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The Sammy Davis Jr. All-Star Spectacular
''The Sammy Davis Jr. All-Star Spectacular'' is a 1962 studio album by Sammy Davis Jr. arranged by Morty Stevens. The first half of the album features Davis' impersonations of popular entertainers and celebrities. Reception Lindsay Planer of AllMusic commented that Davis had been recorded "like never before", both as a dynamic vocalist and as an actor of equally impressive proficiency. Planer described the ''All-Star Spectacular'' as a unique album, capitalising on Davis' sizable talents as a "seminal master of melody and allowing for a peek into his infectious sense of humor". Track listing # "That Lucky Old Sun" ( Haven Gillespie, Beasley Smith) - 5:27 - In the style of Ray Charles and Frankie Laine # "Be My Love" (Nicholas Brodszky, Sammy Cahn) - 3:28 - In the style of Mario Lanza and Louis Armstrong # "Lulu's Back In Town" (Al Dubin, Harry Warren) - 2:57 - In the style of Mel Tormé and Jerry Lewis # " Stranger in Paradise" (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells) - 2:40 - With impe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sammy Davis Jr
Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the Will Mastin Trio, which toured nationally, and his film career began in 1933. After military service, Davis returned to the trio and became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciro's (in West Hollywood) after the 1951 Academy Awards. With the trio, he became a recording artist. In 1954, at the age of 29, he lost his left eye in a car accident. Several years later, he converted to Judaism, finding commonalities between the oppression experienced by African-American and Jewish communities.Sammy Davis Jr. Biography Biography.com. Retrieved June 6, 2013.< ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Dubin
Alexander Dubin (June 10, 1891 – February 11, 1945) was an American lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren. Life Al Dubin came from a Russian Jewish family that emigrated to the United States from Switzerland when he was two years old. Born in Zürich, Switzerland, he grew up in Philadelphia. Between ages of thirteen and sixteen, Dubin played hookey from school in order to travel into New York City to see Broadway musical shows. At age 14 he began writing special material for a vaudeville entertainer on 28th Street between 5th and Broadway in New York City, otherwise known as Tin Pan Alley. Dubin was accepted and enrolled at Perkiomen Seminary in September 1909, but was expelled in 1911, after writing their Alma Mater. After leaving Perkiomen, Dubin got himself a job as a singing waiter at a Philadelphia restaurant. He continued to write lyrics and tried selling them to area publishing firms. During this time, Dubin met composer Joe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Boy (song)
"Sonny Boy" is a song written by Ray Henderson, Buddy De Sylva, and Lew Brown. It was featured in the 1928 part-talkie ''The Singing Fool''. Sung by Al Jolson, the 1928 recording was a hit and stayed at #1 for 12 weeks in the charts and was a million seller. Lyrics Climb up on my knee, Sonny BoyThough you're only three, Sonny BoyYou've no way of knowingThere's no way of showingWhat you mean to me, Sonny Boy. When there are grey skies,I don't mind the grey skies.You make them blue, Sonny Boy.Friends may forsake me.Let them all forsake me.I still have you, Sonny Boy. You're sent from heavenAnd I know your worth.You made a heaven For me here on earth. When I'm old and grey, dearPromise you won't stray, dearFor I love you so, Sonny Boy. When there are grey skies,I don't mind grey skies.You make them blue, Sonny Boy.Friends may forsake me.Let them all forsake me.I still have you, Sonny Boy. You're sent from heavenAnd I know your worth. You've made a heavenFor me here on earth. And ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued for the remainder of his life. He found great popular success and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts. His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed. Cole also acted in films and on television and performed on Broadway. He was the first African-American man to host an American television series. He was the father of singer Natalie Cole (1950–2015). Biography Early life Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1919. He had three brothers: Eddie (1910–1970), Ike (1927–2001), and Freddy (1931–2020), and a half-sister, Joyce Coles. Each of the Coles brothers pursued careers in music. When Nat King Cole was four years old, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amos 'n' Andy
''Amos 'n' Andy'' is an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago and later in the Harlem section of New York City. While the show had a brief life on 1950s television with black actors, the 1928 to 1960 radio show was created, written and voiced by two white actors, Freeman Gosden Freeman Fisher "Gozzie" Gosden (May 5, 1899 – December 10, 1982) was an American radio comedian, actor and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. He is best known for his work in the radio series ''Amos 'n' Andy''. Life and ... and Charles Correll, who played Amos Jones (Gosden) and Andrew Hogg Brown (Correll), as well as incidental characters. On television, 1951–1953, black actors took over the majority of the roles; white characters were infrequent. ''Amos 'n' Andy'' began as one of the first radio comedy series and originated from station WMAQ (AM), WMAQ in Chicago. After the first broadcast in 1928, the show became a hugely popular series, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huckleberry Hound
Huckleberry "Huck" Hound is a fictional cartoon character, a blue anthropomorphic coonhound that speaks with a North Carolina Southern drawl. He first appeared in the series ''The Huckleberry Hound Show''. The cartoon was one of six TV shows to win an Emmy Award in 1960 as an "Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming"; the first animated series to receive such an award. Most of his short films consist of Huck trying to perform jobs in different fields, ranging from policeman to dogcatcher, with results that backfire, yet usually coming out on top, either through slow persistence or sheer luck. Huck does not seem to exist in a specific time period as he has also been a Roman gladiator, a medieval knight, and a rocket scientist. He also appears in futuristic cartoons, as an intergalactic space policeman, alongside other Hanna-Barbera characters. The trademark of Huck was his tone-deaf and inaccurate rendition of "Oh My Darling, Clementine", often used as a r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Sigman
Carl Sigman (September 24, 1909 – September 26, 2000) was an American songwriter. Early life Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish-American family, Sigman graduated from law school and passed his bar exams to practice in the state of New York. Instead of law, encouraged by his friend Johnny Mercer, he embarked on a songwriting career, that saw him become one of the most prominent and successful songwriters in American music history. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts in Africa, during World War II. Career Although Sigman wrote many song melodies, he was primarily a lyricist who collaborated with songwriters such as Bob Hilliard, Bob Russell, Jimmy van Heusen, and Duke Ellington. He also wrote English language lyrics to many songs which were originally composed in other languages, such as "Answer Me", "Till", " The Day the Rains Came", "You're My World", and "What Now My Love?". During the big band era, Sigman composed works used by top band ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Russell (songwriter)
Bob Russell (April 25, 1914 – February 18, 1970) was an American songwriter (mainly lyricist) born Sidney Keith Rosenthal in Passaic, New Jersey. Career Russell attended Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He worked as an advertising copywriter in New York; for a time, his roommate there was Sidney Sheldon, later a novelist. He turned to writing material for vaudeville acts, and then for film studios, ultimately writing complete scores for two movies: ''Jack and the Beanstalk (1952 film), Jack and the Beanstalk'' and ''Reach for Glory''. The latter film received the Locarno International Film Festival prize in 1962. A number of other movies featured compositions by Russell, including ''Affair in Trinidad'' (1952), ''The Blue Gardenia, Blue Gardenia'' (1953), ''The Girl Can't Help It'' (1956), ''The Girl Most Likely'' (1957), ''A Matter of WHO'' (1961), ''Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd'' (1952), ''Sound Off (film), Sound Off'' (1952), ''That Midnight Kiss'' (1949 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Eckstine
William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award "for performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording." His recording of " I Apologize" (MGM, 1948) was given the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999. ''The New York Times'' described him as an "influential band leader" whose "suave bass-baritone" and "full-throated, sugary approach to popular songs inspired singers like Earl Coleman, Johnny Hartman, Joe Williams, Arthur Prysock, and Lou Rawls." Early life and education Eckstine was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of William Eckstein, a chauffeur, and Charlotte Eckstein, a seamstress. Eckstine's paternal grandparents were William F. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth name that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York. Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as a U.S. Army infantryman in the European Theater. Afterward, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records and had his first number-one popular song with " Because of You" in 1951. Several tracks such as "Rags to Riches" followed in early 1953. He then refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as ''The Beat of My Heart'' and ''Basie Swings, Bennett Sings''. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Wells (songwriter)
Robert Wells (born Robert Levinson, October 15, 1922 – September 23, 1998) was an American songwriter, composer, screenwriter, script writer and television producer. During his early career, he collaborated with singer and songwriter Mel Tormé, writing several hit songs, most notably "The Christmas Song" in 1945. Later, he became a prolific writer and producer for television, for such shows as ''The Dinah Shore Chevy Show'', as well as for numerous variety specials, such as ''If They Could See Me Now'', starring Shirley MacLaine. He was nominated for several Academy Awards and won six Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Peabody Award. Early life and career Robert Wells was born to a American Jews, Jewish family in 1922 in Raymond, Washington, the son of Edna Irene (Bradford) and Nathan Levinson. He attended a local business college and later the University of Southern California, where he majored in speech and drama. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stranger In Paradise (song)
"Stranger in Paradise" is a popular song from the musical '' Kismet'' (1953), credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest. Like almost all the music in that show, the melody was taken from music composed by Alexander Borodin (1833–1887), in this case, the "Gliding Dance of the Maidens", from the ''Polovtsian Dances'' in the opera ''Prince Igor'' (1890). The song in the musical is a lovers' duet and describes the transcendent feelings that love brings to their surroundings. Later versions were mostly edited to be sung by male solo artists. Meaning In Act 1 of the musical ''Kismet'', the beautiful Marsinah is viewing the garden of a house her father wishes to buy. The young Caliph, who is dressed in disguise, has already been struck by her beauty from afar and enters the garden pretending to be a gardener, so that he might speak to her. She begins to sing about how the garden has been strangely transformed before her eyes. He takes over the song and sings about how he, too, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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