106
   

WA2K Radio is now on the air

 
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 04:32 am
Sid Caesar
From Wikipedia

Sid Caesar (born Isaac Sidney Caesar on September 8, 1922) is an Emmy-winning comic actor and writer, best known as the leading man on the 1950s television sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows.

Caesar was born to Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Yonkers, where his father ran a lunch counter where immigrant workers would gather. From them Sid learned to mimic many of the accents that he would use throughout his career. After graduating high school, he planned on a career in music, playing the saxophone. While he earned a reputation as a talented musician in the "Borscht Belt" in the Catskills, he also began performing comedy sketches, and became a sensation.

Caesar served in the Coast Guard during World War II, organizing entertainment for the enlisted men. This took him to Los Angeles, where he got a part in two films, Tars and Spars, based on a wartime comedy routine he did, and The Guilt of Janet Ames. By 1949 he entered the new medium of television, hosting The Admiral Broadway Review.

Television was a natural medium for Caesar. Over the next few years he hosted such hits as Your Show of Shows (1950-1954), Caesar's Hour (1954-1957) and Sid Caesar Invites You (1958). These shows, particularly Your Show of Shows, brought together some of the greatest comic talent of the day, including Imogene Coca, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris. Many prominent writers got their start writing the skits, including Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Mel Tolkin, and Larry Gelbart.

Caesar's life took a turn when his show Sid Caesar Invites You was cancelled in 1958. In his autobiography he confesses that he turned to alcohol and drugs to overcome the insecurity of having a successful career unravel. He did make several appearances on Broadway, starring in Little Me, on television (The Sid Caesar Show, 1963-1964) and in the movies, Stanley Kramer's hilarious, star-studded It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Mel Brooks's Silent Movie (1976), and as "Coach Calhoun" in 1978's Grease, but even though he continues to work, he has never recaptured the glory of the Golden Age of Television.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Caesar
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 04:46 am
Peter Sellers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Richard Henry Sellers (September 8, 1925 - July 24, 1980), better known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian, talented comic actor, and performer on The Goon Show (a long-running BBC radio show, 1951-1960).


Biography

Sellers was born in Southsea, Hampshire, England, to a family of entertainers. He attended a Catholic school, although his father was Protestant and his mother was Jewish. Probably following his family in the variety circuit, Sellers learnt this popular yet difficult art and the immediate instinct of the "gag". He was an incredibly versatile artist: an excellent dancer, a skillful player of the ukulele and banjo, and a drummer good enough to tour with several jazz bands. He is known to have performed at the Windmill Theatre.

During World War II, Sellers was an airman in the Royal Air Force, rising to corporal by the end of the war. During his leisure periods, he did impersonations of his superiors. This helped Sellers in his later film Dr. Strangelove.

His success was quite slow in coming. He phoned up a television producer pretending to be Kenneth Horne, who was currently in the show Much Binding in the Marsh, in order to get them to speak to him. Success came as one of the goons on the radio programme The Goon Show with now-deceased fellow comedians Spike Milligan, Sir Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine and was followed by early television work.

Sellers' first film successes were in British comedy films, including The Ladykillers (1955), I'm All Right Jack (1959) and The Mouse That Roared (1959); however, he is most famous for his role as the bungling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies, which gave him a worldwide audience. The movie The Trail of the Pink Panther was released posthumously in 1982, containing previously unused footage of Sellers. Sellers' widow Lynne Frederick later successfully sued the film's producers.

Sellers was the first male to appear on the cover of Playboy, he appeared on the April 1964 cover with Karen Lynn.

Sellers was launched internationally with the hit "The Millionairess". In Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb he notably played the triple role consisting of U.S. President Merkin Muffley, Dr. Strangelove, and Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of the RAF (the first two appearing in the same room throughout the film). He was remarkably versatile, switching easily from broad comedy as in The Party, to more intense performances as in Lolita (from Vladimir Nabokov's notorious novel). Sellers' career slumped in the early 1970s but after reviving the Clouseau character he was able to produce his cherished project Being There in 1979, winning his best reviews since the 1960s, as well as his second Academy Award nomination.

Commonly considered a master actor, sometimes described as an "obsessive perfectionist", Sellers found in Blake Edwards a devoted director who could delicately underline and follow his comic rhythms; Edwards defined Sellers as a "mercurial clown" who could turn comedy into drama, and vice-versa, in an instant. He could also be cruel, as he demonstrated in his treatment of actress Jo Van Fleet on the set of I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, when she made a slight faux pas and offended him.

He was nominated twice for an Academy Award, but was unsuccessful on both occasions although he won a British Academy Award (BAFTA) for I'm All Right Jack. With Sophia Loren Sellers also recorded the top 10 UK single "Goodness Gracious Me".

Sellers had casual friendships with two of the Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Harrison told occasional Sellers stories in interviews, and Starr appeared with him in the anarchic movie The Magic Christian, whose theme song was Badfinger's cover version of Paul McCartney's "Come And Get It". Starr also gave Sellers a rough mix of songs from the Beatles' White Album, and the tape was auctioned (and bootlegged) after his death.

Sellers was married four times, his first to actress Anne Howe ended after she claimed he was having an affair with Sophia Loren though Loren has maintained that Sellers had become obsessed with her but it was not reciprocated. His second marriage was to the Swedish actress Britt Ekland. In 1970 he married Miranda Quarry. His wife at the time of his death was Lynne Frederick, who later married Sir David Frost. Sellers was also a close friend of Princess Margaret.

Another interesting trait was his love for cars; he was believed to have owned and sold many different cars by the late sixties. This was briefly parodied in a fleeting cameo in the short film Simon Simon, directed by his friend Graham Stark.

Sellers died at the age of 54 of a heart attack on July 24, 1980, survived by his last wife, English actress Lynne Frederick, in London, England, having already suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1964 at the age of 38. At the time of his death, he was due to undergo heart surgery. He was cremated. His premature death was perhaps hastened by his belief in "alternative medicine", including psychic surgery.

In his will Sellers explicitly requested that Glenn Miller's song "In The Mood" be played for his funeral. The request is considered his last touch of humour; his friends knew he deeply hated the song.

Roger Lewis wrote about the "madness" and bizarre behavior of Sellers in his biography, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Applause Books, 1997). Lewis' biography was adapted for the HBO movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), with Geoffrey Rush in the title role.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, Sellers was voted amongst the top 20 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 04:56 am
Patsy Cline
From Wikipedia


Patsy Cline, (September 8, 1932 - March 5, 1963) was an American country music singer.

Born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia, United States, she received her first contract as a country singer in 1953 and, despite her short life, would become one of the most influential singers in the history of American popular music. Cline was the last name of her first husband, Gerald Cline, a construction industry mogul, from whom she married in 1953 and divorced in 1957.

Her breakthrough hit was "Walkin' After Midnight" (1957), written by Don Hecht and Alan Block. She became a mainstay on the country music showcase Grand Ole Opry in 1960. Though she began her career recording rockabilly, it became clear that Cline's voice was best suited for pop/country crossover tunes. Some signature songs are "Crazy" (written by Willie Nelson but forever linked to Cline), "She's Got You," "I Fall To Pieces", and Don Gibson's, "Sweet Dreams."

On June 14, 1961, Patsy Cline and her brother were involved in a head-on car collision. The impact of the accident threw Patsy through the windshield, nearly killing her. Suffering from a jagged cut across her forehead that required stitches, a broken wrist, and a dislocated hip, she spent a month in the hospital. When she left the hospital, her forehead was still visibly scarred.

In 1957, Cline married Charles Allen Dick, who worked as a linotype operator for the Winchester Star. They had a daughter, Julia Simadore Dick (1958-; now known as Julie Fudge), and a son, Allen Randolph "Randy" Dick (1961-). Were she alive today, she would have had four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. After Cline's death, Charlie Dick married and divorced Jamey Ryan, also a singer, and had a son, Charles Allen Dick, Jr.

Cline died in a plane crash at Camden, Tennessee while returning from Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 30, in 1963. On the airplane with her and also killed were three other country music figures who were fairly well-known at the time, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Randy Hughes, and Cowboy Copas. Hughes, then Cline's lover and manager, was the plane's pilot. Country singer Jack Anglin died in an automobile accident while driving to her funeral.

Cline is interred in the Shenendoah Memorial Park cemetery, in her hometown of Winchester, Virginia.

Among her many honors, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6160 Hollywood Blvd, she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973, in 1993 she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp and in 1995, she was awarded posthumously a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 1985 movie Sweet Dreams starring Jessica Lange, is based on her adult life and is said by some familiar with her to be fairly accurate in many respects, although some have disputed its portrayal of her mercurial relationship with second husband Charlie Dick (portrayed in the film by Ed Harris). However, its depiction of the plane crash as occurring in high desert mountains totally unlike any terrain found in West Tennessee is wildly inaccurate. Another adaptation of her life is the one-woman musical, A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline which originated in Canada in the 1990s and originally starred Louise Vallance as Cline.

"I Fall to Pieces" was voted #107 on the RIAA list of the Songs of the Century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patsy_Cline

Patsy Cline - Crazy

Crazy, I'm crazy for feeling so lonely
I'm crazy, crazy for feeling so blue
I knew you'd love me as long as you wanted
And then someday you'd leave me for somebody new.

Worry, why do I let myself worry?
Wonderin', what in the world did I do?
Crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I'm crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I'm crazy for loving you.

Crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I'm crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I'm crazy for loving you.
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 05:09 am
Antonín Dvořák
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Antonin Dvorak)


Antonín Leopold Dvořák Sound listen? (September 8, 1841 - May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer of romantic music.


Biography

Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves near Prague where he spent most of his life. He studied music in Prague's Organ School at the end of the 1850s, and through the 1860s played viola in the Bohemian Provisional Theater Orchestra which was from 1866 conducted by Bedřich Smetana.

From 1892 to 1895, Dvořák was director of the National Conservatory in New York City. The Conservatory was founded by a wealthy socialite, Jeannette Thurber, who wanted a well-known composer as director in order to lend prestige to her institution. She wrote to Dvořák, asking him to accept the position, and he agreed, providing that she were willing to meet his conditions: that talented Native American and African-American students, who could not afford the tuition, must be admitted for free. She agreed to his conditions, and he sailed to America.

It was during this time as director of the Conservatory that Dvořák formed a friendship with Harry Burleigh, who became an important African-American composer. Dvořák taught Burleigh composition, and in return, Burleigh spent hours on end singing traditional American Spirituals to Dvořák. Burleigh went on to compose settings of these Spirituals which compare favorably with European classical composition.

In the winter and spring of 1893, while in New York, he wrote his most popular work, the Symphony No.9 "From the New World". Following an invitation from his family, he spent the summer of 1893 in the Czech speaking community of Spillville, Iowa. While there he composed two of his most famous chamber works, the Quartet in F ("The American"), and the String Quintet in E flat.

Also while in the United States he heard a performance of a cello concerto by the composer Victor Herbert. He was so excited by the possibilities of the cello and orchestra combination displayed in this concerto that he wrote a cello concerto of his own, the Cello Concerto in B minor (1895). Since then the concerto he wrote has grown in popularity and today it is frequently performed. He also left an unfinished work, the Cello Concerto in A major (1865), which was completed and orchestrated by the German composer Günter Raphael between 1925 and 1929.

Dvořák was a colorful personality. In addition to music, there were two particular passions in his life: locomotive engines, and the breeding of pigeons.

He eventually returned to Prague where he was director of the conservatory from 1901 until his death in 1904. He was interred in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.


Musical Style and Influence

Dvořák's works are in a variety of forms: his nine symphonies stick to classical models which Ludwig van Beethoven would have recognised and are comparable to Johannes Brahms, but he also worked in the newly developed symphonic poem form and the influence of Richard Wagner is apparent in some works. Many of his works also show the influence of Czech folk music, both in terms of rhythms and melodic shapes; perhaps the best known examples are the two sets of Slavonic Dances. As well as his already-mentioned works, Dvořák wrote operas (the best known of which is Rusalka), chamber music (including a number of string quartets, the American among them) and piano music.

Dvořák's works were catalogued by Jarmil Burghauser in Antonin Dvořák. Thematic Catalogue. Bibliography. Survey of Life and Work (Export Artia Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1960). In this catalogue, for example, the New World Symphony (Opus 95) is B178. [1]


Dvořák's Symphonies

For a while, the numbering of Dvořák's symphonies was rather unclear; the "New World" symphony has alternately been called the 5th, 8th and 9th. In this article they are numbered according to the order in which they were written (this is the normal numbering system used today). Dvořák himself numbered his 9th Symphony as "number 5," in a superstitious attempt to cheat the tendency for composers to die after composing their ninth symphonies. The trick did not work, and Dvořák died before completing a tenth.

Unlike many other composers who shied away from the symphony until their mature years (notably his mentor Johannes Brahms), Dvořák wrote his Symphony No. 1 in C minor when he was only 24 years of age. Subtitled The Bells of Zlonice after a village in Dvořák's native Bohemia, it is clearly the work of an inexperienced composer, yet shows a lot of promise. The scherzo is considered to be the strongest movement, but the others are not uninteresting. There are many formal similarities with the 5th Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven, yet harmonically and in his instrumentation he is more a romantic composer, following Franz Schubert.

Not very remarkable, but not of low quality either, is Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, still looking up to Beethoven. But Symphony No. 3 in E flat major clearly shows the sudden and profound impact of Dvořák's recent acquaintance with the music of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.

The influence of Wagner was not lasting, however; it can hardly be heard anymore in Symphony No. 4 in D minor. This last of Dvořák's early symphonies is also widely regarded as the best. Again the scherzo is the highlight, but already Dvořák shows his absolute mastery of all formal aspects.

Dvořák's middle symphonies, Symphony No. 5 in F major (published as No. 3) and Symphony No. 6 in D major (published as No. 1), are happy, pastoral works. They are not as famous as their later cousins, though many consider them just as good. The Fifth is the more pastoral work, although there is a dark slow movement which borrows (or, rather, steals) the first four notes of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto for the main theme. The Sixth shows a very strong resemblance to the Symphony No. 2 of Brahms, particularly the outer movements.

Symphony No. 7 in D minor of 1885 is the most Romantic symphony by the composer, and often reckoned to be his greatest, exhibiting more formal tautness and much greater intensity than its more famous cousin, the 9th. The 7th could hardly be a starker contrast to Symphony No. 8 in G major (published as No. 4), a work which Karl Schumann (in booklet notes to a recording of all the symphonies by Rafael Kubelik) compares to Gustav Mahler. Together with his last symphony, these two are regarded as the peak of Dvořák's symphonic writing and among the finest symphonies of the 19th century.

By far the most popular, however, is Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor (published as No. 5), better known under its subtitle, From the New World. This was written between January and May 1893, while he was in New York. At the time of its composition, Dvořák claimed that he used elements from American music such as Spirituals and Native American music in this work, but he later denied this. The first movement has a solo flute passage very reminiscent of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and one of his students later reported that the second movement depicted, programmatically, the sobbing of Hiawatha. The second movement was so reminiscent of a negro spiritual that lyrics were written for it and it became Goin' Home. Dvořák was interested in indigenous American music, but in an article published in the New York Herald on December 15, 1893, he wrote "[In the 9th symphony] I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music." It is generally accepted that the work has more in common with the folk music of Dvořák's native Bohemia than with American music.

Neil Armstrong took this symphony to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing mission, in 1969.

Two of the most highly regarded recordings of these symphonies are the cycles by Rafael Kubelik and Libor Pešek.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Dvorak
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 06:04 am
Good morning WA2K listeners and contributors.

McTag, Fiddler on the Roof is a wonderful musical, and your song is delightful, Brit. Thanks for reminding us of how quickly our little ones become adults.

Bob, all of your bios this morning are excellent and, of course, enlightening. Thanks, Boston. I would like to comment on each one later.

The wind is really getting wild here, folks. It must be Ophelia. I recall having said that we become too complacent about hurricanes when the weather people dramatize the events.

Back later, listeners.
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 06:10 am
Still waiting for mine to become an adult...

Confused Sad Shocked Very Happy :wink:

Good morning, fair Letitia
0 Replies
 
Francis
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 06:13 am
Hello, everybody! There was a lot of talk going on about me last night!

Dont you have anything more interesting to talk about? :wink:
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 06:22 am
Good afternoon, Francis. I think, perhaps, we were captivated by your choice of novels. <smile> Of course everyone here is a fan of the man of mystique.

edgar is definitely a fan of Mr. Miller, but I had to search to remind myself of his writing. One of those books that you sorta read in secret.
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 06:22 am
They must think you're interesting Francis. You and I of course know better. By the way posted biography of Marquis de Lafayette on September 6th. Very interesting man and revered by us in America for his help in our revolution.
0 Replies
 
Raggedyaggie
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 06:45 am
Good day to all.

Thanks for posting the interesting bios, Bob.

Today's birthdays:

551 BC - Confucius, Chinese philosopher (d. 479 BC)
c.20 BC- Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ
801 - Ansgar, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen
828 - Ali al-Hadi, Shia Imam (d. 868)
1157 - King Richard I of England (d. 1199)
1207 - King Sancho II of Portugal
1474 - Ludovico Ariosto, Italian poet (d. 1533)
1588 - Marin Mersenne, French mathematician (d. 1648)
1611 - Johann Friedrich Gronovius, German classical scholar (d. 1671)
1621 - Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, French general (d. 1686)
1633 - Ferdinand IV of Germany (d. 1654)
1672 - Nicolas de Grigny, French organist and composer (d. 1703)
1778 - Clemens Brentano, German poet (d. 1842)
1804 - Eduard Mörike, German poet (d. 1875)
1814 - Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, French writer, historian and specialist in Mesoamerican studies (d. 1874)
1828 - Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Civil War soldier
1830 - Frédéric Mistral, French poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1914)
1841 - Antonin Dvorak, Czech composer (d. 1904)
1852 - Emperor Gwangmu of Korea (d. 1919)
1873 - David O. McKay, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1970)
1881 - Harry Hillman, American athlete
1886 - Siegfried Sassoon, poet (d. 1967)
1889 - Robert Alphonso Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio (d. 1953)
1897 - Jimmie Rodgers, American country music singer and composer (d. 1933)
1901 - Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, was prime minister of South Africa from 1958 - 1966 (d. September 6, 1966)
1910 - Jean-Louis Barrault, actor, director (d. 1994)
1914 - Sir Denys Lasdun, architect (d. 2001)
1922 - Sid Caesar, comedian
1922 - Lyndon LaRouche, political leader
1924 - Mimi Parent, surrealist painter (d. 2005)
1925 - Peter Sellers, actor (d. 1980)
1929 - Christoph von Dohnanyi, German conductor
1930 - Nguyen Cao Ky, Premier of South Vietnam
1932 - Patsy Cline, country music singer (d. 1963)
1934 - Peter Maxwell Davies, composer
1938 - Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator from Georgia
1945 - Jose Feliciano, singer
1945 - Ron Pigpen McKernan, musician (the Grateful Dead) (d. 1973)
1947 - Ann Beattie, writer
1956 - Frank Tovey (aka Fad Gadget), British singer and musician (d. 2002)
1960 - Aimee Mann, musician
1964 - Michael Johns, business executive and White House speechwriter
1966 - Carola, Swedish singer and Eurovision Song Contest winner
1970 - Neko Case, musician
1970 - Latrell Sprewell, basketball player
1970 - Yuji Nishizawa, Japanese hijacker
1971 - Brooke Burke, model
1972 - Lisa Kennedy, television personality
1979 - Pink, singer
1981 - Jonathan Taylor Thomas, actor
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/sid-caesar.jpghttp://www.starchefsjobfinder.com/career_center/cool_careers/images/images_new/peter_sellers.jpghttp://www.alwayspatsycline.net/graphics/patsy.jpg
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 06:55 am
Google's official birthday today. How old? That would be 7.

Happy Birthday!

Source
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 07:19 am
Raggedy, thanks again for your updates on the celebs. I know every one of your picture people this time, PA, but one celeb in particular I would like to salute.

So, Walter. Here's to Google and Jose:

Light My Fire
Jose Feliciano

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn't get much higher

Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre

Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire, yeah

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre

Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire, yeah

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn't get much higher

Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire
Try to set the night on fire
0 Replies
 
Raggedyaggie
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 07:53 am
I was thinking about Jose too, Letty. Wondering what he's doing now.
Found this at Wikipedia:

José Feliciano (born September 10, 1945 in Lares), is a Puerto Rican singer. The victim of congenital glaucoma, he was left permanently blind at birth. Feliciano overcame the effects of his handicap to score many international hits.

He was first exposed to music at age 3. At five, his family moved to Spanish Harlem, New York City. At age 9, he played on the Teatro Puerto Rico. He could play various instruments (such as the accordion) by then but he wanted to learn to play the guitar. To learn, he locked himself in his room for up to 14 hours a day to listen to 1950s rock albums.

At 17, he quit school to play in clubs, because his family was going through a precarious economic situation. That year also, he had his first professional, contracted performance in Detroit.

In 1966, he went to Mar Del Plata, Argentina, to perform at the Festival de Mar Del Plata. There, he impressed RCA Victor officials, who told him to stay there to record an album in Spanish. They weren't sure what they wanted to record, but Feliciano suggested they record bolero music. The result was two smash hits with the singles Poquita Fe (Little Faith) and Uste (You; "uste(d)" being a more respectful way to say "you" in Spanish).

After two more successful albums, Feliciano had become a household name all over Latin America. Then, he moved to Los Angeles, to pursue his dream of becoming a household name in the United States too. Feliciano then composed Feliz Navidad (I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas) which has become a Christmas classic in the United States as well as in Latin-America, and his own version of The Doors' song Light My Fire. He immediately became a sensation all across North America and sold millions of albums on the strength of those two songs.

In 1968, at the height of protests against the Vietnam War, Feliciano was given the opportunity to sing the Star-Spangled Banner during the World Series. His highly personalized, slow, Latin-jazz performance proved highly controversial. Some called his rendition unpatriotic and a disgrace; some called for his exportation. Others understood the emotions and sincerity of his performance, and he emerged as a counterculture hero. The rendition was released as a single which charted for 5 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #50.

Feliciano's Star-Spangled Banner took place 10 months before the now famous Jimi Hendrix rendition at Woodstock.

Feliciano holds the distinction of being one of the few singers to have enjoyed success both in Spanish music and in English rock and roll.

He received a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987, after continuing on being a very popular singer during the 1980s. He had his hands cast on the famous Madame Tussaud's museum's Wall of Fame, and he has a star in the Walk of Fame of his natal Puerto Rico.

In 1995, Feliciano was honored by the government of New York, which re-named Public School 155 the Jose Feliciano Performing Arts School.

In 2001, Feliciano admitted to having inpregnated a woman outside his marriage. The woman gave birth to a baby boy. Sadly, the boy was born with serious health problems and passed away a few weeks after birth.
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 08:00 am
I was going to post Jose Feliciano then noticed birthday of September 10th.
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 08:03 am
As long as it's there let's give them one of best known songs:

Written By:
J. Feliciano

Duet With:
The Dion Family

Lyrics:
Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Prospero ano y felicidad

Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Prospero ano y felicidad

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of my heart

We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of our hearts

We're just getting hot
Ooh

Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Prospero ano y felicidad

You can sing with me

Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Prospero ano y felicidad

Come on let's do it

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of my heart

We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of our hearts

Ooh
Ooh
From the bottom of my heart

Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Prospero ano y felicidad

Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Feliz navidad
Prospero ano y felicidad

We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of our hearts

We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of our hearts

From the bottom of my heart
We wanna wish you
From our hearts
Ooh

Album Version On:
THESE ARE SPECIAL TIMES
0 Replies
 
Raggedyaggie
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 08:07 am
hmmm. Just noticed that about Jose, Bob.
0 Replies
 
yitwail
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 08:10 am
Letty, since you mentioned Google, i'd like to inform the contributors and the audience about a useful site i found. as far as i can tell--which isn't too far because it's huge--it's a commercial free collection of song lyrics. click this link to check it out. perhaps everyone else knows this site or another similar one, but i've personally been inconvenienced by all the lyrics sites that attempt to download something dubious whenver you access them. i do know that it's not complete--for instance, it only contains 24 Bob Dylan albums--but i think it's a good starting point.
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Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 08:12 am
Ah, Raggedy, how very sad about the baby. Musicians lead a checkered life, it seems, but we must admire the man for his tenacious hold on the "mundo" through his music. The Doors, of course, did that song as we have discussed here before.

"Chill penury" is the phrase that Thomas Grey, used, as I recall, and often that is all it takes to spur a man on in spite of handicaps.

Looking at Sid Caesar reminds me of the very, VERY funny movie:

Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Still seeing it in the silver screen of my mind.
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Francis
 
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Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 08:26 am
As I'm a fan of him, thanks everybody for comments on Jose Feliciano.
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Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 8 Sep, 2005 08:36 am
Well, Francis. Please do "Light my Fire" in Spanish for us. <smile>

News update:

Schwarzenegger to Veto Gay Marriage Bill By STEVE LAWRENCE, Associated Press Writer
Thu Sep 8, 5:51 AM ET



SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would veto a bill to legalize same-sex marriage "out of respect for the will of the people," drawing heated criticism from gay rights supporters and cheers from conservative groups.


The bill, narrowly passed by lawmakers in the past week, would make California the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through its legislature. In Massachusetts, recognition of gay marriages came through a court ruling.

But Schwarzenegger said Wednesday the legislation would conflict with the intent of voters when they approved an initiative five years ago that prevents California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries.

"We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote," the governor's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement.

Conservatives hailed the announcement.

"I'm encouraged that the governor is going to stop the runaway Legislature, and he's going to represent the people," said Karen England of the Capitol Resource Institute, a Sacramento group that lobbied against the bill.

Rolling Eyes
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