Category Archives: Music

RIP Don Ho… No More “Tiny Bubbles”

Don Ho, born Donald Tai Loy Ho (August 13, 1930 – April 14, 2007) was a Hawaiian musician and entertainer. He was best known for his song, “Tiny Bubbles.”

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RIP Burle Ives

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an acclaimed American folk music singer, author and actor.

Possibly his most remembered role today is as narrator Sam the Snowman in the Rankin-Bass animated television special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964).

Ives’s “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is a very popular tune during the Christmas season, as it’s frequently played on the radio and was featured in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special.

Burl Ives

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (14 June 1909 – 14 April 1995)

Goodbye Merle.

Merle Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016)

Merle Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016)

RIP Jeff Healey

Jeff Healey

Jeff Healey (March 25, 1966 – March 2, 2008)

Norman Jeffrey Healey, known professionally as Jeff Healey, was a blind Canadian jazz and blues-rock guitarist and vocalist.  Healey was most widely known for his appearance as the blind guitar player in Roadhouse, and for his distinctive way of playing his guitar laid flat across his lap.

Healey was blind; he lost his sight when he was one year old, due to retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the eyes which he suffered from throughout his life and which ultimately killed him.

Happy Birthday, Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003)

Johnny Cash, born J. R. Cash, was a Grammy Award-winning American country singer-songwriter. Cash is widely considered to be one of the most influential American musicians of the 20th century.

Cash was known for his deep, distinctive voice, the boom-chick-a-boom or “freight train” sound of his Tennessee Three backing band, his demeanor, and his dark clothing, which earned him the nickname “The Man in Black”. He traditionally started his concerts with the simple introduction “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.”

He sold over 90 million albums in his nearly fifty-year career and came to occupy a “commanding position in music history”.

Wikipedia Link

Geddy

geddy

Happy Birthday, Ray Stevens

Ray Stevens (born Harold Ray Ragsdale) is an American country music and pop singer-songwriter known for his novelty songs. His two most-popular songs are “Everything Is Beautiful” and “The Streak”.

Ray Stevens

Harold Ray Ragsdale (January 24, 1939 – )

 Wikipedia Link

Glenn Frey, founding member of the Eagles, has died

Glenn Frey (November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016)

Glenn Frey (November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016)

Guitarist Glenn Frey, founding member of the legendary classic rock band the Eagles, has passed away.  He was 67.

Frey had been sick since last year and in December the Eagles postponed their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors due to Frey’s illness. In a statement at the time, the band said Frey “has had a recurrence of previous intestinal issues, which will require major surgery and a lengthy recovery period.” The Eagles are scheduled to be honored in the 2016 ceremony.

Fellow founding member of the group Don Henley issued a statement following the news, in which he called Frey “the one who started it all.”

Henley praised his fellow musician’s work ethic, “encyclopedic” knowledge of music, and devotion to his family. Read Henley’s moving and profound statement below:

“He was like a brother to me; we were family, and like most families, there was some dysfunction. But, the bond we forged 45 years ago was never broken, even during the 14 years that the Eagles were dissolved. We were two young men who made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles with the same dream: to make our mark in the music industry — and with perseverance, a deep love of music, our alliance with other great musicians and our manager, Irving Azoff, we built something that has lasted longer than anyone could have dreamed.

“But, Glenn was the one who started it all. He was the spark plug, the man with the plan. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and a work ethic that wouldn’t quit. He was funny, bullheaded, mercurial, generous, deeply talented and driven. He loved his wife and kids more than anything.

“We are all in a state of shock, disbelief and profound sorrow. We brought our two-year ‘History of the Eagles Tour’ to a triumphant close at the end of July and now he is gone. I’m not sure I believe in fate, but I know that crossing paths with Glenn Lewis Frey in 1970 changed my life forever, and it eventually had an impact on the lives of millions of other people all over the planet. It will be very strange going forward in a world without him in it. But, I will be grateful, every day, that he was in my life.

“Rest in peace, my brother. You did what you set out to do, and then some.”

Wikipedia Link

RIP David Bowie

David Bowie (January 8, 1947 – January 10, 2016)

David Bowie (January 8, 1947 – January 10, 2016)

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie was an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter and actor. He was a figure in popular music for over four decades, and was considered by critics and other musicians as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. His androgynous appearance was an iconic element of his image, principally in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Happy Birthday, Roger Miller

Roger Miller

Roger Dean Miller (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992)

Roger Miller was an American singer, songwriter, and musician.
 Wikipedia Link

RIP Lemmy!

Ian FraserLemmyKilmister (24 December 1945 – 28 December 2015) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter who founded and fronted the rock band Motörhead. His music was a distinctive part of the heavy metal genre.

There are few distinctive voices in Rock and Roll… you hear it and immediately know who it is… for me, Geddy Lee and Lemmy were the two that always stuck as truly unique.

Ace of Spades!

Star Wars Main Theme – Single by Galactic Empire

Happy Birthday, Harry Chapin!

Harry Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981)

Harry Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981)

Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter best known for his folk rock songs including “Taxi,” “W*O*L*D,” “Sniper“, “Flowers Are Red,” and the No. 1 hit “Cat’s in the Cradle.” Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977.  In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.

Happy Birthday, Dick Clark!

Dick Clark

Richard Wagstaff “Dick” Clark (November 30, 1929 – April 18, 2012)

Richard Wagstaff “Dick” Clark is an American television personality and businessman, best known for hosting long-running shows such as American Bandstand, various Pyramid game shows, and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.

Clark has long been known for his continued youthful appearance, earning the moniker “America’s Oldest Teenager”, and also for his good health — until he suffered a stroke in 2004. With some speech ability still impaired, Clark made a dramatic return to his New Year’s show on December 31, 2005, and appeared at the Emmy Awards on August 27, 2006.

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Happy Birthday, Charlie Daniels

Charles Edward Daniels is an American country music, Southern rock, and jazz singer, fiddler, and guitarist.

Charlie Daniels

Charles Daniels (October 28, 1936 – )

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RIP Roger Miller

Roger Miller

Roger Miller (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992)

Roger Dean Miller was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs. His most recognized tunes included the chart-topping country music and pop music hits King of the Road, Dang Me, and England Swings, all of which came from the Nashville sound era of the mid-1960s.

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Good Old Days Medley

Happy Birthday, Stevie Ray Vaughan!

Stephen (“Stevie”) Ray Vaughan, born in Dallas, Texas, was an American blues guitarist, known as one of the most influential electric blues musicians in history. He is often referred to by his initials, SRV.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990)

Wikipedia Link

Abbey Road

Minecraft Abbey Road

Minecraft Abbey Road

Beatles Abbey Road

Beatles Abbey Road

Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on September 26, 1969 in the United Kingdom and on October 1, 1969 in the United States. The recording sessions for the album were the last in which all four Beatles participated. Although Let It Be was the final album that the Beatles completed before the band’s dissolution in April 1970, most of that album had been recorded before the Abbey Road sessions began.

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RIP Jim Croce

Jim Croce

James Joseph “Jim” Croce (January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973)

James Joseph “Jim” Croce (“crow-chee”) was an American singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, Croce released six studio albums and 11 singles. His singles “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” and “Time in a Bottle” were both number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Croce, 30, Maury Muehleisen, 24, and four others died in a small commercial plane crash on September 20, 1973 after leaving a concert.

Wikipedia Link