Billie Ray Martin
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Billie Ray Martin
Birgit Dieckmann, known professionally as Billie Ray Martin, is a German singer and songwriter, known for her single "Your Loving Arms", which reached the top 10 of both the UK Singles Chart (#6) and the Irish Singles Chart (#8) in 1995, and reached number one on the US Dance Club Chart. She was also one of the vocalists on the S'Express UK top 10 hit single "Hey Music Lover" (1989), and had UK top 40 hits as lead vocalist of Electribe 101 with "Tell Me When the Fever Ended" (1989) and "Talking with Myself" (1990), and as a solo singer with "Running Around Town" (1995) and "Imitation of Life" (1996). Early life Born in Hamburg, West Germany, she grew up near Reeperbahn, St. Pauli, in the city's red-light district. She lived with her working-class grandparents, who exposed her to Elvis Presley and German schlager music. Career Career beginnings In the early 1980s, Billie Ray Martin moved to Berlin. It was the time of electronic bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing G ...
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Running Around Town
"Running Around Town" is a song by German artist Billie Ray Martin, the former lead singer of Electribe 101, and was released in 1995 as the second single from her debut solo album, ''Deadline for My Memories'' (1995). Written by Martin, it reached moderate success on the charts in Europe, peaking at number ten in Italy, number 19 in Finland and number 29 in the UK. It also reached number three on the US ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Play chart and number 22 on the ''Billboard'' Dance/Electronic Songs, Dance Sales chart. A music video was also produced to promote the single. Critical reception John Bush from AllMusic described the song as "magical" electro-pop. Larry Flick from ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' wrote, "Brian Transeau, Brian "B.T." Transeau produced this smoker with a trance music, trance/house music, house urgency that complements Martin's expectedly melodramatic performance. The two were behind the board for the easily programmable Jacob's ...
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Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a civil rights movement, transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and Cultural impact of Elvis Presley#Danger to American culture, initial controversy. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead ...
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Bros (British Band)
Bros ( ) are an English band formed in 1986 in Camberley, Surrey. The band originally consisted of twin brothers Matt and Luke Goss, and their friend Craig Logan, who attended Collingwood School in Camberley. The band was managed by former Pet Shop Boys manager Tom Watkins. They achieved chart success and a large teenage fanbase in 1988 with songs such as "When Will I Be Famous" and "I Owe You Nothing". Early the following year, Logan quit the band and the Goss twins continued as a duo. After two more albums the band split up in 1992. Bros are estimated to have sold 16 million records worldwide. In 2017, the Goss twins reunited to perform two dates as Bros at the O2 Arena in London. History Early years Luke Goss and Matt Goss (born 29 September 1968 in Lewisham, London) had settled in Camberley, Surrey, after their parents had split up and their mother had found a new boyfriend, who bought Luke an electronic drum kit and Matt a saxophone, noticing their interest in music ...
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Pet Shop Boys
The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music history in the 1999 edition of ''The Guinness Book of Records''. Three-time Brit Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, since 1984 they have achieved 42 top 30 singles, 22 of these being top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart, including four UK number ones: "West End Girls" (also number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100), "It's a Sin", a synth-pop version of " Always on My Mind", and "Heart". Other hit songs include a cover of " Go West", and their own "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", and " What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in a duet with Dusty Springfield. With five US top ten singles in the 1980s, they are associated with the Second British Invasion. At the 2009 Brit Awards in London, the Pet Shop Boys recei ...
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Tom Watkins (music Manager)
Tom Watkins (21 September 1949 – 24 February 2020) was an English pop impresario, music manager, songwriter, producer, designer and fine art collector. With a background in art and design, Watkins set up the XL Design agency in the early 1980s and was responsible for designing record sleeves and music graphics of the period. Watkins moved into music management by the mid-1980s and managed Pet Shop Boys, Bros and East 17 among others. Watkins has been described by Neil Tennant as "a big man with a loud voice" and by David Munns as "an unstoppable creative powerhouse." Early life Watkins was born Thomas Frederick Watkins on 21 September 1949 at St. Alfege's Hospital, Greenwich, London, the son of Patricia Daphne Diett and Frederick Joseph Watkins. He lived in Blackheath, London and was educated at Invicta Road School, Sherrington Road School and Raine's Foundation School in Tower Hamlets, London. Watkins later attended Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design and went ...
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Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the wider metropolitan area. It is the largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is known as the second city of the United Kingdom. Located in the West Midlands region of England, approximately from London, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately west of the city centre. Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew during the 18th century during the Midla ...
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Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born composer, publisher Lawrence Wright; the first editor was Edgar Jackson. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publication) ''New Musical Express''. 1950s–1960s Originally the ''Melody Maker'' (''MM'') concentrated on jazz, and had Max Jones, one of the leading British proselytizers for that music, on its staff for many years. It was slow to cover rock and roll and lost ground to the ''New Musical Express'' (''NME''), which had begun in 1952. ''MM'' launched its own weekly singles chart (a top 20) on 7 April 1956, and an LPs charts in November 1958, two years after the ''Record Mirror'' had published the first UK Albums Chart. From 1964, the paper led its rival publications in terms of approac ...
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Motown
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''motor'' and ''town'', has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was originally headquartered. Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned label that achieved crossover success. In the 1960s, Motown and its subsidiary labels (including Tamla Motown, the brand used outside the US) were the most of the Motown sound, a style of soul music with a mainstream pop appeal. Motown was the most successful soul music label, with a net worth of $61 million. During the 1960s, Motown achieved 79 records in the top-ten of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 between 1960 and 1969. Following the events of the Detroit Riots of 1967, and the loss of key songwriting/production team Holland–Dozier– ...
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Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With global sales of over 75 million records, Franklin is one of the world's best-selling music artists. As a child, Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister. At the age of 18, she was signed as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While her career did not immediately flourish, Franklin found acclaim and commercial success once she signed with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", " Respect", " (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Chain of Fools", "Think", and "I Say a Little Prayer", propelled Franklin past her musical peers. Franklin continued to record acclaimed albums such as ' ...
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Martha Reeves And The Vandellas
Martha and the Vandellas (known from 1967 to 1972 as Martha Reeves & The Vandellas) were an American vocal girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ... formed in Detroit in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s with Motown. An act founded by friends Annette Beard, Rosalind Ashford and Gloria Williams, the group eventually included Martha Reeves, who moved up in ranks as lead vocalist of the group after Williams' departure in 1962. The group signed with and eventually recorded all of their singles for Motown's Gordy imprint. The group's string of hits included "Come and Get These Memories", "Heat Wave (Martha and the Vandellas song), Heat Wave", "Quicksand (Martha and the Vandellas song), Quicksand", "Nowhere to Run (song), Nowhere to Run", "Jimmy Mack", "I'm ...
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Human League
The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare'' in 1981 after restructuring their lineup. The album contained four hit singles, including the UK/US number one hit "Don't You Want Me". The band received the Brit Award for Best British Breakthrough Act in 1982. Further hits followed throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, including "Mirror Man (The Human League song), Mirror Man", "(Keep Feeling) Fascination", "The Lebanon (song), The Lebanon", "Human (The Human League song), Human" (a second US No. 1) and "Tell Me When". The only constant band member since 1977 has been lead singer and songwriter Philip Oakey. Keyboard players Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh both left the band in 1980 to form Heaven 17. Under Oakey's leadership, the Human League then evolved into a commercially s ...
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Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of industrial music. Evolving from the experimental performance art group COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle made their public debut in October 1976 on COUM exhibition ''Prostitution'', and released their debut single "United/Zyklon B Zombie" and debut album ''The Second Annual Report'' the following year. Lyrical themes mainly revolved around mysticism, extremist political ideologies, sexuality, dark or underground aspects of society, and idiosyncratic manipulation of language. The band released several subsequent studio and live albums—including ''D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle'' (1978), ''20 Jazz Funk Greats'' (1979), and ''Heathen Earth'' (1980)—on their own record label Industrial Records, buildin ...
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