REMINDER: UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS FOR SEPTEMBER 1-7

Please let me know if I'm missing someone you'd like to see featured by leaving a "comment" below.)

SEPTEMBER 1:

Gloria Estefan of Miami Sound Machine

*Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees is 64.

Archie Bell of Archie Bell and The Drells is 66.

Conway Twitty: He died in June, 1993 at the age of 60.

Boxcar Willie (Lecil Travis Martin): Died in April 1999 at the age of 68.

Tommy Evans of the Drifters is 83.






SEPTEMBER 2:

Billy Preston: He died in June 2006 at the age of 60.
Joe Simon is 67.
*Jimmy Clanton is 70.
Sam Gooden of The Impressions 71.

Jimmy Clanton: "Just a Dream"

William 'Liam' Clancy with The Clancy Brothers: He died in December 2009. at the age of 74.

Hugo Montenegro: He died in February 1981 at the age of 85.

SEPTEMBER 3:

Al Jardine (Front row right)

   Jennifer Paige is 37.
   Donald Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad is 62.
   George Biondi of Steppenwolf is 65.
   Gary Leeds of the Walker Brothers is 66.
  *Al Jardine founder member of The Beach Boys is 68.






SEPTEMBER 4:

Argentine singer and actress, Camila Bordonaba is 26.
*Beyoncé Knowles is 29.
British singer Lucie Silvasis 33.
Curaçaon born singer Daisy Deeis 40.

Carmit Bachar of the Pussycat Dolls is 46.
Kim Thayil of Soundgarden is 50.

Merald “Bubba” Knight of Gladys Knight & The Pips is 78.








SEPTEMBER 5:
  *Terry Ellis of En Vogue is 44.
   Freddie Mercury of Queen would be 64 today. He died in Novemeber 1991.
   Dean Ford of Marmalade is 64.

   Loudon Wainwright III is 64.
   John Stewart of the Kingston Trio would be 71. He died In January 2008.
   Willie Woods of Junior Walker & the All Stars would be 74.










SEPTEMBER 6:

Rapper Foxy Brown is 31
Nina Persson of The Cardigans 36.

Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries is 39. 
Macy Gray is 43.
Mark Chesnutt is 47.
Roger Waters of Pink Floyd is 66.
Country music singer David Allan Coe is 71.











SEPTEMBER 7:

*Margot Chapman of the Starland Vocal Band is 53.
Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders is 59.
Gloria Gaynor is 61.
Buddy Holly would be 74. He died on February 3, 1959.

Arthur Ferrante of Ferrante and Teicher is 89.

August 31: Alan Jay Lerner, famous musical lyricist, was born on this day in 1918.

Born and raised in New York City, Alan Jay Lerner, in collaboration with Frederick Loewe, created many of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both stage and film. His uncle, Samuel Alexander Lerner, was the founder of the Lerner Stores chain of dress shops.

Despite his success, he was full of self doubt about his ability to write lyrics. He usually spent months on one song and was constantly rewriting them. It took a toll on his personal life: for nearly twenty years he battled an amphetamine addiction and was married eight times. Still, he won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, and is inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He died in June 1986 from lung cancer.



Among his Many Honors:

Academy Award
Best Original Screenplay, 1951 An American in Paris
Best Adapted Screenplay, 1958 Gigi
Best Original Song, 1958 Gigi

Golden Globe
Best Original Song, 1968 Camelot
Best Original Score, 1975 The Little Prince

Tony Award
Best Book of a Musical, 1957 My Fair Lady
Best Original Score, 1957 My Fair Lady and 1974 Gigi

New York Drama Critics
Best Musical, 1947 Brigadoon
Best Musical, 1957 My Fair Lady

Johnny Mercer Award
Lyric Writing, 1985-Lifetime Achievement
                       ----
Press links below to view You Tube videos:
-- Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady (1956)

-- Camelot Theme (Richard Harris and Meg Bussert)

-- "I Remember It Well" Gigi (Maurice Chevalier, Hermione Gingold)

 

August 31: Tony DeFranco of the DeFranco Family pop group is 51 today.

With their youthful exuberance and cheerful music, the DeFranco Family were a successful pop music act in the mid-1970s. In addition to lead singer Tony, The DeFranco's, from Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, consisted of guitarist, Benny, keyboardist, Marisa, guitarist, Nino and drummer, Merlina .

The group had a number of hits between 1973 and 1977. Their debut 1973 single, "Heartbeat, It's a Lovebeat," featuring the lead vocals of then 13-year-old Tony DeFranco, reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the top song on the Cashbox singles chart, and sold more than two million copies. Their second single, "Abra-Ca-Dabra," which reached the Top 40, was followed by their final hit, "Save the Last Dance for Me," which reached number 18 on the charts in May 1974. By the late 1970s, the group faded from the pop scene, disbanding in 1978.

Today, Tony is a realtor in Westlake Village, California.

Press links below to view You Tube videos:
-- "Heartbeat, It's a Lovebeat"
-- "Abra-Ca-Dabra"

-- "Presenters on Grammy Awards"

 

August 31: From "Teen Beat" to "Playboy"- Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson is 40 today.

From an early age, Deborah wanted a career in show business. She began writing songs when she was only five years-old. When she was eight, she sang in the children's chorus at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

By the time she signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records at 16, Deborah had already appeared in a number of shows on Broadway Although Deborah was making strides in the music industry, she was otherwise a normal student at Sanford H. Calhoun High School in Merrick, Long Island where she was a cheerleader.


Called "Deborah" while growing up, her record company wanted her to go by "Debbie," and at one point wanted to change her name entirely. In 1987, Deborah (then Debbie) Gibson's first album was released, titled Out of the Blue. It spawned the hits "Only In My Dreams," "Foolish Beat" and the title track. At the time, the success of "Foolish Beat" made Debbie the youngest artist to have written, produced and performed a Number 1 song. With over 5 million copies sold, Debbie set on to continue her success with her follow-up album, Electric Youth.

Released in 1989, Electric Youth went triple platinum, and spawned the title track and the single, "Lost In Your Eyes." The latter earned the New York Music Award for Song of the Year in 1990, while Deborah took home the same award for Best Pop Female Vocalist that same year.


In 1992, she returned to theater as Eponine in the Broadway production of Les Miserables. In the years that followed, Deborah played opposite roles as Sandy and Rizzo (respectively), in productions of Grease, and was also cast as Fanny Brice in the Broadway production of Funny Girl.

In 1990, Anything Is Possible was released and was certified Gold, while Body Mind Soul was released in 1993. 1995 saw the release of Think With Your Heart as well as a Greatest Hits album, and her self-titled album, Deborah hit shelves in 1997.


In the meantime, Deborah had returned to Broadway again, this time as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy at the Paper Mill Playhouse. You may have also recognized her voice as the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and stepped into the shoes of Cinderella as the title role of the national production.

Playboy Photo

The March 2005 issue of Playboy featured a nude pictorial of Gibson, coinciding with the release of her single, "Naked." She has said she agreed to pose in an effort to revamp her image. The single peaked #35 on the Billboard "Hot single sales" chart in March 2005.

(Links for viewing You Tube videos:)

-- "Foolish Beat"
-- "Lost In Your Eyes"  
-- "Already Gone"
 
  (Additional video below)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Recommended (Press album covers for direct links to Amazon):
 

August 31: Gina Schock, drummer for the Go-Go's is 53 today.

Regina Ann Schock, born in Baltimore, Maryland, is the drummer in the all-girl punk/pop band The Go-Go's. Her career as a drummer began with a group named or Edie and the Eggs. After that gig ended, Schock relocated to Los Angeles and joined The Go-Go's. She toured with The Go-Go's until they disbanded in 1985 and reformed in 1990.

In 1997, Schock sued the other members of the group, claiming that she had not been properly paid for her contributions since 1986 and that a songwriting agreement with Caffey had been breached. The suit was resolved by 1999 and The Go-Go's have toured regularly since then. However, it has been announced (once again) that they would soon embark on a farewell tour.

Schock has played the drums with other musicians while working on her songwriting. Schock's songs have appeared in films including The Accused, Superstar, and Bull Durham. Gina has co-written with Alanis Morrissette, Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson of the pop trio, Wilson Phillips, and Debbie Peterson of The Bangles.

Gina released a self-titled album in 1988 with her band "House of Schock," and later formed the short-lived group K-Five. Gina Schock co-wrote the title track for Miley Cyrus's second CD, Breakout, which debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200 Charts in the summer of 2008. She currently lives in San Francisco.

Press links below to view You Tube videos:
-- "Vacation"

-- "We Got The Beat"
-- "I Wanna Be Sedated" (Central Park New York 2001)

August 31: Irish Superstar Van Morrison is 65 today.

Born George Ivan Morrison in Northern Ireland - Known as "Van the Man" to his fans - started his musical career as a teenager playing guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone while covering popular records.

Morrison rose in popularity in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band "Them." Their first big hit was the classic, "Gloria," followed by the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967, "Domino" and "Wild Night," studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely viewed as among the greatest ever made.

Morrison has received six Grammy Awards, been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and has appeared on several "Greatest Artists" lists: In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Van Morrison forty-second on their list of "Greatest Artists of All Time"; in 2006, Paste ranked him twentieth in their list of "100 Greatest Living Songwriters"; Q ranked him twenty-second on their list of "100 Greatest Singers" in April 2007, and he was voted twenty-fourth on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in November 2008.


-- "Here Comes the Night"
-- "Domino"
-- "Moondance"

August 30: Today, Actress - and SOMETIMES singer Cameron Diaz is 38.

OK- while she's not REALLY a singer, Cameron Michelle Diaz has sung and danced in her movies. (See You Tube links below.)

Born in San Diego, California - and a former model - Cameron stared in many films beginning in the 1990s. Notable film credits include "The Mask," "My Best Friend's Wedding," "There's Something About Mary," "Charlie's Angels," "My Sister's Keeper," "Vanilla Sky" and "Gangs of New York." She also was the voice of Princess Fiona in the Shrek film series. (She received Golden Globe nominations for  "There's Something About Mary," "Being John Malkovich," "Vanilla Sky," and "Gangs of New York.")

She has been romantically linked with New York Yankees third baseman star Alex Rodriguez.

-- "The Mask"
-- "Singing Karaoke" ("My Best Friend's Wedding")
-- "Underwear Dancing" ("Charlie's Angels")
-- The Killers "Mr Brightside" (From "The Holiday")