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Merciless (album)
''Merciless'' is the seventh studio album by American R&B singer Stephanie Mills. It was released in 1983 and Stephanie's second release on Casablanca Records. The album features two Billboard R&B hits in "Pilot Error", a cover version of Prince's "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" as well as "My Body" written by singer Luther Vandross. ''Merciless'' received a nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female at the 26th Grammy Awards in 1984. Track listing # " How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" ( Prince) - 4:12 # "Never Get Enough of You" (David Wolfert, Henry Gaffney) - 4:31 # " Eternal Love" (Jay Asher, Paul Jabara) - 4:41 # "His Name is Michael" (featuring Peggi Blu) (Cassandra Mills, Michael Sembello, Stephanie Mills) - 3:18 # "Here I Am" (David Wolfert, Henry Gaffney) - 4:13 # "My Body" (Luther Vandross) - 4:06 # "Do You Love Him?" (Barbara Morr, Betsy Durkin Matthes) - 3:47 # "Pilot Error" (Peter Kingsbery) - 5:07 # "Since We've Been Together" (Ralph Schucket ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephanie Mills
Stephanie Dorthea Mills (born March 22, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to stardom as "Dorothy" in the original seven-time Tony Award winning Broadway run of the musical ''The Wiz'' from 1974 to 1979. The song " Home" from the show later became a Number 1 U.S. R&B hit and her signature song. During the 1980s, she had five Number 1 R&B hits, including " Home", " I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love", " I Feel Good All Over", " (You're Puttin') A Rush on Me" and " Something in the Way (You Make Me Feel)". She won two Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her song " Never Knew Love Like This Before" in 1981. Her albums '' What Cha Gonna Do with My Lovin'', '' Sweet Sensation'' and ''Stephanie'' went gold or platinum, all through 20th Century Fox Records. Biography Early life and career Born Stephanie Dorthea Mills to Joseph and Christine Mills and raised in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Mills sang gospel music as a child at Brooklyn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peggi Blu
Peggi Blu is an American actress, singer and vocal coach. She is the 1986 "''Star Search Grand Champion (Female Vocalist)''" winner and the winner of the 2013 "Malibu Music Awards" ("''Vocal Coach of the Year''") award. She is best known as an ''American Idol'' vocal coach'". Early life Blu was born in Lumberton North Carolina and began singing at the age of 3. A relocation to New York city at the age of 14 with her uncle Bishop Walter L. Benton and his choir opened the way to her professional career. Due to constant bookings and a demand for her vocals she was home-schooled. Career Her career as a session background singer began in 1973 with Archie Shepp's ''"Rest Enough (Song To Mother)"'', from his ''"The Cry Of My People"'' album. Session work continued throughout the 1970s with artists such as Elkie Brooks, Esther Phillips, and Louis Farrakhan. In 1980, she landed her first major label contract with MCA Records. In 1987, the album ''Blu Blowin produced two minor R& ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Robinson (drummer)
John Frederick Robinson (born December 29, 1954), known professionally as JR, is an American drummer and session musician who has been called "one of the most recorded drummers in history". He is known for his work with producer Quincy Jones, including Michael Jackson's multi-platinum ''Off the Wall'' album and the charity single "We Are the World". JR's drum fill kicks off Jackson's chart topper "Rock with You", and his drum solo opens the Steve Winwood album ''Back in the High Life'' (1986) to begin the number 1 song "Higher Love". ''Rolling Stone'' listed JR in 2016 at number 81 in their list of the top 100 "Greatest Drummers of All Time". He was awarded one Grammy Award for the Rufus/Chaka Khan single "Ain't Nobody", but has played drums on more than 50 Grammy winners. JR plays in many different styles. His first fame came with the funk band Rufus, and he recorded dance/funk hits with the Pointer Sisters. In the pop and rock fields, his work stretches from the straight-up r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ed Greene
Ed Greene is an American drummer and session musician. In 1971 he recorded with Donald Byrd (''Ethiopian Knights'', 1972), together with Thurman Green, Harold Land, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Sample, Bobbye Porter Hall, David T. Walker, and Wilton Felder, among others. Greene has also recorded with Barry White, Stanley Turrentine, Richard Cook (journalist), Cook, Richard, Brian Morton (Scottish writer), Brian Morton''The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Disc'', p. 1495.At Google Books. Retrieved 5 January 2022. B.B. King, Ramsey Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie, Steely Dan,Don Breithaupt, Breithaupt, Don''Steely Dan's Aja'', pp. 56, 103. A&C Black, 2007. ISBN 0826427839, 9780826427830.At Google Books. Retrieved 5 January 2022. Bobby "Blue" Bland, Phoebe Snow, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, among others. Greene was Barry White's drummer on recording sessions, and he played on many of White's biggest hits, including his 1973 hit "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby". Partial discography ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Stubenhaus
Neil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist. Career He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. He studied at the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in 1975. After graduation, he was recommended by Steve Swallow and started teaching while playing in a band with another Berklee student Steve Smith (Vital Information, Journey). While at Berklee, Neil met session drummers Vinnie Colaiuta (who has worked with famous musicians such as Sting, & Frank Zappa) and John Robinson (who has also worked with superstars, including Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson). In 1977 he joined Blood Sweat & Tears and recorded David Clayton-Thomas' first solo album. In 1978, he went on tour with Larry Carlton. That led him to move to the West Coast where, following recommendations from Carlton, he met Mike Post and other composers and started doing sessions. Since 1979, Stubenhaus performed on more than 600 albums (of wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nathan East
Nathan Harrell East (born December 8, 1955) is an American jazz, R&B, and rock bass player and vocalist. With more than 2,000 recordings, East is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music. East holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from the University of California, San Diego (1978). He is a founding member of contemporary jazz quartet Fourplay and has recorded, performed, and co-written songs with performers such as Bobby Womack, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Joe Satriani, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder, Toto, Kenny Loggins, Daft Punk, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock. Career Early life Nathan Harrell East was born on December 8, 1955 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Thomas and Gwendolyn East. He is one of eight children (five boys and three girls) raised Catholic in San Diego, where the family moved when he was four. He is the younger brother of Msgr Ray East of St Teresa of Avila Church in DC. East first studied cello fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buzz Feiten
Howard "Buzz" Feiten (born November 4, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, session musician, and luthier. He is best known as a lead and rhythm guitarist and for having patented a tuning system for guitars and similar instruments. Feiten also manufactures and markets solid-body electric guitars. Early years Feiten grew up in Huntington Station and Centerport, New York, where he was known by schoolmates and friends as "Buzzy". The son of a musical mother, Pauline (a classical pianist), and an airline pilot, Howard Sr., Feiten received training in classical music as a child. His older sister Paula was a flautist and fashion model in the mid-1960s. A younger brother, Jon, was also involved in music and the arts. In youth, he studied several musical instruments, settling on the French horn. As a teenager, he played in all-county (Suffolk) and all-state (New York) youth orchestras on the instrument. Feiten first played Carnegie Hall in 1966 on French horn in American ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Underwood
Ian Robertson Underwood (born May 22, 1939) is a woodwind and keyboards player, known for his work with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Biography Underwood graduated from The Choate School in 1957 and Yale University with a bachelor's degree in composition in 1961 and a master's degree in composition at UC Berkeley in 1966. He began his career by playing San Francisco Bay Area coffeehouses and bars with his improvisational group, the Jazz Mice, in the mid-1960s before he became a member of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in 1967 for their third studio album, ''We're Only in It for the Money''. He speaks on ''Uncle Meat''; on the track "Ian Underwood Whips It Out" he relates how he first met Zappa and demonstrated his capabilities on the saxophone at Zappa's invitation. Underwood later worked with Frank Zappa on his solo recordings, including 1969's '' Hot Rats''. He married Ruth Komanoff (Underwood), marimbist/percussionist from the Mothers of Invention in Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dan Sembello
Daniel Sembello (January 15, 1963 – August 15, 2015) was an American songwriter, record producer and multi-instrumentalist. He produced recordings by artists including George Benson and Pebbles, and he had his compositions recorded by Chaka Khan, Jeffrey Osborne, Patti LaBelle (the hit single "Stir It Up"), Irene Cara, René & Angela, and The Pointer Sisters (the hit single "Neutron Dance"). In 1986, he won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, for his contributions to the ''Beverly Hills Cop'' soundtrack. He was the brother of Michael Sembello. Danny Sembello drowned in the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia 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. Sinc ..., on August 15, 2015. He was first reported missing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Mandel
John Alfred Mandel (November 23, 1925June 29, 2020) was an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. The musicians he worked with include Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Diane Schuur and Shirley Horn. He won five Grammy Awards - from 17 nominations; his first nomination was for his debut film score for the multi-nominated 1958 film ''I Want to Live!'' Early life Mandel was born in the borough of Manhattan in New York City on November 23, 1925. His father, Alfred, was a garment manufacturer who ran Mandel & Cash; his mother, Hannah (Hart-Rubin), had aimed to be an opera singer and discovered her son had perfect pitch at the age of five. His family was Jewish. They moved to Los Angeles in 1934, after his father's business collapsed during the Great Depression. Mandel was given piano lessons, but switched to the trumpet and later the trombone. Career Mandel studied at the Manhattan School of Music and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Tee
Richard Edward Tee (born Richard Edward Ten Ryk; November 24, 1943 – July 21, 1993) was an American pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "In Your Eyes", "Slip Slidin' Away", "Just the Two of Us", "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow (Than I Was Today)", "Crackerbox Palace", "Tell Her About It", " Don't Give Up" and many others. Biography Tee was born in Brooklyn, New York to Edward James Ten Ryk (1886–1963), who was from Guyana, and Helen G. Ford Skeete Ten Ryk (1902–2000), of New York. Tee spent most of his life in Brooklyn and lived with his mother in a brownstone apartment building. Tee graduated from The High School of Music & Art in New York City and attended the Manhattan School of Music. Though better known as a studio and session musician, Tee led a jazz ensemble, the Richard Tee Committee, and was a founding member of the band Stuff. In 1981, he played the piano and Fender Rhodes for Simo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Phillinganes
Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed the role of keyboards to numerous albums representing a broad array of artists and genres. He has toured with notable artists, such as Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour and Toto, served as musical director for Michael Jackson, and has released two solo studio albums. Biography Gregory Arthur Phillinganes was born on May 12, 1956, in Detroit, Michigan. He began playing a neighbor's piano by ear at the age of two, beginning lessons a few years later after his mother purchased a piano for him. He took lessons from two different instructors before his mother brought him to Misha Kotler, a Detroit Symphony Orchestra pianist who introduced the discipline and technique Phillinganes required to excel. Phillinganes credits Kotler with showing him proper hand posture and for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
