WA2K Radio is now on the air

You know, listeners. Very few folks celebrate Columbus Day now. Many think it is too insignificant to warrant a holiday. (all but the US Postal Service and the banks)

His most important achievement was proving that the earth was elliptical

So, for Chris:


Thomas Dolby The Flat Earth lyrics


The Earth can be any shape you want it
Any shape at all
Dark and cold or bright and warm
Long or thin or small
But it's home and all I ever had
And maybe why for me the Earth is flat
Friends have often asked me why
I'm sensitive about my height
I would look around and say
Hmm, I thought I was immune
All my life I have waited
to be given any word
It was screaming to be heard
Please remember...
The Earth can be any shape you want it
Any shape at all
Dark and cold or bright and warm
Long or thin or small
But it's home and all I ever had
and maybe why for me the Earth is flat
Turn the island to the storm tonight
Then when they spill the demon seed
Turn and face into the wind
All along you still believed
Believed you were immune
And if love is all you're missing
Look into your heart
Is anybody home ?
Please remember ...
The Earth can be any shape you want it
Any in the world
But don't you point that raygun at me
I might just explode
There are stones buried in your soul
And only a fool would blame the death of rock and roll, uyeah
And in time you'll come to understand
The flat old Earth is in your gentle hands

Weird, no?

I was going thru my good memories the other day & dredged up Greyhound Busses & I also looked for paul simon's song "America"

I did it during my expanding youth. I'd love to do it again


"Let us be lovers,
We'll marry our fortunes together.

I've got some real estate
Here in my bag."

So we bought a pack of cigarettes,
And Mrs. Wagner's pies,
And walked off
To look for America.

"Kathy," I said,
As we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh,
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now.
It took me four days
To hitchhike from Saginaw.
I've come to look for America."

Laughing on the bus,
Playing games with the faces,
She said the man in the gabardine suit
Was a spy.
I said, "Be careful,
His bow tie is really a camera."

"Toss me a cigarette,
I think there's one in my raincoat."
"We smoked the last one
An hour ago."
So I looked at the scenery,
She read her magazine;
And the moon rose over an open field.

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said,
Though I knew she was sleeping.
"I'm empty and aching and
I don't know why."

Counting the cars
On the New Jersey Turnpike.
They've all come
To look for America,
All come to look for America,
All come to look for America.

Welcome back, John. Great song, and I've been told that lots of folks come to look for America. <smile>

How about this one, listeners:

Led Zeppelin
» Immigrant Song

Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore,
Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

So now you'd better stop and rebuild all your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing.

people from the 4 corners. all shapes & sizes & tongues

i posted this link on dupre's most beautiful song thread

Annie Lennox - Everytime We Say Goodbye

the song comes from the red hot and blue aids benefit cd and dvd (1990'ish) featuring various reworkings of cole porter songs


for those with slow connections, just pause the player (first button lower left of player window) and let the full video load (should see full red bar when vidoe fully loaded), it may take a while but it's definitely worth it

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye
Annie Lennox

Ev'ry time we say goodbye I die a little
Ev'ry time we say goodbye I wonder why a little
Why the gods above me who must be in the know
think so little of me they allow you to go.

When you're near there's such an air of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it
there's no love finer, but how strange the change from
major to minor...

(interlude)

When you're near there's such an air of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it
there's no love finer, but how strange the change from
major to minor...

Ev'ry time we say goodbye.

Ah, dj. I heard enough to know that she has a beautiful voice and great delivery. That song is difficult to sing because of the meter. Annie does it in a talking type fashion. I'm not certain what the musical term is for that approach, but it is very avant garde and sultry.

Most people know that I classify that as "a telling song." Thank you, my dear Canadian friend, for the reminder. I also like Calamity Jane's Fur Elise, and Kitchen Pete's Porgy. Especially lovely on tenor sax, is "Bess you is my Woman Now" .

Another memory, folks:

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
(From the album "THE BEST OF BRITISH")

That certain night, the night we met,
there was magic abroad in the air
there were angel's dining at the Ritz
and a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square!

I may be right and I may be wrong,
but I'm perfectly willing to swear
that when you turned and smiled at me
a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square!

The moon that lingered over London town
or puzzled moon, he wore a frown
how could he know we two were so in love?
The whole darn world seemed upside down!

The streets of town were paved with stars
it was such a romantic affair!
And when we kissed and said goodnight
a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square!

<instrumental>

The streets of town were paved with stars
it was such a romantic affair!
And as we kissed and said goodnight
a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square!

I know 'cause I was there
that night in Berkeley Square!

ehbeth left for 'the big apple' this morning for a little shopping .
she phoned at 7 pm to report that she had already undertaken three shopping trips :wink: .
i undertsand that the NY merchants are considering flying the 'maple leaf' flag in honour of a most welcome customer .
hbg

Frank Sinatra - New York, New York Lyrics
Start spreading the newsI'm leaving todayI want
to be a part of itNew York, New YorkThese
vagabond shoesAre longing to strayRight through the
very heart of itNew York, New YorkI wanna wake
up in a cityThat doesn't sleepAnd find I'm
king of the hillTop of the heapThese little
town bluesAre melting a wayI'll make a
brand-new start of itIn old New YorkIf I can
make it thereI'll make it anywhereIt's up
to youNew York, New YorkNew York, New YorkI want to wake upIn a city that never sleepsAnd
find I'm a number one, top of the listKing of the
hill, a number oneThese little town bluesAre
melting a wayI'm gonna make a brand-new start of
itIn old New YorkAnd... if I can make it
thereI'm gonna make it anywhereIt's up to
youNew York, New York

(a little garbled , but we know it anyway , right ?)

UhOh, hamburger. Well, at least daddy doesn't have to foot the bill.

Oh, yes, my friend. I know the song by Frank, and he did "My kind of Town Chicago is" as well.

Guess what, folks. I am eating a milky way made in Canada. How's that for an eerie occurrence? Didn't I see that Walter announced the weather for tomorrow in Chicago as SNOW? My goodness, and tomorrow is Friday the 13th.

Paraskavedekatriaphobia is the fear of that day. If you can spell it, you won't have time to be superstitious.

From Stevie Wonder:


Very superstitious
Writing's on the wall
Very superstitious
Ladder's about to fall

Thirteen month old baby
Broke the looking glass
Seven years of bad luck
The good things in your past

When you believe in things
That you don't understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain't the way
Hey, hey, hey

Very superstitious
Wash your face and hands
Rid me of the problem
Do all that you can

Keep me in a daydream
Keep me going strong
You don't wanna save me
Sad is my song

When you believe in things
That you don't understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain't the way
Hey, hey, hey

Very superstitious
Nothing more to say
Very superstitious
The devil's on his way

Thirteen month old baby
Broke the looking glass
Seven years of bad luck
The good things in your past

When you believe in things
That you don't understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain't the way

Hey, hey, hey
Very superstitious

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors. This is going to be a sea day. I can smell it and hear it. Shall we begin with a sea poem?

Song from the Ship


To sea, to sea! The calm is o'er;
The wanton water leaps in sport,
And rattles down the pebbly shore;
The dolphin wheels, the sea-cows snort,
And unseen Mermaids' pearly song
Comes bubbling up, the weeds among.
Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar:
To sea, to sea! the calm is o'er.

To sea, to sea! our wide-winged bark
Shall billowy cleave its sunny way,
And with its shadow, fleet and dark,
Break the caved Tritons' azure day,
Like mighty eagle soaring light
O'er antelopes on Alpine height.
The anchor heaves, the ship swings free,
The sails swell full. To sea, to sea!

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Good morning WA2K. Did I hear dolphins?

Happy, they leap
Out of the surface
Of waves reflecting
The sun fragmented
To broken glass
By the stiff breeze
Across our bows.

Curving, they draw
Curlicues
And serifs with
Lashed tail and fin
Across the screen
Of blue horizon -
Images
Of their delight
Outside, displaying
My heart within.

Across this dazzling
Mediterranean
August morning
The dolphins write such
Ideograms:
With power to wake
Me prisoned in
My human speech
They sign:
'I AM!'

Stephen Spender,
Dolphins

Dolphins ? how about a horse


I can just about play this


Em D6/9
On the first part of the journey
I was lookin at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There were sand and hills and rings

The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
and the sky with no clouds
the heat was hot and the ground was dry
but the air was full of sound

Chorus
Em9 Dmaj9

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
it felt good to be out of the rain
in the desert you can remember your name
'cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
la la la la lalala la la la la la


After two days in the desert sun
my skin began to turn red
After three days in the desert fun
I was looking at a river bed
And the story it told of a river that flowed
made me sad to think it was dead

chorus


After nine days I let the horse run free
'cause the desert had turned to sea
there were plants and birds and rocks and things
there were sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with it's life underground
and the perfect disguise above
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground
but the humans will give no love

Raggedy, what a delight to see you reading a wonderful poem about those creatures of the deep. That is beautiful, PA, and it makes me sparkle. Thanks, honey.

Well, my goodness. There is our OAKMAN with a song that he is learning to play on his birthday guitar. Love that one, Brit, and it's all in a minor key, I think. Thank you, John.

This must be the day of the animals, and I am certain that our hawkman will be along shortly to dazzle us with his celeb's. Until then:

Black Cat by Janet Jackson:


I'm trying to tell you boy
It's a mistake
You won't realize
'til it's too late
Don't understand
Why you insist
On ways of living such a dangerous life
Time after time you stay away
And I just know that you're telling me lies

CHORUS:
Black cat nine lives
Short days long nights
Livin' on the edge
Not afraid to die
Heart beat real strong
But not for long
Better watch your step
Or you're gonna die

You're so together boy
But just at a glance
You'll do anything
If given a chance
Scheming, plannin' lies
To get what you need
So full of promises
That you never keep
Don't you tell yourself
That it's okay
Sick and tired of
All of your games
And you want me to stay
Better change
Makes no sense to me
Your crazy ways

CHORUS

Cornel Wilde
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cornelius Louis Wilde (October 13, 1915 - October 16, 1989) was an American actor. Born in New York City to Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary, Wilde traveled throughout Europe in his youth, acquiring the ability to speak many languages. He qualified for the United States fencing team prior to the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, but quit the team just prior to the games in order to take a role in the theater. Hired as a fencing teacher by Laurence Olivier for his 1940 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet, Wilde was given the role of Tybalt in the production. Because of this role, he was noticed by Hollywood.

Life and work

Wilde had several small film roles until he played the role of Frédéric Chopin in 1945's A Song to Remember, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He spent the rest of the decade appearing in romantic and swashbuckling films, but he also appeared in some significant films noir Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Road House (1948) and Shockproof (1949). Wilde's career entered an interesting creative stretch when in the 1950s he created his own film production company, producing the film noir The Big Combo (1955) and played the lead. He eventually produced, directed and starred in The Naked Prey (1966), in which he played a naked man being tracked by hunters from an African tribe affronted by the behaviour of members of a safari party. His other notable directing efforts include Beach Red (1967) and No Blade of Grass (1970).

He married actress Jean Wallace, the former Mrs. Franchot Tone, who starred with him in several films including The Big Combo and Sword of Lancelot (1963). They divorced in 1981.

Cornel Wilde died of leukemia at the age of 74.

Burr Tillstrom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franklin Burr Tillstrom (October 13, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois - December 6, 1985 in Palm Springs, California) was a puppeteer and the creator of "Kukla, Fran and Ollie."

Tillstrom was born in Chicago to Bert and Alice Burr Tillstrom and attended the University of Chicago. He turned his attention to puppetry in the early 1930s and created Kukla in 1936. Kukla remained nameless until the Russian ballerina Tamara Toumanova referred to him as kukla, the Russian term for doll.

Other famous puppets from the group included Oliver J. Dragon, Beulah Witch, and Fletcher Rabbit.

In 1939, he was invited to present his "Kuklapolitan Players" at the New York World's Fair. The following year, RCA sent him to Bermuda to perform on the first ship-to-shore broadcast.

From 1947 through 1957, Tillstrom was involved with the "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" show which starred his puppets and Fran Allison. It is widely regarded as being the first children's show to appeal to both children and adults. With only a few exceptions, all of the shows were improvised.

Tillstrom continued to perform with his "Kuklapolitan Players" both live and on television until his death in 1985.

Yves Montand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yves Montand (October 13, 1921 - November 9, 1991) was a French/Italian actor.

Biography

Early life

Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Alto, Italy to Josephine and Giovanni, poor Catholic peasants. In 1921, shortly after his birth, Montand's family left Italy for France. (When they applied for French citizenship, his father pretended that they left Italy in order to escape Mussolini's regime, but Mussolini came to power in 1922.) Montand came to grow up in Marseille, where as a young man he worked in his sister's barber shop, and later on the docks. He began a career in show business as a music-hall singer. In 1944 he was discovered by Édith Piaf in Paris and she made him part of her act, becoming his mentor and lover.

Career

He went on to international recognition, starring in numerous films. In 1951 he married the actress Simone Signoret, and they co-starred in several films throughout their careers. The marriage was, by all accounts, fairly harmonious, lasting until her death in 1985, although Montand had a number of well-publicised affairs, notably with Marilyn Monroe, with whom he starred in one of her last films, Let's Make Love.

During his career, Montand acted in a number of American motion pictures as well as on Broadway. He was nominated for a Cesar Award for "Best Actor" in 1980 for "I comme Icare" and again in 1984 for "Garçon!"

In 1986, after his international box-office draw power had fallen off considerably, the 65-year-old Montand gave one of his most memorable performances, as the scheming uncle in the two-part film: Jean de Florette, co-starring Gérard Depardieu, and Manon des Sources, co-starring Emmanuelle Béart. The film was a world-wide critical hit and raised Montand's profile in the US, where he made an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman".

Personal life

Montand's only child, Valentin, his son by his assistant Carole Amiel, was born in 1988. In a paternity suit that rocked France, another woman accused Montand of being the father of her daughter and went to court to obtain a DNA sample from him. Montand refused, but the woman persisted after his death. In a court ruling that made international headlines, the woman won the right to have Montand exhumed and a sample taken. It subsequently showed that he was not the girl's father.

In his later years he maintained a home in St Paul de Vence, Provence until his death. He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.

He is the voice in the remake of the popular Italian partisan song, Bella Ciao which is making the rounds on the Internet in mp3 format.

Nipsey Russell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Julius "Nipsey" Russell (September 15, 1918 [1] - October 2, 2005) was an African American comedian, best known for being a guest panelist on many 1970s and 1980s game shows, such as Match Game, Password, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth and Pyramid. In addition to his sharp game-playing skills, Russell also delighted audiences with short poems.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Russell went to Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta and attended the University of Cincinnati for one semester in 1936.[2] He served in the United States Army during World War II, enlisting as a private on June 27, 1941. [3]

He got his start in the 1940s as a car hop at the Atlanta drive-in The Varsity, where he would earn his tips by making his customers laugh. He moved his act to nightclubs in the 1950s, when he was discovered and subsequently made many "party albums", which were essentially a compilation of his stand-up routines, not unlike what Redd Foxx was doing at the very same time.

In the late 1950s, he was featured on The Ed Sullivan Show, which led to a small part in the comedy Car 54, Where Are You? in 1960. Russell became the first black performer to become a regular panelist on a weekly network game show when he joined ABC's Missing Links in 1964. A year later, he became a co-host of ABC's Les Crane Show. During the 1970s, he was a co-star in the ABC sitcom Barefoot in the Park and appeared regularly on The Dean Martin Show and The Dean Martin Comedy World. Scattered appearances on television series followed, as well as performing guest host duties on The Tonight Show during the Johnny Carson era.

In 1971, he started as a featured panelist on To Tell the Truth, which led to him being hired for The Match Game when Goodson-Todman Productions revived it two years later. He also served as panelist on the 1968 revival of What's My Line? Today, he is most known for these game show appearances ?- not only for his wit, but his seriousness in playing the games (or in Truth's case, questioning the civilian contestants). Producer Bob Stewart used him regularly as a panelist on Pyramid throughout its 1970s and 80s runs. Russell would also host he short lived 1985 game show Your Number's Up as well as the early 80s revival of Juvenile Jury.

He was also a trained dancer, and appeared in the 1978 film The Wiz as the Tin Man.

During the 1990s Mr. Russell gained popularity with a new generation of television viewer as a regular "character" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Russell would often appear during comedy sketches between scheduled guests and deliver his trademark rhymes.

He died October 2, 2005 in New York City, after suffering from stomach cancer.


Russell on the '83-84 Canadian game show The Joke's on Us[edit]
Quotes
Help a man when he is in trouble;
Help him and never complain
For surely that man will remember you!
...When he is in trouble again.


Remembered on CNN in a posthumous tribute:

The opposite of pro is con
That fact is clearly seen
If progress means move forward
Then what does Congress mean? [4]

Lenny Bruce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born October 13, 1925
Long Island, New York, USA
Died August 3, 1966
Los Angeles, California, USA

Lenny Bruce (October 13, 1925 - August 3, 1966), born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was a controversial American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life

Leonard Alfred Schneider was born in Mineola, Long Island, New York. His youth was characterized by a chaotic family life which saw his parents divorcing when he was five, and Bruce moving in with various relatives over the next decade. His mother, Sally Marr, was a stage performer who had an enormous influence on Bruce's career. After spending time working on a farm with a family which provided the stable surroundings he needed, he joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 in 1942, and saw active duty in Europe until his discharge in 1946.

In 1947, soon after changing his last name to Bruce, he earned $12 and a free spaghetti dinner for his first stand-up performance in Brooklyn, New York. From that modest start, he got his first break as a guest on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts Show doing impressions of movie stars. As a "mimic", as these performers were called, Lenny Bruce was not as talented as many of his contemporaries, requiring his act to take a new direction.


Arrested after impersonating a priest in 1951.In 1951, he was arrested in Miami, Florida, for impersonating a priest. He was soliciting donations for a leper colony in British Guiana after he legally chartered the "Brother Mathias Foundation" (a name of his own invention), and, unknown to the police, stole several priests' clergy shirts and a clerical collar while posing as a laundry man. He was found not guilty due to the legality of the New York state-chartered foundation, the actual existence of the Guiana leper colony, and the inability of the local clergy to expose him as an impostor. Later in his semifictional autobiography How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, he revealed that he had made approximately $8,000 in three weeks, sending $2,500 to the leper colony and keeping the rest.

Career

Bruce's early comedy career included writing the screenplays for Dance Hall Racket in 1953 (which featured Lenny, his wife, Honey Harlow, and mother, Sally Marr, in roles); "Dream Follies" in 1954, a low-budget burlesque romp; and a children's film, "The Rocket Man," in 1954. He also released four albums of original material on Berkeley-based Fantasy Records, with rants, comic routines and satirical interviews on the themes that made him famous: jazz, moral philosophy, politics, patriotism, religion, law, race, abortion, drugs, the Ku Klux Klan, Jewishness, and the Roman Catholic Church. These albums were later compiled and re-released as The Lenny Bruce Originals. Two later records were produced and sold by Bruce himself, including a 10-inch album of the 1961 San Francisco performances that started his legal troubles. Starting in the late 1960s, other unissued Bruce material was released by Alan Douglas, Frank Zappa and Phil Spector, as well as Fantasy. Bruce developed the complexity and tone of his material in Enrico Banducci's North Beach nightclub the "hungry i," where Mort Sahl had earlier made a name for himself.

His growing fame led to appearances on the nationally televised Steve Allen Show, where on his debut Lenny commented on the recent marriage of Elizabeth Taylor to Eddie Fisher by making his first line an unscripted "Will Elizabeth Taylor become bar mitzvahed?". On February 3, 1961, in the midst of a severe blizzard, he gave a historic performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. Recorded and later released as a three-disc set, the Carnegie Hall Concert was considered by many to be the zenith of his creative powers.

Legal troubles

In 1961 Bruce was arrested for obscenity at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco; he had used the words ********** and riffed that "'to' is a preposition, 'come' is a verb" and that the sexual climax of "come" is so common that it bears no weight, and that if someone hearing it becomes upset, they "probably can't come." Although the jury acquitted him, other communities began monitoring his appearances, resulting in frequent arrests under charges of obscenity. The increased scrutiny also led to an arrest in Philadelphia for drug possession in the same year, and again in Los Angeles, California, two years later.

By the end of 1963, he had become a target of the Manhattan district attorney, Frank Hogan, who was working closely with Francis Cardinal Spellman, the Archbishop of New York. In April 1964, he appeared twice at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village, with undercover police detectives in the audience. On both occasions, he was arrested after leaving the stage, the complaints again resting on his use of various obscenities.

A three-judge panel presided over his widely-publicized six-month trial, with Bruce and club owner Howard Solomon being found guilty of obscenity on November 4, 1964. The conviction was announced despite positive testimony and petitions of support from Jules Feiffer, Norman Mailer, William Styron, and James Baldwin, among other artists, writers and educators, as well as Manhattan journalist and television personality Dorothy Kilgallen and sociologist Herbert Gans. Bruce was sentenced on December 21, 1964, to four months in the workhouse; he was set free on bail during the appeals process and died before the appeal was decided. Solomon's conviction was eventually overturned by New York's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, in 1970.

In 2003 ?- 37 years after his death ?- Bruce was granted a pardon by New York governor George Pataki, following a petition by stars including Robin Williams. This event met with mixed reactions. [1]

Last years

In his later performances, Bruce was known for relating the details of his encounters with the police directly in his comedy routine; his criticism encouraged the police to eye him with maximum scrutiny. These performances often included rants about his court battles over obscenity charges, tirades against fascism and complaints of his denial of his right to free speech.

He was banned outright from several U.S. cities, and in 1962 he was banned from performing in Sydney, Australia. At his first show there, he got up on stage and declared "What a ******* wonderful audience" and was promptly arrested. Increasing drug use also took a toll on him. By 1966 he had been blacklisted by nearly every nightclub in the United States, as owners feared prosecution for obscenity. His last performance was on June 25, 1966, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, on a bill with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. The performance was not remembered fondly by Bill Graham, who described Bruce as "whacked out on amphetamines" and finished his set emotionally naked and a mess.

At the request of Hugh Hefner, Bruce (with the aid of Paul Krassner) wrote his autobiography, which was serialized in Playboy in 1964 and 1965, and later published as the book How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Hefner, a long-time foe of censorship, had supported Bruce's career, having him on the television debut of Playboy's Penthouse in October, 1959.

Death

On August 3, 1966, Bruce was found dead at the age of 40 in the bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home. A syringe and burned bottle cap were found nearby, along with various other narcotics paraphernalia. His official cause of death was acute morphine poisoning caused by an accidental overdose.[1]

He was interred in Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California, but an unconventional memorial on August 21 was controversial enough to keep his name in the spotlight. The service saw over 500 people pay their respects, led by legendary record producer Phil Spector. Cemetery officials had tried to block the ceremony after ads for the event encouraged attendees to bring box lunches and noisemakers. Dick Schaap famously eulogized Bruce in Playboy, with the memorable last line: "Finally, one last four-letter word concerning Lenny Bruce: Dead. At forty. That's obscene."

Bruce was survived by his daughter, Kitty Bruce, who resides in Pennsylvania as of the 2000s. His former wife, Honey Harlow Friedman, lived in Honolulu, Hawaii, until her death on September 12, 2005. His mother, Sally Marr, a comedienne and talent agent, died on December 14, 1997, in Los Angeles, California, at age 91.

Posthumous credits and legacy

Lenny Bruce in 1963, his legal troubles growing.In 1971, one of Bruce's comedy routines was developed by San Francisco filmmaker John Magnuson (who also directed 1967's "Lenny Bruce Performance Film") into a short animated film, "Thank You, Mask Man" (often cited as "Thank You Masked Man") which parodied The Lone Ranger (see link below). Bruce received credit for co-writing and co-directing this seven-minute cartoon and providing his unique narration, which included all of the voice characterizations.
The 1974 film Lenny, starring Dustin Hoffman, presents a dramatized account of Bruce's life.
Eddie Izzard portrayed the comedian in the 1999 production of Julian Barry's 1971 play "Lenny".
Similarly, the comedian inspired or was mentioned in songs by Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Nico, Chumbawamba, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Great Big Sea, R.E.M., Metric, Steve Earle, Phil Ochs (who on the cover of Pleasures of the Harbor wore a jacket once owned by Bruce and given to Ochs by actor Michael J. Pollard) , Nada Surf, Simon and Garfunkel, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Tim Hardin (who lived in Bruce's house for a time), Grace Slick (whose "Father Bruce" with The Great Society was written while Bruce was alive, celebrating his surviving a fall from a San Francisco hotel window in 1965), The Auteurs and Genesis. He is also celebrated in the song "La Vie Boheme" in the popular musical "Rent" by Jonathan Larson. Bruce also informed the outlooks of Lou Reed and Frank Zappa, with the latter asking Bruce to sign his draft card when his group The Mothers of Invention supported Bruce during his last performances at the Fillmore in 1966. The highly paranoid Bruce refused.
He is also one of the celebrities immortalised on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The 1998 documentary "Lenny Bruce: Swear To Tell the Truth", written and directed by Robert B. Weide, was nominated for an Oscar. Robert De Niro provided the narration.
In response to a petition prepared by Robert Corn-Revere and filed by Ron Collins and David Skover, on December 23, 2003, Bruce was posthumously pardoned by New York Republican Governor George Pataki for the obscenity conviction arising from his 1964 New York performances at the Cafe Au Go Go. It was the first posthumous pardon in the state's history. Pataki called his decision "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."
In 2004, Bruce was voted No. 3 of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time by Comedy Central behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin, both of whom cite Bruce as an influence (Carlin was arrested as an audience member for refusing to show identification at Bruce's 1964 show at the Gate of Horn in Chicago, after the police stopped the show and arrested Bruce for obscenity).
A six-CD retrospective titled "Let The Buyer Beware", overseen by record producer Hal Willner, was released in 2004.

Nana Mouskouri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Mouskouri is one of the world's highest-selling female recording artists
Born October 13, 1934

Nana Mouskouri (born Ioanna Mouskouri on October 13, 1934, at 5 AM, in Chania, Crete, Greece) is a singer of Greek origin who over four decades has forged a highly successful international career. She was known as Nana to her friends and family as a child. She recorded many of her songs in many different languages, including Greek, French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, and Portuguese among others. She is noted for her trademark squarish black-rimmed eyeglasses and straight black hair parted in the middle, and her songs of melancholy, longing, and sentimental musings upon love, for which the emotion of her voice is exceptionally suited. Mouskouri has recorded from the 1960s into the new millennium. She has tailored releases to specific international markets with tremendous success.

The early years

Mouskouri's family lived in Chania, Crete, where her father, Constantine, worked as a film projectionist in a local cinema. Her mother, Alice also worked in the same local cinema as an usherette. When Mouskouri was three, Constantine moved the family to Athens. Mouskouri's family worked extremely hard in order to send Nana and her elder sister, Jenny, to the prestigious Athens Conservatoire. Mouskouri had displayed exceptional musical talent from the age of 6. However her sister, Jenny, appeared to be the more gifted of the two. In fact Mouskouri had one vocal chord that was normal and one vocal cord that was thicker than the other (rather than the normal equal two vocal chords). This unusual condition accounts for both her hoarse spoken voice as well as the ringing quality of her sung registers. This includes not only her renowned soprano range timbre, but also her resonantly dark and expressive alto registers, which she has not been using during her international career.

Mouskouri's childhood was stamped by the Nazi occupation of Greece. Her father became part of the Nazi resistance movement in Athens. Mouskouri began singing lessons at age 12. Despite the flaw in her vocal cords, Mouskouri took singing lessons regularly. During the Nazi German occupation, her family no longer had the financial means to pay for her singing lessons, but her teacher saw that she had a certain talent and continued to give her lessons free of charge. As a child, she listened to radio broadcasts of American jazz singers such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday as well as French chanson stars like Édith Piaf.


She studied classical music with an emphasis on singing opera. The young Mouskouri committed herself into classical music studies with a passion, perfecting her vocals with extraordinary self-discipline as well as taking piano and harmony classes. After 8 years at the Conservatoire, Mouskouri was encouraged by her friends to experiment with jazz music. She soon began singing with her friends' jazz group at night and they even managed to get a radio slot. However, when Mouskouri's Conservatory professor found out about Mouskouri's involvement with a genre of music that he considered to be absolutely worthless, he flew into a fury and prevented her from sitting her end of year exams. Consequently, the Conservatoire expelled her. Mouskouri's dreams of becoming an opera singer were dashed.

Mouskouri left the Conservatoire and began performing at the Zaki club in Athens. She began singing jazz in nightclubs with a bias on Ella Fitzgerald repertory. It was at the Zaki in 1958 that Mouskouri met the famous Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis. Hadjidakis was immensely impressed by Nana's original voice and immediately offered to write songs for her. He became her mentor. In 1959 Mouskouri performed Hadjidakis' Kapou Iparchi Agapi Mou (co-written with poet Nikos Gatsos) at the inaugural Greek Song Festival. The song won first prize, and Mouskouri began to be noticed. At the 1960 Greek Song Festival, she performed two more Hadjidakis compositions, Timoria and Kiparissaki. Both these songs tied for first prize. Mouskouri soon ventured further and participated at the Mediterranean Song Festival, held in Barcelona where she performed Kostas Yannidis' composition Xypna Agapi Mou. The song won first prize. Her wins attracted interest from several international record companies. Mouskouri wound up signed a recording contract with the Paris-based Philips-Fontana axis.

In 1961, Mouskouri performed the soundtrack of a German documentary about Greece. This resulted in the German-language single Weisse Rosen aus Athen ("White Roses from Athens"). The song was originally adapted from a folk melody by Hadjidakis. It became an enormous hit, selling over a million copies in Germany. The song was later translated into several different languages and it went on to become one of Mouskouri's signature tunes. Mouskouri married Yorgos Petsilas in 1961. Mouskouri and Petsilas have two children, son, Nicolas born on 13 February 1968 and daughter, Hélène, nicknamed Lenou, born on 6 July 1970. In 1974, Mouskouri and Petsilas separated and in 1975, Mouskouri and Petsilas were officially divorced.

In 1962, she met renowned American song producer Quincy Jones. Jones got her to go to New York to record an album of American jazz titled, The Girl From Greece Sings. Following that she scored another hit in the United Kingdom with My Colouring Book.

In 1963, she left Greece to live permanently in Paris, France. Mouskouri performed Luxembourg's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest that year, À Force de Prier. The song became an international hit, and helped win her the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque in France. Mouskouri soon attracted the attention of French composer Michel Legrand, who composed her two major French hits Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964) and L'Enfant au Tambour (1965).

In 1965, she recorded her second English-language album that was released in the United States entitled, Nana Sings. Jamaican-American Calypso musician Harry Belafonte heard and liked the album. Belafonte brought Mouskouri on tour with him through 1966. They teamed for a live duo album entitled, An Evening With Belafonte/Mouskouri. During this tour, Belafonte told Mouskouri to remove her signature black-rimmed glasses when on stage. She was so unhappy with the request that she wanted to quit the show after only two days. Finally, Belafonte relented and respected her wishes to perform with her glasses.

Mouskouri's 1967 French album Le Jour Où la Colombe ascended her to superstardom in France. This album featured many of her French songs, Au Coeur de Septembre, Adieu Angélina, Robe Bleue, Robe Blanche and the French pop classic Le Temps des Cerises. Her rendition of Guantanamera was very well received. Mouskouri made her first appearance at Paris' legendary Olympia concert theater in 1967, with a repertoire blending French pop, Greek folk, and Hadjidakis numbers.

In 1968, Mouskouri turned her attention to the British market and hosted a variety show called Nana and Guests. In 1969, she released her first full-length British LP, Over and Over. It became a smash hit that spent almost two years on the U.K. charts. Mouskouri spent much of the 1970s on the road which helped to broaden her worldwide popularity to levels. In France, she released a series of top-selling albums that included Comme un Soleil, Une Voix Qui Vient du Coeur, Vielles Chansons de France, and Quand Tu Chantes. She also recorded a successful version of Habanera, from Bizet's opera Carmen. She continued to release highly received albums in Europe, including her 1975 album Sieben Schwarze Rosen which was a significant success in Germany, and her English-language album Book of Songs that sold millions of copies worldwide.

The middle years

In 1979, Mouskouri had another English-language album named Roses and Sunshine. This album was very well received in Canada, and one of the album's tracks, "Even Now" (a different song from the 1978 Barry Manilow hit), became a staple on beautiful music radio stations in the United States. She scored a worldwide hit in 1981 with Je Chante Avec Toi, Liberté, which was translated into several languages after its widespread success in France. The momentum from this album also helped boost her following German album, Meine Lieder Sind Meine Liebe. In 1984, Mouskouri returned to Greece for her first live performance in her homeland since 1962.

In 1986, Mouskouri recorded Only Love, the theme song to a BBC TV series that went on to top the U.K. charts. The song was also a hit with its French version, L'Amour en Héritage. That same year, Mouskouri made a play for the Spanish-language market with the hit single Con Todo el Alma. The song was a major success in Spain, Argentina and Chile. She released five albums in different languages in 1987, and the following year returned to her classical conservatory roots with the double LP The Classical Nana (aka Nana Classique), which featured some of her favorite opera excerpts.

The later years

Mouskouri's 1991 English album, Only Love: The Best of Nana Mouskouri became her best-selling release in the United States. She spent much of the 1990s with her rigorous global touring schedule. Among her early 1990s albums were spiritual music, Gospel (1990), the Spanish-language Nuestras Canciones, the multilingual, Mediterranean-themed Côté Sud, Côté Coeur (1992), Dix Mille Ans Encore, Falling in Love Again: Great Songs From the Movies. Falling in Love reunited her with Harry Belafonte on two songs.


She recorded several more albums over 1996-1997, including the Spanish Nana Latina (which featured duets with Julio Iglesias and Mercedes Sosa), the English-language Return to Love, and the French pop classics, Hommages. In 1997, she staged a high-profile Concert for Peace at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. This concert was later released as an album, and aired as a TV special on PBS in the U.S.

Mouskouri was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in October 1993 [1]. She took over from the previous ambassador, American actress Audrey Hepburn. Mouskouri's first U.N. mission took her to Bosnia to draw attention to the plight of children affected by Bosnian war. She was deeply moved by her experience in Bosnia and went on to give a series of fund-raising concerts in Sweden and Belgium.

She was elected a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 until 1999.

In 1993, Nana recorded a new album, Hollywood. It was produced by Michel Legrand. Hollywood was a collection of famous film songs. It served was not only a tribute to the world of cinema, but also as a personal reference to childhood memories of sitting with her father in his projection room in Crete.

Between December 11-14, 1997, Mouskouri gave four triumphant performances at the Olympia in Paris to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her singing career. Also in 1997, Mouskouri resigned from her position as a European MP. She explained that a fervent pacifist, she refused to back wars.

Mouskouri currently lives in Switzerland with her second husband, André Chapelle whom she married on January 13, 2003. She still performs about 100 concerts each year. In 2004, her French record company released an unprecedented 34-CD box set of more than 600 of Mouskouri's mostly French songs.

For 2005 and 2008, she plans a farewell concert tour of Europe, Australia, Asia, South America, the United States, and Canada. During an interview with The Australian newspaper, when asked why this would be her final concert series, Mouskouri said she wanted to retire on a high note. "I never thought that I would grow that old. It is better really to stop while you are standing well on your feet. I just want to be proud and in very good form and thank the audience for all this love," she said [2].

Mouskouri has sold more than 300 million(*) records internationally, recording about 1,500 songs in 15 languages on 450 albums. She has more than 300 gold and platinum albums worldwide.

Music genre

Mouskouri's repertoire varies and garners her the support for the type of universal appeal she aims, i.e. from jazz, well-known pop tunes from before and after the rock era, French cabaret chansons, movie themes and songs, classical and operatic repertory, religious music, folk songs from her native Greece (and elsewhere) and more.

Paul Simon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Paul Simon in a publicity still for You're the One (2000)
Born October 13, 1941
Newark Heights, New Jersey

Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, half of the folk-singing duo Simon and Garfunkel who continues a successful solo career. In 2006, Time Magazine called him one of the "100 people who shape our world". [1] He is 5'3".

Early life and career

Born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Newark Heights, New Jersey, who soon moved to Queens in New York City, Simon's musical career began in Forest Hills High School when he and his fellow-Jew and friend Art Garfunkel began singing together as a duo, occasionally performing at school dances. Their idols were the Everly Brothers, whom they often emulated and/or imitated in their early recordings. Simon and Garfunkel called themselves "Tom & Jerry", and it was under this name that the duo first had success. In 1957, they recorded the single "Hey, Schoolgirl", on Big Records which reached forty-nine on the pop charts while they were still in their teens.

After graduating from high school, Simon attended Queens College, while Garfunkel studied at Columbia University in Manhattan. Simon was a brother in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. Though Simon earned a degree in English literature, his real passion was rock and roll. Between 1957 and 1964, Simon wrote, recorded, and released more than thirty songs, occasionally reuniting with Garfunkel as Tom & Jerry for some singles, including "Our Song", "That's My Story", and "Surrender, Please Surrender", among others. He also briefly attended Brooklyn Law School.

However, most of the songs Simon recorded in the six years after 1957 were performed alone or with musicians other than Garfunkel. They were released on several minor record labels, such as Amy, ABC-Paramount, Big, Hunt, Ember, King, Tribute, and Madison. He used several different pseudonyms for these recordings, including Jerry Landis, Paul Kane (from Orson Welles's film Citizen Kane), and True Taylor. Simon enjoyed some mediocre success in recording a few singles under the pseudonym Tico as part of a group called Tico and the Triumphs, including a song called "Motorcycle" which reached 99 on the Billboard charts in 1962. Tico and the Triumphs released four "45s". Marty Cooper, a member of the group, sang lead on several of these releases and was actually known as Tico. That same year, Paul reached 97 on the pop charts as Jerry Landis with the hit "The Lone Teen Ranger". Both singles were released on Amy Records.

During this period, Simon met Carole King, with whom he recorded several unreleased demos as a duo called The Cosines to be recorded and released by other groups. In addition, Simon's experience in the studio led him to produce many singles for other acts, including The Vels, Ritchie Cordell, The Fashions, Jay Walker and the Pedestrians, and Dougie and the Dubs. It was also at this time that he became attracted to the New York folk music scene and made his first forays into the folk-rock genre, as is evident in the songs "Carlos Dominguez" and "He Was My Brother" (1963), the latter of which he dedicated to a friend and former classmate, Andrew Goodman who had been murdered while working on the Freedom Summer project in Mississippi in 1964. During the mid-1960s, Simon co-wrote the song "Red Rubber Ball" with Bruce Woodley of the Australian pop group The Seekers. When the American group The Cyrkle recorded a cover of the song, it reached number two in the US.

Simon and Garfunkel

In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel got an audition with Columbia Records, whose executives were impressed enough to sign the duo to a contract to produce an album. Columbia decided that the two would be called simply "Simon & Garfunkel", which according to Simon, was the first time that artists' ethnic names had been used in pop music.[1]

Simon and Garfunkel's first LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. was released on 19 October 1964 and comprised twelve songs in the folk vein, five of them written by Simon. The album initially flopped, but radio stations on the east coast of the USA began receiving requests for one of tracks, Simon's "The Sound of Silence". Their producer, Tom Wilson, overdubbed the track with electric guitar, bass, and drums, releasing it as a single that eventually went to number one on the pop charts in the USA. Simon had gone to England after the initial failure of Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., pursuing a solo career and releasing the album The Paul Simon Song Book in the UK in 1965. But he returned to the USA to reunite with Garfunkel after "The Sound of Silence" had started to enjoy commercial success. Together they recorded several influential albums, including 1966's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, Bookends in 1968 and Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970). Simon and Garfunkel also contributed extensively to the soundtrack of the 1967 Mike Nichols's film The Graduate (starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft). They recorded an early version of "Mrs Robinson" not intended for the film. (The song was originally entitled Mrs Roosevelt, about the good old days of Eleanor Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio. Reportedly, when the film's director, Nichols, heard the song, he instructed Paul: "It's Mrs. Robinson now.")

Simon pursued solo projects after the duo released their very popular album Bridge over Troubled Water. Occasionally, he and Garfunkel did reunite, such as in 1975 for their Top Ten single "My Little Town", which Simon originally wrote for Garfunkel, claiming his work was lacking ?'bite', until Garfunkel insisted they sing the song together, and put it on both of their solo albums, Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years, and Garfunkel's Breakaway. Contrary to popular belief, the song is not at all autobiographical of Simon's early life in New York. In 1981, they got tegether again for the famous concert in Central Park, followed by an aborted reunion album Think Too Much, which was eventually released (sans Garfunkel) as Hearts and Bones. Together, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

In 2003, the two reunited again when they received Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. This reunion led to a U.S. tour, the acclaimed "Old Friends" concert series, followed by a 2004 international encore, which culminated in a free concert at the Colosseum in Rome. That final concert drew 600,000 people ?- 100,000 more than had attended Paul McCartney's concert at the same venue a year earlier.

Solo career

Simon is not known as an especially prolific songwriter, but his output has nonetheless been of the highest calibre. After Simon and Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon began to write and record solo material. He released Paul Simon in 1972, which contained one of his first experiments with world music, the Jamaican inspired Mother and Child Reunion, and There Goes Rhymin' Simon in 1973, which featured such popular hit songs as "Something So Right" (a tribute to his first wife, Peggy) and "Kodachrome". His 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years is considered to be among his finest work, particularly the title track and the hit single "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Although mostly silent over the next ten years, he kept himself in the public with songs such as "Slip Slidin' Away," "Late in the Evening," "Hearts and Bones," and "The Late Great Johnny Ace," his tribute to slain ex-Beatle John Lennon.

In 1985, Simon lent his talents to USA for Africa and performed on the famine relief fundraising single We Are the World. In 1986 he released the immensely popular Graceland, for which he won a Grammy. The album featured the groundbreaking use of African rhythms and performers such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo. In 1990, he followed up Graceland with the commercially successful and consistent successor album The Rhythm of the Saints, which featured Brazilian and Cajun musical themes. These albums helped to popularize world music as a genre. The importance of both albums allowed Simon to stage another New York concert, and on August 15, 1991, almost 10 years after his concert with Garfunkel, Simon staged another concert in Central Park with both African and South American bands. The success led to both a live album and a Emmy winning TV special.


His 2000 studio album You're the One, did not reach the commercial heights of previous albums but was considered by many fans and critics to be an artistic success and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. A DVD of the same title, taped in Paris, was released in 2000. In 2002 he recorded the theme song for the animated children's movie The Wild Thornberrys Movie called "Father and Daughter". It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

Simon's latest album, Surprise, produced by Brian Eno and Simon, was released on May 9, 2006. In commenting on US TV show "Ellen" what drove him to write material for this latest album, Simon noted the events of September 11, 2001 and also turning 60 since his previous album "You're the One". Simon is currently on tour in the USA, playing songs from Surprise as well as his classics. He will shortly be taking the Surprise tour to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

2004 reissues

In 2004, Simon's record company announced the release of expanded editions of each of his solo albums, individually and together in a limited-edition nine-disc boxed set, Paul Simon: The Studio Recordings 1972-2000. The expanded individual albums feature a total of thirty bonus tracks, including original song demos, live recordings, duets, six never-before-released songs, and outtakes from each of his nine solo albums.

Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a second time in 2000 for his achievements as a solo artist.

Music for Broadway

In the late 1990s, he also wrote and produced a Broadway musical called The Capeman, which was a commercial flop, and lost $11 million during its 1998 run. Though the musical failed, the music itself is considered to be some of Simon's finest, and rumors persist that the show may be revived and go on national tour.

Film and television

Simon has also dabbled in acting. He played music producer Tony Lacey in the 1977 Woody Allen film Annie Hall, and wrote and starred in 1980's One-Trick Pony as Jonah Levin, a journeyman rock and roller. Paul Simon also appeared on The Muppet Show (the only episode to use only the songs of one songwriter, Simon). He has also appeared on Saturday Night Live, either as host or musical guest, seven times, most recently on May 13, 2006 when he appeared as musical guest and sang two new songs from his Surprise album, How Can You Live in the Northeast?, and Outrageous. He is friends with former Saturday Night Live star Chevy Chase, who appeared in his video for "You Can Call Me Al" lip synching the song while Simon looks disgruntled and mimes backing vocals and the playing of various instruments beside him. He has been the subject of two films by Jeremy Marre, the first on Graceland, the second on The Capeman.

Personal life

Simon has been married three times. His first was to the slightly older Peggy Harper; they were married in late autumn 1969. The song "Train in the Distance", from Simon's 1983 album, is about her. They had a son, Harper James Simon, in 1972. They divorced in 1975, though on good terms.

His second marriage was to Carrie Fisher (Hearts and Bones is about her) to whom he proposed after a New York Yankees game. They were married on August 16, 1983 for a period of just eleven months, during which time she miscarried.

Simon's current wife is Edie Brickell to whom he was married on May 30, 1992. Their first child, Adrian Edward, was born by the end of the year. Daughter Loulou Belle followed in 1995 and son Gabriel Elijah in 1998. His first son, Harper Simon is a guitarist

Marie Osmond
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Hometown Ogden, Utah
Country United States
Years active 1973?-Present


Olive Marie Osmond (born October 13, 1959 in Ogden, Utah) is an American entertainer and a member of the show business family, The Osmonds.

The only daughter of George and Olive Osmond and the eighth of their nine children, Marie has released many albums and appeared on television for over 40 years. When she was just 13 years old, her song "Paper Roses" reached #1 on the country music charts, making her the youngest female artist in history to top the chart. She has charted with her brother Donny ("I'm Leaving It All Up To You" and "Deep Purple"), Dan Seals ("Meet Me In Montana", also a country #1), and Paul Davis ("You're Still New To Me"). Other solo hits include "This Is The Way That I Feel," "There's No Stopping Your Heart", "Read My Lips", and "I Only Wanted You". She and Donny also had a hit variety show, Donny & Marie, which ran on ABC from (1976 to 1979). In 1981, she had a solo variety series on NBC, simply called Marie.

Marie played her mother, Olive, in the TV movie Side By Side: The True Story Of The Osmond Family. She also starred in the TV movies The Gift Of Love and I Married Wyatt Earp. She garnered rave reviews in the Broadway musicals The King and I (as Anna) and The Sound of Music (as Maria) in the mid-1990s. She returned to television first in the short lived 1995 ABC sitcom Maybe This Time and then with brother Donny in 1998 to co-host Donny And Marie, a talk/entertainment show that lasted just two seasons.

She appeared as herself in the 2001 TV movie Inside The Osmonds, which showed how the brothers' egos, their father's fiscal mismanagement, and the family's quest to build a multimedia empire led to their downfall. The film was produced by her younger brother Jimmy Osmond.

Personal life

Marie's first engagement, to actor and singer Jeff Crayton, was announced in June of 1979, but abruptly called off in August of that same year. She now has eight children: one son with her first husband (Steve Craig), two children with her second husband, and five adopted children.

Perhaps the only dent in her squeaky-clean image is her divorce from her first husband, after two years of marriage in 1985. Her religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, discourages divorce. She married her second husband, Brian Blosil, on October 28, 1986.

In October 1999, she disclosed that she suffered from severe postpartum depression, following the birth of her son. She became so despondent that she left her family, and planned never to return. She eventually returned to her family, and shared her postpartum experiences with other women. In 2005, Marie spoke out in support of Brooke Shields, after Tom Cruise attacked Brooke's use of pharmaceuticals to treat her postpartum depression.

In early August 2005, a fire destroyed the garage and office of her Utah home; no one was injured in the blaze.

In early 2006, it was revealed that two of her teenaged children posted risque bios of themselves on their Myspace websites. Marie publicly vowed to work to make the Internet safer, after she was informed of this.

On August 3, 2006, MSNBC [2] reported that she was hospitalized for a bad reaction to medication, denying reports that she had attempted suicide. The National Enquirer reported in its August 14, 2006, edition that Osmond's hospitalization was the result of a failed suicide attempt.

Current career

Recently, Marie's radio show, Marie And Friends, was cancelled after just 10 months.

Along with actor John Schneider, Marie is the co-founder of the Children's Miracle Network.

She is a regular on QVC where her "Marie Osmond Fine Porcelain Collector Dolls" are the top-selling line. Marie has launched her own embroidery machine, sewing machine, and embroidery designs through Bernina. She has recently been featured on the cover of Designs in Machine Embroidery, a national magazine for machine embroidery enthusiasts. The cover article featured an interview with Marie where she discussed how she became involved in embroidery.

She also is a judge on Celebrity Duets on FOX.