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Twist Uptown
''Twist Uptown'' is the first album by The Crystals, issued to capitalize upon their success with the Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann composition " Uptown" which was a #13 US hit, and their first top forty hit "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" (#20 US). ''Twist Uptown'' notably features the first released version of " On Broadway," a composition written by Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. The song was later modified by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and became a hit for The Drifters in 1963. Barbara Alston was The Crystals' main lead singer at the time, and the only songs from this album not to feature her on lead are "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby" on which Patricia "Patsy" Wright sang lead; and " Gee Whiz" and "Frankenstein Twist" which featured Dolores "LaLa" Brooks. During this period, The Crystals appeared as a quintet but this album features the vocals of six Crystals; it contains tracks with original member Myrna Giraud as well as Dolores "LaLa" Brooks who was Giraud's permanent replacement ...
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The Crystals
The Crystals are an American vocal group that originated in New York City. Considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s, their 1961–1964 chart hits – including " There's No Other (Like My Baby)", " Uptown", "He's Sure the Boy I Love", " He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron" and " Then He Kissed Me"– featured three successive female lead singers and were all produced by Phil Spector. The latter three songs were originally ranked #263, #114, and #493, respectively, on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. However, two songs were dropped from the magazine's 2010 update, leaving only "He's a Rebel" at number 267. In the 2021 update, "Da Doo Ron Ron" was added back to the list at #366. History Formation and signing to Philles In 1961, Barbara Alston (December 29, 1943, Baltimore, Maryland – February 16, 2018, Charlotte, North Carolina), Mary Thomas, Dolores "Dee Dee" Kenniebrew (born 1945), Myrna Gira ...
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Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)
"Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" is a song written and performed by Carla Thomas. It reached #5 on the U.S. R&B chart and #10 on the U.S. pop chart in 1961. It was featured on her 1961 album ''Gee Whiz''. The song was produced by Chips Moman. The song ranked #62 on ''Billboard'' magazine's Top 100 singles of 1961. Other versions *Bernadette Peters released a version of the song as a single in 1980 which reached #3 on the adult contemporary chart and #31 on the U.S. pop chart. *Kathy Young released a version of the song on her 1961 album ''The Sound of Kathy Young''. *The Crystals released a version of the song on their 1962 album ''Twist Uptown''. *The Orlons released a version of the song on their 1963 album ''Not Me''. *Fontella Bass released a version of the song on her 1966 album '' The 'New' Look''. * Nella Dodds released a version of the song as a single in 1966, but it did not chart. *The Casinos released a version of the song on their 1967 album ''Then You Can Tell Me ...
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The Crystals Albums
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic ...
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Albums Produced By Phil Spector
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at  rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983 and was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape during the 1970s and early 1980s; the popularity of the cassette reached its peak during the late 1980s, sharply declined during the 1990s and had largely disappeared duri ...
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1962 Albums
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 196 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus attempts to assassinate Clodius Albinus but fails, causing Albinus to retaliate militarily. * Emperor Septimius Severus captures and sacks Byzantium; the city is rebuilt and regains its previous prosperity. * In order to assure the support of the Roman legion in Germany on his march to Rome, Clodius Albinus is declared Augustus by his army while crossing Gaul. * Hadrian's wall in Britain is partially destroyed. China * First year of the '' Jian'an era of the Chinese Han Dynasty. * Emperor Xian of ...
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Dolores "Dee Dee" Kenniebrew
Dolores "Dee Dee" Kenniebrew (born 1945) is an American singer, best known for her work with the trio The Crystals. She was born as Dolores Kenniebrew and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1960, at age 15, she was invited to sing in the girl group the Crystals. The group was formed by a band musician named Benny Wells who would soon become the group's manager. Wells was the uncle of Kenniebrew's bandmate Barbara Alston. Although she rarely sang lead on their songs (her voice was, according to her bandmate, Barbara Alston, "too high and soft"), she was the only member who stayed in the group from their formation to their disbanding. With the Crystals, she enjoyed a successful (but not very long) career in music. Their hits began to dry up after 1964 and they disbanded two years later. In 1971, Kenniebrew and her former bandmates (Dolores "LaLa" Brooks Dolores Brooks (born June 20, 1947) is the second lead singer of the girl group the Crystals. She is best known as the lead vo ...
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The Blossoms
The Blossoms are an American girl group that originated from California. During their height of success in the 1960s, the group's lineup most famously consisted of Darlene Love, Fanita James, and Jean King. Although the group had a recording career in their own right, they were most famous for being the group to actually record the No.1 hit "He's a Rebel" (which producer Phil Spector credited to The Crystals), and for providing backing vocals for many of the biggest hits of the 1960s. History Early years Their career began in Los Angeles, California, United States, while still in high school in 1954. Originally the group was a sextet of young girls singing for fun. Calling themselves The Dreamers, the group originally sang spirituals, since two of the members had parents who were against their daughters singing secular rhythm and blues music, which was popular on the radio during the early 1950s. Fanita Barrett (later known as Fanita James), Gloria A. Jones (not to be confuse ...
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He's A Rebel
"He's a Rebel" is a song written by Gene Pitney that was originally recorded by Vikki Carr and by the girl group the Blossoms. Produced by Phil Spector, the Blossoms' version was issued as a single credited to the Crystals, which topped the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in November 1962. It was Spector's second chart-topper after "To Know Him Is to Love Him" (1958). In 2004, "He's a Rebel" was ranked No. 263 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. ''Billboard'' named the song No. 31 on its list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time. History The song is about a girl in love with a young man who spurns society's conventions. Despite his being misunderstood by others, the singer claims he is sweet and faithful and vows to be the same towards him. Steve Douglas (saxophonist), Steve Douglas performs a saxophone solo during the song's bridge. The piano riff at the beginning was contributed by Al DeLory. Pitney wrote "He's a Rebel" for The Shirelles ...
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Aldon Music
Aldon Music was a New York-based music publishing company, founded by Don Kirshner and Al Nevins in 1958. Aldon is regarded as having played a significant role in shaping the Brill Building Sound in the late 1950s and 1960s. History Nevins was a music industry veteran with "money, reputation, experience and connections". He had been a member of a popular instrumental trio The Three Suns for over twenty years and was also the co-writer of their 1944 hit " Twilight Time", which sold over three million copies. At the time Aldon was founded, Nevins had recently been forced to leave the group due to heart trouble. Kirshner, who was many years younger than Nevins, had recently achieved some success in partnership with singer-songwriter Bobby Darin, although they did not work together for long. Seeking to break into publishing, Kirshner approached two major songwriting teams, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and then Jerry Leiber and Mike Stollerhttp://www.allmusic.com/artist/leiber-stoller.../ ...
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Dolores "LaLa" Brooks
Dolores Brooks (born June 20, 1947) is the second lead singer of the girl group the Crystals. She is best known as the lead vocalist on the Crystals' hits "Then He Kissed Me" and "Da Doo Ron Ron". Biography Brooks was the second youngest of 11 children, born to a Native American mother and an African-American father. Brooks first displayed her talent by singing gospel music in church. At age seven, she took part in her siblings' gospel group, "Little Gospel Tears", and sang in Brooklyn. While attending PS 73, she was discovered in an after-school program by Dolores "Dee Dee" Kenniebrew and her mother, who invited Brooks to join the Crystals as a replacement for a departing member. She joined the group to replace Merna Girard (who was pregnant) on the March 1962 release "Uptown". After leaving the Crystals, she married jazz and session musician Idris Muhammad (born Leo Morris) in 1966; the union brought two sons and two daughters. Shortly thereafter, she converted to Islam wit ...
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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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Pop Music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. ''Rock'' and ''pop'' music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which ''pop'' became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Identifying factors usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much pop music also borrows elements from other styles ...
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