 | This biography of a living person includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(June 2021) |
Rainey Haynes (born August 16, 1964 in Memphis, Tennessee) also known simply as Rainey, is an American rock singer and writer.
Haynes showed an interest in singing, songwriting, and performing early, and had taught herself to play guitar by age 13.
At 18, she moved to New Orleans, where she formed a rock band. By her early 20s, she was touring the South with her band; she toured Europe and the Near East to entertain U.S. troops. Returning to the U.S., she continued to travel, performing with her band. In Nashville she recorded an album for MCA Records produced by Ron Chancy, and she was nominated "Most Promising New Artist of the Year" by the Country Music Association.
In 1986, she moved to Los Angeles, where she played at Southern California music venues with a new version of her band. It variously included Steve Farris (lead guitarist for Mr. Mister), Bob Birch (long time bass player for Elton John), Rocket Ritchotte (former guitarist for David Lee Roth, Cher), Kenny Rarrick (former keyboard player for Melissa Manchester), and Michael Dorian (former keyboard player for Terence Trent D'Arby).
She studied acting and dance at the National Academy of Performing Arts in Hollywood, under the guidance of the Hollywood actor and writer, Francis Lederer. Lederer had Rainey sing for him at every class session. She worked in scenes with Martin Landau ( North by Northwest , Ed Wood ) and tried to break into films, once considered for a role opposite Michael J. Fox in the 1987 film, Light of Day (the role went to Joan Jett), as well as for the Ellen Aim character in Streets of Fire (the role went to Diane Lane). During this time she made appearances in Cop Rock . She studied video production with director Raymond Nassau (a former cinematographer for Cecil B. DeMille).
Her songs were included in film and TV soundtracks. Her voice was heard in numerous episodes of the TV series Fame , and she sang the theme song to the TV series Dancing to the Hits. From the mid-1980s into the 1990s, she free-lanced for Hanna-Barbera Studios for both their animated TV and movie divisions as the singing voice of "Brittany", Alvin the Chipmunk's girlfriend. This involved a difficult process of recording where Rainey sang to pre-recorded tracks playing back at half-speed, on which she would sing rock songs in the same, high keys, holding the same, difficult high notes, holding them twice as long as in a normal rock tune, after which the whole thing would then be played back at the original speed, with the result that the instruments sounded normal and her voice had the requisite, "chipmunk" sound. She has since said that it was the most difficult singing job she ever had. She was known at that time around Hanna-Barbera as "the funkiest chipmunk ever!" Other songs by Rainey in the movies included "Old Enough To Rock and Roll," which she wrote and performed for the film Iron Eagle and "I Can Fly" and “Technique, [1] written and produced by Jay Levy and Jack Conrad,” two songs that she performed for the Sarah Jessica Parker film Girls Just Want To Have Fun . Without any support or promotion by the record company responsible for the soundtrack of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and solely as the result of New York area DJs playing the song because of requests, "I Can Fly" reached the Billboard Top Ten Dance Chart and stayed in the top ten for six months following the film's release. The European label Disconet released a 7:35 extended dance mix version of Rainey singing "I Can Fly" in their "Disconet Remix Greatest Hits" series.
In 1987, Rainey toured France for six months as backup vocalist and duet singer for French superstar Johnny Hallyday. The following year, she appeared on the T.V. show Star Search and won Best Female Vocalist three times.
In the early 1990s. she and her partner Rob, had moved to an island north of Seattle, where they bought a farm in rural Washington state. The farm had the remnants of a sign for which the upper plank was missing and the lower said, "and Holly Farm." They named the place And Holly Farm, and built a house and recording studio. By 1992 Rainey had completed work on a rock musical play called Hunchback (based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). The play was produced in 1994 at the Playhouse Theater in Seattle, with Rainey as producer, director and lead actor. A larger production was staged for five weeks in 1998 at Seattle's King Cat Theater.
Throughout the 1990s and beyond, she performed in local Seattle night-spots, focusing largely on jazz. In the early 2000s (decade), she became involved in organizing benefit concerts for local Seattle charities. Today she continues to write music, which she records in her studio, and to produce works in the visual arts media of stone sculpting and oil painting. She also writes fiction and poetry.
Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks and billed for their first two decades as the Chipmunks, are an American animated virtual band and media franchise first created by Ross Bagdasarian for novelty records in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks named Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.
E.G. Daily or Elizabeth Daily is an American actress and singer.
Brittany and the Chipettes are a fictional girl group from the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise consisting of three female anthropomorphic chipmunk singers: Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor, alongside their adoptive human mother, Beatrice Miller. They first appeared in the animated television series Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1983. In this and related materials, Brittany and the Chipettes served as female featured characters in their own right, starring in numerous episodes. The title of the show was changed from Alvin and the Chipmunks to simply The Chipmunks in 1988 to reflect this. In the animated television series and the 1987 animated film The Chipmunk Adventure, all of the Chipettes were voiced by their creator, Janice Karman, the wife of Ross Bagdasarian Jr.. Karman also wrote and voiced the Chipettes' dialogue on their studio albums, while studio singers Susan Boyd, Shelby Daniel and Katherine Coon provided their singing voices. In the animated television series Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks, Eleanor is voiced by Vanessa Bagdasarian, the daughter of Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman.
Skye Alexandra Sweetnam is a Canadian rock and metal singer. She first entered the music industry in 2003 with the release of her debut single "Billy S." More than a year later, her debut studio album, Noise from the Basement, was released along with the singles "Tangled Up in Me" and "Number One". Sweetnam is also known for her singing work as Barbie in The Barbie Diaries. In 2006, she was nominated for a Juno Award for New Artist of the Year. Her second studio album, Sound Soldier, was released in 2007. She is currently the lead singer of the band Sumo Cyco; upon joining the band, she took the stage name Sever.
Josie and the Pussycats is an American animated television series based upon the Archie Comics comic book series of the same name created by Dan DeCarlo. Produced for Saturday morning television by Hanna-Barbera Productions, 16 episodes of Josie and the Pussycats aired on CBS during the 1970–71 television season and were rerun during the 1971–72 season.
Josie and the Pussycats was a 1970s girl group designed to be the real-life incarnation of the eponymous fictional band in the Archie comic book and Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon series. The group was made up of Cathy Douglas, Patrice Holloway, and Cherie Moor.
Sarina Paris is a Canadian singer, best known for her international dance-club hits "Look at Us" (2000) and "Just About Enough" (2001).
Kristine Elizabeth Weitz, widely known by her stage name Kristine W, is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and entrepreneur. She is most widely known as a dance music artist. Born and raised in Pasco, Washington, she found early success competing in pageants and talent contests, winning Miss Washington 1981 and a Preliminary Swimsuit Award as well as a Non-Finalist Talent award in the Miss America pageant. Kristine W is now one of the most popular dance club artists of all time, with 17 #1s to date on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. She is currently listed among Billboard's 8 Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists, and she was ranked number three in Billboard's Top Dance Artists of the Decade. She is especially popular in the gay community and is an outspoken supporter of LGBT rights, frequently performing at pride rallies and charity events for pro-LGBT organizations throughout the U.S.
Johnette Napolitano is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and bassist for the alternative rock group Concrete Blonde.
"Come On-a My House" is a song performed by Rosemary Clooney and originally released in 1951. It was written by Ross Bagdasarian and his cousin, Armenian-American Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan, while driving across New Mexico in the summer of 1939. The melody is based on an Armenian folk song. The lyrics reference traditional Armenian customs of inviting over relatives and friends and providing them with a generously overflowing table of fruits, nuts, seeds, and other foods.
"Witch Doctor" is a 1958 American novelty song written and performed by Ross Bagdasarian, under his stage name David Seville. It became a number one hit and rescued Liberty Records from near-bankruptcy.
Ivana Spagna, also known simply as Spagna, is an Italian singer and songwriter. She is best known for her worldwide hit song "Call Me", released in 1987.
Andrew Michael Edgar Seeley is a Canadian actor, singer and dancer. He has recorded many songs for the Walt Disney Company. He danced as a child in Ontario until he was about preteen age and then moved to Florida.
"The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" is a novelty Christmas song written by Ross Bagdasarian (under the stage name of David Seville) in 1958. Bagdasarian sang and recorded the song, varying the tape speeds to produce high-pitched "chipmunk" voices, with the vocals credited to Alvin and the Chipmunks, Seville's cartoon virtual band. The song won three Grammy Awards in 1958, for Best Comedy Performance, Best Children's Recording, and Best Engineered Record (non-classical); it was also nominated for Record of the Year.
"Friend Like Me" is the song from Disney's 1992 animated feature film Aladdin. It was performed by Robin Williams in his role as the Genie. The song is also performed by Will Smith in 2019 live-action remake. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 65th Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song at the 50th Golden Globe Awards in 1993.
About You Now is the debut extended play by American actress and singer Miranda Cosgrove, released by Columbia Records and Epic Records, in partnership with Nickelodeon Records to the iTunes Store on February 3, 2009. The EP was used to promote Cosgrove's song of the same name, released in the final quarter of 2008. Aside from featuring remixes of previous songs of Cosgrove's, the album also featured two tracks, "FYI" and "Party Girl". "About You Now" is a cover of the Sugababes hit single. It became Cosgrove's second song to chart on Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 47, her highest peak to date. Cosgrove promoted the song and the accompanying album mainly through interviews and performances, including at the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
"Someday" is a song from Disney's 1996 animated feature film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and originally recorded by American singer and actress Heidi Mollenhauer in her film role as the singing voice of Esmeralda. It was one of three recordings, along with "In a Place of Miracles" and "As Long as There's a Moon", that were discarded during the storyboarding process to be replaced by "God Help the Outcasts." The codirectors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise both desired a quieter song for Esmeralda's scene inside the Notre Dame cathedral.
Melissa Reese is an American musician who has collaborated frequently with Bryan "Brain" Mantia and is a current member of hard rock band Guns N' Roses.
Susan Dimiti "Suzy" Williams is an American singer-songwriter. She rose to notoriety in the musical duo Stormin’ Norman & Suzy. Williams has performed at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the Hotel Palmas in the Canary Islands, and on network television and film. She has been reviewed in publications including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and Los Angeles Magazine. Her singing was referred to in Rolling Stone as a "mixture of Bessie Smith, Sophie Tucker, and perhaps a trace of Janis Joplin".
Maxayn Lewis is an American soul singer, musician, songwriter, and producer. She began her career in the 1960s, under her birth name Paulette Parker, as member of the Ikettes in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. In the 1970s, Lewis sang lead in the band Maxayn with her then-husband Andre Lewis. She was described as "a cross between Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack." The group eventually morphed to Mandré.