Connie Francis - Who's Sorry Now

Connie Francis (born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero; December 12, 1938) is an American pop singer, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. She is best known for her downbeat ballads delivered in her trademark sobbing, emotive style.

In addition to her signature song, "Where The Boys Are", her many hits include "Lipstick on Your Collar", "Who's Sorry Now?", and "Stupid Cupid". She topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on three occasions with "Everybody's Somebody's Fool", "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own" and "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You". She also was known for her early relationship with the singer and teen heart-throb Bobby Darin.

Billboard chart historian Joel Whitburn has ranked Francis as the top female vocalist on the Adult Contemporary chart during the 1960s. In 1961, Francis was the first female artist to score a No. 1 Billboard Adult Contemporary single with "Together," and she topped the AC chart the following year with "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You."

In 2000, "Who's Sorry Now?" was named one of the Songs of the Century. Francis was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in December 2007.

Francis was the first American artist to regularly record in other languages. As a result, she enjoyed her greatest successes outside of the United States. During the 1960s, her songs not only topped the charts in numerous countries around the world, but she was voted the #1 singer in over ten countries. In 1960, she was named the most popular artist in Europe, the first time a non-European received this honor.

"Who's Sorry Now?" is a popular song with music written by Ted Snyder and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. It was published in 1923.

Who's Sorry Now? was featured in the Marx Brothers film A Night in Casablanca (1946), directed by Archie Mayo and released by United Artists.

The song has been recorded by a number of artists. The song was recorded in 1958 by Connie Francis, and since then the song has become closely identified with her with her due to the immense popularity of her version which was her breakout hit. Francis' father had pestered her to record "Who's Sorry Now" being adamant that the song would be a rock and roll smash hit. Francis did not share this enthusiasm but when a January 1958 recording session - presumably Francis' last as she'd scored no hits - wrapped early the singer used the leftover studio time to record "Who's Sorry Now" as a goodwill gesture to her father. Breaking in February 1958 - mainly on account of Dick Clark's championing of "Who's Sorry Now" on American Bandstand - the track rose as high as #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 that spring, with eventual US sales totaling one million units. In the UK "Who's Sorry Now" was #1 for six weeks in May and June of 1958.

Ella Fitzgerald included this song on ther 1960 Verve release Let No Man Write My Epitaph, accompanied only by pianist Paul Smith.

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Brenda Lee - Sweet Nothin's

Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), better known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis. She is best known for her 1960 hit "I'm Sorry", and 1958's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", a US holiday standard for more than 50 years.

At 4 ft 9 inches tall, she received the nickname Little Miss Dynamite in 1957 after recording the song "Dynamite"; and was one of the earliest pop stars to have a major contemporary international following.

Lee's popularity faded in the late 1960s as her voice matured, but she continued a successful recording career by returning to her roots as a country singer with a string of hits through the 1970s and 1980s. She is a member of the Rock and Roll, Country Music, Rockabilly and Hit Parade Halls of Fame. Lee currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Sweet Nothin's" rose as high as #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 and was written by country musician Ronnie Self.

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Lavern Baker - I Cried a Tear

LaVern Baker (November 11, 1929 – March 10, 1997) was an American rhythm and blues singer.She began singing in Chicago clubs such as the Club DeLisa around 1946, often billed as Little Miss Sharecropper, and first recorded under that name in 1949. She changed her name briefly to Bea Baker when recording for Okeh Records in 1951, and then became LaVern Baker when singing with Todd Rhodes and his band in 1952.

In 1953 she signed for Atlantic Records as a solo artist, her first release being "Soul on Fire". Her first hit came in early 1955, with the Latin-tempo "Tweedlee Dee" reaching #4 on the R&B chart and #14 on the national US pop charts.Georgia Gibbs scored the bigger hit with her version of "Tweedle Dee", for which Baker unsuccessfully attempted to sue her. LaVern did manage to get in a jab, however. When LaVern was flying to Australia, she took out flight insurance at the airport and sent it to Gibbs with a note: "You need this more than I do because if anything happens to me, you're out of business."

Baker had a succession of hits on the R&B charts over the next couple of years with her backing group The Gliders, including "Bop-Ting-A-Ling" (#3 R&B), "Play It Fair" (#2 R&B), and "Still" (#4 R&B). At the end of 1956 she had another smash hit with "Jim Dandy" (#1 R&B, #17 pop). It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Further hits followed for Atlantic, including the follow-up "Jim Dandy Got Married" (#7 R&B), "I Cried a Tear" (#2 R&B, #6 pop in 1959), "I Waited Too Long" (#5 R&B, #3 pop, written by Neil Sedaka), "Saved" (#17 R&B, written by Leiber and Stoller), and "See See Rider" (#9 R&B in 1963).

In addition to singing, Baker also did some work with Ed Sullivan and Alan Freed on TV and in films, including Rock, Rock, Rock and Mr. Rock & Roll. In 1964, she recorded a Bessie Smith tribute album, before leaving Atlantic and joining Brunswick Records, where she recorded the album "Let Me Belong to You," as well as a hit duet single, "Think Twice," with Jackie Wilson.

In the late 1960s, she became seriously ill after a trip to Vietnam to entertain American soldiers. About that same time, a friend recommended that she stay on as the entertainment director at a Marine Corps night club at the Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines, and she remained there for 22 years.

In 1988 she returned to perform at Madison Square Garden for Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary. She then worked on the soundtracks to films such as Shag, (1989), Dick Tracy, (1990) and A Rage in Harlem (1991), which were all issued on CD.
In 1990, she made her Broadway debut replacing Ruth Brown as star of the hit musical Black and Blue. In 1991, Rhino Records released a new album Live in Hollywood recorded at the Hollywood Roosevelt Cinegrill, as well as a compilation of her greatest Atlantic hits entitled Soul on Fire. In 1992 she recorded a well-received studio album, Woke Up This Morning, for DRG Records. She continued performing after having both legs amputated from diabetes in 1994 and made her last recording, "Jump Into the Fire," for the 1995 Harry Nilsson tribute CD, For the Love of Harry on the Music Masters label.

She received the 1990 Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and in 1991, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her song "Jim Dandy" was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was ranked #343 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
LaVern Baker died from coronary complications in 1997, and was interred in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, New York. She originally lay in an unmarked grave, but a fundraiser was scheduled by local historians to give LaVern a headstone, and this was accomplished on May 4, 2008.

" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."

Sonny Rollins - Strode Rode

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930 in New York City) is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas", "Oleo", "Doxy", and "Airegin", have become jazz standards.
Rollins is recognized by many for the length and quality of his career, one not easily matched in the world of jazz or other genres. His melodic sensibilities, playing style and solos have also influenced several generations of musicians.

Rollins was awarded the 2010 National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.
The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota officially named October 31, 2006, after Rollins in honor of his achievements and contributions to the world of jazz.

In 2007 he received the prestigious Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, Sweden, together with Steve Reich, while Colby College awarded Rollins a Doctor of Music, honoris causa, for his contributions to jazz music.Rollins was elected to the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1973.

His widely acclaimed album Saxophone Colossus was recorded on June 22, 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey, with Tommy Flanagan on piano, former Jazz Messengers bassist Doug Watkins and his favorite drummer Max Roach. This was Rollins' sixth recording as a leader and it included his best-known composition "St. Thomas", a Caribbean calypso based on a tune sung to him by his mother in his childhood, as well as the fast bebop number "Strode Rode", and "Moritat" (the Kurt Weill composition also known as "Mack the Knife").

Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet – Cherokee

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Clifford Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956), aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings. Nonetheless, he had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players, including Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, Valery Ponomarev, and Wynton Marsalis.

He won the Down Beat critics' poll for the 'New Star of the Year' in 1954; he was inducted into the Down Beat 'Jazz Hall of Fame' in 1972 in the critics' poll.

He performed with R&B bandleader Chris Powell,Tadd Dameron, Lionel Hampton, and Art Blakey before forming his own group with Max Roach. The Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet was a high water mark of the hard bop style. The group's pianist, Richie Powell (younger brother of Bud), contributed original compositions, as did Brown himself. The partnership of Brown's trumpet with Harold Land's tenor saxophone made for a very strong front line. Teddy Edwards briefly replaced Land before Sonny Rollins took over for the remainder of the group's existence. In their hands the bebop vernacular reached a peak of inventiveness.

The clean-living Brown has been cited as perhaps breaking the influence of heroin on the jazz world, a model established by Charlie Parker. Clifford stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol.

In June 1956, Brown and Richie Powell were being driven from Philadelphia to Chicago by Powell's wife Nancy for the band's next appearance. While driving on a rainy night on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, west of Bedford, she lost control of the car and it went off the road. All three were killed in the resulting crash. Clifford Brown died on the second anniversary of his marriage to his wife LaRue, which was also LaRue's 22nd birthday.

Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.

A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history.He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown.

Roach also led his own groups, and made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement of African Americans.

Bud Powell - Get Happy

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk.

Along with Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Powell was a key player in the history of bebop, and his virtuosity as a pianist led many to call him "the Charlie Parker of the piano".

Bud Powell is one of the most important pianists in jazz and one of the most underrated because he spent over a third of his life in mental and medical hospitals. He was beaten by the police when he was twenty and he never fully recovered from that beating and as a result, he suffered pain and had to take drugs to alleviate the pain. ... In spite of that, he created a whole lot of wonderful music. Before Bud Powell, pianists were playing "boom, chuck" in the left hand and a lot of melodic figures in the right hand that tended to be arpeggios ...

Bud Powell was imitating Charlie Parker. So Bud was the first pianist to take Charlie Parker's language and adapt it successfully to the piano. That's why he is the most important pianist in music today because everybody plays like that now.

"Get Happy" is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler.
It was the first song they wrote together, and was introduced by Ruth Etting in The Nine-Fifteen Revue in 1930.

Influenced by the Get Happy tradition, it is most associated with Judy Garland, who performed it in her last MGM film Summer Stock (1950). An instrumental, hot jazz arrangement of the song, performed by Abe Lyman's Brunswick Recording Orchestra, served as the original theme music for Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies cartoons in 1932

Cozy Cole - Topsy Part II

Cozy Cole (October 17, 1909 – January 31, 1981) was a jazz drummer who scored a #1 Cashbox magazine hit with the record "Topsy Part 2". "Topsy" peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100, and at number one on the R&B chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The recording contained a lengthy drum solo, and was one of the few drum solo recordings that ever made the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single was issued on the tiny Brooklyn-based Love Records label.

William Randolph Cole was born in 1909 in East Orange, New Jersey. His first music job was with Wilbur Sweatman in 1928. In 1930 he played for Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers, recording an early drum solo on "Load of Cole". He spent 1931–33 with Blanche Calloway, 1933-34 with Benny Carter, 1935-36 with Willie Bryant, 1936-38 with Stuff Smith's small combo, and 1938-42 with Cab Calloway. In 1942, he was hired by CBS Radio music director Raymond Scott as part of network radio's first mixed-race orchestra. After that he played with Louis Armstrong's All Stars.

Cole appeared in music-related films, including a brief cameo in Don't Knock the Rock. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Cole continued to perform in a variety of settings. Cole and Gene Krupa often played duets at the Metropole in New York City during the 1950s and 1960s. He died of cancer in 1981, in Columbus, Ohio.
Cole is cited as an influence by many contemporary rock drummers, including Cozy Powell, who took his nickname 'Cozy' from Cole.

"Topsy Part 2" was a 1938 instrumental release for bandleader, Benny Goodman. His release of "Topsy Part 2" was a number fourteen pop hit. In 1958, drummer Cozy Cole had a #3 pop hit with his version of the instrumental. Part 1 of the release made it to #27. Cole's version of "Topsy Part 2" was also a number one on the R&B chart for six weeks.

" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."

Johnny Cash - I walk the line

John R. "Johnny" Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter, actor,and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he is primarily remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel.

This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists, among them the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails and he covered the synthpop band Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus.

Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" freight train sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues."

Much of Cash's music, especially that of his later career, echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption. His signature songs include "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", "Get Rhythm" and "Man in Black". He also recorded humorous numbers, including "One Piece at a Time" and "A Boy Named Sue"; a duet with his future wife, June Carter, called "Jackson"; as well as railroad songs including "Hey, Porter" and "Rock Island Line".

Cash, a devout but troubled Christian, has been characterized as a "lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges." A Biblical scholar, he penned a Christian novel titled Man in White, and he made a spoken word recording of the entire New King James Version of the New Testament. Even so, Cash declared that he was "the biggest sinner of them all", and viewed himself overall as a complicated and contradictory man. Accordingly, Cash is said to have "contained multitudes", and has been deemed "the philosopher-prince of American country music".
In 1999, Cash received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Cash #31 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

"I Walk the Line" is a song written by Johnny Cash and recorded in 1956. It was performed with the help of Marshall Grant and Luther Perkins, two mechanics that his brother introduced him to following his discharge from the Air Force.

Cash and his wife, Vivian, were living in Memphis, Tennessee, at the time. Cash became the front man for the group and precipitated the introduction of the group to Sam Phillips of Sun Records. In 1955 they began recording under the Sun label.

After three attempts with moderate chart ratings, "I Walk the Line" became the first number one Billboard hit for the group. The single remained on the record charts for over 43 weeks, and sold over 2 million copies.

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #30 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."

Bill Haley - Rock Around The Clock

Bill Haley (July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".

In 1953, Haley's recording of "Crazy Man, Crazy" (co-written by Haley and his bass player, Marshall Lytle although Lytle would not receive credit until 2001) became the first rock and roll song to hit the American charts, peaking at no.15 on Billboard and no.11 on Cash Box. Soon after, the band's name was revised to Bill Haley & His Comets.

In 1953, a song called "Rock Around the Clock" was written for Haley.He was unable to record it until April 12, 1954. Initially, it was relatively unsuccessful, staying at the charts for only one week, but Haley soon scored a major worldwide hit with a cover version of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll", which went on to sell a million copies and became the first ever rock 'n' roll song to enter British singles charts in December 1954 and became a Gold Record. He retained elements of the original, but threw some country music aspects in to the song (specifically, Western Swing) and cleaned up the lyrics. Haley and his band were important in launching the music known as "Rock and Roll" to a wider, mostly white audience after years of it being considered an underground genre.

When "Rock Around the Clock" appeared behind the opening credits of the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, it soared to the top of the American Billboard chart for eight weeks. The single is commonly used as a convenient line of demarcation between the "rock era" and the music industry that preceded it; Billboard separated its statistical tabulations into 1890-1954 and 1955–present.

After the record rose to number one, Haley was quickly given the title "Father of Rock and Roll," by the media, and by teenagers that had come to embrace the new style of music.

"Rock Around the Clock" was the first record ever to sell over one million copies in both Britain and Germany and, in 1957, Haley became the first major American rock singer to tour Europe. Haley continued to score hits throughout the 1950s such as "See You Later, Alligator" and he starred in the first rock and roll musical movies Rock Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Rock, both in 1956.

Haley was soon eclipsed in the United States by the younger, sexier Elvis, but continued to enjoy great popularity in Latin America, Europe, and Australia through the 1960s.

A self-admitted alcoholic (as indicated in a 1974 radio interview for the BBC), Haley fought a battle with alcohol into the 1970s. Nonetheless, he and his band continued to be a popular touring act, enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1960s with the Rock and roll revival movement and the signing of a lucrative record deal with the European Sonet Records label. After performing for Queen Elizabeth II at a command performance in 1979, Haley made his final performances in South Africa in May and June 1980. Prior to the South African tour, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and a planned tour of Germany in the fall of 1980 was canceled.

Despite his ill health, Haley began compiling notes for possible use as a basis for either a biographical film based on his life, or a published autobiography (accounts differ), and there were plans for him to record an album in Memphis, Tennessee, when the brain tumor began affecting his behavior and he went back to his home in Harlingen, Texas, where he died early in the morning of February 9, 1981.

Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"Rock Around the Clock" was written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952.

It was not the first rock and roll record, nor was it the first successful record of the genre (Bill Haley had American chart success with "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, and in 1954, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart).
Haley's recording nevertheless became an anthem for rebellious Fifties youth and is widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture around the world.

The song is ranked #158 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."

Little Walter - My Babe

Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), was an American blues harmonica player whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix for innovation and impact on succeeding generations. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica.

Little Walter's body of work earned him a spot in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 making him the only artist ever to be inducted specifically for his work as a harmonica player.

His legacy has been enormous: he is widely credited by blues historians as the artist primarily responsible for establishing the standard vocabulary for modern blues and blues rock harmonica players. His influence can be heard in varying degrees in virtually every modern blues harp player who came along in his wake, from blues greats such as Junior Wells, James Cotton, George "Harmonica" Smith, Carey Bell, and Big Walter Horton, through modern-day masters Sugar Blue, Billy Branch, Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza, William Clarke, and Charlie Musselwhite, in addition to blues-rock crossover artists such as Paul Butterfield, Southside Johnny (who named his band The Asbury Jukes after Little Walter's band), and John Popper of the band Blues Traveler. He was portrayed in the 2008 film Cadillac Records by Columbus Short.

A few months after returning from his second European tour, he was involved in a fight while taking a break from a performance at a nightclub on the South Side of Chicago. The relatively minor injuries sustained in this altercation aggravated and compounded damage he had suffered in previous violent encounters, and he died in his sleep at the apartment of a girlfriend at 209 E. 54th St. in Chicago early the following morning. The official cause of death indicated on his death certificate was "coronary thrombosis" (a blood clot in the heart); evidence of external injuries was so insignificant that police reported that his death was of "unknown or natural causes", and there were no external injuries noted on the death certificate. His body was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Evergreen Park, IL on February 22, 1968.

"My Babe" is a blues song and a blues standard written by Willie Dixon. Released in 1955 on Checker Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records, the song was the only Dixon composition ever to become a no. 1 R&B single, and it was one of the biggest hits of either of their careers.

The song was based on the traditional gospel song "This Train (Is Bound For Glory)", which Sister Rosetta Tharpe recorded in the 1939 hit, "This Train". Dixon reworked the arrangement and lyrics from the sacred, the procession of saints into Heaven, into the secular, a story about a woman that won't stand for her man to cheat: "My baby, she don't stand no cheating, my babe, she don't stand none of that midnight creeping".

Ray Charles had famously, and controversially, pioneered the gospel-song-to-secular-song approach with his reworking of the gospel hymn "It Must Be Jesus." into "I Got a Woman", which hit the Billboard R&B charts on January 22, 1955, later climbing to the #1 position for one week. Within days of the appearance of Charles's song on the national charts, Little Walter entered the studio to record "My Babe", on January 25, 1955. "My Babe" was released while "I've Got A Woman" was still on the charts, and eclipsed Charles's record by spending 19 weeks on the Billboard R&B charts beginning on March 12, 1955, including five weeks at the number one position, making it one of the biggest R&B hits of 1955

The "B" side of "My Babe" was the harmonica instrumental "Thunderbird", following the pattern established by the release of Little Walter's number #1 hit single from 1952, "Juke", of featuring a vocal performance one side and a harmonica instrumental on the flip side.

" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."

Barrett Strong - Money (That's What I Want)

Barrett Strong (born February 5, 1941, West Point, Mississippi) is an American singer and songwriter. Strong was the first artist to record a hit for Motown, although he is best remembered for his work as a songwriter, particularly in association with producer Norman Whitfield.

Strong was among the first artists signed to Berry Gordy's Motown corporation, and is the performer on the company's first hit, "Money (That's What I Want)," which reached No. 2 U.S. R&B in 1960. Written by Gordy and Janie Bradford, the single was originally released on the Tamla record label, a forerunner of Motown, but was then leased to the Anna label as it was getting airplay, and it was on Anna label that it was a hit.

"Money", which gave Strong his only major hit as a vocalist, was later recorded by a number of acts, including The Beatles, The Kingsmen, Richard Wylie and His Band, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Searchers, The Flying Lizards, The Sonics and Buddy Guy.

In the mid 1960s, Strong, a cousin of fellow Detroit soul singer Nolan Strong, became a Motown staff lyricist, teaming with producer Norman Whitfield. Together, Strong and Whitfield wrote some of the most successful and critically acclaimed soul songs ever to be released by Motown, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by both Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips; "War" by Edwin Starr; "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by The Undisputed Truth; and the long line of "psychedelic soul" records by The Temptations, including "Cloud Nine", "I Can't Get Next to You", "Psychedelic Shack", "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", amongst others.

Strong received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1973 for "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". Strong and Whitfield also co-wrote the ballad "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)", a 1971 Billboard No. 1 that also marked the last Temptations single to feature charter members Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams.

After Motown moved its operations base from Detroit, Michigan, to Los Angeles, California, Strong left the label and resumed his singing career. In 1972 he signed with Epic. But after one failed single, Strong moved on, recording two albums for Capitol Records in the mid 1970s.

Strong continued into the 1980s, recording "Rock It Easy" for an independent label and writing and arranging "You Can Depend on Me", which was included on The Dells's The Second Time album in 1988. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.

Money (That's What I Want) features Strong curtly demanding that money is what he needs, more than anything else. The single became Motown's first hit in June 1960, making it to #2 on the US R&B chart and #23 on the US pop chart.

The song was listed as #288 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."

Isley Brothers - Shout

The Isley Brothers are a highly influential, successful and long-running American music group consisting of different line-ups of six brothers, and a brother-in-law, Chris Jasper. The founding members were O'Kelly Isley, Jr., Rudolph Isley, Ronald Isley and Vernon Isley.

Starting their careers in the gospel performing circuit in the early 1950s, they eventually crossed over to secular music first finding modest success in doo-wop until the release of their first million-selling hit, "Shout", in 1959.


After several flops resulted in them being dropped from their record label, they found success again with sixties hits such as "Twist and Shout", later covered successfully by The Beatles and the Motown hit, "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" in 1962 and 1966 respectively. The group didn't find success again until the end of the decade when their 1969 single, "It's Your Thing", (with Ernie Isley on bass guitar) was released. The song brought them success in the then-fledgling funk genre.

After forming their own label, T-Neck Records, the group found modest success with their own recordings between 1969 and 1972 until revamping the group into a sextet in 1973 with the release of their landmark album, 3 + 3 album, this time featuring younger brothers Ernie Isley and Marvin Isley and brother-in-law Chris Jasper. The addition of Ernie, Marvin, and Chris led to their most successful period as they successfully mixed their brand of R&B with rock, soul and funk elements. Other hits they would have during that period included "Fight the Power" (written by Ernie), "For the Love of You" and "Between the Sheets" (written by Ernie and Marvin).

The group disbanded after the departure of Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley and Chris Jasper (who formed Isley/Jasper/Isley and reached #1 on the charts with 'Caravan of Love') in 1984. O'Kelly Isley died two years later. Rudolph and Ronald released the post O'Kelly albums, Smooth Sailin' and Spend the Night in 1987 and 1989 respectively, collaborating with Angela Winbush. Rudolph retired in 1989 leading Ronald to begin a solo career.

In 1991, Ronald, Ernie and Marvin began working together again. In 1997, Marvin retired from the group and show business after developing diabetes forcing Ronald and Ernie to continue the group as a duo. The duo scored their final top 40 hit with "Contagious" in 2001. The Isleys were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Little Richard in 1992 and are the recipient of a single Grammy Award.

"Shout" is an influential popular song, originally recorded by The Isley Brothers. Released in 1959, it was written by the brothers themselves as a call-and-response answer to Jackie Wilson's seminal "Lonely Teardrops" which they interpreted after performing that song during a club date.

While the song did not reach higher than #47 on the Billboard Hot 100, it became their first gold single on the basis of its longevity and became a much-covered tune, with many U.S. and international artists recording the song.
Joey Dee and the Starlighters reached #6 with their recording of the song in 1962, while the Isley Brothers' version re-charted that same year at #94. Scottish pop singer Lulu had a #7 UK hit with the song in 1964 (attributed to Lulu and the Luvvers), and a #8 UK hit with a re-recorded version in 1986.

The Shangri-Las included a version of the song in their debut LP Leader of the Pack in 1965.

The song was inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. It ranked #118 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.

" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."

Little Richard -Tutti Frutti & Good Golly, Miss Molly

Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s.

He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and contributed significantly to the development of soul music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame web site entry on Penniman states that:

He claims to be "the architect of rock and roll", and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.

On October 12, 1957, while at the height of stardom, Penniman abruptly quit rock and roll music and became a born-again Christian. He had charted seventeen original hits in less than three years. In January 1958, he enrolled in and attended Bible collegeto become a preacher and evangelist and began recording and performing only gospel music for a number of years. He then moved back and forth from rock and roll to the ministry, until he was able to reconcile the two roles in later life.

Penniman was among the first group of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and one of only four of those artists (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003, Penniman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 2007, his 1955 original hit "Tutti Frutti" was voted Number 1 by an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists on Mojo's The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll." In 2010, The United States of America's Library of Congress National Recording Registry added the groundbreaking recording to its registry, claiming that the hit, with its original “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom!” a cappella introduction, announced a new era in music.

"Good Golly Miss Molly" is a hit rock 'n' roll song first recorded in 1958 written by John Marascalco and producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Like all his early hits, it quickly became a rock 'n' roll standard and has subsequently been covered by hundreds of artists. The song is ranked #94 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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Richie Valens - Come on lets go

Ritchie Valens (born Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes; May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959) was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist.

A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens' recording career lasted only eight months. During this time, however, he scored several hits, most notably "La Bamba", which was originally a Mexican folk song that Valens transformed with a rock rhythm and beat that became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement.

On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as The Day the Music Died, Valens was killed in a small-plane crash in Iowa, a tragedy that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

He influenced the likes of Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys and Carlos Santana among countless others at a time when there were very few Latinos in American rock and pop music. He is considered the first Latino to ever successfully cross over into Rock mainstream.

"La Bamba" would prove to be his most influential recording; not only by becoming a pop chart hit sung entirely in Spanish but also because of its successful blending of traditional Latin American music with rock.

Valens also appeared in biopic films. Valens was depicted in the 1987 biopic film La Bamba, which was about his life. Primarily set in 1957-1959, it depicted Valens from age 16 to 17. It introduced Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens and co-starred Esai Morales as his older half-brother, Bob Morales. Los Lobos performed most of the music in the film.

"Come On, Let's Go" has been covered by Los Lobos, The Ramones and "The Paley Brothers;" (jointly, The Ramones on guitar, bass, and drums and The Paley Brothers on vocals), Tommy Steele, The Huntingtons and The McCoys. And in Australia by Johnny Rebb and his Rebels on Leedon/Canetoad Records

Upon his return to Los Angeles, Valens filmed an appearance in Alan Freed's movie Go Johnny Go!. In the film, he appears in a diner, miming his song "Ooh! My Head", using a Gretsch guitar borrowed from Eddie Cochran. In between the live appearances, Ritchie returned to Gold Star several times, recording the tracks that would comprise his two albums.

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The Everly Brothers - All I Have to Do Is Dream

The Everly Brothers (Don, born Isaac Donald Everly, February 1, 1937, and Phil, born Phillip Everly, January 19, 1939) are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing. Their greatest period came between 1957 and 1965.

The duo's harmony singing had a strong influence on rock and roll groups of the 1960s. The Beatles,The Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel developed their early singing styles by performing Everly covers.

The Everly Brothers had 26 Billboard Top 40 singles and 35 Billboard Top 100 singles. They hold the record for the most Top 100 singles by any duo, and trail only Hall & Oates for the most Top 40 singles by a duo.

In 1986, the Everlys were among the first 10 artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During the ceremony, they were introduced by Neil Young, who observed that every musical group he belonged to had tried and failed to copy the Everly Brothers' harmonies.

In 1997, they were awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, they were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004. Their pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked The Everly Brothers #33 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Times.They are also #43 on the list of UK Best selling singles artists of all time.

They still perform occasionally, despite having declared their retirement.

By far the best-known version of "All I Have to Do Is Dream" was recorded by The Everly Brothers and released as a single in April 1958. It is the only single to be at #1 on all of Billboard's singles charts simultaneously, on June 2, 1958. It first reached #1 on the "Most played by Jockeys" and "Top 100" charts on May 19, 1958, and remained there for five and three weeks, respectively; with the August 1958 introduction of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the song ended the year at #2.
"All I Have to Do Is Dream" also hit number one on the R&B charts as well as becoming The Everly Brothers' third number one on the country chart . The Everly Brothers briefly returned to the Hot 100 in 1961 with this song.

The song has also featured on several notable lists of the best songs or singles of all time, including Q's 1001 best songs ever in 2003 and Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, where it placed 141. It was named one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2004.

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Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire

Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, his career faltered after Lewis married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a transition to country music.

Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2003, they listed his box set All Killer, No Filler: The
Anthology number 242 on their list of "500 greatest albums of all time".

Between 1957 and 2006, the date of his latest release "Last Man Standing", 47 singles plus 22 albums (The Session counted as 2 albums) made the Top Twenty Pop, Jukebox, Rock, Indie and/or Country charts in USA or UK.Fourteen reached the number 1 position.

He's had ten official gold disks, the latest being for the 2006 album 'Last Man Standing', plus unofficial ones issued by his record company Mercury for albums which sold over a quarter of a million copies.His 2006 duets CD Last Man Standing has sold over half a million worldwide, his biggest selling album ever.

The original Sun cut of "Great Balls of Fire" was elected to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and Jerry's Sun recording of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" received this honor in 1999. Only recordings which are at least 25 years old and have left a lasting impression can receive this honor. On February 12, 2005, Jerry received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award the day before the Recording
Academy's main Grammy Awards ceremony. On October 10, 2007, Jerry received the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters Award.

Great Balls of Fire" was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The song was released in November 1957. It reached #2 on the Billboard pop charts, #3 on the R&B charts, and #1 on the country charts. It also reached #1 on the UK pop charts.

The song was featured in a performance by Jerry Lee Lewis and his band in the 1957 Warner Brothers rock and roll film Jamboree, which also featured Carl Perkins, Fats Domino, Buddy Knox, and Dick Clark. The Jerry Lee Lewis rendition was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by Rolling Stone.

The song title is derived from a Southern expression, which some Christians consider blasphemous, that refers to the Pentecost's defining moment when the Holy Spirit manifested itself as "cloven tongues as of fire" and the Apostles spoke in tongues.

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Johnny Burnette - Train Kept A Rollin'

John Joseph "Johnny" Burnette (March 25, 1934 – August 14, 1964) was an American rockabilly pioneer. A contemporary of Elvis Presley in the Memphis scene of the mid-'50s, Johnny Burnette played a similar brand of fiery, spare wildman rockabilly.

With his brother Dorsey (on bass) and guitarist Paul Burlison forming his Rock 'n' Roll Trio, he recorded a clutch of singles for Decca in 1956 and 1957 that achieved nothing more than regional success.

Featuring the groundbreaking fuzzy tone of Burlison's guitar, Johnny's energetic vocals, and Dorsey's slapping bass, these recordings -- highlighted by the first rock & roll version of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" -- compare well to the classic Sun rockabilly of the same era. The trio disbanded in 1957, and Johnny found pop success as a teen idol in the early '60s with hits like "You're Sixteen" and "Dreamin'."

Burnette died in a boating accident in 1964. His brother Dorsey achieved modest success as a solo act in the early '60s, and Burlison resurfaced as a member of the Sun Rhythm Section.

"Train Kept A-Rollin" is a song written by Tiny Bradshaw, Howard Kay, and Lois Mann. Bradshaw first recorded the song as a jump blues in 1951,his best known recording. After a rock and roll version of the song was recorded and released by Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio in 1956, numerous other versions have been recorded. The Trio's version, considered a rockabilly classic, is an upbeat, high energy version of the original, with lead guitarist Paul Burlison playing what many consider to be the first introduction of the contemporary fuzz tone guitar sound.

The Yardbirds helped make the song a garage-rock staple when they covered it on the 1965 album Having a Rave Up. "Train Kept A-Rollin'" was the first tune Led Zeppelin played together in 1968. According to John Paul Jones, the room "exploded" when they kicked it off, and they knew they had something. They subsequently played the song as their show opener on tour during 1968 and 1969, and revived it in their final tour "Over Europe" in 1980. A studio version was never recorded by Led Zeppelin, but during his solo Outrider sessions in 1988 Page did record a version similar to that performed by Led Zeppelin in 1980. Nevertheless, the song is featured on several unofficial concert recordings from the end of 1968 and 1969.

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Link Wray - Rumble

Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer.

Wray was noted for pioneering a new sound for electric guitars, as exemplified in his hit 1958 instrumental "Rumble", by Link Wray and his Ray Men, which pioneered an overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound, and also for having "invented the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarist, and in doing so "fathering," or making possible, "punk and heavy rock".

Rolling Stone included Link at number 67 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Wray was born in Dunn, North Carolina to Lillian M. Coats and Fred Lincoln Wray. It was there that Link first heard slide guitar at age eight from a traveling carnival worker nicknamed "Hambone."

After discharge from the Army, Wray and his brothers Doug and Vernon Wray, with friends Shorty Horton and Dixie Neal, formed Lucky Wray and the Lazy Pine Wranglers, later known as Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands. They had been playing country music and Western swing for several years when they took a gig as the house band on the daily live TV show Milt Grant's House Party, a Washington, D.C. version of American Bandstand. The band made their first recordings in 1956 as Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands for Starday Records.

For the TV show, they also backed many performers, from Fats Domino to Ricky Nelson.
In 1958, at a live gig of the D.C.-based Milt Grant's House Party, attempting—at the urging of the local crowd—to work up a cover sound-alike for The Diamonds' hit, "The Stroll", they came up with an eleven and one half bar blues titled "Rumble" which they first called "Oddball". The song was an instant hit with the live audience, which demanded four repeats that night. Eventually the song came to the attention of record producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records, who hated it, particularly after Wray poked holes in his amplifier's speakers to make the recording sound more like the live version. Searching for a title that would hit home with radio listeners, Bleyer sought the advice of Phil Everly, who listened and suggested that it be called "Rumble", as it had a rough attitude that reminded him of a street gang. (Rumble: slang for "gang fight".)

The stalking, menacing sound of "Rumble" (and its title) led to a ban on several radio stations, a rare feat for a song with no lyrics, on the grounds that it glorified juvenile delinquency. Nevertheless it became a huge hit, not only in the United States, but also Great Britain, where it has been cited as an influence on The Kinks, The Who, and Jimmy Page among others.

Pete Townshend stated in unpublished liner notes for the 1970 comeback album, "He is the king; if it hadn't been for Link Wray and 'Rumble,' I would have never picked up a guitar." In other liner notes in 1974, Townshend said, of "Rumble": "I remember being made very uneasy the first time I heard it, and yet excited by the savage guitar sounds."

Jeff Beck, Duff McKagan, Jack Rose, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Cub Koda, Marc Bolan, Neil Young and Bob Dylan have all cited Wray as an influence.
The band had several more hard-rocking instrumental hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Rawhide", "Ace of Spades", and "Jack the Ripper", the latter named after a "dirty boogie" dance popular in Baltimore at the time.

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Elmore James - Dust My Broom

Elmore James (January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, song writer and band leader. He was known as The King of the Slide Guitar and had a unique guitar style, noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice.

James played a wide variety of "blues" (which often crossed over into other styles of music) similar to that of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and some of B. B. King's work, but distinguished by his guitar's vastly more powerful sound (arguably only equaled in technical ability by King, although in a different style) unbelievably coming from a modified, hollow body traditional acoustic guitar, which sounded like the more modern solid body guitars.

He most often played using a slide, but on several recordings he plays without. His voice and style was as instantly recognisable as King's, Muddy's and Wolf's and he and his 'Broomdusters' were as popular in the Chicago clubs as any of these musician's bands.

James could be reportedly 'difficult' (drinking on the job, not paying out cash, abandoning musicians, double booking etc.) Due to his early death, just before the 1960s "blues boom", and the silence of other famous blues performers, the then current music writers only being interested in 'the stars' not caring to interview his ex-band members, immediate family, children, friends etc. little is known about him.

His best known song is the blues standard "Dust My Broom" (also known as "Dust My Blues"). The song gave its name to James's band, The Broomdusters. The song's opening slide guitar riff is one of the best-known sounds in all of blues. It is essentially the same riff that appeared in the recording of the same song by Robert Johnson, but James played the riff with electric slide guitar. It was even transformed into a doo-wop chorus on Jesse Stone's "Down in the Alley", recorded by The Clovers and Elvis Presley.

There is an ongoing dispute as to whether the song was originally written by Robert Johnson or Elmore James.Elmore James made his first recording of "Dust My Broom" in 1951, for the Trumpet Records label.

Most electric slide guitar players will admit to the massive, if not, total influence of James' style. He was also a major influence on such successful 'Blues' guitarists as 'Homesick James' John Littlejohn, Hound Dog Taylor, J. B. Hutto and many others. He also influenced many rock guitarists such as The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones and Fleetwood Mac's Jeremy Spencer. John Mayall included the song, "Mr. James," on his 1969 "Looking Back" album as a dedication to James.

The most famous guitarist who admired Elmore James was Jimi Hendrix. Early in his career Jimi styled himself variously as 'Maurice James' and subsequently as 'Jimmy James.' This, according to former bandmate and recording partner Lonnie Youngblood, was a tribute to Elmore James.

James is mentioned in The Beatles' song "For You Blue": while John Lennon plays the slide guitar (James' trademark), George Harrison says, "Elmore James got nothin' on this, baby." Other artists influenced by Elmore James include Frank Zappa and Jeffrey Evans of the band 68 Comeback. Eric Clapton recorded a song called "Tribute to Elmore" that appeared on a 1990 "The Best of British Rock" compilation CD.

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Les Paul & Mary Ford - How High the Moon

Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul,was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which "made the sound of rock and roll possible".He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.

His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.

Paul met country-western singer Colleen Summers in 1945. They began working together in 1948, at which time she adopted the stage name Mary Ford. They were married in 1949. The couple's hits included "How High the Moon", "Bye Bye Blues", "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise", and "Vaya con Dios". These songs featured Ford harmonizing with herself.

Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed.

"How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock. In "Two for the Show", this was a rare serious moment in an otherwise humorous revue. The song was sung, in a slow fox trot tempo, by a group of evening-dressed people walking along a London street. At the end, they all looked at the sky, and cowered, obviously terrified: quick curtain. It was 1940, and the time of the London blitz: a clear night meant "bomber's moon".

There are numerous covers of the song with the best-known recording by Les Paul and Mary Ford, made on January 4, 1951. The record was released with the flip side "Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues", and spent 25 weeks (beginning on March 23, 1951) on the Billboard chart, 9 weeks at #1.

The song was sung in various recordings by Ella Fitzgerald, becoming (with the Gershwin's "Oh, Lady Be Good!") Ella's signature tune. Her most celebrated recording of "How High the Moon" is on her 1960 album Ella in Berlin, and her version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

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