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KooKoo Players
''KooKoo'' is the debut solo album by American singer Debbie Harry, released on July 27, 1981, by Chrysalis Records. Produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic, the album was recorded whilst Harry took a break from her band Blondie. It was a moderate commercial success, reaching number 25 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and number six on the UK Albums Chart. Background ''KooKoo'' was recorded while Harry and boyfriend Chris Stein were taking a break from the band Blondie. The album was produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the R&B band Chic, who had just had major success working with Diana Ross on her 1980 album ''Diana''. Harry and Stein first met the pair at the Power Station recording studio in New York while Blondie were recording their 1979 album ''Eat to the Beat'', and they remained good friends in the intervening years. ''KooKoo'' was one of three albums to be (co)written and produced by Rodgers and Edwards in 1981, the other two being Chic's fifth al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble, July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie (band), Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in Miami, Florida, Harry was adopted as an infant and raised in Hawthorne, New Jersey. After college she worked various jobs—as a dancer, a Playboy Bunny, and a secretary (including at the BBC in New York)—before her breakthrough in the music industry. She co-formed Blondie in 1974 in New York City. The band released its Blondie (album), eponymous debut studio album in 1976 and released three more studio albums between then and 1979, including ''Parallel Lines'', which spawned six singles, including "Heart of Glass (song), Heart of Glass". Their fifth studio album, ''Autoamerican'' (1980), produced hits including a cover of "The Tide Is High", and "Rapture (Blondie song), Rapture", which is considered the first rap song to ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backfired
"Backfired" is the debut solo single from American singer and Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry. Released in 1981, it was taken from her debut solo studio album, ''KooKoo''. Background "Backfired" peaked at number 32 in the UK, and number 43 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 (though it remains Harry's highest-charting solo single in the US). It also peaked at number 71 on the US Hot Soul Singles chart, and number 29 on the Dance chart. The single also managed to become a hit in only a few other countries including Sweden and Australia. In an attempt to distinguish herself as a solo artist, Harry's image upon the single's release was quite different from her established image with Blondie. She had dyed her hair darker and had a new sci-fi-inspired look, as seen in the music video for the song directed by H.R. Giger, who appeared in the video wearing a mask and mimes the male back-up vocals on the song. Written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the Chic who had just ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Love My Lady
''I Love My Lady'' is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was completed in 1981 but not released in its entirety until December 8, 2017, when it was included in the box set ''The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection''. It was written and produced by Chic (band), Chic founders Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers and represented an attempt at shifting away from the easy listening style of music that Mathis had been recording for 25 years to the more contemporary sound of the team behind "Le Freak" and "We Are Family (song), We Are Family". As part of Record Store Day on April 21, 2018, Legacy Recordings gave ''I Love My Lady'' its standalone debut with a pressing on clear smoke vinyl. History Johnny Mathis, Mathis experienced a career resurgence in the spring of 1978 with the release of a duet he recorded with Deniece Williams titled "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late". The single was his first to achieve Gold certification from the Recording Industry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Mathis
John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as an album artist, with several of his albums achieving Music recording certification, gold or platinum status and 73 making the Billboard charts, ''Billboard'' charts. Mathis has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for three recordings. Although frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes traditional pop, Latin American, soul music, soul, rhythm and blues, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, soft rock, blues, country music, and even a few disco songs for his album ''Mathis Magic'' in 1979. Mathis has also recorded seven albums of Christmas music. In a 1968 interview, he cited Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby among his musical influences. Early life and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Take It Off (album)
''Take It Off'' is the fifth studio album by American band Chic (band), Chic. It was released on Atlantic Records in November 16, 1981. It includes the single "Stage Fright", which reached number 35 on the US R&B chart, but was the first Chic single failing to enter the US Pop charts, and this album only proved to be moderately successful as well, stalling at number 124 on the US albums chart and number 36 on the R&B chart. ''Take It Off'' was one of three albums written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers in 1981, the other two being Blondie (band), Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry's debut solo album ''Koo Koo'' and Johnny Mathis' ''I Love My Lady''. ''Take It Off'' was transferred to CD and re-released by Atlantic Records/Warner Music in 1991. It was digitally remastered and reissued by Wounded Bird Records in 2006. Reception Writing in ''The Boston Phoenix'', Milo Miles said that the album "marks the welcome return of Chic as a team. ... In a period of black musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eat To The Beat
''Eat to the Beat'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Blondie, released on September 28, 1979, by Chrysalis Records. The album spent a year on the US ''Billboard'' 200, peaking at , and was one of ''Billboard''s top 10 albums of 1980. It also reached on the UK Albums Chart in October 1979, becoming the band's second number one album there that year. It has been certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Musical style The primarily pop album includes a diverse range of styles in the songs: rock, disco, new wave, punk, reggae, and funk, as well as a lullaby. " Atomic" and " The Hardest Part" fused disco with rock. Blondie's first two albums were new wave productions, followed by ''Parallel Lines'' which dropped the new wave material, exchanging it entirely for rock-inflected pop. ''Eat to the Beat'' continued in this pop direction. History Three singles were released in the UK from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Power Station Recording Studio
Power Station at BerkleeNYC is a recording studio located at 441 West 53rd Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It was originally founded in 1977 as Power Station and known as Avatar Studios from 1996 to 2017. Renowned for its exceptional acoustics, the studio has been the site of hundreds of gold, platinum, and Grammy Award-winning recordings. History Background Producer Tony Bongiovi and former Mediasound Studios co-worker engineer Bob Walters partnered to open the recording studio, putting together a team of people that included engineer Ed Stasium, Ed Evans, and Bob Clearmountain. They located an abandoned building at 441 West 53rd Street, between Ninth and Tenth avenues, in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, which Bongiovi purchased from New York City for $360,000 as part of a building rehabilitation program. Bongiovi, Walters, and their team worked with Stephen B. Jacobs Associates to design a studio that would app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana (album)
''Diana'' (stylized on the cover as ''diana'') is the eleventh studio album by American singer Diana Ross, released on May 22, 1980, by Motown Records. The album is the best-selling studio album of Ross's career, spawning three international hit singles, including the number-one hit " Upside Down". In 2020, ''Rolling Stone'' named ''Diana'' the 394th greatest album of all time. Conception Following the US success of her 1979 album '' The Boss'', Ross wanted a fresher, more modern sound. Having heard Nile Rodgers of Chic's work in the famous Manhattan disco club Studio 54, Ross approached him about creating a new album of material for her that stated where she felt she was in her life and career at the period. On an episode of TV One's '' Unsung'', Nile Rodgers said that the majority of the songs were crafted after direct conversations with Ross. She had reportedly said to Rodgers and Bernard Edwards that she wanted to turn her career “upside down” and wanted to “have fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's List of best-selling girl groups, best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total of 12 number-one pop singles on the Billboard Hot 100, U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross embarked on a successful solo music career with the release of her Diana Ross (1970 album), eponymous debut solo album. She went on to release 26 studio albums, including ''Touch Me in the Morning (album), Touch Me in the Morning'' (1973), ''Diana Ross (1976 album), Diana Ross'' (1976), ''Diana (album), Diana'' (1980), ''Why Do Fools Fall in Love (album), Why Do Fools Fall in Love'' (1981) and ''Swept Away (Diana R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhythm And Blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to African Americans, at a time when "rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was starting to become more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of a piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American history and experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of societal racism, oppression, relationships, economics, and aspirations. The term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records. Starting i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Stein
Christopher Stein (born January 5, 1950) is an American musician and songwriter known as the co-founder and guitarist of the new wave band Blondie. He is also a producer and performer for the classic soundtrack of the hip hop film '' Wild Style'', and writer of the soundtrack for the film '' Union City'', as well as an accomplished photographer. Music upStein performing with Blondie in 2011 In 1973, Stein became the guitarist of the Stillettoes and began a romantic relationship with Debbie Harry, one of the singers. In the summer of 1974, Stein, Harry, and the band's rhythm section left to start their own group which they eventually called Blondie. They soon became fixtures in the punk and new wave scene centered around CBGB and Max's Kansas City, and by the end of the decade achieved international stardom. Blondie broke up in 1982, but reformed in 1997 and has been active off and on ever since. In addition to being the sole writer of the Blondie song " Sunday Girl", S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on Fridays (previously Sundays). It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 (top 5) and found on the OCC website as a Top 100 or on ''UKChartsPlus'' as a Top 200, with positions continuing until all sales have been tracked in data only available to industry insiders. However, even though number 100 was classed as a hit album (as in the case of ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums'') in the 1980s until January 1989, since the compilations were removed, this definition was changed to Top 75 with follow-up books such as ''The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums'' only including this data. As of 2021, Since 1983, the OCC generally provides a public charts for hits and weeks up to the Top 100. Business customers can require a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
