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Calcutta (song)
"Calcutta" is a German pop song. An instrumental version by American bandleader and TV host Lawrence Welk on the 1961 Dot Records album ''Calcutta!'' was a chart hit, the most successful of Welk's career. History The tune was written in 1958 by the composer Heino Gaze. The original title was "Tivoli Melody", but it was re-titled several times, until it finally was named for the Indian city of Kolkata, known in German as Kalkutta and in English as Calcutta. The German version has lyrics by Hans Bradtke, and is titled "Kalkutta liegt am Ganges" (Calcutta lies on the Ganges). In the English-speaking world, the song was released under the title "Calcutta", and the American songwriting team of Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss wrote English lyrics, celebrating the charms of the "ladies of Calcutta." Welk's recording of the tune was something of a departure for him. It incorporated his recognizable "trademarks," i.e., the harpsichord lead and an accordion but combined them with handclaps ...
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Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted the '' The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known as "champagne music" to his radio, television, and live-performance audiences. Early life Welk was born in the German-speaking community of Strasburg, North Dakota. He was sixth of the eight children of Ludwig and Christiana (née Schwahn) Welk, Roman Catholic ethnic Germans who emigrated in 1892 from Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Welk was a first cousin, once removed, of former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (Welk's mother and Schweitzer's paternal grandmother were siblings). Welk's paternal great-great-grandparents, Moritz and Magdalena Welk, emigrated in 1808 from Germanophone Alsace-Lorraine to the Ukraine. The family lived on a homestead that is now a tourist attraction. They spent the cold North Dakota winter of their first year inside an upturned wagon ...
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Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and Singing, vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz. Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. Around 1922, he followed his mentor, King Oliver, Joe "King" Oliver, to Chicago to play in the . In Chicago, he spent time with other popular jazz musicians, reconnecting with his friend Bix Beiderbecke and spending time with Hoagy Carmichael and Lil Hardin Armstrong, Lil Hardin. He earned a reputation at "cutting contests", and his fame reached band leader Fletcher Henderson. Henderson persuaded Armstrong to come to New York City, where he became a featur ...
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Ultra-Lounge
''Ultra-Lounge'' is a series of compilation CDs released by Capitol Records, featuring music predominantly from the 1950s and 1960s in genres such as exotica, space age pop, mambo, television theme songs, and lounge. Many of the volumes have since been made available for purchase via digital download. Each CD featured detailed liner notes along with two related drink recipes, tips on how to serve drinks to guests, and often photographs of sculptures made out of bartender items and other objects. The series started in 1996 during the swing revival, but as of 2009 the newer releases have been made available only for purchase in downloadable format from Amazon.com and iTunes. Some volumes from the series managed to make the Billboard jazz top 10. Initial sales after the first few years reportedly reached over 600,000. In 1997, art directors Andy Engel and Tommy Steele won the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a serie ...
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Les Baxter
Leslie Thompson "Les" Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was a best-selling American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica and scored over 100 motion pictures. Early life Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. From 1943 on he played tenor and baritone saxophone for the Freddie Slack big band. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as "What Is This Thing Called Love?" Career Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950, and conducted the orchestra in two early Nat King Cole hits, "Mona Lisa" and " Too Young". He also recorded Yma Sumac's first album: "Voice of the Xtabay", which can be considered one of the first recordi ...
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The Ventures Play Telstar And The Lonely Bull
''The Ventures Play Telstar and the Lonely Bull'' is an album by the band the Ventures, released in 1963. It consists entirely of cover versions of popular instrumentals from the late 1950s to early 1960s (all of which reached the Top 15 on Billboard, including eleven Top Tens and three #1's) and became their highest charting album, peaking at #8 on Billboard and earning the band a gold record for over 500,000 copies sold. Reception In his review for Allmusic, critic Fred Thomas wrote of the album "Despite a somewhat wooden performance on many of the tracks, the hard-panned stereo production makes for a very big sound. While reading somewhere between campy and nostalgic in the context of the decades that followed, The Ventures Play Telstar is still a high point in the band's overwhelming discography, and as strong a sample of early-'60s commercially viable surf rock as you're likely to find." Track listing Side one #" Telstar" (Joe Meek) – 2:37 # "The Lonely Bull" (Sol Lake) � ...
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Dolton Records
Dolton Records was a record label based in Seattle that was originally known as Dolphin Records. It was initially owned by Bob Reisdorff and Bonnie Guitar. Success for the label came early with "Come Softly to Me" by the Fleetwoods, the first single to be released on that label. Reisdorf was soon informed that there was another Dolphin Records in circulation (which was a subsidiary of Laurie Records), so he changed the name to Dolton after the first release, the second release being an instrumental by the Frantics called "Straight Flush" b/w "Young Blues" (Dolton 2). The new label retained the fish symbols on the logo and the fonts associated with the Dolphin name. The first major hit on the newer Dolton label was the Fleetwood's " Mr. Blue", a number one hit, and the fifth single released by that company. Other major Dolton artists included the Ventures, Vic Dana, and the Frantics. It was acquired in 1963 by Avnet and merged with its Liberty Records parent label in 1966. L ...
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The Ventures
The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the 1960s. While their popularity in the United States waned in the 1970s, the group remains especially Big in Japan (phrase), revered in Japan, where they toured regularly. The classic lineup of the band consisted of Wilson (rhythm guitar), Bogle (initially lead guitar, later bass), Nokie Edwards (initially bass, later lead guitar), and Mel Taylor (drums). Their first wide-release single, "Walk, Don't Run (instrumental), Walk, Don't Run" (1960), brought international fame to the group, and is often cited as one of the top songs ever recorded for guitar. In the 1960s and early 1970s, 38 of the band's albums Billboard 200, charted in the US, ranking them as the 6th best album chart performer during the 1960s, and the band had 14 singles in the ...
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Al Caiola
Alexander Emil Caiola (September 7, 1920 – November 9, 2016) was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of the biggest names in music during the 20th century, including Elvis Presley, Ray Conniff, Ferrante & Teicher, Frank Sinatra, Percy Faith, Buddy Holly, Mitch Miller, and Tony Bennett. Career During World War II Caiola played with the United States Marine Corps 5th Marine Division Band that also included Bob Crosby. Caiola served in the Battle of Iwo Jima as a stretcher bearer. Caiola was a studio musician in the 1950s in New York City. He released some minor records under his own name in that decade. In addition, he performed under the musical direction of John Serry Sr. on an album for Dot Records in 1956 ('' Squeeze Play''). In 1960 he became a recording star on the United Artists label for over ten years. He had hits in 1961 ...
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Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955. EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012, and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, California. Both the label itself and its famous building are sometimes referred to as "The House That Nat Built." This refers to one of Capitol's most famous artists, Nat King Cole. Capitol is also well known as the U.S. record label of the Beatles, especially during the years of Beatlemania in America from 19 ...
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The Four Preps
The Four Preps are an American popular music male quartet. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the group amassed eight gold singles and three gold albums. Their million-selling signature tunes included " 26 Miles (Santa Catalina)", " Big Man", "Lazy Summer Night", and "Down by the Station". The Four Preps' numerous television and motion picture appearances included four years backing teen heartthrob Ricky Nelson on ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'' and appearing with Sandra Dee in the film ''Gidget''. The group's most recent television appearance was with the award-winning 2004 PBS special, ''Magic Moments: The Best of 50s Pop''. The current incarnation of the Four Preps features co-founder and original lead singer Bruce Belland, Bob Duncan (formerly with the Diamonds and the Crew Cuts), Michael Redman (of the Crew Cuts), and Jim Armstrong. Their shows are currently an amalgamation of singing everything from doo-wop to Tin Pan Alley standards and comedy. Original line-up * Bru ...
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A Space Age Childhood
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it f ...
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Barbara Boylan
Barbara Boylan (born in Long Beach, California) is an American dancer and former television personality who was featured on ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1961 to 1967, and briefly for a few months in 1979. She was the first of Bobby Burgess's three dancing partners on the show. The two have known each other since childhood; both attended the same dance school where they were first paired together. Boylan and Burgess made their Welk debut in the spring of 1961 when they won the ''Calcutta'' dance contest at the Aragon Ballroom in Santa Monica sponsored by the Maestro. After six months of guest appearances, they were hired as regulars. Boylan remained on the show until the summer of 1967, when she married Welk castmate Gregg Dixon and retired from show business. (She briefly returned for a few months in 1978 after her replacement, Cissy King, left the show.) She and Dixon celebrated 50 years of marriage in 2017, and are the parents of two children, David and Dee Dee, and numero ...
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