Dec. 30: Comedienne & impersonator Tracey Ullman ("Miley Cyrus's 'Grammy," "Carla Bruni,") is 51 today.

Ullman was born Trace (no "Y at the end) Ullman in Slough, Buckinghamshire in the U.K.

When she was six, Ullman's father died of a heart attack while reading her a bedtime story. In an effort to cheer up her family, Tracey recounts putting on shows in her mother's bedroom, performing alongside her older sister, Patty. That first show was entitled The Patty Ullman Show. "I was a spin-off!" recalled Ullman. In her nightly performances she mimicked anyone and everyone, including neighbours, family members, friends, even celebrities.


At the age of 12, a headmaster saw Ullman's future potential, and recommended her to the Italia Conti Academy stage school. At the age of 16, Ullman began finding jobs as a dancer, and soon landed a role in Gigi in Berlin. After returning to England, she joined the "Second Generation" dance troupe. She also began appearing in variety shows.

This exposure led to her casting in numerous West End musicals, including Grease, and The Rocky Horror Show. Ullman was also cast in a play at London's Royal Court Theatre for an improvised play about club acts.

Entering the competition, Ullman created the character Beverly, a born-again Christian chanteuse. The performance was a smash hit and she won the "Best Newcomer Award," drawing interest from the BBC. They offered her the chance to star in her own show.

 In 1983, Ullman succeeded as a singer on the punk label Stiff Records, although her style was more comic romantic than punk. She had six songs in the UK Top 100 in less than two years.

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Her 1983 debut album, You Broke My Heart In 17 Places, featured her first hit single, "Breakaway," which featured Tracey using a hairbrush as a microphone; the international hit cover version of Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know" went to #2 in the UK, and #8 in the U.S. (MacColl sang backing vocals on Ullman's version.) It would later become the theme song to Ullman's later television series, Tracey Takes On....

Follow-up singles included a cover of Doris Day's "Move Over Darling," which reached #8 in the UK, and Madness' "My Girl," which Ullman changed to "My Guy's Mad At Me."


Ullman's songs were over-the-top, described as "retro before retro was cool," as a reviewer wrote in 2002. Her career received another boost when the video for "They Don't Know" featured a cameo from Paul McCartney. At the time Ullman was filming a minor role in McCartney's film Give My Regards To Broad Street.


Ullman released her second and last album, You Caught Me Out, in 1984. Her final hit, "Sunglasses," featured comedian Adrian Edmondson in its music video. During this time, she also appeared as a guest VJ on MTV in the U.S.

In her HBO stand-up special, Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed, Ullman recreated her music career, recounting how she entered the business, and why she left it.

Along with her stint in the music world, Ullman began working in television. Between 1981 and 1984 she starred in sketch comedies A Kick Up the Eighties and Three of a Kind for the BBC. In 1985, she donned a blond wig and took the role of a promiscuous gold digger named "Candice Valentine" on the ITV sitcom Girls On Top. She left after one season to give birth to her first child.


By then, U.S. television beckoned, and renowned television producer James L. Brooks came calling. The two had discussed working together previously, but it wasn't until 1987 that they created The Tracey Ullman Show. Ullman played a variety of characters, completely unrecognizable with the help of makeup, prosthetics, and padding. The show was the first commercial hit for then unknown Fox channel.

The Tracey Ullman Show earned four Emmys and introduced The Simpsons, which was featured in simple cartoon shorts. Several years after her show went off the air, she said jokingly in a late night television interview that she hoped to one day have a regular two-minute spot on The Simpsons. In 1991 Ullman had provided the voice of "Emily Winthrop," a British dog trainer on The Simpsons episode "Bart's Dog Gets an F."


Ullman returned to television in 1993, but this time in cable television. Two specials were created allowing Ullman to bring life to a host of new characters. Tracey Ullman: A Class Act the second, Tracey Ullman Takes On New York. Both specials drew praise and awards. HBO became interested in doing a Tracey Takes On ... series, and Ullman and her husband, Allan McKeown, set up production in Los Angeles in 1995.

Tracey returned to HBO in the summer of 2005, with her autobiographical one-woman stage show, Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed. The show garnered another Emmy nomination.


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Dec. 30: singer, actor, and jockey, Davy Jones Of The Monkees is 65 today.

David Thomas Jones was born in Manchester, England in 1945. After his mother died, his father sent him to live with jockey Basil Foster  as an apprentice. Foster recognized Jones' acting and singing ability, and encouraged him to pursue his acting career. When Foster  was approached by a friend who was a casting director, for a theatre on the West End of London, Basil told him, "I've got the kid."

As a teenager he appeared on British TV soap operas, including Coronation Street as Ena Sharples's grandson, Colin Lomax. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver! He played the role in London and on Broadway.

Somewhat ironically - maybe prophetically is a better word - he appeared with the Broadway cast of Oliver! on the Ed Sullivan Show, on the same night The Beatles made their first appearance. Jones says of that night, "I watched the Beatles from the side of the stage, I saw the girls going crazy, and I said to myself, this is it, I want a piece of that."

 

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Following his Ed Sullivan appearance, Ward Sylvester of Screen Gems, at the time, the television division of Columbia Pictures, signed Jones to a contract. A pair of American television appearances followed in episodes of Ben Casey and The Farmer's Daughter. He also recorded a single and album for Colpix Records, which charted but weren't huge hits.

From 1965 to 1971, Jones was a member of The Monkees, a pop-rock group formed expressly for a TV show of the same name. He was the only Monkee who had signed a deal with Screen Gems, the studio that produced the series. As a Monkee, Jones sang lead vocals on many of the group's songs, including "I Wanna Be Free" and "Daydream Believer."

After the show went off the air and the group disbanded, he continued to perform solo, while later joining with fellow-Monkee Micky Dolenz and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart as a short-lived group called Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart. He has also toured throughout the years with other members as various incarnations of the Monkees.

In 1978 he appeared with Micky Dolenz in Harry Nilsson's play The Point at the Mermaid Theatre in London. Jones continued acting and appeared in one episode of The Brady Bunch, two episodes of My Two Dads, and two episodes of Love, American Style.

He also appeared, in animated form, on an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Also, Jones made a cameo appearance as himself in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "SpongeBob vs. The Big One," and Boy Meets World.

In 1997 he guest-starred as himself on the TV Show Sabrina The Teenage Witch and sang "Daydream Believer" to Sabrina, played by Melissa Joan Hart.

In recent years, Jones performed with his former bandmates in reunion tours and appeared in several productions of Oliver!, this time as Fagin.

He continued to race horses with some success in his native England, while residing in Beavertown, Pennsylvania in the U.S.

In April 2006, Jones recorded the single "Your Personal Penguin," written by children's author Sandra Boynton, as a companion piece to her new board book of the same title.

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Dec. 30: Michael Nesmith of The Monkees is 68 years old today.

Perhaps best remembered as the member of the Monkees who usually wore a wool hat, Robert Michael Nesmith was a much more serious musician than many thought. The comparatively level-headed member of '60s teen sensation the Monkees,  Nesmith was the most proficient instrumentalist in the group and wrote their best songs, such as "Papa Gene's Blues," "You Told Me," "You Just May Be the One," and "Tapioca Tundra."

Nesmith, who was born in Houston Texas, had written many songs before even joining the group. One of his compositions, "Different Drum," was a hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys in 1968. He was also executive producer of the cult film Repo Man, and in 1981 Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for Video of the Year for his hour-long Elephant Parts.

After he left the Monkees, he became the only one from the group to develop a successful solo career. His dozen 1970s LPs were among the most groundbreaking country-rock recordings of the era.

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Throughout the 1970s and into the '80s, Nesmith continued to record occasionally, though his communications company Pacific Arts began taking up more of his time by the early '80s. Pacific Arts proved to be an important pioneer in the development of music video, the concept he had furthered in the rough-and-tumble pace of the Monkees' TV show.

Growing up in Texas, Nesmith listened to the blues and played saxophone as a youth. After spending two years in the Air Force, he became fascinated with folk music and learned to play the guitar. He moved to Memphis to play backup on recordings for Stax-Volt, and by the mid-1960s, he was in Los Angeles, and formed the folk-rock duo Mike and John with John London. He also recorded several singles as a solo act before auditioning to join the Monkees in 1965.

Almost immediately the Monkees became one of the biggest pop groups of the late '60s. By the end of 1966, the band had notched two number one singles ("Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer") with the first two Monkees LPs spending more than 30 weeks at number one during 1966-1967.

The TV show was a big hit as well, but the group's fabricated origins and subservience to songwriting teams and session musicians betrayed them in the eyes of the rock & roll community. Nesmith led the fight to have the Monkees play instruments on and write songs for their own albums. The band's record label Colgems reluctantly agreed, and on their 1967 album Headquarters the Monkees played their own instruments, wrote eight of the 14 selections, and co-produced the album.  Headquarters reached number one (and the Monkees appeared ready to finally enter the rock community with credentials.  

Nesmith recording his first solo album in 1968 entitled, Wichita Train Whistle Songs, which featured new arrangements of his best-known Monkees songs. He continued with the Monkees for one more year, but then left the band in 1969. Nesmith's first act independent of the Monkees was the formation of the First National Band, with John London on bass, John Ware on drums, and one of country music's best steel guitarists, Red Rhodes.

Nesmith and First Natonal Band

The First National Band signed to RCA Victor and released two albums in 1970, Magnetic South and Loose Salute. The single "Joanne" hit the pop Top 25, and "Silver Moon" also charted later in the year.

Nesmith added several members for 1971's Nevada Fighter, and credited it to the Second National Band. The title track skirted the bottom of the charts for several weeks, but Nesmith proved his pop savvy yet again by providing the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with their hit, "Some of Shelly's Blues." The following year, the National Band released Tantamount to Treason.

In 1977, Nesmith focused his efforts on the development of music video by creating a TV chart show called Popclips. When Warner bought the idea from him several years later, the company morphed it into MTV. During the '80s, Pacific Arts became the most important video publishing company in America, and Nesmith moved into film and TV production as well, winning the first video Grammy award in 1981 for Elephant Parts.

In 1969, Nesmith released Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma, which became his last solo album for more than 10 years. He returned to the music business in 1989, appearing with the Monkees once on stage during their reunion tour. Nesmith also released a compilation of rare solo tracks called The Newer Stuff for England's Awareness Records.

In 1992, Nesmith released his first album of new material in 13 years, Tropical Campfires. Four years later, he reunited with the Monkees again to record Justus, the first Monkees album since 1968 to feature all four original members.

Oh yeah; one other tidbit about Michael Nesmith. His grandmother invented the typing-correction fluid, "White Out." I suspect many of you have never heard of it.  

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Dec. 30: Del Shannon “Runaway,” “Hats off To Larry,” was born on this date in 1934…

… he died on February 8, 1990 when he was 55 years-old.

Born in Grand Rapids, MI, Del Shannon was one of the most original rockers of the early '60s. Although considered a teen idol, he favored brooding themes of abandonment, loss, and rejection. Del wrote most of his own songs, and was able to keep going strong for a year or two into the British Invasion. However, his commercial appeal for the most part, withered after the mid-'60s.

Born Charles Weedon Westover, Shannon happened upon a gripping series of minor chords while playing with his band in Battle Creek, MI. The chords would form the basis for his 1961 debut single, "Runaway," one of the greatest hits of the early '60s, with its unforgettable riffs, Shannon's amazing vocal range – including a trademark falsetto - and an unusual organ solo in the middle of the tune. It made number one, and the similar follow-up, "Hats Off to Larry," also made the Top Ten.

Shannon had intermittent minor hits over the next couple of years ("Little Town Flirt," and “Searching” were the biggest. Ironically, in light of the British Invasion on the shores of the U.S., Del continued to be very popular in England. On one of his European tours in 1963, he played some shows with the Beatles, who had just scored their first big British hits.

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Shannon, impressed by what he heard, would become the first American artist to cover a Beatles song when he recorded "From Me to You" as a single in 1963 – though it was only a minor hit for Del.

Shannon's songs shared some similarities with the British Invasion, and in 1965 Peter & Gordon would cover a Shannon composition, "I Go to Pieces," for a Top Ten hit.

Del himself, returned to the Top Ten with a late-1964 single, "Keep Searchin'." But after his single "Stranger in Town" released in 1965, he did not enter the Top 40 again for nearly 20 years. By the late '60s, Shannon was devoting much of his time to producing other artists.

Shannon was a perennially popular artist on the oldies circuit. An early '80s album produced by Tom Petty got him into the Top 40 again with a cover of "Sea of Love."

He was working on another comeback album with Jeff Lynne, and sometimes rumored as a replacement for Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys, when he unexpectedly killed himself on February 8, 1990, while on anti-depressant drugs.

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Dec. 30: Country (and Jazz) singer Suzy Bogguss is 54 today.

Suzy Bogguss was one of the most acclaimed female country singers of the late '80s and '90s, Born in Aledo, Illinois, in 1956, Suzy began singing in her church choir at age five. She learned piano and drums as a child, and took up guitar as a teenager. She starred in several musicals at Aledo High School, where she was crowned homecoming queen during her senior year.

While studying art at Illinois State University, she performed in local coffeehouses and clubs, and after graduating in 1980, she hit the road, playing wherever she could find a gig around the Midwest, Northeast, and even parts of Canada.

Suzy moved to Nashville in 1985 and worked as a demo singer while playing in clubs by night. She later took a job singing at the Dollywood theme park and sold tapes of her own music. One ended up in the hands of a Liberty/Capitol label executive, who singed her to a recording contract.

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Bogguss released her first singles in 1987, and her debut album, Somewhere Between, appeared the next year. It received hugely positive reviews for blending country's past and present, and featured covers of Patsy Montana's "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" and Merle Haggard's "Somewhere Between," and also produced another  hit with "Cross My Broken Heart." The 1990 follow-up, Moment of Truth, did well, but did not broaden her audience which was a goal for the album.

That all changed with 1991's gold-selling Aces, which spun off a total of four hit singles: "Someday Soon," "Letting Go," "Outbound Plane," and the title track. The last three songs all made the country Top Ten).

 

Her 1992 follow-up, Voices in the Wind - which was more pop-oriented - brought the highest-charting hit of her career in the number two cover of John Hiatt's "Drive South"; it also became her second straight gold album.

In 1993, her next album, Somethin' Up My Sleeve gave her two additional Top Five hits in "Just Like the Weather" and "Hey Cinderella." For her next outing, 1994's Simpatico, Bogguss featured an album full of duets with guitar legend Chet Atkins.

Bogguss took a bit of time off to start a family with her husband and songwriting partner, Doug Crider, and returned in 1996 with Give Me Some Wheels, which proved a commercial disappointment. The same was true of 1998's Nobody Love, Nobody Gets Hurt, and Bogguss subsequently parted ways with Capitol and signed on with the smaller Platinum label.

Her label debut, Suzy Bogguss (aka It's a Perfect Day), failed to reverse her downward sales spiral. In 2003, after a brief hiatus, Bogguss returned to the airwaves with Swing, a stylish collection of pop, jazz, and swing tunes from the likes of Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, and Duke Ellington.

 Despite its huge leap from her country music origins, it was a critical success. She then released Sweet Danger in 2007, which failed to reach the country charts, but peaked at #4 on the jazz charts.

In 2007 she released a collection of all new tunes, Sweet Danger, on the Loyal Dutchess label.

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Dec. 30: Skeeter Davis, "The End of the World," was born on this date in 1931...

... she was 72 when she died from breast cancer on September 19 2004...
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Born Mary Frances Penick, Skeeter was a member of the Grand Ole Opry radio show for more than 40 years. She started out as part of The Davis Sisters, but received her greatest success with her dolo, "crossover" hit song "The End of the World" in 1963, one of the most popular American records of the 1960's, which sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The song soon became Davis' signature song. Davis achieved one other country pop hit with the Carole King-penned song "I Can't Stay Mad At You," which became a Top 10 pop hit for her, peaking at No. 7 in 1963.

Davis received five Grammy Award nominations including four for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1964 ("He Says the Same Things to Me"), 1965 ("Sunglasses"), 1967 ("What Does It Take"), and 1972 ("One Tin Soldier"). Davis was also an accomplished songwriter, penning almost 70 songs and earning two BMI awards. Skeeter made several appearances on the pop music show "American Bandstand" in the early 1960s and a decade later was one of the first country artists to appear on "The Midnight Special."

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In 1973 during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, Skeeter dedicated a gospel song to street evangelists arrested by Nashville police. For her "political" commentary, Skeeter Davis was barred from the Grand Ole Opry but was later reinstated.

Davis continued to perform frequently throughout much of the 1990s and into 2000. In 2001 she became incapacitated by the breast cancer that would claim her life. While Davis remained a member of the Grand Ole Opry until her death, she last appeared on the program in 2002.

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