... he was 101 years old when he died from aheart attack on September 22, 1989.
Born Israel Baline in Tyumen, Russian Empire,Berlinis considered one of the greatest songwriters in history. His 100 plus years saw him rise from a poor Russian shtetl - arriving in the US when he was 5- to seeing his name in lights on Broadway and movie palaces throughout America.He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits. You could say he was "a legend" before he turned thirty.
Berlin became his own song publisher and in 1921 he built his own Broadway theatre, the Music Box. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Easter Parade," "Blue Skies," "Always," "White Christmas," "Happy Holiday," "This is the Army, Mr. Jones," and "There's No Business Like Show Business."
His Broadway musical and 1942 film, This is the Army, with Ronald Reagan, had Kate Smith singing Berlin's "God Bless America" which was first performed in 1938.. His songs have reached the top of the charts 25 times and have been re-recorded countless times by singers including Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney, Diana Ross, Bing Crosby, Rita Reys, Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray, Al Jolson, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald.
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While some considered him no more than a "Tin Pan Alley" hack, fellow composer George Gershwin called him "the greatest songwriter that has ever lived." Likewise,composer Jerome Kern said"Irving Berlin has no place in American music - he is American music."
Eric Victor Burdon is best known as a founding member and lead vocalist of The Animals, and the funk rock band War.
He was ranked 57th in Rolling Stone's list - The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
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The Animals - originally known as the Alan Price Combo - were formed in 1958 in Newcastle, England. They became the Animals in 1962 shortly after Burdon joined the band. They combined electric blues with rock and were one of the top bands during the "British Invasion" of the U.S.
Burdon's powerful voice can be heard in The Animals singles "The House of the Rising Sun," "Sky Pilot," "Monterey," "I'm Crying," "Boom Boom," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," "Bring It On Home to Me," "Baby Let Me Take You Home," "It's My Life," "We Gotta Get out of This Place," "Don't Bring Me Down," and "See See Rider."
By late 1966 the other original members, including keyboardist Alan Price, had left. Burdon and drummer Barry Jenkins reformed the group as Eric Burdon and The Animals. This more psychedelic incarnation featured future Family member John Weider and was sometimes called Eric Burdon and the New Animals. Keyboardist Zoot Money joined during 1968 until they split up in 1969.
This group's hits included the ballad "San Franciscan Nights," the grunge–heavy metal-pioneering "When I Was Young," "Monterey," the anti-Vietnam anthem "Sky Pilot" and the progressive cover of "Ring of Fire."
During 1969, while living in San Francisco, Burdon joined forces with Californian funk rock band War. The resulting album was entitled Eric Burdon Declares "War" which produced the singles "Spill the Wine" and "Tobacco Road."
A two-disc set entitled The Black-Man's Burdon, was released later in September 1970. The singles from the double album, "Paint It, Black" and "They Can't Take Away Our Music," had moderate success during 1971. During this time Burdon collapsed on the stage during a concert, caused by an asthma attack, and War continued the tour without him.
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In 1976 a compilation album, Love Is All Around, was released by ABC Records which had recordings of Eric Burdon with War and a live version of "Paint it Black" and a jam session called "A Day In The Life."
Eric Burdon and War were reunited for the first time in 37 years, to perform a concert at the Royal Albert Hall London on 21 April 2008. The concert coincided with a major reissue campaign by Rhino Records (UK), who released all the War albums including Eric Burdon Declares "War" and The Black-Man's Burdon.
Burdon also began a solo career in 1971 with The Eric Burdon Band, continuing with a hard rock–heavy metal–funk style. In August 1971 he recorded the album Guilty! which featured the blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon, and also Ike White of the San Quentin Prison Band.
At the end of 1974 the band released the album Sun Secrets and this was followed by the album Stop in 1975. Burdon moved to Germany in 1977 and recorded the album Survivor.
In 1975 the original Animals reunited and recorded an album called Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted, released in 1977 and was largely overlooked. In May 1983 The Animals reunited with their original lineup and the album Ark was released in June 1983, along with the singles "The Night" and "Love Is For All Time."
A world tour followed and the concert at Wembley Arena, London, recorded on December 31, 1983 was released in 1984 as Rip It To Shreds. Their concert at the Royal Oak Theatre in April 1984 was released in 2008 entitled Last Live Show. Added to the band were Zoot Money, Nippy Noya, Steve Gregory and Steve Grant. The original Animals broke up for the last time at the end of 1984.
Although the band Burdon formed in the late '60s was sometimes called Eric Burdon and The New Animals, it wasn't until 1998 that the name Eric Burdon and The New Animals was officially adopted. The 1998 band had bassist Dave Meros, guitarist Dean Restum , drummer Aynsley Dunbar and keyboard guitarist Neal Morse.
They recorded Live At The Coach House on October 17, 1998, released on video and DVD in December that year. In 1999 they released The Official Live Bootleg #2 and in August 2000 The Official Live Bootleg 2000, with Martin Gerschwitz on keyboards.
In June 2003, he formed another Eric Burdon and The Animals, with keyboardist Martin Gerschwitz, bassist Dave Meros, guitarist Dean Restum, and drummer Bernie Pershey. They disbanded in 2005. During 2008 Burdon toured again as Eric Burdon and The Animals with a variable lineup of backing musicians.
In December 2008, Burdon lost a three-year legal battle to win the name "The Animals" in the UK. Drummer John Steel now owns the rights in the UK only.
Burdon still tours as Eric Burdon and the Animals, but is prevented from using the name "The Animals" in England while the case is under appeal. Steel was a member in its heyday and left before the band split in 1966. Steel later played in various reunion versions of the band with Burdon.
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In the late 70s, his house in California was burned down by his ex-wife Rosie Marks. Much of his archival material, including footage, records, lyrics, scripts, diaries and pictures were destroyed.
... he died on February 2, 1979 when he was 21 years-old. Born John Simon Ritchie in South East London, England, Sid Vicious was best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols. In 2006 he was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Sex Pistols.
His father was a guardsman at Buckingham Palace and a semi-professional trombone player on the London Jazz scene. Shortly after John's birth, he and his mother moved to the island of Ibiza, where they expected to be joined by John's father, who was supposed to support the family financially until he joined them. The money never arrived. His mother remarried, and they moved to Kent. John took his stepfather's surname and became John Beverley.
John was given the nickname "Sid Vicious" by John Lydon who became his bandmate known as Johnny Rotten. The name came from Lydon's pet hamster Sid after he bit Ritchie.
The two of them would often busk for money with Sid playing the tambourine; mostly they played Alice Cooper covers, and people gave them money to be quiet. Vicious began his musical career in 1976 as a member of The Flowers of Romance along with Palmolive (Paloma Romero,) Viv Albertine and former co-founding member of The Clash, Keith Levene (who later co-founded John Lydon's post-Pistols project Public Image Limited.) Vicious was considered for the position of lead singer for The Damned but failed to show up for the audition.
Before joining the band, Vicious had associations with The Bromley Contingent, the fashion avant garde that followed the Sex Pistols. Vicious was asked to join the group after Glen Matlock's departure in February 1977 due to his being present at every gig. Manager Malcolm McLaren once claimed "if Johnny Rotten is the voice of punk, then Vicious is the attitude."
McLaren also said in person and in a documentary that if he'd met Vicious before he had hired Rotten to be the singer, Vicious would have been the Sex Pistols front man, because he had the most charisma of anyone on that stage.
Vicious played his first gig with the Pistols on April 3, 1977 at the The Screen On The Green in London. His debut was filmed by Don Letts and appears in Punk Rock Movie. In November 1977, Vicious met American groupie Nancy Spungen who became his girlfriend.
Both the group and Vicious visibly deteriorated during their 1978 American tour. The Pistols broke up in San Francisco after their concert at the Winterland Ballroom on January 14, 1978.
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With Spungen acting as his "manager," Vicious embarked on a solo career during which he performed with musicians including Mick Jones of The Clash, original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, Rat Scabies of The Damned and the New York Dolls' Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, and Johnny Thunders. Vicious performed the majority of his performances at Max's Kansas City. His final performances as a solo musician took place at Max's.
Vicious was not considered a competent bass player, but he did try hard to learn to play. Supposedly, one night he played the first Ramones album nonstop, all night, then next morning, Sid could play the bass. By the time of the last Sex Pistols gig at the Winterland in San Francisco Sid was a reasonably competent bass player which is evident in film footage.
On the morning of October 12, 1978, Vicious claimed to have awoken from a drugged stupor to find Nancy Spungen dead on the bathroom floor of their room in the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, New York. She had suffered a single stab wound to her abdomen and appeared to have bled to death. The knife used had been bought by Vicious on 42nd Street and was identical to a collector's knife given to punk rock vocalist Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys by Dee Dee Ramone.
Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder. He said they had fought that night but gave conflicting versions of what happened next, saying, "I stabbed her, but I didn't mean to kill her. I loved her, but she treated me like shit," then saying that he did not remember and at one point arguing Spungen had fallen onto the knife.
On October 22, ten days after Spungen's death, Vicious attempted suicide by slitting his wrist and subsequently became a patient at Bellevue Hospital.
On February 1, 1979, a small group of people met at the New York apartment of his new girlfriend, Michele Robison, whom he had started dating the day he got out of Bellevue Hospital the previous October. Vicious was clean, having been on a detoxification methadone program detoxed from heroin during his time at Rikers Island.
However, at the dinner gathering, his mother - who was a registered addict herself - had heroin delivered, against the wishes of Sid's girlfriend. Vicious overdosed and was discovered dead late the next morning.
An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon, and heroin residue were discovered near the body. It was theorized that he had injected himself with an excess of the nearly 80%-pure heroin.
A few days after Vicious' cremation, his mother found an alleged suicide note in the pocket of his jacket:
We had a death pact, and I have to keep my half of the bargain. Please bury me next to my baby in my leather jacket, jeans and motorcycle boots. Goodbye.
Nancy was buried in a Jewish cemetery and Vicious, who was not Jewish, could not be buried with her. According to the book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Vicious' mother scattered his ashes over Nancy's grave.
Did you know? Hewson has been known as "Bono" since the late 1970s. During his youth, Bono and his friends were part of a street gang called "Lypton Village." The gang had a ritual of nickname-giving. Bono had several names: first, he was "Steinvic von Huyseman," then just "Huyseman," followed by "Houseman," "Bon Murray," "Bono Vox of O'Connell Street," and finally just "Bono." "Bono Vox" is an alteration of Bonavox, a Latin phrase which translates to "good voice."
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Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met the future members of U2, and, his future wife, Alison Stewart.
In September 1976, Bono, David Evans ("The Edge"), his brother Dik, and Adam Clayton responded to an advertisement on a bulletin board at Mount Temple posted by fellow student Larry Mullen Jr. to form a rock band. The band had occasional jam sessions in which they did covers of other bands. Tired of long guitar solos and hard rock, Bono wanted to play Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys songs. Unfortunately the band could not play covers very well, so they started writing their own songs.
The band went by the name "Feedback" for a few months, before changing to "The Hype" later on. After Dik Evans left the group to join another band. The remaining four officially changed the name from "The Hype" to "U2."
Initially Bono sang, played guitar, and wrote the band's songs. He said of his early guitar playing in a 1982 interview, "When we started out I was the guitar player, along with the Edge—except I couldn't play guitar. I still can't. I was such a lousy guitar player that one day they broke it to me that maybe I should sing instead.” On occasion he plays rhythm guitar and harmonica. (Since 2006, Bono has taken piano lessons from his children's piano teacher to improve his songwriting.)
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U2's sound and focus dramatically changed with their 1991 album, Achtung Baby. Bono writes almost all U2 lyrics, often using political, social, and religious themes. Over time, his lyrics became inspired more by personal experiences. Songs, including "I Will Follow," "Mofo," "Out of Control," "Lemon," and "Tomorrow," focus on the loss of his mother who died when he was 14.. Other songs focus on the theme of childhood vs. maturity, such as "Into the Heart," "Twilight," and "Stories for Boys."
During the band's Zoo TV Tour several of his stage personas were showcased; these included "The Fly," a stereotypical rock star, the "Mirror Ball Man," a parody of American televangelists, and "Mr. MacPhisto," a combination of a corrupted rock star and the Devil. Bono often allows fans to come on stage and perform songs with the band.
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Bono has won numerous awards with U2, including 22 Grammy awards and the 2003 Golden Globe award for best original song, "The Hands That Built America," for the film Gangs of New York. During the live broadcast of the ceremony, Bono called the award "really, really fucking brilliant!" In response, the Parents Television Council condemned Bono for his profanity and started a campaign for its members to file complaints with the FCC.
The FCC refused to fine NBC because the network did not receive advance notice of the consequences of broadcasting such profanity and the profanity in question was not used in its literal sexual meaning.
In 2002, he was listed as one of the 100 Greatest Britons in a poll conducted among the general public, even though he is Irish. Outside the band, he has collaborated and recorded with numerous artists. Among other causes and activities, Bono is also widely known for his activism concerning Africa, for which he co-founded DATA, EDUN, the ONE Campaign and Product Red.
He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, and was named as a Person of the Year by Time, among other awards and nominations.
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Bono and The Edge
U2 have sold more than 150 million records, placing them amongst the best-selling music artists of all-time. U2 first received Grammy Awards for The Joshua Tree in 1988, and have won 22 in total, from 34 nominations, more than any other band. These include Best Rock Duo or Group, Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Rock Album.
The British Phonographic Industry has awarded U2 seven BRIT Awards, five of these being for Best International Group. In Ireland, U2 have won 14 Meteor Awards since the awards began in 2001. Other awards include one AMA, four VMAs, ten Q Awards, two Juno Awards, three NME Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in early 2005.
In 2006, all four members of the band received ASCAP awards for writing the songs, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and "Vertigo."
The Joshua Tree ranks as one of the best-selling albums worldwide with sales of 25 million copies. Rolling Stone ranked U2 at number 22 in its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", while ranking Bono the 32nd greatest singer. (The Edge was ranked the 24th greatest guitarist.)
In 2010, eight of U2's songs appeared on Rolling Stone's updated list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time," with "One" ranking the highest at number 36. Five of the group's twelve studio albums were ranked on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"—The Joshua Tree placed the highest at number 26. ####
Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.
Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the U.S., all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide.
He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1992, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2009. Joel "retired" from recording pop music in 1993 but continues to tour.
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William Martin "Billy" Joel was born in The Bronx and raised in Hicksville, New York. His half-brother, Alexander Joel, who is an acclaimed classical conductor in Europe, currently chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig.
Joel's father was an accomplished classical pianist. Billy reluctantly began piano lessons at an early age, at his mother's insistence. Because he took part in music, rather than sports, was a source of teasing and bullying in his early years.
As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so that he would be able to defend himself. He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, winning twenty-two bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after having his nose broken in his twenty-fourth boxing match.
Joel attended Hicksville High School, but did not graduate. Due to playing at a piano bar, he was one English credit short of the graduation requirement; he overslept on the day of an important exam. "I told them, 'the hell with it. If I'm not going to Columbia University, I'm going to Columbia Records and you don't need a high school diploma over there'."
Columbia did, in fact, become the label that eventually signed him. (Also, in 1992, he submitted essays to the school board and was awarded his diploma at Hicksville High's annual graduation ceremony—25 years after he had left.)
After seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical career, and set about finding a local Long Island band to join. When he as 14 years old he found the Echoes, a group that specialized in British Invasion covers. The Echoes became a popular New York attraction, convincing him to leave high school to become a professional musician.
Joel began playing recording sessions with the Echoes in 1965, when he was 16 years old. Later, in 1965, the Echoes changed their name to the Emeralds and then to the Lost Souls.
In 1967, he left that band to join the Hassles, a Long Island band that had signed a contract with United Artists Records. Over the next year and a half, they released The Hassles in 1967, Hour of the Wolf in 1968, and four singles, all of which failed commercially.
Following The Hassles' demise in 1969, he formed the duo Attila with Hassles drummer Jon Small. Attila released their eponymous debut album in July 1970, and disbanded the following October. The reason for the group's break-up has been attributed to Joel's affair with Small's wife, Elizabeth, whom Joel eventually married.
Joel signed his first solo record contract with Artie Ripp's Family Productions, and subsequently recorded his first solo album Cold Spring Harbor. However, Ripp mastered and released the album at the wrong speed, resulting in Joel's voice sounding too high. In addition, the terms of Ripp's Family Productions contract also paid very little money to Joel.
Popular cuts such as "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now" were originally released on this album, although they did not gain much attention until released as live performances in 1981 on Songs in the Attic.
Cold Spring Harbor gained a second chance on the charts in 1984, when Columbia reissued the album after slowing it down to the correct speed. The album reached #158 in the US and #95 in the UK nearly a year later.
Joel played local clubs in New York in the fall of 1971 and moved out to Los Angeles early in 1972, adopting the stage name Bill Martin. While in California he did a six month gig in The Executive Room piano bar on Wilshire Boulevard. It was there he composed his signature hit "Piano Man" about the various patrons of the lounge.
Philadelphia radio station WMMR-FM started playing a tape of a new song of Joel's, "Captain Jack," taken from a live concert. It became an underground hit on the East Coast. Herb Gordon, an executive of Columbia Records, heard Joel's music and Joel signed a recording contract with Columbia in 1972. He returned to New York City in 1975.
Beginning in 1994, Joel toured extensively with Elton John on a series of "Face to Face" tours, making them the longest running and most successful concert tandem in pop music history.
In 2001, Joel released Fantasies & Delusions, a collection of classical piano pieces. All were composed by Joel and performed by Richard Joo. Joel often uses bits of these songs as interludes in live performances, and some of them are part of the score for the hit show Movin' Out. The album topped the classical charts at #1.
In 2005, Columbia released a box set, My Lives, which is largely a compilation of demos, b-sides, live/alternate versions and even a few Top 40 hits.
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Despite having never graduated from high school because of a missed exam, Joel has been presented with multiple honorary doctorates: • Doctor of Humane Letters from Fairfield University (1991) • Doctor of Music from Berklee College of Music (1993) Hofstra University (1997) • Doctor of Music from Southampton College (2000) • Doctor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University (2006)[53] • Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music (2008)
