The Chordettes

The Chordettes were an American female vocal quartet, specializing in traditional pop music. They are best known for their 1950s hit songs "Mr. Sandman" and "Lollipop". 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The group organized in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1946. The original members of the group were Janet Ertel (née Buschmann; September 21, 1913 – November 22, 1988), Alice Mae Buschmann Spielvogel (July 31, 1925 – January 6, 1981), Dorothy "Dottie" (Hummitzsch) Schwartz, and Jinny Osborn/Lockard (April 25, 1927 – May 19, 2003). Alice Spielvogel was replaced by Carol Buschmann, her sister-in-law, in 1947. In 1952, Lynn Evans (née Hargate; May 2, 1924 – February 6, 2020) replaced Schwartz, as Evans described in a 2015 interview. And in 1953, Margie Needham replaced Osborn, though Osborn later returned to the group. Nancy Overton joined the group for live performances in 1957 after Janet Ertel, who was more than a decade older than the other members of the group, decided to retire from touring, although Ertel continued to perform on recorded material. Originally they sang folk music in the style of The Weavers, but eventually changed to a harmonizing style of the type known as barbershop harmony or close harmony. 

 

 

 

 

After performing locally in Sheboygan, they won on Arthur Godfrey's radio program Talent Scouts in 1949. They held feature status on Godfrey's daily program, and in 1950 cut their first LP, a collection of standards titled Harmony Time for Columbia Records. Three more LPs followed. In 1953, Godfrey's music director and orchestra leader, Archie Bleyer, founded Cadence Records. He signed a number of Godfrey regulars and former regulars, including the Chordettes, who had a number of hit records for Cadence. Beginning in January 1954, the group sang on the Robert Q. Lewis Show, a weekday afternoon program on CBS-TV.

 

The Chordettes had released a couple of singles with Arthur Godfrey on Columbia in 1950-51 but didn't cut a solo single until their breakout hit Mr. Sandman, released in late 1954 and which went on to become a #1 1955 hit. Archie Bleyer himself is on that record along with the group; Bleyer stripped down the sound to highlight the girls' voices. They also hit #2 with 1958's "Lollipop" and also charted with a vocal version of the themes from Disney's Zorro (U.S. #17) (1958) and the film Never on Sunday (U.S. #13) (1961). Other hits for the group included "Eddie My Love" (U.S. #14) (a cover of a song by doo-wop group The Teen Queens), "Born to Be With You" (U.S. #5), "Lay Down Your Arms" in 1956, and "Just Between You and Me" (U.S. #8) in 1957. Their cover of "The White Rose Of Athens" hit the Australian Top 15 in May, 1962. The US single "In The Deep Blue Sea" was a one-week Music Vendor entry four months later (#128). The Chordettes appeared on American Bandstand on August 5, 1957, the first episode of that show to be broadcast nationally on the ABC Television Network. The Chordettes also appeared on American Bandstand on February 22, 1958, and again on April 26, 1958. In 1961, Jinny Osborn again left the group. Unable to find a satisfactory replacement, the group disbanded in 1963.

 

 

 

The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. Alice Mae Buschmann Spielvogel died in 1981. Janet Ertel Bleyer died on November 22, 1988, at the age of 75. Jinny Osborn (later known as Jinny Janis) died in 2003. Nancy Overton died on April 5, 2009, after a long battle with esophageal cancer. Dorothy "Dottie" (Hummitzsch) Schwartz died on April 4, 2016. Lynn Evans Mand died on February 6, 2020, at the age of 95.

Algia Mae Hinton

Algia Mae Hinton (née O'Neal; August 29, 1929 – February 8, 2018) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and vocalist, based in Johnston County, North Carolina, United States. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 She was the youngest child of Alexander and Ollie O'Neal and grew up in an area known as the O'Neal Tri-Township, named after the slave-holders who originally owned the land. Her father had been a tenant farmer and eventually earned enough to buy a home and some land in the township. At age nine, Algia Mae learned the guitar from her mother, who was a singer and a guitarist expert in the Piedmont finger-picking style, and who often played at family gatherings, house parties, and services at the local congregation. From her father, who was a dancer, Algia Mae learned buck dancing and the two-step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Algia Mae married Millard R. Hinton in 1950. They subsequently moved to Raleigh, where they had seven children. The marriage lasted until 1965, when Millard Hinton was killed. At this point, Algia Mae moved with her children back to the O'Neal township and earned income as a field laborer. In the meantime, she played at house parties in Johnston County, North Carolina and for her children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hinton met the folklorist Glenn Hinson in 1978, who arranged for her performance at that year's North Carolina Folklife Festival. She subsequently performed at the National Folk Festival, the University of Chicago Folk Festival, and in 1985 at an event called "Southern Roots" at Carnegie Hall that featured Delta and Piedmont blues artists.' In 1998, she made her only trip to Europe performing for the Blues Al Femminile series in Turin, Italy. She became known for her guitar playing and her buck dancing, often playing her guitar behind her head as she danced. In 1983, she demonstrated these skills in the Mike Seeger produced film Talking Feet; Solo Southern Dance - Flatfoot, Buck and Tap released by filmmaker Les Blanks in 1992.

 

 

Hinton received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award from the North Carolina Arts Council in 1992. She was a beneficiary of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, who also released her 1999 release, Honey Babe. She died on February 8, 2018, at home in Middlesex, North Carolina. 

Leather Angel

Formed in Los Angeles, CA in the early '80s, Leather Angel, an all-female heavy metal foursome, originally went under the moniker Obsession, but were forced to change their name after objections from the same-named east coast outfit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leather Angel consisted of Terry O'Leary (vox), Debbie Wolf (guitar), Cathy Amanti (bass), and Krissi North (drums). The band spent a lot of time playing in West Hollywood, where existed a metal/hard rock scene that was becoming known as a budding breeding ground for both up-coming and established acts such as Mötley Crüe, Ratt, W.A.S.P and even Stryper. 

 

 

 

 

 

We Came to Kill, Leather Angel's 1983 debut (and sole) release, was issued by the Enigma Records-distributed Miami 1992 label. Unlike the aforementioned bands, however, Leather Angel didn't progress very far commercially. With Debbie Wolf''s departure in 1985, the band decided to change names yet again, this time to Jaded Lady, but they broke up after recording three demos and even appearing in the 1988 motion picture The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.

Fur Dixon

Fur Dixon is an American singer, songwriter, bassist, guitarist and rock 'n' roll musician. She co-founded the Hollywood Hillbillys with guitarist Gary Dickson in the mid-1980s and was the first bass player in any lineup of The Cramps to appear live in concert with the band.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to the Hollywood Hillbillys, who were known for having live roosters and chickens onstage during their concerts, she was in The Whirlybirds. The Hollywood Hillbillys were active from 1984-1986, disbanding when bass player/singer Fur Dixon joined and toured with The Cramps in 1986. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dixon joined the band for their 1986 UK "A Date With Elvis Tour." She appears on The Cramps studio album A Date With Elvis, credited as a member of The McMartin Preschool Choir, singing backing vocals on the track "People Ain't No Good." 

After leaving The Cramps, she fronted the bands Blow Up and The Dixons and went on to release 3 full-length studio albums with folk/American singer guitarist Steve Werner. The duo also released a live album. She put together a new band called WTFUKUSHIMA! in 2016 and released a new album in 2018.

NQB

NQB was a Swedish Glam / Rock band active 1968-1974 and then reformed in two different settings until 1978. It was one of Sweden's first rock group with only female musicians, among others, Py Bäckman. Py became, in 1973, singer in the band as a 25-year-old and was with them some years. The band toured extensively, both in the Swedish national parks and abroad, during that period.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The group Quidesty Blaise was started in 1966 by Barbro Eriksson and Anita (Krüger) Dunell but was disbanded after a few years. In 1968, Elisabeth Åhlander and Eva Norberg sought members for a new band and got hold of Anniqua Andreasson and Barbro Eriksson who had played with Quidesty. The name of the new band was New Quidesty Blaise. In 1971, they took the name NQB because they were tired of misspellings and wanted to simplify.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The band was formed by Ann-Marie Henning, Anniqua Andréasson, Birgitta Pincott, Elisabet Åhlander, Irene Nilsson, Malou Berg, Py Bäckman (who left after a couple of years) and Wiveca Säwén. They released two Lps and five 7"s, all of them on Hendrix Music Production. Their first album "Two Sides Of" came out in 1972.  In 1973 they released four singles and in 1974 they released their last single and the second LP "NQB".

 

 

 

 

 In 1974, the NQB was disbanded but re-emerged in two different settings until 1978. 

Mercenárias

Mercenárias, sometimes referred to as As Mercenárias, are a Brazilian punk rock band formed in São Paulo in 1982, by bassist Sandra Coutinho, vocalist Rosália Munhoz and guitarist Ana Machado. With lyrics that heavily criticized Brazilian government and society (and sometimes the Catholic Church as well), their sonority was constantly compared to Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Sex Pistols and above all The Slits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mercenárias was founded in São Paulo in 1982, by Sandra Coutinho, Rosália Munhoz and Ana Machado, at the time college students: Rosália studied Psychology at the PUC-SP, while Sandra and Ana were classmates at the ECA-USP, where they studied Journalism. A then-unknown Edgard Scandurra initially served as the band's drummer; however, he would leave the band in order to focus on the incipient Ira!, and was replaced by Lourdes "Lou" Moreira by the time the band released their first album. Sandra would also join Smack in 1983, alongside Scandurra, Sérgio "Pamps" Pamplona and Thomas Pappon, and gothic rock band Cabine C in 1984, alongside former Titãs member Ciro Pessoa. In 1983 they recorded a demo tape, containing eight tracks, but it was never made available to the general public. 

The tape caught the attention of famous Brazilian independent label Baratos Afins though, which released Mercenárias' debut album, Cadê as Armas?, in 1986. It was extremely well-received, with the tracks "Inimigo", "Santa Igreja", "Polícia" and "Pânico" becoming underground hits. A music video was made for the latter track.

In 1988, the band released their second (and last) studio album, Trashland, via EMI. It received an even better reception than the first one, and won the prize of "Album of the Year" by magazine Bizz. However, EMI fired the band for unknown reasons, and they disbanded soon after. Ana and Rosália abandoned the musical career, while Sandra, in 1998, went on to live in Berlin for a while, where she formed the short-lived German-Brazilian group Akt, before returning to Brazil in 2005. "Lourdes" underwent a sex reassignment surgery and changed his name to Leonardo, and announced himself to be an LGBT activist. 

In 2006, Sandra reformed the band and hired new members Geórgia Branco and Pitchu Ferraz. In 2012, the band celebrated its 30-year anniversary, and performed at the CCJ Ruth Cardoso in São Paulo, for free. The show counted with the participation of Edgard Scandurra and Clemente Nascimento (of the band Inocentes), among others. In November 2013, the band performed at the SESC Consolação, in a show celebrating the 35-year anniversary of Baratos Afins. In early 2015, Branco and Ferraz left the band and were replaced by Sílvia Tape and Michelle Abu. In mid-2017, Marianne Crestani replaced Tape. In March 2015, Mercenárias announced on their official Facebook page that their 1983 demo would be remastered and finally available for purchase. The band's first release in 27 years, it came out on June 27, 2015 by independent label Nada Nada Discos. On August 11, 2018, the band released the box set Baú 83–87, containing previously unreleased demos and rarities recorded between 1983 and 1987.

Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf (born Édith Giovanna Gassion, 19 December 1915 – 10 October 1963) was a French singer, lyricist and actress. Noted as France's national chanteuse, she was one of the country's most widely known international stars. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1935, Piaf was discovered in the Pigalle area of Paris[2] by nightclub owner Louis Leplée, whose club Le Gerny's off the Champs-Élysées was frequented by the upper and lower classes alike. He persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness, which, combined with her height of only 142 centimetres (4 ft 8 in), inspired him to give her the nickname that would stay with her for the rest of her life and serve as her stage name, La Môme Piaf (Paris slang meaning "The Waif Sparrow" or "The Little Sparrow"). Leplée ran an intense publicity campaign leading up to her opening night. The bandleader that evening was Django Reinhardt, with his pianist, Norbert Glanzberg. Her nightclub gigs led to her first two records produced that same year, with one of them penned by Marguerite Monnot, a collaborator throughout Piaf's life and one of her favourite composers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1947, she wrote the lyrics to the song "Mais qu'est-ce que j'ai ?" (music by Henri Betti). She contributed greatly to the revolutionizing of the cabaret-genre. Within a year, he became one of the most famous singers in France. During this time, she was in great demand and very successful in Paris as France's most popular entertainer. After the war, she became known internationally, touring Europe, the United States, and South America. In Paris, she gave Atahualpa Yupanqui (Héctor Roberto Chavero) – a central figure in the Argentine folk music tradition – the opportunity to share the scene, making his debut in July 1950. She helped launch the career of Charles Aznavour in the early 1950s, taking him on tour with her in France and the United States and recording some of his songs. At first she met with little success with American audiences, who expected a gaudy spectacle and were disappointed by Piaf's simple presentation. After a glowing 1947 review in the New York Herald Tribune by the influential New York critic Virgil Thomson, himself a contributor to international avant-garde culture, her popularity grew to the point where she eventually appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show eight times, and at Carnegie Hall twice (1956 and 1957). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Piaf wrote and performed her signature song, "La Vie en rose", in 1945 and it was voted a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. Bruno Coquatrix's famous Paris Olympia music hall is where Piaf achieved lasting fame, giving several series of concerts at the hall, the most famous venue in Paris. In the 1961 concerts, promised by Piaf in an effort to save the venue from bankruptcy, she first sang "Non, je ne regrette rien". In April 1963, Piaf recorded her last song, "L'Homme de Berlin". 

 

 

She died at age 47 on 10 October 1963, at her villa on the French Riviera in Plascassier (Grasse). The cause of death is believed to be liver failure due to liver cancer and cirrhosis, though no autopsy was performed. 

The Exciters

The Exciters were an American pop music group of the 1960s. They were originally a girl group, with one male member being added afterwards. At the height of their popularity the group consisted of lead singer Brenda Reid, Herb Rooney, Carolyn Johnson and Lillian Walker. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brenda Reid, Carolyn (Carol) Johnson, Lillian Walker, and Sylvia Wilbur formed the group while at high school together in Queens, New York City, in 1961. They were originally called the Masterettes, as a sister group to another group called the Masters, and released their first recording, "Follow the Leader", in early 1962. Wilbur then left the group to be replaced by Penny Carter, and they auditioned for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, winning a recording contract. Penny Carter then left, and was replaced by Herb Rooney, a member of the Masters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The group's name was changed to the Exciters, and their first hit record, arranged by Teacho Wiltshire and produced by Leiber and Stoller for United Artists Records, was "Tell Him", which reached no. 4 on the U.S. pop chart in early 1963. Other songs by the group included "He's Got the Power" (written by Ellie Greenwich and Tony Powers), "Get Him", and Northern Soul classic "Blowing Up My Mind". The Exciters also recorded "Do-Wah-Diddy", written by Greenwich and Jeff Barry, in 1963; with a revised title of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" it was covered shortly after by Manfred Mann, for whom it was an international hit. They were one of the opening acts for the Beatles during their first North American tour in August–September 1964. During this tour, they became the first black musicians to perform at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida; the stadium's management had initially refused to allow the Exciters to perform because of their race, but when the Beatles said they would refuse to perform too, the group was allowed to go on.

 

 

 

 

 

In 1965, the Exciters left the Leiber-Stoller management team, and the United Artists label, for Roulette Records. There they issued a remake (with revised lyrics) of the Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' song "I Want You to Be My Boy". They continued to record through the 1960s for Bert Berns' labels Bang and Shout, and later for RCA, but with little success. Ronnie Pace and Skip McPhee replaced Johnson and Walker. The group broke up in 1974.


Herb Rooney died in the early 1990s. Brenda and Herb Rooney's son, Mark Cory Rooney, is a music business executive. Carolyn 'Carol' Johnson died on May 7, 2007, aged 62.