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Ben Orr
Benjamin Orzechowski (September 8, 1947 – October 3, 2000), known professionally as Benjamin Orr, was an American musician best known as the bassist, co-lead vocalist, and co-founder of the rock band The Cars. He sang lead vocals on several of their best-known songs, including "Just What I Needed", " Let's Go" and " Drive". He also had a moderate solo hit with " Stay the Night". Orr was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Cars in 2018. Life and career Benjamin Orzechowski was born in Lakewood, Ohio, to parents of Polish, Russian, Czechoslovak and German descent. His family actively supported his musical endeavors. He became proficient in several instruments including the guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, and drums. Known locally as "Benny 11 Letters", he grew up in Lakewood, Ohio, and Parma, Ohio and attended Valley Forge High School before joining local band the Grasshoppers as lead singer and guitarist in 1964. In 1965, the Gr ...
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Stay The Night (Benjamin Orr Song)
"Stay the Night" is the debut solo single by the Cars vocalist and bassist Benjamin Orr, released in 1986 from his debut solo album '' The Lace''. The song reached No. 24 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in early 1987, becoming Orr's only top 40 hit as a solo artist. Background Prior to recording his solo album, Orr had been a founding member, along with singer and songwriter Ric Ocasek of the Cars. The Cars' first top 40 hit, "Just What I Needed", featured Orr on lead vocals, as did their biggest hit, " Drive", from 1984's '' Heartbeat City''. Following the Cars' 1985 ''Greatest Hits'' release, the band split up to pursue solo projects, with both Orr and Ocasek releasing solo albums in 1986, lead guitarist Elliot Easton having released one in 1985. Weeks before "Stay the Night" entered the US top 40, Ocasek himself was in the top 40 with his own solo hit " Emotion in Motion". In both cases, those would become the only US top 40 solo hits for both Cars members respectively. ...
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The Midnight Special (TV Series)
''The Midnight Special'' is an American late-night musical variety series originally broadcast on NBC during the 1970s and early 1980s, created and produced by Burt Sugarman. It premiered as a special on August 19, 1972, then began its run as a regular series on February 2, 1973; its last episode was on May 1, 1981.Promotional site for the DVD re-issue
The 90-minute program followed the Friday night edition of ''''. Like its syndicated late-night cousin ''

Greg Hawkes
Gregory A. Hawkes (born October 22, 1952) is an American musician best known as the keyboardist for the rock band The Cars. Hawkes, a native of Fulton, Maryland, United States, attended Atholton High School where he played in a band called Teeth. He then attended Berklee College of Music for two years, majoring in composition and flute. He left to play in various bands, including Martin Mull and his Fabulous Furniture, where he played flute, saxophone, and clarinet. He also played in a band called Richard and the Rabbits, which included future Cars bandmates Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr. He was the last member to join the Cars. Hawkes was also in the New Cars with original Cars member Elliot Easton, along with vocalist/guitarist Todd Rundgren, bassist Kasim Sulton, and drummer Prairie Prince. In 2018, Hawkes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cars. The Cars Hawkes's most notable involvement is with The Cars. Hawkes pushed the limits of availabl ...
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Liberty DeVitto
Liberatori "Liberty" DeVitto (born August 8, 1950) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his work as a drummer for New York singer-songwriter Billy Joel's recording and touring band. He has also been a session drummer on recordings of other artists. He is credited as a drummer on records that have sold a combined total of 150 million units worldwide. Early life and education DeVitto was born in New York City, of Italian ancestry, where his father was a police officer at the New York Police Department. He taught himself to play the drums after seeing The Beatles on their appearance on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' in February 1964. He was also influenced as a teenager by rock drummer Dino Danelli. Career DeVitto got his big break in the music business when he was hired to play drums for Billy Joel in the mid-1970s. In an online interview, DeVitto describes how Joel's classic late-1970s/early-1980s band first came together: Billy and I used to play the same club in Plainvie ...
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Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony Nugent (; born December 13, 1948) is an American rock musician and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock and hard rock. After dissolving the band, he embarked on a successful solo career. His first three solo albums, ''Ted Nugent'' (1975), ''Free-for-All'' (1976) and ''Cat Scratch Fever'' (1977), were certified multi-platinum in the United States. His latest album, ''Detroit Muscle'', was released in 2022. Nugent is known for his Gibson Byrdland, his bluesy and frenzied guitar playing, and his energetic live shows. Despite possessing a distinctive, wide-ranging singing voice, Nugent recorded and toured with other lead singers during much of his early solo career, including Derek St. Holmes, Charlie Huhn, Brian Howe and Meat Loaf, only taking on full lead vocal duties later on. His biggest hit was 1977's "Cat Scratch Fever", on which he sang t ...
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Derek St
Derek is a masculine given name. It is the English language short form of ''Diederik'', the Low Franconian form of the name Theodoric. Theodoric is an old Germanic name with an original meaning of "people-ruler". Common variants of the name are Derrek, Derick, Dereck, Derrick, and Deric. Low German and Dutch short forms of Diederik are Dik, Dirck, and Dirk. History The English form of the name arises in the 15th century, via import from the Low Countries. The native English (Anglo-Saxon) form of the name was ''Deoric'' or ''Deodric'', from Old English ''Þēodrīc'', but this name had fallen out of use in the medieval period. During the Late Middle Ages, there was intense contact between the territories adjacent to the North Sea, in particular due to the activities of the Hanseatic League. As a result, there was a lot of cross-pollination between Low German, Dutch, English, Danish and Norwegian. The given name ''Derk'' is found in records of the Low Countries from the early 1 ...
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38 Special (band)
38 Special (also stylized as .38 Special or spelled out as Thirty-Eight Special) is an American rock band that was formed by Donnie Van Zant and Don Barnes in 1974 in Jacksonville, Florida. They are best known for their early 1980s hit singles "Hold On Loosely" and "Caught Up in You", along with other Top 40 hits on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the 1980s and early 1990s, including Rockin' into the Night, "You Keep Runnin' Away", "If I'd Been the One", "Back Where You Belong", " Teacher, Teacher", "Like No Other Night", " Second Chance", and "The Sound of Your Voice". History 1970s Donnie Van Zant, the younger brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd founder Ronnie Van Zant, began playing music himself during his teen years, forming the band Standard Production in 1968, which paved the way for Sweet Rooster, Donnie's first professional outfit that he formed in 1969 with guitarist Jeff Carlisi and bassist Ken Lyons, soon joined by drummer Steve Brookins. Carlisi left Sweet Rooster aft ...
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Pat Travers
Patrick Henry Travers (born April 12, 1954) is a Canadian rock guitarist, keyboardist and singer who began his recording career in the mid-1970s. Early life Travers was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Soon after picking up the guitar at age 12, he saw Jimi Hendrix perform in Ottawa. Travers began playing in bands early in his teens; his first bands were the Music Machine (not to be confused with the Californian psychedelic/garage band of the same name), Red Hot, and Merge, which played in clubs in the Quebec area. While performing with Merge, he was noticed by rock artist Ronnie Hawkins, who invited Travers to perform with him. In his early twenties, Travers moved to London and signed a recording contract with the Polydor label. His self-titled debut album was released in 1976 and featured bassist Peter "Mars" Cowling, who would become a mainstay in Travers' band for several years. An appearance on the German TV show ''Rockpalast'' in November 1976 was later released on DV ...
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Spartanburg Herald-Journal
The ''Spartanburg Herald-Journal'' is a daily newspaper, the primary newspaper for Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States. History The origins of the paper lie with ''The Spartan'', a weekly paper reportedly first printed in about 1842–43. In 1844, this was renamed ''The Carolina Spartan''. In about 1900, the paper was reportedly bought by The Journal Publishing Company, which renamed it ''The Spartanburg Journal''. In 1872 (or perhaps 1875), ''The Spartanburg Herald'' began publishing. It began daily publication in 1890; the ''Journal'' followed suit in 1903. The ''Herald'' purchased the ''Journal'' in 1914. The ''Herald'' was a morning paper, while the ''Journal'' covered evenings, with joint editions published on the weekend. Though under common ownership, the ''Herald'' and ''Journal'' did not completely merge into one paper until October 1982. In 1929, owner The Herald-Journal Publishing Company sold the papers to its paper distributor, the International Paper an ...
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John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band is an American rock band from Rhode Island which began its career in 1972, and achieved mainstream success in the 1980s. Originally known as simply Beaver Brown, they got their name from a paint can. The classic lineup of the group (consisting of John Cafferty on vocals and guitar, Gary Gramolini on lead guitar, Pat Lupo on bass, Kenny Jo Silva on drums, Bobby Cotoia on keyboards, and Michael "Tunes" Antunes on saxophone) started out as a New England bar band based in Narragansett, Rhode Island and established a following up and down the Northeast corridor with strongholds in the beach resort towns of Narragansett and Misquamicut, Rhode Island; New York City; New Haven, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; and Asbury Park, New Jersey. History They first achieved success with a 1980 self-released single pairing two of their songs, "Wild Summer Nights" and "Tender Years", which sold over 10,000 copies and had radio play up and down the Atlant ...
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Mickey Thomas (singer)
John Michael Thomas (born December 3, 1949) is an American rock singer, best known as one of the lead vocalists of Jefferson Starship and Starship. Early life Thomas was born in Cairo, Georgia, on December 3, 1949. He was inspired to pursue a career in music after travelling to Atlanta with longtime childhood friends Charles Connell and Tommy Verran to see a Beatles performance in 1965. Thomas, Connell, and Verran formed their first band together; Verran was the lead vocalist. They disbanded while attending different colleges, but later reformed in the early 1970s along with friend Bud Thomas as the Jets. Thomas was the vocalist for the Lords of London, a garage band from Douglas, Georgia, for a brief time, along with guitarist Billy Folsom, bassist Bob Hutchinson, keyboardist Billy Corbi, and drummer Troy Blasingame. Career Elvin Bishop Group While singing lead for the Jets in 1974, Thomas joined the Elvin Bishop Group as a backing vocalist and eventually made it to lead voca ...
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Door To Door (album)
''Door to Door'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band the Cars, released on August 25, 1987, by Elektra Records. The album was produced by frontman Ric Ocasek, with additional production by keyboardist Greg Hawkes. Three singles were released from the album, though only " You Are the Girl" reached the top 40 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number 17. ''Door to Door'' became the Cars' lowest-charting studio album, peaking at number 26 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and within a year of its release the band would break up. Background ''Door to Door'' was both the group's last studio album with the original lineup before they disbanded in 1988 and the last to feature bassist Benjamin Orr before his death in 2000. The band would not release another studio album until ''Move Like This'' (2011). Although by 1987, the Cars had reached the heights of superstardom, their last few albums had relied heavily on studio tricks and machines, but this album was an attempt to r ...
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