Godfrey Diamond
Godfrey Diamond is an American record producer, mixer, musician, and writer. Early career Diamond was born in Philadelphia and moved with his family (including his brother Gregg Diamond) to New York City in 1968, the height of the psychedelic era. While in college he began working at Mediasound Studios in Manhattan. While at Mediasound, Diamond worked with a wide range of artists including Gloria Gaynor, Martha Reeves (Martha & the Vandellas), Kool and the Gang, Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Etta James, Barry Manilow, and Merle Haggard, as well as recording some of the top studio musicians of the era, such as Steve Gadd, Tony Levin, Bernard Purdie, Mick Ronson and Paul Shaffer. At the age of 21, Diamond produced Lou Reed's ''Coney Island Baby'' for RCA Records, the same year he and brother Gregg Diamond hit number one with "More, More, More" for The Andrea True Connection, with Godfrey's drum parts later appearing on Len's hit "Steal My Sunshine". The success of "More, More, Mo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled after the death of his father, and he was incarcerated several times in his youth. After being released from San Quentin State Prison in 1960, he managed to turn his life around and launch a successful country music career. He gained popularity with his songs about the working class that occasionally contained themes contrary to anti–Vietnam War sentiment of some popular music of the time. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, he had 38 number-one hits on the US country charts, several of which also made the ''Billboard'' all-genre singles chart. Haggard continued to release successful albums into the 2000s. He received many honors and awards for his music, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mars Williams
Mars Williams (born May 29, 1955) is an American jazz and rock saxophonist. Exposed to big band and dixieland jazz by his trumpet-playing father, Williams played classical clarinet for ten years, then migrated to saxophone in his last year of high school, citing the influence of Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, and Charlie Parker. He attended De Paul University and later the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians where he studied under founders Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell. In 2004 he was selected by the Moers Festival as their featured artist. Williams is a musician, orchestrator, and arranger who has played with The Waitresses and The Psychedelic Furs. He was only to tour with The Furs in Australia for a month in 1983 as then sax-player Gary Windo was unable to make the trip. After a successful tour and the breakup of the Waitresses, he was asked to stay on as a permanent member, which he did until 1989 and later rejoined in 2005. He has also performed with Bill ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American labels, specializing in jazz, R&B, and soul by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ruth Brown and Otis Redding. Its position was greatly improved by its distribution deal with Stax. In 1967, Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music with releases by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Led Zeppelin, and Yes. In 2004, Atlantic and its sister label Elektra were merged into the Atlantic Records Group. Craig Kallman is the chairman of Atlantic. Ahmet Ertegun served as founding chairman until his death on December 14, 2006, at age 83. History Founding and early history In 1944, brothers Nesuhi and Ahmet Erte ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Steal My Sunshine
"Steal My Sunshine" is a song by Canadian alternative rock band Len from their third studio album, ''You Can't Stop the Bum Rush'' (1999). The song was initially released on the soundtrack to the 1999 crime comedy film '' Go'', which resulted in the song receiving heavy airplay. It was later released to contemporary hit radio as the lead single from ''You Can't Stop the Bum Rush'' on June 22, 1999, by Work Group. Marc Costanzo and Gregg Diamond are credited as songwriters, while production was helmed by Costanzo under the stage name Mumble C. According to Costanzo, the song is about feelings of elation he experienced while attending an outdoor electronic music festival. The song was recorded at Four Ways Studio B and mixed by John King of the Dust Brothers at One on One South. "Steal My Sunshine" was one of the first demos recorded for ''You Can't Stop the Bum Rush'', although the song almost remained unreleased due to it not making much of an impression on the band. An indie p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Len (band)
Len is a Canadian alternative rock duo based in Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of siblings Marc Costanzo (vocals, guitar) and Sharon Costanzo (vocals, bass) and a revolving lineup of touring and studio musicians. History Marc Costanzo began recreationally recording music at the age of 13 years old. These recordings were predominately helmed by Marc, although his older sister Sharon sometimes contributed vocals to the recordings. In 1991, Marc began to produce music under the pseudonym of Len as a solo project. The name was taken from a high school friend of Marc's named Lenny. Sharon officially joined this project a year later, thus marking Len's first iteration as a duo. Len began as a punk rock band, with pop music influences. Between 1992 and 1997, the brother-sister duo independently released a self-titled extended play and two studio albums, ''Superstar'' (1995) and ''Get Your Legs Broke'' (1997). Marc estimated both albums sold around 10-15,000 units each. While thes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Andrea True Connection
Andrea Marie Truden (July 26, 1943 – November 7, 2011), better known by her pseudonym Andrea True, was an American pornographic actress and singer from the disco era. In addition to her given name, she had multiple stage names, including Inger Kissin, Singe Low, Sandra Lips, Andrea Travis, and Catherine Warren. As a singer, she is best known for the 1976 pop-disco hit "More, More, More" (performed as part of her recording project, the Andrea True Connection), which peaked at no. 4 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and no. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. Early life Andrea Marie Truden was born in Nashville, Tennessee, where she attended St. Cecilia Academy, a Catholic school for girls dedicated to the performing arts. She studied music at George Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Her father, Frank, was an engineer, who died when True was 16 years old. Her mother Anne owned a silverplating business and was a professional singer, specializing in polka, who recorded her own record ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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More, More, More
"More, More, More" is a song written by Gregg Diamond and recorded by American artist Andrea True (credited to her recording project Andrea True Connection). It was released in February 1976 as the first single from her debut album by same name (1976), becoming her signature track and one of the most popular songs of the disco era. In the US, it reached number four on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and spent three weeks at number three on the ''Cash Box'' chart in July of that year. In Canada, it was a number-one hit. Background The song was originally recorded in 1975 in Jamaica where True, a porn star, had been appearing in a TV commercial. Unable to return to the United States due to a government ban on asset transfers, she opted to invest the money in a studio recording to advance her career as a singer. True called on Gregg Diamond to come to Jamaica and record it with her and other studio musicians which formed the backbone of the "Connection" project. Diamond had begun work o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Arista Records, and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, classical, rock, hip hop, afrobeat, electronic, R&B, blues, jazz, and country. Its name is derived from the initials of its defunct parent company, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA Records was fully acquired by Bertelsmann in 1987, making it a part of Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and became a part of Sony BMG Music Entertainment after the 2004 merger of BMG and Sony; it was acquired by the latter in 2008, after the dissolution of Sony/BMG and the restructuring of Sony Music. RCA Records is the corporate successor of the Victor Talking Machine Company, founded in 1901, making it the second-oldest record label in American his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Coney Island Baby
''Coney Island Baby'' is the sixth solo studio album by American musician Lou Reed, released December 1975 in the US, and in January 1976 in the UK, by RCA Records. Music and lyrics The album has been described by Anthony DeCurtis as "perhaps the most romantic album of Reed's career". Many of the album's songs were inspired by and dedicated to Reed's girlfriend and muse at the time, Rachel Humphreys. According to Aidan Levy, ''Coney Island Baby'' was "as much a love letter to Rachel as it was to the nostalgic Coney Island of the mind." The album's title track directly references Rachel with the line: "I'd like to send this one out to Lou and Rachel, and all the kids at P.S. 192." "P.S. 192" refers to P.S. 192 – which at that time was a public school for kindergarten to 6th grade, in Brooklyn, New York City, NY, where Reed went to school before moving to Long Island, New York. In 1979 Reed said "Saying 'I'm a Coney Island baby' at the end of that song is like saying I have ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paul Shaffer
Paul Allen Wood Shaffer (born November 28, 1949) is a Canadian singer, composer, actor, author, comedian, and multi-instrumentalist who served as David Letterman's musical director, band leader, and sidekick on the entire run of both '' Late Night with David Letterman'' (1982–1993) and '' Late Show with David Letterman'' (1993–2015). Early years Shaffer was born in 1949 in Toronto, and raised in Fort William (now part of Thunder Bay), Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley and Bernard Shaffer. His father, a lawyer, was a jazz aficionado while his mother loved show tunes. When Shaffer was 12, his parents took him on a trip to Las Vegas where they took in Nat King Cole and other shows; this was an experience Shaffer described later as "life changing" and led to his decision to become a performer. As a child, Shaffer took piano lessons, and in his teenage years played the organ in a band called Fabulous Fugitives with his schoolmates in Thunder Bay. Later, he performed with the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mick Ronson
Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musician who recorded five studio albums with Bowie followed by four with Ian Hunter, and also worked as a sideman in touring bands with Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. Ronson and Bowie also produced Lou Reed's ''Transformer'' with Ronson playing lead guitar and piano and writing string arrangements, which brought mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, " Walk on the Wild Side". Ronson recorded five solo studio albums, the most popular being '' Slaughter on 10th Avenue'', which reached No. 9 on the UK Albums Chart. He played with various bands after his time with Bowie. A classically trained musician, Ronson was known for his melodic approach to g ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |