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British Pop Music
British pop music is popular music, produced commercially in the United Kingdom. It emerged in the mid-to late 1950s as a softer alternative to American rock 'n' roll. Like American pop music it has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, as well as that of the Singles Chart usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilising key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. From the British Invasion of rock bands in the 1960s, led by The Beatles, British pop music has alternated between acts and genres with national appeal and those with international success that have had a considerable impact on the development of the wider genre and on popular music in general Early British popular mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Britpop
Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the UK's own shoegaze music scene. The movement brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British popular cultural movement, Cool Britannia, which evoked the Swinging Sixties and the British guitar pop of that decade. Britpop was a media-driven focus on bands which emerged from the independent music scene of the early 1990s. Although the term was viewed as a marketing tool, and more of a cultural moment than a musical style or genre, its associated bands typically drew from the British pop music of the 1960s, glam rock and punk rock of the 1970s and indie pop of the 1980s. The most successful bands linked with Britpop were Oasis, Blur, Suede and Pulp, known as the movement's "big four", ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as "America's Number One Song Stylist", his other nicknames include "Mr. Rhythm", "Old Leather Lungs", and "Mr. Steel Tonsils". His hits included "That's My Desire", " That Lucky Old Sun", " Mule Train", " Jezebel", " High Noon", " I Believe", " Hey Joe!", "The Kid's Last Fight", " Cool Water", " Rawhide", and "You Gave Me a Mountain". He sang well-known theme songs for many Western film soundtracks, including '' 3:10 To Yuma'', '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'', and '' Blazing Saddles'', although his recordings were not charted as a country & western. Laine sang an eclectic variety of song styles and genres, stretching from big band crooning to pop, western-themed songs, gospel, roc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calamity Jane (film)
''Calamity Jane'' is a 1953 American Technicolor Western musical film directed by David Butler and starring Doris Day and Howard Keel. The musical numbers were staged and directed by Jack Donohue, who a year later would direct the Day musical, '' Lucky Me'' (1954). The film is loosely based on the life of Wild West heroine Calamity Jane (Doris Day) and explores an alleged romance between her and Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel). ''Calamity Jane'' was devised by Warner Bros. in response to the success of the 1950 film '' Annie Get Your Gun'', and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for " Secret Love" (Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster), and was also Oscar-nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture ( Ray Heindorf) and Best Sound, Recording ( William A. Mueller). The songs and screenplay would form the basis of a 1961 stage musical of the same name that has had a number of productions. Plot Dakota Territory, the 1870s. Tough-talking, hard-riding, stra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secret Love (1953 Song)
"Secret Love" is a song composed by Sammy Fain (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for ''Calamity Jane'', a 1953 musical film in which it was introduced by Doris Day in the title role. Ranked as a number 1 hit for Day on both the ''Billboard'' and ''Cash Box'', the song also afforded Day a number 1 hit in the UK. "Secret Love" has subsequently been recorded by a wide range of artists, becoming a C&W hit firstly for Slim Whitman and later for Freddy Fender, with the song also becoming an R&B hit for Billy Stewart, whose version also reached the top 40 as did Freddy Fender's. In the UK, "Secret Love" would become the career record of Kathy Kirby via her 1963 remake of the song. The melody bears a slight resemblance to the opening theme of Schubert's A-major piano sonata, D.664. Doris Day version Doris Day first heard "Secret Love" when its co-writer Sammy Fain visited the singer's home and played it for her, Day being so moved by the song that she'd recall her reaction as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doris Day
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" with Les Brown & His Band of Renown. She left Brown to embark on a solo career and recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967. Day was one of the biggest film stars of the 1950s–1960s. Day's film career began during the Golden Age of Hollywood with the film '' Romance on the High Seas'' (1948). She starred in films of many genres, including musicals, comedies, dramas, and thrillers. She played the title role in '' Calamity Jane'' (1953) and starred in Alfred Hitchcock's '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1956) with James Stewart. Her best-known films are those in which she co-starred with Rock Hudson, chief among them 1959's '' Pillow Talk'', for which she was nominated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dreamboat
"Dreamboat" is a popular music song, the words and music to which were written by Jack Hoffman, (sometimes incorrectly attributed to Al Hoffman). A version produced by Walter Ridley, and performed by Alma Cogan, reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ... in 1955 for two weeks, and is one of Cogan's best known hits. References 1955 singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles 1955 songs {{1950s-single-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alma Cogan
Alma Angela Cohen Cogan (19 May 1932 – 26 October 1966) was an English singer of traditional pop in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed the "Girl with the Giggle in Her Voice", she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era. Childhood and early musical career Cogan was born on 19 May 1932 in Whitechapel, London. She was of Russian-Romanian Jewish descent. Her father's family, the Kogins, arrived in Britain from Russia, while her mother's family were refugees from Romania. Cogan's parents, Mark and Fay Cogan, had another daughter, the actress Sandra Caron, who went on to play "Mumsey" in '' The Crystal Maze'', and one son, Ivor Cogan. Mark's work as a haberdasher entailed frequent moves. One of Cogan's early homes was over his shop in Worthing, Sussex. Although Jewish, she attended St Joseph's Convent School in Reading. Her father was a singer, but it was Cogan's mother who had showbusiness aspirations for both her daughters (she had named Cogan after silent s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man From Laramie
''The Man from Laramie'' is a 1955 American Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, and Cathy O'Donnell. Written by Philip Yordan and Frank Burt, the film is about a stranger who defies a local cattle baron and his sadistic son by working for one of his oldest rivals. The film was adapted from a serial of the same title by Thomas T. Flynn, first published in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' in 1954, and thereafter as a novel in 1955. Shot in Technicolor, ''The Man from Laramie'' was one of the first Westerns to be filmed in CinemaScope to capture the vastness of the scenery. This is the fifth and final Western collaboration between Anthony Mann and James Stewart, the other four being ''Winchester '73'' (1950), '' Bend of the River'' (1952), ''The Naked Spur'' (1953) and ''The Far Country'' (1954). Mann and Stewart also collaborated on three other films: ''Thunder Bay'' (1953), '' The Glenn Miller Story'' (1954) and ''Str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unchained Melody
"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film '' Unchained'' (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack.Robert Rodriguez The 1950s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels ''Brassey's'', p.90. It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers in 1965. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages. In 1955, three versions of the song (by Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, and Roy Hamilton) charted in the ''Billboard'' top 10 in the United States, and four versions (by Al Hibbler, Les Baxter, Jimmy Young, and Liberace) appeared in the top 20 in the United Kingdom simultaneously, a record for any song. The song continued to chart in the 21st century, and it was the only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Young (disc Jockey)
Sir Leslie Ronald Young , known professionally as Jimmy Young (21 September 1921 – 7 November 2016), was an English singer, disc jockey and radio personality. Early in his career in the 1950s he had two number ones, "Unchained Melody" and " The Man from Laramie", both in 1955, and several other top ten hits in the UK chart, but he became better known for his long-running show on BBC Radio 2, The JY Prog, which ran from 1973 until 2002. Early life Young was born in Cinderford, Gloucestershire. The son of a baker and a dressmaker, he attended East Dean Grammar School. Young nearly died from bronchitis, double pneumonia and pleurisy as a child. He excelled at boxing and rugby, playing for Cinderford RFC and later turning down a place with Wigan's rugby league team. After his parents divorced in 1939, he left for South Wales to work as an electrician. Young later joined the RAF staying until 1949, becoming a PT instructor. Singing career Young signed to the new Polygon R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 191718 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is honorifically known as the " Forces' Sweetheart", having given outdoor concerts for the troops in Egypt, India and Burma during the war as part of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). The songs most associated with her include " We'll Meet Again", " (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover", " A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and " There'll Always Be an England". She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the United Kingdom and the United States, and recording such hits as " Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart" and her UK number-one single " My Son, My Son". Her last single, " I Love This Land", was released to mark the end of the Falklands War. In 2009, at the age of 92, she became the oldest living artist to top the UK Albums Chart with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lita Roza
Lilian Patricia Lita Roza (14 March 1926 – 14 August 2008) was an English singer best known for her 1953 recording " (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?", which reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. She was the first British woman to have a No. 1 hit in the UK chart. Early life and career Lilian Patricia Lita Roza was born in Liverpool on 14 March 1926, the eldest of seven children. She began work at an early age to support the family. She owed her sultry looks and passion to her father, an amateur accordionist and pianist of Filipino descent who played in Liverpool nightclubs. At the age of 12, she saw an advert in the local newspaper for juvenile dancers and passed the audition. She took to the stage at that age in a pantomime, and by the time she was 15, was working with the comedian and fellow Merseysider Ted Ray. When she was 16, she answered an advertisement and got a job as a singer in the "New Yorker" club in Southport for £5 per week. Soon afterwards she signe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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