|
Sixty Minute Man
"Sixty Minute Man" is an R&B record released on Federal Records in 1951 by the Dominoes. It was written by Billy Ward and Rose Marks and was one of the first R&B hit records to cross over to become a hit on the pop chart. It is regarded as one of the most important of the recordings that helped generate and shape rock and roll. Background The Dominoes were a black vocal group consisting of Clyde McPhatter (1932–1972), who later left the group to form the Drifters; Bill Brown (1926-1956); Charlie White (1930-2005); and Joe Lamont (1920-1991), led by their pianist, manager and songwriter, Billy Ward (1921–2002). Ward was a black, classically trained vocal coach who had formed a business partnership with a white New York talent agent, Rose Marks. The pair decided to put together a smooth vocal group to rival The Ink Spots, the Orioles, and similar groups who were beginning to win acceptance with white audiences. In 1950, the Dominoes were signed to Federal Records and held ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dominoes
Billy Ward and his Dominoes were an American R&B vocal group. One of the most successful R&B groups of the early 1950s, the Dominoes helped launch the singing careers of two notable members, Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson. Early life Billy Ward (born Robert L. Williams, September 19, 1921, Savannah, Georgia, died February 16, 2002, Inglewood, California) grew up in Philadelphia, the second of three sons of Charles Williams and Cora Bates Williams, and was a child musical prodigy, winning an award for a piano composition at the age of 14.Warner, Jay (2006)''American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today'' pp. 312–15. Hal Leonard Corporation. Following military service with the Coast Guard Artillery Choir, he studied music in Chicago, and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, a rare achievement for Black musicians at the time. While working as a vocal coach and part-time arranger on Broadway, he met talent agent Rose Marks, who became his business and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were an American vocal pop group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style predated the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely accepted in both the white and black communities, largely due to the ballad style introduced to the group by lead singer Bill Kenny. In 1989, the Ink Spots (Bill Kenny, Charlie Fuqua, Deek Watson, Jerry Daniels, and Orville Jones) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1999 they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Since the Ink Spots disbanded in 1954, there have been well over a hundred vocal groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots", with and without any original members of the group. It has often been the case that these groups claimed to be "second generation" or "third generation" Ink Spots.Goldberg, Marv (1998). ''More Than Words Can Say: The Ink Spots And Their Music''. Scarecrow Press 1930s Early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballad (music), ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the Call and response (music), call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in Pitch (music), pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffle note, shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove (popular music), groove. Blues music is characterized by its lyrics, Bassline, bass lines, and Instrumentation (music), instrumen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gospel Music
Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music vary according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music is characterized by dominant vocals and strong use of harmony with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century. Hymns and sacred songs were often performed in a call-and-response fashion, heavily influenced by ancestral African music. Most of the churches relied on hand–clapping and foot–stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done ''a cappella''.Jackson, Joyce Marie. "The changing nature of gospel music: A southern case study." ''African American Review'' 29.2 (1995): 185. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. October 5, 201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novelty Song
A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and with musical parody, especially when the novel gimmick is another popular song. Novelty songs achieved great popularity during the 1920s and 1930s. They had a resurgence of interest in the 1950s and 1960s. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music; the other two divisions were ballads and dance music. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. Novelty songs are often a parody or humor song, and may apply to a current event such as a holiday or a fad such as a dance or TV program. Many use unusual lyrics, subjects, sounds, or instrumentation, and may not even be musical. For example, the 1966 novelty song " They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirty Blues
Dirty blues (also known as bawdy blues) is a form of blues music that deals with socially taboo and obscene subjects, often referring to sexual acts and drug use. Because of the sometimes graphic subject matter, such music was often banned from radio and available only on jukeboxes. The style was most popular in the years before World War II, although it experienced a revival in the early 1950s. Many songs used innuendo, slang terms, or double entendres, such as Lil Johnson's "Press My Button (Ring My Bell)" ("Come on baby, let's have some fun / Just put your hot dog in my bun"). However, some were very explicit. The most extreme examples were rarely recorded at all, a notable exception being Lucille Bogan's obscene version of " Shave 'Em Dry" (1935), which Elijah Wald has noted as "by far the most explicit blues song preserved at a commercial pre-war recording session". The noteworthy musicians who used the style included Bo Carter, Bull Moose Jackson, Harlem Hamfats, Wynonie H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ida Cox
Ida M. Cox ( Prather; February 26, 1888 or 1896 – November 10, 1967) was an American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings. She was billed as "The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues".Harrison, Daphne Duval (1988). ''Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. Childhood and early career Cox was born Ida M. Prather, the daughter of Lamax and Susie ( Knight) Prather in Toccoa, then Habersham County, Georgia, and grew up in Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia. Many sources give her birth date as February 26, 1896, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc have suggested she was born in 1888, and noted other evidence suggesting 1894. Her family lived and worked in the shadow of the Riverside Plantation, the private residence of the wealthy Prather family, from which her namesake came.Wilson, Karen (2006). "Harlem Wisdom in a Wild Woman's Blues: The Cool Intellect of Ida Cox." ''Afro-Americans i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georgia White
Georgia White (9 March 1903 – c.1980) was an American blues singer, most prolific in the 1930s and 1940s. White was born in Sandersville, Georgia in 1903. By the late 1920s she was singing in nightclub, clubs in Chicago. She made her first sound recording and reproduction, recording, "When You're Smiling, the Whole World Smiles With You," with Jimmie Noone's orchestra in 1930. She returned to the studio in 1935, and over the next six years recorded over 100 tracks for Decca Records, usually accompanied by the pianist Richard M. Jones and also, in the late 1930s, by the guitarist Lonnie Johnson (musician), Lonnie Johnson. She also recorded under the name Georgia Lawson. Her tracks included "I'll Keep Sitting on It," "Take Me for a Buggy Ride," "Mama Knows What Papa Wants When Papa's Feeling Blue," and "Hot Nuts." Her best-known song was "You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now" (1935). White formed an all-female band in the 1940s. She also performed with Bumble Bee Slim and Gassy Sl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minstrel Show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans. There were very few African-American performers and black-only minstrel groups that also formed and toured. Minstrel shows stereotyped blacks as dimwitted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky.The Coon Character , Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University. Retrieved 29 January 2016.John Kenrick , musicals101.com. 1996, revised 2003. Retrieved 9 November 2011. A recurring character was Jim Crow, an exaggerated portray ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Da Capo Press
Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books. History Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional offices in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Emeryville, California. The year prior, Da Capo Press had net sales of over $2.5 million. Da Capo Press became a general trade publisher in the mid-1970s. The name "Da Capo" is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning," often used in sheet music to indicate that a piece should be repeated from the start. It was sold to the Perseus Books Group in 1999 after Plenum was sold to Wolters Kluwer. In the last decade, its production has consisted of mostly nonfiction titles, both hardcover and paperback, focusing on history, music, the performing arts, sports, and popular culture. In 2003, Lifelong Books was founded as a health and wellness imprint. When Marlowe & Company became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
René Hall
René Joseph Hall (September 26, 1912 – February 11, 1988) was an American guitarist and arranger. He was among the most important behind-the-scenes figures in early rock and roll, but his career spanned the period from the late 1920s to the late 1980s, and encompassed multiple musical styles. Biography Born in Morgan City, Louisiana, René Hall first recorded in 1933 as a banjo player with Joseph Robichaux in New Orleans. He then worked around the country as a member of the Ernie Fields Orchestra, with whom he made his earliest recordings. In the group he was known by the nickname ''Lightnin' ''. Later he joined Earl Hines as musical arranger. During the 1940s he built up a considerable reputation as a session musician in New York City. In the late 1940s, he formed his own sextet which recorded for various labels including Jubilee, Decca, and RCA. He also worked as a talent scout for King Records, discovering such acts as Billy Ward and the Dominoes. In the mid-1950s, Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harbour Lights (song)
"Harbor Lights", is a popular song by Northern Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy with music by Hugh Williams (the pseudonym of exiled Austrian composer Wilhelm Grosz, Will Grosz). The song was originally recorded by Roy Fox & his Orchestra with vocal by Barry Gray in London on 29 January 1937. Another famous early version was recorded by American singer Frances Langford in Los Angeles on 14 September 1937 in music, 1937 and was published again in 1950 in music, 1950. The melody of the song is done in a Hawaiian style, 18 years before this island became a state. Several versions featured a ukulele and a steel guitar. Lyrics Kennedy's lyrics describe the sight of harbour lights in the darkness, which signal that the ship carrying the singer's sweetheart is sailing away. The lonely singer hopes that the lights will someday signal the sweetheart's return. Apparently the lyricist Jimmy Kennedy was driving from London (UK) down to Southampton on the South coast along the A3 road which le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
