April 20: Johnny Tillotson - "Poetry in Motion" - is 72 today.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnny Tillotson enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored 9 top-ten hits on the pop, country and adult contemporary billboard charts including "Poetry In Motion" and "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'."

He began to perform at local functions as a child, and at Palatka Senior High School developed a reputation as a talented singer. He became a regular on the Toby Dowdy regional TV show in Jacksonville, and then had his own TV show on WDGA-TV. In 1957, while studying at the University of Florida, a local disc jockey, Bob Norris sent a tape of Johnny's singing to the Pet Milk talent contest, where he was chosen as one of the six National finalists.

He performed in Nashville, Tennessee at the Grand Old Opry, which led him to a three-year recording contract with Cadence Records. Cadence issued his first single, "Dreamy Eyes" / "Well I'm Your Man" in September 1958. Both songs had been written by Tillotson, and both made the Billboard Hot 100, "Dreamy Eyes" peaking at # 63.

After graduating from college in 1959 with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and Communications, Tillotson moved to New York City to pursue his music career.

From late 1959, a succession of singles - "True True Happiness," "Why Do I Love You So," and a double-sided single covering the R&B hits "Earth Angel" and "Pledging My Love" - all reached the bottom half of the Hot 100. His biggest success came with his sixth single, the up-tempo "Poetry in Motion," recorded in Nashville with session musicians including saxophonist Boots Randolph and pianist Floyd Cramer. Released in September 1960, it went to # 2 on the Hot 100 in the US, and # 1 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1961.

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Besides recording, Tilotson also appeared on television and began to be featured as a teen idol in magazines. His follow-up record, "Jimmy's Girl," reached # 25 in the US charts and # 43 in the UK; after that, "Without You" returned him to the US Top Ten. He also toured widely as part of Dick Clark's Cavalcade Of Stars.

Early in 1962, Tillotson recorded a song he had written himself, "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'," inspired by the terminal illness of his father. It became one of his biggest hits, reaching # 3 in the US pop chart and becoming the first of his records to make the country music charts, where it peaked at # 4. It earned him his first Grammy nomination, for Best Country & Western Recording, and was later recorded by over 100 performers including Elvis Presley and Billy Joe Royal.

Tillotson then recorded an album, It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin', on which he covered several country standards including Hank Locklin's "Send Me the Pillow You Dream On" and Hank Williams' "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)," which also became hit singles.

He continued to record both country-flavored and pop songs in 1963, and "You Can Never Stop Me Loving You" and its follow-up, the Willie Nelson song "Funny How Time Slips Away," both made the Hot 100. He also appeared in the 1963 movie Just for Fun.

With the demise of the Cadence label, he formed his own production company and moved to MGM Records, starting with his version of the recent country hit "Talk Back Trembling Lips," which reached # 7 in January 1964 on Billboard's Hot 100.

He earned his second Grammy nomination for "Heartaches by the Number," nominated for Best Vocal Performance of 1965, which reached #4 on the Adult Contemporary Charts. He also sang the theme song for the 1965 Sally Field television comedy Gidget.

While his recording success waned in the late 1960s, he continued to record, moving to California in 1968. Besides concert and recording he also appeared in several films including the 1966 camp comedy The Fat Spy starring Jayne Mansfield - which was featured in the 2004 documentary The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made (#46). He also appeared in Just For Fun a British music film, the Japanese movie Namida Kun Sayonara after his number 1 Japanese hit of the same name and the Made for TV "The Call of the Wild."

In the 1970s, he recorded for the Amos, Buddah, Columbia and United Artists labels. He also performed concerts, at State Fairs and in Las Vegas and elsewhere. In the early 1980's he charted briefly with "Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone" on Reward Records. His popularity in South East Asia had him appearing in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand on a regular basis along with tours in Japan and Hong Kong. In 1990 he signed with Atlantic records where he again charted briefly with "Bim Bam Boom."

In the 1990s, Johnny recorded several Christmas songs with Freddy Cannon and Brian Hyland for the Children's Miracle network, produced by Michael Lloyd. "Come On A Sleigh Ride With Me" written by Michael is a new Christmas favorite. He also recorded "We Can Make It" with Tommy Roe and Brian Hyland, again for Michael Lloyd for Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer The Movie in 1998.

In 2006 he was honored by the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications with the Alumni of Distinction award. In 2010 Johnny released a single "Not Enough" which is a tribute to the Military, Police, Fire and all uniformed personnel of the United States. It reached # 1 on the Indie country chart and the top 25 on the New Music weekly charts and was also a breakout single on the Music Row chart in Nashville.

On March 23rd, 2011 Johnny Tillotson was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

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April 20: Carmen Electra is 39 today.

Carmen, whose real name is Tara Leigh Patrick, was born in Sharonville, Ohio in 1972. Her mother was a singer, her father, a guitarist and entertainer. She attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) in the Cincinnati Public School District.

She first came to the public's attention after she appeared in Playboy magazine, then on the MTV game show Singled Out, on the TV series Baywatch, dancing with the Pussycat Dolls, and marrying basketball bad boy, Dennis Rodman. She has since had roles in the parody films Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, and Disaster Movie.

Electra started her professional career in 1990 as a dancer at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio in the show "It’s Magic", one of the more popular shows in the park's history. In 1991, she moved to California and met Prince.
Soon after meeting him, Electra signed a recording contract with Prince's Paisley Park Records and began a short-lived singing career. During her time at Paisley Park Records, she officially became known as Carmen Electra.

In May 1996 she was featured in a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. She was featured in Playboy four more times, with her second appearance in June 1997, third in December 2000, fourth in April 2003 and her fifth in the January 2009 anniversary issue. She was on the cover three times, in December 2000, April 2003 and on the 55th anniversary Issue in January 2009.

In 1999, she appeared in the Bloodhound Gang's music video of "The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope." In 2005, she joined the voice cast of the animated series Tripping the Rift, replacing Gina Gershon as the voice of the sexy android "Six". Also in 2005, she began the Naked Women's Wrestling League, acting as the commissioner for the professional wrestling promotion.

Electra has also produced exercise videos and equipment. Her Carmen Electra Aerobic Striptease is a five-disc DVD series that combines teaching classic stripping moves with a low impact cardio workout, which also starred Jon Eby. She also endorses the Electra Pole, a pole dancing kit released in January 2008.

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April 19: Coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay is 43-years-old today.

Born Nathalie Dessaix, in Lyon, France, Natalie dropped the "h" in her first name in honor of Natalie Wood when she was in grade school. Later, she simplified the spelling of her surname outside France. 

A coloratura soprano, she became known early in her career for a very high upper extension, limpid intonation and superb coloratura. She became more recognized in recent years for her dramatic and comedic flair as a singing actress.

In her youth, Dessay had intended to be a ballet dancer, and then an actress. She discovered her talent for singing whilst taking acting classes, and shifted her artistic focus to music. Dessay was encouraged to study voice at the Conservatoire national de région de Bordeaux and gained experience as a chorister in Toulouse.

At the competition Les Voix Nouvelles, run by France Télécom, she was awarded First Prize (Premier Prix de Concours) followed by a year's study at Paris Opera's Ecole d'Art Lyrique, where she sang "Elisa" in Mozart's Il re pastore. Also, she entered the International Mozart Competition at the Vienna State Opera, winning First Prize.

She was quickly approached by a number of theatres, and subsequently sang "Blondchen," "Madame Herz" (in Der Schauspieldirektor), "Zerbinetta" and "Zaïde" at the Opéra National de Lyon and the Opéra Bastille, as well as "Adele" in Die Fledermaus in Geneva.

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In April and May 1992 at the Opéra Bastille, she sang the role of "Olympia" in The Tales of Hoffmann with José van Dam. The Roman Polanski production was not well received, but it began the road to stardom for Dessay. Although she was soon featured in another production of Hoffmann, it would be over ten years before her return to Paris Opera in the same role.

Soon after, Dessay joined the Vienna State Opera as Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail by W. A. Mozart. In December 1993, she was then asked to replace Cheryl Studer in one of the three female roles in a production of Hoffmann at the Vienna Opera. Her "Olympia" received acclaim from the Vienna audiences and praise from Plácido Domingo.

Blondchen in Die Entführung and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos became her best-known and most often played roles.
In October 1994 Dessay made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in the role of Fiakermilli in Strauss's Arabella, and returned there in September 1997 as Zerbinetta and in February 1998 as Olympia.

The Staatsoper approached Dessay with two operas: Richard Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau and an unfinished opera by Alban Berg, Lulu. Dessay declined the latter, saying the score was too difficult for her. She admitted that Die schweigsame Frau was already painful to learn.

At the festival of Aix-en-Provence, Dessay first performed the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Although she was hesitant to perform the role, saying that she didn't want to play any evil characters, director Robert Carsen convinced her that this Queen would be different, almost a sister to Pamina. Dessay agreed to do the role. There followed a year-long series of "final performances" of the Queen of the Night.

During the 2001–2002 season in Vienna, she began to experience vocal difficulties and had to be replaced in almost all of the performances of La sonnambula. Subsequently, she was forced to cancel several performances, including a French version of Lucia di Lammermoor in Lyon and a Zerbinetta at the Royal Opera House in London.

She withdrew from the stage and underwent surgery on one of her vocal cords in July 2002. In February 2003, she returned to live performances in a Paris concert. Later, she cancelled and had further surgery, but by mid-2005 she was back on stage.

In the summer of 2003, Dessay gave her first US recital in Santa Fe. She was so attracted to New Mexico she rearranged its schedule to appear in SFO's 2004 production of La sonnambula. She returned in the 2006 SFO season as Pamina (The Magic Flute). She gave her first performances in the role of Violetta in La traviata at SFO on 3 July 2009 in a production staged by Laurent Pelly.

The 2006-2007 season schedule included Lucia di Lammermoor and La sonnambula in Paris, La fille du régiment directed by Laurent Pelly in London and Vienna, and a Manon in Barcelona. She opened the 2007–08 season at the Met as Lucia and also repeated her role in La fille du régiment.

In January 2009 she sang the part of Melisande in a stagione production of Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy at the Theater an der Wien, the second opera house in Vienna, alongside Laurent Naouri. On March 2, 2009, Dessay sang the title role in La Sonnambula at the New York Metropolitan Opera. It was the first new production of the opera at the Met since Joan Sutherland sang the title role in the 1960s.

In 2005, Dessay provided the singing voice for the character of Anna Sörensen, played by Diane Kruger, in the movie Joyeux Noël.


In June 2011, a panel of experts at Limelight magazine named Dessay as one of  "Today's 12 Greatest Opera Singers."

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April 15: "The Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith was born on this date in 1894...

... she was 43 years-old when she died on September 26, 1937.(1937-09-26)

Born in 1892 or 1894, in Chattanooga, Tennessee - the records are sketchy- Bessy Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.

To earn money for their family, Bessie and her brother Andrew began busking on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo: she singing and dancing, he accompanying her on guitar. Their favorite location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the city's African-American community.

Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923 and for most of that year, her records were issued on Columbia's regular A- series. When the label decided to establish a "race records" series, Smith's "Cemetery Blues" (was the first issued. She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues."

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-- "Downhearted Blues"

-- "Yellowdog Blues"

 -- "St. Louis Blues"

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Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. She made some 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, Charlie Green and Fletcher Henderson.

In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson and a string section — a musical environment radically different from any found on her recordings.

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Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Bessie was taken to Clarksdale's Afro-American Hospital where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness.

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April 14: UK singer, Tony Burrows "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" is 69 years-old today.

Born in Exeter, Devon, Tony Burrows is a British session singer. He credied with singing lead on hit single records for more groups than any other recording artist, both on the UK Singles Chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

In the early 1960s, he was a member of The Kestrels, a vocal harmony group which also included the future songwriting team Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook. Subsequently he joined The Ivy League which later became known as The Flower Pot Men.

The Flower Pot Men had one hit, "Let's Go to San Francisco," which reached number four in the UK Singles Chart in the autumn of 1967. Two founding members of Deep Purple, Jon Lord and Nick Simper, were also part of the band.

Later, Burrows sang the lead vocals on several hit songs under different group names, in 1970 on Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes), White Plains' "My Baby Loves Lovin,'" The Pipkins' novelty song "Gimme Dat Ding" and in 1974, on The First Class' "Beach Baby." He also sang lead vocals on The Brotherhood of Man's "United We Stand", which reached #10 on the UK charts and also reached #13 in the U.S.

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In February 1970, he became the first and only performer to appear on BBC Television's Top of the Pops fronting three different acts in one show: Edison Lighthouse (who were number one that week), White Plains, and Brotherhood of Man.

He has also recorded as a session singer with Elton John, Cliff Richard, and James Last.

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April 12: Tiny Tim ("Tiptoe Through the Tulips") was born on this date in 1932...

 

... he was 64 when he died from a heart attack,  although he admitted he lied about his age on a number of occasions.  According to www.tinytim.org, and photos taken of his passport and birth certificate, and his death certificate, Tiny was born on April 12, 1932.

Tiny Tim; was he a con artist, or just a really, really strange dude? (There's a hint at the end of this post.)

Born Herbert Buckingham Khaury in New York City, Tiny Tim was most famous for his rendition of 'Tiptoe Through The Tulips' sung in his distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice accompanied by a ukulele.

When he was five years old his father brought home a wind up gramophone and a 78 rpm record that featured a 1905 recording of Henry Burr singing "Beautiful Ohio". Herbert immersed himself in the music of the past, listening for hours in his room to Rudy Vallee, Al Jolson, Henry Burr, Irving Kaufman, Billy Murray, Ada Jones, Byron G. Harlan, and Bing Crosby.

Khaury began singing and playing the ukulele in his natural voice, but it was not until 1952 that anyone paid attention to him. In a 1968 interview on the Tonight Show, Khaury described the discovery of his high voice: "I was listening to the radio and singing along as I was singing I said 'Gee, it's strange. I can go up high as well."

He then entered a local talent show and sang "You Are My Sunshine" in his newly discovered voice. Khaury then tried different stage names like Darry Dover, Vernon Castle, Larry Love, and Judas K. Foxglove. He finally settled on Tiny Tim in 1962 when his manager at the time, George King, booked him at a club that favored midget acts.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Tiny Tim developed a cult following. In the 1960s he was seen regularly near the Harvard University campus as a street performer, singing old Tin Pan Alley tunes. His choice of repertoire and his encyclopedic knowledge of vintage popular music impressed many of the spectators.

Tiny Tim's biggest break came when he was booked on the immensely popular Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Dan Rowan announced that Laugh-In believed in showcasing new talent, and introduced Tiny Tim. The singer entered, blowing kisses, and sang "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" to an amused Dick Martin.

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This stunt was followed by several more appearances on Laugh-In and a recording contract with Reprise Records. He made a name for himself as a novelty performer, appearing  on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (where he got married to 17-year old "Miss Vicky,") Ed Sullivan, and Jackie Gleason. At the height of his career, he was commanding a weekly salary of $50,000 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(His marriage didn't last long. They had a daughter, Tulip, and after she filed for divorce  Vicki appeared nude in Oui Magazine, as Victoria Lombardi.)

In 2000, the Rhino Handmade label released the posthumous Tiny Tim Live at the Royal Albert Hall. This recording had been made in 1968 at the height of Tiny Tim's fame, but Reprise Records never released it. It sat on the shelf until its limited Internet release some 32 years later. The limited-numbered CD sold out and was reissued on Rhino's regular label.

While Tiny Tim was generally thought of as a novelty act, his records display a wide knowledge of American songs. In August 1970 he performed at the "Isle of Wight Festival 1970" in front of a crowd of 600,000 people.

His performance, which included English folk songs and rock and roll classics, was a huge hit with the multinational throng of hippies. At the climax of his set, he sang "They'll Always Be an England" through a megaphone which brought the huge crowd to its feet. This can be seen in the 1995 movie of the event, "Message to Love."

Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack on stage at The Woman's Club of Minneapolis and was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died after doctors tried to resuscitate him for an hour and fifteen minutes.

One admirer recalled that Tiny Tim's outrageous public persona was a false front belying a quiet, studious personality: "Herb Khaury was the greatest put-on artist in the world. Here he was with the long hair and the cheap suit and the high voice, but when you spoke to him he talked like a college professor. He knew everything about the old songs."

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