Formed in 1969 in Nottingham, England, and made up of Michael Vaughn, Chris Morris, Carlo Santana, Cliff Fish, and Phillip Wright, Paper Lace was one of hundreds of pop bands in England looking for the big time while slogging their way through small club gigs and brief television appearances.
Their big break came in 1974 when their version of the tear-jerking bubblegum tune “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” won top honours on Opportunity Knocks, a nationwide talent-show on ITV. They rode that song all the way to the top of the U.K. charts but were aced out of any sales in the U.S. by Bo Donaldson & the Haywood’s’ transcendent version.
Their next single, “The Night Chicago Died,” did manage to hit the number one slot on the U.S. charts (number three in the U.K.) and then that was it. The group released two albums, Paper Lace and Other Bits of Material in 1974 and First Edition in 1975, and did a quick fade from the public eye. In 1978 they surfaced briefly with a sing-along version of “We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands” with their local football team, Nottingham Forest FC, and the disappeared forever.
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Uswith the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
“American Pie” is partly biographical and partly the story of America during the idealized 1950s and the bleaker 1960s. It was initially inspired by Don’s memories of being a paperboy in 1959 and learning of the death of Buddy Holly. “American Pie” presents an abstract story of McLean’s life from the mid-1950s until the end of the 1960s, and at the same time it represents the evolution of popular music and politics over these years, from the lightness of the 1950s to the darkness of the late 1960s, but metaphorically the song continues to evolve to the present time. It is not a nostalgia song. “American Pie” changes as America, itself, is changing.
For McLean, the transition from the light innocence of childhood to the dark realities of adulthood began with the deaths of his father and Buddy Holly and culminated with the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, which was the start of a more difficult time for America. During this four year period, Don moved from an idyllic childhood, through the shock and harsh realities of his father’s death in 1961, to his decision, in 1964, to leave Villanova University to pursue his dream of becoming a professional singer.
The 1950s were an era of happiness and affluence for the burgeoning American middle class. Americans had a feeling of optimism about their prospects for the future, and pride in their nation which had emerged victorious from World War II, setting the world free from the tyranny of Nazi Germany. Popular music mirrored society. Performers such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and Bill Haley and the Comets churned out feel-good records that matched the mood of the nation. Sinister forces such as communism were banished, and serious folk groups like the Weavers were being replaced by the beat poets who, as members of the intelligentsia, were excused their lack of optimism.
The 1960s was the antithesis of the previous decade. The exuberant simplicity of the 1950s was displaced by a much more volatile and politically charged atmosphere. People were asking questions. The cozy world of white middle class America was disturbed, as civil rights campaigners marched on Washington, D.C., and Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The following year saw the 1964 Civil Rights Act become law. On the world stage, America’s leading super-power status was being challenged by the Soviet Union, and its military might was being tested by the Vietnamese. Even in music, America soon found itself overrun by a British invasion. The 1960s was a turbulent time for McLean’s generation.
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Us with the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please
Formed in 1969 in Nottingham, England, and made up of Michael Vaughn, Chris Morris, Carlo Santana, Cliff Fish, and Phillip Wright, Paper Lace was one of hundreds of pop bands in England looking for the big time while slogging their way through small club gigs and brief television appearances.
Their big break came in 1974 when their version of the tear-jerking bubblegum tune “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” won top honours on Opportunity Knocks, a nationwide talent-show on ITV. They rode that song all the way to the top of the U.K. charts but were aced out of any sales in the U.S. by Bo Donaldson & the Haywood’s’ transcendent version.
Their next single, “The Night Chicago Died,” did manage to hit the number one slot on the U.S. charts (number three in the U.K.) and then that was it. The group released two albums, Paper Lace and Other Bits of Material in 1974 and First Edition in 1975, and did a quick fade from the public eye. In 1978 they surfaced briefly with a sing-along version of “We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands” with their local football team, Nottingham Forest FC, and the disappeared forever.
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Uswith the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
Born on March 1, 1994, Justin Bieber started singing since he was 12 and finished the second place when participating in a local singing competition. “The other people in the competition had been taking singing lessons and had vocal coaches. I wasn’t taking it too seriously at the time, I would just sing around the house,” he recalled.
In an effort to share his victory to family and friends who missed his performances at the competition, he and his mother opened a YouTube account and posted his video performances on the file-sharing website. “I put my singing videos from the competition on YouTube so that my friends and family could watch them,” he stated. “But it turned out that other people liked them and they started subscribing to them. That’s how my manager found me. He saw me on YouTube and contacted my family and now I’m signed!”
His manager Scooter Braun flew Justin from his hometown Ontario, Canada to Atlanta, Georgia for a meeting with Usher. “I sang for him and his people and he really wanted to sign me then and there but I still had a meeting with Justin Timberlake who also wanted to sign me.
It turned out Usher’s deal was way better. He had L.A. Reid backing him up and Scooter had a lot of really good connections in Atlanta,” he traced back his memory.
In October of 2008, Justin was officially signed to Island Records and began working on his debut album “My World”. Powerhouse producers like Christopher “Tricky” Stewart and The-Dream lent their helping hands on the effort. He also got Usher as his collaborator on one of the songs.
“My World” was released across United States on November 17. The album was preceded with four hit singles “One Time”, “One Less Lonely Girl”, “Love Me” and “Favourite Girl”, all of which cracked Top 15 of Canadian Singles chart and reached Top 40 of Billboard Hot 100. This achievement made him the only artist in Billboard history that has four singles from a debut album charting in the Top 40 of the Hot 100 before the album’s release.
Justin toured with Taylor Swift as her supporting act on two of her U.K. stops for “Fearless” tour. He also embarked on five headlining concerts in Canada. Moreover, he appeared in several hit U.S. TV shows, naming some were “Good Morning America”, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.Read more…..www.aceshowbiz.com
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Us with the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
Gary Puckett and The Union Gap (initially credited as The Union Gap featuring Gary Puckett) was an American pop rock group operating in the late 1960s.
Their biggest hits were “Woman, Woman,” “Young Girl,” and “Lady Willpower.” Singer Gary Puckett (born October 17, 1942, Hibbing, Minnesota) grew up in Yakima, Washington – close to the city of Union Gap – and Twin Falls, Idaho.
He began playing guitar in his teens, and graduated from Twin Falls High School before attending college in San Diego, California. There, he quit college and played in several local bands before joining the Outcasts, a local hard rock group comprising bassist Kerry Chater (born August 7, 1945, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada),[1] keyboardist Gary ‘Mutha’ Withem (born August 22, 1946, San Diego), tenor saxophonist Dwight Bement (born December 28, 1945, San Diego), and drummer Paul Wheatbread (born February 8, 1946, San Diego).
In 1966, the band toured the Pacific Northwest without Wheatbread, who was recruited as the house drummer on the television series, Where the Action Is; he later rejoined the line-up. Under manager Dick Badger, the band were renamed The Union Gap in early 1967, and fitted themselves out with Union Army-style Civil War uniforms as a visual gimmick. They then recorded a demo, which was heard by CBS record producer and songwriter Jerry Fuller. Impressed by Puckett’s baritone voice and the band’s soft rock leanings, Fuller signed them to a recording contract with Columbia Records.
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Us with the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
The Abba story began in June 1966 when Bjrn Ulvaeus (born 1945) met Benny Andersson (born 1946) for the first time. Bjrn was a member of the Hootenanny Singers, a very popular folk music group, while Benny played keyboards in Sweden’s biggest pop group of the 1960s, The Hep Stars.
The pair wrote their first song together later that year, and by the end of the decade they had established a regular partnership as composers. By that time, Benny had left The Hep Stars, while the Hootenanny Singers only existed in the recording studio. The Hootenanny Singers released their records on the Polar Music record label, owned by Stig Anderson (19311997), who was to become Abba’s manager. Stig also contributed lyrics to many Abba hits during the first years of the groups career.
In the spring of 1969, Bjrn and Benny met the two women who were to become not only their fiances but also the other half of Abba. Agnetha Fltskog (born 1950) had been a successful solo singer since releasing her first single in 1967. She and Bjrn were married in July 1971. Anni-Frid Lyngstad (born 1945), also known as Frida, started her recording career shortly before Agnetha. Frida was of Norwegian origin, but had moved to Sweden at a very early age. Benny and Frida didnt get married until October 1978.
At first, the four members collaborated musically mainly by contributing songs, instrumental backing, production work or backing vocals to the recordings they each made as solo or duo acts. In 1970, the attractive sound of their four voices combined gave them the idea to put together the cabaret act Festfolk (which had the double meaning “engaged couples” and “party people”). This first attempt failed, but in the spring of 1972 they recorded a song called People Need Love, garnering a medium-sized hit in Sweden. At this time they called themselves Bjrn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid.
Encouraged by this success, they entered the 1973 Swedish selections for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Ring Ring. They finished third, but the single and the album of the same name competed for the top positions on the Swedish chart. Ring Ring also became a hit in several other European countries.
The group entered the selections again in 1974, this time with Waterloo, which took them all the way to the finals in Brighton, England. By this time they had changed their name to Abba, an acronym of their first names. Abba was also the name of a Swedish canned fish company, which luckily agreed to lending their name to a pop group. The Eurovision Song Contest on April 6, 1974 turned out to be the most famous moment in ABBA history, when the group won the international juries over with Waterloo.
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Us with the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
First taking to the stage at the age of just 11 as part of his family’s gig The Jackson 5, Michael Jackson grew quickly into the superstardom which would both reward and plague his life. An apparently unstoppable creative and financial force through the highs of his career, ‘The King of Pop’ struggled with a confused and turbulent private life that was often made appalling public. In the wake of his shock death though, it is for his artistry – and not his controversies – that he will be remembered and sadly missed.
Jackson was born 29 August 1958, in Gary, Indiana, to an African-American working-class family. His father, Joseph Jackson, had been a guitarist but had put aside his musical aspirations to provide for his family as a crane operator. Believing his sons had talent, he molded them into a musical group in the early 1960s. At first, the Jackson Family performers consisted of Michael’s older brothers Tito, Jermaine, and Jackie. Michael joined his siblings when he was five, and emerged as the group’s lead vocalist. He showed remarkable range and depth for such a young performer, impressing audiences with his ability to convey complex emotions. Older brother Marlonalso became a member of the group, which evolved into the The Jackson 5.
Behind the scenes, Joseph Jackson pushed his sons to succeed. He was also reportedly known to become violent with them. Michael and his brothers spent endless hours rehearsing and polishing up their act. At first, the Jackson 5 played local gigs and built a strong following. They recorded one single on their own, ‘Big Boy’ with the b-side ‘You’ve Changed’, but it failed to generate much interest.
The Jackson 5 moved on to working an opening act for such R&B artists as Gladys Knight and the Pips, James Brown, and Sam and Dave. Many of these performers were signed to the legendary Motown record label, and it has been reported that Gladys Knight may have been the one to tell Motown founder Berry Gordy about the Jackson 5. Impressed by the group, Gordy signed them to his label in 1968.
Relocating to Los Angeles, Michael and his brothers started work on their music and dancing with their father as their manager. They lived with Gordy and also with Supremes singer Diana Ross when they first arrived there. In August 1969, the Jackson 5 was introduced to the music industry at a special event, and later served as the opening act for the Supremes. Their first album, ‘Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5’, hit the charts in December of that year. It’s first single, ‘I Want You Back’, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1970. Read more…..www.thebiographychannel.co.uk
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Uswith the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
Country Music’s ‘Gentleman Jim‘ Was a ‘Combination of Good and Bad,’Says LarryJordan,
It could be said that Jim Reeves was one country artist who was more popular in death than in life. First charting in 1953 with “Mexican Joe,” the singer’s death in a Nashville plane crash in July of 1964 did not slow down his success with fans. For two decades after his passing, Reeves continued to place many singles on the Billboard Country Singles Charts, and in 2009 – some 45 years after his death at age 40 – the singer was represented in the UK Top Ten Albums chart.
The life and music of Jim Reeves is chronicled in a brand new book titled “Jim Reeves: His Untold Story.” Larry Jordan, author of the book, recalls becoming a fan of the singer at a young age, and becoming a friend to Jim’s widow, Mary.
“I had known Mary Reeves for thirty-three years from the first time I wrote a letter to her in 1966 when I was thirteen,” Jordan recalls. “I would go down there on several weekends, and spend time with her. She would tell me many stories about Jim on a personal and professional level. I brought along a tape recorder, and taped them. I was fascinated by all of these different stories.”
A 1998 Reeves bio did the singer no favors, and Jordan felt an obligation to paint a more balanced picture of the man behind such hits as “He’ll Have To Go” and “Welcome To My World.”
Jordan thought “Why should this be the last word? So, I thought about it a little bit, and talked to Leo Jackson (who was in Jim’s band, the Blue Boys.) I thought ‘Maybe I’m in a unique position to do this. I knew Mary. I had the tapes. I had a writing background, and the means to get a book into print.”
Though the author is a Reeves fan, he didn’t put the singer on a pedestal. “I’ve said that the only obligation I have felt was to the truth. Some of the things I discovered about Jim disturbed me, and offended my own moral sensitivities,” he told Billboard. “But, this was the way he was – a combination of good and bad as we all are. I wanted the full picture, and that’s what I think I ended up with.”
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Uswith the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
The Manhattans were formed in the early 60s in New Jersey as a quintet led by writer/bass vocalist Winfred “Blue” Lovett and emotive lead singer George Smith, along with Edward “Sonny” Bivins, Richard “Ricky” Taylor and Kenneth “Wally” Kelly, all of whom had just returned from service in the armed forces.
The group was popular regionally and had minor national success on the strength of some solid recordings for Carnival Records (their version of the country tune “From Atlanta to Goodbye” was a gem) in the late 60s before gaining the attention of Columbia Records in 1970. Unfortunately, their Columbia signing coincided with the sudden illness and untimely death of lead singer Smith. During a tour through North Carolina, the Manhattans came upon a college student with an amazing Sam Cooke-like voice. Recognizing the incredible talent of this 21 year old, the group invited Gerald Alston to join, and he became the lead singer who would bring stardom to the quintet.
After “Kiss and Say Goodbye,” the Manhattans spent the remainder of the decade scoring almost exclusively on the R&B charts. Then in 1980, they again surprised the Pop world, crossing over for a Pop top 10 hit with their loping 1980 ballad, “Shining Star.” The group continued to record through the 80s, hitting on the Soul charts with such hits as “Crazy” and “Honey Honey.” Their last album for Columbia records was the wonderful but overlooked 1986 disc, Back To Basics, produced in part by Bobby Womack and featuring a young Regina Belle singing background vocals. Unfortunately, the Manhattans’ smooth, adult soul style seemed out of place in the frenetic, electric funk sounds dominating late 80s music, and they were dropped by Columbia records in 1987.
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Us with the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
Leaving school at fourteen years of age, he started doing odd jobs, including general factotum in Dublin’s Pike Theatre, where he began to pick up, from the travelling players, songs from the Irish countryside.
During the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of the top Irish singers, regularly featuring in the Irish charts and scoring three No.1 singles (notably displacing ABBA’s “Take a Chance on Me” after just one week at the top). He has recorded 25 albums, including Emigrant Eyes, a collaboration with his sister Geraldine, a comedienne popular in Australia. He is probably best known for his 1967 Number One hit “Whiskey on a Sunday”.
He has appeared in concert throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, New York and the Albert Hall, London.
Although retired from performing, he joined numerous musicians on stage at the end of the 2010 Milwaukee Irish Fest, in what is known as the Scattering.
Got a request?
Want a song dedicated to you?
Please Contact Us with the song and artist you like, the name you want published and we will do our best to find it.
Nicknames are fine but nothing rude, please.
