WA2K Radio is now on the air

This is a story about numbers: 10 shillings, US$15-million, 70 years, over 160 covers and three centuries of continuous radio air play. It's the story of a song we all know, the impoverished Zulu migrant worker who wrote it, the musicians and record companies who raked in millions for it, and the almost 70 years it has taken for his family to see justice done.

The song is Mbube, produced by Zulu musician Solomon Linda in 1939. It's estimated that Linda received a total of 10 shillings for the song. Yet the tune went on to become Pete Seeger's runaway hit Wimoweh, then the Tokens' The Lion Sleeps Tonight, on to at least 160 covers, before ending up in the voices of Timon and Pumbaa, the meerkat and warthog characters in Disney's classic movie and Broadway hit The Lion King.


Along the way, it is said to have earned some US$15-million (R90-million) in royalties - but not for Linda. The musician died in 1962 with less than R100 in his bank account. His widow couldn't afford a headstone for his grave.

Hey, dys. Isn't that always the way with naive and talented people?

Thanks for that info, buddy.

Here's to Solomon Linda:

In the jungle, the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight
In the jungle, the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

(Chorus)
Imbube

Ingonyama ifile [The lion's in peace]
Ingonyama ilele [The lion sleeps]
Thula [Hush]

Near the village, the peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight
Near the village, the peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight

(Chorus)

Ingonyama ilele [The lion sleeps]

Hush, my darling, don't fear, my darling
The lion sleeps tonight
Hush, my darling, don't fear, my darling
The lion sleeps tonight

He, ha helelemama [He, ha helelemama]
Ohi'mbube [lion]

(Chorus)

Ixesha lifikile [Time has come]
Lala [Sleep]
Lala kahle [Sleep well]

Near the village, the peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight
Near the village, the peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight

(Chorus)

My little darling
Don't fear, my little darling
My little darling
Don't fear, my little darling

Ingonyama ilele [The lion sleeps]

Zsa Zsa Gabor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born February 6, 1917
Budapest, Hungary

Zsa Zsa Gábor (born Sári Gábor on February 6, 1917) is a Hungarian-American actress and socialite, who, like her two sisters, is best known for her beauty and wealthy lifestyle.

Zsa Zsa is known for her affection for jewelry, her quick wit, as well as referring to everyone she speaks with as "dahling", but acquired a reputation for matrimony, and being famous for "being famous". Zsa Zsa is also the only Gabor sister to bear a child.





Birth

She was born in Budapest, Hungary, the second of three daughters born to Vilmos Gábor, a soldier, and Jolie Gabor (née Janka Tilleman). The name Zsa Zsa is a nickname for Sári in her native Hungarian. She was born Sári Gábor. She was named after the then top Hungarian actress Sári Fedák, who was also called Zsa Zsa because her daughter couldn't pronounce the name Sári.


Siblings

The birth years of the Gabor sisters may be fabrications to make them appear younger. Her sisters are Magda and Éva. Zsa Zsa often claimed to have won the "Miss Hungary" beauty contest in 1936, but she was not of age when she entered the contest and was disqualified after winning. Although she did not actually win the title "Miss Hungary," she did get the part of a soubrette in a Viennese operetta titled "The Singing Dream." She played the character Violet and stage name, her true name, Sári. This was her first stage appearance and at the time, she had an affair with a man named Willi, according to her book "Zsa Zsa Gábor" written by Gerold Frank in 1960.


Husbands

She has had nine husbands:

Burhan Belge, press director for the foreign ministry of Turkey, later known as a writer and diplomat (1937-1941).
Conrad Hilton, Hilton Hotel magnate (1942-1946)
George Sanders, actor (1949-1954)
Herbert Hutner, financial consultant (1964-1966)
Joshua S. Cosden, Jr., oil heir and businessman, (1966-1967)
Jack Ryan, inventor associated with the Barbie and Chatty Cathy dolls, (1975-1976)
Michael O'Hara (1977-1982)
Felipe de Alba was an invalid marriage; it was bigamous, Zsa Zsa was still married to Michael O'Hara, and it was performed by a ship's captain at sea, but not in international waters (or as she claimed ". . . Was not far enough out to sea. . .", you have to be twelve miles out, in international waters, for a ship's captain's marriage to be legal). An annulment was received. (1982)
Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, (married; 1986 - present)
Zsa Zsa herself has claimed she proposed all of her marriages.

Current Full Title: Zsa Zsa Gábor, Princess Von Anhalt, Duchess of Saxony


Child

She and Conrad Hilton had one daughter, Francesca Hilton. According to Zsa Zsa's book, One Lifetime Is Not Enough, Conrad Hilton raped her causing the pregnancy. Zsa Zsa is the only Gábor sister to bear a child. Also an interesting fact in One Lifetime Is Not Enough, Hedy Lamarr taught Francesca the "facts of life" at age three at Zsa Zsa and George Sanders' home in Bel Air. In 2005 Zsa Zsa accused her daughter, Francesca Hilton, of larceny and fraud, and filed suit against her in a California court (see [1]).


Porfirio Rubirosa

Zsa Zsa also had a relationship with Porfirio Rubirosa, a noted Dominican international playboy and sometime diplomat. She refused to leave George Sanders to marry him, whereupon Rubirosa married Barbara Hutton (for seventy-three days) and then renewed his relationship with Zsa Zsa. In their 4 year relationship, Zsa Zsa has claimed Rubirosa proposed to her many times and she just wouldn't budge. Later in the relationship they did get engaged but "Rubi" broke the engagement claiming if Zsa Zsa took a part in Death of a Scoundrel (co-starring her sometime ex. George Sanders) he would leave her.


Hollywood

Among the movies Zsa Zsa appeared in were her starring role as singer Jane Avril in John Huston's Moulin Rouge (1952), Lili (1953), Sang et Lumières (aka Love in a hot Climate 1954) a French film that had her co-star with Daniel Gélin, Queen of Outer Space (1958) which is considered as one of the worst (or silliest) films ever made - she jokingly recalled that the only direction she was given during production was "not to laugh at the dialogue", and late film noir classic Touch of Evil (1958) with cinema giant Orson Welles. Only once did she play opposite ex-hubbie George Sanders, in the noirish Death of a Scoundrel (1956).

Decades later she had a cameo appearance as herself in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Even though she appeared in many films, she was never really considered a successful actress, and thrived as a media personality. From the 1950s to 1970s she was a staple of television talk shows hosted by Jack Paar, Mike Douglas, Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin, where she could be counted on to be amusing, witty, and combative.

Though her movies continued, their quality did not, and her later career was as a celebrity rather than a serious actress. The Gabor sisters (competing with each other for the limited number of roles they might play with Hungarian accents) often engaged in always well-publicized "feuds," but it was Zsa Zsa who seemed to thrive on adverse publicity.

However, she managed to sustain her acting career on stage in the late 60s and 70s in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, Forty Carats which was her Broadway debut for Arsenic and Old Lace.

Because of her B-Movie stardom and her corresponding private life she was called Hollywood's "most expensive courtesan since Madame de Pompadour" (Ephraim Katz's "The Film Encyclopedia).


Arrest

On June 14, 1989, Zsa Zsa was accused of slapping the face of a Beverly Hills police officer, named Paul Kramer, when he stopped her for a traffic violation [2]. She was found guilty of the assault in a well-publicized trial and sentenced to three days (72 hours) in jail (and required to pay $13,000 in court costs). She testified that her behavior had been provoked by the officer, who she said had behaved extremely rudely and insulted her with obscenities. According to the Rotten Library, "Gabor later complain[ed] that she was denied a jury of her peers, saying 'It was not my class of people. There was not a producer, a press agent, a director, an actor.'" [3]

Gabor poked fun at her role in the incident by way of cameo appearances in movies such as The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (wherein she slapped a police car's light that was following her and remarked "This happens every ******* time that I go shopping"), the 1993 film version of The Beverly Hillbillies (in which she claimed that the officer had slapped her in what was described as a "drive-by slapping"), and A Very Brady Sequel (wherein she gloated upon the publicity she earned from the incident), and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Both when Carlton accidentally slaps a cop, when the slap was meant for Will, and Zsa Zsa replies by saying "I have witnesses, it wasn't me", and when Hilary asks, "There's something that I'm just dying to know," and Zsa Zsa says, "Yes, I did it...and he deserved to be slapped.")


Recent health

Zsa Zsa was a passenger in an automobile accident that occurred November 27, 2002, that was initially reported as having sent her into a coma, but the report was in error. She was conscious by the time medical assistance arrived. She left the hospital in early January 2003, facing continued physical therapy. After this incident, VH1 made fun of her being paralyzed with her exercise video entitled "It's Simple Darling" by commenting "It's so simple, even a vegetable in a coma can do it!"

On July 7, 2005, Zsa Zsa suffered a massive stroke leaving her in critical condition at a local hospital. She underwent surgery to remove a blockage in her carotid artery. She returned home on July 15 and is said to be making a good recovery, given her age, and her husband is taking care of her.


Trivia

In her biography, she claims her love life began at an early age in Ankara,Turkey, reportedly with a May-December affair with the fifty-one-year-old Kemal Atatürk, ruler of Turkey, to whom she lost her virginity at the age of fifteen; she was at the time married to Berhan Belge.
As her large fortune, mainly real estate and jewelry, resulted from her short-term marriages with millionaires and because of her own clear comments referring to this, she was sometimes called Hollywood's most expensive whore.
Biographers speculate that her paternal family was originally Jewish as well as her mother's, but converted to Roman Catholicism in order to assimilate, although this has not been confirmed.
An Internet rumor had her being a cousin of Hungarian-born California Congressman Tom Lantos; it turned out that she is a cousin of his wife.

Quotes

"To be loved is a strength. To love is a weakness."
"A man in love is incomplete until he is married. Then he is finished."
"As a woman, you have to choose between your fanny or your face. I chose my face."
"I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back."
When asked how many husbands she'd had, Zsa Zsa replied: "You mean, other than my own?"
"To a smart girl men are no problem - they're the answer."
"Macho does not prove mucho."
"Husbands are like fires. They go out if unattended."
"I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house."
"Getting divorced just because you don't love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do."
"Conrad Hilton was very generous to me in the divorce settlement. He gave me 5,000 Gideon Bibles."
"A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it."
"Never complain, never explain."
"I want a man who's kind and understanding. Is that too much to ask of a millionaire?"
"I always said marriage should be a fifty-fifty proposition. He should be at least fifty years old, and have at least fifty-million dollars."
"When in trouble, take a bath and wash your hair."
"Milton (Berle), you really think we have million dollar figures?" Milton replied, "Yes, and in the right places too!"

Mamie Van Doren
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mamie Van Doren (born February 6, 1931 some sources say 1933) is an American actress and sex symbol.




Early life

She was born Joan Lucille Olander in Rowena, South Dakota, the daughter of Warner Carl Olander (March 30, 1908-June 4, 1992) and Lucille Harriet Bennett (January 21, 1912-August 27, 1995). She is of three-quarters Swedish ancestry; the remainder is mixed English and German. Her mother named her after Joan Crawford. In 1939, the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa. In May 1942, they moved to Los Angeles.

In early 1946, Joan began working as an usherette at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The following year, she had a bit-part on an early television show. She also sang with Ted Fio Rito's band and entered beauty contests. In the summer of 1949, at age 18, she won the titles "Miss Eight Ball" and "Miss Palm Springs".

While appearing in the Miss Palm Springs contest, she was discovered by Howard Hughes.


Early career

She lunched with Hughes, who gave her a bit-part in Jet Pilot at RKO, which was her motion picture debut. Her line of dialogue consisted of one word, "Look!" Though production of the movie was in 1949 and 1950, it was not released until 1957. The following year, 1951, she posed for famous pin-up girl artist Alberto Vargas, the painter of the glamorous "Vargas Girls." His painting of Van Doren was on the July cover of Esquire.

She was briefly married at seventeen, when she and first husband, Jack Newman, eloped to Santa Barbara. The marriage dissolved quickly, upon discovery of his abusive nature.

She did a few more bit parts in movies at RKO, including His Kind of Woman (1951) starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell and Vincent Price. About her appearance in that one, Van Doren has said, "If you blinked you would miss me. I look barely old enough to drive."

She then began working on the stage. She was a showgirl in New York in Monte Proser's nightclub version of Billion Dollar Baby. Songwriter Jimmy McHugh discovered her for his musicals, then decided she was too good for the chorus line and should have dramatic training. She studied with Ben Bard and Bliss-Hayden. While appearing in the role of Marie in a showcase production of Come Back, Little Sheba, she was seen by Phil Benjamin, a casting director at Universal International.


Motion pictures

On January 20, 1953, she signed a contract with Universal. The studio had big plans for her, hoping she would bring the success that 20th Century Fox had with Marilyn Monroe, the reigning sex symbol of the era. It has been said that because the day she was signed was also the day President Eisenhower was inaugurated, the studio decided to give her the name Mamie for Ike's wife, Mamie Eisenhower, and Van Doren because it sounds Dutch.

Her first movie for Universal was Forbidden (1953), playing a singer. She then made All-American (1953), playing Susie Ward, a girl from the other side of the tracks who is the man-trap at a campus beer joint. In Yankee Pasha (1954) starring Tony Curtis and Rhonda Fleming, she played a slave girl, Lilith.

Van Doren starred as the "bad girl" archetype in several teenage cult movies of the 1950s. She also appeared in some of the first movies to feature Rock & Roll music. She became identified with this rebellious style, and made some Rock records.

While she and the other blonde bombshells did not attain the same level of superstar status as Monroe, Van Doren did become one of the leading sex symbols of the day. Marilyn, Mamie and Jayne Mansfield were known as the "Three M's," and Van Doren achieved legendary status as being the sole survivor (although she was referred to as "the poor man's Mansfield").

But while Monroe did Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Mansfield had a big success with Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, a part that was originally written for Van Doren, who turned it down, Universal stuck Van Doren with Francis the Talking Mule in Francis Joins the WACS.


Marriages, child & affairs

Van Doren has had five husbands, sportswear manufacturer Jack Newman (married 1950-divorced 1950), bandleader, composer and actor Ray Anthony (married 1955-divorced 1961), baseball player Lee Meyers (married 1966-divorced 1967), businessman Ross McClintock (married 1972-divorced 1973) and actor Thomas Dixon (married 1979-present).

She and Anthony had one son, Perry Ray Anthony (born March 18, 1956).

Her on-again off-again engagement to baseball player Bo Belinsky broke off for good in 1964. In her tell-all autobiography, she acknowledged numerous affairs, including ones with Clark Gable, Howard Hughes, Johnny Carson, Elvis Presley, Burt Reynolds, Jack Dempsey, Steve McQueen, Johnny Rivers, Robert Evans, Eddie Fisher, Warren Beatty, Tony Curtis, Steve Cochran, and Joe Namath.


Career continues
Some of Van Doren's more noteworthy movies include Teacher's Pet (1958) at Paramount, Born Reckless (1958) at Warner Bros., High School Confidential (1958), and The Beat Generation (1959), the latter two at MGM.

But many of the productions she starred in were low-budget B-movies. They are largely unknown to later generations, though some have gained a following for their high camp value. Besides the casting decisions at Universal, a problem was her poor management in selecting a suitable project.

In 1959, Universal chose not to exercise the option in her contract. Van Doren was now a free agent and had to struggle to find work. Some of her later movies were foreign and independent productions, such as The Blonde from Buenos Aires (1961), The Candidate (1964), The Navy vs the Night Monsters (1966) and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), which was directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who used another name.

In 1963, she posed twice for Playboy to promote her movie Three Nuts In Search of a Bolt (1964), though she was never a Playmate.

In 1964, Van Doren was at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood when The Beatles were at the club visiting with Jayne Mansfield, and a drunk George Harrison accidentally threw his drink on Mamie when he was really trying to throw it on some bothersome journalists.

Van Doren also developed a nightclub act and did a lot of live theatre. She performed in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dames at Sea at the Drury Lane Theatre, Chicago, and appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter and The Tender Trap at the Arlington Park Theatre.

During the war, she did tours for U.S. troops in Vietnam, for three months in 1968 and again in 1970. In addition to USO shows, she visited hospitals, including the wards of amputees and burn victims that many other celebrities stayed away from.

Her guest appearances on TV include The Bob Cummings Show, The Jack Benny Show, Fantasy Island, Burke's Law, Vega$, and L.A. Law.

In the 1970s, she did a nightclub act in Las Vegas.


Later life

Van Doren's autobiography, Playing the Field: My Story (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1987) brought much new attention to the veteran sex symbol and proved to be her biggest media splash in over 25 years. Since the book's publication she has often been interviewed and profiled and has occasionally returned to acting.

At age 60, she underwent cosmetic surgery. In interviews, she has consistently denied ever having breast implants. In 2006, Mamie posed for photographs for Vanity Fair with Pamela Anderson as part of their annual Hollywood issue.

Van Doren has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

At 75 (in 2006) Mamie and her husband, Thomas, maintain her hugely popular and controversial web site http://www.mamievandoren.com/ where her contemporary topless and nude photos and outspoken political views have created a larger fan base than ever in her long career.

Quotes

"My best asset is my brain. Without my brain, I don't think the rest of me would be too hot."
"I came to Hollywood determined to follow in Jean Harlow's footsteps, but I was determined not to die young. My hope was to endure. And endure I have."
"I don't wear panties anymore - this startles the Hollywood wolves so much they don't know what to pull at, so they leave me alone."
"There is a history of calamitous and violent deaths among the glamorous girls that boggles the mind and chills the blood, especially if you're one of the few survivors... As young women we were told that we were infinitely desirable and beautiful, only to discover that there was always someone coming up behind who was more desirable and beautiful. Our profession is perhaps the most competitive in the world. For, to be glamorous, to be beautiful, is to be doomed eventually to be disappointed."

Fabian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Fabiano Anthony Forte, who performed as Fabian, (born February 6, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American teen idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He rose to national prominence after performing several times on American Bandstand.

Fabian was born to Josephine and Domenic Forte. His father was a policeman and had ill health. Fabian was discovered in 1957 by Bob Marcucci and Peter DeAngelis, owners of Chancellor Records. At the time, record producers were looking to the South Philadelphia neighborhoods in search of teenage talents with good looks, and Frankie Avalon, also of South Philly, suggested Fabian as a possibility. Fabian was sitting on the front steps of his house crying because he had just seen his father taken away in an ambulance. He was spotted and, due to his good looks, Marcucci and DeAngelis asked him if he wanted to get into the record business.

Fabian's father couldn't work any longer and since Fabian was the oldest of three brothers, he took a chance at making some money in the music business to help his family out. He never thought of singing and recording as a career, only as a way of stepping in for his father at the time. And yet, before he knew it, Fabian's popularity soared, and soon thousands rushed to his concerts. At 15, Fabian won the Silver Award as "The Promising Male Vocalist of 1958."

With songwriters Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Fabian released a series of hit singles for Chancellor Records including "I'm a Man", "Hound Dog Man", "Turn Me Loose" (a twelve-bar blues), and his biggest hit, "Tiger". His career in music basically ended with the payola scandal of the 1960s, when it was revealed that his records were doctored significantly to improve his voice. [1]

Fabian went on to appear in more than 30 films, including Five Weeks in a Balloon, High Time, North to Alaska, The Longest Day and Ride the Wild Surf (1964) (with Tab Hunter). Most of his early films were comedies, and cast him as a restless teenager with a penchant for singing. After 1965, his film and singing career began to fade, along with his popularity as a teen idol.

He never regained his former stature, but has continued performing for more than 40 years. He was one of the few celebrities to pose with semi-frontal nudity during the late 1970s, posing for Playgirl magazine in its September 1973 issue. Recently he has been appearing with Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell to perform concerts as The Golden Boys.

In his latest endeavor, Fabian hosts and headlines in the hit show, "The Original Stars of Bandstand" at The Dick Clark Theater in Branson, Missouri. The show stars Fabian and Bobby Vee and features The Chiffons, Brian Hyland, Chris Montez and rare footage of the performers and Dick Clark.

Fabian has been married twice--to Kate Netter Forte from 1980 to 1990 and to his current wife Andrea Patrick, a former Miss Pennsylvania, whom he married in 1998. He has a son Christian and a daughter Julie from his first marriage. Christian is a screenwriter with the 1996 movie Albino Alligator starring Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway, and Gary Sinise and directed by Kevin Spacey, to his credit. He is also the co-screenwriter for The Monkey Wrench Gang, which is scheduled for release in 2007. Christian and his wife are the parents of Fabian's granddaughter, Ava Josephine.

Fabian and his wife are actively involved in the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association and Fabian has helped raise money for veterans with his Celebrity Golf Tournament in North Carolina. Andrea and Fabian live on 20 acres in Southwestern Pennsylvania with their dog Max in a home that Andrea designed.

Fabian has always said that he went into show business because his family needed the money and that his biggest regret is that he started too soon and hit too big too early.

Fabian also appeared in a 1982 TV record commercial, for The Idols of Rock n' Roll.

Natalie Cole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born February 6, 1950

Natalie Cole (born Stephanie Natalie Maria Cole on February 6, 1950), is a Grammy Award-winning American singer and songwriter.





Personal life

Natalie Cole is the daughter of noted crooner Nat King Cole. In several interviews, Cole talked about her upbringing; she was raised in an affluent area of Los Angeles, and her family, which she has referred to as "the black Kennedys", lived just a few doors down from the California governor. [1] Cole also stated in an interview that she did not connect with her cultural heritage or "blackness" until she attended college. [2]. She was 15 years old when her famous father died of cancer.

She attended the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield, MA. In her childhood, she was exposed to the greats of jazz, soul and blues at an early age, and she began performing at the age of 11.

Cole has been married three times, and has a son, Robert Yancy, (by Marvin Yancy), born in 1977; her son is a musician who tours with her. She later married former Rufus drummer Andre Fischer, who co-produced her album Unforgettable... With Love.


Music career

Early career

Her debut album in 1975, Inseparable, resulted in chart success with the single "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" (#1 R&B, #6 Pop). Her performance of the song won her a 1976 Grammy for [[Best Female R&B Vocal Performance]], a category that had heretofore been monopolized by Aretha Franklin. She also was awarded the Best New Artist Grammy of 1976.

More hits followed through 1980, including her biggest Pop hit, 1977's "I've Got Love On My Mind," as well as "Sophisticated Lady (She's A Different Lady)" (1976), "Our Love" (1978), and "Someone That I Used To Love" (1980). "I've Got Love On My Mind" and "Our Love" both earned certifications as Gold singles.


Career detour and resurgence

Cole's career paused in the early 1980s as she dealt with the challenges of her severe drug problem. By 1985, Cole was back in good health, and began a comeback.

Her first step was with the album Dangerous, released on the Modern label. In 1987, she released Everlasting (on EMI Manhattan) which sold over 2 million copies in the U.S., and won Cole a Soul Train Award for Female Single of the Year for the #1 R&B ballad "I Live for Your Love". The album garnered her three major hit singles: "Jump Start," "I Live For Your Love" (#2 AC and #13 Pop as well as #1 R&B), and a successful remake of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac" (#5 Pop, #16 AC, and #1 Dance). The album also included a remake of one of her father's signature hits, "When I Fall In Love," which did moderately well on the AC chart.

In 1989, another album, Good To Be Back gave her another chart success "Miss You Like Crazy" (#1 both R&B and AC, and #7 Pop).


"Unforgettable...with Love"

Cole may be best remembered for her 1991 album, Unforgettable... with Love, featuring her own arrangements of her father's greatest hits. Ironically, during her early career, Cole was reluctant to capitalize on her father's name, and wanted to forge her own identity by going after the soul market in earnest. For many years, she also found the prospect of recording her late father's songs too painful on a personal level.

Her decision to record the songs was a chart success; the album sold over 5 million copies in the United States alone, and won Cole several Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. The album featured a duet, the title track, with her father, created by splicing a recording of his vocals into the track. As a single, it reached #14 on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 chart, and went gold.


Additional albums

Cole has released several more albums of pop standards in the years since; as a result of appealing to the "adult standards" audience, she has made only occasional forays onto the pop singles charts in that time (for example, "A Smile Like Yours" in 1997), although her albums still sell well. Natalie Cole is considered one of the core artists of the smooth jazz format, garnering frequent airplay on smooth jazz radio stations with both her classic songs and her newer material.

Her 1999 album Snowfall On The Sahara marked a return to the easy adult-contemporary soul that categorized her late-1980s hits, but for 2002's critically-praised Ask A Woman Who Knows, she turned more to the jazz side of the spectrum, covering songs made famous by Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, and Sarah Vaughan.

In September 2006, she released "Leavin'", a cover album of tracks made popular by Shelby Lynne, Kate Bush, Sting, and Fiona Apple, among others; the album is a hybrid of rock, pop music, and R&B.


Television and film

Cole has carved out a secondary career in acting. She has also appeared several times in live concerts or other music related programs. After Johnny Mathis appeared on a special of Cole's in 1980, the two kept in contact, and in 1992, he invited Natalie to be a part of his television special titled "A Tribute To Nat Cole" for BBC-TV in England. It had high viewer ratings and was successful. From that project, an album with the same name was released, and featured several medley and solo numbers.

Cole has made a number of dramatic appearances on television, including guest appearances on I'll Fly Away, Touched by an Angel, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2006, she made a memorable guest appearance on the popular ABC show Grey's Anatomy as a terminally ill patient. Her character visited Seattle Grace Hospital to have a fork removed from her neck that her husband had stabbed her with during a mishap; the couple had been having an intimate encounter in public. [3]

Cole has also made several appearances in feature films, most recently in the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely. She has appeared in several made-for-TV movies, most notably as the lead in "Lily in Winter".

She also sang the national anthem with the University of Atlanta choir at Super Bowl XXVIII

On December 2, 2006, Natalie Cole performed for the first time in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands as part of the annual Cayman Jazz Fest (http://www.caymanislands.ky/jazzfest/).


Substance abuse and recovery

In 2000, Cole released an autobiography, Angel on my Shoulder, which described her battle with drugs during much of her life.

In the book, Cole admitted to using LSD, heroin and crack cocaine.
Cole said she began experimenting with drugs while attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
She also disclosed that she was arrested in Toronto, Canada for possession of heroin in 1975.
Cole continued to spiral out of control - including one incident where she refused to evacuate a burning building, and another where her young son Robert nearly drowned in the family swimming pool while she and her first husband, the late Reverend Marvin Yancy, were on a drug binge. [4] She did eventually enter rehab in 1983. [5]
In concert with the release of the book, her autobiography was turned into a made-for-TV movie, The Natalie Cole Story, which aired December 10, 2000 on NBC.

1. Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggert have written an impressive new book. It's called "Ministers Do More Than Lay People."

2. Transvestite: A guy who likes to eat, drink and be Mary.

3. The difference between the Pope and your boss...the Pope only expects you to kiss his ring.

4. My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and it is gone.

5. The only time the world beats a path to your door is if you're in the bathroom.

6. I hate sex in the movies. Tried it once. The seat folded up, the drink spilled and that ice... well, it really chilled the mood.

7. It used to be only death and taxes were inevitable. Now, of course, there's shipping and handling, too.

8. A husband is someone who, after taking the trash out, gives the impression that he just cleaned the whole house.

9. My next house will have no kitchen - just vending machines and a large trash can.

10. A blonde said, "I was worried that my mechanic might try to rip me off. I was relieved when he told me all I needed was turn signal fluid."

11. I'm so depressed. My doctor refused to write me a prescription for Viagra. He said it would be like putting a new flagpole on a condemned building.

12. My neighbor was bit by a stray rabid dog. I went to see how he was and found him writing frantically on a piece of paper. I told him rabies could be cured and he didn't have to worry about a Will. He said, "Will? What Will? I'm making a list of the people I want to bite."

13. Definition of a teenager? God's punishment for enjoying sex.

14. As we slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way.

Well, BioBob, you made us really laugh with those one liners. Thanks again, Boston, for the great celeb backgrounds. Hope our Raggedy can do the full monty today.

Here's a song that I found by Fabian. Let's dedicate this one to Tiger Woods in Dubai.
!
Hey, lumpa sugar, you look kinda sweet
Cuter than a baby walkin' down the street
When I look into your eyes, I wanna leap
I can't conceal that you make me feel

Like a tiger, ooh, ooh, ooh, like a tiger
Ooh, ooh, ooh, just to see you smile nearly drives me wild
I wanna growl wow!

I'm feelin' stronger than a grizzly bear
Soarin' like an eagle flyin' through the air
When I get you in my arms, you'd better beware
I go insane 'cause I can't be tamed

Like a tiger, ooh, ooh, ooh, like a tiger
Ooh, ooh, ooh, just to see you smile nearly drives me wild
I wanna growl wow!

You keep my heart jumpin' like a kangaroo
Floatin' like an onion in a bowl of stew
Baby, ev'ry time you come in view
I run like an antelope to get to you

I'm your tiger and you're my mate
Hurry up, buttercup, and don't be late
I might get mad if I have to wait
Come right now 'cause I'm on the prowl

Like a tiger, ooh, ooh, ooh, like a tiger
Ooh, ooh, ooh, just to see you smile nearly drives me wild
I wanna growl wow!

You keep my heart jumpin' like a kangaroo
Floatin' like an onion in a bowl of stew
Baby, ev'ry time you come in view
I run like an antelope to get to you

I'm your tiger and you're my mate
Hurry up, buttercup, and don't be late
I might get mad if I have to wait
Come right now 'cause I'm on the prowl

Like a tiger, ooh, ooh, ooh, like a tiger
Ooh, ooh, ooh, just to see you smile nearly drives me wild
I wanna growl wow

And the street where we all want to live......



Musical: Annie
Song: Easy Street

[ROOSTER]
I remember the way
Our sainted mother
Would sit and croon us
Her lullaby

[MISS HANNIGAN]
She'd say, kids, there's a place
That's like no other
You got to get there before you die

[ROOSTER]
You don't get there
By playing from the rule book

[MISS HANNIGAN]
You stack the ages

[ROOSTER]
You load the dice

[MISS HANNIGAN AND ROOSTER]
Mother dear
Oh, we know you're down there listening --
How can we follow
Your sweet
Advice
To

[ROOSTER]
Easy street
Easy street
Where you sleep till noon

[MISS HANNIGAN]
Yeah, yeah, yeah

[ROOSTER AND MISS HANNIGAN]
She'd repeat
Easy street
Better get there soon.

[ROOSTER, MISS HANNIGAN, AND LILY]
Easy street
Easy street
Where the rich folks play
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Move them feet

[MISS HANNIGAN]
Move them ever-lovin' feet

[ROOSTER, MISS HANNIGAN, AND LILY]
To easy street

[MISS HANNIGAN]
Easy street

[ROOSTER, MISS HANNIGAN, AND LILY]
When you get there stay

[ROOSTER]
It ain't fair
How we scrounge
For three of four bucks
While she gets
Warbucks

[MISS HANNIGAN]
The little brat!
It ain't fair this here life
Is drivin' me nuts!
While we get peanuts
She's livin' fat!

[ROOSTER]
Maybe she holds the key
That little lady

[MISS HANNIGAN]
To gettin' more bucks

[ROOSTER]
Instead of less
Maybe we fix the game
With something shady

[LILY]
Where does that put us?

[MISS HANNIGAN]
Oh, tell her.

[ROOSTER, MISS HANNIGAN, AND LILY]
Yes!

Easy street
Easy street
Annie is the key
Yes sirree
Yes sirree
Yes sirree
Easy street
Easy street
That's where we're gonna --
Be!

Hey, hawkman. "Arf", said Sandy.

Then there is Sachmo's version of that unattainable street.

Easy Street! If I could live on Easy Street,
Nobody works on Easy Street. Just sit around all day!

Life is sweet, for folks who live on Easy Street
No weekly payments you must meet that make your hair turn gray.

When opportunity comes knocking, you just keep on with your rocking,
'Cos you know that your fortunes made,
And any time that you desire, there's a man that you can hire
To plant trees so you can have some shade!

Oh Easy Street, I'm telling every one I meet
If I could live on Easy Street. I wouldn't want no job today, So please go away!

Hope our Raggedy is all right.

letty :
finally getting back to your entry re . CANUCK .



so go ahead letty ! you can call this 'canuck' a 'canuck' anytime - i'm in good company !
but you can also call me a 'hamburger' - that's allright , too .
hbg(aka canuck)

And, you can call me a Yank, hbg, but I prefer a dixie chic, and how about canajun, Canada? and speaking of the big easy, isn't this canajun music?

Jambalaya (On The Bayou)
Hank Williams

Good-bye Joe, he gotta go, me oh my oh
He gotta go-pole the pirogue down the bayou
His Yvonne the sweetest one, me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou

Thibodaux, Fontaineaux the place is buzzin'
A Kin-folk come to see Yvonne by the dozen
Dress in style the go hog wild, me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou

CHORUS:
Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
Cause tonight, I'm gonna see my ma cher a mi-o
Pick guitar, fill fruit far and be gay-o
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou

Settle down far from town get him a pirogue
And he'll catch all the fish in the bayou
Swap his mon to buy Yvonne what she need-o
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou

CHORUS

letty :
here is a song from a couple of canuck sisters - the mcgarrigle sisters - real great performers !
hbg


the JIGSAW PUZZLE OF LIFE
(words and music: Anna McGarrigle/Garden Court Music ASCAP)
Like the seeds of the weeds
In an Autumn wind
We met out in mid air
And fell together
In a patch of ground
And grew to be a pair

But not a pair in the usual sense
As you were much too tall
With curly hair while mine was straight
And I was much to small

We were like interlocking pieces
In the Jigsaw Puzzle of Life

Now the puzzle is faded
Half the pieces are lost
It's limp with ten years wear
Our edges are ragged
And the fit is loose
I guess that we'd best take care

Our scene is pastoral
Naive like our minds
Not fun to be in some times
We want a change from the fields and the skies
And crave some dots or some lines

We were like interlocking pieces
In the Jigsaw Puzzle of Life

hbg, That is so lovely. I especially like the two lines:

"Our scene is pastoral; naive like our minds." Thanks, Canada.

Well, folks, it is amazing how just a sip or two of merlot can make a bit of difference. For some reason, I am thinking of this song by Elvis Presley. It is so much lovelier than his "Blue Suede Shoes." It is probably because he got better as he progressed. Don McLean called him, "The King." Bob Dylan, "the jester", stole his crown. <smile>

Wise men say, only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you..

Shall I stay
Would it be a sin
Cause' I can't help falling in love with you...

As the river flows, Gently to the sea
Darlin so we go, somethings were meant to be..

Take my hand, take my whole life too
Cause' I can't help fallin in love with you...

I can't help...falling in love with you
I can't help...falling in love with you
I can't help...falling in love with you...

letty wrote :



and johann strauss wrote :wink: :

WINE, WOMAN AND SONG
(Johann Strauss)


The night is young and love is new,
The night will dring me close to you;
The music playing sweet,
My heart will skip a beat.

To hold you in my arms tonight,
Will fill my heart with great delight,
Tonight's a night for love,
It's love that I'm thinking of.

Wine brings the rosiest glow,
Wine makes your troubles all go;
Wine warms the night desire,
Exciting your mind with its fire,
Then for spice, women really are nice,
Soft music will melt the ice;

Wine, loving women and song.
You try it, you'll never go wrong.
Find wine exciting and women inviting,
Your troubles, like bubbles,
Will vanish in song,
Music and dancing, and wine and romancing,
You might as well smile, you only live a while.

Time is so fleeting, all problems repeating,
You'll find yourself greeting
Each day with a frown,
If you would beat it, a few things are needed,
Just wine and fine women and a little song.

Life's a game we must play,
Ev'ry day of the year,
Might as well play the game,
With the best of good cheer;

Vintage wine brings relief,
From the cares of the day,
Play it smart, cares depart,
With a sparkling glass of wine.

Glasses up, glasses up,
Here's to happiness;
Drink a toast, drink a toast,
Drink to loveliness;

Glasses up, live it up, now,
Before time has flown.
Gaily laugh, Gaily sing,
Let your voices ring;
You will find, sips of wine
Will contentment bring.

Now's the time,
Nothing can go wrong,
Here's to wine, women and song.


(Contributed by Ferda Dolunay - January 2006)

You're Gonna Get Drunk Again
Louis Jordan

Boy, you listen to your old Pappy
Yeah, Pappy
And stop drinking so much
I'm-I'm ain't been doing so much drinking, Pappy
Shut up, boy! You drink all day and you drink all night and you know, son, that that ain't right
Oh Pappy, you just give me a chance. I, I can, I . . .
Shut up, boy! Boy, you're lookin' thin as a twig
I know that . . . Look likes your dear old Pappy - about to blow your wig
Oh I'm gonna blow my wig, Pappy

What's the use of getting sober
When you're gonna get drunk again
Oh Sam done something fine
When he bought that good whiskey, beer and wine
I love my whiskey and I love my gin
Every time you see me I'm in my sin
So what's the use of getting sober
When you're gonna get drunk again

I went out last night about half past one
Thought I'd whoop it up a little and have some fun
I got me a half pint about half past two
Mmm, mmm, the way I was feeling you know what I wanna do
Got me a pint about half past four
Felt so good, went out and got me some more
Got me a quart about half past five
Boy, that was so nice didn't know if I was dead or alive

So what's the use of getting sober If you're gonna get drunk again
Oh Sam done something fine
When he bought that good whiskey, beer and wine
I love my whiskey and I love my gin
Every time you see me I'm in my sin
So what's the use of getting sober
When you're gonna get drunk again

Well I've been thinking
But I keep drinking
I guess I'm 'bout lose my mind

Beautiful, hamburger, and I love Bach as well as Strauss and his drinking song. This is one of my favorites, because I know the English lyrics and can follow them in German. Hey, if I am getting carried away, blame it on the Italians and their wine. <smile>




A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD
Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

(Cantata No. 80 by J.S. Bach)

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,
Ein gute Wehr und Waffen;
Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,
Die uns itzt hat betroffen.
Der alte b Feind,
Mit Ernst ers jetzt meint,
Gross Macht und viel List
Sein grausam R ist,
Auf Erd ist nicht seinsgleichen.

Mit unser Macht ist nichts getan,
Wir sind gar bald verloren.
Es streit vor uns der rechte Mann,
Den Gott selbst hat erkoren.
Fragst du, wer er ist?
Er heisst Jesus Christ,
Der Herre Zebaoth,
Und ist kein andrer Gott,
Das Feld muss er behalten.

Alles, was von Gott geboren,
Ist zum Siegen auserkoren.
Wer bei Christi Blutpanier
In der Taufe Treu geschworen,
Siegt im Geiste f und f.

Erw doch, Kind Gottes, die so grosse Liebe,
Da Jesus sich
Mit seinem Blute dir verschriebe,
Wormit er dich
Zum Kriege wider Satans Heer und wider Welt und S
Geworben hat!
Gib nicht in deiner Seele
Dem Satan und den Lastern statt!
Lass nicht dein Herz,
Den Himmel Gottes auf der Erden,
Zur W werden!
Bereue deine Schuld mit Schmerz,
Dass Christi Geist mit dir sich fest verbinde!

Komm in mein Herzenshaus,
Herr Jesu, mein Verlangen!
Treib Welt und Satan aus
Und lass dein Bild in mir erneuert prangen!
Weg, schn S!

Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel w
Und wollten uns verschlingen,
So f wir uns nicht so sehr,
Es soll uns doch gelingen.
Der F dieser Welt,
Wie saur er sich stellt,
Tut er uns doch nicht,
Das macht, er ist gerischt',
Ein W kann ihn f.

So stehe denn bei Christi blutgef Fahne,
O Seele, fest
Und glaube, dass dein Haupt dich nicht verl,
Ja dass sein Sieg
Auch dir den Weg zu deiner Krone bahne!
Tritt freudig an den Krieg!
Wirst du nur Gottes Wort
So h als bewahren,
So wird der Feind gezwungen auszufahren,
Dein Heiland bleibt dein Hort!

Wie selig sind doch die, die Gott im Munde tragen,
Doch selger ist das Herz, das ihn im Glauben tr!
Es bleibet unbesiegt und kann die Feinde schlagen
Und wird zuletzt gekr, wenn es den Tod erlegt.

Das Wort sie sollen lassen stahn
Und kein' Dank dazu haben.
Er ist bei uns wohl auf dem Plan
Mit seinem Geist und Gaben.
Nehmen sie uns den Leib,
Gut, Ehr, Kind und Weib,
Lass fahren dahin,
Sie habens kein' Gewinn;
Das Reich muss uns doch bleiben.

And the English words by Martin Luther:

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
Words & Music: Martin Luther - 1529


A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he amid the flood
of mortal ills prevaling.
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabbaoth, his name,
from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
thru him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill;
God's truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever.

So sorry, listeners. Did not mean to make this so very long.