Fredric Dannen is an American journalist and author. He is best known for his landmark book Hit Men: Powerbrokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business (1990), which investigated the behind-the-scenes dealings of the major American record labels in the 1970s and 1980s, focussing on the careers of leading CBS Records executives Walter Yetnikoff and Dick Asher. [1] Hit Men came in second on Billboard Magazine's list of "100 Greatest Music Books of All Time." [2]
More recently, Dannen was the co-author (with Barry Long) of Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider's Guide to the Hollywood of the East, in which Dannen examines the connections between the Hong Kong film industry and Asian organised crime. [3]
Dannen was a contributing editor of Vanity Fair and in 1986 he was co-recipient of the Overseas Press Club's, Morton Frank Award for business reporting from abroad. [4] His articles have appeared in The New York Times , Channels, Barron's and Rolling Stone . The Martin Scorsese-produced movie Revenge of the Green Dragons was based on Frederick Dannen's New Yorker article chronicling Asian-American gang life in Queens, New York. [5]
Works by Fredric Dannen include:
Tsui Hark, born Tsui Man-kong, is a Hong Kong film director, producer and screenwriter. Tsui has directed several influential Hong Kong films such as Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), the Once Upon a Time in China film series (1991–1997) and The Blade (1995). Tsui also has been a prolific writer and producer; his productions include A Better Tomorrow (1986), A Better Tomorrow II (1987), A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), The Killer (1989), The Legend of the Swordsman (1992), The Wicked City (1992), Iron Monkey (1993) and Black Mask (1996). He is viewed as a major figure in the Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema and is regarded by critics as "one of the masters of Asian cinematography".
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland China and Taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world.
The Killer is a 1989 Hong Kong action thriller film written and directed by John Woo. The film stars Chow Yun-fat, Danny Lee and Sally Yeh. Chow plays assassin Ah Jong, who accidentally damages the eyes of singer Jennie (Yeh) during a shootout. He later discovers that if Jennie does not undergo an expensive operation, she will go blind. To get the money for Jennie, Ah Jong decides to perform one last hit.
Sun Yee On, or the New Righteousness and Peace Commercial and Industrial Guild, is one of the leading triads in Hong Kong and China. It has more than 25,000 members worldwide. It is also believed to be active in the UK, the United States, France, and Belgium.
Hard Boiled is a 1992 Hong Kong action thriller film directed by John Woo from a screenplay by Gordon Chan and Barry Wong. The film stars Chow Yun-fat as Inspector "Tequila" Yuen, Tony Leung Chiu-wai as Alan, an undercover cop, and Anthony Wong as Johnny Wong, a leader of the criminal triads.
Goddard Lieberson was the president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1971, and again from 1973 to 1975. He became president of the Recording Industry Association of America in 1964. He was also a composer, and studied with George Frederick McKay, at the University of Washington, Seattle. He married Vera Zorina in 1946 and with her had 2 children.
The Way of the Dragon is a 1972 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film written, co-produced and directed by Bruce Lee, who also stars in the lead role. This is Lee's only complete directorial film and the last one released during his lifetime. The film co-stars Nora Miao, Robert Wall, and Wei Ping-ou, with Chuck Norris playing his debut screen role. The Way of the Dragon was released in Hong Kong on 30 December 1972, and in the United States in August 1974.
Neil E. Bogart was an American record executive. He was the founder of Casablanca Records, which later became Casablanca Record and Filmworks.
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards.
Wong Yat-cheong, better known by his stage name as Wong Jing or Barry Wong, is a Hong Kong film director, producer, actor, presenter, and screenwriter. A prolific filmmaker with strong instincts for crowd-pleasing and publicity, Wong Jing played a prominent role in Hong Kong cinema during the 1990s.
A hitman is an assassin involved in contract killing.
Amy Yip is an actress who was one of the leading sex symbols of Hong Kong Cinema in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Yip is best known for her roles in Hong Kong Category III films such as Sex and Zen and Erotic Ghost Story. Sex and Zen is the highest grossing Category III movie in the history of Hong Kong box office.
Walter Yetnikoff was an American music industry executive who was the president of CBS Records International from 1971 to 1975 and then president and CEO of CBS Records from 1975 to 1990.
Frank Michael DiLeo was an American music industry executive and actor, known for his portrayal of gangster Tuddy Cicero in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. From 1984 to 1989, and again in 2009, he was Michael Jackson's manager.
"Beast and the Harlot" is a song by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released as a single from their third studio album, City of Evil. It peaked at #19 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart, #44 on the UK Singles Chart, and #1 on the UK Rock Chart on March 12, 2006.
Radio promotion is the division of a record company which is charged with placing songs on the radio. They maintain relationships with program directors at radio stations and attempt to persuade them to play singles to promote the sale of recordings, such as CDs, sold by the record company. Those involved are known as record pluggers. They may also pay a fee to a third party, known as an independent promoter, who works in conjunction with the Label Promoters to further advance the single.
CBS Records International was the international arm of the Columbia Records unit of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (CBS) formed in 1961 and launched in 1962. Previously, Columbia Records had licensed other record companies to manufacture and distribute Columbia recordings outside North America, such as Philips Records and its subsidiary Fontana in Europe.
A triad is a Chinese transnational organized crime syndicate based in Greater China with outposts in various countries having significant Chinese diaspora populations.
"Lonely Man" is a song first recorded by Elvis Presley as part of the soundtrack for his 1961 motion picture Wild in the Country, but eventually dropped from the movie.