John J. Mellencamp, previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, followed by an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
Hoagland Howard Carmichael was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to utilize new communication technologies such as television, electronic microphones, and sound recordings.
Joliet Correctional Center was a prison in Joliet, Illinois, United States, from 1858 to 2002. It is featured in the motion picture The Blues Brothers as the prison from which Jake Blues is released at the beginning of the movie. It is also used for the exterior shots of the Illinois "state prison" in the James Cagney film White Heat, and the location for first season of Fox Network's Prison Break television show, and the movie Let's Go to Prison. In 2018, it opened for tours.
Mitchell Parish was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen.
"Stardust" is a jazz song composed by American singer, songwriter and musician Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. Now considered a standard and part of the Great American Songbook, the song has been recorded over 1,500 times either as an instrumental or vocal track, featuring different performers. During his time attending Indiana University, Carmichael developed a taste for jazz. He formed his own band and played at local events in Indiana and Ohio. Following his graduation, Carmichael moved to Florida to work for a law firm. He left the law sector and returned to Indiana, after learning of the success of one of his compositions. In 1927, after leaving a local university hangout, Carmichael started to whistle a tune that he later developed further. When composing the song, he was inspired by the end of one of his love affairs, and on the suggestion of a university classmate, he decided on its title. The same year, Carmichael recorded an instrumental version of the song for Gennett Records.
"When the Levee Breaks" is a country blues song written and first recorded by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929. The lyrics reflect experiences during the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
"Georgia on My Mind" is a 1930 song written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell and first recorded that same year by Hoagy Carmichael. However, the song has been most often associated with soul singer Ray Charles, who was a native of the U.S. state of Georgia and recorded it for his 1960 album The Genius Hits the Road.
John Alfred Mandel was an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. The musicians he worked with include Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Diane Schuur and Shirley Horn. He won five Grammy Awards, from 17 nominations; his first nomination was for his debut film score for the multi-nominated 1958 film I Want to Live!
Wilbur "Kansas Joe" McCoy was an American Delta blues singer, musician and songwriter.
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine Rolling Stone. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 in a special issue of the magazine, issue number 963, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2010, Rolling Stone published a revised edition, drawing on the original and a later survey of songs released up until the early 2000s.
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. Generally regarded as one of the greatest songwriters ever, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 60 year career. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.
Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits is a greatest hits album by American rock and roll artist John Mellencamp. This two-disc set was released October 19, 2004 on the Island and UTV Records labels. It is a retrospective of Mellencamp's career at the time of its release, and features at least one song from each of his studio albums released between 1978's A Biography and 2003's Trouble No More. Two songs, "Walk Tall" and "Thank You", were recorded exclusively for this album. No songs from Mellencamp's 1976 debut album Chestnut Street Incident or 1977's The Kid Inside are represented. Also omitted is Mellencamp's cover of "Without Expression", which was released on his previous compilation album The Best That I Could Do 1978–1988.
Modern Times is the 32nd studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 29, 2006, by Columbia Records. The album was the third work in a string of albums by Dylan that garnered wide acclaim from critics. It continued its predecessors' tendencies toward blues, rockabilly and pre-rock balladry, and was self-produced by Dylan under the pseudonym "Jack Frost". Despite the acclaim, the album sparked some debate over its uncredited use of choruses and arrangements from older songs, as well as many lyrical lines taken from the work of 19th-century poet Henry Timrod.
Trouble No More is American singer-songwriter and musician John Mellencamp's 18th studio album and his final recording for Columbia Records, released in 2003. It consists of blues and folk covers.
"Pink Houses" is a song written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on 23 October 1983 album Uh-Huh on Riva Records. It reached No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984 and No. 15 in Canada. "Pink Houses" was ranked No. 447 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the British rock band The Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in the US and Canada. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the "first folk rock hit".
On the Rural Route 7609 is a box set by rock singer/songwriter John Mellencamp that was released on June 15, 2010. The first part of the title refers to the song "Rural Route" from his 2007 album Freedom's Road and the fact that Mellencamp's music and lifestyle have always been very rural in nature, and 7609 references that the set spans Mellencamp's entire recording career from 1976 to 2009. Said Mellencamp in the set's liner notes: "I started making records in '76, and the most recent track on the collection was done in '09. So Rural Route 7609; it's like an address. I thought it sounded cool."
Hoagy Sings Carmichael is an album by composer and vocalist Hoagy Carmichael recorded in 1956 and released on the Pacific Jazz label. The album features Carmichael's last significant recordings.
Other People's Stuff is a compilation album of cover songs by American roots rock musician John Mellencamp. The collection was released by Republic Records on December 7, 2018. The album collects cover songs that Mellencamp previously recorded for various tribute albums, a documentary soundtrack and four of his own studio albums over the past 25 years. The album contains only one song not previously available—a 2012 studio recording of “Eyes on the Prize”, which was the album's only single.
Plain Spoken: From the Chicago Theatre is a live album and concert video by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp released on May 11, 2018 by Eagle Rock Entertainment. The concert with Mellencamp's voiceover, which was available on Netflix beginning February 1, 2018, captures Mellencamp's performing live at Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Although it shares the title Plain Spoken with a 2014 Mellencamp studio album, this concert includes only two tracks from that previous effort, but it came from the tail end of Mellencamp's 2015-2016 Plain Spoken tour.
