FROM THE VAULTS

Marion Hutton (born Marion Thornburg; March 10, 1919 – January 10, 1987) was an American singer and actress. She is best remembered for her singing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1938–1942. She was the sister of actress and singer Betty Hutton and is considered one of the pre-eminent female vocalists of the Big Band era.

Born as Marion Thornburg in Fort Smith, Arkansas, she was the elder sister of actress Betty Hutton. They were raised in Battle Creek, Michigan. The sisters' father abandoned the family when they were both young; he later committed suicide. Their mother worked a variety of jobs to support the family until she became a successful bootlegger.

Both sisters sang with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra in 1938. Marion’s career took a turn for the better when Glenn Miller heard the two sisters sing one night in Boston and she was invited to join the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Hutton was not allowed to sing in the nightclubs due to the fact she was underage. Miller and his wife Helen signed papers to officially declare themselves foster parents to serve as Hutton's chaperone in

the nightclubs which allowed her access in these venues. Marion Hutton considered herself more an entertainer than a singer.

"I was only seventeen then and so Glenn and Helen [Miller] became my legal guardians. He was like a father because I never had a father I remembered." Miller wanted Hutton to appear as an all-American girl, so on her first few performances he introduced her as "Sissy Jones." The pseudonym was not used beyond those first performances.

In the summer of 1939 Marion was replaced by Kay Starr as Miller's female lead after she collapsed on the bandstand due to exhaustion. She soon returned and all went well until early 1941

when a gossip columnist discovered that she was pregnant. Though she was married and could have easily sang with the band for several more months despite her condition. The embarrassment was too much for her, and she resigned. Miller replaced her with Bobby Byrne vocalist Dorothy Claire.

Marion returned to Miller in August, however, and stayed until the orchestra's final night, until the orchestra disbanded in 1942. Songs she was identified with included ''Kalamazoo,''''Chatanooga Choo Choo,''''Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree,''''I'll Be Seeing You,'' and "The Five O'clock Whistle."

Marion Hutton had a small role in the film Orchestra Wives (1942; Twentieth Century Fox), in which the Glenn Miller Orchestra starred. After Miller joined the Army in 1942, she went with fellow Miller performers Tex Beneke and the Modernaires on a theatre tour.

The next important event in her entertainment career was a role in “In Society” with Abbott and Costello in 1944. Marion Hutton appeared with the Desi Arnaz orchestra in October 1947 at the Radio City Theatre in Minneapolis. As the 1940s wound down, so did Marion's career. Her last film role was in 1949, acting in the Marx Brothers' Love Happy.

Hutton was married three times. She married publicist and television producer Jack Philbin in 1940. She and Philbin had two sons, John and Phillip. Her next marriage, to writer Jack Douglas, produced a third son, Peter. Peter Hemming is a noted

photojournalist. Her last and longest marriage was in 1954 to Vic Schoen, an arranger for the Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby, among other artists in the 1940s. The couple remained married until her death in 1987. Looking back on her first marriage, in 1974 she told George T. Simon, “What I wanted most of all was to be a wife and mother. I had no drive for a career."

Marion struggled with alcoholism and prescription drug abuse in her later life until seeking treatment in 1965, after

she devoted her life to helping other women with the same problem. Going back to school in 1972, she earned a master’s degree in family counselling. Schoen arranged music for Glenn Miller Remembered, a PBS production videotaped in Seattle, 1984, starring Tex Beneke and Marion Hutton.

She and Schoen eventually settled in Kirkland, Washington, where Marion served as director of Residence XII, an alcoholic treatment centre for women, a position she held until her death in 1987 after a long bout with cancer. Marion Hutton was 67.
(Compiled from numerous sources mainly Wikipedia).

Walter "Wally" Stott (later known as Angela Morley, 10 March 1924 – 14 January 2009) was an English composer and conductor. He attributed his entry into composing and arranging largely to the influence and encouragement of the Canadian light music composer Robert Farnon. In 1972, Morley underwent sex reassignment surgery. Later in life, she lived in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Stott was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, in England in 1924, he

undertook his early studies at the Mexboro Academy, where he began collaborating regularly with the talented singer Tony Mercer. During this period, Mercer sang and played the piano and accordion, while Stott concentrated on the saxophone. Following the completion of their studies, both worked in bands such as Archie's Juveniles and Oscar Rabin's band. By 1944, Stott was leading the latter group's saxophone section on alto and had become the band's sole arranger. He then moved on to work in the band of the performer Geraldo, with whom he stayed until late 1948 at which point he left to

devote his attention to arranging and film music work

Stott was originally a composer of light music, best known for pieces such as the jaunty "Rotten Row" and "A Canadian in Mayfair", a homage to Robert Farnon's "Portrait of a Flirt". He is also remembered for writing the theme tune and incidental music for Hancock's Half Hour and was the musical director for The Goon Show from the third series in 1952 to the last show in 1960.

In 1953, he became a main arranger for the Philips label along with talents such as Peter Knight and Ivor Raymonde. He arranged and conducted for many popular British artists over the next two decades, including Frankie Vaughan, Anne Shelton, Secombe, the Beverley Sisters, Roy Castle, Ronnie Carroll, Shirley Bassey,

Dusty Springfield and the first four solo albums by Scott Walker. He also cut several of his own instrumental albums, sometimes utilizing a vocal chorus, including the 1958 album, London Pride.

Also during 1953 he recorded as Jeff Morley some sides for American market on the Okeh label.

Stott began composing his own music early in his career as well, establishing himself with the BBC following the success of his theme for Hancock's Half Hour in 1954. He wrote a great number

of popular mood music In 1961, Stott provided the orchestral accompaniments for a selection of choral arrangements made by Norman Luboff for an RCA album that was recorded in London's Walthamstow Town Hall. The New Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Leopold Stokowski, and the choir of professional British singers under the album's title Inspiration.

In 1962 and 1963, Stott arranged the United Kingdom entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, "Ring-A-Ding Girl" and "Say Wonderful Things", both sung by Ronnie Carroll. The former was conducted on the Eurovision stage in Luxembourg. In 1966, Stott made several multi-album LP sets for Readers' Digest, also making one in 1971, using own arrangements and orchestra.

After sex reassignment therapy, in 1972 Stott underwent what was then termed a sex-rectifying operation. He became Angela Morley, taking his mother's maiden name, and continued to work for BBC radio, arranging versions of standards for Radio 2. Earlier that year she had turned down the chance to be part of the Last Goon Show of All because she had not yet gone public about her sex change.

She orchestrated, arranged, and supervised the music for the final musical film collaboration of Lerner and Loewe, The Little Prince (1974). At this time, she was also a regular guest conductor of the BBC Radio Orchestra and BBC Big Band.

She was the music supervisor, arranger, and conductor for The Little Prince (1974) and the Sherman Brothers musical film adaptation of the Cinderella story, The Slipper and the Rose (1976). She received Oscar nominations for both films. Additionally, she wrote most of the score for the film version of Watership Down

(1978), although the prelude and opening was by Malcolm Williamson. From about this point she began a collaboration with John Williams, the composer for Star Wars and other films, though working in an uncredited capacity.

In 1980, she decided to relocate to the US, where, after The Brink's Job (1978), a crime caper starring Peter Falk, she worked mainly on episodes of television series, including the soaps Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest. She was nominated six times for an Emmy for TV composing and won three for arranging. She also undertook work for fellow composers, including Williams, Miklós Rózsa and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.

Morley died in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 14 January 2009 of complications from a fall and subsequent heart attack, at the age of 84. Wally Stott was married twice. His first wife, Beryl, died in 1968. Two years later he married Christine Parker, with whom he remained from then on.

(Compiled and edited mainly from Wilipedia & partly AllMusic bio by Eugene Chadbourne)

Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956), and playing Bill Sherman in On Moonlight Bay (1951) and By The Light of the Silvery Moon (1953).

Born in East Orange in Essex County in north-eastern New Jersey,

MacRae graduated in 1940 from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and he thereafter served as a navigator in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Prior to this, he attended Nottingham High School in Syracuse, New York.

At 19, he went to New York City and won an amateur singing contest at the 1939-40 World's Fair. This won him a two-week stint at the fair with the Harry James band. He became a page at NBC, was heard singing by a scout for Horace Heidt and sang with the Heidt band for two years. In World War II,

he was a navigator in the Air Force.

MacRae, who was self-taught in both singing and acting made his Broadway debut in 1942, acquiring his first recording contract soon afterwards. Many of his hit recordings were made with Jo Stafford. In 1948, he appeared in his first film, The Big Punch, a drama about boxing. He soon began an on-screen partnership with Doris Day and appeared with her in several films.

On radio, in 1945 his talents were showcased on the Gordon MacRae Show on the CBS network in collaboration with the conductor Archie Bleyer. The show also featured emerging musical talent, including the accordionist John Serry Sr. MacRae was also the host and lead actor on The Railroad Hour, a half-hour anthology series made up of condensed versions of hit Broadway musicals. Many of those programs were recorded later in popular

studio cast albums; most of these recordings have been reissued on CDs.

The tall, athletic actor-singer made four genial, old-fashioned musical films with Doris Day - ''Tea for Two'' (1950), ''The West Point Story'' (1950), ''On Moonlight Bay'' (1951) and ''By the Light of the Silvery Moon'' (1953). Their teamwork prompted Thomas H. Pryor of The Times to conclude that ''these two complement each other like peanut butter and jelly.'' Also in 1953, he starred opposite

Kathryn Grayson in the third film version of The Desert Song. This was followed by leading roles in two major films of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956), opposite Shirley Jones.

MacRae appeared frequently on television, where he had been a singing host and master of ceremonies on a series of programs, including ''The Railroad Hour'' and the ''Colgate Comedy Hour. The performer was the host of television's live ''Gordon MacRae Show'' in 1956, starred in a string of book-musical broadcasts and was one of the first popular singers to appear on the ''Voice of Firestone'' program. For decades, on radio and television, the show had featured only

opera singers. He also guest-starred on the short-lived NBC variety series, The Polly Bergen Show.

Thereafter, MacRae appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and The Bell Telephone Hour. He continued his musical stage career, often performing with his wife, as in a 1964 production of Bells Are Ringing, also performing as Sky Masterson in the popular musical Guys and Dolls, with his wife playing the role of Miss Adeleide, reprising her Broadway role. In the late 1960s, he co-hosted for a week on The Mike Douglas Show. He also toured in summer stock and appeared in nightclubs. In 1967, he replaced

Robert Preston in the original Broadway run of the musical I Do! I Do!, starring opposite Carol Lawrence, who had taken over the role from Mary Martin.

He battled alcohol problems for many years although by the late 1970s he overcame them and in the 1980s helped people in a treatment centre who had similar addictions.

His last film was in 1979, in the supporting role of Joe Barnes in "The Pilot" in which Cliff Robertson held the lead role. Suffering a stroke in 1982, he continued with the support of his second wife, Elizabeth, and his children, touring and singing hits from his earlier years, until his health began to fail. He died in 1986 of pneumonia, from complications due to cancer of the mouth and jaw at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the age of 64. He was buried at the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska .

He was married to Sheila MacRae from 1941 until 1967; the couple were the parents of four children: actresses Heather and Meredith MacRae, and sons William Gordon MacRae and Robert Bruce MacRae. Two of the children, Meredith MacRae and Robert Bruce MacRae, predeceased their mother, Sheila. Gordon MacRae was married, secondly, to Elizabeth Lambert Schrafft on September 25, 1967, and fathered one daughter, Amanda Mercedes MacRae in 1968. They remained married until his death. (Compiled & edited mainly from Wikipedia)

Odessa Cowan, better known by her stage name Ina Ray Hutton (March 13, 1916 – February 19, 1984), was an American vocalist, bandleader, and the sister of June Hutton.

Hutton was born Odessa Cowan at her parents' home in Chicago, Illinois on March 13, 1916. Her mother, Marvel (Williams) Cowan, was a newlywed housewife, married to Odie Daniel Cowan, a salesman. By the time Odessa was three years old, she and her mother were living with her maternal grandmother, and her step-grandfather, a dining car waiter for a railroad. That year, Odessa’s sister, June, was born at home. When the census taker arrived a few months later, their father was not recorded as a resident of the family home.

Odessa and June grew up among the black neighbourhood on Chicago’s South Side. Their mother played piano in dance halls and hotel ballrooms. Odessa studied dance with a prominent black teacher and choreographer, Hazel Thompson Davis. She began dancing and singing in stage revues at the age of eight.

By the age of 13, Odessa was considered so advanced that she skipped eighth grade and went straight to high school at Hyde Park High School. In 1930, at age 14, she made her Broadway debut with Gus Edwards at the Palace Theatre in New York. As Ina Ray, at age 16, she was a featured singer and dancer in George White’s “Melody;” at 17, she joined the Ziegfeld Follies.

In 1934, when Ina Ray was just 18, the manager Irving Mills formed an all-female band and made her the leader. Mills added “Hutton” to her stage name, to capitalize on the notoriety of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. The group was called Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears.

The group featured musicians including trumpet player Frances Klein, Canadian pianist Ruth Lowe Sandler, saxophonist Jane Cullum, guitarist Marian Gange, trumpeter Mardell "Owen" Winstead and trombonist Alyse Wells during its existence. Hutton and her Melodears were one of the first all-girl bands to be filmed for Paramount shorts, including Accent on Girls and Swing Hutton Swing and Hollywood feature films under the management of national booking agent Irving Mills.

Hutton toured with the Melodears for five years playing live coast to coast and on radio shows, plus recording for the Elite and Victor labels. She was known as the "Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm,” she conducted her band with her whole body, changing costumes several times each show, from one strappy, sequined gown to the next. The group disbanded in 1939.

In the 1940s Hutton went brunette and led a male band. She was featured in her own starring role in the Columbia musical, "Ever Since Venus" (1944). But the novelty of all-female bands still held enough appeal that Hutton organized another one in 1951 for “The

Ina Ray Hutton Show” on television, and earned five Emmys. The show aired on the west coast for four years, and for a summer season nationally on NBC. Hutton continued as a singer and bandleader through the 1960s. She continued to sing and lead bands until her retirement in 1968 although her last recorded performance came in the 1975 film Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Hutton died of complications from diabetes on February 19, 1984, at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California. She was buried in Ivy Lawn Memorial Park, Ventura, Ventura County, California.

She was preceded in death by her fourth husband Jack Curtis, and by her sister, the singer June Hutton. (Compiled and edited from Wikipedia and blackpast.org)

Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch, March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, humanitarian, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He was known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio and was nicknamed the "King of Comedy". Lewis was one-half of the hit popular comedy duo Martin and Lewis with singer Dean Martin from 1946 to 1956.

After the team split, he became a solo star in motion pictures, nightclubs, television shows, concerts, musicals and recordings. Lewis served as spokesman and national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and host and emcee of the live Labor Day

weekend TV broadcast of The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon for 44 years.

He was born Joseph Levitch in Newark, N.J. Both his parents were in show business and, at the age of 5, Lewis made his debut at a Borscht Belt hotel singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” Perhaps because his parents spent a great deal of time on the road, Lewis was demanding attention through humour by the time he was attending Irvington High School in New Jersey. By age 15 he was pantomiming operatic and popular songs and was booked into a burlesque house in Buffalo.

But his career really began on July 25, 1946, when the 20-year-old Jerry teamed up for the first time with a singer by the name of Dean Martin. Martin and Lewis were an instant hit. They wowed audiences at nightclubs, on the radio, even on the infant form of TV

and especially, in the movies. By 1949, Jerry and Dean were among the biggest stars in Hollywood. It seemed like they could do no wrong. The critics may not have liked them, but the public always did. Their movies were box-office smashes, their radio performances and TV specials earned high ratings, their live shows were mobbed. Martin and Lewis made 16 feature films together before the partnership broke up in 1956.

After the breakup with Dino, Jerry continued on with his solo career. He made movies, put out records, and expanded his charity activities with the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Jerry recorded many humorous songs for Capitol, but none of them were hits. Which is not a reflection of their quality, because most of them are quite good.

Jerry had always been interested in the technical aspects of moviemaking, and in 1961 he made his first film as director as well as star, The Bellboy. He went on to direct such inventive and interesting movies as The Ladies' Man, The

Errand Boy, and The Nutty Professor (generally regarded as his masterpiece). All of these date from the early 60s, but Jerry continued to make films throughout that decade and then again in the early 80s.

Lewis has long remained popular in Europe: he was consistently praised by some French critics in the influential Cahiers du Cinéma for his absurd comedy, in part because he had gained respect as an auteur who had total control over all aspects of his films, comparable to Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock. In March 2006, the French Minister of Culture awarded Lewis the Légion d'honneur, calling him the "French people's favourite clown".

Lewis had suffered years of back pain after a fall when he flipped off a piano on March 20, 1965 while performing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas that almost left him paralyzed. He became addicted to the pain killer Percodan, but said he had been off the drug since 1978 and has not taken one since. In April 2002, Lewis had a "Synergy" neurostimulator, developed by Medtronic, implanted in his back, which has helped reduce the discomfort. He was one of Medtronic's leading spokespeople.

Lewis had battled prostate cancer, diabetes I, and pulmonary fibrosis, and had two heart attacks. Prednisone treatment in the early 2000s for pulmonary fibrosis resulted in weight gain and a

noticeable change in his appearance. In September 2001, he was unable to perform at a planned charity event produced by comedian Steven Alan Green at the London Palladium. Some months thereafter, Lewis began an arduous, months-long rehabilitation which weaned him off the prednisone that had so altered his appearance and enabled him to return to work.

In 2003 he provided a guest voice on an episode of “The Simpsons”; in 2006 he did an episode of “Law and Order: SVU” in which he played the insane, morally befuddled but bizarrely benevolent uncle of Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer).

Lewis also hoped to bring a musical adaptation of “The Nutty Professor” to Broadway. By summer 2012 an ailing but still enthusiastic Lewis made his stage helming debut with such a musical, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and a book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, in Nashville, where it played for seven weeks.

In 2013 Lewis starred in the long-gestating project “Max Rose,” written and directed by Daniel Noah and also starring Claire Bloom, Kevin Pollak, Kerry Bishe and Mort Sahl. Lewis played a jazz pianist who recently became a widower. In May 2014, he added his footprints to those of other screen luminaries at the Chinese Theatre.

Lewis died at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 20, 2017, at the age of 91. The cause was end-stage cardiac disease and peripheral artery disease. In his will, Lewis left his estate to his

second wife of 34 years, SanDee Pitnick, and their daughter, and intentionally excluded all six of his children from his first marriage as well as their descendants.

Lewis has won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, The Golden Camera, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and The Venice Film Festival, and he has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2005, he received the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors, which is the highest Emmy Award presented. On February 22, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

As a filmmaking innovator, Lewis is credited with inventing the video assist system in cinematography. In 1995, he became the highest paid performer in Broadway history for his role as the Devil in "Damn Yankees". (info edited from various sources, mainly Wikipedia)

Elis Regina Carvalho Costa (March 17, 1945 – January 19, 1982), popularly known as Elis Regina, was a Brazilian singer of popular and Jazz music.

Elis Regina was one of the most ferociously talented singers to emerge from Brazil. A perfectionist who was frequently

dissatisfied, Regina drove herself and members of her band relentlessly, leading to her being dubbed "Hurricane" and "Little Pepper" by musicians and journalists. Her tempestuous nature aside, she commanded the respect of Brazil's leading songwriters, who lined up for the chance to have her record one of their songs, and for much of her short life was the country's most popular female vocalist.

Born Elis Regina Carvalho Costa in Porto Alegre in 1945 to a working-class family, Regina began singing professionally at age 12 on a children's television show called Clube de Guri. For the next two years she was a regular performer on the program and became a local celebrity. It was during this period that she signed her first recording contract at the age of 13.

At 15 she relocated to Rio de Janeiro, where she recorded the first of three records, returning to Porto Alegre between each. Her initial recordings sold well and she was soon a teenage star, as well as the family's principal breadwinner. In 1963, at the age of 18, Regina and her father, in a move designed to further her career, relocated to Rio. Unfortunately, it was around this time that a military junta

took over control of the country.
Not long after her move to Rio, Regina became a fixture on Brazilian variety shows. Although the cool, supple, jazzy bossa nova sound was in vogue at the time, Regina preferred more raucous rhythms and full-throated singing. Adding to this was her dynamic, unsophisticated stage presence (which belied a career-long battle against near-paralytic stage fright) that, in American terms, might be best understood if one thinks of the tornado-like force that Janis Joplin could unleash.

In 1965, Regina sang the controversial (and nearly censored) song "Arrastao" at Rio's first big popular music festival. In a performance that may well have been the defining moment of her career, she posed in Christ-like crucifixion, tears streaming down her face at the song's conclusion. From that moment on, her popularity rocketed; she went from being one of many successful Brazilian singers to the most popular and highest-paid singer in the country -- at the age of 21.

Although not as overtly political as other singer/songwriters of her generation (e.g., Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil), Regina was not shy about criticizing Brazil's military rule. While touring Europe in

1969 she told a journalist that her country was "being run by guerrillas." Normally this sentiment would lead to either jail or exile, but Regina's enormous popularity protected her somewhat from any public government retaliation. However, the military junta used more insidious strong-arm tactics, such as forcing her to sing the Brazilian national anthem at a ceremony to celebrate the anniversary of the country's "independence." She was roundly attacked by leftist performers for such a public display of pro-government sentiment, and it was years later that her husband revealed that she was threatened with jail if she did not comply with the government's wishes. As the mother of a young child at the time, Regina could not afford to become a martyr.

Regina's career showed no signs of slowing as the 1970s came to a close; some of her best records were recorded during this time, and one album simply called Elis & Tom (recorded in Los Angeles with Antonio Carlos Jobim) has been called by many journalists and

musicians one of the greatest Brazilian pop records ever made. However, while her career was in full swing, her personal life was in disarray -- two marriages ended in divorce, and she was raising three children as well as providing for her parents.

In the late '70s, after the end of her second marriage, she began using cocaine regularly, but managed to keep her increasing dependence on the drug well hidden from her friends and family. Regina began 1982 by marrying for a third time, signing a new recording contract, and in general, planning for the future. All of this came to a halt on January 19, 1982, when she was found dead of alcohol and cocaine intoxication at age 36. Initially, her death was rumoured to be a suicide, but there is no evidence indicating that it was anything more than a tragic accident.

A few days after her death, a memorial concert was held in São Paulo featuring many of Brazil's most famous singers. Over 100,000 grieving Brazilians came to pay their final respects to this gifted, mercurial singer who remains as popular after death as she was in life.

(Artist Biography mainly by John Dougan @ AllMusic)

Travis Wilbon Pritchett (18 March 1939 – 18 October 2010) with Bob Weaver (born 27 July 1939) , were an American rock and roll duo from Jackson, Alabama who were one-hit wonders when they left their tiny mark on the pop world in 1959 with their Top 10 single ‘Tell Him No’.

Travis and Bob from Jackson, Alabama, a small town in Clarke County, with a population of 5,419 at the 2000 census. They attended the local grammar school together and had a common interest in making music. A DJ at WPBB, Jackson's hometown radio station, suggested that they go to Mobile to make a demo. A guy called Henry Bailey had a little sound studio there and was so enthusiastic about their song "Tell Him No" that he introduced Travis and Bob to Johnny Lee Bozeman and Paul Dubois, who owned the Sandy label in Mobile. Dubois and his brother Johnny recorded the duo in a garage in their hometown, Gulfport, Mississippi. "Tell Him No" was the first song Travis Pritchett ever wrote.

The record took off immediately and the Sandy label, which had never had a hit before, arranged a deal with Randy Wood's Dot label to ensure that the record would get national distribution. By
April 1959 the disc had climbed to # 8 on the Billboard charts. A cover version by Dean and Marc (the Mathis brothers, who had

worked with Dale Hawkins and would later form the nucleus of the Newbeats) also charted, on the Bullseye label, peaking at # 42. There were other covers : by the Jackson Brothers (Atco 6139, issued in the UK on London HLX 8845) and in the UK by the Mudlarks and the Lana Sisters, a trio that included a youthful Dusty Springfield. The Travis and Bob version was released in the UK on Pye International N 25018, but did not chart there, though it was a hit in several other European countries, like my native Holland, where it went to # 2.

The follow-up, "Little Bitty Johnny" (Sandy 1019) was issued in May 1959 and is arguably their best record. However, in Billboard it got no further than a "Bubbling under" position at # 114, and it spent two weeks on the Cash Box Top 100, peaking at # 95. "Oh

Yeah"/"Lover's Rendezvous" followed soon thereafter, but sold even fewer copies and "Wake Up And Cry"/"That's How Long" (Sandy 1029, March 1960) was their swan song on Sandy, though an album's worth of stuff was recorded. "They had quit trying on us", said Travis. "They'd made some bucks, and they were satisfied. It woulda meant puttin' more money into us".

Travis and Bob are sometimes compared to the Everly Brothers, but they were not in that league. A comparison to the Kalin Twins is more appropriate and for Mercury they cut one song by the

Kalins, "The Spider And the Fly" (recorded prior to "When"). Wesley Rose, hot for a duo after losing the Everly Brothers, tempted them with 10 grand if they would sign to his Hickory label. But Bob Weaver had developed a deep mistrust of the music industry and would not go along with the plan.

He and Travis parted ways, with Travis continuing as a solo act and songwriter. In 1964 the duo reformed to tour with mark Dinning through the Southern States, but to no avail after which they went their separate ways.

Travis attempted a revival in 1978 with a recording of his own composition “Baby You’ve Still Got It” for the Commercial Record Corporation label but would later work in insurance for many years retiring in 1985 as district manager. He later worked part time as a bank guard in Mobile.

Travis died 18^th October 2010 age 71.

(Edited from Black Cat Rockabilly and The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders by Wayne Jonick)

William Randall "Bill" Henderson (March 19, 1926 – April 3, 2016) was an American jazz singer and actor in television and film.

Born in Chicago, Henderson made his show business debut as a singer and dancer at the age of four, winning in Phil Baker's Artist and Models amateur show. He did a two-year stint in the Army, serving in Europe with a Special Services orchestra and sharing vocal duties with Vic Damone. Returning to Chicago's musically rich South Side as a civilian, Henderson obtained a steady gig at a club called Stelzer Lounge, performing with the then little-known Ramsey

Lewis Trio.

New York City beckoned Henderson in 1956. It was there he recalls that he "got my first sanction as a singer. I was singing at the Village Vanguard and Sonny Rollins was backstage with his sax. Before I knew it, he was onstage, sitting in and playing behind me. What a thrill!" Henderson's first big break came in 1957 when Horace Silver hired him to record a vocal version of Silver's popular instrumental "Senor Blues" for Blue Note Records. This recording still stands as one of the biggest selling singles in the label's history.

After touring with Silver and a second recording of "Angel Eyes" for Blue Note, this time backed by the Jimmy Smith Trio, Henderson started recording for the Vee-Jay label and remained with them from 1958 to 1961, "I got to work with musicians such

as Ramsey, Tommy Flanagan, Eddie Higgins and Eddie Harris and arrangers like Jimmy Jones and Thad Jones. Also, during that time, I toured Japan with an edition of Blakey's Jazz Messengers that included Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter and Bobby Timmons." A 1963 album with Oscar Peterson, which remains the biggest seller of his career, was followed by the more commercial When My Dreamboat Comes Home for Verve.

Then, in 1965 and at the recommendation of Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Henderson joined the Count Basie band. During his two years with the band, only one song featuring Henderson (an arrangement of The Beatles'"Yesterday") appeared on vinyl on the Verve album Basie's Beatles Bag.
It was also during his time with Basie that he received his "second sanction". It was in New York City at the now defunct club Basin

Street East and it came in the person of Frank Sinatra. It seems that Henderson was getting ready to go on and Sinatra appeared on stage. "It was a setup," he recalls. "The band had his arrangements ready and everything. So, Sinatra did four tunes and then introduced me!"

After this, Henderson stepped into his "second" career. At the suggestion of his friend Bill Cosby, he decided to pursue an acting career and in 1967 relocated to Hollywood. Henderson started with mostly voice-overs and commercials but they were shortly followed by a steady stream of TV and movie roles. His television credits include such shows as Sanford and Son, Happy Days, Hill Street Blues, In The Heat of the Night, NYPD Blue, ER, Cold Case and, most recently, My Name Is

Earl. Henderson's movie work includes appearances in Silver Streak, Mother, Juggs & Speed, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Fletch, City Slickers, White Men Can't Jump, Maverick, Conspiracy Theory, Lethal Weapon 4 and The Alibi.

Henderson was a fixture on the Playboy circuit in the 1970s and appeared often at many festivals, including Playboy Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl, Monterey Jazz and the Litchfield Jazz Festival in Connecticut. Later, he performed at The Kennedy Centre and in New York at the Hotel Algonquin's Oak Room and at Lincoln Centre. He occasionally led a group containing both pianist Dave MacKay and pianist/vocalist Joyce Collins. Henderson (who recorded a couple of albums for Discovery in the 1970s) performed regularly in the Los Angeles area.

Henderson also recorded his own vocal tracks as "King Blues" for the comedy film Get Crazy (1983). He made a guest vocal appearance on Charlie Haden's album The Art of the Song (1999). In his 80s, he released a self-produced album, Beautiful Memory, co-produced by Lynne Robin Green.

In his later years Henderson suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, April 3, 2016, two weeks after his 90th birthday.

(Compiled and edited from various sources but mainly from All about jazz)

Lula Reed (born Lula Marietta McCleland or McClelland, (March 21, 1926 – June 21, 2008) was an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer who recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. She had two

R&B hits in 1952 as vocalist with pianist and bandleader Sonny Thompson, and later recorded with guitarist Freddy King. She was occasionally credited as Lulu Reed.

Reed was born in Mingo Junction, Jefferson County, Ohio. As a child her family moved to Port Clinton, Ohio, where she sang in her local church choir. She was mentored by blind gospel singer Professor Harold Boggs, before winning an audition over 50 other contestants in Toledo to become the vocalist with Sonny Thompson's band.

Credited as vocalist on Thompson's records, she made her recording debut for King Records in Cincinnati in late 1951, on the song "I'll Drown in My Tears" written by Henry Glover. The song reached no.5 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1952, and was recorded by Ray Charles in 1956 as "Drown in My Own Tears", with wider commercial success. Reed's next record with Thompson, "Let's Call It A Day", also written by Glover, reached no.7 on the Billboard R&B chart.

Most of her later records for King were credited in her own name, although she continued to record with Thompson, who became her husband in 1954. She was a versatile singer, performing some gospel songs as well as blues and R&B. Her 1954 recording, "Rock Love", was later covered by Little Willie John. She remained popular, being voted no.4 R&B singer in the Cash Box annual poll in 1954, and continued to record for the King label until 1956. However, Reed failed to have any further chart hits. King released an album of her recordings, Blue And Moody, in 1958.

Reed and Thompson recorded for the Chess Records subsidiary Argo between 1958 and 1960, before returning to Cincinnati and

starting to record for King's subsidiary Federal label in 1961. She released seven singles on Federal over the next two years, on many of them accompanied by Freddy King, but none made the charts. Accompanied by King and Thompson, she also released an album on Federal, Boy-Girl-Boy, in 1962. She then moved to the Tangerine label set up by Ray Charles, and recorded a series of singles in the early 1960s. Her final single was released in 1967.

She then left the music business, and later refused to talk about her career singing and recording secular rhythm and blues music. She died in Detroit, Michigan in 2008 at the age of 82.

(Info edited from Wikipedia)

Roger Whittaker (born 22 March 1936) is a Kenyan/British singer-songwriter and musician, who was born in Nairobi. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs in addition to radio airplay hits. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability as well as his guitar skills.

Whittaker's parents, Edward and Vi Whittaker, were from

Staffordshire, England, where they owned and operated a grocery shop. His father was injured in a motorcycle accident and the family moved to a farm near Thika, Kenya, because of its warmer climate. His grandfather sang in various clubs and his father played the violin. Roger learned to play the guitar.

Upon completing his primary education, Whittaker was admitted to Prince of Wales School (now Nairobi School). Upon completing his high school education, he was called up for national service and spent two years in the Kenya Regiment fighting the Mau Mau insurgents in the Aberdare Forest. In 1956 he was demobilized and decided on a career in medicine. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town in

South Africa. However, he left after 18 months and joined the civil service education department as a teacher, following in his mother's footsteps.

To further his teaching career, Whittaker moved to Britain in September 1959. For the next three years, he studied zoology, biochemistry and marine biology at Bangor University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He sang in local clubs and released songs on Flexi discs included with the campus newspaper, the Bangor University Rag.

Shortly afterwards, he was signed to Fontana Records, which released his first professional single, "The Charge of the Light

Brigade", in 1962. (On the labels of the Fontana singles, he is billed as "Rog Whittaker".) In the summer of 1962, Whittaker performed in Portrush, Northern Ireland. He achieved a breakthrough when he was signed to appear on an Ulster Television show called This and That. His second single was a cover version of "Steel Men", released in June 1962.

In 1966, Whittaker switched from Fontana to EMI's Columbia label, and was billed as Roger Whittaker from this point forward.

His fourth single for the imprint was "Durham Town (The Leavin')", which in 1969 became Whittaker's first UK Top 20 hit. Whittaker's US label, RCA Victor, released the uptempo "New World in the Morning" in 1970, where it became a Top 20 hit in Billboard magazine's Easy Listening chart.

In the early 1970s Whittaker took interest in the Nordic countries when he recorded the single "Where the Angels Tread (Änglamarken)" to the music of Evert Taube in 1972. In 1974 he performed at the Finnish Eurovision qualifications. 1975 saw EMI release "The Last Farewell", a track from his 1971 New World in the Morning album. It became his biggest hit and a signature song, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide.

In 1979, Whittaker wrote the song "Call My Name" which reached
the final of the UK Eurovision selection, A Song For Europe, performed by Eleanor Keenan and coming third. Whittaker recorded the song himself and the single charted in several European countries. He established himself in country music with "I Love You Because" getting "into the lower reaches of the

country chart" in late 1983.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Whittaker had success in Germany, with German language songs produced by Nick Munro. He appeared on German and Danish TV several times and was on the UK Top of the Pops show 10 times in the 1970s. Whittaker released 25 albums in Germany and managed to grow a considerable fan base within the country.

After completing a tour of Germany (by then his strongest market) in 2001, a 65-year-old Whittaker announced his retirement from performing and settled down with his wife of 37 years in Ireland. Like many musical performers, however, he was unable to hold to this declaration and was back on tour in Germany in 2003. He moved to France in 2012 and reiterated that he had retired from touring in 2013.

In his career to date, Whittaker has earned over 250 silver, gold andplatinum albums. He was part of a successful British team that won the annual Knokke Music Festival in Belgium, and won the Press Prize as the personality of the festival. He was awarded a 'Gold Badge Award', from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) in 1988 and earned a "Golden Tuning Fork" (Goldene Stimmgabel in Germany) in 1986, based on record sales and TV viewer votes. (Edited mainly from Wikipedia)

Nervous Norvus was the performing name of Jimmy Drake (March 24, 1912 – July 24, 1968).

Jimmy was born in Memphis, and lived for a few years in Ripley, Tennessee, near the Arkansas border. A chronic asthma condition led Drake's family to move him to California when he was seven, first to the Bay Area, then soon afterwards settling in Los Angeles. Like everyone else, the Drakes suffered hard through the Depression.

He served a year-long hitch with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program charged with make-work tasks such as forest maintenance and then spent the pre-War years hoboing around the country. He moved back to the Bay Area in 1941, settling, finally, in Oakland, in a modest house on West Grand which he would occupy for the rest of his life. He got married the following year, although little is known about his wife. A heart condition kept Drake out of the military; he spent the War years working in shipyards instead. At some point after the War he took a job as a truck driver, the occupation that would sustain him until the success of "Transfusion."

In 1951 Drake began writing novelty songs of his own, starting with "Little Cowboy." It was followed by "The Heart Mender" and "The Kangaroo Hop," the latter a preliminary version of "The Bullfrog Hop," one of the Dot singles. By 1953, the 41-year-old truck-driver was fishing around for a way to get off the roads, and set his sights on a career as a songwriter. His first move was to buy a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a cheap second-hand piano.

Next, he signed up for a correspondence course in musical notation. "There were 96 lessons," he said in the Tribune interview. "I learned to read music in the first ten and quit. I haven't looked at the other 86." He then bought his king-sized uke, more properly known as a baritone ukulele.

As Nervous Norvus his novelty song "Transfusion" was a Top 20 hit in 1956, reaching No. 13 on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart. A second song, "Ape Call," released later that year, also charted and peaked at #28. The song was banned on many radio stations in the 1950s. The song was later played on the radio by DJ Barry Hansen,

which reportedly led to Hansen's eventual nickname of Dr. Demento. The car crash sound effect from this song, dubbed from the Standard Sound Effects Library, can be heard on "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean and "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las, and is currently available on the "Classic TV Sound Effects Library" from Sound Ideas.

Nervous Norvus was over 40 by the time he had his two hit singles in 1956. His records were made with input from radio personality Red Blanchard, to whom he was sending demos in the hope of

finding an artist to record them. Blanchard had been an influence, particularly with the "jive" language employed in the lyrics. After his brief time of glory, which amounted to less than six months, he concentrated on his demo service, providing music for other people's songs. He would charge around seven dollars to make these demos, some of which led to publishing contracts for the songwriters.

He was very shy and even turned down a chance to perform "Transfusion" on The Ed Sullivan Show. After a final single on Dot Records ("The Fang" b/w "Bullfrog Hop"), the artist had his contract dropped. He only recorded sporadically thereafter for a series of small independent labels like Embee ("Stoneage Woo" b/w "I Like Girls" - 1959) and Big Ben ("Does a Chinese Chicken

have a Pigtail" - 1960), and made one more single for Neale records in 1964 ("Wa-Hoo").

Details of Drake's waning years are murky, and at present can be but speculated about. It is not known, for instance, for how long he continued his demo business, but a clue is that by the early '60s his once-frequent ads in the tipsheets had gradually wound to a halt. Drake sought solace in alcohol just a tad too much. On July 24, 1968, Jimmy Drake died, age 56, in an Alameda County hospital, of cirrhosis of the liver. His body was donated to the University of California Anatomy Department.

(Edited from Wikipedia and an article by Phil Milstein @ songpoemmusic.com)

Pete Johnson (March 25, 1904 – March 23, 1967) was one of the three great boogie-woogie pianists (along with Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis) whose sudden prominence in the late '30s helped make the style very popular.

Johnson was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He was raised by his mother after his father deserted the family. Things got so bad financially; Pete was placed in an orphanage when he was three. He became so homesick, however, that he ran away and returned living at home. By the age of 12, he sought out work to ease some of the financial burden at home. He worked various jobs; in a factory, a print shop, and as a shoe-shiner. He dropped out of school in the fifth grade as a result of his efforts.

Johnson began his musical career in 1922 as a drummer in Kansas City. He began piano about the same time he was learning the drums. His early piano practices took place in a church, where he was working as a water boy for a construction company. From 1926 to 1938 he worked as a pianist, often working with Big Joe Turner. An encounter with record producer John Hammond in 1936 led to an engagement at the Famous Door in New York City. In 1938 Johnson and Turner appeared in the From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall. After this show the popularity of the boogie-woogie style was on the upswing. Johnson worked locally and toured and recorded with Turner, Meade Lux Lewis, and Albert Ammons during this period. Lewis, Ammons, and Johnson appeared in the film short Boogie-Woogie Dream in 1941.

The song "Roll 'Em Pete" (composed by Johnson and Turner), featuring Turner on vocals and Johnson on piano, was one of the first rock and roll records. Another self-referential title was their "Johnson and Turner Blues." In 1949, he also wrote and recorded "Rocket 88 Boogie," a two-sided instrumental, which influenced

the 1951 Ike Turner hit, "Rocket 88".

On three dates in January 1946, Johnson recorded an early concept album, House Rent Party, in which he starts out playing alone, supposedly in a new empty house, and is joined there by J. C. Higginbotham, J. C. Heard, and other Kansas City players. Each has a solo single backed by Johnson, and then the whole group plays a jam session together. On this album Johnson shows his considerable command of stride piano and his ability to work with a group.

In 1950 he moved to Buffalo. He encountered some health and financial problems in this period, including losing part of a finger in an accident and being partially paralyzed by a stroke. Between January and October 1953 he was employed by an ice cream

company washing trucks, but supplemented his income by performing in a trio which played at the Bamboo Room in Buffalo on weekends. Johnson experienced more of the same the following year, 1954. He washed cars at a mortuary for $25 a week. In July, however, a nice job came his way at the St. Louis Forest Park Hotel, a six-week engagement as resident pianist at the Circus Snack Bar. Some broadcasts were made on Saturday afternoons in a program called Saturday at the Chase.

Things remained somewhat bleak for the next four years, except for three appearances in 1955 at the Berkshire Music Barn in Lenox,

MA. But he continued to record, and toured Europe in 1958 with the Jazz at the Philharmonic ensemble, despite the fact that he was not feeling well. While in Europe he received an invitation to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival, which he did upon his return to the States, accompanying Big Joe Turner, Chuck Berry and Big Maybelle.

Johnson underwent a physical examination in August which revealed a heart condition as well as diabetes. Several strokes followed, resulting in complete loss of mobility in both hands. Four years after the series of strokes he was still disabled and was beginning to lose his eyesight. Jazz Report magazine ran a series of record auctions to raise money for Johnson. In 1964, a long-time correspondent of his, Hans Maurer, published The Pete Johnson

Story. All sales proceeds went to Johnson. After an article appeared in a 1964 issue of Blues Unlimited detailing Johnson's difficulty in receiving royalty payments other than from Blue Note and Victor, in June, Johnson was accepted as a member of ASCAP, which finally ensured that some of the royalties would be received on a regular basis.

Johnson made one final appearance at Hammond's January 1967 "Spirituals to Swing" concert, playing the right hand on a version of "Roll 'Em Pete", two months before his death.
He died in Meyer Hospital, Buffalo, New York in March 1967, at the age of 62. (Info edited mainly from Wikipedia)

John Ernest Crawford (born 1946 in Los Angeles) is a talented American actor, singer, and musician.

An original Mouseketeer in 1955, Crawford has acted on stage, in films, and on television. His first important break as an actor followed with the title role in a Lux Video Theatre production of

"Little Boy Lost", a live NBC broadcast on March 15, 1956. He also appeared in the popular Western series The Lone Ranger, in 1956, in one of the few colour episodes of that series. Following that performance, the young actor worked steadily with many seasoned actors and directors.

Freelancing for 2 1/2 years, he accumulated almost 60 television credits, including featured roles in three episodes of NBC's The Loretta Young Show and an appearance as Manuel in, "I Am an American", an episode of the syndicated crime drama Sheriff of Cochise.

By the spring of 1958, he had also performed 14 demanding roles in live teleplays for NBC's Matinee Theatre, appeared on CBS's sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve, in the Wagon Train episode "The Sally Potter Story" (in which Martin Milner also appeared) and on the syndicated series, Crossroads, Sheriff of Cochise, and Whirlybirds, and made three pilots of TV series. The third pilot, which was made as an episode of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, was picked up by ABC and the first season of The Rifleman began filming in July 1958.

Crawford was nominated for an Emmy Award, at age 13, for his role as Mark McCain, the son of Lucas McCain, played by Chuck Connors, in the Four Star Television series The Rifleman, which originally aired from 1958 to 1963. Throughout The Rifleman's five seasons, a remarkable on-screen chemistry existed between Connors and Crawford in the depiction of their father-son relationship. They were still close friends when Connors died on November 10, 1992, and Crawford gave a eulogy at Connors' memorial service.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Crawford had wide popularity with American teenagers and a recording career that generated four Billboard Top 40 hits, including the single, "Cindy's Birthday", which peaked at number 8, in 1962. His other hits

included "Rumors" (number 12, 1962), "Your Nose is Gonna Grow" (number 14, 1962), and "Proud" (number 29, 1963).

Among his films, Crawford played an American Indian in the unique adventure film, Indian Paint (1965). He played a character involved with a disturbed young girl played by Kim Darby in The Restless Ones (1965); and played a character shot by John Wayne's character in El Dorado (1967). He played a young deputy Billy Norris, in The Big Valley episode "The Other Face Of Justice" in 1969.

While enlisted in the United States Army for two years, Crawford worked on training films as a production coordinator, assistant director, script supervisor, and occasional actor. His rank was

sergeant at the time of his honourable discharge in December 1967. In 1968, Crawford played a soldier wanted for murder in "By the Numbers", an episode of the popular TV series Hawaii Five-O.

The Resurrection of Broncho Billy was a USC student film Crawford agreed to do as a favour to his close friend, producer John Longenecker. It won the 1970 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject.
The Naked Ape was a partially animated 1973 feature film starring Crawford and Victoria Principal, produced by Hugh Hefner.

After spending two years on the New York cocktail circuit singing in another man's band, Johnny formed his own 16-piece, Los Angeles based 1920's orchestra in 1990. The Johhny Crawford Dance Orchestra is now a fixture on the local swing-dancing scene re-energized by the film, Swingers. He's forsaken acting to forge a career and a business around that era in American history. (Info edited mainly from Wikipedia)

Richard Hayman (March 27, 1920 – February 5, 2014) was an American arranger, harmonica player and conductor.

As a young man, Hayman taught himself to play the harmonica and accordion, and performed in local bands before moving to the west coast. In the late '30s as a player and an arranger he worked for three years with Borrah Minevitch’s Harmonica Rascals, and later played with Leo Diamond. He also appeared in vaudeville, and had several ‘bit’ parts in movies.

In the early '40s he arranged background music for films such as Girl Crazy (1943), Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) and State Fair (1945). In the late '40s he was arranger for Vaughan Monroe for a long spell, and in the early 50s was musical director and arranger for Bobby Wayne, providing the accompaniment on Wayne hits such as, ‘Let Me In’ and ‘Oh Mis’rable Lover’.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Hayman recorded a series of albums for Mercury Records. His 1957 outing "Havana In Hi-Fi" was first in the label's pop music stereo LP series (SR 60000). Hayman is also noted for albums now regarded as Exotica.

In 1953 he started recording for Mercury Records with his own orchestra, featuring his own harmonica solos, and others by Jerry Murad, leader of the Harmonicats. His biggest hit was the 1953 single "Ruby". Hayman took the theme for the motion picture Ruby

Gentry, and through his specially stylized arrangement, utilizing a harmonica as the solo instrument with a large, quasi-symphonic orchestra, the song zoomed to the top of the hit parade all over the world and brought about a renewed interest in the harmonica. It should also be mentioned that the flip side of the 45rpm and 78rpm single hit "Ruby" was the hit "Dansero" which also became an international favourite hit. Perhaps for this reason the single sold thousands or perhaps millions of copies for several years in the early to mid-1950s worldwide.

Other hits ‘April in Portugal’, ‘Limelight (Terry’s Theme)’, ‘Eyes of Blue’ (theme from the film, Shane), ‘The Story of Three

Loves’ (the film title theme), ‘Off Shore’ and ‘Sadie Thompson’s Song’ (from the Rita Hayworth movie, Miss Sadie Thompson). His last chart entry, in 1956, was ‘A Theme from the Threepenny Opera (Moritat)’, featuring pianist Jan August. He also made some recordings under the name of Dick Hayman and the Harmonica Sparklers. He composed several numbers such as ‘Dansero’, ‘No Strings Attached’, ‘Serenade to a Lost Love’, ‘Carriage Trade’, ‘Skipping Along’ and ‘Valse d’Amour’. He continued to chart into the early 1960s with titles like "Night Train".

Hayman is most famous for having been the principal arranger at the Boston Pops Orchestra for over 30 years where his award-winning arrangements are still used today. He occasionally guest-conducted there, and when Arthur Fiedler had a time conflict with his job as pops conductor for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, he recommended Hayman for the post.

Hayman was closely affiliated with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years. Known for his sequined jackets, harmonica solos, and corny jokes, he became its Principal Pops Conductor in 1976, leading both the Pops at Powell and Queeny Park concerts. Queeny Pops, with

concertgoers seated at tables in the acoustically atrocious but centrally located (in the suburbs of west St. Louis County) Greensfelder Field House, was a hit for many years, and made it possible for the SLSO to offer its musicians a full 52-week annual contract. That ended when a financial crunch in 2001, coinciding with a realization that the SLSO's pops concerts had not changed with the times, led to the cancellation of the Queeny Pops series and a marked reduction in overall pops concerts by the orchestra.

Hayman's last event with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, where he held the title of Pops Conductor Emeritus, took place on June 27, 2010, to honour his 90th birthday. The St. Louis Metro Singers, who performed with him at many Pops concerts, were also on stage at the event. He retired as the Principal Pops Conductor of the Grand Rapids, Michigan Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Space Coast Pops Orchestra in Cocoa, Florida in 2012.

Hayman died in a Manhattan nursing home on February 5, 2014. He was 93. (Compiled and edited from Wikipedia & All Music)

Here's a clip of Richard Hayman playing and conducting his own hit Ruby, from the motion picture Ruby Gentry. Recorded Sunday Nov. 14 2004 at Eissey Theatre, Palm Beach Gardens. With the Florida Sunshine Pops.

Sven Zetterberg (March 28, 1952 - December 21, 2016) was a Swedish blues and soul musician, vocalist and songwriter. He impressed Swedish audiences beginning in the early '70s with his guitar, harp, and raw soulful vocals.

He was born in 1952 in Skärblacka, Sweden, and started playing harmonica at the age of 12 when he discovered the music of Little Walter. Sven began making a name for himself in the 1970s in the Swedish blues scene as a member Telge Blues Band. He went on to play with the groups Blue Fire, Blues Rockers and Four Roosters. The latter group also featured the renowned Norwegian guitar sensation Knut Reiersrud. During the second half of the 1980s to the end of the 1990s Sven’s group Chicago Express ruled the Swedish blues scene. During this period they released four successful and acclaimed albums.

He released his first solo album in 1999, Blues From Within. The record was nominated for a Swedish Grammy. The 2001 release of

Let Me Get Over introduced the world to the soul singer side of Sven Zetterberg. The record received a wide recognition beyond the blues scene. This record was also nominated for a Swedish Grammy.

The breakthrough as a soul singer made it possible for Sven to engage two different backup bands. One band for the soul blues material and another trio when juke joint blues was requested. He was also often a guest on Christmas blues shows, tribute shows and rock´n´roll revivals. Irrespective of genre, a concert with Sven always guaranteed quality, full force and a soulful ‘give and take-meeting’ with his audience. He was a giant at communicating with the audience. No one ever left a Sven Zetterberg concert feeling disappointed.

Here’s a rare original release from 2004 of this superb crossover tune from Sweden's No. 1 man of R&B, Sven Zetterberg. Only 300 copies were pressed apparently and then re-released on the Gold Soul label in the UK.

He regularly released records of high quality during the 2000´s, all of them critical and public successes. He wrote a lot of new original songs with his guitar player Anders Lewén. As a result of the success of both his recordings and the live shows, his audience grew.

Through the years he played and toured with a lot of famous American blues artists, including Johnnie Johnson, Albert Collins, Lazy Lester, Jimmy Rogers, Louisiana Red, Eddie Kirkland, Eddie Boyd, Jimmy McCracklin, Carey Bell and Sunnyland Slim and others. He even played at several blues clubs in Chicago, mostly on the West Side.

After concluding a Christmas tour in mid-December of 2016, Zetterberg died of heart failure in Stockholm on the 18th of that month. He was 64 years old and was at his artistic peak at the time of his death.

(Compiled and edited from bluesjunctionproductions.com & AllMusic)

John D. Loudermilk Jr. (March 31, 1934 – September 21, 2016) was an American singer and songwriter.

Although he pursued a solo performing career during the 1950s and 60s, it will be as a songwriter that John D Loudermilk will be remembered. Primarily a Nashville-based writer who composed

material for mainstream country singers such as George Hamilton IV, Loudermilk worked in a variety of styles and over the decades was recorded by artists as diverse as Jefferson Airplane, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Cash and Marilyn Manson.

His best-known song was Tobacco Road, which became a big hit for the British group the Nashville Teens in 1964, reaching the British top 10 and the US top 20. Behind its pumping beat and distinctive harmonies, it was a grim tale of growing up in poverty (“Grew up in a rusty shack / All I had was hangin’ on my back”), but the song exerted a magnetic allure which has prompted countless performers to record it, from Bobbie Gentry and David Lee Roth to Edgar Winter, Eric Burdon, and Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle.

Loudermilk enjoyed his biggest success with Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian), a song inspired by the enforced removal of Cherokee people to Oklahoma in the 1830s that tapped into feelings of guilt about the treatment of Native Americans. In 1968 the British singer Don Fardon had a US top 20 hit with it (it also went to No 3 in the UK), and in 1971 Paul Revere & the Raiders took the song to the top of the US charts, selling 6m copies. Loudermilk, who was something of a prankster, recalled that he had convinced the American DJ Casey Kasem with a tall story of how he had written Indian Reservation after being rescued in a snowstorm by some Native Americans, who had asked him to write

a song describing the hardships their people had experienced.

Loudermilk was born in Durham, North Carolina, to Pauline, a missionary and member of the Salvation Army, and John D Sr, a carpenter among whose jobs had been helping to build Durham’s Duke University. John D Jr’s cousins Ira and Charlie Loudermilk, having changed their surnames to Louvin, enjoyed great success as the renowned country music duo the Louvin Brothers.

At the age of seven, John D (the initial did not stand for anything)

was given a ukulele made from a cigar box by his father. He later learned the guitar and played various instruments in a Salvation Army band, and began writing songs in his teens. One of his earliest compositions was A Rose and a Baby Ruth, which Hamilton would record in 1956 after hearing Loudermilk play it on a Durham TV station where he was working in the house band. In 1957 Loudermilk’s song Sittin’ in the Balcony (which he had recorded for North Carolina’s Colonial label, using the name Johnny Dee) was picked up by Cochran, who scored a No 18 hit with it.

Loudermilk attended Campbell College in Buies Creek, North Carolina, but dropped out to move to Nashville and pursue a musical career. He cut some unsuccessful singles for Columbia Records, but had better luck after moving to RCA Victor in 1961, where he scored several modest hits, reaching the US top 40 and

the UK top 20 with Language of Love.

But supplying songs to other artists became his forte. With Marijohn Wilkin, he co-wrote Stonewall Jackson’s biggest hit, Waterloo; and Sue Thompson took his songs Sad Movies (Make Me Cry) and Paper Tiger into the charts. Talk Back Trembling Lips was not only a country hit for Ernest Ashworth, but also a pop success for Johnny Tillotson. In 1961 Ebony Eyes was a US No 8 pop hit for the Everly Brothers and also topped the UK chart as the B-side of ight Back.

Hamilton took Abilene to the top of the country charts in 1963, and Cash reached the country top 10 with Bad News in 1964, the year after Loudermilk had had a minor hit with it under his own name. Other notable artists who covered his songs included Roy Orbison, Marianne Faithfull, Glen Campbell, Chet Atkins, Linda Ronstadt, Norah Jones and the Flying Burrito Brothers.

In 1967 Loudermilk won a Grammy for best liner notes for his album Suburban Attitudes in Country Verse. In 1976 he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and during the 80s he took up the study of ethnomusicology.

Loudermilk had suffered from prostate cancer and respiratory ailments. He died on September 21, 2016, at his home in Christiana, Tennessee. The cause of death was a heart attack, according to his son Michael. He was 82. (Compiled mainly from an obit by Adam Sweeting @ The Guradian)

Here's a great version by the writer of the song! John D. wrote it and recorded it first in 1960. Here he is seen performing it for BBC-2 (John D. Loudermilk & his music, 1984).

Art Lund (April 1, 1915 in Salt Lake City, Utah – May 31, 1990 in Holladay, Utah) was an American baritone singer with rugged good looks, initially with bandleaders Benny Goodman and Harry James, and was also a television and stage actor.

Arthur Earl "Art" Lund the 6-foot-4 performer, graduated from Westminster College in his native Salt Lake City and from Eastern Kentucky State Teachers' College. He also received a master's

degree in aerological engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1943. Lund was a high school math teacher in Kentucky who worked as a musician on the side. He left teaching to tour with Jimmy Ray and his band. He originally billed himself as Art London.

He found work early on as a vocalist with a band led by clarinetist Jimmy Joy. A better-known clarinetist whom Lund would later sing with was Benny Goodman, with whom he cut several records, including “Blue Skies,” “On the Alamo,” and (in duet with Peggy Lee) “Winter Weather” and “If You Build a Better Mousetrap.” In addition to his work with the King of Swing, Lund sang and recorded with bandmaster and trumpet king Harry James.

He began a solo career in 1946, recording the song "Mam'selle" in 1947. This gramophone record was #1 in the U.S. Billboard magazine chart and earned a gold disc. Other hits for Lund were "(I'd Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China", "What'll I Do", "You Call Everybody Darlin'" and "Peg o' My Heart". He also recorded "Blue Skies", "My Blue Heaven"“Crying in the Chapel” and "Mona Lisa".

In 1956 Lund made his debut in a Broadway musical, creating the role of Joe in Frank Loesser’s ambitious musical The Most Happy Fella. Joe is the young, handsome, restless foreman man who works for the central character, Tony, a vineyard owner who marries a much younger woman, Rosabella. Though Joe and Tony are friends, Joe eventually sleeps with Rosabella and gets her pregnant, which leads to a turning point in the musical. Nominated for several Tonys, The Most Happy Fella is one of Loesser’s finest works, and the original cast recording was royally issued on three discs by Columbia.

Later Broadway credits for Lund include Destry Rides Again (1959), as a replacement for the plot's villain, Scott Brady;

Donnybrook! (1961); Fiorello! (1962); and Sophie (1963). Lund also worked in two shows that closed before scheduled Broadway openings, We Take the Town (1962), as Robert Preston's standby; and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966).

In the 1950s, he made several guest appearances on television shows, including “Tonight!” (the forerunner of “The Tonight Show”) and “The Bell Telephone Hour.” He also acted in numerous television shows from the 1950s to the 1980s, among them “I Love Lucy,” “Wagon Train,” “The Name of the Game,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Rockford Files,” “Kojak,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “Baretta,” “The Paper Chase,” “The Winds of War,” and “Knight Rider.”

In addition to his work on television, Lund had parts in several films, including The Molly Maguires (1970), Black Caesar (1973), The Last American Hero (1973), Bucktown (1975), Baby Blue Marine (1976), The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977) and It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987).

Lund was married nearly 30 years [1940-1969] to Kathleen Virginia Bolanz-Lund. On October 16, 1969 Kathleen Lund was killed in an automobile accident. She was a passenger in a car driven by friend and former model/actress Rosemarie Bowe (wife of actor Robert Stack), when the car veered into a culvert near Sacramento Metropolitan Airport. Lund did not remarry until the last year of his life, to Janet Burris Chytraus.

Lund was still singing the 1980s. He was a frequent guest at Big Band nights in Southern California, toured with the Harry James ghost band and later sang in Australia.HE died May 31, 1990 of liver cancer in Holladay, Utah...not far from where he was born. He was 75. (Compiled & edited from Wikipedia & masterworksbroadway.com)

Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter. The ultimate rock & roll session man, Leon Russell's long and storied career included collaborations with a virtual who's who of music icons spanning from Jerry Lee Lewis to Phil Spector to the Rolling Stones. A similar eclecticism and scope also surfaced in his solo work, which couched his charmingly gravelly voice in a rustic yet rich swamp pop fusion of country, blues, and gospel. He was awarded six gold records.

Born Claude Russell Bridges on April 2, 1942, in Lawton, Oklahoma, he began studying classical piano at age three, a decade later adopting the trumpet and forming his first band. At 14, Russell

lied about his age to land a gig at a Tulsa nightclub, playing behind Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks before touring in support of Jerry Lee Lewis. Two years later, he settled in Los Angeles, studying guitar under the legendary James Burton and appearing on sessions with Dorsey Burnette and Glen Campbell. As a member of Spector's renowned studio group, Russell played on many of the finest pop singles of the '60s, also arranging classics like Ike & Tina Turner's monumental "River Deep, Mountain High"; other hits bearing his input include the Byrds'"Mr. Tambourine Man," Gary Lewis & the Playboys'"This Diamond Ring," and Herb Alpert's "A Taste of Honey."

Russell released his first solo single, "Everybody's Talking 'Bout the Young", for Dot Records in 1965. In 1967, Russell built his own recording studio, teaming with guitarist Marc Benno to record the acclaimed Look Inside the Asylum Choir LP. While touring with Delaney & Bonnie, he scored his first song-writing hit with Joe Cocker's reading of "Delta Lady," and in 1970, upon founding his own Shelter Records imprint, he also organized Cocker's legendary Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour. After the subsequent tour film earned Russell his first real mainstream attention, he issued a self-titled solo LP, and in 1971 appeared at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh following sessions for B.B. King, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan.

After touring with the Rolling Stones, Russell increasingly focused on his solo career, reaching the number two spot with 1972's Carney and scoring his first pop hit with the single "Tight Rope." While the success of 1973's three-LP set Leon Live further

established his reputation as a top concert draw, response to the country-inspired studio effort Hank Wilson's Back was considerably more lukewarm, as was the reception afforded to 1974's Stop All That Jazz. The 1975 album Will O' the Wisp, however, restored his commercial lustre, thanks in large part to the lovely single "Lady Blue."

In June of 1975, Russell married singer Mary McCreary; the following year the couple collaborated on The Wedding Album, issued through his newly formed Paradise Records label. Also in 1976, the Russell-penned "This Masquerade" earned a Grammy Award for singer George Benson. Russell and McCreary reunited for 1977's Make Love to the Music, and upon completing

the solo Americana, Russell teamed with Willie Nelson for 1979's Willie & Leon. He then spent the next two years touring with his bluegrass band, the New Grass Revival, issuing a live LP in 1981; although Paradise shut down later that year, the label was reactivated for 1984's Hank Wilson, Vol. 2 and Solid State.

Russell spent the remainder of the decade largely outside of music and did not resurface until issuing the Bruce Hornsby-produced Anything Can Happen in 1992. The album appeared to little fanfare, however, and another long period of relative inactivity followed prior to the 1998 release of Hank Wilson, Vol. 3: Legend in My Time. Face in the Crowd appeared a year later. Moving into the new century, Russell issued Moonlight & Love Songs, an

album of cover songs, in 2002, followed by Angel in Disguise five years later in 2007. A trio of releases, Almost Piano, Bad Country, and In Your Dreams appeared in 2008.

Russell's years in the wilderness ended in 2010 when long-time admirer Elton John contacted the pianist about recording a duet album. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, The Union was greeted by strong reviews and sales, reviving Russell's career in a single stroke. After playing a joint tour with John, Russell returned to the road on his own and eventually got around to recording a solo comeback called Life Journey, which appeared in April 2014.

However, Russell's health had been in decline, and he died in his sleep at his home in Nashville on November 13, 2016. Prior to his death, he completed an album of new recordings with producer Mark Lambert. These sessions came out as On a Distant Shore in September 2017.

(Compiled from an AllMusic bio by Jason Ankeny)

Billy Joe Royal (April 3, 1942 – October 6, 2015) was an American pop and country singer. He had a long career that saw him become one of the first pop performers to successfully revive his commercial fortunes by turning to straight country music. Although he never had another hit as successful as "Down in the Boondocks," he racked up about 15 singles that hit the country charts over the

course of the 1980s.

Royal was born into a family of musical entertainers in Valdosta, Georgia, and made his debut on his uncle's radio show at the age of 11. He learned to play steel guitar and joined the Georgia Jubilee in Atlanta at 14, performing with Joe South, Jerry Reed, and Ray Stevens, among several other artists. Royal had his own rock & roll band in high school and was regularly singing around Atlanta by the age of 16. He also spent time in Savannah, where he was influenced by African-American vocal styles and began to develop his distinctive vocal sound.

Performing at a nightclub that also booked Sam Cooke and other African-American stars, Royal observed their vocal moves and began to practice them on his own time. In 1962, he recorded an independent single that went unnoticed. Royal and South roomed together for a time, and two or three years later South contacted him with a song he wanted Royal to sing as a demo, in the hope that Gene Pitney would record it. Royal flew from Cincinnati (where he was working at the time) to Atlanta and cut "Down in the Boondocks," whose churchy echo resulted from the use during recording of a large septic tank that had been dragged into the studio.

The demo ended up at Columbia in 1965, and the label signed Royal to a six-year deal. The song became Royal's breakthrough single, reaching number nine on the pop charts and briefly making the vocalist into a teen idol. Following its success, Royal had a string of lesser hits, including "I Knew You When" (Top 20, 1965) and "Hush" (1967), also written and produced by Joe South.

Another South composition, "Yo-Yo," just missed the top 40 in Canada and charted poorly in the U.S. when Royal released it in 1967, but a later remake by The Osmonds was a much greater success. His 1969 single, "Cherry Hill Park", peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.In the 1970s his recording of "Heart's Desire" gained popularity among Northern soul enthusiasts and was regularly played in Northern soul nightclubs. In 1978, he recorded a cover of "Under the Boardwalk" and scored a minor hit.

By the late 1970s, Royal had become a regular performer in Las Vegas, and also appeared as an actor in movies and on television. His last hit on the US pop charts was in 1978, when his version of "Under the Boardwalk" became a minor hit. However, he reinvented himself in the 1980s as a mainstream country star, and had his first hit on the country music chart in 1984 with "Burned Like a Rocket", released on the Atlantic label. His other country hits included "I'll Pin a Note on Your Pillow" (1987), "Tell It Like It Is", and "Till I Can't Take It Anymore" (both 1989).. In 1988, Royal was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. His successes on the country charts continued until the early 1990s

Royal experienced a second comeback during the 2000s due to regular airplay on "oldies" radio stations. His music was further exposed to younger generations through a movement known as The Beat Army, an online music forum based on Facebook which is operated by author and music producer Paul Collins. Royal continued to tour regularly, performing concerts at casinos, music festivals and clubs in Canada, the United States, Japan and throughout Europe. His set lists included a mixture of songs representing multiple genres from the 1960s onwards. He also played Robert Ally in the indie Western film Billy the Kid (2013), co-starring country singer Cody McCarver.

Among the albums Billy Joe recorded were "Stay Close to Home,""Now and Then, Then and Now," and "His First Gospel Album," which was his last album. He died in his sleep at age 73 at his home in North Carolina on October 6, 2015.

Billy Bland (born 5 April 1932, Wilmington, North Carolina, died 22 March 2017, New York City) was an American R&B singer and songwriter.

The youngest of 19 children, Billy didn't wait any longer than necessary to achieve his goal of becoming a professional singer. Making the 600-mile trek northward to New York City at age 18, the talented and determined young singer immediately caught some breaks, landing a gig with Lionel Hampton's band, then another

with Buddy Johnson in the late 1940s. But he developed a lack of discipline, a result, perhaps, of advancement coming too easily; as a result, he didn't hang onto any one job for very long.

Billy was singing at Smalls Paradise in Harlem in 1954 when Dave Bartholomew spotted him, took him to his home base in New Orleans, and made him the lead singer of The Bees, whose "Toy Bell" was recorded at Cosimo Matassa's studio with Bartholomew producing and regular members of Fats Domino's band providing the rhythmic uptake. The record had limited success as many stations banned it for its double-entendre lyrics: 'I played with her yo-yo on the string...and she played with my ding-a-ling!' (Chuck Berry's live recording of the song became a number one hit in 1972 under the more obvious

title "My Ding-A-Ling").

There was one other Bees single on Imperial before the group disbanded; Billy was on his own once again, having inadvertently recorded a future classic of dubious content. All the experience to this point helped land him a contract in 1956 as a solo artist with Old Town Records, a new York-based label founded three years earlier by Romanian immigrant and rhythm and blues aficionado Hy Weiss. His first two singles for the company were "chicken" songs, an unusual mutual theme, each having a vastly different sound. Bland, in fact, liked trying different things and during his seven years with Old Town his music ran the gamut from furiously-paced R&B to blues, pop ballads, doo wop and straight-ahead rock and roll.

The "chicken" songs didn't sell, even after being paired on a Tip Top label reissue several months later. Billy composed a lot of his own material. He made some recordings that weren't released and found himself in a state of limbo for a couple of years until a late 1959 session yielded his one major hit. Titus Turner was struggling with the Carl Spencer-Henry Glover tune "Let the Little Girl

Dance. Billy took a stab at it and nailed the song in one take, considering it no more than demonstration quality despite the stellar line-up of musicians who contributed to the track including saxophonist Buddy Lucas, guitarist Mickey Baker and backing singers The Miller Sisters. Turner never did have a record issued on Old Town but Bland's quick take on "Let the Little Girl Dance" was just what Weiss and the writers had in mind. It debuted on the national charts in February 1960 and remained there through the end of June, settling into the top ten for four weeks in May.

Billy had three more records in 1960 that made the charts, if only briefly . His best shot at a big second hit was another self-penned effort, "My Heart's on Fire," arguably his best recording; it reached the national charts in the summer of 1961 but didn't do much better than the other singles had. Old Town stayed with the talented singer for two additional years and several more singles. His final Old Town 45, in 1963, was a remake of unrelated bigger-star Bobby "Blue" Bland's 1958 hit "Little Boy Blue." Furthering some people's confusion of the two, his dynamic performance, which rivals the brilliance of Bobby's original, uses the exact same lyrics.

After leaving Old Town in 1963, Billy performed around town but didn't make records again until '65, when he laid down a few tracks for the St. Lawrence label of Chicago. "She's Already Married" (penned by Monk Higgins and Bessie Cook) put him right in the setting of the Windy City soul scene. After a second St. Lawrence single, "I'm Sorry About That," Billy resumed performing in clubs before quitting the music business a few years later. In the 1980s he opened a restaurant in Harlem that specialized in southern soul food.

During his latter years he resided at an assisted living place at 108 Street and 5th Avenue across Central Park New York City. His grandson Jermain reported in a Facebook post that he died on March 22, 2017. He was 84.

(Compiled and edited from various sources, mainly from an article by Michael Jack Kirby @ Way Back Attack)

Marion Hutton born 10 March 1919

Wally Stott / Angela Morley born 10 March 1924

Gordon MacRae born 12 March 1921

Ina Ray Hutton born 13 March 1911

Jerry Lewis born 16 March 1926

Elis Regina born 17 March 1945

Travis Pritchett born 18 March 1939

Bill Henderson born 19 March 1926

Lula Reed born 21 March 1926

Roger Whittaker born 22 March 1936

Jimmy Drake / Nervous Norvus born 24 March 1912

Pete Johnson born 25 March 1904

Johnny Crawford born 26 March 1946

Richard Hayman born 27 March 1920

Sven Zetterberg born 28 March 1932

John D. Loudermilk born 31 March 1934

Art Lund born 1 April 1913

Leon Russell born 2 April 1942

Billy Joe Royal born 3 April

Billy Bland born 5 April 1932