Formed in New York City in 1971, the New York Dolls are an American Rock group whose proto-punk sound was to not only inspire such great punk-rock acts as The Ramones, The Clash and the Sex Pistols, but many more diverse bands from Kiss to Guns N’Roses to The Smiths. Their visual style was to become the basis of many new wave and 1980’s glam metal, and they also began the local New York scene that later gave bloody birth to Blondie, Television and Talking Heads.

The band in its original form was created by Sylvian Sylvian (so good they named him twice) and Billy Murcia, two school friends who used to play in a band called ‘The Pox’ together who recruited Johnny Thunders to play bass. The band called themselves ‘The Dolls’, a name which apparently was inspired by a doll repair shop called the New York Doll Hospital which was opposite Sylvian and Murcia’s clothing business. The band soon dis-banded when Sylvian left to spend some time in London.

Thunders was then recruited by Arthur Kane and Rick Rivets who had been playing together in The Bronx. He suggested replacing the original drummer with his old band-mate, Murcia. After a turbulent few months of twisting and turning, the band settled into its unsettled primary form, consisting of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (soon to be replaced by Sylvian Sylvian), bass guitarist Arthur Kane, and Billy Murcia on drums. They played their first gig on Christmas eve, 1971 at a homeless shelter.

Although their rock influences were obvious, early Rolling Stones, MC5 and The Stooges – they blended this with a heady cocktail of rhythm and blues, Marc Bolan-esque glam rock, and a few shakes of something indefinably original. The band was characterised by a certain self-conscious wit, Johansen’s on-stage aggression and energy carried through their records, giving depth and thoughtfulness to what has otherwise been considered a relatively bland vocal range.

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Their songs were predominantly short vignettes about life in the New York underground; songs like Bad Girl and Who Are The Mystery Girls perfectly captured the vital energy seething below the city. Although they self-destructed fairly quickly, their two albums New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon created Punk Rock before the term even existed. In 2004 former Smith's vocalist Morrissey, who was former president of a British New York Dolls fan club, invited the band to reform at the Meltdown festival which he was curating that year. The set was well received and resulted in a live DVD being released, along with a number of offers for other festival dates. Unfortunately Kane had to check himself into hospital with what he thought was a bad case of flu, her turned out to have Leukemia and died only a few hours after. The band have since recorded new material which was released in 2006 entitled One Day it Will Please Us To Remember Even This.

Sam Smith

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No late-'60s American group ever started with as much musical promise as Blood, Sweat & Tears, or realized their potential more fully -- and then blew it all in a series of internal conflicts and grotesque career moves. It could almost sound funny, talking about a group that sold close to six million records in three years and then squandered all of that momentum. Then again, considering that none of the founding members ever intended to work together, perhaps the group was "lucky" after a fashion.

The roots of Blood, Sweat & Tears lay in one weekend of hastily assembled club shows in New York in July 1967. Al Kooper (born February 5, 1944, Brooklyn, NY) was an ex-member of the Blues Project, in need of money and a fresh start in music. He'd been toying with the notion, growing out of his admiration for jazz bandleader Maynard Ferguson, of forming an electric rock band that would use horns as much as guitarists, and jazz as much as rock as the basis for their music. As he later related, he saw the proposed group coming down somewhere midway between James Brown's Famous Flames and the Count Basie Orchestra. Kooper hoped to raise enough cash to get to London (where he would put such a band together) through a series of gigs involving some big-name friends in New York.

When the smoke cleared, there wasn't enough to get him to London, but the gig itself produced a core group of players who were interested in working with him: Jim Fielder (born October 4, 1947, Denton, TX), late of Buffalo Springfield, on bass, whom Kooper brought in from California; Kooper's former Blues Project bandmate, guitarist Steve Katz (born May 9, 1945, Brooklyn, NY); and drummer Bobby Colomby (born December 20, 1944, New York, NY), with whom Katz had been hanging out and also talking about starting a group. Kooper agreed, as long as he was in charge musically -- having just come off of the Blues Project, who'd been organized as a complete cooperative and essentially voted themselves out of existence, he was only prepared to throw into another band if he were calling the shots.

This became the group that Kooper had visualized; it would have a horn section that would be as out front as Kooper's keyboards or Katz's guitar. Colomby brought in alto saxman Fred Lipsius (born November 19, 1944, New York, NY), a longtime personal idol, and from there the lineup grew, with Randy Brecker (born November 27, 1945, Philadelphia, PA) and Jerry Weiss (born May 1, 1946, New York, NY) joining on trumpets and flügelhorns, and Dick Halligan (born August 29, 1943, Troy, NY) playing trombone. The new group was signed to Columbia Records, and the name Blood, Sweat & Tears came to Kooper in the wake of an after-hours jam at the Cafe au Go Go, where he'd played with a cut on his hand that had left his organ keyboard covered in blood.

The original Blood, Sweat & Tears turned out to be one of the greatest groups that the 1960s ever produced. Their sound, in contrast to R&B outfits that merely used horn sections for embellishment and accompaniment, was a true hybrid of rock and jazz, with a strong element of soul as the bonding agent that held it together; Lipsius, Brecker, Weiss, and Halligan didn't just honk along on the choruses, but played complex, detailed arrangements; Katz played guitar solos as well as rhythm accompaniment, and Kooper's keyboards moved to the fore along with his singing. Their sound was bold, and it was all new when Blood, Sweat & Tears debuted on-stage at the Cafe au Go Go in New York in September 1967, opening for Moby Grape.

Audiences at the time were just getting used to the psychedelic explosion of the previous spring and summer, but they were bowled over by what they heard - that first version of Blood, Sweat & Tears had elements of psychedelia in their work, but extended it into realms of jazz, R&B, and soul in ways that had scarcely been heard before in one band. The songs were attractive and challenging, and the arrangements gave room for Lipsius, Brecker, and others to solo as well as play rippling ensemble passages, while Kooper's organ and Katz's guitar swelled in pulsing, shimmering glory. The group's debut album, Child Is Father to the Man, recorded in just two weeks late in 1967 under producer John Simon, was released to positive reviews in February 1968, and it seemed to portend a great future for all concerned. It remained one of the great albums of its decade, right up there with Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet. The only thing it didn't have, which those other albums did, was a hit single to get radio play and help drive sales. Child Is Father to the Man was out there on its own, invisible to AM radio and the vast majority of the public, awaiting word-of-mouth and whatever help the still fledgling rock press could give it, and the band's touring to promote it.

Even as their debut was being recorded, however, elements of discontent had manifested themselves within the group that would sabotage their first tour and their future. At first, these were disagreements about repertory, which grew into issues of control, and then doubts about Kooper's ability as a lead singer. With Colomby and Katz taking the lead, the group broached the idea of getting a new vocalist and moving Kooper over exclusively to playing the organ and composing. By the end of March 1968, with Child Is Father to the Man nudging onto the charts and sales edging toward 100,000 copies and some momentum finally building, Blood, Sweat & Tears blew apart - Kooper left the lineup, taking a producer's job at Columbia Records; at that same point, Randy Brecker announced his intent to quit. Ironically, at around the same time, Jerry Weiss, who'd actually favoured Kooper's ouster, also headed for the door as well, to form the group Ambergris?, which lasted long enough to cut one album in 1970.

That might've been the end of their story, except that Bobby Colomby and Steve Katz saw the opportunity to pull their own band out of this debacle. Columbia Records decided to stick with them while Katz and Colomby considered several new singers (including Stephen Stills), and actually got as far as auditioning and rehearsing with Laura Nyro before they found David Clayton-Thomas (born David Thomsett, September 13, 1941, Surrey, England). A Canadian national since the age of five, Clayton-Thomas at the time was performing with his own group at a small club in New York. He came aboard, with Halligan moved over to keyboards, Chuck Winfield (born February 5, 1943, Monessen, PA) and Lew Soloff (born February 20, 1944, Brooklyn, NY) on trumpets, and Jerry Hyman (born May 19, 1947, Brooklyn, NY) succeeding Halligan on the trombone. The new nine-member group reflected Colomby and Katz's vision of a band, which was heavily influenced by the Buckinghams, a mid-'60s outfit they'd both admired for its mix of soul influences and their use of horns - toward that end, they got James William Guercio, who had previously produced the Buckinghams, as producer for their proposed album.

Though Kooper was gone from Blood, Sweat & Tears, the group was forced to rely on a number of songs that he'd prepared for the new album. The resulting album, simply called Blood, Sweat & Tears, was issued 11 months after Child Is Father to the Man, in January 1969. Smoother, less challenging, and more traditionally melodic than its predecessor, it was ambitious in an accessible way, starting with its opening track, an adaptation of French expressionist composer Erik Satie's "Trois Gymnopedies" that transformed the languid early 20th century classical work into a pop standard.

Clayton-Thomas was the dominant personality, with Lipsius and the other jazzmen in the band getting their spots in the breaks of each song - equally important, and rather more telling the singles drawn from the album were all edited down, abbreviating or removing most of the featured spots for the jazz players. The first single by the new group, "You've Made Me So Very Happy," quickly rose to the number two spot on the charts and lofted the album to the top of the LP listings as well. That was followed by "Spinning Wheel" b/w "More and More," which also hit number two, which, in turn, was followed by the group's version of Laura Nyro's "And When I Die," another gold-selling single.

When the smoke cleared, that one album had yielded a career's worth of hits in the space of six months, and the LP had won the Grammy as Album of the Year, selling three million copies in the bargain. So much demand was created for work by Blood, Sweat & Tears that the now 18-month-old Child Is Father to the Man, with the different singer and very different sound, made the charts anew in the summer and fall of 1969 and earned a gold record. The group soon faced the problem that every act with a massive success has had to confront - where do you go from up?

By fall 1969, with ten months of massive success behind them, the record company was eager for a follow-up album. The group began recording Blood, Sweat & Tears while the second album was still selling many tens of thousands of copies every week. This time, the group would produce the album themselves, an unusual arrangement for what was still essentially a new group, but one the label agreed to, in the wake of the previous album's sales. And then issues of image and politics entered into the picture.

When Al Kooper led the group, there was no question of how hip and tuned in Blood, Sweat & Tears were, to the rock culture and the counterculture - by his own account, Kooper was a resident "freak" wherever he went in those days, and they were a daring enough ensemble to speak for themselves with their music. But the new group's music, and their use of horns, in particular, was more traditional, and it made them a little suspect among rock listeners. "Spinning Wheel," especially, was the kind of song that invited covers by the likes of Mel Tormé and Sammy Davis, Jr., and was the sort of "rock" hit that your parents didn't mind hearing. And "You've Made Me So Very Happy," for all of the soulfulness of David Clayton-Thomas' singing, also had a kind of jaunty pop-band edge that made the group seem closer in spirit to the Tonight Show band than, say, to the Rolling Stones.

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Compounding the uncertainty of just who and what Blood, Sweat & Tears were, and how cool they were, was a decision that they made in early 1970, to undertake a tour of Eastern Europe on behalf of the U.S. State Department. A few other rock bands had played Eastern Europe before, but never on behalf of a government, much less one that, at that particular time, was singularly unpopular with a lot of Blood, Sweat & Tears' potential fan base over the war in Vietnam. There was something horribly wrong with this picture in May 1970, but the group was oblivious to it.

The reason for the tour was a practical one, according to some sources. Clayton-Thomas was a Canadian with very uncertain visa status in the United States, and the State Department indicated that it would be a lot more agreeable about their singer working here if the band did them this favour. It was a coup for the administration, getting one of the hottest rock acts in the world to represent the government in the Eastern bloc nations - but it also took place just at the time of the Kent State massacre, in which four students were shot to death by National Guardsmen, an event that Nixon chose to capitalize on politically. And it got worse when they came back, after seeing the police in Bucharest, in particular, take a violent hand to any audience spontaneity; a statement was issued on the group's behalf, upon their return, trumpeting the virtues of American freedom - this, one month after Kent State, with the murders of the students still an open wound and the reactionary rioting that had ensued in cities like New York (where the police had done nothing to stop a mob of construction workers from attacking anyone with long hair and invading City Hall) still fresh in peoples' minds.

In June 1970, Blood, Sweat & Tears were the only act hipper than the Johnny Mann Singers putting out feel-good messages about the United States government. It was on their return to America, amid these dubious career moves, that Blood, Sweat & Tears was released. Under the best of conditions, it would have been too much to hope that it could match its predecessor, and the truth was that it didn't. Despite some attractive songs, the album never achieved the same mix of accessibility and inspiration displayed by the earlier album. The album shipped gold and topped the LP charts for two weeks in mid-1970, and the single "Hi-De-Ho" made it to number 14, but the edge was off and the numbers didn't keep soaring week after week as the sales of their prior two LPs had. More troubling, the group was starting to get criticized in the rock press, not directly for their State Department tour - though that couldn't have made a lot of reviewers and columnists too predisposed to go easy on the band - but over who and what they were (and that was where the infamous tour did enter into the picture).

A lot of rock critics felt that Blood, Sweat & Tears were a pretentious pop group that dabbled in horn riffs, while others argued that they were a jazz outfit trying to pass as a rock band - either way, they weren't "one of us" or part of who we were. Oddly enough, some members of the jazz press liked them, but that was small help - at any time after the early '40s, jazz reviewers in America reached no more than a small percentage of listeners. And regardless of what the critics said, a lot of serious jazz listeners who were the same age as the bandmembers thought the group was fluff, jazz-lite. Their image problem grew only worse when the group accepted an engagement to appear at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas - the gambling mecca had never been known as friendly to current rock acts, and the group felt it was doing journeyman service by opening up Caesar's Palace to performers under 30. Instead, it multiplied their difficulties - Vegas and what it represented were almost as bad as Nixon.

In the meantime, another act, Chicago, produced by James William Guercio, broke big in 1970, also on the Columbia label, and avoided all of these pitfalls and internal problems and ended up stealing a huge chunk of Blood, Sweat & Tears' audience. It seemed as though, after an extraordinary run of luck, the group couldn't catch a break; their musical contribution to the Barbara Streisand film The Owl and the Pussycat did nothing to enhance their image. The group's fourth album, begun in early 1971, was the first that ran into real trouble in the making, which showed from the presence of three producers in the credits, and even Kooper was represented in the songwriting and arranging department. The fourth album, issued in June 1971, peaked at number ten on the charts, nowhere near the top, and none of its singles cracked the Top 30.

It was around this time that the membership began shifting and splintering. By 1971, the group was basically divided into three factions, the rock rhythm section pitted against the jazz players, and the singer between them both, and no one happy with what anyone else was doing. Clayton-Thomas no longer enjoyed working with the rest of the band and chose to exit after the release of the fourth album to pursue a solo career. Despite this loss, the group carried on, and the label was willing to carry them a bit longer - after all, Blood, Sweat & Tears had sold a lifetime's worth of LPs, and the two subsequent albums, though disappointing in its wake, were respectable successes by any conventional standard, and one always hopes that lightning will strike twice.

Bob Doyle took the vocalist spot for a few months, and was then replaced by Jerry Fisher; elsewhere in the lineup, Fred Lipsius, who'd been there from the start and had put the original horn section together, finally called it quits and was replaced by Joe Henderson, who, in turn, was succeeded by Lou Marini, Jr., and Dick Halligan, who'd replaced Kooper on keyboards after the first band's breakup, was succeeded by Larry Willis, while Steve Katz got a second guitarist to play off of in the person of George Wadenius. All of these personnel changes led to an extended period of inactivity for the band, which Columbia Records made up for by releasing Blood, Sweat & Tears’ Greatest Hits in 1972 - this was probably a little sooner than they might otherwise have done it, under ideal circumstances, but the album became a Top 20 album and earned a gold record award and was a very popular catalogue item for many years; one advantage that its original LP version offered the casual fan was that its songs were all the shorter, single edits of their hits, which were otherwise only available on the original 45 rpm records.

In September 1972, this lineup released an album, appropriately enough called New Blood, which never made the Top 30 despite some good moments, accompanied by a single, "So Long Dixie," which didn't crack the Top 40. By this time, they'd turned more toward jazz, recognizing that the rock audience was slowly drifting out of their reach. Founding members Jim Fielder and Steve Katz called it quits during this period, Katz preferring to work in the more rock-oriented orbit of Lou Reed.

With replacements aboard, Blood, Sweat & Tears continued performing, but their next LP, humorously (or was it ominously?) entitled No Sweat, released in 1973, never rose higher than number 72 on the charts, and that was a hit compared to its successor, Mirror Image, which peaked at number 149. By this time, people were passing through the lineup like a revolving door, and even Jaco Pastorius put in some time playing bass for the group, all without leaving much of an impression on the public. The plug might've been pulled right about here, but for the return of Clayton-Thomas, whose solo career had fizzled. Now fronting an outfit billed officially as Blood, Sweat & Tears Featuring David Clayton-Thomas, they released a modestly successful comeback album, New City, in 1975, which - despite a few lapses in creativity and taste, and a range that encompassed Allen Toussant ("Life") and Randy Newman ("Naked Man," complete with a Mozartian digression) - featured some of the group's best jazz sides in years as well as superb performances by Clayton-Thomas.

The latter included a rare venture (for this group) into acoustic guitar blues on their rendition of John Lee Hooker's "One Room Country Shack." The accompanying single, a version of the Beatles "Got to Get You Into My Life" (which, peculiarly enough, anticipated the single release of a remixed version of the British band's own recording) never made the Top 40, but the album did well enough to justify an ambitious tour that yielded a double-LP concert album, Live and Improvised, that was issued in Europe (and, 15 years later, in America). Columbia Records dropped the group in 1976, and a brief association with ABC Records led nowhere. The group was caught between their former Columbia rivals Chicago, who continued to get airplay and chart regularly with new releases, and purer jazz ensembles such as Return to Forever and Weather Report, who had captured the moment in the press and before the public.

In the end, even Bobby Colomby, who had trademarked the group's name very early after Kooper's exit in 1968, gave up playing in the band, taking a corporate position at Columbia. Clayton-Thomas has kept the band alive in the decades since, fronting various lineups that continue to perform regularly and record sporadically, mostly updated renditions of their classic material. The advent of the CD era, and the release of expanded versions of their first two albums, fostered new interest in the group's early history, which was furthered by the 1990s release of Kooper's Soul of a Man, which presented new concert renditions of the 1967-era group's repertory. During the first decade of the 21st century, Wounded Bird Records also belatedly reissued the band's post-BST4 albums on CD, with surprising success – New Blood and, even more so, New City, sounded quite good musically, divorced from their origins by almost 30 years. The group name remains alive behind Clayton-Thomas, and their recordings through 1972 - especially the first album - still elicit a powerful response from those millions who've heard them. ~ 

Discography:

Source: Bruce Eder, All Music Guide; eNotes

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The British pop band, Blow Monkeys were founded in 1981 by frontman Dr. Robert, bassist Mick Anker, Saxophonist Neville Henry and drummer Tony Kiley. A new wave orientated act they released their first single, “Live Today Love Tomorrow” in 1982 before becoming a more commercial pop rock act and then a dance act before splitting in the 1990s.

Their debut album, “Limping for a Generation” was released in 1984 but wasn’t a major success. Their first major success came in 1986 with the release of their second album, “Animal Magic” and the hit single “Digging Your Scene” which reached No.12 in the UK and No.14 in the US. January 1987 saw their third album, “She Was Only a Grocer’s Daughter” released which made No.20 in the UK mainly thanks to the single, “It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way” which made No.5 in the singles chart.

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1990 saw the release of their final album, “Springtime for the World” before the band split up. In 2007 the band members announced a reunion with a new album, “Devil’s Tavern” and a tour in 2008.

Discography:

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Paul Weller

New Order

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In a career spanning nearly 50 years, Aretha Franklin has truly earned her place as the Queen of Soul. She has performed songs in different genres as well, such as blues, R&B, jazz and rock.

Aretha Franklin was born in March 1942. Her father was a preacher and her mother was a pianist. Franklin developed an exceptional talent for singing and playing piano. Through recordings made during her father’s sermons, she appeared on a gospel album at the age of 14.

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It wasn’t until 1960 that Franklin signed a contract with Columbia Records. Her early releases reflected her jazz influence, most notably "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody". Seven years later, she moved from Columbia to Atlantic Records and began to craft her own distinctive sound. Her second single for the new label was "Respect" which was originally recorded and written by Otis Redding. Not only was "Respect" a worldwide chart-topper, she won two Grammies for it.

Franklin had huge hits in the late 60s and early 70s with memorable songs like "Chain of Fools", "I Say A Little Prayer" and "Think". She rose to prominence again in the 1980 film ‘The Blues Brothers’ where she made a cameo as Mrs Matt Murphy. She signed to Arista Records and began recording material with Luther Vandross, who was a huge fan.

Her biggest hits in the 80s came from collaborations with not only Vandross but the Eurythmics and George Michael. "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" became a rallying cry for women campaigning for equality, while "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" introduced her to fans from the Wham! generation.

After a brief period of returning to her gospel roots, Franklin’s next big commercial success came in 1993, lending her vocals to the soundtrack of Sister Act II: Back In The Habit.

1998 was a landmark year for the Queen of Soul. She released the album "A Rose Is Still A Rose" - a departure in style from her previous material - with contributions from the The Fugees’ Lauryn Hill. Later that year, she gave a memorable rendition of Puccini’s "Nessun Dorma" at the Grammys when Luciano Pavarotti was too ill to attend.

An album of duets was released in 2007, featuring Franklin sharing vocals with the likes of Gloria Estefan, Frank Sinatra, John Legend and Mary J Blige. She was also given the honour of singing at the inauguration of President Obama in 2009. She has won 18 Grammys in total, she is the second woman to be inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame and the first black woman to appear on the cover of Time Magazine. An incredible feat for an astonishing talent.

For The Record:

Born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tenn.; daughter of Clarence L. (a minister and gospel singer) and Barbara (Siggers) Franklin; married Ted White (a businessman), 1961 (divorced); married Glynn Turman, April 11,1978 (divorced, 1984); children: (first marriage) Clarence, Edward, Teddy. Education: Attended schools in Detroit, Michigan. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Baptist.

Gospel singer, 1952-61, performing as member of her father's traveling Baptist ministry; recorded first album of gospel music in 1956. Rhythm and blues/soul vocalist, 1960—; signed first with Columbia Records, 1961, transferred to Atlantic Records, 1967, transferred to Arista Records, 1980. Has given numerous live performances in America and Europe, including a special command performance for the birthday of England's Queen Mother. Appeared in film "The Blues Brothers," 1980, and in Showtime television special, "Aretha," 1986.

Awards: Grammy awards for best female rhythm and blues vocal performance, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1981, 1985, 1987, Grammy awards for best rhythm and blues recording, 1967, for best soul gospel performance, 1972, and for best rhythm and blues duo vocal (with George Michael), 1987, for "I Knew You Were Waiting"; American Music Award, 1984.

Addresses: Home—8450 Linwood St, Detroit, Mich. 48206.

The mid- to late-1970s were a difficult time for soul music in general, as the rigid beat of disco held sway. Franklin was one of many singers who suffered a declining audience during the period. Her professional woes were compounded by a series of personal problems—her father was rendered comatose by a shooting during a burglary in his home, and her first marriage failed. Then, just as her career was beginning to rebound under the Arista label, Franklin was involved in an incident aboard a small airplane that caused her to fear flying. Some observers feel that only the need to pay her father's expensive hospital bills kept Franklin recording during the early 1980s. The Reverend Franklin died in 1984, never having recovered consciousness after the shooting. The following year Aretha recorded the album that can legitimately be called her "comeback" project—Who's Zoomin' Who, a snappy work reminiscent of her early material. Though well into her forties, Franklin cavorted elegantly through several "Who's Zoomin' Who" videos that became immensely popular on MTV and helped two singles, "Freeway of Love" and the title tune, top the pop charts. "I wanted something that kids would enjoy," Franklin told Newsweek, "something that would span the age gap, but not leave older fans behind. The soul is still there."

Franklin is still bothered by her fear of flying, so much of her work is accomplished in or near Detroit, her home base since 1982. Her recent hit single, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," paired her with George Michael, a pop singer seemingly from another generation altogether. In the wake of that success, Franklin has returned to her first and lasting love—gospel, with the release of a dramatic double album, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. As Franklin once remarked in Time, "My heart is still there in gospel music. It never left." Franklin does not intend to leave pop music's ranks permanently, however. She told Newsweek that she sees singing—any kind of singing—as a means of escape. "It does get me out of myself," she said. "I guess you could say I do a lot of traveling with my voice." Mark Moses pays homage to the Queen of Soul in his New Yorker essay, calling Aretha Franklin "both the statesman shouldering history and the woman wishing herself back to childhood .. . as if there were no extremes that her wide, rippling voice could not reconcile."

Source: Anne Janette Johnson

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Before fulfilling her childhood dream of becoming a professional singer and songwriter, Carla Bruni had already been included on Business Age's list of the 20 highest-paid models, had appeared in the films Prêt-à-Porter and Unzipped, and had been romantically linked to Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Kevin Costner, and Donald Trump. The heiress of a tire manufacturing fortune, Bruni moved with her family from their native Italy to Paris, France, when she was four. After attending boarding school in Switzerland she returned to Paris, where she was encouraged to try modeling as a career by her brother's girlfriend. Paul Marciano -- president and creative director of GUESS? -- picked Bruni's headshot out of a stack of photographs and turned the 19-year-old into an overnight sensation. She kept busy doing photo shoots and runway work for Prada, Chanel, Christian Dior, and Givenchy.

In a 1998 interview Bruni declared that the lack of creativity she was experiencing in the fashion world had led her to the decision to only model in special cases. Rare appearances for Yves Saint Laurent and Jean Paul Gaultier kept her in the fashion press, but she was making even more headlines in the gossip world, where she was painted as the woman responsible for the breakups of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall as well as Donald Trump and Marla Maples.

In 2003, a reinvented Bruni released her debut album, Quelqu'un M'a Dit. An album filled mostly with songs written by the singer in the style of her idols -- Joni Mitchell and Serge Gainsbourg -- Quelqu'un M'a Dit was an instant hit in France, selling one million copies soon after its release. Her second album, No Promises, appeared in January 2007. Bruni stunned everyone the following year when she became "the First Lady of France" after marrying French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée Palace in Paris, a move she promptly followed with a provocative new album, Comme Si de Rien N'Etait and a high-profile televised interview with Barbara Walters. 

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 Discography:

Quelqu'un M'a Dit, 2003

No Promises, 2007

Quelqu'un M'a Dit, 2008

Source: David Jeffries, All Music Guide

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Chuck Berry vs Keith Richards - Master vs Pupil

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Björk first came to prominence as one of the lead vocalists of the avant-pop Icelandic sextet the Sugarcubes, but when she launched a solo career after the group's 1992 demise, she quickly eclipsed her old band's popularity. Instead of following in the Sugarcubes' arty guitar rock pretensions, Björk immersed herself in dance and club culture, working with many of the biggest names in the genre, including Nellee Hooper, Underworld, and Tricky. Debut, her first solo effort (except for an Icelandic-only smash released when she was just 11 years old), not only established her new artistic direction, but it became an international hit, making her one of the '90s most unlikely stars. 

Sources: artistdirect

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ABBA

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Worst Dressed Acts In Rok History

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Vocalist Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe, the instrumentalist from Harrow, London formed Blancmange a modern synth pop group, in the late '70's.  During October and November 1980,the group supported Nash the Slash on a tour.  It was thru Nash that they got access to Virgin Music, with whom they signed, in 1982.  There was no looking back from here - The major hit single 'Feel Me', 'Living on the ceiling' (reached #7 on UK Singles chart), 'Waves', 'Blind Vision', 'That's Love That It Is' and 'Don't Tell Me'.

During a period, when free music and downloads were unheard of, the pop group's the group worked their way up thru their strong show on the UK Charts. They shot a music video for 'Lose your Love' which was shown briefly in a Walt Disney film, Flight of the Navigator. ABBA covered their hit 'The Day Before You Came' during their tour in 1984.

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Their career stretched right from 1979 till 1985, when synth pop music became less fashionable. 'What is Your Problem' could reach 40 in the UK Charts and their album, 'Believe You Me' managed the UK Albums Chart for only 2 weeks.

Finally, the Blancmange formally split in 1987.  The pop genre, that group had created would never be the same without Blancmange, for the synth pop has moved out of vogue alongwith the band. Luscombe moved on and in 1987, released the album 'Music From New Demons', with Dinesh Pandit, Peter Culshaw, Priya Khajuria and Asha Bhonsle.  This was under the name - West India Company.  Neil Arthur released Suitcase, his solo album in 1994.

Discography:

Happy Families (1982)
Mange Tout (1984)
Believe You Me (1985)
Blanc Burn (2011)

Source: Wikipedia

This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com.

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ABBA

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Blancmange Video

Exclusive Rare, Un-Edited, Unheard Interview with Stephen Luscombe and Neil Arthur

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Although she's only managed a few hits in the U.S. since her arrival as a singer in 1987, Kylie Minogue is both Australia's and Europe's biggest-selling female pop singer over that period and a pop culture icon in those areas. Her image on the cover of magazines is guaranteed to produce extra sales. But a singing career was never what Minogue had in mind for herself.

Minogue was born on May 28, 1968, in Melbourne. In 1979, she began her acting career in the Australian TV drama series Skyways, eventually gaining a starring role in a children's series, The Henderson Kids, before achieving national fame in the five-days-a-week soap opera Neighbours. Around the time Minogue joined, Neighbours also started airing in the U.K.

A major celebrity on the basis of her Neighbours popularity, Minogue had agreed to give a charity performance in the company of other personalities, choosing to sing Little Eva's "Loco-Motion." Someone hit on the idea of submitting a tape of the performance to local record company, Mushroom, who didn't think much of the demo but saw the potential in releasing a single by the extremely popular young TV star. In their wildest dreams no one imagined a national number one record with the recorded version of "Loco-Motion" (July 1987).

At that time, Mushroom Records had formed a business relationship with London hit factory Stock, Aitken & Waterman (Dead or Alive, Mel & Kim, Samantha Fox, Bananarama, Rick Astley), who also saw potential in working with the popular actress, but she wasn't a priority. In fact, when Minogue turned up at their London studios they had forgotten she was coming and quickly wrote her a song while she waited. The result, "I Should Be So Lucky," gave Minogue the second of her six Australian number one singles and the first of her five English number ones. Now she became a priority for Stock, Aitken & Waterman. As was their way, Stock, Aitken & Waterman wrote and produced her records and they controlled her video image. Their re-recorded "Loco-Motion" put Minogue in the Top Ten in the U.S. In Australia, the U.K., and Europe, Minogue was scoring hit after hit and quickly left Neighbours to meet the demand on her.

If she was ever just along for the ride, Minogue took her first step toward control over her career with her 1990 single "Better the Devil You Know," not letting Stock, Aitken & Waterman see the video she was making for the song until it was completed. SAW insisted on casting her in a girl-next-door mode, while Minogue opted for a saucier Madonna-like image. It ensured her continued success and reputation as a celebrity beyond the pop charts. With her fourth album, Let's Get to It (1991), the singer also insisted on lyrical input.

Kylie Minogue ended up leaving Stock, Aitken & Waterman and recorded two albums, Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess, with London dance label Deconstruction. A romantic relationship with INXS singer Michael Hutchence had encouraged her to experiment musically. While the backbone of both albums was the Brothers in Rhythm team, Minogue was keen to work with a variety of people. One unlikely collaboration saw a duet with Nick Cave, especially written by Cave for his Murder Ballads album. "Where the Wild Roses Grow" featured a nude Minogue floating dead in the water for its video.

While Impossible Princess represented another major career turning point in Australia -- Minogue's transition to a concert performer -- in Europe the album was not considered a success. In 2000, she was encouraged by the Pet Shop Boys to switch to their label, Parlophone, and she re-emerged as the pop princess of old with the critical hit Light Years. The single "Spinning Around" went number one in both England and Australia. Her reign in music continued in 2001. Minogue issued Fever in October on the heels of the successful single "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Such hype around the song allowed it to become an global smash, earning Minogue two Brit Awards in February 2002 for Best International Female and Best International Album for Fever. Shortly thereafter, Fever was released in the U.S. on Capitol, landing Minogue her biggest U.S. hit in nearly 15 years with "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Spots on MTV's TRL and Saturday Night Live proved her power. Body Language appeared in 2004; Minogue won a Grammy that same year for Best Dance Recording.

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In March 2005, Minogue began Showgirl -- The Greatest Hits Tour in Glasgow, Scotland. Following 23 sold-out shows in the U.K. and 14 in Europe, she was forced to postpone her scheduled Australian dates due to a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer. Minogue returned to the stage in November 2006 after a 12-month treatment and recovery period, playing shows in Australia as well as seven more dates in the U.K. She spent 2007 working on a number of projects, including her tenth studio album (X). Boombox followed in January 2009.

Without anything approaching Madonna's musical strength, like Madonna, Minogue ensured her survival with imaginative videos and by keeping fans guessing and intrigued with consistent changes of personal image. She also appeared in a number of movies over the years; 1999's Cut with Molly Ringwald was her eighth film appearance.

artistdirect.com

This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com

Why Not Check Out:

Madonna

Britney Spears

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Blood On The Tracks

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