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Bennie Benjamin
Claude August "Bennie" Benjamin (November 4, 1907 – May 2, 1989) was a Virgin Islands-born American songwriter. He had particularly successful songwriting partnerships with Sol Marcus, with whom he wrote "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire", "When the Lights Go On Again (All Over the World)", and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"; and with George David Weiss, with whom he wrote " Oh! What It Seemed to Be" and "Wheel of Fortune". Most of his songs were in the traditional pop idiom. Early life Benjamin was born in Christiansted on the island of St. Croix, then part of the Danish West Indies, and later within the United States Virgin Islands. As his family did not have sufficient funds to allow him to train as a minister, he trained as a tailor and cabinetmaker before moving to New York City in 1927. Music career He studied banjo and guitar at Hy Smith's School of Music, developing a distinctive playing style, and began performing in dance bands. He played guitar and ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christiansted
Christiansted is the largest town on Saint Croix, one of the main islands composing the United States Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States of America. The town is named after King Christian VI of Denmark. History The town was founded by Frederick Moth after he was made governor of St. Croix in 1733. Departing from St. Thomas, Capt. Moth's party had cleared a space for Fort Christianswærn by 5 September. In a ceremony next to this fort on 8 Jan. 1734, the French formally handed over the island to the Danes in the form of the Danish West India and Guinea Company. The island was to be allotted 300 plantations, 215 for sugar and the remainder for cotton. The plantations surveyed were 3000 feet by 2000 feet. In addition, the company established a sugar refinery and distillery. The fort was completed by 1740. The 1742 census listed 120 sugar plantations, 122 cotton plantations, and 1,906 slaves compared to about 300 Englishmen and 60 Danes. By 1743, the island had a hospi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cotton Club
The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940).Elizabeth Winter"Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )" Black Past (retrieved September 9, 2014). The club operated during the United States' era of Prohibition and Jim Crow era racial segregation. Black people initially could not patronize the Cotton Club, but the venue featured many of the most popular black entertainers of the era, including musicians Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Willie Bryant; vocalists Adelaide Hall,Iain Cameron Williams, Chapter 15, ''Underneath A Harlem Moon: The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall'', Continuum, 2002. Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Aida Ward, Avon Long, the Dandridge Sisters, the Will Vodery Choir, The Mills Brothers, Nina Mae McKinney, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surrender (Perry Como Song)
"Surrender" is a 1946 song co-written by Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss. It was originally performed by Perry Como and covered by various artists including Woody Herman, George Olsen, and Bob Chester. Como's version of "Surrender" peaked at number one on the Billboard Best Selling Popular Retail Records chart and sold over a million copies. Background The lyrics of "Surrender" are thought to be inspired by the surrender of Japan and Germany in World War II and the connections between surrendering in love and war. Perry Como version On April 2, 1946, Perry Como recorded "Surrender" with Russ Case and his Orchestra. After the song was released in June 1946, Billboard called Como's version of "Surrender" a "slow dreamy arrangement" and praised the performance by Russ Cass's orchestra. Como's recording of "Surrender" went to sell over a million copies. Chart performance Como's version of "Surrender" peaked at #2 on the Most Played Juke Box Records chart on July 20, 1946. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing with the label in 1943. He recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for recordings in the intimate, easy-listening genre pioneered by multi-media star Bing Crosby. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. In the official RCA Records Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all." Como received five Emmy Award, Emmys from 1955 to 1959, and a Christopher Award in 1956. He also shared a Peabody Award with good friend Jackie Gleason in 1956. He received a Kennedy Cente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Carle
Frankie Carle (born Francis Nunzio Carlone, March 25, 1903 – March 7, 2001) was an American pianist and bandleader. As a very popular bandleader in the 1940s and 1950s, Carle was nicknamed "The Wizard of the Keyboard". "Sunrise Serenade" was Carle's best-known composition, rising to No. 1 in the US in 1938 and selling more than one million copies. Early life Carle was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on March 25, 1903. Born the son of a factory worker who could not afford a piano, he practiced on a dummy keyboard devised by his uncle, pianist Nicholas Colangelo, until he found a broken-down instrument in a dance hall. In 1916, a teenage Carle began working with his uncle's band as well as a number of local bands in the Rhode Island area. To gain further popularity in an America which still held prejudices against many Italian Americans, Carle did what many singers, such as Dean Martin and Jerry Vale, did during this time period; he changed his name from Carlone to Carle. Car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He is among the List of best-selling music artists, world's best-selling music artists with an estimated 150 million record sales. Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was greatly influenced by the intimate, easy-listening vocal style of Bing Crosby and began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. He found success as a solo artist after signing with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "Bobby soxer (music), bobby soxers". Sinatra released his debut album, ''The Voice of Frank Sinatra'', in 1946. When his film career stalled in the early 1950s, Sinatra turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best-known concert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United States Constitution (1789). See alsTitle 10, Subtitle B, Chapter 301, Section 3001 The oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed 14 June 1775 to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army.Library of CongressJournals of the Continental Congress, Volume 27/ref> The United States Army considers itself to be a continuation of the Continental Army, and thus considers its institutional inception to be the o ... [...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 the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Wilton Monroe (October 7, 1911 – May 21, 1973) was an American baritone singer, trumpeter, big band leader, actor, and businessman, who was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for recording and another for radio performance. Early life Monroe was born in Akron, Ohio, United States. He graduated from Jeannette High School in Pennsylvania in 1929, where he was senior class president and voted "Most Likely to Succeed". After graduation, he attended Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he was an active member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. Monroe attended New England Conservatory for one semester in 1935, studying voice with Clarence B. Shirley. Career Monroe formed his first orchestra in Boston in 1940 and became its principal vocalist. He began recording for RCA Victor's subsidiary Bluebird label. That same year, Monroe built ''The Meadows'', a restaurant and nightclub to the west of Boston on Massachusetts Route 9 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard (magazine)
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in different genres of music. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows. ''Billboard'' was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs, and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. ''Billboard'' began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox, phonograph, and radio became commonplace. Many topics it covered were spun-off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace Heidt
Horace Heidt (May 21, 1901 – December 1, 1986) was an American pianist, big band leader, and radio and television personality. His band, Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights, toured vaudeville and performed on radio and television during the 1930s and 1940s. Early years Born in Alameda, California, Heidt attended Culver Academies. At the University of California, Berkeley, he was a guard on the football team. A broken back suffered in a practice session caused him to give up football, leading him to turn his attention to music. He and some classmates formed a band, The Californians. Career From 1932 to 1953, he was one of the more popular radio bandleaders, heard on both NBC and CBS in a variety of different formats over the years. He began on the NBC Blue Network in 1932 with Shell Oil's ''Ship of Joy'' and ''Answers by the Dancers''. During the late 1930s on CBS he did ''Captain Dobbsie's Ship of Joy'' and ''Horace Heidt's Alemite Brigadiers'' before returning to NBC for 193 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were an American pop vocal group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style presaged the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely accepted in both the white and black communities, largely due to the ballad style introduced to the group by lead singer Bill Kenny. In 1989, the Ink Spots (Bill Kenny, Charlie Fuqua, Deek Watson, Jerry Daniels and Orville Jones) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1999 they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Since the Ink Spots disbanded, in 1954, there have been well over a hundred vocal groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots", with and without any original members of the group. It has often been the case that these groups claimed to be "second generation" or "third generation" Ink Spots.Goldberg, Marv (1998). ''More Than Words Can Say: The Ink Spots And Their Music''. Scarecrow Press 1930s Early ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
