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Menagerie (album)
''Menagerie'' is the sixth studio album by American R&B singer Bill Withers, released on October 29, 1977 through the Columbia label. Reception ''Menagerie'' is overall more uptempo and less introspective in feel than Withers' previous albums. None of the songs tackle intensely personal emotions of the kind which lent a dark edge to earlier Withers tracks such as " Use Me", "Better Off Dead" or "Who Is He (And What Is He to You)". The arrangements are also generally upbeat and breezy, with "I Want to Spend the Night" and "Tender Things" having a distinct Latin feel, and "Lovely Night for Dancing" and "She Wants To (Get On Down)" showing disco influences. The lead single " Lovely Day" has gone on to become one of Withers' signature songs, particularly in the UK, where it was a top 10 hit both on its original release and again in a remixed version in 1988. ''Menagerie'' peaked at #16 on the R&B chart and #39 on the ''Billboard'' 200. It was Withers' biggest-selling album i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Withers
William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (1972), " Lean on Me" (1972), " Lovely Day" (1977) and "Just the Two of Us" (1981). Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film ''Still Bill''. Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Two of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Early life Withers, the youngest of six children, was born in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, on July 4, 1938. He was the son of Mattie (née Galloway), a maid, and William Withers, a miner. He was born with a stutter and later said he had a hard time fitting in. His parents divorced when he was three, and he was raised by his mother's family i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ticknor & Fields
Ticknor and Fields was an American publishing company based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded as a bookstore in 1832, the business would publish many 19th century American authors including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. It also became an early publisher of ''The Atlantic Monthly'' and ''North American Review''. The firm was named after founder William Davis Ticknor and apprentice James T. Fields, although the names of additional business partners would come and go, notably that of James R. Osgood in the firm's later years. Financial problems led Osgood to merge the company with the publishing firm of Henry Oscar Houghton in 1878, forming a precursor to the modern publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Houghton Mifflin revived the Ticknor and Fields name as an imprint from 1979 to 1989. Company history Early years In 1832 William Davis Ticknor and John All ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Knight
Jerry Ernest Knight (April 17, 1952 — December 29, 1996) was an American R&B vocalist and bassist who reached prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which he was part of several groups and had a brief solo career. Career A Los Angeles native, he first gained recognition as a founding member, along with Ray Parker Jr., of the R&B group Raydio, singing vocals on their early hit "Jack and Jill." Before the group began recording their second album, he left to pursue a solo career, going on to release three solo albums and achieving moderate success with minor hits such as "Overnight Sensation," "Perfect Fit" and "Turn It Out". In 1983, Knight teamed with session drummer Ollie E. Brown to form Ollie & Jerry. Together, they provided the title track to the soundtrack for the 1984 movie ''Breakin','' which reached #9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. They also recorded the title track for '' Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo,'' which got up to #45 on the ''Billboard'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Parker Jr
Ray Erskine Parker Jr. (born May 1, 1954) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. As a solo performer, he wrote and performed the theme song to the 1984 film ''Ghostbusters''. Previously, Parker achieved a US top-10 hit in 1982 with " The Other Woman". He also performed with his band, Raydio, and with Barry White. Early life Parker was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Venolia Parker and Ray Parker Sr. He has two siblings: his brother Opelton and his sister Barbara. Parker attended Angel Elementary School where his music teacher, Afred T Kirby, inspired him to be a musician at age six playing the clarinet. Parker attended Cass Technical High School in the 10th grade. Parker is a 1971 graduate of Detroit's Northwestern High School. He was raised in the Dexter-Grand Boulevard neighborhood on its West Side. Parker attended college at Lawrence Institute of Technology. Music career Early work Parker gained recognition during the late 1960s as a member o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kashif (musician)
Kashif Saleem (born Michael Jones; December 26, 1956 – September 25, 2016) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, record producer, artist, composer, author, director and educator from New York City. As a teenager, Kashif joined the funk group B. T. Express. He studied Islam and changed his name from Michael Jones to Kashif. He later signed with Arista Records enjoying success as a solo artist. Together with Stevie Wonder, he was considered a pioneer in urban music thanks to his specific synthesizer technology approach and the introduction of MIDI in his production. Early life Kashif was born Michael Jones on December 26, 1956 (Some media outlets list his birth year as 1959), in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. His only connection to his birth family is his birth certificate, which indicates that his biological mother was incarcerated when he was four months old. He was immediately put in foster care. He was constantly abused physically and mentall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skip Scarborough
Clarence Alexander "Skip" Scarborough (November 26, 1944 – July 3, 2003) was an American songwriter, best known for romantic ballads. Biography Scarborough was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He lived in Los Angeles most of his life. He died of cancer July 3, 2003 in Los Angeles. A prolific songwriter, Scarborough wrote songs performed by L.T.D., Anita Baker and Earth, Wind & Fire. He co-wrote " Giving You the Best That I Got", which won a Grammy Award in 1988 for Best R&B Song. Scarborough was a cousin of fellow songwriter and producer Gary Taylor. Credits *1970 **"Love or Let Me Be Lonely" (Friends of Distinction) *1973 **"Love Can Make It Easier" (The Dells, (Friends of Distinction)) **"Stand Up and Show the World" (The Dells) **"Can't Hide Love" (Creative Source) **"The World's a Masquerade" (Earth, Wind & Fire) *1976 **"Can't Hide Love", (Earth, Wind & Fire, Carmen McRae, Hummingbird, Dionne Warwick, D'Angelo) **"Earth, Wind & Fire" (Earth, Wind & Fire) **" Love Ballad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lovely Day
"Lovely Day" is a song by American soul and R&B singer Bill Withers. Written by Withers and Skip Scarborough, it was released on December 21, 1977, and appears on Withers's 1977 album, ''Menagerie''. The song is notable for Withers's sustained note towards the end, which, at 18 seconds long, is one of the longest ever recorded on an American pop song. It was listed at No. 402 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time" in 2021. History Released as a single in late 1977, "Lovely Day" peaked at number 6 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart and at number 30 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the US in early 1978. Whitburn, Joel (1996). ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 6th Edition (Billboard Publications) It also made the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, where the song reached number 7 on the British single chart. "Lovely Day" has been re-released as a single in the United Kingdom at least twice since the song's first chart run; in 1987 the original version charted agai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on Fridays (previously Sundays). It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 (top 5) and found on the OCC website as a Top 100 or on UKChartsPlus as a Top 200, with positions continuing until all sales have been tracked in data only available to industry insiders. However, even though number 100 was classed as a hit album (as in the case of The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums) in the 1980s until January 1989, since the compilations were removed this definition was changed to Top 75 with follow-up books such as The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums book only including this data. As of 2021, the OCC still only tracks how many UK Top 75s album hits and how many weeks in Top 75 albums chart each artist has achieved. To qualify for the Offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard 200
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Often, a recording act will be remembered by its " number ones", those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, and acquired its current name in March 1992. Its previous names include the ''Billboard'' Top LPs (1961–1972), ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), ''Billboard'' Top 200 Albums (1984–1985) and ''Billboard'' Top Pop Albums (1985–1992). The chart is based mostly on sales – both at retail and digital – of albums in the United States. The weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday (to coinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, 1965 in an effort by the magazine to further expand into the field of rhythm and blues music. It then went through several name changes, being known as Soul LPs in the 1970s and Top Black Albums in the 1980s, before returning to the R&B identification in 1990 and affixing a hip hop designation in 1999 to reflect the latter's growing sales and relationship to R&B during the decade. From 1965 through 2009, the chart was compiled based on reported sales at a core panel of stores with a "higher-than-average volume" of R&B and/or hip-hop album sales to monitor buying trends of the African-American community. This panel included more independent and smaller chain stores compared to the high percentage of mass merchants that account fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lovely Day (song)
"Lovely Day" is a song by American soul and R&B singer Bill Withers. Written by Withers and Skip Scarborough, it was released on December 21, 1977, and appears on Withers's 1977 album, ''Menagerie''. The song is notable for Withers's sustained note towards the end, which, at 18 seconds long, is one of the longest ever recorded on an American pop song. It was listed at No. 402 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time" in 2021. History Released as a single in late 1977, "Lovely Day" peaked at number 6 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart and at number 30 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the US in early 1978. Whitburn, Joel (1996). ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 6th Edition (Billboard Publications) It also made the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, where the song reached number 7 on the British single chart. "Lovely Day" has been re-released as a single in the United Kingdom at least twice since the song's first chart run; in 1987 the original version charted agai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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