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The Cadillacs
The Cadillacs were an American rock and roll and doo-wop group from Harlem, New York, active from 1953 to 1962. The group was noted for their 1955 hit " Speedo", written by Esther Navarro, which was instrumental in attracting white audiences to black rock and roll performers. History The group came together as The Carnations in 1953, with the members Earl Carroll (lead vocalist), Bobby Phillips, Lavern Drake (bass vocalist), and Gus Willingham. As the group moved into the recording studios, James "Poppa" Clark was added as a fifth member, and the name "The Cadillacs" was given to them. The group's first recording came in July 1954, with Josie Records #765, featuring "Gloria" and "I Wonder Why." In 1955, Willingham and Clark left the group and were replaced by Earl Wade and Charles Brooks. At this time, the group first began to experiment with choreography, suggested by manager Esther Navarro. Later that year came the group's biggest hit, "Speedoo", Carroll's nickname. Lave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harlem area encompasses several other neighborhoods and extends west and north to 155th Street, east to the East River, and south to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Central Park, and East 96th Street. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem's history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, with significant population shifts accompanying each cycle. Harlem was predominantly occupied by Jewish and Italian Americans in the 19th century, but African-American residents began to arrive in large numbers during the Great Migration in the 20th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the center of the Harlem Renaissanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (song)
"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a song by songwriter Johnny Marks based on the 1939 story ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' published by the Montgomery Ward Company. Gene Autry's recording hit No. 1 on the U.S. charts the week of Christmas 1949. History In 1939, Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May, created the character Rudolph as an assignment for Montgomery Ward, and Marks decided to adapt the story of Rudolph into a song. English singer-songwriter and entertainer Ian Whitcomb interviewed Marks on the creation of the song in 1972. The song had an added introduction, paraphrasing the poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (public domain by the time the song was written), stating the names of the eight reindeer, which went: "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, But do you recall The most famous reindeer of all?" The song was first introduced live on New York Radio (WOR) by crooner Harry Brannon in November 1949. Gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joey Levine
Joey Levine (born May 29, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer of pop music, who has been active since 1966. Career Levine sang lead vocals on several Top 40 singles including "Run Run Run" by The Third Rail (1966), " Yummy Yummy Yummy" (co-written with Artie Resnick), and three others by The Ohio Express (1968–1969), "Quick Joey Small" by Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus (1968), and the record that best showcased his rapid speech delivery, " Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" by Reunion (1974). He specialized in bubblegum pop. Levine produced records for Super K Productions, run by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz, who released many singles in the late 1960s by The Ohio Express, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, and The Music Explosion. Levine sang lead for various groups of studio musicians, whose songs were released under the name of actual groups of musicians, or sometimes the groups did not exist at all outside the studio. Starti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will "Dub" Jones
Will J. "Dub" Jones (May 14, 1928 – January 16, 2000) was an American R&B singer. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and died in Long Beach, California.Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed June 2010 He was inducted as a member of the as a member of in 1987. Other groups with which he recorded include The Cadets, The Crescen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Guy
Billy Guy (June 20, 1936 – November 5, 2002) was an American singer, best known as a lead singer for the Coasters. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Biography Born Frank Phillips in Texas, Guy is best known as a member of the Coasters, singing lead on such hits as "Searchin'", "Little Egypt", "Run Red Run", "Wait A Minute", among others. Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller praised his "marvelous sense of comedy and timing." Before Guy joined The Coasters in 1955, he was part of a comedy singing duo called "Bip and Bop". One single, "Ding Dong Ding", b/w "Du-Wada-Du", was released on Aladdin Records in 1955. He made a number of solo records during the 1960s and 1970s. He did about a dozen or so solo recordings in 1963 for Double-L Records which later show up on collections as by The Coasters, most notably the albums "Hungry" (Joy #189, 1971, released in the UK) and "It Ain't Sanitary" (Trip #8028, 1973). He also produced records for others in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Gardner
Carl Edward Gardner (April 29, 1928 – June 12, 2011) was an American singer, best known as the foremost member and founder of The Coasters. Known for the 1958 song "Yakety Yak", which spent a week as number one on the Hot 100 pop list, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Life and career Gardner was born in Tyler, Texas, to Rebecca and Robert Gardner. As a singer, his first major career success came with The Robins, a rhythm and blues group that had a big hit in 1955, "Smokey Joe's Café". After leaving that group, in 1956 Gardner formed the Coasters with the Robins' bass singer Bobby Nunn, Leon Hughes and Billy Guy, at the behest of the songwriting/producing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and had a two-sided hit in 1957, "Young Blood" (on which Gardner sang lead) and "Searchin'". With new members Cornel Gunter and Will "Dub" Jones, the Coasters went on to produce several enduring classics of 1950s rock and roll music including "Yakety Yak", " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another label recently acquired by PolyGram, were both at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island having exerted a major influence on the progressive music scene in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Island Records operates four international divisions: Island US, Island UK, Island Australia, and Island France (known as Vertigo France until 2014). Current key people include Island US president Darcus Beese, OBE and MD Jon Turner. Partially due to its significant legacy, Island remains one of UMG's pre-eminent record labels. Artists who have signed to Island Records include Bob Marley, Nick Drake, Queen, Jethro Tull, Grace Jones, Steve Winwood, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Brian Eno, De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell (born 22 June 1937) is an English businessman and former record producer, and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to which Blackwell was inducted in 2001, he is "the single person most responsible for turning the world on to reggae music." Variety describes him as "indisputably one of the greatest record executives in history". Having formed Island Records in Jamaica on 22 May 1959 when he was 22, Blackwell was among the first to record the Jamaican popular music that eventually became known as ska. Returning to Britain in 1962, he sold records from the back of his car to the Jamaican community. His label became "a byword for uncompromised artistry and era-shaping acts". Backed by Stanley Borden from RKO, Blackwell's business and reach grew substantially, and he went on to forge the careers of Bob Marley, Grace Jones and U2 among m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Millie Small
Millicent Dolly May Small CD (6 October 1947 – 5 May 2020) was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who is best known for her 1964 hit " My Boy Lollipop". The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million copies worldwide. It was also the first major hit for Island Records and helped to achieve the label its mainstream success. She was the Caribbean's first international recording star, and its most successful female performer. Early life and career Millicent Dolly May Small was born on 6 October 1947 in Clarendon, Jamaica, the daughter of a sugar plantation overseer. She was one of 13 siblings, with seven brothers and five sisters. Like many Jamaican singers of the era, her career began by winning the '' Vere Johns Opportunity Hour'' talent contest at the age of twelve. Wishing to pursue a career as a singer, she moved to live with relatives in Love Lane in Kingston. She auditioned for Studio One record producer Coxsone Dodd, who was s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Ranglin
Ernest Ranglin (born 19 June 1932) is a Jamaican guitarist and composer who established his career while working as a session guitarist and music director for various Jamaican record labels including Studio One and Island Records. Ranglin played guitar on many early ska recordings and helped create the rhythmic guitar style that defined the form. Ranglin has worked with Theophilus Beckford, Jimmy Cliff, Monty Alexander, Prince Buster, the Skatalites, Bob Marley and the Eric Deans Orchestra. He is noted for a chordal and rhythmic approach that blends jazz, mento and reggae with percussive guitar solos incorporating rhythm 'n' blues and jazz inflections.Larkin, Colin (ed.) (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books, , p. 235. Early life Ernest Ranglin was born in Manchester, Jamaica. His family moved to Kingston, where he attended the Providence Primary School, Kingston Senior School and Bodin College. Ranglin's introduction to music was through two uncles who b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the " Architect of Rock and Roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations. " Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. His nex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbie Gaye
"My Boy Lollipop" (originally "My Girl Lollypop") is a song written in the mid-1950s by Robert Spencer of the doo-wop group The Cadillacs, and usually credited to Spencer, Morris Levy, and Johnny Roberts. It was first recorded in 1956 by American singer Barbie Gaye under the title My Boy Lollypop. A later version recorded by Jamaican singer Millie Small in 1964, with very similar rhythm, became an international hit that time and is one of the first songs to introduce ska music. Barbie Gaye original version The original song "My Girl Lollypop" was written by Robert Spencer of the doo-wop group The Cadillacs. Notorious record company executive Morris Levy agreed to purchase the song from Spencer. Although not involved in writing the song, Levy and alleged gangster Johnny Roberts listed themselves as the song's authors. In an effort to avoid sharing any royalties with Spencer, Levy removed Spencer's name from the original writing credits. Levy even claimed that Robert Spencer was his p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
