Showing 1 - 23 of 23
Artist: The Ulcers
Artist: Ulcer
Artist: Joe Dassin
American expatriate Joe Dassin was one of France's most popular singers during the late '60s and '70s, initially building his name with stylized adaptations of folk and country material from his birthplace. As his career blossomed, Dassin turned increasingly to traditional-style chansons penned by some of the genre's best writers, scoring an... [+] Read More
Artist: Ernesto Djédjé
The Ivory Coast's premier musical export of the 1970s, Ernesto Djédjé is widely credited as the creator of his homeland's first truly distinctive national music, fusing international sounds and styles with the rhumba rhythms of the Congo to introduce what is now known as ziglibithy. Born in 1948 in Tahiraguhé, Djédjé began playing guitar at... [+] Read More
Artist: Nick Travis
A versatile trumpeter with a wide range, an appealing tone and strong technical skills, Nick Travis spent much of his truncated career as a studio musician although he was a fine jazz improviser too. Travis picked up early experience playing professionally from the age of 15. He worked with Johnny McGhee, Vido Musso (1942), Mitch Ayres and Woody... [+] Read More
Artist: Third Rail
The Third Rail are mostly known for their small 1967 hit single "Run, Run, Run," which reached #53 and was included on the initial Nuggets compilation of 1960s garage and psychedelic rock. "Run, Run, Run" is actually not typical of most of what made up the Nuggets anthology, having nothing to do with garage rock. Instead, it was a mildly clever,... [+] Read More
Artist: Pete Drummond
Pete Drummond is one of the most successful commercial voice-over artists in the United Kingdom. His smooth, deep, Barry White-like, voice has been heard in commercials for Burger King, Heineken and Harley-Davidson and promotional spots for the BBC, Disney, Paramount, TNT, Sci Fi and Fox. A disc jockey for BBC Radio 1, from 1967 until 1991,... [+] Read More
Artist: Sabu
Renowned percussionist Sabu was born July 14, 1930, in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City. At a young age, Sabu discovered his fondness for drums and percussion by banging on cans in a street band, before playing in mambo and jazz bands at the age of 11. The young percussionist's big break came in 1948 when he joined Dizzy Gillespie's... [+] Read More
Artist: Alan Dale
Alan Dale (born; Aldo Sigismondi) was once one of America's biggest singing stars. His baritone was heard on Perez Prado's million-selling 1955 hit, "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White", while his tune, "Sweet And Gentle", introduced the cha-cha-cha to North America. He placed second to Frank Sinatra in a radio poll, Battle of The Baritones, in... [+] Read More
Artist: Harry Parr-Davies
Light music composer Harry Parr-Davies was born in Neath, South Wales in 1914 -- a self-taught piano prodigy, he was eventually discovered by Sir Walford Davies while serving as a church accompanist during his teens and planning a career as a classical performer. Instead, at 14 -- shortly after completing his first opera, The Curfew --... [+] Read More
Artist: Alvin Cash
Alvin Cash was born Alvin Welch, February 15, 1939, in St. Louis, MO, to a large family. One of eight children, Alvin formed a song and dance group with three of his brothers, doing tap and soft shoe. He attended Summers High in St. Louis with future R&B luminaries Luther Ingram, Billy Davis (Fifth Dimension), and Anna Mae Bullock (Tina... [+] Read More
Artist: Humble Pie
A showcase for former Small Faces' frontman Steve Marriott and one-time Herd guitar virtuoso Peter Frampton, the hard rock outfit Humble Pie formed in Essex, England in 1969. Also featuring ex-Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley along with drummer Jerry Shirley, the fledgling group spent the first several months of its existence locked away in... [+] Read More
Artist: Gene Clark
Gene Clark will always be best remembered for his two-year stint as a vocalist with the Byrds between 1964 and 1966. A fine legacy to be sure, but the shame of it is that there was far more to Clark's body of work than that; he was a superb songwriter, one of the founding fathers of country-rock, and recorded a number of fine albums with an... [+] Read More
Artist: Chuck Willis
There were two distinct sides to Chuck Willis. In addition to being a convincing blues shouter, the Atlanta-born Willis harbored a vulnerable blues balladeer side. In addition, he was a masterful songwriter who penned some of the most distinctive R&B numbers of the 1950s. He can't be granted principal credit for his 1957 smash adaptation of... [+] Read More
Artist: Li'l Wally
Along with Frankie Yankovic, Li'l Wally was one of the most important and influential polka musicians in America. He was responsible for creating the Chicago-style polka, a slower, more danceable, more improvisational sound, whose core appeal lay with Polish-Americans (as opposed to the Cleveland-based Yankovic's faster, more demanding Slovenian... [+] Read More
Artist: Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent only had one really big hit, "Be-Bop-a-Lula," which epitomized rockabilly at its prime in 1956 with its sharp guitar breaks, spare snare drums, fluttering echo, and Vincent's breathless, sexy vocals. Yet his place as one of the great early rock & roll singers is secure, backed up by a wealth of fine smaller hits and non-hits that... [+] Read More
Artist: William Clarke
The heir apparent to Chicago's legacy of amplified blues harmonica, William Clarke was the first original new voice on his instrument to come along in quite some time; he became a sensation in blues circles during the late '80s and early '90s, stopped short by an untimely death in 1996. A pupil and devotee of George Harmonica Smith, Clarke was a... [+] Read More
Artist: Sabú Martínez
Louis "Sabu" Martinez was one of the most prolific conga players in the history of Afro-Cuban music. In addition to his own albums, Martinez recorded with such influential jazz musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver, Buddy de Franco, J.J. Johnson, Louis Bellson, Art Farmer, and Art Blakey, and jazz vocalists including Tony Bennett and ammy... [+] Read More
Artist: XTC
XTC was one of the smartest -- and catchiest -- British pop bands to emerge from the punk and new wave explosion of the late '70s. From the tense, jerky riffs of their early singles to the lushly arranged, meticulous pop of their later albums, XTC's music has always been driven by the hook-laden songwriting of guitarist Andy Partridge and... [+] Read More
Artist: Bill Evans
With the passage of time, Bill Evans has become an entire school unto himself for pianists and a singular mood unto himself for listeners. There is no more influential jazz-oriented pianist -- only McCoy Tyner exerts nearly as much pull among younger players and journeymen -- and Evans has left his mark on such noted players as Herbie Hancock,... [+] Read More
Artist: Lightspeed Champion
"I obsess over songwriting to the point where when I listen to music I hear the song rather than the genre," says Dev Hynes, the genial creative force behind Lightspeed Champion. "The first music I was into was musicals: stuff like Hair and the Rocky Horror film. Those songs had a big effect on me. And I'm an unashamedly huge country fan. My... [+] Read More
Artist: The Moonglows
The Moonglows were among the most important R&B groups of the 1950s, despite the fact that they only had a handful of hits among fewer than 50 recorded songs, in a history that lasted just six years, in sharp contrast to such acts as the Orioles and the Drifters, who were together across decades and recorded huge bodies of work.
Chicago-born... [+] Read More
