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Stagger Lee (song)
"Stagger Lee" ( Roud 4183), also known as "Stagolee" and other variants, is a popular American folk song about the murder of Billy Lyons by "Stag" Lee Shelton, in St. Louis, Missouri, on Christmas 1895. The song was first published in 1911 and first recorded in 1923, by Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, titled "Stack O' Lee Blues". A version by Lloyd Price reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1959. Background The historical Stagger Lee was Lee Shelton, an African-American pimp living in St. Louis, Missouri, in the late 19th century. He was nicknamed Stag Lee or Stack Lee, with a variety of explanations being given: he was given the nickname because he "went stag" (attended social events unaccompanied by a person of the opposite sex); he took the nickname from a well-known riverboat captain called Stack Lee; or, according to John and Alan Lomax, he took the name from a riverboat owned by the Lee family of Memphis called the ''Stack Lee'', which was known for its on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waring's Pennsylvanians
Waring's Pennsylvanians was a dance band founded at Penn State University by Fred Waring. First named the Collegians, the group was formed in 1918 at Penn State by the brothers Fred and Tom Waring and their friends Freddy Buck and Poley McClintock. They had a hit in 1925 with the song " Collegiate". Other popular novelty songs were " I've Never Seen a Straight Banana" and "I Wonder How I Look When I'm Asleep". In 1929 they appeared in the movie ''Syncopation'' and on stage in ''The New Yorkers'' the following year. Their popularity increased in the 1930s with their presence in radio and movies. During the 1940s, they performed on Broadway and at the World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ... and became the first band to broadcast its own TV show. From 1950 to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Westphal
Frank Christian Westphal (June 15, 1889 – November 23, 1948) was an American pianist, dance band leader and composer who recorded in the 1920s, following the end of his marriage to singer Sophie Tucker. Biography He was born in Chicago, the grandson of German immigrants. By 1910 he had started working as a pianist in vaudeville shows, where he met singer Sophie Tucker, who was two years his senior. She hired him as her accompanist in 1913, and they became lovers though this was not disclosed at the time. Westphal was sometimes co-billed with Tucker over the next three years, as Tucker's popularity grew. In 1916, though their personal relationship continued, Westphal withdrew from the act, and was instead installed as proprietor of the Sophie Tucker Garage. The business venture failed, and in 1917 he returned to her shows as a separate act, sometimes becoming an unscheduled participant in the act of fellow performers The Marx Brothers. Westphal and Tucker married in October 191 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Biography Early years John Hurt was born in Teoc,Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to ''Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings''. Columbia/Legacy CD. Carroll County, Mississippi and raised in Avalon, Mississippi. His parents, Isom and Mary, had both been slaves and as was common after the Civil War, they continued working on the same plantation, now as sharecroppers, for the same enslaver. John taught himself to play guitar at the age of nine. To earn extra money, his mother took in boarders. One of them, William Henry Carson, who played a guitar and was a friend of John's mother, often stayed at the Hurt home while courting a woman who lived nearby. When no one was around, John would play Carson's guitar. As a youth, he played old-time music for friends and at dances or at the local general store. His syncopated p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliff Edwards
Clifton Avon "Cliff" Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971), nicknamed "Ukulele Ike", was an American pop singer, musician and actor. He enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes, including a number one hit with "Singin' in the Rain (song), Singin' in the Rain" in 1929. Later in his career, he appeared in films and did voices for animated cartoons, and is well-remembered as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's ''Pinocchio (1940 film), Pinocchio'' (1940) (introducing the standard ''When You Wish Upon a Star'') and ''Fun and Fancy Free'' (1947), and Dandy Crow in Walt Disney's ''Dumbo'' (1941). Early life and musical career Edwards was born in Hannibal, Missouri. He left school at age 14 and soon moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and Saint Charles, Missouri, where he entertained as a singer in Bar (establishment), saloons. As many places had pianos in bad shape or none at all, Edwards tau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert E
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown, godlike" and ''berht'' "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin.Reaney & Wilson, 1997. ''Dictionary of English Surnames''. Oxford University Press. It is also in use as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert. After becoming widely used in Continental Europe, the name entered England in its Old French form ''Robert'', where an Old English cognate form (''Hrēodbēorht'', ''Hrodberht'', ''Hrēodbēorð'', ''Hrœdbœrð'', ''Hrœdberð'', ''Hrōðberχtŕ'') had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto. Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smokestack
A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the stack, or chimney effect. The space inside a chimney is called the ''flue''. Chimneys are adjacent to large industrial refineries, fossil fuel combustion facilities or part of buildings, steam locomotives and ships. In the United States, the term '' smokestack industry'' refers to the environmental impacts of burning fossil fuels by industrial society, including the electric industry during its earliest history. The term ''smokestack'' (colloquially, ''stack'') is also used when referring to locomotive chimneys or ship chimneys, and the term ''funnel'' can also be used. The height of a chimney i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthology Of American Folk Music
''Anthology of American Folk Music'' is a three-volume compilation album released in August 1952 by Folkways Records. The album was compiled by experimental filmmaker Harry Smith from his own personal collection of 78 rpm records. It consists of eighty-four recordings of American folk, blues and country music made and issued from 1926 to 1933 by a variety of performers, divided into three categories: "Ballads", "Social music", and "Songs." Upon its release the Anthology sold relatively poorly and had no notable early coverage besides a minor mention in '' Sing Out!'' magazine in 1958. However, it would eventually become regarded as a landmark and influential release, particularly for the 1950s and 1960s American folk music revival. In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the album at number 276 on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and, in 2005, the album was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. Background Harry Smith was a Wes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Hutchison
Frank Hutchison (March 20, 1897 – November 9, 1945) was an American early country blues and Piedmont blues musician and songwriter. Okeh Records promotional materials referred to him as “The Pride of West Virginia,” and he is thought to be the first non-African American musician to record in the country blues idiom. Hutchison was best known as a slide guitar player, where he held the guitar in his lap and used a pen knife as a slide. Biography Born in Logan County, West Virginia, Hutchison worked as a coal miner at various coal mines in Logan County, both before and after his career as a recording artist. His exposure to Appalachian music came at an early age because his grandfather played fiddle and banjo in Logan before he died in 1903 in a mining accident. In 1904, the railroad first came into Logan County and exposed Hutchison to African-American blues and pre-blues. Hutchison is said to have walked with a limp, possibly as a result of a mining accident. Between 192 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cornet
The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cornet in E and cornets in A and C. All are unrelated to the Renaissance and early Baroque cornett. History The cornet was derived from the posthorn by applying valves to it in the 1820s. Initially using Stölzel valves, by the 1830s, Parisian makers were using the improved Périnet piston valves. Cornets first appeared as separate instrumental parts in 19th-century French compositions.''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Micropedia, Volume III, William Benton, Chicago Illinois, 1974, p. 156 The instrument could not have been developed without the improvement of piston valves by Silesian horn players Friedrich Blühmel (or Blümel) and Heinrich Stölzel, in the early 19th century. These two instrument makers almost simultaneously invented valv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz. Armstrong received numerous accolades including the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for ''Hello, Dolly! (song), Hello, Dolly!'' in 1965, as well as a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972. His influence crossed musical genres, with inductions into the DownBeat, ''DownBeat'' Jazz Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, among others. Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, he was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie And Johnny (song)
"Frankie and Johnny" (sometimes spelled "Frankie and Johnnie"; also known as "Frankie and Albert", "Frankie's Man", "Johnny", or just "Frankie") is a murder ballad, a traditional American popular song. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds her man Johnny making love to another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested; in some versions of the song she is also executed. History The song was inspired by one or more actual murders. One of these took place in an apartment building located at 212 Targee Street in St. Louis, Missouri, at 2:00 on the morning of October 15, 1899. Frankie Baker (18761952), a 22-year-old woman, shot her 17-year-old lover Allen (also known as "Albert") Britt in the abdomen. Britt had just returned from a cakewalk at a local dance hall, where he and another woman, Nelly Bly (also known as "Alice Pryor" and no relation to the pioneering reporter who adopted the pseudonym Nellie Bly or the " Nelly Bly" who was the subject of an 1850 son ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
