May 3: "Crooner," Bing Crosby was born on this date in 1903...

... he died on October 14, 1977.


Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington, in a house his father built. His trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation.

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Did you know?
In 1910, six-year-old Harry Crosby was a fan of a feature in The Sunday edition of the Spokesman-Review called "The Bingville Bugle. Written by humorist Newton Newkirk, The Bingville Bugle was a parody of a hillbilly newsletter filled with gossipy tidbits, minstrel quips, creative spelling, and mock ads. A 15-year-old neighbor, Valentine Hobart, shared Crosby's enthusiasm for "The Bugle" and noting Crosby's laugh, took a liking to him and called him "Bingo from Bingville." Eventually the last vowel was dropped and the nickname stuck.

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In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's "Auditorium," where he witnessed some of the finest acts of the day, including Al Jolson, who held Crosby spellbound with his ad libbing and spoofs of Hawaiian songs.

By 1925, Crosby had formed a vocal duo with partner Al Rinker. Paul Whiteman,who was at that time America's most famous bandleader hired them for $150 a week. Their first recording was "I've Got The Girl," with Don Clark's Orchestra.

Whiteman added a third member to the group. The threesome, now including pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris, were dubbed "The Rhythm Boys." They joined the Whiteman touring act, performing and recording with musicians Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, and Eddie Lang and Hoagy Carmichael.
Crosby soon became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys, and in 1928 had his first number one hit with the Whiteman orchestra, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Ol' Man River."

However, Crosby's reported taste for alcohol and his growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman led to the Rhythm Boys quitting to join the Gus Arnheim Orchestra. During his time with Arnheim, the other two Rhythm Boys were increasingly pushed to the background as the emphasis was on Crosby. Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby's subsequent hits including "At Your Command," "I Surrender Dear," and "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams. But the members of the band had a falling out and left, leading to Crosby's solo career.

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On September 2, 1931, Crosby made his solo radio debut. By the end of the year, he'd signed with both Brunswick Records and CBS Radio. Doing a weekly 15 minute radio broadcast, Crosby quickly became a huge hit. His songs "Out of Nowhere," "Just One More Chance," "At Your Command" and "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)" were all among the best selling songs of 1931.

Crosby soon became the leading singer in America. Ten of the top 50 songs for 1931 featured Crosby, either solo or with others. A so-called "Battle of the Baritones" with singing star Russ Columbo proved short-lived, replaced with the slogan "Bing Was King."

Crosby signed a long-term deal with Jack Kapp's new record company Decca, and starred in his first full-length feature, 1932's The Big Broadcast, the first of 55 films in which he received top billing. He would appear in 79 pictures. Some of his popular films were a series of "Road" pictures with Bob Hope

Around this time Crosby co-starred on radio with The Carl Fenton Orchestra on a popular CBS radio show. By 1936, he'd replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman, as the host of NBC's Kraft Music Hall, the weekly radio program where he remained for the next ten years. "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)," which also showcased one of his then-trademark whistling interludes, became his theme song and signature tune.

Crosby's much-imitated style helped take popular singing beyond the kind of "belting" associated with performers like Al Jolson, who had to reach the back seats in New York theatres without microphones. As Henry Pleasants noted in The Great American Popular Singers, something new had entered American music, a style that might be called "singing in American," with conversational ease. This new sound led to the term "crooner."

Crosby's early career coincided with technical recording innovations; this allowed him to develop a laid-back, intimate singing style that influenced many of the popular male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin.

Yank magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive." Also in 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.

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Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way, and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's the next year, becoming the first of four actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character.   

In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award. Crosby is one of the 22 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Following his recovery from a life-threatening fungal infection of his right lung in 1974, Crosby emerged from semi-retirement to produce multiple albums and concert tours. In March 1977, after videotaping a concert for CBS to commemorate his 50th anniversary in show business, Crosby backed off the stage and fell into an orchestra pit, rupturing a disc in his back and requiring a month in the hospital.

In September, Crosby began a concert tour of England where he recorded his final album, Seasons, and his final TV Christmas special. 

His last concert was in The Brighton Centre four days before his death, At the conclusion of his work in England, Crosby flew to Spain to hunt and play golf. On October 14, Crosby died suddenly from a massive heart attack after a round of 18 holes of golf near Madrid. It is widely written that his last words were "That was a great game of golf, fellas."

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May 3: The Godfather of Soul,James Brown was born on this date in 1933...

 

... he was 73 years old when he passed away on December 25, 2006 from congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia.

Besides "The Godfather of Soul,"  James Joseph Brown was recognized by numerous titles, including Soul Brother Number One, Sex Machine, Mr. Dynamite, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business, The King of Funk, Minister of The New New Super Heavy Funk, Mr. Please Please Please Please Himself, I Feel Good, and foremost The Godfather of Soul. In the song "Sweet Soul Music" by Arthur Conley, he is also described as the King of Soul.

As a prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader and record producer, he was a seminal force in the evolution of gospel and rhythm and blues into soul and funk. He left his mark on numerous other musical genres, including rock, jazz, reggae, disco, dance and electronic music, afro-beat, and hip-hop music.

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Brown started singing in gospel groups and worked his way on up. He has been recognized as one of the most influential performers in the 20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and feverish dancing. He was also called "the hardest-working man in show business."

A prolific singer, songwriter, dancer and bandleader, Brown was a pivotal force in the music industry, leaving his mark on numerous artists. Even as his own career declined during the height of the golden age of hip hop, Brown's work found new life in the form of digital sampling; he would go on to become the most sampled artist in the history of the genre.

Brown began his professional music career in 1956 and rose to fame during the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and string of smash hits. In spite of various personal problems and setbacks he continued to score hits in every decade through the 1980s.

Born into poverty in the South, he ran afoul of the law by the late '40s on an armed robbery conviction. With the help of singer Bobby Byrd's family, Brown gained parole and started a gospel group with Byrd, changing their focus to R&B as the rock revolution gained steam.

The Flames, as the Georgian group was known in the mid-'50s, signed had a huge R&B hit right off the bat with the wrenching, churchy ballad "Please, Please, Please." By that point, the Flames had become James Brown & the Famous Flames.

All of Brown's singles over the next two years flopped, as he sought to establish his own style, He was on the verge of being dropped by his record label in late 1958 when his perseverance finally paid off, as "Try Me" became a number one R&B hit, and several follow-ups established him as a regular visitor to the R&B charts.

Brown's style of R&B got harder as the '60s began; he added more complex, Latin- and jazz-influenced rhythms on hits like "Good Good Lovin'," "I'll Go Crazy," "Think," and "Night Train." He truly started to become a phenomenon with the release of Live at the Apollo in 1963. The album reached number two on the album charts, an unprecedented feat for a hardcore R&B LP.

Brown's new era had truly begun, however, with "Out of Sight," which topped the R&B charts and made the pop Top 40. "Out of Sight" wasn't called funk when it came out, but it had most of the essential ingredients. These were amplified and perfected on 1965's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," a monster that finally broke Brown to the white audience, reaching the Top Ten. The even more adventurous follow-up, "I Got You (I Feel Good)," did even better, making number three.

These hits kicked off Brown's period of greatest commercial success and public visibility. From 1965 to the end of the decade, he was rarely off the R&B charts, often on the pop listings, and all over the concert circuit and national television.

By the mid-'70s, Brown was beginning to burn out artistically. He seemed out of ideas, was being out-gunned on the charts by disco, and by the '80s, he didn't have a label. With the explosion of rap, however, which frequently sampled vintage J.B.'s records, Brown became hipper than ever. He collaborated with Afrika Bambaataa on the critical smash single "Unity" and reentered the Top Ten in 1986 with "Living in America."

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May 3: Frankie Valli of the Four Season is 77 years-old today.

Born Francis Stephen Castelluccio, in Newark, New Jersey, Frankie Valli is known for his unusually powerful falsetto singing voice. Valli, along with Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, and Bob Gaudio - the original members of The Four Seasons -were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

Valli scored 29 Top 40 hits with The 4 Seasons, one Top 40 hit under The 4 Seasons' alias 'The Wonder Who?', and nine Top 40 hits as a solo artist. As a member of The 4 Seasons, Valli's number one hits included "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Rag Doll" and "December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)."

As a solo artist, Valli scored number one hits with the songs "My Eyes Adored You" and "Grease." Valli's recording of the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" reached number two in 1967. "You're Ready Now," a Valli solo recording from 1966, became a surprise hit in Great Britain as part of the Northern soul scene and hit number eleven on the British pop charts in December 1970.

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Frankie Valli was inspired to take up a singing career at the age of seven after his mother took him to see Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theater in New York City. He took his stage name - eventually settling on a different spelling from "Texas" Jean Valley. He worked as a barber until he could make a living as a singer.

Valli began his professional singing career in 1951 with the Variety Trio (Nickie DeVito, Tommy DeVito and Nick Macioci). After hearing Valli sing, the group offered him a guest spot when the group performed. In late 1952, the Variety Trio disbanded and Valli, along with Tommy DeVito, became part of the house band at The Strand in New Brunswick, New Jersey with Valli playing bass and singing.

He cut his first single, "My Mother's Eyes," in 1953 as "Frankie Valley." Around this time, Valli and Tommy DeVito left the house band at The Strand and formed The Variatones with Hank Majewski, Frank Cattone and Billy Thompson. In 1956, as part of an audition backing a female singer, the group impressed New York record man Peter Paul, who had them auditioning at RCA Victor a week later.

Renamed The Four Lovers, the group recorded several singles and one album's worth of tracks. They had a minor hit with "You're the Apple of My Eye" in 1956.
Nickie DeVito and Hank Majewski left in 1958 to be replaced by Nick Macioci (now Nick Massi) and Hugh Garrity. Massi was in and out of the group, and, occasionally Charles Calello joined on accordion. The group continued to perform until 1959, when Bob Gaudio became a member. After a few more changes, the group was renamed "The 4 Seasons" in 1960.

As the lead singer of The Four Seasons, he had a string of hits beginning with the number one hit "Sherry" in 1962. During the 1960s, Gaudio and his then songwriting partner, producer Bob Crewe worked with Valli to craft solo recordings with varying degrees of success.

Valli was the first to record the Gaudio-Crewe composition "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)," a performance that was copied nearly note for note when recorded by The Walker Brothers, an American group based in England. The Walker Brothers version was a huge success. Valli continued to record solo performances and finally reached major success with the release of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." Though it only reached number two in the charts, the song itself was widely recorded by many other artists.

Valli's debut solo album was a gathering together of various single releases and a few new recordings. Prior to the release of Valli's second solo album, a single was released in July 1967 with the A-side "I Make A Fool Of Myself," a record that reached number 18. 'Timeless,' Valli's second solo album release was more coherent and Valli took more time in recording it. 'Timeless' contains one Top 40 hit, "To Give (The Reason I Live)."

Valli ended the 1960s with a string of recordings that were included in the Valli/4 Seasons album 'Half & Half' or released as various singles. The only hit to emerge at this time was the recording of "The Girl I'll Never Know (Angels Never Fly This Low)," reaching number 52.

In 1975, Valli's single "My Eyes Adored You" hit number 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. In the same year, he also had a number 6 Billboard hit with the disco-laden "Swearin' To God."
In 1976, Valli covered the Beatles song "A Day in the Life" for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II.

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In 1978, Valli sang the theme song for the film version of the stage play, Grease, a song written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, which became a number 1 hit. He had two further chart successes the following year, "Save Me, Save Me" in November 1978, which entered the Billboard Easy Listening chart, and "Fancy Dancer" in January 1979, which entered the pop charts.

Valli suffered from otosclerosis in the 1970s, forcing him to "sing from memory" in the latter part of the decade. Surgery restored most of his hearing by 1980.

In 1992, a new Four Seasons album was released entitled Hope and Glory. In October of 2007, Valli released Romancing the 60s, an album containing covers of his favorite songs from the 1960s, two of which he had previously recorded. Those songs were "Sunny" and "Any Day Now." In October 2010, a duet version of "The Biggest Part of Me" by Frankie Valli and Juice Newton was released on Newton's album Duets: Friends & Memories.


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May 2: " Legendary, trailblazing guitarist, Link Wray ( "Rumble") was born on this date n 1929...

... he died on November 5, 2005.


Frederick Lincoln"Link" Wray, Jr. was noted for pioneering a new sound for electric guitars, as exemplified in his hit 1958 instrumental "Rumble," by Link Wray and his Ray Men, which pioneered an overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound, and also for having "invented the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarist," "and in doing so fathering," or making possible, "punk and heavy rock."

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Did you know?
Part Shawnee Indian, Wray frequently spoke of his ancestry in performances and interviews. Three of the songs he performed bear the names of American Indian tribes: "Shawnee," "Apache," and "Comanche."

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Wray was born in Dunn, North Carolina. He first heard slide guitar at age eight from a traveling carnival worker nicknamed "Hambone."

Wray served in the US Army and was a veteran of the Korean War, where he contracted tuberculosis that ultimately cost him a lung. His doctors told him that he would never sing again, so Link concentrated on his heavy guitar work. Despite this, on his rare vocal numbers he displays a strong voice and a broad range.

After discharge from the Army, Wray and his brothers Doug and Vernon Wray, with friends Shorty Horton and Dixie Neal, formed Lucky Wray and the Lazy Pine Wranglers, later known as Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands.

They had been playing country music and Western swing for several years when they took a gig as the house band on the daily live TV show Milt Grant's House Party, a Washington, D.C. version of American Bandstand. The band made their first recordings in 1956 as Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands for Starday Records.

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For the TV show, they also backed many performers, from Fats Domino to Ricky Nelson. In 1958, at a live gig of the D.C.-based Milt Grant's House Party, attempting—at the urging of the local crowd—to work up a cover sound-alike for The Diamonds' hit, "The Stroll," they came up with an eleven and one half bar blues which they first called "Oddball." The song was an instant hit with the live audience, which demanded four repeats that night.

When the song came to the attention of record producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records, (who hated it, particularly after Wray poked holes in his amplifier's speakers to make the recording sound more like the live version.) While searching for a title that would hit home with radio listeners, Bleyer sought the advice of Phil Everly, who listened and suggested that it be called "Rumble," as it had a rough attitude that reminded him of a street gang.

The stalking, menacing sound of "Rumble" (and its title) led to a ban on several radio stations, a rare feat for a song with no lyrics, on the grounds that it glorified juvenile delinquency. Nevertheless it became a huge hit in the U.S. and the U.K. where it has been cited as an influence on The Kinks, The Who, and Jimmy Page. Pete Townshend once said, "He is the king; if it hadn't been for Link Wray and 'Rumble,' I would have never picked up a guitar."

The band had several more hard-rocking instrumental hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Rawhide," "Ace of Spades," and "Jack the Ripper," the latter named after a "dirty boogie" dance popular in Baltimore at the time. The dirty boogie dance was among the several dance crazes featured in the 1988 film Hairspray.

After his initial hits, Wray's career had periods of retirement followed by renewed popularity, particularly in Europe. He toured and recorded two albums with retro-rockabilly artist Robert Gordon in the late 1970s.

The 1980s to the present day saw a large number of reissues as well as new material. One member of his band in the 1980s, drummer Anton Fig, later became drummer in the CBS Orchestra on the David Letterman show. He continued to tour up until four months before he died.

His music has been featured in numerous films, including Pulp Fiction, Desperado, Independence Day, Twelve Monkeys, The Warriors, This Boy's Life, Blow, Johnny Suede, The Shadow, Breathless, Roadracers, and Pink Flamingos.

Wray moved to Denmark in the 1980s after meeting and marrying Olive, a Danish student who had been studying Native American culture. He lived his last years with Olive on a Danish island, touring frequently until he died of heart failure at 76 on November 5, 2005 at his home in Copenhagen.

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In 2003, Link Wray was ranked at number sixty-seven in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the Hundred Greatest Guitarists of all time, but has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is, however, a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

A documentary film on Link's life and career titled Be Wild Not Evil: The Link Wray Story is currently in production.

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May 2: Singer Engelbert Humperdinck is 75 years-old today.

Born Arnold George Dorsey, Engelbert Humperdinck's biggest hits were "Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)" and "After the Lovin'" as well as "The Last Waltz" ("The Last Waltz with You").

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Dorsey was born in Madras, India. His father was a British Army officer. His family moved to Leicester, England, when he was 10, and a year later he showed an interest in music and began learning the saxophone.

He started work as an apprentice engineer and by the early 1950s he was playing the instrument in nightclubs, but he is believed not to have tried singing until he was 17 and friends coaxed him into entering a pub contest. His impression of Jerry Lewis prompted friends to begin calling him "Gerry Dorsey," a name he worked under for almost a decade.

Though Humperdinck's music career was interrupted by his national service in the British Army Royal Corps of Signals during the middle 1950s, he got his first chance to record in 1958 with Decca after his discharge. His first single, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," was not a hit.

In 1965, Humperdinck teamed with his former roommate, Gordon Mills, who had become a music impresario and the manager of Tom Jones. Aware that Humperdinck had been struggling for several years to become successful in the music industry, Mills suggested a name-change to Engelbert Humperdinck, borrowed from the 19th-century composer of such operas as Hansel and Gretel. Mills also arranged a new deal for him with Decca Records.

Humperdinck enjoyed first real success during July 1966 in Belgium, where he and four others represented England in the annual Knokke song contest. Humperdinck appeared on the Belgian charts with "Dommage, Dommage" and an early music video was filmed, with him in the harbour of Zeebrugge.

In early 1967 Humperdinck's version of "Release Me," done in a smooth ballad style with a full chorus joining him on the third chorus, scored the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic and scored number one in Britain, keeping The Beatles' adventurous "Strawberry Fields Forever" from entering the top slot in the UK. "Release Me" spent 56 weeks in the Top 50 in a single chart run.

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With his easygoing style and  elegant good looks, the majority of his fans were women.  "Release Me" was succeeded by two more hit ballads, "There Goes My Everything" and "The Last Waltz." By the end of the 1960s, Humperdinck's roster of songs included "Am I That Easy to Forget," "A Man Without Love," "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize," "The Way It Used To Be," "I'm A Better Man," and "Winter World of Love."

He also recorded a number of successful albums such as Release Me, The Last Waltz, A Man Without Love, and Engelbert Humperdinck. However, The Engelbert Humperdinck Show, flopped and was cancelled after six months.

By the start of the 1970s, Humperdinck had  a number of signature songs emerge; "We Made It Happen," "Sweetheart," "Another Time, Another Place," and "Too Beautiful To Last."

Humperdinck concentrated on selling albums and on live performances, developing lavish stage presentations that made him a natural for Las Vegas and similar venues.

In 1976, Humperdinck recorded "After the Lovin'," a ballad released by CBS subsidiary Epic. The song, a Top-10 hit in the U.S., was nominated for a Grammy Award. It was certified Gold, and won the "most played juke box record of the year" award.

The album of the same name reached the Top-20 on the US charts, and was a Double Platinum hit for the singer. Humperdinck followed with a series of albums recorded by for Epic, including This Moment In Time - the title song topped the US adult contemporary charts - and two Christmas albums.

Humperdinck began gaining more creative freedom, and his albums started to include  a variety of songs in addition to his traditional ballads. But he kept romance at the core of his music regardless, and his fans still tagged him as "the King of Romance," even as of April 2010.

By the 1980s, approaching his fiftieth birthday, Humperdinck continued recording albums regularly and performing as many as 200 concerts a year. He won a Golden Globe Award as entertainer of the year.


In 1989 he recorded the album Star Of Bethlehem, released as Ich Denk An Dich in Germany. All the songs on the album were written by Dieter Bohlen, and some were written with Barry Mason. Star Of Bethlehem (Ich Denk An Dich) contained the singles "Red Roses For My Lady," "I Wanna Rock You In My Wildest Dreams," and a version of Dieter Bohlen's first hit, from the album Modern Talking, "You're My Heart, You're My Soul."

Humperdinck—who changed his name legally to his stage name at the height of his career —hit the top five British album charts in 2000 with Engelbert At His Very Best, and returned to the top five four years later.

In 2003, Humperdinck collaborated with Grammy Award-Winning artist-producer Art Greenhaw to record the roots gospel album Always Hear the Harmony: The Gospel Sessions. Joining Humperdinck on the album were The Light Crust Doughboys, The Jordanaires and the Blackwood Brothers Quartet. The critically acclaimed album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album of the Year.

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May 2: Leslie Gore "It's My Party, " Judy's Turn to Cry" - is 65 today.

Born Lesley Sue Goldstein, in New York City, and raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, Leslie Gore was a junior at the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood when "It's My Party" became a #1 hit. It was later nominated for a Grammy Award for rock and roll recording. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

Gore's first hit was followed by many others, including "Judy's Turn to Cry" – the sequel to "It's My Party" – (U.S. #5), "She's a Fool," "You Don't Own Me" which held at #2 for four weeks behind The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "That's the Way Boys Are" (U.S. #12), "Maybe I Know" (U.S. #14/UK #20), "The Look of Love" (U.S. #27) and Grammy nominated for Contemporary Rock and Roll female vocal performance "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" (U.S. #13, from the 1965 movie "Ski Party.")

Gore's record producer was Quincy Jones, who would later become one of the most famous producers in American music. "You Don't Own Me" also sold a million copies, and was awarded gold disc status.

Instead of accepting the television and movie contracts offered to her, Gore chose to attend Sarah Lawrence College in New York. This limited her public career to weekends and summer vacations. Still, throughout the mid 1960s Gore continued to be one of the most popular female singers in the United States and Canada.

Gore was given first shot at recording "A Groovy Kind of Love," but Shelby Singleton, a producer for Smash Records, a Mercury subsidiary, recommended that she not record a song with the word "groovy" in it. The Mindbenders went on to record the song, and it went to #2 on the Billboard charts. Gore also released "Wedding Bell Blues" as a single in 1969, but her version flopped while the 5th Dimension's spent three weeks at #1.

By the late 1960s, her popularity had decreased with the
advent of harder-edged psychedelic music. Her last major hit was the Bob Crewe-produced "California Nights" (U.S. #16), which she performed on both the January 19 and January 25, 1967, episodes of the Batman TV series, in which she guest-starred as Pussycat, one of Catwoman's minions.

Afterwards, she maintained a lower profile in the music industry, performing at concerts and in cabarets. She also kept busy writing songs, including composing songs for the soundtrack of the 1980 film Fame, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here on My Own," written with her brother Michael. The song was a Top 20 hit for Irene Cara.

Gore played concerts and appeared on television throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 2005, she recorded her first album of new material since 1976 (Love Me By Name) — Ever Since — with producer/songwriter Blake Morgan for Engine Company Records (a small independent label).

 In addition to extensive national radio coverage and critical acclaim from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine, and other national press, three songs from Ever Since have been used in television shows and films: "Better Angels," in CSI: Miami's fourth season premiere episode, "Words We Don't Say," in an episode of The L Word, and
"It's Gone," in the Jeff Lipsky-directed film Flannel Pajamas.

In 2009, "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" was featured in the film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" was also used in The Simpsons episode "Marge on the Lam," for the Butlins Company TV advertisements in 2008 and for the Target Australia homewares TV advertisement in 2010.

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Gore announced in 2005 that she is a lesbian. Beginning in 2004, Gore hosted the PBS television series In the Life, which focused on LGBT issues. Gore currently lives in Manhattan with her partner of more than 28 years.

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