Jackie DeShannon

Jackie DeShannon, real name Sharon Lee Myers, (born August 21, 1944) is an American singer/songwriter with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards. She was one of the first female singer songwriters of the rock ‘n’ roll period.

Few performers have enjoyed as versatile a career as Jackie DeShannon, and although she made a couple of well-remembered Top Ten pop hits in the '60s, she's never achieved the level of success or artistic recognition she deserves. Starting as a pop-rockabilly singer as a teenager in the late '50s, she quickly developed into one of the L.A. pop scene's hottest songwriters, penning hits for Brenda Lee, the Fleetwoods, and Irma Thomas, and often collaborating with fellow noted songwriter Shari Sheeley.

She was a crucial midwife to the birth of folk-rock, with the wonderful singles "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room." Using the circular, jangling guitar lines that would become a prime feature of early folk-rock, both of those songs were covered by the Searchers for much bigger hits; she also wrote "Don't Doubt Yourself Babe," covered by the Byrds on their first album, and penned a couple of Marianne Faithfull's early hits. In the mid-'60s, she also found time to write some songs with then-sessionman Jimmy Page, and perform as an opening act for the Beatles on the group's first big American tour.

Her famous affiliations and success as a songwriter have sometimes obscured her own enormous talents. She's a superb singer, capable of both sweet ballads and (more satisfyingly) a gutsy, soulfully husky delivery. She performed her own material with an honest, vulnerable, intelligent intensity that pre-figured the singer/songwriter movement by several years, and demonstrated command of pop, soul, hard rock, girl group, and country styles. Her greatest success, however, came not with her own material, but with Bacharach-David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," which made the Top Ten in 1965.

Perhaps as a result, she gravitated toward more middle-of-the-road pop sounds in the last half of the '60s, though she cut a good deal of strong material, by both herself and emerging writers like Randy Newman, Tim Hardin, and Warren Zevon. The soft rock "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" gave her another Top Ten hit in 1969, and she made some well-received singer/songwriter albums in the 1970s. One of the songs from her '70s LPs, "Bette Davis Eyes," became a number one hit for Kim Carnes in 1981. "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" was performed as the closing number at the Music for UNICEF Concert, broadcast worldwide from the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and Annie Lennox and Al Green teamed up to do a cover, creating a worldwide smash hit all over again in 1988. Find out more about this singer/songwriter at: http://www.jackiedeshannon.com/

Research info gathered at: www.allmusic.com


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The Clovers

The group formed in 1946 at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C., with members Harold Lucas, Billy Shelton, and Thomas Woods. John "Buddy" Bailey was added soon after, and they began calling themselves the "Four Clovers", with Bailey on lead. In perfecting their sound, the group pushed Shelton and Woods out in 1948, and brought in Matthew McQuarter and Harold Winley.

Their break came in 1950, when they were introduced to Lou Krefetz, who became their manager. They signed to New York's Rainbow Records and released one single, "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" backed with "When You Come Back To Me". Soon after, Krefetz brought them to Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegün, and they were signed to Atlantic in 1951. At this point, Bill Harris was added as their guitarist. Their first appearance came in February of that year at the Apollo Theater.

Their very first Atlantic session produced their first big hit, "Don't You Know I Love You", which hit #1 on the national charts in June of 1951. "One Mint Julep" and "Fool Fool Fool" also went #1 in September. Bailey was drafted in 1952, and John Phillip was brought in to replace him. He stayed for just a few months, before leaving and being replaced by Charlie White, who had been in the Dominoes and the Checkers.

With personal problems, White was fired near the end of 1953. His replacement was Billy Mitchell. The group continued recording with Atlantic, without as much success as they'd previously seen. Buddy Bailey was discharged from the Army in May of 1954, and rejoined the group, making them a quintet. They continued in recording, and in 1955, found moderate success with "Devil or Angel".

Mitchell left in 1957 to do solo work, but rejoined shortly thereafter, opting to do both solo work and work with the Clovers. Their Atlantic contract expired, and Krefetz moved them to his own label, Poplar Records. Poplar was purchased by United Artists Records shortly thereafter. The group's work with United Artists put them in contact with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. After a few recordings there, they had their biggest hit, "Love Potion #9", which came in July of 1959, and featured Mitchell on lead.

Their UA contract expired in 1961, and they moved to Winley Records. With little success there, the group split. Lucas and Mitchell brought in new members James "Toy" Walton and Robert Russell, and recorded shortly for Atlantic. Mitchell left in 1962, and was replaced by Roosevelt "Tippie" Hubbard.

Following The Searchers' remake of "Love Potion #9" in 1965, an album called The Original Love Potion #9 By The Clovers was released. This version of the song was not the same as the original. To add to the confession, by 1968 ex-members of the group had formed three different groups using the Clovers name. No remnants of any of the former three spin-off groups exist today but a lineup including former-member Johnnie Mason currently tours under the Clovers name. Find more at: http://www.vocalgroups.org/inductees/the_clovers.

Research gathered at: http://www.wikipedia.org/


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The Everly Brothers

Don (born February 1, 1937) and Phil (born January 19, 1939) were professionals way before their teens, schooled by their accomplished guitarist father Ike, and singing with their family on radio broadcasts in Iowa. In the mid-'50s, they made a brief stab at conventional Nashville country with Columbia. When their single flopped, they were cast adrift for quite a while until they latched onto Cadence. Don invested their first single for the label, "Bye Bye Love," with a Bo Diddley beat that helped lift the song to number two in 1957.

"Bye Bye Love" began a phenomenal three-year string of classic hit singles for Cadence, including "Wake Up Little Susie," "All I Have to Do Is Dream," "Bird Dog," "('Til) I Kissed You," and "When Will I Be Loved." The Everlys sang of young love with a heart-rending yearning and compelling melodies. The harmonies owed audible debts to Appalachian country music, but were imbued with a keen modern pop sensibility that made them more accessible without sacrificing any power or beauty. They were not as raw as the wild rockabilly men from Sun Records, but they could rock hard when they wanted. Even their midtempo numbers and ballads were executed with a force missing in the straight country and pop tunes of the era. The duo enjoyed a top-notch support team of producer Archie Bleyer, great Nashville session players like Chet Atkins, and the brilliant songwriting team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. Don, and occasionally Phil, wrote excellent songs of their own as well.

In 1960, they left Cadence for a lucrative contract with Warner Bros. label (the Everlys would do a lot to establish Warners as a major force in the record business). Phil and Don peaked both commercially and artistically with their first Warners releases. "Cathy's Clown," their first Warners single, was one of their greatest songs and a number one hit. Their first two Warners LPs, employing a fuller and brasher production than their Cadence work, were not just among their best work, but two of the best rock albums of the early '60s. The hits kept coming for a couple of years, some great ("Walk Right Back," "Temptation"), some displaying a distressing, increasing tendency toward soft pop and maudlin sentiments ("Ebony Eyes," "That's Old Fashioned").

Their personal lives came under a lot of stress in the early '60s: they enlisted into the Marine Corps Reserves (together), and studied acting for six months but never made a motion picture. More seriously, Don developed an addiction to speed and almost died of an overdose in late 1962. By that time, their career as chart titans in the U.S. had ended; "That's Old Fashioned" (1962) was their last Top Ten hit. Their albums became careless, erratic affairs, which was all the more frustrating because many of their flop singles of the time were fine, even near-classic efforts that demonstrated they could still deliver the goods.

They remained big stars overseas — in 1965, "Price of Love" went to number two in the U.K. at the height of the British Invasion. They incorporated jangling Beatle/Byrdesque guitars into some of their songs and recorded a fine album with the Hollies (who were probably more blatantly influenced by them than any other British band of the time). In the late '60s, they helped pioneer country-rock with the 1968 album Roots, their most sophisticated and unified full-length statement. None of this revived their career as hitmakers, though they could always command huge audiences on international tours and hosted a network TV variety show in 1970.

The decades of enforced professional togetherness finally took their toll on the pair in the early '70s, which saw a few dispirited albums and, finally, an acrimonious breakup in 1973. They spent the next decade performing solo. In 1983, enough water had flowed under the bridge for the two to resume performing and recording together. The tours, with a backup band led by guitarist Albert Lee, proved they could still sing well. The records (both live and studio) were not in nearly the same league as their '50s and '60s classics, although Paul McCartney penned a small hit single for them ("On the Wings of a Nightingale"). One of the more successful and dignified reunions in the rock annals, the Everlys continued to perform live, although they didn't record an album since the late '80s. Find out more about these sensational siblings at: http://www.theerverlybrothers.com/

Research info gathered at: www.wikipedia.org


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Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba (b. March 4, 1932) is a Grammy Award-winning South African singer, also known as Mama Afrika. She was born in Johannesburg. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa. As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years.

Her professional career began in the 1950s with the Black Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa. In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Though she was a successful recording artist, she was only receiving a few dollars for each recording session and no provisional royalties, and was keen to go to the US. Her break came when she starred in the anti-Apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959. When the Italian government invited her to the premier of the film at the Venice Film Festival, she decided not to return home. Her South African passport was revoked shortly afterwards.

Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including Pata Pata, The Click Song (Qongqothwane in Xhosa), and Malaika. In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid.

In 1963, after an impassioned testimony before the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid, Makeba's records were banned in South Africa and her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked.

Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Black Panthers leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife. Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.

After the death of her only daughter Bongi Makeba in 1985, she moved to Brussels. In 1987, she appeared in Paul Simon's Graceland tour. Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography Makeba: My Story. Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990. In the fall of 1991, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Cosby Show, entitled "Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet". In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, as the title character's mother, "Angelina." She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony where she and others recalled the days of Apartheid.

In January 2000, her album, Homeland, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music" category. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she shared the Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life. She is still touring as of May 2008. Find out more at: http://www.miriammakeba.co.za/

Reesarch info gathered at: www.wikipedia.org


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The Paris Sisters

The Paris Sisters bridged the gap between traditional vocal pop post-World War II and the generation-defining girl group sound that emerged in the wake of rock & roll. By the 1961 release of their Phil Spector-produced breakthrough "I Love How You Love Me," the siblings were already longtime veterans of the music business. Albeth (the oldest), Sherrell (the middle child), and Priscilla Paris (the baby) were born and raised in San Francisco. Their mother, Faye, was the quintessential stage parent, a former opera singer who continued her career vicariously through her children.

They got their start singing and dancing at local Air Force showcases, and circa 1953 they made their recording debut with a pair of singles for the tiny Cavalier label: "The Bully, Bully Man" and the seasonal effort "Christmas in My Home Town." In 1954, their mother engineered a backstage visit during an Andrews Sisters performance, who were so impressed by the siblings' uncanny imitations of their hits that they were invited on-stage for encore performances of the canteen classics "Rum and Coca Cola" and "Beer Barrel Polka." An MCA Records executive in the audience signed them to the label's Decca imprint immediately thereafter, and the single "Ooh La La" appeared by year's end.

Their early Decca tunes adhered to the old-fashioned vocal harmony approach popularized by gruops like the Andrews Sisters. After their seventh Decca single, 1956's "Daughter, Daughter," the label terminated their contract, and the siblings signed with Imperial to release 1957's "Old Enough to Cry," quickly followed by "My Original Love." Imperial opted to cut its losses then and there, and they did not make another record for four years. When they finally resurfaced on Lester Sill's fledgling Gregmark label in 1961, the impresario insisted on a top-to-bottom overhaul of their approach, tapping up-and-coming producer Phil Spector to shepherd the transformation. Spector relegated Albeth and Sherrell to the background, and while he turned the spotlight on Priscilla, he insisted she dial back her powerful voice to a dusky whisper.

While their debut, "Be My Boy," earned little notice, the follow-up, "I Love How You Love Me," cracked the U.S. Top Five, galvanized by Priscilla's intimate lead turn and Spector's atypically restrained production. After the 1962 singles "He Knows I Love Him Too Much" and "What Am I to Do" also generated positive response at radio and retail, Spector began work on an LP, but as production costs began to skyrocket, Sill attempted to exert control of the project. Their skirmish ended disastrously when one of his assistants accidentally discarded the master tapes, although rumors persist it was no accident. Either way, the siblings did not make another record until 1964, signing with MGM to cut a cover of the Bobby Darin smash "Dream Lover" overseen by Spector's erstwhile arranger Jack Nitzsche.

After a pair of singles for Mercury, "When I Fall in Love" and "Always Waitin'," the Paris Sisters recorded the 1966 Unifilms LP Sing from "The Glass House", a soundtrack LP to a failed television series. That same year they signed to Reprise, which paired them with Nitzsche and production partner Jimmy Bowen — though a commercial failure, their 1967 Reprise LP Everything Under the Sun!!! remains an unsung classic of the waning girl group era, featuring several original songs written by Priscilla herself.

Priscilla released her debut solo single, "He Noticed Me," on the York label after Everything Under the Sun!!! belly-flopped. The solo LP Priscilla Sings Herself soon followed, and she closed out 1967 with Priscilla Sings Billy, a tribute to the jazz great Billie Holiday. They reunited the following year to release "Stark Naked Clown" on the GNP Crescendo imprint. "Golden Days," a 1968 one-off for Capitol, proved to be the siblings' swan song. While Albeth gradually moved behind the scenes into television production and public relations work, Sherrell formed her own group, Sherrell Paris & the Now People, touring nightclubs for several years before joining the staff of Mark Goodman-Bill Todman Productions and spending more than two decades as the personal assistant of The Price Is Right host Bob Barker.

Priscilla eventually relocated to London before settling in Paris, France, where she lived for a quarter century. After a 1978 solo LP, Love Is..., she suffered an accident resulting in partial facial paralysis, effectively ending her music career for a number of years. By the 1990s Priscilla was again playing the occasional Parisian club date, and in the spring of 2002 she returned to the U.S. for a proposed reunion concert. Sadly, the show was aborted after the 18-hour flight left her too exhausted to perform. Priscilla died on March 5, 2004, from injuries suffered in a fall at her home. She was 59. Find out more at: www.wtv-zone.com/dpjohnson/parissisters/index.html

Reearch info gathered at: http://www.lastfm.com/


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Ben E. King

Ben E. King (born Benjamin Earl Nelson in September 28, 1938 in Henderson, North Carolina) is an American soul and pop singer. He is best known as the singer and co-composer of “Stand by Me”, a top ten hit in both 1961 and 1986.

In 1958, Ben Nelson joined a doo wop group, The Five Crowns. Later that same year, The Drifters’ manager fired the members of the group and replaced them with the Five Crowns, who had performed several engagements with the Drifters. He co-wrote the first hit by the new version of the Drifters, “There Goes My Baby” (1959). He also sang lead, using his birth name, on “Save the Last Dance for Me,” a song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, “Dance With Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “I Count the Tears,” and other Drifters hits.

In 1960 he left the Drifters because he wanted a higher salary and a fairer share of the group’s royalties. At this point he assumed the more memorable stage name Ben E. King in preparation for a solo career. He remained wit Atlantic and scored his first solo hit with the stylish, Latin-tinged ballad “Spanish Harlem” (1961). “Stand by Me” was his next recording. “Stand by Me”, written by King along with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller was voted one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America. “Stand by Me” and “Spanish Harlem” were named as two of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and were both also given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

King’s records continued to place well on the pop charts until 1963, when British pop bands began to dominate the popular music scene. His hits after 1963 were “What is Soul?” (1967), “Supernatural Thing, part 1” (1975), and the re-issue in 1986 of “Stand by Me” following the song’s use as the theme music to the movie of the same name. In its wake, King returned to solo recording, issuing a new album every few years all the way up through the '90s. He also guested on recordings by Heaven 17 and Mark Knopfler, among others. King's 1999 album Shades of Blue (on Half Note Records) found him branching out into jazz territory, performing with a big band and guests like Milt Jackson and David "Fathead" Newman. 2006 saw the release of a brand new album, I've Been Around, on True Life Records. Find out more about Ben E. King and his caeer with The Drifters at: http://vocalgrouphalloffame.com/inductees/ben_e_king.html

Research info gathered at: http://www.lastfm.com/


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