when Dixon, who had declared himself a conscientious objector, was arrested for refusing to serve in the military. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison.
After finishing his sentence he formed another group, The Four Jumps of Jive, which made the rounds of Chicago's clubs, and even cut a few singles for Mercury Records. He later formed yet another group, with his old friend Caston and Bernardo Dennis, called The Big Three. At the same time Dixon was playing in the city's South Side blues clubs with such greats as Muddy Waters. He was playing one night in 1948 at the Macomba Lounge when he met brothers Phil Chess and Leonard Chess, the club's owners who had just started up Chess Records. They offered Dixon a job at the label as a songwriter and producer, and he soon went to work for them full-time. Soon Chess artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf (aka "Howlin' Wolf") and Little Walter were recording songs written by Dixon, which met with great success. Dixon also recorded some singles on his own, but he wasn't as successful a recording artist as he was a songwriter.
In 1957 Dixon left Chess for Cobra Records, and worked with such legendary guitarists as Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. Unfortunately, Cobra went out of business after two years, and Dixon returned to Chess. In addition to his songwriting and producing chores, he also formed the Chicago Blues All-Stars and toured extensively with them.
In the 1970s and 1980s he got involved in composing film soundtracks, and he wrote the score for Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money (1986). In 1980 he was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame. He still played clubs, festivals and toured the US and Europe, in addition to his songwriting and producing work. By 1990, however, his health began to decline and he had to cut down on his touring and scale back his performances with the Chicago Blues All-Stars. He died of a heart ailment in Burbank, California, two years later.William James "Willie" Dixon (July 1, 1915 – January 29, 1992)
Songwriter (1939–1992)
Songs:- Violent Love (1951) by Big Three Trio.
- My Love Will Never Die (1952) by Big Three Trio.
- Third Degree (1953) by Eddie Boyd.
- I'm Your Hoochie Cooche Man (1954) by Muddy Waters.
- Oh Baby (1954) by Little Walter.
- Just Make Love to Me (1954) by Muddy Waters.
- Evil Is Goin' On (1954) by Howlin' Wolf.
- I'm Ready (1954) by Muddy Waters.
- Mellow Down Easy (1954) by Little Walter.
- I Want to Be Loved (1955) by Muddy Waters.
- My Babe (1955) by Little Walter.
- Young Fashioned Ways (1955) by Muddy Waters.
- Too Late (1955) by Little Walter.
- The Seventh Son (1955) by Willie Mabon.
- Don't Go No Farther (1956) by Muddy Waters.
- I Can't Quit You Baby (1956) by Otis Rush.
- Sit Down Baby (1956) by Otis Rush.
- 29 Ways (1956)
- I Don't Care Who Knows (1957) by Harold Burrage.
- Two Headed Woman (1957) by Junior Wells.
- Close to You (1958) by Muddy Waters.
- 21 Days in Jail (1958) by Magic Sam.
- Easy Baby (1958) by Magic Sam.
- Hidden Charms (1958) Charles Clark & Willie Dixon Band.
- Live the Life I Love (Love The...) (1958) by Muddy Waters.
- Crazy Mixed Up World (1959) by Little Walter.
- My Baby Is Sweeter (1959) by Little Walter.
- Built for Comfort (1960) Willie Dixon with Memphis Slim.
- Howlin' for My Darling (1960) by Howlin' Wolf.
- Spoonful (1960) by Howlin' Wolf.
- You Know My Love (1960) by Otis Rush.
- Tiger in Your Tank (1960) by Muddy Waters.
- Back Door Man (1961) by Howlin' Wolf.
- As Long as I Have You (1961) by Little Walter.
- I Don't Play (1961) Originally by Little Walter.
- Down in the Bottom (1961) by Howlin' Wolf.
- Little Baby (1961) by Howlin' Wolf.
- Shake for Me (1961) by Howlin' Wolf.
- The Red Rooster (1961) by Howlin' Wolf.
- Let Me Love You Baby (1961) by Buddy Guy.
- You'll Be Mine (1962) by Howlin' Wolf.
- I Ain't Superstitious (1962) by Howlin' Wolf.
- You Shook Me (1962) Muddy Waters.
- You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover (1962) by Bo Diddley.
- You Need Love (1962) by Muddy Waters.
- Help Me (1963) by Sonny Boy Williamson.
- Three Hundred Pounds of Joy (1963) by Howlin' Wolf.
- The Same Thing (1964) by Muddy Waters.
- Dead Presidents (1964) by Little Walter.
- Bring It on Home (1965) by Sonny Boy Williamson.
- Insane Asylum (1968) by Koko Taylor.
- Wang-Dang-Doodle (1995)
Charts:- I'm Ready (1954) Muddy Waters #4R&B
- I'm Your Hoochie Cooche Man (1954) Muddy Waters #3R&B
- Just Make Love to Me (1954) Muddy Waters #4R&B
- Oh Baby (1954) Little Walter #8R&B
- My Babe (1955) Little Walter #1R&B
- Don't Go No Farther (1956) Muddy Waters #9R&B
- I Can't Quit You Baby (1956) Otis Rush #6R&B
- Close to You (1958) Muddy Waters #9R&B
- Lovin' Up a Storm (1959) Jerry Lee Lewis #28UK
- Spoonful (1960) Etta James & Harvey #78US
- It Do Me So Good (1961) Ann-Margret #97US
- You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover (1962) Bo Diddley #48US
- Little Red Rooster (1963) Sam Cooke #11US #2R&B
- Little Red Rooster (1964) The Rolling Stones #1UK
- Seventh Son (1965) Johnny Rivers #7US
- My Babe (1966) Roy Head #99US
- Wang Dang Doodle (1966) Ko Ko Taylor #58US #4R&B
- I'm Your Hoochie Cooche Man (1966) Jimmy Smith #94US
- Whole Lotta Love (1969) Led Zeppelin #4US
- Seventh Son (1969) Georgie Fame #25UK
- Whole Lotta Love (1970) CCS #58US #13UK
- Whole Lotta Love (1971) King Curtis #64US
- I Just Want to Make Love to You (1972) Foghat #83US
- Wang Dang Doodle (1973) The Pointer Sisters #61US
- Whole Lotta Love (1979) The Wonder Band #87US
- Sit Down and Cry (1980) Errol Dunkley #52UK
- Whole Lotta Love (1996) Goldbug #3UK
- I Just Want to Make Love to You (1996) Etta James #5UK
- Whole Lotta Love (1997) Led Zeppelin #21UK
- Whole Lotta Love (2007) Led Zeppelin #64UK
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Elizabeth Cotten was born on 5 January 1895 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. She was a composer, known for Colossal (2016), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) and BioShock Infinite (2013). She was married to Frank Cotten. She died on 29 June 1987 in Syracuse, New York, USA.Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (née Neville) (January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987)
Solo (1957-1967)
Songs:- Freight Train (1957) by Peggy Seeger.
- Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (1958)
- Spanish Flang Dang (1958)
- Wilson Rag (1958)
- Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now (1958)
- Honey Babe Your Papa Cares For You (1958)
- Shake Sugaree (1967)
- Washington Blues (1967)
Charts:- Freight Train (1957) Charles McDevitt Skiffle Group #40US #5UK
- Freight Train (1957) Rusty Draper #6US
- Music Department
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Lightnin Hopkins was born on 15 March 1912 in Centerville, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Crazy Heart (2009), Everything Must Go (2010) and Superbad (2007). He died on 30 January 1982 in Houston, Texas, USA.Sam John Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982)
Solo (1946–1981)
Songs:- Shining Moon (1947)
- I Feel So Bad (1947)
- Katie Mae (1947)
- Short Haired Woman (1947)
- Big Mama Jump (Little Mama Blues) (1947)
- That Mean Old Twister (1947)
- Tim Moore's Farm (1948)
- Picture on the Wall (1948)
- Unsuccessful Blues (1949)
- Death Bells (1949)
- Shotgun Blues (1950)
- Automobile Blues (1950)
- Give Me Central 209 (1951)
- You're Not Going to Worry My Life Anymore (1952)
- Bald-Headed Woman (1952)
- Mojo Hand (1961)
- Come Back Baby (1961)
- Give Me Back That Wig (1961)
- You Better Watch Yourself (1961)
- Coffee House Blues (1962)
- Fast Life Woman (1962)
- Lonesome Dog Blues (1963)
- Back Door Friend (1967)
- My Starter Won't Start This Morning (1969)
Charts:- Shotgun Blues (1950) #5R&B
- Coffee Blues (1952) #6R&B
- Give Me Central 209 (1952) #6R&B
- I Feel So Bad (1967) Little Milton #91US #7R&B
- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Charley and Nora Guthrie named their son after the Democrat elected president that year. Woodrow Wilson Guthrie knew hard times as a youngster (his house burned down, his sister Clara burned to death, his father's small-town business and political careers never went anywhere, his mother suffered from undiagnosed Huntington's Disease and was declared insane), but he enjoyed performing (dancing, playing harmonica, writing songs) and learning (he read voraciously in the public library). In 1933 he married Mary Jennings, five years his junior, with whom he would have three children. In 1935 he joined the Oakies and Arkies driven to California by the Dust Bowl. His songs went from describing the tragedy of the migrants to urging their unionization. Though he wrote a column for the Weekly People, he never joined the Communist Party. When Will Geer got a part in the play "Tobacco Road" he invited Woody to join him in New York where he met Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Leadbelly, Cisco Houston. He was commissioned to write songs for a never-completed documentary on Washington State's Grand Coulee Dam, and it was in the Pacific Northwest that his family left him. Back in New York in 1940, Woody joined Pete Seeger's Alamanc Singers and married Martha Graham dancer Marjorie Mazia. His autobiography, Bound for Glory, was published in 1943. He served in the Merchant Marine in World War II, and three ships were torpedoed from under him. In 1947 his and Marjorie's daughter, Cathy, was burned to death in an apartment fire. They had three more children: Arlo, Joady and Nora. In 1953 he married for a third time, to Anneke Van Kirk. They had a child, Lorinna Lynn Guthrie. When Anneke and Guthrie divorced, their daughter was adopted by a couple they knew, and did not have any further contact with Guthrie. Lorinna died prematurely (at age 19) in 1973, in a car accident in California.
In the 1950s he experienced bouts of irrational behavior and was often unable to play his guitar; his condition was ultimately diagnosed as Huntington's Disease. The rest of that decade and into the 1960s a new generation, notably including Bob Dylan, began to discover and play his music, adapting some of it to the new Civil Rights movement.Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967)
Solo (1937-1965) Almanac Singers (1941-1943)
Songs:- Philadelphia Lawyer (1937)
- Do Re Mi (1940)
- Dusty Old Dust (So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh) (1940)
- I Ain't Got No Home in This World Anymore (1940)
- Vigilante Man (1940)
- Talking Dust Bowl Blues (1940)
- Dust Can't Kill Me (1940)
- Jesus Christ (1940)
- Grand Coulee Dam (1941)
- Pastures of Plenty (1941)
- Roll On, Columbia, Roll On (1941)
- Hard Travelin' (1941)
- Hard, Ain't It Hard (1941) Almanac Singers
- Mermaid's Avenue (1943)
- This Land Is Your Land (1944)
- 1913 Massacre (1945)
- Oklahoma Hills (1945) by Jack Guthrie.
- Pretty Boy Floyd (1945)
- Ludlow Massacre (1945)
- Gamblin' Man (1945)
- Deportee (1961) by Cisco Houston.
- Brown Eyes (1962)
- Ramblin' Round (1965)
Charts:- Oklahoma Hills (1945) Jack Guthrie #1C&W
- So Long (It's Been Good to Know Yuh) (1951) Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra & The Weavers #4US
- So Long (It's Been Good to...) (1951) Paul Weston and His Orchestra #21US
- So Long (It's Been Good to...) (1951) Ralph Marterie #26US
- Gamblin' Man (1957) Lonnie Donegan #1UK
- The Grand Coolie Dam (1958) Lonnie Donegan #6UK
- This Land Is Your Land (1962) The New Christy Minstrels #93US
- This Land Is Your Land (1962) Ketty Lester #97US
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Songwriter ("Kisses Sweeter than Wine", "I Never Will Marry"), composer, author and singer, educated at Brooklyn College (Bachelor of Arts degree) and Columbia University. He served in the US Coast Guard during World War II, and co-founded the Weavers folk-singing group, for which he also sang and accompanied on guitar. He also arranged for folk singers, including the Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, and Theodore Bikel, and was the music director for "The Moon Besieged". Joining ASCAP in 1960, his other popular-song compositions included "I'm Just a Country Boy", "Delia", "Darlin' Cora", "The Biggest Ride (Since Paul Revere)", "Long About Now", "Come Away Melinda", "Cherries and Plums", "The Honey Wind Blows", and "Healing River".- Actor
- Soundtrack
Josh White was born on 11 February 1908 in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. He was an actor, known for Remember the Titans (2000), The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll (2009) and The Walking Hills (1949). He was married to Carol Carr. He died on 5 September 1969 in Manhasset, Long Island, New York, USA.Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969)
Songs:- Black And Evil Blues (1932)
- Low Cotton (1933)
- Lord I Want to Die Easy (1934)
- Badly Mistreated Man (1935)
- D.B.A. Blues (1935)
- Bad Housing Blues (1941)
- Uncle Sam Says (1941)
- Southern Exposure (1941)
- Hard Time Blues (1941)
- Fare Thee Well (1942)
- One Meat Ball (1944)
- Beloved Comrade (1944)
- Evil Hearted Man (1944)
- Freedom Road (1944)
- I Left a Good Deal in Mobile (1945)
- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Sixteen-year-old Pete Seeger enrolled at the Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut and then decided to become a hermit. His life since then has been one social cause after another, buoyed by an almost indefatigable career as a self-described "sing-along leader."
During the 1930s he attended Harvard, from which his musicologist father Charles Seeger (a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a conscientious objector during World War I) had graduated in 1908. As an alternative to his major, Sociology (which he disliked), he played tenor banjo (failing to make the Harvard Jazz Band) and participated in the pacifist/communist Harvard Student Union so much that he lost his scholarship, leaving Harvard in 1938. In 1939 actor/folksinger 'Will Geer' organized the "All-American Left-Wing Folk-Song Revival Movement," a benefit concert for migrant workers in California. It was there that Pete met Woody Guthrie and began touring with him. In 1940 Seeger started the Almanac Singers with Lee Hays, Pete Hawes and Millard Lampell; during his tours with this pro-union, anti-war group the FBI began a file on him. The group broke up at the start of World War II (Seeger enlisted in the army; Guthrie entered the Merchant Marine). After the war he started People's Songs (later Sing Out!), and in 1949 formed a new group, The Weavers, with Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman and Ronnie Gilbert'. For years he had trouble with the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and was, effectively, blacklisted. He recorded dozens of albums (Columbia, Folkways) and wrote thousands of songs, among which are "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "If I Had a Hammer," and "Turn, Turn, Turn" (which in the 1960s became a huge hit for The Byrds). He helped start the Greenwich Village music magazine Broadside in the 1960s and reorganized the Newport Folk Festival. In 1996 the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance awarded him its first Lifetime Achievement Award. He helped start Clearwater, an organization which sails a 106-foot boat along the Hudson River to show children the dangers of pollution.Peter "Pete" Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014)
Solo (1939-2014) Almanac Singers (1941-1943) The Weavers (1948–1952,1955–1964)
Songs:- Talking Union (1941) Almanac Singers.
- If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song) (1949) The Weavers.
- Kisses Sweater Than Wine (1951) The Weavers.
- On Top of Old Smoky (1951) The Weavers & Terry Gilkyson.
- Passing Through (1956)
- Fi-Li-Mi-Oo-Re-Ay (1957) The Weavers.
- One Grain of Sand (1958)
- The Bells of Rhymney (1958)
- Oh, Had I a Golden Thread (1960)
- Where Have All the Flowers Gone (1960)
- Turn, Turn, Turn (1962)
- Living in the Country (1962)
- That's What I Learned in School (1963)
- From Way Up Here (1964)
- All Mixed Up (1965)
- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy (1967)
- Bring'Em Home (1969)
- The Emperor Is Naked Today-O (1970)
- My Rainbow Race (1971)
- God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You (2012)
Charts:- On Top of Old Smoky (1951) The Weavers & Terry Gilkyson #2US
- On Top of Old Smoky (1951) Vaughn Monroe #8US
- On Top of Old Smoky (1951) Percy Faith & Burl Ives #10US
- Gotta Travel On (1958) Billy Grammer #4US
- Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (1962) Kingston Trio #21US
- If I Had a Hammer (1962) Peter, Paul & Mary #10US
- On Top of Spaghetti (1963) Tom Glazer #14US
- If I Had a Hammer (1963) Trini Lopez #3US #4UK
- Gotta Travel On (1963) Timi Yuro #64US
- We Shall Overcome (1963) Joan Baez #90US #26UK
- Where Have All the Flowers Gone (1965) Johnny Rivers #26US
- Turn! Turn! Turn! (1965) The Byrds #1US #26UK
- Guantanamera (1966) The Sandpipers #9US #7UK
- Turn Turn Turn (1969) Judy Collins #69US
- Risingson/Super Predators (1997) Massive Attack #11UK
- Guantanamera (1997) Wyclef Jean #62US #29UK
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Lee Hays was born on 14 March 1914 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), I'm Not There (2007) and Volunteers (1985). He died on 26 August 1981 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, USA.- Music Department
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Doc was blind from infancy due to an eye infection before his first birthday. He grew up playing harmonica and a homemade banjo but learned guitar after his father bought him a $12 Stella acoustic when he was 13. He attended North Carolina's school for the visually impaired. He was born Arthel Lane Watson and picked up the nickname "Doc" at the suggestion of an audience member at a radio broadcast when he was in his teens. Watson was instrumental in developing the canon for 1960s folk musicians with his recordings of traditional tunes like Deep River Blues and Shady Grove; he didn't play just the music of the Appalachian Mountains. Before folklorist and musician Ralph Rinzler first recorded him backing old-time banjo player Clarence "Tom" Ashley in 1960, he worked with a local dance band, playing honky-tonk, rockabilly, pop and square-dance tunes. 1999 saw a release of a compilation album The Best of Doc Watson 1964-1968.He was a master of both finger-picking and flat-picking styles. In 1997, Watson received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. In 2000, Watson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in Owensboro, Kentucky. Watson also won seven Grammys over a 33-year period and received Grammy's lifetime achievement award in 2004. For many years, Watson toured with his son, Merle Watson, who died in a 1985 tractor accident. Merle's memory is honored by MerleFest, an annual North Carolina roots-music festival that the elder Watson hosted. Held on the last weekend in April since 1988, MerleFest draws more than 75,000 annually to Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, N.C. In late May 2012, Watson was listed in critical condition but was responsive at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after undergoing colon surgery. The 89-year-old Watson had fallen early in the week. No bones were broken, but an underlying condition prompted the surgery. He passed May 29, 2012 after surgery.- Actor
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Bob Wills, fiddler and band leader of Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, was an influential developer of the western swing music style in the late 1930s through the 1940s. Recorded extensively for Columbia, Decca, MGM and others. Hit recordings included "San Antonio Rose, " "Faded Love, " and "Steel Guitar Rag." He was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968. Many country music artists cite him as a major influence, including Merle Haggard, George Strait, and Willie Nelson.- Actor
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Composer, songwriter and actor Stan Jones was born in Douglas, Arizona, on June 5, 1914. He learned to ride horses as a child, a skill that came in handy later in his life (as did his talent for singing and playing the guitar). After his father died his mother moved the family to Los Angeles. He attended UC Berkeley for a time, and began riding the rodeo circuit in his spare time to make money. He dropped out of college in 1934, however, to join the navy, and after his discharge held a variety of jobs all over the country, including copper miner, logger and snowplow driver. He was hired as a firefighter by the US Forest Service, and later became a Forest Ranger, being assigned to various national parks in the western US.
While stationed at Death Valley, California, in 1948, he was assigned to be technical advisor for a western being shot there, The Walking Hills (1949). In between filming, he would sit around with the cast and crew and play various songs he had written. They encouraged him to try to get the songs published, and he eventually sent his compositions to several music publishers. One of his songs was picked up and recorded by folksinger Burl Ives for Columbia Records, "Riders in the Sky". It was then recorded by Bing Crosby and, under the title "Ghost Riders in the Sky", by Vaughn Monroe, whose version became a major hit, so much so that cowboy actor Gene Autry filmed a movie using the title (Riders in the Sky (1949)), in addition to recording the song itself, and Stan's career was off and running. His songs were used in two westerns by acclaimed director John Ford -- Wagon Master (1950) and Rio Grande (1950), in which Stan also played a cavalry sergeant -- and Autry again made a movie based on another of Stan's songs, Whirlwind (1951), in which Stan also had a small part. His songs were used in a half-dozen more films over the next few years.
In 1955 actor Harry Carey Jr. was hired by Walt Disney for a TV series called The Adventures of Spin and Marty (1955). Carey had worked with Stan on both "Wagon Master" and "Rio Grande" and suggested to Disney that Stan be hired to write songs for the show, a suggestion Disney followed. Stan wrote all the songs for the first two seasons of the show (he also made an occasional appearance before the cameras), but for the third season many of the songs were written by others, although some of Stan's were used.
He later worked on the soundtracks for several Disney films, and was the co-writer for the theme song for the western series Cheyenne (1955). In 1956 he was hired to play Deputy Olson on the modern-day western series The Sheriff of Cochise (1956) (later renamed "U.S. Marshal") and in addition wrote the theme song and even some episodes of the show. In 1959 he worked for director John Ford again, writing the songs for his western The Horse Soldiers (1959) and even playing, uncredited, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Then it was back to television work for Disney. His last film as an actor was in Ten Who Dared (1960).
Stan Jones died in Los Angeles, California, in 1963.- Actor
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Born in Rosine Kentucky, he was the youngest of eight children. Orphaned at age 11 he was raised by his uncle, fiddler Pendleton Vandiver. Learning the fiddle from his mother and taught further by his uncle, at an early age he began playing dances with uncle and brothers. Besides his uncle (whom he immortalized in the song "Unlce Pen") his musical inspiration was Arnold Schultz, a black guitarist from whom he learned the blues. By the early 1930s he and his brother Charlie had a successful duo, cutting their first record in 1936, but in 1938 they broke up. In the late 1930s, the first person to make the mandolin a lead instrument in country music, he developed the style that became bluegrass. In has debut at the Grand Old Opry in 1939 he performed a version of 'Rodgers, Jimmy (II)' tune "Muleskinner Blues" - this is generally considered the first true bluegrass tune. In the classic band The Bluegrass Boys in the late 1940s he set an instrumental standard for bluegrass that still stands. In later years, with the explosion of interest in bluegrass on college campuses, he began an expanded career with festival appearances. In 1981, battling colon cancer, he wrote and recorded "My Last Days on Earth" - those last days lasted another 15 years.- Music Artist
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Hank Williams was born in September 1923 in a small Alabama farming community about 70 miles south of Montgomery. His father was a railroad engineer who was also a victim of shell shock after a year of fighting in France in 1918 during World War I and spent many years in veterans hospitals. Hank's mother, Lillian Skipper Williams, played the organ in their local church and taught him gospel songs when he was six. When Hank turned 10 he taught himself to play the guitar, mostly by watching other guitarists.
In his teens Hank learned to play and sing country songs that he heard on the family radio, and picked up some blues chords from a black friend who was a street musician named Tee-Tot (Rufe Payne). At the age of 14 Hank put together his own band, playing at hoedowns and other get-together, where he won a local talent contest competition with his composition "WPA Blues." At 17, Hank put together a group called 'Hank Williams' Original Drifting Cowboys' and they successfully auditioned for the manager of WSFS Radio in Montgomery, where they played regularly on the air. Hank met his first wife Audrey Williams during a traveling medicine show and they were married in December 1944 at an Alabama gas station. Audrey was a strong-willed woman who became Hank's booking agent, road manager and promoter. It was she who encouraged the stage-frightened Hank to perform on stage and helped book gigs outside of Alabama.
In 1946 Hank and Audrey traveled to Nashville to secure a music publishing contract with producer Fred Rose, head of the Acuff-Rose publishing firm, who asked Hank to write a song on the spot. The song, "Mansion on the Hill", landed Hank a publishing contract with Acuff-Rose. During the late 1940s Hank--a tall, thin man who alway wore a short-brimmed, white cowboy hat--had his peak years when MGM Records signed him for a recording contract and he became a regular on "Louisiana Hayride", a KWKH radio show in Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1949, after the birth of Hank and Audrey's son Hank Williams Jr., Hank was asked to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where he made his stage debut on June 11, 1949.
From 1949 to 1950, Hank became country music's top artist, with hits like "Lovesick Blues," "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It," "Moanin' the Blues" and "Why Don't You Love Me." His 1951 hits included "Hey, Good Lookin'" "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)." Hits of 1952 were "Honky Tonk Blues," "Jambalaya," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."
However, Hank's unprecedented success came with a price. A heavy drinker since his late teens, Hank proved to be an undependable performer when be began showing up for concerts drunk, and sometimes didn't show up at all. When Audrey divorced him in 1951 due to their constant fights over his drinking, his band began to become disillusioned with him, too, and the Grand Ole Opry suspended him from appearing at live shows. In October 1952 Hank married his second wife, 19-year-old Billie Jean Jones, who was no more successful than Audrey in protecting Hank from himself. Also, the Drifting Cowboys departed that same month due to Hank's violent mood swings and unpredictability. He was still in demand for live performances, though.
On the early morning hours on New Year's Day 1953, while traveling through West Virginia on the way to a show in Canton, Ohio, Hank Williams died in his sleep in the back seat of his Cadillac limousine at the age of 29.- Actor
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Ernest Tubb was born on 9 February 1914 in Crisp, Texas, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Hollywood Barn Dance (1947), Men of Honor (2000) and Walk the Line (2005). He was married to Olene Adams Carter and Lois Elaine Cook. He died on 6 September 1984 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Webb Pierce was born on 8 August 1921 in West Monroe, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Ad Astra (2019), Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) and The Help (2011). He died on 24 February 1991 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Roy Acuff was born on 15 September 1903 in Maynardville, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for Night Train to Memphis (1946), Home in San Antone (1949) and Smoky Mountain Melody (1948). He was married to Mildred Louise Douglas. He died on 23 November 1992 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Soundtrack
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Merle Travis was born on 29 November 1917 in Rosewood, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Thank You for Smoking (2005), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and From Here to Eternity (1953). He was married to Mary E. Johnson Edwards and Judy Hayden. He died on 20 October 1983 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, USA.- Music Artist
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He is known for many styles of music - pure honky-tonk, rockabilly, gospel, straight-ahead pop, blues and Hawaiian. But fans remember Marty Robbins best for his cowboy songs. Songs like "Big Iron", "Running Gun", "The Hanging Tree" and of course "El Paso" established Robbins as the master of the style of country music.
He and twin sister Mamie were born near Glendale, Ariz. As a child, Robbins (born Martin David Robinson) was fascinated with El Paso, Texas since childhood - both the name and the city itself. Marty's parents divorced when he was 12 and his mother moved the family to Phoenix. Robbins joined the Navy in 1943, where he learned to play guitar and began singing and songwriting during the three-year stint. After his discharge, he returned to Phoenix and held down a series of jobs. Eventually, he began singing in nightclubs, filling in one night as guitarist for a friend's band. Quite often, he performed under the pseudonym Jack Robinson (because his mother objected to his performing in nightclubs and he didn't want her to find out).
By 1950, he was performing regularly on Mesa, Ariz., station KTYL, and starred in the local TV series "Western Caravan" on KPHO in Phoenix. One night, country singer Little Jimmy Dickens appeared on the show and was so impressed with Robbins that he urged his record label, Columbia Records, to sign the young star. Robbins' first song, "Love Me or Leave Me Alone", was recorded in 1951. Although the song failed to chart on any of Billboard magazine's country singles chart (the magazine had separate sales, radio airplay and jukebox to monitor the performance of country songs at the time), Robbins was on his way to country stardom; one of the follow-up singles, "I'll Go On Alone", went No. 1 in early 1953. Robbins became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in February 1953.
A steady string of hits followed, ranging in styles from rockabilly ("That's All Right" and "Singing the Blues"), teenage love songs ("A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)") and of course, cowboy songs. He had already appeared in several B-westerns and had scored a country hit with "The Hanging Tree" (the title track to the movie starring Gary Cooper) when, in 1959, he began writing and recording songs for his legendary album "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs"). The all-time classic from the album of songs was "El Paso", the story of a gunfighter who dies after being shot at the end of the song. The song went No. 1 on Billboard magazine's country singles chart in December 1959, where it spent seven weeks; it also became his only No. 1 Hot 100 hit and became the first country song to win a Grammy. At just over 4:40, radio programmers were reluctant to play such a long song (most songs were half as long), but demand won out, and it soon became one of country music's all-time most popular songs on fan surveys. His 1976 No. 1 hit, "El Paso City", revisited the gunfighter's legend.
During the 1960s and 1970s, his career continued, with a second Grammy coming in 1970 with his No. 1 ode to his wife, Marizona, "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife." He also dabbled in television ("Marty Robbins' Spotlight") and stock car racing. He left Columbia Records in 1972 to begin a three-year stint at Decca (later MCA) Records; though he had some success there, he returned to Columbia in late 1975.
During his 31-year recording career, Robbins had 94 songs make Billboard's country charts, with 16 going to No. 1; 31 of his songs also placed on the Hot 100. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982, just two months before suffering his third heart attack (he had also suffered heart attacks in 1969 and 1981). He underwent a quadruple bypass at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., but died Dec. 8, 1982. His only posthumous country hit came in 1983, when he scored a No. 10 hit with "Honkytonk Man", the title track to Clint Eastwood's film. While cowboy and western songs were his trademark, it was Robbins' style, grace and dignity, plus his on-stage ability to communicate with his audience and understated sense of humor that made him one of country music's most beloved performers.- Soundtrack
Lefty Frizzell was born on 31 March 1928 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was married to Alice Harper. He died on 19 July 1975 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Music Artist
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Peggy Lee was Born Norma Dolores Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, on May 26, 1920. At age four her mother died. Peggy's father, a railroad station agent, remarried but later left home, leaving Peggy's care entrusted to a stepmother who physically abused her. Peggy later memorialized this in the calypso number "One Beating a Day", one of 22 songs she co-wrote for the autobiographical musical "Peg", in which she made her Broadway debut in 1983 at the age of 62. As a youngster Peggy worked as a milkmaid, later turning to singing for money in her teens. While singing on a local radio station in Fargo, the program director there suggested she change her name to Peggy Lee. Peggy's big break came when Benny Goodman hired her to sing with his band after hearing her perform. Peggy shot to stardom when she and Goodman cut the hit record "Why Don't You Do Right?" and went out on her own to record such classics as "Fever", "Lover", "Golden Earrings", "Big Spender" and "Is That All There Is?" - the latter winning her a Grammy Award in 1969. Peggy's vocal style provided a distinctive imprint to countless swing tunes, ballads and big band numbers. She was considered the type of performer equally capable of interpreting a song as uniquely as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Bessie Smith. Her 1989 album, "Peggy Sings the Blues", was a Grammy Award nominee. Peggy was a prolific songwriter and arranger and her 1990 "The Peggy Lee Songbook" contained four songs she wrote with guitarist John Chiodini. Peggy also wrote for jazz greats Duke Ellington, who called her "The Queen", and Johnny Mercer, and composer Quincy Jones. Also in 1990 Peggy was awarded the coveted Pied Piper Award presented by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). She made her mark in Hollywood as an actress, winning an Academy Award nomination for her role as the hard-drinking singer in the jazz saga, Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) and composed songs for the 1955 Walt Disney animated classic Lady and the Tramp (1955). The animated film featured a character named Peg, a broken-down old showgirl of a dog, whose provocative walk was based on the stage-prowl of Peggy Lee. Later she sued Disney and won a landmark legal judgment for a portion of the profits from the videocassette sale of the film. Peggy's private life was racked by physical ailments, a near-fatal fall in 1976, diabetes and a stroke in 1998. She was married four times, all ending in divorce. She and first husband, guitarist Dave Barbour, had a daughter, Nicki, her only child. Peggy and Dave were on the verge of a reconciliation in 1965, but he died of a heart attack before the couple got back together. Peggy has left a vast legend of music that is constantly finding new generations of fans.- Composer
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Muddy Waters (born McKinley Morganfield) was one of the major forces in contemporary blues. He was instrumental in bringing the sound of the Mississippi Delta to Chicago in the 1940s, where his recordings for the Chess label exerted an enormous influence on both blues and rock musicians from the mid-'50s to the present day. Muddy made his first recordings for the Library of Congress in the early 1940s, offering a style that was highly influenced by the legendary Robert Johnson. It was after World War II that Muddy, who had relocated to Chicago, began recording electric versions of his blues. Such well-known classics as "I Can't Be Satisfied", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Got My Mojo Workin'", "I Just Want To Make Love To You" and many more redefined the sound of blues for modern audiences. Over the years his band included such musicians as Otis Spann, Little Walter (aka Little Walter Jacobs), James Cotton, Junior Wells, Willie Dixon and numerous legends of the blues. He also inspired legions of young, white musicians to try their hand at the blues, including Mike Bloomfield, Johnny Winter, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Paul Butterfield, many of whom covered Muddy's music.- Actor
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John Lee Hooker was born on 22 August 1917 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for The Blues Brothers (1980), The Colony (2013) and Kiss the Girls (1997). He was married to Maude Mathis, Alma Hopes and Sarah Jones. He died on 21 June 2001 in Los Altos, California, USA.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Mississippi-born Elmore Leonard was a blues musician known as "The King of the Slide Guitar". He played on various radio shows throughout the South and built up a following. In 1951, he recorded his first record, "Dust My Broom", for the small Trumpet Records label out of Jackson, MS. It became a "sleeper" hit, breaking through to the Top-10 charts and making him a star. Leonard recorded more than 100 songs over the next dozen years and helped to shape what eventually became known as the "Chicago Blues" sound of the postwar period. He was elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980.
He died of a heart attack in Chicago in 1963.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
T-Bone Walker was born on 28 May 1910 in Linden, Texas, USA. He is known for The Firm (1993), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and The Rainmaker (1997). He was married to Vida. He died on 16 March 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Soundtrack
Born in Weirgate, TX, in 1914, blues/R&B singer Ivory Joe Hunter is probably most famous for writing and recording the hit "Since I Met You, Baby". He learned to play piano at an early age and by his mid-teens was performing in the Beaumont, TX, area. He made some recordings in the 1930s (under the name "Ivory Joe White") but it took a move to California in 1942 for his career to begin taking off. In 1945 he began his own record label, Ivory Records, in Oakland, and when that went out of business he helped form another label, Pacific Records, for which he also recorded.
He formed his own combo and successfully toured up and down the California coast. He signed with MGM Records in 1949 and the next year came out with the hits "I Almost Lost My Mind" and "I Need You So". In 1954 he went to Atlantic Records, where he had his biggest hit, 1956's "Since I Met You Baby" (which he also wrote) and "Yes, I Want You" (1958). By the early 1960s R&B music was beginning to lose popularity with the record-buying public, and Hunter became interested in country music. He journeyed to Nashville, TN, and became a country music songwriter, and also performed at the famed Grand Ole Opry. He issued a country album, "The Return of Ivory Joe Hunter", in 1970. It met with some success, but Hunter's failing health precluded his attempts at a comeback. He died of cancer in Memphis, TN, in 1974.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Hadda Brooks was born on 29 October 1916 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for In a Lonely Place (1950), The Thirteenth Floor (1999) and The Crossing Guard (1995). She was married to Earl Morrison. She died on 21 November 2002 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Music Department
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Charles F. Calhoun was born on 16 November 1901 in Atchison, Kansas, USA. Charles F. was a composer, known for Clue (1985), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) and 21 Grams (2003). Charles F. died on 1 April 1999 in Altamonte Springs, Florida, USA.- Actor
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Louis Jordan was born on 8 July 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for The Blues Brothers (1980), Raging Bull (1980) and Swingers (1996). He was married to Martha Weaver, Florence Vicky Hayes Johnson, Fleecie Moore and Ida Fields. He died on 4 February 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Soundtrack
Memphis-born Rosco Gordon was a fixture on the local blues scene when he was just a teenager, as a pianist and singer. His vocal style was termed "eccentric"--he went in for moaning, wailing, slurring and scrambling his words--and tended to mix his piano styles between blues and boogie-woogie. In the 1950s he hung with such icons as Johnny Ace and Bobby Bland, who would all record and even broadcast together.
In 1951 Gordon signed with the renowned Sam Phillips. Phillips released Gordon's songs on both his own Sun label and leased others out to such labels as Modern---he released Gordon's 1953 "Booted" on both Sun and Modern, and it reached #1 on the R&B charts--and Duke. A few years later Gordon left Sun for RPM Records, but although he had one hit for them, all his other recordings were unsuccessful. In 1955 Gordon went back to Phillips but that lasted until 1958 and then he left again. He signed with Vee-Jay Records in 1959 and had one hit, "Just a Little Bit", but his timing was unfortunate--interest in R&B began to fade in the early 1960s and his career waned. He moved to New York City and recorded a few releases for Columbia and ABC-Paramount, and the even smaller Old Town Records, but nothing seemed to help. In 1969 he started his own label, Bab-Roc, when he couldn't find any other labels that would sign him. He continued to release records into the 1970s, but eventually he faded from the R&B scene.- Composer
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Henry Glover was an A&R man and record producer in the 1950s and 1960s with various labels, most notably King and Roulette. Probably the first African-American director of A&R for a major independent label (King/Federal). Produced artists such as Little Willie John, Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, Joey Dee and The Starliters, The 5 Royales and The Essex.- Actor
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Johnny Otis was involved in virtually every aspect of the music business: he was a singer, musician, composer, producer, record company owner, arranger and talent scout, among others. He helped to shape the R&B genre starting in the late 1940s and stayed involved in it for over 30 years.
Otis was white, but grew up in a black neighborhood in northern California's Bay Area. He began his music career as a drummer in a swing band and by 1945 he had his own band. He could see that swing music was on its way out and downsized his band and got away from swing music and more towards R&B. It soon became one of the most popular R&B bands in the US. He traveled the country with his Johnny Otis Rhythm & Blues Caravan with many early rock and R&B singers.
In 1954 he became a disc jockey and formed Dig Records. He also got his own variety show, The Johnny Otis Show (1954), on TV station KTLA in Los Angeles. He discovered Etta James and Little Esther Phillips, and with James he wrote "Roll With Me, Henry", which she recorded. It shot to #1 on the R&B charts and made her a star.
He continued performing and recording well into the 1980s, and traveled the US and Europe performing at jazz and blues festivals.- Leiber and Stoller were the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote many early rock and roll hits, including "Hound Dog" (originally for Big Mama Thornton but made even more famous by Elvis Presley) and many songs for The Coasters. Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller (2002) (also the title of one of their songs) is a musical revue featuring many of their most popular songs.
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Charles Edward Anderson Berry was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.- Music Artist
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Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, the self-proclaimed "Architect of Rock 'n' Roll", traveled in his early days with the legendary vaudeville star Spencer "Snake" Anthony. One of Richard's early bands had the young, then unknown singer James Brown (the Godfather of Soul), a fourteen-year-old keyboardist named Billy Preston, and the famous and legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix. His first recording session took place at WGST in Atlanta, Georgia, USA; he was backed by a local band led by Billy Wright. This session produced a local hit called "Every Hour" which enjoyed heavy airplay on Atlanta's WERD radio station which was the first completely Black-owned radio station in the United States. Little Richard was backed up by his idol Billy Wright, once referred to him as the most fantastic entertainer he had ever seen. Indeed, it was Wright who used a brand of makeup called Pancake 31.
Little Richard admitted to copying Wright's penchant for heavy makeup and wild stage theatrics. With a public persona and personal life marked by sexual ambiguity, he would make his mark with later hits such as the suggestive "Tutti Frutti" and "Good Golly Miss Molly". Unbeknownst to many fans, Richard overcame a debilitating drug habit and eventually became an ordained minister. Beginning in the 1980s, he saw a resurgence in his popularity as he acquired small acting roles where he impressed fans, old and new, with his unique comedic timing. As versatile and ageless as ever, Little Richard continues to delight fans the world over with his extraordinary stage presence and flamboyant antics. Now inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the American Songwriters Hall of Fame, he remains one of the most popular entertainers in the world.- Actor
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Ever heard "I Want Candy" or "Not Fade Away" or "Willie & The Hand Jive", Shirley & Company's "Shame, Shame, Shame" or U2's "Desire" or George Michael's "Faith"? If you have, then you've heard the "Bo Diddley beat", the most famous beat in the world! One of the founding fathers of rock 'n' roll, Bo Diddley's innovative pounding and hypnotic, Latin-tinged beat, his vast array of electric custom-built guitars, his use of reverb, tremelo and distortion to make his guitars talk, mumble and roar, his use of female musicians, his wild stage shows, and his on-record and on-stage rapping, pre-date all others. Bo Diddley was born Ellas Bates on Sunday December 30, 1928, on a small farm near the town of McComb, Mississippi, in rural Pike County, close to the Louisiana border, the only child of Ethel Wilson and Eugene Bates, he had three half-brothers and a half-sister. He was adopted by his mother's cousin, Mrs. Gussie McDaniel, along with his cousins Willis, Lucille and Freddie, and adopted the name Ellas McDaniel. In the mid-1'30s the family moved to the south side of Chicago. Soon after, he began to take violin lessons from Professor O.W. Frederick at the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church. He studied the violin for 12 years, composing two concertos for the instrument. For Christmas in 1940, his sister Lucille bought him his first guitar, a cheap Harmony acoustic. It was at this time that he acquired the nickname "Bo Diddley" (" . . . Bo Diddley is me; to tell ya the truth, I don't know what it [the name] really is . . . ") from his fellow pupils at the Foster Vocational High School in Chicago. The newly named Bo Diddley had long been fascinated by the rhythms that he heard coming from the sanctified churches. A frustrated drummer, he tried to translate the sounds that he heard into his own style. Gradually he began to duplicate what he did with his violin bow by rapidly flicking his pick across his guitar strings: "I play the guitar as if I'm playing the drums . . . I play drum licks on the guitar." He continued to practice the guitar through his early teens. Shortly before leaving school he formed his first group, a trio named The Hipsters, later known as The Langley Avenue Jive Cats, after the Chicago street where he lived. Upon graduation he pursued a variety of low-paid occupations including truck driving, building site work and boxing, playing locally with his group to supplement his income. Around this time he married his first wife, Louise Woolingham, but the marriage did not survive. A year later he married Ethel "Tootsie" Smith, a marriage that lasted just over a decade. In 1950 maracas player Jerome Green joined the group, followed a year later by harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold. After more than a decade of playing on street corners and in clubs around Chicago, Bo Diddley finally got the chance to cut a demo of 2 songs that he had written; "Uncle John" and "I'm A Man". After various rejections from local record labels (most notably VeeJay), in the spring of 1955 he took the recordings to brothers Leonard and Phil Chess, owners of Chess Records, with studios located at 4750-2 South Cottage Grove Ave. in Chicago. They suggested that he changed the title and the lyrics of "Uncle John" to more reflect his own unique personality. The twp songs were re-recorded at Bill Putnam's Universal Recording Studio at 111 E. Ontario in Chicago on Wednesday, March 2, 1955, and released as a double A-side disc "Bo Diddley"/"I'm A Man" on the Chess Records subsidiary label Checker Records. It went straight to the top of the R&B charts, establishing him as one of the most exciting and original new talents in American music. With musical influences of his own ranging from Louis Jordan to John Lee Hooker, and from 'Nat 'King' Cole' to Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley was now set to help shape and define the sound and presentation of rock music for all time. From Elvis Presley to George Thorogood, from The Rolling Stones to ZZ Top, from The Doors to The Clash, from Buddy Holly to Prince, and from The Everly Brothers to Run DMC, all acknowledged the unique influences of Bo Diddley upon their styles of music. Now in his early 70s, he is still very much active in the recording studio and in the clubs and the concert halls around the world. He performed a rousing version of his classic song "Who Do You Love" with George Thorogood & The Destroyers in front of a TV audience of millions at the Live Aid Concert in Philadelphia in 1985. A couple of years later he was deservedly an early inductee into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. In 1996 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm 'n' Blues Foundation and in 1998 received another Lifetime Achievement Award, this time from The Recording Academy at that year's annual Grammy Awards Ceremony. In 2000 yet another honor was justifiably awarded to him when he was inducted into The Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. In the words of one of his many famous eponymous songs, "Bo Diddley Put The Rock in Rock 'n' Roll", and remember . . . Bo Knows!- Music Artist
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Ike Turner is best known for his career as half of the duo Ike & Tina Turner with his former wife Tina Turner, but before he discovered her, Turner was already a pioneer in rhythm & blues and rock & roll.
Izear Luster Turner Jr. was born on November 5, 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His father Izear Luster Turner Sr. was a Baptist minister and his mother Beatrice Cushenberry was a seamstress. His father was beaten by a white mob and succumbed to his injuries when Turner was 5 years old. Turner was sexually abused by multiple older women beginning at the age of 6. He quit school in the eighth grade and became an elevator operator at the Alcazar Hotel in downtown Clarksdale, eventually becoming a DJ at the radio station WROX located inside the hotel.
Turner was taught how to play piano by Delta blues pianist Pinetop Perkins. He performed locally as a roadie for Robert Nighthawk and Sonny Boy Williams. As a teenager, he formed his own band called the Kings of Rhythm. In 1951, Turner and his band recorded "Rocket 88" at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Studio, later known as Sun Studio. The single was very successful, reaching No. 1 on the various Billboard R&B charts, but the record was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. This caused friction between band members, so the band was disbanded for a few years. In the meantime, Turner became a session musician and talent scout for Phillips as well as the Bihari Brothers at Modern Records. Blues musicians Turner recorded with include Junior Parker, Willy Nix, Bobby Bland, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Rosco Gordon, Albert King, and Johnny Ace.
Turner made the transition from playing piano to playing guitar in the mid-1950s and moved to East St. Louis, Illinois where he became a sensation by introducing Rhythm & Blues to the predominantly Jazz town and neighboring cities. One of his fans, a teen-aged Anna Mae Bullock, joined his band as his lead vocalist in 1957. He renamed her Tina Turner, and they released their first record as the duo Ike & Tina Turner in 1960 with the "A Fool In Love" which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart. A string of R&B hits soon followed. Throughout the 1960s they toured relentlessly and put on high energy performances with their revue which included the Ikettes, a backing group known for the Turner penned single "I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)." Their dynamic act is showcased in the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show (1965), which led to Tina Turner recording "River Deep - Mountain High" with producer Phil Spector. Following their tour with the Rolling Stones in 1969, the duo crossed over to mainstream success. They appeared in the concert films Gimme Shelter (1970), It's Your Thing (1970), Soul to Soul (1971), and they made a cameo performance in Taking Off (1971). The duo had their biggest success with their rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" which won them a Grammy Award in 1972. However, Turner's drug use and volatile behavior was taking a toll on their personal relationship and they separated in 1976.
After the Duo broke up, Turner went on a downward spiral with run-ins with the law, which resulted in a 18-month prison term for a drug conviction in the early 1990s. Following the release of his ex-wife's book which she recounted incidents of domestic violence, and the subsequent movie, What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), dramatizing their tumultuous relationship, Turner received media scrutiny which further hindered his career. He eventually revived his band the Kings of Rhythm in the late 1990s and resurrected his career by returning to his blues roots. In 2003, Turner was featured in the PBS documentary series The Blues (2003). He released two critically acclaimed albums, Here and Now (2001) and Risin' with the Blues (2006). The latter album won him a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues album the year he died in 2007. Turner had been drug free for over a decade, but he relapsed and died from a cocaine overdose on December 12, 2007. His hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema were also contributing factors.- Music Department
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Doc Pomus was born on 27 June 1925 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for Army of the Dead (2021), Lost Highway (1997) and The Wedding Date (2005). He was married to Willi Burke. He died on 14 March 1991 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Composer
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Mort Shuman was born on 12 November 1938 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Army of the Dead (2021), The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) and Lost Highway (1997). He was married to Maria-Pia. He died on 2 November 1991 in London, England, UK.- Composer
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Aaron Schröder was born on 7 September 1926 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Fools Rush In (1997), The Hangover (2009) and Lilo & Stitch (2002). He was married to Abby Schroeder. He died on 2 December 2009 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Soundtrack
Rose Marie McCoy was born on 19 April 1922 in Oneida, Arkansas, USA. She was married to James McCoy. She died on 20 January 2015 in Urbana, Illinois, USA.- Actor
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Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 - October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.- Music Department
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David Bartholomew was born on 24 December 1918 in Edgard, Louisiana, USA. He is known for The Blues Brothers (1980), Gangster Squad (2013) and Road House (1989). He was married to Pearl and Rhea Douse. He died on 23 June 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.- Music Department
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Musician / composer / producer Earl King was born Solomon Johnson in New Orleans, LA, in 1934. He is considered by many to be one of the main architects of the New Orleans R&B movement in the 1950s and 1960s, along with such contemporaries as Allen Toussaint, Fats Domino and John E. Glassco (aka "Dr. John"). Best known as a composer, his songs have been recorded by such legends as Aaron Neville, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among many others. In addition to composing, he was an accomplished guitarist and one of the top sidemen and studio musicians in the New Orleans recording scene, and even recorded some best-selling records on his own.
King began his career with the legendary Guitar Slim, who was a great influence on him. He left Slim to play with Huey P. Smith (aka Huey "Piano" Smith). He recorded for some small but well-known labels, such as Savoy, Ace and Specialty, and had respectable hits with all of them. In 1960 he signed with the major Imperial Records label, and later did some session work with the iconic Motown Records, but he spent most of the 1970s and 1980s in the recording studio either producing other artists' records or working as a sideman.- Composer
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New Orleans-based R&B singer/songwriter Allen Toussaint was born on January 14, 1938 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The son of Naomi and Clarence Toussaint, Allen grew up in a shotgun house in the New Orleans neighborhood of Gert Town. Toussaint started learning piano at age seven and began his music business career as a teenager playing piano for such artists as Fats Domino and Earl King. Allen initially wrote songs under the stage name Tousan. Come the early 1960's Toussaint had firmly established himself as an in-house producer, composer, and arranger for various record labels that included Minit and Instant. Among the many hit songs that Allen wrote were "Ya Ya," "Fortune Teller, " "Ride Your Pony," "Mother in Law," "Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)," "Working in a Coalmine," "Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)," "Get Out of My Life, Woman," and "Ruler of My Heart" (this latter composition was changed to "Pain in My Heart" by Otis Redding). Moreover, Toussaint's song "Java" won jazz trumpeter Al Hirt a Grammy Award in 1964.
Following a stint in the US Army from 1963 to 1965, Allen returned to New Orleans and formed the production company Sansu Enterprises as well as established the city's famous Sea-Saint Studio. During this time Toussaint produced the Top 10 hit "Right Time, Wrong Place" for Dr. John and Patti LaBelle's disco sensation "Lady Marmalade," played with Paul Simon, Joe Cocker, and Paul McCartney, and wrote the #1 country smash 'Southern Nights" for Glen Campbell. He formed the label NYNO in 1996 and was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 in the non-performer category. Toussaint was subsequently inducted into The Louisina Music Hall of Fame in 2009 and The Blues Hall of Fame in 2011. In the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Allen relocated to New York City and became an advocate for the musical legacy of New Orleans. Toussaint eventually returned to New Orleans and was awarded with the National Medal of Arts in 2013 (he was also honored with a bronze statue on Bourbon Street that same year). He died of a heart attack at age 77 while touring in Madrid, Spain on November 10, 2015.- Actor
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Although most of Lloyd Price's hits occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he actually had his first hit in 1952, with "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", which became a major R&B hit. However, his budding career came to a quick halt in 1954 when he was drafted into the army. Because of his musical background, though, he was placed into the Special Services (entertainment) branch, where he was put in charge of a large dance band that played "swing" music to entertain the troops. It was here that Price got the idea for what was to become his trademark style: combining a lush, full orchestra with the grittier, rawer tempos and vocals of R&B. After completing his hitch, Price made the rounds of record companies trying to convince them of the soundness of his idea, but he got nowhere. Frustrated, he started his own label, Kent Records. His first record on Kent, 1957's "Just Because", became a regional hit on the East Coast, but Kent, like other small labels, found it difficult to distribute nationally, limiting the chances of the record's success. Price managed to sign a distribution deal with ABC-Paramount Records, a major player with national distribution, and that enabled the record to stay on the charts for the next six months. The next year he signed a distribution deal with Atlantic Records, another major label. However, he soon grew tired of both running a record label and performing, and decided to concentrate solely on performing. He signed a recording contract with ABC-Paramount in 1958, and in October of that year released what would be one of his biggest hits, "Stagger Lee", complete with his trademark combination of orchestral background and R&B vocals. The record sold more than a million copies and was the top R&B record of 1959. The song did cause some controversy, though. It was based on an old tune called "Stag-O-Lee" about an argument that took place during a gambling game that resulted in a barroom murder. Religious pressure groups, among them the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency, pressured Paramount not to release the record at all, due to its "immoral" subject matter. Paramount did release it, but the lyrics were somewhat sanitized, with no mention of gambling or the shooting resulting in the character's death. Price's follow-up songs to "Stagger Lee" wee also big hits: "Personality" and "I'm Gonna Get Married." Price left Paramount in 1962 and started his own record label again, Double-L. While he had some modest hits with that label, its main claim to fame was that it was the label which first signed Wilson Pickett to a solo contract.
Price signed with several different labels over the next several years (he was the first black artist signed by Monument Records, a Nashville label that specialized almost exclusively in country/western singers) but couldn't manage to chart with any more records. In an effort to jumpstart his career he started his own label again, Turntable Records, and even opened up a nightclub in New York called Turntables. In 1972, he began to concentrate more on personal appearances and concerts rather than recording. He went into semi-retirement in the mid-'80s and only occasionally appeared in concerts or on television. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.- Music Artist
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A tragic fate may have given this visionary a heightened sensitivity, perception, awareness, even expansion to his obvious musical gifts that he may have never touched upon had he not suffered from his physical affliction. Whatever it was, Ray Charles revolutionized American music and was catapulted to legendary status by the time he died in Beverly Hills at age 73.
Born on September 23, 1930, to Aretha and Baily Robinson, an impoverished Albany, Georgia, family that moved to Greenville, Florida while he was still an infant. It was not a cause for joy and celebration. His father soon abandoned the family and his baby brother, George Robinson, drowned in a freak washtub accident. Ray himself developed glaucoma at the age of five and within two years had lost his sight completely. A singer in a Baptist choir, he developed a love and feel for rhythms and studied music at the State School for Deaf and Blind Children, showing which brought out his talent and ear for playing various instruments, including the piano and clarinet.
An orphan by his early teens, Ray joined a country band at age 16 called The Florida Playboys. He moved to Seattle in 1948 where he and Southern guitarist Gossady McGee formed the McSon Trio. With an emphasis on easy-styled jazz, Ray also played in bebop sessions on the sly. He departed from the McSon Trio and signed with Los Angeles-based Swing Time Records, becoming the pianist for rhythm and blues great Lowell Fulson and his band. Atlantic Records eventually picked him up. Along the road he would add composer, writer and arranger to his formidable list of talents.
Ray's first R&B hit was "Confession Blues" in Los Angeles in 1949. In 1951, he had his first solo chart buster with "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand". His amazing versatility and raw, soulful delivery quickly caught on with audiences and helped put Atlantic Records on the map. Hits like "Mess Around", "Things I Used to Do", "A Fool for You", "I've Got a Woman", "Drown in My Own Tears", and especially "What'd I Say" in 1959, pushed gospel and R&B to a wider crossover audience. He made a move into the country music arena--unheard of for a black singer--in the 1960s, doing soulful spins on Hank Williams and Eddy Arnold tunes. In 1960, he left Atlantic and signed with ABC-Paramount. Under ABC-Paramount, hits poured out during this peak time with "I Can't Stop Loving You", "Hit the Road Jack", "Busted" and his beloved signature song "Georgia On My Mind".
His landmark 1962 album "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" brought a new swinging style to country music. From there, he traveled a mainstream route--from interpreting songs from The Beatles ("Eleanor Rigby") to appearing in "Diet Pepsi" ads ("You Got the Right One, Baby, Uh-huh!"). He also showed up sporadically in films, playing himself in the movie Ballad in Blue (1965) and guest-starring in The Blues Brothers (1980) with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. A television musical variety favorite with his trademark dark sunglasses and dry humor, he worked alongside such musical legends as Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand on their very special evenings of song.
It is hard to believe that with everything he accomplished, Ray also had to deal with a longstanding heroin problem. In the mid-1960s, he was arrested for possession of heroin and marijuana and revealed that he had been addicted for nearly two decades. By 1965, he had completely recovered. The man who lived life on the edge was divorced twice and had 12 children both in and outside his marriages.
At the time of his death from liver disease on June 10, 2004, he was working on a recording project of duets with such performers as Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Elton John and Norah Jones. This collaboration entitled "Genius Loves Company" led to an incisive win at the Grammy Awards--eight posthumous trophies including "Album of the Year" and "Record of the Year".
A few months after his death, the critically-acclaimed feature film biography Ray (2004) was released starring Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx.- Music Artist
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Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.- Melvin Endsley was born on 30 January 1934 in the USA. He died on 16 August 2004 in Drasco, Arkansas, USA.
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Don Gibson was born on 3 April 1928 in Shelby, North Carolina, USA. He was an actor, known for Blood Simple (1984), The Departed (2006) and Casino (1995). He was married to Bobbi Patterson. He died on 17 November 2003 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Composer
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John D. Loudermilk was born on 31 March 1934 in Durham, North Carolina, USA. He was a composer, known for Love Actually (2003), Paris, I Love You (2006) and Licorice Pizza (2021). He was married to Susan. He died on 21 September 2016 in Christiana, Tennessee, USA.- Music Department
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Tom T. Hall was born on 25 May 1936 in Olive Hill, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Scary Movie 3 (2003). He was married to Dixie Hall and Opal Inez McKinney. He died on 20 August 2021 in Franklin, Tennessee, USA.- Actor
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Buck Owens is a true legend in country music. Along with fellow performers Merle Haggard and Wynn Stewart, Buck helped popularize the Bakersfield Sound, or honky-tonk infused with electric instrumentation and rock influences. Growing up in Arizona, Buck picked cotton and learned to play the mandolin, the guitar and horns. He had his first radio program at age 16 and a year later, worked with the Mac's Skillet Lickers, whose lead singer was Bonnie Campbell. Bonnie soon became the first Mrs. Buck Owens; together, they had a son, Buddy. Buck and his young family moved to Bakersfield, California, in the early 1950s, where he worked as a session guitarist and played for a band called the Orange Blossom Playboys. After a few years of recording rockabilly songs (as "Corky Jones"), Buck signed a contract with Capitol Records in 1957. His first recordings floundered, and it wasn't until the spring of 1959 when he hit with "Second Fiddle." That song only reached No. 24 on Billboard magazine's country singles chart, but it was the follow-up, "Under Your Spell Again" (which reached No. 4 in the fall of 1959) that Buck's future in country music was assured--and was it ever. After several top-five songs that flirted with the No. 1 spot (among them, "Above and Beyond," "Under the Influence of Love" and "Foolin' Around"), he finally hit the top of the charts in June 1963 with "Act Naturally." That song's four-week stay at No. 1 paled in comparison, though, to his incredible 16-week stay that fall with "Love's Gonna Live Here." Eighteen more No. 1 hits, all in the Bakersfield tradition, followed during the next nine years. Many of them featured Buck's chief guitarist, right-hand man and close confidant, Don Rich. Together, Owens and Rich (the leader of Buck's backing band, the Buckaroos) polished their sound, which graced AM radio throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Buck parlayed his popularity on two country music TV shows: the syndicated "Buck Owens Ranch Show" and CBS' (and later syndicated) Hee Haw (1969). Through it all, he was an astute businessman, keeping control of his publishing rights and master tapes, purchasing several radio stations and forming a booking agency among them. He also recorded a live album in 1969 in London. Then, in 1974, Rich was killed in a motorcycle accident and Buck's life faltered. He recorded for Warner Bros. for a time in the mid- to late-1970s, but only one song, 1979's "Play Together Again, Again" (a duet with Emmylou Harris) was a substantial hit. Then, in 1988, he found renewed popularity when new country star Dwight Yoakam (whose own Bakersfield Sound was strongly influenced by Owens) asked him to duet on "Streets of Bakersfield," which soared to No. 1. He still performs occasional shows at his Crystal Palace, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. Buck Owens remains one of country music's most respected (if not underrated) legends.- Music Artist
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Tall, blond haired country & western singer / songwriter from Atlanta Georgia, who usually appears in films portraying good humored Southern type characters. Reed was already writing and singing music in high school, and was signed by Capitol Records to a three-year contract in 1955. However, in 1958, he signed over to NRC Records, and appeared alongside Ray Stevens and Joe South, plus he met his future wife, singer Priscilla Mitchell.
Reed is well known by music fans for his C & W hits including "She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)", "Lord, Mr. Ford", "When You're Hot, You're Hot" and "East Bound and Down". After striking up a friendship with Burt Reynolds, Reed was cast in small roles in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), and Gator (1976). He had a natural on-screen charm, and Reynolds picked him to play trucker "Cledus Snow" in the hugely popular Smokey and the Bandit (1977), plus he returned to the role in Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983).
More recently, Reed has been seen in Bat*21 (1988) and The Waterboy (1998).- Music Artist
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George Jones was born on 12 September 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, USA. He was a music artist and actor, known for Ad Astra (2019), Only the Brave (2017) and Crazy Heart (2009). He was married to Nancy Sepulveda, Tammy Wynette, Shirley Ann Corley and Dorothy Bonvillion. He died on 26 April 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Writer
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Harlan Howard was born on 8 September 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a writer and composer, known for The Firm (1993), The Salton Sea (2002) and C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005). He was married to Melanie Smith and Jan Howard. He died on 3 March 2002 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Music Artist
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Merle Ronald Haggard was an American country singer, songwriter, guitarist. Haggard was born in Oildale, California. His childhood was troubled after the death of his father. After being released from San Quentin State Prison in 1960, he managed to turn his life around and launch a successful country music career, gaining popularity with his songs about the working class. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, he had 38 number-one hits on the US country charts, several of which also made the Billboard all-genre singles chart. He received many honors and awards for his music, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a BMI Icon Award (2006), and induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Country Music Hall of Fame (1994).- Music Artist
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This versatile, eclectic, rather wanderlust country crossover star known for his classic ballads ("Always On My Mind"), autobiographical road songs ("On the Road Again") and catchy rhythms ("Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys") started out life as Willie Hugh Nelson on April 30, 1933, in Depression-era Abbot, Texas. He is the son of Myrle Marie (Greenhaw) and Ira Doyle Nelson, a mechanic. After his parents got divorced, in which his mother moved to Oregon and his father remarried, he and sister Bobbie Lee were raised by their gospel-singing paternal grandparents, who introduced them to music. Working in the cotton fields, Willie was handed his first guitar at age six and within a short time was writing woeful country songs and playing in polka bands.
During his teenage years he played at high school dances and honky-tonks. He also worked for a local radio station and by graduation time he had become a DJ with his own radio show. Briefly serving a stint with the Air Force (discharged because of a bad back, which would plague him throughout his life), he sold his first song called "No Place For Me" while getting by with menial jobs as a janitor and door-to-door Bible salesman. Married in 1952 to a full-blooded Cherokee, he and first wife Martha had two children.
Willie initially came to be known in Nashville for selling his songs to well-established country artists such as Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Faron Young ("Hello Walls") and Ray Price ("Night Life"). In 1962 he recorded a successful duet with singer Shirley Collie, whom he would later take as his second wife, but his career didn't progress despite joining the Grand 'Ol Opry. In the early 1970s, after extensive touring with his band (which included sister Bobbie on the piano) and experiencing a number of career downswings, he started performing and recording his own songs instead of selling them to others. Two of his albums, "Shotgun Willie" and "Phases and Stages", helped him gain some stature. In 1975 it all came together with the album "Red-Headed Stranger", which would become the top-selling country music album in history and propel him into the country music stratosphere. His offbeat phrasing, distinctive nasal tones and leathery, bewhiskered hippie-styled looks set a new standard for "outlaw" country music.
Around 1978 Willie showed himself to be a loose and natural presence in front of the camera, thus launching a film career. He had roles in several movies, his first opposite Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in The Electric Horseman (1979). His took to leading roles as a country music star in Honeysuckle Rose (1980), which would include a number of his songs on the soundtrack. He played opposite James Caan and Tuesday Weld in Thief (1981) and a legendary outlaw in the western Barbarosa (1982). In the movie Red Headed Stranger (1986), which was adapted from his hit 1975 album, he played a preacher, and he teamed up with pal Kris Kristofferson as a pair of country singers in Songwriter (1984).
Willie and pal Kristofferson went on to form The Highwaymen with the late Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings and he successfully recorded and toured with the group for a number of years. They also teamed up to remake the classic western Stagecoach (1939) as a TV movie (Stagecoach (1986)). As a unique song stylist, the bearded, braided-haired, bandanna-wearing non-conformist took a number of non-country standards and made them his own, including Elvis Presley's "You Were Always on My Mind" and Ray Charles' "Georgia on My Mind."
Broaching the millennium, Willie continued to be active with film credits that would include roles in the westerns Dust to Dust (1994) and The Journeyman (2001), in addition to roles in such non-westerns as the sci-fi drama Starlight (1996); the comedy capers Gone Fishin' (1997), The Big Bounce (2004) and The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) (an updated screen version of the popular TV show); the action thriller Fighting with Anger (2007); the comedy Surfer, Dude (2008); the family dramedy Angels Sing (2013); the music fantasy Paradox (2018) which starred Neil Young and his sons Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson; the dramatic fantasy Waiting for the Miracle to Come (2018); and Willie and Me (2023), a comedy chronicling the misadventures of a young German girl coming to America to see her idol Willie.
Willie happily married fourth wife Ann-Marie in 1991 and has survived more hard times in recent years, including a $16.7-million debt to the IRS and the suicide of one of his sons, Billy. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993, Nelson received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998.- Music Artist
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Loretta Lynn was born on 14 April 1932 in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, USA. She was a music artist and actress, known for The New Mutants (2020), High Crimes (2002) and Logan Lucky (2017). She was married to Oliver Lynn. She died on 4 October 2022 in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, USA.- Music Artist
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Johnny Cash was born February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas, to Carrie Cash (Rivers) and Raymond Cash. He made his first single, "Hey Porter", for Sun Records in 1955. In 1958 he moved to Columbia Records. He had long periods of drug abuse during the 1960s, but later that decade he successfully fought his addiction with the help of singer June Carter Cash, whom he married in 1968. In 1971 he appeared in the western A Gunfight (1971) with 'Kirk Douglas (I)'. Cash made only a few films, but quite a few appearances on television, both in series and made-for-TV films, and was especially effective as a rural Southern sheriff in the 1930s determined to bring to justice a wealthy landowner who committed murder because he believed he was above the law in Murder in Coweta County (1983), a drama based on a true story. In 1975 Cash wrote his autobiography, "Man In Black", which is now out of print. In the late 1980s he moved from Columbia Records to Mercury, then in the next decade moved again to American Recordings. Amongst his biggest hit records were "I Walk the Line", "Ring of Fire" and "A Boy Named Sue". After several years of ill health, he died of complications from diabetes on 12 September 2003, only a few months after the death of his beloved wife.- Actress
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June Carter Cash was born on 23 June 1929 in Maces Springs, Scott County, Virginia, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for The Johnny Cash Show (1969), The Apostle (1997) and Man of Steel (2013). She was married to Johnny Cash, Edwin Lee (Rip) Nix and Carl Smith. She died on 15 May 2003 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Composer
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Otis Blackwell was a songwriter whose works included "Great Balls of Fire", "Fever", "Don't Be Cruel" and "All Shook Up". Born in Brooklyn in 1931, he grew up obsessed with the movies of Tex Ritter. After briefly singing in blues clubs, he signed with RCA in 1952 as a songwriter. With the royalties he collected from his songs, including those above, he was able to live his bon vivant lifestyle. He is survived by his wife and seven children.- Actor
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Stan Lewis was born on 5 July 1927 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Frequency (2000), Apocalypse Now (1979) and To Die For (1995). He was married to Pauline. He died on 15 July 2018 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.- Soundtrack
Billy Ward was born on 15 September 1921 in Savannah, Georgia, USA. He died on 16 February 2002 in Inglewood, California, USA.- Actor
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Singer / songwriter / record producer Harvey Fuqua was born in Louisville, KY, on July 27, 1929. His uncle was Charles Fuqua, a member of The Ink Spots, and Harvey spent much of his childhood singing on street corners with relatives and friends, including Bobby Lester. After a stint in the army, Harvey formed a vocal group with Lester called The Crazy Sounds and they began singing in the nightclub circuit in and around Cleveland, OH. In 1953 rock-and-roll pioneer Alan Freed caught the group's act and signed them to his Champagne Records label, changing their name to The Moonglows. The next year they recorded their first hit, "Sincerely", co-written by Fuqua and Freed for Chess Records and it went to #1 on the R&B charts. Considered a classic of the "doo-wop" vocal style, the song has been covered by a number of artists, including The McGuire Sisters, for whom it was one of their biggest hits.
In 1959 Fuqua changed the lineup of The Moonglows, importing several members of a Washington group called The Marquees, including a young singer named Marvin Gaye. After The Moonglows broke up, Fuqua and Gaye moved to Detroit, where Gaye became a background singer and session drummer at Motown Records and Fuqua became a producer and manager, working with Anita Gordy, sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy (he eventually married Gordy's sister Gwendolyn). He also started two record labels, Harvey and Tri-Phi, which signed such artists as The Spinners, Jr. Walker and the All Stars and Shorty Long. He later sold the two labels, along with the talent, to Motown.
Fuqua eventually became head of Artist Development at Motown, in which capacity he helped the label's artists craft their stage acts, and found time to write and produce songs for such singers as The Supremes (for whom he wrote "Someday We'll Be Together"), Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell (he produced most of their duets together).
He left Motown in 1969 and went to RCA Records, where he stayed for a number of years, producing and managing. In 1982 he contacted his old friend Marvin Gaye, whom he hadn't seen for several years, and that eventually resulted in the production of one of Gaye's biggest hits, "Sexual Healing", from the album "Midnight Love".
Fuqua was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of The Mooglows, in 2000. He died of a heart attack in Detroit, MI, in 2010.- Music Department
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Lowell Fulson was born on 31 March 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He was a composer, known for Ride Along (2014), American Gangster (2007) and Crossroads (2002). He died on 6 March 1999 in Long Beach, California, USA.- Actor
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Roy Brown was born on 10 September 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Sid and Nancy (1986), 42 (2013) and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). He died on 25 May 1981 in San Fernando, California, USA.- Composer
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Bobby Charles was born on 21 February 1938 in Abbeville, Louisiana, USA. He was a composer, known for Crawl (2019), Forrest Gump (1994) and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999). He died on 14 January 2010 in Abbeville, Louisiana, USA.- Jesse Belvin was born on 15 December 1932 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He was married to Jo Ann Belvin. He died on 6 February 1960 in Fairhope, Arkansas, USA.
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Chilton Price was born on 25 December 1913 in Fern Creek, Kentucky, USA. She was married to Robert L. Price. She died on 14 January 2010 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.- Soundtrack
As a child Felice Bryant composed lyrics set to traditional Italian melodies and, in her teens, sang on her local radio station. In 1945 she was working as an elevator operator at a Milwaukee hotel when she met Boudleaux Bryant, a jazz and country violinist from Georgia who was performing at the hotel. They eloped two days later and, after their marriage, she adopted the name Felice from a pet name her husband called her.
They came to national prominence when their song-writing collaborations produced a string of top hits for the Everly Brothers beginning in the mid 1950s. Their songs have also been recorded memorably by Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Chet Atkins, the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and many others.- Music Department
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A classically trained violinist, Boudleaux Bryant played with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra during the 1937-38 season. Drawn to country fiddlin' music, he joined a band and while performing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1945, met and married elevator operator, Matilda Genevieve "Felice" Scaduto.
They began writing songs together and working for Acuff-Rose Music in Nashville, Tennessee, composed the classic 50s Pop and Country hit songs, "Bye Bye Love", "Wake Up, Little Susie", "Problems", "Poor Jenny", "Take a Message To Mary", and "All I Have to Do is Dream". They also wrote the classic country song, "Rocky Top" which became the official state song for Tennessee in 1982 and the "fight song" for the University of Tennessee sports teams.
Boudleaux and Felice Bryant were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, just a few months before his death. In 1991 they were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. During their careers, the Bryants earned a total of 59 BMI Country, R&B, and Pop music awards.- Composer
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Sharon Sheeley holds the distinction of being one of the first and most successful female songwriters to hit the rock'n'roll scene during its burgeoning years in the late 50's. Sharon was born into an Irish family on April 4, 1940 in Los Angeles, California. Sheeley attended Harbor High School in Newport Beach, California and briefly worked as a teen model before becoming a songwriter. She was still a teenager when she penned "Poor Little Fool", which was a #1 smash for Ricky Nelson in 1958. This, in turn, made Sheeley the youngest woman to have ever written a major hit song at that time. Moreover, Sharon was the girlfriend of rockabilly singer Eddie Cochran, whom she was first introduced to by Don Everly of The Everly Brothers. She co-wrote Cochran's 1959 Top 30 hit "Somethin' Else". Other songs Sheeley either wrote or co-wrote for Cochran are "Love Again", "Think of Me", "Cherished Memories" and "Lonely". Among the songs she wrote for other artists are "Hurry Up" for Ritchie Valens and "Runnin' on Back" for Del Shannon. In 1960, Sharon and fellow rockabilly singer Gene Vincent survived the unfortunate automobile accident in England which killed Cochran. After returning to the United States, Sheeley formed a partnership with singer/songwriter Jackie DeShannon; the distaff duo collaborated on such songs as the Brenda Lee hits "Dum Dum" and "Heart in Hand", Irma Thomas's "Breakaway", 'the Fleetwoods'' "(He's) The Great Imposter", "The Kalin Twins"' "Trouble", DeShannon's "You Won't Forget Me" and "Can't Help Forgiving You", "Each Time", and "Till You Say You'll Be Mine" for The Searchers. In 1961, Sharon married Los Angeles disc jockey and Shindig! (1964) TV series emcee Jimmy O'Neill; the couple divorced five years later, but remained friends. She was also a mentor to singer P.J. Proby. Sheeley largely retired from the music business in the mid 60's. Sharon Sheeley died at age 62 from complications following a cerebral hemorrhage on May 17, 2002 in Los Angeles, California.- Actor
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Eddie Cochran was born as Ray Edward Cochran on October 3, 1938 in Albert Lea, Minnesota. When Eddie was 14, his parents moved to Bell Gardens, California where he began playing the guitar. In 1954, Eddie joined a local band with songwriter Hank Cochran where Eddie performed as the second vocalist. The group became known as "The Cochran Brothers" even though Eddie and Hank were not related. The Cochran Brothers were, more or less, a country-western act until Elvis Presley began overshadowing their acts in 1955. Shortly thereafter, the duo broke up with Eddie hurtling towards a career in rock and roll and Hank moving to Nashville where he became a successful songwriter. In 1956, Eddie hooked up with Jerry Capehart, an old friend who was also a songwriter. The two landed a recording contract with Crest Records, a small label in Hollywood, California.
Si Warmoker, an executive at Liberty Records, heard Eddie's singing and thought he could make Eddie into Liberty's answer to Elvis. To help launch Eddie's career, Liberty Records arranged for him to have a cameo in the movie The Girl Can't Help It (1956) which starred Jayne Mansfield. Eddie, in his cameo role as himself, sang the song "Twenty Flight Rock". Eddie also appeared as himself in the grade-B movie Untamed Youth (1957). Eddie's first single "Sittin' in the Balconcy" became one of the top 20 on the music charts. It was almost a year later that Eddie had another hit record titled "Summertime Blues" in 1958. "Summertime Blues" scored top with the teenage listeners and Eddie became one of Liberty's biggest successes. With this song, Eddie was established as an important influence on music in the late 1950s.
In 1959, Eddie met songwriter Sharon Sheeley, whom he asked to write a song with him and their collaboration produced the single "Somethin' Else", which Liberty released in September 1959. In early 1960, Eddie toured England for several weeks. Sharon joined Eddie on his tour which concluded with a concert in Bristol. The day after the concert, Eddie, Sharon and singer Gene Vincent were scheduled to return to the United States on an early morning flight. During the ride to Heathrow Airport, the Ford consul taxi they were riding in blew a tire and skidded into a lamp post off the road. Sharon was badly injured, Vincent suffered a broken leg and other broken ribs, while Eddie suffered severe head injuries and died several hours later at a local hospital on the afternoon of April 17, 1960 at age 21.- Composer
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Jerry Capehart was born on 22 August 1928 in Goodman, Missouri, USA. Jerry was a composer and writer, known for Caddyshack (1980), This Boy's Life (1993) and Night on Earth (1991). Jerry died on 7 June 1998 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Composer
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Carl Lee Perkins was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who recorded at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, beginning in 1954. Among his best-known songs are "Blue Suede Shoes", "Honey Don't", "Matchbox" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby".
According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins' sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed." Perkins's songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash and Eric Clapton, which further established his place in the history of popular music. Paul McCartney said "if there were no Carl Perkins, there would be no Beatles."
Called "the King of Rockabilly", he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He also received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.- Soundtrack
Richard Berry was born on 11 April 1935 in Extension, Louisiana, USA. He died on 23 January 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Composer
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John Marascalco was born on 27 March 1931 in the USA. John is a composer, known for The Expendables 2 (2012), The Right Stuff (1983) and Mask (1985).- Composer
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Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell was born on 23 May 1918 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was a composer, known for Predator (1987), Predators (2010) and Road House (1989). He died on 9 March 1985 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Music Department
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Luther Dixon was born on 7 August 1931 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He is known for Never Let Me Go (2010), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) and Color Out of Space (2019). He was married to Inez Foxx and Sonia Francis. He died on 22 October 2009 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.- Music Department
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Hank Ballard grew up singing gospel in church in his hometown of Bessemer, Alabama. He had always wanted to sing professionally, and at 16 years of age got a chance to do it when he took over a group called The Royals, which had been organized in 1950 (and among whose original members were Levi Stubbs and Jackie Wilson). Ballard replaced one of the group's singers and immediately began to shift its style from that of smooth, harmonic pop melodies to a grittier R&B-edged, gospel-influenced - and at times quite suggestive - pop style. Their first hit was in 1953 with "Get It," and they had another, bigger hit the next year (by which time they had changed their names to The Midnighters to avoid being confused with another group, The Five Royals) with "Work With Me, Annie", a song that took a lot of heat from religious pressure groups because of its perceived "suggestive" lyrics and was banned from play on many radio stations. Their career stayed on track for another 18 months with several more hit records, but then their popularity began to wane and they didn't have another hit for more than three years. During that time there were numerous personnel changes in the group, and their record company, Federal Records, seemed to be backing away from them and toward a group it had just signed, The Famous Flames, headed by a shouting, hard-charging singer named James Brown. In 1958 Ballard left Federal for VeeJay Records and there he recorded a song he had written, called "The Twist." VeeJay decided not to release it, but King Records--which owned VeeJay--signed the group away from that label and had them rerecord "The Twist" (it was on that record that the group was first billed as "Hank Ballard and the Midnighters" rather than just "The Midnighters", as they had been previously), but released it as the B-side of a ballad called "Teardrops On Your Letter". That song hit #4 on the R&B charts, but "The Twist" also started to get some recognition and airplay. Dick Clark, host of the teenage music/dance show American Bandstand (1952) (aka "American Bandstand"), took a liking to the song and had it recorded by a Philadelphia singer named Ernest Evans (renamed Chubby Checker--a play on R&B legend Fats Domino--by Clark's wife). Checker's version of the song zoomed to the #1 spot in 1960 and started a national "Twist" craze (in an unusual move, it was released again in 1962 and once more soared to the #1 spot). Ballard, rather than resenting Checker's success with his song, decided to capitalize on it and within a few months of the release of Checker's song had three hits in the top 40: "Finger Poppin' Time" (considered by many to be the quintessential Ballard/Midnighters song), "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" and the group's original version of "The Twist." However, by late 1961 the twist craze began to wane, as did Ballard & the Midnighters' record successes, and the group broke up. Ballard continued his career for the next 20 years, sometimes as a solo act and sometimes with different versions of The Midnighters. In 1990 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.- Soundtrack
Lowman Pauling was born on 14 July 1926 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. Lowman was married to Ellise Maye. Lowman died on 26 December 1973 in New York, New York, USA.- Actor
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Starting out as a song-and-dance man in the last years of vaudeville, Rudy Toombs was a prolific composer and lyricist of doo-wop and rhythm and blues standards during the '50's and '60s; his widow estimated that he either composed the music or wrote the lyrics for over five hundred songs. He hit his stride as a writer and arranger for Ahmet Ertegun's Atlantic Records. Among his best-known songs are "One Mint Julep" (sung by The Clovers, went to Number 2 on the charts in 1951), "5-10-15 Hours" (sung by Ruth Brown; this song finished Number 1 in 1951), "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer", originally recorded by John Lee Hooker, but covered by George Thorogood; "Gum Drop," "Teardrops From My Eyes," another hit for Ruth Brown, and later, Ray Charles; "I'm Shakin'", a hit for Little Willie John; "Lonesome River Blues," "I Cried and Cried" and "I Get a Thrill." Toombs was beaten to death in the hallway of his apartment house, the result of a failed mugging.- Soundtrack
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Chuck Willis was an R & B singer songwriter who crossed over into pop in the mid 1950s. He had hit recordings with "Oh What a Dream", "It's Too Late", "C.C. Rider", "Hang Up My Rock & Roll Shoes", "Betty and Dupree" and "What Am I Living For". He wrote and first recorded "I Feel So Bad" which was a 1961 worldwide million seller for Elvis Presley. Willis was known as "The King of Stroll" for the new and brief dance craze (1957-58), "The Stroll". The dance had been inspired by the mellow beat and chorus featured in his 1957 hit "C.C. Rider". He made his only prime time network TV appearance on Feb.15,1958 performing "Betty and Dupree" on the premiere of "The Saturday Night Dick Clark Show", 7 weeks before his death.- Actor
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Hank Cochran was born on 2 August 1935 in Isola, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for True Romance (1993), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and Starman (1984). He was married to Suzi Cochran, Jeannie Seely and Shirley Kay. He died on 15 July 2010 in Hendersonville, Tennessee, USA.- Music Department
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R&B singer/songwriter Percy Mayfield was born August 21, 1920 in Minden, Louisiana. His mother was a singer. Percy showed a real talent for poetry as a youth; this naturally led to him writing and singing his own songs. Mayfield started his musical career performing in Texas. He moved to Los Angeles, California in 1941 and lived with his sister before his career took off. In 1947 he recorded "Two Years of Torture" for the small Swing Time label; it sold well enough to persuade music producer Arthur Rupe to sign Percy to his Specialty Records label in 1950. Noted for his smooth vocal style and sharp and thoughtful lyrics, Mayfield had a #1 hit on the R&B charts with the mournful number "Please Send Me Someone To Love" that same year.
In 1952 Percy was seriously injured in an automobile accident which left him with a severe facial disfigurement that limited his ability to perform live. However, he soldiered on as a prolific songwriter. Among his most memorable compositions are "Lost Love," "What a Fool Was I," "Cry Baby," "Big Question," "Hide Nor Hair," "At The Club," and "Danger Zone." Percy hit paydirt with the extremely catchy and sassy "Hit The Road Jack", which became a massive smash for Ray Charles in 1961 (it peaked at #1 on the US Billboard pop charts for two weeks). Mayfield worked for the Chess label from 1955-56 and Imperial Records in 1957. He continued to pen minor R&B chart hits throughout the 1970s for RCA and Atlantic and performed live on a limited basis.
He died of a heart attack at age 63 at his home in Los Angeles, California on August 11, 1984.- Music Department
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Singer/songwriter Brook Benton was born Benjamin Franklin Peay on September 19, 1931, in Camden, South Carolina. He became a gospel singer at a young age and was a member of the Camden Jubilee Singers. Benton moved to New York City at age 17 in 1948 to try his luck as a songwriter. When he first arrived in New York he sang with such gospel groups as Bill Langford's Spiritual Singers, The Langfordaires, The Golden Gate Quartet, and The Jerusalem Stars. He eventually went back to South Carolina, drove a truck for a while and joined the R&B singing group The Sandmen prior to returning to New York again in search of a big break. This time Benton found a successful career co-producing albums and writing songs for such artists as Nat 'King' Cole, Clyde McPhatter (he penned the hit song "A Lover's Question" for McPhatter), and Roy Hamilton.
Benton enjoyed his first minor hit with "A Million Miles from Nowhere." He then switched to Mercury Records and achieved his greatest commercial success recording a steady string of hit songs with that label (he frequently collaborated with producer/songwriter Clyde Otis while at Mercury). In 1959 Brook scored two major breakthrough successes: "It's Just A Matter of Time" peaked at #3 on the Billboard charts and "Endlessly" went all the way to #12 on the charts. Benton sustained this winning streak with such equally excellent tunes as "Thank You Pretty Baby," "So Many Ways," "Hotel Happiness," "The Boll Weevil Song," and "Kiddio." "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" and "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)," his two delightful duets with Dinah Washington, were both Top 10 hits in 1960. Brook cracked the Top 10 one last time in 1970 with a beautifully moving rendition of Tony Joe White's lovely ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia." He remained a popular concert performer throughout the 1980s.
Benton died at the tragically young age of 56 from spinal meningitis in New York City on April 9, 1988. He was survived by his wife Mary and four children.- Music Department
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Music producer and songwriter Clyde Otis was born in 1924 in the small rural town of Prentice, Mississippi. Clyde's early exposure to music was very limited (his family didn't even own a radio), although he did begin playing drums in his teenage years. Otis first became involved with music during his stint in the Marines, where he met "Route 66" songwriter Bobby Troup. After being discharged from the Marines, Clyde moved to New York City and worked a series of day jobs for eight years while writing songs at night. He broke into the music business in the mid 50's with the song "That's All There Is to Know," which was a Top 20 pop hit for Nat "King" Cole in 1956. In 1958 Otis got a job as an A&R executive for the Mercury Records in Chicago (he holds the distinction of being the first black A&R executive to work for a major record label). It was during his years at Mercury that Clyde collaborated with singer Brook Benton on a steady succession of hit songs that include "It's Just A Matter of Time," "Endlessly," "So Many Ways," and the novelty tune "The Boll Weevil Song." Other artists Otis either wrote and/or produced songs for are the Diamonds ("The Stroll"), Dinah Washington ("This Bitter Earth," "What A Difference A Day Makes," "September in the Rain"), Sarah Vaughan ("Broken-Hearted Melody"), Timi Yuro ("Hurt"), Bobby Bland ("I'll Take Care of You"), and Nat "King" Cole ("Looking Back"). In addition, Clyde produced the delightful Brook Benton and Dinah Washington duets "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" and "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)." In 1962 Clyde produced 33 out of 51 chart hits for Mercury. After leaving Mercury, he briefly worked for Liberty Records and eventually founded his own publishing firm called the Clyde Otis Music Group. Relocating to Nashville, Tennessee, Otis produced sessions for country singers Charlie Rich and Sonny James. Among the artists he wrote songs for are Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Patti Page, and Johnny Mathis. In fact, Clyde wrote almost 800 songs throughout his long and distinguished career. In 2000 Otis was the recipient of a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Clyde Otis died at age 83 in Englewood, New Jersey on January 8, 2008.- Composer
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Clint Ballard Jr. was born on 24 May 1931 in El Paso, Texas, USA. He was a composer, known for Ruby Sparks (2012), My Best Friend's Girl (2008) and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). He died on 23 December 2008 in Denton, Texas, USA.