THE JOHNNY MAN SINGERS - BEATLE BALLADS - 1965

John Russell Mann (August 30, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American arranger, composer, conductor, entertainer, and recording artist.

Johnny Mann and his vocal group The Johnny Mann Singers were involved in several classic rock 'n' roll and rockabilly recording sessions forJohnny Burnette (including "God, Country and My Baby"), The Crickets and several 1957–1958 sessions with Eddie Cochran, who was also signed to Liberty Records in Hollywood.

As bandleader with the Johnny Mann Singers, he and the group recorded approximately three dozen albums, hosted the TV series titled Stand Up and Cheer (1971–1974), and was the musical director for The Joey Bishop Show. He was also musical director of The Alvin Show, and was the voice of Theodore. Mann was also choral director for the NBC Comedy Hour.

The Johnny Mann Singers' instrumental "Cinnamint Shuffle (Mexican Shuffle)" hit the US Pop chart in 1966. Their next single, a cover version of "Up, Up and Away", became the hit version of the song in the UK Singles Chart, rather than the US hit version by The 5th Dimension.

The Johnny Mann Singers performed a strongly patriotic musical presentation at the 1972 Emmy Awards telecast hosted by Johnny Carson.Following their performance, Carson returned to the stage and declared "War Bonds are available in the lobby," a sarcastic comment on the group's flag-waving. The remark offended some conservative viewers around the country.

Mann wrote a number of radio jingles, the most famous being Los Angeles station 93 KHJ as well as the "Sound of the City" jingle for KSFO inSan Francisco, California. This jingle became as requested as many of the songs played by KSFO in the era of Don Sherwood, and it was adapted by Mann for other radio stations around the country which included KFRC (AM) in San Francisco and CKLW in Windsor, Ontario.

Mann was credited as "Johnnie Mann" in some of his earlier works. His group's most notable alumna was Vicki Lawrence. In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.

In 2010, Mann was awarded an honorary doctor of humanities degree from Anderson University in Anderson, SC. In April 2014 at the age of 85, he was a guest conductor of The South Carolina School of the Arts,  at Anderson University's spring gala where he led the university choir in performing the Johnny Mann Singers arrangement of "Up, Up and Away". At the song's conclusion, the audience of about 1,000 stood in Mann's honor.

On June 18, 2014, Johnny Mann died of heart failure at age 85 at his home in Anderson, South Carolina. This day, at his memorial service, Dr. Evans Whitaker, president of Anderson University (SC) announced the creation of the Johnny Mann Center for Commercial Music at Anderson University in his memory.

The Lp album this posting was launched in United States in 1965 by Liberty Records.

TRACK LIST:

1. Do You want to know a secret;

2. All my loving;

3. Things we said today;

4. She loves you;

5. This boy - Ringo's theme;

6. P.S. I love you;

7. From me to you;

8. And I love her;

9. I'm happy just to dance with you;

10. If a fell;

11. Love me do;

12. I'll be back.

Links:

THE JOHNNY MAN SINGERS

BEATLE BALLADS

LIBERTY RECORDS - 1965

IAN & THE ZODIACS - THE BEATLES BEST & MORE - 1965

Ian and the Zodiacs was an English rock and roll band formed in 1958, originally known as The Zodiacs, in Liverpool, England. Led by Ian Edwards (1943–2007), the band existed in relative obscurity until relocating to Germany in 1964 where they achieved national success. During the band's three-year stint in Germany, they released three albums under their name, exclusive to the country until their re-release. They also released two cover albums featuring material by The Beatles with the name, The Koppykats.

The band formed as a jazz group in 1958, and performed under the name, The Zodiacs. The group came together following an audition at a local venue called Savoy Hall. In the spring of 1960, Ian Edwards departed from his band, The Deltones, and joined The Zodiacs.

From that point on, the band became known as Ian and the Zodiacs, and shifted their style from jazz to rock and roll. Following several personnel changes, the lineup for the group included Edwards as lead vocalist, Pete Wallace on lead guitar, Geoff Bethell on piano, Charlie Finn on bass guitar, and Cliff Roberts on drums. The band played top venues in the area, and became the resident group for St. Lukes Hall (The Jive-Hive).

During their touring, they found their manager, Ralph Webster. On 4 January 1962, Mersey Beat released a poll citing the band was the eleventh most popular Merseyside group. The band released their first single on the Oriole label in 1963 to limited success. Edwards recalled, regarding their inability to achieve success in England, "We spent too much time at the Grapes". The Grapes being the place where bands would take breaks from performing. In May 1964, the band got rid of Bethell and auditioned Geoff Bamford to replace Roberts on drums.

Later in 1964, the band travelled to Hamburg, Germany for what was supposed to be a month of touring. The band would remain in the country for the next three years after gaining widespread popularity amidst their touring and television appearances. Edwards' distinctive vocals helped develop the group's reputation, and set them apart from other acts. Their act was centered on US, and UK hits along with some of their own original material.

They became promoted by Manfred Weissleder, owner of the Star-Club, who featured them in his various clubs, and were joined by drummer Joe Walsh. Following a car accident in May 1965, Wallace and Walsh departed, and were replaced by Freddie Smith and Arthur Ashton. The band released three albums, all of which charted in Germany, during their stay in the country. The albums, Star Club 7, Just Listen to Ian and the Zodiacs, and Locomotive!, were all released on the Star Club label. The material from the albums ranged from rock and roll, pop rock, and later soul influences.

Outside the band name, they released two cover albums consisting of The Beatles compositions under the name, The KoppyKats. Their biggest selling hit in the UK, 1965's double album The Beatles Beat, was recorded on a limited budget, but was still relatively successful. Another Beatles cover album, Gears Again, followed with less success. In support of the albums, they released "Nowhere Man" and "Help!" as singles. The albums sold well thanks to the lower prices in comparison to The Beatles' releases.

The band released several singles, all on different labels, to the UK and the United States, and, despite failing to chart in the UK, still managed to achieve a regional hit in the US. Their single, "The Crying Game", became a number one hit in Texas, selling 250,000 copies. The band would have toured the US, but could not as they did not have green cards.

The band continued to tour throughout Germany until July 1967. Edwards' wife had fallen ill so he disbanded the group to return to England. He reformed the band the following year with German musicians, to lesser success. Two other incarnations of the band formed, one in 2000, touring Germany until 2003, and another in 2004.

From 2004 until his death in 2007 he made a comeback in Germany, performing at festivals in Hamburg, Weimar, Berlin and Cologne, as well as in Liverpool´s Cavern Club. He was backed by the German musicians Manfred Jung (bass), Jürgen Pfingst (lead guitar), Dr.Joachim Wagner (rhythm guitar) and Raimund Jung (drums). The backing group from Cologne, Germany, still performs as Ian's Zodiacs and as The Roaring Fourties, and is also well known in Liverpool.

In the 1990s, the band's albums were re-released by the Repretoire label. Five of the group's tracks, "Beechwood", "It Ain't Necessarily So", "Secret Love", "Let's Turkey Trot", and "You Can Think Again", have also appeared on the 1989 compilation album, This Is MerseyBeat. A greatest hits album called Wade in the Water was distributed by RPM which was composed of re-mastered songs by the band.

TRACK LIST:

1. You can't do that;

2. Little child;

3. All my loving;

4. Eight days a week;

5. I'll follow the sun;

6. Long tall Sally;

7. I feel fine;

8. A hard day's night;

9. The things we said;

10. I'm loser;

11. I saw her standing there;

12. Roll over Beethoven;

13. Nowhere man;

14. Norwegian wood;

15. We can't work it out;

16. Yesterday;

17. Day tripper;

18. I'm looking throught you;

19. Help;

20. You've got to hide your love away;

21. Ticket to ride;

22. I'm down;

23. Dizzy miss Lizzy;

24. Please Mr. Postman;

25. Little child - Unreleased bonus.

Links:

IAN & THE ZODIACS - 2 IN 1

THE BEATLES BEST & MORE

AMERICAN IDOL TOP 9 - LENNON & MCCARTNEY SONGBOOK - 2010

Nesta postagem, apresentamos uma coletânea de canções de Lennon & McCartney, que foram apresentadas durante a temporada 9 do "American Idol", realizado no período de 12 de janeiro a 26 de maio de 2010.

A seguir a seleção das canções:

1. The long and winding road (Aaron Kelly);

2. Let it be (Katie Stevens);

3. Can't buy me love (Andrew Garcia);

4. Eleanor rigby (Michael Lynche);

5. Come together (Crystal Bowersox);

6. All my loving (Tim Urban);

7. Jealous guy (Casey James);

8. Across the universe (Siobhan Magnus);

9. Hey Jude (Lee Dewyze).

Links:

AMERICAN IDOL TOP 9

LENNON & MCCARTNEY SONGBOOK - 2010

CATHY BERBERIAN - BEATLES ARIAS - 2004

Catherine Anahid Berberian (July 4, 1925 – March 6, 1983) was an American mezzo-soprano and composer based in Italy. She interpreted contemporary avant-garde music composed, among others, by Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, John Cage, Henri Pousseur, Silvano Bussotti, Darius Milhaud, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and Igor Stravinsky. She also interpreted works by Claudio Monteverdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Kurt Weill, Philipp Zu Eulenburg, arrangements of songs by The Beatles, and folk songs from several countries and cultures.

As a composer, she wrote Stripsody(1966), in which she exploits her vocal technique using comic book sounds (onomatopoeia), and Morsicat(h)y (1969), a composition for the keyboard (with the right hand only) based on Morse code.

Cathy Berberian was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts to Armenian parents, Yervant and Louise Berberian. The elder of two children, she spent the first 12 years of her life in Attleboro, then the family moved to New York City in 1937 where she graduated from Manhattan's Julia Richman High School for Girls.

From an early age, she showed an interest in Armenian folk music and dance as well as traditional opera. While still in high school, she was the director and soloist of the Armenian Folk Group in New York City. For a time, she was an undergraduate at New York University, but left to take evening classes in theatre and music at Columbia University, working during the day to support her studies.

She went on to study music in Paris with Marya Freund in 1948, and in 1949 she went to Milan to study singing at the Milan Conservatory with Giorgina del Vigo. In 1950, she received a Fulbright scholarship to continue her studies there. Although she had appeared in several student productions, radio broadcasts and informal concerts during the early 1950s, she made her formal debut in 1957 at Incontri Musicali, a contemporary music festival in Naples.

The following year her performance of John Cage's Aria with Fontana Mix in its world premiere, established her as a major exponent of contemporary vocal music. Her American debut came in 1960 at the Tanglewood Music Festival where she premiered Circles by the Italian composer Luciano Berio.

From 1950 to 1964 Berberian was married to Luciano Berio, whom she met when they were students at the Milan Conservatory. They had one daughter, Cristina Berio, born in 1953. Berberian became Berio's muse and collaborator both during and after their marriage. He wrote, for her, Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958), Circles (1960), Visage (1961), Folk Songs (1964–73), Sequenza III (1965), and Recital I (for Cathy) (1972).

In 1967 Berberian took an artistic detour, releasing a 12-track album (recorded in Paris) that consisted entirely of quirky baroque-style cover versions of songs by The Beatles, entitled Beatles Arias.

The instrumental backing was scored for a classical string quartet or wind quintet plus harpsichord or organ. Most of the tracks were arranged by Guy Boyer, and most of the songs featured him on harpsichord. The original cover illustration for the album was by Gerald Scarfe.

The album was reissued on CD in 2005 with bonus tracks including a 1975 French radio interview, and three live tracks featuring Berberian performing songs from the album, recorded at French music festivals in the early 1980s, with accompaniment by Italian composer–musician Bruno Canino and arrangements by noted Dutch composer Louis Andriessen.

Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Hans Werner Henze, William Walton, Igor Stravinsky, and Anthony Burgess also composed works for her voice. Although Berberian was based in Milan from the time of her studies there, she taught at both Vancouver University and the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne during the 1970s. Following her death, Berio composed Requies: in memoriam Cathy Berberian which premiered in Lausanne on March 26, 1984.

She is mentioned in the Steely Dan song "Your Gold Teeth" from the 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy:

"Even Cathy Berberian knows / There's one roulade she can't sing."

Berberian was also a translator. With Umberto Eco she translated into Italian works by Jules Feiffer and, with other Italian translators, works by Woody Allen. Eco and Berberian worked together in other projects too and he nicknamed her magnificathy. This nickname with a different spelling chosen by Berberian herself: magnifiCathy was later used as the title of one of her most well known albums.

TRACK LIST:

1. Ticket to ride;

2. I Want to hold your hand;

3. Michele;

4. Eleanor rigby;

5. Yellow submarine;

6. Here, there and everywhere;

7. Help;

8. You've got to hide your love away;

9. Yesterday;

10. Can't buy me love;

11. Girls;

12. A hard day's night;

Bônus:

13. Entretien;

14. Introduction;

15. Ticket to ride;

16. Yesterday;

17. Ticket to ride.

Links:

CATHY BERBERIAN

BEATLES ARIAS

KELLY SMITH - SINGS JOHN LENNON & PAUL McCARTNEY SONGBOOK - 1964

Keely Smith (born Dorothy Jacqueline Keely, March 9, 1932) is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among others, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.

Smith showed a natural aptitude for singing at a young age. At age 14, the Portsmouth, Virginia native started singing with a naval air station band led by Saxie Dowell. At 15, she got her first paying job with the Earl Bennett band.

Smith made her professional debut with Louis Prima in 1949 (the couple was married in 1953); Smith played the "straight guy" in the duo to Prima's wild antics and they recorded many duets. These include Johnny Mercer's and Harold Arlen's "That Ol' Black Magic", which was a Top 20 hit in the US in 1958. In 1959, Smith and Prima were awarded the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus for "That Ol' Black Magic". Her "dead-pan" act was a hit with fans. The duo followed up with the minor successes "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen", a revival of the 1937 Andrews Sisters hit. Smith and Prima's act was a mainstay of the Las Vegas lounge scene for much of the 1950s. Though her actual voice was not used, she was caricatured as "Squealy Smith" in Bob Clampett's 1960 Beany and Cecil episode "So What and the Seven Whatnots," a Snow White spoof in a Vegas setting.

Smith appeared with Prima in the 1959 film, Hey Boy! Hey Girl!, singing "Fever", and also appeared in and sang on the soundtrack of the previous year's Thunder Road. Her song in Thunder Road was "Whippoorwill". Her first big solo hit was "I Wish You Love" in 1957. In 1961, Smith divorced Prima. She then signed with Reprise Records, where her musical director was Nelson Riddle. In 1965, she had Top 20 hits in the United Kingdom with an album of Beatles compositions, and a single, "You're Breaking My Heart" which reached #14 in April. As of 2013, her Reprise recordings have never been made available on CD.

In 1985, she made a comeback with I'm In Love Again (Fantasy Records). Her albums, Swing, Swing, Swing (2002), Keely Sings Sinatra (2001) for which she was Grammy nominated, and Keely Swings Count Basie Style with Strings (2002) garnered critical and fan acclaim.

In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.

Smith released Vegas '58 – Today a compilation album of her best known songs, all recorded live. Smith has re-recorded a number of songs from her Prima years, including a modified version of "Oh Marie," which has been renamed "Oh Louis" in tribute. By her own admission, she has never had a singing lesson and cannot read music.

She works a light touring schedule. She was booked at the Cafe Carlyle in New York City in 2007. On February 10, 2008, Smith performed "That Old Black Magic" with Kid Rock at the 50th Grammy Awards. Smith also went on to influence Pop star Paloma Faith who at "Later at the Proms", the Guy Barker Orchestra and Miss Faith performed Smith's biggest hit All Night Long.

Smith is of Irish and Native American ancestry. She married Louis Prima in 1953; the couple divorced in 1961. The couple had two children: Toni Elizabeth and Luanne Francis.

In 1961, columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reported that Smith had dated and broken up with music executive Morris Levy. In 1965, she married Jimmy Bowen. The couple divorced in 1969.

Smith married singer Bobby Milano (real name Charles Caci) in 1975 in Palm Springs. Frank Sinatra gave the bride away.

In 1986, Smith faced legal problems for failing to withhold employee personal income and disability insurance taxes in connection with vending companies (including Piggy Vending) she owned in Palm Springs, California.

In 2008, Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder wrote and starred in the new musical, Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, which premiered at Los Angeles' Sacred Fools Theater Company and went on to be nominated for four Ovation Awards, including the Franklin R. Levy Award for Musical in an Intimate Theatre, which it won.

TRACK LIST:

1. If I feel;

2. This girls;

3. Please, please me;

4. And I love him;

5. World without love;

6. She loves you;

7. A hard day's night;

8. Do you want to know a secret?;

9. Can't buy me love;

10. All my loving;

11. I want to hold your hand;

12. P.S. I love you

Links:

KELLY SMITH

SINGS JOHN LENNON & PAUL McCARTNEY SONGBOOK

HELEN MERRIL - SINGS THE BEATLES - 1970

Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic, July 21, 1930) is an American jazz vocalist. Merrill's recording career has spanned six decades. She has recorded and performed with notable jazz musicians.

Merrill was born in New York City in 1930 to Croatian immigrant parents. She began singing in jazz clubs in the Bronx in 1944, aged fourteen. By the time she was sixteen, Merrill had taken up music full-time. In 1952, Merrill made her recording debut when she was asked to sing "A Cigarette For Company" with the Earl Hines Band; the song was released on the D'Oro label, created specifically to record Hines' band with Merrill. Etta Jones was in Hines' band at the time and she too sang on this session, which was reissued on the Xanadu label in 1985. At this time she was married to musician Aaron Sachs. They divorced in 1956.

Merrill was signed by Mercury Records for their new Emarcy label. In 1954, Merrill recorded her first LP, an eponymous record featuring trumpeter Clifford Brown and bassist/cellist Oscar Pettiford, among others. The album was produced and arranged by Quincy Jones, who was then twenty-one years old. The success of Helen Merrill prompted Mercury to sign her for an additional four-album contract.

Merrill's follow-up to Helen Merrill was the 1956 LP, Dream of You, which was produced and arranged by bebop arranger and pianist Gil Evans. Evans' work on Dream of You was his first in many years. His arrangements on Merrill's laid the musical foundations for his work in following years with Miles Davis.

After recording sporadically through the late 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent much of her time touring Europe, where she enjoyed more commercial success than she had in the United States. She settled for a time in Italy, recording an album there and doing concerts with jazz musicians Piero Umiliani, Chet Baker, Romano Mussolini, and Stan Getz. In 1960 arranger composer Ennio Morricone worked with Helen Merrill on an EP "Helen Merrill sings Italian Songs"on the RCA Italiana label.

Parole e Musica: Words and Music was recorded in Italy with Umiliani's orchestra in the early 1960s while Merrill was living there. The LP features the unusual additions preceding each song, of spoken translations of eloquent Italian word lyrics, complementing the ballads and torch songs.

She returned to the U.S. in the 1960s, but moved to Japan in 1966, staying after touring there and marrying Donald J. Brydon (of United Press International) in April 1967. She developed a following in Japan that remains strong to this day. In addition to recording while in Japan, Merrill became involved in other aspects of the music industry, producing albums for Trio Recordsand hosting a show on a Tokyo radio station.

Merrill returned to the US in 1972 and has continued recording and regular touring since then. Her later career has seen her experiment in different music genres. She has recorded a bossa nova album, a Christmas album and a record's worth of Rodgers and Hammerstein, among many others. Two albums from Merrill's later career have been tributes to past musical partners. In 1987, she and Gil Evans recorded fresh arrangements of their Dream of You; the new recordings were released under the title Collaboration and became the most critically acclaimed of Merrill's albums in the 1980s. 

In 1987 she co-produced a CD album, Billy Eckstine Sings with Benny Carter. In 1995 she recorded Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown as a tribute to the trumpeter. One of her millennium released recordings draws from her Croatian heritage as well as her American upbringing: Jelena Ana Milcetic a.k.a. Helen Merrill (2000). The album combines jazz, pop and blues songs with several traditional Croatian songs sung in Croatian.

Merrill has been married three times, first to musician Aaron Sachs, secondly to UPI vice president Donald J. Brydon, and thirdly to arranger-conductor Torrie Zito. She has one child, a son, Allan, by her first marriage, who is also a singer, known professionally as Alan Merrill.

TRACK LIST:

1. Let it be;
2. Lady Madonna;
3. Because;
4. The word;
5. Norwegian wood;
6. Here, there and everywhere;
7. Golden slumbers;
8. And I love him;
9. In my life;
10. Mother's nature son;
11. If I feel;
12. I want you.

Links:

HELEN MERRIL

SINGS THE BEATLES - 1970