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Ritchie Family
The Ritchie Family are an American vocal group based in Philadelphia that achieved several hits during the disco era. They have reunited and continue to perform. Their latest single "Whatcha Got" was released in 2021. Background The three original members were not related; the group was a creation of Jacques Morali who also formed the Village People. The group took its name from record producer Richie Rome, who added a T to the name; it originally consisted of three singers: Cassandra Ann Wooten and Gwendolyn Oliver (who eventually married musician Fred Wesley) of the girl group Honey & the Bees, and Cheryl Mason Jacks. Their manager was Jimmy Bishop, a successful Philadelphia radio personality who also managed Barbara Mason. Morali remembered Wooten and Oliver had done some session work for him, and he called them a few years later when he wanted to form a group and the Ritchie Family was born. Following ''Brazil'', they had success with the '' Arabian Nights'' album. Their ...
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The Best Disco In Town
"The Best Disco in Town" is a 1976 crossover disco single by Philadelphia-based group, The Ritchie Family. In the United States, the single was a top 20 hit on both the soul and pop charts. "The Best Disco in Town" went to number one for one week on the disco/dance chart. Background The song is a medley of pop and R&B hits, preceding other medleys like Shalamar's "Uptown Festival" by 1 year and Stars On 45's "Medley" by 5 years. Songs included on the single are "Reach Out I'll Be There", " I Love Music", " Bad Luck", " TSOP", " Fly, Robin, Fly", the group's own "Brazil". The extended single adds the songs " Love To Love You Baby", "That's the Way (I Like It)", " Lady Bump", " Express", "Lady Marmalade "Lady Marmalade" is a song written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, originally for Nolan's disco group. The song is famous for the repeated refrain of " ''Voulez-vous coucher avec moi''?" in French as part of the chorus, a sexually suggestive line t ...", and the group's own song ...
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Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ...
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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 cop ...
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PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater, visual arts, travel, and the Internet. History ''PopMatters'' was founded by Sarah Zupko, who had previously established the cultural studies academic resource site PopCultures. ''PopMatters'' launched in late 1999 as a sister site providing original essays, reviews and criticism of various media products. Over time, the site went from a weekly publication schedule to a five-day-a-week magazine format, expanding into regular reviews, features, and columns. In the fall of 2005, monthly readership exceeded one million. From 2006 onward, ''PopMatters'' produced several syndicated newspaper columns for McClatchy-Tribune News Service. By 2009 there were four different pop culture related col ...
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Horace Ott
Horace Ott (born April 15, 1933) is an American jazz and R&B composer, arranger, record producer, conductor and pianist, noted for his work since the late 1950s with a wide variety of artists including The Shirelles, Don Covay, Nina Simone, Houston Person, and the Village People. Biography Born in St. Matthews, South Carolina, he learned piano and attended Wilkinson High School in Orangeburg, where he played in the school band and started performing in, and writing for, a local jazz band. He studied music at South Carolina State University, graduating in 1955, and spent two years in the US Army from 1956 to 1958, playing in a marching band. Horace Ott, ''South Carolina African American Calendar''
. Retrieved 3 April 2017
In 1958 he moved to New York, working in a factory while p ...
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Ritchie Rome
Ritchie may refer to: People Surname *Adele Ritchie (1874–1930), singer – comic opera, musical comedy and vaudeville *Albert Ritchie (1876–1936), governor of Maryland 1920 to 1935 *Alistair Ferguson Ritchie (1890–1954), crossword compiler under the pseudonym Afrit *Allison Ritchie (born 1974), Australian politician * Andrew Jackson Ritchie (1868–1948), president of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School *Andy Ritchie (English footballer) (born 1960), English footballer *Andy Ritchie (Scottish footballer) (born 1956), Scottish footballer *Archibald Alexander Ritchie (1806–1856), American ship captain, China trader, and California businessman. *Brian Ritchie (born 1960), guitarist for Violent Femmes band *Bruce Ritchie (born 1965), British property developer *Byron Ritchie (born 1977), Canadian ice hockey player * Cedric Ritchie (1927–2016), Canadian businessman * Charles Ritchie (diplomat) (1906–1995), Canadian diplomat * Charles Thomson Ritchie (1838–1906), 1st Baron Ritchie o ...
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Bunny Sigler
Walter "Bunny" Sigler (March 27, 1941 – October 6, 2017) was an American R&B singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer who did extensive work with the team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and was instrumental in creating the "Philly Sound" in the early 1970s. Career Sigler was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, and was nicknamed "Bunny" by his family as a young child. He sang in churches, and joined several local doo-wop groups, including the Opals, in which he sang with his brother James Sigler, Ritchie Rome and Jack Faith. By the late 1950s he had started performing in local venues as a singer and pianist, and he first recorded for the V-Tone Records label in 1959. Leon Huff then recommended him to record producers John Medora and Dave White at Cameo-Parkway Records. His second single for the Parkway label, a medley of two Shirley and Lee hits, " Let the Good Times Roll & Feel So Good", rose on both the national pop and R&B charts, r ...
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Phil Hurtt
Phil Hurtt is a musician, singer, songwriter and arranger who has written hits for The Detroit Spinners, The Ritchie Family and many others. His compositions have been recorded by many artists and he has worked as an arranger on recordings by well-known artists in the Soul genre. Background Phil Hurtt started out singing in church. At the age of 10, he and his oldest brother Al were singing on street corners. By the age of 12, he and his brother had formed a group with their cousin Sarah. They were known as Sarah & the Dreams. They got a steady gig performing in Gold Room of the Theresa Hotel in Harlem. After cousin Sarah left the group in 1957, they became The Swinging Phillies. Philadelphia DJ named Jocko Henderson had something to do with the name change. That year, they signed a recording contract with Deluxe Records. By the time Hurtt was 15, they had released a single, "Frankenstein's Party" b/w "L-O-V-E". Both tunes were written by his brother Al with Phil Hurtt writing t ...
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Istanbul (not Constantinople)
"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" is a 1953 novelty song, with lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy and music by Nat Simon. It was written on the 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. The lyrics humorously refer to the official renaming of the city of Constantinople to Istanbul. The song's original release, performed by The Four Lads, was certified as a gold record. Numerous cover versions have been recorded over the years, most famously a 1990 rock version by They Might Be Giants. Musical influences The song is said to be a response to "C-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-I-N-O-P-L-E" recorded in 1928 by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The Four Lads original version "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" was originally recorded by the Canadian vocal quartet The Four Lads on August 12, 1953. This recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 40082. It first reached the ''Billboard'' magazine charts on October 24, 1953, and it peaked at #10. It was the group's first gold record ...
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Refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the villanelle, the virelay, and the sestina. In popular music, the refrain or chorus may contrast with the verse melodically, rhythmically, and harmonically; it may assume a higher level of dynamics and activity, often with added instrumentation. Chorus form, or strophic form, is a sectional and/or additive way of structuring a piece of music based on the repetition of one formal section or block played repeatedly. Usage in history In music, a refrain has two parts: the lyrics of the song, and the melody. Sometimes refrains vary their words slightly when repeated; recognizability is given to the refrain by the fact that it is always sung to the same tune, and the rhymes, if present, are preserved despite the variations of the words. Such ...
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Medley (music)
In music, a medley is a piece composed from parts of existing pieces played one after another, sometimes overlapping. They are common in popular music, and most medleys are songs rather than instrumentals. A medley which is a remixed series is called a megamix, often done with tracks for a single artist, or for popular songs from a given year or genre. A cover version combining elements of multiple pre-existing songs is a ''cover medley''. A medley is the most common form of overture for musical theatre productions. In Latin music, medleys are known as '' potpourrís'' or ''mosaicos''; the latter were popularized by artists such as Roberto Faz and Billo Frómeta, and most commonly consist of boleros, guarachas, merengues or congas. See also * Segue, a term for the transition between songs * DJ mix * Mashup (music) * List of Genesis medleys * List of "Weird Al" Yankovic polka medleys Polka-style medleys of cover songs are a distinguishing part of American musician, sat ...
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The Peanut Vendor
"El manisero", known in English as "The Peanut Vendor", is a Cuban son-pregón composed by Moisés Simons. Together with "Guantanamera", it is arguably the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician. "The Peanut Vendor" has been recorded more than 160 times,Listed in Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1988. ''Si te quieres por el pico divertir: historia del pregón musical latinoamericano''. Cubanacan, San Juan P.R. p317–322. ist fairly complete up to 1988/ref> sold over a million copies of the sheet music, and was the first million-selling 78 rpm single of Cuban music. History The score and lyrics of "El manisero" were by Moises Simons (1889–1945), the Cuban son of a Spanish musician. It sold over a million copies of sheet music for E.B. Marks Inc., and this netted $100,000 in royalties for Simons by 1943.Sublette, Ned 2004. ''Cuba and its music: from the first drums to the mambo''. Chicago. Chapter 17, p399. Its success led to a 'rumba craze' in the US and Europe wh ...
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