Freestyle, or Latin freestyle is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the New York metropolitan area, Philadelphia, and Miami, primarily among Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the 1980s. It experienced its greatest popularity from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. A common theme of freestyle lyricism originated as heartbreak in an urban environment typified by New York City.
Belinda Jo Carlisle is an American singer and songwriter. She gained fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Anthony Newley was an English actor, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest leading men", from 1959 to 1962 he scored a dozen entries on the UK Top 40 chart, including two number one hits. Newley won the 1963 Grammy Award for Song of the Year for "What Kind of Fool Am I?", sung by Sammy Davis Jr., and wrote "Feeling Good", which became a signature hit for Nina Simone. His songs have been sung by a wide variety of singers including Fiona Apple, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey.
Connie Stevens is an American actress and singer. Born in Brooklyn to musician parents, Stevens was raised there until age 12, when she was sent to live with family friends in rural Missouri. In 1953, at age 15, Stevens relocated with her father to Los Angeles.
Kenneth Brian Edmonds, better known by his stage name Babyface, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has written and produced over 26 number-one R&B hits throughout his career and has won 13 Grammy Awards. He was ranked number 20 on NME's 50 of The Greatest Producers Ever list.
Gerald Goffin was an American lyricist. Collaborating initially with his first wife, Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the US No.1 hits "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Take Good Care of My Baby", "The Loco-Motion", and "Go Away Little Girl". It was later said of Goffin that his gift was "to find words that expressed what many young people were feeling but were unable to articulate."
Richard Wright Nowels Jr. is an American songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and arranger. He has co-written and co-produced over 90 hit singles with multiple artists and albums his songs have appeared on have sold over 250 million copies. In 2020, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The Osmonds were an American family music group who reached the height of their fame in the early to mid-1970s. The group had its best-known configurations as a quartet and a quintet. The group has consisted of siblings who are all members of a family of musicians from Ogden, Utah, and have been in the public eye since the 1960s.
Richard Alan Dutcher is an American independent filmmaker who produces, writes, directs, edits, and frequently stars in his films. After making God's Army, a successful 2000 movie about LDS missionaries, Dutcher became well known among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Film critic Jeff Vice, of the Deseret News, dubbed Dutcher "The Godfather of Mormon Cinema," a title that is very important personally for Dutcher. In 2007, Dutcher left the LDS Church.
William Endfield Steinberg is an American songwriter. He achieved his greatest success in the 1980s with songwriting partner Tom Kelly; together they wrote or co-wrote the No. 1 hits "Like a Virgin" by Madonna (1984), "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper (1986), "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles (1989), "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston (1987), and "Alone". They also wrote or co-wrote the hit songs "I Drove All Night", "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls (1990), and "I'll Stand by You" by The Pretenders (1994).
Jane Wiedlin is an American musician, singer and actress, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of the new wave band the Go-Go's. She also voices Dusk, the drummer and backup vocalist of the fictional rock band the Hex Girls. She also had a successful solo career.
Marty Wilde, is a British singer and actor. He was among the first generation of British pop stars to emulate American rock and roll, scoring several 1950s and 1960s hit singles including "Endless Sleep", "Sea of Love" and "Bad Boy". During the late 1960s to early 1980s, Wilde continued to record and, with Ronnie Scott, co-wrote hit singles for others including the Casuals' "Jesamine" and Status Quo's "Ice in the Sun". He is the father of pop singer Kim Wilde and co-wrote many of her hit singles including "Kids in America" with his son Ricky. He continues to perform and record.
Destroy Rock & Roll is the first and only album by Scottish record producer and DJ Mylo, released in 2004.
"Waiting for a Star to Fall" is a song by American pop music duo Boy Meets Girl in 1988, written by the duo's members, Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill. They wrote the song after witnessing a falling star at a Whitney Houston concert and originally offered the song to Houston, but Arista Records CEO Clive Davis rejected it. American singer Belinda Carlisle then recorded a demo of the song but denied its inclusion on her 1987 album Heaven on Earth, so Rubicam and Merrill decided to record and release the song themselves.
Boy Meets Girl is an American pop-music duo consisting of keyboardist and vocalist George Merrill and singer Shannon Rubicam. They are perhaps best known for their hit song "Waiting for a Star to Fall" from 1988 and for writing two of Whitney Houston's number one hits: "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody ".
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her second studio album, Whitney (1987). It was released as the lead single from the album on April 28, 1987, by Arista Records. It was produced by Narada Michael Walden, and written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, who had previously collaborated with Houston on "How Will I Know". At the 30th Annual Grammy Awards, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, marking Houston's second win in the category.
Shannon Rubicam is an American singer-songwriter who is best known for being half of the mid-to-late-1980s pop duo Boy Meets Girl.
Reel Life is the second album by American pop singer-songwriting duo Boy Meets Girl, released in 1988 by RCA Records/BMG. The album features the duo's sole top ten hit as a recording act, "Waiting for a Star to Fall," as well as the minor follow-up hit, "Bring Down the Moon."
Boy Meets Girl is the debut album by American pop singer-songwriters George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, also known as Boy Meets Girl. It was released on A&M Records in 1985, and was their only disc for the label. The album included the band's first top 40 hit on the Billboard pop chart, when "Oh Girl" peaked at No. 39.
Michael Jeffrey Lloyd is an American record producer, arranger, songwriter and musician. After working with Mike Curb, Kim Fowley and others in the mid-to-late 1960s on musical projects including the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and Steven Spielberg's first short film, Amblin', he became a producer of such teen idol pop stars as the Osmonds, Shaun Cassidy and Leif Garrett in the 1970s.
