Oct, 1: Sir Richard Harris ("Macarthur Park") was born on this day. He died on Oct. 25, 2002.

He died on Oct. 25, 2002.

Richard St. John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer.

He appeared on stage and in many films, and is perhaps best known for his roles as King Arthur in Camelot (1967), as Oliver Cromwell in Cromwell (1970) and as Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosophers's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), his final film.

He also played a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse (1970), Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000) and a gunfighter in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992).

Harris recorded several albums of music, one of which, (A Tramp Shining), included the seven-minute hit song "MacArthur Park" (Harris insisted on singing the lyric as "MacArthur's Park." This song had been written by Jimmy Webb, and it reached #2 on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also topped several music sales charts in Europe during the summer of 1968. "MacArthur Park" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

(Follow links below to view You Tube Videos:)

-- "MacArthur Park" (Story behind the song)

-- "My Boy"

-- "Camelot" (With Meg Bussert)

A second album, with music mostly composed by Webb, The Yard Went on Forever, was published in 1969. Harris also wrote and arranged the orchestral accompaniment for one of the tracks, a scathing commentary on the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland delivered as a spoken-word poem written by Dr T James and entitled "There are Too Many Saviours on My Cross."

Harris died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma on 25 October 2002, aged 72, two and a half weeks before the American premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

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Oct. 1: Soul singer Donny Hathaway ( "Where Is the Love") was born on this day in 1945...

... he died on January 13, 1979 at 34 years of age from an apparent suicide.

Donny Edward Hathaway. who was born in Chicago, often collaborated with Roberta Flack. In 1973 their duet, "Where Is the Love," won him the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the duet.

Hathaway began singing in a church choir with his grandmother, a professional gospel singer, at the age of three. He studied music on a fine arts scholarship at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He also formed a jazz trio to work around the local area with drummer Ric Powell. In 1973, he left Howard to pursue a career in the music business.

(Follow links below to view You Tube Videos:)

-- "The Ghetto"  

-- Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack Live 

-- "Put Your Hands In The Hand"

Hathaway soon found work as songwriter, session musician and producer. He  did the arrangements for hits by The Unifics, ("Court of Love" and "The Beginning Of My End") and took part in projects by The Staple Singers, Jerry Butler, Aretha Franklin, The Impressions and Curtis Mayfield.

After becoming a "house producer" for Mayfield's label, Curtom Records, he started recording there as a member of The Mayfield Singers. He recorded his first single under his own name in 1969, a duet with singer June Conquest called "I Thank You Baby."

Later that year, Hathaway released his first successful album which included the single, "The Ghetto, Pt. 1," which he co-wrote with former Howard roommate Leroy Hutson.

His second LP, Donny Hathaway, was also a success, and included duets with former Howard University classmate and label mate Roberta Flack that established him, especially on the pop charts.

His final studio album, "Extension Of A Man" came out in 1973 with two tracks, "Love Love Love" and "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" reaching both the pop and R&B charts. However, it was probably best noted for his classic ballad, "Someday We'll All Be Free" and a six-minute symphonic-styled instrumental piece called "I Love The Lord, He Heard My Cry."

He again hit the charts in 1978 with Roberta Flack with "The Closer I Get To You" on her album, "Blue Lights In The Basement." The song topped the R&B chart and just missed the number 1 spot on the Hot 100 (reaching #2). Atlantic then put out another solo single, "You Were Meant For Me" shortly before his death.

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Oct. 1: Julie Andrews is 75 today.

Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE, is a former British child actress and singer who has been honored with Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award awards. Her voice spanned four octaves until it was damaged by a throat operation in 1997.

Born Julia Elizabeth Wells in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, Andrews  made her Broadway debut in 1954 with The Boy Friend, and rose to prominence starring in other musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, and in musical films such as Mary Poppins - for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1964 - and The Sound of Music in 1965.

(Follow links below to view You Tube Videos:)

-- "I Could Have Danced All Night"  (My Fair Lady)

-- "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (Mary Poppins)

-- "Do Re Mi" (Sound of Music)

On November 1, 1948, Julie Andrews became the youngest solo performer ever to be seen in a Royal Command Variety Performance, at the London Palladium, where she performed along with Danny Kaye, the Nicholas Brothers and the comedy team George and Bert Bernard for members of King George VI's family. Julie Andrews followed her parents into radio and television. She reportedly made her television debut on the BBC program RadiOlympia Showtime on 8 October 1949.

Andrews had a major revival of her film career in 2000s in family films such as The Princess Diaries, its sequel The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and the Shrek animated films.

In 2003 Andrews revisited her first Broadway success, this time as a stage director, with a revival of The Boy Friend at the Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, New York.

Andrews is also an author of children's books, and in 2008 published an autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years.

In the 2000 New Year's Millennium Honours List, Andrews was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to the performing arts. She also appears at #59 on the 2002 List of "100 Greatest Britons" sponsored by the BBC and chosen by the public.

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Oct.1: Herb Fame of "Peaches & Herb" is 68 today.

Herb Fame, born Herbert Feemster, was half of "America's Sweethearts of Soul," since its creation in 1966, while six consecutive women have filled the role of "Peaches."  The orginal, Francine "Peaches" Hurd Barker, died August 13, 2005.

Herb, who was born in Washington, D.C., sang in church and neighborhood groups as a child. After graduation from high school, he worked in a local record store where he met record producer Van McCoy and was signed to Columbia subsidiary Date Records. Francine "Peaches" using the stage name Francine Day, started a singing trio initially dubbed The Darlettes and later renamed The Sweet Things.  McCoy thought teaming up Herb and Francine might work, and the resulting record, "We're in This Thing Together," went nowhere for months until December 1966, when a St. Louis disc jockey broadcast the single's B-side, a revival of the 1934 hit "Let's Fall in Love."

The new duo, christened "Peaches & Herb," had a string of successful singles and albums over the next two years such as "Let's Fall in Love," "Close Your Eyes," "For Your Love," and "Love Is Strange."

Despite their success and a media image as the "Sweethearts of Soul," Barker chose to semi-retire from the duo after two years because of the rigors of touring. Marlene Mack (Marlene Jenkins), who had sung on the Jaynetts' hit "Sally Go 'Round the Roses" and had recorded as Marlina Mars, replaced Barker on stage, but Barker remained on all of the duo's recordings. The semi-retired "Peaches" also worked as a solo artist using her married name, Francine Barker.

Fame decided to re-enter the music business in 1976. In his search for a new "Peaches," Herb asked Van McCoy, who suggested Linda Greene. This led to the most successful of the "Peaches & Herb" duo.

Fame and Greene recorded seven albums altogether. Their first album, Peaches & Herb, was recorded for MCA Records and produced by Van McCoy, but it generated only one charted hit, "We're Still Together."

Peaches & Herb then released 2 Hot, which went gold. Its first single was "Shake Your Groove Thing"' which went gold and peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1979. The follow-up single, was the triple platinum hit "Reunited." This song, evoking the 1960s Peaches & Herb hit "United," reached #1 on both the Hot 100 and the Billboard R&B chart.

"Reunited" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1980.

(Follow links below to view You Tube Videos:)

-- "Close Your Eyes" (with Francine "Peaches" Hurd Barker) 

-- "Reunited"  (with Linda Greene)

-- "Shake Your Groove Thing" (with Linda Greene)

  

Fame returned to law enforcement and joined the US Marshals Service in 1986 as a deputized court security officer at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Greene, together with her husband Stephen Tavani, went on to release three gospel albums and start the charity WOW (Winning Our World).

Fame again revived Peaches & Herb in 1990. For the fourth "Peaches" he chose Patrice Hawthorne, fresh from television exposure on the Natalie Cole-hosted talent show "Big Break." The duo appeared infrequently in concerts, and did not release any recordings. Hawthorne remains a Philadelphia bandleader of her own orchestra, CTO Soho.

A fifth "Peaches," Wanda Makle, subsequently performed with Fame in weekend appearances, and in 2008 they were reported to be planning a recording together. Those plans dissolved, and instead Makle was ultimately dropped in favor of the sixth "Peaches," Meritxell Negre from Barcelona, Spain.

Negre, who was introduced to Fame by known producer Bill Davis, is the first-ever non-black "Peaches" and second recording artist to co-record a Peaches and Herb album. Fame and Negre recorded "Colors of Love," the first album from Peaches & Herb since 1983, making her only the third recording artist to co-record a Peaches & Herb album.

 

Oct. 1: Barbara Parritt of The Toys ("A Lover's Concerto"), is 65 today.

The Toys were an American pop girl group from Jamaica, New York, formed in 1961 and disbanded in 1968.

In addition to Barbara Parritt, (who was born in Wilmington, North Carolina), the trio consisted of  Barbara Harris from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and who sang lead most of the time, and June Montiero from Queens, New York.

The Toys were discovered at a talent show by manager Vince Marc, who introduced them to songwriters Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell. Linzer and Randell wrote most of their songs, including their U.S. #2 hit single "A Lover's Concerto," which exceeded two million copies sold worldwide earning the group a gold record in 1965.

In 1967 The Toys changed labels and producers, but made the charts only one more time with a cover version of "Sealed with a Kiss" before breaking up.

(Follow links below to view You Tube Videos:)

-- "A Lover's Concerto"

-- "Attack!" 

 

The Toys appeared on most of the major TV rock programs, including Shindig!, Hullabaloo, and American Bandstand. They also had a cameo role in the 1967 beach movie It's a Bikini World where they ang their minor hit, "Attack."

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