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Minnie Riperton
Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You" and her four octave D3 to F7 coloratura soprano range. She is also widely known for her use of the whistle register and has been referred to by the media as the "Queen of the Whistle Register." Born in 1947, Riperton grew up in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. As a child, she studied music, drama and dance at Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Center. In her teen years, she sang lead vocals for the Chicago-based girl group the Gems. Her early affiliation with the Chicago-based Chess Records afforded her the opportunity to sing backing vocals for various established artists such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Ramsey Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. While at Chess, Riperton also sang lead for the experimental rock/soul group Rotary Connection, from 1967 to 1971. On April 5, 1975, Riperton reached the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perfect Angel
''Perfect Angel'' is the second studio album by American singer Minnie Riperton, released on August 9, 1974 by Epic Records. The album contains the biggest hit of Riperton's career, "Lovin' You", which topped the U.S. Pop Singles chart for one week in early April 1975. Background In 1973, a college intern for Epic Records found Riperton in semi-retirement.Minnie Riperton - Petals: The Minnie Riperton Collection (CD liner notes) The Right Stuff/Capitol Records 7243 5 29343-2 She had become a homemaker and a mother of two in Florida. After he heard a demo of the song "Lie In The World", the rep took the tape to Gracie Allen, VP of A&R for Epic. Riperton signed with Epic Records, and the family moved to Los Angeles. Riperton's husband, Richard Rudolph, said that shortly after she was signed to Epic, Ellis asked them who they wanted to produce the album. Riperton requested Stevie Wonder, who was very busy at the time with his band Wonderlove. Rudolph said that Wonder was a huge fan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lovin' You
"Lovin' You" is a song recorded by American singer Minnie Riperton from her second studio album, ''Perfect Angel'' (1974). It was written by Riperton and Richard Rudolph, produced by Rudolph and Stevie Wonder, and released as the album's fourth single on January 18, 1975. The song peaked at number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on April 5, 1975. Additionally, it reached number two on the UK Singles chart, and number three on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart. In the US, it ranked number 13 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1975. On April 8, 1975, "Lovin' You" was certified Gold in the United States by the RIAA for sales in excess of 1,000,000 units. It was also certified Silver in the UK by BPI on May 1, 1975 for sales of 250,000 units. Background Richard Rudolph began composing "Lovin' You" in 1971, while he and Riperton were living in Chicago. The couple later moved to Florida, where work on the song continued after their daughter Maya was born in 1972. Riperton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deniece Williams
Deniece Williams (born June Deniece Chandler; June 3, 1951) is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC. She is best known for the songs " Free", " Silly", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" and two ''Billboard'' Hot 100 No.1 singles "Let's Hear It for the Boy" and "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" (with Johnny Mathis). Williams has won four Grammys with twelve nominations altogether. Early life June Deniece Chandler was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, United States. She attended Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, in the hopes of becoming a registered nurse and an anesthetist, but she dropped out after a year and a half. She recalled, "You have to be a good student to be in college, and I wasn't." Career Early years (late 1960s-1980) Williams started performing while a college student, "a part-time job singing at a club, Casino Royal, and I liked it. It was a lot of fun." During those years, she also worked at a telephon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Experimental Rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with some of the genre's distinguishing characteristics being improvisation (music), improvisational performances, avant-garde influences, odd instrumentation, opaque lyrics (or instrumentals), unorthodox structures and rhythms, and an underlying rejection of commercial aspirations. From its inception, rock music was experimental, but it was not until the late 1960s that rock artists began creating extended and complex compositions through advancements in multitrack recording. In 1967, the genre was as commercially viable as Popular music, pop music, but by 1970, most of its leading players had incapacitated themselves in some form. In Germany, the krautrock subgenre merged elements of improvisation and psychedelic rock with electronic music, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude". Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, emulating the local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson."His thick heavy voice, the dark colouration of his tone, and his firm, almost solid, personality were all clearly derived from House," wrote the music historian Peter Guralnick in ''Feel Like Going Home'', "but the embellishments, which he added, the imaginative slide technique and more agile rhythms, were closer to Johnson." He was recorded in Mississippi by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. In 1943, he moved to Chicago to become a full-time professi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as " Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and " Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.Campbell, M. (ed.) (2008). ''Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes On''. 3rd ed. Cengage Learning. pp. 168–169. Born into a middle-class black family in St. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student, he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformator ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bo Diddley
Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, including Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, George Thorogood, and The Clash. His use of African rhythms and a signature beat, a simple five- accent hambone rhythm, is a cornerstone of hip hop, rock, and pop music. In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2017. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Diddley is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his use of tremolo and reverb effects to enhance the sound of his distinctive rectangular-shaped guitars. Early life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ramsey Lewis
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. (May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and radio personality. Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five RIAA certification, gold records and three Grammy Awards in his career. His album ''The In Crowd (Ramsey Lewis album), The In Crowd'' earned Lewis critical praise and the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance. His best known singles include "The 'In' Crowd (song), The In Crowd", "Wade in the Water", and "Sun Goddess (song), Sun Goddess". Until 2009, he was the host of the ''Ramsey Lewis Morning Show'' on the Chicago radio station WNUA. Lewis was also active in musical education in Chicago. He founded the Ramsey Lewis Foundation, established the Ravinia's Jazz Mentor Program, and served on the board of trustees for the Merit School of Music and The Chicago High School for the Arts. Life and career Ramsey Lewis was born on May 27, 1935, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fontella Bass
Fontella Marie Bass (July 3, 1940 – December 26, 2012) was an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter best known for her number-one R&B hit " Rescue Me" in 1965. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice. Early life Fontella Bass was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the daughter of gospel singer Martha Bass, who was a member of the Clara Ward Singers, and the older sister of R&B singer David Peaston. At an early age, Fontella showed great musical talent. At the age of five, she provided the piano accompaniment for her grandmother's singing at funeral services, she sang in her church's choir at six, and by the time she was nine, she had accompanied her mother on tours throughout the South and Southwest America. Bass continued touring with her mother until age of sixteen. As a teenager, Bass was attracted by more secular music. She began singing R&B songs at local contests and fairs while attending Soldan High School from which she graduated in 1958. At 17, she sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etta James
Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer who performed in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as " The Wallflower", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got a Hold on Me", and "I'd Rather Go Blind". She faced a number of personal problems, including heroin addiction, severe physical abuse, and incarceration, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album '' Seven Year Itch''. James's deep and earthy voice bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. She won six Grammy Awards and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Side, Chicago
The South Side is an area of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. It lies south of the city's Loop area in the downtown. Geographically, it is the largest of the three sides of the city that radiate from downtown, with the other two being the north and west sides. Much of the South Side came from the city's annexation of townships such as Hyde Park. The city's Sides have historically been divided by the Chicago River and its branches. The South Side of Chicago was originally defined as all of the city south of the main branch of the Chicago River, but it now excludes the Loop. The South Side has a varied ethnic composition and a great variety of income levels and other demographic measures. It has a reputation for crime, although most crime is contained within certain neighborhoods, not throughout the South Side itself, and residents range from affluent to middle class to poor. South Side neighborhoods such as Armour Square, Back of the Yards, Bridgeport, and Pullman host more blue colla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronzeville, Chicago
Douglas, on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, is one of Chicago's 77 community areas. The neighborhood is named for Stephen A. Douglas, Illinois politician and Abraham Lincoln's political foe, whose estate included a tract of land given to the federal government. This tract later was developed for use as the Civil War Union training and prison camp, Camp Douglas, located in what is now the eastern portion of the Douglas neighborhood. Douglas gave that part of his estate at Cottage Grove and 35th to the Old University of Chicago. The Chicago 2016 Olympic bid planned for the Olympic Village to be constructed on a truck parking lot, south of McCormick Place, that is mostly in the Douglas community area and partly in the Near South Side. The Douglas community area stretches from 26th Street, south to Pershing Road along the Lake Shore, including parts of the Green Line, along State Street and the Metra Electric and Amtrak passenger railroad tracks, which run parallel to Lak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
