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Bear Family
Bear Family Records is a Germany-based independent record label, that specializes in reissues of archival material, ranging primarily in country music but varying in everything from 1950s rock and roll to old German movie soundtracks. History The label has been in existence since 1975, founded by collector Richard Weize, started with the double LP ''Going Back to Dixie'' by Bill Clifton. It has become known for its extravagant (and expensive) box sets. The company describes itself as "a collector's record label" due to its primary business, which is reissuing rare recordings in CD format in small amounts. Historically, their material has had only limited availability in the U.S, stocked at Ernest Tubb Record Shop, and through mail order sources. Many of their box sets are available through Amazon Marketplace. Artists Among the many artists who have been the subject of extensive box set releases by Bear Family are Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Han ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Weize
Richard Weize (born August 4, 1945, in Bad Gandersheim, Germany) is the founder of Bear Family Records label, operator of the Richard Weize Archives, and an author. Weize and his work has been featured in the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Rolling Stone'' ''Die Zeit'', Welt, ''Die Presse'', ''Der Standard'', and more. Education Weize grew up in Bad Gandersheim. His family has been working in the bookbinding trade since 1845, as well as running a book and stationery shop. His passion for pop music emerged when the first Anglo-American 45-rpm records appeared in Germany in the 1950s, and it was fueled with American Forces Network, Elvis Presley and the Star-Club in Hamburg. By 1960, Weize had become a pioneering record trader, importing hard-to-get country and rock ‘n’ roll albums from the US and selling them – with a small surcharge – to his friends. Not only was this the start of his own record collection, but also one of the foundation stones of his Bear Family Records busines ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Reeves
James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. One of the earliest pioneers and practitioners of the Nashville sound, he played a central role in the sonic development of country music in the 1960s. Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death in a plane crash. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame. Biography Early life and education Reeves was born at home in Galloway, Texas, a small rural community near Carthage. He was the youngest of eight children born to Thomas Middleton Reeves (1882-1924) and Mary Beulah Adams Reeves (1884-1980). He was known as Travis during his childhood years. Winning an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas, he enrolled to study speech and drama but quit after only six weeks to work in the shipyards in Houston. Soon he resumed baseball, playing in the semi-professional leagues before contracting with the St. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own radio show, ''The Wayfaring Stranger'', which popularized traditional folk songs. In 1942, he appeared in Irving Berlin's ''This Is the Army'' and became a major star of CBS Radio. In the 1960s, he successfully crossed over into country music, recording hits such as "A Little Bitty Tear" and "Funny Way of Laughin'". Ives was also a popular film actor through the late 1940s and '50s. His film roles included parts in ''So Dear to My Heart'' (1948) and ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958 film), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1958), as well as the role of Rufus Hannassey in ''The Big Country'' (1958), for which he won an 31st Academy Awards, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the film noir ''Day of the Outlaw'' (1959). Ives is often associate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petula Clark
Sally "Petula" Clark (born 15 November 1932) is a British singer, actress, and songwriter. She started her professional career as a child actor, child performer and has had the longest career of any British entertainer, spanning more than 85 years. Clark's professional career began during the Second World War as a child entertainer on BBC Radio."War Stories From Petula Clark." ''Weekend Edition Saturday'', 21 December 2013. ''Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints'', link.gale.com/apps/doc/A353945140/OVIC?u=nash87800&sid=primo&xid=58216c1d. Accessed 15 October 2023. In 1954, she charted with "The Little Shoemaker", the first of her big UK hits, and within two years she began recording in French. Her international successes have included "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I, ''Prends mon cœur''", "Sailor (song), Sailor" (a UK number one), "Romeo (Petula Clark song), Romeo", and "I Will Follow Him, Chariot". Hits in German, Italian and Spanish followed. In late 1964, Clark's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of " That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as "America's Number One Song Stylist", his other nicknames include "Mr. Rhythm", "Old Leather Lungs", and "Mr. Steel Tonsils". His hits included "That's My Desire", " That Lucky Old Sun", " Mule Train", " Jezebel", " High Noon", " I Believe", " Hey Joe!", " The Kid's Last Fight", " Cool Water", " Rawhide", and " You Gave Me a Mountain". He sang well known theme songs for many Western film soundtracks, including '' 3:10 To Yuma'', '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'', and '' Blazing Saddles'', although his recordings were not charted as country and western. Laine sang an eclectic variety of song styles and genres, stretching from big band crooning to pop, western-themed songs, gospel, rock, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Boone
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host and philanthropist. He sold nearly 50 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and has acted in many films. Boone rivalled Elvis Presley's popularity in the 1950s and is ranked by ''Billboard'' as one of the biggest charting artists in the period 1955–1995. Boone spent 220 consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts, ''Billboard'' charts with one or more songs each week. Through the 1960s, Boone was one of the most popular entertainers in the United States, becoming a teen idol as an alternative to the perceived hedonism of rock and roll, due to his activities as singer, writer, actor and religious motivational speaker. In 1957, at the age of 23, Boone commenced a half-hour American Broadcasting Company, ABC variety television series, ''The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom'', which aired 115 episodes (1957–1960). Stars including Cliff Richard, Nat King Cole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson (born 28 April 1941), credited as Ann-Margret, is a Swedish-American actress and singer with a career spanning seven decades. Her many screen roles include '' Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), ''State Fair'' (1962), '' Bye Bye Birdie'' (1963), ''Viva Las Vegas'' (1964), '' Carnal Knowledge'' (1971), '' The Train Robbers'' (1973), '' Tommy'' (1975), '' The Return of the Soldier'' (1982), '' 52 Pick-Up'' (1986), '' Newsies'' (1992), '' Grumpy Old Men'' (1993), ''Any Given Sunday'' (1999), ''Taxi'' (2004), and '' Going in Style'' (2017). Her accolades include five Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award in addition to two Academy Award nominations and two Grammy nominations. Born in Sweden, Ann-Margret immigrated to the United States as a child. Gaining popularity in 1961 as a singer with a sultry, vibrant contralto voice, she quickly rose to Hollywood stardom. She released ''Born to be Wild'', her first classic-rock album, in 2023. Early life Ann-Margret Olsson w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music style which expanded its appeal to adult pop music fans. He was primarily a guitarist, but he also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele, and occasionally sang. Atkins's signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes (musician), George Barnes, Les Paul, and, later, Jerry Reed. His distinctive picking style and musicianship brought him admirers inside and outside the country scene, both in the United States and abroad. Atkins spent most of his career at RCA Victor and produced records for The Browns, the Browns, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean (singer), Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Floyd Cramer, Elvi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close-harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly and Phillip "Phil" Everly, the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, and pop, becoming pioneers of country rock. Don and Phil Everly were raised in a musical family. As children in the 1940s, they appeared on radio in Iowa, singing with their parents as the Everly Family. During their high-school years in Knoxville, they performed on radio and television. The brothers gained the attention of Chet Atkins, who began to promote them. They began writing and recording their own music in 1956. The brothers' first hit song was " Bye Bye Love", which hit number one in the spring of 1957. Additional hits, including " Wake Up Little Susie", " All I Have to Do Is Dream", and " Problems", followed in 1958. In 1960, they signed with Warner Bros. Records and recorded " Cathy's Clown", which was their biggest-selling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King of the Jukebox", he earned his highest profile towards the end of the swing era. Specializing in the alto saxophone, alto sax, Jordan played all forms of the saxophone, as well as piano and clarinet. He also was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his time, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan began his career in big-band swing jazz in the 1930s coming to the public's attention as part of Chick Webb's hard swinging band, though he became better known as an innovative popularizer of jump blues—a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds. It rose to international popularity fueled by unprecedented sales of LP records and helped alter the direction of popular music in the U.S. The Kingston Trio was one of the most prominent groups of the era's folk-pop boom, which they kick-started in 1958 with the release of the Trio's eponymous first album and its hit recording of " Tom Dooley", which became a number one hit and sold over three million copies as a single. The Trio released nineteen albums that made ''Billboard''s Top 100, fourteen of which ranked in the top 10, and five of which hit the number 1 spot. Four of the group's LPs charted among the 10 top-selling albums for five weeks in November and December 1959, a record unmatched for more than 50 years, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band formed in 1947 and continuing until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group recorded nine Top 20 singles, one of which was number one and three that were Top Ten. The single "Rock Around the Clock" was the best-selling rock single in the history of the genre and maintained that position for several years. Band leader Bill Haley had previously been a Western swing performer; after recording a rockabilly version of Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm's "Rocket 88", one of the first rock and roll recordings, Haley changed his band's musical direction to rock music. They went on to record hit versions of "Crazy Man, Crazy", "Shake, Rattle & Roll", the aforementioned "Rock Around the Clock", "Dim, Dim the Lights", "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie", "Razzle-Dazzle", "See You Later, Alligator", "When the Saints Go Marching In, The Saints ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
