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Gina Haley | |
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Birth name | Linda Georgina Haley |
Also known as | Gina Haley |
Born | Mexico | April 23, 1975
Genres | Alternative country, rockabilly |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, performer |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, piano |
Years active | 1990s–present |
Linda Georgina (Gina) Haley (born April 23, 1975, in Mexico) is an American singer-songwriter. [1]
Haley is the youngest child of rock and roll pioneer Bill Haley from his marriage to his last wife, Martha; she grew up in Harlingen, and she was only five years old when her father died in 1981. At 18 years old, she left home and set out to find her musical identity, which landed her in Houston. [2]
She is classically trained on piano and an accomplished self-taught guitarist and songwriter. During the mid-1990s, she left Houston and moved to Los Angeles. [3] She managed to catch the eye of producer Michael Sembello, and worked closely with him writing, recording, and arranging tracks which appeared in television and movies. Gina also worked closely with songwriter Richard Rudolph, and published songs through Music Sales Group. Her first self-titled album was released in Japan in 1999 Heat Wave. During these years in Los Angeles, she sang with the world music group called The Bridge, whose members included Edu Falcao, Daniel Jobim, Paulinho Da Costa, Vincent Colaiuta, and Michael Sembello. [4]
Gina later formed her own group, the Gina Haley Band, and continues to work in the musical field in her home state of Texas. [5]
On July 6, 2005, she performed with her father's old band, The Comets at the Viper Room in West Hollywood as part of 50th-anniversary celebrations of her father's famous song "Rock Around the Clock" reaching the number-one position on American sales charts, as well as what would have been Bill Haley's 80th birthday.
In June 2008, the Gina Haley Band performed at the Bill Haley induction to the South Texas Music Walk of Fame in Corpus Christi, Texas. [6] Other inductees included Chelo Silva, Pat Grogan, Joe Gallardo, Max Stalling, and The Reverend Horton Heat. [7] Meeting Jim Heath (Reverend Horton Heat) was an important event in Gina's life. Jim had not intended to perform at the induction ceremony, as his band had not traveled with him, but decided to dedicate a Bill Haley song to Gina, a song that inspired him to become a musician. That song was "Rock the Joint". After years of contemplating making a rockabilly album, Gina had finally decided that it was time to carry on her father's legacy. A year later she sang "Rock the Joint" with Reverend Horton Heat at a concert in Dallas, Texas. She continues to perform in Texas with the Gina Haley Band, in her original alternative country sound.
William John Clifton Haley was an American rock and roll musician. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and million-selling hits such as "Rock Around the Clock", "See You Later, Alligator", "Shake, Rattle and Roll", "Rocket 88", "Skinny Minnie", and "Razzle Dazzle". Haley has sold over 60 million records worldwide. In 1987, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band formed in 1947 and continuing until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group recorded nine Top 20 singles, one of which was number one and three that were Top Ten. The single "Rock Around the Clock" was the best-selling rock single in the history of the genre and maintained that position for several years.
Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him". Turner's greatest fame was due to his rock and roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", but his career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s.
Dinah Washington was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Rockabilly is an early style of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" and "hillbilly"; the latter is a reference to country music that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues.
Willie Mae Thornton, better known as Big Mama Thornton because of her height, and weight, was an American singer and songwriter of the blues and R&B. She was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog", in 1952, which was written for her and became her biggest hit, staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart in 1953. According to Maureen Mahon, a music professor at New York University, "the song is seen as an important beginning of rock-and-roll, especially in its use of the guitar as the key instrument".
Darlene Wright, known professionally as Darlene Love, is an American singer and actress. She was the lead singer of the girl group the Blossoms and she also recorded as a solo artist.
The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician James C. Heath as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A Prick magazine reviewer called Heath the "godfather of modern rockabilly and psychobilly".
Kay Starr was an American singer who enjoyed considerable success in the late 1940s and 1950s. She was of Iroquois and Irish heritage. Starr performed multiple genres, such as pop, jazz, and country, but her roots were in jazz.
Aubrey Wilson Mullican, known professionally as Moon Mullican and nicknamed "King of the Hillbilly Piano Players", was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. He was associated with the hillbilly boogie style which influenced rockabilly. Jerry Lee Lewis cited him as a major influence on his own singing and piano playing.
The Marvelettes were an American girl group that achieved popularity in the early to mid-1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, and Georgia Dobbins, who was replaced by Wanda Young prior to the group signing their first deal. They were the first successful act of Motown Records after the Miracles and its first significantly successful female group after the release of the 1961 number-one single, "Please Mr. Postman", one of the first number-one singles recorded by an all-female vocal group and the first by a Motown recording act.
Mexican rock music, often referred to in Mexico as rock nacional, originated in the 1950s. Standards by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Nancy Sinatra, and Chuck Berry were soon covered by bands such as Los Apson, Los Teen Tops, Los Twisters, Los Hitters, Los Nómadas, Los Rockets, Los Rebeldes del Rock, Los Locos del Ritmo, Los Crazy Boys, and Javier Bátiz, which later led to original compositions, often in English. The group "Los Nómadas" was the first racially integrated band of the 1950s. Their lead guitarist, Bill Aken, wrote most of their original material, including the raucous Donde-Donde, and co-wrote the material for their Sounds Of The Barrio album, which is still being sold. Their 1954 recording of She's My Babe was the first top 40 R&B recording by a Latino band. In the southwestern United States, Spanish guitar rhythms and Mexican musical influences may have inspired some of the music of American musicians Ritchie Valens, Danny Flores, Sam the Sham, Roy Orbison, and later, Herb Alpert. Initially, the public exhibited only moderate interest in them, because the media attention was focused on La Ola Inglesa.
Tillman Ben Franks, Sr., was an American bassist and songwriter and the manager for a number of country music artists including Johnny Horton, David Houston, Webb Pierce, Claude King, and the Carlisles.
Marshall Edward Lytle was an American rock and roll bassist, best known for his work with the groups Bill Haley & His Comets and The Jodimars in the 1950s. He played upright slap bass on the iconic 1950s rock and roll records "Crazy Man, Crazy", "Shake, Rattle and Roll", and "Rock Around the Clock".
Robert Edward Rogers was an American musician and tenor singer, best known as a founding member of Motown vocal group the Miracles from 1956 until his death. He was inducted, in 2012, as a member of the Miracles to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to singing, he also contributed to writing some of the Miracles' songs. Rogers is the grandfather of R&B singer Brandi Williams from the R&B girl group Blaque and is a cousin of fellow Miracles member Claudette Rogers Robinson.
"See You Later, Alligator" is a 1950s rock and roll song written and first recorded by American singer-songwriter Bobby Charles. The song was a Top Ten hit for Bill Haley and His Comets in 1956 in the United States, reaching no. 6 on Billboard and CashBox. In the UK, the single peaked at no. 7.
Donato Joseph "Danny" Cedrone was an American guitarist and bandleader, best known for his work with Bill Haley & His Comets on their epochal "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.
Tess Wiley is an American singer-songwriter.
Wanda LaFaye Young, also known as Wanda Rogers, was an American singer, known for being a member of the Motown all-female singing group the Marvelettes, and after 1965, the lead singer.
"Rock the Joint", also known as "We're Gonna Rock This Joint Tonight", is a 1949 boogie song recorded by various proto-rock and roll singers, notably Jimmy Preston and early rock and roll singers, most notably Bill Haley in 1952. Preston's version has been cited as a contender for being "the first rock and roll record", and Haley's is widely considered the first rockabilly record.