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Christmas In The Stars
''Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album'' is a record album produced in 1980 by RSO Records. It features recordings of ''Star Wars''-themed Christmas songs and stories about a droid factory where the robots make toys year-round for " S. Claus". Much of the album is sung and narrated by British actor Anthony Daniels, reprising his role as C-3PO from the ''Star Wars'' films, and written by composer-lyricist Maury Yeston. Sound designer Ben Burtt also provided sound effects for R2-D2 and Chewbacca. Production The album was produced by Meco Monardo (who had previously recorded ''Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk''), with the hope that this would be the first in a series of annual ''Star Wars'' Christmas albums. The title, the story, and the majority of the album's original songs, both music and lyrics, were written by Yeston, then a Yale University music professor who went on to become the twice Tony Award-winning Broadway musical composer of ''Nine'', ''Titanic'', and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meco
Domenico Monardo (born November 29, 1939), known as Meco, is an American record producer and musician, as well as the name of his band or production team. Meco is best known for his 1977 space disco version of the ''Star Wars'' theme from his album '' Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk''; both the single and album were certified platinum in the US. Early life and education Meco Monardo was born in Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania, United States, to parents of Italian descent. Building model ships, science fiction and movies were some of his boyhood preoccupations. His father played the valve trombone in a small Italian band, and through him Meco got his first musical education. Meco wanted to play the drums, but his father convinced him that the trombone was the right instrument, and at nine that was the instrument with which he was to stay. However, for Meco, the slide trombone was his choice, troublesome as it was for the small-statured boy to extend the slide fully at first. He jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Midtown Manhattan. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton and are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel. The rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus. History Founded in 1978, Rhino was originally a novelty and reissue label during the 1970s and 1980s. It released compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes from the 1950s through the 1980s, as well as novelty-song LPs (compiled in-house or by Dr. Demento) and retrospectives of famous comedy performers, including Richard Pryor, Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, and Spike Jones. Rhino started as a record shop on Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, in 1973, run by Richard Foos, and became a record distributor five years later thanks to the effort of then-store manager Harold Bronson. Their early releases were mostly novelty records (such as their first single, in 1975, Wild Man Fischer's "Go To Rhino Records"). The difficulties involved in getting airplay and distri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shadows Of The Empire
''Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire'' is a 1996 multimedia project created by Lucasfilm. The idea was to create a story set between the films ''The Empire Strikes Back'' and ''Return of the Jedi'', and to explore all commercial possibilities of a full motion picture release without actually making a film. The venture was intended to reinvigorate interest in the franchise ahead of the theatrical Special Editions of the ''Star Wars'' trilogy released the following year. Several products were released, including a novel, a junior novelization, a comic book series, a video game, a soundtrack, trading cards, role-playing games, posters, model kits, Micro Machines toys, statuettes, vinyl dolls, and a series of action figures and vehicles. The story introduces Rebel ally Dash Rendar, who aids the heroes in their attempt to liberate the frozen Han Solo from bounty hunter Boba Fett. Meanwhile, Darth Vader continues the search for his son, Luke Skywalker, whom crime lord Prince Xizor attem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mini CD Single
A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any size, particularly the CD5, or 5-inch CD single. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s. With the rise in digital downloads in the early 2010s, sales of CD singles have decreased. Commercially released CD singles can vary in length from two songs (an A side and B side, in the tradition of 7-inch 45-rpm records) up to six songs like an EP. Some contain multiple mixes of one or more songs (known as remixes), in the tradition of 12-inch vinyl singles, and in some cases, they may also contain a music video for the single itself (this is an enhanced CD) as well as occasionally a poster. Depending on the nation, there may be limits on the number of songs and total length for sal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming in the United States. The weekly tracking period for sales was initially Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. This tracking period also applies to compiling online streaming data. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming, is readily available on a real-time basis, is also tracked on a Friday to Thursday cycle effective with the chart dated July 17, 2021 (previously Monday to Sunday and before July 2015, Wednesday to Tuesday). A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by ''Billboard'' on Tuesdays but post-dated to the following Saturday. The first number-one song of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 was "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Single (music)
In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. In other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. Despite being referred to as a single, in the era of music downloads, singles can include up to as many as three tracks. The biggest digital music distributor, the iTunes Store, accepts as many as three tracks that are less than ten minutes each as a single. Any more than three tracks on a musical release or thirty minutes in total running time is an extended play (EP) or, if over six tracks long, an album. Historically, when mainstream music was purchased via vinyl records, singles would be released double-sided, i.e. there was an A-side and a B-side, on which two songs would appear, one on each ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph McQuarrie
Ralph Angus McQuarrie (; June 13, 1929 – March 3, 2012) was an American conceptual designer and illustrator. His career included work on the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, the original '' Battlestar Galactica'' television series, the film ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', and the film '' Cocoon'', for which he won an Academy Award. Early life Ralph McQuarrie was born on June 13, 1929 in Gary, Indiana and was raised on a farm near Billings, Montana. He served in the United States Army during the Korean War, surviving a shot to the head. After returning from the war, McQuarrie moved to California in the 1960s, studying at the Art Center School, then in downtown Los Angeles. Career McQuarrie initially worked for a dentistry firm, illustrating teeth and equipment, before working as an Artist and Preliminary Design Illustrator for the Boeing Company, where he drew diagrams for a manual on constructing the 747 Jumbo Jet, as well as designing film posters and animating CBS News' cov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and '' Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers and has been nominated for four Academy Awards. His films are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster. After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Lucas wrote and directed ''THX 1138'' (1971), based on his student short '' Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB'', which was a critical success but a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Bongiovi
Anthony C. Bongiovi (born September 7, 1947) is an American record producer and recording engineer. He is the cousin of musician Jon Bon Jovi. Career Bongiovi has produced records by Gloria Gaynor, Talking Heads, Aerosmith ('' Classics Live''), and the Ramones (''Rocket to Russia'' and ''Leave Home''). Early in his career, he worked with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and The Supremes. Later on, he recorded albums with artists such as Talking Heads and Jimi Hendrix (as well as some of Hendrix's posthumous releases under producer Alan Douglas). In 1975, Bongiovi, along with partner Bob Walters, purchased a bankrupt building in Manhattan, New York City, from Mayor Ed Koch. Using his royalty checks from his previous records, Bongiovi was able to apply his ideas regarding acoustics to design and built his dream sound studios from the ground up. Since opening in 1977, The Power Station was used by renowned artists such as Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, the Clash, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jon Bon Jovi
John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was formed in 1983. He has released 15 studio albums with his band as well as two solo albums. In the 1990s, Bon Jovi started an acting career, starring in the films ''Moonlight and Valentino'' and '' U-571'' and appearing on television in '' Sex and the City'', '' Ally McBeal'' and '' The West Wing''. As a songwriter, Bon Jovi was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2012, he ranked number 50 on the list of ''Billboard'' magazine's "Power 100", a ranking of "The Most Powerful and Influential People in the Music Business". In 1996, '' People'' magazine named him one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World". In 2000, ''People'' awarded him the title "Sexiest Rock Star". Bon Jovi was a founder and former majority owner of the Arena Foo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Hotel (musical)
''Grand Hotel'' is a musical with a book by Luther Davis, music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, and additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. Based on Vicki Baum's 1929 novel, its eponymous spin-off play, ''Menschen im Hotel'' (People in a Hotel), and the subsequent 1932 MGM feature film, the musical focuses on events taking place over the course of a weekend in an elegant hotel in 1928 Berlin and the intersecting stories of the eccentric guests of the hotel, including a fading prima ballerina; a fatally ill Jewish bookkeeper, who wants to spend his final days living in luxury; a young, handsome, but destitute Baron; a cynical doctor; an honest businessman gone bad, and a typist dreaming of Hollywood success. The show's 1989 Broadway production garnered 12 Tony Award nominations, winning five, including best direction and choreography for Tommy Tune. Big-name cast replacements, including Cyd Charisse and Zina Bethune, helped the show become the first Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
