The Music of GIN BLOSSOMS

Gin Blossoms are an alternative rock band formed in 1987, in Tempe, Arizona. They took their name from a photo of W.C. Fields which bore the caption "W.C. Fields with gin blossoms," referring to the actor's gin-ravaged nose. The band, who were musically weaned on The Byrds and Tom Petty, released three albums and had several hits in the mid 1990s, before breaking up in 1997. Five years later in 2002, the band reunited, released a DVD, resumed touring, and promised a fourth album. Major Lodge Victory, the Gin Blossoms' first album in ten years, was released on August 8, 2006 on the Hybrid Recordings label.

Members during the band's early years included guitarist and songwriter Doug Hopkins, bassist Bill Leen, vocalist Jesse Valenzuela, guitarist Richard Taylor, drummer Chris McCann, McCann's replacement Dan Henzerling, and Taylor's replacement Robin Wilson. During their early years, the Gin Blossoms became well-known locally around their hometown of Tempe, Arizona. With the band's frequent touring and resulting increase in popularity, the Blossoms also independently recorded their first full-length album, Dusted.

By the early 1990s, the lineup had changed to Leen on bass, Hopkins on guitar, Valenzuela on guitar and vocals, Wilson on vocals and acoustic guitar, and Phillip Rhodes on drums. After being signed with A&M Records, the band began to work on their debut album. Initial attempts to create their first major-label record failed, to the dismay of their record label and fans alike. To buy time, the band first released an EP, Up and Crumbling, then tried once again to develop the first-class record they had so far unsuccessfully tried to create. Unfortunately, the Gin Blossoms had yet to face their most trying times as a band.

The Gin Blossoms named their debut album New Miserable Experience as a reflection of their relatively unpleasant new experience of life in a band. During work on this record, lead guitarist Doug Hopkins, a severe alcoholic, was fired and replaced with Scott Johnson. Author Laurie Notaro makes a (slightly veiled) mention of the Gin Blossoms, specifically drinking with Doug Hopkins after he had been kicked out of the band, in her book "We Thought You'd be Prettier" in an essay about the closing of Long Wongs, a local bar where the band performed. Hopkins' songs "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You" went on to become hit singles. Their success was overshadowed by Hopkins' suicide in 1993. Their second major album, almost entitled "Sophomore Jinx" was released in 1996 under the title, "Congratulations… I'm Sorry." The album was met with mixed reviews, despite yielding the top ten hit "Follow You Down."

The Blossoms broke up in the spring of 1997, and each band member moved on to his own project. Vocalist Wilson and drummer Rhodes launched the Gas Giants. Bassist Leen retired from music to operate a rare-book store. Guitarist Valenzuela fronted a short-lived outfit called the Low Watts, released a solo album, and kept busy writing and producing. Wilson ventured into producing as well, at his Mayberry Studios in Tempe, Arizona.

The Gas Giants announced an "indefinite hiatus" in June 2001. On December 4, 2001, it was announced that Scott would leave his current band, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, to rejoin the Gin Blossoms. The band regrouped and began playing together again in earnest (having done a couple of one-off shows in the interim) in 2002. In the words of frontman Robin Wilson at the time, "We always said our breakup wasn't forever and right now we're all feeling like we want to be Gin Blossoms again. We make a noise together that we can't make otherwise. We respect and appreciate that we need each other to create that sound. This time we hope to avoid being swallowed by the chaos."

The only Blossom not involved in the reunion was Rhodes, who, for personal reasons, decided not to drum with the band. Phil Leavitt of dada originally took Rhodes' place in the lineup, and then Gary Smith (of The Pistoleros, another Tempe band) stepped in. Scott Kusmirek took over drumming for the band from 2002 to 2004. In January 2005, it was announced that Rhodes would rejoin the band. The re-entry of Rhodes was short-lived, however. Kusmirek returned to the band, taking Rhodes' place. "The Kooze," as he is affectionately known, is the current drummer for the Gin Blossoms.

The band's latest album, Major Lodge Victory, was originally recorded at Robin Wilson's Mayberry Studios in Tempe. However, the album was then re-recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, the same studio at which the band had recorded all of their previous albums, along with other notable groups such as Big Star and The Replacements. Major Lodge Victory was released by Hybrid Recordings on August 8, 2006, and "Learning the Hard Way" was the first single. Major Lodge Victory debuted at number 159 on the Billboard 200 album chart. This was the first time the Gin Blossoms had appeared on the Billboard 200 chart in 10 years, one month, and two weeks. Gin Blossoms had last appeared on the chart during the week of July 13, 1996, with their previous album, Congratulations… I'm Sorry.

Frontman Robin Wilson is best known for his interaction with the crowd. He often hands off a tamborine to a lucky fan in the front row to strike in sync with the drum beat. He's also been known to sing directly into fans' cell phones during some of their more established hits such as "Follow You Down" and "Til I Hear It From You". Often during live performances, Wilson will also introduce the band to the audience. He typically calls himself "Bif Del Monte," and introduces Jesse Valenzuela as his brother, "Pablo Del Monte." Former member and co-founder of the band, Doug Hopkins (deceased), was known as "Otis Del Monte," while bass player Bill Leen is known as "Soup-bone Del Monte," and drummer Phillip Rhodes as "Guido Del Monte." These nicknames came from the band's early days playing at local bars around their hometown of Tempe, Arizona. As the story goes, one night the band was set to perform a gig at Long Wong's, a local bar. However, the members were forced to change their names, in order to avoid trouble with the law. The band went on the bill as the Del Montes, and the name stuck.

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The Music of FIREHOUSE

Firehouse is an American hard rock band formed in Charlotte, NC in 1989 and named after Kiss's song of the same name. The band reached stardom during the early 90s with hit singles like "Don't Treat Me Bad" and "All She Wrote", but mainly due to their signature ballads "I Live My Life For You", "Love Of A Lifetime" and "When I Look Into Your Eyes". At the 1991 American Music Awards, Firehouse won the award for Best New Hard Rock/Metal Band, chosen over Nirvana and Alice in Chains.

Despite diminishing success in the United States as the decade progressed, the band has remained very popular in Asia, mainly in Japan. However, even though they don't have the popularity they had before, the band still tours frequently and have participated twice in the annual Rock Never Stops Tour with other bands of the 80s.

History
FireHouse was formed in the late 80s when singer C.J. Snare moved to North Carolina and met bassist Perry Richardson. After playing together as Maxx Warrior, they met drummer Michael Foster and guitarist Bill Leverty and formed "White Heat". Later after shopping for a record deal the band found out the name was under copyright and changed their name to FireHouse.

The band was signed to Epic Records and released their eponymous debut album which catapulted them to stardom. The album produced four hit singles and was certified double platinum in the USA, while reaching gold in three other countries. They followed it with Hold Your Fire in 1992 that, although not as successful as its predecessor, produced three more hit singles and was certified gold twice.

However, the shifts in the genre forced to band to adapt, which they showed in their subsequent albums. Their third album, aptly titled 3, featured a significantly softer sound, while its follow-up, Good Acoustics, was a collection of acoustic arrangements of their best songs.

During this time, the band was released from their label. However, they made a significant and important change, when they signed with Pony Canyon Records, from Japan. With the decline of popularity among rock acts of the 80s in the States, and their steady fame in Asia, they agreed and released Category 5 with their new label. They toured heavily throughout Asia, achieving great success with their album. However, this was not the case in the States. In 1999, they recorded one of their live shows in Osaka, Japan and released it a year later with the title Bring 'Em Out Live.

After this, the band parted ways with founding bassist, Perry Richardson, and hired Bruce Waibel. With him, they recorded their next album, O2. Also, at this point, the band became a frequent performer at the Rock Never Stops Tour. This tour featured rock bands from the 80s like Slaughter, Quiet Riot, and the likes.

Waibel also parted ways with the band due to personal reasons. Unfortunately, in 2003, he was found dead. He has been replaced by Allen McKenzie. Recently, the band released their latest album, Prime Time.

Band members
Current *
C.J. Snare - vocals, keyboards
Bill Leverty - guitars * Michael Foster - drums
Allen McKenzie - bass guitar

Former *
Perry Richardson - bass guitar (1989 - 1999)
Bruce Waibel - bass guitar (2000 - 2003)
Dario Seixas - bass guitar (2003) * Cosby Ellis

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The Music of ELTON JOHN

Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is a five-time Grammy and one-time Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. In his four-decade career, John has been one of the dominant forces in rock and popular music, especially during the 1970s. Elton has sold more than 250 million albums plus over one hundred million singles, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits including seven consecutive #1 U.S. albums, 59 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, 4 #2 hits, and nine #1 hits. His success has had a profound impact on popular music and has contributed to the continued popularity of the piano in rock and roll. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Elton John #49 on their list of The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Some of the characteristics of Elton John's music are his ability to quickly craft unique melodies for the lyrics of songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, his rich tenor voice, his classical and gospel-influenced piano, the aggressive orchestral arrangements of Paul Buckmaster among others and the flamboyant fashions and on-stage showmanship, especially evident during the 1970s.

Elton John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s and was knighted in 1998. He entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish on 21 December 2005 and continues to be a champion for the LGBT social movements.

Biography Elton John was born in Pinner, Middlesex in a council house of his maternal grandparents, with whom his newlywed parents, Stanley and Sheila Dwight, were living. He then moved to a nearby semi-detached house. He was educated at Pinner County Grammar School until the age of 15 before pursuing a career in the music industry.

When Elton began to seriously consider a career in music, his father tried to steer him toward a more conventional career such as banking. Elton has stated that his wild stage costumes and performances were his way of letting go after such a restrictive childhood. Both of Elton’s parents were musically inclined, his father having been a trumpet player with a semi-professional big band that played military dances. The Dwights were avid record buyers, exposing the boy to all the popular singers and musicians of the day. Elton remembers being immediately hooked on rock and roll when his mother brought home records by Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and the Comets in 1956.

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The Music of WILLIE NELSON

Willie Nelson (born Willie Hugh Nelson, April 30, 1933) is an American entertainer and songwriter, born and raised in Abbott, Texas. He reached his greatest fame during the so-called "outlaw country" movement of the 1970s.

Early life and career His grandparents William Alfred Nelson and Nancy Elizabeth Smothers gave him mail-order music lessons starting at age six. Willie played the guitar, while Bobbie played the piano. He met Bud Fletcher, a fiddler, and both siblings joined his band, Bohemian Fiddlers, while Nelson was in high school. After graduation, Nelson joined the Air Force, but left due to back problems.[citation needed] He also attended Baylor University for one year. Eventually, he became a DJ at a country music radio station in Fort Worth, while singing locally in honky tonk bars. In 1956, Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, to begin a musical career, recording "Lumberjack," which was written by Leon Payne. The single sold fairly well, but did not establish a career. Nelson continued to work as a radio announcer in Vancouver and sing in clubs. He sold a song called "Family Bible" for $50; the song was a hit for Claude Gray in 1960, has been covered widely and is often considered a gospel music classic.

Popular songwriter Nelson moved to Tennessee, but was unable to land a record label contract. He did, however, receive a publishing contract at Pamper Music. After Ray Price recorded Nelson's "Night Life" (reputedly the most covered country song of all time), Nelson joined Price's touring band as a bass player. While playing with Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys, many of Nelson's songs became hits for some of country and pop music's biggest stars of the time. These songs include "Funny How Time Slips Away" (Billy Walker), "Hello Walls" (Faron Young), "Pretty Paper" (Roy Orbison) and most famously, "Crazy" (Patsy Cline). Nelson signed with Liberty Records in 1961 and released several singles, including "Willingly" (sung with his wife, Shirley Collie) and "Touch Me." He was unable to keep his momentum going, however, and Nelson's career ground to a halt. Demo recordings from his years as a songwriter for Pamper Music were later discovered and released as Crazy: The Demo Sessions (2003). His personal life during this period was colorful. His alcoholism,[citation needed] failed day jobs and a penchant for carrying guns got him in trouble with the law, not to mention with his wife, numerous times.

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The Music of THE BEATLES

The Beatles were an English musical group from Liverpool whose members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.

They are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music. The Beatles are the best-selling musical act of all time in the United States of America, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. In the United Kingdom, The Beatles released more than 40 different singles, albums, and EPs that reached number one. This commercial success was repeated in many other countries: their record company, EMI, estimated that by 1985 they had sold over one billion discs and tapes worldwide. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Beatles #1 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Their innovative music and cultural impact helped define the 1960s, and their influence on pop culture is still evident today.

The Beatles led the mid-1960s musical "British Invasion" into the United States. Although their initial musical style was rooted in 1950s rock and roll and homegrown skiffle, the group explored genres ranging from Tin Pan Alley to psychedelic rock. Their clothes, styles, and statements made them trend-setters, while their growing social awareness saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.

1957–1960: Formation
In March 1957, while attending Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. Lennon and the Quarrymen met guitarist Paul McCartney at the Woolton Garden Fête held at St. Peter's Church on 6 July 1957 and added him to the group a few days later. On 6 February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison was invited to watch the group (who played under a variety of names) at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool. McCartney had become acquainted with Harrison on the morning school bus ride to the Liverpool Institute, as they both lived in Speke. At McCartney's insistence, Harrison joined the Quarrymen as lead guitarist after a rehearsal in March 1958, overcoming Lennon's initial reluctance because of Harrison's young age. Members continually joined and left the lineup during that period, and in January 1960 Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass. Lennon and McCartney both played rhythm guitar and the group had a high turnover of drummers.

The Quarrymen went through a progression of names — "Johnny and the Moondogs", "Long John and the Beatles", "the Silver Beetles" (derived from Larry Parnes' suggestion of "Long John and the Silver Beetles") — before settling on "The Beatles" in August 1960. There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling. It is usually credited to Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insect beetles (as a reference to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets) and the word beat. Cynthia Lennon suggests that Lennon came up with the name Beatles at a "brainstorming session over a beer-soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar." Lennon, who was well known for giving multiple versions of the same story, joked in a 1961 Mersey Beat magazine article that "It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'From this day on you are Beatles with an A'". During an interview in 2001, Paul McCartney took credit for the peculiar spelling of the name, saying that "John had the idea of calling us the Beetles, I said, 'how about the Beatles; you know, like the beat of the drum?' At the time, everyone was stoned enough to find it hilarious. It's funny how history is made."

In May 1960, the Silver Beetles toured northeast Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to the tour as a great experience for the band. For the tour the often drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. Soon after the tour, however, feeling the age gap was too great, Moore left the band and went back to work in a bottling factory as a forklift truck driver.Norman Chapman was the band's next drummer, but was called up for National Service a few weeks later. His departure posed a significant problem as the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany.

Musical influences
John Lennon said: "It was Elvis who really got me buying records. I thought that early stuff of his was great. The Bill Haley era passed me by, in a way. When his records came on the wireless, my mother used to hear them, but they didn’t do anything for me. It was Elvis who got me hooked on beat music. When I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel', I thought ‘this is it’ and I started to grow sideboards and all that gear...."He also commented: "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been a Beatles."

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The Music of CHRISTOPHER CROSS

Christopher Cross (born Christopher Geppert on May 3, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter. His works have earned him five Grammy Awards, an Oscar, and a Golden Globe. Native of San Antonio, Texas

Career
He is best known for performing "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" for the film Arthur starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minelli. The song reached number one on the Billboard charts and won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981 (with co-composers Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen.)

Cross first played with an Austin based cover band named Flash before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros. Cross released his self-titled debut album, Christopher Cross in 1979, which garnered him five Grammy Awards. He is the only artist to personally receive all of the "Big Four" Grammy Awards (Best Record, Song, Album, and New Artist) in the same year. Although Norah Jones' debut album Come Away with Me and song "Don't Know Why" won the same four awards in 2003, she did not personally receive the Song of the Year Grammy because it is a songwriter's award. Hits from this album included "Sailing", "Ride Like the Wind" (featuring backing vocals by Michael McDonald) and "Never Be the Same."

His second album, Another Page, which came out in 1983, included the hit songs "Think of Laura", "No Time For Talk", and "All Right." "All Right" was used by CBS Sports for its highlights montage following the 1983 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, won in an upset by North Carolina State, which defeated the University of Houston in the championship game, 54-52. Although Another Page sold respectably, it did not nearly live up to the high expectations set by his debut album.

Christopher Cross released his third album Every Turn of the World in 1985. However, the album failed to produce any top 40 hits, and did not sell well. He went on to make three more albums in the 90's and although some of his releases have gained critical response, he has failed to catch the mass audience he once enjoyed. Cross has toured and opened for various acts since the 90's and also released his second Greatest Hits package in 2002.

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The Music of CSN

Crosby, Stills & Nash, also Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when including occasional fourth member Neil Young, are a folk rock/rock supergroup. The band is known for their distinctive vocal harmonies and activist politics, and have a strong association with the segment of 1960s counterculture known as the Woodstock Nation. They are commonly referred to by their initials CSN or CSNY.

Initially formed by the trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, the genesis of the group lies in two 1960s rock bands, The Byrds and The Hollies, and the demise of a third, Buffalo Springfield. Friction existed between Crosby and his fellows in the Byrds, which came to a head specifically in 1967 over two issues: his substitution, at the invitation of Stills, for an absent Neil Young during Buffalo Springfield’s set at the famous Monterey Pop Festival in June; and the Byrds’ rejection of Crosby’s controversial “Triad” composition as either a single or an album track in August. As a result, Crosby was dismissed from the Byrds in the fall of 1967. By early 1968, Buffalo Springfield disintegrated over personal issues, and after aiding in putting together the band’s final album, Stills found himself unemployed by the summer. He and Crosby began meeting informally and jamming, the results of one encounter in Florida on Crosby’s schooner being the song “Wooden Ships,” composed in collaboration with another guest, Paul Kantner. Nash had been introduced to Crosby when the Byrds had toured the UK in 1966, and when the Hollies ventured to California in 1968, Nash resumed his acquaintance with Crosby. At a party at the home of either Cass Elliot of the Mamas and Papas, Joni Mitchell, or John Sebastian, depending on differing accounts, Nash asked Stills and Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, “You Don't Have To Cry,” blending a second harmony on the spot into their singing. The vocals gelled, and the three realized that they had lucked into something quite special. The Hollies, who had enjoyed pop hits in the mid-sixties, had been struggling with the changing music scene in England due to the advent of psychedelia, and were planning to do an album of all Dylan covers. Seeing this as a step in the wrong direction, and creatively frustrated with the Hollies, Nash decided to quit and throw his lot in with Crosby and Stills. After failing an audition with the Beatles' Apple Records, they were signed to Atlantic Records by Ahmet Ertegün, who had been a fan of the Springfield and disappointed by that band's demise. From the outset, given their respective band histories, the trio decided not to be locked into a group structure, using their surnames as identification to ensure independence and a guarantee against the band simply continuing without one of them, as had both the Byrds and the Hollies after the departures of Crosby and Nash. Their record contract with Atlantic reflected this, positioning CSN with a unique flexibility unheard of for an untested group. The trio also picked up a unique management team in Elliot Roberts and David Geffen, who had engineered their situation with Atlantic and would help to consolidate clout for the group in the industry. Roberts kept the band focused and dealt with egos, while Geffen handled the business deals, since, in Crosby’s words, they needed a shark and Geffen was it. Roberts and Geffen would play key roles in securing the band’s success during the early years. Their first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash of 1969 was an immediate hit, spawning two Top 40 hit singles and receiving key airplay on the new FM radio format, in its early days populated by unfettered disc jockeys prone to playing entire albums at once. Other than the presence of drummer Dallas Taylor, Stills had handled the lion's share of the instrumental parts himself, a testament to his talent but leaving the band in need of additional personnel to be able to tour, now a necessity given the debut album’s commercial impact.

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The Music of CCR

Creedence Clearwater Revival (commonly referred to by its initials CCR or simply Creedence) was an American rock band, which consisted of John Fogerty (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano), Tom Fogerty (guitar, vocals, piano), Stu Cook (bass, vocals), and Doug Clifford (drums, percussion, vocals).

Though hailing from the Bay Area of California, the group was influenced by the swamp blues genre that came out of south Louisiana in the late 1950s and early to mid-1960s. CCR cultivated a Louisiana connection through its choice of song and album titles, such as "Born on the Bayou," Bayou Country, and Mardi Gras, as well as through the southern "good ol' boy" image projected by its members. Several of their songs also protest against the Vietnam War, such as "Who'll Stop the Rain", "Wrote a Song for Everyone", "Run Through the Jungle" and most notably "Fortunate Son".

Early years The band started out as The Blue Velvets, formed by John Fogerty, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook in El Cerrito, California in the late 1950s. They were an instrumental trio, however in 1959 they began backing Tom Fogerty, John's older brother, on fraternity house gigs and in the recording studio. In the middle of 1964, the band recorded two songs for Fantasy Records, a local label based in San Francisco at that time. They were attracted to the label because Fantasy had released a national hit by Vince Guaraldi, "Cast Your Fate To The Wind". Max Weiss, Fantasy's co-owner initially changed the group's name to The Visions, but when the record was released, in November 1964, Weiss re-named the group The Golliwogs, an apparent reference to a once-popular minstrel doll and racial caricature, the Golliwogg. Seven singles were released in the San Francisco Bay area but none received national attention. (In 1975 Fantasy released Pre-Creedence, a compilation album of recordings by The Golliwogs).

CCR is born The year 1967 was a watershed for the band. First, the group almost broke up when the draft board came for both John Fogerty and Doug Clifford. However, Fogerty was able to enlist in the Army Reserve instead of the regular Army and Clifford did a short tenure in the United States Coast Guard Reserve. Both received medical discharges. The second major event of the year was when Saul Zaentz purchased Fantasy Records from Weiss. He offered the band the chance to record a full album, but only if they changed the group's name. Never having particularly liked the Golliwogs, the foursome readily agreed, and Zaentz enthusiastically agreed to their suggestion: Creedence Clearwater Revival. The band took its name from Credence Nuball, a friend of Tom Fogerty; "clearwater", a reference to the band's concern for ecology (from a beer commercial of the day); and "revival", which spoke to the four members' re-commitment to their band. Determined to make this opportunity a success, the band devoted themselves exclusively to its music, the four members quitting their day jobs and rehearsing and playing area clubs incessantly. By the time they went into the studio to record their self-titled debut LP, they were an incredibly tight and disciplined musical unit. The rootsy Creedence Clearwater Revival was somewhat out of step with the Top 40 music scene of 1968, which was then in the midst of Psychedelia and Bubblegum Pop. But the album struck a responsive note with the emerging underground pop culture press, which touted CCR as artists worth paying attention to. More importantly, AM radio programmers around the United States took note when a song from the LP, Suzie Q, started receiving favorable airplay in both the band's native Bay Area, as well as in Chicago on WLS radio, where listeners used to the blues of Chess Records and the R&B of Vee-Jay Records doubtless heard similarities with CCR. "Suzie Q" went on to be the first single by the band to crack the Top 40, falling just shy of the Top 10 at #11. It was also Creedence's only Top 40 hit that was not written by John Fogerty. After some eight years of making music together, the group was an "overnight success".

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The Music of DIRE STRAITS

Dire Straits were a british rock band, formed in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (guitar and vocals), his brother David Knopfler (guitar), John Illsley (bass), and Pick Withers (drums), and subsequently managed by Ed Bicknell. Although the band was formed in an era when punk rock reigned, Dire Straits worked within the conventions of classic rock, albeit with a stripped-down sound that appealed to modern audiences weary of the overproduced stadium rock of the 1970s. In their early days, Mark and David requested that pub owners turn down the amps so that patrons could converse while the band played — indicative of their unassuming demeanor. Despite this oddly self-effacing approach to rock and roll, Dire Straits soon became hugely successful with their first album going multi-platinum globally.

The band's best-known songs include "Sultans of Swing," "Romeo and Juliet," "Private Investigations," "Money for Nothing," "Walk of Life" and "Brothers in Arms."

In 1978, Dire Straits recorded their first album, Dire Straits, at Basing Street studios (now known as 'Sarm West') near Portobello Road in West London for £12,500. After its initial UK release on Vertigo, a division of Phonogram, the album came to the attention of Karin Berg, an assistant in the artists and repertoire (A&R) department of Warner Bros. Records in New York City. She felt it was the kind of music that audiences were hungry for, but only one person in her department agreed at first. "Other people didn't hear it," she recalled. "The act was doing poorly in the U.K., and the record wasn't getting air play. It was totally out of left field. But we fought through and took it to the label (Warner Bros. Records) We signed it, put out the record and it went platinum." Later, re-released as a single, "Sultans of Swing" became a surprise UK chart hit, making the top 10. The first album eventually went top ten in every European country.

The group's second album, Communiqué followed in 1979. Communiqué showed as number one in the German album charts with Dire Straits simultaneously at number 3. Both albums are characterised by a stripped-down sound. However, this would change, along with the band's line-up, over the years. Mark Knopfler and John Illsley played together till the dissolution of Dire Straits, the only two founding members to do so.

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The Music of THE BELLAMY BROTHERS

The Bellamy Brothers are an American country music duo composed of two brothers: David Bellamy (born David Milton Bellamy on September 16, 1950) and Howard Bellamy (born Homer Howard Bellamy on February 2, 1946), both from Darby, Florida, United States. The duo had considerable musical success in the 1970s and 1980s, starting with the release of their crossover hit "Let Your Love Flow" in 1976.

History David and Howard Bellamy were inspired by many musical sources from an early age. Their father played country music around the house, and was also a member of a local Western swing band; in addition, they were inspired by the rock & roll music their sister played, as well as the calypso music sung by Jamaican harvesters working in the family orange groves. Despite having never had formal music training, both brothers learned how to play guitar, mandolin, and banjo. In addition, David learned accordion, fiddle, organ, and piano. Later on, both brothers attended University of Florida; David majored in psychology, while Howard majored in veterinary medicine. Their first musical gig was in 1968, as they played a benefit concert with their father in San Antonio, Florida at the Rattlesnake Roundup. The same year, the brothers moved to Atlanta, Georgia and formed a band called Jericho. However, playing in bands and clubs proved tiresome for the brothers, who soon moved back home. The brothers were soon noticed by a friend of recording artist Jim Stafford, who eventually recorded "Spiders and Snakes", a tune written by David. "Spiders and Snakes" went on to become a Top 5 hit, providing the Bellamys with the money to move to Los Angeles, California. Howard became a road manager for Stafford; Stafford's previous road manager, Leo Gallagher, later gained fame as a comedian.

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The Music of AMERICA

America is an English-American folk rock band, originally composed of members Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek. The three members were barely past their teenage years when they became an overnight musical sensation in 1972; they reached a peak in popularity in the early to mid 1970s and early 1980s. Among the band's best known songs are "A Horse with No Name", "Sister Golden Hair" (both of which reached Number 1), "Ventura Highway", and "Tin Man".

Although their music was frequently derided by critics, from a commercial standpoint the band's singles and albums were exceptionally successful. They were popular enough to attract the services of famed Beatles producer George Martin for a run of seven albums. The band survived the loss of one of its original members near the peak of its success only to see Beckley and Bunnell return the act to the top of charts as a duo with "You Can Do Magic" in 1982. Consistently touring for well over three decades, America still maintains a strong following and performs over 100 shows per year. On January 16, 2007, America released Here & Now, the band's first major label studio album in over twenty years.

Original members
* Gerry Beckley (born September 12, 1952 in Fort Worth, Texas) 1970-present: Lead and backing
vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass, harmonica, lap steel guitars
* Dewey Bunnell (born January 19, 1951 in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England) 1970-present: Lead and backing vocals, guitars
* Dan Peek (born November 1, 1950 in Panama City, Florida) 1970-1977: Lead and backing vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, harmonica

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The Music of JIM CROCE

James Joseph Croce (January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973), popularly known as Jim Croce (pronounced CRO-chee), was an American singer-songwriter.

Early life
Croce was born in South Philadelphia. He graduated from Upper Darby High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania in 1960 where in 1976, he was the first former student to be added to the Upper Darby High School's Wall of Fame. While attending Villanova University (1965 graduate), Croce was a member of the Villanova Singers and Villanova Spires, a student deejay at WXVU, became interested in becoming a professional musician, and met his future wife, Ingrid Jacobson, at a hootenanny at Convention Hall in Philadelphia, where he was a judge for a contest. When they married he converted into Judaism.

Early career
During the early 1960s, Croce formed a number of college bands and performed at coffee houses and universities, and later performed with his wife as a duo in the mid-1960s to early 1970s. At first their performances included songs by Ian and Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Woody Guthrie, but in time they began writing their own music, such as "Age", "Hey Tomorrow", and "Spin Spin Spin", which later led to Croce's hit songs in the early seventies.

At the same time, Croce got his first long-term gig at a rural bar and steak house in Lima, Pennsylvania, called the Riddle Paddock. There, over the next few years, Croce developed a very engaging rapport with tough audiences and built his musical repertoire to more than 3,000 songs. His set list included every genre from blues to country to rock 'n roll to folk, with tender love songs and traditional bawdy ballads, always introduced with a story and an impish grin.

In 1968, Jim and Ingrid Croce were encouraged to move to New York City to record their first album with Capitol Records. For the next two years, they drove more than 300,000 miles playing small clubs and concerts on the college concert circuit promoting their album Jim & Ingrid Croce.

Then, disillusioned by the music business and New York City, Croce sold all but one guitar to pay the rent, and they returned to the Pennsylvania countryside where Croce got a job driving trucks and doing construction to pay the bills. He called this his "character development period" and spent a lot of his time sitting in the cab of a truck, composing songs about his buddies and the folks he enjoyed meeting at the local bars and truck stops.

Success
In 1970, Croce met classically trained pianist/guitarist, singer-songwriter Maury Muehleisen from Trenton, New Jersey through Joe Salviuolo (aka Sal Joseph). (Sal was best friends with Jim when they attended Villanova University together, and later discovered Maury when he was teaching at Glassboro State College in New Jersey.) Sal, along with Tommy West and Terry Cashman, brought this duo together in the Cashman and West production office in New York City. Initially, Croce backed Muehleisen on guitar at his gigs. But in time, their musical strengths led them each to new heights. Muehleisen's ethereal and inspired guitar leads became the perfect accompaniment to Croce's down-to-earth music.

In 1972, Croce signed to a three record deal with ABC Records releasing You Don't Mess Around with Jim and Life & Times in the same year. The singles, "You Don't Mess Around with Jim", "Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)", and "Time In A Bottle" (written for his newborn son, A. J. Croce) helped the former album reach #1 on the charts in 1974. Croce's biggest single "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", hit number 1 on the U.S. charts in the summer of 1973, selling two million copies.

Sudden death
Croce, 30, and Muehleisen, 24, died in a small commercial plane crash on September 20, 1973, one day before his third ABC album, I Got a Name was to be released. The posthumous release included three hits, "I Got A Name," "Workin' At The Car Wash Blues" and "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song."

Croce had just completed a concert in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and was flying to Sherman, Texas. The pilot and all passengers (Croce, Muehleisen, and the comic who was the show's warm up act) were killed instantly at 10:45 PM EST on September 20, 1973, less than an hour after the end of their last concert. Upon takeoff, the plane did not gain enough altitude to clear an area of large pecan trees at the end of the runway. The official report from the NTSB hints that the charter pilot, Robert Newton Elliott, who had severe coronary artery disease and had run a portion of the 3 miles to the airport from a motel, may have suffered a heart attack causing him to crash into the trees on a clear runway with excellent visibility. A later investigation placed sole blame for the accident on pilot error.

Croce was laid to rest in the Philadelphia area, even though he had recently relocated to San Diego. Family, friends, and fans were stunned to learn of the premature death of the two musicians.

News of the premature deaths of the duo sparked a massive interest in Jim’s first two albums – “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” and “Life and Times” - as well as the “I Got A Name” single, which was released later that same week. This was followed closely by the release of the album of the same title. Sales soared and resulted in three gold records. A “Greatest Hits” package released in 1974 also proved to be extraordinarily popular. The catalogue became a staple of radio play, turntables, cassettes, and CDs for years, and is still receiving significant airplay in the first decade of the 21st century.

Musical legacy
In 1985, Ingrid Croce opened "Croce's Restaurant & Jazz Bar", located in the historic Gaslamp District in San Diego, California, as a tribute to her late husband. In 1990, Croce was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Since then, they have released Jim Croce Home Recordings, Facets, Jim Croce: Classic Hits, and the first ever DVD of Jim's television performances on "Have You Heard – Jim Croce Live". The most recent release was in January, 2006-- "Have You Heard - Jim Croce Live", the CD. The two also co-produced a PBS special, with archive footage from the Croce family collection, along with excerpts of the DVD Have You Heard – Jim Croce Live.

Croce is mentioned as one of the names set to appear in Stephen King's You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, a short story about a town populated by late music legends.

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The Music of NEIL YOUNG

Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945, Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and film director from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Young's work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and signature nasal tenor (and frequently alto) singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments—including piano and harmonica—his style of hammer-on acoustic guitar and often idiosyncratic soloing on electric guitar are the linchpins of a sometimes ragged, sometimes polished, yet consistently evocative sound. Although Young has experimented widely with differing music styles, including swing, jazz, rockabilly, blues, and electronica throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into either of two distinct styles: folk-esque acoustic rock (as heard in songs such as "Heart of Gold", "Harvest Moon" and "Old Man") and electric-charged hard rock (in songs like "Cinnamon Girl", "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)"). In more recent years, Young has started to adopt elements from newer styles of music, such as industrial, alternative country and grunge, the latter of which was profoundly influenced by his own style of playing, often bringing him the title of "the godfather of grunge".

Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Human Highway (1982), and Greendale (2003).

He is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and small farmers, having co-founded the benefit concert Farm Aid, and in 1986 helped found The Bridge School, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi.

Young remains a Canadian citizen and refuses to become a U.S. citizen even though he has lived in the U.S. for "so long" and has stated, about U.S. elections, that he has "got just as much right to vote in them as anybody else."

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The Music of PETER, PAUL AND MARY

The trio Peter, Paul and Mary (often PP&M) is a musical group from the United States; they were one of the most successful folk-singing groups of the 1960s. The trio comprises Peter Yarrow, Noel "Paul" Stookey and Mary Travers.

History
The group was created and managed by Albert Grossman, who sought to create a folk "supergroup" by bringing together "a tall blonde (Travers), a funny guy (Stookey) and a good looking guy (Yarrow)". He launched the group in 1961, booking them into the The Bitter End, a coffee house and popular folk venue in New York City's Greenwich Village.

They recorded their first album, Peter, Paul and Mary, the following year. It included "500 Miles", "Lemon Tree" and the Pete Seeger hit tunes "If I Had a Hammer" (sometimes subtitled "(The Hammer Song)") and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?". The album was listed on the Billboard Magazine Top Ten list for ten months and in the Top One Hundred for over three years.

By 1963 they had recorded three albums. All three were in the Top 10 the week of President Kennedy's assassination. That year the group also released "Puff the Magic Dragon", which Yarrow and fellow Cornell student Leonard Lipton had written in 1959, and performed "If I Had a Hammer" at the 1963 March on Washington, best remembered for Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Their biggest hit single was the Bob Dylan song "Blowin' in the Wind," an international #1 and the fastest selling single ever cut by Warner Bros. Records. They also sang other Bob Dylan songs, such as "The Times They Are a-Changin'" or "When the Ship Comes In". For many years after, the group was at the forefront of the civil rights movement and other causes promoting social justice. "Leaving On A Jet Plane," which in December 1969 became their only #1 (as well as their final Top 40) hit, was written by John Denver (who already had had some success with The Chad Mitchell Trio) and first appeared on their Album 1700 in 1967. "Day Is Done," a #21 hit in June 1969, was the last Hot 100 hit the trio recorded.

On March 26, 1970, Peter Yarrow pled guilty to taking indecent liberties with a 14-year old girl in an August 31, 1969, incident at the Shoreham Hotel before a Washington, D.C., concert. Beginning September 1970 he served 3 months in prison. He was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1981. Yarrow has called the incident the saddest and most reprehensible act he has ever done.

The trio broke up in 1970 to pursue solo careers, but found little of the success they had experienced as a group, although Stookey's "The Wedding Song (There is Love)" (written for Yarrow's marriage to Marybeth McCarthy, the niece of senator Eugene McCarthy) was a hit and has become a wedding standard since its 1971 release.

In 1978, they reunited for a concert to protest nuclear energy, and have recorded albums together and toured since. They currently play around 45 shows a year.

The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

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The Music of ERIC CLAPTON

Eric Patrick Clapton CBE (born 30 March 1945), nicknamed "Slowhand", is a Grammy Award winning English guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. He is one of the most successful musicians of the 20th and 21st century, garnering an unprecedented three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Often viewed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time among critics and fans alike, Eric Clapton was ranked 4th in Rolling Stone’s list of The Greatest Guitarists of All Time and #53 on their list of the The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Although Clapton's musical style has varied throughout his career, it has always remained rooted in the blues. Clapton is credited as an innovator in several phases of his career, which have included blues-rock (with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and The Yardbirds) and psychedelic rock (with Cream). Clapton has also achieved great chart success in genres ranging from Delta blues (Me and Mr. Johnson) to pop ("Change the World") and reggae (cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff"). Clapton also achieved fame with Derek and the Dominos with the song "Layla".

Clapton's early days
Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey, England the son of unwed parents 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, a 24-year-old soldier from Montréal. Fryer shipped off to war prior to Clapton's birth and then returned to Canada.

Clapton grew up with his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband Jack, believing they were his parents and that his mother was his older sister. (Their surname was Clapp, which has given rise to the widespread but erroneous belief that Eric's real name is Clapp.) Years later his mother married another Canadian soldier, moved to Canada and left Eric with his grandparents. When Clapton was 9 years old he discovered this family secret when his mother and 6 year old half-brother returned to England for a visit. The experience became a defining moment in his life. He stopped applying himself at school and became moody and distant from his family.

Clapton grew up quiet, shy, lonely and in his words a "nasty kid". During his secondary school years he attended the Hollyfield School in Surbiton. His first job was as a postman. At 13, Clapton received an acoustic Spanish Hoya guitar, as well as a marimba, for his birthday, but he found learning the instruments so difficult he nearly gave up. Influenced by the blues from an early age, he practiced for hours on end, struggling to learn chords and trying to copy the exact sounds of black blues artists such as Big Bill Broonzy that he had on his little Grundig Cub tape recorder.

After leaving school Clapton completed a one-year foundation art course in 1962 at the Kingston College of Art but he did not go on to undertake an art degree. Around this time Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond and the West End of London. Clapton joined his first band at 17 and stayed with this band - the early British R&B outfit The Roosters - from January through to August 1963. Clapton did a seven-gig stint with Casey Jones and the Engineers in October 1963.

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The Music of THE CASCADES

The Cascades were an American vocal group best known for their hit single "Rhythm of the Rain" in 1963, which has been described as one of the last great songs of the pre-Beatles era.

Career
In 1960, the Silver Strands were a group of United States Navy personnel serving on the USS Jason based in San Diego, California, who were led by guitarist Len Green and played local shows. They recruited John Gummoe, and left the Navy to become The Thundernotes. Green had the idea of performing rock and roll music with an exotic twist, along the lines of Arthur Lyman and Martin Denny. To help capture this new sound, they introduced an electric piano, and Gummoe became the group's lead singer. However, their first release was an instrumental on Bob Keene's Del Fi Records label called "Thunder Rhythm". It was not a hit and Green left the group eventually becoming a successful songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee. At this point, the group's membership consolidated as John Gummoe (born John Claude Gummoe, 2 August 1938, Cleveland, Ohio) (lead vocals), Eddy Snyder (guitar), David Szabo (keyboardist), Dave Stevens (bassist), and Dave Wilson (drummer). The group then started to get more interested in vocal harmony, influenced by the Beach Boys. They recorded demos which ended up with Barry De Vorzon at Valiant Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, who signed them up and also changed their name to The Cascades – supposedly inspired by a nearby box of detergent. Their first release, "There's A Reason", became a small regional hit, and, in summer 1962, they went to Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles and recorded a song which Gummoe had written in his Navy days while on watch during a thunderstorm. The musicians on the recording included the "Wrecking Crew" - Hal Blaine on drums, Carol Kaye on bass and Glen Campbell on guitar - and it was arranged by Perry Botkin. "Rhythm of the Rain" was issued in November 1962. It rose to #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1963, and became a major hit in over 80 countries. The Cascades continued to record, producing an album and several further singles, including the follow-up "The Last Leaf", but none matched the charm or success of their big hit. The group did continue to receive major radio airplay in their hometown, San Diego. The Cascades' cover version of Bob Lind's "Truly Julie's Blues" received spins on KCBQ and KGB in 1966, and their song "Maybe The Rain Will Fall" did fairly well on San Diego radio charts in the summer of 1969. The group stayed active for some years, playing local San Diego clubs like The Cinnamon Cinder, and at other times, touring widely. John Gummoe left the group in 1967 to pursue a solo career and later formed the band Kentucky Express. A compilation CD of the Cascades’ best moments was issued in 1999. One key player in the band, Dr. Ron Lynch, is now working as a drama director and teacher at The Bear Creek School in Redmond, Washington.

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The Music of MICHAEL LEARNS TO ROCK

Michael Learns to Rock (MLTR) is a popular Danish ballad band that performs songs in English. It was formed in 1988 and has sold over 9 million records, mainly in Asia. It has produced six studio albums as well as live and "greatest hits" albums.

History In 1987, the singer-keyboardist Jascha Richter and drummer Kåre Wanscher were high school students in Aarhus, Denmark, when they saw guitarist Mikkel Lentz with his group the Rocking Studs and asked him to form a band. A year later Søren Madsen joined, playing bass. The group debuted in Aarhus in May 1988 and later entered the city's annual talent show. The band won and hurriedly had to come up with a name. In an interview Richter admitted that it was named after Michael Jackson: "Yeah, it was like Johnny Hates Jazz and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Sure, I've regretted calling ourselves this many times since, but we were successful so quickly we had to stick with it and over time I got used to it." (Taipei Times, 06 07 2007) A member of the contest jury, J.P. Anderson, became the band's manager. MLTR played live but did not release its eponymous debut album, "Michael Learns to Rock," until September 1991.

A single from the album, "The Actor," topped the Danish chart and also did well in Norway, Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. In 1993, MLTR released Colours which sold over 1 million records. The album included the singles "Sleeping Child," "25 Minutes" and "Out of the Blue." It also toured Asia for the first time. Two years later MLTR's third album, Played On Pepper came out, selling 1.2 million units, and the group played 25 shows in 10 countries. Hits from this album included "That's Why (You Go Away)" and "Someday." The album "Paint My Love" was released in 1996 and sold 3.4 million copies. The band was also chosen as the headliner for the "Celebrate Hong Kong" concert on July 6, 1997, marking the transfer of Hong Kong from Britain to China. Its fourth studio album, "Nothing To Lose," was released in September 1997. Soon after, MLTR's members took a break to spend time with their families and develop projects on their own or in collaboration with other artists. Even so, Richter wrote some new songs and the band's anthem "Strange Foreign Beauty" was added to a 1998 greatest hits album.

In 2000, Søren Madsen decided to leave the group to embark on a solo career, and the three remaining members carried on and produced the album "Blue Night," which went platinum in Denmark and sold well[citation needed] in Asia. The band attributed its success in Asia to a clean-living image and singing in English as a second language, and the fact that their lyrics are relatively easy to learn and sing (Taipei Times, 06 07 2007).

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The Music of THE CARS

The Cars were an American rock band, fronted by Ric Ocasek, that emerged from the early punk scene in the late 1970s. Other members of the band were bassist Benjamin Orr, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson. They hailed from Boston, Massachusetts and were signed to Elektra Records in 1977.

History
The Cars were are the forefront in merging 1970s guitar-oriented rock with the new synth-oriented pop that was then becoming popular and which would flower in the early 1980s. Most of the singles included an Elliot Easton guitar solo, with the sound filled out by Greg Hawkes's synthesizers and the harmonies of Easton, Robinson, and Hawkes. Lead vocals were split, with Ric Ocasek taking about 60% and Benjamin Orr taking the remaining 40%. While Ocasek was the sole lyricist and main songwriter for the band, Orr would act as frontman in live appearances.

Before The Cars, the members of the band began coming together in several early forms. Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr were the first to meet at a party in Columbus, Ohio, and they began performing as a duo, covering rock 'n roll classics as well as performing their own material. They refused to perform the Top 40 hits club owners expected to hear from a young band. After deciding that Boston would be a better place to break into the music business, Ocasek and Orr relocated there. It was there that they met Greg Hawkes, who had studied at the Berklee School of Music, and the three, along with lead guitarist Jas Goodkind, were the first to work together in a folk band called Milkwood. They released an album titled "How's the Weather" in 1972 that failed to chart.

After Milkwood, Ocasek and Orr formed the group Richard and the Rabbits, whose name was suggested by Jonathan Richman. They were a local club band for a while. Soon after, Hawkes temporarily left Ocasek and Orr and joined up with groups including Orphan, a soft-rock band, and Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture, a musical comedy act in which he played a variety of instruments. Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr then performed as an acoustic duo called simply "Ocasek and Orr" at the Idler coffeehouse in Cambridge. Some of the songs they played became the underlying music in early Cars' songs.

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The Music of CHICAGO

Chicago is a pop-rock-blues-jazz-fusion band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The band began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental rock band and later moved to a softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had a steady stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Second only to the Beach Boys, Chicago, in terms of singles and albums, is one of the longest running and most successful U.S. pop/rock and roll groups. According to Billboard, Chicago was the leading U.S. singles charting group during the 1970s.

The band was formed when a group of DePaul University music students began playing a series of late-night jams at clubs on and off campus. They added more members, eventually growing to seven players, and went professional as a cover band called The Big Thing. The band featured an unusual and unusually versatile line-up of instrumentalists, including saxophonist Walter Parazaider, trombonist James Pankow, and trumpet player Lee Loughnane, along with more traditional rock instruments — guitarist Terry Kath, keyboardist Robert Lamm, drummer Danny Seraphine, and bassist Peter Cetera (who was the last to join the original group). While gaining some success as a cover band, the group worked on original songs and, in 1968, moved to Los Angeles, California under the guidance of their friend and manager James William Guercio, and signed with Columbia Records. Upon release of their first record in early 1969, the band took a new name, Chicago Transit Authority.

The band's first album, the eponymous The Chicago Transit Authority, was an audacious debut: a sprawling double album (unheard of for a rookie band) that included jazzy instrumentals, extended jams featuring Latin percussion, and experimental, feedback-laden guitar abstraction. The album began to receive heavy airplay on the newly popular FM radio band; it included a number of pop-rock gems — "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Beginnings", and "Questions 67 and 68" — which would later be edited to a radio-friendly length, released as singles, and eventually become rock radio staples.

Soon after the album's release, the band's name was shortened to simply Chicago, when the actual Chicago Transit Authority threatened legal action.

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The Music of ABBA

ABBA was a Swedish pop group active from 1972 until 1982. The quartet was formed through the friendship of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and their respective girlfriends Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog, and together they topped charts worldwide from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The name "ABBA" is an acronym formed from the first letters of each group member's given name.

They remain a fixture of radio playlists and have reportedly sold more than 370 million records. ABBA was also the first pop group from mainland Europe to enjoy consistent success in the charts of the Anglophonic world (mainly the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), and its enormous popularity subsequently opened the doors for other Continental European acts. The music of ABBA has been re-imagined into a blockbuster musical Mamma Mia that has toured worldwide and is in production for a movie version to be released in 2008.

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The Music of EAGLES

Eagles are an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in the early 1970s. With five number-one singles and four number-one albums, the Eagles were among the most successful recording artists of the 1970s. At the end of the 20th century, two of their albums, Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 and Hotel California, ranked among the ten best-selling albums according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The best-selling studio album Hotel California is rated as the 37th album in the Rolling Stone list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and the band was ranked #75 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[1] They are also the best-selling American group ever, with Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 being the best-selling album in the U.S. to date.[2] [3] The Eagles are also responsible for the theme tune of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, released on BBC radio 4 in 1987, with a song called Journey of the Sorcerer. The Eagles broke up in 1980 and were disbanded for 14 years, but reunited in 1994 for Hell Freezes Over ("For the record, we never broke up. We just took a fourteen year vacation."). They have toured intermittently since then, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Band Members
(2001-present)

• Glenn Frey - guitar, vocals, keyboards
• Joe Walsh - guitar, vocals, keyboards, talk box
• Timothy B. Schmit - bass, vocals, guitar
• Don Henley - drums, vocals, guitar

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The Music of BREAD

Bread was a 1970s rock and roll band from

Los Angeles, California. They were one of the most popular pop groups of the early 1970s, a primary example of what later was labeled "soft-rock", earning a string of well-crafted, melodic soft rock singles.

The band consisted of David Gates (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, violin, viola, percussion), Jimmy Griffin(vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion), Robb Royer(bass, guitar, flute, keyboards, percussion, recorder, backing vocals), Mike Botts(drums; joined in 1970), and Larry Knechtel (bass, guitar, keyboards, harmonica; replaced Royer in 1971).

Biography

Gates, Griffin, and Royer formed the group in 1968 and signed with Elektra Records. Gates and Griffin had both worked with Royer's previous band, The Pleasure Fair. Bread's first single, "Dismal Day", was released in June 1969 but did not chart. Their debut album Bread was released in September 1969 and peaked at #127 on the Billboard 200. Songwriting on the album was split evenly between Gates and the team of Griffin-Royer. Jim Gordon, a top session player, accompanied the band on drums for the album.

Bread became a quartet with their second album, On The Waters (peaking at #12 on the Billboard 200), bringing in Botts as drummer. This time their efforts quickly established Bread as a major act, hitting the mainstream with the #1 hit "Make it with you" in 1970. In 1990 the song was recorded by Teddy Pendergrass for the Elektra compilation Rubáiyát.

The four members of Bread toured throughout 1977 to support their comeback album, ending the year with no further plans to record as a group. In 1978 Gates also enjoyed success as a solo artist with the hit singles "Goodbye Girl" and "Took The Last Train". He then toured with Botts and Knechtel as "David Gates & Bread." This led to a legal dispute with Griffin over use of the band's name, of which Griffin was co-owner. The resulting litigation was not settled until 1984.

In 1996, having settled their differences, Gates, Griffin, Botts and Knechtel reunited Bread for a successful "25th Anniversary" tour of the United States, South Africa, Europe and Asia.

In 2005, Griffin and Botts both died from cancer at age 61.



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Lost without your love


Baby I'm A Want You (1972)


Guitar Man (1972)


Goodbye girl

The Music of AIR SUPPLY

Air Supply is a duo of soft rock musicians who had a succession of hits worldwide through the late 1970s and early 1980s. It consists of English guitarist and vocalist Graham Russell (born Graham Cyril Russell, June 11, 1950, Sherwood, Nottingham, England) and Australian lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock (born June 15, 1949, Melbourne, Victoria Australia).

Air Supply started in 1975 with Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock. They are still performing, touring and recording today! The band members are Graham and Russell, along with Jed Moss, Jonni Lightfoot, and Mike Zerbe. These are the most talented and nicest guys you could ever hope to know about.