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Abba’s Agnetha Comes Out Of Retirement

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Abba’s Agnetha Comes Out Of Retirement

By Mark Savage

Arts and entertainment reporter, BBC News

Abba's Agnetha Comes Out Of Retirement

One of pop’s most enigmatic voices has emerged with her first album in nine years. Agnetha Faltskog’s new album sees her duet with Gary Barlow and collaborate with Britney Spears’ Swedish songwriting team. Just don’t call her “mysterious”.

Forty-five years ago, before Abba were even a twinkle in Eurovision’s eye, Agnetha Faltskog made her very first TV appearance.

Aged just 17, she performed Jag Var Sa Kar (I Was So In Love), a syrupy self-penned waltz, on Swedish TV show Studio 8.

The melancholy lyrics, inspired by her idol Connie Francis, were a stark contrast to the exuberant blonde singer, who “took the radio in my arms and danced around” when she first heard her single on the air.

Little did she know, misery would become her musical forte, especially when she teamed up with Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frida to form Abba.

The songs on which Faltskog took lead vocals – Hasta Manana, The Name Of The Game, Chiquitita – were the band’s biggest tear-jerkers.

On The Winner Takes It All, recorded as her marriage to Bjorn Ulvaeus fell apart, the emotion is almost too much to bear.

Faltskog is by turns defiant and broken. “I was in your arms, thinking I belonged there,” she cries, as her husband merely shakes her hand and turns away.

Oddly, the singer calls it “her biggest favourite” from the band’s back catalogue. “It’s a shame we never got to play it live,” she adds.

Since the band went their separate ways in 1982, the girl with golden hair has been the band’s most elusive member. She largely shuns the limelight, living quietly on the secluded island of Ekero, west of Stockholm.

Perhaps because of those world-weary lyrics, she was portrayed as a frail recluse – the Greta Garbo of pop.

The revelation in 2000 that she had entered a relationship with an obsessed Dutch fan, 16 years her junior, who turned dangerous when she broke off the affair, only added to the perception that she was lonely and unhappy.

Nervous return

Today, she cannot talk about the relationship for legal reasons, but Faltskog says the media have the wrong impression of her private life.

“I have been described as a very mysterious human being and that hurts a little bit, because it’s not like that at all,” she says.

Read More…..www.bbc.co.uk

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Abba – Chiquitita

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Abba – Chiquitita

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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.

Read More…..take40.com

Picture Source…..i3.ytimg.com

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Chaka Demus & Pliers She Don’t Let Nobody

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Chaka Demus & Pliers She Don’t Let Nobody

Chaka Demus & Pliers She Don't Let Nobody

John Taylor (born April 16, 1963 in West Kingston), better known as Chaka Demus, is a Jamaican reggae musician and DJ, best known as part of the duo Chaka Demus & Pliers.

Early Years

Taylor was a regular attendee at Kingston dances and was given a chance by Prince Jammy to DJ on his sound system.  Upon releasing his debut single, the Jammy-produced “Increase Your Knowledge” in 1985, he was virtually unknown and none of his early records saw chart success, but would later become huge hits. Other musicians quickly recognised him as having great potential, most notably Yellowman who joined him for such songs as “Everybody Loves Chaka”, “Scotty”, and “Bring It To Me” and Admiral Bailey, who collaborated with him on “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer”, giving him his first hit.  After minor success, he moved to the Penthouse Records label where he recorded the single “Chaka on the Move” but switched back to Jammy’s the following year where he paired up with Shabba Ranks for the Rough & Rugged album. The same year saw the release of “Everybody Loves Chaka”, for the Scorpio label, which was then followed up by the 1989 album, The Original Chaka’ ‘Watch me Ride’

Mainstream Success

He first met Pliers (Everton Bonner) in 1991 and suggested that they team up. They enjoyed an internationally successful partnership including a string of hit singles and a number one album in the UK between 1993 and 1997.

In 2007, Chaka Demus & Pliers reunited to record a track called “Need Your Lovin” which was released on vinyl, on Explorer Records. On November 18, 2007, Chaka Demus & Pliers performed “Murder She Wrote” alongside Alicia Keys at the 2007 American Music Awards. Their subsequent album, “So Proud”, was released in Europe and the Middle east in October 2008. A solo album, called DJ Spirit was released in 2008.

Chaka Demus now runs his own record label, Bright Star, on which he has released records by his son, known by his stage name of Marvellous. He continues to perform with Pliers, and recorded a new album in 2012, featuring guest appearances from Pliers, Marvellous, and Freddie McGregor.  Source wikipedia

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Milli Vanilli – Blame It On The Rain

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Milli Vanilli – Blame It On The Rain

Milli Vanilli - Blame It On The Rain
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Milli Vanilli. The mere mention of the name still calls up the same derision it did when the dance-pop duo’s career came to a sudden and ignominious end:

Fakers. Frauds. A blatant marketing scam. Their story has been retold countless times: after selling millions of records, Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan were revealed to be models who publicly lip-synced to tracks recorded by anonymous studio vocalists. They became the first act ever stripped of a Grammy award and came to symbolize everything people disliked about dance-pop: it was so faceless that every musician involved could remain anonymous without anyone knowing the difference, so mechanical and artificial that the people who constructed it had to hire models to give it any human appeal, so pandering and superficial that people bought it just for its attachment to a pretty face.

Whether that assessment was fair or not, it was beyond easy to hold Milli Vanilli in contempt. Yet for all the scapegoating, they were far from the only dance-pop act to be fronted by lip-syncers in the late ’80s (the Martha Wash-voiced Black Box and C+C Music Factory spring to mind), nor were they the only Europop act to employ similar marketing tactics. (They were simply the most successful and visible, since their incorporation of rap made them more appealing to Americans.) What’s more, pop music had a long tradition of hits recorded by anonymous studio musicians, dating back to ’50s instrumental combos and ’60s bubblegum.
Milli Vanilli had the bad luck to get caught in a hoax during the extraordinarily image-conscious MTV era and a time when dance music of any stripe was accorded virtually no critical respect anyway, before its producers were perceived as the real creative points of focus. It’s not as though Milli Vanilli were acclaimed for their honesty of expression before the scandal broke; it’s more likely that what fuelled the backlash was public resentment over Rob and Fab’s celebrity (why should they be famous if they couldn’t sing?) and embarrassment over the fact that Milli Vanilli’s marketing had worked like a charm on everyone right up through the Grammy committee.  Source allmusic

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The Ultimate Goat Edition Supercut

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The Ultimate Goat Edition Supercut

The Ultimate Goat Edition Supercut

If you’re among the millions who have spent a significant portion of the past month watching videos of goats yelling like humans, you may have wondered: Why do goats yell like that? Are they distressed? Do they yell for any particular reason? Are they trying to tell us something?

We asked the goat experts. The first thing we learned is that the goat experts are not amused. “Maybe for some it is entertaining,” Dr. An Peischel of Tennesse State University told me. “I am a goat producer and don’t consider it entertainment at all.”

They were quick to point out that some of these “goats” are not, in fact, goats at all. “The individuals making the noises were not all goats,” wrote Dr. Peischel, “There are several sheep involved.”

Yelling, for goats, is not unusual. They will yell for all sorts of reasons. “Mother goats call for their young when they get separated,” explained goat specialist Dr. Daniel Waldron of Texas A&M, and “young kid goats also call for their mothers.” “Goats may also ‘yell’ when they expect to get fed,” continued Dr. Waldron. “If I feed one pen of goats, the second pen may start ‘yelling’ because they want to be fed right now.”

Dr. Jean-Marie Luginbuhl of North Carolina State, a specialist in meat goats, agreed. “In my experience with goats, it does not take much for them to scream bloody murder, as if you are torturing them, when simply handling them.”  Read More: http://www.slate.com

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I Like Big Butts – Sir Mix-A-Lot

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I Like Big Butts – Sir Mix-A-Lot

I Like Big Butts - Sir Mix-A-Lot

Inextricably linked with his pop culture touchstone “Baby Got Back,” Sir Mix-A-Lot parlayed a gonzo tribute to women with large buttocks into hip-hop immortality, even despite his failure to score another hit of its magnitude. But even before he struck crossover gold, Sir Mix-A-Lot was one of rap’s great D.I.Y. success stories. Coming from a city — Seattle — with barely any hip-hop scene to speak of, Mix-A-Lot co-founded his own record label, promoted his music himself, produced all his own tracks, and essentially pulled himself up by the proverbial American bootstraps.

Even before “Baby Got Back,” Mix-A-Lot was a platinum-selling album artist with a strong following in the hip-hop community, known for bouncy, danceable, bass-heavy tracks indebted to old-school electro. However, it took signing with Rick Rubin’s Def American label — coupled with an exaggerated, parodic pimp image — to carry him into the mainstream. Perceived as a one-hit novelty, he found it difficult to follow his breakout success, but kept on recording, and even toured as part of a rap-rock supergroup called Subset, a collaboration with the Presidents of the United States of America.

Sir Mix-A-Lot was born Anthony Ray in Seattle on August 12, 1963. An eclectic music fan but a rabid hip-hop devotee, he was already actively rapping in the early ’80s, and co-founded the Nastymix record label in 1983 with his DJ, Nasty Nes, who also hosted Seattle’s first hip-hop radio show. His first single was 1987’s “Posse on Broadway,” which referred to a street in Seattle, not New York; it became a local hit, and paved the way for his first LP, 1988’s Swass, which also featured the popular novelty “Square Dance Rap,” and a Run-D.M.C.-style cover of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” with backing by Seattle thrashers Metal Church. The video for “Posse on Broadway” landed some airplay on MTV, and became Sir Mix-A-Lot’s first national chart single in late 1988; that in turn pushed Swass into the Top 20 of the R&B album chart, and by 1989, it had sold over a million copies. Also in 1989, Mix-A-Lot released his follow up album Seminar, which produced three charting singles in “Beepers,” “My Hooptie,” and “I Got Game”; while none were significant crossover hits with pop or R&B audiences, all performed well on the rap singles chart, and helped Seminar become Mix-A-Lot’s second straight platinum album.
Read More…allmusic.com

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Pop Muzik – M

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Pop Muzik – M

Pop Muzik - M

M was English musician Robin Scott’s brief but very successful new wave/synthpop project in the late 1970s and early 1980s. M is most known for the 1979 hit “Pop Muzik”, which reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1979, and No. 1 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on 3 November 1979. Musicians who contributed to M at one time or another included Wally Badarou, Mark King, and Phil Gould, of Level 42.

In 1978, Scott re-christened himself ‘M’ and recorded the single “Modern Man,” which flopped.  However, M’s next release, “Pop Muzik,” was an instant hit; it featured support from Roogalator bassist Julian Scott (Robin’s brother), keyboardist Wally Badarou, programmer John Lewis, and backing vocalist, Brigit Novik (Scott’s wife).  Demand for an album was met by New York • London • Paris • Munich, which added woodwind player Gary Barnacle and drummer Phil Gould to M’s backing band.

M had three other singles that achieved a chart entry in the UK, “Moonlight and Muzak” (No. 33 in December 1979), “That’s the Way the Money Goes” (No. 45 in March 1980) and “Official Secrets” (No. 64 in November 1980). M released three studio albums throughout their career: New York • London • Paris • Munich in 1979, The Official Secrets Act in 1980, and Famous Last Words in 1981 which was never released in the UK. A fourth album, Robin Scott with Shikisha, was recorded in 1984 but was not released until 1998.

M’s first single “Modern Man” was later remixed with “Satisfy Your Lust”, the B-side of “That’s the Way the Money Goes”, and appeared as a medley on their album New York • London • Paris • Munich. The original single releases appeared on the 1997 CD re-release. A remixed version of “Pop Muzik” was played before each concert of U2’s PopMart Tour.

Only a 1989 remix of “Pop Muzik” returned M to the charts. Meanwhile, Scott worked with Ryûichi Sakamoto on two albums and recorded an album with African artists. Source….en.wikipedia.org

Picture Source….3.bp.blogspot.com

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Chaka Demus & Pliers – Murder She Wrote

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Chaka Demus & Pliers – Murder She Wrote

Chaka Demus & Pliers - Murder She Wrote

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Rough-voiced deejay Chaka Demus (born: John Taylor in Kingston, Jamaica in August, 1963) and smooth-toned vocalist Pliers (born: Everton Bonner in Rockhall Hills, Jamaica on April 4, 1963) have come together to create one of the most successful duos in the history of Jamaican music. The first Jamaican act to place three consecutive singles in the Top Five of the British music charts, Chaka Demus & Pliers have continued to make their presence felt. According to reggae website Real Groove, Chaka Demus & Pliers are “sexy, soulful and poppy enough to be saleable to U.S. R&B blandoids yet still tuff enough to raise gunshots and shouts of ‘Murder’ back in the Kingston dancehalls.

Both Chaka Demus & Pliers had established successful solo careers prior to combining their efforts. Demus, who grew up in the Waterhouse district of Kingston, launched his career as a deejay for the Roots Majestic sound system. Although he made his recording debut with the King Jammy-produced single “Increase Your Knowledge,” his first hit came in 1986 when he recorded “One Scotch” as a duet with Admiral Bailey. His subsequent hits included “Everybody Loves Chaka,” a duet with Yellowman, “Bring It to Me,” a duet with deejay/vocalist Scottie, and “Everybody Loves Chaka” and “Chaka on the Move,” which he recorded solo.

Pliers, who worked with such producers as King Jammy, Winston Riley, King Tubby, Black Scorpio, and Coxsone Dodd, recorded such solo hits as “Snake in the Grass” and “Bam Bam,” a hip-hop reworking of a Toots & the Maytals tune.  Read More at MTV

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Abba – Mamma Mia

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Abba – Mamma Mia

Abba - Mamma Mia

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.

Read More…..take40.com

Picture Source…..www.last.fm

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Abba – Fernando

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Abba – Fernando

Abba - Fernando

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.

Read More…..take40.com

Picture Source…..i3.ytimg.com

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