Herbie Hancock
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Also known as Herbert Jeffrey Hancock
Born April 12, 1940
Origin Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genre(s) Jazz, Post Bop, Jazz Funk, Fusion, Funk, Hard Bop, Electro
Occupation(s) Composer, Band leader
Instrument(s) Synthesizer, Piano, Keyboards, Electric piano
Label(s) Blue Note, Warner Bros. Records, Columbia, Polygram/Mercury
Herbie Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an Academy Award and multiple Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer from Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Hancock is one of jazz music's most important and influential pianists and composers. He embraced elements of rock, funk, and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz.
As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet", Hancock helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section, and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound. Later, he was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesizers and funk. Yet for all his restless experimentalism, Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieve success among pop audiences.
Hancock's best-known solo works include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man" (later performed by dozens of musicians, including bandleader Mongo Santamaria), "Maiden Voyage", "Chameleon", and the single "Rockit."
Early life and career
Like many jazz pianists, Hancock started with a classical music education; Hancock studied from age seven. His talent was recognized early, and he played the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 5 in D Major at a young people's concert with the Chicago Symphony at age eleven.[1]
Through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher. Instead, around high school age, Hancock grew to like jazz after hearing some Oscar Peterson and George Shearing recordings, which he transcribed on his own time, and which developed his ear and sense of harmony. Hancock also listened to other pianists, including Don Goldberg (also a prodigy and a Hyde Park High School classmate), McCoy Tyner, Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans, and studied recordings by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Lee Morgan.
After Hancock spent three and a half years studying musical composition at Grinnell College and Roosevelt University, receiving a double major in music and electrical engineering from Grinnell in 1971. Hancock also received a degree from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. The pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. He recorded his first solo album Takin' Off for Blue Note Records in 1962. "Watermelon Man" (from Takin' Off) was to provide Mongo Santamaria with a hit single, but crucially Takin' Off was to catch the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, a member of the new band.
Miles Davis quintet and Blue Note
Hancock received considerable attention when, in May 1963, [2] he joined Miles Davis's "second great quintet." This new band was essentially Miles Davis surrounded by fresh, new talent. Davis personally sought out Hancock, who he saw as one of the most promising talents in jazz. The rhythm section Davis organized was young but effective, comprising bassist Ron Carter, seventeen year old drummer Tony Williams, and Hancock on piano. After George Coleman and Sam Rivers each taking turns at the saxophone spot, the quintet would gel with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone. This quintet is often regarded as one of the finest jazz ensembles, and the rhythm section has been especially praised for their innovation and flexibility.
The second great quintet was where Hancock found his own unique voice as a master of jazz piano. Not only did he find new ways to use common chords, he also popularized chords then rarely used in jazz. Hancock also developed a unique taste for "orchestral" accompaniment - using fourths and Debussy-like harmonies, with stark contrasts then unheard of in jazz.
With Williams and Carter he would weave a labyrinth of rhythmic intricacy on, around and over existing melodic and chordal schemes. In the later half of the sixties their approach would be so sophisticated and unorthodox that conventional chord changes would hardly be discernible, hence their improvisational concept would somewhat inaccurately be called "Time, No Changes".
While in the Davis band, Hancock also found time to record dozens of sessions for the Blue Note label, both under his own name and as a sideman with other musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard.
His albums Empyrean Isles (1964) and Maiden Voyage (1965) were to be two of the most famous and influential jazz LPs of the sixties, winning praise for both their innovation and accessibility (the latter demonstrated by the subsequent enormous popularity of the Maiden Voyage title track as a jazz standard, and by the jazz rap group US3 having a hit single with "Cantaloupe Island" from Empyrean Isles some twenty five years later). Empyrean Isles featured the Davis rhythm section of Hancock, Carter and Williams with the addition of Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, while Maiden Voyage also added former Davis saxophonist George Coleman. Both albums are regarded as among the principal foundations of the post-bop style.
Hancock also recorded several less-well-known but still critically acclaimed albums with larger ensembles ?- My Point of View (1963), Speak Like A Child (1968) and The Prisoner (1969) featured flugelhorn, alto flute and bass trombone. 1963's Inventions and Dimensions was an album of almost entirely improvised music, teaming Hancock with bassist Paul Chambers and two Latin percussionists, Willie Bobo and Osvaldo Martinez.
During this period, Hancock also composed the score to Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup which was to be the first of many soundtracks he would record in his career.
Davis had begun incorporating elements of rock and popular music into his recordings by the end of Hancock's tenure with the band. Despite some initial reluctance, Hancock began doubling on electric keyboards including the Fender Rhodes electric piano at Davis's insistence. Hancock adapted quickly to the new instruments which would be instrumental in his future artistic endeavors.
In the summer of 1968, Hancock left Davis's band to form his own sextet, although he was formally kicked out under the pretext that he was late coming back from a honeymoon in Brazil. Davis would soon disband his quartet to search for a new sound himself. Despite his departure from the working band, Hancock would continue to appear on Miles Davis records for the next few years; noteworthy appearances include In a Silent Way, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On the Corner.
Fat Albert and Mwandishi
Hancock left Blue Note in 1969, signing up with Warner Bros. Records. In 1969, Hancock composed the soundtrack for the Bill Cosby TV show Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. Titled Fat Albert Rotunda, the album was mainly a R&B-influenced album with strong jazz overtones. One of the jazzier songs on the record, "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", was later re-worked as a more electronically sounding song for the Quincy Jones album, "Sounds...and Stuff Like That".
Hancock was fascinated with accumulating musical gadgets and toys. Together with the profound influence of Davis's Bitches Brew, this fascination would culminate in a series of albums in which electronic instruments are coupled with acoustic instruments.
Hancock's first ventures into electronic music started with a sextet comprised of Hancock, drummer Billy Hart and bassist Buster Williams, and a trio of adventurous horn players: Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Julian Priester (trombone), and multireedist Bennie Maupin. Dr. Patrick Gleeson was eventually added to the mix to play and program the synthesizers.
The sextet, later a septet with the addition of Gleeson, made three experimental albums under Hancock's name: Mwandishi (1971), Crossings (1972) (both on Warner Bros. Records) and Sextant (1973) (released on Columbia Records); two more, Realization and Inside Out were recorded under Henderson's name with essentially the same personnel. The music often had very free improvisations and showed influence from the electronic music of some contemporary classical composers.
Synthesizer player Patrick Gleeson, one of the first musicians to play synthesizer on any jazz recording, introduced the instrument on Crossings, released in 1972, one of two influential electronic jazz/fusion recordings to feature synthesizer that same year. (Weather Report also had some synth on their 1972 recording I Sing the Body Electric, played and programmed by Roger Powell). On Crossings (as well as on I Sing the Body Electric) the synthesizer is used more as an improvisatory global orchestration device than as a strictly melodic instrument and reflected Gleeson's (and Powell's) interest in contemporary European electronic music techniques and in the West Coast synthesis techniques of Morton Subotnik and other contemporaries, several of them resident at one time or another, as was Gleeson, at The Mills College Tape Music Center. An early review of Crossings in Downbeat magazine complained about the synthesizer, but a few years later the magazine noted in a cover story on Gleeson that he was "a pioneer" in the field of electronics in jazz. Gleeson used a modular Moog III for the recording of the album, but used an Arp 2600 synthesizer, and occasionally an Arp Soloist for the group's live performances. On Sextant Gleeson used the more compact ARP synthesizers instead of the larger Moog III for both studio and live performances.
Hancock's three records released in 1971-1973 became later known as the "Mwandishi" albums, so-called after a Swahili name Hancock sometimes used during this era (Mwandishi is Swahili for writer). The first two, including Fat Albert Rotunda were made available on the 2-CD set Mwandishi: the Complete Warner Bros. Recordings, released in 1994, but are these days sold as individual CD editions. Of the three electronically sounded albums, Sextant is probably the most experimental since the Arp synthesizers are used extensively and some advanced improvisation ("post-modal free impressionism") is found on the tracks "Hornets" and "Hidden Shadows" (which is in the meter 19/4). "Hornets" was later revised on the 2001 album Future2Future as "Virtual Hornets".
Among the instruments Hancock and Gleeson used were Fender Rhodes piano, ARP Odyssey, ARP 2600, ARP Pro-Soloist Synthesizer, a Mellotron and the Moog III. All three Warner Bros. albums Fat Albert Rotunda, Mwandishi and Crossings were remastered in 2001 but were not released in the U.S.A. as of June 2005. In the Winter of 2006-2007 a remastered edition of Crossings was announced and scheduled for release in the Spring.
Head Hunters and Death Wish
After the sometimes "airy" and decidedly experimental "Mwandishi" albums, Hancock was eager to perform more "earthy" and "funky" music. The Mwandishi albums ?- though these days seen as respected early fusion recordings ?- had seen mixed reviews and poor sales, so it is probable that Hancock was motivated by financial concerns as well as artistic restlessness. Hancock was also bothered by the fact that many people did not understand avant-garde music. He explained that he loved funk music, especially Sly Stone's music, so he wanted to try to make funk himself.
He gathered a new band, which he called The Headhunters, keeping only Maupin from the sextet and adding bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers, and drummer Harvey Mason. The album Head Hunters, released in 1973, was a major hit and crossed over to pop audiences, though it prompted criticism from some jazz fans.
Despite charges of "selling out", later ears have regarded the album well: "Head Hunters still sounds fresh and vital three decades after its initial release, and its genre-bending proved vastly influential on not only jazz, but funk, soul, and hip-hop." Allmusic.com entry
Mason was replaced by Mike Clark, and the band released a second album, Thrust, the following year (a live album from a Japan performance consisting of songs from those first two Head Hunters releases was released in 1975 as Flood. The record has since been released on CD in Japan.) This was almost as well-received as its predecessor, if not attaining the same level of commercial success. The Headhunters made another successful album (called "Survival of the Fittest") without Hancock, while Hancock himself started to make even more commercial albums (often featuring members of the band, but no longer billed as The Headhunters). The Headhunters reunited with Hancock in 1998 for Return of the Headhunters, and a version of the band (featuring Jackson and Clark) continues to play live and record.
In 1973, Hancock composed his second masterful soundtrack to the controversial film The Spook Who Sat By The Door. Then in 1974, Hancock also composed the soundtrack to the Charles Bronson starred movie, Death Wish Part 1. One of his memorable songs, Joanna's Theme would later be re-recorded in 1997 on his Wayne Shorter duet album 1 + 1.
Hancock's next jazz-funk albums of 1970s albums were Man-Child (1975) ; and Secrets (1976), which point toward the more commercial direction Hancock would take over the next decade. These albums feature the members of "Headhunters band" but also variety of other musicians in important roles.
Back to the Basics: VSOP and the Future Shock
During late 1970s and early 1980s, Hancock toured with his "V.S.O.P." quintet, which featured all the members of the 1960s Miles Davis quintet except Davis, who was replaced by trumpet giant Freddie Hubbard. There was constant speculation that one day, Davis would reunite with his classic band, but never did. VSOP recorded several live albums in the late 1970s including VSOP (1976) and VSOP: The Quintet (1977).
In 1978, Hancock recorded a duet with Chick Corea, who had replaced him in the Miles Davis band a decade earlier. He also released a solo acoustic piano album titled The Piano (1978) which, like so many Hancock albums at the time, was released only in Japan, though it was finally released in the US in 2004. Several other Japan-only releases have yet to surface in the US, such as Dedication (1974), VSOP: Tempest at the Colosseum (1977) and Direct Step (1978). Live Under the Sky was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004, and included an entire second concert from the July 1979 tour.
From 1978-1982, Hancock recorded many albums consisting of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with Sunlight (featuring guest musicians like Tony Williams and Jaco Pastorius on the last track) (1978); singing through a vocoder, he earned a British hit, "I Thought It Was You", although critics were unimpressed. [1]. This led to more vocoder on the 1979 follow-up, Feets, Don't Fail Me Now, which gave him another UK hit in "You Bet Your Love". Albums such as Monster (1980), Magic Windows (1981), and Lite Me Up (1982) were some of Hancock's most criticized and unwelcomed albums, the market at the time being somewhat saturated with similar pop-jazz hybrids from the likes of former bandmate Freddie Hubbard. Hancock himself had quite limited role in some of those albums, leaving singing, composing and even producing to others. Mr. Hands (1980) is perhaps the one album during this period that was critically acclaimed. To the delight of many fans, there were no vocals on the album, and one track featured Jaco Pastorius on bass. The album contains a wide variety of different styles, including a disco instrumental song, a Latin-jazz number and an electronic piece in which Hancock plays alone with the help of computers.
Hancock also found time to record more traditional jazz whilst creating more commercially-oriented music. He toured with Tony Williams and Ron Carter in 1981, recording Herbie Hancock Trio, a five-track live album released only in Japan. A month later, he recorded Herbie Hancock Quartet with Wynton Marsalis, released in the US the following year.
In 1983, Hancock had a mainstream hit with the Grammy-award winning instrumental single "Rockit" from the album Future Shock. It was perhaps the first mainstream single to feature scratching, and also featured an innovative animated music video with a breakdancing robot. The video was a hit on MTV, but became somewhat notorious when it was revealed that Hancock's minimal presence in the video was due to MTV's perceived unwillingness at the time to show black musicians. Regardless of any controversy, the video won 5 different categories at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards, including the category for Video Of The Year. This single ushered in a collaboration with noted bassist and producer Bill Laswell. Hancock experimented with electronic music on a string of three LPs produced by Laswell: Future Shock (1983), Sound-System (1984) and Perfect Machine (1988). Despite the success of "Rockit," Hancock's trio of Laswell-produced albums (particularly the latter two) are among the most critically derided of his entire career, perhaps even more so than his erstwhile pop-jazz experiments. Hancock's level of actual contribution to these albums was also questioned, with some critics contending that the Laswell albums should have been labelled "Bill Laswell featuring Herbie Hancock."
During this period, he appeared onstage at the Grammy awards with Stevie Wonder, Howard Jones, and Thomas Dolby, in a famous synthesizer jam. Lesser known works from the 80s are the live album Jazz Africa and the studio album Village Life (1984) which were recorded with Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso. [2] Also, in 1985 he performed as a guest on the album So Red The Rose by the Duran Duran shoot off group Arcadia.
In 1986, Hancock performed and acted in the film 'Round Midnight. He also wrote the score/soundtrack, for which he won an Academy Award for Original Music Score. Often he would write music for TV commercials. "Maiden Voyage", in fact, started out as a cologne advertisement. At the end of the Perfect Machine tour, Hancock decided to leave Columbia Records after a 15-plus-year relationship.
As of June 2005, almost half of his Columbia recordings have been remastered. The first three US releases, Sextant, Head Hunters and Thrust as well as the last four releases Future Shock, Sound-System, the soundtrack to Round Midnight and Perfect Machine. Everything released in America from Man-Child to Quartet has yet to be remastered. Some albums, made and initially released in the US, were remastered between 1999 and 2001 in other countries such as Magic Windows and Monster. Hancock also re-released some of his Japan-only releases in the West, such as The Piano.
1990s and later
After leaving Columbia, Hancock took all of a break. Three years after Perfect Machine was released, his mentor Miles Davis, died in 1991. Along with friends Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter and Davis admirer Wallace Roney, they recorded A Tribute to Miles which was released in 1994. The album contained two live recordings and studio recording classics with Roney playing Davis's part as trumpet player. The album won a Grammy for best group album. He also toured with Jack DeJohnette and Pat Metheny in 1990.
Hancock's next album, Dis Is Da Drum released in 1994 saw him return to Acid Jazz. 1995's The New Standard found him and an all-star band including John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette and Michael Brecker interpreting pop songs by Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Prince, Peter Gabriel and others. A 1997 duet album with Wayne Shorter titled 1 + 1 was successful, the song "Aung San Suu Kyi" winning the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and Hancock also achieved great success in 1998 with his album Gershwin's World which featured inventive readings of George & Ira Gershwin standards by Hancock and a plethora of guest stars including Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Shorter.
In 2001, Hancock recorded Future2Future, which reunited Hancock with Bill Laswell and featured doses of electronica as well as turntablist Rob Swift of The X-Ecutioners. Hancock later toured with the band, and released a live concert DVD with a different lineup which also included the "Rockit" music video. Also in 2001, Hancock partnered with Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove to record a live concert album saluting Davis and John Coltrane called Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall recorded live in Toronto. The threesome then toured together, and have toured on and off through 2005.
2005 saw the release of a duet album called Possibilities. It features duets with Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Sting and others. In 2006, Possibilities was nominated for Grammy awards in two categories: "A Song For You," featuring Christina Aguilera was nominated in the Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals category, and "Gelo No Montanha," featuring Trey Anastasio on guitar was nominated in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category. Neither nomination resulted in an award.
Herbie Hancock performing at The XM Sonic Stage at The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 12th, 2005.Also in 2005, Hancock toured Europe with a new quartet that included Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, and explored textures ranging from ambient to straight jazz to African music. Plus, during the Summer of 2005, Hancock re-staffed the famous Head Hunters and went on tour with them including a performance at The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. However, this lineup did not consist of any of the original Headhunters musicians. The group included Marcus Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Lionel Loueke and John Mayer. Hancock also served as the first artist in residence for Bonnaroo that summer.
Also in 2006, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (which bought out Hancock's old label, Columbia Records) released the two-disc retrospective The Essential Herbie Hancock. This two-disc set is the first compilation of Herbie's work at Warner Bros. Records, Blue Note Records, Columbia and at Verve/Polygram. This became Hancock's second major compilation of work since the 2002 Columbia-only The Herbie Hancock Box which was released at first in a plastic 4x4 cube then re-released in 2004 in a long box set. Hancock also in 2006, recorded a new song with Josh Groban and Eric Mouquet (co-founder of Deep Forest) titled "Machine". It is featured on Josh Groban's CD "Awake."
Trivia
Prior to the VSOP period of the mid-1970s, Wayne Shorter never appeared as a side-man on Hancock's own records; however, Hancock appeared on some of Shorter's Blue Note records of the 1960s and also his 1975 album Native Dancer.
Hancock was one of the first mainstream musicians to use an Apple computer in creating music in the early 1980s. First using an Apple II on his 1980 album Mr. Hands. Later on towards Sound-System, Perfect Machine and beyond he was using an Apple Macintosh.
Hancock is a Nichiren Buddhist, and writes about the influence Buddhism has had on his life and his music in the introduction he wrote to the nonfiction bestseller The Buddha In Your Mirror. He is a member of the California-based Soka Gakkai International sect, which also counts Tina Turner among its members.
Hancock filmed an infomercial where he served as spokesman for the Bose Corporation.
Hancock is the musical director of the Tokyo Jazz Festival as well as Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
Hancock also started an organization called ROLO -- the Rhythm of Life Organization dedicated to using technology in a responsible way to make the world a better place. Through the vision of ROLO, he helped found BAYCAT (Bayview-Hunters Point Center for Arts & Technology), an educational facility in the Bay Area which provides free classes to youth in digital arts.
In the movie Tommy Boy, Chris Farley's character inadvertently confuses Herbie Hancock with John Hancock when he's asked on a history final to identify the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. In a later scene, when David Spade's character asks Brian Dennehy's character to put his "John Hancock" on forms, Tommy then says, "John Hancock....it's Herbie Hancock."
Numerous musicians have covered Herbie Hancock songs, especially Cantalope Island; notably US3 and Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio.
David Cassidy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name David Bruce Cassidy
Born April 12, 1950 (age 56)
New York City, New York United States
Spouse(s) Sue Shifrin
Official site
http://www.davidcassidy.com
Notable roles Keith Partridge on The Partridge Family
David Bruce Cassidy (born April 12, 1950) is an American actor and musician, best known for starring in the television series The Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974.
Biography
Early life
Cassidy was born at Flower Fifth Hospital in New York, New York, the son of Irish American actor Jack Cassidy and actress Evelyn Ward.
Career
Prior to The Partridge Family, Cassidy appeared on Marcus Welby, M.D., The Mod Squad, Bonanza, and Ironside. When he started working on The Partridge Family, nobody knew that he could sing, until Cassidy himself brought it up. He then took over the lead vocals for the show's recordings and quickly became a teen idol. He played Keith Partridge, son of Shirley Partridge, who was played by Shirley Jones, Cassidy's real-life stepmother.
Ten albums by The Partridge Family and several solo albums were produced during the run of the show. At his peak, Cassidy was one of the world's highest paid live entertainers. Yet, out of the approximate USD $500 million that The Partridge Family made internationally, he was allegedly paid only $15,000. It was later claimed that Cassidy's fan club set the all-time record for the most paid-up members of any fan club at any one time. Cassidy's autobiography C'mon Get Happy: Fear And Loathing On The Partridge Family Bus (1994) provides a concise and honest account of most aspects of his pop fame, including contracts, money and his devoted female following.
Rebelling against squeaky-clean Keith, Cassidy shocked his young fans by posing nude in the May 11, 1972 edition of Rolling Stone magazine, for Annie Leibovitz.
A turning point in his live rock concerts (while still filming the Partridge Family show) was an incident where a gate stampede resulted in the death a a young female teenager fan. At a show in London's White City Stadium on 26 May 1974, 650 fans were injured in a crush at the front of the stage. Thirty were taken to hospital, and one fan, 14 year-old Bernadette Whelan, died on May 30 from her injuries.[1] The ill-fated show was the penultimate date on a world tour. A shaken Cassidy later faced the press. After the incident, the most popular teen idol (of the time) no longer wanted to continue his hectic week-end concert jaunts.
By this point, Cassidy had already decided to quit both touring and acting in The Partridge Family. He released three critically well-received solo albums on RCA between 1975 and 1977, and also starred in an episode of Police Story, for which he received an Emmy nomination. Due to the success of the episode, NBC created a show based on it called David Cassidy: Man Under Cover - but it was not a hit, prompting cancellation after just one season.
Cassidy has appeared in several Broadway musicals, including a version of Little Johnny Jones (played in the movies by James Cagney) and the original version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , Time on London's West End and Blood Brothers opposite Petula Clark and half-brother Shaun Cassidy - among others. In 1996, he took over from Michael Crawford in the Las Vegas show, EFX, turning it around, with his complete re-write, into one of Las Vegas's favorite hit shows - although Cassidy quit after injuring his foot during a performance. He also created another show called The Rat Pack Is Back, in which he made guest appearances as Bobby Darin, and which ran very successfully. In 2000, he wrote and appeared in the Las Vegas show At The Copa, with Sheena Easton as both the young and old versions of the lead character. In 2005 Cassidy played the manager of Aaron Carter's character in the film Popstar. In 2006 he made a special guest appearance for BBC Children In Need performing live, and then assisting host Terry Wogan with collecting donations from the in-house studio audience.
Personal life
Cassidy's first wife was actress Kay Lenz (of Richman, Poorman fame), whom he married in 1977 and divorced in 1982. His second wife was South African sports-woman Meryl Tanz, whom he married in 1984. Cassidy married his third wife Sue Shifrin-Cassidy on March 30, 1991, with whom he has a son, Beau; he has a daughter, Katherine, from a previous relationship.
Cassidy revealed to sfgate.com that he once had sex with Partridge Family co-star Susan Dey.[2] He said he wasn't attracted to the teenage actress when they started shooting The Partridge Family together, but she was so determined to sleep with the pin-up that he gave in, but quickly regretted it. Cassidy told tabloid the Glove "I find a certain sluttiness very attractive in a woman, and Susan just didn't have it. She was sweetness and innocence, a good girl, and I couldn't think of her as anything but my sister."[citation needed]. In 1990, Cassidy hired his recalcitrant TV brother Danny Bonaduce to do his intro/ warm-up act.
Cassidy has written a no-holds-barred memoir that was published in Great Britain in March, 2007. There is currently no U.S publisher."Could It Be Forever" tells of Cassidy's drug use, wild sex, his infatuation with Meredith Baxter, a romp with Barbara the Butter Queen who liked to cover her sex partners with butter, and an encounter with 1950s screen star Gina Lollobrigida. "I've always been very comfortable with my sexuality and my brothers call me ?'Donk' ?- as in Donkey. People have talked about me being ?'blessed' in my physique," Cassidy writes in the book. "The first time [I met Gina Lollobrigida] she looked me up and down and said: ?'I hear you're a monster. I want to meet the monster.' Well, I decided that if I had it, there wasn't any point in just keeping it in the holster all the time." A spokeswoman for Cassidy says "Could It Be Forever" is being published in the U.K. because he is still almost as popular there as he was in his heyday. [3]
Andy García
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Andrés Arturo García Menéndez
Born April 12, 1956 (age 51)
Havana, Cuba
Spouse(s) Marivi Lorido Garcia (24 September 1982 - present) 4 children
Notable roles The Godfather Part III (1990)
Andy García (born April 12, 1956) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. He became known in the 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III and When a Man Loves a Woman.
Biography
Early life
Garcia was born Andres Arturo Garcia Menendez in Havana, Cuba, into an Italian[citation needed] family. His mother, Amelie Menéndez, was an English teacher, and his father, francis Guerrazzi.[ was a lawyer in Cuba[1] and later a businessman in the United States. He has an older brother, Rene, and was born with a conjoined twin brother who was surgically removed.[2] When Garcia was five years old, the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion forced the family to move to Miami, Florida, where they performed various types of work in order to survive. Over a period of several years, however, they built up a million-dollar perfume company. García was raised as a Catholic[3] and attended Miami Beach Senior High School, where he played on the basketball team. During his last year in high school, however, he became seriously ill with hepatitis,[4] which convinced him to pursue a career in acting.
Career
Garcia began acting at Florida International University, but soon went to Hollywood. He started to perform in very short roles, working part-time as waiter and in a warehouse. His chance arose when he was offered a role as a gang member in the first episode of the popular TV series Hill Street Blues. Director Brian de Palma liked his performance in the 1986 movie 8 Million Ways to Die and engaged him the following year for The Untouchables, which made Garcia a popular Hollywood actor. In 1989, Francis Ford Coppola was casting The Godfather Part III. The character Vincent Corleone, the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone, was an exceptional part which many actors wanted. Garcia was not the only one of the few actors capable of carrying the part, but he also bore a resemblance to Robert De Niro, who played the role of young Vito Corleone, Vincent's grandfather, in The Godfather Part II. The role thus went to Garcia, who earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance and became an internationally acclaimed star.
In the following years, Garcia has performed in a wide variety of films. He has appeared also in several TV films. While not in the same vein of movie stars dominating the box office, Garcia has remained equally strong in both leading and supporting roles. One of his more well-known films was the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven, in which he played Terry Benedict, the ruthless Las Vegas mogul who just happens to be seeing the estranged wife (Julia Roberts) of George Clooney's character. Garcia reprised the role in the 2004 sequel, although many noted that the part was significantly smaller than the one he played in the first film. He has finished and released The Lost City which he co-wrote, directs, and stars in, alongside Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray. Upon its release, "The Lost City" sparked controversy in Latin America due to its negative portrayal of the Cuban Revolution, and Che Guevara in particular. Garcia is a fervent critic of the Cuban government.
Personal life
In 1982, he married María Victoria Lorido. He is the father of three daughters and one son. The Garcia family lives in Los Angeles and Miami. They are practicing Catholics.[3]
Just a few things I was wondering about.......
Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze
these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out"?
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible
crisp which no decent human being would eat?
Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?
If the professor on Gillian's Island can make a radio out of coconut,
why can't he fix a hole in a boat?
Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't
point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is?
Why does your OB-GYN leave the room when you get undressed if they are
going to look up there anyway?
Why does goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're
both dogs!
What do you call male ballerinas?
Can blind people see their dreams? Do they dream??
Why ARE Trix only for kids?
If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that Acme crap, why didn't
he just buy dinner?
Why is a person that handles your money called a 'Broker'?
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from
vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
If a man is talking in the forest, and no woman is there to hear him, is
he still wrong?
Why is it that when someone tells you that there are over a billion
stars in the universe, you believe them, but if they tell you there is wet paint
somewhere, you have to touch it to make sure?
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
Is Disney World the only people trap operated by a mouse?
Why do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same
tune?
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but
call it a hemorrhoid when it's in your butt?
Well, folks, the hawkman has spoken. Great bio's BostonBob, and we love your funny questions.
When hurricanes began using the names of males, my husband observed that they ought to call hemorrhoids, "herorrhoids".
I once had a student tell me, "Ms. Letty, you give too many testes."
I used to get Herbie Hancock and Herbie Mann confused, but here is one great song, folks.
WATERMELON MAN
Herbie Hancock
Hey - Watermelon Man
Hey - Watermelon Man
Bring me one that rattles when you lug it
One that's erd and juicy when you plug it
Do you understand - Watermelon Man
Hey - Watermelon Man
Hey - Watermelon Man
Hot and bothered need a little cooling
When I hear your call I start to drooling
Do you understand - Watermelon Man
Hope our spotted pup will be along shortly.
hbg, love that song, and it made me thirsty, Canada. I have an answer to it and shall play it after explaining our famous photo's by that adorable speckled pup.
Thanks, PA.
We're looking at Helen, Anne, Tiny Tim and his toy uke, the remarkable Herbie, David, and Andy.
Sorry that we can't play Bag's Groove, 'cause that is one great jazz instrumental done with a flute.
Ok, folks. Our Bear was talking about the caveman who does Geico commercials and that led me to think of this one, and hamburger, this is what Alley ate.
Hollywood Argyles
(Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
(Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Theres a man in the funny papers we all know (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
He lived 'way back a long time ago (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
He dont eat nothin' but a bear cat stew (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Well this cat's name is-a Alley Oop (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
He got a chauffeur that's a genuwine dinosawruh (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
And he can knuckle your head before you count to fawruh (Alley Oop, oop, oop-
oop)
He got a big ugly club and a head fulla hairuh (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Like great big lions and grizzly bearuhs (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
(Alley Oop) He's the toughest man there is alive
(Alley Oop) Wearin' clothes from a wildcat's hide
(Alley Oop) He's the king of the jungle jive
(Look at that cave man go!!) (SCREAM)
He rides thru the jungle tearin' limbs offa trees (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Knockin' great big monstahs dead on their knees (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
The cats don't bug him cuz they know bettah (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Cuz he's a mean motah scootah and a bad go-gettah (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
(Alley Oop) He's the toughest man there is alive
(Alley Oop) Wearin' clothes from a wildcat's hide
(Alley Oop) He's the king of the jungle jive
(Look at that cave man go!!) (SCREAM)
Thair he goes, look at that cave man go
He sure is hip ain't he?
Like what's happening?
He's too much
Ride, Daddy, ride
Hi-yo dinosawruh
Ride, Daddy, ride
Get 'em, man
Like--hipsville.
Back later with a song and another caveman.
Here's the other caveman, listeners.
The song that plays behind "caveman in the airport" is really lovely, folks, and done in a minor key.
Artist: royksopp
Song: remind me
Album: melody a.m.
(chorus)
Will remind, will remind, will remind me,
Will remind, will remind, will remind me,
Will remind, will remind, will remind me,
Will remind, will remind, will remind me.
It's only been a week,
The rush of being home in rapid fading.
Prevailing to recall
What I was missing, all that time in England
Has sent me aimlessly,
On foot or by the help of transportation,
To knock on windows where
A friend no longer live, I had forgotten.
(chorus)
And everywhere I go,
There's always something to remind me
Of another place and time
Where love that travelled far had found me.
We stayed outside til two,
Waiting for the light to come back,
But hid in talk I knew,
Until you asked what I was thinking.
(chorus)
Brave men tell the truth,
A wise man's tools are analogies and puzzles,
A woman holds her tongue,
Knowing silence will speak for her.
So now I'll never know,
As you will only sleep beside me,
And everywhere I go...
(chorus)
(repeat)
It's only been a week,
(Will remind, will remind, will remind me,)
The rush of being home in rapid fading.
(Will remind, will remind, will remind me,)
Prevailing to recall
(Will remind, will remind, will remind me,)
What I was missing all that time in England
(Will remind, will remind, will remind me.)
Has sent me aimlessly
(Will remind, will remind, will remind me,)
On foot or by the help of transportation,
(Will remind, will remind, will remind me,)
To knock on windows where
(Will remind, will remind, will remind me,)
A friend no longer live, I had forgotten.
(Will remind, will remind, will remind me.)
(chorus)
Pink Shoe Laces
Dodie Stevens
[Words and Music by Mickie Grant]
Now I've got a guy and his name is Dooley
He's my guy and I love him truly
He's not good lookin', heaven knows
But I'm wild about his crazy clothes
He wears tan shoes with pink shoelaces
A polka dot vest and man, oh, man
Tan shoes with pink shoelaces
And a big Panama with a purple hat band
ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh
ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh
He takes me deep-sea fishing in a submarine
We got to drive-in movies in a limousine
He's got a whirly-birdy and a 12-foot yacht
Ah, but thats-a not all he's got
He's got tan shoes with pink shoelaces
A polka dot vest and man, oh, man
Tan shoes with pink shoelaces
And a big Panama with a purple hat band
Now Dooley had a feelin' we were goin' to war
So he went out and enlisted in a fightin' corps
But he landed in the brig for raisin' such a storm
When they tried to put 'em in a uniform
He wanted tan shoes with pink shoelaces
A polka dot vest and man, oh, man
He wanted tan shoes with pink shoelaces
And a big Panama with a purple hat band
Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh
Now one day Dooley started feelin' sick
And he decided that he better make his will out quick
He said
"Just before the angels come to carry me
I want it down in writin' how to bury me."
A'wearin tan shoes with pink shoelaces
A polka dot vest and man, oh, man
Give me tan shoes with pink shoelaces
And a big Panama with a purple hat band
Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh
And a big Panama with a purple hat band
ah, hamburger. Didn't know Ray did that one, Canada.
For you, then.
(f. loesser)
Spring will be a little late this year
A little late arriving, in my lonely world over here
For you have left me and where is our april love old
Yes you have left me and winter continues cold
As if to say that spring will be a little slow to start
A little slow reviving that music it made in my heart
Cause time heals all things, so i needn't cling to this fear
It's merely that spring will be a little late this year
Yes time heals all things so i needn't cling to this fear
It's merely that spring will be a little late this year
edgar, your song reminded me of Marty's "White Sports Coat and a Pink Carnation", but instead of that one how about this by Bobby Vinton who is still performing, Texas.
Roses Are Red (My Love)
Bobby Vinton
A long, long time ago
On graduation day
You handed me your book
I signed this way:
"Roses are red, my love.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet, my love.
But not as sweet as you."
We dated through high school.
And when the big day came,
I wrote into your book,
next to my name:
"Roses are red, my love.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet, my love.
But not as sweet as you."
Then I went far away
And you found someone new
I read your letter dear
And I wrote back to you:
"Roses are red, my love.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet, my love.
But not as sweet as you."
My, my, listeners. Wonder how many songs have been written about roses.
Remember Tony?
We were very happy
Well at least I thought we were
Can't somebody tell me
What's got into her
A house, a home, a family
And a man who loves her so
Who'd believe she'd leave us
To join a burlesque show?
Say has anybody seen my
Sweet Gypsy Rose?
Here's her picture when she was my
Sweet Mary Jo
Now she's got rings on her fingers
And bells on her toes
Say has anybody seen my
Sweet gypsy Rose?
Oh, I know when Mary Jo's been dancin'
Here in New Orleans
In this smoke-filled honky-tonk
They call the land of dreams
Whoah, here she comes a-struttin'
In her birthday clothes
Say has anybody seen my
Sweet gypsy Rose?
Whoah, baby, baby,
Won'tcha come home
Say, we all miss ya
And every night we kiss your picture
Whoiah Rose, one night the lights go dim,
And the crowd goes home
That's the day you wake up
And you find you're all alone
So let's say goodbye to Gypsy
Hello Mary Jo
Say has anybody seen my
Sweet Gypsy Rose
(Instrumental)
So take those rings off your fingers
And bells off your toes
Say has anybody seen my
Now you know just what I mean by
Has anybody seen my Sweet Gypsy Rose
OH, SISTER
Music by Bob Dylan, Words by Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy
Oh, sister, when I come to lie in your arms
You should not treat me like a stranger.
Our Father would not like the way that you act
And you must realize the danger.
Oh, sister, am I not a brother to you
And one deserving of affection?
And is our purpose not the same on this earth,
To love and follow His direction?
We grew up together
From the cradle to the grave
We died and were reborn
And then mysteriously saved.
Oh, sister, when I come to knock on your door,
Don't turn away, you'll create sorrow.
Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore
You may not see me tomorrow.
I do have a picture of me kissing Arik. (sigh)
