Johnny Nash – Tears on my pillow

Johnny Nash – Tears on my pillow

Johnny Nash - Tears on my pillow

9 August 1940, Houston, Texas, USA. The story of Nash’s association with Bob Marley has been well documented. His background is similar to that of many Jamaican performers in that he first started singing in a church choir. By his early teens he performed cover versions of popular R&B hits of the 50s on a television show called Matinee. He enjoyed his first US chart entry in 1957 with a cover version of Doris Day’s ‘A Very Special Love’. ABC Records decided to market the young singer as another Johnny Mathis, which did little to enhance his career. Disillusioned with the label, he concentrated on a career in films. In 1958 he starred in Take A Giant Step, and in 1960 he appeared alongside Dennis Hopper in Key Witness, which was critically acclaimed in Europe. Returning to the recording studio he persevered with middle-of-the-road material but was unable to generate a hit. A number of label and style changes did not improve his chart potential. By 1965 he finally achieved a Top 5 hit in the R&B chart with the ballad ‘Lets Move And Groove Together’.

Nash was unable to maintain the winning formula, but in 1967 his R&B hit was enjoying chart success in Jamaica. The good fortunes in Jamaica led Nash to the island to promote his hit. It was here that he was exposed to ska and arranged a return visit to the island to record at Federal Studios. Accompanied by Byron Lee And The Dragonaires, the sessions resulted in ‘Cupid’, ‘Hold Me Tight’ and ‘You Got Soul’. When he released ‘Hold Me Tight’, the song became an international hit, achieving Top 5 success in the UK as well as a return to the Jamaican chart. He formed a partnership with Danny Simms, and a label, JAD (Johnny and Danny), releasing recordings by Bob Marley, Byron Lee, Lloyd Price and Kim Weston as well as his own material until the label folded in the early 70s. He returned to recording in Jamaica at Harry J.’s studio where he met Marley, who wrote ‘Stir It Up’, which revived Nash’s career by peaking at number 13 on the UK chart in June 1972.

Nash continued to enjoy popularity with ‘I Can See Clearly Now’, a UK Top 5 hit that was later successfully covered by Jimmy Cliff in 1994 for the film Cool Runnings. Other hits followed, including ‘Ooh What A Feeling’ and ‘There Are More Questions Than Answers’, but the further he drifted from reggae, the less successful the single. He covered other Bob Marley compositions, including ‘Nice Time’ and ‘Guava Jelly’, but they were not picked up for single release, although the latter was on the b-side to ‘There Are More Questions Than Answers’. His career subsequently took another downward turn but was revived yet again when he returned to Jamaica to record an Ernie Smith composition, ‘Tears On My Pillow’, which reached number 1 in the UK Top 10 in June 1975. He also reached the UK chart with ‘Let’s Be Friends’ and ‘(What) A Wonderful World’ before choosing to devote more energy to films and his West Indian recording complex.

Bio source…..www.oldies.com

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UB40 – Rat in my Kitchen

UB40 – Rat in my Kitchen

UB40 - Rat in my Kitchen

UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. The band has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album four times, and in 1984, they were nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Group. One of the world’s best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records. Their hit singles include their debut “Food for Thought” and two U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number ones with “Red Red Wine” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. Both of these also topped the UK Singles Chart, as did the band’s version of “I Got You Babe”.

The story of UB40, and how this group of young friends from Birmingham transcended their working-class origins to become the world’s most successful reggae band is not the stuff of fairytales as might be imagined. The group’s led a charmed life in many respects it’s true, but it’s been a long haul since the days they’d meet up in the bars and clubs around Moseley, and some of them had to scrape by on less than £8 a week unemployment benefit. The choice was simple if you’d left school early. You could either work in one of the local factories, like Robin Campbell did, or scuffle along aimlessly whilst waiting for something else to happen.

By the summer of 1978, something else did happen, and the nucleus of UB40 began rehearsing in a local basement. Robin’s younger brother Ali, Earl Falconer, Brian Travers and James Brown all knew each other from Moseley School of Art, whilst Norman Hassan had been a friend of Ali’s since school. Initially, they thought of themselves as a “jazz-dub-reggae” band, but by the time Robin was persuaded to join and they’d recruited Michael Virtue and Astro – who’d learnt his craft with Birmingham sound-system Duke Alloy – the group had already aligned themselves to left-wing political ideals and forged their own identity, separate from the many punk and Two Tone outfits around at that time. The group had nailed their colours to the mast by naming themselves after an unemployment benefit form. Their political convictions hadn’t been gleaned secondhand either, but cemented in place whilst attending marches protesting against the National Front, or rallies organised by Rock Against Racism.

Read More…..www.ub40.co.uk

Picture Source…..samcoley.com

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My Ding A Ling – Chuck Berry

My Ding A Ling – Chuck Berry

My Ding A Ling - Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry’s music has transcended generations. He earns respect to this day because he is truly an entertainer. Berry, also known as “The Father of Rock & Roll”, gained success by watching the audience’s reaction and playing accordingly, putting his listeners’ amusement above all else. For this reason, tunes like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybellene” and “Memphis” have become anthems to an integrated American youth and popular culture. Berry is a musical icon who established rock and roll as a musical form and brought the worlds of black and white together in song.

Born in St. Louis on October 18, 1926 Berry had many influences on his life that shaped his musical style. He emulated the smooth vocal clarity of his idol, Nat King Cole, while playing blues songs from bands like Muddy Waters. For his first stage performance, Berry chose to sing a Jay McShann song called “Confessin’ the Blues.” It was at his high school’s student musical performance, when the blues was well-liked but not considered appropriate for such an event. He got a thunderous applause for his daring choice, and from then on, Berry had to be onstage.

Berry took up the guitar after that, inspired by his partner in the school production. He found that if he learned rhythm changes and blues chords, he could play most of the popular songs on the radio at the time. His friend, Ira Harris, showed him techniques on the guitar that would become the foundation of Berry’s original sound. Then in 1952, he began playing guitar and singing in a club band whose song list ranged from blues to ballads to calypso to country. Berry was becoming an accomplished showman, incorporating gestures and facial expressions to go with the lyrics.

It was in 1953 that Chuck Berry joined the Sir John’s Trio (eventually renamed the Chuck Berry Combo), which played the popular Cosmopolitan Club in St. Louis. Country-western music was big at the time, so Berry decided to use some of the riffs and create his own unique hillbilly sound. The black audience thought he was crazy at first, but couldn’t resist trying to dance along with it. Since country was popular with white people, they began to come to the shows, and the audience was at some points almost 40 percent white. Berry’s stage show antics were getting attention, but the other band members did their parts as well. In his own words: “I would slur my strings to make a passage that Johnnie (Johnson) could not produce with piano keys but the answer would be so close that he would get a tremendous ovation. His answer would sound similar to some that Jerry Lee Lewis’s fingers later began to flay.”

Read more…..www.chuckberry.com

Picture source…..www.chuckberry.com

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Computer Support – My Printer Is Not Working

Computer Support – My Printer Is Not Working

Support Call:

CallerHi, our printer isn’t working.

Customer Service:  What’s wrong with it?

Caller :   Mouse is jammed.

Customer Service:  Mouse?

                                Printers don’t have a mouse you fool!

Caller:  Hmmmm … Oh really?  I will send a picture.

Scroll down!

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Computer Support - My Printer Is Not Working

Picture source…..www.ezsolution.com

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Taylor Dayne – Tell It To My Heart

Taylor Dayne – Tell It To My Heart

Taylor Dayne - Tell It To My Heart

When the name Taylor Dayne is mentioned, right away the time frame goes to the ’80s where ‘Tell It to My Heart’ became the most frequent song to be blasted from boom boxes. Twenty years after, the name is not yet exhausted from the rub of time. The disco icon is back with her solo record Satisfied that released its first single, ‘Beautiful’ to no longer big hair era beats but wild anthem and a twist of contemporary pop. “It was time to roll up my sleeves, get back into the studio and show people I’m not done yet,” Dayne said with a laugh. Talking about ‘done’, she rolled out a team that almost scarily awe any music fans who knows the drill. Taking Mike Mangini (Baha Men, O-Town), Peter Wade, Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna and Rick Nowels Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Dayne believes her new sound will capture her old fans the same way as the new ones. “My job as an artist is to make sure that I make the material I choose mine, by interpreting it my way,” Dayne puts it. ‘Satisfied’ is in stores February 5, 2008.

Hailed from Baldwin Nassau Country, New York, Dayne whose real name …

is Lesli Wunderman was born on March 7, 1962. She grew up listening to rock bands like The Beatles,  Aerosmith Led Zeppelin and The Stones but also took her time in sipping a little Al Green and Marvin Gaye. Once graduated from High School at the age of 15, she joined little-known bands called ‘Felony’ and ‘The Next’. Knowing that there’s a bigger opportunity out there for her solo career, she introduced herself as Les Lee and released a single called ‘I’m the One You Want’ but it was in 1985 that she had the big break by meeting producer Ric Wake. Two years working hard, she came out with ‘Tell It to My Heart’ that amazingly became a perfect fit to the music taste at that time. Upon its release in 1987, Arista signed her immediately, leading to an album under the same name that was worked on within a matter of months due to the high demand. By 1988, Dayne was a huge pop star. Read more: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/taylor_dayne/biography.html#ixzz2Ob03ZwZO

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