Stock Aitken And Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. SAW is considered one of the most successful songwriting and producing partnerships of all time, scoring more than 100 UK top 40 hits, selling 40 million records and earning an estimated £60 million (about $104 million). SAW started producing underground club hits, but earned worldwide success with a mix of hi-NRG-influenced sound, romantic Motown lyrics and Italo disco melodies. During 1984–1989, their musical style was labelled Eurobeat. They also put swing shuffle elements into their songs. History The team In January 1984, Mike Stock and Matt Aitken called Pete Waterman asking for a meeting. Mike and Matt turned up with a song they had written and produced called "The Upstroke", a hi-NRG female version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Rel ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mike Stock (musician)
Michael Stock (born 3 December 1951) is an English songwriter, record producer, musician, and member of the songwriting and production trio Stock Aitken Waterman. He has written and/or produced 18 No. 1 records in America and the UK, over a hundred top-40 hits and is recognised as one of the most successful songwriters of all time by the ''Guinness Book of Records''. As part of Stock Aitken and Waterman in the 1980s and 90s, he holds the UK record of 11 number one records with different acts. In the UK Singles Chart he has written 54 top-ten hits including 7 number ones. Biography Stock was born in Margate, Kent, England in 1951 and grew up in Swanley, Kent. He attended White Oak primary school and Swanley comprehensive school. At Swanley school he was involved in several school variety productions. He was self-taught in playing the piano and guitar and began writing songs at the age of seven. Inspired by The Beatles he soon became fixated with pop music and put together his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the four-on-the-floor pattern), reverberated "intense" vocals and "pulsating" octave basslines, it was particularly influential on the disco scene. Its earliest association was with Italo disco. Characteristics Whether hi-NRG is more rock-oriented than standard disco music is a matter of opinion. Hi-NRG can be heavily synthesized but it is not a prerequisite, and whether it is devoid of "funkiness" is, again, in the ear of the beholder. Certainly, many artists perform their vocals in R&B and soul styles on hi-NRG tracks. The genre's tempo ranges between 120 and 140 beats per minute although typically it is around 127. The tempos cited here do not represent the full range of beats (BPM) of hi-NRG tracks; rather the tempos are retrieved ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Divine (actor)
Harris Glenn Milstead (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), better known by his stage name Divine, was an American actor, singer, and drag queen. Closely associated with independent filmmaker John Waters, Divine was a character actor, usually performing female roles in cinematic and theatrical productions, and adopted a female drag persona for his music career. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, to a conservative middle-class family, Milstead developed an early interest in drag while working as a women's hairdresser. By the mid-1960s he had embraced the city's countercultural scene and befriended Waters, who gave him the name "Divine" and the tagline of "the most beautiful woman in the world, almost". Along with his friend David Lochary, Milstead joined Waters' acting troupe, the Dreamlanders, and adopted female roles for their experimental short films '' Roman Candles'' (1966), ''Eat Your Makeup'' (1968), and ''The Diane Linkletter Story'' (1969). Again in drag, he took a lead role ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shocking Blue
Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band formed in 1967 in The Hague. It was part of the music movement in the Netherlands that was generally known by the name Nederbeat. The band had a number of hits throughout the counterculture movement during the 1960s and early 1970s, including "Send Me a Postcard" and "Venus", which became their biggest hit and reached number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and many other countries during 1969 and 1970. The band sold 13.5 million records by 1973 but disbanded in 1974. Together with Golden Earring they are considered the most successful Nederbeat-band, if the criterion is scoring hits abroad and especially in the United States. History Original era Shocking Blue were founded in 1967 by The Motions guitarist Robbie van Leeuwen. Other members of the group at this time were Fred de Wilde, Klaasje van der Wal (1 February 1949 – 12 February 2018) and Cor van der Beek (9 June 1949 – 2 April 1998). They had a minor hit in 1968 with " ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Siobhan Fahey
Siobhan Maire Fahey (; born 10 September 1958) is an Irish singer whose vocal range is a light contralto. She was a founding member of the group Bananarama, who have had ten top-10 hits including the US number one hit single "Venus". She later formed the Brit Award- and Ivor Novello Award-winning musical act Shakespears Sister, who had a UK number one hit with the 1992 single "Stay". Fahey joined the other original members of Bananarama for a 2017 UK tour, and, in 2018, a North America and Europe tour. Early life Siobhan Maire Fahey was born on 10 September 1958 in County Meath, Ireland. She has two younger sisters, Maire (who played Eileen in the video of the 1982 song "Come On Eileen", a hit for Dexys Midnight Runners) and Niamh, a producer and editor. Her parents, Helen and Joseph Fahey, both came from County Tipperary, Ireland. Fahey lived in Ireland for several years before her father joined the British Army and the family moved to England, then to Germany for several years ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bananarama
Bananarama are an English pop duo from London, formed as a trio in 1980 by friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. Fahey left the group in 1988 and was replaced by Jacquie O'Sullivan until 1991, when the trio became a duo. Their success on both pop and dance charts saw them listed in the ''Guinness World Records'' for achieving the world's highest number of chart entries by an all-female group. Between 1982 and 2009, they had 30 singles reach the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart. The group's UK top-10 hits include " It Ain't What You Do..." (1982), "Really Saying Something" (1982), "Shy Boy" (1982), " Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" (1983), " Cruel Summer" (1983), " Robert De Niro's Waiting..." (1984), " Love in the First Degree" (1987), "I Want You Back" in 1988 and charity track "Help!" in 1989. In 1986, they had a U.S. number one with another of their UK top-10 hits, a cover of "Venus". In total, they had 11 singles reach the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 (1983†... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Girl Group
A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of whom were influenced by doo-wop and which flourished in the late 1950s and early 1960s between the decline of early rock and roll and start of the British Invasion. All-female bands, in which members also play instruments, are usually considered a separate phenomenon. These groups are sometimes called "girl bands" to differentiate, although this terminology is not universally followed. With the advent of the music industry and radio broadcasting, a number of girl groups emerged, such as the Andrews Sisters. The late 1950s saw the emergence of all-female singing groups as a major force, with 750 distinct girl groups releasing songs that reached US and UK music charts from 1960 to 1966. The Supremes alone held 12 number-one singles on the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Phil Harding (producer)
Philip James Harding (born 1957) is an English Record producer, music producer, Audio engineering, audio engineer, remixer, academic and author. Harding started in the music industry aged 16 at London's Marquee Studios in 1973, where he got to work as an assistant engineer under the guidance of top producers on albums for artists such as Elton John, Kiki Dee and Barry Blue. As Harding's career progressed, a long list of credits began to accumulate, with artists as diverse as The Clash, Killing Joke, Toyah Willcox, Amii Stewart and Matt Bianco, all taking advantage of Harding's fast-growing reputation as a top engineer. The very first band Harding worked with was Killing Joke where he was a young in-house engineer. By 1984, a newly formed production team at The Marquee – Stock Aitken Waterman – was added to the list. Harding engineered and mixed their first chart successes, Divine (performer), Divine and Hazell Dean, and their breakthrough international hit and first No. 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Virgin Books
Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing arm in the late 1970s; in the latter part of the 1980s Virgin purchased several existing companies, including WH Allen, well known among ''Doctor Who'' fans for their Target Books imprint; Virgin Books was incorporated into WH Allen in 1989, but in 1991 WH Allen was renamed Virgin Publishing Ltd. Virgin Publishing's early success came with the ''Doctor Who'' New Adventures novels, officially licensed full-length novels carrying on the story of the popular science-fiction television series following its cancellation in 1989. Virgin published this series from 1991 to 1997, as well as a range of ''Doctor Who'' reference books from 1992 to 1998 under the Doctor Who Books imprint. In recent times the company is best known for its commercial non- ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Encyclopedia Of Popular Music
''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Knowledge'', Christmas edition, 22 December 2007- 4 January 2008. It was described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". History of the encyclopedia Larkin believed that rock music and popular music were at least as significant historically as classical music, and as such, should be given definitive treatment and properly documented. ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is the result. In 1989, Larkin sold his half of the publishing company Scorpion Books to finance his ambition to publish an encyclopedia of popular music. Aided by a team of initially 70 contributors, he set about compiling the data in a pre-internet age, "relying instead on information gleaned from music magazines, individual expertise ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dead Or Alive (band)
Dead or Alive were an English Pop music, pop band that released seven studio albums from 1984 to 2000. The band formed in 1980 in Liverpool and found success in the mid-1980s, releasing seven singles that made the UK top 40 and three albums on the UK top 30. At the peak of their success, the lineup consisted of Pete Burns (vocals), Steve Coy (drums), Mike Percy (bass) and Tim Lever (keyboards), with the core pair of Burns and Coy writing and producing for the remainder of the band's career. Two of the band's singles reached the U.S. top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100: "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" (No. 11 in August 1985) and "Brand New Lover" (No. 15 in March 1987). "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" peaked at number one for two weeks in 1985 in the UK, then charted again in 2006 following Burns' appearance on the television reality show ''Big Brother (UK)#Celebrity Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother'' and on Stranger Things (season 4), sea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |