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My Beauty
''My Beauty'' is a solo album by Kevin Rowland, lead singer of Dexys Midnight Runners. It was first released in 1999, eleven years after his solo debut '' The Wanderer''. In the interim he had experienced problems with drug addiction. ''My Beauty'' is an album of cover songs, although Rowland rewrote several of the lyrics to reflect his battles against substance abuse. The album is notorious for its cover, which shows Rowland in drag and make-up, an image which Rowland also used during contemporaneous appearances at the Glastonbury and Reading festivals. During his appearance at Reading he was pelted with bottles thrown by the audience. The album was intended to have 12 tracks, and the promo CD distributed (to radio/press) before the official album had all twelve. However, the song " Thunder Road" (written by Bruce Springsteen) was pulled from the album at the last minute because Springsteen had not approved the lyrical changes made by Rowland. It is reinstated on the 2020 re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Rowland
Kevin Rowland (born 17 August 1953) is a British singer and musician best known as the frontman for the pop band Dexys Midnight Runners (currently called ''Dexys''). The band had several hits in the early 1980s, the most notable being "Geno" and "Come On Eileen", both of which reached number one on the UK Singles Chart. Early life Rowland was born in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, on 17 August 1953 to Irish parents from Crossmolina, County Mayo, Ireland, and he lived for three years in Ireland between the ages of one and four before returning to Wolverhampton. The family moved to Harrow when he was 11 years old and he left school at the age of 15. Before his music career, Rowland worked as a hairdresser. Career Rowland's first group, Lucy & the Lovers, were influenced by Roxy Music and turned out to be short-lived. His next project, the punk rock act the Killjoys, were slightly more successful, releasing the single "Johnny Won't Get To Heaven" in 1977. Alienated by the punk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rag Doll (Four Seasons Song)
"Rag Doll" is a popular song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio. It was recorded by the Four Seasons and released as a single in 1964. Background According to songwriter Bob Gaudio, the recording was inspired by an occasion involving the homeless children who, at stop lights in the city, would run into the street and clean windshields for spare change. In the Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan neighborhood, a young girl with a dirty face and wearing ragged clothes approached Gaudio's automobile. When he reached into his wallet to pay her, he found that none of the notes were smaller than $10. He gave the girl a $10 bill. (Some accounts indicate that it was a $5 bill.) "The image of her stuck in my head until I wrote 'Rag Doll'", Gaudio recalled in a 2009 interview. ''Billboard'' described the song as a "sentimental slow dance ballad." ''Cash Box'' described it as "a touching, cha cha beat opus...that the group serves up in their fabulous style" and that features the "hit sounds" of Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynthia Weil
Cynthia Weil (born October 18, 1940) is an American songwriter who wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. Life and career Weil was born in New York City, and was raised in a Conservative Jewish family. Her father was Morris Weil, a furniture store owner and the son of Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants, and her mother was Dorothy Mendez, who grew up in a Sephardic Jewish family in Brooklyn. Weil trained as an actress and dancer, but soon demonstrated a songwriting ability that led to her collaboration with Barry Mann, whom she married in August 1961. The couple has one daughter, Jenn Mann. Weil became one of the Brill Building songwriters of the 1960s, and one of the most important writers during the emergence of rock and roll. She and her husband went on to create songs for many contemporary artists, winning several Grammy Awards as well as Academy Award nominations for their compositions for film. As their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography put it, in part: "Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Mann
Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman; February 9, 1939) is an American songwriter and musician, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil. He has written or co-written 53 hits in the UK and 98 in the US. Early life Mann was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City, United States. He was born two days before fellow songwriter Gerry Goffin. Career His first successful song as a writer was "She Say (Oom Dooby Doom)", a Top 20 chart-scoring song composed for the band The Diamonds in 1959. Mann co-wrote the song with Mike Anthony (Michael Logiudice). In 1961, Mann had his greatest success to that point with "I Love How You Love Me", written with Larry Kolber and a no. 5 scoring single for the band The Paris Sisters (seven years later, Bobby Vinton's version would reach the Top 10). The same year, Mann himself reached the Top 40 as a performer with a novelty song co-written with Gerry Goffin, " Who Put the Bomp", which parodied the nonsense ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It's Getting Better
"It's Getting Better" is a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that was a sunshine pop hit single in 1969 for Mama Cass. Overview The song describes the singer's satisfaction with a love relationship that is down-to-earth rather than extravagantly romantic, a subgenre of love song exemplified by the Jerome Kern/ P. G. Wodehouse composition " Bill". Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil had previously written the similarly themed " He's Sure the Boy I Love", a hit for the Crystals in 1963. The earliest evident recording of "It's Getting Better" was by the Vogues for their August 1968 album release ''Turn Around, Look at Me'' (Reprise Records). Also in 1968, the song was featured on the Leonard Nimoy album ''The Way I Feel'' ( Dot Records) released that October. The first evident single release of "It's Getting Better" was by Pierre Lalonde on the Montréalais label Disco Prestige in September 1968 with the track's parent album: ''Introducing Peter Martin'', being released t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lennon–McCartney
Lennon–McCartney was the songwriting partnership between English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is the best-known and most successful musical collaboration ever by records sold, with the Beatles selling over 600 million records worldwide as of 2004. Between 5 October 1962 and 8 May 1970, the partnership published approximately 180 jointly credited songs, of which the vast majority were recorded by the Beatles, forming the bulk of their catalogue. Unlike many songwriting partnerships that comprise a separate lyricist and composer, such as George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, or Elton John and Bernie Taupin, both Lennon and McCartney wrote lyrics and music. Sometimes, especially early on, they would collaborate extensively when writing songs, working "eyeball to eyeball" as Lennon phrased it. During the latter half of their partnership, it became more common for either of them to write most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Long And Winding Road
"The Long and Winding Road" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album ''Let It Be''. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. When issued as a single in May 1970, a month after the Beatles' break-up, it became the group's 20th and last number-one hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the United States. The main recording of the song took place in January 1969 and featured a sparse musical arrangement. When preparing the tapes from these sessions for release in April 1970, producer Phil Spector added orchestral and choral overdubs. Spector's modifications angered McCartney to the point that when he made his case in the English High Court for the Beatles' disbandment, McCartney cited the treatment of the song as one of six reasons justifying the split. New versions of the song with simpler instrumentation were subsequently released by McCartney and by the Beatles. Inspiration Paul McCartney said he came up with the ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal David
Harold Lane David (May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He grew up in New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick. Early life David was born in New York City, a son of Austrian Jewish immigrants Lina (née Goldberg) and Gedalier David, who owned a delicatessen in New York. He is the younger brother of American lyricist and songwriter Mack David. Career David is credited with popular music lyrics, beginning in the 1940s with material written for bandleader Sammy Kaye and for Guy Lombardo. He worked with Morty Nevins of The Three Suns on four songs for the feature film ''Two Gals and a Guy'' (1951), starring Janis Paige and Robert Alda. In 1957, David met composer Burt Bacharach at Famous Music in the Brill Building in New York. The two teamed up and wrote their first hit " The Story of My Life", recorded by Marty Robbins in 1957. Subsequently, in the 1960s and early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burt Bacharach
Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach's songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. , he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. He is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music. His music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by his background in jazz harmony, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. Most of Bacharach and David's hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick but earlier associations (from 1957 to 1963) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hits for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
This Guy's In Love With You
"This Guy's in Love with You" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and recorded by Herb Alpert. Although known primarily for his trumpet playing as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, Alpert sang lead vocals on this solo recording, arranged by Bacharach. An earlier recording of the song was by British singer Danny Williams titled "That Guy's in Love", which appears on his 1968 self-titled album. History The song appears to have originally been written by Hal David with lyrics to be sung by a female singer. A version was then released by Danny Williams, with lyrics about his female partner being in love with another man, some months before the Alpert version. Herb Alpert version As documented in an ''A&E Biography'' episode featuring Bacharach, the recording originated when Alpert, while visiting at Bacharach's office, asked, "Say, Burt, do you happen to have any old compositions lying around that you and Hal never recorded; maybe one I might be able to use?" Alper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Stewart (musician)
John Coburn Stewart (September 5, 1939 – January 19, 2008) was an American songwriter and singer. He is known for his contributions to the American folk music movement of the 1960s while with the Kingston Trio (1961–1967) and as a popular music songwriter of the Monkees' No. 1 hit "Daydream Believer" and his own No. 5 hit "Gold" during a solo career spanning 40 years that included almost four dozen albums and more than 600 recorded songs. Early life Born in San Diego, Stewart was the son of horse trainer John S. Stewart and spent his childhood and adolescence in Southern California, living mostly in the cities of Pasadena and Claremont. He graduated in 1957 from Pomona Catholic High School, which at the time was a coeducational school. Following graduation from high school, John went on to attend Mt. San Antonio Junior College in Pomona, California, during 1957–1958, when he was active in its music and theater programs. He demonstrated an early talent for music, learnin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daydream Believer
"Daydream Believer" is a song composed by American songwriter John Stewart shortly before he left the Kingston Trio. It was originally recorded by the Monkees, with Davy Jones singing the lead. The single reached No. 1 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in December 1967, remaining there for four weeks, and peaked at No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. It was the Monkees' third and last No. 1 hit in the U.S. In 1979, "Daydream Believer" was recorded by Canadian singer Anne Murray, whose version reached No. 3 on the U.S. country singles chart and No. 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song has been recorded by others, including a 1971 version by Stewart. The song title was featured in the name of the 2000 biopic about the band, '' Daydream Believers: The Monkees' Story''. The 2022 American drama film, Women Talking features this song. Background John Stewart wrote "Daydream Believer" as the third in a trilogy of songs about suburban life, recalling: "I remember going to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
