A versatile and commercially successful composer, arranger, and producer, Alan Lorber has had a hand in thousands of recordings, ranging from pop (Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," Mike Clifford's "Close to Cathy") to R&B (Chuck Jackson's "I Wake Up Crying," Jackie Wilson's "Baby Workout") to psychedelic rock (Ultimate Spinach,... [+] Read More

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Don Rickles was the ultimate putdown artist, comedy's unquestioned master of the insult. No one -- regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or cultural standing -- escaped the vicious taunts of "Mr. Warmth"; even audience members, as well as other celebrities, were fair game for his delirious rages of verbal abuse. Born Donald Jay... [+] Read More

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The prototypical borscht belt comedian, Jackie Mason deftly blended self-deprecating humility with abrasive arrogance to acutely dissect the differences between Jewish and Gentile culture. After finding initial success in the 1960s as a frequent guest of The Ed Sullivan Show, he spent the next two decades in obscurity, blackballed by the showbiz... [+] Read More

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Mort Sahl was arguably the most influential comedian of the postwar era; a provocative political satirist, he singlehandedly revolutionized the comedy medium to create an art form with a scope and impact far beyond mere slapstick and gags. Sahl's conversational, free-associative style -- an amalgam of anecdotes, one-liners and pithy asides --... [+] Read More

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Percy Faith was one of the most popular easy listening recording artists of the '50s and '60s. Not only did he have a number of hit albums and singles under his own name, but Faith was responsible for arranging hits by Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, and Burl Ives, among others, as the musical director for Columbia Records in the '50s.... [+] Read More

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The man who popularized wordless vocal choruses and light orchestral accompaniment on a mix of popular standards and contemporary hits of the 1960s, Ray Conniff was a trombone player for Bunny Berigan's Orchestra and Bob Crosby's Bobcats before being hired as an arranger by Mitch Miller for Columbia Records in 1954. After he wrote the charts for... [+] Read More

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Years before the emergence of Woody Allen, Garry Shandling or Janeane Garofalo, there was Shelley Berman, the comic who singlehandedly transformed modern neuroticism into high art. Complete with both a unique, vignette-styled narrative sensibility and a mannered, sophisticated stage presence, Berman introduced a new breed of comedian -- raw,... [+] Read More

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For someone of Steve Allen's versatility and staggering capacity for work, jazz occupies a small yet significant portion of his biography. Yet despite his crowded agenda, Allen can still spin out facile, competent, bop-and-cocktail-flavored piano in fast jazz company -- nothing particularly original but always pleasurable to hear. He started to... [+] Read More

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