Berry Gordy III, known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
Everybody Loves a Happy Ending is the sixth studio album by English pop rock band Tears for Fears, released on 14 September 2004 in the United States and on 7 March 2005 in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Stanley Robert "Bobby" Vinton is an American former singer and occasional actor, who also hosted his own self-titled TV show in the late 1970s. As a teen idol, he became known as "The Polish Prince", as his music paid tribute to his Polish heritage. One of his most popular songs is "Blue Velvet" which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, No. 1 in Canada, and number 2 in the UK in 1990.
"Surfin' Safari" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys, written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Released as a single with "409" in June 1962, it peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also appeared on the 1962 album of the same name.
"Bring It On Home to Me" is a song by American soul singer Sam Cooke, released on May 8, 1962, by RCA Victor. Produced by Hugo & Luigi, and arranged and conducted by René Hall, the song was the B-side to "Having a Party". The song peaked at number two on Billboard's Hot R&B Sides chart, and also charted at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has become a pop standard, covered by numerous artists of different genres. It is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
"Kansas City" is a rhythm and blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. First recorded by Little Willie Littlefield the same year, the song later became a chart-topping hit when it was recorded by Wilbert Harrison in 1959. "Kansas City" is one of Leiber and Stoller's "most recorded tunes, with more than three hundred versions", with several appearing in the R&B and pop record charts.
Ernest Aaron Freeman was an American pianist, organist, bandleader, and arranger. He was responsible for arranging many successful rhythm and blues and pop records from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Gwendolyn Dianne Brooks, was a soul, r&b and jazz singer from New Jersey. With the Three Playmates, Brooks recorded several songs in 1957. She moved to Toronto shortly thereafter. Her part in Canadian soul music history began when the group Diane Brooks, Eric Mercury and the Soul Searchers was formed. As a solo singer, she recorded two albums and several singles of her own. Her biggest solo hit was "Walkin' on My Mind" in 1969. She was also a prolific session singer. As a vocalist, she provided backing vocals on albums by a multitude of artists that include Anne Murray, Gino Vannelli and Richie Havens. She was also a song-writer.
Joanie Sommers is an American singer and actress with a career concentrating on jazz, standards and popular material and show-business credits. Once billed as "The Voice of the Sixties", and associated with top-notch arrangers, songwriters and producers, Sommers' popular reputation became closely tied to her biggest, yet most uncharacteristic, hit song, "Johnny Get Angry".
"We Belong Together" is a 1958 American rhythm and blues hit written and recorded by Robert & Johnny, with a co-writing credit to Hy Weiss. It reached #12 on the R&B charts and #32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"Try Me", titled "Try Me (I Need You)" in its original release, is a song recorded by James Brown and The Famous Flames in 1958. It was a #1 R&B hit and charted #48 Pop - the group's first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Brown and the Flames' second charting single, ending a two-year dry spell after the success of "Please, Please, Please".
"What the World Needs Now Is Love" is a 1965 popular song with lyrics by Hal David and music composed by Burt Bacharach. First recorded and made popular by Jackie DeShannon, it was released on April 15, 1965, on the Imperial label after a release on sister label Liberty records the previous month was canceled. It peaked at number seven on the US Hot 100 in July of that year. In Canada, the song reached number one.
"There's a Small Hotel" is a 1936 song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Originally written for but dropped from the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1935), it was used in On Your Toes (1936), where it was introduced by Ray Bolger and Doris Carson, and repeated by Jack Whiting and Vera Zorina in the London West End production that opened on 5 February 1937, at the Palace Theatre.
Gypsy is the soundtrack to the 1993 television adaptation of Gypsy. It was released by Atlantic Records on November 23, 1993 in the United States. Based on the autobiography of Gypsy Rose Lee and the 1959 musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable, written by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, it depicts the life and times of a burlesque stripper and her domineering mother, starring Bette Midler as Mama Rose.
"Suspicion" is a 1962 song originally recorded by Elvis Presley written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman which became a major hit in 1964 in a recording by Elvis Presley sound-alike Terry Stafford.
"She Called Me Baby" is a country song written in 1961 by Harlan Howard.
"Another Day, Another Dollar" is a song written and recorded by American country artist Wynn Stewart. It was released as a single in 1962 and became a top 40 single that year.
"Waltz of the Angels" is a song written by Dick Reynolds and Jack Rhodes. It was first recorded by American country artist Wynn Stewart. It was then recorded as a duet between American country artists George Jones and Margie Singleton in 1961. Both versions were major hits on the American country charts.
Bell Sound Studios was an independent recording studio in New York City from 1950 to 1976. At its height, the studio was the largest independent recording studio in the United States, and the site of recording sessions that produced seminal hits by Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, the McGuire Sisters, The Flamingos, Dion and the Belmonts, Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, the Drifters and Ben E. King, The Four Seasons, Lesley Gore, the Dixie Cups, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Kiss.
