Stephanie Bennett (born Margaret Stephanie Bennett) is an English film producer known for her works Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll and Endless Harmony .
Stephanie Bennett established Delilah Films, her first production company, after co-producing The Compleat Beatles in 1984 which sold over one million copies and became a model for the company's future documentaries and concert films.
Bennett has worked with musical artists around the world, including The Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, The Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry and Roy Orbison. She went on to produce Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys, [1] Woman Of Heart And Mind: The Joni Mitchell Story, The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert, Rock ’n’ Roll Odyssey, and Hail, Hail Rock ’n’ Roll about Chuck Berry. [2] Bennett's Endless Harmony was nominated for a Long Form Music Video Grammy Award in 2001. [3]
Bennett also created Cinemax Sessions, a series focusing on music legends and artists paying tribute to them, including Roy Orbison's Black and White Night, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, KD Lang, JD Souther and T-Bone Burnett, backed by James Burton and Elvis Presley's band.
Delilah Films has also produced numerous documentaries and concerts for PBS, MTV, VHI, and HBO, including Tom Petty: Going Home, Black Sabbath: Volumes One And Two, and Foreigner: Their Story
Bennett has also established a New Zealand–based production company, Rongo Productions. She is currently working on "Mindspaces: The Artists Studio with Denis O'Connor"'.
The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented themes, and musical ingenuity, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. They drew on the music of older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create their unique sound, and under Brian's direction, often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways.
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell is a Canadian singer-songwriter and painter. Drawing from folk, pop, rock, classical, and jazz, Mitchell's songs often reflect on social and philosophical ideals as well as her feelings about romance, womanhood, disillusionment, and joy. She has received many accolades, including nine Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever", and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century".
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "the Caruso of Rock" and "the Big O." Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project defiant masculinity. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses, which he wore to counter his shyness and stage fright.
James Edward Burton is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001, Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. Critic Mark Deming writes that "Burton has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest guitar pickers in either country or rock ... Burton is one of the best guitar players to ever touch a fretboard." He is ranked number 19 in Rolling Stone list of 100 Greatest Guitarists.
Bruce Arthur Johnston is an American musician, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer who is best known as a member of the Beach Boys since 1965. Johnston also collaborated on many records with Terry Melcher and composed the 1975 Barry Manilow hit, "I Write the Songs".
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night is a 1988 Cinemax television special originally broadcast on January 3, 1988, starring triple Hall of Fame inductee rock/pop singer/songwriter Roy Orbison and backing band TCB Band with special guests including Bruce Springsteen, k.d. lang and others. The special was filmed entirely in black and white. After the broadcast the concert was released on VHS and Laserdisc. A live album was released in 1989.
"Handle with Care" is a song by the British-American supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. It was released in October 1988 as their debut single and as the opening track of their album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. The song was the first recording made by the group, although it was originally intended as a bonus track on a European single by George Harrison. When he and Jeff Lynne presented the song to Harrison's record company, the executives insisted it was too good for that purpose, a decision that resulted in the formation of the Wilburys. The song was written primarily by Harrison, although, as with all the tracks on Vol. 1, the writing credit lists all five members of the band: Harrison, Lynne, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.
"In Dreams" is a song composed and sung by singer Roy Orbison. An operatic ballad of lost love, it was released as a single on Monument Records in February 1963. It became the title track on the album In Dreams, released in July of the same year. The song has a unique structure in seven musical movements in which Orbison sings through two octaves, beyond the range of most rock and roll singers.
A Black & White Night Live is a Roy Orbison music album made posthumously by Virgin Records from the HBO television special, Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night, which was filmed in 1987 and broadcast in 1988. According to the authorised Roy Orbison biography, the album was released in October 1989 and included the song "Blue Bayou" which because of time constraints had been deleted from the televised broadcast. However it did not include the song "Claudette" and "Blue Angel" which were also cut from the original broadcast for the same reason. The SACD/CD Hybrid Audio Disc includes "Blue Angel" as a bonus track - the SACD/CD Hybrid Disc is contained in a pack with the DVD released by Image Entertainment, USA (ID27700BDVD). "Claudette" was included in later releases of the concert. According to the authorised biography, all tracks are now released on the 30 year anniversary "Black & White Night 30."
Alejandro Neciosup Acuña, known professionally as Alex Acuña, is a Peruvian-American drummer and percussionist.
"Help Me, Rhonda" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1965 albums The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days . It was written by Brian Wilson, with additional lyrics by Mike Love. The lead vocal was sung by Al Jardine. The Summer Days version is a later recording with a different arrangement that was first issued as a single in April, one month after The Beach Boys Today! was released. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it their second chart-topping single following "I Get Around" (1964).
"Do It Again" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was released as single on July 8, 1968. It was written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love as a self-conscious callback to the group's earlier surf image, which they had not embraced since 1964. Love and Wilson also share the lead vocal on the song.
A concert film, or concert movie, is a film that showcases a live performance from the perspective of a concert goer, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by either a musician or a stand-up comedian.
"I Get Around" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for American rock band the Beach Boys. It was released as a single in May 1964 with "Don't Worry Baby" as its B-side and became the group's first number-one charting song in the United States. Coming in on the charts at number 7, it became their first top ten hit in the United Kingdom. It was included as the opening track on their studio album All Summer Long in July 1964.
Sylvie Simmons is a London-born, California-based music journalist, named as a "principal player" in Paul Gorman's book on the history of the rock music press In Their Own Write. A widely regarded writer and rock historian since the late 1970s, she is one of the few women to be included among the predominantly male rock elite. Simmons is the author of a number of books, including biography and cult fiction. Simmons is also a singer-songwriter, ukulele player and recording artist.
Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll is a 1987 documentary film directed by Taylor Hackford that chronicles two 1986 concerts celebrating rock and roll musician Chuck Berry's 60th birthday. A soundtrack album was released in October 1987 on the MCA label. The name comes from a line in Berry's song "School Days".
Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story is a 1998 biographical documentary directed by Alan Boyd. The film is a biography of the American rock band The Beach Boys. The documentary features archived footage and interviews by band members along with interviews from musicians such as Jackson Browne, Glen Campbell, Elvis Costello, and Sean Lennon. The soundtrack to the documentary was released along with the documentary's release.
"Guess I'm Dumb" is a song recorded by American singer Glen Campbell that was released as his seventh single on Capitol Records on June 7, 1965. Written by Brian Wilson and Russ Titelman, it is a love song that describes a man who regrets ending a relationship after he realizes he still harbors deep feelings for his former lover. The single failed to chart.
The Big Sur Folk Festival, held from 1964 to 1971 in California, was an informal gathering of prominent and emerging folk artists from across the United States. Nancy Jane Carlen (1941-2013) was working at the Esalen Institute when Joan Baez was asked to lead workshops on music. Carlen was a good friend of Baez, and they decided to invite other artists, which turned into the first festival.
Alexander Orbi Lee Orbison, also known as Orbi, is an American drummer, writer, director, and film producer. He is the president of Still Working Music Group, a publishing company. He is also president and co-founder of Roy's Boys LLC, which manages the legacy of his father, musician Roy Orbison; the organization also includes his brothers, Roy Orbison Jr. and Wesley Orbison.