Bill Withers~ " Ain't No Sunshine"

ripshade20 
Uploaded on May 21, 2010

Best version. One of the Great love songs.

William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded a number of hits such as "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands". His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill.

Bill Withers
Withers in 1976.
Background information
Birth name	William Harrison Withers, Jr.
Born	July 4, 1938 (age 74) Slab Fork, West Virginia, U.S.
Origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Soul, smooth soul, R&B, blues
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, keyboards
Years active	1967–1985
Labels	Sussex Records Columbia Records
Website	billwithersmusic.com

Early life

Withers was born the youngest of six children in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. Raised in nearby Beckley, West Virginia, Withers was twelve years old when his father died. He enlisted with the United States Navy at age eighteen and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs. Soon after his discharge from the Navy in 1965, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 for a musical career.^[1]

Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he debuted with the song "Ain't No Sunshine" he refused to resign his job because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry and that he was still a novice compared to other acts.

Career

Sussex Records

During early 1970, Withers' demonstration tape was audited favorably by Clarence Avant of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' first album.

Four three-hour studio sessions were planned to record the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" as singles. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar.^[2]

The album was a success and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band: drummer James Gadson, guitarist Benorce Blackmon, keyboardist Ray Jackson, and bassist Melvin Dunlap.

At the 14th annual Grammy Awards on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, Withers won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for "Ain't No Sunshine." The track had already sold over one million copies, and was awarded a platinum disc by the R.I.A.A. in September 1971.^[3]

During a hiatus from touring, Withers recorded his second album, Still Bill. The single "Lean on Me" went to number one the week of July 8, 1972. It was Withers' second gold disc awarded track with confirmed sales in excess of three million.^[3]

 His single "Use Me" released in August 1972, became his third million seller, with the R.I.A.A. gold disc award taking place on October 12, 1972.^[3] His performance at Carnegie Hall on October 6 1972 was recorded, and released as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall on November 30 1972. In 1974 Withers recorded the album +'Justments. Due to a legal dispute with the Sussex company, Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter.

During this time, he wrote and produced two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips record I Feel a Song, and in October 1974 performed in concert together with James Brown, Etta James, and B. B. King four weeks prior to the historic Rumble in the Jungle fight between Foreman and Ali in Zaire.^[4]

Footage of his performance was included in the 1996 documentary film, When We Were Kings, and he is heard on the accompanying soundtrack. Other footage of his performance is included in the 2008 documentary film Soul Power which is based on archival footage of the 1974 Zaire concert.

Source: Wikipedia

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Johhny Nash~ "I Can See Clearly Now"

John Lester "Johnny" Nash, Jr. (born August 19, 1940) is an American pop singer-songwriter, best known in the US for his 1972 comeback hit, "I Can See Clearly Now".

He was also the first non-Jamaican to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica.^{[citation needed]}

Johnny Nash
Birth name	John Lester Nash, Jr.
Born	August 19, 1940 (age 72)
Origin	Houston, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Pop, Reggae
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, composer, actor
Years active	1956–present
Labels	Epic Records, JAD Records

Life and career

Born John Lester Nash, Jr. in Houston, Texas, he began as a pop singer in the 1950s.

He also enjoyed success as an actor early in his career appearing in the screen version of playwright Louis S. Peterson's Take a Giant Step.

Nash won a Silver Sail Award for his performance from the Locarno International Film Festival.

In 1965, Johnny Nash and Danny Sims formed the JAD label in New York. One of the more interesting signings was four brothers from Newport, Rhode Island, ages 9, 11, 15 and 16, called The Cowsills, before signing with Mercury/Philips with Shelby Singleton, before MGM and their first million selling hit single, "The Rain, The Park & Other Things".

The Cowsills went into the studio in New York with studio musicians and recorded a number of songs like "Either You Do Or You Don't" and "You Can't Go Halfway".

Eventually The Cowsills would write and record their own song, "All I Really Want To Be Is Me", which became the group's debut single release on JAD.

Besides "I Can See Clearly Now," Nash recorded several hits in Jamaica, where he travelled in early 1968, as his girlfriend had family links with local TV and radio host and novel writer Neville Willoughby.

Nash planned to try breaking the local rocksteady sound in the United States.

Willoughby introduced him to a local struggling vocal group, The Wailers.

Members Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh introduced him to the local scene.^[1]

Nash signed all three to an exclusive publishing and recording contract with his JAD label and financed some of their recordings, some with Byron Lee's Dragonaires and some with other local musicians such as Jackie Jackson and Lynn Taitt.

None of the Marley and Tosh songs he produced were successful. Only two singles were released at the time: "Bend Down Low" (JAD 1968) and "Reggae on Broadway" (Columbia, 1972), which was recorded in London in 1972 on the same sessions that produced "I Can See Clearly Now."

It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in November 1972.^[2]

The I Can See Clearly Now album includes four original Marley compositions published by JAD: "Guava Jelly", "Comma Comma", "You Poured Sugar On Me" and the follow-up hit "Stir It Up". "There Are More Questions Than Answers" was a third hit single taken from the album.

Nash was also active as a composer in the Swedish romance Vill så gärna tro (1971) in which he portrayed Robert.

The film soundtrack, partly instrumental reggae with strings, was co-composed by Bob Marley and arranged by Fred Jordan.

JAD Records ceased to exist in 1971, but it was revived in 1997 by American Marley specialist Roger Steffens and French musician and producer Bruno Blum for the "Complete Bob Marley & the Wailers 1967-1972" ten-album series for which several of the Nash-produced Marley and Tosh tracks were mixed or remixed by Blum for release.

Nash's biggest hits were the early reggae (rocksteady) tunes "Hold Me Tight" (a #5 hit in the US and the UK, the tune used more than a year earlier in Score commercials) and "Stir It Up", the latter written by Bob Marley prior to Marley's international success.

In the UK, his biggest hit was with the song "Tears On My Pillow" which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in July 1975 for one week.^[3]

After a hit version of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" and "Let’s Go Dancing" in 1979, for many years he seemed to have dropped out of sight, with the exception of a brief resurgence in the mid-1980s with the album Here Again (1986), which was preceded by the minor UK hit, "Rock Me Baby"; however, in May 2006 he was singing again at SugarHill Recording Studios and at Tierra Studios in his native Houston.

Working with SugarHill chief engineer Andy Bradley and Tierra Studios' grammy-winning Randy Miller, he began the work of transferring analog tapes of his songs from the 1970s and 1980s to Pro Tools digital format.^[4][5]

Nash sang the opening theme to the 1960s Trans-Lux cartoon The Mighty Hercules.

Source: Wikipedia.org

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Dobie Gray~ "Drift Away"

Uploaded on Jun 30, 2008

Dobie Gray (July 26, 1940 – December 6, 2011)^[1][2][3] was an American singer and songwriter, whose musical career spanned soul, country, pop, and musical theater. His hit records included "The 'In' Crowd" in 1965 and "Drift Away", which was one of the biggest hits of 1973, sold over one million copies, and remains a staple of radio airplay.^[2]

Dobie Gray
Dobie Gray performing in 1974
Background information
Birth name	Lawrence Darrow Brown
Also known as	Leonard Ainsworth Larry Curtis Larry Dennis
Born	July 26, 1940 Simonton, Texas, U.S.
Died	December 6, 2011 (aged 71) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Soul R&B Pop Country
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar
Years active	1960–2011
Associated acts	Pollution Uncle Kracker
Website	www.dobiegray.com

Life and career

He was born near Houston, Texas, by his own account in Simonton although some sources suggest the nearby town of Brookshire.^[4][5] His birth name was probably Lawrence Darrow Brown,^[5][6] who is listed in Fort Bend County birth records as being born in 1940 to Jane P. Spencel and Jethro Clifton Brown. Other sources suggest he may have been born Leonard Victor Ainsworth,^[2] a name he used on some early recordings.

His family sharecropped. He discovered gospel music through his grandfather, a Baptist minister.^[4] In the early 1960s he moved to Los Angeles, intending to pursue an acting career while also singing to make money. He recorded for several local labels under the names Leonard Ainsworth, Larry Curtis, and Larry Dennis, before Sonny Bono directed him towards the small independent Stripe Records. They suggested that he record under the name "Dobie Gray", an allusion to the then-popular sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.^[5]

His first taste of success came in 1963 when his seventh single "Look At Me", on the Cor-Dak label and recorded with bassist Carol Kaye,^[7] reached #91 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[6][8] However, his first album, Look!, failed to sell.^[7] Greater success came in early 1965 when his original recording of "The 'In' Crowd" (recorded later that year as an instrumental by Ramsey Lewis, and also covered in 1965 by Petula Clark) reached #13.

Written by Billy Page and arranged by his brother Gene,^[9] and produced by Fred Darian,^[6][10] Dobie Gray's record reached #11 on the US R&B chart, and #25 in the UK. The follow-up, "See You at the Go-Go", recorded with such top session musicians as Kaye, Hal Blaine, and Larry Knechtel, also reached the Hot 100, and he issued an album, Dobie Gray Sings For 'In' Crowders That Go Go Go, which featured some self-penned songs.^[7]

Gray continued to record, though with little success, for small labels such as Charger and White Whale, as well as contributing to movie soundtracks.^[8] He also spent several years working as an actor, including 2½ years in the Los Angeles production of Hair.^[2][5]

 In 1970, while working there, he joined a band, Pollution, as singer and percussionist. They were managed by actor Max Baer Jr. (best known as "Jethro" in The Beverly Hillbillies) and released two albums of soul-inspired psychedelic rock, Pollution I and Pollution II.^[7][11] The band also included singer Tata Vega and guitarist/singer James Quill Smith.

He also worked at A & M Records on demo recordings with songwriter Paul Williams.^[5]



In 1972, he won a recording contract with Decca Records (shortly before it became part of MCA) to make an album with producer Mentor Williams---Paul's brother---in Nashville. Among the songs they recorded at the Quadrafonic Sound Studios, co-owned by session musicians Norbert Putnam and David Briggs, was Mentor Williams' "Drift Away", featuring a guitar riff by Reggie Young.^[5][12]

Released as a single, the song rose to #5 on the US pop chart and remains Dobie Gray's signature song.^[2] It placed at #17 in the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1973.

The follow-up, a version of Tom Jans' much-covered song "Loving Arms", hit #61. Gray also released three albums with MCA, Drift Away, Loving Arms, and Hey, Dixie, but later stated that MCA were unsure of how to market the albums---"They didn't know where to place a black guy in country music."^[5]

Gray performing in 2004

In the mid-1970s, he moved permanently to Nashville and signed for Capricorn Records, writing songs in collaboration with Troy Seals.^[2] His last solo hit singles were "If Love Must Go", #78 in 1976, and "You Can Do It", #37 in 1978.^[6]

He increasingly concentrated on songwriting, writing songs for a variety of artists including Ray Charles, George Jones, Johnny Mathis, Charley Pride, and Don Williams.^[5][8] He also toured in Europe, Australia and Africa in the 1970s. He performed in South Africa only after persuading the apartheid authorities to allow him to play to integrated audiences, becoming the first artist to do so.^[2] His popularity in South Africa continued through numerous subsequent concert tours.^[4][5]

Dobie Gray re-emerged as a recording artist for Capitol Records in the mid-1980s, recording with producer Harold Shedd. He placed two singles on the US country chart in 1986-87, including "That's One to Grow On" which peaked at #35.^[2][13]

His country albums included From Where I Stand in 1986, and he made several appearances at Charlie Daniels' popular Volunteer Jam concerts.^[8] He also sang on a number of TV and radio jingles.^[5] In 1997, he released the album Diamond Cuts, including both new songs and re-recordings of older material.^[2]
In 2000, Wigan Casino DJ Kev Roberts, compiled The Northern Soul Top 500, which was based on a survey of northern soul fans.^[14]

Gray's "Out On The Floor", a 1966 recording which had been a British hit in 1975, made the Top 10.
"Drift Away" became a hit again in 2003, when it was covered by Uncle Kracker on his No Stranger to Shame album as a duet with Dobie Gray, who was also featured in the video. It hit #9 and placed at #19 in the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2003.

^{Source: Wikipedia}

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Marty Robbins~ "Don't Worry Bout Me"

Uploaded on May 7, 2010

Martin David Robinson (September 26, 1925 – December 8, 1982), known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. One of the most popular and successful country and Western singers of his era, for most of his nearly four-decade career, Robbins was rarely far from the country music charts, and several of his songs also became pop hits.

Marty Robbins
Robbins in 1966.
Background information
Birth name	Martin David Robinson
Born	September 26, 1925 Glendale, Arizona, United States
Died	December 8, 1982 (aged 57) Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Genres	country, gospel, pop, rock and roll, rockabilly[1]
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, actor, NASCAR driver
Instruments	Guitar, piano, dobro, vocals
Years active	1948–1982
Labels	Columbia, Decca

Biography

Robbins was born in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona. He was reared in a difficult family situation. His father took odd jobs to support the family of ten children. His father's drinking led to divorce in 1937. Among his warmer memories of his childhood, Robbins recalled having listened to stories of the American West told by his maternal grandfather, Texas Bob Heckle.

Robbins left the troubled home at the age of 17 to serve in the United States Navy as an LCT coxswain during World War II. He was stationed in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. To pass the time during the war, he learned to play the guitar, started writing songs, and came to love Hawaiian music.


After his discharge from the military in 1945, he began to play at local venues in Phoenix, then moved on to host his own show on KTYL. He thereafter had his own television show on KPHO-TV in Phoenix. After Little Jimmy Dickens made a guest appearance on Robbins' TV show, Dickens got Robbins a record deal with Columbia Records. Robbins became known for his appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

In addition to his recordings and performances, Robbins was an avid race car driver, competing in 35 career NASCAR races with six top 10 finishes,^[2] including the 1973 Firecracker 400.^[3] In 1967, Robbins played himself in the car racing film Hell on Wheels.^[4]

Robbins was partial to Dodges, and owned and raced Chargers and then a 1978 Dodge Magnum. His last race was in a Junior Johnson-built 1982 Buick Regal in the Atlanta Journal 500 on November 7, 1982, the month before he died. In 1983, NASCAR honored Robbins by naming the annual race at Nashville the Marty Robbins 420. He was also the driver of the 60th Indianapolis 500 Buick Century pace car in 1976.

He ran many of the big super speedway races including Talladega Superspeedway in 1972, when he stunned the competition by turning laps that were 15 mph faster than his qualifying time. Apparently, in his motel room, Robbins had knocked the NASCAR-mandated restrictors out of his carburetor. After the race, NASCAR tried to give him the Rookie of the Race award, but Robbins would not accept it, admitting he was illegal because he "just wanted to see what it was like to run up front for once."
Robbins was awarded an honorary degree by Northern Arizona University.

On September 27, 1948, Robbins married Marizona Baldwin (September 11, 1930 – July 10, 2001) to whom he dedicated his song "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife". They had two children, a son Ronny (born July 16, 1949|11|5}}) and daughter Janet (born December 4, 1959 (age 52)), who also followed a singing career in Los Angeles, California.

Robbins later portrayed a musician in the 1982 Clint Eastwood film Honkytonk Man. Robbins died a few weeks before the film's release in December 1982 of complications following cardiac surgery. At the time of his death, Robbins lived in Brentwood in Williamson County, outside Nashville.

He was interred in Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville. The city of El Paso, Texas later honored Robbins by naming a park and a recreational center after him. Marty's twin sister Mamie Ellen Robinson Minotto died on March 14, 2004, when she was part way through writing a book about her brother "Some Memories: Growing up with Marty Robbins" as remembered by Mamie Minotto, as told to Andrew Means. It was published in January 2007.

Music and honors

Robbins early hits were fairly easy listening and included the original versions of 'Singing the blues' , 'A white sport coat' and 'The story of my life', subsequently his hits became more country orientated ,Robbins' 1957 recording of "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[5]

His musical accomplishments include the Grammy Award for his 1959 hit and signature song "El Paso", taken from his album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. "El Paso" was the first song to hit No. 1 on the pop chart in the 1960s. It was followed up, successfully, by "Don't Worry", which reached No. 3 on the pop chart in 1961, becoming his third, and last, Top 10 pop hit.

"El Paso" was followed by two sequels: "Feleena" and "El Paso City", both of which continued the story featured in the original song. Also in 1961, Robbins wrote the words and music and recorded "I Told the Brook," a ballad later recorded by Billy Thorpe.

He won the Grammy Award for the Best Country & Western Recording 1961, for his follow-up album More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, and was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1970, for "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife". Robbins was named Artist of the Decade (1960–1969) by the Academy of Country Music, was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982, and was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998 for his song "El Paso".

Robbins was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. For his contribution to the recording industry, Robbins has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6666 Hollywood Blvd.
Robbins has been honored by many bands, including the Grateful Dead who covered "El Paso". The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire includes the song "God Speaks of Marty Robbins".

 The song's composer, Pete Townshend, explained that the song is about God deciding to create the universe just so he can hear some music, "and most of all, one of his best creations, Marty Robbins."^[6] The Beasts of Bourbon released a song called "The Day Marty Robbins Died" on their 1984 debut album The Axeman's Jazz.

 Johnny Cash recorded a version of "Big Iron" as part of his American Recordings series, which is included in the Cash Unearthed box set. Both Frankie Laine and Elvis Presley, among others, recorded versions of Robbins' song "You Gave Me a Mountain", with Laine's recording reaching the pop and adult contemporary charts in 1969.

Robbins performed and recorded several songs by longtime songwriter Coleman Harwell, most notably "Thanks But No Thanks" in 1964; Robbins and his producers employed the top sessions musicians and singers including the Jordanaires to record Harwell's songs. Harwell is the nephew of former Nashville Tennessean newspaper editor Coleman Harwell.

When Robbins was recording his 1961 hit "Don't Worry", session guitarist Grady Martin accidentally created the electric guitar "fuzz" effect — his guitar was run through a faulty channel in a mixing console. Marty decided to keep it in the final version. The song reached No. 1 on the country chart, and No. 3 on the pop chart.^{[citation needed]}

Robbins' song "Big Iron", originally released on his 1959 album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, gained renewed popularity following its use in the video game Fallout: New Vegas.


Source: Wikipedia




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