|
The Larks
The Larks were an American vocal group, active in the early 1950s. They were not the same group as the Los Angeles–based Larks (originally The Meadowlarks) featuring Don Julian, nor the Philadelphia-based group The Four Larks. Original members *Eugene "Gene" Mumford (June 24, 1925 – May 29, 1977) (tenor, lead) *Allen (or Alden) Bunn (known later as Tarheel Slim) (September 24, 1923 – August 21, 1977) (baritone, lead, guitar) * Thermon (or Thurmon) Ruth (known later as T. Ruth) (March 6, 1914 – September 13, 2002) (baritone, lead) *Hadie Rowe Jr. (1928 – September 19, 1998) (baritone) *David McNeil (1932 – January 8, 2005) (bass) *Raymond "Pee Wee" Barnes (tenor) History The group was formed in the late 1920s, when singer Thermon Ruth founded the Selah Jubilee Singers in New York City, later basing them in Raleigh, North Carolina where they had a radio show. They recorded for Decca Records and other smaller labels in the 1940s, and their membership overlapped with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jubilee Records
Jubilee Records was an American independent record label, specializing in rhythm and blues and novelty records. It was founded in New York City in 1946 by Herb Abramson. His partner was Jerry Blaine. Blaine bought Abramson's half of the company in 1947, when Abramson went on to co-found Atlantic Records with Ahmet Ertegun. The company name was Jay-Gee Recording Company, a subsidiary of the Cosnat Corporation. Cosnat was a wholesale record distributor. History Jubilee was the first independent record label to reach the white market with a black vocal group, when the Orioles' recording of "Crying in the Chapel" reached the Top Twenty on the Pop chart in 1953. The Four Tunes started recording for Jubilee in 1953. The biggest early hit for Jubilee was "Crying in the Chapel" by the Orioles. A subsidiary label, Josie Records, was formed in 1954 and issued more uptempo material. Hits on Josie included " Speedoo" by the Cadillacs (number 3 R&B, number 17 pop) and " Do You Want to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ravens
The Ravens were an American R&B vocal group, formed in 1946 by Jimmy Ricks and Warren Suttles. They were one of the most successful and most influential vocal quartets of the period, and had several hits on the R&B chart in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Career Jimmy "Ricky" Ricks was born in Adrian, Georgia. His mother was 14 when he was born. She went to Florida to find a better job. Jimmy lived with his aunt and uncle, Marnie and Luther Ricks until he was 13 and moved to Jacksonville, Florida to be with his mother. During World War II, Jimmy moved to New York City, where he worked as a waiter in Harlem and met Warren "Birdland" Suttles from Fairfield, Alabama which is southwest of Birmingham, Alabama. In early 1946, they decided to form a vocal group and recruited Leonard "Zeke" Puzey, who had recently won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater, and Ollie Jones. They found a manager, Ben Bart, and an accompanist, Howard Biggs and made their first recordings for Bart's sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Golden Gate Quartet
The Golden Gate Quartet (a.k.a. The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet) is an American vocal group. It was formed in 1934 and, with changes in membership, remains active. Origins and early career The group was founded as the Golden Gate Jubilee Singers in 1934, by four students at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, Virginia. According to the group's website, the original members were Willie Johnson (baritone; d. 1980), William Langford (tenor; d. 1970), Henry Owens (second tenor; d. 1970) and Orlandus Wilson (bass; 1917–1998); other sources state that Langford and Wilson replaced earlier members Robert "Peg" Ford and A.C. "Eddie" Griffin in 1935. From 1935, the group sang in churches and on local radio, gaining a regular spot on radio station WIS in Columbia, South Carolina in 1936.Seamus McGarvey, ''The Golden Gate Quartet'', in '' Juke Blues'' magazine, no. 71, 2011, pp. 42–45 They began as a traditional jubilee quartet, combining the clever arrangements associated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dominoes
Billy Ward and his Dominoes were an American R&B vocal group. One of the most successful R&B groups of the early 1950s, the Dominoes helped launch the singing careers of two notable members, Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson. Early life Billy Ward (born Robert L. Williams, September 19, 1921, Savannah, Georgia, died February 16, 2002, Inglewood, California) grew up in Philadelphia, the second of three sons of Charles Williams and Cora Bates Williams, and was a child musical prodigy, winning an award for a piano composition at the age of 14.Warner, Jay (2006)''American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today'' pp. 312–15. Hal Leonard Corporation. Following military service with the Coast Guard Artillery Choir, he studied music in Chicago, and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, a rare achievement for Black musicians at the time. While working as a vocal coach and part-time arranger on Broadway, he met talent agent Rose Marks, who became his business and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Robinson (record Producer)
Morgan Clyde "Bobby" Robinson (April 16, 1917 – January 7, 2011) was an American independent record producer and songwriter in New York City, most active from the 1950s through the mid-1980s. Robinson produced hits by Wilbert Harrison, the Shirelles, Dave "Baby" Cortez, Elmore James, Lee Dorsey, Gladys Knight & The Pips, King Curtis, Spoonie Gee, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Doug E. Fresh, and Treacherous Three. He founded or co-founded Red Robin Records, Sue Records, Whirlin' Disc Records, Fury Records, Fire Records and Enjoy Records. Biography Born in Union, South Carolina, Robinson served in the US Army in World War II. After the war, Robinson moved to New York City and opened "Bobby's Record Shop" (later "Bobby's Happy House") in 1946. There were only a few Black-owned businesses on 125th Street in Harlem during this period. Robinson's record shop became one of them. Located on the corner of 125th St. and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. His shop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. At about the age of four he contracted polio, which incapacitated his right leg. His brother Granville "Stick" McGhee, who also later became a musician and composed the song " Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee", was nicknamed for pushing young Brownie around in a cart. Their father, George McGhee, was a factory worker, known around University Avenue for playing guitar and singing. Brownie's uncle made him a guitar from a tin marshmallow box and a piece of board. McGhee spent much of his youth immersed in music, singing with a local harmony group, the Golden Voices Gospel Quartet, and teaching himself to play guitar. He also played the five-string banjo and ukulele and studied pian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occasionally imitations of trains and fox hunts. Career Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia. His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes and went blind by the time he was 16, which prevented him from doing farm work, and was forced to play music in order to earn a living. Terry played " Camptown Races" to the plow horses which improved the efficiency of farming in the area. He began playing blues in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died, he began playing with Piedmont blues–style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died in 1941, Terry established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and they recorded numerous songs together. The duo became we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson ( ; born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel music, gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to the development and spread of gospel blues in black churches throughout the U.S. During a time when Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation was pervasive in American society, she met considerable and unexpected success in a recording career, selling an estimated 22 million records and performing in front of integrated and secular audiences in concert halls around the world, making her one of the best-selling List of best-selling gospel music artists, gospel music artists. The granddaughter of Slavery in the United States, enslaved people, Jackson was born and raised in poverty in New Orleans. She found a home in her church, leading to a lifelong dedication and singular purpose to deliver God's word through ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percy Mayfield
Percy Mayfield (August 12, 1920August 11, 1984) was an American rhythm and blues singer with a smooth vocal style. He was also a songwriter, known for the songs "Please Send Me Someone to Love" and "Hit the Road Jack", the latter being a song first recorded by Ray Charles. Career Mayfield was born in Minden, Louisiana, the seat of Webster Parish, in the northwestern part of the state. As a youth, he had a talent for poetry, which led him to songwriting and singing. He began his performing career in Texas and then moved to Los Angeles in 1942, but without success as a singer until 1947, when a small record label, Swing Time Records, signed him to record his song "Two Years of Torture," with a band that included the saxophonist Maxwell Davis, the guitarist Chuck Norris, and the pianist Willard McDaniel. The record sold steadily over the next few years, prompting Art Rupe to sign Mayfield to his label, Specialty Records, in 1950. Mayfield's vocal style was influenced by such sty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer. At the peak of his success, in the early to mid-1950s, Godfrey was heard on radio and seen on television up to six days a week, at times for as many as nine separate broadcasts for CBS. His programs included ''Arthur Godfrey Time'' (Monday-Friday mornings on radio and television), ''Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts'' (Monday evenings on radio and television), ''Arthur Godfrey and His Friends'' (Wednesday evenings on television), ''The Arthur Godfrey Digest'' (Friday evenings on radio) and ''King Arthur Godfrey and His Round Table'' (Sunday afternoons on radio). In 1953, Godfrey's infamous on-air firing of cast member Julius La Rosa permanently damaged his kindly, down-to-earth, family-man image which resulted in an immediate decline of his popularity that he was never able to overcome. Over the next two years, Godfrey fired over twenty additional cast and cre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987. "Mr. C.", as Como was nicknamed, reportedly sold over 100 million records worldwide and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. Como recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for recordings in the intimate, easy-listening genre pioneered by multimedia star Bing Crosby. In the official RCA Records Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' magazine memorial, Como's life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all." Como received five Emmy Award, Emmys from 1955 to 1959, and a Christopher Award in 1956. He also shared a Peabody Award with good friend Jackie Gleason in 1956. Como received a Kenne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Too Many Drivers
"Too Many Drivers" is a blues song recorded by Big Bill Broonzy in 1939. It is performed in an acoustic ensemble-style of early Chicago blues and the lyrics use double entendre often found in hokum-style blues songs. The song has been identified as one of Broonzy's more popular tunes and has been recorded over the years by a variety of artists, who often who use alternate titles, such as "Little Car Blues", "Little Side Car", "Automobile Blues", and "Let Me Ride Your Little Automobile". Original song Broonzy, who was one of the most popular pre-World War II blues artists, used elements of hokum in his music. In "Too Many Drivers", he makes use of double entendre and "further extended the 'female as automobile' metaphor so prevalent in blues lyrics" at the time, according to compilation annotator Keith Briggs. The lyrics include: The recording session took place on May 11, 1939, in Chicago. Broonzy, on vocal and guitar, is accompanied by Joshua Altheimer on piano, and Ransom Know ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
