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Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:06:24 -0800

Left to right: Denny Doherty, Mama Cass Elliott, John Phillips & Michelle Phillips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9E6dhMSI14

"Mamas & Papas member Doherty dies at 66"

Fri Jan 19, 6:44 PM ET

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Denny Doherty, one-quarter of the 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas, known for their soaring harmony on hits like "California Dreamin'" and "Monday, Monday," died Friday at 66.

His sister Frances Arnold said the singer-songwriter died at his home in Mississauga, a city just west of Toronto, after a short illness. He had suffered kidney problems following surgery last month and had been put on dialysis, Arnold said.

The group burst on the national scene in 1966 with the top 10 smash "California Dreamin'." The Mamas and the Papas broke new ground by having women and men in one group at a time when most singing groups were unisex.
John Phillips, the group's chief songwriter; his wife, Michelle; and another female vocalist,
Cass Elliot, teamed with Doherty.

"Monday, Monday" hit No. 1 on the charts and won the band a Grammy for best contemporary group performance. Among the group's other songs were "I Saw Her Again Last Night," "Go Where You Wanna Go," "Dancing Bear," and versions of "I Call Your Name" and "Dedicated to the One I Love."

"What made the group special was their haunting and sumptuous harmony singing," according to "The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll."

"Everybody used to think that John Phillips, who wrote the songs, was also the main voice of the group, but it wasn't -- it was the angelic voice of Denny Doherty," said Larry Leblanc, Canadian editor of Billboard Magazine. "He was often overlooked but it was really his voice that carried the group."

In 1998, the Mamas and the Papas were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The group's catchy sound was a blend of '60s upbeat pop and the folk music that had surged in popularity early in the decade. The song "Creeque Alley" told the story of their formation amid the musical ferment of the folk scene; among the other stars-to-be mentioned in its lyrics were members of the Lovin' Spoonful and the Byrds.

Folk superstars Peter, Paul and Mary paid their own tribute to the Mamas and the Papas with their humorous 1967 hit "I Dig Rock and Roll Music."

But the group's heyday was brief and it disbanded in 1968 following John and Michelle Phillips' divorce. The members re-formed in 1971 for the album "People Like Us," but all hope for a reunion ended in 1974 when the 32-year-old Elliot suffered a fatal heart attack in London.

Phillips briefly re-formed the group in 1982 with Doherty, Phillips' actress daughter, Mackenzie, and Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane. The foursome toured playing oldies and new Phillips originals.

In 2003, Doherty was co-author and performer in an off-Broadway show called "Dream a Little Dream: The Mamas and the Papas Musical." It traced the band's early years, its dizzying fame and breakup amid drugs and alcohol and an affair between Doherty and Michelle Phillips.

"There's a part of this thing that if I'm not careful, I'd be just a blob on the stage crying my guts out," Doherty told The Associated Press at the time. "Everybody knows about death and dying and sadness, so it's an exercise in staying in the moment and not getting maudlin about your friends dying."

John Phillips died in 2001 at 65.

The Halifax-born Doherty started his music career in Montreal in 1960 as the co-founder of the Colonials, which later became the Halifax Three.

Doherty made a solo album in 1974 and achieved a bit of immortality by both playing the Harbormaster and voicing all the characters for the children's TV series "Theodore Tugboat."

Doherty, who was married twice, is survived by three children, John, Emberly and Jessica; three sisters; and a brot

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Mon, 15 Jan 2007 07:13:54 -0800

Happy Birthday, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929- April 4, 1968

"I Have A Dream" Speech (August 28, 1963):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

http://FreakyFrankie.stumbleupon.com/review/6970331/

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:19:54 -0800

NEW YORK - Ahmet Ertegun, who helped define American music as the founder of Atlantic Records, a label that popularized the gritty R&B of Ray Charles, the classic soul of Aretha Franklin and the British rock of the Rolling Stones, has died, his spokesman said. He was 83.

Ertegun remained connected to the music scene until his last days -- it was at an Oct. 29 concert by the Rolling Stones at the Beacon Theatre in New York where Ertegun fell, suffered a head injury and was hospitalized. He later slipped into a coma.

"He was in a coma and expired today with his family at his bedside," said Dr. Howard A. Riina, Ertegun's neurosurgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Ertegun will be buried in a private ceremony in his native Turkey, said Bob Kaus, a spokesman for Ertegun and Atlantic Records. A memorial service will be conducted in New York after the New Year's.

Ertegun, a Turkish ambassador's son, started collecting records for fun, but would later became one of the music industry's most powerful figures with Atlantic, which he founded in 1947.

The label first made its name with rhythm and blues by Charles and Big Joe Turner, but later diversified, making Franklin the Queen of Soul as well as carrying the banner of British rock (with the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin) and American pop (with Sonny & Cher, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and others).

Today, the company, part of Warner Music Group, is the home to artists including Kid Rock, James Blunt, T.I., and Missy Elliott.

Ertegun's love of music began with jazz, back when he and his late brother Nesuhi (an esteemed producer of such jazz acts as Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman) used to hang around with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington in the clubs of Washington, D.C.

"My father was a diplomat who was ambassador to Switzerland, France and England before he became ambassador to the United States, and we lived in all those countries and we always had music in the house, and a lot of it was a kind of popular music, and we heard a lot of jazz," Ertegun recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. "By the time we came to Washington, we were collecting records and we amassed a collection of some 25,000 blues and jazz records."

Ertegun parlayed his love of music into a career when he founded Atlantic with partner Herb Abramson and a $10,000 loan. When the label first started, it made its name with blues-edged recordings by acts such as
Ruth Brown.

Despite his privileged background, which included attending prep school and socializing with Washington's elite, Ertegun was able to mix with all kinds of people -- an attribute that made him not just a marketer of black music, but a part of it, said Jerry Wexler.

"The transition between these two worlds is one of Ahmet's most distinguishing characteristics," Wexler said.

Black music was the backbone of the label for years -- it was Atlantic, under Wexler's production genius, that helped make Franklin the top black female singer of her day.

"We had some pop music -- we had Bobby Darin ... and we developed other pop artists such as Sonny and Cher and
Bette Midler and so on," said Ertegun. "But we had been most effective that set a style as purveyors of African-American music. And we were the kings of that until the arrival of Motown Records, which was long after we started."

But once music tastes changed, Ertegun switched gears and helped bring on the British invasion in the '60s.

"If Atlantic had restricted itself to R&B music, I have no doubt that it would be extinct today," Wexler said.

Instead, it became even bigger.

In later years, Ertegun signed Midler,
Roberta Flack and ABBA. He had a gift for being able to pick out what would be a commercial smash, said the late producer Arif Mardin, who remembered one session where he was working with the Bee Gees on an album -- but was unsure of what he had produced.

"Then Ahmet came and listened to it, and said, `You've got hits here, you've got dance hits,'" Mardin once told the AP. "I was involved in such a way that I didn't see the forest for the trees. ... He was like the steadying influence."

One strength of the company was Ertegun's close relationships with many of the artists -- relationships that continued even after they left his label. Midler still called for advice, and he visited Franklin's home when he dropped into Detroit.

His friendships extended to the younger generation, too, including Kid Rock and Lil' Kim.

Besides his love of music, Ertegun was also known for his love of art, and socializing. It was not uncommon to find him at a party with his wife, Mica, hanging out until all hours with friends.

Although he was slowed by triple-bypass surgery in 2001, he still went into his office almost daily to listen for his next hit.

Finding those hits were among the most wonderful moments in his life, he said.

"I've been in the studio when you go through a track and you run down a track and you know even before the singer starts singing, you know the track is swinging ... you know you have a multimillion-seller hit -- and what you're working on suddenly has magic," he said. "That's the biggest."
__________________

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Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:13:41 -0800

Rest in peace, Peter Boyle!

October 18, 1935 - December 12, 2006

http://FreakyFrankie.stumbleupon.com/review/6863547/

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:55:22 -0800

In Memory Of John Lennon: 9 October 1940- 8 December 1980

http://FreakyFrankie.stumbleupon.com/review/6724917/

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:27:02 -0800

Remember George Harrison: 25 Feb 1943 - 29 Nov 2001

http://FreakyFrankie.stumbleupon.com/review/6575106/

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:49:03 -0800

The Beatles 'LOVE' CD-----

Look for it in stores near you on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006! (I'm previewing the CD now, for free, at
http://www.thebeatles.com/hearlove/index.php!) Give it a listen! A whole new listening experience featuring The Beatles songs we know and love!

Here is the info from the label, courtesy of Amazon.com:

FIRST TIME EVER SPECIAL EDITION will include both the stereo CD and a BONUS AUDIO DVD packaged in a digi-package with O-card. The DVD is audio only and will contain 81 minutes of music in both 5.1 surround sound and stereo (presented in DVD-Audio MLP, DTS, Dolby and PCM).

"Love" is a fascinating reworking of numerous classic Beatles recordings by the band's original producer, Sir George Martin, and his son Giles. "Love" is also the title of the highly successful Cirque du Soleil show, a co-production with Apple Corps featuring the music of the Beatles, currently wowing audiences in Las Vegas. In creating the music for the show and for the album, George and Giles have created a continuous "soundscape"--a series of well-known Beatles songs augmented by additional instrumentation and vocals taken from their vast bank of original multi-track tapes. If you can imagine "Strawberry Fields Forever" beginning with John's original demo before going into an early take of the song and then climaxing in a musical collage including the piano solo from "In My Life" and the harpsichord pattern from "Piggies" and lots, lots more--or "Get Back" prefaced by the "Hard Day's Night" opening guitar chord, the guitar and drum solos from "The End," and segued into "Glass Onion," you will begin to get the picture. But hearing is believing! The guys have pushed back the boundaries and come up with a brand-new work that will add to the enduring legacy of the band. The result is an amazing album that not only reinforces the timeless quality of the group's recordings--the fans will have fun enjoying the roller-coaster experience of the album whilst trying to spot where all the pieces come from--it is also destined to open up a new legion of fans to the Beatles experience.

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Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:52:13 -0800

K-Tel Pure Power Album Commercial

http://FreakyFrankie.stumbleupon.com/review/6238556/

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:24:24 -0800

The Beatles - "Day Tripper"-------
A little bit of info from Paul and then we see the full length video for the 1965 hit, "Day Tripper"! #5 in late '65/early '66.

Thanks to http://lallahabiba.stumbleupon.com for forwarding that to me.

http://FreakyFrankie.stumbleupon.com/review/6237945/

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:01:15 -0800