Mary's Boy Child
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Mary's Boy Child
"Mary's Boy Child", also known as "Mary's Little Boy Child", is a 1956 Christmas song written by Jester Hairston. It is widely performed as a Christmas carol. History The song had its genesis when Hairston was sharing a room with a friend. The friend asked him to write a song for a birthday party.''Boney M'', John Shearlaw and David Brown, Hamlin Paperbacks, 1979 , page 105 Hairston wrote the song with a calypso rhythm because the people at the party would be mainly West Indians. The song's original title was "He Pone and Chocolate Tea", pone being a type of corn bread. It was never recorded in this form. Some time later Walter Schumann, at the time conducting Schumann's Hollywood Choir, asked Hairston to write a new Christmas song for his choir. Hairston remembered the calypso rhythm from his old song and wrote new lyrics for it. Harry Belafonte heard the song being performed by the choir and sought permission to record it. It was recorded in 1956 and released as a single th ...
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Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte's career breakthrough album ''Calypso (album), Calypso'' (1956) was the first million-selling LP album, LP by a single artist. Belafonte was best known for his recordings of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)", "Jamaica Farewell", and "Mary's Boy Child". He recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk music, folk, gospel music, gospel, show tunes, and Great American Songbook, American standards. He also starred in films such as ''Carmen Jones (film), Carmen Jones'' (1954), ''Island in the Sun (film), Island in the Sun'' (1957), ''Odds Against Tomorrow'' (1959), ''Buck and the Preacher'' (1972), and ''Uptown Saturday Night'' (1974). He made his final feature film appearance in Spike Lee's ''Bl ...
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Corn Bread
Cornbread is a quick bread made with cornmeal, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, with origins in Native American cuisine. It is an example of batter bread. Dumplings and pancakes made with finely ground cornmeal are staple foods of the Hopi people in Arizona. The Hidatsa people of the Upper Midwest call baked cornbread ''naktsi'', while the Choctaw people of the Southeast call it ''bvnaha''. The Cherokee and Seneca tribes enrich the basic batter, adding chestnuts, sunflower seeds, apples, or berries, and sometimes combine it with beans or potatoes. Modern versions of cornbread are usually leavened by baking powder. History Native people in the Americas began using corn (maize) and ground corn as food thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the New World. First domesticated in Mexico around six thousand years ago, corn was introduced to what is now the United States between three thousand and one thousand years ago. Native cooks developed a ...
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Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson ( ; born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel music, gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to the development and spread of gospel blues in black churches throughout the U.S. During a time when Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation was pervasive in American society, she met considerable and unexpected success in a recording career, selling an estimated 22 million records and performing in front of integrated and secular audiences in concert halls around the world, making her one of the best-selling List of best-selling gospel music artists, gospel music artists. The granddaughter of Slavery in the United States, enslaved people, Jackson was born and raised in poverty in New Orleans. She found a home in her church, leading to a lifelong dedication and singular purpose to deliver God's word through ...
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The Four Lads
The Four Lads were a Irish male singing quartet that earned many gold singles and albums in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Their million-selling signature tunes include " Moments to Remember"; " Standing on the Corner"; " No, Not Much"; " Who Needs You?" and "Istanbul". The Four Lads appeared on many television shows, including ''The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom'' (1958); Perry Como's show ''Perry Presents'' (1959); '' Frankie Laine Time'' (1956); and the award-winning PBS special, ''Moments to Remember: My Music.'' The most recent incarnation of the group featured lead tenor Don Farrar, second tenor Aaron Bruce, baritone Alan Sokoloff, and bass singer Frank Busseri. The original quartet grew up together in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where they learned to sing at St. Michael's Choir School. The founding and core members were Corrado "Connie" Codarini, bass; John Bernard "Bernie" Toorish, tenor and vocal arranger; James F. "Jimmy" Arnold, lead; and Frank "Frankie" Busseri, barito ...
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Merry Christmas (Andy Williams Album)
''Merry Christmas'' is the second Christmas album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released by Columbia Records in 1965, and his seventeenth studio album overall. This seasonal LP is focused exclusively on 20th century compositions, unlike 1963's '' The Andy Williams Christmas Album'', which, of its 12 tracks, had six with origins predating the turn of the century. For the six consecutive holiday seasons from 1965 through 1970, ''Merry Christmas'' charted on ''Billboard'' magazine's special year-end weekly Christmas Albums sales chart.. The album spent two weeks as the number one selling Christmas album during the holiday season of 1966 and one week atop that same chart in 1969. it debuted on the '' Cashbox'' albums chart in the issue dated December 18, 1965, and remained on the chart for 2 weeks, peaking at number 78 The single from the album, "Do You Hear What I Hear?", reached number 18 on the Christmas Singles chart in 1965. On May 23, 1968, ''Merry Christmas'' ...
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Andy Williams
Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hosted ''the Andy Williams Show'', a television variety show, from 1962 to 1971, along with numerous TV specials. ''The Andy Williams Show'' won three Emmy Awards. He sold more than 45 million records worldwide, including more than 10 million certified units in the United States. Williams was active in the music industry for over 70 years until his death in September 2012 from bladder cancer, at the age of 84. Early life and education Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa, on December 3, 1927, to Florence (''née'' Finley) and Jay Emerson Williams, who worked in insurance and the post office. While living in Cheviot, Ohio, Williams attended Western Hills High School (Cincinnati, Ohio), Western Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He finishe ...
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Official Charts Company
The Official UK Charts Company Limited (formerly Music Industry Chart Services Limited), trading as the Official Charts Company (OCC) or the Official Charts (formerly the Chart Information Network), is a British inter-professional organisation that compiles various official record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. In the United Kingdom, its charts include ones for singles, albums and films, with the data compiled from a mixture of downloads, purchases (of physical media) and streaming. The OCC produces its charts by gathering and combining sales data from retailers through market researchers Kantar, and claims to cover 99% of the singles market and 95% of the album market, and aims to collect data from any retailer who sells more than 100 chart items per week. The OCC is operated jointly by the British Phonographic Industry and the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) (formerly the British Association of Record Dealers (BARD)) and is incorporated as a ...
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Mary's Boy Child – Oh My Lord
"Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord" is a 1978 Christmas single by Boney M., a cover of Harry Belafonte's 1956 hit "Mary's Boy Child", put in a medley with the new song "Oh My Lord". The single had its premiere on 2 November 1978 on the German TV-show '' Starparade'' (Episode 44) which aired on ZDF. It topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and became Christmas number one in the UK, spending eight weeks in the charts. It has sold 1.89 million units as of November 2015. It was the second single for the group in the UK's all-time best selling singles list. The song was later included as a 5:10 edit leaving out the third verse and with a shortened "Oh My Lord" in the group's '' Christmas Album'', issued in 1981. In the United States, the track reached number 85 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, Boney M's last of four singles to chart there. In 2017, it experienced a resurgence and peaked at number 89 on the Holiday 100. In certain areas of the U.S., the medley can sometimes be hear ...
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Boney M
Boney M. is a German reggae, funk and disco music group founded in 1974. It achieved popularity during the disco era in the second half of the 1970s. The band was created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter and singer. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the band's official line-up were Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett from Jamaica, Maizie Williams from Montserrat, and Bobby Farrell from Aruba. Since the 1980s, various line-ups of the band have performed with different members. The band sold over 100 million records during their commercial heyday, and are known for hits including "Daddy Cool (Boney M. song), Daddy Cool", "Ma Baker", "Belfast (Boney M. song), Belfast", "Sunny (Bobby Hebb song)#Boney M. version, Sunny", "Rasputin (song), Rasputin", "Rivers of Babylon", "Brown Girl in the Ring (song), Brown Girl in the Ring", "Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday", "Mary's Boy Child – Oh My Lord, Mary's Boy Chil ...
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Cover Version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song released around the same time as the original in order to compete with it. Now, it refers to any subsequent version performed after the original. History The term "cover" goes back decades when cover version originally described a rival version of a tune recorded to compete with the recently released (original) version. Examples of records covered include Paul Williams' 1949 hit tune " The Hucklebuck" and Hank Williams' 1952 song " Jambalaya". Both crossed over to the popular hit parade and had numerous hit versions. Before the mid-20th century, the notion of an original version of a popular tune would have seemed slightly odd – the production of musical entertainment was seen as a live event, even if it was reproduced at home via a ...
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Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Music Group, an American division of multinational conglomerate Sony. Founded in 1889, Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, and the second major company to produce records. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels, along with Epic Records, RCA Records and Arista Records. History Beginnings (1888–1929) The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded on January 15, 1889, by stenographer, lawyer, and New Jersey native Edward D. Easton (1856–1915) and a group of investors. It derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a local monopoly on sales and service of Edison ...
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Leonard De Paur
Leonard Etienne De Paur (November 18, 1914 – November 7, 1998) was an American composer, choral director, and arts administrator. Early life Leonard De Paur was born in Summit, New Jersey to Hettie Carson de Paur and Ernst Leonard. He moved to Jersey City with his mother, after his parents separated, and attended the local public schools.Woods, Timothy Erickson''Leonard de Paur's arrangements of spirituals, work songs, and African songs as contributions to choral music: A black choral musician in the mid-twentieth century'' University of Arizona, 1998. Accessed March 7, 2023. "Born in Summit, New Jersey, de Paur attended the Nixon School and Lincoln School. His parents separated, and with his mother, Hettie (Carson) de Paur, he moved to Jersey City, where she had relatives. He attended PS34 at Clairmont and Rose, and later attended PS 14 on Union St.... Leonard de Paur began his music studies at the Manual Training Institute at Bordentown, New Jersey, a military academy and i ...
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