The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, formed in Englewood, New Jersey in 1979. Their hit "Rapper's Delight", released the same year they were formed, was the first rap single to become a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100; reaching a peak position of number 36 on January 12, 1980. This was the trio's only U.S. hit, though they would have further success in Europe until the mid-1980s. The trio reformed in 1994 and embarked on a world tour in 2016.
Utah Saints are an English electronic music duo consisting of members Jez Willis and Tim Garbutt. The band had three top-ten and another five top-40 singles on the UK Singles Chart in the 1990s, as well as number-one dance tracks in the UK and US. They were notable for pioneering use of sampling technology, in particular, their practice of manipulating samples from mainstream pop, rock, R&B and soul songs and combining them with contrasting dance beats, using the samples in a new context. The band wrote, produced and mixed all of their own music. The duo were joined on stage by additional musicians when they played live from 1991 to 2001. They were one of the first electronic groups to play as a live collective and supported both the Shamen and U2 live at 10 stadium shows. Since then the duo have performed live sets themselves.
Armand van Helden is an American DJ, record producer, remixer and songwriter from Boston. He is considered one of house music's most revered figures, with a career spanning three decades.
British Hit Singles & Albums was a music reference book originally published in the United Kingdom by the publishing arm of the Guinness breweries, Guinness Superlatives. Later editions were published by HiT Entertainment. It listed all the singles and albums featured in the Top 75 pop charts in the UK. In 2004 the book became an amalgamation of two earlier Guinness publications, originally known as British Hit Singles and British Hit Albums. The publication of this amalgamation ceased in 2006, with Guinness World Records being sold to The Jim Pattison Group, owner of Ripley's Believe It or Not!. At this point, the Official UK Charts Company teamed up with Random House/Ebury Publishing to release a new version of the book under the Virgin Books brand. Entitled The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles, it was first published in November 2008 with a separate albums book and second edition being published over the next couple of years.
Album-oriented rock is an FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.
Ann Lee Peebles is an American retired singer and songwriter who gained popularity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s while signed to Hi Records. Her most successful singles include "I Can't Stand the Rain", which she wrote with her husband Don Bryant and radio broadcaster Bernie Miller, and "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down". In 2014, she was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
Al Downing, later known as Big Al Downing, was an American musician, and entertainer. He received the Billboard's New Artist of the Year and the Single of the Year Award in 1979. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and was a frequent performer at the Grand Ole Opry. Downing was nominated as Best New Artist by the Academy of Country Music and appeared on Hee Haw, Nashville Now, and Dick Clark's American Bandstand television programs.
The Four Pennies were an English beat group most notable for their 1964 UK chart-topping song "Juliet". The band achieved four more top 40 hits in the UK, but failed to chart in the United States during the so-called British Invasion.
Hedgehoppers Anonymous were a 1960s beat group from the United Kingdom. They formed in November 1963 as The Trendsetters, and became The Hedgehoppers the following year. Jonathan King took over their record production in 1965, and added Anonymous to their name. Their most successful single was "It's Good News Week".
Ray Brown & the Whispers were an Australian rock band from 1964 to 1967. Led by singer Ray Brown (1945–1996), with Lawrie Barclay on rhythm guitar, Al Jackson on lead guitar, Pat Jeffery on drums and John Manners on bass guitar. The group issued four albums, Ray Brown & the Whispers (1965), Hits & Brass (1965), Heading for the Top (1966) and Dance Dance Dance (1966). Their top 5 singles were the cover versions, "Pride", "Fool, Fool, Fool", "In the Midnight Hour" and "Tennessee Waltz Song". Their last single for 1966, "Too Late to Come Home" had the Bee Gees on backing vocals. Brown left the band before year's end and continued as both a solo artist and leader of new groups. The Whispers broke up in 1967. Brown died of a heart attack on 16 August 1996, aged 51.
The Showstoppers was a four-piece African-American vocal soul group formed in Philadelphia about 1967. They are best remembered for their 1967 hit, "Ain't Nothin' But a Houseparty", which was the debut release on three record labels: Showtime Records, Heritage Records, and Beacon Records.
Colin Larkin is a British writer. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book All Time Top 1000 Albums, and edited the Guinness Who's Who of Jazz, the Guinness Who's Who of Blues, and the Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock. He has over 650,000 copies in print to date.
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the Grove Dictionary of Music, which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms. It was described by The Times as "the standard against which all others must be judged".
The Groove was an Australian R&B, pop group which formed in early 1967 with the lineup of Geoff Bridgford on drums, Jamie Byrne on bass guitar, Tweed Harris on keyboards, Rod Stone on guitar and Peter Williams on lead vocals and guitar. In December 1967 their single, "Simon Says", peaked at No. 17 on the Go-Set National Top 40 Singles Chart. They followed with "Soothe Me", which peaked at No. 14 in April 1968. Also in April they released their self-titled debut album. In July that year they won the national final of the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds competition with the prize including a trip to London. They relocated there in March 1969, and early the following year they changed their name to Eureka Stockade, they disbanded in 1971. On 13 October 2004 Tweed Harris died of throat cancer, aged 63.
The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles is a charts reference book published in October 2008. It replaces the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, after the Guinness World Records brand was sold to The Jim Pattison Group, who decided that UK chart books were not a core part of their new global acquisition. The last edition was published by Guinness World Records in 2006 and covered all chart hits between 1952-2005. Two years later Ebury Publishing/Random House took over the contract from The Official Charts Company to publish the re-branded version of the book under their Virgin Books brand. Published as The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles in November 2008 without the album charts information, but with the data pertaining to the EP chart, published between March 1960 and December 1967. The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles was last updated in 2010 with Volume 2 being edited by Dave McAleer, Andy Gregory and Matthew White.
Toi Crystal Jackson, known professionally as Sweet Tee, is an American rapper who was signed to Profile Records in the 1980s. Her first single in 1986 was the hit "It's My Beat" featuring DJ Jazzy Joyce. Sweet Tee would be part of the crew of producer Hurby Azor’s "Idol Makers". She scored minor chart success with her debut album, "It's Tee Time", in 1988, which peaked at No. 31 on the US Billboard R&B chart. She scored four chart hit singles from her debut album. These included "I Got da Feelin'", "On the Smooth Tip" and "Why Did It Have to Be Me". In the UK, "It's Like That Y'All" peaked in the Top 40. JMJ Records a subsidiary of Def Jam Recordings signed Sweet Tee and in 1995, Sweet Tee released the single "What's up, Star?" under the moniker Suga. The song appeared on Russell Simmons presents The Show: The Soundtrack. UK-based act Tin Tin Out's 1994 debut single, "The Feeling", was a piano-based house track that sampled Sweet Tee's lyrics from "I Got da Feelin'". The song reached No. 32 in the UK Singles Chart. It is credited to Tin Tin Out featuring Sweet Tee.
"The Homing Waltz" is a song that was written by Johnny Reine and Tommie Connor, and recorded by Vera Lynn in 1952. It charted at a peak position of number nine on the UK Singles Chart.
"Apache" is a song written by Jerry Lordan and first recorded by Bert Weedon. Lordan played the song on ukulele to the Shadows while on tour, and liking the song, the group released their own version which topped the UK Singles Chart for five weeks in mid-1960. The Shadows' guitarist Hank Marvin developed the song's distinctive echo and vibrato sound. After hearing the Shadows' version, Danish guitarist Jørgen Ingmann released a cover of the song in November 1960 which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
The Migil Five were a British pop, rhythm and blues and (originally) jazz group in the early to mid-1960s, whose biggest hit was a bluebeat version of "Mockin' Bird Hill".
