Category: Featured Artist

Featured Music Artists showcases a curated selection of talented musicians from various genres and backgrounds. Dive into their stories, discover their unique sound, and explore what makes them stand out in the music industry. This category highlights both rising stars and established artists shaping the future of music.

Freddie Mercury

January 29, 2017Rebecca Turkovics

Freddie Mercury

Born: 5-Sep-1946
Birthplace: Stone Town, Zanzibar
Died: 24-Nov-1991
Location of death: London, England
Cause of death: AIDS
Remains: Cremated (ashes scattered at Lake Geneva, Switzerland)

Gender: Male
Religion: Zoroastrian
Race or Ethnicity: Asian/Indian
Sexual orientation: Bisexual
Occupation: Singer/Songwriter

Nationality: England
Noteriety: Lead singer, Queen

http://www.queenonline.com/

Born Farrokh Bulsara to Parsee Indian parents, the flamboyant performer who would later be known as Freddie Mercury began his life in Stone Town, the center of commerce for the small African island of Zanzibar, where his father held a civil service post at the British Colonial Office. Sent to the British-run St. Peter’s boarding school in Panchgani, India, at the age of eight, Farrokh displayed a strong aptitude for sports, art and music; at his headmaster’s recommendation his parents added piano lessons to his curriculum, and by the age of twelve he was performing alongside four of his schoolmates in The Hectics, St. Peter’s first rock and roll band. It was during his years at boarding school that he became known as “Freddie”, a name which even his parents and relatives came to use for him. After completing school in 1962 Freddie returned to Zanzibar, but two years later political upheavals forced him and his family to leave, ultimately settling in the British county of Middlesex.

Once in Britain, Freddie decided to pursue an art education, enrolling at Isleworth Polytechnic to earn his A level in art while supporting himself with various manual labor jobs. By 1966 the promising student had been accepted into the Ealing College of Art, and he subsequently moved into a flat in Kensington to begin a study of graphic illustration. It was during this time that Freddie was once again drawn towards the music side of his interests by friend and bass player Tim Staffell, a member of the band Smile alongisde guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Freddie and Tim briefly created their own ensemble with Freddie’s roommate Chris Smith and fellow student Nigel Foster, and although no completed songs resulted from their time together, the sessions did provide the start of Freddie’s career as a vocalist. In 1969 he completed his work at Ealing and opened an art and clothing stall in Kensington with Taylor, but soon after added his talents to the Liverpool band Ibex — eventually changing their name to Wreckage before they ceased to exist later in the year.

Determined to continue his music career, towards the end of 1969 Freddie responded to an ad for a vocalist placed by the band Sour Milk Sea, but this new situation would disintegrate even more rapidly than his previous one. The departure of Tim Staffnell from Smile provided a new opportunity almost immediately afterwards, and in April of 1970 Freddie joined up with his friends Taylor and May — changing the band’s name to Queen and changing his own name to Freddie Mercury. A transitional period followed, during which the three developed their sound and moved through a series of bass players; a successful match was finally found in the person of John Deacon in 1971, and ultimately a deal with EMI was arranged. A few months prior to any release by the band, Mercury released the single I Can Hear Music b/w Going Back under the name Larry Lurex (although still backed by his Queen bandmates), which quickly vanished without a trace.

Queen’s self-titled debut arrived in 1973, positioning them in the UK top 30 for several months and giving them some mild radio rotation with the song Keep Yourself Alive. Critical response to the release was far from enthusiastic — a condition that would persist throughout most of the band’s career. The second release Queen II (1974) fared a little better than the first album, and it’s single Seven Seas of Rhye provided them with their first entry into the top 10; but it would be the third album Sheer Heart Attack (1975) and the single Killer Queen that finally earned mainstream success for the band, both releases finding their way up to number 2 chart positions in the UK, while finding a much larger audience in the States as well. Mercury and his bandmates then cemented their reputation for elaborate, theatrical productions with the release of 1975’s A Night at the Opera: a career-defining album that featured one of the band’s most popular (and ambitious) songs, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Continuing in the same vein as Opera, the fifth Queen effort A Day at the Races (both it and its predecessor taking their titles from films by the Marx Brothers) was released in 1976, the lead single Somebody to Love once again utilizing the extensive, multi-tracked vocals that characterized Bohemian Rhapsody. By this time Queen had become one of the leading stadium rock bands of the decade, attracting enormous audiences in many different parts of the world to their over-the-top live performances. The critical reception given to the band’s output continued to be somewhat unfavorable despite this huge popularity, and subsequent albums such as News of the World (1977) and Jazz (1978) — while still finding their way high into the charts — were given dismissive reviews. A brief hiatus from the exhausting schedule of recording and touring of the previous five years was subsequently taken in 1979, the gap in releases being filled by the platinum-selling live album Live Killers. In October of that year, Mercury was given the opportunity to perform with the Royal Ballet, adding live vocals to orchestral versions of Bohemian Rhapsody and the band’s newest single, Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

In 1980 Queen returned with one of the most successful albums of their career, topping both the US and UK charts with the platinum-selling effort The Game. The first two singles Another One Bites The Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love also managed to reach #1 in the States, while a considerably more reserved reception was given to the band’s campy soundtrack to Mike Hodges updated version of Flash Gordon, released six months later. The David Bowie collaboration Under Pressure followed in 1981, once again placing Queen at the top of the UK charts, but the disco/funk leanings evident on some of the tracks of 1982’s Hot Space outdistanced the sensibilities of their mainstream rock audience and resulted in somewhat of a backlash against the quartet. Another (and longer) hiatus from live performance was taken in 1983.

The subtle decline in Queen’s fortunes continued in 1984, and while their 11th studio album The Works made the top 10 in most areas and produced several popular UK singles, response in the US set them back to their pre-Sheer Heart Attack days. This turn in public opinion was worsened by a series of performances at Sun City in South Africa in the midst of growing anti-apartheid sentiment in the West. In the aftermath, Mercury spent a period away from the band recording his only full-length solo album Mr. Bad Guy, released in early 1985; but he and his bandmates would reassemble in time for a show-stealing performance at the Live Aid benefit, staged at Wembley Stadium and broadcast around the globe in July. The next studio album A Kind of Magic successfully returned the band’s into popular favor, and the subsequent tour (the final one to include Mercury, as it would later turn out) quickly sold out in Britain’s largest venues.

While Queen took an extended break over 1987 and 1988, Mercury took the time to assemble two more solo projects: a single release of his interpretation of The Platters 1956 classic The Great Pretender (1987) and an album-length collaboration with soprano Montserrat Caballé titled Barcelona (1988). The latter project was completed after the singer had been diagnosed with AIDS — a fact he struggled (not entirely successfully) to conceal for the next four years while continuing to pursue his creative activities. Another album with Queen, The Miracle, was released in 1989 to enthusiastic public response in the UK and Europe and a somewhat milder welcome in the US; its follow-up Innuendo would surface two years later and represent the singer’s final recorded performances. An official announcement of Mercury’s illness was finally made on 23 November 1991 — the day before he succumbed to AIDS-related bronchial pneumonia.

Father: Bomi Bulsara
Mother: Jer
Sister: Kashmira
Girlfriend: Mary Austin (to whom he left some of his estate)

University: Isleworth Polytechnic (1966)
University: Ealing College of Art (1969)

Queen Vocalist/Keyboardist (1970-91)
Freddie Mercury
Indian Ancestry
Risk Factors: AIDS

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Queen Live at Wembley ’86 (Oct-1986) · Himself
Live Aid (13-Jul-1985) · Himself
We Will Rock You: Queen Live in Concert (1982) · Himself

Is the subject of books:
The Show Must Go On: The Life and Times of Freddie Mercury, 1992, BY: Rick Sky
Freddie Mercury: This Is the Real Life, 1993, BY: David Evans and David Minns
Mercury: The King of Queen, 1996, BY: Laura Jackson
The Great Pretender: The Hidden Life of Freddie Mercury, 1997, BY: Januszczak Waldemar
Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography, 1997, BY: Lesley-Ann Jones
Living on the Edge:The Freddie Mercury Story, 1999, BY: David Bret
Freddie Mercury, 2001, BY: Peter Freestone

In loving memory of Spencer 1969 – 2000

Eric Clapton

January 29, 2017djturk@bellsouth.net

Eric Clapton 

Born: March 30, 1945
Birthplace: Ripley, Surrey, England

Gender: Male
Religion: Christian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight

Occupation: Guitarist

Eric Patrick Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in his grandparents’ home at 1 The Green, Ripley, Surrey, England. He was the son of 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton (born January 7, 1929, died March 1999) and Edward Walter Fryer (born  March 21, 1920, died 1985), a 24-year-old Canadian soldier stationed in England during World War II. Before Eric was born, Fryer returned to his wife in Canada.

It was extraordinarily difficult for an unmarried 16-year-old to raise a child on her own in the mid-1940s. Pat’s parents, Rose and Jack Clapp, stepped in as surrogate parents and raised Eric as their own. Thus, he grew up believing his mother was his sister. His grandparents never legally adopted him, but remained his legal guardians until 1963. Eric’s last name comes from Rose’s first husband and Pat’s father, Reginald Cecil Clapton (d. 1933).

Eric’s mother, Pat, eventually married and moved to Canada and Germany as her husband, Frank MacDonald, continued his military career. They had two girls and a boy. Eric’s half-brother, Brian, was killed in a road accident in 1974 at the age of 26. His half-sisters are Cheryl (b. May 1953) and Heather (b. September 1958).

Eric was raised in a musical household. His grandmother played piano and his uncle and mother both enjoyed listening to the sounds of the big bands. Pat later told Eric’s official biographer, Ray Coleman, that his father was a gifted musician, playing piano in several dance bands in the Surrey area.
Quiet and polite, he was characterized as an above-average student with an aptitude for art. But, from his earliest years in school, he realized something was not quite right when he wrote his name as “Eric Clapton” and his parents’ names as “Mr. and Mrs. Clapp”. At the age of nine, he learned the truth about his parentage when Pat returned to England with his six-year-old half brother for a visit. This singular event affected him deeply and was a defining moment in his life. He became moody and distant and stopped applying himself at school. Emotionally scarred by this event, Eric failed the all-important 11 Plus Exams. He was sent to St. Bede’s Secondary Modern School and two years later, entered the art branch of Holyfield Road School.

By 1958, Rock and Roll had exploded onto the world. Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest. Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently. Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, and practiced long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records. He preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder, listening to them over and over until he felt he’d gotten it right. In 1961, when he was 16, Eric began studying at the Kingston College of Art on a one-year probation. He was expelled at the end of that time for lack of progress as he had not submitted enough work. The reason? Guitar playing and listening to the blues dominated his waking hours.

Typical of his introspective nature, Eric looked beneath the surface and explored the roots of rock in American Blues. The blues also meshed perfectly with his self-perception as an outsider and of being “different” from other people. Sometime in 1962, he asked for his grandparents’ help in purchasing a £100 electric double cutaway Kay (a Gibson ES-335 clone) after hearing the electric blues of Freddie King, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and others.

Eric spent his early days in music busking around Richmond and Kingston, he also began spending time in London and the West End. In early 1963, 17 year-old Eric joined his first band, The Roosters. Following the band’s demise in August 1963, he spent one month in the pop-oriented Casey Jones and The Engineers. Before turning to music as a full-time career, he supported himself as a laborer at building sites, working alongside his grandfather, a master bricklayer and plasterer.

October 1963, Keith Relf and Paul Samwell-Smith recruited him to become a member of The Yardbirds because Clapton was the most talked about guitar player on the R&B pub circuit. During his 18-month tenure with The Yardbirds, he earned his nickname, Slowhand, and recorded his first albums: Five Live Yardbirds and Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds. The band also recorded the single, “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”. But, Eric had not abandoned his serious research into the American Blues. When The Yardbirds began moving towards a more commercial sound with “For Your Love”, he quit. His path in music was the blues.

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In April 1965, John Mayall invited Eric to join his band, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. With this group, Clapton established his reputation as a guitarist and earned his second nickname: “God”. It came from an admirer’s graffiti on the wall of London’s Islington Tube Station that boldly proclaimed “Clapton is God.” Eric’s time with the band was turbulent and he left for a while to tour Greece with friends. Upon his return from Greece, Eric rejoined the Bluesbreakers. It was during this time that the now classic Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton was recorded. While with the Bluesbreakers, Eric also recorded a one-off four-track session with a band dubbed “The Powerhouse”. This studio band included John Paul Jones, Steve Winwood and Jack Bruce.

After leaving the Bluesbreakers for a second and final time in July 1966, Eric teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to form Cream. Extensive touring in the U.S. and three solid albums – Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, and Wheels of Fire – brought the band worldwide acclaim. While a member of Cream, he cemented his reputation as rock’s premier guitarist and was elevated to superstar status. Although Cream was together for only two years, they are considered one of the most influential rock groups of the modern era. Clapton was unique because he did not simply replicate the blues riffs he heard on records. He incorporated the emotion of the original performances into his own style of playing, thus expanding the vocabulary of blues guitar. Cream crumbled beneath the weight of the member’s egos and constant arguing. They disbanded after two final performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall on 26 November 1968.

Following Cream’s break-up, Clapton founded Blind Faith – rock’s first “supergroup” – with Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, and Rick Grech. Disbanding after one album and a disastrous American tour, Eric tried to hide from his growing fame by touring as a sideman with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. While with this outfit, Eric was encouraged to sing by Delaney Bramlett. He also began composing more. A live album from the Delaney & Bonnie tour was released in 1970. Clapton’s self-titled debut was released that same year.

In the summer of 1970, Eric formed Derek and the Dominos with Jim Gordon, Carl Radle and Bobby Whitlock from Delaney & Bonnie’s band . The Dominos would go on to record the seminal rock album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. A concept album, its theme revolved around Clapton’s unrequited love for George Harrison’s wife, Patti. The band would drift apart following an American tour and a failed attempt at recording a second album.

 

Hit hard by the break up of The Dominos, the commercial failure of the Layla album and his unrequited love, Eric sunk into three years of heroin addiction. Although he rarely emerged from his Surrey Estate, he filled box upon box with tapes of songs. He kicked his drug addiction and re-launched his career in January 1973 with two concerts at London’s Rainbow Theater organized by his friend, Pete Townshend (The Who). The concerts represented a turning point in his career. In 1974, he reappeared with a new style and sound with 461 Ocean Boulevard. Eric had become an assured vocalist and composer in addition to a guitar hero.

With each album after 461 Ocean Boulevard, Eric reinvented himself musically. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, albums and tours would follow year in and year out. In 1985, Clapton found a new audience following his performance at the worldwide charity concert, Live Aid. Annual stands at the Royal Albert Hall and successful albums like August, Journeyman and the Crossroads box set kept him well in the public mind. In the late 80s, he carved out a second career as the composer of film scores. His career went from strength to strength and reached new heights in 1992 with the release of Unplugged and the Grammy winning single, “Tears In Heaven.”

In 1994, Eric returned to his blues roots with the release of From The Cradle. The album was Clapton’s tribute to his musical heroes and contained cover versions of blues classics. 1997 brought an excursion into electronica with the release of TDF’s Retail Therapy . Eric posed as X-Sample in the studio “band” TDF. In 1998, he released the soul-influenced Pilgrim, his first album of all new material in nine years. In 2000, he continued his love affair with the blues when he recorded an album with American blues legend, B.B. King. Riding With The King was released in June and within three weeks of release, was certified gold.

Shortly after the release of Riding With The King, Clapton was back in the studio recording his next solo project. Reptile was released in March 2001. In late 2002, he began to record a new studio album. Work continued through the summer of 2003 and enough material was recorded for two albums. In addition to new solo material, Eric recorded covers of Robert Johnson songs during these sessions. The Johnson songs were assembled and in March 2004, Eric’s tribute album, Me and Mr. Johnson was released. The solo material recorded during these sessions was released in 2005 on Back Home.

In 2005, Eric also revisted the past. He, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce re-formed Cream for four very special reunion shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The concerts took place at the venue where their farewell shows took place 37 years earlier, in November 1968. In October 2005, the men performed three further concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The London shows were released on CD and DVD in late 2005.

Eric’s next recording project was to be produced by one of the architects of the “Tulsa Sound,” J.J. Cale. Eric had long admired Cale’s work, having recorded cover versions of “After Midnight,” “Cocaine,” and “Travelin’ Light.” After working in the studio a short time, it turned into a collaborative effort. The Road To Escondido was released on 7 November 2006 to critical acclaim. It won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album (Vocal or Instrumental) at the 50th Annual Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles on 10 February 2008.

In his more than 40 year career, Eric Clapton has received many awards. He is the only triple inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (as a member of both the Yardbirds and Cream and as a solo artist). He has also won or shared in eighteen Grammy Awards.

Eric has also contributed to numerous artists’ albums over the decades. The most well known session occurred in September 1968, when he added guitar to George Harrison’s composition, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” It is on the album, The Beatles (best known as “The White Album”). He can also be heard on albums by Aretha Franklin, Steven Stills, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon and Yoko Ono), Ringo Starr, Sting, and Roger Waters.

Eric has always toured extensively performing thousands of concerts around the globe. Recent solo world tours took place in 2001, 2004 and 2006 / 2007 and a 27 date Summer Tour in 2008 which visited the eastern U.S., Canada and Europe. Additionally, in February 2008 Eric performed three concerts with long-time friend Steve Winwood at New York’s Madison Square Garden. In 2009, Eric will again be on the road with his band visiting Japan, New Zealand and Australia before returning home for a 11 night stand at London’s Royal Albert Hall in May.

After conquering his heroin addiction in the early 70s, Eric replaced it with an addiction to alcohol. Throughout the remainder of the decade and into the 1980s, his life and work suffered due to his alcoholism. In January 1982, Eric entered the Hazelden Foundation, a rehabilitation facility in the United States. He did backslide but entered rehab a second time a few years later. He has been sober since 1987 through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Since that time, Eric has been committed to working with others who suffer from addictions to drugs and alcohol.

In February 1998, Eric announced the opening of Crossroads Centre, a rehabilitation facility for drug and alcohol abuse on the island of Antigua. One of its principles is to provide subsidized care for some of the poorest people of the Caribbean who can not afford such care on their own. A foundation was established to provide “scholarships” for these individuals. On 24 June 1999, Clapton auctioned 100 of his guitars, including “Brownie” (the guitar on which he recorded “Layla”), at Christie’s Auction House / New York. The 1999 auction netted almost $5 million (US) for the foundation. On 30 June 1999, Clapton hosted a concert to benefit the Centre at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Proceeds from its airing on America’s VH1 and DVD and video sales benefited the Centre. Five years later, Eric planned the second and final major fundraising effort for the Centre. On 4, 5 and 6 June 2004, he hosted the First Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. The three day event presented the cream of the world’s guitarists in a benefit event for the Centre. The event was filmed and proceeds from the sale of the DVD also benefit the foundation. Additionally, a second guitar auction took place on 24 June 2004. It raised an additional $6 million for the foundation and included the sale of “Blackie”, his legendary Fender Stratocaster and a cherry red Gibson ES335, known as “The Cream Guitar”. The Second Crossroads Guitar Festival, with proceeds again benefitting the Crossroads Centre Foundation, took place on 28 July 2007 in Chicago, Illinois. The event was filmed and a DVD was released on 6 November 2007.

In October 2007, Eric’s autobiography, Clapton, was published. It is available in twelve languages and topped the best-seller lists around the world.

Eric is married. He and his wife, Melia, have three daughters – Julie Rose (born June 2001), Ella Mae (born January 2003) and Sophie (born February 2005). The couple married on January 1st 2002. Eric’s eldest child is his daughter, Ruth (born January 1985).

His son, Conor (born August 1986), died on 20 March 1991 when he fell from a window in his mother’s New York City apartment. Conor’s mother is Lori del Santo, a film actress / television personality.

Eric married his first wife, Pattie Boyd Harrison on March 27, 1979. They had no children and divorced in 1989.

In loving memory of Spencer 1969 – 2000

Carol King

January 29, 2017Rebecca Turkovics

Carole King (born Carol Klein on February 9, 1942) is an American Singer/Songwriter and Pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin penned dozens of chart hits for various artists in the 1960s. In 1971 her Grammy winning album Tapestry, was #1 on the Billboard 200 for 15 consecutive weeks and remained on the charts for more than six years! King attended Queens College in New York, where she was a classmate (and girlfriend) of Neil Sedaka and inspired Sedaka’s first hit, “Oh! Carol.” She responded in song  with “Oh! Neil”.

Goffin and King formed a songwriting team for Aldon Music in New York. Their first success was “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, recorded by The Shirelles. It topped the American charts in 1961, becoming the first No. 1 hit by a girl group. It was later recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Ben E. King, Dusty Springfield, Laura Branigan, Little Eva, Roberta Flack, The Four Seasons, Bryan Ferry, Dave Mason, Dionne Warwick, and Melanie Safka as well as by King herself, and Amy Winehouse. Goffin and King married in September 1960 and had two daughters, Louise Goffin and Sherry Goffin. Both are musicians.

In 1965, Goffin and King wrote a theme song for Sidney Sheldon’s television series, I Dream of Jeannie, but an instrumental by Hugo Montenegro was used instead. Goffin and King’s 1967 song, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, a No.3 for The Monkees, was inspired by their move to suburban West Orange, New Jersey. Goffin and King also wrote “Porpoise Song (Theme from Head)” for Head, the Monkees’ film. (King also co-wrote “As We Go Along” with Toni Stern for the same film soundtrack.) Goffin and King divorced in 1968 but Carole consulted Goffin on music she was writing.

In 1968, King was hired with Toni Stern to write for Strawberry Alarm Clock – “Lady of the Lake” and “Blues for a Young Girl Gone” — which appeared on the album The World in a Seashell. King sang backup vocals on the demo of Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion” which she also co-wrote. She had had a modest hit in 1962 singing one of her own songs, “It Might As Well Rain Until September” (22 in the US and top 10 in the UK, later a hit in Canada for Gary and Dave), but after “He’s a Bad Boy” made 94 in 1963, it took King eight years to reach the Hot 100 singles chart again as a performer.

As the ’60s waned, King helped start Tomorrow Records, divorced Goffin and married Charles Larkey (of the Myddle Class), with whom she had two children, Molly and Levi. Moving to the West Coast, Larkey, King, and Danny Kortchmar formed The City, which made one album, Now That Everything’s Been Said, a commercial failure. King made Writer (1970), also a commercial failure.

King followed Writer in 1971 with Tapestry, featuring new folk-flavored compositions, as well as reinterpretations of two of her songs, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” Tapestry was an instant success. With numerous hit singles – including a Billboard No.1 with “It’s Too Late” – Tapestry held the No.1 spot for 15 consecutive weeks, remained on the charts for nearly six years, sold 10 million copies in the United States, and 25 million worldwide. The album garnered four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Record of the Year (“It’s Too Late,” lyrics by Toni Stern); and Song of the Year, become the first woman to win the award (“You’ve Got a Friend”). The album signaled the era of platinum albums, though it was issued prior to the invention of the platinum certification by the RIAA. It would eventually be certified Diamond. Tapestry was the top-selling solo album until Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982. The album was later placed at 36 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list. In addition, “It’s Too Late” was placed at No.469 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Carole King: Music was released in December 1971, certified gold on December 9, 1971. It entered the top ten at 8, becoming the first of many weeks Tapestry and Carole King: Music would occupy the top 10 simultaneously. The following week, it rose to 3, and finally No.1 on January 1, 1972, staying there for three weeks. The album also spawned a top 10 hit, “Sweet Seasons” (US No.9 and AC #2). Music stayed on the Billboard pop album charts for 44 weeks. Carole King: Music was eventually certified platinum.

Rhymes and Reasons (1972), and Fantasy (1973) followed, each earning gold certifications. Rhymes and Reasons produced another hit, “Been to Canaan” (US No.24 and AC #1), and Fantasy produced two hits, “Believe in Humanity” (US #28) and “Corazon” (US No.37 and AC #5), as well as another song that charted on the Hot 100, “You Light Up My Life” (US No.68 and AC #6).

In 1973, King performed a free concert in New York City’s Central Park with 100,000 attending.

In September 1974, King released her album Wrap Around Joy, which was certified gold on October 16, 1974 and entered the top ten at 7 on October 19, 1974. Two weeks later it reached 1 and stayed there one week. She toured to promote the album. Wrap Around Joy spawned two hits. Jazzman was a single and reached 2 on November 9 but fell out of the top ten the next week. Nightingale, a single on December 17, went to No.9 on March 1, 1975.

In 1975, King scored songs for the animated TV production of Maurice Sendak’s Really Rosie, released as an album by the same name, with lyrics by Sendak.

Thoroughbred (1976) was the last studio album she made under the Ode label. In addition to enlisting her long-time friends such as David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Taylor and Waddy Wachtel, King reunited with Gerry Goffin to write four songs for the album. Their partnership continued intermittently. King also did a promotional tour for the album in 1976.

In 1977, King collaborated with another songwriter Rick Evers on Simple Things, the first release with a new label distributed by Capitol Records. Shortly after that King and Evers were married; he died of a heroin overdose one year later. Simple Things was her first album that failed to reach the top 10 on the Billboard since Tapestry, and it was her last Gold-certified record by the RIAA, except for a compilation entitled Her Greatest Hits the following year. Neither Welcome Home (1978), her debut as a co-producer on an album, nor Touch the Sky (1979), reached the top 100.

Pearls – The Songs of Goffin and King (1980) yielded a hit single, an updated version of “One Fine Day.” Pearls marked the end of King’s career as a hitmaker and a performer, no subsequent single reaching the top 40.

King moved to Atlantic Records for One to One (1982), and Speeding Time in 1983, which was a reunion with Tapestry-era producer Lou Adler. In 1983, she played piano in “Chains and Things” on the B.B. King album Why I Sing The Blues. After a well-received concert tour in 1984, journalist Catherine Foster of the Christian Science Monitor dubbed King as “a Queen of Rock.” She also called King’s performing as “all spunk and exuberance.”

In 1985, she wrote and performed “Care-A-Lot,” theme to The Care Bears Movie. Also in 1985, she scored and performed (with David Sanborn) the soundtrack to the Martin Ritt-directed movie Murphy’s Romance. The soundtrack, again produced by Adler, included the songs “Running Lonely” and “Love For The Last Time (Theme from ‘Murphy’s Romance’),” although a soundtrack album was apparently never officially released. King made a cameo appearance in the film as Tillie, a town hall employee.

n 1989, she returned to Capitol Records and recorded City Streets, with Eric Clapton on two tracks and Branford Marsalis on one, followed by Color of Your Dreams (1993), with an appearance by Slash of Guns N’ Roses. Her song, “Now and Forever,” was in the opening credits to the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In 1988, she starred in the off-Broadway production A Minor Incident, and in 1994, she played Mrs Johnstone on Broadway in Blood Brothers. In 1996, she appeared in Brighton Beach Memoirs in Ireland, directed by Peter Sheridan. In 1991, she wrote with Mariah Carey the song “If It’s Over”, for Carey’s second album Emotions. In 1996, she wrote “Wall Of Smiles / Torre De Marfil” with Soraya for her 1997 album of the same title.

In 1997, King wrote and recorded backing vocals on “The Reason” for Celine Dion on her album Let’s Talk About Love. The song sold worldwide, including one million in France. It went to number 1 in France, 11 in the UK, and 13 in Ireland. The pair performed a duet on the first VH1 Divas Live benefit concert. King also performed her “You’ve Got A Friend” with Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain as well as “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” with Aretha Franklin and others, including Mariah Carey. In 1998, King wrote “Anyone at All”, and performed it in You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

In 2001, King appeared in a television ad for the Gap, with her daughter, Louise Goffin. She performed a new song, “Love Makes the World,” which became a title track for her studio album in autumn 2001 on her own label, Rockingale, distributed by Koch Records. The album includes songs she wrote for other artists during the mid-1990s and features Celine Dion, Steven Tyler, Babyface and k.d. lang. Love Makes the World went to 158 in the US and No.86 in the UK. It also debuted on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart and Top Internet Albums chart at #20. An expanded edition of the album was issued six years later called Love Makes the World Deluxe Edition. It contains a bonus disc with five additional tracks, including a remake of “Where You Lead (I Will Follow)” co-written with Toni Stern. The same year, King and Stern wrote “Sayonara Dance,” recorded by Yuki, former lead vocalist of the Japanese band Judy and Mary, on her first solo album Prismic the following year. Also in 2001, King composed a song for All About Chemistry album by Semisonic, with the band’s frontman Dan Wilson.

King launched her Living Room Tour in July 2004 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. That show, along with shows at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and the Cape Cod Melody Tent (Hyannis, Massachusetts) were recorded as The Living Room Tour in July 2005. The album sold 44,000 copies in its first week in the US, landing at 17 on the Billboard 200, her highest-charting album since 1977. The album also charted at 51 in Australia. It has sold 330,000 copies in the United States. In August 2006 the album reentered the Billboard 200 at 151. The tour stopped in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A DVD of the tour, called Welcome to My Living Room, was released in October 2007.

 

In November 2007, King toured Japan with Mary J. Blige and Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas. Japanese record labels Sony and Victor reissued most of King’s albums, including the works from the late 1970s previously unavailable on compact disc. King recorded a duet of the Goffin/King composition “Time Don’t Run Out on Me” with Anne Murray on Murray’s 2007 album Anne Murray Duets: Friends and Legends. The song had previously been recorded by Murray for her 1984 album Heart Over Mind.

In 2010, King and James Taylor staged their Troubadour Reunion Tour together, recalling the first time they played at The Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1970. The pair had reunited two and a half years earlier with the band they used in 1970 to mark the club’s 50th anniversary. They enjoyed it so much that they decided to take the band on the road. The touring band featured players from that original band: Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, and Danny Kortchmar. Also present was King’s son-in-law, Robbie Kondor. King played piano and Taylor guitar on each others’ songs, and they sang together some of the numbers they were both associated with. The tour began in Australia in March, returning to the United States in May. It was a major commercial success, with King playing to some of the largest audiences of her career. Total ticket sales exceeded 700,000 and the tour grossed over 59 million dollars, making it one of the most successful tours of the year.

 

During their Troubadour Reunion Tour, Carole King released two albums, one with James Taylor. The first, released on April 27, 2010, The Essential Carole King, is a two-disc compilation album. The first disc features many songs Carole King has recorded, mostly her hit singles. The second disc features recordings by other artists of songs that King wrote, most of which made the top 40, and many of which reached #1. The second album was released on May 4, 2010 and is a collaboration of King and James Taylor called Live at the Troubadour, which debuted at No.4 in the United States with sales of 78,000 copies. Live at the Troubadour has since received a gold record from the RIAA for shipments of over 500,000 copies in the US and has remained on the charts for 34 weeks, currently charting at No.170 on the Billboard 200.

 

On December 22, 2010, Carole King’s mother, Eugenia Gingold, died in the Hospice Care unit at Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Florida at the age of 94. King stated that the cause of death was congestive heart failure. Gingold’s passing was reported by the Miami Herald on January 1, 2011.

2009 Interview with Carole King

In the fall of 2011 she released A Holiday Carole, which includes holiday standards and new songs written by her daughter Louise Goffin who also is producer for the album.

U.S. Billboard Top 10 Albums

1971 – Tapestry (#1)
1971 – Carole King: Music (#1)
1972 – Rhymes and Reasons (#2)
1973 – Fantasy (#6)
1974 – Wrap Around Joy (#1)
1976 – Thoroughbred (#3)
2010 – Live at the Troubadour (with James Taylor) (#4)

U.S. Billboard Top 10 ‘Pop’ Singles

1971 – “I Feel the Earth Move” (#1)
1971 – “It’s Too Late” (#1)
1971 – “Sweet Seasons” (#9)
1974 – “Jazzman” (#2)
1974 – “Nightingale” (#9)

Some of the songs written or co-written by Carole King:

Been to Canaan
Chains (Little Eva, Beatles)
Child of Mine
Crying in the Rain
Don’t Bring Me Down (The Animals song)
Don’t Ever Change
Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby)-(The Cookies)
Go Away Little Girl (Steve Lawrence)
Goin’ Back
Halfway to Paradise
He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)
Hey Girl (Freddie Scott song)
Hi De Ho (Blood Sweat & Tears)
I Can’t Hear You No More
I Feel the Earth Move (Tapestry)
I’m into Something Good (Herman’s Hermits)
If It’s Over (Mariah Carey)
Is This What I Get For Loving You?
It Might As Well Rain Until September
It’s Going to Take Some Time
It’s Too Late (Carole King song)
Jazzman (Carole King song)
Just Once in My Life
Keep Your Hands Off My Baby
The Loco-Motion (Little Eva)
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Aretha Frankklin)
Nightingale
Now and Forever (Carole King song)
Oh No Not My Baby (Maxine Brown)
On this Side of Goodbye
One Fine Day (Chiffons)
Only Love Is Real
Pleasant Valley Sunday (Monkees)
Porpoise Song (Monkees Theme from Head)
The Reason (Celine Dion song)
So Far Away (Carole King song)
So Much Love
Some Kind of Wonderful (Marvin Gaye)
Sweet Young Thing
Take a Giant Step (The Monkees song)
Take Good Care of My Baby (Bobby Vee)
Time Don’t Run Out on Me
Up on the Roof (Drifters, James Taylor)
Welcome to My Living Room
Where You Lead
Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Shirelles)
You Light Up My Life (Debbie Boone)
You’ve Got a Friend (Carole King, James Taylor)

 

Bob Marley

January 25, 2017djturk@bellsouth.net

Bob Marley

Given Name:  Robert Nesta Marley

Born: February 6, 1945
Birthplace: Nine Miles, Jamaica
Died: May 11, 1981
Location of death: Miami, FL
Cause of death: Cancer – Brain
Remains: Buried, Bob Marley Mausoleum, Nine Mile, Jamaica

Gender: Male
Religion: Rastafarian
Race or Ethnicity: Multiracial
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Singer/Songwriter

 Official Website:
http://www.bobmarley.com/

Bob Marley – The first reggae performer to achieve a world-wide audience — as well as being a significant cultural figure — Robert Nesta Marley was born in Nine Miles, a small village located in the north Jamaican parish of St. Ann. His father Norval Marley was Jamaican-born but of British decent, having returned to the island following several decades of service in the British Army and married Cedella Booker, an 18-year old native Jamaican woman. Bob’s father provided financial support for his family, but had a minimal presence in his son’s life as a result of his frequent traveling; this support ended in 1955, however, when Norval died of a heart attack, forcing Bob and his mother to relocate from rural Nine Miles to the dangerous Trench Town slums of Kingston. It was here that he became active in music, inspired both by American R&B and the unique styles developing in Kingston.

At the age of 14 Marley left school to work as a welder’s apprentice, while also pursuing his musical interests with friend Neville “Bunny” Livingston (later to be known as Bunny Wailer) and an older Rastafarian singer named Joe Higgs. Sessions with Higgs provided an introduction to fellow aspiring singer Winston “Peter” McIntosh (who subsequently shortened his name to just Peter Tosh), who would complete the collaborative trio within which Marley and Livingston would operate until the mid-1970s. In 1962 Marley recorded his first two singles Judge Not and One Cup of Coffee with producer/Beverly’s Records founder Leslie Kong, and although neither song (the latter released under the Kong-invented pseudonym “Bobby Martell”) received much attention, Marley remained fully committed to establishing himself as a performer. Marley, Livingston and McIntosh then assembled a six-piece ska group they first named The Teenagers and then The Wailing Rudeboys before settling on The Wailing Wailers in mid-1963.

Kong’s questionable accounting practices ultimately brought an end to his association with the group, and so in the summer of 1963 the Wailing Wailers auditioned for Studio One owner Clement Dodd, who produced the two tracks I’m Still Waiting and It Hurts to Be Alone. Manufactured in an edition of 300, the single had a significant impact on the streetside “sound system” circuit, prompting Dodd to arrange another session soon afterward. The group member who had provided lead vocals for It Hurts To Be Alone, Junior Braithwaite, had just moved to the States with his family, and so for the next single Simmer Down the role of principal singer fell to Marley. Released on Dodd’s Coxsone label just prior to Christmas, in February 1964 Simmer Down reached the top of the Jamaican charts, attracting national attention to Marley and his bandmates.

In spite of a run of successful singles throughout the next two years (Rude Boy, Rudie, Jailhouse, One Love, Put It On) by the end of 1965 financial difficulties had whittled the Wailing Wailers line-up down to the core trio of Bob, Bunny and Peter. The following year Marley briefly relocated to the U.S., where his mother had recently established a home with her second husband in Delaware; after working for eight months to finance his music career, the singer moved back to Kingston to resume activity with the group — now simply known as The Wailers. Their recordings had already been gradually evolving from “rude boy” street anthems to more socially-conscious material, but by 1967 the influence of the Rastafarian movement on Marley and his bandmates had become the central concern behind their music.

The shift in Jamaican popular music from ska to rock-steady during the mid-1960s resulted in a significant drop in sales for Dodd, who had not instigated a corresponding shift in his label’s output. This — aggravated by the lack of financial compensation that had plagued the group from the beginning — prompted the Wailers to leave Coxsone and establish their own Wail’N’Soul’M label and shop based at Marley’s home in Trench Town. For each new release, the band (which now also included Marley’s wife Rita) would personally bring the records around to Kingston shops; unfortunately, this approach proved much too difficult to maintain, and towards the end of 1967 a lack of resources forced the singer to dissolve the label. The single Bend Down Low b/w Mellow Mood did find it’s way into the world prior to this outcome, however, and the latter track would become one of Marley’s most frequently covered songs.

For a short while the Wailers continued primarily as songwriters for other artists, but in 1970 the group began working with Lee “Scratch” Perry, an innovate producer who had established his own Upsetter label in 1968. Perry helped to transform their sound — taking them farther away from the conventional vocal harmonies of their early years and bringing a more contemporary edge to the material — and in subsequent years, their collaborations with him would come to be widely regarded as the high point of The Wailers’ (and Marley’s) career. Brothers Aston “Family Man” Barrett and Carlton Barrett from Perry’s studio band The Upsetters were brought in to provide the rhythm section for the sessions, utilizing a style developed in the studio with Perry that had helped to define the emerging reggae genre. A large number of single tracks (My Cup, Duppy Conqueror, 400 Years, Small Axe, Soul Rebel amongst them) were recorded during this period, as well as other tracks collected on the full-length albums Soul Rebels (1970) and Soul Revolution (1971). In 1971 Bob Marley traveled to Europe with American vocalist Johnny Nash, where he successfully secured a recording contract with CBS. The next Wailer’s single Reggae on Broadway (1972) had little international impact, but while promoting the single in the UK Marley was able to arrange a more lucrative deal with Island Records founder Chris Blackwell; the full-length album Catch a Fire was issued in April of 1973, at last giving the group access to a world-wide audience. Media attention to the record was considerable, and a tour of Britain and the United States (a rare occurrence for a reggae act) was quickly arranged. Bunny Wailer refused to participate in the American leg of the tour, but the remaining band — with old mentor Joe Higgs serving as Bunny’s replacement — made an enormous impact on U.S. audiences both as headliners and as an opening act for American performers such as Bruce Springsteen and Sly and the Family Stone.

The Wailer’s second album for Island, Burnin’, was released in October of ’73 and featured what would become one of Marley’s best-known tracks Get Up, Stand Up. The album also included the song I Shot the Sheriff, which was turned into an international hit via an Eric Clapton cover version the following year. Burnin’ also marked the end of the original Wailer’s collaboration, as the stress resulting from the band’s fame would induce both Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh to leave by the end of 1974. Marley spent most of the following year in the studio putting together his next album Natty Dread, utilizing a backing band that now included the female vocal trio The I-Threes (comprised of his wife Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt), guitarist Al Anderson, keyboardist Bernard Touter Harvey and percussionist Alvin Patterson in addition to the Barrett brothers rhythm section. Released in early 1975 and credited to “Bob Marley and the Wailers”, Natty Dread helped to extend the singer’s international reputation, eventually placing in both the US and UK top 100.