William Clarence ?Billy? Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular music.

Eckstine's grandparents were William F. Eckstine and Nannie Eckstine, a mixed race, lawfully married couple who lived in Washington D.C.; both were born in the year 1863. William F. was born in Prussia and Nannie in Virginia. His parents were William Eckstein, a chauffeur and Charlotte Eckstein. Billy attended Armstrong High School, St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, and Howard University. He left Howard in 1933, after winning first place in an amateur talent contest. He married his first wife, June, in 1942; she too was a vocalist. After their divorce he married Carolle Drake in 1953; they were divorced in 1977. He was the father of 7 children, including Ed Eckstine who was a president of Mercury Records, Guy Eckstine who was a Columbia Records executive, and singer Gina Eckstine.

An influence looming large in the cultural development of soul and R&B singers from Sam Cooke to Prince, Eckstine was able to play it straight on his pop hits "Prisoner of Love", "My Foolish Heart" and "I Apologize". Raised in Washington, D.C., Eckstine began singing at the age of seven and entered many amateur talent shows. He had also planned on a football career, but after breaking his collar bone, he made music his focus. After working his way west to Chicago, Eckstine joined Earl Hines' Grand Terrace Orchestra in 1939, staying with the band as vocalist and, occasionally, trumpeter, until 1943. By that time, he had begun to make a name for himself through the Hines band's radio shows with such juke box hits as "Stormy Monday Blues" and his own "Jelly Jelly."

In 1944, Eckstine formed his own big band and made it a fountainhead for young musicians who would reshape jazz by the end of the decade, including Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, and Fats Navarro. Tadd Dameron and Gil Fuller were among the band's arrangers, and Sarah Vaughan gave the vocals a contemporary air. The Billy Eckstine Orchestra was the first bop big-band, and its leader reflected bop innovations by stretching his vocal harmonics into his normal ballads. Despite the group's modernist slant, Eckstine hit the charts often during the mid-'40s, with Top Ten entries including "A Cottage for Sale" and "Prisoner of Love". On the group's frequent European and American tours, Eckstine, popularly known as Mr. B, also played trumpet, valve trombone and guitar.

William Martin “Billy” Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, “Piano Man”, in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.

Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; he’s piled up 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote singlehandedly. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 100 million records worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Joel “retired” from recording pop music in 1993 but continues to tour. In 2001, he released Fantasies & Delusions, a CD of classical compositions for piano. In 2007, he briefly returned to pop songwriting and recording with a single entitled “All My Life” ? written for his third wife Katie Lee Joel. In September 2007, Joel wrote “Christmas in Fallujah,” a tribute to soldiers and a grim depiction of war. The song was recorded by Cass Dillon and subsequently by Joel himself in a December 2008 live version that was released only in Australia. Joel returned to touring in 2006 after a three-year hiatus from the road and has toured extensively ever since, covering many major world cities. In March 2009, Joel resumed his popular Face to Face tour with fellow pianist Elton John. The tour ended in March 2010 and there are currently no more dates scheduled, although Joel, who has stated a desire to take the rest of 2010 off, told Rolling Stone magazine: “We?ll probably pick it up again. It?s always fun playing with him.”

Joel was born in The Bronx, New York and raised in the Levittown section of Hicksville, New York. His father, Howard, was born in Germany as the son of German-Jewish merchant and manufacturer Karl Amson Joel who after the advent of the Nazi regime emigrated to Switzerland and later to the United States. Billy Joel’s mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in England to a Jewish family. His parents divorced in 1960, and his father moved to Vienna, Austria. Billy has a sister, Judith Joel, and a half-brother, Alexander Joel, who is an acclaimed classical conductor in Europe, currently chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig.

Joel’s father was an accomplished classical pianist. Billy reluctantly began piano lessons at an early age, at his mother’s insistence; his teachers included the noted American pianist Morton Estrin and musician/songwriter Timothy Ford. His interest in music, rather than sports, was a source of teasing and bullying in his early years. As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so that he would be able to defend himself. He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, winning twenty-two bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after having his nose broken in his twenty-fourth boxing match.

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Billy Vera is an American singer, actor, writer and music historian.

Vera was born in Riverside, California. He began his singing career in 1962 as a member of the Resolutions. He went on to write several songs throughout the early 1960s, writing for the likes of Barbara Lewis, Fats Domino, The Shirelles and Ricky Nelson. He also wrote the garage band classic, "Don't Look Back", performed by the Remains.

In 1967 Vera penned a song entitled "Storybook Children" and brought it to Atlantic Records. The decision to place former gospel singer Judy Clay with Vera in a white-black duet to record the song was a commercial and artistic success and a subsequent album by Vera and Clay remains a highpoint for soul duet partnerships. He would have a solo hit later that same year with the Bobby Goldsboro penned "With Pen In Hand" which was also the name of his next album.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s Vera focused on songwriting including "I Really Got the Feeling" which was a number 1 hit for Dolly Parton. He also participated in several archival and music preservation projects, including fronting the band at the 1972 Reunion concert of Dion & the Belmonts.

Blanche Thebom was an American mezzo-soprano who sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for almost twenty years.

She was born in Monessen, Pennsylvania and raised in Canton, Ohio.

In 1957 she came to London to sing Dido in the major production at Covent Garden of Berlioz?s Les Troyens. In this she made effective use of he spectacularly long hair, allowing it to fall down her back as she ascended the funeral pyre at the end.

Upon her retirement from the Metropolitan ca. 1960, she taught and directed opera performance in Atlanta and Little Rock until around 1980. She appeared in summer theatre revivals of Broadway musicals such as The Sound of Music in Atlanta.