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First Songs
''First Songs'', initially credited to "Gwyn and Will", is the debut album of British singer-songwriter Gwyneth Herbert and composer and acoustic guitarist Will Rutter. Comprising both original songs and standards, it was launched at London's Pizza Express Jazz Club in September 2003. The Herbert/Rutter song "Sweet Insomnia" featured guest vocals from Jamie Cullum. Reception Described by BBC Music as a "lovingly crafted debut", the album received a significant amount of radio airplay on Jazz FM and BBC Radio 2, and was promoted by Michael Parkinson. Writing in ''The Sunday Times'', reviewer Clive Davis said: "If Gwyneth Herbert is not a star before long, I will eat my CD player. The sultry young singer’s partnership with guitarist Will Rutter has caused a stir on London's club circuit, and their debut album — artfully produced and arranged by vocalist Ian Shaw — lives up to that promise, blending pop and jazz values". Track listing Personnel * Gwyneth Herbert& ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gwyneth Herbert
Gwyneth Herbert (born 26 August 1981) is a British singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Initially known for her interpretation of jazz and swing standards, she is now established as a writer of original compositions, including musical theatre. She has been described as "an exquisite wordsmith" with "a voice that can effortlessly render any emotion with commanding ease" and her songs as being "impressively crafted and engrossing vignette of life's more difficult moments". Three of her six albums have received four-starred reviews in the British national press. Another album, ''Between Me and the Wardrobe'', received a five-starred review in ''The Observer''. Her seventh album, ''Letters I Haven't Written'', was released in October 2018. Early life and education Born in Wimbledon, London, to Mary and Brian Herbert, she was brought up in Surrey and Hampshire in the south of England. She began playing the piano at the age of three and was writi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burt Bacharach
Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach's songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. , he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. He is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music. His music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by his background in jazz harmony, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. Most of Bacharach and David's hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick but earlier associations (from 1957 to 1963) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Koehler
Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. Life and career Koehler was born in 1894 in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver, but was attracted to the music business, where he started out as a theater pianist for silent films. He moved on to write for vaudeville and Broadway theatre, and he also produced nightclub shows. His most successful collaboration was with the composer Harold Arlen, with whom he wrote many famous songs from the 1920s through the 1940s. In 1929 the duo composed their first well-known song, " Get Happy", and went on to create " Let's Fall in Love", " Stormy Weather", "Sing My Heart" and other hit songs. Throughout the early and mid-1930s they wrote for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, for big band jazz legend Duke Ellington and other top performers, as well as for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. Koehler also worked wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don't Worry 'bout Me
"Don't Worry 'bout Me" is a 1938 song composed by Rube Bloom, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler. It was introduced in the "World's Fair" edition of the Cotton Club show in 1939. The first hit recording was in 1939 by Hal Kemp and His Orchestra (vocal by Bob Allen). Other notable recordings *Billie Holiday – '' Last Recording'' with Ray Ellis and his Orchestra. Recording completed on March 11, 1959 and released in July the same year under MGM. * Savannah Churchill – recorded on December 26, 1951 for RCA Victor (catalog No. 20-4773). *Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Joe Williams – ''One O'Clock Jump'' (Verve, 1956) note: Williams sings this tune with Basie's orchestra *Chris Connor – ''Chris In Person'' ive recording(Atlantic, 1959) *Jack Sheldon – ''Jack Sheldon Sings'' (Butterfly, 1993). * Frank Sinatra – '' This Is Sinatra!'' (1956), '' Where Are You'' (1957), '' Sinatra at the Sands'' (1966). His 1954 single reached No. 17 in the Billboard charts that year. * Sarah ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal David
Harold Lane David (May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He grew up in New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick. Early life David was born in New York City, a son of Austrian Jewish immigrants Lina (née Goldberg) and Gedalier David, who owned a delicatessen in New York. He is the younger brother of American lyricist and songwriter Mack David. Career David is credited with popular music lyrics, beginning in the 1940s with material written for bandleader Sammy Kaye and for Guy Lombardo. He worked with Morty Nevins of The Three Suns on four songs for the feature film '' Two Gals and a Guy'' (1951), starring Janis Paige and Robert Alda. In 1957, David met composer Burt Bacharach at Famous Music in the Brill Building in New York. The two teamed up and wrote their first hit "The Story of My Life", recorded by Marty Robbins in 1957. Subsequently, in the 1960s and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trains And Boats And Planes
"Trains and Boats and Planes" is a song written by composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David. Hit versions were recorded by Bacharach himself in 1965, by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas in the same year, and by Dionne Warwick in 1966. Original 1965 recordings Bacharach and David wrote the song at a time when they had achieved great popular success. Bacharach, in particular, was traveling widely to record and promote his songs. The pair intended the song to be recorded by Gene Pitney, who had had several hits with earlier Bacharach and David songs, including "Only Love Can Break a Heart" and "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". However, Pitney declined to record it, telling Bacharach "it's not one of your better ones". Bacharach then recorded it in London, with an orchestra, chorus, and uncredited vocals by female session singers The Breakaways. His version was issued on the 1965 album '' Hit Maker!: Burt Bacharach plays the Burt Bacharach Hits'' and as a single. According to wr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Telson
Robert Eria Telson (born May 14, 1949) is an American composer, songwriter, and pianist best known for his work in musical theater and film, for which he has received Tony, Pulitzer, and Academy Award nominations. Biography Robert Eria Telson was born in Cannes, France, in 1949. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, son of Paula (née Blackman) and David Telson. He began studying piano when he was five years old. By nine he had already performed a Mozart piece on television and given a concert of his own compositions. At 14, he wrote 72 love songs for his first girlfriend, Margie. At 16 and 17 he studied organ, counterpoint and harmony in France with the teacher Nadia Boulanger. He followed this with a degree in music from Harvard University in 1970. Telson also played organ and composed original songs for a rock band called The Bristols, while he was a high school student at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, New York. Several of these were recorded at Decca Studios but never released. At Har ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calling You
"Calling You" is a song from the 1987 film, '' Bagdad Cafe''. It was originally recorded by Jevetta Steele. Bob Telson, the songwriter, also recorded his version. Both versions appeared on the movie soundtrack. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards. Jevetta Steele version Critical reception In 1993, Larry Flick from ''Billboard'' wrote that "this overlooked nugget from the soundtrack to '' Bagdad Cafe'' is poised for long overdue success, thanks to its exposure in an AT&T television commercial. Steele's haunting, beautiful vocal rests comfortably atop a spare keyboard and harmonica arrangement. Don't let this one slip by a second time". Formats and track listing Charts Celine Dion version Celine Dion covered "Calling You" many times during her live performances between 1990 and 1996. The 1994 performance recorded in Olympia, Paris was included on '' À l'Olympia'' live album and released as the first and only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynthia Weil
Cynthia Weil (born October 18, 1940) is an American songwriter who wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. Life and career Weil was born in New York City, and was raised in a Conservative Jewish family. Her father was Morris Weil, a furniture store owner and the son of Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants, and her mother was Dorothy Mendez, who grew up in a Sephardic Jewish family in Brooklyn. Weil trained as an actress and dancer, but soon demonstrated a songwriting ability that led to her collaboration with Barry Mann, whom she married in August 1961. The couple has one daughter, Jenn Mann. Weil became one of the Brill Building songwriters of the 1960s, and one of the most important writers during the emergence of rock and roll. She and her husband went on to create songs for many contemporary artists, winning several Grammy Awards as well as Academy Award nominations for their compositions for film. As their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography put it, in part: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Mann
Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman; February 9, 1939) is an American songwriter and musician, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil. He has written or co-written 53 hits in the UK and 98 in the US. Early life Mann was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City, United States. He was born two days before fellow songwriter Gerry Goffin. Career His first successful song as a writer was "She Say (Oom Dooby Doom)", a Top 20 chart-scoring song composed for the band The Diamonds in 1959. Mann co-wrote the song with Mike Anthony (Michael Logiudice). In 1961, Mann had his greatest success to that point with " I Love How You Love Me", written with Larry Kolber and a no. 5 scoring single for the band The Paris Sisters (seven years later, Bobby Vinton's version would reach the Top 10). The same year, Mann himself reached the Top 40 as a performer with a novelty song co-written with Gerry Goffin, " Who Put the Bomp", which parodied the nonsen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It's Getting Better (Cass Elliot Song)
"It's Getting Better" is a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that was a sunshine pop hit single in 1969 for Mama Cass. Overview The song describes the singer's satisfaction with a love relationship that is down-to-earth rather than extravagantly romantic, a subgenre of love song exemplified by the Jerome Kern/ P. G. Wodehouse composition "Bill". Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil had previously written the similarly themed " He's Sure the Boy I Love", a hit for the Crystals in 1963. The earliest evident recording of "It's Getting Better" was by the Vogues for their August 1968 album release ''Turn Around, Look at Me'' (Reprise Records). Also in 1968, the song was featured on the Leonard Nimoy album ''The Way I Feel'' ( Dot Records) released that October. The first evident single release of "It's Getting Better" was by Pierre Lalonde on the Montréalais label Disco Prestige in September 1968 with the track's parent album: ''Introducing Peter Martin'', being released that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. With George, he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as " I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", " The Man I Love" and " Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera '' Porgy and Bess''. The success the Gershwin brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. His mastery of songwriting continued after George's early death in 1937. Ira wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harry Warren and Harold Arlen. His critically acclaimed 1959 book ''Lyrics on Several Occasions'', an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is an important source for stud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
