The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970 to 1974 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks with drummer David Robinson and keyboardist Jerry Harrison. The sound of the band owed a great deal to the influence of the Velvet Underground, and is now sometimes classified as "proto-punk". It pointed the way towards much of the punk rock, new wave, alternative and indie rock music of later decades. Their only album, the eponymous The Modern Lovers, contained idiosyncratic songs about dating awkwardness, growing up in Massachusetts, love of life, and the USA.
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a holding for their record companies, and was renamed "PolyGram" in 1972. The name was chosen to reflect the Siemens interest Polydor Records and the Philips interest Phonogram Records. The company traced its origins through Deutsche Grammophon back to the inventor of the flat disc gramophone, Emil Berliner.
Gregory Stanley Kihn is an American rock musician, radio personality, and novelist. He founded and led The Greg Kihn Band, which scored hit songs in the 1980s, and has written several horror novels.
ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels before ABC was sold to MCA Records in 1979. ABC produced music in a variety of genres: pop, rock, jazz, country, rhythm and blues, soundtrack, gospel, and polka. In addition to producing records, ABC licensed masters from independent record producers, and purchased regionally released records for national distribution.
Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhood of Man (1975–1979). The label changed its name to PRT Records in 1980, before being briefly reactivated as Pye Records in 2006.
Mickey Leroy Gilley was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as well.
The Hudson Brothers were an American musical group formed in Portland, Oregon, consisting of brothers Bill Hudson, Brett Hudson and Mark Hudson. They were discovered by a record producer while recording music at a local studio, and offered a recording contract. After releasing several garage rock singles in the late 1960s as The New Yorkers, the group began releasing material under the names Everyday Hudson, and Hudson.
Manticore Records is a record label launched by the Manticore production company in 1973. These companies were owned by the members of the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer and their manager, Stewart Young. The manticore was first featured in the artwork for the second ELP album Tarkus, as one of the eponymous creature's adversaries. Manticore was initially the name given to ELP's music publishers, credits first appearing in the credits on Trilogy, released on Island in 1972.
Beserkley Records was an American independent record label based in Berkeley, California, from 1973 to 1984. Beserkley is usually regarded as a power pop and rock and roll label. During the 1970s, the label released albums by Earth Quake, Greg Kihn, Jonathan Richman, and The Modern Lovers, the Rubinoos, and the Tyla Gang. Several other artists appeared on singles, or on compilation albums. From 1980 to its dissolution in 1984, Beserkley was a one-artist label, the artist being Greg Kihn.
The Greg Kihn Band is an American band that was started by frontman Greg Kihn and bassist Steve Wright. Their most successful singles include "The Breakup Song " and "Jeopardy". The band's musical style and genres comprise rock, pop rock and power pop.
"Roadrunner" is a song written by Jonathan Richman and recorded in various versions by Richman and his band, in most cases credited as the Modern Lovers. Richman has described it as an ode to Massachusetts Route 128.
The Rubinoos are an American power pop band that formed in 1970 in Berkeley, California. They are perhaps best known for their singles "I Think We're Alone Now", "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" (1979), and for the theme song to the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds. Although "I Think We're Alone Now" has been their only charting hit, reaching No. 45 in 1977, the group has a significant enduring cult following among fans of the power pop genre.
Matthew "King" Kaufman is an American record producer who was the owner of leading independent label Beserkley Records in Berkeley, California from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, successfully producing records by Jonathan Richman, Greg Kihn and others.
"Room Full of Roses", written by Tim Spencer, is a song first recorded in 1949 by country music singer George Morgan. The original George Morgan version was released in the summer of 1949, and reached No. 4 on the Billboard country chart that August. A Sons of the Pioneers version reached #10 on the country charts in the same year. It was famously covered in 1974 by up-and-coming singer Mickey Gilley. The Gilley version was his first major hit and broke open his career.
Eddie Kilroy is a country music producer. Currently he has a show on XM Satellite Radio's Willie's Place.
"Love's Made a Fool of You" is a song co-written and originally performed by Buddy Holly. It was later re-recorded by Sonny Curtis and the Crickets, with the lead vocal by Earl Sinks, and famously covered by the Bobby Fuller Four.
Axe Records is a Canadian record label founded by Greg Hambleton in 1972. After a number of years of inactivity, the label was revived in 2013. It is particularly notable as the original recording label of Canadian duo Gary and Dave.
I-40 Country is the 29th album by Jerry Lee Lewis, released on the Mercury label in 1974.
Tom Takayoshi was a record label founder as well as a president of a major United States record label. His involvement in the music industry goes back to the early 1960s.
Stanley Joseph Lewis was an American record label owner, in Shreveport, Louisiana.
