Elvis Presley

Born January 8, 1935, in East Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley was the son of Gladys and Vernon Presley, a sewing machine operator and a truck driver. Presley's twin brotherJesse Garon was stillborn, and he grew up as an only child. At age three, Vernon was sent to prison for forgery. It seems that Vernon, Travis Smith, and Luther Gable changed the amount of a check from Orville Bean,Vernon's boss, from $3 to $8 and cashed it at a local bank.Vernon pled guilty and was sentenced to three years at Parchment Farms Penitentiary. Vernon's boss, Mr. Bass called in a note that Vernon signed to borrow money to build the house and Gladys is forced to move in with Vernon's parents. Vernon would only serve eight months. Afterward Vernon's employment was spotty and the family lived just above the poverty line. The Presleys attended the First Assembly of God Church whose Pentecostal services always included singing.

  

Entering the fifth grade, Presley is asked by his teacher, Oleta Grimes to enter a talent contest on children's day at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. At the age of ten, dressed in a cowboy suit, and standing on a chair to reach the microphone. Presley's rendition of Red Foley's "Old Shep" won second place, a $5 prize and a free ticket to all the rides. On his birthday the following January he received a guitar purchased from Tupelo Hardware Store. Over the next year, Vernon's brother Johnny Smith and Assembly of Good pastor Frank Smith. gave him basic guitar lessons

In 1948 after losing another job Vernon moved the family to Memphis. Glady's brothers get him a job at the Precision Tool Company and the Presleys moved into a small apartment at 370 Washington Street for $11 a week. On September 13 Elvis enrolls at L.C. Humes High School. 

A young Elvis Presley

Starting his sophomore year Presley works in the school library and after school at Loew's State Theatre. In 1951, his receives his first driver's license, joins the ROTC unit at Humes High, tries out for the football team (he's cut by the coach when he won"t trim his sideburns and ducktail), and in his spare time hangs around the black section of town, especially on Beale Street.

A young Elvis Presley and Betty McGann

Presley's Senior Class picture

L.C. Hume High School

Presley with 1942 Lincoln

In his senior year Presley gets his first car, a 1942 Lincoln Zephyr, from Vernon. At eighteen majoring in Shop, History, and English he graduates from Humes High in 1953.

The day after graduation he took a job at Parker Machinists Shop. By   June he was working at the Precision Tool Company and then drove truck for the Crown Electric Co. After a short time in the stock room he is promoted to truck driving and begins to wear his long hair pompadoured, the current truck driver style. That summer he recorded "My Happiness" and "That's When the Your Heartaches Begin" at  Memphis Recording Studios, a sideline Sam Phillips had started at his Sun Records studios where anyone could record a ten inch acetate for four dollars.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets

Charles Hardin (Buddy) Holly was born September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas the fourth of four children born to Lawrence and Ella Holly. In Texas most everyone had a nickname, and the family always called him "Buddy." The Holly's had a rich musical tradition. Older brothers, Larry and Travis, taught themselves how to play the guitar. Their sister Pat sang duets with her mother in the evening at the living room piano. Every Sunday found the Hollys attending services at the Baptist Church, singing hymns of praise and joy to God.

Lubbock "The City of Churches," was conservative and segregated. In his youth, Holly had little direct contact with blacks or their music, but like so many other young musicians, he was attracted to the rhythm and blues heard on distant radio stations.
At age eleven Buddy began taking piano lessons, but soon switched to the steel guitar After 20 lessons he switched to acoustic guitar. Although his formal music education was short, Buddy was familiar with many kinds of music. Thoroughly imbued with the blues and country sounds he heard on the radio at a early age, Buddy won five dollars at age five singing "Down the River of Memories" at age five.

Holly's sophomore picture

In 1951 Buddy met Bob Montgomery, a fellow seventh-grader at Hutchinson Jr. High, who also played guitar and sang country songs. Montgomery's taste in music ran to country music, especially Hank Williams, and Montgomery would be a major influence over Buddy's choice of music.

Buddy and Bob circa 1954
From left to right - Buddy Holly, Larry Welborn and Bob Montgomery

Billing themselves as "Buddy and Bob," they played junior high assemblies and local radio shows. Their sets were basically country, beefed up by harmonies and their own guitar accompaniment. Buddy and Bob became Lubbock's leading performers. They soon added Larry Welborn to play bass.

In the early fifties with high school friends he played in a country oriented Western and Bop Band. Between 1950 and 1952, they performed at local clubs and high school talent shows, sometimes adding a bass and, less frequently, drums. Harmony duets still predominated their style, with Bob usually singing lead. When Buddy occasionally would sing lead, you'd hear a more upbeat tempo, a less country sound...and another forecast of things to come.

By the time Buddy and Bob entered high school, they were widening their audience by appearing at youth clubs and centers as far away as Carlsbad, New Mexico and Amarillo, Texas. Lubbock's "Cotton Club" and "Bambaloo Club," the Union Hall in Carlsbad and Amarillo's "Clover Club" all featured "Buddy and Bob" performing music they now dubbed as "Western and Bop." Local radio stations also gave impetus to Buddy and Bob's career. KDAV, the nation's first all-country radio station, held a weekly "Sunday Party," patterned after the highly successful "National Dance Barn" show on Chicago's WLS. Buddy and Bob were frequent guests. In fact, their popularity grew so much they were given their own half-hour program each Sunday. Their repertoire remained basically country with Bob Montgomery still singing lead. But as 1954 progressed, Buddy began to sing more blues and "bop" numbers on the show. Although Montgomery was the principal composer during their partnership, Buddy also began to write. Two of these three songs were "Heartbeat" and "Love's Made a Fool of You," both recorded several years later.

But it wasn't a keen-eared record company that brought Buddy his first real break. It was that good old local radio station, KDAV. In addition to airing the "Sunday Party," KDAV also sponsored live country and early rock 'n' roll concerts in Lubbock. The station often chose the "western and bop" duo to open the shows, which headlined stars like Ferlin Husky, Marty Robbins, Porter Wagoner...even Elvis. And Buddy met them all. One of these performances played a crucial role in the advancement of Buddy's career.

photo courtesy Buddy Holly Memorabilia

That October the group added Jerry Allison on the drums. October 14, 1955, Bill Haley and the Comets starred in a show at the Fair Park Auditorium with Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Snow and "Lubbock's own Buddy, Bob, and Larry." Eddie" Crandall, Marty Robbins' manager, booked the show.

The show's promoter Eddie Crandall was impressed by Buddy's performance and told Holly he would attempt to get them a recording contract. In January of 1956, Buddy was offered a contract from Decca Records. The only hitch was that they were interested in just Buddy. Montgomery insisted that Buddy go it alone,  Welborn stayed in Lubbock to finish high school.

Holly returned to Lubbock where he played locally with stars that came through the area. On June 3, 1955 Buddy and Bob opened for a young Elvis at Connelly's Pontiac Showroom, in a free show to attract customers. After that gone was the country music, replaced by pure rock and roll.

Rehearsing in Lubbock, 1955

He signed a contract to record country music on the Decca label in 1956. The first session was in Nashville on January 26, 1956 and held at Owen Bradley's recording studio. Don Guess, another Lubbock boy, played bass and with Sonny Curtis on lead guitar. Drummer Allison, still in high school, sat in for only one session. Holly recorded a number of records that went nowhere. Among them was "That'll Be the Day" that in rock version would be a hit. At this time Holly began writing. One of the songs "Cindy Lou" which was to be one of his biggest hits. It would later be renamed "Peggy Sue" at the suggestion of band member Jerry Allison.

Buddy wasn't allowed to play the guitar as Bradley thought it made the recordings to difficult. Among the four songs that were recorded was "Blue Days, Black Nights" which would be Holly's first single. On the label his name was spelled "Buddy Holly" for the first time. Reviewed favorably in the trade press, the record did not do well in the marketplace. The disc did not succeed partially because Holly and the Decca-selected backup group could not create the tightness inherent in the union of Holly's voice, his guitar and his own group of musicians.

The Crickets
(Top clockwise: Buddy Holly, Niki Sullivan, Jerry Allison and Joe B. Maudlin)

February 25, 1957 Holly and the newly named Crickets recorded the rock version of "That Will Be the Day" at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. These tapes were sent to Roulette. The company liked Holly's songs but not his group. They felt they didn't need another artist like their current rock 'n' roll stars, Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen. They were interested in Knox recording "That'll Be The Day," and Bowen cutting "Lookin' for Someone to Love." But Buddy Holly wanted to record his own songs with his own group, now called the Crickets.

(unidentified man, Jerry Lee Lewis, Phil Everly and Buddy Holly)

Petty suggested sending the demos to Peer-Southern, a New York publishing house where he'd placed some of his own compositions. Peer-Southern gave the demo to Bob Thiele at Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca. Thiele liked what he heard - so much that Brunswick decided to use it as a master.

Because Decca had the original "That'll Be the Day" it was determined to be unwise to use Holly's name in the credits. Grabbing a dictionary they searched for an appropriate group name and decided to release the song as the Crickets. "That'll Be The Day," recorded by The Crickets, was released in June, 1957. Initially sales were slow but, by August they were increasing and it began to appear on the national charts. A month later "That'll Be The Day" was one of the best selling records in both the rock and roll and R&B markets.

Everly Brothers

Ike Everly and to a lesser extent, his wife Margaret, were well-known in the South and the Midwest as folk and country music performers. Ike decided early in life to be a musician. Ike with his brothers Charlie and Leonard would have the most popular group in Muhlenberg county. Ike's guitar playing was influenced by Merle Travis, Sam McGee and other country music artists earlier in the Twentieth Century.

It seems that the brothers  had composed an instrumental combining bluegrass and ragtime called "That's The Mood I'm In."  Due to their lack of knowledge of the business side of music, they never copyright it.  Later it was altered a bit and became a hit for Glen Miller as "In The Mood" under another writers name. The brothers played everywhere and eventually ended up in Chicago for four years before they broke up. From Chicago Everlys moved to Iowa for seven years.
Isaac Donald Everly was born in Brownie, Kentucky in 1937 and his brother Philip was born in Chicago two years later. The Don and Phil were taught guitar at an early age and began singing with their parents at ages eight and six respectively, a practice that they continued through high school.
By 1945 they had moved to Shenandoah where Ike was appearing three times a day on a local radio station. Eventually, Margaret and the boys would join him over time. By 1950 The Everly Family Show was the most popular in the region. Eventually they moved from Shenandoah to Evansville, Indiana. As the demand for live radio performers declined they took to the road once again traveling from town to town singing at county fairs, political meetings and revivals.
Finally they settled in Knoxville where they appeared on radio from 1953 to 1955. Ike knew Chet Atkins who was becoming a success in Nashville as a session guitarist and recording star for RCA Victor. When he was introduced to Phil and Don Atkins liked what he saw and through his contacts Atkins got the brothers a six month contract with Columbia Records.
They only had one recording session with Columbia in November, 1955. Four songs were recorded but, only "The Sun Keeps Shining" b\w "Keep A' Lovin' Me" were released. There was really nothing there to set it apart from other singers from Appalachia.  Only the vocals showed any promise. The little airplay that the records received was from deejays that knew the family.
Lack of success was nothing new to the Everlys. Don was asked to be a songwriter with Hill and Range, a major Nashville Publishing house. They continued to sing. Don switched to Acuff-Rose publishing. Here he wrote "Thou Shalt Not Steal" for Kitty Wells. His first royalty check was for $600
Wesley Rose was aware that Archie Bleyer was looking for country talent and signed Phil and Don to Archie Bleyer's Cadence label in 1957. Their first Cadence session was in March, 1957 and overseen by old family friend Chet Atkins. 
The first song that they recorded  "Bye Bye Love" had been written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, a middle-aged husband and wife songwriting team who had an unerring ability to catch the angst and self-absorption of the average teen.
"Bye Bye Love", had already been rejected by thirty other acts. This time the boys and their musical mentor, Chet Atkins had something new to add. The new Everlys sound kept the high, keening harmonies, but backed them with robust acoustic guitars and a rock 'n' roll beat that owed something to Bo Diddley.

At the time country music was in a bit of decline as rock-and-roll music, led by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and others was becoming increasingly popular. The Everly Brothers' recording of "Bye Bye Love" rejuvenated the music business in Nashville, and it established Don and Phil Everly as legendary performers.

Jerry Lee Lewis

I'm a rompin', stompin', piano playing son of a bitch. A mean son of a bitch.
But a great son of a bitch" ....Jerry Lee Lewis Time magazine, 3/14/1983

Though he had only three Top Ten hits in his first purely rock and roll phase of his career, many believe he was as talented a fifties rocker as his Sun label mate Elvis Presley

Elmo, Jerry Lee, and Mamie Lewis

Born September 29, 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana, the Lewis' were a religious family. Jerry would never escape his southern upbringing or his Assembly of God beliefs. He was taught that music to dance to came from the devil, playing in honky-tonks was sinful, drinking and carousing with women would send him to hell.

map gif courtesy Ivory Roots

His life was always to be tragic, starting when Lewis was three his older brother Elmo Jr.(his father was Elmo Sr.) was killed by a drunken driver.

"You've got to walk and talk with God to go to heaven...
I have the devil in me! If I didn't have, I'd be Christian!"
Jerry Lee Lewis at a 1957 recording session

  photo courtesy of Lewis Family Museum
Family portrait in 1951 (from left to right)
Mamie, Jerry Lee aged 16, Frankie Jean, Linda Gail and his father Elmo Lewis.

Jerry Lee began to play piano at age eight on a Stark Upright that his parents, Elmo and Mamie Lewis mortgaged the farm to buy. Along with cousins Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Lee Swaggart, Jerry Lee was constantly playing and practicing on the old Stark.

Jerry and Myra

At an early age Lewis was considered to be incorrigible. At fifteen he was sent to study at the assembly of God's Institute Bible School in Waxahatchie, Texas. He was soon expelled. In 1952 he married his preacher's daughter Dorothy Barton, but soon abandoned her to play the piano at Haney's Big House. A year and half later he married his 13 year old cousin Myra Gale Brown, his bass player's daughter, before his divorce was final. A month later Myra had a son Jerry Lee, Jr.

Assembly of God Church

Jerry grew up listening to a variety of music; "The Louisiana Hayride" and "Grand Ole' Opry" broadcasts, 78 rpm recordings of country singers and blues men, and the inspired gospel music of the Assembly of God Church. He also spent hours hiding behind the bar at Haney's Big House soaking up the sounds of blues men like then 18 year old B.B. King. Jerry Lee took these different forms of music and combined them to create a style completely his own. A creator in a world of imitators, Jerry Lee Lewis, will be remembered with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley, as one of the true fathers of Rock & Roll.
Another artist to make a big impact on Jerry Lee was Moon Mullican, a white boogie woogie pianist who combined blues, jazz, and country styles and scored big hits with songs like "I'll Sail My Ship Alone"(which JLL cut at Sun) and "Seven Nights to Rock".
In the mid 1950s, Lewis studied to become a preacher at a bible college in Texas. Like Moon Mullican before him, Jerry could not resist the temptation of his boogie roots. Whereas Moon played a version of Bessie Smith's St Louis Blues' at a church service, the Killer boogied up the hymn 'My God Is Real' and was expelled for doing so. Thereafter, Jerry Lee turned to music. 1954 saw Jerry Lee Lewis record 2 songs for a Louisiana radio station. They were hits of the day: Hank Snow's 'I Don't Hurt Anymore" and Eddie Fisher's 'If I Ever Needed You I Need You Now". Both songs,done by Jerry, combined blues and country.
In late 1956, his trip to Sun Records was financed by selling thirty-three dozen eggs to Nelson's supermarket in Ferriday, Louisiana. When  he arrived Sam Phillips was out of town, but he refused to leave until Jack Clements, the studio's engineer allowed an audition. Afterwards Lewis was told to come back in a month.

Million Dollar Quartet

In late November, 1956 Lewis returned to Sun Studios to find out that Phillips had been impressed with the audition tape. At the first session Lewis recorded "End of the Road" and "Crazy Arms". Both songs were song with fervor and zeal which forecasted things to come. On December 4, Lewis was playing piano for Carl Perkins. Johnny Cash was there giving Perkins support when Elvis Presley walked in. The jam session, nicknamed the Million Dollar Quartet was recorded. Lewis more then held his own with three of the top performers of 1956.

Eddie Cochran

Born October 3, 1938 in Albert Lee, Minnesota, Eddie was the youngest of Alice and Frank Cochran's five children. At age eleven his family moved to Bell Gardens, California to join his brother Bill who had moved there when he got married after leaving the Military Service.
At the age of 12 Cochran wanted to join the school orchestra as a drummer, opted for the trombone when he discovered that he would have to take piano lessons in order to play drums.
When the director of the school band informed the family that Eddie didn't have the "lip" for trombone he suggested clarinet instead. Cochran refused to even consider it and stated that he would quit the band if he couldn't play what he wanted. He then asked his brother Bob to show him some chords on Bill's old Kay guitar. Then he got a chord book and seemed to just naturally take it from there".
In September 1951 he met Conrad Smith while attending junior high. Smith who shared the same interest in music as Eddie played upright bass in the school band and would later became his bass guitar player.  In late 1953 they formed a trio together with another student on lead guitar, Connie on steel guitar and Eddie playing rhythm. They began playing country music as backup guitarists for singer Hank Cochran.  Cochran began recording in 1955 with Hank Cochran (no relation) and they toured as the Cochran Brothers until 1956. After seeing Elvis Presley in Dallas in late 1955, Cochran switched to rock and roll. Cochran demonstrated his skill as a rockabilly guitarists at number of sessions in Los Angeles.

In the fall of 1956, while buying guitar strings in the Bell Gardens Music Center Eddie was introduced to Jerry Capehart, would later become his mentor, manager and co-writer.Capehart who couldn't sing was looking to for someone to demo his songs. Eddie said that he and Hank would for a small fee. Shortly thereafter, they recorded three or four songs, but nothing came of these dubs. Capehart knowing he never make it as singer attempted to form a relationship with the Cochrans by using them as a backing band and offering to promote their careers. Eddie and Hank split up in 1956.

While recording background music for a low budget film Boris Petroff, the producer, asked him to appear and sing his song "Twenty Flight Rock" in The Girl Can't Help,one of the first color rock and roll movies.  September 8th 1956 he was signed a one year contract with Liberty Records. Cochran appeared in two other films: Untamed Youth in 1957 singing "Cotton Picker" and Go, Johnny, Go in 1959, singing Teenage Heaven."

His first hit was a cover of "Sittin in the Balcony" by Johnny Dee, which had strong regional sales. Cochran's more polished version won out charting at #18. Coming at the same time as The Girl Can't Help It established Cochran on the rock and roll scene.

Eddie Cochran and Sharon Sheeley

June 11, 1958  "Summertime Blues" was released and then C'mon Everybody" both which were written by Cochran and Capehart. Cochran, an exceptionally talented guitarist, energetic stage performer, began touring extensively.  A master of studio over dubbing Cochran sang all the parts on "C'mon Everybody" and "Summertime Blue".

Memorial at crash site

In early 1960 he toured the United Kingdom with his girlfriend, songwriter Sharon Sheeley, and fellow superstar performer Gene Vincent.The tour was a resounding success. Outside of London on the way to the airport to return to the United States, their cab was involved in a fatal accident in Chippenham, Wiltshire on April 17. Sheeley was not seriously hurt, but Vincent sustained injuries that left him with a limp for the rest of his life. Eddie Cochran was killed.

Gravestone at Forest Lawn Cemetery Cypress, California, USA

Eddie Cochran was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987

Rufus and Carla Thomas

In the glorious decade and a half of sound that was Stax in the '60s and early '70s, Carla Thomas was the Queen of Memphis Soul. She was born in Memphis in 1942, and 18 years later she recorded a duet with her father Rufus Thomas, giving the fledgling Satellite label its first taste of success with the regional hit "Cause I Love You." As her 18th birthday drew nigh, she cut her first solo single, the teen ballad "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)." Written a few years earlier and rejected by Vee-Jay in Chicago, it gave Satellite its first national hit, breaking the Top Ten mark on both the R&B and pop charts. Shortly thereafter Satellite became Stax, and Carla proceeded to claw her way onto the national charts another 22 times with such immortal slices of soul as her answer song to Sam Cooke, "I'll Bring It on Home to You," as well as "Let Me Be Good to You," "B-A-B-Y," "Tramp" (with Otis Redding), and "I Like What You're Doing to Me." Carla released six solo albums and, with Otis Redding, one duet album on Stax between 1961 and 1971. -- Rob Bowman, All-Music Guide

Rufus Thomas

Doing the Funky Chicken

Few of rock & roll's founding figures are as likable as Rufus Thomas. From the 1940s onward, he has personified Memphis music; his small but witty cameo role in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, a film which satirizes and enshrines the city's role in popular culture, was entirely appropriate. As a recording artist, he wasn't a major innovator, but he could always be depended upon for some good, silly, and/or outrageous fun with his soul dance tunes. He was one of the few rock or soul stars to reach his commercial and artistic peak in middle age, and was a crucial mentor to many important Memphis blues, rock, and soul musicians.

Thomas was already a professional entertainer in the mid-'30s, when he was a comedian with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. He recorded music as early as 1941, but really made his mark on the Memphis music scene as a deejay on WDIA, one of the few Black-owned stations of the era. He also ran talent shows on Memphis' famous Beale Street that helped showcase the emerging skills of such influential figures as B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, Ike Turner, and Roscoe Gordon.

Thomas had his first success as a recording artist in 1953 with "Bear Cat," a funny answer record to Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog." It made number three on the R&B charts, giving Sun Records its first national hit, though some of the sweetness went out of the triumph after Sun owner Sam Phillips lost a lawsuit for plagiarizing the original Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller tune. Thomas, strangely, would make only one other record for Sun, and recorded only sporadically throughout the rest of the 1950s.

Thomas and his daughter Carla would become the first stars for the Stax label, for whom they recorded a duet in 1959, "'Cause I Love You" (when the company was still known as Satellite). In the '60s, Carla would become one of Stax's biggest stars. On his own, Rufus wasn't as successful as his daughter, but issued a steady stream of decent dance/novelty singles.

These were not deep or emotional statements, or meant to be. Vaguely prefiguring elements of funk, the accent was on the stripped-down groove and Rufus' good-time vocals, which didn't take himself or anything seriously. The biggest by far was "Walking the Dog," which made the Top Ten in 1963, and was covered by the Rolling Stones on their first album.

Thomas hit his commercial peak in the early '70s, when "Do the Funky Chicken," "(Do The) Push and Pull," and "The Breakdown" all made the R&B Top Five. As the song titles themselves make clear, funk was now driving his sound rather than blues or soul. Thomas drew upon his vaudeville background to put them over onstage with fancy footwork that displayed remarkable agility for a man well into his 50s. The collapse of the Stax label in the mid-'70s meant the end of his career,
basically, as it did for many other artists with the company. -- Richie Unterberger, All-Music Guide

Ray Charles

Born in 1930, Ray Charles (nee Ray Charles Robinson) in Albany, Georgia grew up in Greenville, Florida.  At age six he started to lose his sight from glaucoma after traumatically watching watching his brother drown in the washtub his mother used for take-in laundry. At the age of seven, from 1937 to 1945 he attended the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind, where he learned piano, and later clarinet and alto saxophone, compose for big bands, as well as learning to read and write music in Braile. Orphaned at fifteen, Charles struck out on his own performing in bands around Florida. In 1948 at the age of seventeen Charles took his $600 savings and moved to Seattle. There he formed the Maxim trio, a group grounded in the style of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown. The Maxim Trio had a major R&B hit in 1949 with "Confession Blues" on the Downbeat (later Swing Time) label. It was during this time that he first began using Heroin. Charles toured with blues artist Lowell Fulson in the early '50s, having R&B hits with "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" and "Kiss Me Baby" on the small Los Angeles based Swingtime Label.

In 1952 Atlantic Records purchased Charles's recording contract from Swingtime for $2500.   Charles give up the Nat "King" Cole stylization and began adapting gospel music techniques to blues lyrics. He soon had a hit with "It Should Have Been Me."  In 1954 he arranged and played piano on Guitar Slim's top R&B hit "The Things I Used to Do" for Specialty Records and formed his own band. In 1955 Charles had a hit in both the R&B and pop fields with his own composition "I've Got a Woman." Using top flight studio musicians Charles had hits consistently on the R&B charts through the late '50s with "A Fool for You," "Drown In My Own Tears," :Hallelujah I Love Her So," and "Lonely Avenue," The recording debut of his female backup group the Raelettes. He also became popular with jazz fans, recording two highly acclaimed records and performing a set at the 1958 Newport Jazz festival in 1959. Charles established himself as a popular recording artist and a pioneer of soul music with the release of his own top R&B/pop hit composition "What I Say."
Sensing that Atlantic was still basically an R&B organization, Charles moved to ABC-Paramount Records in late 1959. Through 1961, he had top pop hits with "Georgia On My Mind," "Hit the Road Jack," "Ruby," and "Unchain My Heart."He also recorded Genius + Soul = Jazz for Impulse (ABC's jazz subsidiary label), yielding a near smash pop/ top R&B hit with the instrumental "One Mint Julip," This album and one recorded with Betty Carter for ABC-Paramount brought him increasing popularity with jazz fans, black and white.
In 1962 Charles formed Ray Charles Enterprises, comprised of Tangerine Records, Tangerine Music, and Racer Music Company, opening studios and offices in Los Angeles in 1963. By then he was using forty piece orchestras and full vocal choruses for his recordings. With his full commercial sound, his Modern Sounds in Country and Western became phenomenally popular producing crossover smashes with "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Born to Lose," and "You Don't Know Me." Within a year volume two was released and had crossover hits "You Are My Sunshine," "Your Cheating Heart," and "Take These Chains From My Heart." On ABC Charles had major pop hits with "Busted," "That Lucky Old Sun," "Crying Time," and "Together Again."
During the 60s Charles became involved in films, appearing in the 1962 film Swinging Along, and the 1966 British film Ballad in Blue, and recording the soundtracks for The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and In the Heat of the Night (1967). By this time he was performing on the nightclub circuit, touring with his own package revue from 1969 into the '70s.
In 1973 Charles left ABC Records, retaining the rights to his ABC material and transferring his Tangerine operation to the new label Crossover. During 1976 he recorded Porgy and Bess with Cleo Laine for RCA Records. In 1977 he returned to Atlantic, moving to Columbia in the '80s and Warner Brothers in the '90s. In 1978 Dial Press published his autobiography and in 1980 appeared in The Blues Brothers movie and scored a minor country hit for his duet with Clint Eastwood, "Beers to You, from the film Any Which Way You Can. Charles had a major country hit with "Born To Love Me" in 1982 and later recorded duets with country stars on Friendship. The album yielded five country hits, including "We Didn't See a Thing" (with George Jones), "Seven Spanish Angels"( with Willie Nelson) and "Two Cats Like Us" (with Hank Williams JR,). Charles also played a major role in the recording of USA for Africa's "We Are the World" single in 1985.
1n 1989 Charles had his first major pop hit in over twenty years with with "I'll Be Good to You," featuring himself and Chaka Khan. In the '90s Charles appeared in commercials for Pepsi and was the subject of a PBS documentary.
Ray Charles continues to work about eight months a year, touring with a large orchestra. He lives in Los Angeles where he is involved with RPM International, a corporation that includes Crossover Records, the music publishing companies Tangerine and Racer Music, and RPM Studios, where he records. In 1990 Charles began recording for Warner Brothers, recording in 1993 My World with Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Mavis Staples, and June Porter.
Charles was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1982.Charles was also inducted into the Rock and Roll's Hall of Fame in its inaugural year 1986.

Stevie Wonder

Born Steveland Morris May 13, 1950  in Saginaw, Michigan. Stevie Wonder was placed in an incubator and given too much oxygen, causing permanent sight loss. Playing the harmonica at five, he started piano lessons at six and took up the drums at eight. Lula Mae Hardaway Wonder's mother was afraid to let the young boy out of house. Thus a brilliant musical career was launched. To pass the time of day, Wonder would beat on pot, pans,and any other surface that helped him keep rhythm with the tunes he heard on the radio. As he became proficient on various real instruments, he started playing at the local church and soon grew to be something of a neighborhood sensation. A child prodigy at an early age, Steveland sang like a seasoned veteran. After the family moved to Detroit word spread of the gifted Wonder. It would be only a matter of time until someone from Motown caught wind of this talented youngster.

Writing his first song at the age of ten, his musical talents were first recognized by Ronnie White of the Miracles, hear him at that age old playing harmonica for his children in 1961. White took him to Brian Holland who arranged an audition with Motown Records' Berry Gordy Jr., who quickly signed him to the Tamla label and named him "Little" Stevie Wonder.  His first album, Little Stevie Wonder the 12 Year Old Genius made the child a huge star, and gave Stevie a number one hit with single "Fingertips,"  #1 pop and R&B hit. The following year he enrolled in the Michigan School for the Blind where he studied classical piano.

During the childhood stage of his career, Stevie amazed audiences with his exciting performances and continued hitting the charts with such singles as "Hey Harmonica Man," "Work Out Stevie, Work Out," and "Contract On Love" to name a few. In 1964 Wonder dropped the "Little" appellation. His late teen years saw continued success with "Uptight (Everything's Alright)," " For Once in My Life," "My Cherie Amour," and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours." Throughout this period Stevie worked on improving his skills as a singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer. In fact, he co-wrote most of his singles from 1967 onward, as well as the Smokey Robinson hit "The Tears of a Clown".

On both his records and live shows he was featured playing harmonica, drums, piano, and organ as well a singing - sometimes all in one number. During his first three years he was presented as a screamer in the Ray Charles mold. In 1964 he appeared on screen in Muscle Beach Party andBikini Beach. His Up-Tight album included "I Was Born to Love her", "For Once in My Life", and Shoo-Be-Doo-Be Doo-Da-Day". Wonder's style broadened to include Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" "A Place in the Sun," and an instrumental version of Burt Bacharach's "Alfie". In 1969 he had hits with ballads "My Cherie Amour" and "Yester-Me, Yester-You, and Yesterday".

Once Stevie turned the age of 21 in 1971, he didn't immediately resign with Motown. Now able to draw funds from his trust fund, he invested in his own publishing (Black Bull Music) and recording studio, Taurus Productions, ( where he could finance his own recordings. Stevie also took some music theory classes at USC to improve his song writing capabilities. Stevie recorded two albums on his own ( Where I'm Coming From and Music of My Mind) with the programming aid of Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil. Margouleff and Cecil helped Stevie pioneer the use of synthesizers in popular music (most notably in Music of My Mind.) With these two albums, Stevie negotiated a contract with Motown that allowed him more freedom in artistic matters and a higher royalty percentage. Such a contract was nearly unheard of then, since Motown had a reputation of being merely a hit-making machine with little variety. Once the new contract was signed, Stevie released the two albums. Although the albums were not huge successes, Stevie showed signs of the genius that was about to come.

By the time of "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," he was serving as his own producer and arranger, playing most of the instruments and writing material with his wife Syreeta Wright. During this time he had hits with "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours", Heaven Help Us All', and "If You Really Love Me". His singles upheld Motown's tradition of hook happy radio fare, but distinguished themselves with socially conscious subjects such as ghetto hardship and political disenfranchisement. His albums, beginning with Music on My Mind, on which he played most of the instruments, were devoted to his more exotic musical ideas.

Wonder's 1972 tour with the Rolling Stones introduced him to a huge white audience, which helped make #1 hits of two singles "Superstition" and "You Are My Sunshine"released within the next year. This period was difficult for Wonder with his marriage to Wright ending after only a year. Injuries sustained in a serious car crash in 1973 left him in a coma for four days and a lost sense of smell. In the next four years, Wonder had three #1 singles("You Haven't Done Nothin'", "I Wish", and "Sir Duke"), sold millions of each, and received 15 Grammies. His songs were covered widely and he was acknowledged as an influence on musicians from Jeff Beck to George Benson to Bob Marley. Working with B.B. King, the Jacksons,Minnie Riperton,

and Syreeta Wright, he established himself as a major songwriter and producer. His Songs In the Key of Life album was a tour de force and remained at the top of the charts for 14 weeks

.In late 1972 Stevie began his string of critically acclaimed and Grammy winning albums with Talking Book. This album brought Stevie out from the mini-slump he had been suffering through chart-wise with two number one hits, the funky "Superstition" and the now standard "You are the Sunshine of My Life." The album was a big hit with the public. The power and emotion of the album in many ways shone true because many of the songs ("Blame It on the Sun," " Looking For a New Love," " I Believe") were written in reference to the relationship with his wife and former musical partner Syretta Wright. The programming of Margouleff and Cecil helped to represent these feelings in an all new manner.

Less than a year later Stevie released the now classic Innervisions featuring the hits "Living For the City" and "Higher Ground." The former Living is perhaps the most dramatic and inspiring song Stevie has ever written. This song, along with many Marvin Gaye classics from What's Going On helped soul music adequately face and question the prevailing racial problems and inadequacies. Higher Ground (maybe the best Red Hot Chili Pepper funk-out) along with Jesus Children of America allowed Stevie to express his spirituality and love for God unlike ever before. The album was full of other powerful tunes like "Too High" and "He's Mistra Know-It-All" which are about drug abuse and gangsters/players, respectively. Innervisions is regarded by many as the high mark of Stevie's craft; it was the album he was meant to make for the world.

His next album, Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) expressed this new sense of life musically. The album did have its share of variety, such as the anti-Nixon funk anthem You Haven't Done Nothin' and the happy Boogie on Reggae Woman. However, the album was on the whole more introspective and life-affirming than his previous albums.

Throughout this period, Stevie Wonder nearly swept all possible Grammys he was eligible for. Winning for Best R & B Artist, Best Album, Best Song, Best Male Vocal, etc., Stevie amassed numerous awards and was recently awarded the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award. While in-between albums in 1976, Paul Simon in his acceptance speech for winning the Album of the Year Grammy jokingly thanked Stevie Wonder for not releasing an album that year. Stevie in fact did not release an album during that period because he was working on what would be his masterpiece double album entitled Songs in the Key of Life, released in 1976. This album runs the gamut of different musical styles, from the baroque classical in "Village Ghetto Land" to the gospel soul of "As," the fusion jazz of "Contusion" to the Middle-East influenced "Pastime Paradise," and the boogie-woogie jazz of "Sir Duke" to the all-out funk of "I Wish." Lyrical content also varied, covering such wide topics as racism & Black History ("Pastime Paradise,' " Black Man"), the passing of time ("I Wish, Summer Soft), child adoration (Isn't She Lovely), and of course love (As, Knocks Me Off My Feet.) If any Wonder album is a classic, it is Songs.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (the e was added later) was born April 2, 1939 in Washington D.C. His father was a preacher with the obscure House of God and the two often clashed. He had a brother Frankie and sisters jeanne and Zeola (Sweetsie). Gaye was three years old when he began singing in his father's church choir and was soon playing the organ and drums, too.  Gaye returned to his hometown of Washington, D.C. and started signing in streetcorner doo wop group The Rainbows.. In 1957 he formed his own group the Marquees. Backed by Bo Diddley, they recorded "Wyatt Earp" for the Okeh label. In 1958, Harvey Fuqua hired the Marquees to be the latest version of the Moonglows, his backing group. However the group soon broke up and Fuqua moved to Detroit to form Tri-Phi Records with his girlfriend Gwen Gordy, bringing Marvin with them.

It was Gwen that introduced Gaye to her brother Berry at Motown's 1960 Christmas party. Soon Gaye was signed to his new Motown Tamla label in 1961.

Soon thereafter, Gaye married Gordy's sister Anna. "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" Gaye's fourth single, was his first hit in 1962. Over the next ten years working with nearly every producer at Motown, including Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey Robinson, and Norman Whitfield, Gaye had over twenty hits. Specializing in mid-tempo ballads, he also had dance hits: "Hitch Hike," (#30, 1963), "Can I Get a Witness" (#22, 1963), and "Baby Don't Do It" (#27, 1964).

Gaye favored romantic and sometimes sensual ballads and felt that his desire to move into a more mainstream, sophisticated style was hampered by Motown's demand for hits. For a singer as unenthusiastic as Gaye later claimed to be, he gave almost every song an inspired reading. His Top Ten Hits include "Pride and Joy," (#10, 1963), "I'll Be Doggone" (#8, 1965), "Ain't That Peculiar" (#8, 1965), and "How Sweet It Is to Be Loved By You" (#6, 1965). Among his other thirty nine Top Forty singles of this period were "Try It Baby" (#15, 1964) with background vocals by the Temptations, "You're A Wonderful One" (#15, 1964, with backing vocals by the Supremes).

In 1964, Gaye did duets with Mary Wells "Once Upon a Time (#19, 1964) and "What's the Matter With You" (#17, 1964) and Kim Weston for "It Takes Two" (#17, 1967). However, his greatest duets were with Tammi Terrell: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (#19, 1967), "Your Precious Love" (#5, 1967), "Nothing Like the Real Thing" (#8, 1968), and "You're All I Need to Get By" (#7, 1968) all written and produced by Ashford and Simpson. In 1967 concert, Terrell collapsed into his arms on stage, the first signs of a brain tumor that would kill her three years later.  Gaye had his biggest hit of the Sixties with "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (#1, 1968).

The second phase of Gaye's career began in 1971 with "What's Going On". One of Motown's first artist to have complete artistic control over his records. "What's Going On" was a self-composed and produced song cycle that could be called a concept album. The album hit number six and produced three Top Ten Singles: "What's Going On" (2, 1971), "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler" (#9, 1971, and "Mercy Mercy Me (the Ecology)" (#19, 1974), but the project was one of the many things Gaye did with Motown that he felt was forced upon him.

Gaye's rocky marriage to Anna Gordy end after fourteen years as the Seventies came to a close. Reeling from the divorce settlement Gaye filed for bankruptcy. He married his second wife Janice in 1977 and had a #1 hit, "Got to Give It Up, Part 1." They had two children Nona, who became a recording artist and Frankie.

I.R.S. pressures forced Gaye to move to Europe to record his 1981 release, In Our Lifetimes, which concentrated on his philosophies of love, art, and death. In 1982 he left Motown for Columbia. His first Columbia album Midnight Love sold two million copies and included Sexual Healing" which won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male. He sang live at the Grammy broadcast and in 1983, in concert at the Radio City Music Hall.  Also in 1983, he appeared in one of the more memorable segments of the Motown 25th anniversary television special.

Despite his success, Gaye was depressed and was abusing cocaine. He moved back to the U.S. and into his parents home. where he often quarreled with is father who he had been at odds with since his teenage years. In early 1984, Gaye reportedly threatened suicide several times before his father shot him following a Sunday morning shouting match April 1, 1984. After his death Columbia and Motown collaborated to produce Dream of a Lifetime and Romantically Yours, both based on unfinished recordings from the Sexual Healing sessions. In 1992, his daughter Nona launched her own recording career on Third Stone Records. Motown issued a tribute album to Marvin Gaye in 1995.

Percy Mayfield

A masterful songwriter whose touching blues ballad "Please Send Me Someone to Love," a multi-layered universal lament, was a number one R&B hit in 1950, Percy Mayfield had the world by the tail until a horrific 1952 auto wreck left him facially disfigured. That didn't stop the poet laureate of the blues from writing in prolific fashion, though. As Ray Charles's favorite scribe during the '60s, he handed the Genius such gems as "Hit the Road Jack" and "At the Club."

Like so many of his postwar L.A. contemporaries, Mayfield got his musical start in Texas but moved to the coast during the war. Surmising that Jimmy Witherspoon might like to perform a tune he'd penned called "Two Years of Torture," Mayfield targeted Supreme Records as a possible buyer for his song. But the bosses at Supreme liked his own gentle reading so much that they insisted he wax it himself in 1947 with an all-star band that included saxist Maxwell Davis, guitarist Chuck Norris, and pianist Willard McDaniel.

Art Rupe's Specialty logo signed Mayfield in 1950 and scored a solid string of R&B smashes over the next couple of years. "Please Send Me Someone to Love" and its equally potent flip "Strange Things Happening" were followed in the charts by "Lost Love," "What a Fool I Was," "Prayin' for Your Return," "Cry Baby," and "Big Question," cementing Mayfield's reputation as a blues balladeer of the highest order. Davis handled sax duties on most of Mayfield's Specialty sides as well. Mayfield's lyrics were usually as insightfully downbeat as his tempos; he was a true master at expressing his innermost feelings, laced with vulnerability and pathos (his "Life Is Suicide" and "The River's Invitation" are two prime examples).

Even though his touring was drastically curtailed after the accident, Mayfield hung in there as a Specialty artist through 1954, switching to Chess in 1955-56 and Imperial in 1959. Charles proved thankful enough for Mayfield's songwriting genius to sign him to his Tangerine logo in 1962; over the next five years, the singer waxed a series of inexorably classy outings, many with Brother Ray's band (notably "My Jug and I" in 1964 and "Give Me Time to Explain" the next year).

It's a rare veteran blues artist indeed who hasn't taken a whack at one or more Mayfield copyrights. Mayfield himself persisted into the '70s, scoring minor chart items for RCA and Atlantic while performing on a limited basis until his 1984 death. -- Bill Dahl, All-Music Guide