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Christmas (Elaine Paige Album)
''Christmas'' is an album by Elaine Paige, released in 1986, the fifth and final album to be released on the label until the release of ''Piaf'' in 1994. The album reached number 27 in the UK album charts. The album was re-issued on CD in 2006. It was the fourth and last of Paige's albums to be produced by Tony Visconti, after ''Stage'' (1983), ''Cinema'' (1984) and ''Love Hurts'' (1985). The album was recorded at Visconti's Good Earth Studios in September 1986. In contrast to Paige's musical theatre background, a feature of all her Visconti-produced recordings is the pop arrangements. "Ave Maria" had been recorded and released as a single in 1982, it was also included on the 2-CD set ''Save The Children - Christmas Carols and Festive Songs'' in 1988. "A Winter' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elaine Paige
Elaine Jill Paige (née Bickerstaff; born 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16. Her appearance in the 1968 production of ''Hair'' marked her West End debut. Following a number of roles over the next decade, Paige was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Evita'' in 1978, which brought her to the attention of the broader public. For this role, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She originated the role of Grizabella in ''Cats'' and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical ''Chess'', which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She then appeared in the original stage production ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (1867) also remains in the international repertory. He composed a large amount of church music, many songs, and popular short pieces including his Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod), Ave Maria (an elaboration of a Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach piece), and ''Funeral March of a Marionette''. Born in Paris into an artistic and musical family Gounod was a student at the Conservatoire de Paris and won France's most prestigious musical prize, the Prix de Rome. His studies took him to Italy, Austria and then Prussia, where he met Felix Mendelssohn, whose advocacy of the music of Bach was an early influence on him. He was deeply religious, and after his return to Paris, he briefly considered becoming a priest. He composed prolifically, writing church music, songs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ave Maria (Gounod)
"Ave Maria" is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin prayer Ave Maria, originally published in 1853 as "". The piece consists of a melody by the French Romantic composer Charles Gounod that he superimposed over an only very slightly changed version of Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of his ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', 1722. The 1853 publication has French text, but it is the 1859 version with the Latin Ave Maria which became popular. History Gounod improvised the melody, and his future father-in-law Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann transcribed the improvisation and in 1853 made an arrangement for violin (or cello) with piano and harmonium. The same year it appeared with the words of Alphonse de Lamartine's poem ''Le livre de la vie'' ("The Book of Life"). In 1859, Jacques-Léopold Heugel published a version with the familiar Latin text. The version of Bach's prelude used by Gounod includes the "Schwencke measure" (m.23), a measure allegedl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Black (musician)
Donald Blackstone (born 21 June 1938) known by pen name Don Black is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie, television themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Matt Monro, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Hoyt Curtin, Lulu, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Meat Loaf, Michael Jackson, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra, A. R. Rahman, Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Wiseman. AllMusic stated that "Black is perhaps best-known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, and for the James Bond theme songs he co-wrote with composer John Barry: ' Thunderball', ' Diamonds Are Forever' and ' The Man with the Golden Gun'." Early life He was born Donald Blackstone in London, the youngest of five children of Russian Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Morris and Betsy (née Kersh) Blackstone. His father worked as a garment presser and his mother in a clothes shop and during his childhood the family lived in a cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Warman
John Robert Waughman, better known as Johnny Warman, is an English singer-songwriter, best known for his 1981 album, ''Walking Into Mirrors'' and the hit single "Screaming Jets". Early life Warman was born in Bethnal Green, London, England, and he moved to Hackney, London, Hackney at the age of seven. In Warman's home there was always music as his mother and father both sang. Inspired by the Beatles at the age of 11, when he heard their song "Love Me Do" playing on a Dansette record player, he joined the school choir and in 1964 was picked to sing at the Royal Opera House performing in Tosca and Pagliachi with Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. After this royal command performance he knew he wanted to be a performer and began to learn guitar, He soon began to play gigs. Warman joined a band called Sounds Like Six when at school. As a keen fan of The Rolling Stones and The Who he frequented many live music venues of the time. Warman followed other bands such as The Iveys and Pink Floyd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Downes
Julia Downes is a songwriter, musician and producer whose songs have appeared on albums by Roger Daltrey, Meat Loaf, Sheena Easton, John Parr, Saga (band), Saga, and Michael Ball (singer), Michael Ball. In 1983 she released the album ''Let Sleeping Dogs Lie'', which includes her own version of her song "Don't Talk to Strangers", later recorded by Roger Daltrey. She produced Annabella Lwin's 1986 album ''Fever'' and played keyboards on Stephan Eicher's 1998 album ''Silence''. List of songs written or co-written #"Under a Raging Moon (song), Under a Raging Moon" (by Roger Daltrey on album Under a Raging Moon (album), ''Under a Raging Moon'') #"Don't Talk to Strangers" (by Roger Daltrey on album ''Under a Raging Moon'') #"Don't Leave Your Mark on Me" (by Meat Loaf on album Bad Attitude (album), ''Bad Attitude'') #"Don't Leave Your Mark on Me [Mark 2]" (by John Parr on album ''Running the Endless Mile'') #"Story Still Remains the Same [Vices]" (by John Parr on album ''Running the End ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katherine K
Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christian era it came to be associated with the Greek adjective (), meaning "pure", leading to the alternative spellings ''Katharine'' and ''Katherine''. The former spelling, with a middle ''a'', was more common in the past and is currently more popular in the United States than in Britain. ''Katherine'', with a middle ''e'', was first recorded in England in 1196 after being brought back from the Crusades. Popularity and variations English In Britain and the U.S., ''Catherine'' and its variants have been among the 100 most popular names since 1880. The most common variants are ''Katherine,'' ''Kathryn,'' and ''Katharine''. The spelling ''Catherine'' is common in both English and French. Less-common variants in English include ''Katheryn'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Simeone
Harry Moses Simeone (May 9, 1910 – February 22, 2005) was an American music arranger, conductor and composer who popularized the Christmas song "The Little Drummer Boy", for which he received co-writing credit. Early years Simeone was born in Newark, New Jersey, United States. He grew up listening to stars performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, not far from his native Newark. Initiated and inspired by this childhood passion, he sought a career as a concert pianist. To this end, he enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music, which he attended for three years, but when he was offered work at CBS as an arranger for bandleader Fred Waring, he dropped out of Juilliard to accept it. Initial prominence After garnering vocal and music arrangement credits for the 1938 RKO motion picture ''Radio City Revels,'' Simeone relocated to Hollywood with his wife, Margaret McCravy Simeone, who briefly sang with Benny Goodman's orchestra, using the stage name Margaret McCrae, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy
"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" is a Christmas song performed by English singer-songwriter David Bowie and American singer Bing Crosby. Recorded on 11 September 1977 at ATV Elstree Studios near London for Crosby's television special ''Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas'', the song features Crosby singing 1941 standard "The Little Drummer Boy" while Bowie sings the counterpoint tune "Peace on Earth", written by the special's musical supervisors Ian Fraser and Larry Grossman, and scriptwriter Buz Kohan, specifically for the collaboration. The duet was one of Crosby's final recordings before his death in October 1977. Following the special's broadcast during the 1977 holiday season, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" went unavailable for many years. It was eventually released as a single by RCA Records in November 1982 and was a commercial success, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart. It was Crosby's final popular hit. It became one of the best-selling singles of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Blake
Howard David Blake (born 28 October 1938) is an English composer, conductor, and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years and produced more than 650 works. Blake's most successful work is his soundtrack for Channel 4’s 1982 film ''The Snowman'', which includes the song "Walking in the Air". He is increasingly recognised for his classical works including concertos, oratorios, ballets, operas and many instrumental pieces. Early life Howard Blake was born in London and grew up in Brighton. His mother played piano and violin, and his father sang tenor in the church choir. At Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School for Boys, from the age of 11 he sang lead roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas and was recognised as a good pianist, but few were aware that he was also writing music. At the age of 18, he won the Hastings Musical Festival Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied piano with Harold Craxton and composition with Howard Ferguson; however, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walking In The Air
"Walking in the Air" is a song written by Howard Blake for the 1982 animated film ''The Snowman'' based on Raymond Briggs's 1978 children's book of the same name. The song forms the centrepiece of ''The Snowman'', which has become a seasonal favourite on British and Finnish television. The story relates the fleeting adventures of a young boy and a snowman who has come to life. In the second part of the story, the boy and the snowman fly to the North Pole. "Walking in the Air" is the theme for the journey. They attend a party of snowmen, at which the boy seems to be the only human until they meet Father Christmas Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrel ... with his reindeer, and the boy is given a scarf with a snowman pattern. In the film, the song was performed by St Paul's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
