Boney M. are a disco group that specialises in R&B, reggae, disco and funk, created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group's official line-up were Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett from Jamaica, Maizie Williams from Montserrat, and Bobby Farrell from Aruba. The group was formed in 1976 and achieved popularity during the disco era of the late 1970s. Since the 1980s, various line-ups of the band have performed with differing personnel.
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, dancer and musician. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by various nicknames, among them "the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business", "Godfather of Soul", "Mr. Dynamite", and "Soul Brother No. 1". In a career that lasted more than 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres. Brown was one of the first 10 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986. His music has been heavily sampled by hip-hop musicians and other artists.
The Christmas truce was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of the First World War around Christmas 1914.
Frankie Laine was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as "America's Number One Song Stylist", his other nicknames include "Mr. Rhythm", "Old Leather Lungs", and "Mr. Steel Tonsils". His hits included "That's My Desire", "That Lucky Old Sun", "Mule Train", "Jezebel", "High Noon", "I Believe", "Hey Joe!", "The Kid's Last Fight", "Cool Water", "Rawhide", and "You Gave Me a Mountain".
Amy Paulette "Amii" Stewart is an American disco and soul singer who found prominence with her 1979 U.S. Billboard number 1 hit cover of Eddie Floyd's song "Knock on Wood", often considered a classic of the disco genre. Stewart scored further international hits including "Light My Fire" (1979) and "Friends" (1985). Stewart is the stepsister of actress-singer Miquel Brown and aunt to Brown's daughter, singer Sinitta.
Sam Coslow was an American songwriter, singer, film producer, publisher and market analyst. Coslow was born in New York City. He began writing songs as a teenager. He contributed songs to Broadway revues, formed the music publishing company Spier and Coslow with Larry Spier and made a number of recordings as a performer.
Ian Geoffrey Levine is a British songwriter, producer, and DJ. A moderniser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of hi-NRG, he has written and produced records with sales totalling over 40 million. Levine is known as a fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who.
Matthew 2:1 is the first verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The previous verse ends with Jesus being named by his father. This verse marks the clear start of a new narrative, although the use of a quotation from Isaiah 7:14 in Matthew 1:23 is also reflected in the use of four Old Testament quotations in chapter 2 and the Greek: δέ in the opening words of this verse creates a continuative effect, leading directly on from the birth of the child to another connected history.
Hazell Dean is an English dance-pop singer, who achieved her biggest success in the 1980s as a leading hi-NRG artist. She is best known for the top-ten hits in the United Kingdom "Searchin' ", "Whatever I Do " and "Who's Leaving Who". She has also worked as a songwriter and producer.
Miquel Brown is a Canadian actress, disco/soul singer, former dancer and music video director, in the 1970s and 1980s, most popular for the songs "Close to Perfection" and the Hi-NRG songs "So Many Men – So Little Time" and "He's a Saint, He's a Sinner". Originally named Michael, her parents changed the spelling so as not to confuse her with a male producer and children's author of the time.
Close to Perfection is a 1985 Hi-NRG album by Miquel Brown, produced by Ian Levine and Fiachra Trench. The album includes the single "Close to Perfection" and the hard rock-influenced "Black Leather." Others singles released from the album include "One Way Street" and "Love Reputation" both getting extended club mixes, The album has been issued on CD three times: 1991 (USA), 1995 (UK) and 2014 (UK). As part of a two CD set featuring remixes and rarities from Manpower and Close To Perfection albums featuring sleeve notes and new interviews with Ian Levine.
A duster is a light, loose-fitting, long coat.
Saints & Sinners is the second studio album by English girl group All Saints. It was released three years after their debut album, All Saints. The album reached number one in the UK, their only album to do so. Three tracks on the album were produced by William Orbit, best known for his work with Madonna on her Ray of Light album. The album received mixed reviews from music critics, praising the singles and the new direction of music, while some felt it was too similar to the Spice Girls and Madonna's album Ray of Light.
Poetic Champions Compose is the seventeenth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1987 on Mercury Records. It received generally positive reviews from critics, most of whom viewed it as adequate mood music.
Three Little Words is a 1950 American musical film biography of the Tin Pan Alley songwriting partnership of Kalmar and Ruby. It stars Fred Astaire as lyricist Bert Kalmar and Red Skelton as composer Harry Ruby, along with Vera-Ellen and Arlene Dahl as their wives, with Debbie Reynolds in a small but notable role as singer Helen Kane and Gloria DeHaven as her own mother, Mrs. Carter DeHaven. The film, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was written by Academy-Award-winning screenwriter George Wells, directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Jack Cummings. Harry Ruby served as a consultant on the project, and he appears in a cameo role as a baseball catcher. The third in a series of MGM biopics about Broadway composers, it was preceded by Till the Clouds Roll By and Words and Music and followed by Deep in My Heart.
TSR Records is an independent record label based in Tarzana, California, that produced many hit songs in the 1980s, especially dance music. Founded by Tom Hayden and his wife Suzanne. The name TSR is made up of the initials of Tom, Suzanne, and their son, Ryan.
Saint Fiachra was the Bishop of Armagh, Ireland from 548 to 558.
Relight My Fire is an album by the American musician Dan Hartman, released in 1979.
"So Many Men – So Little Time", or "So Many Men, So Little Time", is a song by Canadian singer Miquel Brown, which was a hit in 1983.
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