The Carpenters

Carpenters or The Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as “The Carpenters”, the duo’s official name on authorized recordings and press materials is simply “Carpenters”, without the definite article. During a period in the 1970s when louder and wilder rock was in great demand, Richard and Karen produced a distinctively soft musical style that made them among the best-selling music artists of all time.

Carpenters’ melodic pop produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary genres. Carpenters had three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary Chart. In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles. To date, Carpenters’ album and single sales total more than 100 million units.

During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 11 albums, five of which contained top 10 singles, thirty-one singles, five television specials, and one short-lived television series. They toured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Their recording career ended with Karen’s death in 1983 from cardiac arrest due to complications of anorexia nervosa. Extensive news coverage of the circumstances surrounding her death increased public awareness of the consequences of eating disorders.

The Carpenter siblings were both born on Hall Street in New Haven, Connecticut to parents Harold and Agnes. Richard Lynn was born on October 15, 1946, and Karen Anne followed on March 2, 1950. Richard was a quiet child who spent most of his time in the house listening to records and playing the piano. Karen, on the other hand, seemed to be friendly and outgoing; she liked to play sports, including softball with the neighborhood kids, but she also spent a lot of time listening to music.

Tex Williams

Sollie Paul Williams, known professionally as Tex Williams, was an American Western swing musician from Ramsey, Illinois.

He is best known for his talking blues style; his biggest hit was the novelty song, "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! ", which held the number one position on the Billboard charts for six weeks in 1947. "Smoke" was the No. 5 song on Billboard's Top 100 list for 1947, and was No. 1 on the country chart that year. It can be heard during the opening scenes of the 2006 movie, Thank You for Smoking.

Williams' backing band, the Western Caravan, numbered about a dozen members. They attained an enviable level of fluid interplay between electric and steel guitars, fiddles, bass, accordion, trumpet, and other instruments. At first they recorded polkas for Capitol Records with limited success. That was changed by the success of "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke" written in large part by Merle Travis.

Williams died of pancreatic cancer on October 11, 1985.

The Beach Boys

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The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961, who gained popularity for their close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a Southern California youth culture of cars, surfing, and romance. Brian Wilson's growing creative ambitions later transformed them into a more artistically innovative group that earned critical praise and influenced many later musicians.

The group was initially composed of singer-musician-composer Brian Wilson, his brothers, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. This core quintet was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 1988.

The Beach Boys have often been called "America's Band", and Allmusic has stated that "the band's unerring ability. made them America's first, best rock band." The group has had thirty-six U.S. Top 40 hits and fifty-six Hot 100 hits, including four number-one singles. Rolling Stone magazine listed The Beach Boys as number 12 in the. According to Billboard, in terms of singles and album sales, The Beach Boys are the No.-1-selling American band of all time.

Many changes in both musical styles and personnel have occurred during their career, notably because of Brian Wilson's mental illness and drug use and the deaths of Dennis and Carl Wilson in 1983 and 1998, respectively. Extensive legal battles between members of the group have also played their part. After the death of Carl Wilson, founding member Al Jardine left to pursue a solo career. Currently, the surviving members of The Beach Boys continue to tour in three separate bands: "The Beach Boys Band" with Love, Bruce Johnston, and a rotation of backing musicians; Al Jardine's "Endless Summer Band" with Jardine, his sons, and several former Beach Boys backup musicians; and Brian Wilson with a 10-piece band including members of The Wondermints and Jeff Foskett, who toured with the Beach Boys in the 1980s and 1990s as a backing guitarist/singer.

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. From 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Rooted in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, the group later worked in many genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, often incorporating classical and other elements in innovative ways. The nature of their enormous popularity, which first emerged as the "Beatlemania" fad, transformed as their songwriting grew in sophistication. The group came to be perceived as the embodiment of progressive ideals, seeing their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.

With an early five-piece line-up of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, the Beatles built their reputation in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs over a three-year period from 1960. Sutcliffe left the group in 1961, and Best was replaced by Starr the following year. Moulded into a professional outfit by music store owner Brian Epstein after he offered to act as the group's manager, and with their musical potential enhanced by the hands-on creativity of producer George Martin, the Beatles achieved mainstream success in the United Kingdom in late 1962 with their first single, "Love Me Do". Gaining international popularity over the course of the next year, they toured extensively until 1966, then retreated to the recording studio until their break-up in 1970. Each then found success in an independent musical career. Lennon was shot and killed in 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain active.

During their studio years, the Beatles produced what critics consider some of their finest material including the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, widely regarded as a masterpiece. Four decades after their break-up, the Beatles' music continues to be popular. The Beatles have had more number one albums on the UK charts, and held down the top spot longer, than any other musical act. According to RIAA certifications, they have sold more albums in the United States than any other artist. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the all-time top-selling Hot 100 artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with the Beatles at number one. They have been honoured with 7 Grammy Awards, and they have received 15 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. The Beatles were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of. Aged sixteen, singer and guitarist John Lennon formed the skiffle group The Quarrymen with some Liverpool schoolfriends in March 1957. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a guitarist after he and Lennon met that July. When McCartney in turn invited George Harrison to watch the group the following February, the fourteen-year-old joined as lead guitarist. By 1960, Lennon's schoolfriends had left the group, he had begun studies at the Liverpool College of Art and the three guitarists were playing rock and roll whenever they could get a drummer. Joining on bass in January, Lennon's fellow student Stuart Sutcliffe suggested changing the band name to "The Beetles" as a tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets, and they became "The Beatals" for the first few months of the year. After trying other names including "Johnny and the Moondogs", "Long John and The Beetles" and "The Silver Beatles", the band finally became "The Beatles" in August. The lack of a permanent drummer posed a problem when the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, arranged a resident band booking for them in Hamburg, Germany. Before the end of August they auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best, and the five-piece band left for Hamburg four days later, contracted to fairground showman Bruno Koschmider for a 48-night residency. "Hamburg in those days did not have rock'n'roll music clubs. It had strip clubs", says biographer Philip Norman.

The Everly Brothers

In memory of Walk of Famer and Musician Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers, flowers were placed on the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Saturday, January 4, 2014 at 3:00 PM PST. The star in category of Recording is located at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. The flowers were placed on behalf of the Hollywood Historic Trust and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing. The brothers are the most successful U.S. rock and roll duo on the Hot 100. Their greatest period came between 1957 and 1965.

Don and Phil Everly are both guitarists and use a simple vocal harmony mostly based on parallel thirds. With this, each line can often stand on its own as a melody line. This is in contrast to classic harmony lines which, while working well alongside the melody, sound strange by themselves.

For virtually all the Everly Brothers recordings, Don sings the lower harmony part, while Phil takes the higher part. One rare exception is on "Devoted To You". Although Don is still low and Phil is high, they switch singing the lead and harmony back and forth. As well, Don almost always sings any lines that are sung solo Among the very few exceptions to this rule is the Everlys' 1965 single "It's All Over", where Phil sings the song's solo lines.

In the late 1950s, the Everly Brothers were the rock 'n' roll youth movement's addition to close harmony vocal groups of which many were family bands. Among the Everly's famous counterparts in country music were The Delmore Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Jim & Jesse and The Osborne Brothers.

The Fifth Dimension

The 5th Dimension are an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire also includes pop, R&B, soul, and jazz.

The 5th Dimension were best-known during the late 1960s and early 1970s for popularizing the hits "Up, Up and Away", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "One Less Bell to Answer", " I Didn't Get to Sleep at All", and "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", as well as the eponymous 5th Dimension and The Magic Garden LP recordings.

The five original members were Billy Davis, Jr., Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, Lamonte McLemore, and Ron Townson. They have recorded for several different labels over their long careers. Their first work appeared on the Soul City label, which was started by Imperial Records/United Artists Records recording artist Johnny Rivers. The group would later record for Bell/Arista Records, ABC Records, and Motown Records.

Some of the songwriters popularized by The 5th Dimension later went on to careers of their own, especially Ashford & Simpson, who wrote "California Soul". The group is also notable for having more success with the songs of Laura Nyro than Nyro did herself, particularly in the cases of "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", and "Save the Country". The group also covered music by well known songwriters such as the song "One Less Bell to Answer", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. And perhaps best of all, they became great interpreters of the songs and music of Jimmy Webb, who penned their original mega-hit "Up, Up, and Away", including an entire recording of memorable Webb songs called The Magic Garden.

The Andrews Sisters

 In memory of singer Patty Andrews of The Andrews Sisters, flowers were placed on her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 . The star in category of Recording is located at 6834 Hollywood Blvd. “Rest in Peace, Patty Andrews!” The card was signed on behalf of the Hollywood Historic Trust and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

 

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The Andrews Sisters were a prolific and hugely successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras, consisting of three actual sisters LaVerne, Maxene and Patty ? Laverne Sophia, contralto and redhead, Maxene Angelyn, soprano and brunette, and Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews mezzo-soprano lead singer and blond. Their harmonies and songs are still in train today, covered by entertainers such as Bette Midler, the Puppini Sisters and Christine Aguilera. Throughout their long career, the sisters had sold over well over 75 million records. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. Their hit number Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, can be considered an early recording of rhythm and blues or jump blues.

In 2008 and 2009 the BBC produced a one hour show of the history of the Andrews Sisters from growing up in Mound, Minnesota through to the present. The American premier of the show was June 21, 2009 in Mound. Also in 2008 Mound, Minnesota dedicated "The Andrews Sisters Trail". They spent summers in Mound with their uncles Pete and Ed Solie who had a grocery store there. Maxene Andrews always said that the summers in Mound created a major sense of "normalcy" and "a wonderful childhood" in a life that otherwise centered around the sisters' careers. The Westonka Historical Society has a large collection of Andrews Sisters memorabilia. They are survived by Patty the youngest at 92.

The sisters were born in Minnesota to a Greek immigrant father and a Norwegian American mother, Olga "Ollie" Andrews and Peter Andreas who took the name of Andrews. Patty, the youngest and the lead singer of the group, was only seven when the group was formed, and just 12 when they won first prize at a talent contest at the local Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, where LaVerne played piano accompaniment for the silent film showings in exchange for free dancing lessons for herself and her sisters. Once the sisters found fame and settled in California, their parents lived with them in a Brentwood estate in Los Angeles until their deaths. Several cousins from Minnesota followed them west. The sisters returned to Minneapolis at least once a year to visit family and friends and/or to perform.

Tex Beneke

Gordon Lee Beneke, professionally known as Tex Beneke, was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. He also solos on the recording the Glenn Miller Orchestra made of their popular song, “In The Mood” and sings on another popular Glenn Miller recording, “Chattanooga Choo Choo”.

Beneke was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He started playing saxophone when he was nine, going from soprano to alto to tenor saxophones and staying with the latter. His first professional work was with bandleader Ben Young in 1935, but it was when he joined Miller three years later that his career hit its stride. Beneke said: “It seems that Gene Krupa had left the Goodman band and was forming his own first band. He was flying all over the country looking for new talent and he stopped at our ballroom one night. Gene wound up taking two or three of our boys with him back to New York. wanted to take but his sax section was already filled.” Krupa knew that Glenn Miller was forming a band and recommended Beneke to Miller.

On August 1, 1939, Tex Beneke solos on the recording the Glenn Miller band made of the Andy Razaf song, “In The Mood”. Beneke appears with the Miller band in the films Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives, both of which helped propel the singer/saxophonist to the top of the Metronome polls. Tex Beneke is listed in the personnel of the 1941 Metronome All-Star Band led by Benny Goodman. In 1942, Glenn Miller’s orchestra won the first Gold Record for “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, a song written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon. The band first performed this song in the 1941 Twentieth Century Fox movie Sun Valley Serenade.” Tex Beneke was the lead singer on this song with Paula Kelly and the Modernaires vocal group. “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, catalogue number Bluebird 11230-B, was recorded by the Miller band at the Victor recording studios in Hollywood, California, May 7, 1941.

When Miller broke up the band in late 1942 to join the Army Air Force, Beneke played very briefly with Horace Heidt before joining the Navy himself, leading a Navy band in Oklahoma. While employed with Miller, Beneke was offered his own band, as Miller had done with colleagues and employees like Hal McIntyre, Claude Thornhill and Charlie Spivak. Beneke wanted to come back to Miller after the war and learn more about leading a band before being given his own band. Beneke lead two bands in the navy and kept in touch with Glenn Miller while they were both serving in the military. By 1945, Beneke felt ready to lead his own orchestra.

Terry Moore

Terry Moore is an American actress. Born January 7, 1929, in Glendale, California, as Helen Luella Koford, Moore grew up in a Mormon family in Los Angeles, California. She worked as a child model before making her film debut in Maryland. Moore was billed as Judy Ford, Jan Ford, and January Ford before taking Terry Moore as her name in 1948.

Moore worked in radio in the 1940s, most memorably as Bumps Smith on The Smiths of Hollywood. Most of her films were B-pictures, but several were box office hits, including Mighty Joe Young, Come Back, Little Sheba – for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Peyton Place. In 1962 she appeared as a rancher’s daughter in the NBC Western drama Empire, opposite Richard Egan and Ryan O’Neal. Moore has worked steadily throughout her career, usually in minor roles in small films. She appeared on the NBC interview program Here’s Hollywood.

Moore lived with Howard Hughes briefly in a small duplex or cabin at his Tule Springs Ranch near Las Vegas, Nevada. After he died in 1976, Moore claimed that they married secretly in 1949, and never divorced. She failed to provide any evidence of a marriage, but the Hughes’s estate paid her a settlement in 1984.

Tex McCrary

Tex McCrary. birthname: John Reagan McCrary. was a journalist and public relations specialist who invented the talk-show genre for both television and radio, and appeared on radio and TV with his wife Jinx Falkenburg. McCrary graduated from the Phillips Exeter Academy in 1928 and from Yale University in 1932, where he was a member of Skull and Bones.

McCrary played a major role in the nomination of Dwight Eisenhower for the Presidency.