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Still Unforgettable
''Still Unforgettable'' is a 2008 studio album by American singer-songwriter and performer Natalie Cole. Cole won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for ''Still Unforgettable'' at the 51st Grammy Awards. Background Speaking in July 2008 to noted UK soul writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning ''Blues & Soul'', Cole discussed the thinking behind 'Still Unforgettable': "While we were still trying to create that same 'Unforgettable'-type mood or environment, this time I wanted to expand. Rather than just doing another Nat 'King' Cole tribute – which was not necessary – I wanted to go deeper into the American Songbook, by not just getting songs from my father, but also from other singers of his time like Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peggy Lee. You know, there was something about the approach that the writers from that era had to the lyrics and the melodies that was so intentional, so purposeful. Which I think is the thing that's missing from mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the hits "This Will Be", " Inseparable" (1975), and " Our Love" (1977). She returned as a pop singer on the 1987 album ''Everlasting'' and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's " Pink Cadillac". In the 1990s, she sang traditional pop by her father, resulting in her biggest success, '' Unforgettable... with Love'', which sold over seven million copies and won her seven Grammy Awards. She sold over 30 million records worldwide. Early life Natalie Cole was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Hawkins Ellington, and raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles. Regarding her childhood, Cole referred to her family ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'' (lyrics by Yip Harburg), including " Over the Rainbow", Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA. Life and career Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer before moving to New York City in his early twenties, where he worked as an accompanist in vaudeville and changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Why Don't You Do Right?
"Why Don't You Do Right?" (originally recorded as "Weed Smoker's Dream" in 1936) is an American blues and jazz-influenced pop song usually credited to Kansas Joe McCoy. A minor key twelve-bar blues with a few chord substitutions, it is considered a classic "woman's blues" song and has become a standard. Singer Lil Green recorded a popular rendition in 1941, which Peggy Lee recorded the next year — accompanied by Benny Goodman — and made one of her signature songs. Composition and lyrics In 1936, the Harlem Hamfats jazz band recorded "The Weed Smoker's Dream". The original Decca Records release listed the songwriters as "McCoy-Moran" (Joe McCoy and Herb Morand were members of the band). McCoy later rewrote the song, refining the composition and lyrics. The new tune, titled "Why Don't You Do Right?", was recorded by Lil Green in 1941, with guitar by William "Big Bill" Broonzy. The recording was an early jazz and blues hit. The song has its roots in blues music and originally de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lew Spence
Lew Spence (June 29, 1920, Cedarhurst, New York – January 9, 2008, Los Angeles) was an American songwriter. Spence received little formal musical training, and led a dance band in his hometown as a teenager.Obituary '''' He played piano and sang in his twenties, but did not publish any songs until he was almost 30 years old. For much of his career, he wrote melodies, but toward the end of the 1950s he devoted himself primarily to writing lyrics. Among Spence's best-known songs was "", recorded by |
Alan And Marilyn Bergman
Alan Bergman (born September 11, 1925) and Marilyn Keith Bergman (November 10, 1928 – January 8, 2022) were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celebrated television, film, and stage productions. The Bergmans enjoyed a successful career, honored with four Emmys, three Oscars, two Grammys (including Song of the Year), and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Biography and career Alan Bergman was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1925, the son of Ruth (Margulies), a homemaker and community volunteer, and Samuel Bergman, who worked in children's clothing sales. He studied at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned his master's degree in music at UCLA. Marilyn Bergman was born in 1928, coincidentally at the same Brooklyn hospital where Alan had been born three years earlier, and was the daughter of Edith (Arkin) and Albert A. Katz. Both Alan and Marilyn are from Jewish famili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haven Gillespie
James Lamont Gillespie (February 6, 1888 – March 14, 1975) pen name Haven Gillespie, was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and lyricist. He was the writer of "You Go to My Head", "Honey", "By the Sycamore Tree", "That Lucky Old Sun", " Breezin' Along With The Breeze", " Right or Wrong," " Beautiful Love", "Drifting and Dreaming", and "Louisiana Fairy Tale" (Fats Waller's recording of which was used as the first theme song in the PBS Production of ''This Old House''), each song in collaboration with other people such as Beasley Smith, Ervin R. Schmidt, Richard A. Whiting, Wayne King, and Loyal Curtis. He also wrote the seasonal standard "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town". Life and career Gillespie was one of nine children of Anna (Reilley) and William F. Gillespie. The family was poor and lived in the basement of a house on Third Street between Madison Avenue and Russell Street in Covington, Kentucky. Gillespie dropped out of school in grade four and could not find a job. His ol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Frederick Coots
John Frederick Coots (May 2, 1897 – April 8, 1985) was an American songwriter. He composed over 700 popular songs and over a dozen Broadway shows. In 1934, Coots wrote the melody with his then chief collaborator, lyricist Haven Gillespie, for the biggest hit of either man's career, "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town." The song became one of the biggest sellers in American history. In 1934, when Gillespie brought him the lyrics to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", Coots came up with the outline of the melody in just ten minutes. Coots took the song to his publisher, Leo Feist, who liked it but thought it was "a kids' song" and didn't expect too much from it. Coots offered the song to Eddie Cantor who used it on his radio show that November and it became an instant hit. The morning after the radio show there were orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music and by Christmas sales had passed 400,000. Career timeline : 1897 May 2 – born in Brooklyn, New York : 1914 (age 17) – began w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
You Go To My Head
"You Go to My Head" is a 1938 popular song composed by J. Fred Coots with lyrics by Haven Gillespie. Numerous versions of the song have been recorded, and it has since become a pop and jazz standard. Melody and lyrics Alec Wilder terms Coots' melody a "minor masterpiece". According to Ted Gioia, “’You Go to my Head’ is an intricately constructed affair with plenty of harmonic movement. The song starts in a major key, but from the second bar onward, Mr. Coots seems intent on creating a feverish dream quality tending more to the minor mode. The release builds on the drama, and the final restatement holds some surprises as well. The piece would be noteworthy even if it lacked such an exquisite coda, but those last eight bars convey a sense of resigned closure to the song that fittingly matches the resolution of the lyrics.” Gillespie's lyrics begin: ''"You go to my head and you linger like a haunting refrain"''. Recordings, use in film, and performances Larry Clinton re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sammy Gallop
Sammy Gallop (March 16, 1915 – February 24, 1971) was an American lyricist, known for his big band and swing songs of the 1940s and 1950s. Biography Gallop was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He originally worked as a surveyor and draftsman. On February 24, 1971, Gallop committed suicide in Encino, California. Some records mentioned his name as Gallup. Works * " Caribbean Clipper" (music by Jerry Gray) * " Count Every Star" (music by Bruno Coquatrix) * " The Clock in the Tower" (music by Guy Wood) * "Elmer's Tune" (music by Elmer Albrecht and Dick Jurgens) * " Forgive My Heart" (music by Chester Conn) * " Half As Lovely Twice As True" (music by Lew Spence) * " Holiday for Strings" (music by David Rose) * " Maybe You'll Be There" (music by Rube Bloom) * "My Lady Loves to Dance" (music by Milton DeLugg) * "No Good Man" (music by Dan Fisher and Irene Higginbotham) * " The Sentimental Touch" (music by Albert Van Dam) * "Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy" (music by Guy Wood) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Van Heusen
James Van Heusen (born Edward Chester Babcock; January 26, 1913 – February 6, 1990) was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Life and career Born in Syracuse, New York, Van Heusen began writing music while at high school. He renamed himself at age 16, after the shirt makers Phillips-Van Heusen, to use as his on-air name during local shows. His close friends called him "Chet".Coppula, C. (2014). ''Jimmy Van Heusen: Swinging on a Star''. Nashville: Twin Creek Books. Jimmy was raised Methodist. Studying at Cazenovia Seminary and Syracuse University, he became friends with Jerry Arlen, the younger brother of Harold Arlen. With the elder Arlen's help, Van Heusen wrote songs for the Cotton Club revue, including "Harlem Hospitality". He then became a staff pianist for some of the Tin Pan Alley publishers, and wrote "It's the Dreamer in Me" (1938) with lyrics by Jimmy Dorsey. Colla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somewhere Along The Way
"Somewhere Along the Way" is a popular song. The music was written by Jimmy Van Heusen under the pseudonym Kurt Adams, the lyrics by Sammy Gallop. The sheet music was published in 1952. The original recording by Nat King Cole was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 2069. It first reached the ''Billboard'' Best Seller chart on May 23, 1952 and lasted 22 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 8. The song became the opening track to Nat's 1952 album ''8 Top Pops''. Cole re-recorded the song in stereo for his album ''The Nat King Cole Story'' (1961). Other versions *Gene Ammons on a 1952 single, Decca 9-28222. *Tony Bennett recorded the song for his 1955 album '' Alone at Last with Tony Bennett''. *Cliff Richard - ''Cliff Sings'' (1959) *Frank Sinatra in 1961 with Axel Stordahl arranging and conducting for his final Capitol album, ''Point Of No Return'', released in 1962. *John Gary - ''Catch a Rising Star'' (1963). *Doris Troy on her 1963 album ''Sings Just One Look & O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Warren
Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna; December 24, 1893 – September 22, 1981) was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing " Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe". He wrote the music for the first blockbuster film musical, '' 42nd Street'', choreographed by Busby Berkeley, with whom he would collaborate on many musical films. Over a career spanning six decades, Warren wrote more than 800 songs. Other well known Warren hits included "I Only Have Eyes for You", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", " Jeepers Creepers", "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)", "That's Amore", "There Will Never Be Another You", "The More I See You", "At Last" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (the last of which was the first gold record in history). Warren was one of America's most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
