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Love Is The Sweetest Thing
"Love Is the Sweetest Thing" is a popular song written in 1932 by British band leader and singer Ray Noble. Using guest vocalist Al Bowlly, Noble's recording was a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic, bringing Noble his first American success. It was published by Francis, Day & Hunter Ltd. Like most compositions published in the period (commonly called Tin Pan Alley songs), its main refrain (in thirty-two bar A-A-B-A form) is preceded with what were then called " sectional verses" or "introductory verses" which are usually omitted from early recordings and modern performances. Notable recordings The following artists, among others, have made recordings :- *Ray Noble and His New Mayfair Orchestra (8 September 1932) - vocal by Al Bowlly. *Jack Hylton and His Orchestra (4 October 1932) - vocal by J. Pat O'Malley. * Jack Payne and His Orchestra (14 November 1932) - vocal by Jack Payne. Recorded for inclusion in the British musical drama film '' Say It with Music''. *Hal Kemp and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Noble
Raymond Stanley Noble (17 December 1903 – 2 April 1978) was an English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor; he also performed in the United States. Noble wrote both lyrics and music for many popular songs during the British dance band era, known as the "Golden Age of British music", notably for his longtime friend and associate Al Bowlly, including "Love Is the Sweetest Thing", "Cherokee", "The Touch of Your Lips", "I Hadn't Anyone Till You", and his signature tune, "The Very Thought of You". Noble played a radio comedian opposite American ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's stage act of Mortimer Snerd and Charlie McCarthy, and American comedy duo Burns and Allen, later transferring these roles from radio to TV and popular films. Early life and career Noble was born at 1 Montpelier Terrace in the Montpelier area of Brighton, England. A blue plaque on the house commemorates him. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skinnay Ennis
Edgar Clyde "Skinnay" Ennis Jr. (August 13, 1907 – June 3, 1963) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader and singer. Early years The son of Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Ennis, he was born Edgar Clyde Ennis Jr. in Salisbury, North Carolina, United States, and had a brother, James W. Ennis. He met Hal Kemp while attending the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. The two were members of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity there. Orchestras An obituary reported about Ennis and his orchestra, "His band had performed in every major dance palace in the nation." Ennis joined Kemp's orchestra as a drummer and vocalist in the late 1920s, playing with him through 1938, including one tour of Europe in 1930. In 1938, Ennis put together his own band, which became a popular ensemble in Hollywood films. "Got a Date With an Angel" was his theme song. During this time Gil Evans was one of his arrangers. Toward the end of the 1950s Ennis's career had faded, and he worked mostly in hotels in the Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Early life Ruth Lee Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Alice and Ollie Jones, and moved to Chicago as a child. She became deeply involved in gospel music and played piano for the choir in St. Luke's Baptist Church while still in elementary school. She sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and was a member of the Sallie Martin Gospel Singers. When she joined the Sallie Martin group, she dropped out of Wendell Phillips High Sch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan (born Frank Fruim Abelson; 3 February 1928 – 17 September 1999) was an English singer and actor who recorded more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after his signature song " Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl". Two of Vaughan's singles topped the UK Singles Chart – "The Garden of Eden" (1957) and " Tower of Strength" (1961). He starred in several films, including a role opposite Marilyn Monroe in ''Let's Make Love'' (1960). Life and career Vaughan was born Frank Fruim Abelson on Devon Street in the Islington district of Liverpool on 3 February 1928, one of four children of Isaac and Leah Abelson. He came from a family of Russian Jewish descent, and derived his stage surname from his grandmother; as he was her first-born grandson, she called him "Frank my 'number one' grandson", and her Russian accent made "one" sound like "Vaughan". In his early life, he was a member of the Lancaste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferlin Husky
Ferlin Eugene Husky (December 3, 1925 – March 17, 2011) was an early American country music singer who was equally adept at the genres of traditional honky-tonk, ballads, spoken recitations, and rockabilly pop tunes. He had two dozen top-20 hits in the '' Billboard'' country charts between 1953 and 1975; his versatility and matinee-idol looks propelled a seven-decade entertainment career.McArdle, Terence "County music showman had comic alter ego" (March 18, 2011) ''The Washington Post'', p. B7 In the 1950s and 1960s, Husky's hits included " Gone" and " Wings of a Dove", each reaching number one on the country charts. He also created a comic outspoken hayseed character, Simon Crum; and recorded under the stage name Terry Preston from 1948 to 1953. In 2010, Husky was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Biography Husky was born in Gumbo, Missouri, an unincorporated community in northwestern St. Francois County, Missouri. His mother named him Furland, but his name was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gogi Grant
Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg (September 20, 1924 – March 10, 2016), known professionally as Gogi Grant, was an American pop singer. She is best known for her No. 1 hit in 1956, "The Wayward Wind". Life and career Grant was born Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of six children of Russian Jewish parents, Rose (née Jacobson) and Alexander Arinsberg. At the age of 12, she moved to Los Angeles, where she attended Venice High School. In California, she won a teenage singing contest and appeared on television talent shows. She worked as a car saleswoman in the early 1950s. In 1952 she began to record, using first the name "Audrey Brown" and later "Audrey Grant". She was given the name "Gogi" by Dave Kapp, the head of Artists and Repertory at RCA Victor, who liked to patronize a restaurant called Gogi's LaRue. (Another source says that Grant asked Kapp, "What is a Gogi?" She continued, "His answer was, 'Darned if I know, I dreamed it last night.'") In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza (, ; born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza ; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16. After appearing at the Hollywood Bowl in 1947, Lanza signed a seven-year film contract with Louis B. Mayer, the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who saw his performance and was impressed by his singing. Prior to that, the adult Lanza sang only two performances of an opera. The following year (1948), however, he sang the role of Pinkerton in Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly'' in New Orleans. His film debut for MGM was in ''That Midnight Kiss'' (1949) with Kathryn Grayson and Ethel Barrymore. A year later, in ''The Toast of New Orleans'', his featured popular song "Be My Love" became his first million-selling hit. In 1951, he played the role of tenor Enrico Caruso, his idol, in the biopic ''The Great Caruso'', which produced another ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosaic Records
Mosaic Records is an American jazz record company and label established in 1982 by Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie. It produces limited-edition box sets. The sets recordings are leased from the major record companies, usually for a three- or five-year period, with the edition limited to a specific number of copies typically 5,000. Sometimes the complete catalog of a label would appear: the complete masters of Milt Gabler's Commodore Records were contained in three sets consisting of some 66 LPs. In 2003, the company initiated the Select series of smaller sets, not necessarily "complete" in the usual sense. In 2006, the company began a third line, Mosaic Singles, a series dedicated to reissuing individual albums on CD that have not previously been available in US editions, or at all. In 2009, Mosaic returned to the vinyl format with the HQ Vinyl Series and began issuing three and four LP sets of 2,500-5,000 copies. Mosaic's sets are primarily sold and distributed directly to cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bing Crosby Show (1954–1956)
The Bing Crosby Show was broadcast daily Mondays to Fridays and was of 15 minutes duration with Bing Crosby talking about all manner of different subjects and usually including three songs around the dialogue. Overview During the summer of 1954 with radio audiences everywhere declining dramatically, Crosby decided not to continue with a major weekly radio show involving the expense of guest stars and a 22 piece orchestra. However, he was persuaded to continue in radio, albeit in a different and cheaper format. On November 22, 1954 ‘The Bing Crosby Show’ emerged on CBS at 9:15 p.m. preceding Amos 'n' Andy. For the 15-minute show, Bill Morrow provided a script of sorts, Ken Carpenter was the announcer and Murdo MacKenzie edited it all together using songs that the singer had pre-recorded at sessions with Buddy Cole and his trio (Buddy on piano and electric organ, Perry Botkin ater replaced by Vince Terrion guitar, banjo etc., Don Whittaker on bass, Nick Fatool on drums) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs. His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed, such as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Dick Haymes, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon. ''Yank'' magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. In 1948, ''Music Digest'' estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led one of the United States' most popular big bands in the late 1930s through the early 1940s. Though he had numerous hit records, he was perhaps best known for his 1938 recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine." Before the release of "Beguine," Shaw and his fledgling band had languished in relative obscurity for over two years and, after its release, he became a major pop artist within short order. The record eventually became one of the era's defining recordings. Musically restless, Shaw was also an early proponent of what became known much later as Third Stream music, which blended elements of classical and jazz forms and traditions. His music influenced other musicians, such as Monty Norman in England, with the vamp of the James Bond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire") and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells. Early life Melvin Howard Tormé was born in Chicago, Illinois, to William David Torme, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, and Betty Torme (née Sopkin), a New York City native. He graduated from Hyde Park High School. A child prodigy, he first performed professionally at age four with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra, singing "You're Driving Me Crazy" at Chicago's Blackhawk restaurant. He played drums in the drum-and-bugle corps at Shakespeare Elementary School. From 1933 to 1941, he acted in the radio programs ''The Romance of Helen Trent'' and ''Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy''. He wrote his first song at 13. Three years later his first published song, "Lament to Love", became a hit for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
