Robin Sylvester
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Robin Sylvester
Robin Sylvester (1950 – 29 October 2022) was an English musician who was best known as a member of the American band RatDog. Although primarily a bass player, he played several instruments, including the guitar and keyboards, and did extensive arranging. Sylvester began his professional music career with the ''a cappella'' London Boy Singers chorus in the 1960s, and as a sound engineer in 1969. Working as an assistant at Abbey Road Studios when The Beatles recorded their eponymous album, he was inspired by Paul McCartney to take up the bass guitar. He also used early synthesisers while playing with and producing Byzantium in 1971. While touring with Dana Gillespie, he moved to the United States in 1974. Clive Davis signed his folk-rock band The Movies to Arista Records; the band played around New York and Los Angeles in the late 1970s. Then, as a session musician, he worked alongside Steve Douglas, backing the Beach Boys and Ry Cooder. He also played in live acts led b ...
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Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough of Camden, a borough in Inner London which for the purposes of the London Plan is designated as part of Central London. Hampstead is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical, and literary associations. It has some of the most expensive housing in the London area. Hampstead has more millionaires within its boundaries than any other area of the United Kingdom.Wade, David"Whatever happened to Hampstead Man?" ''The Daily Telegraph'', 8 May 2004 (retrieved 3 March 2016). History Toponymy The name comes from the Old English, Anglo-Saxon words ''ham'' and ''stede'', which means, and is a cognate of, the Modern English "homestead". To 1900 Early records of Hampstead can be found in a grant by King Ethelred the Unread ...
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Arista Records
Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertainment, the North American division of German conglomerate Bertelsmann. Though the label was founded in November 1974 by Clive Davis, Arista in its current form was re-established in 2018. Along with Epic Records, RCA Records, and Columbia Records, Arista is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels. History Background After being fired from CBS Records, Clive Davis was recruited by Alan Hirschfield, CEO of Columbia Pictures, in June 1974 to be a consultant for the company's record and music operations. Shortly after his hiring by CPI, Davis became president of Bell Records, replacing the departing Larry Uttal. Davis's real goal was to reorganize and revitalize Columbia Pictures' music division. With a $10 million investme ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Steve Seskin
Steve Seskin is an American singer, songwriter, and musician whose songs have been recorded by recording artists Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Waylon Jennings, Tim McGraw, Colin Raye, and Mark Wills among others. The debut single from McGraw's Set This Circus Down, "Grown Men Don't Cry", was nominated for a 2002 Grammy award and also garnered the No. 1 position on the Billboard Country Single Chart in June 2001. Seskin also is known for performing at schools in support of the Operation Respect/Don't Laugh at Me project, named after "Don't Laugh at Me," a song he wrote with Allen Shamblin that was recorded by Mark Wills and Peter, Paul and Mary, among others. Seskin splits his time between touring, Nashville and Northern California. Early life Steve Seskin was born (March 31, 1952) in The Bronx, New York to parents Zelda (née Wein) and Irving Seskin. Seskin began playing guitar at 14 years old and started writing songs shortly after. He moved to San Francisco in 1971 and ...
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Christine McVie
Christine Anne McVie (; née Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician and songwriter. She was best known as keyboardist and one of the vocalists of the band Fleetwood Mac. McVie was a member of several bands, notably Chicken Shack, in the mid-1960s British Blues scene. She began working with Fleetwood Mac in 1968, initially as a session player, before joining the band in 1970. Her first compositions with Fleetwood Mac appeared on their fifth album, '' Future Games''. She remained with the band through many changes of line-up, writing songs and performing lead vocals, before partially retiring in 1998. She was described as "the prime mover behind some of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits". Eight songs written or co-written by McVie, including " Don't Stop", " Everywhere" and "Little Lies", appeared on Fleetwood Mac's 1988 ''Greatest Hits'' album. She appeared as a session musician on the band's last studio album, '' Say You Will''. She also released thre ...
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Billy Preston
William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, during which he backed artists such as Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, the Everly Brothers, Reverend James Cleveland, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He gained attention as a solo artist with hit singles such as " That's the Way God Planned It", the Grammy-winning " Outa-Space", "Will It Go Round in Circles", "Space Race", " Nothing from Nothing", and "With You I'm Born Again". Additionally, Preston co-wrote "You Are So Beautiful", which became a #5 hit for Joe Cocker. Preston is the only non-Beatle musician to be given a credit on a Beatles recording at the band's request; the group's 1969 single "Get Back" was credited as "The Beatles with Billy Preston". He continued to record and perform with George Harrison after the Beatles' breakup, ...
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The Drifters
The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, formed in 1959 and led by Ben E. King, were originally an up-and-coming group named The Five Crowns. After 1965 members drifted in and out of both groups and many of these formed other groups of Drifters as well. Several groups of Drifters can trace roots back to these original groups, but contain few if any original members. According to ''Rolling Stone'', the Drifters were the least stable of the great vocal groups, as they were low-paid musicians hired by George Treadwell, who owned the Drifters' name from 1955, after McPhatter left. The Treadwell Drifters line has had 60 musicians, including several splinter groups by former Drifters members (not under Treadwell's management). These groups are usually identified with a possessive credit ...
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The Coasters
The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and " Young Blood" in 1957, their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller. Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo-wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo-wop legacy through the 1960s. In 1987, they were the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. History The Coasters were formed on October 12, 1955, when two of The Robins, a Los Angeles–based rhythm-and-blues group, joined Atlantic Records. They were dubbed The Coasters because they went from the west coast to the east. The Robins included Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn. The original Coasters were Gardner, Nunn, Billy Guy, Leon Hughes (who was replaced by Young Jessie on a couple of their early Los Angeles recordings), and the guitarist Adolp ...
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The Shirelles
The Shirelles were an American girl group formed in Passaic, New Jersey in 1957. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris (later Addie Harris McFadden), and Beverly Lee. Founded in 1957 for a talent show at their high school, they were signed by Florence Greenberg of Tiara Records. Their first single, "I Met Him on a Sunday", was released by Tiara and licensed by Decca Records in 1958. After a brief and unsuccessful period with Decca, they went with Greenberg to her newly formed company, Scepter Records. Working with Luther Dixon, the group rose to fame with "Tonight's the Night (The Shirelles song), Tonight's the Night". After a successful period of collaboration with Dixon and promotion by Scepter, with seven top 20 hits, the Shirelles left Scepter in 1966. Afterwards, they were unable to maintain their previous popularity. The Shirelles have been described as having a "naive sch ...
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Mary Wells
Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with The Supremes, The Miracles, The Temptations, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the Four Tops, Wells was said to have been part of the charge in black music onto radio stations and record shelves of mainstream America, "bridging the color lines in music at the time." With a string of hit singles composed mainly by Smokey Robinson, including "The One Who Really Loves You (song), The One Who Really Loves You", "Two Lovers (Mary Wells song), Two Lovers", and the Grammy Award, Grammy-nominated "You Beat Me to the Punch", all in 1962, plus her signature hit, "My Guy" (1964), she became recognized as "The Queen of Motown" until her departure from the company in 1964, at the height of her success. Life and career Early life and initial recordings Mary Esther Wells was born near Detroit's Wayne State University on May 13, 1943, t ...
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Marty Balin
Martyn Jerel Buchwald (January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018), known as Marty Balin (), was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the founder/leader and one of the lead singers and songwriters of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. Early life Balin was born Martyn Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Catherine Eugenia "Jean" (née Talbot) and Joseph Buchwald. His paternal grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe. His father was Jewish and his mother was Episcopalian. Buchwald attended Washington High School in San Francisco, California. As a child, Balin was diagnosed with autism. Career Early musical work In 1962, Buchwald changed his name to Marty Balin, and began recording with Challenge Records, releasing the singles "Nobody But You" and "I Specialize in Love". By 1964, Balin was leading a folk music quartet called The Town Criers. Jefferson Airplane Balin was the primary founder of Jefferson Airplane, which he "launched" from ...
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