Ice On Fire
''Ice on Fire'' is the nineteenth studio album by English musician Elton John. Recorded at Sol Studios and released in November 1985, it was his first album since ''Blue Moves'' produced by his original long-time producer, Gus Dudgeon. David Paton and Charlie Morgan appear for the first time on bass and drums respectively, replacing original band members Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson. Fred Mandel, who had played with John during the ''Breaking Hearts'' tour, also contributed guitar and keyboards. The album was met with little praise and only reached #48 on the US charts, although it reached #3 in the UK. "Nikita" and "Wrap Her Up" became top 20 hits. The latter reached #20 in the US, and the former reached #7 in the US and #3 in the UK. In the US, the album was certified gold in June 1986 by the RIAA. Background The title of the album contains a line from the lyrics of "Nikita". "With eyes that looked like ''ice on fire''" Guests on the recording include Nik Kershaw; Sister ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 31 albums since 1969. Collaborating with lyricist Bernie Taupin since 1967, John is acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his work during the 1970s, and his lasting impact on the music industry. John's music and showmanship have had a significant impact on popular music. His songwriting partnership with Taupin is one of the most successful in history. John was raised in the Pinner suburb of London and learned to play piano at an early age, forming the blues band Bluesology in 1962. After leaving Bluesology in 1967 to embark on a solo career, John met Taupin after they both answered an advert for songwriters. For two years, they wrote songs for other artists, and John worked a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charlie Morgan (musician)
John Charles Morgan (born 9 August 1955) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Early years Charlie Morgan was born in Hammersmith, London. He became professional in 1973 Music career By the mid-1980s, Charlie Morgan had become one of the top session drummers in the UK. In the 1980s he played on albums by artists including Elton John, Gary Moore, Justin Hayward, Kate Bush, Roy Harper, Pete Townshend, Judie Tzuke, Clannad, Tracey Ullman and Nik Kershaw. He was also the drummer in Gary Moore & Phil Lynott's video "Out in the Fields". In 1985 his drumming work with Nik Kershaw attracted the attention of Elton John, who booked him to play on his ''Ice on Fire'' album. Later that year John invited him to play with his band at Live Aid. This was the start of a thirteen-year period of recording and touring with John. Morgan co-wrote the theme music to the ITV TV series, ''The Bill'', with bassist Andy Pask. Discography Studio albums * Lionheart (1978) - Kate Bush * Shoot ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Deacon
John Richard Deacon (born 19 August 1951) is an English retired musician, best known for being the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits " You're My Best Friend", " Another One Bites the Dust" and "I Want to Break Free"; co-wrote "Under Pressure", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "One Vision"; and he was involved in the band's financial management. Deacon grew up in Oadby, Leicestershire, playing bass guitar in a local band, The Opposition, before moving to study electronics at Chelsea College, London. He joined Queen in 1971 on the strength of his musical and electronic skills, particularly the home-made Deacy Amp which guitarist Brian May used to create guitar orchestras throughout Queen's career. From the third album, ''Sheer Heart Attack'', onwards, he wrote at least one song per album, several of which became hits. As well as bass guitar, Deacon played some guitar, keyboards and piano on Queen's studio work. Aft ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roger Taylor (Queen Drummer)
Roger Meddows Taylor (born 26 July 1949) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and the drummer for the rock band Queen. As a drummer, Taylor was recognised early in his career for his unique sound''Rolling Stone'' – Issue 149 – 12 June 1973 and was voted the eighth-greatest drummer in classic rock music history in a listener poll conducted by Planet Rock in 2005. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 as a member of Queen. As a songwriter, Taylor composed at least one track on every Queen album, and often sang lead vocals on his own compositions. He wrote or co-wrote three UK number ones ("These Are the Days of Our Lives", "Innuendo" and "Under Pressure") and wrote a further five major hits ("Radio Ga Ga", " A Kind of Magic", "Heaven for Everyone", " Breakthru", and "The Invisible Man"). He was also the main writer on the international top-ten hit "One Vision", although the track is credited to the whole band. He has collab ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wham!
Wham! (briefly known in the US as Wham! U.K.) were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981. The duo consisted of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986. Influenced by funk and soul music and presenting themselves as disaffected youth, Wham!'s 1983 debut album ''Fantastic'' addressed the United Kingdom's unemployment problem and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album ''Make It Big'' in 1984 was a worldwide pop smash hit, charting at number one in both the UK and the United States. Associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, the singles from the album—"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Everything She Wants" and "Careless Whisper"—all topped the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In 1985, Wham! made a highly publicised 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The event was seen as a ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George Michael
George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, with sales of over 120 million records worldwide. Michael was known as a leading creative force in music production, songwriting, vocal performance, and visual presentation. He achieved seven number-one songs on the UK Singles Chart and eight number-one songs on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Michael won numerous music awards, including two Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, twelve ''Billboard'' Music Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards. In 2015, he was ranked 45th in '' Billboard''s list of the "Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time". The Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Millie Jackson
Mildred Virginia Jackson (born July 15, 1944) is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and Soul music, soul recording artist. Beginning her career in the early 1960s, three of Jackson's albums have been certified Music recording certification, gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA for over 500,000 copies sold. Jackson's songs often include long spoken sections, sometimes humorous, sometimes sexually explicit. She recorded songs in an Rhythm and Blues, R&B, disco, or Dance music, dance-music style and occasionally in a Country music, country style. Occasionally, Jackson has been called the "mother of Rapping, hip-hop," or of rapping itself. This has more to do with the long spoken sections in many of her songs as opposed to actual rapping. According to the cataloguing site WhoSampled.com, her songs have appeared in 189 samples, 51 covers, and six remixes. "Since she always enjoyed writing poems, in the early '70s Jackson began crafting such proto-rap R&B single ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mel Gaynor
Mel George Gaynor (born 29 May 1959) is a British drummer, best known as the longtime drummer for the rock band Simple Minds. Biography Gaynor was born to a Jamaican father and an Afro-Brazilian mother. He began drumming at age 11 and had his first professional engagement at age 14. After leaving the hard rock band Samson (in which he played alongside future Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson), Gaynor joined Simple Minds in 1982 as a session drummer for the '' New Gold Dream'' album (as a recommendation by record producer Pete Walsh), playing on six of the nine tracks. He later joined the band permanently for the ''New Gold Dream'' tour, as a replacement for Mike Ogletree. Except for a period (1992–97) away from the band after the ''Real Life'' tour of 1991–92, he remained the Simple Minds drummer until 2017. In addition to drumming, he is active as a songwriter and a record producer. Gaynor considers The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pino Palladino
Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A prolific session bassist, he has played bass for acts such as The Who, the John Mayer Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan, Jeff Beck and D'Angelo. Early life The son of a Welsh mother and Italian father (from Campobasso), Giuseppe Henry Palladino was born in Cardiff on 17 October 1957. He attended a Catholic school. He began playing guitar at age 14 and bass guitar at 17. He bought his first fretless bass one year later, playing mostly R&B, funk and reggae with a rock and roll backbeat. Career Palladino was drawn to Motown and jazz at an early age, and took classical guitar lessons. He liked Led Zeppelin and Yes and started a rock band. In 1982, Palladino recorded with Gary Numan on the album ''I, Assassin''. Following this, he was asked to contribute to Paul Young's debut album. Young's cover version of "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)" by Marvin Gaye beca ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sister Sledge
Sister Sledge is an American musical vocal group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed in 1971, the group consisted of sisters Debbie, Joni, Kim, and Kathy Sledge. The siblings achieved international success at the height of the disco era. In 1979, they released their breakthrough album '' We Are Family'', which peaked at number three on the ''Billboard'' 200 and included the 1979 US top-10 singles "He's the Greatest Dancer" and " We Are Family". A third single, " Lost in Music", reached the US top 40. "We Are Family" earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Their other US singles include a 1982 remake of Mary Wells' 1964 hit "My Guy", "Mama Never Told Me" (1973), and " Thinking of You" (1984), before reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart with the song "Frankie" in 1985. Remixed versions of three of their singles in 1993 returned them to the UK Top 20. Although Kathy undertook a solo career in 1989, she continued to tour ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nik Kershaw
Nicholas David Kershaw (born 1 March 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. Kershaw came to prominence in 1984 as a solo artist. He released eight singles that entered the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart during the decade, including "Wouldn't It Be Good", " Dancing Girls", "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", "Human Racing", " The Riddle", " Wide Boy", "Don Quixote" and "When a Heart Beats". His 62 weeks on the UK Singles Chart through 1984 and 1985 beat all other solo artists. Kershaw appeared at the dual-venue concert Live Aid in 1985 and has also penned a number of hits for other artists, including a UK No. 1 single in 1991 for Chesney Hawkes, " The One and Only". Early years Nicholas "Nik" Kershaw was born on 1 March 1958 in Bristol, England, and grew up in Ipswich, Suffolk. His father was a flautist and his mother was an opera singer. He was educated at Northgate Grammar School for Boys where he played the guitar – he was self-taught ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nikita (Elton John Song)
"Nikita" is a love song by English musician Elton John from his 19th studio album, ''Ice on Fire'' (1985). It was released as the album's lead single on 4 October 1985, charting at number three on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number seven in the United States, and reaching the top 10 worldwide, topping the charts of eight countries. The song features George Michael on backing vocals and Nik Kershaw on guitar. Song synopsis In the song, John describes his crush on a person called Nikita, a border guard whom he cannot meet because he is not allowed into the country. Though the name Nikita can refer to women in other languages, it is a male name in Russian. In interviews, John has said that he was aware that Nikita was a male name in Russian. Composition The song is composed in the key of G major in 4/4 time. The song employs a verse-chorus-verse format, with the second chorus being shorter than the first, plus a instrumental bridge mechanically-themed breakdown halfway throu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |